Business is a video game. Here's how to win.

business is a video game here's how to win it I run a six-figure business and I play a lot of video games and once I started applying video game principles to my business everything became easier breezier and more beautiful because just like a game businesses have clear goals skill trees boss battles your revenue is your score you have to take really good care of your character and your obstacles are just bosses waiting to be defeated so you can finally level up I don't know if I can carry you this whole video look at her she's

the star so the first big problem that I see that most inner business owners have is they get stuck on tutorial Island tutorial Island if you've never played a video game before Oh my gosh so sad tutorial island is basically the tutorial of a game it's where you practice out your little buttons make sure that you understand how to jump and Sprint and fire your weapon now there's nothing wrong inherently with being on tutorial Island it serves a purpose but getting stuck on tutorial island is a huge problem it is essentially the state where you're

always waiting to be ready to begin to officially begin the game being stuck on tutorial island is like being stuck in a cycle of planning and overthinking and trying to perfect everything before you even start like for example redoing your branding a million times if you're always stuck in that cycle of studying you are actually never implementing and the only way to properly learn how to play the game is to implement so the reality check here is the game begins only when you press Start you're only going to make progress in your business when you

stop planning and start planning the game basically what's happening is we are disguising our fears as procrastination perfectionism overthinking wanting to be perfect and ready so for example you might have a fear of getting negative feedback or people not liking you you have a fear of failure which is completely valid fear of choosing the wrong path or making the wrong choice better do more research before I begin to make sure that my choice is 100% correct and the ironic thing is the only wrong decision you can really make is to make no decision because when

you make no decision you make no progress you're not getting any data you're not getting anything to make better decisions with down the line another one fear of imperfection perfectionism always gets me stuck it is a huge issue for me and I don't see it really as a good thing anymore the fear of appearing like you don't know everything which first of all is an unrealistic expectation nobody knows everything I don't know everything I do so much Googling so much youtubing every single day you need to just go do a little bit and then once

you get stuck at a new point at a new problem at a new skill set then you can come back and learn some more and this is one of my favorite quotes Clarity comes from action it is something I have to remember all the time it's so difficult because often I think we think that Clarity comes from planning and studying and overthinking and Clarity doesn't come from that Clarity comes once you start taking action so I can only encourage that now here is a little step- by step for how to quit all right so here's

how to actually leave tutorial Island for good number one set a time limit for tutorial Island okay so for example maximum 2 weeks for research and planning and you can even put a take my first step my first non-overwhelming non- stressful step to starting my business on your calendar and you can comment that down down below if you want number two choose just one Focus to begin ignore everything else I think a lot of times what happens in tutorial island is we learn a lot of different things and then suddenly we feel like we have

to do all of those things like we learn about a 100 different ways to Market a product and suddenly we're like we have to Market a 100 different ways that is just not true that's not realistic that's not how beginners start that's not how any big business starts every single big business starts by just picking one thing and going all in on that becoming really good at it before they diversify choose just one social platform instead of being like I now have to be on LinkedIn X Instagram uh Snapchat Reddit nobody is doing that many

platforms at the same time in a good way and most of the time if they are it's CU they have an entire content team backing them and just pick one content type don't try to do everything with the writing and the audio and the video it's a lot of work to produce content so just like give yourself the best chance of success by just focusing your efforts on one thing instead of spreading your effort over a million things and create your minimum viable task so what is the smallest possible version of what you are trying

to do right don't go for the entire elephant just go for like one elephant tooth you know what I mean so if you are thinking about launching a service like a freelancer start with a tiny package of less than $200 beta test that get feedback for that if you want to create a digital product instead of being like I have to build now a sixf figureure online course and it's going to have thousands of students just do a mini Workshop just do a one-time workshop on the topic of your choice invite people to it you

can do it for like $10 see what what the see what the feedback is see what the data is see what people are saying to you and then based on that you can then go on to like expand what you are teaching most importantly except that you will never feel 100% ready to start something new the reality is you only feel ready once you have already begun doing this thing that you don't feel ready to do and after you've done it a few times messily at some point you're like oh okay now I feel ready

