Pick Your Hard
After recording an episode with Trip Wheeler he told me that he has been trying to live by the credo “Pick Your Hard”. When I asked him to explain, he told me that life is hard, business is hard, relationships are hard, and we have to make choices, every day to pick the hard that we want to go forward with.
Listen to this new, 6-minute episode to get a better understanding of what this means, and how it can help you in business and life.
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– Pick your hard. Want to find out what I’m talking about? Listen to this episode. Hi, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions Podcast. I just finished recording an episode with Trip Wheeler. If you didn’t hear that one about inflation, you might want to listen to that one. It came out a few weeks ago, and Trip said I have a suggestion for you for a topic. And I said, sure. What is it? He goes, pick your hard. And I said, what do you mean? He said, well, you know, being overweight is hard but also not eating that other donut is hard, right?
So pick your hard, right? Quitting smoking is hard and getting lung cancer is hard. So you pick one, which is harder. And then the same thing with our businesses. You know, pick your hard. It’s hard to invest in some new equipment or it’s hard to invest in training, or it’s hard to invest in education because you see the money going. You look at the money but then the other hard is you have to do the work. So somebody bringing me in for sales training had asked me how do I know what kind of results we’re going to get? And I said, well, you don’t, because they’re not up to me. I’m going to give you tools, I’m going to give you tips, I’m going to give you techniques and things that you may not have or remind you of some things that you should be doing but you have to do the work.
So the easiest thing for anybody to do, any of us about anything is to do absolutely nothing. Just keep doing what you’re doing. That is the easiest thing to do. So the hard is doing something different. The heart is saying, you know what? I’m going to go to that conference. I don’t know if it’s going to benefit me but I’m going to go to that conference anyway. I’m going to spend that money and that’s what I do. You’ve heard me speak about this if you’ve heard the podcast before. 2022, I went to three different speaker conferences. One in Nashville, one in Dublin, Ireland and another one in Dallas. And I had no agenda going. I didn’t know what I was going to get out of it. And besides getting new friends, people that I’ve met, people that I knew either casually and then got to know better or didn’t know at all and now do, I also got some things that I’m using, some ideas and a network of people I can reach out to and bounce some things off of.
So that was a win. But it’s hard. It’s hard. I spent thousands of dollars on airfare and hotel and the conference expenses. But I’ve already signed up for 2023 for the two major conferences that I’m going to in the US and I’m already signed up for one in the UK. So again, three of them there. And I just spent, what is it $2,000 on the admission for these two conferences. I know people complain about some of the conferences in the states that we have in the industry and it’s $250 for a ticket or something. I just spent $1,095 for one and $895 for the other one. That doesn’t include my air, my hotel or any of that other stuff. I’m investing in myself and that’s hard. I have to pick my hard. That means also those days, I can’t be doing work. I’m not earning money the same days I’m there. And that’s hard as well. But I chose my hard. So what’s the hard that you’re avoiding and you’re taking the easy? Which gives you a different kind of a hard? So we could go back to health. Exercising, it’s hard. It’s hard to make the time. It’s hard if you haven’t been doing it in a while or ever, it’s hard to do it. You’re going to get aches and pains and things. But we know the benefit is there. And the hard is I have to do the work but the easy thing is I’m going to sit on the couch some more.
I do this recording right now, I’m standing. That was one of the benefits I had during Covid is I got a standing desk so I could push a button, I could raise it up, I can lower it down and now I can stand and do this so I’m not sitting all the time. So that’s better for my health. The hard? I spent the money, I had to invest in the desk. All these things here, I had to spend the time to do that. But it’s easier now. And I think that’s the thing with what Trip was saying, is choose your hard because the hard is also becoming easier the more that you do it. So what are some of the things you’ve been putting off and you’ve been taking the one hard or accepting the one hard because it’s actually easy? Easy to do nothing different than you’re doing now versus something else. Is it raising your prices? Is it changing the offerings you have? One of the things in my discussion with Trip was about cutting back on the offerings that you have, making it simpler. It’s something I’ve been trying to get so many of you to do. If you’re a caterer, cutback on your menus. If you are a DJ do you have to have all of those other things that you sell? Or is it right sizing your business? Because if you’re a photographer or videographer do you really need to do five weddings in a weekend or on a day, or would it be better, could you profit more by doing three? Being able to charge more, less staff, less cost, less things, and that’s a better size for you.
So those are hard things, but you have to choose that hard. So, Trip, thank you so much for this idea and I want you guys to think about what is your hard and please share them with me. You know, email me [email protected] Post the comment on the podcast or message me through a social, whatever. But what is your hard? What have you been taking the easy hard? The do nothing different in you accepting this one versus could you do that hard? And you know what happens is once you get on the other side of that hard, it was actually easy. So again, Trip, thanks for the suggestion and thanks for listening.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
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