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Rob D. Willis: Welcome to superpowered. My name is Rob d Willis, and each week I talk to leaders about their superpowers, how they got them, and how you can get a bit of them as well.

This is a special episode. 'cause it's actually being released on my birthday. I'm becoming quite reflective in my old age and I was thinking about this podcast and what I really want to achieve with it, and that's to create something useful. And not just a load of conversations, and that's why I had the idea for the listener challenge.

This is a part of the pod where each week I give listeners an exercise or a ritual, something that they can try out to get a bit of my guests superpower. There've been quite a few of them now. I know that these can get lost, so I thought it would be fun to pick five that I want to implement myself over the next year.

Of course, it's gonna be worth going back to those episodes and listening to the whole thing. It gives you a lot of context, I find, and I will include links to those episodes in the show [00:01:00] notes, as well as some other resources that I think are gonna help.

Without further ado, let's get into it.

Habit one is from ELA Kin and it's all about challenging everything. ELA is an investor, and I remember this quote from Gary Stevenson about investing. He says that a successful investor needs to be right when everyone else. Is wrong. That's, I guess, the key in finding undervalued assets, and that's what UL's Company 77 Labs is all about, And she tries to cultivate this contrarian thinking in her life. So she gave this awesome challenge.

Yoela Palkin: so I

Rob D. Willis: I.

Yoela Palkin: do this one myself. I really call it, you know, the challenge, everything exercise and it's really a day that you dedicate to essentially writing down everything that you're focused on, all the priorities, and be able to ask yourself the question of. [00:02:00] If I were not to do this, or if this were not to work, what would I be doing?

And it allows you to actually become the contrarian, become the outsider, question your priorities, and enable you to essentially figure out if what you're focusing on. Is actually right

Actually, right.

lead you to success. And I

I suggest.

almost like as a quarterly check-in with yourself. And it's to the point it, I really think that it has to do with deeply holding assumptions that you. Should not believe in yourself and and what you're doing. And actually question if the opposite were true, would this still make sense? And I know that sounds a little bit harsh, but it's very, very important to actually almost go against what you're doing instead of. For anything that you have prioritized in order to get to the kind of final answers.

[00:03:00] And then with that, you essentially have a bucket of ideas that work and that you should continue and a bucket of ideas or projects or tasks that you should probably kill. And that is, that is the best outcome of that exercise.

Rob D. Willis: That's awesome. Have you got any particular things you'd feel comfortable sharing, which you've decided to stop doing?

Yoela Palkin: Yeah. So I have basically like repositioned my last couple of months with my responsibilities at 77 Labs even. So I. I basically have stopped you know, be I've stopped operating inside of specific companies. I was taking on roles and responsibilities that frankly were not suited for me, that I was just doing and that couldn't scale.

So, for example, I was. trying to be you know, a chief

Chief.

officer as well as a Chief Technical officer for a couple of our companies where I felt that, you know, those roles weren't filled [00:04:00] properly. Or I

I could.

any way, you know, help the the individual that was in those roles. And so I've basically stopped doing most tactical things now for our companies, and I'm now. Repositioning myself to understand what is the exit plan for our fund and what are the exit plans for our current list of portfolio companies. And with all that, I basically realized that we needed to build a few more systems, a few more processes, so I could completely take myself out of certain day-to-day activities.

And so that has become my to-do list, and I've basically killed anything that is operationally heavy. And unnecessary meetings and things that like I don't check email much anymore. Things that really are going to distract me from understanding the outcome within the next three to five years for, for the fund versus every single [00:05:00] portfolio company and their tactical needs and daily operational requirements.

Rob D. Willis: I did this exercise during my semester break over Easter. To give you a little bit of context, I divide my year into three semesters with a little bit of a break for reflection and planning and so on. And this exercise helped me examine how I'd been spending my time since the beginning of the year, and I realized that I've been spending way too much time not pursuing my mission, which is help leaders.

Executives, investors tell strategic stories that inspire their teams and get things done. I'm so grateful for this insight. It's helped me plan my next semester up to the summer, and it's gonna save me a lot of time I think.

Next up is a habit from Henry Kaiser, who was formerly a top sales guy at Zoom, and his superpower is about connecting with people. Having got to know him, I can tell you that he really walks the walk and [00:06:00] this was his challenge for consistent daily messaging.

