This week, Avram and Rachel share a principle they started implementing in both their business and their personal lives to accomplish big goals. As people who have dealt with over-commitment in the past, this hot tip is one that has been helping them see new things through from the idea phase to the finish line.

Show notes:

1:40 Are you the business owner with all the dreams that aren’t coming to fruition?

4:48 Our business-changing tip—coming in hot!

6:33 Why building systems as you create something new is so important

10:23 R+A bring this principle into their personal life to get back to the gym

14:30 Learn how even this podcast is an example of how we’ve been applying this principle

16:28 How do R+A decide what their one thing will be?

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

Below, you will find a transcript of this entire podcast episode. Enjoy!

Avram Gonzales: Welcome back to another episode of Babies and Business Podcast. This is Avram Gonzales, joined by my lovely co-host, Rachel Gonzales.

Rachel Gonzales: Hello!

Avram Gonzales: And our co co-host Zuna, our French bulldog, who is listen closely. She’s snoring in the background. That’s her.

Rachel Gonzales: Coco. Coco. She’s black

Avram Gonzales: Coco. That’s ridiculous. Oh my gosh. All right. Bad puns aside. Today’s episode is called Simplified to Multiply the Power of Adding One. This has been a topic that has come up that we share constantly with each other, has radically transformed the way that we operate in our household as well as our business.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. We’ve really taken this. It’s been a real part of our lives since October, probably September, mid-September when it first became on our radar and then has moved forward with us and has really benefited both the personal side and the business side.

Avram Gonzales: Yeah. So raise your hand if you’re a business owner that gets overly ambitious and has a lot of dreams and goals that you want to tackle right now. Okay. Put your hand down cause you’re listening to this in the car with people next to you. Like, what are you doing? What is this crazy person doing?

You know? I, I’m guilty of this big time. I mean, what’d you say about it?

Rachel Gonzales: Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Well, what I would say is that if you are this person, if you raise your hand regardless of what, who’s looking at you, if you raise your hand, you need support. That support can come through taking notes of those things that you want to do.

It could be somebody that hears them and is planning to help you execute them. It could be all sorts of different things, but don’t let those ambitious things go undone thought out, dead executed on. It just may take time.

Avram Gonzales: So the thing that happened a lot, and it’s happened a lot for me, was having all the ideas, piling extra things onto my plate, and then none of them actually getting finished.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. And then it just crushed you.

Avram Gonzales: It did. You know, my spirit as a creator is like, I just wanna move the thing forward. I wanna see it come to life. And there’s nothing more frustrating than starting something, not finishing it and seeing it through to that fulfillment of, wow, the work is done

Rachel Gonzales: Well, and you also know how brilliant it is. If it were to get done, look at what this would do, the impact

Avram Gonzales: That’s true.

Rachel Gonzales: You know, the impact, you as the visionary and we’re speaking for you specifically. Maybe some of you out here are like this too. You have the vision for both what to do, but also, the result of it. So you see it from beginning to end in a blink of an eye and you have a lot of ,pain when it never comes to fruition.

Avram Gonzales: Yeah. And how many of you have started something, gotten your team excited about it? And then never found your way to the finish. Like that wears on your team, you know? There’s a project that I can think of right now that took about a year for us to finally finish and that was the first time I think we broke that cycle.

It took a long time. We broke the cycle and the team was pretty jazzed about it. So that’s kind of what we’re offering you here today, is a way to get more done by doing less promise. You haven’t really heard anybody talk about this before? Not in this. And the solution that we’re gonna offer is gonna be something that will probably challenge you a bit in the short term, but if you execute on it, you’re gonna see a return on this new decision, this new choice that you might make today.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, and in addition to not wearing out your team, you’re also going going to get their buy-in better. I think that’s what we’ve experienced too, is that they’re just so excited because they get hyped. You tell them what’s possible, and we’re so excited to help you see that vision through.

So we get to have that energy, we get to actually embody that energy and move it forward. So you don’t have that mental toll on the visionary person that comes along with all this, but also you get to really bring in that momentum.

Avram Gonzales: Yeah. So what we’re gonna offer today, and then we’re gonna break this down with some examples.

Look at some ways that you can start executing this is to focus on and only add one thing at a time to your plate, and I would actually challenge you to do that by quarters.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, that’s been monumental for us. And Zoom is in the background.

Avram Gonzales: She’s like licking everything. So what is this gonna do? It’s gonna make you become more patient, it’s gonna also focus you on things that really matter. Yes. You’ve probably read the book The One Thing. Yeah. That’s a great concept. It’s not specifically what we’re talking about. I think the one thing is about the daily thing that you focus on that’s most important.

What we’re talking about is a little bit bigger picture and looking at strategically as a business where you’re headed. What is the one thing that you, as an entire team can focus on for this next quarter, because what you do is you’re gonna become more effective with the time that you deploy.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. And also, what is really cool about doing one thing is the hardest time you are going to have in implementing this is going to be this very first time because you have no track record yet of seeing it work, but I guarantee you, as we have seen in our business, as we have done this quarter, after quarter, after quarter, we have been astounded at what we have accomplished.

