Best of 2026: Struggle to Stay Focused? Try This. w/ Mark Fisher

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Business of Unicorns podcast, where we help gym and studio owners create a business and a life they love. I’m your host, Michael Keeler. Join me and the Business of Unicorns team each week for actionable advice, expert insights, and the inside scoop on what it really takes to level up your gym.

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You can start measuring your financial fitness and build confidence at become Numberwise.com. [00:01:00] Hello, fitness business nerds. What’s up? Welcome to another episode of the Business Unicorns podcast. I’m back again with Mr. Mark Fisher. Mr. Mark Fisher, how are you, sir? I am doing very good. Full day, but good day.

A lot of coaching, a long mentorship day session that was super fun with a really awesome gym owner that flew over from Switzerland. Wow. Shout out. Yes, if you’re listening. And then had a really fun office hour today. Fun, fun little spicy chat with some super sharp cats, so I think we did some good work today.

Good work out there in gym business world. Good, good work, everyone. We’re also recording this kind of a week after doing our kind of annual planning, where you and Ben and Pete- Oh, yeah … come to my house and do our kind of annual planning for two days. And I’m always on a little bit of a, a focused high for the week- Yes

after that of just like the, a clarity high of just being so excited to know that we have a plan moving forward- Mm … and we’re all on the same page. And so I’m riding that into this busy week as well. Yes. Yeah. Great. Great. Which actually, maybe actually is a good transition. I have ways, yeah. I didn’t plan it [00:02:00] this way, this way, but- Yeah

today what we actually wanted to talk about is folks who actually struggle with their attention. Maybe for shorthand today I’ll, I’ll refer to it as ADHD, but I really, when I say that, I’m not meaning to diagnose anyone. Yes. We’re not diagnosing. Um, or, you know- We do not make financial recommendations.

Yes, all these wrong things … this is not a clinical conversation, but- Yes … I think just, uh, generally speaking, uh, uh, attention disorders are very common. And I find, and then I think there’s some stats to back this up that I looked up recently, that they’re abnormally common in the fitness space, in the gym fitness space- Hmm

amongst gym owners, in part because a lot of folks who have attention disorders gravitate towards sports and working out and physical activities. Over more traditionally kind of academic book computer- Mm-hmm … activities, which are sometimes more challenging. And so I think there, there’s statistically a larger percentage of people in our space leading businesses than maybe in a lot of other industries.

And I’ll say that this has been noticed in our work with gym owners over the years. Our coaching team has noticed there’s a lot of folks who, no matter what their [00:03:00] efforts or our efforts, it is particularly challenging to get people to stay focused and to do the things they say they’re going to do.

Using all the tools in our toolbox as coaches, it’s still challenging when people’s biology and neurology are fighting against their, their stated espoused desires to do certain things. It’s real tough. So I think on today’s podcast, again, we’re not want- trying to diagnose or treat anything clinically, but we just wanna have a conversation about that reality, kind of normalize the fact- Mm-hmm

that there are many of you out there trying to run businesses and have a life, and are really struggling with your attention. And then we also wanna share maybe some things that we’ve seen that have been helpful to those folks who struggle to really stay focused and have attention. Let me start, just start with this, with, Bashar.

As you’ve talked to gym owners over the years, and lots of entrepreneurs, what’s been your experience with folks who have real challenges with their focus in trying to run a business? Yeah. I think the first thing I should qualify is I think I might be actually the last person to be useful to [00:04:00] this as- No doubt

someone did actually- Indeed. Yeah … I don’t know if they told me that as a version of ADHD or maybe a version of autism. I don’t remember what they- I was like, “Huh?” I have almost like a hyperfocus kind of thing, which I think I can already see a little bit in, in my daughter, but I’m like a dog with a bone in its mouth when I have a thing.

Like, you can’t shake me off the thing when I’m pursuing my dopamine, whenever I’m doing. So I should start by qualifying that. But it’s certainly been my experience talking to other people, that’s not always the thing, and there are some people who in my life I love and quite close with, are sometimes actually quite challenging because they’re so all over the map, and I am like too porous of a nervous system.

