Day 292 – Get up early and eat that frog!

Alright!

So I totally meant to get up at 600am when I first woke up. I close my eyes for just a second and it was 700!

Okay so when I did get up I tried to get back into my old habits. No email, made the bed and read for a bit with a warm cup of coffee. I made breakfast, showered and was working by just before 8am.

The big thing I needed to get done today was a contract I have been working on (putting off) for a while. Today was the day that I needed to eat the frog and get it done! If you are not familiar with eating the frog let me explain.

The frog is the task that you don’t want to do but really need to do. The frog task is the ugly distasteful one that you do not want to do for whatever reason. You are not motivated to do it, leaving it victim to procrastination. Frog tasks need structure around them to get done. You need to create motivation to make them happen by transforming them into something else desirable or by making them subordinate to a strong habit. For example you could make a habit out of eating your frog at the beginning of the day, leaving you free to do the things you really want to do later in the day. This habit creates an inherent reward. Rewards for eating the frog are good, otherwise they will just sit there looking at you croaking.

The Contract was my frog because I cannot type worth a crap. O have an advanced hunt and peck method. I have to be looking at the keyboard while I type so when I am transcribing something as technical as a contract it takes time. So much punctuation and proper Queen’s English I can only go about 3-4 words at a time. When I am typing a 10 page contract, you can see how that is not very desirable.

Anyway, cheers to me! I got it done and just in time. I was able to reward myself with a nice little 20 minute catnap and visiting with Amy watching a show late this afternoon.

It is Thursday so of course its family dinner! Tonight was one of the special ones as it was pumpkin carving night! We get pretty competitive around here and I am not gonna lie, there was some secret squirrel shit going on this week leading up to tonight.

So we had a few inside joke pumpkins but I have to say I was a fan of Emily’s. She carved out her pumpkin, added a tap and poured beer into it to make a pumpkin keg! Man my life just suck doesn’t it!?

Anyway getting my blog done early so I can get to bed early again tonight. I have an appointment at 900am already.

Cheers!

Day 290 – What the hell have I been doing?

Spent some time listening to Darren Hardy today.

He is one of my favorite authors and motivational speakers right now. I started an online course of his a while back called Insane productivity and I have been slacking. That is an embarrassing statement but I am sharing because this blog is my accountability tool. I listened to a module today that I have listened to before but, it was just what I needed to hear.

I have allowed myself to just get way too distracted by unimportant things lately. Distractions that are a complete waste of time and I really need to weed some of them out. Here it is almost November and I actually have a ton of things to get accomplished. Not to mention that it is harvest time again so I just got even more busy.

I will be putting things through the priority filter for the rest of the year and putting the hammer down.

It is officially fall and this is the time when Apple Pie Moonshine shines. It is a very fall time drink. I will be planning some tailgating events and really hitting the restaurant and bar accounts hard to utilize the season to gain momentum. We know that a few retailers are looking at the product for a reset after the first of the year and it is imperative that we throw up numbers.

We lost a well connected salesman at the distillery and I have some slack to pick up. Trying to figure out where he left off. We have a lot of good things going and we need to keep the momentum going. No time for Facebook or Netflix during work hours.

I am back to the schedule that I implemented back in June. Head down one foot in front of the other. Amy, crack that whip babe! You too if you are reading this blog. Keep me accountable!

Day 260 – Growing up

There are landmarks in any business.

Home businesses grow into small businesses and small businesses grow into bigger businesses.

The owners of businesses through these stages has to evolve and grow in order for the business to grow as well.

I am at a point where I cannot simply get by on a smile and my charm. We are looking to move to a level where accountability is more than a hand shake and words. I am currently tasked with writing a real business plan with marketing and distribution aspects that will push me beyond where I have ever been before.

I mean in the past I have had ideas and a plan but I have to put this down on paper now to be reviewed by peers, investors and advisers. It is a daunting task but I have very little time to put it together. I need to be choosing a real advisory board, references and entering the arena of the big boys. The expansion we are looking at undertaking will take real capital. Not like the people that have a little in their retirement and are looking for something to invest in but, people who invest for a living and have money to spend just for that. The real world Shark Tank.

No cameras, no producers, just a man, a dream, and a solid business plan.

