Nick Palkowski:Young Entrepreneur Lifestyle podcast, episode number 17. Hello and welcome to the Young Entrepreneur Lifestyle podcast, the show where we help you build a life and a business on your terms. I’m your host, Nick Palkowski, and in each episode we’ll be learning from mentor, speaker, and serial entrepreneur Peter Voogd. Peter, thank you for joining us on this episode of the podcast.
Peter Voogd:Thanks for having me, Nick; ready to rip it and add some value.
Nick Palkowski:Awesome, well I am very excited to dive into this episode’s topic because it’s something that I really enjoy talking about and really enjoy working on and that’s actually the topic of productivity. And I know last episode you teased that you’re going to teach us about the four things that rob productivity. So, Peter, why is productivity so important, first of all?
Peter Voogd:Well I think if you narrow it down to what productivity is, it’s really being able to live the life that you want. And being a productive person is doing things that are focused on your passion, your mission, and building a lifestyle that you dream of. So it’s everything because people that aren’t productive are at the mercy of their work and their business is running them versus them running their business. So I think productivity, just like I say discipline equals lifestyle, productivity equals freedom and freedom is peace to mind and what everybody wants. So if you’re not productive, you’re at the mercy of your work and you’re always going to be stressed out, so it’s everything.
Nick Palkowski:Oh I love that. So you mentioned those four things, what are those four things?
Peter Voogd:I love it. You’re like me, you want to get right into it, let’s go. So I believe this came from The ONE Thing, the book. I took some stuff out of there and kind of tweaked it but I always want to kind of tell people where I got it. Some things I’ve created by myself, some things I’ve took from other people and made them better and used my own spins on it. So this is from the book ONE Thing.
So the first thing is people’s inability to say no. Now I’m sure the second I say this people are like, “Oh my God, I’m a victim of that.” I am too, not as much anymore but you have to learn to say no and stop letting other people run your agenda. It’s one thing to be distracted when you’re trying to focus, It’s another thing to be hijacked before you even start by other people’s priorities, right? So the way to protect what you’ve said yes to and stay productive is to say no to anything or anyone that could derail you. So when you say yes to something, it’s super crucial that you understand what you’re saying no to. And there was a, I don’t remember his name, one of the top, top, top screenwriters in Hollywood, super productive of course. He said, “Half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.” So Steve Jobs says, “What made Apple successful wasn’t what it said yes to but all the things it said no to and all the things they turned down.” So each additional, let’s say, action or commitment or obligation you agree to chips away at your effectiveness with the things that really matter.
So here’s what you got to realize, you can’t please everybody so don’t even try. In fact, when you try to please everybody, the number one person you won’t please is yourself. So people have to stop trying to make everyone happy. God’s, it’s a guaranteed way to get to mediocrity. If I say something and I say, “Okay, think of someone that just tries to make everyone happy.” You guarantee they’re stressed out or they’re struggling or they’re not as productive as they could be, right? Bill Cosby said it too, “I don’t know the exact key to success but I know the key to failure and it’s trying to please everybody.” So that’s what people have to understand and the first, really, robber is the inability to say no. Here’s what Seth Godin says, which is exciting and funny, “You can say no with respect, you can say no promptly, and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do your best work.” So take control and own your agenda, either you run your day or your day runs you. Being productive is not about your current position, being productive is about moving towards your end vision and the bigger picture you have for you, your business, yourself, your family, your lifestyle, and your income. So that’s number one, is just start saying no to things. And didn’t we talk about, a couple podcasts ago, Nick, about selling yourself, say no to things you’re not sold on? This goes along with that.
Nick Palkowski:Yeah, and I believe that was episode 14, so, youngentrepreneurlifestyle.com/014 and that should take you right to that episode. But and I think that something you said there is so true, that a lot of times people just simply say yes because they want to avoid that short-term discomfort of having to tell someone no, when they don’t even realize all the other impacts that simply saying yes puts in place in their life. Because every time you say yes to something, like you were saying, there’s a cost somewhere. Either it’s a cost to your time, a cost to time spent on another project, maybe time with your family, there’s always a cost to everything.
