It’s scary to dive into the world of business without anyone or anything backing you. Codie Sanchez felt that firsthand when she left her well-paying job to dive into business ownership. Despite all the hurdles, she overcame them and managed to succeed. Contrarian Thinking, her podcast, outlines the main things she did to get where she is today.
A Regular Person With an Idea
Codie was like us, working a job with regular pay, weekends, and holidays off, and it was draining her soul and crushing her spirit. She decided she wanted more out of life, so she took what little she had saved up and bought a laundromat. That changed the course of her life forever.
She had once worked for Goldman Sachs and had a good grasp of how money functioned. By leaning into this knowledge, she piloted her business alongside a consultancy. Over time, she grew her fan base to 900,000 TikTok followers and 100,000 email subscribers. She attributes her success to a few things.
Forget Trading Money for Time
Most people work a job because they get paid a steady amount for their time. That’s not how someone becomes an entrepreneur. Instead, it’s how someone sticks to “the plan” and never reaches for what’s right in front of them. Codie suggests we think about life, work, and the world differently.
Working with your mind means using your intellect to make you money. There are a few things you know better than other people. Why not spin that into a consultancy? You start off consulting with one person and eventually scale that up to working alongside huge companies.
Set Deadlines to Get More Work Done
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the amount of time allotted to it. So, Codie explains, to get more out of your working time, set shorter deadlines. If you only give a certain amount of time to finish something, you won’t overstep that time.
In Codie’s case, she limits the time between her thoughts and her actions. While some might consider this impulsive, she knows almost immediately what needs to be done and gets it done without overthinking it. This methodology helps to avoid overthinking something and just going with your intuition.
Learning How to Balance Energy and Effort
Have you ever said yes to something and realized you would have to sacrifice to get that something done? Codie notes that anything you add to your calendar means removing something else to make space for it. Because of that, you should never add something without accepting you’ll lose something.
To cope with this, Codie suggests asking yourself, “What do I have to say no to if I want to say yes to this?” Adding too many new things will depilate your energy and suck away your time little by little. If you keep sidelining your priorities, they will never get done.
Use Time Blocking Effectively
Codie is a massive advocate of time blocking –setting aside time for certain types of work. Setting up time slots is easy, as most people already have a Google Calendar linked to their email account. It just takes some time to arrange the time slots effectively so you work most efficiently.
A regular to-do list helps avoid decision paralysis and gives you something to do at every juncture. Success comes from people who follow their time blocking and don’t let other things overtake them. It also helps to avoid over-commitment and enables you to manage your time more efficiently. Apps like Sectograph can help to put visual reminders on your phone.
Don’t Rely on Discipline Over Motivation
Many new entrepreneurs think they can succeed solely through discipline, even if their motivation runs dry. However, motivation is a powerful tool if used the right way. It can encourage entrepreneurs to do things that discipline would advise against. Motivation helps business owners take risks.
That’s not to say that discipline doesn’t have its place. Being disciplined pushes you to do the necessary things, even when the motivation isn’t there. You won’t always have the motivation to do something, and on the days that you don’t, your discipline will have to fill in. Just don’t rely on it too often.
Think Big and Share With Others
There isn’t an entrepreneur who has been accused of dreaming too big. Codie faced it as soon as she bought her first company. However, if we look at the successful entrepreneurs who left their mark on history, each of them dreamt big. Dreaming big gives you a goal and a purpose, but it’s not the only thing you should rely on. Aside from dreaming big, you should share that dream with others.
Sharing your big dreams with your social circle creates accountability and builds hype for your actions. The more people who know, the more you’ll feel like your achievement will be everyone’s achievement. Ideally, seek out others who are more accomplished than you and share your dream with them.
Forget the Negative Voices
When Codie first left her job and became an entrepreneur, the voices who told her she was being stupid were numerous. She cut them out when they voiced dissent because a negative mindset is the doom of a successful business. Your social circle should align with your goals and successes.
Codie advises entrepreneurs to be aware of who they surround themselves with. Regular audits for social circles to weed out the people bringing you down with their negativity are crucial to remaining successful.
Eat The Frog
This lesson guided Codie when she first started doing what she was doing. Instead of leaving a distasteful task for last, she would do it first. That way, the rest of the day, she would have left to do whatever she wanted to do. It helped her get the worst part of her day out of her schedule and left her with things she could look forward to.
But what if you have two distasteful tasks? Or more? Codie advises that you pick the biggest, “ugliest” one first and do that. Then, work your way down in order of “ugly.” No task is too challenging to be done, but some are far more enjoyable than others.
A Blueprint for Success
Online business owners especially run into many issues, either with their social circle or their self-doubt. Codie even states that she went through similar moments but overcame them because she knew what she wanted out of life. Her example is a blueprint for anyone who wants to get to that level of success.
