Flashback Episode: Design Your Year Before Someone Else Does It for You! | Scott Rusnak | Ep 208

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:00

Welcome to the Better Business, better life podcast, throwback series. My name is Debra Chantry-Taylor, and I'm the host of the podcast. I'm a certified EOS implementer, a family business advisor and a business owner myself and I developed this podcast to help bring you tips and tools to help you create a better business and create a better life. For the next five episodes, though, we're revisiting some of the most inspiring, thought provoking conversations from our archives. These episodes are packed with wisdom, practical advice and stories to help you create a business that delivers better results and a better life. So whether you're hearing them for the first time or enjoying a refresher, each one offers timeless insights to help you on your journey. Let's dive into this week's throwback episode. This week, we're revisiting episode 38 with Scott Rusnak. In this conversation, Scott challenges us to take control of our year by designing it with intention before somebody else does from mindset shifts to actionable strategies. This episode will help you start the year strong and stay on track for success. Let's dive in.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:08

So good morning, and welcome to another episode of Better Business, better life. It's a brand new year, and I'm really excited to have Scott Rusnak back again with me, and Scott is about to become an expert EOS implementer. He's been doing EOS. How many years now? Scott?

Scott Rusnak  01:23

Well, formally, this is coming up in my fifth year, but there was a spell before that when I did all kinds of crazy things.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:30

So you might remember, like, remember Scott from one of our previous podcasts? He's back today, because being a new year, it's a really great time to actually be thinking about what does the year ahead look like for you. And Scott has got some fantastic tips about designing your year before someone else does is that right?

Scott Rusnak  01:47

That's exactly it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:48

Excellent. So before we get started, we always do the EOS thing. Can you give us a professional and a personal best, please, Scott?

Scott Rusnak  01:54

Well, I'd like to start with personal best. Gosh, this year we celebrated 30 years of marriage, and so we were able to go to we called it 30 for 30. So we went to Greece for 30 days to celebrate our 30th anniversary. So we were really intentional about that, and it was a total blast.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  02:13

Oh, that sounds fantastic. Actually, I haven't dealt for a long, long time. How was it?

Scott Rusnak  02:18

Well, we were in Greece, and so we went to seven different islands, and I felt like I was in seven different countries. So it was really cool.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  02:25

Fantastic. And professionally, what's been happening professionally?

Scott Rusnak  02:29

Well, it's been an amazing year. I feel a little guilty with everything that's going on in the world. I was able to do 170 EOS sessions. But the cool part, and I'll be a little selfish, is that my book has sold out twice. We're going through a big rewrite right now, so I'm really excited about that.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  02:46

That's fantastic. Sold out twice. Okay, so it's the new year, and we all know that. You know, people go right, New year, new start. Let's start planning for the year ahead. But setting goals is one thing, knowing what your vision is, nothing what, what do you do to make sure that your year is the best year it possibly can be?

Scott Rusnak  03:06

Debra, you teed it up perfectly. It's, first of all, it's nice to be on a podcast with another member of the Commonwealth. So I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions or any of that kind of stuff. I'm a big fan of designing my year to make sure that I really flow with my energy zones, and I can decide when to say yes or no. So I really get intentional before the year actually ends, so that I know that on the first second, third, I'm ready to go so that I'm surrounding myself with my family, my loved ones, my friends and the right clients, so the year will be successful.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:50

So how do you do that?

Scott Rusnak  03:52

Yeah, it's hard to say no, but when you can say no with the right intentions in place, it can be, become a pretty amazing experience. And I've got something called the 515, 150, I don't have I found that I don't have the capacity to have more than five really good friends. So I've got five people that I know if I needed to call them at two in the morning, they'd pick up the phone. And some of those people are family members as well. And then I've got something called the 15, and those 15 are people that I've been friends with for a heck of a long time. I really enjoy being with. And I use a tool called the people analyzer, a fabulous EOS tool, and I tell my friends about it. I'm like, you're still a plus plus. You get what it's like to be my friend. You want to be my friend. I want to be your friend, and we both got the capacity for each other. And that group of five and 15, that's about 20 people that I really mesh my life around. You know, someone that you know you'll get a text back in 24 hours, they'll pick up the phone, what have you. And those are the people I really want to be intentional with my life. I'll show you how I designed my year around them. A little bit. But then I've got this group of 150 which are other EOS implementers, current and past clients. And I'll make sure that if those people reach out, and other family members, if they reach out, that I'm there for them within 24 to 48 hours. And those rules really give me the freedom to then go and design my year, my quarter and my days around all my priorities.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  05:26

I love that. I've never heard of GWC being used for your friends and family. I like it. Watch out friends. I'm coming.