Henry: Well, let's take that thing about being top of mind what we talked about at the beginning. And I think doing it on a personal level, you know, a lot of people are probably going to say, how does the top of mind post on LinkedIn every day? Do that. Like it's not going to hurt, but let's change the challenge and say, Well, like we said, you know, if you do three outreaches a day, that's a thousand a year.

Well, just stick at that and just like don't expect anything. It's completely fine if Don't answer like don't worry You are on top of mind because you sent that and because you showed you care. So yeah, Spend five minutes a day three people in a one way message without expecting anything in return just to stay top of mind

Rob: So a one way message, that would imply, do you, do you have like a hierarchy of channels that you like using? Do you like calling? Do you like whatsapping? Do you like linkedinning? If that's a verb. [00:07:00] Mm

Henry: You're not calling. So to have a call is great because it's like the best form you can do on a on a, and I think using your telephone is better than video calls or anything because who still uses a telephone apart from calling your parents and because it's voice messages, it's text messages.

Text messages all that kind of stuff, but if it's one way I wouldn't recommend telephone if you if you can build that in but Really, you know send a message now. We're coming towards the end of the year right now as we're recording this It's time for Christmas cards these kind of things, you know Happy New Year

wishes build a list and send out 50 Happy New Year messages Send out a hundred Christmas messages

It's good

Rob D. Willis: there are lots of ways to approach this. Maybe you don't wanna do three a day, maybe just one. The important thing is that you do something. One point that Henry mentioned after our [00:08:00] call actually was that when you write down all of those names in a document, you realize how few people you really have.

And you need to build upon it. And if that's the case for you as it it was for me, I'd recommend a couple of other frameworks for daily outreach, one of which is by Bob Gentle. It's called The Reach Method and the other by Matthew Kimberly, which is his five Things a Day. I'll link to both of those in the show notes.

For tools I recommend. Using a tool called Dex, that's DEX. It syncs with your WhatsApp, LinkedIn, email, calendar, events, everything. Basically, it's on your phone, it's on your laptop. It's got reminders, it's got prompts to reach out to people, whatever business you are in, whether you are self-employed or in a company.

Consistent networking is the only real shortcut that there is to any kind of success.

The next habit comes from Alex, MH Smith, who is a strategy consultant.

Now, his idea of a strategy [00:09:00] is bringing unique market value, and his point from our episode was that you cannot reverse engineer that . The bean counters, as he calls them, cannot tell you what to do. You need to have an opinion, which means allowing yourself to have an opinion. And his exercise, his ritual is all about doing that.

Alex M H Smith: So writing online in public is a superpower, like but Everybody should do this, but, but, but the big crucial thing is do not do it as marketing. Do not think to yourself, Oh, I'm doing some social media marketing here. Maybe that will happen as a by product. That is, that, that is the huge error that people make.

You need to think of it. And everybody should do this as a form of essentially kind of public journaling. And this is about develop what I said about developing an opinion and, and, and knowing your own mind. So sit down right in your industry, right? I'm taking this in a professional sphere, [00:10:00] right? 20 opinions that you have about your, your industry, your category Whatever the best that you can do.

And of course, a lot of them are going to be kind of like sort of rehashed opinions, but just, just get 20 things down on paper. Then choose either X or LinkedIn, or maybe at a pinch, if it fits your industry. a forum like a subreddit or something as your as your, your platform for doing this. And then you literally just like each one of those 20 opinions, you just write a post about it.

Just text only no pictures. Don't try and be clever. You just write like, basically here's what I think and here's why, here's why I think it. And don't sit there thinking about like, how can I Turn this into sort of lead gen, because then you'll, the thing will completely collapse. Just got to write the opinion.

Then of course you can watch and see, all right, well, which of these gets more reaction than others? And again, you're not trying to grow an [00:11:00] audience. When I say more reaction, it might be your normal post gets two likes. This post got seven likes. That's very, very, very meaningful signal. And then you can go back and you can just sort of essentially just keep on writing that post in five different ways, the same fundamental point, just in different ways.

And each time you're going to get clearer on your voice, you're going to get clearer on your articulation, and you're actually going to develop a thesis. Which is yours. And from this point, good things start to happen. And, and who knows, maybe you will also grow an audience and you get marketing value out of it.

Like I say, you'll only get marketing value if you don't think about it as marketing.

Rob D. Willis: This exercise is very similar to what I've heard Seth Godin and Ryan Holiday talk about, which is about daily blogging to help you find your voice and form those opinions. I'm actually really excited to try this, this out because I know that forming a unique voice is an area that I can improve [00:12:00] on a lot, but I'm unsure about.

