Episode 24 – Allyson Lewis with The Seven Minute Life

RJ Martino 

Welcome to the iProv Made Podcast where we help you build a better practice. I’ve got my awesome co host, Jordan Smith. Hey, Jordan.

Jordan Smith 

Hey everybody. RJ I am excited about our guest today. We’ve got Allison Lewis with The Seven Minute Life. So, you know, everybody, if you’re playing this on your, on your phone while you’re doing something, go ahead, I’ve got some homework for you. Go ahead and prep for this. Pull out a pencil, pen, piece of paper, whatever you need to take notes on, because I guarantee you guys are gonna want to take notes on this.

RJ Martino 

Welcome to the eyebrows made podcast where we help you build a more profitable practice. I’m here with my great co host, Jordan Smith. Hey, Jordan.

Jordan Smith 

Hey, RJ. How are you?

RJ Martino 

I’m great. You know, I love that you’re here. But I’m more excited to introduce a good friend of mine and someone that has helped me personally in my own life. Allison Lewis, hey, Allison, how are you?

Allyson Lewis 

I’m great. RJ. Howare you?

RJ Martino 

Alison is CEO and director of learning innovation at the seven minute life

Jordan Smith 

who I love that title.

RJ Martino 

I do too. And, you know, I wasn’t immediately clear with what the seven minute life was. But after spending some time together, I realized, it’s not just one thing, the seven minute life is kind of encompassing a number of things. So Allison, you know, for those that don’t know you, why don’t you give us kind of a little elevator pitch on on, on how you tell people about what you do? Well,

Allyson Lewis 

RJ thanks for having me today. And Jordan, great to meet you. The work you do is very important, because companies today are really in an incredibly different place than they were six months ago. You know, there’s a need for clarity, there’s a lot of uncertainty people are looking for how can I take what I have today and focus on the most important things. So the seven minute life is a time management company. And our tagline is that we reconnect daily productivity with human potential that leads to meaningful work. And as you look at that, I believe the world is screaming out for better time management skills. Our our company, I don’t believe has ever been more relevant. And we are very excited to share this really high topic. content with you today to help help your listeners.

Jordan Smith 

Well, I love that concept. And and especially for the listeners out there, right? Whether you’re your doctor, or you’re the practice manager, there is not enough time in the day to get everything done that you want to get done, and that you need to get done. So that’s why I’m excited to bring we’re both excited about bringing Allison and her process to everybody out there.

RJ Martino 

So with The Seven Minute Life, Allison, let’s try to narrow in or focus in on, you know, we’ve got an audience who we always say is physician owned practices, sometimes it’s administrator, sometimes its employees. Let’s talk about who your program is really geared toward is it? Is it an entire team? Is it a very specific person? Is it a physician, or is it an employee?

Allyson Lewis 

Well, that’s a great question. Let me kind of couch that in my own personal story is that I was a financial advisor from the time I was 22 until I was 55. And so I was in a major corporate executive role. And I ran a little bitty team. So it’s both in that corporate profile, but running a very tight knit team, that I realized that that time management had everything to do with not only our success at work, but our engagement with one another. And so our marketplace really is some individuals, but primarily we work with teams and companies and even enterprises, so that they can scale all of our material is a repeatable process. The number one thing that people have to understand about time management is are you spending your time focusing on activities that are leading towards the goals that are most important for your business? And so really, there’s a step backwards, is that businesses often haven’t clarified their goals. And so how can they even know what they’re spending their time on is valuable or not valuable? So there are a lot of facets to this, but it affects people, small groups, small teams, and huge enterprises trying to get everybody lined up on the same road at the same time, going the same direction. You know,

RJ Martino 

I think that’s a great segue, because I want to talk just a little bit about the way we think about building a practice and, you know, often it starts with people calling me or Jordan and saying, hey, I want to grow my business. I need more patients. I need more patients. And what we call that as we call that symptoms, we listen to symptoms of problems all the time. And so our first step is we do have to listen to symptoms, the second thing we have to do is make sure that we’re talking to someone that wants to really take accountability for the problem and do something about it. You know, we all want to be the two year old child that just that just kicks and screams and demand the world change for us. And unfortunately, the world doesn’t work that way. And we figured out the clients that we don’t work really well with, or those who just don’t want to do anything, but just one of the kick and scream. So we want to make sure we’re talking to that person. The third thing that we think you have to do is you have to tease out the vision of what the future looks like in your head, you have to make sure you’ve got a, you’ve got core values, you’ve got what we call a corporate culture that people can get behind. And a lot of times, that’s a vision that you can explain to people that you can tell people where you’re trying to go. And after that, and only after that, can we help build a strategy, so that you can reach that vision. And after we get the strategy, then we can align the tactics that need to get done. But often, as business owners, we all want to do it the exact opposite way, we just want to buy the tactics, you know, we want to buy the sizzle, we don’t want to do anything else, we just want the tactics, but we say you got to go the opposite direction, you first got to lay out the vision, then you got to build a strategy, then you lay out the tactics. And then we get into alignment after that. So the last step in our process is engaging your team. Because until you get it all worked out in your head, we just don’t think you can engage a team, because you won’t have alignment if you don’t do it in that order. So thinking about that, I think that dovetails directly into The Seven Minute Life, because so much is is tied into, you know, a deeper meaning of the work that we do. And I think, you know, the time that we’ve spent together, I thought this aligns so perfectly because you give the individual purpose for doing the work, but it also influences real change for the organization. So can you talk about some real results that you’ve gotten from your best? Can you kind of paint the picture of what the future looks like?