Eve’s Apple Pie Moonshine is without a doubt the best product in it’s category. We have plans to expand that brand and line to include two additional moonshine flavors, a bar line including Gin, Bourbon, and Vodka, and a new line of real fruit infused vodkas. Eve’s is poised to be a real National brand and it is an exciting time.

Credibility given to us by large customer orders like Walmart and Safeway are just the beginning and we will be capturing that momentum and parlaying that into a monster wave we will ride into the spotlight.

I keep sharing a little bit more and we will be coming out with it all very soon. Thank you so much for your prayers, support and attention. We are becoming proof of what I have long held dear.

You can have whatever you want if you are willing to pay the price and do the work. The only thing that stops us is ourselves.

Day 243 – Slow your roll Roger.

I always say yes. I get excited about something and I just raise my hand and say yes. If I don’t know how or not sure I have the time I still say yes just knowing that I will figure it out later.

This has always been how I have done things but, it is starting to cost me. I have fallen into the lie of multitasking. Multitasking is a lie that I am not alone in believing. The fact is that two things done at once just cannot be done as efficiently as one thing at a time. In fact there is a noted 28% reduction in efficiency. You simply cannot focus on two things at once. Yes it is possible to do a physical thing and a mental thing at the same time but you cannot do two mental things at once. It becomes stopping one thing and working on another. Two things attempted to be done at the same time just become something different. For instance you cannot drive and text. It becomes driving while texting. you simply can only do one at a time and neither that well.

I have several different projects going on as you all know. Looking ahead at the next several weeks things are going to get busier than I could possibly handle. I am so thankful that my wife knows me so well. Today she shared her concerns and we discussed how much time I give away and commit. She showed me how it was all going to come crashing down and everything would suffer if I did not back off of something and stop saying yes so much.

I commit to things because I want to do them. This is where my ADD comes in. When I see something shiny I want to chase it. The problem is that some of the other shiny things I have cannot just be walked away from. If you are spinning plates and want to juggle, you simply cannot walk away from the spinning plates. They will crash no matter how bad you want to juggle.

I am challenging myself to no multitasking and to work on one project at a time. To be able to do that I need to limit the amount of projects I am focusing on until I know I have more time to take them on or have help. In the next few months I will have my hands full with the distillery and the warehouse garden. Add onto that the bills we have that have to get paid every month and my plate is full. That is not even mentioning my commitments at church. We are down to 4 male actors and two of us are directors. I am committed weekend wise through the end of November. Oh wait then there is Christmas! I love to be onstage at church and that is not work it is leisure but it still takes time.

Time to slim the calendar down and focus on the priorities. The first of which is just keeping the lights on and the fridge full.

Day 236 – My ADHD is not a challenge that cannot be overcome.

Just about four months to go on this journey of blogging every day trying to create a trail of successes and failures.

There is so much going on right now it is very hard for me to keep track. As things escalate it seems my ADHD does just as equally if not more. I do not use that as a crutch however. In my studies I have found that most great businessmen and women have the same gift. My ADHD allows me to discover and gives me passion. It is a gift I need to learn how to control however.

Just like any great thing, it can be used for good if controlled and used responsibly. If not, it can be harmful and destructive. I am learning ways to hone this creativeness inside me. I am learning the tools that those before me have found and mastered.

I have shared some of these tools and my struggles in using them. A calendar and a routine is the most important. In that routine I need to provide time for “wandering” and relaxation . There has to be a balance or the whole thing goes to crap.

Today I learned about completion, at least a good lesson. I have this great goals and most of them what Darren Hardy calls Big Hairy Audacious Goals. What I learned today was that when I set a goal no matter the size I must “define completion”. This is what will give me the sense of accomplishment and the energy to get the perpetual cycle of desire and doing going full speed.

It is important that when setting a goal that it is very specific. A plan needs to be put in place and while that plan has to be able to be fluid and adapt daily. The completion must be set so you know when it is done. I know it seems pretty basic but, if your goal is to get to market, what does that mean? If your completion is to be in all Walmarts nationally it may not be as realistic as going to a local fair. Same goal with just different completion definitions. The latter will give you energy and make you want to do the next step. If you have nothing and are shooting for Walmart you may give up before you ever get there and never realize that you may be successful. Even so you will be unhappy.