am I explaining that well so do it for fun do it as an experiment don't put so much pressure on yourself treat yourself with kindness with compass passion you're trying something new you're so brave nobody that you admire nobody has ever started something being 100% ready we all start chaotic we all start with I have no idea what I'm doing and I hope nobody knows we just figure it out along the way so we've quit toor Island amazing let's go on the next thing we want to do is understand how the game of business is

played the game of business is played and one by taking action nobody begins at level 100 if it appears years like somebody starting at level 100 this isn't their first game they've probably failed at 100 other games before and they're bringing all of that experience into this game you cannot skip level one and just start at level three magically so let's talk about some specific game mechanics we came up with for the game of business number one XP system we'll talk about that taking care of your character boss battles skill trees power ups all of

this is to facilitate helping you take action okay so let's dive into the XP system so if you've never seen an XP system XP is basically experience so for example this is from stardew Valley you can see here that the XP system is the green bar and as you build that up that's your progress bar and as you build that up you gain levels in different skills so in the game of business I would say XP comes from two things number one taking action no matter how big or small that action is it gives different

XP and two achieving milestones in your business so taking action can be like sending a DM to a potential client with your portfolio that might give you 20 XP it could also be like sending a newsletter to your email list that might give you 20 XP and achieving Milestones can be like the first dollar you earned you gain 30 XP so that's kind of how I shifted my mindset with business is instead of being like I'm just doing a bunch of random small tasks and I don't really know exactly the big purpose behind it each

time I do a small task I'm just like this is just building XP like the progress bar is just filling up so the bigger the challenges the more XP you get obviously and I'll actually also give you an XP menu near the end of this video that you can pick things from if you would like the next game mechanic I want to talk about is taking care of your character and this is shout out to the Sims 4 I love playing Sims so I love this needs bar that the Sims have right because it shows

you very visually what is going on in terms of you and taking care of you and I think this is something that's forgotten in business sometimes we're just like oh business is about the business right but when you are starting a business and you're self-employed you are the foundation of that business so if you're not taking care of the foundation if you are not sleeping if you are working a million hours every single week you're not having fun you're not yeah taking care of yourself the foundation of your business is not stable it's not going

to last right and you can do all the best traffic nurture sales marketing whatever in the world but if the foundation of the business is not solid and you're burning it out then what are we even doing my dad always told me the biggest asset you have is you so if you're not taking care of your biggest asset you are playing a short-term game and the business will not exist in the long run essentially okay the next game mechanic of business is Boss Battles so boss battles are battles against the biggest obstacles in your business

and when you defeat a boss you get Hella XP that's why it's so important to know what the bosses are on your business journey and everybody has different bosses because everyone has different things that they have to defeat so these are all bosses that I have regularly had to boss battle with and they still pop up sometimes but I still I'm just like square up square up so for example the self shame boss right can only be defeated when you stop shaming yourself for every single little thing that you're doing and just treat yourself instead

with compassion so if you are constantly self shaming yourself over and over and over you're like you did this wrong why didn't you do this faster why did this take so long like oh that person's doing it better than you and like blah blah blah blah blah if you're always doing these little self shames pause maybe it's time to defeat that boss next one is the comparison boss and it can only be defeated when you stop comparing your progress to everyone else's I think the only kind of positive thing that can come from some version

of that that is to learn from other people but even then you don't need to compare what you're doing to them you can just be like oh I really admire what this person is doing with X like maybe I can think about how I can integrate some of those practices into my business but still you don't need to compare to get that learning you know what I mean impostor syndrome boss I know many of you out there struggle with this boss as I have as well can only be defeated when you accept that you will

not know everything before you begin you know what gives me a lot of relief is knowing that every single person I ever admire was once a baby a baby who did not know how to walk or talk at some point just like me we were all imposters once upon a time once upon a time I didn't know how to walk I didn't know how to talk I was just pretending that I was talking I was pretending that I was walking and then I kept doing it and then eventually I learned how to walk and talk

