A Mindset Shift for Success: Seizing Opportunities with Simon Severino | OM017

Jim Padilla: 00:00:00

Hey friends, so good to see you back here. On another episode of the opportunity makers podcast, we are just blasting off, we had an awesome, amazing launch, and more episodes coming. And I'm just super excited on the interviews and the conversations I'm having with people who are doing great things in the world. And everybody that we're bringing to you has gotten a different perspective, but so many things similar, and I just want to always inspire you with encouragement, with hope, with the reality that business is happening every day. Like you realize that literally at least just in America alone, trillions of dollars are transacted, we're going to an economy where prices are through the roof, inflation's got whatever it's going, and everybody's running for cover and not concerned, not clear on what next steps are, and worried that money isn't happening. On he is happening. money's always happening. We just have to make sure we understand the value of money and what we're doing with the things we're doing. And so that we're investing in things that are going to generate more resources for us, right, you want to make sure that all the things you purchasing all the things you invest in, are enhancing your life right now, this is the time to be very, it, I don't want you to be conservative in your spending. I want you to be a company and we go on offense and your opportunities and things. But just make sure you invest in things that are going to generate more revenue, buy assets, buy, buy things that are going to generate better health, better wealth, right more time, more opportunity for you and your ability to impact other people. And my interview today, my guest is Simon Severino. And he's with strategy sprints. And he's somebody who's been in the entrepreneur space for a while, and he's transitioned his business into some different areas. And now he's also in a place where he's investing like, like many of us, right? We're growing our business networks and acquiring companies and doing things because we've not that we've mastered entrepreneurship, or we've gotten very good at entrepreneurship. And so now we're letting our businesses become assets, that are creating more opportunities to grow well, to grow visibility to increase purpose and impact to help more people. Right. And that's a wild oats wants you to see that that's happening all the time is it's not a matter of oh, well, these people have made a bunch of money, or we've done all this stuff. It's we see things differently, we move through a world in a way that says every opportunity is worth exploring. And then you decide is this one to take advantage of or not. But you gotta lean in got to have your mind, open your eyes, open, your ears open to start seeing all the ways that you can impact people in your world. And in this are creating habits and mindsets that support you moving through life in that way, right. So it's just the small decisions that we determine what's the small decision that you'd make every day that you will look for an opportunity that you will educate yourself, that you will engage your family that you will seek purpose that you will find ways to be useful and valuable to people. And guess what, the money always follows a sole focus, don't focus on what you don't have, focus on what you do have, be grateful for what you do have, and then be impactful to people who don't have and go make it happen. So really excited about the this, this conversation and I think you're gonna enjoy the interview. It's very simple concept in nature. There's no rocket science in here, just simplicity of excellence being done in the world. And just want to see what you can do to take advantage of that opportunity to replicate that perspective in your life and start seizing the opportunities that are in your world. Make sure you rate review and subscribe, let people know that we're here. Appreciate you as always, love you. Thank you for taking your time to be here because you could literally be anywhere else. So enjoy the interview. We'll see you on the next one. Excellent. Here we go. Guys got another amazing interview for you. We just heard the official formal intro through the bio and all that Simon wants you to talk in your own words and tell people who Simon and

Simon Severino: 00:03:57

how you got here. Hey, Jim, Hey, everybody. Thanks for having me. Was Simon I live in Vienna? I have three kids. And I did fall in love with one topic 21 years ago. And the topic is go to market. I am fascinated by this huge question. How can I enter a mind a market, stay in the market crash it in the market? And not having anybody get me out of that market for a while? Because it's so many questions, right? It's emotionally challenging. It's asking you to step up into something bigger. It's emotionally challenging because you don't know nobody knows. Like I'm sitting down with these themes. And we just don't know when we start we don't know. But we decide to step into it right to take on this to hold that space for that. When in the market without Knowing how to do it. And then the next thing is it's psychology. It's sociology, there is a numeric component. So it's spreadsheets. I love spreadsheets, and I love psychology and those things come together. And it's fascinating. And I love marketing and sales and creativity. So it's multifaceted is one simple question, how do we crush it in the market? From a market share perspective? So in the end, it's winning in the market? Very simple question. But it's so unknown, and we have to explore it together, not give up together, stay aligned together, keep agreements together. And that journey I find fascinating.

