Transcript

Tobi Skovron: I don’t not get stressed? I’ve been there and done it. I just know how to prioritize it now. Right? I’m not fucking Superman. The reality of my situation is this isn’t my first rodeo. I’m 39 years old. I’ve been doing this since I was 20.

The aspect of stress is always very real, and a lot of it comes from giving up everything else and just focusing on what’s stressing you out. I think that’s the bad way to look at it. I think what’s really, really important, and when I became a father, it dawned on me that routine is king or queen if you’re a girl, right? So, what I’ve managed to do, don’t get me wrong, I’m always under the pump and I’m working always at this sort of level where things could choke you out in a split second.

What I learned was the best thing for my kids was getting them in a regular routine. So, that became sort of like the cadence and the rhythm for their day. What I realised was once I understood getting them into a rhythm, I’m just a big kid, so why shouldn’t I be in rhythm?

So, I’ve structured my days with the same rhythm. Get up at the same time, go to bed at the same time, eat at the same time, and whatever happens between, don’t let any of those important pillars throughout the day get attacked.

So, I get that one could be under stress because sales haven’t hit target, but that doesn’t mean you go and eat crap and don’t go to the gym and don’t have timeout or go walk the dog or go for that run. That’s equally as important to dealing with stress than actually hyper-focus or micro-managing the actual stress pain point.

I think majority of stress comes from paying bills, right? So, I’ve removed myself from accounts payable, accounts receivable completely. When you’re a solo entrepreneur, you have to do everything. So, the quicker you can get people and whether that’s employees or service providers in place to handle all of the stuff that you’re not necessarily strong in, that’s when your business starts to accelerate.

Don’t I get stressed? I’ve been there and done it. I just know how to prioritize it now. Right? I’m not fucking Superman. The reality of my situation is this isn’t my first rodeo. I’m 39 years old. I’ve been doing this since I was 20 and even earlier than that.

So, this is sort like 20 years to becoming an overnight success. Some people just think I just showed up and this is just flopping out. There’s been so much, there’s been so many lessons. I was speaking with a service provider of ours yesterday, technology service provider. He was like, “Man, you make it look so effortless.” So does a duck when it’s gracefully cruising across the water, but if you go beneath the surface, it paddling like motherfucker. Right? I just don’t show that side. I’m paddling like crazy. I paddled like crazy.

I’ve lost so many big opportunities, it would make you sick. Some of that stuff was out of my control and some of the games that I played haven’t ended in victory, but they’re never a loss because we embrace failure and learn from it.

So, the reason why I don’t get stressed out like I used to when I was in my early 20s was because I understand better than ever, maybe that’s maturity…maybe it’s the grey, I don’t really know. I understand now that I’m really, really strong when it comes to ABC, but for the rest of the alphabet, I’m pretty much below average.

So, I put really strong people in really strong positions so that anything is out of my capability, I’ve got people that I can like check myself out of the game, sit on the bench and watch them score 40, right? Or watch them get 40 stops, whatever the case may be.