The One Percent Rule ... RULES!

"The One Percent Rule ... RULES!""

My Job Here is Done™ Transcript (for general use only, machine-generated, and it may not be accurate). 

[00:00:02.470] - Dave: (singing poorly) Well, I left Kentucky back in '49 and went to Detroit working on an assembly line. The first year they had me putting wheels on Cadillacs.

[00:00:10.820] - Kelli: What are you doing?

[00:00:12.210] - Dave: What do you mean what am I doing?

[00:00:13.820] - Kelli: What's happening here?

[00:00:14.960] - Dave: I'm singing one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs.

[00:00:17.720] - Kelli: Oh, everyone, please pray for me one day.

[00:00:20.900] - Dave: (singing poorly) I devised myself a plan that should be the envy of most any man. I'd sneak it out of there in a lunch box in my hand.

[00:00:29.510] - Kelli: Ladies and gentlemen, Dave seems to want to be in a boy band instead of doing a podcast today.

[00:00:34.640] - Dave: Au Contraire!

[00:00:36.190] - Kelli: Oh, again with the French. Please tell us - tell ME - why are you singing?

[00:00:41.610] - Dave: Do you know the song?

[00:00:42.910] - Kelli: I've been trying to figure it out. I certainly remember it.

[00:00:46.380] - Dave: Hey, Internet, and you listening, do you remember

[00:00:50.210] - Kelli: I got it! One piece at a time.

[00:00:52.420] - Dave: Yes. Johnny Cash in 1976. It was the last song performed by Cash to reach number one on the Billboard country charts.

[00:01:00.990] - Kelli: Thanks, Mr. Trivia. But what does this have to do with career success or building a business or anything for that matter?

[00:01:09.240] - Dave: It's the perfect song to kick off a podcast on how you can get big things if you think small! Come on, sing along with me. Ready?

[00:01:19.010] - Kelli: Song is over! Perfect! That's a wrap.

[00:01:28.110] - INTRO: Hi, I'm Dave, and I've been starting and running businesses all my life. And I'm Kelli, working for the man like a dog for decades. And you, are YOU! The driven career professional clawing your way up the ladder of success, maybe running your own business? The next 20 minutes or so is just for you. Welcome to.

[00:01:48.480] - Chuck Fresh: My job here is done.

[00:01:52.590] - Kelli: Welcome, and thanks a lot for taking a break to give us about 20 minutes of your time, I'm Kelliand I'm done singing.

[00:01:59.330] - Dave: Thank goodness!

[00:02:00.330] - Dave: And I'm Johnny Cash.

[00:02:01.880] - Kelli: Dave!

[00:02:03.090] - Dave: (laughing) we talk about career success and entrepreneurial business growth on this podcast. Please subscribe or follow us on your favorite app. We don't want you to miss any new episodes.

[00:02:13.290] - Kelli: And you can also interact with Dave and me personally at our website, My Job Here Is Done.com and on social media at MyJobPodcast.

[00:02:22.230] - Dave: So for those who don't remember the song one piece at a time or have never heard of it, please go Google it and listen. It's a classic from one of the greatest entertainers of all time, Mr. Johnny Cash. And the song is relevant in a lot of ways to what we're going to discuss today.

[00:02:40.080] - Kelli: If you go back to one of our early episodes, we called Bernie's Batteries, we talked about how electronics retailer RadioShack used a simple technique to help raise revenue and margin.

[00:02:51.160] - Dave: Yeah, you've heard us talk about my theory of the 1% rule. Today we're going to deep dive into this process and put it to work in the context of career success and business growth. And a little twist... Also, how you can apply it to your personal life, and we have a story to tell you about that.

[00:03:07.380] - Kelli: In the song One Piece at a Time, Johnny Cash sings about a person who is working hard all their life but never really saw themselves as ever getting ahead.

[00:03:15.820] - Dave: Yeah, kind of like that feeling we've all had when there's no way I can achieve greatness and the success of others. And you think that.

[00:03:24.010] - Kelli: And we know that's not true in all cases.

[00:03:26.340] - Kelli: There are all kinds of proof that underdogs and regular people, the yous and me's, often shine and achieve great success. Take food, chef Julia Child, for example. She struggled for success and didn't find it until she was in her 50s.

[00:03:41.080] - Dave: The internet is loaded with stories like that. But one thing I found interesting during my career, watching successful people win and lose, was successful people don't let the enormity of the problem consume them. They carefully and surgically look at the smaller pieces of the problem and then tackle those.

