[Re-Release] Commitments vs. Communication: The Mindset Shift Every Solopreneur Needs

But I think it's one of the things we've identified through Lifestarr and, and through the app and everything is the difference between communication versus commitments, and we've really started leaning into commitments.

So can you share with our audience the real difference there and why it's such a game changer to focus on c- commitments versus communication?

S- well, I think what we do is we use communication to make commitments, but it's a pretty soft...

I mean, you know, we, we send an email, we send a Slack message, "Yeah, I'll get that to you by Friday." Where does it live? You know, it lives in your head.

It lives in a, a Slack thread that's, you know, by the time you, Friday comes, is 240 lines above any place you're gonna scroll to.

So I mean, the problem is that, you know, and this is especially true, uh, a lot of people use to-do lists, right? And that's great.

You might say, "I'll get that to you by Friday." Goes on my to-do list.

Maybe you put it on your calendar.

I don't love that 'cause I don't like using calendars for to-do lists.

But when somebody says to you, "I'm gonna get that to you by Friday," where does that live? Well, that lives i- in a commitment that they made that's in an email, in a Slack message, in a text message, uh, that you are now relying on your memory and pretty much trusting them to follow through on that.

And I had the experience way too many times of that trust being misplaced, right? People get busy.

You know, I use a to-do list.

They don't use a to-do list, and the next thing, it was due on Friday, and Tuesday afternoon I realized, "Hey, where is that?" And now I've got a problem because I needed that and two days of work after it to do what I was supposed to do for Wednesday.

And now I'm nudging somebody saying, "Where is it?" And it just, everything falls apart.

So this idea of Tracking commitments is s- kind of saying if somebody says they're gonna do something, well, that thing should live in, in its, in a place that it can be tracked and, and, and accessed and remembered and reminded.

You know, you can be reminded or they can be reminded of it, so that it's not a situation where somebody makes a promise, forgets, and the next thing, you know, the project or whatever it is you're working on is off the rails.

And Joe, let's kind of introduce what we think a, a commitment is.

Like the, it's like a three-part structure.

You have the what, which is like the specific deliverable or action, the who, who owns it, you or your client, and then the when, the deadline or the timeframe.

Those are the three parts, right?

Yeah.

Did I mess that up? [laughs]

And, and that's, uh, really, I'm glad you brought that up.

So the issue here is when you talk about making a commitment, don't just say marketing project, right? Don't just say, um, you know, new bike.

Say, you know, "Create a new marketing plan," or, "Find a new bike that I can use for my Pan-Mass Challenge." Um, it, you know, you wanna be very specific when you start talking about, you know, tracking and, and recording commitments because if you, if you aren't, if it isn't clear what is being committed to, then it can be up for interpretation, and that's another place where things can fall apart.