Business Owner Breakthrough Podcast

The importance of working in your Unique Ability with Michael Reddy

June 29, 2021 Pete Mohr Season 1 Episode 7
Business Owner Breakthrough Podcast
The importance of working in your Unique Ability with Michael Reddy
Show Notes Transcript

Michael Reddy joins me to discuss the concept of unique ability or as some call it, working in your area of genius. We chat about how this concept really allows you to exponentially increase your productivity, happiness and teamwork while advancing your business and life as a leader.

Here’s a glance at what you’ll learn from our discussion in this episode:

  • What is unique ability and why do you want to live there? 
  • What are you competent and incompetent at? 
  • How much time are you spending working in your zone of genius. 
  • To do more of what you love, you need to give up some of the other stuff! 

The best way to reach out to Michael is by email at michael@redvestcorp.com

If you’re ready to transform your entrepreneurial frustrations into freedoms by cutting through the chaos and using frameworks that help you run an even better business and enjoy an even better life, simply go to:   www.Mohr.Coach

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Pete Mohr  00:00

We all become business owners and leaders to live a better life and be able to sort of craft their own destiny with that, right, right. But if all you're doing is working and mired down into the frustration of working in areas that you don't love, then this is what unique ability is all about. Right? Yeah.

 

Michael Reddy  00:17

When you think about unique ability, and what you're good at in your personal life, one of the ways that I've applied it is to, what are the things I'm going to volunteer for? Because often you're asked to join the Chamber of Commerce, you're asked to join this group at a church, you're asked to join this thing or that thing? Yeah. And I would say yes to these things, because you should. And then I wonder, why am I sitting in these meetings that I'm not enjoying doing stuff that I don't want to do?

 

Pete Mohr  00:47

Hey, it's Pete, welcome to the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast, the series designed to help you change your entrepreneurial worries and wants into wins by providing the tips and tools that will help you cut through the chaos and create clarity, for your business and your entrepreneurial life. Always remember, you lead your business, it shouldn't lead you. And this week, I'm talking to one of my coaches, Michael ready from my time when I was in Strategic Coach, and we're gonna talk about a Strategic Coach concept called unique ability. Some people call it working in your genius, or all the ideas around, you really should be doing what you love to do and what you're good at and leaving the rest for somebody else to tackle that idea, Michael and I talked about in an earlier podcast about delegation, you know, delegate the stuff that either you don't like doing, or that you aren't good at doing. It allows you to really excel at what you truly are good at, and what you truly want to do. And we're going to discuss and flow through an idea and concept of how to make that happen for you, so that you can put it into action right after this podcast. So we're gonna dig right into it with my conversation with Michael ready on unique ability. Hey, Michael, it's wonderful to have you on the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast today. It is great to be here. Thank you very much, Peter. Great, and I appreciate you coming back to join us. And one of our earlier conversations, we were chatting all about delegation, and all that sort of stuff. And I thought it would be just a wonderful idea to roll into this whole concept of unique ability, and how being in your unique ability just makes everything go better for you. And for all those around you.

 

Michael Reddy  02:30

I'd love to talk about it. It's one of my favorite topics. Awesome. When you get to operate in your unique ability, and you build a team around you, where they're all operating in, there's the ability to exponentially grow your business and be successful and enjoy more is one of the keys, I think to be really successful and happy with what you do.

 

Pete Mohr  02:50

I couldn't agree more entrepreneurs get bogged down in doing so many of the things that they don't want to do, and don't spend enough time working in their unique ability that they feel trapped into doing these different things. And they're not allowing themselves to excel at what they actually do best.

 

Michael Reddy  03:06

Yeah, I found in in working with lots of entrepreneurs in my advisory work that they start their businesses, and they're spending 80% of the time doing what they're really good at that makes her business successful at the beginning and it grows, and it does really well. Yeah. And then as it's growing, they're spending less and less time doing that stuff they're good at because the business is doing more and more. So they're writing checks, and they're doing more accounting, they're doing more people stop are hiring. And it switches around, where they're spending 80% of their time doing stuff that originally they weren't that great at they're still not great at it only 20% of the time that made them successful in the first place. And it gets out of balance, and you got to rebalance. And that's what unique abilities about where do you start to rebalance? Michael, like where does that all start? Yeah, well, there's a really easy way to get a handle on this because people go What is my unique ability? First off, it doesn't mean that you're the only person on the planet that doesn't. Yeah, but as unique to you is what you're really good at. So I just say get four pieces of paper and keep them on your desk or four different Trello columns, right? Yeah, we're one of them is unique ability. So that means it's you're really, really good at it, and you love to do it. The other piece of paper or column is what are all those things you do that you're really excellent at, but they don't really excite you, you're just really, really good at. Yeah, the other stuff you do that you're competent. You know, other people can do it as good as or better than you and you don't enjoy it that much. And then there's the stuff you do that you're absolutely incompetent at, but you keep doing it for some reason, because you think you should or there's nobody to give it to. So you hate it and you're bad at it. And just spend time putting all the activities you do into one of those four pieces of paper or one of those four columns. And after a couple of weeks, just look at what rises to the surface is your unique ability, what you're great at or what you're excellent at. That's what you want to spend more time doing.

