001 – 5 Rules EVERY High Performer Must Follow
Have you ever wondered what sets apart the most successful people in the world from the rest of the crowd? And do you want to know what you can do to become a high performer?
Before we get into today’s 5 Rules of a High Performer, I wanted to give you ONE of the most important lessons you’ll ever learn. It changed my life last year.
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Let me start with a bit of a backstory…
You see, if you want to be successful, it’s not about grinding. Nor is it about always hustling. In fact, grinding is a very bad idea. Heck, the definition of grinding is to crush something into a powder. You’ve heard the phrase “grind yourself into a pulp.” Why are people so eager to grind themselves down. I don’t know. It’s cool, but this is not what super successful people do. So no matter how much you want to CRUSH it, you don’t want to crush yourself with the daily grind.
So stop grinding. Stop hustling. Instead, start thinking strategically. You need to get a coach and create a strategy. You need to build systems. And then you must add structure. With systems in place to implement your strategy and a structured daily routine, you’ll be able to scale your business and personal life so that you can achieve exactly what you want.
That’s the secret of the super successful.
And knowing what you want… what you truly want… is more than half the battle. Because if you’re out there chasing someone else’s dreams, you’re going to be very, very disappointed with how your life turns out. That’s why you need to get a mentor to help you create the vision for your life. And we’re going to talk about that on future shows, where I’ll be interviewing several of my mentors like Mark Ford, Matt Smith, Bedros Keuilian, Carrie Wilkerson, Simon Black, Joel Marion, and maybe even my dream guest, Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook. Now the big, BIG lesson I learned last year that helped me play up a level in life was this…
Once you get a coach, and once your mentor gives you advice, the key to success is making sure they hold you accountable.
And I mean no excuses, let’s have the difficult conversations, you’re not meeting my expectations, type of accountability. Because without this, even the best advice is practically worthless. It’s one thing to be told how to succeed, but what a great coach does is they set a higher bar for you, because they can see your true potential, and then they hold you to no-excuses accountability. If they see you miss the bar, they ask why, they help you develop a plan to play up a level, and they watch you like a hawk to see what you do next… and if you fail to meet their expectations, they call you out on it again.
You see, no matter how difficult the accountability is on you as a client, being a great coach should be harder on the coach than the client. Just like when you’re parenting a young child, you have to do what’s right for the client, and not what will get you liked.
- You have to make hard decisions.
- You have to have difficult conversations.
- You have to set the bar high and demand that the high standards are met.
If they are not, then you have to sit down, have difficult conversations to identify the real reasons why these standards were not met, and then you have to create a step-by-step blueprint to help the client succeed and overcome the big obstacles (internal and external) in their lives. And then you have to support your client as they go back and try again.
That’s what I’ve done for my clients like Joe Polish, Shanda Sumpter, Isabel De Los Rios, and so many others. That’s what a great coach does. And that’s the same level of coaching what we must get for ourselves. No excuses accountability is the key. Now THAT, my friends, is a secret to success. And we’ll be talking about that a LOT more on future episodes with my coaches, clients, and YOU.
One of the things we all need is more structure.
Let’s dive into the operating system of a high performer… and then build out yours.
You’re about to discover the 5 rules of a High Performer, and why you must create Personal Commandments for your life… it’s like building an iPhone operating system for your habits and routines… and when you do, you’ll become a high-performance machine
The best way to do this is to show you a real-world example for each rule… so I want to introduce you to my friend, coaching client, and coach, Bedros Keuilian. Yes, he’s a client and my coach… and one of my best friends. I hired him for sales and marketing training last year, and he’s hired me to coach him, his wife, and his employees on building Discipline and Structure into their days so they could become High Performers. Because of this structure, he’s now able to run the fastest growing fitness franchise in the world, Fit Body Boot Camp while coaching over 300 7-figure business owners and hosting a 1000 person event, Fitness Business Summit, every year, and yet he’s still the #1 dad who makes it home on time for dinner with the family & so that he can take his kids to soccer practice at night.
How the heck does he do it? Is it simply because of his good looks and charm? No. It’s because he hangs around me. I’m serious. We’ve been running Masterminds and having dinners for over 7 years now, and we’ve spent over 100 hours in steakhouses where he’s watched and asked about all of my disciplined routines for success. That’s right, I even have success routines for going to steakhouses and enjoying a great dinner without compromising my health, energy, or performance the next day. If we get enough interest in that topic, I’ll talk about it on a future show. Just drop me a line on Facebook or Instagram.
Alright, so because of my coaching Bedros was able to adapt my 5 rules of a high performer that allowed him to become such an incredible Disciplined Entrepreneur that he’s been able to dominate his days and own his life. He already had the strategy, the systems, and the scale before he met me… but he was still stressed and anxious until we added the STRUCTURE that he learned from me.
