00:00:01.120 –> 00:00:03.460

Today, I wanna talk to you about intentionality.

00:00:05.040 –> 00:00:08.835

And as I was trying to think of the perfect analogy for this, a

00:00:08.835 –> 00:00:12.514

few crossed my mind. Is it like playing

00:00:12.514 –> 00:00:16.050

a poker game where you have a limited amount of chips and you need to

00:00:16.050 –> 00:00:19.890

increase those chips and win more hands to make it to the end of the

00:00:19.890 –> 00:00:22.800

game? Kinda.

00:00:23.625 –> 00:00:27.145

Is it like going to a grocery store except you don't

00:00:27.145 –> 00:00:30.765

have a shopping list, and you're just wandering

00:00:30.825 –> 00:00:33.940

around hoping you get everything you need.

00:00:35.040 –> 00:00:38.640

Yeah. That's pretty close. But I settled

00:00:38.640 –> 00:00:42.215

on an old standby, getting in a car

00:00:42.435 –> 00:00:46.035

and driving someplace. Maybe you know the

00:00:46.035 –> 00:00:49.875

destination. Maybe you even have done the drive before and you think you know

00:00:49.875 –> 00:00:53.540

it. So you decide to not

00:00:53.540 –> 00:00:57.320

put on the GPS, and you end up wandering

00:00:57.380 –> 00:01:00.805

around. That road that you thought you could take was closed.

00:01:01.344 –> 00:01:04.864

There's construction in another place. You took a wrong

00:01:04.864 –> 00:01:08.710

turn, and you end up wasting time

00:01:09.250 –> 00:01:12.645

and resources, gas and wear and tear on the car,

00:01:13.365 –> 00:01:17.125

when you could have had a clear plan? You could have

00:01:17.125 –> 00:01:20.884

turned on the GPS. You could have known exactly where you

00:01:20.884 –> 00:01:24.650

were going. You could have known the traffic that you

00:01:24.650 –> 00:01:28.250

would have avoided. And, yes, even

00:01:28.250 –> 00:01:31.995

with the GPS, you may not make it to your destination when you think you

00:01:31.995 –> 00:01:35.135

will. Maybe you get a flat tire.

00:01:35.995 –> 00:01:39.710

Maybe bad weather means you have to turn around. Or the

00:01:39.710 –> 00:01:42.910

first leg of the journey took a lot longer and you need to stop at

00:01:42.910 –> 00:01:46.565

a motel overnight. But the GPS gives

00:01:46.565 –> 00:01:50.165

you the best chance of making it to your destination as

00:01:50.165 –> 00:01:53.945

efficiently as possible. It gives you that intentionality.

00:01:55.160 –> 00:01:58.140

And that's what I wanna talk to you about today.

00:01:59.400 –> 00:02:02.920

See, my yearly theme is the year of control, and one of

00:02:02.920 –> 00:02:05.255

those tenants of control

00:02:06.915 –> 00:02:10.675

is control over my schedule, which means I need to

00:02:10.675 –> 00:02:13.175

make sure I'm spending my time right.

00:02:14.680 –> 00:02:18.520

And I've been thinking about how I can spend

00:02:18.520 –> 00:02:21.240

my time right, how I can be more intentional. And I think it really comes

00:02:21.240 –> 00:02:24.584

down to a few things. I'm time tracking more.

00:02:25.205 –> 00:02:28.745

I have decided what my high leverage tasks are.

00:02:29.605 –> 00:02:33.160

I'm gonna talk about the difference between goals and values. That's gonna be a little

00:02:33.160 –> 00:02:37.000

bit of in a mousse bush for next week's episode with Tanya Alvarez. I

00:02:37.000 –> 00:02:40.555

thought it was really good, and I wanna give you a little preview. And then

00:02:40.555 –> 00:02:44.394

I'm gonna talk about how all of these things led

00:02:44.394 –> 00:02:48.110

me to the decision to kill my membership and why

00:02:48.110 –> 00:02:51.570

that's actually the best thing right now for my business.

00:02:53.390 –> 00:02:57.155

Then in the pro show, I'm going to answer the question,

00:02:57.455 –> 00:03:00.815

why does this even exist if I'm killing my

00:03:00.815 –> 00:03:03.875

membership? And I'll give you some more concrete

00:03:04.270 –> 00:03:08.110

data on what I've learned time tracking. So I really

00:03:08.110 –> 00:03:11.709

hope you enjoy this episode. My goal is to grow my

00:03:11.709 –> 00:03:15.465

business this year, and I need to be more intentional

00:03:15.525 –> 00:03:19.125

if I'm gonna hit the goals I want. Stick around and

00:03:19.125 –> 00:03:22.584

listen. I'd love to hear your feedback.

00:03:23.190 –> 00:03:27.030

You can get all of the show notes for this episode over at

00:03:27.030 –> 00:03:30.870

how I built dot it slash 408. But for now, let's get to

00:03:30.870 –> 00:03:33.215

the intro and then the episode.