Jim Padilla: 00:05:46

Yeah, who doesn't want to crush it in the marketplace? Right? You know, we and it's, it can be a seasonal thing. It can be you know, everybody isn't winning all the time. However, there are certain people who tend to crush it in the market more often than others? And what are the what are the trends? What are the things that the common themes you see in the people who tend to come out on that side of the equation?

Simon Severino: 00:06:10

Yeah, as you say, winning is different for everybody. So what is winning? Alright, so everybody has to define what winning is for them. I like to have a definition, I think the biggest difference is, do you have a definition or not, because when you have one, you have clarity for yourself. And that clarity helps you stay sane. Stay oriented, stay in the game, keep showing up independently of the weather and of the circumstances of the market conditions, you will show up because you have clarity. So I think clarity is the most important thing to have. And the purpose of why right. So I always want to have clarity, meaning that my team and I we always ask each other and challenge each other. What's the game we're playing? Why are we playing it? How do we keep score? How do I know if I am marketing? How do I know that I'm winning this week? If I'm sales, how do I know that I'm winning this week? Well, sales is easy. Operations. If I'm operations, how do I know that I'm winning this week. So this is how we keep score. And that became one of our core habits, we have three habits, daily habit, weekly, habit, monthly habit, because 95% is not in our control. So what are the few controllables that are actually in our control, we want to we want to really control them. And that's daily habit, how I allocate my time and of those things. Which task will I delegate tomorrow? That's my daily habit, weekly habit. What did we do this week. And where did we win, there is one marketing number that we track every seven days, one sales number and one ops number. And that number, we pick based on what will tell us if we are winning or not. And now our definition of winning is winning against our team last week. So we win if we are one basis point percent better than last week, so 0.1% Better than last week in marketing in that number, let's say its number of new subscribers per week, right? Based on the downloads of a lead magnet on the website. If a team picks that, for us, the definition is, if it was 50 downloads this week, next week, we want it to be more than 50. So if it's 52, we want if it's 55, we want if it's 49, with enough to eat. Yeah. And the important thing is not so much the number, the important thing is that you know what the score is, and so it gives you immediate positive feedback. When it works. And it's green. When it's winning, and it becomes red, literally, it turns red, if it's not, at least a couple basis points above last week. And you know, the the psychology of humans is we don't like to see a threat. And we get a kick by seeing it green, green, green, green, green and having an unbroken state streak. We like that. And then the monthly habit is what else can our clients do? What does it mean for us to we need to change anything in our offer? What are the two features where we are winning against our competitors the to where we are losing? How much can we cut from the two features we're we're losing and reinvest them in the next month into the two features where we're winning because we're already Are you winning? And we want to crush it? So back to the beginning? How do you stay in the market by continuously focusing and reinvesting from where you are not winning into the features where you are currently winning. And this is how you stay in competitive advantage, because competitive advantage just means being two meters in front of your competitors, two meters is enough, you don't need 200 meters. Two meters is enough. As soon as every week, you are two meters in front of your competitors. From the perspective of your clients, you have a good strategic position.

Jim Padilla: 00:10:42

Yeah, and you know, it's funny because like, you know, we're as a as an outsourced sales agency, who's one of our main lanes. 10 years ago, when we started this, it wasn't very competitive, because it wasn't many people doing it. And now, there's a lot of people doing it. And it could look like, wow, this is getting scary. But it's also more justification that this what we do is in demand, right? It's a viable service and needed. So now we just need to really be we're always focusing on how do we position ourselves differently? And what what is the specific result we can get to stay two meters ahead? In the in demand? Right. So that's great stuff. What do you you know, everybody that I've talked to, especially on this podcast, we talked about the opportunities that are literally everywhere, somebody like, you know, we tend to see the cup half full all the time, versus all the problems we look at what are the opportunities that exist in those problems, so we can be relevant and useful and you know, purpose. But there are people who just get stuck, you know, it's so easy to launch into all of the things that aren't working. What's What is your perspective? How do you what's your mindset? And how do you train yourself and your team to stay focused on the right opportunities.