Scott Rusnak  05:35

Yeah, dirty little secret. I've had to fire some friends in my life, because we have a three-strike rule at EOS. Okay, first strike, hey, look, is it you or is it me? Well, hey, look, if we're going to be surrounding ourselves with people we love being with, because we want to have a great effect in the world when this happened, hey, that wasn't so cool. Was it me or was it you? And you just say, it happens again, we're probably going to have to break up. So there's some break been some breakups in the world, and I'm sure some people have broken up with me as well. So you've really got to surround those people that fit your core values, that you get each other. You want to be with one another, and you really got that mental, emotional, physical capacity to be around one another.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  06:16

Yeah, I love it. That's great. And then, so if people fall outside of this 515, 115, then what happens to them?

Scott Rusnak  06:26

Well, they contact you, and you say to them, you know, I've designed my year around my family, my passions and a lot of the work that I'm doing. And they ask, you know, if they want to get on my calendar for Thursday the 24th of February, I'll say, Well, no, I'm sorry. I've got my year planned out, and we can't meet then, but I'll be back probably mid-March. If you want to get together, then no problem. So I'm not saying that they're going to try out again, but if they want to have an open, honest conversation and discuss how to get back on my calendar, I get back on theirs. I'm an open book as well, but I want to make sure that those people flow around that the other thing I do Debra. And here's another one that'll make you laugh. Let's have a tool called the delegate and elevate check.

Scott Rusnak  07:21

I say people. And so for me, that just allows me to say, hey, are these people one of those? And hopefully my internet is still good.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  07:36

I know we're half a world apart, but hopefully you can still hear me. We just actually had a little bit break up there, so I just get to repeat that, if you don't mind. So you were talking about the delegate and elevate tool.

Scott Rusnak  07:45

Yeah. So if I really dig into my delegate and elevate checklist, which is a fabulous EOS tool, it'll tell me, what do I love to do? What I what am I great at? I love hanging around passionate people. And if I can hang around with passionate people who are fun, like you and very focused on getting what they want from their life, that makes it really easy for me to say yes or no to those people.           

Debra Chantry-Taylor  08:09

Sure, cool. I'm really fascinated. I haven't really thought about using some of these tools in my personal life. This is fantastic. Okay, cool. So it's not as if so. What you're saying is that by having some structure, and by using these tools, you're able to make decisions more easily. And it doesn't mean it's set in stone. It means that you have an opportunity to decide whether or not it's worthwhile doing something with it. Is that right?

Scott Rusnak  08:32

Absolutely. And Debra, we've got something called the EOS life, which I flipped upside down for me, the most important thing in my life is I need time to pursue other passions, right? But I want to make sure that I'm being compensated appropriately. I'm making a huge impact on the world, doing what I love with people I love. Well, why can't we do that, not only at work, but in our own lives as well. So I really try to embrace that in my own life to make sure it comes right back to that delegate and elevate. I want to hang out with passionate people and clients as well. If they're not passionate, they really want to push for more. They're probably not a good fit for me. They want someone who's just buy the book, and they're going to do it like this. I'll refer them to someone else. I want to have some fun, and I wasn't really passionate as well.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  09:22

Life is too short, right? I do not have fun.

Scott Rusnak  09:26

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's important to me.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  09:30

So you've got your 515, 150, using your GWC, using your delegate and elevate. You've also got this planner kind of tool as well. Haven't you tell me about that?