Allyson Lewis 

Yes. Now, here’s what I try to do is I try to get people to imagine that they’re in a situation. So as I’m telling this story, I want them to be the hero of the story, or the journey, or that’s probably so derner, you know, the person taking the path. Yeah, at the beginning of someone coming into the seven minute life. And it’s a time management company they come in, because they have a reason, just like you said, any kind of business has to have a problem that they’re solving. And so you come in to solve the problem of practices, you know, so that people can do exactly what you said, take them from step one to step two, and run them into a place where they can have a business that’s growing and thriving, and is meaningful, not only to their clients, but to the physicians themselves and their staff. But people come to The Seven Minute Life because they hit a tipping point. So there’s a line in the sand almost for all of us. And, boy, do we know it when we hit that. And so we begin to ask ourselves, who am I? And who do I want to be. And it’s really that moment, where we realize time is moving forward. And either I’m going to be aware of it, or I’m going to blink my eyes and a day is going to be gone. Or I’m going to blink my eyes and a week is going to be done. Or I’m going to blink my eyes and a decade of my life is going to be gone. And so really it has to start with those internal questions. And I’m sure you do this with your doctors to what you were talking about is that until they understand the end goal, that is that really heartfelt soul felt passionate vision of what’s the outcome 40 years from now, what they do during today isn’t going to matter. So I think that first step is is realizing that most of the people that come to The Seven Minute Life are drifting through life, it’s like they’re on a raft in the middle of the ocean, and the currents are taking them wherever, well, and they don’t feel like they have ownership of anything. And that’s a huge problem.

RJ Martino 

I think so I know, I should question I want to get to what it looks like in the future. But let me pause there because I asked, you know, what does it look like before and after? You had said you created this while you were leading anything? Can you take us back at that time? Like what did your life look like when you first started this creation?

Allyson Lewis 

Well, when I’m first teaching a class, the very first slide says busy was killing me. And that’s what my life looked like I was living in chaos and distraction and clutter and I had this constant And that something was chasing me. And I just didn’t quite know what it was I was disorganized, I didn’t have any focus. And what that led to, for me was exhaustion, stress, anxiety, and it really shut down my business. So when you hit this point, this tipping point where you realize until I get some kind of structure around me, I was just unhappy. Not only was I not growing my business, I was frozen in time. So that was the starting point of when I said, I can’t do this anymore. I need some solutions. So I began to research and study and create solutions that didn’t exist. And so that was the birthing point of the seven minute life.

RJ Martino 

I love that story. Because I think so many more people through story, which you talked about before is, is now there’s an okay, I’m there. I mean, I think a lot of leaders we find ourself exactly in that space. So the again, the question was, tell us what it looked like before and kind of talk talk about what it looks like moving forward?

Allyson Lewis 

Well, that’s a great question. Because it’s not like that ever really goes away, I’m still busy. There are times that I’m still overwhelmed. But what happened is that I needed tools, I needed real structure to put into place. So I created a single written sheet of paper that’s, that was on a piece of paper. And all I realized is that every morning, I needed to literally take my phone’s set a timer for seven minutes, and determine what is my goal for today. It’s important to know your goals in the future. But unless they’re relevant, where you’re taking high value actions, today, it doesn’t matter. So I needed to create a repeatable process that said, here’s what I want. So in your industry, I want new patients, I want our patients to have higher satisfaction than when you create your plan for the day, what actions are you going to take today that are going to lead to patient growth that are going to lead to satisfied customers. And then repeat those things. If time management becomes self learning, it’s like an error correction. As you become aware of it, you’ll begin to let go of the things that don’t lead you towards those goals. And you’ll begin to understand the power of something that does, I’m not sure in your industry, RJ Can you give me some examples of high value actions that your your physicians could take on a daily basis?

RJ Martino 

You know, as an example, a lot of is good leadership, it is forgetting that most of the time, patients aren’t sitting with the doctor, they might be sitting in the waiting room, they might be sitting with the front desk person, they might be sitting with a nurse, and they’re mad because patients are leaving there and maybe writing a negative review about their experience. And the the physician thinks I treat these people like gold, how much better can I treat them? Well, you know, you’re about 30% of the overall experience. 70% happened when they decide to pick up the phone and call yet, you know, and so we talk about that as high value trends. I’m not sure if that’s a good example in your world or not?

