How To Do Nothing Over The Holidays — a story about becoming replaceable

Did I catch you working on a holiday? I know. It happens. We say, “I’m unplugging” or “No way I’m checking emails or doing work.”

But here we are — I’m writing a blog post and you’re reading it.

I carved out a little time this morning, before the kids wake up, to share a really cool story with you. So here goes:

Every week our small but mighty team gathers for a huddle call to check in about our monthly, weekly and daily goals and tasks.

If you’ve ever been to one of my Replaceable Founder Intensives, you know that we use Trello as our project management tool and as our focal point for weekly and monthly team meetings.

We sort the tasks assigned in Trello by team member and then each person gives an update on progress. It’s transparency and accountability in action. Every week. No excuses. So it’s not at all like this book club I used to go to where all we ever talked about is how we didn’t have time to read the book.

So, at this week’s meeting, Courtney our awesome COO shared her screen and the sorting and updating began, starting with her 25+ tasks.

Then she shared what Joanna and The Amys are accountable for, and each of them had at least 20 tasks populating the screen. I love Trello for this; with each team member shuffle, the screen fills with a new assortment of color-coded “cards” that describe the array of responsibilities each team member is in charge of.

(And, of course, each of these responsibilities equates to critical things that move the growth of the business forward.)

Lots of responsibilities mean lots of cards on the screen in front of us.

Then Courtney came to me…

She shuffled the cards again to reveal my activities for the week and suddenly the screen went from covered with cards to cleaner than Marie Kondo’s kitchen counter.

I had TWO, that’s right TWO critical items assigned to me:

1. Record a podcast episode.
2. Transfer my profit sharing from the business account to my personal account.

Yup. That’s it. Record my thoughts and take money out of the bank. That’s all I had to do this week to keep the business moving forward.

This is how it’s been lately.

I am doing less and less as it relates to the minutiae of the operation of the business and doing more and more as it relates to me simply being, for lack of a better word, the Inventor.

These days I’m pretty much just showing up as “the talent” for the business. I give talks, I show up on podcasts and give interviews. I meet with potential partners to explore larger growth opportunities for the company.

Do you know why I’m able to do this?

Well, we all agreed it’s because I am getting out of the way. I’ve put systems and processes into place that work insanely well without me.

I have become replaceable.

Can I get a “Hell Yeah”?

And here’s the kicker . . .

We had our best profit month ever last month, all because I’ve been able to successfully get out of the way and let my team do what they do best.

The less I do, the better the company is performing.

Let me say that again so it really sinks in for you because I know this is sometimes a hard concept to grasp…

I’m the founder and CEO and our numbers are proving to us that the less I do, the better the company is performing.

If you’re anything like our clients (which I’m guessing you are, because you probably wouldn’t be following me if you weren’t), then you probably see this scenario that I just described as the dream for you and your company.

And you know what? This scenario has been the dream for me too for a long time. It’s taken a lot of trial and error to get us here, and we’re still ironing out the edges, but it works, this Methodology I created. I have become my own best case study.

If you’d like to take a huge first step toward having this kind of freedom, why not join me in New York at my Replaceable Founder Intensives? I’ll only be teaching them LIVE three times this year. Take two minutes right now to secure a spot. Go to: less.do/nyc

And then, this time next year, I guarantee you won’t find yourself in the Target parking lot checking your emails while your kids pull on your hoodie, reminding you that you said, you weren’t going to be on your phone on vacation; wondering how you’re ever going to get out from under all the responsibilities you have foisted upon yourself.

You’ll be doing what you want, picking out LEGOs you’re gonna want to build and marveling at how big your kids seem to have gotten overnight. And you’ll be at peace.

Happy Replaceability Day!

If you want to become more replaceable, check out my free mini-course that teaches you the three main components. REPLACE YOURSELF