Scott Rusnak  09:41

Well, in my delegate and elevate checklist The second thing down, other than hanging out with passionate people, this is going to sound crazy. I don't think I'm OCD, but I love planning out my year, and I've done that since the age of, gosh, 18-19, when I was trying to become a professional cyclist, I would map out. Races through the year that I thought I could win, and so I brought that into my adult life before I joined EOS. So I just said, Look, why can't I take a here's a setup of my 12 month calendar. Why can't I take a 12 month calendar and really get intentional at the start of the year and highlight those days where I'm going to be skiing, surfing, traveling the world with my wife, and really hold those close to my heart to make sure that nobody infringes on those.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:30

Yeah, and so the full of users who couldn't they're listening, but can't see that. I'll share a snapshot on the website is fantastic. So it's basically what we would call an annual planner. And there are yellow days highlighted out is where Scott's going to take his holidays, for surfing, for cycling, for being with his wife, doing all the fun things. Yeah?

Scott Rusnak  10:49

Yeah. And then the other part, because we're both members of the Commonwealth, I'm a dual citizen. So not only do I take July 4 and it's in blue, I take July 1, that's Canada Day. So I put those things in my calendar as well. The other thing I do is I put my kid’s birthday. Hey, my one son is birthday. Is Christmas day? Well, that's an easy one, but I take boxing day the next day so nobody's touching me. Then the sixth of January is an important day. It's one of my other son's birthday. I want to make sure I'm intentional with all these things. So my wife's birthday, my mother's birthday, these things are in my calendar just to make sure that, yes, again, these are the most important things in my life. I want to make sure that I don't miss those important dates.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  11:29

That's really cool, very good.

Scott Rusnak  11:33

And then the scary part, and I know maybe some of my clients will hear this, is that I get really intentional on the days that I want to work with clients. And when I was looking at last year, I had about 170 client days, which is a heck of a lot of client days, probably a little too much, but that's okay. I love helping this year, I've decided I want to try to do no more than 100 client days. And when I was mapping my year out, I just have wrapped up some manuals in December and January, I told them about what I was doing for the year, and they my clients like, that's a really darn good idea. So I went through the exercise of them mapping out their year, of me mapping out my year. We got intentional on sessions. And again, most of the people listening or watching this podcast. Can't see all these dates, but I've got blue dates in there for my client sessions. So here's what I want to be able to do my sessions, preferably not on Mondays, so it's midweek, and the odd Friday is when I want to do my client sessions. And I know that January is incredibly busy, and we go through this 90 day world with EOS. Well, that means April is going to be really busy. Well, then that means that July will be busy. So I try to map it out with that flow in mind as well.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  12:50

That’s great. Yeah, we have a slightly different financial year over here, so it's our march that is a really busy, busy time. But like same principle applies, right? It's making sure that you've got those times kind of mapped out so and it also, I guess, helps you in terms of, if you know that you want to do 100 consulting days or session days, then there's a certain number of clients that you can work with, right? So you're not trying to push yourself too much in terms of number of clients. Would that be fair?

Scott Rusnak  13:15

Yeah, absolutely. You know, at EOS, we have something called a scorecard. So I have my own personal scorecard. I try to never do more than three sessions a week. Two is the optimal number. So my scorecard number says two, because we need to be able to rest, gain clarity, prepare in between, and so it's really important to make sure that when we're doing those session days, we're super present and there's no distractions before we walk into that room, yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  13:45

So how do you in terms of working with your clients? For people listening in, they go, Well, you're an EOS implementer. That's easy. You get to control how things work. But this is the same for anybody who runs a business, right? Anybody can actually take this discipline and go, This is what is important to me.

Scott Rusnak  14:02

Yeah. Well, interesting enough. When I was working at my last business, which was called school logic, that was a lot of airplane time, and I designed my year so that every second week I would be away from home, Tuesday to Thursday, so I'd be New York, Chicago, LA, whatever it was on an airplane, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The following week, I was in the office. I was preparing, getting ready, but then every second week again, Tuesday, Thursday, I was our client facing, so it is very similar to what we do at EOS. I knew that every second week for three days I'd be on the road. Now, sometimes that schedule got thrown in the mix. But I tried to follow that structure, because when the school season would kick in with school logic after Labor Day, yeah, I'd probably say for the first six, seven weeks of the start of the school year. I was on the road, but only for three days a week, and I knew if it was more than three, I would just get burnt out, because it was a real possibility.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  14:58

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So can you give us some tips around how you say no to people? Because you know when you love to help people like we do, it can sometimes be really hard to say no, that doesn't work, or no for another reason. How do you how do you do that?

