RealityOS | Why Most Leaders Fail to Command the Present

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Plans are cute right up until the universe knees you in the junk.

Or as Mike Tyson put it, everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

So you got punched in the mouth.

What now?

Well, first, don't freak out.

70% of strategic plans fail on execution.

That's according to the Harvard Business Review.

The reason for this is most leadership advice is nostalgia wrapped in a PowerPoint delivered by a consultant who will be long gone when it comes to the actual execution of that plan.

And do you know how I know that?

I've spent over two decades building, leading, and selling businesses, most notably scaling rogue risk from zero to acquisition in just two years.

I've run national brands, launched an industry-defining event, and worked as a turnaround CEO for businesses in tech, insurance, and fitness.

I've coached founders, executives, and teams to unlock unreasonable growth by cutting through myths and leading in reality.

I don't teach theory.

I've lived the chaos, made the calls, and earned the scars.

If you want safe, pretty leadership advice, I'm not your guy.

If you want the truth and a system that wins in the real world, you are in the right place.

Today, we're kicking off a seven-part series on my Reality OS leadership operating system.

Specifically, we're going to break down the core tenets of the Reality OS system that allow leaders to play the game in front of them.

No myths, no excuses.

There are seven tenets, seven ways to stop leading in theory and start winning in reality.

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There are seven tenets, seven ways to stop leading in theory and start winning.

in reality.

The first, command the present, decide now, and own it.

The second, detach from the outcome, worship the process, not every little wiggle in the chart.

Number three, systematize for freedom.

Build machines, ditch bottlenecks.

Number four, lead with resonance, craft a voice that moves cultures.

Number five, own your edge, weaponize your self-awareness.

Number six, radical responsibility, nuke the excuses, seize control.

And number seven, unyielding focus, draconian priority, zero drift.

Adopt all seven of these and you will play the game in front of you better than anyone else in your space.

And they won't even see it coming.

So let's dive into tenant number one, command the present.

Play the game in front of you.

Early 2020, I launched Rogue Risk as a 100% digital insurance agency.

No handshakes, no golf tournaments, no dropping in with donuts.

Industry dinosaurs started barking, you can't sell insurance without breathing the same air as your clients.

I knew they were wrong.

I knew there was a better way, but I also had just dropped 35K in launching rogue risk.

So I caved.

I hedged my bets.

I put another 10K into an in-person local marketing campaign.

What a coward.

10 grand on slick folders, flyers, lead lists, email automation intro campaigns, and in-person drop-in campaigns.

We went live March 9th of 2020.

Seven days later, zombie apocalypse hits.

Governor shuts down the state, every office door locked, networking events gone.

The 10 grand in folders, coffee coasters.

The plan I had in my head was dead.

And

in that moment, I had two choices, cling to the myth and pray, hope the universe gives pity on me, or scrap it all and double down on reality.

I nuked the in-person.

I nuked the in-person play, tripled my content budget, lived on Zoom, automated everything, and made over 450 YouTube videos.

Two years later, Rogue Risk was acquired.

Not because I was the smartest, but because when the field changed, I changed faster.

Or at least I thought so.

Carl Van Kloswich called it the fog of war, the chaos and uncertainty where no plan survives first contact in reality.

Daniel Kamen proved we humans are terrible at this.

Loss aversion makes us cling to busted strategies, afraid of admitting we're wrong.

We double double down on losing plays because we can't bear to take the hit.

Ronald Hyfus calls the solution getting on the balcony, stepping back far enough to see the whole field, then diving back in with a new move.

Commanding the present means doing exactly that.

You pull every relevant data point, market signals, your team's capacity, and yes, your gut, and you act.

You act on what the playing field looks like in that moment.

Not hope, not best practices, not the way things should work or the way they were always done.

Great leaders make decisions based on reality and the real tangible feedback they're getting from the market.

Not next quarter, not when the board finally agrees, now.

Most leaders hide behind best practices and what's always worked because it shields them from risk.

But unreasonable results require unreasonable speed.

And that means the courage to throw away the script when the room changes.

Do you think I enjoyed lighting 10 grand on fire seven days into the life of my business?

Nope.

But the only other option would be to sit on my hands and wait for someone else to tell me it was okay to start prospecting in person again.

Couldn't wait that long.

By commanding the present moment, I was able to move past the 10K and the fear that caused me to hedge my bets in the first place and push forward with a new plan based on what was happening in the moment.

But that's not all I learned.

Here's a simple exercise that I use with my coaching clients to get a handle on the first core tenant.

Step number one, call this the confession.

Write down one safe decision you regret.

This can be anything, a new hire, a marketing campaign, a product decision.

It can be big or small decision.

We're not trying to make you feel bad.

We're practicing awareness for the types of decisions that keep you from playing in the moment.

Once that's done, we move to step number two, and this is our reality check.

List the upside you forfeited and the myth you obeyed.

So use as much detail as you need to to get a feel for the cost of that decision.

The emotional, financial, relational, it doesn't really matter.

We're trying to understand what the cost was to us and to our business.

Step number three, we call defiance.

Find one shred of proof that the myth you followed was crap.

Why was this idea a bad decision?

What hope, what theory, what myth, what best practice?

What delusion convinced you this was something that you needed to do?

And then finally, step number four is our action step.

Within 48 hours, pitch, post, or ship the bolder version.

Screenshot it.

Proof matters in this stage.

Write down how you fix this, or if you haven't fixed it yet, what you want to do instead.

Pulling from real stats, real feedback.

This is an exercise.

You don't need to show it to anybody.

What we're trying to do is create a mechanism, a habit.

an awareness for the decisions that you make that aren't based in reality.

We don't need to beat ourselves up for past decisions.

That's not what this is about.

We're not trying to create shame, regret, doubt.

No, we're trying to understand what is it inside of us that causes us to play it safe in the moon, in the moments where we need to act accordingly.

Trust me, I've made all the bad decisions over my career.

We are building an awareness muscle.

That's the goal of this exercise.

So we don't continue making these mistakes as we move forward.

My friends, commanding the present isn't macho chest thumping.

It's self-respect.

It's you saying, I will not be a passenger in my own business.

If you're feeling froggy, drop your completed drill, your completed exercise in the comments.

The first five that will get my personal tear down.

I'll pull them back on the show.

We'll talk about them.

We'll break them down.

So if you're feeling froggy, leave it in the comments.

Make sure that you get the next six installments of our Reality OS series.

So smash that subscribe button, whether you're listening or watching on YouTube, because the next episode, we're going to gut check your addiction to daily metrics and to outcomes.

And if you need more personalized help, email me.

You can email me anytime, Ryan at findingpeak.com, or DM me on Instagram.

There's a link below.

I'll leave you with this.

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