Allyson Lewis 

Well, yeah, perfect example.

Jordan Smith 

Mm hmm. And also what you mentioned, Allison, which is so many of our listeners out there, and so many problems that we hear from people exactly the spot that you were talking about you were before you started this, which was I’m busy. And that’s all I know, is I come in on my schedule dominates my time, and therefore my time is spent just on my schedule, and I’ve got no time to focus on the business. And they’re just, it’s that it’s that circle of death that you get in where there’s no time for planning, because there’s no, you don’t set aside time to plan or think about the big picture and there is no vision, you know, it’s it’s, it’s what fire do I need to put out today, and that’s as far as they’re looking forward. So I want to make sure that the listeners hear that point, because I think, if you didn’t, I’m telling you loud and clear. Pause it now do exactly what Allison said, and figure out how to integrate those important things into your schedule tomorrow. I’m serious, stop. Now. Pause it, do that. Because just that one little action, like you said, making that a repeatable process, you’re gonna see strides in your organization.

Allyson Lewis 

You know, it’s it’s funny that you say that, that so much of this, we really have to go back to the basics. And I know you do this, RJ and and Jordan, because I’ve listened to some of your podcasts. What people really want is what is that very first step. And so we’ve physically broken it down, okay, if I’m going to plan my day, how do I even do that? I don’t want to just come in and say you need a plan of action. What does that look like? So let me Have some specific tactics that I think might be helpful to your your listeners here is that if you take out a sheet of paper and create a to do list, that’s really a Don’t forget to do list, that probably adds no value to your life, you’ve written it on the back of a piece of paper, you haven’t taken ownership of it, and it becomes a meaningless list. That is not planning your day. The very first thing I want people to do when they take out a piece of paper is put the date on it. So like if I was planning today, it would be 917 2020. And I want them to take ownership of that day. I want them to realize that it is important in your life and your meaning and your potential to do that. Set a timer for seven minutes. I’m not kidding. And let’s put words around. What is it that you’re going to accomplish? Today? It’s a clean slate, we’re not going to drift. We’re going to be very directional. So what does that look like? You’re thinking about what? Here are the steps? You look at your calendar? Step one, look at your account, what do you have coming up on your calendar? Don’t let it surprise you plan? What do you need to do? What resources do you have to do? Step two, what projects are leading you towards a goal? You know, remind yourself of what it is I want X number of specific new patients? How am I going to get there? Look at the projects that are taking you there? Is it Team communication? Is it updating your marketing? Is it creating some kind of script for people to use? As silly as that sounds? We need to know what patients need to hear. So what projects are leading you towards that? And then look at all the paper on your desk? What hasn’t been done? What have you gotten done? What do you need to do? After you’ve looked at all that, you need to realize you can’t get all of that done. If you only have enough time, prune it back and say what are the five most important things I can get done today, we call that the five before 11. If I can’t get anything else done, if I can do these five things, not 100. But if you could do five before 11 for a week, you’d accomplish 35, high value time management tasks that are leading you right towards a goal of building your practice and finding more purpose in work.

Jordan Smith 

Wow, great tactical tip. I love that.

RJ Martino 

Allison, let me ask you a question you might not be able to answer because, you know, as we look at leaders in every organization, we all feel this way, exactly the way all of our audience is thinking about this the way I’m just like Alison speaking at me, it’s me, you know, we all feel this way. Have you ever thought about if we all feel this way, if almost all leaders in every organization? Why? You know, why don’t they pick up your book and read your book? Or why don’t they implement your system? You know, have you ever thought about why they don’t choose to do something?

Allyson Lewis 

Yeah, and I can tell you why. And our business model is that we want to help people and, you know, RJ as people are listening to this, I know that people are in that situation. And so I hope they will reach out to me, and I know you’re gonna put out all that. But here’s why. They don’t want a product. You know, I’ve written five books, the average person reads 18 pages, I could have written 18 pages and left the rest of this blank and no one would even know. We buy systems for thousands of dollars and we don’t watch them online. Why the reason that people struggle is they need a team of people that can be accountable to on a regular basis once a month coming back. They need to instill peer to peer learning, where it’s not something out of a book. It’s not one more thing you have to do. It’s a process of behaviors. It’s taking that science of repetition and put it in into your life. You know, I want to put words around things. RJ we were talking about how important words are that an Eskimo anecdotally has 30 words for snow. Well, they experience snow differently. A wine connoisseur has thousands of words physical words that they can wrap around. Well, Dawson Trotman said, My thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through my lips and my fingertips. If we don’t have the words to explain, nothing matters. So you can’t read it. You can’t just type it in. You have to experience you have to talk about it. That’s what people really need is to have the accountability of sharing this with the community. That’s when the world is going to change.