Small goals, one step at a time, evaluate, execute and repeat. Just like walking up stairs. One at a time, only focusing on the next step and not the top floor of the Empire State Building.

Day 230 – The hum of the home office.

Even after a really late night last night and a late start today, I feel like today was pretty cool.

At about 2 o’clock today Jesse cam over and Amy and him were working on our new website. I am super excited about it and it will be classy and have a great feel to it. I am confident it is lining up with the branding.

Sitting across from Amy and having Jesse our new intern at the end of the desk was cool. I was able to get several things done and Amy and Jesse were working on the details that I am so bad at. There is still lots to do but it is all moving in the right direction.

I have been working on finding strategic distribution partners around the country and it is a lot of work. Any new company with no track record is a risk for any distributor but there are companies out there that like small emerging brands like ours. We are woking on strengthening the brand by expanding the offerings.

Today the recipe was approved for the peach cobbler flavor and the label was submitted for approval. So now we are waiting on label approval for both the Peach Cobbler and the White Lightning. I have almost finished the formulations on four new flavors; Raspberry, Strawberry, Pomegranate, and Blackberry. We hope to get the formulations submitted next week.

Saturday I will be at a tasting event in Wenatchee and hopefully doing some bottling too. We may be discussing a tasting room somewhere on this side of the state so stay tuned for that!

I have to admit that I am getting tired but this is no time to take it easy. I must push through because I can feel how close this is to opening up!

Day 203 – I have to schedule relaxation.

It is funny, on my journey I learn things every day. It is really frustrating when I learn things on my own that I could have learned WAY earlier if I just listened.

I wrote a post a few days ago about resting and actually scheduling time to relax. It was a result of frustration and lessons that I learned hard. If you remember back in June I signed up for an online course from Darren Hardy, the editor of Success Magazine, called Insane Productivity. I have been so busy lately that my studies have been put on hold.

I have been literally overwhelmed with work and tasks and have teetered on the edge of insanity. I have suffered a huge level of anxiety and lost sleep and actually gotten a bit unhealthy. Today I got back on track and basically re-booted. I took time to get back into the study program and dove into the next module. ( I am 4 weeks behind).

Guess what the subject was on.

Yes, it was on relaxing. I sat and listened to why it is important to not only relax but, to actually schedule it. If I had just stayed on course I could have saved myself some sleepless nights and a lot of anxiety.

I learned about not only about business people that have to take time to relax to increase their productivity but, also that athletes follow this apparently obvious practice.

One can only work for so long relentlessly toiling at any given task. There was a study done by the US Army in 1998 on productivity. They separated sharp shooters into two groups. Group one was allowed to shoot as much as they wanted and as many times as possible. Group 2 was ordered to take intermittent breaks and naps. Day one showed group one in the lead in targets hit over group 2. On Day two group one’s accuracy started to fade and by day three Group two took the lead on hit targets and actually won by a significant margin. By taking rests, the second group was rested and remained accurate and out performed the group that was able to shoot at will.

Fred Shoemaker of “Extraordinary Golf” compared amateur swings with Pros with ball and without. Amateur swings closely resembled the Pro’s swing with no ball present. The difference was that the Pro can swing “relaxed” when the ball is on the line.

To sum up I think that Leonardo Da Vinci said it best in How To Think. “It is a very good plan every now and then to go away and have a little relaxation . . . when you come back to the work your judgement will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose the power of judgment.”

Take breaks. Schedule them and refresh yourself. Your productivity will go up.

Day 199 – Planned rest is necessary

Today was what I would call a recharge day.

Well maybe it was a lazy day. I had plans of getting up early and having breakfast with Amy but, it just did not work out that way. I have been pretty tired lately and I am not too sure why. Well I am sure it mostly has to do with me staying up late again. Time to get back on that schedule that I had during my 24 Day Challenge. I was unstoppable during that time.

I woke up and basically piddled around the house today. Amy and I got to spend some great alone time just watching some shows and relaxing. Tonight we got to go out and have dinner with one of our oldest and dearest friends who is visiting for just a couple days from Arizona. It is amazing to realize how much you really miss close friends that live so far away until you get to see them again.