 

Pete Mohr  04:59

When you start process, what do people find? What are some of the common things when you've worked with people that they kind of have? What are their aha moments?

 

Michael Reddy  05:08

The aha moment is actually reverse of the unique ability, I asked them to honestly think about how much time they spend doing stuff. They're only competent or incompetent at those two columns, are those two pieces of paper. And normally, I will your people either spend between 30 and 70% of their time doing that kind of stuff. And the longer it is, okay, so let's say it's 30% of your time being really nice to you. Yeah. So 30% of your time is three and a half months out of every year. So out of every year, you're spending three and a half months doing stuff that you're just barely competent at, or worse. And you're wondering why you're not happy, or why your businesses are working well, where you're really overpaid, did a whole bunch of stuff for three and a half months, you're not good. Yeah, so I like that if you can improve that by 10%, every year, make that whether it starts at 30, or 50, or whatever, but knock it down by 10%, and move it up call above the line into excellent and unique ability, you can start to have great, great results. It's a very freeing feeling, isn't it Michael call to be able to say this is what I'm really good at, I'm going to do more and more of it. Because that's how I make a real difference. That's how I add value. And this stuff I'm giving to other people where it's their unique ability that I'm giving it to I'm not dumping junk on them, they love to do that kind of stuff that I'm not good at. So not only is it freeing for you, as an individual, where you're doing stuff you're really good at, you're getting affirmation that you're good at it, your results are improving, you're enjoying your day more, yeah, but you're building a team around you is to better and better what they do.

 

Pete Mohr  06:41

And I love that idea of elevating the team around you around unique ability and stuff like that, too. It's just, it really makes the whole organization more culturally healthy. Because everybody's working in the areas that they want to work in and that they feel good about and that you feel good about them doing and all that sort of stuff.

 

Michael Reddy  07:01

It is He think about if you can go into work and do this stuff really good at the you love to do and ignore everything else. And do that for a whole week, how much you will get done. Well now figure out that all those other things are getting done by other people. And they're doing those things because they love to do them. Just think what a high performance organization that is. This is the key to one of the keys to getting into a really high performance organization, or I call one that's set up for exponential growth.

 

Pete Mohr  07:28

Yeah, I like that, too. And I mean, when we look at this sort of stuff, and kind of going back to our earlier episode on delegation, there's this whole entrepreneurial thought that you really just have to kind of be involved in everything and do everything and know everything in around your business. And a lot of people fall into this micromanaging type thing for smaller entrepreneurs, and in particular that are running maybe smaller teams. But that shift to start to own your own unique ability and let your team own their unique ability really is a big one. And I think, like you said that you're breaking ceilings, right with that exponential growth. Right?

 

Michael Reddy  08:07

Exactly. When you get that high performance team doing stuff they're really good at the results are astounding. And the key is to we're getting back on the delegation part. Yeah. When you see all this stuff that you're just incompetent, incompetent at, that's what you want to delegate First, get rid of that stuff, because you're not good at it, and it drags you down.

 

Pete Mohr  08:26

Yep. once people start doing this and start making these changes, how long does this typically take for an entrepreneur to understand this and put it in place?

 

Michael Reddy  08:38

Let's call it it's an ongoing process. So there's no answer to when it's done? I think it can use and continues, I'm still working on it. No, because new stuff comes in that I'll start to do and I go, why am I doing this? Now, you know, I could have someone else do this. The thing is to that as you get better and better at your unique ability, what you do, you will fine tune it more and more and more to get to that really knife edge sweet spot. It makes all the difference, you know, but as soon as you start on this path is instantly satisfying and rewarding. Because if you think about it, if you look at, let's say two things that you're competent or incompetent at that you don't want to do anymore. And you got rid of those two things. And the next week, you're suddenly going well, this has been a great week. I'm not doing that anymore. So instantly, you get satisfaction and being on this road. It's the travel. It's not the end goal. I like that question to ask yourself. Why am I doing that? Yeah. Why me? I know some entrepreneurs that when they say it out loud, they realize how crazy it is only one guy that really successful built up, work hard and pulling it over a million bucks a year, right? Yeah, phenomenal. He was still doing his own filing. Wow. Cuz he had it. He could walk out to the file cabinet and grab the papers he needed and he could go Put them back. Yeah. And that he shouldn't ask his assistant to do that. That was something that he thought he should do, because it was demeaning. Well, the crazy thing is when he figured it out, he was spending about four weeks out of his year filing. And at a million bucks, you figure out what it costs versus what a filing clerk costs. Yeah. Oh, and you just shake your head. And when you spoke to his executive assistant about it, she was really pissed off, he kept doing because he misfiled everything when he put it in. And she had to try and go find stuff he couldn't find. So he didn't even do it well, but he had this idea. Same kind of thing. Someone says, Well, I've got to sign every check, because it's my company. And this guy has his business grew. He had to sign every paycheck. And he wanted to go hand it to people, because when you started, he would sign the paycheck. And he would hand it to his two or three employees, when now he's got over 80. We don't want to walk around 80 people hand them a paycheck. They're going Why are you doing this? Frank? No. Makes no sense. So it's fun to get out why some of those things people still do.

