I chose intensity as my word for earlier this year. I believe that’s the word that characterizes how I want to become a better and more successful business leader.

I’m a sprint-oriented person. But intensity is a marathon. I chose to do the marathon this year.

If you Google intensity, you’ll get a ton of results, most of them related to exercising. I saw an article on working out that actually describes what I wanted to achieve this year. I believe what I took away from the article can help you become a successful business leader.

Get a work out buddy

Who can argue with getting a workout buddy? In business, we call them partners and colleagues. A successful business leader should be surrounded by such people.

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by people who know their stuff and are willing to share their expertise with me. 

I have an incredible partner. My good friend, Alyson, is an amazing copywriter and strategist. We are able to do great things when we put our heads together.

I’m not alone because those are my workout buddies.

Combined strength, cardio, and circuit training

The second item on the list is combining strength, cardio, and circuit training.

In business, strength exercises refer to all the heavy lifting you have to do. I like to think of cardio as your endurance, while circuit training is the ability to move from one thing to the next.

My strength exercise was redoing my website. My intention was to have it as a massive gateway, so I definitely put a lot of effort into it.

Consistently posting on social media was my cardio. It’s something I necessarily didn’t want to do but started paying attention to since the end of last year. It paid off, and I’m seeing the results from my social media engagement.

There are a lot of things I want to do. There are many programs I want to learn, even though I’m not good at it. Taking the time to persevere and learn these programs is like circuit training for me.

As a successful business leader, you will always encounter new systems and procedures that need to be adopted.

Go to failure

The next thing on this awesome list of intensity is to go to failure.

When exercising, there are times you keep on working out until you can’t go on.

While I can hustle harder than anyone I know, I’m not particularly enthusiastic about pushing on until I can’t go anymore.

I worked so hard, sometimes I fell asleep at my desk in 2020. I don’t want to go back to that.

I choose to understand go to failure as meaning don’t give up. Do everything to the best of your abilities.

While I am not working until I drop in 2023, I am certainly making an effort to keep on pushing, even when it’s painful and hard.

Go for the hills

I think this one was written with me in mind. I love taking walks. I love being outside on trails. That said, I am not a fan of hills.

Going for the hills is not about avoiding them. It’s about looking at something hard to do and going, “Hang on. There has to be an easier way to do this. There has to be a better method.”

I do that all the time because I’m a good problem solver.

This is good. The danger here is when you’re good at problem-solving, you will eventually get into a habit of avoiding problems. Why deal with an issue when there’s a way around it.

There will come problems you can’t avoid. You can’t make unsatisfied customers vanish, and there’s no way around them.

As a successful business leader, be ready to take on those hills.

Pre exhaust

Pre-exhaust is a workout term that refers to exercising a specific part in order to fatigue the muscle group it belongs to. This ensures the part will perform at its maximum during a compound exercise.

In business, this means thoroughly exhausting one tool or technique before moving onto another.

For instance, I want to exhaust my email marketing before looking into a large automated campaign.

If I get really good at one thing, by milking it for all its worth, it means I have learned it so well. It then makes it easier when I try to do other things that have compounding parts to them.

Fartlek

This is a Swedish style of training where you switch between running fast and taking it slow. For instance, you can switch between sprinting and jogging at regular intervals.

I’ve had periods when I’m working so hard, I don’t realize I’ve gone beyond my limits. I would suddenly go from working to staring at my screen with blurry eyes and a blank mind.

It wasn’t working for me. It wasn’t ideal for the lifestyle I want for myself. 

I want to live a life that doesn’t require me to be chained to a desk the whole time.

That’s why I’m adapting a fartlek strategy for my business. I’m going to structure tasks in a way that one task directly leads to another. And I’m going to take breaks in between.

Fuel your body

Fueling your body is obviously doing all the necessary things – eating right and drinking water.

In business, this means having the right tools.

I use to mash together any software or tools to get the job done. I was more concerned with if I could afford the software instead of whether it was the right tool for the task.

For instance, there’s this tool called Pretty Links. It can help you track links among many things.

I was the kind of person who would use the free version, despite the fact it couldn’t provide all the information I needed.

I think we do this because the ineffective tool is what we know and have become comfortable using. Not wanting to put effort into purchasing and/or learning another tool is probably something else stopping us as well.

Just like your body needs the right fuel, your business needs the most effective tools.

Are you ready to become a successful business leader

I know you’re working hard to take your business to the next level. If you plan on embarking on an intensive process of becoming a successful business leader, some good habits to have are:

• Get workout buddies / partners.
• Don’t shy away from difficult tasks.
• Try your best without going to burnout.
• Remember you can’t always work your way around problems.
• Milk every tool for what it’s worth before rushing to another one.
• Pace yourself in order to maintain a good work-life balance.
• Get your business the best tools it needs to thrive.

I’ve been organizing summits and helping businesses build and convert leads for more than eight years. Book a free call with me to discuss your business.