Scott Rusnak  15:15

Yeah, so then let's go backwards again to that people analyzer, first of all, core values when I meet a potential client. In fact, I was mountain biking with a potential client today. Absolutely passionate, amazing. We talked about his business, where he wanted to be, but I realised that he didn't fit one of our really important core values, humbly confident it was all about him, and he seemed that the business was driven around his ego. And I said to him, Have you ever been coached before? Have you ever been directed in your business? Have you ever brought someone in from the outside to work with your leadership team? And he said, No, you know, I prefer if you just worked with me, and I'd like to change the flow. So I took him through the people analyze on our pot and our process. I said, I'm probably not the right, not the right fit for you, but I think I can find someone else. So that was a very easy no for me. Okay, so again, he was passionate, but he didn't fit the people analyzer. I don't think he got what we did. I think he wanted it. I know he had the capacity, but when there's a strike there, it really sets off a little bit of a stoplight, a red light, and stop. They go, Okay, we need to stop. Now I clarify, and he agreed it wasn't the right fit.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  16:25

Yeah, okay, perfect. So by having those kind of boundaries and those rules, and not too much rules, but the frameworks, it means you have the ability to explain, you know, the reasoning, I suppose, and give them a reason.

Scott Rusnak  16:42

And there's a client I'm talking to right now. They want to onboard. And I said to them, Look, the week of January, 24 works really well. And here's the reason why, because we get into at the start. We meet every 30 days. So I said after that, the week of the 21st of February works good, and the 21st of March. So they understood that flow. And I said, if we're going to commit to move forward, you need to understand that. And then 90 days thereafter. And so they're getting their head wrapped around that right now, because if we change the journey to a certain degree, this thing, we call it EOS, it just doesn't work. So I get on the same page with them on my calendar, when I show them my calendar, actually give them a snapshot of the calendar so they don't know I'm thinking it. They really understand. So we'll have a conversation this week to see if that flow works for them, and if it doesn't, again, I'll refer them to someone else, because I've got to make sure that works for me and them. If I'm tripping over another client to serve another client, it's just not going to work.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  17:42

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Cool. Okay, so you put together that planner. Did you use some kind of special software? Is it an Excel spreadsheet like, what is it that creates that beautiful piece of work?

Scott Rusnak  17:55

Debra, I'm an I'm a caveman. You're okay. You drew it? Yeah, other than this thing called Zoom, if I look to the right, I've got a planner on the wall that we talked about before we started this session. Yeah, and it's just in ink, and it's all written down. But for the purposes of this podcast and a number of talks I'm doing through the year, this is just an Excel spreadsheet. Yeah, it's the simplest thing. It goes on the fridge downstairs. My wife would love it. It was in Google Map. And I'm like, I'm not doing that. I'm not putting it on the calendar. Here's what the year looks like, yeah. And, you know the wonderful thing about it, and I don't want to sound robotic or mechanical, but I've got a favourite uncle. You can have a favourite uncle, right? You can't have a favourite uncle. Yeah, I've got a favourite uncle who helped me with my book, and I absolutely love him to death. His name's Rob Butler. There you go. Rob caller, but his daughter is getting married in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He said, Hey, Scott, it's June 25 it's a Saturday. I was like, oh geez. I had a client session on the 23rd which is a Thursday, but I really want to go early to go fishing with them a little bit. So this allows me to then talk to my client, and said, say, would you move to the 21st or 22nd so I can fly to Canada, so I can go fishing with him before this wedding. And, you know, then I blocked the entire week out after, which leads me into Canada Day and July 4. So this allows me to have a really open, honest discussion with friends, family, clients, that five and 15 and that 150 so here's how my year is looking. Do you mind if we make a little change here or there?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  19:30

Yeah. And I think most people understand, especially when they you know, when they understand why you're wanting to do that. So I really applaud that. So the old war planner, um, I've got one too. I absolutely love it, and I get teased about it being old fashioned, but for me, it's a really great visual snapshot of exactly what the year looks like. And it means if I'm on the phone to a client and they're asking about a date, rather than trying to go through calendars and seeing what so I can look at my war plan and go, these are the days I've got free. It makes a whole lot easier. You find same in terms of that visual element?