Jordan Smith 

I love that concept. And you mentioned something that that we’re big believers in which is accountability. You talked about the peer groups and you know those networks of people that will hold you accountable as a leader, you know, and, and making sure that for those practice managers who are out there making sure that your people hold you accountable for the things that that you promise, you know, so whether you’re a provider, you’re, you’re just helping somebody run a practice. I think that’s super important. I love that concept.

RJ Martino 

So Allison, do you have a certain type of organization that you like working with? Or at least do you have an ideal, what we call an ideal customer? You

Allyson Lewis 

know, that’s a great question. And something I’d love to have a mastermind group with physicians, or have you have that, as you know, who’s your ideal patient? Because yes, I specifically do have an ideal customer. Gallup has done multiple surveys. And they found that only 33% of Americans are engaged at work. 67% are not engaged. And I think that’s high. I, I think that are low. I don’t think 33% of people are engaged. Maybe it’s 10%? I don’t know. But my market is that 33% that are fully engaged. You know, I can’t take someone that doesn’t like their job and make them more efficient, what are they going to do be more efficient at doing things that they don’t care about? You know, the reality is, I want to impact those people that do care about their job, that 33% that liked their work and want to love it that are efficient, that want to be more efficient, that are busy, and they want to not be busy, they want to do valuable things, so that they can make a difference in the world. My market is that that niche company that has social impact, compassion, kindness, emotional intelligence, those are the companies that thrive, and those are the companies that I love to work with. Now, there are a lot of companies that aren’t there yet, but they can be, you know, soon as they start putting words. I mean, I can only imagine that listener hearing someone encourage them, that that’s what they could have, they could have that level of engagement that makes their palms sweat and their heart beat. We get to help people do that.

RJ Martino 

Yeah, I love that.

Jordan Smith 

So talking, talking to those organizations talking to the listeners out there that are listening to this and saying, I love it. Well, how do you? You’ve got the books, you’ve got The Seven Minute Life, the website, all the but how do you come in and kind of integrate into their practice? How do you how do you personally, and your group come in and facilitate that process for an organization that might be listening this and saying, This is exactly what me and all my people need?

Allyson Lewis 

Well, that’s a great question. And I am, you know, in a business, I have great advisors all around me. And one of the things is that as a consultant, you know, let’s just take it down to the very base level is, companies, let’s use doctors, doctors have to have a return on investment when they hire specialists to come in and help them. And so the biggest return on investment that people get when they hire me is being able to retain their people. I want to help attract the right people. I want to physically give specific ways that a company or a doctor’s office can attract the type of person that’s in that top 33%. I want to train them on a step by step process to become more engaged. But if it, let’s say a physician’s office has one really great person that they’re paying 75-110,000 a year, if they’re not engaged, because there’s no clear vision, and that person leaves, that’s $100,000 loss for someone to replace. Because it’s hard to find good people. And it takes two or three years to get a new person up to speed. So my value comes in when I can help take the company from where they are today, work with a team like yours, you know, let you create the strategy let you create these pieces. help them see that vision of you know, kindness, compassion, love, social impact, all of those things. And then what is it worth to them to give them repeatable processes, know where they can physically use my tools? Well, if they’re losing $100,000 a year because they lose one person, what are they willing to pay me? And so cards on the table, is it worth 10 grand for seven weeks to have someone come in like me, if you’re going to get a 10 time return? I would hope almost every person listening to this call would reach out to me and say absolutely, I’ll spend $10,000 to save one employee.

RJ Martino 

You know, going back. So that was the kind of procedurally how do you how do you interact? My question prior to that was about your ideal customers, the type of people that you like working with. And you had mentioned that you want to help the people that love their job, the people that are trying their hardest and you know, as, as physicians and our audience, I can picture in their head, they’ve got to, they’ve got someone in their mind that says, Yes, this is, you know, Joe, and Joe loves working here. And he is trying so hard. But it’s not Joe, this is the problem. It’s the other 60% that aren’t engaged, and Joe keeps taking on their job. And so he can’t even get his job done. But you know, I don’t need Joe, I need I need, I need six more Joe’s, I need to get rid of the losers and get more Joes. Is that true? Is there something that you can do to help with that? Or is that just the nature of you know, the perito principle where 80% of the results come from 20% of the people and you just got to live with it? I don’t know. Can you speak to that at all?