Avram Gonzales: It’s true. The thing that you’ve never done before is always gonna take the longest, the first time you do it.

Rachel Gonzales: Yes, so give yourself some grace, some ease in this first quarter if you choose to do this. If this is for you and this is speaking to you and changing the things for your business, you want to multiply things and you’re not really sure how. This could really help you. We have seen it do so many things.

Avram Gonzales: The way to move forward in business is not necessarily by running faster. You have to get leverage back and the only way that you can do that is through building systems around the stuff that you do. So if you’re always starting new things, that also means that you have to build new systems every. Correct. That takes the most time. So not only is the first time that you do it, you’re figuring a lot of things out that takes time, but you also have to build the system around it so that somebody else could eventually do this task for you. Well, what happens with systems? You run them the first few times again and you realize how much stuff is actually broken about, it needs to be fixed. So if you’re always starting the new things and having to build the systems, you never get back the time you invested, and you never find the efficiencies that would allow that one thing that you’re focusing on, to really expand and multiply.

Rachel Gonzales: Well, yes, and, and something that we have been really seeing, working really, really well is in a quarter we will actually make those goals smaller per month. And maybe the first month of that quarter is testing phase. Yeah. It’s, this is a new thing that we’re doing.

This is the thing we’re adding. We are going to do it. See what breaks, doesn’t work. Bolster that process and then do it again. And then do it again. So by the time the quarter is done, not only have we brought on one thing, we have actually brought it on, tested it, improved it, and done it again.

And it is at the level that we know we can execute at. It’s impressive.

Avram Gonzales: That’s exciting

Rachel Gonzales: and motivating. Everybody really gets behind it. We really, when we are looking at things, we overestimate what we can do in a month and we, us underestimate what we can do in a year. And really when we bring things back and we take them quarter by quarter and months, then we are able to be purposeful.

So when we’re looking at our yearly goals, instead of it being a far off goal, we can actually be taking bites off one at a time throughout the year. It’s not like this, new Year’s resolution that you set in January and by February you’ve fallen off, you know, this year goal you might have that you wanna get fit.

That’s one of the things that a lot of people talk about. And in February you’ve fallen off. But if you know, in business, if you really have those goals, then you can really magnify what you can accomplish. So keeping that in mind.

Avram Gonzales: I think we can look at that as an example from our personal life actually, in regards to fitness.

That’s one of the things that we slowly added back into our life. Like here’s the deal. When you’re running a business, building a family, there’s no time for anything else, right?

Rachel Gonzales: Right.

Avram Gonzales: I mean, you’re already kind of maxed out. So there are some times things that could sacrifice from your schedule to add that one thing, but that’s what allows you to be purposeful about it.

So one of the things that became a goal and important for us and our family was fitness again. Energy levels were pretty low. I know that for me, I didn’t have something that was just for me anymore. We’ll talk about this in a different episode, but Rachel really urged me to get back out there, go find a gym that I really loved and start crushing it.

And so what happened was we carved out, I carved. Two times a week in the mornings that I would absolutely go to the gym and get it done.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, non-negotiable. It always happened.

Avram Gonzales: And that was the only thing that changed in our household for that whole quarter. What happened next quarter and we added one more day for me, and then Rachel started going one day a week.

She had her day. So we didn’t decide. We’re gonna commit, jump in and start this thing five days a week. That’s probably where we’re headed. But we’ve also paid the price of overcommitting to things and being overly ambitious. So we started small and it’s felt really good.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. It’s felt really great. Just speaking to that, you know when you make your goals intentional, you get intentional results. So what matters to you? If you want to multiply something? Do you wanna wor multiply more stress, more ease, more time. Time with your family? Time with the people you love. Time with yourself.

Think about that because you will get more when you are more purposeful. And one of the things that we do, as we bring new things on, we have this philosophy and it is done is better than perfect. And you that can go into all facets of life, whether it is fitness, the ultimate goal is probably every day, but we’re not there.

We need to ease ourself into it and be kind to ourselves, all sorts of different things. So done is better than perfect, taking small steps, being willing to say that this is what I can do right now. And, we’re gonna be talking about this more Profit First has really benefited our business, and I

Avram Gonzales: it’s an accounting principle that helps us better manage cash flow.

Rachel Gonzales: Yes. I speak about it like everybody knows about it. That’s true. They don’t. But this podcast episode simplifying to multiply. So I think about it profit First is our, our principles that you implement. To help you become more efficient in your business with expenses and all the different ways that you use your money.

But what it is you are going to do, you’re going to make small shifts over time. It is not this big change. It is incremental changes that you may actually turn your nose up at because it’s not very big.

Avram Gonzales: Yeah, it doesn’t seem significant. No it doesn’t seem significant enough to get you where you wanna go.

You

You it now? Yep. But maybe right now isn’t the right time.

Rachel Gonzales: Correct. Well, and I, I just think about like profit first too. It’s kind of like, you know, if you’re overweight or you’re unhealthy, overweight is a really good example because we, we can understand this maybe a little bit better. If you’re overweight and you want to get those pounds off, well be kind to yourself.