Simon Severino: 00:11:58

Mindset is the right word. Because more and more I realize that mindset is the key differentiator. And also, what makes the difference is that we don't give up too early. We don't burn out as entrepreneurs. And we stay long enough in the game so that we can have long term wins. I see every week as a new life that I get. So every Monday to me, it's clean, new startup. And this I am learning as a beginner investor, I'm experienced as an entrepreneur, and as a business growth expert. But I'm a very beginner investor, I started like, three, four years ago, devoting half of my day to investments in portfolio management. So I'm a beginner. And what I'm learning there is that it's a process. And that some and that many times you take a wrong decision. So let's say you invest in, I don't know Tesla, but then team team and Tesla makes some mistakes goes down. Now, it's a mindset thing, because you did your fundamental analysis, you did your technical analysis. But now the market is doing something else. What do you do? So now it's a mindset game. There is a sunken cost fallacy. I have invested in them. And so I will stay in them. Yeah. The next thing is, you look at trend, and you say, Well, we were in a bear market for 11 months. Yeah, but look at the last three weeks. Oh, but we are in a bear market. Really. So there is sentiment, there is your trauma of the last 11 months. Meanwhile, the market is going up. Now it's a mindset thing. If you stay in your lane, this is what I'm learning. stay in my lane staying with my fundamental analysis and still keep deciding at the same time looking at emotions and sentiment and trying to not be driven by that. So basically cutting through the emotions of the market sentiments headlines I don't read headlines anymore. If you would, if last week I don't know when this is gonna air but if last week you were reading headlines you would you would have sold all your stocks and just be hoarding gold and silver in your in your basement like in the Middle Ages. Because they thought everything's crashing. When the reality is if you would have put $100,000 in in Vidya. Now you would have $130,000 That's the reality of the market, but the sentiment was completely opposite. And everybody was talking about the headlines and the headlines were just about the debt ceiling, raising the debt ceiling or not. So, I'm learning that when we take decisions, mindset is the most important thing. And every Monday to me, I read, I start a new. So maybe last week, my cold email system wasn't working. Now on Monday, I decided again, will we either improve our cold email system, or we will just do cold calling and cut it? And every Monday I get to decide, again, independently of how much we have invested already. My team might might say, but it's six months that we're optimizing it, why should we quit now? That sunken cost fallacy. So we go back, what's the right thing to do? And stick to our process, whatever the process is, in investments is fundamental analysis, technical analysis, go or no go buy or sell in business. To me, it's our process, which is described in the book, the marketing processes, sales, processes, operations, processes, mindset processes, positioning processes, Back to Basics independently of the dramas that are out there, because the out there is always dramatic. Yeah,

Jim Padilla: 00:16:22

so what's the talk a little bit more about the book because it sounds like you're this is a really, this is the conversation that you're diving into, right? I mean, at the end of it, all the other stuff is tactical and sensations to make. But you know, at the core, it's like, your mindset always has to be in the right place, no matter what, I believe that there's an inner game component to literally everything we do. If you go to the gym, there's an inner game component, whether you go I used to go at times. And I remember I spent 30 minutes in the parking lot trying to talk myself into going because I wanted to leave. And then I finally got up and went, but my whole perspective was I'm not leaving until I workout. So even though I didn't feel like it, right, everything we do has an inner game component. How what is your Do you have like a philosophy that you operate from your inner game.