Allyson Lewis 

Yeah, I think that’s a very valid question. And I think it takes a special kind of leader to begin to solve that solution. First of all, it’s not solvable in a lot of cases until the leader sparks that vision, it has to come, what doesn’t have to I see a lot of ground up swell a lot of these millennials and people but it has to come from communication, people willing to listen. But if we’re going to take, let’s say those 33% and 67% aren’t engaged, well, they’re expensive, you know, they’re talking badly about you as the leader, they’re negatively impacting your customers, the very first thing you have to do is onboard them correctly. Every new hire needs to see the vision needs to understand it needs to feel value from the very beginning. And so there’s a specific correlation to how much time a company invests in new people and their current people, because there’s a study that something like 60% of people don’t even have one friend at work. Wow. I mean, think of the drain that that takes you. And so there’s some simple things we can do to engage people. I mean, simple as in having people bring in their favorite hors d’oeuvre, cost you nothing, but let people bring in a potluck, you know, bring in some warm cookies, pop some popcorn, there’s some simple things you can do to engage people that are free, but giving them a vision of who you want them to grow into, of what training you’re going to give to them of the vision of who they can be. That solves a huge problem.

RJ Martino 

So following up, you know, we talked about procedures, how you integrate. And maybe there’s a there’s variations of the solutions that you bring in. But is this a conference is it is it the book is that the product, you’ve got other talk a little bit about your your your products that are out there.

And I’d love it for people to go buy the book at Amazon, The Seven Minute Solution, if you just type in seven minutes, or Allison Lewis and go to Amazon, I know you’re not going to read it, but it will look great in your bookcase. You know, you can sell it on Amazon later, just make sure that you use it in your YouTube videos posted on your social media. But yes, buy the book. Because, you know, even holding something in your hand will inspire you that you can learn it. That’s great. That’s not really the product we sell. The product we sell. current day is a seven week class where people bring in a team of 10 people. And in normal circumstances that would be live. But it’s $1,000 a person maximum 12 people, we spend seven weeks, two hours a week. And we actually have a 60 page book within a facilitators guide. So that in between the weeks, you’re talking to one another. And so it’s not just talking to you, we teach for about 45 minutes, but on the classes, we listen to one another for an hour and 15 minutes. We talk things through and so that you know 10 to $12,000 is a process of seven weeks that the product but wait, it gets better. We have just launched a product that’s $20 a month. That is a live webinar once a week where people can learn week by week by week, but it’s only for realtors, so you have to have realtors right now. Now that enterprise wants to come in where they’re saying, you know we have 10,000 people that have this problem. We will custom make that same platform for you. People don’t want just one thing, just like you’re doing these podcasts, behaviors change week by week, you having a series of learning. So right now the product that people can get started with is $1,000. A person bringing in your team on Zoom, it’s a specific time a specific day of the week. And the only homework is talking to one another.

Jordan Smith 

That’s a bargain. I mean, that’s a, you know, if, like the, like the formula and the equation that you gave earlier, you know, if it can save $100,000 employee, I mean, that’s a that’s an investment you should make all day long. So I love that concept. I love that thought process behind that and know that all of this is resonating with our listeners out there. Talk a little bit about what success looks like, as far as how do they track that incremental progress, right? because nothing’s overnight, I know that you’re know that change happens once you decide to change, but you keep talking about making a repeatable process. What outcomes are a big part of this? How, how do you tell people to track that progress to see if they’re on the right path or not?

Allyson Lewis 

Well, let’s start with the simplest thing. And I hate giving away secrets, Jordan, I have to tell people the secrets to all of this

Jordan Smith 

Just a little bit, just surface level.

Allyson Lewis 

Well, we’re a startup company as well as consulting company. And so imagine the Fitbit for time management. Imagine if the only thing you had to track was a did I or did not? The question is so simple. Am I going to take ownership of my day? Am I willing to take seven minutes to truly think through what’s most important, or am I not, you know, fit, but what it did for the walking world is it gets set, you set your own pace, you set your own goal. But at the end of the day, it’s a yes or no question did I or didn’t I? And so the metric, the simplest metric of all, is do you have a piece of paper with a date on it? Where you plan your day? It’s a yes or no question. So if you want to measure, all you have to measure is, am I willing? Is my life important enough to not drift? I mean, it sounds crazy that people would rather blink their eyes and be I’m 60. Again, I’m telling secrets. But we have an app in the works, that will become the Fitbit for being conscious about taking ownership of your day and stop drifting. So are our big secret is we have a lot of cool stuff coming up. We need people to connect with us at the seven minute life RJ. You’ve done so much for so many people and we speak the same language, there are specific actions that can be measured, very simple, simply that will create specific outcomes. It’s It’s not hard. So does that help answer your question Jordan?

Jordan Smith 

No, it does. And I love that, you know, it’s the same concept of, you know, you’re talking about somebody, you know, the health of their organization, their mental health, that that that fulfillment for their soul, right? If you go to the gym, and you get frustrated, because you’re not losing the weight, you want to lose within two weeks, and you quit. Well, that does you no, good. So sometimes, tracking progress is just showing up. It’s, it’s, it’s just sweating your ass off. And you got to do that with the seven minute life also.

RJ Martino 

So yeah. When you talk about a team of people, and what you do for them, if everybody read the book, if everybody liked the idea, are there certain team members that are critical for you being successful at it as a coach?

