Create Your Best Life Through The MIMI Method: Part 1 – Minimizing Inefficiency With Mimi Nartey

 

If you feel like your life is in chaos and you don’t know what to prioritize, the MIMI Method is just for you. Learn how you can start minimizing inefficiency and start maximizing impact. Join Kofi Nartey as he sits down with the other half of his Power Couple, his wife, Dr. Mimi Nartey. Mimi shares the first part of her M.I.M.I. Method in this two-part series. She shared this invaluable strategy with thousands of executives and teams around the country and now she is sharing it with you. So sit back and tune in so you can eliminate your inefficiencies.

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Create Your Best Life Through The MIMI Method: Part 1 – Minimizing Inefficiency With Mimi Nartey

Minimizing Inefficiency, Maximizing Impact

I’m super excited about what we are going to discuss. We all know that going full mogul or being a full mogul is the relentless pursuit of the best version of yourself across all aspects of life. Everything that we touch on, everything that we discuss needs to touch one aspect of your life or another. It needs to move the needle, push the envelope, and push you to unlock and unleash your full mogul potential in one aspect of your life or another. Read with selfish intent. These things are jam-packed with information.

That’s Kofism to read for the things that resonate with you where you are in this moment compared to where you want to be. Unlock those action items that can get you there. You might read something that’s going to move that needle. This is the Full Mogul show. You’re going to hear something that’s going to move that needle. I’m excited. I’ve got a guest who’s a guest every day in my life. I’m a guest every day in her life. I’ve got my wife here with me on the show.

Hello to everybody out there. I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

My wife is Dr. Mimi Nartey. We have been married for many years now. She is not only a former World Cup Athlete, but she’s also a PhD, former College Professor, the Director of Nartey Sports Foundation, and the Director of Community and Philanthropy at GLOBL Real Estate and Development, my firm. We’re not necessarily talking about our typical power couple stuff because we talk a lot about life strategy as a power couple. We were even named by Angeleno Magazine, LA Confidential Magazines as Power Couples in 2017. In 2019, again, we were power players.

In 2022, we’re power players yet again. Who knows what 2023 is going to hold? Every once in a while, I want to bring her on to talk about some of the partnership and goal strategies that relate to having a partner, not just in business, also in life. This is a little bit different. This is one of the things that came up in one of Mimi’s talks to corporations, to organizations, to schools, and to real estate organizations. I’m not going to steal your thunder. Why don’t you tell us what it’s called?

 

 

I’m here to talk about the MIMI Method. MIMI Method is basically a set of philosophies and practices that describe my particular way of doing things to Minimize Inefficiency and Maximize Impact. You catch that acronym there, MIMI.

Minimize Inefficiency and Maximize Impact. There’s not too much that’s more full mogul focus and finish based than that. If we’re minimizing inefficiency, we’re getting dialed in on focus and we’re focusing and finishing. Tell us how the MIMI Method came to be. Tell us its origin story.

It’s something that’s been evolving over my lifetime. It started with where I grew up. My dad, like your dad, is from West Africa. As I was growing up, we moved many times throughout the United States. When I was about eight years old, we found ourselves in rural Illinois. When we were there, we were the only African-American family in the community. I was the only little Black girl in my entire school district. While that presented some challenges, there were some very unique opportunities that came out of that experience for me.

I was liberated from social norms. I was allowed to be my authentic self. I realized that I was never going to fit in in a traditional sense. I might as well blaze my own path, make my own trail and start living an authentic experience. That authenticity led me to pursue sports and academics at a high level. I have also not been committed to any singular definition of myself. I’ve allowed myself to grow, evolve, and find new passions.

Don't stay committed to any singular definition of yourself. Allow yourself to grow, evolve, and find new passions. Click To Tweet

In order to be able to do all of those things, to have those ambitions, to be married to a rock star husband and have some amazing kids, I have to be efficient with my time, my energies, and my focus and minimize and eliminate things that aren’t serving me to my fullest potential. That’s how this whole process has evolved. Over time, as I am going to speak to people and engage in mentorship relationships or coaching relationships, I realize I need to tease this out, to explain more fully what am I doing, generally speaking on a consistent quarterly basis, annual basis, quarterly basis, weekly basis, and daily basis.