Now before I share with you this structure for your success, let me ask you something…
Have you ever worked with a client that just wasn’t getting results? And when you ask them, Hey Mr. or Mrs. Jones, are you doing this, this, and this, just like we agreed? Or have you had a conversation with your team members where you explain to them the rules they have to follow and then… After the conversation, you had that “A-ha” moment where you realized, “Uh-oh, all day long I tell people what rules to follow… I tell my clients what to do… I tell my team members what to do… but I don’t have any structure in place for my own life?!?” We’ve all had that moment. That awakening. Where we realize the reason we’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off all the time, is because we’re operating on a totally reactive level in life. And it’s why so many people sit there and think, “How the heck does Bedros do it?” Here I am struggling to run one business, and this guy has over 500 franchises, 300 coaching clients, a staff of 30, and yet he still gets home at 4 pm every day.
How is this possible?
It’s all about just ONE simple shift in how you live your life. Let’s go back to the iPhone you’re holding in your hand, what allows it to do all of those great things that it does? Luck? Magic? No, it’s the powerful Operating System built into it.
And Bedros – like all high performers – has an operating system designed to maximize entrepreneurial discipline. If you don’t have this, you’re going to struggle. To create a Disciplined Entrepreneur’s Operating System, you need rules for your life. “But Craig, I don’t know what rules to create,” you’re thinking. That’s okay.
Here are the 5 Rules you need:
1) Go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning
“I can’t stress enough how important it is to wake up and go to bed at the same time on weekdays and weekends.” – Bedros Keuilian
2) 15 minutes of focus
I’ve spent the last decade researching the morning routines of the most prolific and successful people on the planet, and here’s what I’ve discovered: Cleanse, Center, Kickstart.
Bedros gets up at 5 am, has a giant glass of water, takes cookie outside to play and then feeds her, and then does his 5-minute gratitude exercise.
- Cleanse – Water
- Center – Cookie
- Kick-start – Gratitude … right mindset
Here’s what I do
- Cleanse – Organify, Vitamin C, glutamine
- Center – Dog on chest
- Kick-Start – Open my iTunes I listen to the same Arthur Rubenstein recording of Frederic Chopin’s Noctures, and my brain says time to write 1000 words.
So here’s what I want you to do…
- Cleanse
- Center
- Kickstart – 15 minutes
3) Foundational Health
What time are we going to the gym?
4) Wealth Building
I work on the things that are in my zone of genius first; things that make money like sales copy, ads, offers, email broadcasts, and impromptu social media posts or videos. I finish off my three hours of GSD time by replying to emails and clearing out my inbox. Then I’m off to the gym from 10:00 am to 11:00 am where I train hard, listen to music, and keep the phone on silent so I don’t have my workout time invaded by texts, calls, emails, or notifications – this is a sacred time.
5) Not to Do
- The worst thing you can do to yourself is hit the snooze button in the morning. I explain it this way: If you hit the snooze button first thing in the morning, you are sending a message to your own subconscious that says “My goals and dreams aren’t that important. They can wait.”
- Do NOT ignore coaching!!! Biggest mistake in my career.
Remember what we talked about at the start of this session…
You’re coaching your clients every day. The ones who get the best results do what you say. They follow the coach’s rules. And yet here you are operating without rules or a coach and wondering why you can’t get ahead in life. I’m telling you, the solution is simple. Everything is a learnable skill. When you have a coach. With a coach, success is so simple that even an awkward, boring guy like me can become a high-energy speaker…. And with a coach, success is so simple that you can transform your habits, get amazing results in every area of life, build your wealth, improve your health, and still have quality time with your family so you can go on those amazing vacations, buy that beautiful home, and live the life of your dreams. This system of getting coaching and accountability, so that you can build structure, strategy, systems, and scale, has worked for me, and it’ll work for you too. I guarantee it.
And here at ETR Radio, we want our show to be your coach. You’ll not only hear from me but people who I consider to be the wisest, most successful, all-around people in the world, with both great personal and professional lives. And so in the future, you’ll get my interviews with my mentor Mark Ford, my business partners, Matt Smith and Bedros Keuilian, super moms who have it all, like Carrie Wilkerson, Sheryl Sandberg, Shanda Sumpter, and Isabel De Los Rios, and many, many more.
Hi, this is Craig Ballantyne, host of Early To Rise Radio. Have you ever wanted to become wealthier, healthier, wiser, or just have more time to appreciate the finer things in life? On this show, we reveal what high performers are doing every day to be more successful WITHOUT sacrificing their personal lives. Early To Rise Radio is sponsored by The Perfect Day Formula. Get your free copy of this game-changing success guide at FreePerfectDayBook.com.
Craig Ballantyne
If you want to double your income, work less, and become the ambitious millionaire you've always wanted to be... Craig Ballantyne is the coach who will help you do it. With more than 20-years of experience as an entrepreneur and five 7-figure businesses under his belt, he specializes in helping "struckling" entrepreneurs get out of the mud and build the business of their dreams. To see if you qualify for Craig's "Millionaire Coaching Program" send an email to support@earlytorise.com with the subject line "Millionaire".