Simon Severino: 00:17:11

Not sure if it qualifies as if it was I have a practice and habits. I have daily habits, weekly habits, monthly habits also there. My daily habit is the first two hours of my day, our me time they are only mine. I have three small kids. So the moment they wake up, I serve them, obviously. So if I want to have me time, it's the first two hours of my day. And so I wake two hours before three little kids wake up. That's my meantime. And similar to you, doesn't matter. I don't check the weather app. It doesn't matter how I feel. It's 5am I go running. That's it. And, and when I come back, after one hour of running, I have cared for for myself, I feel my batteries first. And what I've learned is not to have a guilt feeling. But to to reframe it. And you know, it's funny, I used to run just twice a week in the morning. And I felt a huge guilt feeling. And my kids were like, where are you going, Papa? And now that I run every day, nobody says where are you going Papa because they know Oh, it's five Popeyes running. And I the same thing Saturday and Sunday, it's just five years unbroken. Because it's just like brushing my teeth. It's just happening. Nobody has to discuss and negotiate. So what happens there is that I reframed it. And now I feel confident when I tell somebody I have zero guilt feelings. And when people tell me, oh, within a year in the morning, you do this. I say yes. And it's not just that it's not a disservice to, to my family. It's a service to my family, because I am showing the values, the values are health and movement and being in nature first thing in the morning, and taking care of your own energy and batteries. Because only then you can serve others the rest of today.

Jim Padilla: 00:19:25

Yeah, amen to that. Because then what you know, you're a big habits person, which means then your habits become your character, and your character becomes your identity. Right? That's what people know you to be. So now you're known as the guy who's taking care of himself, for his family, right? Because that's become that was the habit you've put in place, and now that's become your identity that nobody else wants to interrupt. Right? So that's great.

Simon Severino: 00:19:48

And now, back to business. This has implications because three hours later, I'm in zooms and I'm asked stuff Hey, Simon, should we do this or that? Oh my god. In China, we have three, three situations coming up. One is the litigation and r1 sends the product back, and other one is unhappy with the shipment, what should we do. And in that moment, I have to take decisions, usually not enough information to do that. And so what's now important is first, my energy level, because if my energy level is high, I can be present, right. And second, the confidence in taking decisions because many times we have to take decisions, as business owners that are very uncomfortable, that will, maybe doing the right thing means losing money for a while. And many times I have to take decisions where I say, this is the right thing to do. And I know that for a while, we will have read less revenue, less profits there. But this is the right thing to do. And in that moment, there is the Simon from three hours ago that says you can do it, Simon, you will endure, you have the endurance, and you know it, because you were just running independently of the weather, you were running in the dark and in the cold three hours ago. So you can endure six months of bad revenues. And so this is important because as you say, behavior starts shaping your identity. And now when I questioned myself, hmm, can we endure that? Will I endure that decision? I know, yes, I am capable of running in the dark running in the cold. I will endure a low revenue situation if we have to. Yeah,

Jim Padilla: 00:21:49

amen. Amen. So what what before I want to give you a chance to talk about the book? And what you you know, what do you what you're promoting right now? And the shifts? Because, you know, I know you were, you've shifted a bit of your business in the last couple of years, and as a focus, and so tell people what your specific, what is your main focus right now? Where are you? Where are you leading your clients in the marketplace?

