MRL #079- The Producer GPS For Productive Work

Author

Max Revenue
July 07, 2024

I didn’t think up today’s newsletter.

To be honest, I’m copy/pasting almost the entire thing from another newsletter I subscribe to from Dakota Robertson.

He’s a guru in the “how to make money online” space.

And while most of his advice doesn’t apply to you or I in ProducerLand…

This particular one with a few minor tweaks…

Is spot on for us.

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Picture this:

You’re on a game show and have the chance to win $1,000,000.

All you have to do to win it?

Travel from one island (in the middle of nowhere) to another island a few hundred miles away.

And here’s the kicker…

To help you, the show producers even allow you to use a high-powered speed boat with a full tank of gas.

Think you could do it?

Now what if I told you that you didn’t know where or what direction the island actually was?

You’d likely spend all day going in circles and run out of gas.

Not only would you miss out on the $1,000,000…

But you probably wouldn’t survive.

Sure, this all sounds like a dumb hypothetical situation…

But, it’s pretty close to what a lot of Producers experience when they get into the industry:

A life or death situation, with little to no direction.

Why You Feel Like You’re Not Making Progress

Have you ever gotten to the end of the day but feel like you barely moved the needle?

If you’re anything like me, you’ll sometimes work all day, but you’re not even sure what the hell you got done when you finish…

I’ve realized the biggest obstacle to focus isn’t:

  • Lack of effort

  • Lack of resources

  • Lack of stimulant abuse (I swear I can quit caffeine and nicotine any time I want)

It comes down to 1 thing:

Lack of direction.

That’s because — like the island example — many ambitious Producers have goals (like building a $1M book from scratch)…

But few have a clear roadmap on how to reach those goals.

When you don’t have a clear roadmap on where you’re going, you’re left wandering from task to task.

(AKA doing “busy” work, not productive work).

This leaves you on a never-ending hamster wheel of high-effort but little results.

So, to help you avoid this trap, I’d like to share something stupidly simple I’ve been doing that’s helped me a ton.

The Producer GPS For Productive Work

The answer to getting shit done?

Asking questions.

I created a set of questions I answer at the end of the day.

Is it simple?

Yes.

Is it effective?

100%.

When you ask yourself questions on how the day went and how to prepare for tomorrow, it has 2 benefits:

You hold yourself accountable.

You’re aware of the bottleneck. 

Lemme show you the questions I’ve been asking myself:

  1. What tasks did you work on today?

  2. Are there unfinished tasks that were due today?

  3. Which tasks weren't completed and why weren't they completed on time?

  4. What is your plan to get back on track? Is there anything the team can do to help?

  5. Were there significant obstacles that got in the way of your tasks today?

  6. What were the obstacles and how did you handle them?

  7. On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely is it you'll complete your weekly KPIs?

  8. On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with your overall performance today?

  9. What are the top 3 priority tasks you're working on tomorrow? 

  10. Do you have everything prepared for tomorrow?

These questions are designed to:

Find areas of improvement…

Hold me accountable for what I’ve done that day…

Prepare for the next day so I can hit the ground running.

When I have an understanding of these, I can better prepare for the next day.

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While this email is great, it’s still missing one thing.

The “thing”, actually.

What you’re supposed to actually be doing in your day to day.

And for us in Producerland, that’s where The Producer Playbook comes in.

It’s our step by step guide to building a book of business from scratch.

So, if you need direction go buy the Producer Playbook and begin implementing.

And at the end of each day ask yourself the 10 questions above.

If you do that, I promise “direction” will no longer be your problem…

And success, inevitable.

See you next Sunday.

Kick ass take names,

Maximus F. Revenue IV