0:00 Hello there and welcome back to another episode of Sunday Sessions with me, Nick Poninski. Today I want to talk to you about a quick story I heard from Tony Robbins.
0:10 I had to share this with you. I, I shared it with, uh, one of the HR advisors I was working with back in the day and I'd completely forgotten about that.
0:18 But I remember it was one of the first times I'd ever shared something that I'd read, something that I'd learned from.
0:26 In a way that resonated with somebody. And, yeah, this morning, when I remembered this story, I was like, I was at one of Tony Robbins' post, posts, and I remembered this story, and I thought, I have to share this.
0:40 So here it is, right? This is a story about a, it's a fake story, but it's an analogy, right? So just to reassure you, when I share what I'm about to share, uhm, you know, it's not real, right?
0:54 But here it is. So a man is walking by a river when he spots a child drowning. He dives in, pulls the child out of the water, gets them safe.
1:04 Two minutes later, another child. He dives in again, the man. And then a third, and then a fourth. As I'm walking by and watching all this, I start taking off my shoes to jump in and help with the next kid.
1:18 But the man doesn't move. He turns around and starts walking upstream. I shout, aren't you going to help me with this next kid?
1:25 He says no. I'm going to find out where they're falling in. That's the point of the story. Stop firefighting. Fix the source.
1:35 Now in business, and especially for us as solopreneurs, solo HR consultants, we are brilliant at rescuing people. We have a quiet month and immediately sprint to networking breakfasts.
1:48 We bash out a couple of LinkedIn posts. We say yes to a random low-fee project, whatever it is, anything to feel busy and in control.
1:57 But the reason that you don't have clients that feast or famine isn't because of today's diary, it's because of yesterday's pipeline.
2:05 You know, if there's no predictable way for you, for leads to find you, to book with you, to buy from you, you'll always be in big sprinting downstream.
2:13 So what does walking upstream look like for you? Well, upstream for lead generation is a clear niche, a simple green light page, one traffic source you commit to, ads, partnerships, content, whatever it is, and a follow-up sequence that moves people to a call.
2:29 Upstream for lead and for sales is a defined call structure, paid diagnostics where appropriate, and a confident premium offer. That solves a specific problem.
2:41 And upstream for delivery, but that's boundaries, that's productized services, and it's a rhythm for client updates. So scope creep doesn't drown you.
2:51 And it's the same in life. Are you feeling constantly exhausted? Downstream is another coffee. Upstream is sleep. It's movement. It's saying no to things.
3:03 If you're struggling with money stress, well, downstream is cutting Netflix. Upstream is raising your fees. It's packaging your services. It's measuring your funnel maths weekly.
3:14 It's looking at your laps. Your, uhm, your, when I say your laps, I mean the amount in episode that I recorded.
3:20 The four numbers that tell you about your business. So, here's a 60 second exercise for you. Grab a pen and write these three questions.
3:30 Where am I diving in again and again? What's the real upstream cause? What's the smaller system I can put in place this week to fix it at source?
3:43 Pick one thing, not five, just one. Maybe it's launching a single page lead magnet with an advert. Maybe it's tightening your offer and updating your website headline.
3:55 Maybe it's setting a rule, you know, every Thursday, two hours on Pipeline. Non-negotiable. Because, you know, rescuing kids looks heroic.
4:04 Walking upstream looks boring. But it's the only way the rescues stop being needed. So thanks for listening along. I hope this episode has been useful for you.
4:15 And as ever, because it's Sunday, embrace the change. Because how we change, is how we grow.
