What's On Your "NOT TO DO" List?

Focus on what's important as we head into 2021, not what's "shiny" or exciting.

Over the weekend, I started putting together a list of “lessons learned” for 2020, plus goals for next year.

One of the lists I started making was a “NOT TO DO” list.

By focusing on projects I’ve already started, and avoiding shiny new objects in 2021, I’m betting Meeting of the Minds (and our clients, partners, etc) will be more successful long-term. Here’s why…

The Warren Buffett 5/25 Strategy

Perhaps you’ve heard this story.

Mike Flint, Buffett’s personal pilot for more than a decade, once asked his boss for career advice.

Buffett told Flint to write his top 25 career goals on a piece of paper.

Then, Flint had to prioritize his goals further by circling the top 5 goals.

Those Top 5 became “List A” and the remaining 20 goals became “List B”.

List A would be Flint’s focus for the following years of his career, and of List B, Buffett said, “Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your Top 5.”

The NOT TO DO List

Going into 2020, I had certain goals.

Unfortunately, like you I had to make concessions, re-prioritize, and pivot.

Long-term, I wholeheartedly believe some of the more challenging times this year has provided will lead us to build stronger, more resilient, and more successful companies.

And this year, we rolled out two (2) different services for Meeting of the Minds, including this email newsletter with premium subscription options plus free content, as well as our monthly “Deep Dives”, which are two-day masterminds via Zoom.

NOTE - tomorrow is the LAST DAY to sign up for this weekend’s Deep Dive, and December 31 is the cut-off to get “early bird” pricing on our January experience. Click here to learn more or reply to this email and I’ll send you more info.

I also decided a few weeks ago to write my third book…

…and if that wasn’t enough, I’ve been working on a “stealth” real estate startup for the last few months with some MOTM Alumni that will be launching early 2021.

Therefore, on my 2021 “NOT TO DO” list, I’ve written…

• NO NEW PROJECTS.

• NO NEW SERVICES.

And then, I’ve listed a few more specifics such as:

• No speaking engagements for less than $5K unless it’s book-related (normally I earn $15K, but some of the virtual speaking engagements are marked down, plus I speak at my friends’ events occasionally)

• No new hourly 1-on-1 consulting clients (we’ll still do “VIP Days” occasionally, as we’ve raised our fees to the point where a day or two out-of-office is worth it for my Ideal Clients investing in a full day of strategy work with me)

• No active sales efforts for my online course (we’ll sell our “Super-Connector Secrets” Teachable course on networking and relationship-building to people that order copies of my new book, and perhaps add links to the course in my email signature and/or email autoresponder, but I won’t launch active campaigns to onboard new clients when I can focus instead on Meeting of the Minds).

There’s a few examples from my notes.

What about you?

What’s (NOT) On Your List?

Of course, you don’t have to implement this strategy.

Perhaps your 2021 motto will be to launch new projects.

Try new things.

Test out new ideas or assumptions for your business.

For me, however, I need to FOCUS on the projects I’ve already started.

There’s too much at stake…

…too many people relying on me…

…and too much opportunity for me to let these new service offerings, projects, and companies go without the love and attention they need.

If you care to indulge me, I’d love to hear from you.

What’s on your NOT TO DO list for 2021?

Reply and let me know! And have an awesome week :).

-Jared

P.S. - mostly for fun, if you DO wish to work with me via hourly 1-on-1 consulting, then check out motm.co/consulting and let’s get something on the calendar before Dec 31.

Before I’ll kindly say “no” to honor my list :).

I’d love to work with you, whether it’s hour-by-hour or for a “VIP Day”.

And, if you’ve been following our newsletter for a while but haven’t checked out Meeting of the Minds, then you should seriously consider applying for our “Deep Dive” on Jan 16-17 while you can still get an Early Bird ticket and save $300.

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Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

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