The Three People You Need To Succeed
Level 4: Serious Player
Future Guardian,
Level 4 posts are typically paid posts, but you’re here and if you’re here, you want to do something extraordinary…and we think this will help.
It doesn’t have to be big, flashy or impressive to anyone else to be extraordinary. It just has to be… above ordinary. Doing ordinary things is simple…just do what everyone else is doing. But, if you want something different you have do something different and when you do something different it becomes difficult to get support for it. See: Can Helping Yourself Hurt You?1
“Nobody wins alone”
-Dr. Jeff Spencer
Dr. Jeff Spencer is one of the greatest performances and mindset coaches of all time. Before he was coaching, he was one of the greatest performers in the world - in both Olympic sport(s), as chiropractor and a world-renowned glass artist.
He’s seen uber-talented people die alone and homeless and he’s seen marginally talented people succeed beyond all reasonable explanation. During one of the first conversations I ever had with Jeff he said to me:
“There are three types of people you need if you’re going to do something extraordinary. “
The three types?
Technicians
Mentors
Cornerman
Three type of people. Seems simple enough, right?
In theory, it is. In practice, it’s difficult because 1) most people haven’t developed the skill to discern what category someone else falls in and 2) most people aren’t clear about what category they fall into - which means they offer or sell themselves as something they’re not.
And there’s where the seemingly simple becomes frustratingly complex.
Let’s work through this.
First, we start with the The Resheske Hierarchy, first introduced to us by Lukas Resheske.
The Clarity Hierarchy
We use Lukas’ clarity hierarchy2 to reason from the ground up and back down again.
Here’s The Flyover:
Effective tools are derived from effective tactics. Which means the tactics inform the tools, not the other way around.
Effective tactics are derived from effective strategies. Which means strategy informs tactics, not the other way around.
Effective strategies are derived from principles. Which means principles inform strategy, not the other way around.
You can see where we’re going this, right? Just for good measure:
Sound principles are derived from philosophy. Philosophy informs principles, yada yada yada…
This is a function over form3 thing, which we have written about extensively and link in the footnotes, so we can skip straight to the conclusions:
If someone is obsessing over all the ways to use a tool like Chat GPT, they are letting tools drive tactics and tactics drive strategy. In other words, it will end in great tools being used to deploy a piss poor strategy. It’s like having the best chainsaw and being in the wrong forest. Even if something gets done well, it’s the wrong thing done well.
Tools should never drive tactics. Tactics should never drive strategies. Strategies should never determine principles.
You get it.
Technicians are masters of tools and tactics. They can get paid well and they are necessary - the technical stuff has to get done and done well. But what makes the technician great at technical stuff is that they are zoomed-in on the details. So zoomed in that that cannot possibly see the whole picture. If they were to zoom out to see more of the picture, they would be less valuable and less effective as a technician.
You have to know who your technicians are and:
Keep them zoomed in to keep them effective
Do not let them dictate strategy. Remember, they
don’tcan’t see the full picture.
Mentors are master of strategy. The mentor is someone that has done what you want to do in the domain you want to do it, or helped others do what you want to do in your domain. What makes the mentor effective is they are zoomed out and they are guiding you down a path they are familiar with. If they were to zoom in and start doing technical work for you, they would be less effective as a mentor.
You have to know who your mentors are and:
Keep them zoomed out to keep them effective
Don’t let them get stuck on tools. Remember, if they get too close to the tree, they will miss the rest of the forest.
The Cornerman is the secret weapon. The cornerman meets the requirement of the mentor, has experienced success across domains and is over 60 years old (there is a reason for this, I promise). Where the mentor might have built the business you want, he may also be on his third marriage with estranged kids and on the verge of burnout. The cornerman sees all areas of your life - the ones the mentor doesn’t see or values differently- and teaches you to create harmony and sustainability.
Why is 60 years the magic number?
Hard times make strong people
Strong people make good times
Good times make weak people
Weak people make hard times
… it takes three generations to see everything humanity is going to throw at you. A generation is 20 years. Anyone under 60 has not experienced a full cycle. This is discussed further in The Wise Man In The Mountain4
You have to know who your Cornermen are and:
Keep them zoomed out to keep them effective
Don’t drag them into the tactical or the technical.
Understand that if they don’t make sense to you, it’s likely your experience that is lacking, not their understanding.
You know how grandma always seemed to have crazy ideas that, over time, ended up being not so crazy, after all? That’s because grandma has seen far more than you have. Don’t discount it.
Some things to look out for:
Categorizing or paying someone as a mentor that is getting into the weeds or technical stuff. If they orient towards tools or technical stuff, they are probably trying to be something they are not. If you fancy yourself mentor, stop getting into the technical stuff or accept you’re a technical and become a great one. (Great technicians can make great money, BTW)
Categorizing or paying someone as a technician that is getting into strategy. It’s the inverse of above. If you’re a great technician you have to understand that to be a great technicians, you won’t be able to see the whole picture - and that’s okay. If you want to be a “big picture” person, you have to stop obsessing over tools and tactics.