00:03:35.595 –> 00:03:39.295

Hey everybody and welcome to How I Built It, the podcast

00:03:39.355 –> 00:03:43.069

that helps busy solopreneurs and creators grow their

00:03:43.069 –> 00:03:46.829

business without spending too much time on it. I'm

00:03:46.829 –> 00:03:50.485

your host, Joe Casaubona, and each week, I bring you

00:03:50.485 –> 00:03:54.245

interviews and case studies on how to build a better business through

00:03:54.245 –> 00:03:57.450

smarter processes, time management, and effective

00:03:57.670 –> 00:04:01.350

content creation. It's like getting free coaching calls

00:04:01.350 –> 00:04:05.005

from successful solopreneurs. By the end of each

00:04:05.005 –> 00:04:08.705

episode, you'll have 1 to 3 takeaways you can implement

00:04:08.845 –> 00:04:12.540

today to stop spending time in your business and

00:04:12.540 –> 00:04:16.320

more time on your business or with your friends,

00:04:16.380 –> 00:04:19.680

your family, reading, or however you choose

00:04:20.139 –> 00:04:21.760

to spend your free time.

00:04:24.335 –> 00:04:27.935

Alright. Welcome welcome everybody. Thanks so much for being

00:04:27.935 –> 00:04:31.715

here. I'm excited to talk about this because it's

00:04:32.210 –> 00:04:35.830

not something I have spent a lot of time on

00:04:36.530 –> 00:04:40.370

which is a little wild to think about considering I've

00:04:40.370 –> 00:04:44.135

been in business in some way, shape, or form

00:04:44.275 –> 00:04:47.495

for 24 years.

00:04:48.810 –> 00:04:52.650

And, yeah, I know. I was in high school, and sometimes I

00:04:52.650 –> 00:04:56.170

was gainfully employed. I was in college and grad

00:04:56.170 –> 00:04:59.765

school, and it was all usually pretty low

00:04:59.765 –> 00:05:03.465

stakes. I had a pretty rude awakening

00:05:04.460 –> 00:05:08.000

at the end of the pandemic and through maybe mid last year

00:05:09.020 –> 00:05:12.715

where I thought that my business

00:05:12.935 –> 00:05:16.235

skills, like the things that helped me in web design, were

00:05:16.295 –> 00:05:19.595

immutable, we'll say. And I could just

00:05:20.360 –> 00:05:22.940

change my niche from WordPress developer

00:05:24.199 –> 00:05:27.960

to podcaster, and I'd have no issues,

00:05:27.960 –> 00:05:30.845

which is wild. Right? There's,

00:05:31.784 –> 00:05:35.544

you know, there's a reason that certain authors can only write certain books

00:05:35.544 –> 00:05:39.220

or certain actors can only be in certain

00:05:39.220 –> 00:05:42.740

types of movies. But that's what I attempted to do,

00:05:42.740 –> 00:05:46.365

and it bit me pretty

00:05:46.365 –> 00:05:50.125

hard in the butt. Now I bounced back last

00:05:50.125 –> 00:05:53.900

year, and I'm happy to say I didn't fold my business, and I'm

00:05:53.900 –> 00:05:56.320

still happily self employed as a solopreneur.

00:05:57.580 –> 00:06:01.040

But I didn't wanna make those same mistakes going into 2024.

00:06:02.205 –> 00:06:04.785

And so at the top of the show, I talked all about intentionality.

00:06:06.125 –> 00:06:09.825

And there's a few ways that I'm being more intentional

00:06:11.390 –> 00:06:15.150

starting with time tracking. I've always danced around the

00:06:15.150 –> 00:06:18.990

idea of time tracking. I like the idea of it, but

00:06:18.990 –> 00:06:21.875

I never kind of built in the proper

00:06:22.815 –> 00:06:26.175

habits to do it. And I decided

00:06:26.175 –> 00:06:29.800

to really make a concerted effort starting in

00:06:29.940 –> 00:06:33.560

November, December. So I configured

00:06:33.699 –> 00:06:37.505

my Stream Deck to have all the right buttons. I have a bunch

00:06:37.505 –> 00:06:41.125

of time tracking widgets on my various

00:06:41.185 –> 00:06:44.790

devices, so it's very hard for me to

00:06:44.790 –> 00:06:48.330

forget to time track. I'm using

00:06:48.470 –> 00:06:52.310

Timery, which is an iOS app and then, Mac app that sits

00:06:52.310 –> 00:06:55.975

on top of Toggle because Toggle's

00:06:55.975 –> 00:06:59.335

apps are not very good, and Timerys apps have

00:06:59.335 –> 00:07:02.695

shortcuts. And so for example, when I enable

00:07:02.695 –> 00:07:06.540

certain focus modes, I can start certain timers.

00:07:07.240 –> 00:07:11.000

Or when I open Ecamm Live, I start

00:07:11.000 –> 00:07:14.745

the recording timer. When I open Logic Pro, I

00:07:14.745 –> 00:07:17.005

start the podcast production

00:07:18.185 –> 00:07:22.025

timer. All these things that I could do thanks to shortcuts and

00:07:22.025 –> 00:07:25.320

and Timery. And it's been really eye opening

00:07:25.860 –> 00:07:29.380

because I know roughly how much I wanna make per

00:07:29.380 –> 00:07:33.135

hour. And so if I'm time

00:07:33.135 –> 00:07:36.915

tracking, not even aggressively time tracking, just kind of

00:07:37.295 –> 00:07:40.435

loosely tracking the amount of time I spend on stuff,

00:07:41.600 –> 00:07:44.980

I can determine where I'm spending

00:07:45.360 –> 00:07:48.835

my time appropriately. And

00:07:48.835 –> 00:07:52.515

so one big question again, I'll dive deep into these reports in in the

00:07:52.515 –> 00:07:55.955

pro show. But one big question for me

00:07:55.955 –> 00:07:59.090

was, are LinkedIn Learning courses

00:07:59.710 –> 00:08:03.490

worth it strictly from a time

00:08:05.295 –> 00:08:08.195

to upfront dollar investment.

00:08:08.655 –> 00:08:11.155

Right? And for those who don't know,

00:08:12.360 –> 00:08:15.260

LinkedIn Learning was lynda.com.

00:08:16.600 –> 00:08:19.960

Lynda.com used to be a book publisher. And so all of

00:08:19.960 –> 00:08:22.735

their course instructor

00:08:23.675 –> 00:08:26.895

payment plans, I guess, their compensation

00:08:27.035 –> 00:08:30.510

packages are based on that where you get a certain amount

00:08:30.510 –> 00:08:34.270

upfront that's called an advance, and then you get royalties after

00:08:34.270 –> 00:08:37.674

that advance is paid off. And so if you're

00:08:37.674 –> 00:08:41.454

lucky, the course that you put out will

00:08:41.755 –> 00:08:45.560

pay back the advance, and then you'll start making royalties.

00:08:45.620 –> 00:08:49.320

And you can choose to get a lower

00:08:49.380 –> 00:08:53.225

advance because that means that you'll start generating

00:08:53.225 –> 00:08:57.065

royalties faster. I found that for the

00:08:57.065 –> 00:09:00.365

courses I was developing, my preference is a higher upfront

00:09:02.170 –> 00:09:05.689

advance. And so I know how much my advance

00:09:05.689 –> 00:09:08.910

is and time tracking the last two courses,

00:09:09.425 –> 00:09:13.105

I determined that, yes, if if I just get the advance,

00:09:13.105 –> 00:09:16.485

it's actually worth my time. And so the royalties

00:09:17.519 –> 00:09:21.120

are gravy. They're just extra. Now I will say that most of my

00:09:21.120 –> 00:09:24.800

courses aren't generating the royalties I

00:09:24.800 –> 00:09:28.014

hope they would. I had a couple of courses when I first started that were

00:09:28.014 –> 00:09:31.635

very popular that made up for the lion's share of my royalties.

00:09:32.495 –> 00:09:36.300

And so, you know, I've made some decisions around that to

00:09:36.300 –> 00:09:39.520

not do any LinkedIn Learning courses for the rest of the year

00:09:40.140 –> 00:09:43.845

unless the next couple of courses I release, right, the ones that

00:09:43.845 –> 00:09:46.505

I just wrapped on, unless they really start generating royalties,

00:09:47.685 –> 00:09:51.225

it's it's not worth it from me from, like, a mental health

00:09:51.365 –> 00:09:54.800

or kind of focus point of view, if that makes

00:09:54.800 –> 00:09:58.480

sense. Like, yes, the LinkedIn Learning courses, if

00:09:58.480 –> 00:10:02.015

we're strictly doing, like, hourly rate, how much it takes me how much time it

00:10:02.015 –> 00:10:05.714

takes me to make the course against my hourly rate,

00:10:06.015 –> 00:10:09.670

yes. Yes. It makes sense. But from the intentionality

00:10:09.890 –> 00:10:13.490

point of view, I'm spending time on the LinkedIn Learning courses that

00:10:13.490 –> 00:10:16.790

aren't necessarily podcasting based.

00:10:17.665 –> 00:10:21.505

And so that's taking away from other podcasting based things I could

00:10:21.505 –> 00:10:25.185

do. So I've I made the decision to not do

00:10:25.185 –> 00:10:28.839

those anymore. But it was that was one

00:10:28.839 –> 00:10:32.540

exercise that was really eye opening for me. I I thought for sure

00:10:33.319 –> 00:10:36.985

it definitely wasn't worth it for me to do the courses. And it

00:10:36.985 –> 00:10:40.585

turns out, if I'm just looking at how many

00:10:40.585 –> 00:10:44.105

hours I'm spending versus how much I'm getting paid, then, yes, it it definitely is

00:10:44.105 –> 00:10:47.040

worth it. But from other aspects, it's not necessarily.

00:10:48.940 –> 00:10:52.220

So I won't, again, I won't dive into all of this here. I'll I'll save

00:10:52.220 –> 00:10:56.035

that for the pro show. But tracking everything

00:10:56.095 –> 00:10:59.714

from my contract

00:10:59.855 –> 00:11:03.630

work to producing this show and my other

00:11:03.630 –> 00:11:07.389

show to writing and then the

00:11:07.389 –> 00:11:10.935

kind of management side of the house, I'm

00:11:10.935 –> 00:11:14.075

learning a lot about how how I'm spending my time,

00:11:14.855 –> 00:11:18.320

how much time I'm spending on things. And it's it's

00:11:18.320 –> 00:11:22.000

pretty clear, like, when I have an unproductive day and

00:11:22.000 –> 00:11:25.675

why I had an unproductive day. And so using

00:11:25.895 –> 00:11:29.735

this data, I can take control

00:11:29.735 –> 00:11:33.255

of my schedule and structure my days in a

00:11:33.255 –> 00:11:37.100

way that assists me in being as productive as

00:11:37.100 –> 00:11:40.780

possible for the amount of time that I

00:11:40.780 –> 00:11:44.584

want to be productive. And this is even more important as we

00:11:44.584 –> 00:11:47.704

go into the summer because my wife and I made the decision not to send

00:11:47.704 –> 00:11:51.519

our kids to summer camp because summer

00:11:51.519 –> 00:11:55.060

camp is getting pro almost prohibitively

00:11:55.680 –> 00:11:59.495

expensive, and we both can have kind

00:11:59.495 –> 00:12:03.175

of flexible schedules. Right? She's she's a nurse, and she

00:12:03.175 –> 00:12:06.889

makes her schedule. And so she's maybe picking up an a couple of extra

00:12:06.889 –> 00:12:10.589

weekend days, and I'm I've decided I'm not gonna work a full week,

00:12:12.730 –> 00:12:15.535

by day. And we are getting an assist from family.