It’s like stressful for me to be around them because their eyes are always darting and they’re, they… And I speak very quickly, so no one’s ever accused me of not speaking quickly. But there is a scattershot bouncing around, which I think is interesting. And the other thing I actually have always had admiration for is, often, to your point, I find that is o- often coupled with people that are, [00:05:00] like, highly creative, people that are like a big ideas people, and they get excited about things.

I think the Kolbe score, which the person- that’s that test that I’ve never really quite mastered. I think they’re, they would call like the quick starts. Quick start. So great, they’re great at starting the thing. They’re not always great at, like, finishing the thing. So certainly, yeah, there’s a lot of people that I know personally as entrepreneurs, but certainly also gym owners as well, that seem to get easily distracted, easily excited about things, that seem to sometimes have a difficulty staying with the one thing until the thing is resolved, or they launch the product but can’t stick with it until it’s done.

And pros and cons to a lot of personality styles, but that state of the office can have some costs. Yeah, 100%. I think that it’s important to acknowledge that is a double-edged sword. As much as it, there can be downsides to having a attention disorder, it also can be a real superpower in many ways. One of the shorthands I’ve heard used in like research settings for ADHD is that people’s, people’s biology r- who have ADHD, it rewards thinking [00:06:00] instead of rewarding doing, right?

Hmm. It’s kind of a shorthand for thinking about how- Interesting … your brain. And so when you think about having a brain that gives you the rewards you would normally get for doing just for thinking about things- Interesting … um, you can see how there’s a real downside to that, right? Is that you’re alway- always thinking, n- never really worried about getting to the doing ’cause you’re already satisfied with having explored it in your mind.

Wow. And then the positive of that is also that innovation and creativity all happen during kind of nonlinear random thought, right? Mm. If you really want creativity and innovation, you need to get to that, that, that mode of thinking that is nonlinear. The daydreaming, right, is often where we have our most creative thinking.

In the showers, right when we wake up. And so if you have a brain that is constantly rewarded for dodging around and having one thought to the next, you are primed for creativity and innovation and creative problem-solving. And it’s gonna be real hard to get you to actually take action on [00:07:00] any of those things.

Yes. And so it can be so valuable- And such an Achilles heel at the same time Oh my goodness gracious. I think I, I feel like I’m a reasonably creative person, but I- yeah, that, it’s so funny ’cause you’ve literally described the opposite of what it’s like to be me And that it’s excruciatingly painful if I can’t get the thing done hell for me is if I do a long cardio session, I will sometimes take as many as 15 to 20 to-dos that just strike my brain or are, are- come to me because I’m like listening to a podcast or watching YouTube.

I’m so desperate to get those things done, it, it hurts. Yeah. I’ve been known to actually leave the middle of conferences because- Yeah … at a certain point my to-do list gets too long. Too long, yeah. I, it’s like I’m in pain. It’s like my whole body’s itchy. I just have to leave and go get the thing done to get some relief from this mound of things to get done.

So I am fascinated to hear this. And yeah, listeners, if you’re listening, if this strikes a chord, tell me more about what it’s like to be you. Yeah, that’s fascinating. Yeah. I’ve seen this because I think a lot of the [00:08:00] ways that, that folks with ADHD will, will show up as people who are constantly learning.

They have the, you know- Uh … I’ll use this word lightly, a lowercase A addiction to- Yeah, yeah … continuing education. Yeah, yeah. And it’s because their brain is rewarding them for learning new things, getting new ideas, thinking about things. And we’ll see people, those are the times when we get on coaching calls and we’re like, “Okay, but you took that course, and then that next course, and you read that book.”

Yes. What’s one thing you’re gonna do about that? Yes. Yeah, yeah. What’s one way you’re gonna apply that knowledge? And that’s tough. That’s tough for them. Well- And on the reverse side, we also know people who are such doers, they never take time to think about why they’re doing what they’re doing- Yeah … how they could improve what they’re doing.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They’re like, “I do it this way ’cause I’ve always done it this way.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that is also a challenge. Yeah. I wanna keep highlighting like the duality of- Of course. Yeah, yeah … of it because one person’s barrier is like another person’s superparior- superpower. But maybe let’s talk a little bit about, ’cause we cover a lot of tools and tricks in our course called Time Ninja, which is basically- Yep

time [00:09:00] management for gym owners, that really are a lot of strategies that help people bring structure and system- Mm-hmm … to how they organize themselves and their days, and a lot of these tools are perfect for pe- people with attention disorders. Yes, yes. So do you wanna talk a little bit about some of those recommendations we make?