[00:04:00.280] - Kelli: Like Henry Ford, who by the way, found no success until in his late forties. And he said" "there are no big problems; there's just a lot of little problems."

[00:04:10.340] - Dave: Think about that and store that quote away for a second.

[00:04:13.080] - Dave: In the Johnny Cash song One Piece at a Time, this worker decides to use the theory of solving small problems instead of trying to solve one ginormous problem in a very visible way.

[00:04:25.270] - Kelli: He's working as a factory worker in an automobile company building Cadillacs, and he just knows that he's never going to own one. But he wants one so bad.

[00:04:35.280] - Dave: (jokingly) He really needs motivation. I mean, go to a Tony Robbins session or something.

[00:04:40.590] - Kelli: Oh, he wants one so bad he'd even resort to taking one. But how can you grab an entire car and not get caught?

[00:04:47.370] - Dave: Well, the answer is... One piece at a time.

[00:04:51.240] - Kelli: Yeah, and in the song, that's just what he did.

[00:04:54.070] - Kelli: He knew he couldn't get away with taking a whole car in front of everyone. But as the song says, I've never considered myself a thief, but GM wouldn't miss just one little piece.

[00:05:04.810] - Dave: Well, the first day I got a fuel pump, and the next day I got me an engine and a trunk.

[00:05:10.590] - Kelli: Yeah, and soon he had all the parts to build a whole car, and nobody missed a thing he took.

[00:05:15.770] - Kelli: The song goes on about how he put the car together one piece at a time. And now, when he rolls into town, he's driving the only one around.

[00:05:24.040] - Dave: Hey, pro tip. We're not suggesting that anyone steal anything, obviously. But look at the theory Johnny used to solve a problem. He used Henry Ford's advice that there are no big problems, just small problems, and it got the job done.

[00:05:40.980] - Kelli: You've heard us say in a few of our episodes that the power of the 1% rule is significant.

[00:05:46.690] - Kelli: The 1% rule is simple. It's all about eating the proverbial elephant one bite at a time. It's about looking for the small wins that all add up to the big win. Instead of looking for a big 10, 15, or 20% win, instead, look for a bunch of 1% smaller wins. In the end, they'll all add up to a bigger number, and it's much easier to achieve goals this way.

[00:06:10.550] - Dave: Okay, now that you're thinking small, to tackle the bigger problem, you and your team have to also think creatively in solving a problem. One way to do this is to bring in and get ideas and advice from people who have not been close to the problem.

[00:06:24.140] - Kelli: People who are not close to the problem often see things you can't see and offer very valuable and often AHA-moment advice.

[00:06:31.640] - Dave: Here's a good story to illustrate that theory. A father was busy at work in his home office, and his little daughter was constantly trying to get him to stop work and to play with her. Typical, right?

[00:06:42.600] - Dave: He didn't want to make her feel bad. So in an attempt to keep her busy, the dad tore a page of a printed map of the world from a magazine into a whole bunch of small pieces, mixed them up, and asked her to go into her room and put the map together again. Well, she smiled and headed off to a room, and he was pretty sure that it was going to take her hours to get this done if she could even do it at all. But much to his surprise, his little daughter came out of the room only a few minutes later with a big smile on her face and handed him a perfectly reconstructed map.

[00:07:16.960] - Kelli: Girls are super smart.

[00:07:18.170] - Dave: Well, they kind of are. And this little girl was even smarter than you think because the stunned dad asked his daughter how she could solve the puzzle so quickly. And she said, Daddy, I didn't even know what a map was, but there was a lady's face on the other side of the paper. So I put the face together, and now the map looks right again.

[00:07:40.230] - Kelli: Okay, let's look at the 1% rule a bit closer. First, let's say you needed to cut the cost of making your product by 15%.

[00:07:48.140] - Dave: Wow.

[00:07:48.670] - Kelli: Now ask yourself, how hard would it be to come up with a single thing or even two or three things that could be done to cut out 15% of cost?

[00:07:57.760] - Dave: Well, I can tell you - a spoiler alert coming up! Unless there was gross mismanagement before you were tasked with this, there is no way that someone allowed for a wasted 15% of efficiency made up of obvious reasons.

[00:08:10.530] - Kelli: And therein lies the problem.

[00:08:12.490] - Kelli: Most large inefficiencies in anything are clearly obvious to even the untrained eye. So they get fixed quickly, and first. You have to go looking for the smaller problems - the 1% here - and the 1% there.