00:12:16.715 –> 00:12:20.475

But I know I'm gonna have fewer hours

00:12:20.475 –> 00:12:23.990

over the summer to work, and

00:12:24.370 –> 00:12:27.829

that intentionality is going to be really important to me.

00:12:28.690 –> 00:12:32.290

Because I know if I know I only have, let's say,

00:12:32.290 –> 00:12:35.995

24 or 30 hours I guess 30 is almost a full

00:12:35.995 –> 00:12:39.134

work week anyway, but let's say I have 26 hours.

00:12:40.860 –> 00:12:44.620

I know the I will know by that point the best way for

00:12:44.620 –> 00:12:48.465

me to spend that time. And so that's the

00:12:48.465 –> 00:12:50.565

first part of taking control of my schedule.

00:12:52.545 –> 00:12:56.330

The other part of that is

00:12:56.330 –> 00:12:59.710

determining what my high leverage tasks are.

00:13:00.010 –> 00:13:02.990

And so I will talk about that in a minute.

00:13:03.555 –> 00:13:07.235

First, I do want to take a break to hear

00:13:07.235 –> 00:13:08.855

from our sponsors.

00:13:11.860 –> 00:13:14.520

Okay. And we're back. So

00:13:16.260 –> 00:13:19.905

what are high leverage tasks? I'm sure, if

00:13:19.905 –> 00:13:23.745

you've listened to I mean, if you've listened to this show, you'll know the

00:13:23.745 –> 00:13:26.725

high leverage tasks. There's also the idea of the product ladder,

00:13:27.790 –> 00:13:31.569

where there are certain things you do that are definitely worth your time

00:13:32.029 –> 00:13:35.675

from, again, from an info, from an income or

00:13:35.675 –> 00:13:39.355

mental health point of view. Right? And so, like I said, I could

00:13:39.355 –> 00:13:43.195

keep doing LinkedIn Learning courses, and I know that, you know, it takes me about

00:13:43.195 –> 00:13:46.370

20 to 24 hours to produce a LinkedIn Learning course

00:13:46.830 –> 00:13:50.670

based on the hourly rate. I know that the royalty they pay me is

00:13:50.670 –> 00:13:54.425

worth it for just those costs. But I

00:13:54.425 –> 00:13:58.025

also know that there's a lot of stuff around

00:13:58.025 –> 00:14:01.430

that which makes the

00:14:01.430 –> 00:14:05.269

actual project not worth it for me. So when I'm doing a LinkedIn

00:14:05.269 –> 00:14:08.790

Learning course, if I'm trying to get it done in 24 in in

00:14:08.790 –> 00:14:12.615

20 hours, that's basically all I'm doing for

00:14:13.075 –> 00:14:16.915

10 days to 14 days. Because I'm writing

00:14:16.915 –> 00:14:20.220

scripts, I'm taking breaks, I'm thinking through stuff.

00:14:21.000 –> 00:14:24.760

And so the actual work is not is not the only, like, brain like,

00:14:24.760 –> 00:14:28.535

you know, if I track 20 hours, I'm spending more

00:14:28.535 –> 00:14:32.315

than 20 hours in in brainpower. Right? And then I

00:14:33.095 –> 00:14:36.750

switch my computer to the recording setup that works

00:14:36.750 –> 00:14:40.190

best for LinkedIn. I have to set up LinkedIn's recording

00:14:40.190 –> 00:14:43.730

stuff. And so my computer is basically unusable

00:14:43.790 –> 00:14:47.525

for 1 or 2 days because that's all I'm focusing

00:14:47.585 –> 00:14:50.785

on. And then after I ship the course, you know, I have, like, that work

00:14:50.785 –> 00:14:54.545

hangover. Right? And I'm not I'm not picking on LinkedIn for any reason except for

00:14:54.545 –> 00:14:58.350

it's a it's a big task. Like, it's a big project. I just

00:14:58.350 –> 00:15:02.030

finished one. But this could be any project that takes a lot of your

00:15:02.030 –> 00:15:05.834

time. Right? And so anyway, I have that work

00:15:05.834 –> 00:15:09.595

hangover, which basically kills a day

00:15:09.595 –> 00:15:13.269

or 2 for me while I try to switch back

00:15:13.269 –> 00:15:16.629

into, like, a completely different context that's not LinkedIn Learning

00:15:16.629 –> 00:15:20.415

instructor. And so and that's really important, by

00:15:20.415 –> 00:15:24.255

the way. Like, I'm glad I do that because when I'm in that

00:15:24.255 –> 00:15:27.610

mindset, it makes it helps me deliver the best course

00:15:27.610 –> 00:15:31.209

possible, the best raw video for the

00:15:31.209 –> 00:15:34.670

editors to make their lives easier and my producer's life easier.

00:15:35.265 –> 00:15:38.065

And, you know, if it takes me a day or 2 to get out of

00:15:38.065 –> 00:15:41.825

that mindset, then then so be it. Right? Because I I wanna produce the

00:15:41.825 –> 00:15:45.519

best course possible. But that's not necessarily

00:15:45.579 –> 00:15:49.180

high leverage work. Right? Just like, oh, I can do, like, one off

00:15:49.180 –> 00:15:52.800

coaching calls or free discovery calls. Free discovery calls is another thing

00:15:53.735 –> 00:15:56.315

that I'm eliminating

00:15:59.095 –> 00:16:02.830

because none of the free discovery calls that I did last year led

00:16:02.830 –> 00:16:06.670

to any appreciable work. And it led to more

00:16:06.670 –> 00:16:09.085

wasted time where people would book a free discovery call,

00:16:17.770 –> 00:16:21.450

share that in a future episode. But

00:16:21.450 –> 00:16:23.710

that's not high leverage work. Just like,

00:16:25.755 –> 00:16:29.355

you know, doing workshops is not high

00:16:29.355 –> 00:16:33.195

leverage work for me. Doing, like, one

00:16:33.195 –> 00:16:36.860

off coaching calls may not necessarily be

00:16:36.860 –> 00:16:40.460

high leverage work for me. Live streams may not be high

00:16:40.460 –> 00:16:43.360

leverage work for me. So

00:16:44.805 –> 00:16:48.645

I wrote down everything I do, everything I offer. I

00:16:48.645 –> 00:16:51.785

created my product ladder. Right? The product ladder is

00:16:52.880 –> 00:16:56.320

membership that starts at $7 a month. I have

00:16:56.320 –> 00:17:00.160

automation templates on sale for $39. I can sell

00:17:00.160 –> 00:17:03.965

workshops at $99, miscellaneous courses for anywhere from

00:17:03.965 –> 00:17:07.405

47 to, like, $200. I have the

00:17:07.405 –> 00:17:11.080

playbook for $397, one off

00:17:11.080 –> 00:17:14.680

coaching calls, planning sessions, done for

00:17:14.840 –> 00:17:18.484

my done for you podcast launch service, and

00:17:18.865 –> 00:17:22.484

my coaching program, which is, like, $2,000

00:17:22.865 –> 00:17:26.244

a month. I looked at all of these things,

00:17:26.530 –> 00:17:30.290

and I determined what what is my high leverage work? What is

00:17:30.290 –> 00:17:34.130

the work that gives me the best bang for my

00:17:34.130 –> 00:17:37.975

buck, right, or the best bang for my time, really.

00:17:39.955 –> 00:17:43.555

And it's the coaching, and it's the done for

00:17:43.555 –> 00:17:47.019

you launch, which roughly aligns to a certain amount of

00:17:47.019 –> 00:17:50.779

coaching. Like, it's basically the same hourly rate. The planning sessions

00:17:50.779 –> 00:17:54.475

and the coaching calls, they're good as well.

00:17:54.475 –> 00:17:58.315

They're they're good lead ins to the bigger program. So I'm gonna keep

00:17:58.315 –> 00:18:01.810

those. But those are the high leverage things. The playbook is out

00:18:01.810 –> 00:18:05.650

there, and it's for sale. But

00:18:05.650 –> 00:18:08.870

it's not something that has been worth me actively

00:18:09.170 –> 00:18:12.825

updating. And it hasn't been something that

00:18:13.684 –> 00:18:16.745

is worth me marketing at this point.

00:18:17.525 –> 00:18:20.909

Same thing with the miscellaneous courses. I was

00:18:21.129 –> 00:18:24.669

kinda trying to do, like, a land grab and and go for, like, the cheaper,

00:18:25.529 –> 00:18:28.970

someone who wasn't ready to spend, like, $500 with me, but maybe they spend $50

00:18:28.970 –> 00:18:32.765

with me. And I realized that those people are not ready for the high leverage

00:18:32.765 –> 00:18:36.545

work. Right? And so all of this

00:18:36.605 –> 00:18:40.340

led me to determine that starting

00:18:40.340 –> 00:18:44.039

in March, right, actually, this month as this episode comes out,

00:18:44.419 –> 00:18:48.225

I'm really gonna focus on on promoting my coaching program and my done for

00:18:48.225 –> 00:18:51.825

you service because that's the high leverage work, which

00:18:51.825 –> 00:18:54.965

means I'm killing my membership.

00:18:55.710 –> 00:18:59.470

And by the time this episode comes out, my members who were part

00:18:59.470 –> 00:19:03.285

of, the the membership will know this.

00:19:03.845 –> 00:19:07.305

A couple of them have churned out already, reasonably so,

00:19:08.165 –> 00:19:11.800

because it hasn't been a focus of mine. And so

00:19:12.180 –> 00:19:15.400

if you don't know, the way my membership worked was this. It was

00:19:16.100 –> 00:19:19.620

the pro version of the show, right, ad free extended episodes and bonus

00:19:19.620 –> 00:19:22.605

episodes of this show, a weekly newsletter,

00:19:23.945 –> 00:19:27.645

any live streams. And at the higher level,

00:19:28.490 –> 00:19:30.910

there would be workshops. Right?

00:19:33.050 –> 00:19:36.065

But I spent

00:19:36.845 –> 00:19:40.525

too much time writing

00:19:40.525 –> 00:19:42.545

those extra newsletters.