Yeah. I’ll jump in. And in fact, I have been very gratified to actually hear over the years. I’ve had several people- Mm-hmm … who by their own account have been diagnosed with pretty severe ADHD, that have reflected back that apparently… And by the way, my Time Ninja’s a compilation of other people’s thought, if there’s anything.

I think there’s a, actually a few original models there, but it’s largely other people’s stuff. And what’s interesting is their reflections to me is that course actually is like lockstep with everything they’ve learned as far as- Yeah … their own pursuits to structure their workflow. I have a few different things I think that could be useful here that I’ve heard.

I do, maybe I have just one quick thought before I get into this. I’m so fascinated by this, and again, people listening are like, “This is me,” I’m sure. Do they get a, like a dopamine hit merely from the act of thinking? Is that what’s going on? Mm. Because when I think about myself, [00:10:00] I get the dopamine hit from doing.

And you’re right, it is a lowercase A addiction. It’s something I’m like actively working through, ’cause it can be- As I’ve described it, I’m sure it sounds compulsive to you as it feels inside , which works for me, except when it works against me, like every strength of everyone who’s ever lived. Yeah. So it is fascinating to hear that’s, that’s what’s going on there.

So they’re getting like some- For a lot of people, and again, that’s like a shorthand for the neurobiology that’s happening. But there is like a reward that happens for, “Oh, I thought about it. Now I’m done.” Wow. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let’s help these people. Yeah. So some things, okay? There, I think I’m gonna start with a framework and I’ll give one particular to-do that I think has been communicated valuable for people that struggle to focus, because there’s a couple different kinds of focus.

There’s like big picture focus, and maybe in a moment here you can talk about that, where we’re thinking about- Mm-hmm … like your quarterly plans and your annual plans and stepping out of the day-to-day and like trying to make some plans about how you might pursue the things that are most important to you and doing some prioritizing.

But I’ll maybe start on the micro and acknowledge that when someone is going through their workday, and just we’re talking very specifically, you sit down at your desk, you’re [00:11:00] trying to get whatever done, right? And let’s assume we’ve done, which we’ll probably also talk about, the New Year shutdown ritual.

So you have a clear thing to do. There’s only three kinds of things that are getting in your way, to my mind. You have physical interruptions, which is when somebody like physically comes in, if you live with a small child, or if you’re trying to work at the gym and you don’t have an office, or you do have an office and the door’s open.

So there’s physical interruption, and that’s pretty easy- Mm-hmm … ’cause you can just remove yourself or have a conversation, set a boundary, work in a coffee shop. You know, that’s pretty solvable, but you could solve that and then be done. Digital interruptions, the same thing, ’cause it’s another kind of physical interruption, right?

You can turn off the buzzings and beepings. You can turn off your Wi-Fi if need be. You can, if you have enough willpower to not go and check things, you can have only the correct browser open. The most extreme version, of course, not probably relevant for most generators, but there’s a lot of writers that will do things like have a particular- computer that does not connect [00:12:00] to- Mm-hmm

the internet. It has to be like physically plugged in to get the files off they use for writing because they can’t do anything with it. They’ve used the binding technique there, okay? So those are all well and good, but the third type of interruption is the internal interruption. It’s when you get itchy.

It’s when like you’re working on the- Mm-hmm. Again, I’m pretty, my, I get my kicks from getting the thing done, but even I have the same impulse. I’ll be like working on writing an email and I’ll suddenly think about, “Oh, I didn’t order my extra shampoo. I need to get that shampoo,” right? Or sometimes it’s related to the email.

It’s oh, I need, I need to search. If I’m gonna quote that book, I need to know the proper name of the book and then I’m there, and then Amazon’s distracting me. So there’s something about creating guardrails around discrete units of work, and the most famous technique that a lot of people use is often referred to as the Pomodoro Technique, which you- Mm-hmm

may have heard of, but for those who haven’t, it’s so named because the person that conceived of this had a kitchen timer that was 25 minutes and it looked like a tomato, and I guess they were Italian. So [00:13:00] henceforth, forever, this technique is known as the Pomodoro Technique, and as you might be picking up, essentially you have a dedicated work sprint where you’re not trying to work indefinitely.