The best environment, the blog, you dunno that anyone's gonna see it. YouTube is intimidating. XI don't like, and LinkedIn, I'm doing it. It feels like marketing and I get Alex's point that it cannot be marketing. So I'd love to hear your thoughts. You know, what could I do? One thing I do know is that I'd love to combine it with the next habit, which is from Bob Gentle.

He's a personal branding coach who helps people monetize their expertise, and his habit is about turning up every day in a very unstructured way.

Bob Gentle: the first one is Is what really helped me get over my mental junk around video because most people, A, hate the sound of their own voice. The biggest barrier to podcasting is hearing your own voice. We have a visible, visceral negative reaction to it. Everybody does. If you don't, you're probably a psychopath.

It helps with that. But video is exactly the same. [00:13:00] Most people have a visceral negative reaction to seeing themselves on camera. So, I started doing what I call the Captain's Log, where every day, I used a proper camera, not my phone at the time, record a video diary for want of a better word. And I've, it was just a couple of minutes long.

What's happening today? What have I done this morning? What am I doing tonight? What you say almost doesn't matter, but you have to watch it back. You never have to publish it, but what it does is it desensitizes you to the emotional reactions you're going to have. And you also very quickly become quite good at.

Framing yourself in the camera and then suddenly you think, you know what, I could post this. Video is probably the most powerful thing when it comes to building your leadership brand because people connect with us in ways on video that they just don't in other ways. People watch us on video and they will reach out and say, I saw what you did there.

I want some help. People [00:14:00] react to video more than they react to anything else.

Rob D. Willis: I'm definitely excited to start this one. It's, it's perfect for anyone who wants to become a better storyteller. I can definitely imagine recommending this to all of my clients. It helps you find your voice by not overthinking, just capturing random thoughts.

That is often where the best new insights emerge. You've probably noticed in conversations, things will pop in your head and you'll think, oh, that was interesting, this automates and systematizes capturing those moments.

The final habit is from Lindsay Francis, who is a nephrologist. Now, nephrology isn't that well known in Germany where I live, or the UK where I'm from, but it's very big in France and Spain. It's all about harnessing the power of the mind and mental wellness for better performance.

And the first step in Lindsay's framework is about presence. So really understanding how you feel now before you can change how you feel.

Lindsey Frances: Well, Rob, you know, I'm absolutely on a mission to share [00:15:00] this, so the thing I would really encourage people do is to do as a challenge, is to take five breaths using five fingers as a way of measuring your counting and watching whether or not you can concentrate on your breath for the entire five inhales and exhales.

So I'm going to challenge you now and turn the tables. We're not going to do it now, but I'd like you to do it later and let me know if we sit and breathe five times in and out in. Out and we continue. Can you actually concentrate on your breathing the entire time? Or has your mind wandered off to the past or accelerated into the future in that short window?

Because concentration and attention is the only thing we have left as humans that AI can't replicate and we must must protect it.

Rob D. Willis: Sounds simple, but it's really difficult. The monkey brain just follows so many distractions, especially with the way we use our phones nowadays.[00:16:00]

I dunno about you, but I cannot be bored for one second anymore, through this practice though, you can begin to generate that awareness, understand your feelings, and then build plans to make positive changes. A very special mention I'd like to make is the episode with David Pullin and Sarah Jane McKenney.

Sarah Jane also emphasized the idea of the breath, particularly in a hectic world. We've got like one meeting to the next and there's no, you know, blocker in between. She says, just take one purposeful breath in between all of your arrangements. To become more aware of where you are now. 'cause we're so focused on the exterior, everything going on around us that we lose sight of what's going on inside.

That is the five habits. Obviously there's more I'd love to share and I've got some unreleased episodes with some habits, which are some of my favorite yet, but they're not out, so please make sure that you subscribe to hear those if you're a long time listener.

Thank you so much for being part of [00:17:00] this. If you haven't done so yet, could you take a minute to review the show wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps us reach more people. I'm very proud. Of what we've done with the podcast and the kinds of guests that we've got to come on. So please make sure that we share it around.

Last thing, do you like this format a bit different today, but I found that we get stuck doing the same thing sometimes. And I've enjoyed looking back and making this episode, but do you like it? And are there any other ways that you'd like to hear about people's superpowers? Drop me a message on LinkedIn.

I'd love to hear from you. Rob d Willis is the name. I'm gonna see you next week for another episode of Superpowered. . [00:18:00]