After hugs and just a few minutes it was like we never missed a beat. Laughing and sharing a meal is such a great way to spend time with friends I wish we could do it more often. Soon we will be able to do things like that more often.

It is one of the reasons we do what we do. So we can do what we want when we want. Just getting a glimpse of the future is motivating to keep moving forward.

For me it is important to take time like that and I think I need to set more short term goals. Most of my goals are huge and seem so far away. I like the idea of smaller goals to help keep me on track and motivated. Instead of having what I would call lazy days and feeling guilty about them I will be trying to set smaller task goals and plan more time like today. That will do two things for me.

First it will keep me motivated in the short term by giving me a sense of accomplishment. Second it will alleviate the guilt I feel when I have a day where I do not get much done because it will be planned.

As busy as I am I am beginning to really understand that one cannot just go 100% of the time all of the time. There has to be rest and organization.

My short term goal is to institute this and try to plann one day a week of rest. A day that nothing is planned and I will follow through by accomplishing all of my tasks for the week. If I miss the mark then I will adjust the following week either adding more or taking away based on how my accomplishments stack up versus what I set out to do for the week.

Day 182 – Sometimes one Iron takes all the heat.

Nothing like waking up with a reminder of something you completely forgot about!

Good thing I am starting to use my calendar more but, I need to check it at night while I am making my list. My calendar has reminder settings so I just need to reset it to the night before.

It wouldn’t have been that bad except it was a task that was sure to take two hours. In the middle of a week where I am trying to get so much done it was a most unwelcome reminder.

I am really trying to get the harvest completed by this weekend and I am not sure if that is going to happen but, I really need it to. I am starting to have so much anxiety about that whole project. I was never supposed to be doing any actual growing. I am supposed to be operations, Planning and compliance. The actual grower is a whole position in itself. A grower should have experience and be full time. I am trying to keep things alive and expected to turn a profit never having done this before. I dread going to the warehouse because I am over my head but. we do not have much of a choice right now. We need additional funding and someone who knows what they are doing to be a part of it.

We passed the big hurdle and just got into the game by applying for a license. A 30 day window to the gold rush that will be legal Marijuana in Washington State. No more applications will be taken and we have our golden ticket. It is supposed to be up to me to get all of our ducks in a row. Instead I have been burdened with growing to generate cash to keep us afloat while we await our license. It was not supposed to be this way.

It is a full time gig and I have other businesses that I need to take care of and grow and do things that generate actual income for us that will pay the bills. Instead I have been out of balance and literally neglecting my own projects. If I can get through the harvest, I will be able to breath and get back to work in balance and keep all of my irons red hot.

Day 171 – Sometime you need to scrub toilets

This weekend we are celebrating Amy’s parents 50th Wedding Anniversary.

The past couple of weeks have been tough for Amy and especially this last week. No tough like the end of the world tough just a bit busier than normal. On top of just that business of the project she is having to oversee other people.

When it comes to organization Amy is my hero. When I talk about scheduling and list making it is a struggle for me. Amy is the type of person that it comes to naturally. She can plan and cook for 120 people, design the decorations and timeline, organize the execution involving 20 people and still have time to fill 20 orders for our business. She is amazing!

Tonight we had her brother and his family over for dinner to socialize and take care of some last minute planning for the party tomorrow. It was great to relax and laugh with family. My day’s priority was making sure that all of the little stuff was taken care of. Amy still needed to do a bunch of cooking and prep for tomorrow not to mention getting dinner for tonight. She also had to squeeze in a mani pedi as well. My job was to whip the house into shape and scrub the toilets for company coming over tonight.

If you are not willing to scrub toilets to make the big picture happen, success will not happen for you. I have the ability to see the big picture and know the strengths of the team involved. I am not in need of the glory of cooking and being in front of the parade. In some instances I am best utilized as the pooper scooper or in this instance toilet scrubber.

I was able to get a good amount of my own work done today as well. I have someone at the warehouse trimming plants, I worked on inventory management system for Advocare and I even followed up with Total Wine & More about Eve’s placement and organized the office.

Work got done and it was effective work that contributed to a much larger picture!