You’re not trying to work for hours. You’re not trying to work all day. You’re shrinking the change. You’re saying, “I’m just gonna work on this one thing in a dedicated fashion till that alarm goes off.” And then importantly, and most people mess this one up, this is the thing I could do better because I have a different addiction, is you then you get up and move around.

You take a break. You take a five-minute, just let your brain- Mm-hmm … be calm for a minute. I don’t think there’s probably anything precious or evidence-based about 25-minute sprints. I think you could try a 10 to 15 if that’s better. Mm-hmm. And sometimes I think that’s the best way to overcome procrastination because so much of it is the starting energy, and because pras- procrastination feels like you’re resisting physical pain.

We have a lot of people that procrastinate a lot- They don’t wanna– It’s the getting started that’s the hardest part. So if you make the game of, “Oh, I’ll just work for three minutes,” usually you’re fine because now you’ve pushed through the activation energy. It’s like the old behavior change habit. If you wanna floss your teeth regularly, get in the [00:14:00] habit, just floss one tooth.

‘Cause once you floss like one tooth, you’re like, “Okay, I’m here.” So you could, if you find 25 minutes is too long, you could try to be like, “I’m just gonna work on this for five minutes.” And then like wink, wink, you could keep going if you’re on a roll. Conversely, I don’t think you usually, most people do a single project better for more than, I don’t know, 50 to 60 minutes a time, maybe 90.

I find I’m usually kicked no matter what it is for 50 minutes. Now I’m a dumb, I have the opposite affliction, so usually I just like keep going and pushing myself past the point of diminishing returns. But at any rate, hope it’s a little bit of insight into the three types of distraction and how you might address particularly the third one by committing to an intentional block of time and going to work on one particular item.

Yeah. I think, said my friend, I’ll maybe just pick up on that and keep running it, ’cause what that, that technique also evolves into as you start to scale it up is what is often referred to as time blocking. Which means actually organizing your day in blocks of time, where those blocks of time represent like [00:15:00] activities.

That the activities you do during a set hour of your day require the same thing of you, so you’re not having to do so much switching of one way of thinking over another. So for example, for a gym owner, you may want to group together like activities that revolve around client communication So in a given hour, we have to be on and represent yourself to clients in emails or text messages or in-person conversations.

Mm-hmm. We wanna group that together ’cause it requires a, the same kind of- Yes … energy and focus from you. Whereas you might wanna group together separately administrative tasks that are really attention oriented. So running payroll, looking over your finances, budgeting and forecasting. Those are kinds of things that require real focus and real quiet time.

Yes. Real avoidant. And so when you can time block your schedule and put blocks of time, blocks of tasks together, so you don’t have to switch modes so often- Yes … that also can be so valuable. I’ll just… I’ll add a few more things that are related. The Pomodoro Technique, one of the reasons why something like that works [00:16:00] is that it’s basically an externalized prompt.

And I think folks with attention disorders often struggle if they try to remember things in their head and use them, use themselves as a reminder or a prompt. So you wanna externalize as many of those things as possible. And luckily, there’s a million tools for those. So if you wanna externalize tasks or reminders, there’s AI tools, there’s calendar tools, there’s task generator tools.

But the more you can let your brain be present in the moment and not have to remember things long term, the better off everyone will be, but especially folks who struggle with attention. The last thing I’ll say, and maybe we can… we’ll move on to a different category of tips here. But the last thing I’ll say when it comes to the granular organizing yourself is I’ve read of some research that folks with attention disorders should really prioritize routines.

Mm-hmm. So not just single tasks or even blocks of tasks, but things that can flow from what flows of tasks, I sh- I would call it, routines [00:17:00] of things. And so often the most common one that most people talk about, especially in entrepreneurial circles, is that morning ritual- Yes … that morning routine. Yes. And listen, there’s no reason there has to be a morning one.

There’s nothing special about what a lot of people tout as their morning routine, but I think it’s a good example of the things that become automatic- Yes … our brains don’t need to spend as much time on. And for folks with attention challenges, if you can make more things in your day that are productive, if you can make more of the right things to do, the convenient and easy things for your brain to do, the more likely you are to do them consistently, right?

So if you can create a- Yes … work flows for yourself to make those sales calls or create that social media content, and it functions like a ritual, a prioritized routine- Mm-hmm … you’re more likely to get through it without as much friction. And those things take time. You can read “The Power of Habits” or “Atomic Habits.”

All those books- Mm-hmm … talk about habit formation. But I think for folks who struggle with attention, those kind of things become even more powerful because it, it helps circumvent all the distractions and challenges that [00:18:00] y-your brain will often have from day to day. Yeah, I think that’s very true. I, I think it brings to mind the, what was the old personal motto that good habits are hard to make, easy to live with, bad habits are easy to make, hard to live with.

Yeah. And speaking as someone that, again, in ways good and bad, I can really myonate my brain, I can really get in a groove because of course the working theory is that once you do the thing repeatedly and it becomes habitual, to your point, it… You’re just on the groove. It almost takes more work to stop it because- Yeah

it’s become automated in ways that actually are valuable for you, presuming that they’re positive things that you- Exactly … you’ve chosen intentionally. Yeah. ‘Cause there, there’s some real frightening research there about attention that I’ve seen that shows in some research that our brains are on rough- on, on pretty much on autopilot for up to half of the day.

I know. For up to half of the day- That’s right … our brains are just completely making decisions- That’s right … uh, s- uh, not consciously about what we’re doing and where we’re going. You have that experience of, if some of you who commute, that you just forget your drive to work that morning. Oh, yeah. [00:19:00] That kind of thing.

Same thing in the city, I go… Have walked city blocks, the same routine over and over again, and like, “How did I even get here today? Did, did I walk in the rain? I don’t remember that.” It’s just on autopilot. So when you can leverage that function of the brain for good and develop habits that where you’re on autopilot, but doing the things that you really want to be doing- Yeah

I think that’s the ultimate, dare I even call it, brain hack, right? Yes. It’s… That actually feels like a hack to me of using those- Stand and shape the positive inputs … yeah, exactly. Let me think. If there’s anything else I wanted to share I didn’t say yet. The only other thing I’ll say, and this is, I’ll admit right up front, this is self-serving ’cause it’s part of what we do, but there’s a lot of evidence that shows that folks who struggle with attention really benefit from outside help and support.

Yeah. Having things- Yep … like coaches and accountability coaching and things like that really make a huge difference because the… It’s hard enough for everyone to hold a mirror up to themselves and be thoughtful about how they’re spending their time and attention, and it’s even harder for folks who are wired to have [00:20:00] a different kind of attention function.

And so I think the more people can, can use outside support, coaching, those things all make a big difference in terms of having frequent touch points where you’re checking in on yourself- Yes … and checking in on your progress. Yeah. Yeah. I think there is such… Again, it’s so trite for the whole like, “You’re the s- people…

You find people you spend the most time with,” again, it’s so trite and it’s just true because we’re just social animals and we all are at the effect of the people that we surround ourselves with. You think about with a, a child, right? As I understand, I’m not a child psychologist or by any means, but having a, a daughter- Listen, I don’t mean to suggest that, like, the child’s will force is not a big piece of it.

Totally is. But it is true that if you want the child to have any hope of regulating, the parent has to be regulated. If you’re both dysregulated- Mm-hmm … like, all is lost. And to some extent, the child, my understanding, is like drafting off your brain circuit because their brains can’t regulate. Sure. [00:21:00] And I think that’s one of many examples we can think of about the way that we are in fact porous and at impacted by others.

And particularly in a coaching environment where you have somebody that like, who’s on top of you, who’s reminding you. And part of it’s frankly probably just reminders and nudges, and part of it’s a little bit of hopefully positive social tension, which could de- depending on the person, could even be a little bit of some sticks, of fear of, “I don’t want to disappoint this person.

I don’t want to let them down.” Yeah. Could be positive, “I want to be in high regard to this person that I admire.” Um- Yeah. Someone to celebrate when you do things well, you know? Hundred, 100%. Yeah. So I think, a- and again, I think the other thing too, which maybe we’ll shift to in a moment with the, what time we have here.

I have two other quick thoughts, but that’s also part of the value of getting clear on what the thing is and going at the thing, right? Like, our whole system, like it’s not that complicated. Like, it’s just- Yep … get clear on what’s the most important issue, what’s the constraint, what is the system fix you’re gonna roll out.

Which our role is like relatively easy. Like, we give you a done for you playbook. We assign maybe a talk from one of our retreats. We assign part of a [00:22:00] course, maybe not even the whole thing, just some videos. You go do the thing, and then be done, and then the magic that… You know, and again, here’s the thing too.

Does everybody need weekly checks from their coaches? Probably not. There’s probably 20, 30% of people like me that are just so addicted on the dopamine, we’re just like, “Get out of our way.” For people like me, it’s annoying and unhelpful. And by the way, you can opt out. So if you’ve ever heard that and think that sounds like hell, you can tell your coach, “No thanks, I’ve got it.”

And if we trust that’s the case, then we’ll trust you to do it. Yep. But I think more people than not, probably, I don’t know, two thirds, 75%, 80 maybe- Yeah … benefit from someone staying on top of them, making sure they don’t forget. Even in like the mission control system, or if you prefer, if you use fraction or 12-week year, whatever your system is.

That’s another thing too, is that sort of weekly pulse of the meeting where everyone has to be like, “Okay, are you getting forward on the rock? The most important thing we said we were gonna work on, is that moving forward,” right? Yeah. And then every week, I have to say, even for us, and I’m pretty dialed in this stuff, more times than I care to admit, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I forgot I was supposed to be working on that thing.”

So that’s [00:23:00] another kind of accountability you can build in perhaps in your gym, assuming you’re doing as we suggest, some sort of weekly leadership meeting. Which again, it might just be you and a number two. It might not be a big to-do. But if you’ve clarified, “Hey, here’s the most important priorities we’re gonna go for,” um, that is one more way that you can build in some social pressure to make sure you’re moving forward whatever you have said to be your most important priorities.

Yeah, I don’t think I have much to add to that. The only thing I’ll just yes add is that I think that external accountability is so valuable. We’ve seen it be so valuable for so many people. Like you said, except for a small percentage of people who are already so self-motivated and organized, they may not need kind of a weekly accountability from a coach.

Yeah. But almost everyone, you know, I think a solid 80, 80 to 90% of the people we’ve worked with really have benefited. And it’s not just the reminder. It’s not just that the coach says, “Hey, Mark, last week you said you were gonna do X. Is it done?” It’s the conversation that happens afterwards, right? If it is done, cool, let’s celebrate that.

Let’s celebrate that- Yeah … and also unpack what happened last week to enable you- That you committed to, yes … [00:24:00] to do what you said you were gonna do. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And if you didn’t do it, let’s unpack, okay, what got in your way? What were the distractions? Yes. Yeah. What did you do instead? Yeah. How else did you spend that time, and then what are you gonna do differently to get back in line with your goals?

Yeah. And so it’s that conversation that’s just so- Mm-hmm … hard to have with yourself. Yeah. Like, you might be able to have an app or AI these days do their minding for you, but it’s really hard for those things to actually have a conversation with you about why it worked or didn’t work, and I think that’s the kind of unique value of kind of the accountability part of coaching.

But I, I think so. And yeah, and I don’t wanna be too much like, “Yeah, it doesn’t work like that.” And by the way, I, I acknowledge this. I always look at Burpees- Or whether it’s us or not, right? I think it’s a function- Yeah … of working with an external person who- Well, here’s- … can be that mirror for you. Here is one thing I will say that is a little bit different.

I’m not saying that there’s not great options out there. I think because of your background and because of the interests of our coaches and just the nature of our culture or DNA, there’s such an interest in that sort of c- collaborative coaching, which is different than consultative being told what to do.

Sure. Which also has its place, and I’ve candidly said I think I’m probably more of that than the other. When you think about the [00:25:00] sort of like curiosity, client-led conversations, which I think most serious fitness professionals understand it’s important for their clients too. Yeah. It’s also important for you as the gym owner.