There’s so much there. You guys probably read a lot of things there. This is the reason that I’m going to have Mimi come back from time to time because there’s a lot for us to discuss. Even part of our weekly process is our couple strategy sessions. We always talk about life and life philosophy and how we can move things forward for ourselves, for our family, and for our legacy family that we’re building. This became part of it. Tell us why it’s important to have or utilize the MIMI Method.

For me personally, the MIMI Method influences my unique way of carrying myself with purpose towards my goals. It influences the way that I lead and serve. At the top of your show, you advise the readers to read with selfish intent. This is where the meat and potatoes are for everybody here. You need organized and anchoring philosophies to develop strategic approaches in life. Hopefully, it’s something that I share now or if invited back. We’ll see how that goes.

 

 

You called me a rock star husband. That got you at least one more invitation. You’re coming back.

It’s for everybody to borrow from some of the philosophies that I have and points of view to develop their strategies and borrow from the strategies that I’m sharing. It also is useful for people to employ the MIMI Method because then they can evaluate the effectiveness of how they’re living their lives. A lot of times, we can’t determine what’s going well or what’s going poorly because we don’t have an objective, measurable standard.

A lot of people can't determine what's going well or poorly in their lives because they don't have an objective, measurable standard. The Mimi Method can evaluate that for you. Click To Tweet

It’s good to have a way to synthesize new ideas and information. As they’re listening to different books and podcasts, going to conferences, trying to do all of this self-mastery work, you need to have a basic set of philosophies that all of that’s getting integrated into. You have an organized way of synthesizing and taking in new information. At the end of the day, it’s to know what or who you need to eliminate to stay in alignment with your goals and purpose and to be able to replicate success in multiple areas of your life. These are all the reasons why it’s great to take in the MIMI Method, this philosophy.

I’ve decided at this moment that we’re going to make this into two episodes. This is going to be part 1 of a 2-part series on the MIMI Method because Minimizing Inefficiency is a topic we just need to dive into. You brought up some key points. You’re creating filters through which you can evaluate the things that you let into your life. Creating those filters is key for every decision that we’re making.

When we’re launching a business, when we’re adding to our business, when we’re taking things away, when we’re doing things in life, when we’re letting people into our circles. You used another word which was eliminate. You have to figure out what things you’re going to eliminate in your life. Tell us a little bit about some of the parameters that people can use, whether it’s in business or in life, to help them create some of these filters for greater efficiency.

Kofi, I’d like to take a minute to just disclose a few biases before I start talking about some of these filters that you can use. As a former researcher, I’m always very sensitive to disclosing biases that I might have or just helping people understand who am I as the presenter. The number one thing to understand about me is that I am a ruthless optimist. I approach everything from this optimistic perspective, believing that it’s just a matter of time before every problem can be solved or resolved. I also believe that I can be any combination of things that I want to be. If I need to or if I want to be multiple things, then I do need to optimize efficiency.

We have a lot of entrepreneurs who are going to read this blog. Anybody who’s in business, even all of my real estate people out there, you’re an entrepreneur. Even if you’re working with another firm or big brokerage, you are an entrepreneur. Part of what you’re saying is about getting efficient in your business.

Getting efficient in your business but also across other areas of your life. Another bias that I hold is that I personally have a strong vision of the type of motherhood experience that I want to have which I revise at each stage of our kids’ development. You can be a witness to that. I believe that married people are supposed to be mentors to one another. I know that there isn’t a crowd on the leading edge. You have to intuit things and that intuition requires getting in tune with the right vibration.

All of these things frame out who I am as a person offering this advice to different people, especially that they can understand as business people, as entrepreneurs who may also have familial responsibilities or they’re in relationships, they’re mentoring their own children or other children. I am interested in helping support the whole person, which is in alignment with what you’re doing here on the show. it’s as much about business as it is about personal life.

I love it because you’re touching on exactly the crux of what being a full mogul is about. I’ve said it before, I’m going to say it again because it’s so important. It’s not about work-life balance. It’s about work-life peace. As you’re attacking all of those aspects of your life, finding peace at any given moment, that you’re giving it the right amount of attention and detail at that time. This brings us again back to the importance of being efficient in those moments because we have limited time. In everything that we’re tackling, you have to be efficient with the time that you’re giving those things.

Around the elimination side, this idea of minimizing inefficiency, I’m talking about minimizing things that create disorder, disharmony, disorganization, displeasure, and dis-ease. On the maximizing side, which we’ll circle back to, it’s about maximizing in turn love, peace, beauty, joy, kindness, excellence, intention, and ultimately potential. There’s this great quote from Wallace Wattles, “If you do a sufficient number of efficient acts and you don’t do any inefficient acts, then your life will be a success.”

If you do a sufficient number of efficient acts and don't do any inefficient acts, your life will be a success. Click To Tweet

It boils down to something I talked about in one of our team meetings of asking yourself the question. Some of my entrepreneur full moguls out there have heard this before. At any given moment of any given day, is this the highest and best use of your time? Even if it’s rest because rest is also critical. I was talking to a friend of mine, Justin. He’s a sleep specialist and he was telling me about things that help you sleep better. Whether it’s a chilly pad on your bed, the elevation of your mattress, the pillows that you use, the comforter, or the weighted blankets, all of these things contribute to getting the rest that you need. You can have efficient sleep.

Sleep is hugely important. And it also makes me think about something our pastors said once before. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap. This idea of doing a sufficient number of efficient acts or making sure that you don’t do any inefficient acts speaks to the sports experience. I love that quote because it hit me right to my core. Having played soccer at such a high level and now coaching girls at very high levels.

We had a chance to go to the Gothia World Youth Cup and coach our daughter’s soccer team. It gets at, “How do you even evaluate as an individual athlete if you’ve had a great game?” It is about, “Did you have a sufficient number of efficient acts? Did you minimize your inefficient acts?” That’s the standard because it’s not going to be perfect necessarily. We are counting, measuring, and balancing those efficient acts versus the inefficient ones,

That counting, measuring, and balancing ties into accountability. That inefficiency or efficiency is a way to get dialed into your accountability. It’s just like time blocking on a daily basis. We don’t do a to-do list. We do focus and finish lists. The words on the page and the bullet points look the same, the idea of turning it into a focus and finish list gets us dialed into the things that we need to do. We prioritize the list and then the next layer on that is the time blocking. If you time block, now you know how much time you can commit to each thing. There is a time and a place for each thing on your list.

 

 

That’s funny because that leads me to what it looks like to minimize inefficiency on a daily basis or operationalize that concept. It is things like making lists. I spend a significant amount of time in my day, planning. I use a system in my written planner that’s color coded. I still write. I’m old school there. I write out my planner just because I feel like it helps with my learning process.

I write things out in my planner. I also write it up on a whiteboard at home because we got a lot of people with a lot of moving parts. In my own personal planner, I use a color-coding system. I know what activities are related to the kid’s stuff, what is related to the investment in our relationship, what is around professional development, and what’s around health, beauty, and well-being.

That way at a glance I can look at this rainbow in my calendar and see where am I deficient in things that I might need because all of these things are priorities for me. I can just look visually very quickly and understand, “I have not paid enough attention to my health. It’s time for us to get another date night or a little getaway trip on the books.”

That’s a system that has worked for me around an organization and getting rid of the disorder. Related to that too, there’s just this idea of writing down your priorities and goals over a different timeframe and making sure they can be reconciled, mapping how they relate to each other. That also is going to help you be orderly, efficient, and focused even though you have multiple priorities.

 

It made my mind go to my whiteboarding sessions. I love a good whiteboarding session where I can map out all of the things that I’m touching. We’re entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have to have a few things going on. We can’t have 1 thing, but we also can’t have 6 or 7 things. It’s 1 of those 3 or 4 things that we’re touching on a daily basis that are also touching that part of our brain, those parts of our heart that keep us satisfied on that same daily basis. When you look at reconciling those things, one method that I’ve used is the Kofi Method, but the Kofi doesn’t stand for anything.