Simon Severino: 00:22:14

Yes, so 21 years that we help with market, entering markets and crushing it in the market. So mainly sales and marketing processes. What's changed over the last months is we only had a one to one work, where we pick a few people per month, and we we work 24/7 We really immerse ourselves become part of their team. And we implement the sales processes, the marketing processes, the client onboarding processes that we found working on a repeatable basis. What's happened now is over the last month, the cash flow situation of people is really tight. Some of them her have their their bank go belly up. And so we wanted to honor this situation. And we have now also added a group format, which makes it much more affordable for people who want to sprint but couldn't afford a one to one sprint coach. So we have now small groups that have a weekly coaching and still have access to all our tools. But with those weekly coaching, now, we can honor the situation in which many of us are in which is cash crunch, cash flow, tightening, and in this way, we can serve right now, many more people, and that makes us happy, because when you have your cash flow in order, and when you have your pipeline, as you know, the number one risk is having a full pipeline. And then number tourists is burning out. And they are related. Because when your pipeline is not slightly fuller than you need, you are under stress. You are under stress, day and night, you are under stress. But if pipeline is full, you are at peace, you can say yes and no to clients projects. And now that's the good state to be and to enjoy your business growing and to take the right decisions and to hire to delegate etc. So what I'm passionate about now is forming these small groups and leading those small groups and learning how to be there for them what they need right now organizing external speakers that come and bring the knowledge from the outside having the knowledge from the inside and it's a wonderful community that's that I'm learning to to curate and to be present for

Jim Padilla: 00:24:58

Yeah, that's good. That's Good and it is it's important to be able to accommodate the needs of the market because, you know, it's a lot of people are, I'm not a person who can teach is to compromise on price. It's like don't it's not, you know, when you compete on price, it's typically a race to the bottom. But there's also the reality of what's going on in the world and some people just even if they can afford to spend more, sometimes wisdom says don't and so if you can only charge premium, then you're gonna you're just gonna bypass opportunities to really serve people and help people so you have to find other ways to make adjustments. You know, we we've seen the more touch more time and more incentive is what people need so just be patient with people if they were going to make a decision in the moment maybe they take a little bit longer maybe you have to talk to somebody three times or maybe they have to make an offer five or seven times before they buy just because they're dealing with the realities of life. So find other ways to make it easier for them to say yes to you and be able to support them and I love the strategy sprints right because you can you sprint for a season and then you measure take your feedback, what worked what didn't and then you can do another sprint right but you can't sprint forever. So I love what you're doing out how do people get a hold of you and find out more?

Simon Severino: 00:26:15

We hang out at strategy sprints.com There is a book called strategy sprints on Amazon which is the cookbook for how to do marketing how to sell something to Client Onboarding and hiring. It's getting translated right now in Chinese and I share my my weekly mistakes and my learning in scaling my own businesses on a YouTube channel called Simon Severino where once a week I say alright guys, I tried this, this went wrong, this is what I learned. This is how you can get there faster. And I usually share a checklist a template something that can help others go ahead faster. Yeah, strategy Sprint's dot com.

Jim Padilla: 00:27:02

Awesome. So all of Simon's contact info will be in the show notes. So make sure you go there, reach out, find out more about the strategy Sprint's definitely get the book and see how you can embed this philosophy this this way of thinking and way of being into your business. And you know it to me, we've adopted a lot of concepts from the 12 week year, if you haven't read that book, and it's, it's really about accomplishing in a year, or in a quarter what most people do in a year, it's just being strategic, putting right actions into the right places, and, and there's just there's a different way to move through life instead of the way that most people do. And it's not rocket science. It's just a matter of discipline and new habits and finding ways to move through the world differently and more effectively. So I appreciate you being here and really good to be able to get to know a little bit more about you and introduce you to the opportunity makers community. So any last words of wisdom for people to be more excited and hopeful for what's coming?

Simon Severino: 00:28:02

Well, thank you, Jim, for doing this for showing up with consistency and holding the space for your community.

Jim Padilla: 00:28:09

Definitely, definitely. All right, guys. There's another awesome episode. Great information simple. The truth is the simplest stuff to deliver. When we get all creative and crazy. That's when stuff gets gets a little bit out of line. It's hard to remember the truth is simple. Good habits, good processes, good strategies, powerful mindset, game changing stuff. And you heard it here. So make sure you your rewind, go in rate review, subscribe, let people know that we're here. Let us know that you're listening. Please let us know what you're thinking about the episodes. Please reach out to Simon and let him know that you came from the opportunity makers podcast, go out change the game for people make a lot of money change a lot of lives and change the world together.