Allyson Lewis 

Wow, that’s a great question. I’d love your thoughts on that. Because I think I think you’re very intuitive in that. I’ll follow up on my thoughts. But Jordan, and RJ, what are your What are your thoughts? Because Absolutely, I think the answer is yes so.

RJ Martino 

I mean, we would agree and you know, we talk all the time, about the person listening to this audience and, or this, this podcast. And, you know, if they don’t care enough about if they’re not engaged, if they are not going to take accountability for the results, it’s just not going to happen. You know, it is, it won’t happen until the person who wants to see the change stands up and just says, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’m sick and tired, not getting the results that I want. I’m gonna do something about it. And you know, as leaders, that’s hard because I’m just like everybody else listening to this. I want to just spend money on something and fix the problem. I want to throw money at problems and think they’ll just go away and they never do. And so for us, the leaders of the most important people, if they’re not backing it, you know, in my head if our leader, if I demanded, hey, at my company, we’re going to live The Seven Minute Life. If I didn’t, if I didn’t support, if I didn’t promote, it would just be another thing that would kind of fizzle off. And I’d be mad about it. And at the end of the year, I would say, Yeah, I even invested in The Seven Minute Life thing. And nobody, nobody took it on. And a lot of times, it’s it’s, it’s not even the people’s fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault, because I didn’t engage them. They’re trying to read my, you know, where they should focus their time and energy unless I’m not vocal about unless I’m not leading them, they’re going to guess their way to the right answer. And often, you know, that does, that’s a recipe for disaster. So that’s my, you know, two second response, Jordan, what do you think?

Jordan Smith 

No, I mean, exactly the same. You know, we use the analogy all the time, we’ve all been in a imagine yourself in a canoe with a handful of different people. And some of them are rowing in one direction on one side, and some of them are the other what happens, you go in circles, and businesses the same way, if all of you guys aren’t rowing the direction, yeah, it might start with that leadership team, or the leader in the organization, you know, making sure that everybody knows the direction that they want to go in. But man, one person paddling in the opposite direction of everybody else, is going to make that canoe come to a standstill. So I think it starts with the leadership team. But I’m big believer that you’re only as strong as your weakest link, especially with what the scenario RJ laid out earlier, right. If you’re a doctor, your owner, that’s listening to this, you know, you’re only spending a small percentage of time with your patients, your practice administrator, you’re not spending any time with the patients. So you might not think that the front desk person needs to go through this process they do. You might not think that the person who, you know collects the the payment at the at the window right before they leave needs to go through this process. And, and they do. So that would be my thought, yeah, it starts with the leaders. They’re going to set the tone. But leaders aren’t around all the time. So what happens when you’re not in that room?

Allyson Lewis 

I have a comment. Now. Can I ask can I chime in?

RJ Martino 

Yeah, you’re the star of the show, you gotta chime in. Somehow you flip the script and made us start talking. And we want your thoughts on this.

Allyson Lewis 

1,000% correct. 1,000%. And, you know, just what we’re doing right now, the three of us talking, even though we’re talking to an audience, I’m learning. That’s why this podcast, we’re putting words around real problems. And we’re offering solutions. So this talking about it is key. Now, I’m going to go into nerd mode for just a minute. But one of my friends that teaches with me has a a word or phrase that he uses, it’s called the coefficient of friction, the coefficient of friction. And it happens when you’re you have like a huge armoire or refridgerator or chest of drawers. And you’ve got your shoulder into it, you’re pushing on it, and you’re pushing on it, and nothing happens, you know, because it’s having, and then all of a sudden, when you hit this coefficient of friction, all of a sudden, it moves six feet across the room. Well, it does that because there are certain it’s almost like physics, people think all of this is hard. It’s only hard in the beginning. You know, it’s getting over that first breath. And all of a sudden, what happens of how do we keep people engaged with The Seven Minute Life, we send them a notification? You know, it’s like a secret notification on their phone that just says, hey, did you take your seven minutes? or what were you most grateful for today? Or take seven seconds and send a text to a friend. It’s all that, you know, people think creating a successful business has to be really hard. It doesn’t. The hard part’s making that decision to change your entire culture. And from there with the right tools and the right strategists and the right mindset, everything can change. But it takes time, you know, starts with that first step. But it takes a lifetime.

Jordan Smith 

Yeah, I like that a lot. Well, before we get to kind of the final round, I’ve got one last question. If there’s a listener out there that’s listening to this specific episode. And I know if you are and you’ve gotten this far, you’re completely bought in, but you might not know how to bring this to your team, to your leadership team. You know, from a consultant standpoint, sometimes it’s the fear is oh, I bring in this outside group and somebody is gonna assume that either they’re broken or what they built is broken, or the business owner hasn’t built a business that’s successful. And we know as consultants, that’s not the case. But talk about how if there’s somebody out there listening that says I love all this, what are some things I can do to get buy in from the rest of my team that this is something we can do. How would you suggest they start that conversation?