[00:08:26.650] - Kelli: These smaller problems are the ones causing inefficiencies and are often overlooked and may even seem insignificant at first. But in the end, they add up.

[00:08:36.470] - Dave: These types of smaller problems are also hiding and require some digging to uncover. As you know, this is just not an easy task.

[00:08:44.770] - Kelli: But there's a way to help make it easier. Which is?

[00:08:48.110] - Dave: Well, my guess is don't purposely fog your brain by fixating on the overwhelmingly large goal. This will just cause you and your team to have the wrong investigative mindset needed to find those smaller problems.

[00:09:02.750] - Kelli: Correct.

[00:09:03.600] - Kelli: We heard from Henry Ford. Now here's what Mark Twain had to say. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into smaller, manageable tasks and starting on the first one."

[00:09:20.820] - Dave: Smart quote! Both Twain and Ford got it. Are you getting it?

[00:09:26.320] - Dave: Finding solutions to large problems or big goals is greatly simplified by using the 1% rule. So let's look at an example that doesn't relate at all to business, but it's an example you likely could use no matter what career or business you're growing for yourself.

[00:09:43.680] - Dave: First, remember that when you embrace the 1% rule, you are calling on your best problem-solving skills and that of others on your team.

[00:09:52.660] - Kelli: You also have to forget about the enormity of the problem or goal. And this is important because if you don't put that aside, you'll mind-F yourself into thinking, there's no way I can do this.

[00:10:04.320] - Dave: Okay, that said, your goal for the 1% Rule today ... (pause for effect)

[00:10:09.010] - Dave: Is to simply cure type 2 diabetes!

[00:10:14.070] - Kelli: What? How does this relate to business on a career success podcast? Well, just give us a few more minutes, and the power of a good analogy will help answer that question.

[00:10:25.970] - Dave: So this is a true story, and I can speak firsthand on this because actually, it's my story. I used my business proven 1% rule that I've used nearly all of my life to achieve the success I've had in my career, and I applied it to a very personal issue, and it worked perfectly.

[00:10:45.030] - Kelli: Let me set the stage for this because I helped Dave tackle this big goal by teaming up with him. Dave developed type 2 diabetes about ten years ago and largely ignored it because it wasn't affecting his day-to-day activities.

[00:10:58.610] - Kelli: He was on some of the basic meds doctors prescribed as the standard of care, and he was eating the standard American diet of pizza, fries, steak, and cake.

[00:11:09.510] - Dave: And loving it.

[00:11:11.310] - Kelli: Yeah, and loving it until, during a routine visit to the doctor, his blood work showed a rapid increase of the disease, and the doctor wanted to put him on stronger medications. This news finally broke his denial.

[00:11:25.770] - Dave: Hey, listen, it's important to note at this point that we are not giving out any medical advice. This is just a story. Always follow, I should say, your doctor's instructions. But for me, I was just handed one of the biggest goals in my life cure my type 2 diabetes.

[00:11:43.360] - Kelli: Yeah. Now, that's a big goal. Where do you start? You'd be a bazillionaire if you could do this for everyone.

[00:11:49.360] - Dave: Well, that wasn't my goal to do it for everyone. It was my goal to do it for myself.

[00:11:54.530] - Kelli: Dave researched the reasons why some people who are otherwise healthy developed type 2 diabetes, and it was clear that sugar played a role in exacerbating the disease. But that was only a small part of it.

[00:12:07.580] - Dave: If you have type 2 diabetes, you won't cure it or contain it just by cutting out sugar from your diet. But cutting out sugar will help a little bit. So, 1% rule step one, cut out as much sugar as I could, which I did.

[00:12:24.000] - Kelli: But if you take something away from any process, even just 1%, you'll likely leave a deficit in something else. So you have to be creative to fill that gap.

[00:12:33.310] - Dave: Oh, yeah. And in my case, I couldn't drink coffee without sugar, and I drink a lot of coffee. It was an issue that would keep me away from hitting that 1% rule goal of no added sugar.

[00:12:45.230] - Dave: So I researched and found a natural replacement for the sugar that didn't affect diabetes. So it's done. 1% achieved!

[00:12:53.170] - Dave: I also dug into other parts of the disease and simply broke them down into smaller parts and looked at each one individually and one at a time. I learned carbohydrates, especially refined carbs, turn into sugar during the metabolism of the body and in digestion. And since sugar is bad, we all know sugar is bad. I applied another 1% rule and reduced my carb intake to a bare minimum through a whole bunch of steps.