There is no right answer or judgement. Being who you are to the best of your ability is always the best path forward.
Okay, so let’s overlay the three people and the clarity hierarchy…
Another Look At The Hierarchy
The technician must operate within the strategies developed by the mentor.
The mentor must deploy strategies within the parameters set by the cornerman.
What tools should you use? It depends on the tactics.
What tactics should you use? It depends on the strategies.
What strategies should you use? It depends on principles and philosophy.
If there is scope creep, if these rules are violated, or flowing the wrong way there will be misalignment, turning you into a ticking time bomb.
Although it’s a framework for the people to keep around, you can also use this framework to orient or guide your own education. Here is how the Guardian Academy ecosystem is built:
Many Guardians come to events already experts in their field - they’re great technicians or mentors. The problem with being an expert in your field is you are limited by the paradigm(s) of your field.
They don’t need to learn more about the thing they already do, they need to reinvent completely.
Laurel Portie is a great example. She was already great at making videos and running ads when she came into our world. She was straddling line the between technician - running ads for people - and mentor - teaching others how to do it for themselves.
Since she already knew how to do it and teach it, she didn’t need more technical knowledge, she needed to apply the correct principles to her situation.
Bumpers5 to protect her schedule
As she added Bumpers, she needed to practice and deploy allegiance capital
As she deployed allegiance capital and experienced the benefits, she was able to teach her students how to do the same in the context of their videos and ads
She turned the Solvable Problem(TM) into Magical Math; the same concept wrapped in the context of videos and ads.
She taught recapture, reallocate6 in the context of ads - recapturing the waste and reallocating it more effectively. In this case, it’s simply killing losing ads and reallocating he budget to better performing ads or to test new ones.
We could go on and on but I think you get it…
Laurel took Guardian Academy Principles, integrated them into her expertise and reinvented them. The strategies, tactics, tools, and details change iteration by iteration, but the principle behind it does not.
The result?
A unique strategy that has taken over the industry (which is why we created The Laurel Corner7).
Since, Laurel has stepped out of the technician role completely and into the mentor role - teaching others how to implement her strategy.
Here’s How This Helps You…
If you want to learn how to advertise like Laurel, you could go learn from her. Let her take the mentor role in your endeavor.
If you wanted to learn how to think like Laurel and create something entire unique, you would want to work from principles, using The Guardian Academy. To this, you need to have an existing skillset.
If you wanted to learn how to do what Laurel does and think like Laurel (they are different things. one is knowing how to do a thing, another is knowing how to figure things out), you would do both:
Learn the tactics
Understand why those tactics were used within this specific strategy
Learn the principles behind the strategy to understand why the strategy is what it is
If you already have a technical skillset or unique skill, you can take the Guardian Academy principles and apply them right now. WE don’t to know anything about your domain, because YOU have already mastered it.
If you don’t have a technical skill set (yet), that’s okay. Go learn one. Resources are abundant and the best time to start is right now.
We see TGA principles applied in various industries in unique and interesting ways we would never think of.
Chiropractic
Medicine
Physical Therapy
Fitness
Relationships
Parenting
Insurance
And… if you apply them in ways unique to you and your industry we want to support, highlight and learn from you.
Kinda like this:
See Guardian Principles Applied To Marketing Here.
See Guardian Principles Applied To Fitness Here
See how that works?
Now…
…insert long pause for dramatic effect
…
…
About The Cornerman…
Generally, after someone has taken the journey around the sun 60+ times, they get discounted as being old, outdated dinosaurs.
We disagree.
Sometimes the things they say or believe doesn’t make any sense. Until it does. Don’t discount grandma’s wisdom.
From grandmaster Mike Leoni to Jay Abraham to Dr. Jeff Spencer, we tap into their wisdom as often as possible. We’re fortunate to have access to many cornerman candidates, especially…
THE OFFICIAL TGA CORNERMAN, DR JEFF SPENCER:
Our Founder spends 3-4 hours with Jeff every week. They’ve been doing this for the last five or six years. No agenda, they just get together and see what comes of it. Jeff comes to every Guardian Event and makes himself available for workshops, QnA or anything else he can for The Guardian Academy.
To celebrate and honor our very own cornerman, we’ve added the Cornerman Corner and the Cornerman Chronicles. You can read about them both here.
edit: we’ve had quite a few people reach out about this one - realizing the importance of being able to categorize the people in their lives properly and also asking how to communicate it to them.
Our advice: very carefully. The first thing we do in this situation is invite them to join - so that helping yourself doesn’t become hurting yourself.
See you on the other side,
Live to learn. Give to Earn
Guardian Academy
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