And if I were to give you… I wanna underline one micro pro tip, so it didn’t fly, if it flew past you. One of the most underrated questions, what do you attribute that success to? Pausing in the success and asking the person to get curious about what happened, and to like highlight with a yellow marker what went well.

Now, certainly there’s a time and a place for troubleshooting and also asking what got in the way. That also is a fertile bit of land to farm on. But I think encouraging people to spend a little time and not rush past success, which again, maybe because of my dopamine affliction is my impulse- … and asking to reflect on what went well, how did that happen?

What do you attribute that success to? I think, I think that’s a good one to write down, listeners. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And it’s so easy to skip over. You and I have been so guilty of it over the years. We literally have to make part of our meeting agenda- Yeah … to talk about wins and gain things that go well.

Yeah. Which we’ve now systemized. Yeah. ‘Cause it’s so easy to- And that’s another takeaway, yeah … yeah, it’s so easy to pass [00:26:00] over. Yeah. Well spelled out. Um, and it’s just so crazy to think that we work so hard on these wins, and then we never take time to mine the wins for lessons. Yeah. But we’ll think all day about that one thing that went wrong.

And that’s true. And we’ll mine the mistakes for weeks and years for how we can learn from it. Not just us, but it, it’s a very, I think, natural- Yeah, I think it’s a very human, any sort of high- A negativity bias … high performing. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember… It’s funny, I think, I do think we’re a lot better at this now, but I can remember- Yes

like at MFF there would be like a number of times I’d be like Wait, do you remember that thing that bothers for seven years? And then we solved it and then forgot it ever happened- Yes … and didn’t even… One stupid example, even though there’s maybe some better solutions in the year 2025, but, or 2026 when you listen to this, was the five Mondays problem.

Oh, sure. Where for the first four years, and I don’t even know what the solve was ’cause it wasn’t my half of the business. I know you handled it. Yeah. But it might’ve been five or six years. Yeah. It was a constant problem where people were running out of sessions, and then they were mad because they were booked, and blah, blah, blah.

And then at some point, I don’t even know what it was y’all did, but it just went away. And I remember two years [00:27:00] later being like- Hey, whatever happened to five Mondays problem? That was like every month we were- Was it- There were so much issues. Did we move to… Was the, the software might have changed w- was one thing.

And then- Maybe the software changed. I don’t- Did we move to weekly billing at that point? No. Or was that later? This was before, this was before weekly billing. Yeah. So I, I think honestly- I think it was a software change … probably weekly billing or having slightly longer- Yeah … expiration date of those sessions.

There, there… I think there’s some better solves in here. There was some software sol- yeah, yeah, yeah … points and mistakes where you could say it’s X many sessions, but just give them an extra one that expires, and that way it’s, feels like a freebie, so they don’t feel like they’re losing anything. Though admittedly, you do lose out on the extra session, which for us it was nice because we would get these extra bumps, because in a 31-day month, if people are thinking weekly, we often would get an extra session.

I think the, we only did twofold. First of all, I think we just… And this is clunky. Again, I think these are not the best solution. But if you’re, if you happen to be doing monthly and you don’t have those other solutions available to you, I think we just got really clear, jump up and turn around, make people like, if you take away nothing from this sales agreement, understand this.

And then- Yeah … I think we developed another system where we were [00:28:00] proactively reaching out to people, I want to say like a day or two in advance, to let them know, “Hey, do you want to buy an add-on or would you like to terminate?” Yeah. Which, or would you like to just delete the session? Which people infinitely preferred and wound up leading to a lot more add-on sales than people showing up and then being annoyed because either you have to go home or you’re getting charged.

Yeah, yeah. I still don’t think I would recommend it in 2026. I think there’s probably some better solutions for it. Better solutions, but yeah. But I just bring it up as an example that plagued us for years, we fixed and never talked about. But anyway. Yeah. I digress. Um, let’s wrap things up because I think we’re really at our time, but I know you have maybe some final, final thoughts.

So final thoughts on- Yeah … all of our friends out there who struggle with attention. Yep. Yeah, I got two super quick ones. The first one is the white space thing I think is super important. I think a lot of people, the white space happens in the afternoon. And again, I’m not suggesting you need to prescribe your entire life and turn yourself into a factory worker.

