Rudy Mawer Bellingham is the owner of RudyMawer.com, 10xFitnessMarketing.com and Clean & Pure Labs. He has 18 employees, is skilled in fitness, Facebook ads, and nutrition. You can email him at [email protected].

Who is your hero? (In business, life, or both.)

Although I have a few favorite entrepreneurs, such as Grant Cardone and Gary Vee, I don’t believe I have one clear “hero” like most people do. In fact, I think each and every person who goes the extra mile and is on a mission similar to mine; to create a legacy and an extraordinary life and make a major impact in the world. It’s those people I respect and admire the most.

What’s the single best piece of business advice (unorthodox tips welcome!) that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

This is a tough one and I’m torn between two: optimizing every single aspect of time and surrounding yourself with the right people. I’m a firm believer that, as the saying goes, you are most like the five people you spend the most time around. Spend your time with five average people with average goals and you’ll have a much harder time breaking through the average ceiling. However, spend your time with five highly driven, intelligent, hardworking and passionate individuals — well, the results are quite clear.

Once I made difficult choices and decided to only spend time with people who added genuine value to my life and would help me move towards my goals. Everything made a dramatic change, from my own development to the growth of my business and, of course, revenue and profits.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

I’ve made lots of mistakes and that’s played a vital part in where I am today, both as an induvial and in the growth of my business. Mistakes are great, as long as you learn from them and evolve each time.

I think one mistake that I made and I know lots of entrepreneurs are guilty of is trying to do too much at once. As entrepreneurs, I believe we are hardwired with creativity and drive, which, while important, can also cause issues if we try to do one hundred things at once. While I’m not saying don’t have multiple projects and avenues on the go at any one time, they must be realistic. I’m all about moving fast and doing 10 times more than average, but all that energy must be used in the right places.

In short, my biggest mistake was placing time, energy and resources into projects that provided a smaller ROI when I should have been focused on the biggest tasks, businesses, and projects that move the needle.

Get laser-focused on what will grow your business and take you towards your goals in the quickest and most efficient way possible. The rest? Well, that’s just fog that will only cause distractions, headaches and slow you down. Once you get laser-focused and prioritize the key tasks, your business, success and revenue will quickly multiply.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

Review my critical tasks for the day, assess sales, advertising platforms and ensure all staff are working on critical tasks for the day that will move the needle the most. I instruct all my staff to compile their task list for the day, I then work with them to budget a time goal for each task and prioritize them in order of importance.

Once all the mini-tasks are finished and vital emails have been answered, I then tackle my own critical tasks for the day. A clear game plan and task list will have a profound impact on your achievements immediately and down the line.

What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Save from a young age and budget. I started saving for my first piece of investment real estate when I was just a young teenager. When your business grows, you may be tempted to splash out and spend most of the new income. However, a sensible person will save most of that, stay humble and turn that into 10 times more cash over the next decade or two. So my advice is to pay your dues now, work hard (really hard), invest that money from a young age and ensure you are living like a king when you get older.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Set a critical task list every single day. Work out the exact jobs you need to do each and every day which, if achieved, will guarantee ultimate success for you and your business. Focus on these, get them done and ignore the rest.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

I don’t know if I’ll ever tell myself I’ve succeeded. As I grow and achieve more, my goalposts just continue to move, I love the game, the hunt and the mission. By definition, I’ve probably already succeeded. But to me, I’m just 1 percent of the way into my journey and will never be satisfied. I feel if I finally told myself I had succeeded or was satisfied, everything in terms of my business and related goals would instantly become empty and I would lose all the passion, love and drive I have.

Right now I guess my biggest definition of success is seeing testimonials from hundreds of members, amazing feedback and the fact that I’m making a positive impact on people’s health, confidence and overall quality of life.