Ep 02 - Tzvi Schwartz
"I'll Keep This in Mind": Dan Wallace on the Networking Trap That Kills Most Practices
Key takeaways
Tzvi tells us the real problem isn't volume. It's energy. Wrong-fit clients drain you silently, and you blame it on too many sessions.
Tzvi was in six boxes on his own Accountability Chart. No wonder he was exhausted — he was doing six jobs.
Tzvi did the math: your day rate ÷ working hours = your hourly value. Anything you can outsource for less than that isn't savings. It's spending money to stay broke.
Tzvi paid $12,000 a year to delegate his books. His brother-in-law called it wasteful. But based on his rate, it was actually cheaper than doing it himself.
Tzvi tells us the belief "if I do it, it will be better" doesn't disappear just because you understand it logically. You have to let go anyway.
Tzvi points out the less you force (fewer hours, less doing, more space), the better things become on their own, your energy, your client relationships, the quality of clients showing up.
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The Idea
The EOS Life audit nobody does honestly.
Before Tzvi got into any of it, he put a disclaimer on the table.
"Just because the doctor doesn't follow his own advice, does it mean the advice he's giving you is wrong? Not really. He knows what's right. He's just as human as you."
It wasn't a deflection. It was the frame for everything that followed: you're allowed to be imperfect at the thing you teach. Most Implementers are missing permission to say that openly.
So where does Tzvi actually sit on the five columns? Doing what you love: 8-9. With people you love: 7, up from a 3. Time for other passions: still a 3-4, and the hardest to move.
The "with people you love" number is worth pulling on. For years it sat low because of wrong-fit clients. The insight that shifted it didn't come from inside his practice. It came from a conversation at Strategic Coach, with someone who'd never heard of EOS.
"I have a feeling you don't love all the clients you work with. There's something off over there that's burning you out."
Tzvi had blamed the exhaustion on volume. Too many sessions. Too many clients. The real cause was energy: specifically, the drain of clients he wasn't aligned with, clients he'd stayed with out of fear.
"I was more concerned about holding on to the client than actually helping them."
The result wasn't more cash or a stickier practice. He wasn't showing up right, so the sessions suffered, and the clients left anyway. "Bad energy fed more bad energy."
The clarity on his own practice came a different way. It was QCE in Las Vegas, a milestone year for EOS Worldwide. Tzvi got talking with Barry Barrett, an Implementer he'd recently gotten to know. Barrett handed him a tool he already taught every client: the Accountability Chart™.
"He said, draw out the seats in your own practice: Visionary, Integrator, salesperson, EOS coach, finance - and put names in the boxes. Who's doing all that?"
Tzvi's name was in five or six boxes.
"No wonder I'm exhausted. I'm doing six jobs."
The math followed. His day rate as an Implementer, broken down hourly, meant that any task costing less than that rate to outsource was costing him money, not saving it. He hired a new assistant, handed over his books to an accounting firm, and paid the $12,000 a year his brother-in-law called wasteful.
"Based on my current rate, my value is so much greater in the EOS box. It's actually cheaper for me to delegate the finance stuff than to save the money and do it myself."
He's still working on the letting go. He'll tell you that directly. The belief that if I do it, it will be better doesn't disappear just because you understand it. But Tzvi has a name for what's underneath it.
"We look for solutions on the outside. It's my client's fault, the economy, the business. But the real issue is on the inside. It's my belief system about what I need to let go of."
He's finding that the less he forces (fewer hours, less doing, more space) the better things are becoming on their own. His relationship with his wife. His energy with clients. The quality of the clients showing up.
"It's like this cycle. Because I'm showing up better as a coach, those relationships are getting better. Which means better clients are showing up. The more you let go, somehow the more you get."
The Steal
Draw your own Accountability Chart
Grab a piece of paper. Draw the seats in your EOS practice: Visionary, Integrator, biz dev (sales), EOS coach (operations), finance. Put names in the boxes. If your name appears in more than two, you've found the problem.
Then do the math: your day rate divided by your working hours is your hourly value. Anything you're doing that costs less than that to outsource? That's not saving money. That's spending it.
Dan Martell, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Buy Back Your Time (one of our favorite books here at success.co), takes it further with what he calls the buyback rate. Take your annual income and divide by 2,000 (a standard working year). Then divide that number by four. Anything you can hire out for that amount or less per hour is worth buying back, because your effective value in your highest-leverage work is four times what you're paying to get the low-leverage work off your plate.
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