Peter Voogd:Yep, 100 percent I agree. And people just need to realize that when you say no to something the actual successful people will respect you at a higher level. So it’s weird, you might think like people will be mad, but they’ll respect you more when they say, “No, I don’t have time.” Right? So for me I haven’t answered my phone, Nick, to be honest when it’s a number I don’t know probably for four years. And people, “Why didn’t you call me back?,” “Leave a voice mail.” Like if they don’t leave a voice mail, I’ll never call them back. I don’t check my texts whenever I get one, I have a specific time to check them. “Hey, did you get my text?” “I don’t know,” right? People will Facebook me, “Did you get my text?” I don’t really respond unless it’s on my time because I am trying to build something that outlasts me that can help millions. So I’m not going to get to helping millions if I try to help one person in their agenda when it’s not congruent to what I’m doing. So it’s huge.
Number two is the fear of chaos. A not so funny thing happens when you’re trying to get big goals and big results, create a big company and have a big vision. Chaos, disorder, unrest, and just untidiness, a bunch of crazy things happen when you have big goals. And one of the greatest thieves of productivity is the unwillingness to allow for chaos or lack of creativity in dealing with it and making solutions to deal with the creativity versus letting up or lowering your goals. So focusing on the vision or the one thing you need to be doing that is best for your future. It’s something that’s hard to do, Nick, but you have to understand that when you do focus on those things, other things will come up in dealing with the chaos, is important to understand. It’s a package deal, when you set big goals, you have a lot of chaos. So when you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up and it’s important that people accept it versus fight it. So when they fight it, they’re not productive. And I know in The ONE Thing, it talks about, and I just looked up that I have this, Oscar award-winning filmmaker Francis Coppola warns us that, “Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion always invites chaos.” In other words, get used to it and get over it, get used to it and get over it. And check this out, my favorite quote about chaos is by Albert Einstein, he says, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then is an empty desk a sign of?”
Nick Palkowski:I like that one.
Peter Voogd:It’s huge, it means you have nothing in your mind and it means you’re going for no big goals and you’re almost guaranteeing mediocrity and unfulfillment. So I think the art of being wise and productive in knowing what to overlook, so that’s the second thing. Third is, weird one, people say, “That’s productivity?” Well it is, poor health habits.
Nick Palkowski:Oh yeah.
Peter Voogd:This is huge. People that aren’t healthy don’t have any energy to get through the day, they make stupid decisions. I was at a conference and Matthew Kelly was talking, who wrote The Dream Manager. He says, “When you’re tired, you’re a coward,” when you don’t have energy, you’re a coward. And it sounds bad but I really don’t care what it sounds like because it’s a fact. When you’re tired and when you don’t have energy, you make stupid, weak, cowardly decisions. “Oh, I’m too tired to do this. I don’t want to read, I’d rather watch TV. I want to eat these Cheetos versus eat a salad.” And then it just is a downward spiral, right? So most go for success by sacrificing their health, don’t do that; they stay up late, they miss meals, they eat poorly, they completely ignore exercise, and it’s hard to hit their goals. So high achievement and shorten results require big energy, the trick is leaning how to get it and keep it. And I have tons of videos and blogs about how to eat right, how to really reach maximum energy. One thing we talk about in the program is how to create an energy explosion and keep the energy explosion consistently and be more energized and motivated than you ever have and it starts with the health habits.
So when you spend your early hours energizing yourself, it will pull you through the rest of the day with not much effort because you’re already focused. So really structuring your days around energy and making sure you’re healthy is a huge part of productivity. And if you’re not healthy, it’s a productivity killer. And lastly, Nick, I don’t want to go over, people have environments that don’t support their goals. So the environment must support your goals. Your environment is simply who you see and what you experience each day. No one lives or works in isolation, so every day throughout the day you come in contact with others that are influenced by that. So unquestionably these individuals impact your, let’s say, attitude, your mindset, your courage, your health, and ultimately your performance.