 

Pete Mohr  11:04

Yeah, I think we go back to our sort of early years and have to cut it's almost like going back to your childhood with some of this stuff, right? As we go back to our childhood of being an entrepreneur and starting up, and it's like, why did we put this process in place anyway? Right. Yeah. Whether it's something that the entrepreneurs doing or anyone else, it's just that idea of setting up processes in the right way and aligning them and putting the right butts in the right seats, I guess, is all of that sort of stuff. Right?

 

Michael Reddy  11:31

Well, is Yeah, exactly. And it's really powerful to look at all the things you do, or go back to those four pieces of paper, whatever. Yeah, I look at each one of those things. Go Why am I doing this? Because someone else do a better Can I outsource it, whatever. But why am I doing this? Yeah, I like that. And it's amazing the things you go, I have no idea. I just know that I am and I don't want to

 

Pete Mohr  11:54

Yeah, and I think the biggest thing is really, once you've come to that realization, then it's a matter of actually doing something about it right? is to actually Okay, I've got the four sheets of paper and I've got these now what I'm actually going to activate like, what am I going to do here today to make this thing happen. And it's also realize that other people with something you may look as menial they love to do.

 

Michael Reddy  12:19

Yeah, my executive assistant loves filing systems, loves them, loves to file loves to build systems around it. Really organized person loves it. I hate it. Yeah, so do I, I completely screwed up, I get near the filing cabinet. She says Put your hands in the air and back away from the filing cabinet. Don't touch it. And she gets me everything I need and takes back everything when I'm done with it. And the system works perfectly. But I'm giving her something that she loves to do versus me I view it as meaning

 

Pete Mohr  12:50

Yeah. The other day, I was flipping through Dan Sullivan's book of quotes, and I knew this interview was coming up. And I'm like, oh, there's a good one. And it said, you can have everything you want in life, so long as you give up what you hate.

 

Michael Reddy  13:02

That's so true. We only have a finite amount of time. So to be able to do more of what you love, you got to give up stuff. So give up the stuff you don't love. And you got more and more stuff you do love in your life. And it's it's simple but profound at the same time, because we hold on to a bunch of stuff that we shouldn't

 

Pete Mohr  13:22

as entrepreneurs, often our businesses and our lives sort of blend together, right, Michael? Yeah. And you can look at this whole unique ability thing and look at all the idea of delegations and some of the talks that we've been having about this whole idea that we all become business owners and leaders to live a better life and be able to sort of craft your own destiny with that. Right, right. But if all you're doing is working and mired down into the frustration of working in areas that you don't love, then this is what unique ability is all about. Right? Yeah.

 

Michael Reddy  13:54

When you think about unique ability and what you're good at in your personal life, one of the ways that I've applied it is to what are the things I'm going to volunteer for? Because often you're asked to join the Chamber of Commerce, you're asked to join this group at a church, you're asked to join this thing or that thing? Yeah. And I would say yes to these things, because you should. And then I wonder why am I sitting in these meetings that I'm not enjoying doing stuff that I don't want to do? And so now I use unique ability as my guide to say yes or no to these sex. Love that. So when they say, Would you please join our board? Or please do this? Or go, what do you want me to do? And they'll outline I go, Well, that's not what I'm really good at. So I don't think you want me for that. But this is what I'm good at. So if you want this, you know what, I'm happy to jump on board and do that. And if you don't want this, I'm happy to continue to be a member of the organization, but I'm not going to accept that role. And it was very freeing for me personally, to be able to have permission to say no to things because now I know why I'm saying no, and why I'm saying yes, when Before I just felt I had to say yes.

 

Pete Mohr  15:01

I love that. I mean, somebody who volunteers on a lot of those things. I have been saying no lately, and I think I need to actually take that out and look at my unique ability sort of exercises and roll through that. And do that. I think that's, that's a great takeaway here to end the podcast today. Perfect. Awesome. Thanks so much. You're welcome. Well, Michael, tell everybody listening here how they can get ahold of you if they want to reach out to you.

 

Michael Reddy  15:29

Sure. It's really simple. My email was Michael@Redvestcorp.com.

 

Pete Mohr  15:39

Awesome. Thanks so much, and appreciate the time here today. My pleasure, Peter. Thanks for spending some time with me here on the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast. Think about how you can apply today's simplifying entrepreneurship topic of unique ability to advance your business and have an even better entrepreneurial life. I also have another sheet that you're welcome to if you want to just email me at Pete at more coach, I will get it to you. It's called the frustration eliminator. And with that it kind of goes hand in hand with today's topic of unique ability where understanding what's frustrating you and being able to delegate it off so it just tags right in. So I thought I'd offer that out to anybody listening here today. If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends invite them to listen for more information on my other entrepreneurial programs, visit www.MOHR.Coach  and until next time, make it a great day. And ironic Media Production visit us at www.ironickmedia.com.