How long did it take to accumulate that weight. I have baby weight that I’m still trying to get rid of. But remembering I grew my son for nine months. I am 10 months postpartum, but my body is not going to just snap right back. So we need to remember that, give ourselves time, that our bodies can do this incrementally over time.

And that’s really what I had to say about Profit First because I’ve seen it really help multiply the results that we’ve wanted. Finally.

Avram Gonzales: Should we talk about this podcast as an example? I know we’re already running up on time today.

Rachel Gonzales: Oh, yes, we could. Yeah.

Avram Gonzales: So along the lines of Done is better than Perfect, and we’re gonna wrap up here with some things that you can do to execute this in your own life and business.

This podcast started in the most simple form possible. We had a little recorder that I’ve had for seven years. We didn’t go get fancy equipment. We just started recording the podcast and the goal was to just get it up and put it online.

Rachel Gonzales: Right.

Avram Gonzales: I am a marketer and I’ve been doing this stuff for 13 years and I know what’s possible and what we can do as a team to get this thing produced and out there.

It was very hard for me to not put everything in place before we got started. In terms of systems and things that the rest of the team could follow to blow out all the social media and stuff that you see out there right now. So we started with just producing the podcast and getting it up. Then we started adding in another layer and another layer and another layer.

So you can see that evolution, and if you follow us long enough, you’ll probably see further iterations of how we’ve added on to what we’re doing here. But it’s been slowly and gradual over time.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, it’s been a fun journey. If you see improvement or multiplying what you’re doing and getting more of what you want as a journey as opposed to a destination maybe that will really help you in that mind frame.

Avram Gonzales: I think so. So you gave some great insight before we actually hopped on the microphone about this concept and adding one thing at a time. It’s really important to keep this piece forefront in your mind. What is this piece?

Rachel Gonzales: Sure. Yeah. You are the visionary in the business and you are the one that oftentimes will, that you are simply the one that says, I would really like to do this.

Let’s do this and you tell me about this idea. And then we’re talking about our goals for the next quarter or the year or the month, whatever it is that we’re talking about. And we’re really spitballing about what is that one thing that we’re gonna add or do or what is that thing. And when we do this, we have a couple of considerations.

So we wanna know, is it the most effective thing

Avram Gonzales: for our goals?

Rachel Gonzales: For our goals? Does it help us meet our goals? And then the next thing that we do is whose time does it take? If it takes Avram’s time, we limit the new things that we bring on. Keeping in mind the things that are already your responsibility, knowing the limitations in time that you have to execute anything in the business.

So that we are setting ourselves up for success.

Avram Gonzales: The business owner is the greatest roadblock to the business’s success and growth. Because that owner’s time is so limited and needed in many places as you’re growing. Yeah. It’s a long time before the owner gets rid of all the hats and gets down to one responsibility.

Yeah. We can all relate to that.

Rachel Gonzales: Well just think about your ideas as cars and a piece of paper as a parking lot. Your ideas are great and they deserve a parking space. And they can live there for as long as they need to, but go back and visit the parking lot where all of your ideas live because you have that thought for a reason, and it’s brilliant.

Don’t undervalue the thoughts and the ideas that you have. Put them in a parking place in your idea board, wherever that might be, and move forward with that as the time allows, but have that support in place to help you achieve the goals incrementally. Over time.

Avram Gonzales: Another thing that you might look at in executing this for your own self and your own business is looking at what you’re already doing that works. What you’re already doing that is systematized really well. And then considering what you could add to that, that would further enhance it and multiply your time back. Yeah. Because we talked about this earlier, it takes a lot of effort to recreate and conjure up new systems from scratch. So if you can build on previous success, it’s also gonna keep life simple.

It’s gonna keep your team excited cuz they’re just adding one thing. You’re not gonna have to be constantly fixing stuff that’s breaking because you’re building a little too fast and not with enough intention. These are all benefits.

Rachel Gonzales: And also if you’re thinking about impact, when you’re finding out what this one thing is that you need to bring on, what are the holes that you might have that you need to fill?

Are there holes that you need to fill in? Processes, systems, services? What are the things? And then going there, bolstering what you have, but also like maybe that bolster needs to be. Kind of a new related thing to what you’re doing because you just simply haven’t been addressing it and you haven’t had the bandwidth to do it.

So now that this other system is in place and it’s running really well, let’s add some support systems to it.

Avram Gonzales: These are all things that keep life simple. Allow you to multiply your effectiveness. Reduce the craziness. Here’s the thing, if you can’t get your ideas under wrap and tame those bad boys and execute on a couple of them that are really gonna help you move forward, you’re just gonna spend eternity in idea mode and it’s gonna crush your soul cause none of them are gonna come to life.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, exactly.

Avram Gonzales: That’s why we’re offering this tip to you today. We’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Please connect with us on social media at Babies and Biz Pod, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, even YouTube now.

Hey, yo. Check us out there. Love to hear from you. Comments, questions, please subscribe. We’ll catch you on the next one.

Rachel Gonzales: Bye for now.