023 | Jon Acuff on misconceptions around productivity and goal setting, how to set yourself up for success and why it's ok to let yourself be bad at certain things!

New York Times Best-selling author, Jon Acuff has written five books including his most recent, FINISH which focuses on goal setting and follow-through . Jon has helped some of the biggest brands in the world tell their story, including The Home Depot, Bose, Staples, and the Dave Ramsey Team. He's spoken to hundreds of thousands of people at companies such as Microsoft, Nissan and Comedy Central.

On today's episode we're talking about misconceptions around productivity and goal setting, how to set yourself up for success and why it's ok to let yourself be bad at certain things!

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• The biggest misconception that people have about productivity and goal setting
• Jon's career path and how he wrote five books & made the New York Times best-seller list
• How his life has shaped what he writes about in his books
• Why he wrote Finish
• Why Jon thinks that perfectionism kills productivity
• The benefits of being bad at certain things
• The role data and measurement play in reaching goals
• Jon's thoughts on whether utilizing past data is helpful
• The social media platform that Jon thinks is most effective in growing your business
• Mapping out action steps to get to his bigger goals
• When do you need to plan and at what point do you just need to jump in and start things
• Jon's advice to to product-based business centers who struggle with the follow-through on projects
• The two main forms of motivation
• The balance between money and passion
• How shame influences setting goals, reaching those goals, and running businesses
• Accountability and its influence on goal setting
• The role that luck plays in growing a business

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"I would say one of them is the myth of the huge, massive, scary goal. People say, "Aim for the moon, because even if you fail, you'll land amongst the stars," but that's not what really happens, either in research or in real life." - Jon Acuff

"Most people grade on a pass/fail scale when it comes to goals." - Jon Acuff

"Grow something or build something, that even if it's not wildly successful, your life is better." - Jon Acuff

"Starting is fun, but the future belongs to finishers." - Jon Acuff

"When you go to a race, you stand at the beginning or the finish. The middle is pretty lonely. That made me want to write a book that would help somebody get through the middle." - Jon Acuff

"Every book I've ever written hasn't been perfect. I like to say it this way. Amazon has never sold a perfect book. They have just sold millions of books by brave, imperfect people." - Jon Acuff

"The longer you wait to get something perfect, you're going to miss your window of opportunity." - Katie Hunt

"Perfect to me means you're not trying hard enough and you're not doing new things." - Jon Acuff

"You have a choice, shame or strategy. Shame says I should be able to get it all done and then when you can't, you feel ashamed. Strategy says, these three things, I'm not even going to care about them." - Jon Acuff

"What I like about data is, data tells the truth. Data is not swayed by emotion." - Jon Acuff

"If you're a small business, there's actions you can do every day, even as you plan." - Jon Acuff

"Almost every business I work with undercharges. Especially if it's a small business." - Jon Acuff

"The balance is, you don't get to do the passion very long if the profit isn't there." - Jon Acuff

"The problem is, a lot of us have trouble starting goals because we've lied to ourselves so many times that we don't even believe it." - Jon Acuff

"We're not supposed to do this alone. Running a business is a very isolating experience". - Jon Acuff

CONNECT:

Buy Finish: http://amzn.to/2jpW7XZ

Jon's Website: https://acuff.me/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjonacuff

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonacuff/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jonacuff/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonacuff

You can purchase Jon's Books on Amazon using the links below:

Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done

Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck

Quitters: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job

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ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode.