Why “Productivity” is Killing Your Business and How to 3x Your Business in the Next 3 Months – In Just 7 Minutes with Antonio Thornton

Resources/Links:

• Wanting to Know How You Can Be Productive Without Being Too Busy? Learn more on How You Can Maximize Your Time as an Entrepreneur: gettimebank.com/MTI

Summary

Have you been finding yourself feeling exhausted and tired most of the time because of your business?

Do you feel like all of your productiveness is going nowhere and you’re stuck at an income or growth plateau?

Are you ready to find out how you can maximize your time to bring fulfilling progress, promising income, and great business growth?

Antonio Thornton, the Profit Engineer, is a trusted advisor and coach to top entrepreneurs to double profits and double their time off.

In this episode, Antonio talks about why being busy doesn’t always mean productive, and why productive doesn’t always mean profitable. He also shares how we can organize, monetize, and maximize our time every day to bring the best in your business and yourself!

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:56 – Antonio’s ideal client: “My ideal client, what I like to call the “cast entrepreneurs”, C-A-S-T. They’re the coaches, authors, speakers, and service providers. So professional service providers, anyone who trades their time for money.”
• 02:16 – Problem Antonio helps solve: “Well, simply put, I like to say I take the employee’ ship out of entrepreneurship. Most entrepreneurs go into business with the idea of having all this time and freedom, but they find out it’s the exact opposite.”
• 02:48 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Antonio: “Well, typically, it’s going to be pretty straightforward. You’re working a lot, and you’re making a little, right? So, you’re putting in a lot of hours, and you’re just not seeing that return on investment. Your income is either plateaued.”
• 03:59 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Antonio’s solution: “Well, yeah, the real issue, which creates more than an issue, is that most entrepreneurs tried to be more productive. They try to get more done in less time, etc.”
• 05:38 – Antonio’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “I’ll actually give you three actually. When we think about the process of what helps take a company and an organization from overworked, busy, frustrated to having more time freedom and making more money than they had in the past is really a three-step process.”
• 07:38 – Antonio’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Antonio’s Website: gettimebank.com/MTI
• 08:14 – Q: How’s life? A: You know, and that’s one of the questions that I’ll leave and turn over to your audience. Timebank is designed to design the life you want and then build a business around it.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Busy does not mean productive.” -Antonio Thornton Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:09
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition, which I am personally excited about, of Marketing the Invisible, joined today by Antonio Thornton. Antonio, good day. Sir, welcome to the show! Where are you hanging out?

Antonio Thornton 00:21
Man, I’m glad to be here, Tom. I am in Atlanta, Georgia right now and ready to get out and do some more traveling after this.

Tom Poland 00:27
Aren’t we all? We’re going to be like a can of soda. They got dropped once too often and you rip the tab off and I assume, everyone’s going to be traveling. So, for those of you listening to this in the future sometime, we’re still just experiencing this Delta wave of COVID which is not a lot of fun. So, we look forward to open skies again! For those of you who don’t know Antonio, he’s a very, very interesting person because he’s thought very deeply about the subject of productivity. And he’s got some quite contrarian views of productivity, and how it might actually be de-productive if that’s a word?

Antonio Thornton 01:06
We’ll make it be a word today, Tom.

Tom Poland 01:08
Okay, thank you. Yeah, so even Mark Twain said I have no time for anyone that could say a word only one way. Antonio is known as the profit engineer. He’s a trusted advisor, and he’s a coach to top entrepreneurs. And his objective has always been to double their profits, but also double their free time, which often don’t go together. So, kind of like have your cake in two- enjoy your business that’s systematically growing, but enjoy more free time and more leisure time, so you can enjoy life. So aptly, therefore, the title is, “Why “Productivity”- air quotes around productivity- is Actually Killing Your Business and How to Three Times Your Business in the Next Three Months”. That’s quite a statement. So, Antonio is going to tell us how to do that in the next seven minutes. Antonio, our time starts now. Sir, who is your ideal client?

Antonio Thornton 01:56
My ideal client, what I like to call the “cast entrepreneurs”, C-A-S-T. They’re the coaches, authors, speakers, and service providers. So professional service providers, anyone who trades their time for money.

Tom Poland 02:09
Perfect. Thank you. “Cast”, I like that. And so, question two, what’s the problem you solve?

Antonio Thornton 02:16
Well, simply put, I like to say I take the employee’ ship out of entrepreneurship. Most entrepreneurs go into business with the idea of having all this time and freedom, but they find out it’s the exact opposite. They become an employee of their own business, and we completely eliminate that process.

Tom Poland 02:34
Perfect! Thank you. So, let’s go to question three, six minutes left. Someone listening to this, what are the symptoms they’re going to be experiencing in their business or in their life that’s going to kind of give them a heads up that they need to find more about what you do?

Antonio Thornton 02:48
Well, typically, it’s going to be pretty straightforward. You’re working a lot, and you’re making a little, right? So, you’re putting in a lot of hours, and you’re just not seeing that return on investment. Your income is either plateaued. You know, you’ve hit a certain spot and you can’t seem to get beyond it no matter what you’re doing, no matter what you try, no matter how many hours you put in. And this is a little bit more- you know, a little softer point is that you may be feeling unfulfilled with what you do. You may have loved it at one time, now you don’t love it as much anymore. Or you’re finding that your life is suffering. Your spouse is complaining. Your kids are complaining. Your friends are complaining. Your health is declining because you’re spending too much time on your business, and not on the things that matter the most.