When I draw on the whiteboard, I draw circles around the things that I’m touching, and I’m looking for concentric circles. I’m looking for where the things overlap, feed, and service each other because those are the sweet spots where you can get double the bang for the buck for the time that you’re putting into something. It’s also going to feed something else. In my business, personal marketing, and branding, it feeds visibility for my firm and my recruiting efforts.

These are things that have ancillary effects when we’re marketing a property. It also helps market the agent who’s on the property. We didn’t have this in our notes, I wanted to touch on the idea of leverage because we think about some of the things that we do that are inefficient. Leveraging other people, other tools and resources, and even leveraging lists is one way to overcome that. I wanted to just get your thoughts on leverage.

This is important for the idea of efficiency. Wherever you can borrow from one set of experiences or from one realm of your life or business and make that make sense, make 1 plus 1 equals 3 through that leveraging process, it’s just going to accelerate what you’re trying to do and accomplish, and unlock the next level of your potential. It’s a skill, to be honest. Leveraging is a skill that you become more and more efficient and proficient at over time.

This is one of the challenges that I have ongoing. It is bringing people in to take things off of my plate and you have to commit the time to it. You guys don’t know this. I’m the CEO, but she’s my secret coach. Commit a certain amount of time to onboard the people who are going to help you with that leverage. Set the time in my calendar for this.

You told me, “You’ve got to block the time upfront. Have multiple sessions to be able to show the person what you need, observe them doing it, let them do it on their own, and review ongoing.” Those were the words. These are great takeaways that we also want to share with you guys. I’ve got something in my notes here that I remember talking about. I thought this was interesting. It’s not directly tied into a linear conversation here, but you color-code your wardrobe as part of your efficiency. Tell us about that.

I am also very passionate. Some of the brand tenants are expressiveness, color, luxury, and beauty. I’m a fashion girl. I was a model for a while in New York City. I did runway modeling. I’m quite tall. I realized that in order for me to continue to service that passion, that part of myself that loves to be very intentional in the way that I present myself and still have time for my professional pursuits, mentoring other people, the activities and the support that I give to the kids, I was going to have to develop a radical system. I color-coded my wardrobe. This is how extreme I am. I have a monthly color palette that just makes it very easy for me to pull out the accessories that go in that color palette. When I go get my manicure, it’s consistent with that color palette. I see you looking at my nails. It’s consistent with that.

I’ve seen the closet. It’s true.

It seems a little bit radical. It is the action that I need to take in order for me to execute in disparate areas of my life. I need to be highly functional. In that vein, one of my tips for getting organized and efficient is not to be afraid to do something radically counterculture to be more efficient. We made a decision a few years ago that we were going to homeschool our daughter in a homeschool hybrid program.

Don't be afraid to do something radically counterculture to be more efficient. Click To Tweet

That was before the pandemic before everybody started homeschooling. It was just the idea that we would get more time back, our lives would function more smoothly, and we would be able to optimize all of our children’s ambitions and our ambitions if we took this step. At that time, it was pretty radical because people weren’t homeschooling. It’s paid off in huge dividends and the kids are thriving. I have more time, surprisingly, in this model than I did previously.

Taking that radical approach, another thing that I’ve heard you talk about on multiple stages in front of thousands of people is not worrying about other people’s opinions. Tell us a little bit more about that.

I had this exceptional childhood experience where I was just so different. In order for me to find happiness, I could not afford to worry about other people’s opinions or whether or not I was fitting in. I do think that that liberation has served me and helped to give me the boldness to make countercultural decisions when I know it’s in the best interest of myself, our marriage, or our family.

We are always pushing to try to figure out what we need to do, whether it’s in line with culture or totally counterculture. I want to try to do a broader overview/summary of part one. Remember, this is part one. We’re still going to have part two of the key parts of minimizing the inefficiency. Let’s talk a little bit about that as we wrap up here. We have that promise of a follow-up where we’re going to talk about maximizing impact. If you can give us a quick general overview, and I’ll piggyback on that.