00:19:45.240 –> 00:19:48.220

And producing the show, yes, but that's different, and I'll explain that in a second,

00:19:49.080 –> 00:19:52.875

and figuring out what the workshop's gonna be. And where like, what's

00:19:52.875 –> 00:19:55.934

the platform I'm going to sell my membership on?

00:19:56.715 –> 00:20:00.289

Do I wanna use WordPress? Maybe I should use Substack or I sell over

00:20:00.289 –> 00:20:03.809

here. I also sell in Thrivecart. Like, that was

00:20:03.809 –> 00:20:07.029

taking up so much unnecessary mental energy.

00:20:07.625 –> 00:20:11.165

Right? And I talked about in a in a previous episode my be everywhere strategy.

00:20:11.785 –> 00:20:15.580

That was an incredible failure. Like, I'm I'm

00:20:16.120 –> 00:20:19.880

barely 2 months into it, and I can already tell you, like, it was a

00:20:19.880 –> 00:20:23.560

terrible idea. And the reason it was a terrible idea is because I was

00:20:23.560 –> 00:20:27.335

trying to copy somebody who's who is a creator, who's

00:20:27.335 –> 00:20:31.095

much, much bigger than me. Right? It's, I

00:20:31.095 –> 00:20:34.470

would never try to run track because I like Usain Bolt.

00:20:35.090 –> 00:20:38.630

Right? I would never try to swim because I like Michael Phelps.

00:20:39.795 –> 00:20:43.635

I'll never try to sing because I like Taylor Swift. Those

00:20:43.635 –> 00:20:46.855

things are not in my skill set,

00:20:47.475 –> 00:20:50.870

and they're not. I'm not built for those things.

00:20:51.730 –> 00:20:55.490

So the fact that I was trying to copy CGP Grey just

00:20:55.490 –> 00:20:58.495

didn't make any sense. Right? He has, like, a team, and it's worth it for

00:20:58.495 –> 00:21:02.335

him to be everywhere and diversify, because

00:21:02.335 –> 00:21:05.550

his income, like, really relied on YouTube, and he didn't like that.

00:21:06.030 –> 00:21:09.790

That doesn't make sense for me. Right? And I learned that. And,

00:21:09.790 –> 00:21:12.770

like, my my conversation with Natalie Luthier

00:21:13.815 –> 00:21:17.655

helped that as well. Right? And at I I think I gave the impression

00:21:17.655 –> 00:21:20.055

at the end of that conversation that I was gonna go all in on Substack

00:21:20.055 –> 00:21:23.770

and what I really came away with. Thanks to that conversation and

00:21:23.770 –> 00:21:27.610

the high leverage work and my Electric City Mastermind, which is

00:21:27.610 –> 00:21:30.650

a bunch of friends of mine. Shout out to them. We meet every couple of

00:21:30.650 –> 00:21:34.275

weeks. All of that was like, hey,

00:21:34.275 –> 00:21:37.955

Joe. You're spending too much time on this membership, and it's not

00:21:37.955 –> 00:21:41.750

paying dividends for you. And it probably

00:21:41.809 –> 00:21:45.650

won't. Like, I read an article that I'd like to do a a longer

00:21:45.650 –> 00:21:49.355

piece on that a small

00:21:49.414 –> 00:21:52.635

dollar substack membership

00:21:53.654 –> 00:21:57.414

with a massive audience, those are all the top earning

00:21:57.414 –> 00:22:01.000

substacks. The low like, the

00:22:01.000 –> 00:22:04.760

small audience high dollar memberships don't do well on

00:22:04.760 –> 00:22:08.205

Substack. And I'm not saying there's not space for those. I'm

00:22:08.205 –> 00:22:11.505

exploring that this year as well. I I mentioned that in podcast

00:22:11.565 –> 00:22:13.345

Advent. But

00:22:15.620 –> 00:22:19.220

the way I positioned it was not the

00:22:19.220 –> 00:22:22.760

right way to position it. I think Alexian Flippo from PodMatch

00:22:23.935 –> 00:22:26.595

is positioning a high dollar membership

00:22:27.855 –> 00:22:31.535

the right way. They're different things. Right? Molly Patterson, a

00:22:31.535 –> 00:22:34.850

couple weeks ago, talked about this. Right?

00:22:35.230 –> 00:22:38.990

You're you're either doing, a one to one business or a one to

00:22:38.990 –> 00:22:42.645

one or a one to many business, and those are

00:22:42.645 –> 00:22:46.425

different things. And you can't run them the same way.