[00:13:22.560] - Kelli: This wasn't easy, either, as once again, when you take something away, you leave a hole, and you need to be creative to fill it. In this case, greatly reducing carbs meant no pasta, no bread, no rice, no potatoes.

[00:13:36.570] - Dave: And if I wouldn't have searched for alternatives to make up those deficits, I would have failed. So I applied the 1% rule many times by swapping potatoes for things like cauliflower mash and finding substitute products that were low carb that I could enjoy.

[00:13:53.770] - Kelli: The key was doing little things in a controlled fashion, so he didn't become overwhelmed with all the changes.

[00:14:00.150] - Kelli: I remember helping and also being a teammate by participating in the changes. I don't have diabetes, but the changes Dave was making were healthy changes for anyone. So teaming up together made the quest to achieve the goal easier. You need to do that in your business goals, too.

[00:14:17.060] - Dave: Remember, my BFG ... You figured that out ... Was to cure type 2 diabetes. But if I had fixated on that BFG, I would have surely failed.

[00:14:29.090] - Kelli: You would. And please don't call me Shirley. (laughing)

[00:14:33.390] - Dave: In the end, I made dozens of little, seemingly de minimis 1% rule changes to my diet, my exercise, and my lifestyle, and they were super easy to adopt because they were small. And I adopted them in a step-by-step fashion.

[00:14:50.070] - Kelli: Dave adopted a full-blown, low carb, healthy keto diet over time. I know if someone told him to make that change immediately, not in a step-by-step 1% Rule fashion, he would have failed at the enormity of that goal.

[00:15:04.090] - Dave: Hey, think about it. Could you cut sugar out of your diet if you found a suitable, natural alternative that works just as well? Of course, you could. There's no reason why you couldn't.

[00:15:14.570] - Dave: And that's what I did. Sugar first, then this, then that, then this, then that, until I tackled all of the biggest risks of the disease. And today, one short year later, I no longer have type 2 diabetes, and I'm not taking any medications. My new diet is just now the way I eat.

[00:15:33.160] - Dave: I did it! I achieved the BFG! I cured type 2 diabetes by using the 1% Rule.

[00:15:40.740] - Kelli: And you can do this, too, with any goal you have.

[00:15:43.940] - Dave: All you need to do is to break that big goal down into really small, manageable parts.

[00:15:50.340] - Kelli: I read a great paragraph from author James Clear, who wrote the book Atomic Habits, and it fits here. To achieve your goals in business or in life, he wrote" "narrowing your focus is a mental model that you can apply whenever you want to start a new behavior or take on a new project that seems too big or overwhelming or too complex to handle. It's a filter you can run larger problems through to approach issues from a more useful place."

[00:16:18.510] - Dave: I could have been Johnny Cash putting that car together again one piece at a time, applying my 1% Rule as I went along.

[00:16:24.380] - Kelli: Oh, yes, I can easily see that. (laughing)

[00:16:26.480] - Kelli: So he got all the parts over time and built his dream car. People may want to know what the model was?

[00:16:32.560] - Dave: Oh, we can help there.

[00:16:34.440] - Dave: (Dave and Kelli both singing poorly) What model is it? Well, it's 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, automobile!

[00:16:49.690] - Dave: Let's not do that again.

[00:16:51.450] - Kelli: Let's not. (laughing)

[00:16:53.290] - Dave: The Internet is demanding that we stop singing.

[00:16:57.310] - Kelli: Thanks very much for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this episode, The 1% Rules ... RULES!

[00:17:02.850] - Dave: And thanks, Greg for the guitar help.

[00:17:05.670] - Kelli: More and more people listen each week just because of you spreading the word about our My Job Here Is Done podcast. Dave and I thank you very much for telling a friend about us.

[00:17:14.980] - Dave: And please tell your friend they can follow us anywhere and everywhere podcasts are available using their favorite app or at our website. My job here is done dot com.

[00:17:27.430] - Chuck Fresh: I'm the announcer guy, and I sound as good as the story you just listened to. My job here is done as a podcast production of 2PointOh LLC. Thank you and your awesome ears for listening. Want to get involved? Have your own special story to share? Tell us all about it. And you might get some airtime, just like me. Browse over to myjobhereisdone.com, yeah squish that all together into one word, and look for the My Story link. Until next time ... My job here is done.