and now look at me I'm Master Walker I'm a master talker I'm so good at talking I talk so much next one rejection boss if you are afraid of being rejected and that is why you are not cold pitching that is why you are not reaching out to customers and talking to them or potential clients and asking for feedback and just getting out there and asking for things this boss might be somebody you need to confront this boss is only defeated when you learn that rejection just gets you closer to your goal every rejection gives

you data which helps you optimize and become better in your process of sales of marketing of your product creation it is just there to help and the other bonus when you are getting rejected it shows that you are trying it shows that you are in the arena with all the other business owners who are trying okay you are no no longer a spectator sitting up on the arena you're in the arena next one over analysis boss okay this one is really an issue for me as well this one's defeated only when you accept that there

will never be a perfect decision so what are your bosses to fight what is the issue that you think is truly blocking you from starting or getting to the next level in your business you can tell us below too I'd love to know all right the next game mechanic of business is a skill tree all right so this one's from World of Warcraft I love world workcraft and a skill tree is essentially how you want to develop out your skills so you might have to develop different types of skills depending on the type of business

you want to start like for example if you want to start freelancing your skill tree might be different than if you want to build a physical product business as an example so have a careful think about what you're trying to do and then most importantly think about what skills you need to build the business you want and I often see that people talk a lot about the technical side of business but they're not really talking a lot about developing skills and also very importantly soft skills of business soft skills are very important and I don't

like that they're called soft skills because I think it kind of like undervalues them soft skills are extremely important I hire people I would say like 80% because of their soft skills so if your current skill tree you know your skill to develop a sales than maybe trying to sell something every single day that is what will give you XP if your current goal is you need to build a proper team that may be investing in your team's happiness every time you do something like for example you pay for training or you treat them kindly

or you give them really good detailed feedback or you do check-in calls with them that gives you XP if your current skill tree is you need to be a better marketer then maybe every time you Market something every time you create I don't know an organic piece of marketing you get XP for that so what skill do you think is the most important one to where you want to go then think about what is going to give you XP in developing that skill so that you can level up on your skill tree the next game

mechanic is powerups that's like when Mario eats the mushroom and then Mario becomes twice as big power up we love good PowerUp so here are some fun ones a mentor a good Mentor those are like rare NPCs NPCs are non-playable characters so like not real people rare NPCs who give you shortcuts to your levels they're like oh by the way did you try going that way instead like I know everyone's going that way but go that way so I have hired a lot of different types of mentors in my business and they have all just

strengthened my business because I know that expert is looking at things and giving me feedback on how to improve basically so whenever I see someone cool in business I'm like oo I love how they're doing like this specific thing I bet they have a lot to teach me I find them really cool I love not just their business but their business lifestyle I just like go into their DMS and I'm like hey like do you offer let's say like paid audits or do offer like paid coaching like paid one-on-one access to paid strategy sessions so

if you're at a stage in business where you can seek out mentors I recommend doing it but of course if you're not at that stage yet that's totally fine there are also other power UPS like reading books watching YouTube videos buying courses buying workshops now the important thing here caveat is these only work if you apply them these only work if you apply them there are two types of people watching this YouTube video right now there are people who are watching it and they're like ah interesting and then they click onto another video I mean

it's fine we're hanging out I enjoy that but there are other people who are like writing down a few notes of like oh these are some things these are some action points I can do after this video and then doing them those are the people that I think are getting the power up from watching and consuming content another huge power up is community people who are cheering you on who are doing the same things you're doing or slightly different things that you're doing it's essentially like playing a game in co-op mode like playing a game

as a party where everyone has complimentary skills and experience and they're all helping each other be better your team in business can also be your adventuring party like for example for me I have such a diverse amount of skill set on my team people who are amazing at design people who are amazing at tech people who are amazing at solving problems people who are amazing at video editing people who are amazing at helping me with research for YouTube videos all of that comes together magic so you can see it like that as well and of