In fact, uh, if you’ve ever read the Maker versus Manager time article, Paul Graham from Y Combinator, you know, your point earlier I also want to highlight there’s context switching is a thing, and particularly for like creative tasks, they don’t always work as [00:29:00] well if you force them into the widget. They tend to need longer time, but you can still put a fence around them and you’re not gonna have that time if you’re, uh, allowing yourself to be distracted and moving around.

So focus will still be valuable there, but you set yourself up for success if you have blocked times with specific things that don’t require context switching. Yeah. The last thing, which I can’t help but say, which I’m like afraid about talking too much, people are gonna be like, “What’s wrong with Mark?”

Is your damn phone. Phone. Your damn… And again, part of it is this is me too. It’s me too. This is where like I have discovered, I’m like working on this right now and I go back and forth because I keep learning it over and over again. What I do like, and Dom, and maybe you do this, is I’m always like on every break between a meeting all day long, I’m just like playing a video game.

I’m like, check this email. Then I have four emails, I have three Slacks, I have Telegram, I’ve got like- literally 30 WhatsApp threads free channels We have our circle group, and I’m just like going through them all as fast I can and pushing all the plates forward. But then after the next meeting, all the plates have been I, [00:30:00] my, my sink has been refilled with more dirty dishes I need to do.

Whereas the better move, which I’ve struggled with, so transparently there, would be to just ch- check it three times a day. Just have a block where you check communication and then never look at those things. If it’s an emergency, if pirates and dragons are attacking your gym and you’re not there, I hope your number two knows that’s a good time to give you a double call and break through your do not disturb.

But I, I think any conversation of focus Has to include some reckoning with the addictive design of these ubiquitous computers that are in all of our pockets all the time, and the way that the world’s best resourced and skilled marketing and money-extracting technologies have been designed to get your attention at all times.

So I, I’ll, again, I’ll resist getting full old man on the porch yelling into the abyss. Yeah. But we’re otherwise- You can go back a few episodes and listen to Yeah … a previous rant about phones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it’s real. It’s, it’s a real challenge. [00:31:00] ‘Cause I do think there is something to be said for you can train your brain to be itchy.

I do think, like, it is like, I, again, I… This is the one that I heard on a podcast the other day, I’m like, “God, that’s true.” I don’t know of your experience. Is there anybody alive that reads as many books now as they did 10 years ago? No. I’m gonna go with zero. I’m gonna go with literally no one. And it’s relative, right?

Admittedly, I still read a ton, but compared to what I did. A- and listen, I have a small kid. I can’t blame it on that totally. But I would say if we’re having a conversation about attention focus, my closing thought is take seriously your relationship with your phone, consider removing apps or at least putting them on n- no notifications.

Put it on do not disturb, and then maybe join me in my perpetually futile attempts to have the discipline, and you can use some software tools, which maybe I just haven’t found the right one- Yeah … to not be constantly checking all of the things, ’cause that’s another kind of context switching where you don’t really get any more done by the end of the day in my case, but I feel a whole lot more stressed and frazzled.

Yes. Whereas if I just actually put them in buckets and then spent most of my day with proactive project [00:32:00] work, I’d feel less crazy inside. So thank you for coming to my therapy session, listeners. You’re always great. It’s great to sit on your couch, and I feel great to have you all here. That’s, that’s great.

Yeah. That’s, I think that the phones and the technology distractions are really a big one. Trying to get ya. It’s a lot for us to- Trying to get ya … a lot for everyone to reckon with. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll wrap it up just by saying that anyone listening who really struggles with attention and getting things done, I’ll just say you’re not alone, my friend.

It is extremely common, very common in this industry. Very common. There are things you can do about it. There are strategies you can learn to get better at it. Working with people like us, working with a therapist, working… There’s a ton of ADHD specialists out there, but I think my number one message in closing is get support and focus on this.

This is an area where you can make meaningful improvements- Mm-hmm … and you can also learn to leverage your, your attention challenges as a superpower in many ways. And so I think, but focus on it, because there’s some, there’s something to be learned here in either direction. Yeah. Thanks for a great conversation as always, Mr.

Fisher, and have a good week. I’ll see you on the next [00:33:00] one.