Tom Poland 03:31
So, they’re really got the worst of every- well, because they’re working longer, working harder, kind of feeling ground down. There are cracks in the relationship and the health. Yikes!

Antonio Thornton 03:40
Right.

Tom Poland 03:40
So, most of us would think, “Well, I need to boost productivity”, but part of what you’re saying is that this focus on productivity could actually be killing your business. So, let’s wrap that into question four, which is, what are some of the common mistakes people make when they’re trying to solve this problem and get out of that cycle?

Antonio Thornton 03:59
Well, yeah, the real issue, which creates more than an issue, is that most entrepreneurs tried to be more productive. They try to get more done in less time, etc. But here’s the thing that I always like to share is that busy does not mean productive. And people get that, “Okay. Well, yeah, I guess that makes sense.” But here’s the reality of it- productive does not mean profitable. And that’s the key that most people miss is that they find themselves doing a lot of things very efficiently, but they’re not what we call RGAs. What RGAs? Revenue Generating Activities. So, it doesn’t matter how productive you are at doing non-RGAs, they will never generate revenue. So doing more of what doesn’t make you money will never ever make you more money. And that’s what I find most entrepreneurs suffering from.

Tom Poland 04:45
So even though they might be busy, and they feel that they are being productive, they’re not being productive with the Revenue Generating Activities.

Antonio Thornton 04:54
Right. Absolutely!

Tom Poland 04:56
And do you find that people who often get this- with the business they are, the more sense of blur and the less perspective they see on what the real RGAs are?

Antonio Thornton 05:05
That’s exactly what happens, Tom. I mean, you hit it right on the head. And that’s where we always start with our clients is identifying what their real and true Revenue Generating Activities are because a lot of entrepreneurs think they know what they are in their head, but they really aren’t.

Tom Poland 05:21
Right.

Antonio Thornton 05:21
They really don’t know what those RGAs are.

Tom Poland 05:24
Okay, interesting concept. Thank you. So, question five, we got three and a half minutes left. What’s one valuable free action that an entrepreneur could take that’s probably not going to solve the whole problem, they probably need to work with you for that, but it might take them a step in the right direction?

Antonio Thornton 05:38
Well, Tom, I mean, you know, I’ll actually give you three actually. When we think about the process of what helps take a company and an organization from overworked, busy, frustrated to having more time freedom and making more money than they had in the past is really a three-step process. The first step is monitoring your time. And most people just do things willy-nilly. They have no idea what they’ve done throughout the day because they’re putting out fires, taking care of emergencies, and running around, you know, crazy all day. So just starting with monitoring your time can help you get more clear on what you’re doing versus what you’re not. And once you monitor your time, then you step into the second step which is monetizing your time. As I mentioned, most people focus on getting things done, but not necessarily getting the right things done. Not getting the things done that actually matter and move the needle forward.

Tom Poland 06:32
Right.

Antonio Thornton 06:33
So, when you monitor your time, you can then start looking at what are the things that actually make me money? What are my RGAs, my Revenue Generating Activities? And then the third step is maximizing your time. So, once you monitor and once you monetize, you maximize. Now you start looking at not all time is created equal. There are some activities that may make you $100 an hour. There are some that may make you $1,000 an hour, and there are also some that may make you $5,000 to $10,000 an hour. So, you’re able to maximize the time you have in order to 3x 5x or 10x your business very easily.

Tom Poland 07:11
So, monitor your time, monetize the time, figure out the RGAs and then maximize. Very clever.

Antonio Thornton 07:17
Yes!

Tom Poland 07:17
90 seconds left, sir. Question number six, there’s going to be a bunch of people that just resonate with this. I mean, it’s- maybe it’s common sense, but it’s not commonplace. And you’ve given us a framework if you like a filter through which people see reality as it is. They’re going to want to know more. So, can you give us a valuable free resource? Where can they go to find out more about this?

Antonio Thornton 07:38
Well, yeah, Tom. You can go to gettimebank.com/MTI and that’s M-T-I. And you’ll find there a video that walks you through those three steps to show you exactly what to monitor, how to monetize, and how to maximize your time. And we provide that completely free for your listeners. They can go to gettimebank.com/MTI.

Tom Poland 07:59
Gettimebank, as in the place where you keep your money, dot com/MTI, for Marketing the Invisible. Well done, sir. Thank you very much! 30 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Antonio Thornton 08:14
The one question that you should have asked that you didn’t is, you know, how’s life? You know, and that’s one of the questions that I’ll leave and turn over to your audience. Timebank is designed to design the life you want and then build a business around it. And that’s the question that all entrepreneurs should be asking is, how is life for you?

Tom Poland 08:32
Perfect! Antonio, perfect timing as well. Thank you so much for your time and insights.

Antonio Thornton 08:37
Absolutely. Glad to be here, Tom.

Tom Poland 08:40
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.