The bottom line is this. You’re going to need a method to get from where you are to the next version of yourself, no matter who you are or what stage you are in life. If you’re pursuing a different iteration of yourself, you’re going to need a set of strategies that are backed by a solid philosophy. As an entrepreneur, getting to the next level of yourself directly affects the next level of your business.

What you need to do to focus on that is minimize inefficiency and maximize your impact. On the minimizing inefficiency part, it is about thinking critically about where you’re investing your time and your energy, eliminating things that don’t serve you, and not being afraid to be radically counterculture in establishing systems that work for your specific combination of goals.

Have that game plan. Look at yourself first, and then if you’re in business, your business is second. If you are not efficient, then your business is also not going to be efficient. If you can’t eliminate the things that you don’t need to be doing, then those things are going to become somebody else’s to-do list that lands on your to-do list. We talked about even leverage and even the idea of delegating.

One thing I heard on a show I was listening to was, “One of the first things you do is delegate the trash.” Get rid of those things that you shouldn’t even be doing and you shouldn’t even hand off to somebody else. If you can find that efficiency in your own life within yourself, it’s much easier to scale. You are the engine for everything that you’re doing and everything that you’re touching.

You’re the engine for your household. You’re the engine for your business. You’re the engine for your relationships. You’re the engine that gets you through your workout at the gym. These are things that are extremely critical to find that next level of success across all aspects of the full mogul journey. Tell us your social media handles. You’re not a typical one-time guest. I’ve got to practice these things because I’m new to this thing. Mimi, tell people where they can find you.

You can find me on Instagram, @MimiNartey, or you can visit my website, MimiNartey.com. You can shoot me an email, Mimi@GLOBLRed.com.

Again, I want to thank you for coming on. If you had said no, we would have been arguing at dinner.

You treated me nicely. I may come back.

All of you guys reading, you can see why I wanted to have my wife come on, join us, and share some of the MIMI Method. We’re going to do part two. We may not do it on the next episode or the following episode because I want to talk to her about some other things. As you can see, she is my secret weapon as well with all of her knowledge and her experience that she shares with me on a daily basis. I’m the lucky one. Also, with organizations.

It’s reciprocal.

There you go. Organizations, corporations, and what have you. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you read this with selfish intent. I want you guys to share this with somebody who needs to start thinking about minimizing their inefficiencies and maximizing their impact. Share it with somebody. Reread it. That doesn’t sound efficient, if you’re reading with selfish intent, you’re going to learn something you didn’t learn the first time that’s going to help you move the needle in your business.

That’s the whole reason we’re doing it. Follow me on social media, follow the show, share it, and send me the questions or the things you guys want to talk about and things you want to hear more about. I will bring that to these episodes. Thanks again for joining. Stay on that Full Mogul journey, and let’s focus and finish.

 

Important Links

• Nartey Sports Foundation
• GLOBL Real Estate and Development
• @MimiNartey – Instagram
• MimiNartey.com
• Mimi@GLOBLRed.com

 

About Mimi Nartey

Dr. Mimi Nartey is an interdisciplinary scholar and philanthropist who is passionate about integrating science, business, and philosophy to promote sustainability and empowerment. She has an undergraduate degree in environmental biology and a graduate degree in climate change from Columbia University. She completed her doctoral studies in public health. She has excelled in a myriad of pursuits, and her resume includes: FIFA World Cup soccer player, fashion model, research scientist, college professor, TEDx speaker, and Youth World Cup Coach. Her diverse experiences, ability to consider problems from an interdisciplinary perspective, personal motivations, diligence, and rigorous academic preparation have placed Mimi in a unique position to pioneer new approaches to social challenges in communities around the globe. She is now the Executive Director of the Nartey Sports Foundation, which is the charitable giving arm of GLOBL Real Estate and Development. Mimi has been married to Kofi Nartey for 16 years. They have two precocious children, Liya and Lincoln, who are also talented scholar athletes.