So I was at Tom Ferry’s office yesterday, he has Think Big, Act Bigger, he has Dream Big. His office, it literally was like a wolf of Wall Street office, it was like huge. People were calling but everyone is motivated. They have, by their desks, like, “I’m a champion, champions follow through,” they had that. When I had an office and we were one of the top offices in the country in my direct sales company, we had quotes right before you walked in my office on the top of my door, it said, “Champions find a way.” And on my desk in my office i had a huge, what do you call those things that you put o your desk? I don’t even know what they’re called, signs I guess.
Nick Palkowski:Sure.
Peter Voogd:Yeah, I don’t know, whatever, signs, desk ornaments. And it said, “Companies don’t succeed, people do.”
Nick Palkowski:Nice.
Peter Voogd:So I’m always reminded everyone that steps foot in my office knows I’m about people more than profits. And it’s an environment that supports my goals. So you got to have environments that are congruent to inspiration and motivation if you need that, right? So find an office, or sometimes I like to work at a coffee shop. I’ll go to Newport Beach or I’ll go places that I can overlook the water and see just palm trees and amazing weather and amazing people around me. Sometimes I’ll work at my office in my house, but everything is inspired. Hal Elrod, who a lot of people know, is really good at this, his office is amazing. He has motivational stuff everywhere, pictures of Tony Robbing, Albert Einstein. So it has to be congruent with your goals. And I think those four things, if you can really do those and make sure that you do them at a high level, you will really see a big boost in productivity.
Nick Palkowski:Oh, that’s awesome. And I think this will definitely help a lot of our listeners take their productivity to the next level. So, Peter, what do we have coming up on the next episode of the podcast?
Peter Voogd:So let me switch it to you. What do you feel like is something that we could talk about? What I was thinking, Nick, because I didn’t have anything planned on this one because I wanted to kind of ask, there’s a couple options. I think the power of asking questions and the power of asking the right questions to yourself is a huge part of success, we can do that. Or do you feel like there’s anything that we need to hit on that people are wanting or needing?
Nick Palkowski:I really love that idea of asking questions because that’s one thing I know I’ve been focusing more on is asking good questions of yourself and other people. So I would love to talk about that topic next.
Peter Voogd:Let’s do it, all right, let’s make it happen. So the power of questions is next, take one, peace.
Nick Palkowski:Are you committed to being your best? Are you looking to make a difference in your life and the lives of those around you? It’s time for you to become a game-changer. The Game-Changer System for Excellence is the premier community for young professionals and ambitious entrepreneurs created by Peter Voogd. To learn more about the Game-Changer System for Excellence, go to youngentrepreneurlifestyle.com/gamechangers. The world has enough followers, be a game-changer. And Peter and I just want to take the time here to say thank you to each and every one of you who have left a review for the podcast, including this review which we’re going to give a shout-out here to ZackCry. His review, titled “Inspirational”, and it simply says, “The best podcast for young entrepreneurs.” I totally agree, Zack, and thank you for writing your review. And if you would like to leave a review for the podcast, all you have to do is go to and leave a review for the podcast there.
And thank you for tuning in to this episode of the podcast. I know you must be inspired to be more productive here this week and so I’m strongly going to encourage you to go through each of these four robbers of productivity and look to see if they are in your life.
Are these things robbing your productivity on a daily basis? And put some steps into action to actually start getting rid of them. Start exercising if poor health might be robbing your productivity, start sleeping better, start being able to say no more. Whatever area it is, put some steps into action to actually improve in that area so you don’t have that as a robber of your productivity. And if you would, let us know which area you’re going to focus on here for this next week. Go to the show notes page, which is youngentrepreneurlifestyle.com/017 for episode 17, and just let us know, “This is the area that I’m really going to focus on improving my productivity.” So I’m going to focus on improving my health, I’m going to focus on saying no more, whatever area it may be, just let us know in the comments below on the show notes page.
And if you have not done so yet, please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes by going to . So until next week, go out, put some of these things in practice, and truly live life and business on your terms.