Allyson Lewis 

Well, that is a great point. I mean, beyond great point, as a, as an entrepreneur, I couldn’t have done this alone. I’ve tried to do this alone. And it’s just, it’s crazy to try to run a business without help. I mean, there’s not a single entrepreneur out there that hadn’t made the very same mistakes been stuck in the very same place. People don’t come to me, because they’re afraid they have a problem. They’re incredibly aware of it, and they’re coming to me, because I had the very same problem. You know, we’re making it this the very same place. And, you know, so I think people do have to realize, every business that I deal with, has got time management problems, there is no simple solution. I mean, it’s if somebody has solved the problem of time management, there is nothing but grace that I teach, I mean, I still don’t get everything done. But boy, I get a lot more of the important things done. So the first thing is realize, time management is likely the most is probably the key to everything that a business has to begin to solve to become successful, you have to have time to think you have to have time to train, you have to have time to spend with your patients. So first thing is, we’re all in the boat together. And so they would physically just reach out to The Seven Minute Life. And I’ll let you give them the contact information. But I’m a really nice person. And I know I’ve already had a conversation today with an organization that we’re doing work with in October, we’re having a zoom call for 40 people. And we’re doing those things because they’re willing to pay a specific amount to get an outcome. And the beauty of what I bring to the table is I’ve been doing this for 30 years, we have measurable outcomes. And so people just connect, and it’s a very human experience. It’s innovative, it’s creative, it’s fun, it will instantly make a difference in your team’s morale and your corporate culture. And there going to be so many ideas that you’re going to begin to be curious about asking the question, what couldn’t happen? You know, there are no limits to how this can help you. And so it becomes self fulfilling.

RJ Martino 

I was in a, you know, and not in today. But in prior meetings. I’ve heard you quote a stat and so Jordan, to answer your question, one of the things that I would say to a partner like you, Jordan, is, I would just quote a stat that Allison, you told me and helped me correct me. But I would say, Jordan, at our organization, we have 25 other people. And if we can get a 10% increase across 25 people, that is real dollars in our pocket, I’ve found a tool said that has increased efficiency above 20% for each person that is integrated this, I want you to listen to this. And I would forward that and this podcast along with that message to any of my partners. And Alison, I probably just mess that stat up. But in the past, we’ve talked about results that you’ve seen. Can Can Can you add any color into that increase?

Allyson Lewis 

Yeah, you know, as a financial advisor, when I was paid a half a million dollars to take this into Morgan Stanley, because even those, you know, and these were teams, so Morgan Stanley was investing in teams of people, it wasn’t investing in 13,000 people it was selecting people that, you know, really wanted to grow. And so they paid $12,000 a day, $250 a person for the supplies. And the metrics can be measured instantly. So the national in, in revenue, which I hope your practices are wanting to grow their revenue, the revenue metrics, because it was a commissions position. The average advisor that year was up 14% the people that took on the seven minute life were up 32% year over year. So it’s not just a Oh, let’s feel better, which I think is key. But let’s make more money. You know, let’s run a successful business. And it’s easy. It’s really easy. Does that help?

RJ Martino 

Oh, that’s great.

Jordan Smith 

As your partner RJ I’m sold let’s go do it.

RJ Martino 

Now you’re talking. You’re finally talking about like my love language now Jordan.

Jordan Smith 

This podcast was just a ruse for me to agree to get Yeah.

RJ Martino 

So you know, a we have this last stage we call it the final round Alice and and really, we talked About businesses being systems of systems. And the whole goal is creating an organization that has repeatable processes that that produce reliable results. And so in this last round, we want to ask you specific questions about your business. And, you know, I don’t want to say ignore the audience, but we’re not talking about the audience’s business. We’re talking about your business. And the first question we like to ask is, if there was a magic reset button as it relates to starting your business, what systems would you go back and put into place sooner rather than later?

Allyson Lewis 

What a great question. And guess what I had to have someone come to me and advisor? And tell me the answer to that question, the very first thing I would do is understand my perfect customer. And I would focus on delivering to that customer. Because we try to be so many things to so many different people, that we end up creating ancillary, half baked, duct taped products that don’t solve the specific problem that we’re needing. So that would be the number one thing is identifying my ideal customer and focus my systems on reaching those people selling to them, I don’t know why doctors may think they don’t have to sell I mean, you know, building a business has to be sustainable for you to make a difference as a physician. So your ideal client would have been my first thing pruneing out things that weren’t in alignment with

RJ Martino 

you know, we hear lots of answers. I think that’s the first time we’ve heard this answer. But I would completely agree with you, you know, especially when we think about small business owners like myself, you start a business and you just think I’ll help anybody, anybody at all there, you know, and 10 years goes by, and you think, man, you know, the specialist, I wish I would have started becoming a specialist 10 years ago. So very, very great answer. I couldn’t agree with you more. Okay, what is one strategy or recipe that if business owners and their teams could consistently apply every day, would compound into big wins for them over time?

