Help Me, Help You · Darren Hardy

Help me, help you

Get What You Actually Need

There is more noise in the world than ever before. And I'd rather not guess at what would actually help you. So I'm asking, specifically, and with purpose. For you.

About five minutes. One question at a time. The few you write out, I read myself.

Let's Begin

Remind Me What You Do

Even the businesses I know well have changed since we last spoke. Tell me what yours actually does today, in your own words.

What does your business do?*

Where You Stand

Right Now

Before we look ahead, a straight read on the present.

Compared to twelve months ago, your business is:*

Growing faster than it was Growing, but slower than it was Flat Down

Where You're Headed

Look Down The Road

You know the day-to-day better than anyone. Lift out of it for a second and look down the road with me.

Three years from now, if your business goes the way you intend it to, what does it actually look like?* Size, shape, your role in it, whatever matters most to you. A few sentences is plenty.

The Distance

What Has To Change

Between that picture and today, something has to move.

What has to be true for that to happen that isn't true today?Optional The one or two things standing between here and there.

The Sticking Point

What's Not Working

That's the plan. Now the part you don't say out loud in the team meeting.

Finish this sentence: the part of my business that should be working better than it is right now is…* Be specific. Not "marketing." Something like "we get plenty of leads and close almost none of them."

Your Priorities

Where The Gain Is

If you could only move one of these over the next twelve months, what's the order?

Tap these in order, biggest gain first.* Your first tap is where the most is sitting for you right now. Tap a card again to take it back.

Becoming the obvious choice in my market so I stop competing on price

Making revenue predictable instead of dependent on me

Getting customers to come back and refer without me chasing them

Growing without every decision routing through me

Finding, keeping, and leading better people

Getting real leverage out of AI instead of scattered experiments

Between Us

Off The Record

This one I ask everybody. Most people hand me the safe answer. You and I are past that.

Every business owner has something running in the background when they're not working. What's yours right now?Optional A project you keep circling, an idea you haven't started, a move you keep turning over after the workday stops.

The Noise

Cut Through It

Plenty of noise about AI right now. I care about one thing: where it actually lives in your business today, not where the internet says it should.

Still On AI

Who's Steering

Not the org chart version. The honest one.

Who is actually leading AI inside your business?*

Me, directly Someone I put in charge of it Each department is figuring it out on their own Nobody. It's happening without direction. We haven't started

Still On AI

The One Thing

Every one of these will sound right. That's the trap. Pick the one that would actually move it for you.

To get more out of AI, the one thing you'd add is:*

Someone who owns it full-time, a Chief of AI Training for my team so they actually use it A clear plan for where to apply it first The right tools, wired together properly I'd lead it myself, I just need the playbook

The Real Blocker

What's Stopped You

Forget the hype. In your business, specifically.

Finish this sentence: the thing that's stopped us from getting more out of AI is…Optional Time, trust, knowing where to start, the team, the tools, cost, something else. Say it however it actually is.

The Blind Spot

The Monday Report

Every leader has things moving in the business they can't see from where they sit.

Imagine a short report on your desk every Monday morning, telling you one thing about your business you currently can't see. What would you want it to tell you?Optional Anything. A number, a warning, a pattern, something about a person, something about a customer.

Your Turn

Now You Ask Me

You've answered mine. Here's the part most surveys never give you.

If you and I sat down for twenty minutes, what's the one thing you'd want my input, advice, or guidance on?* I'm going to answer a number of these directly, out loud, in our next briefing.

If I answer yours, may I use your first name and the nature of your business?*

Yes, use my name Answer it, but keep me anonymous Please don't use mine

For Context

Last Thing

That's the real conversation done. Two quick details so I can read your answers against the right backdrop, and you're done.

Annual revenue*

How many people work in the business, including you?*

Received

That's It. Thank You.

I'm going to read these myself. Not a summary. The actual answers.

When the responses are in, I'll send you what came back. Not a sanitized version. What business leaders running real companies actually said was standing in their way this year, including the parts that don't flatter any of us. And if a few things come back loud enough, I'll get on and address them directly.

Watch your inbox.

– Darren

A note from Darren Hardy