00:22:47.845 –> 00:22:51.620

So all of that is to say that, yeah, I'm I'm killing the

00:22:51.620 –> 00:22:55.380

membership. Everything except for the pro version of this

00:22:55.380 –> 00:22:58.360

show. And the the reason for that,

00:22:59.685 –> 00:23:01.925

I guess I said I would talk about this in the pro show, but it

00:23:01.925 –> 00:23:05.765

feels very relevant right now. So, the reason for that is

00:23:05.765 –> 00:23:09.420

that it's low effort still. Right? I

00:23:09.420 –> 00:23:13.100

talk with a guest for a little bit of extra time, and

00:23:13.100 –> 00:23:16.535

then everything else is done in editing, which my editor

00:23:16.535 –> 00:23:20.235

does. So I don't,

00:23:21.335 –> 00:23:25.060

you know, I don't think that that's a very low effort for me,

00:23:26.020 –> 00:23:29.460

and it does offer a an additional way for people to support this

00:23:29.460 –> 00:23:33.000

show. So it's not fully reliant on sponsorship

00:23:33.140 –> 00:23:36.905

money. So, you know, again,

00:23:36.905 –> 00:23:39.805

I've reached out to the members. Anybody who's on that

00:23:40.425 –> 00:23:43.900

anybody who is on, like, the the $10 a month plan plan who is getting

00:23:43.900 –> 00:23:46.620

all the extras, like, I just dropped them down a few bucks to the $7

00:23:46.620 –> 00:23:50.275

a month plan for just this show. So

00:23:50.355 –> 00:23:53.815

they'll continue to get this show. Anybody at the $25 a month level,

00:23:54.355 –> 00:23:58.035

I basically told them what was happening. I dropped them to $7 a

00:23:58.035 –> 00:24:01.760

month and then I made it

00:24:01.760 –> 00:24:05.280

right however they felt fit, like either a refund or I gave them access to

00:24:05.280 –> 00:24:07.140

a different thing. And so

00:24:09.375 –> 00:24:13.215

this was not, an easy decision because I really wanna make my membership work, but

00:24:13.215 –> 00:24:16.915

I also know that moving into March,

00:24:17.530 –> 00:24:21.370

I can better focus on my goals. Right? And I

00:24:21.370 –> 00:24:25.210

think I I tease this in the reverse way, because I just talked

00:24:25.210 –> 00:24:29.035

about killing the membership. But I had a great conversation with Tanya

00:24:29.035 –> 00:24:32.555

Alvarez that's coming out next week as you hear this, so it'll be episode

00:24:32.555 –> 00:24:36.309

409, where she she tells us the difference

00:24:36.309 –> 00:24:39.690

between goals and values. And,

00:24:40.230 –> 00:24:43.510

you know, I always thought one of my goals was spend more time with my

00:24:43.510 –> 00:24:47.285

family, But that's really a value. I value

00:24:47.345 –> 00:24:50.005

time with my family, and my goals need

00:24:50.825 –> 00:24:53.605

to adhere to those values.

00:24:54.559 –> 00:24:58.000

And doing the membership and the LinkedIn learning

00:24:58.000 –> 00:25:01.600

courses and and kind of that hustle of, like, anything that'll get me to a

00:25:01.600 –> 00:25:05.355

certain monthly amount, That's what

00:25:05.355 –> 00:25:09.115

I was doing, and that didn't adhere to the values because there were times when

00:25:09.115 –> 00:25:11.995

I had to work on a Saturday to get the LinkedIn learning course just off

00:25:11.995 –> 00:25:15.650

my plate. Or there were times where I had

00:25:15.650 –> 00:25:18.530

some downtime, and I fell into a rabbit hole of, like, oh, should I use

00:25:18.530 –> 00:25:22.205

this platform for the membership? What am I possibly gonna talk about? And that

00:25:22.265 –> 00:25:24.685

stole time away from my family.

00:25:25.865 –> 00:25:29.545

And so bringing all of this together, the time

00:25:29.545 –> 00:25:33.140

tracking, what I know is my high leverage work,

00:25:33.760 –> 00:25:37.520

thinking about my goals and values, and killing

00:25:37.520 –> 00:25:40.445

my membership and deciding not to do the LinkedIn learning courses anymore,

00:25:41.385 –> 00:25:44.905

I have made so much space in my

00:25:44.905 –> 00:25:48.620

month to focus on bringing in more coaching

00:25:48.620 –> 00:25:52.300

clients and doing more done for you work. And it's already paying

00:25:52.300 –> 00:25:55.660

off. I'm still doing the rss.com evangelist stuff. Like, that

00:25:55.660 –> 00:25:59.065

is good high leverage work for me,

00:25:59.065 –> 00:26:02.905

and it keeps me really connected to the podcast community. I love

00:26:02.905 –> 00:26:06.560

what they're doing over there. And so it it makes

00:26:06.560 –> 00:26:10.320

sense for me to do that as well. I'm still doing coaching

00:26:10.320 –> 00:26:13.600

for Justin Moore. I don't know if I've ever officially announced that, but I'm a

00:26:13.600 –> 00:26:17.285

brand deal wizard or a Wizards Guild coach for Justin Moore.

00:26:17.825 –> 00:26:21.585

And I'm still doing that because it's in my

00:26:21.585 –> 00:26:24.900

wheelhouse of helping creators

00:26:25.040 –> 00:26:28.560

get sponsors, and I'm bringing my expertise to that. And those are both really

00:26:28.560 –> 00:26:32.180

smart, things to do. And

00:26:32.875 –> 00:26:36.715

the rest of the time, I'm really gonna focus on the done for you

00:26:36.715 –> 00:26:40.075

clients and the coaching program because those are my high leverage

00:26:40.075 –> 00:26:43.870

work. And so because I need

00:26:43.870 –> 00:26:47.710

to give you actionable advice, I'm going to challenge

00:26:47.710 –> 00:26:51.145

you to think of these things or

00:26:52.085 –> 00:26:55.705

maybe write down these things. May cons consider this stuff.

00:26:56.804 –> 00:27:00.470

What is your high leverage work? You don't

00:27:00.470 –> 00:27:04.150

need to have 4 or 5

00:27:04.150 –> 00:27:07.289

or 7 or 12 months worth of time tracking data

00:27:07.625 –> 00:27:11.325

to understand that. If you're doing stuff

00:27:11.625 –> 00:27:15.225

and it takes you an hour and you're getting paid a $100 and you wanna

00:27:15.225 –> 00:27:18.910

get paid $200, then you know that's not your high leverage work.