Scott Rusnak  20:02

Every time I walk out of my office, I look at it, I can look at it, and I'll see that. Okay, the first of September, I know what's going on. So subconsciously, I know when I walk out of my office every morning to go do a session, or I walk out to go mountain biking or skiing, I know exactly how I want the year to flow. So I don't need to come back to this little eight and a half by 11 piece of paper. It's right there. And if anyone else wants to look like, look at it, it's right there as well. And I think it's a tool that has changed my entire life, as simple as it is.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  20:32

Yeah, fantastic. I know Gino talked about it in one of his talks to us a couple of years ago. That just sort of blew me away, even just the process of thinking about, you know, what is the ideal amount of time that you want to spend at work? And it's different for all of us. This is the thing that I kind of struggled with, because I thought that, you know, initially it's like, well, you need to work five days a week for however many, 48 weeks in a year, whatever it might be. But Gina says, No, what is your optimal like? Where do you actually perform your absolute best? And for some people, that might be 70-80, 90 hours a week. For others, it will be 20-30, and there's no right or wrong, but it's about recognizing what works for you, both from a an hours per week, but also number of weeks in the year. How much holiday do you need to ensure that you're refreshed? I've just come back from a two and a half week holiday, and it's the first time in a long time taken that break, and I have to say, it was just phenomenal. I now need to make sure that we have those booked in regularly throughout the year.

Scott Rusnak  21:26

Well, we're on the same page. I'm looking at a Venn diagram as well, like I get into all these goofy things. Yeah, so picture the three circles, and I'll send you the PDF of it. Yes, one circle up top that says family and vacation, one circle over here that says other passions. And then one circle on the bottom, it says my EOS practice last year. When I calculated the dates, look at it again, my practice took 170 days, so that was 46.5% of my time. Not to get too deep, my other passions took 26.5% of my time, but family and vacation took 27% so I just calculated my dates. But my family, or sorry, my practice took a really big circle of time, and this year, I was very intentional. I said to my kids, who are 23 and 25 my wife's like, I'm going to dial that back. So I practice this year we'll have a smaller circle and only take 27% of my time, so my family vacation and passions will then get 63% of my time. And I actually think I'll be a better EOS implementer because of it. I'll have more time to really prepare, more time for clarity, and I'll be more present with my family and my other passions.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  22:39

Fantastic. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your book? You mentioned before that your book has got its second sold out. Is that right? Tell us about the book. Tell us what, what prompted you to write it, and what it's about.

Scott Rusnak  22:53

I've been writing the book for about 10 years, and I finally published it last year. The book is called design your life before someone does it for you, and it's the entrepreneur's Field Guide, and it leads in with a bit of a silly story of me as an 11 year old kid on a mountain called Marmot, basin, Jasper, Alberta, Canada. And as a little kid, I was really a passionate kid out of paper route. Want to make my own money, want to become a professional athlete of some sort so jump on this expert chair lift. And my day of having fun on the ski mountain is by myself, -10, -20 Celsius. Leave me alone. Ski in the trees. I don't want to be bothered, so I get on this chair lift. It comes to a stop. I'm like, oh, that's broken. This is not going to be good. Well, this wiry old character sits down beside me, and he looked like he was in a back-alley bra. His stuff was all torn and the lift he looks at me and says, Hey, have a good ride. Kid, have a good ride. Yeah, you're gonna have a good time. So the guy that jumps on the chair left, he says to me, what are you doing over here? Kid, where are your parents? I said, I ski alone. He's like, wow, that's frightening. Well, where do you ski? I said, I ski over there on the spruce line, stuff on this expert run. He's like, you're gonna kill yourself. Kid, what are you talking about? Yeah, just, I just go over there. He's like, Well, 20 meters to that side, you'll fall off the cliff. Why don't you come with me? We go to the top of the lift. We push forward. We hike for another 34 minutes. We ski the back country. I said, You're crazy. He's like, no kid. If you go past where everyone else thinks is the top, and you push further and you don't overthink it, he said, I want to just take two turns at a time, and you'll get the most incredible ski run of your life. And I was 11 years old, and that had such an impact on me. I don't overthink things. I push further. I just take life two turns at a time, knowing that if I plan up my year, my ski run, my business, I can get to the bottom of anything.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  24:53