course tools some tools that I consider gear upgrades are like notion Claude canva those are things that make my life much easier and make collaboration with my adventuring party easier so you've quit the tutorial you understand the game and now it is time to begin leveling up so exciting so business just like video games have different levels now of course this is a simplified version because yeah um so as a business owner you might be a beginner if you are working on your first minimum viable product you're working to earn your first dollar you might

be entering intermediate once you have some stable Revenue you have repeat customers happy repeat customers you have a few systems in place and then once you get to advance that's when you have like really robust scalable systems you have a great team you have income diversification maybe multiple product multiple channels of marketing and sales as a freelancer you might be in the beginner levels when you are working towards your first client when you have some basic skills you might be getting more intermediate once you have multiple clients your skills are a little bit more specialized

and you're earning a bit more money and you might be entering the advanced levels of freelancing once you are booked out you are highly sought after highly demanded maybe you are developing out a team maybe you've started hiring and you are making great money so the easiest way to level up I would say is to create a quest log for yourself a quest log is essentially in a game where it tells you all of your quests and what you need to do like what's the next step in that Quest so for example in World of

Warcraft I might have a quest like you need to defeat this ultimate boss of blah blah blah right but the next step might be go gather 20 sheep for this sheep farmer so that he gives you a bit of Intel that will help you with that person and then later down the line all of this ends ends up with defeating the end boss okay so that's what a quest log is it helps you define what is the very next step on your big project and I think that is so valuable because I think we get

lost in the sauce when we're so focused on the big project when we're so focused on the big vision of like I want to build a multi-million dollar business it's like okay okay but what is the very next step that's what's important a quest Lo could be like my big Quest is to land my first client okay but your very first step might be make one work sample for your portfolio and that's all you need to focus on for now then maybe the next thing that pops up is okay update your portfolio and finalize your

portfolio Okay that's your next step that's the only thing you need to be working on you don't need to be working on 15 other steps the next one might be write one cold pitch then send a cold pitch then send another cold pitch send another but the point is that you don't have to focus on a million things at once If Video Games showed me the 100 steps I had to do for every single Quest I have in my quest log I would be so overwhelmed I would never do anything it all comes back to

that so here's how to create your quest lock choose your main quest so that's the big thing what do you want to in your business this year what's the big thing the big picture objective Vision you want to achieve and it can be this month or this quarter or this year whatever feels right to you the next thing to do is to break that Quest down into the first let's say 5 to 10 tiny tasks that will have to happen to get you to that thing now I'm not saying you have to Now map out

the entire project to your multi-million dollar business I'm just saying the first five to 10 let's let's aim for that okay now my little tip here if you are often overwhelmed with how much there is to do is to limit your task to 15-minute tasks what what are those tasks that would literally take you 15 minutes sit down you do it it's done now again do not overthink this please you can always add more tasks later when you have a clear sense of what you're trying to do you will not know steps one to 1,000

when you're just at Step Zero that's not realistic I don't even know what step 1,000 is for whatever I'm trying to do right so just map out the next I would say 5 to 10 small tasks write them down and then if you want you can cover up everything that's not the first thing and if you want the third step add some XP to each task what are you going to get when you do the task because we love a good treat right in terms of XP I score XP as how impactful that task is

to getting you to your goals and how much effort it is the more effort it is the more impactful it is to getting me to my goal so for example cold pitching a client when your goal is to land clients as a freelancer that is highly impactful to that goal right like there's a direct correlation between how much you pitch and how many clients you land so that I would assign a lot of XP and then depending on how much effort it is so here's a little XP menu you can make yourself an XP menu

if you want as well or you can copy some of this and as much as possible you want to track your progress as well so you can visually see oh like I'm getting really close to where I want to go you can see how much progress and how close you are to leveling up you can essentially design a mini game for yourself or you can go on over to this video where I made an entire game in notion where you can create tasks and when you take them off you get XP and that XP builds

up in your rewards bank and you can use it to claim rewards and treats to reward yourself for taking action essentially so yeah see you on over at that video if you would like but as always thank you so much for watching and I really hope to catch you in the next one okay bye my biggest win of all is there was a cat in my lap the entire video entire video I'll show you guys winning