00:27:19.770 –> 00:27:22.590

What's the stuff that comes easiest to you

00:27:23.770 –> 00:27:26.510

that people are willing to pay you the most for?

00:27:27.675 –> 00:27:31.295

You know? I think in Maggie Patterson's episode,

00:27:31.515 –> 00:27:34.875

we talked about seemingly this

00:27:34.875 –> 00:27:38.540

myth that everybody, every creator, every

00:27:38.540 –> 00:27:42.380

solopreneur, every business needed to start a

00:27:42.380 –> 00:27:45.995

membership or a community. And I've learned

00:27:46.535 –> 00:27:50.375

that, no. No. You don't. If you

00:27:50.375 –> 00:27:53.990

don't have a massive audience, then a membership

00:27:54.050 –> 00:27:57.430

is probably not the right thing for you, to be honest.

00:27:58.450 –> 00:28:01.810

It could be. It has to be very high dollar, though. And at that

00:28:01.810 –> 00:28:05.645

point, it's almost like a one to one business, right, versus a one to

00:28:05.645 –> 00:28:09.405

many business. So this is advice I

00:28:09.405 –> 00:28:12.169

got over and over again. My friend Austin Church said the same thing. Like, Like,

00:28:12.169 –> 00:28:15.529

you know, he's like, you have a list of at the time, it was a

00:28:15.529 –> 00:28:19.370

1,000 people. He's like, you're not gonna make any money, selling

00:28:19.370 –> 00:28:23.065

somebody a $10 a month product. You

00:28:23.065 –> 00:28:26.125

need to sell them a $10,000 product or a $10,000

00:28:26.425 –> 00:28:30.059

service. Right? Then only 10 of those people on

00:28:30.059 –> 00:28:33.740

your list need to buy it for you to hit a 100 k. And

00:28:33.740 –> 00:28:37.340

so I have, I have an income goal in mind. I know how much I

00:28:37.340 –> 00:28:40.815

need to make per month. And focusing on my high leverage

00:28:40.815 –> 00:28:44.655

work, I know exactly how many of things those

00:28:44.655 –> 00:28:48.190

things I need to sell. And most importantly, it's

00:28:48.190 –> 00:28:51.790

attainable. So that's what I would challenge you to do. Make a

00:28:51.790 –> 00:28:55.235

list of all the all the ways you make money, all the

00:28:55.235 –> 00:28:58.935

products, all the services. If you have a membership,

00:28:59.075 –> 00:29:02.775

if you have a sponsorships, write those down.

00:29:03.680 –> 00:29:06.260

Then honestly give it a grade between,

00:29:07.760 –> 00:29:11.360

let's say, f up to s. Right? Like the s tier

00:29:11.360 –> 00:29:15.095

style. How much effort are you putting into

00:29:15.095 –> 00:29:18.795

those things? You want the inverse

00:29:18.855 –> 00:29:22.570

of amount of money it makes versus effort. That's your high

00:29:22.570 –> 00:29:25.950

leverage work. Then you consider,

00:29:26.330 –> 00:29:30.085

okay. I want to make x amount of dollars per month. I need to

00:29:30.085 –> 00:29:33.465

sell this many of this product and this many of this service

00:29:34.325 –> 00:29:36.505

every month to hit that goal.

00:29:38.760 –> 00:29:42.280

And I think you'll be happier with your

00:29:42.280 –> 00:29:46.025

business. You'll have that intentionality. You'll have

00:29:46.025 –> 00:29:49.665

the GPS guiding you, helping you

00:29:49.665 –> 00:29:53.345

avoid the traffic jam that is shiny object

00:29:53.345 –> 00:29:56.680

syndrome, having you avoid

00:29:56.980 –> 00:30:00.760

the closed road that is product that nobody except you wants

00:30:01.460 –> 00:30:04.015

to get to your destination that is your income goal.

00:30:05.135 –> 00:30:08.835

Alright. That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening.

00:30:09.375 –> 00:30:12.655

If you are a member, stick around because I'll I'll give you the real since

00:30:12.655 –> 00:30:16.370

I gave away why the membership still exists. I'll

00:30:16.370 –> 00:30:19.650

give you my actual income goals and and what high leverage work is gonna get

00:30:19.650 –> 00:30:23.345

me there, And then I'll dive a little bit more into the time tracking side

00:30:23.345 –> 00:30:26.945

of things, which I'm staring at right now. I'm looking at my teleprompter as if

00:30:26.945 –> 00:30:29.585

my video is on and it's not, and I'm just staring at my time tracking

00:30:29.585 –> 00:30:33.210

graphs. So if you want to become a member, you can

00:30:33.210 –> 00:30:34.750

head over to howibuilt.it/408.

00:30:39.335 –> 00:30:43.015

That is where all the show notes exist for this episode. And

00:30:43.015 –> 00:30:46.794

there'll be a join the membership button where you can

00:30:47.050 –> 00:30:50.810

get ad free, extended, and bonus episodes. If you're

00:30:50.810 –> 00:30:54.545

listening in Apple Podcasts, you can you can just

00:30:54.545 –> 00:30:57.905

become a member in Apple Podcasts, so you could subscribe right in the app.

00:30:57.905 –> 00:31:01.605

So I hope you do that. I would really appreciate that support.

00:31:02.130 –> 00:31:05.890

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, get out

00:31:05.890 –> 00:31:07.750

there and build something.