You always blow me away with how many talk you've got so many stories and so many great ideas. So the book is about designing your life where somebody else does. And I'm assuming it actually gives you lots of tips and tools and things that can actually help you with that. Is that right?

Scott Rusnak  25:05

Yeah, so it's about 40 lessons and exercises, much like the annual planner, the weekly planner. We talk about some EOS stuff in there, but also talk about, who do you surround yourself? What's your story? What do you want to get out of your life? What do you want your legacy to look like. So when you're close to that point where you're not moving quite like you are anymore, what's that thing going to look like? So it's been an absolute blast writing it. The rewrite is really fun, and I hope to have it out for February.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  25:32

Fantastic. We'll make sure we have a link to that in the podcast as well as we're making it pre order it. Hey, look, we're running out of time. It just goes so quickly. So I guess before we kind of finish up, I'd love to just get three tips that we could give to the listeners, they could actually use in their life, in their business, in their life. What would be your top Scott's top three tips?

Scott Rusnak  25:51

Well, again, I just hate to put a plug in for all these EOS things we do, but it's hard not to question, yeah, take the EOS tools and put them into your life. Yeah, right. So I'm talking at the EOS conference. I'll put a plug in for that on April the 22nd in Orlando, and my talk is going to be design your life before someone else does it for you. Use those EOS tools. Use the people analyzer, yeah. So there's the first one who you describe yourself with. The second tip is use the delegate and elevate to make sure you're really getting what you want out of your life. What are your passions? What do you love to do? What are you great at? Stay in that box and really try to focus in that box. Then the last one, which I have to credit, Carey Nieuwhof. He wrote a book called At Your best. And I guess I sort of, I'm a fan of R and D. I researched and developed and maybe ripped off and duplicate a little bit Carey, but absolutely love your book. And he talks about that 515, 150 and I really try to be intentional with that. You know, maybe someone's got a 714, 140 but for me, you know, I want to surround myself with the right people and make sure that I'm getting everything going on with my life as well. So those are my top three tips. Use those EOS tools, put them in your life. Design your life before someone else does it for you. And think about 515, 150, why not?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:16

It's a great concept. I'm thinking about it already. I haven't reached the podcast yet. Hey, Scott, look a pleasure, as always. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. If people would like to get in contact with you, what's the best way to get in contact with you Scott?

Scott Rusnak  27:31

At scottrusnak.com

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:36

Wonderful. And we will put a couple of things in the way we publish podcasts, put a couple of links. So we'll put those three circles. We'll give you the snapshot of that planner so you can see that and a link to your new book for next or the RE release when it comes out.

Scott Rusnak  27:52

And I don't have New Year's resolutions, but I do hope for the next 12 months, I can get back to the land of the kiwi, because absolutely love New Zealand, and we've never met in person, but we're besties, so I don't know how that works.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  28:05

You have to come and visit and we have to go mountain biking in the forest, all that kind of stuff. You're fantastic. But yeah, and I'm looking forward. I mean, hopefully, if our prime minister allows us, we should be able to travel later on this year. So I'm looking forward to come to the US as well. Let's do it. Perfect. Hey. Thanks, Scott as always, absolute pleasure. Talk to you soon.

Scott Rusnak  28:23

Pleasures all mine. Thanks, Debra.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  28:24

Thank you.