Allyson Lewis 

Take a sheet of paper, put the date on it and take ownership of your day. It’s a yes or no decision. Am I going to think through what is my goal for today? Am I going to give myself grace that all the things I didn’t get done yesterday, they no longer matter? We can’t go backwards today is a clean shape, clean slate, pull out one sheet of paper, put the date on it and say, here’s a stake in the ground, I am determined to move my business forward by doing these five simple things.

RJ Martino 

Five before 11 I like. I’m gonna forget I’m gonna remember that forever. Never forget that thing. Because it’s just, it’s perfect. And, you know, I feel like asking me right now, I think I could do I could do 30 things before 11? Why not just put 30 things on there instead of five? But five really important things before 11 that both feels empowering and doable too.

Jordan Smith 

Oh, yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s taking the steps that leads to compound success. And that’s what this does. And I love that if you do five of those, you know, week, by the end of the week, you get 25 things that are, you know, if you just look at the Monday through Friday, you get 25 things, big picture, things that you’ve done, to help move your practice forward and the direction you want to move it to. Allyson, this has been a pleasure. I love this. I’m energized by this conversation. I know listeners are to seven minute life calm. What are some other ways that they can get in touch with you talk about your books? If there’s some listeners out there that have questions, how can they find out more about you and your process?  You know, I’m one of these people that likes to talk to people. I’m old school analog sync, you know, one at a time, just pick up a telephone, and you can put this at the bottom of the entire reel, pick up the phone and let’s have a conversation. We’re all in this together. So call me call me. Not my team, call me at 870-897-4494. Now, I don’t do that very often. That is my personal line, direct to me. When you are ready to take that step, that coefficient of friction, you’ve been pushing and pushing and you’re ready to really make a difference. Then there’s got to be that line in the sand where you say, I’m going to continue to lose money or I’m going to continue to be unhappy. Or I’m going to invest in my team and in my company in my personal mental health. And I’m going to find all those things by doing some really simple repeatable behaviors. So the step they would need to take is to pick up the phone. And let’s be friends, let’s have a conversation. I love that. And and I’ll tell you from no one else in the small bit of time that I do. She’s completely open. And I would take that all day long. Phone number exclusive for podcast listeners, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve got a very special treat, which is Allison’s personal cell phone number 870-897-4494. Also, go check out The Seven Minute Life. Publisher of a lot of books, written books, go check those out on Amazon on our website, too. She’s got a really cool planner on there. Allyson, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Allyson Lewis 

You are very welcome. It is my pleasure to be your friend. And I’m grateful for all that you do to the people you serve. And to every listener that comes by your podcast.

Jordan Smith 

Thank you so much, Alison Lewis with The Seven Minute Life.

RJ Martino 

Thanks, Allison.

Jordan Smith 

Allison Lewis with The Seven Minute Life. RJ you know, we we do a lot of these. We talked to a lot of people on a regular basis. And there’s certain folks that you just leave the conversation energized and ready to work another eight hours a day, you know,

RJ Martino 

yeah, often you feel tired from a podcast is when you feel energized and be like, Okay, I know what I got to do tomorrow. So her five before 11 just sticks out at me. And she couldn’t be speaking to a better group of people that is every one of our listeners, you feel overworked and underpaid? You feel overworked and knowing there’s still so much more that can be done. But you don’t have another ounce or another hour to give because there’s not enough. So if you feel that way, I just feel like this is a good answer to that feeling.

Jordan Smith 

Yeah, love and she’s serious. You know, it’s a treat to get somebody like Allyson’s personal cell phone number. So if you guys missed it the first couple times 870-897-4494. If you’ve got questions, if you just want more details about any of the stuff she talked about, she’s super open even despite how busy she is. Pick up the phone and call her also more information to thesevenminutelife.com go check out our website she’s got books for sale, she’s got some some workbooks, there’s tons of information on there. She she’s she’s of the same mindset as us where she’s putting out lots of good so go go absorb everything that she’s putting out.

RJ Martino 

All that contact information. And Jordan rattle off is on our website, you can find it at our on our website, you can find links there. You can also find links to obviously this podcast, please. If you listen to this, and you thought of anybody at all just for this web link to those people. Like always like our page, share it. Give us a review on Amazon on Apple, however you listen to your podcast, please share it and if you’ve got anything that you think you’d like to hear from us, drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you. We’re trying to do as much as we can to add value in your life. If you’ve got someone you’d like us to talk to, we’d love to hear from you too.

Jordan Smith 

Absolutely. Until next time. Thanks for listening. See RJ thanks, Jordan.