I Need Time More Than I Need Money – Business Brain 656

Business brain episode 656 for Wednesday, June 11th, National German Chocolate Cake Day 2025. That's my favorite cake.

You know it is.

Yeah, it's the best. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we, well, we're just business nerds and we talk about it so that we can better accomplish all the things that we have on the list for our charmed lives every single week, twice a week, even our sponsors. Speaking of charmed lives are nordlaire.com brain where you can go and save up to 22% and then another 10% with coupon code brain. Easy for me to say. I'll talk more about that in a little bit. And shopify.com business brain, where you can sign up for your $1 per month trial period. It's going to be amazing. You're going to love it. And we'll talk about that, too for now here on German Chocolate National German Chocolate Cake Day in Durham, New Hampshire. I'm Dave Hamilton.

Hey, And I'm Shannon. Gene. I'm up here in the. Excuse me. In the Sierra foothills.

Nice.

At our river property that we're doing some work done. So I'm glad to be here.

Cool. Yeah. Same.

Yeah.

What do we got on the list today, Shannon? I'm doing good. I'm, you know, I am.

I, I, I want to talk about a couple things. You had a topic, but I think I want to flip it and talk about my topic first. I want to talk about experimentation.

Okay.

And how. And how important it is. Okay with you?

Yeah, yeah, go.

Okay, that's good. That's good. So you see this little thing in my hand? Let me see if I can get the, the logo and the. Okay, hang on. Let me see if I can get it.

Whoop. Yeah. Brain press now for everybody who's not watching, because that's 99% of our audience. Come on.

Maybe 98.

Okay, great. It looks like just a white.

It's a squishy little.

It looks like a rubbery Lego kind of.

Yeah, like a long, thin Lego brick, but it's made of, like, foam. And you can squish it with your hand and you can kind of squeeze it. And what I found is when I'm on calls, which I am on all the time, and when I record this show, I'm always trying to grab something, Right. I have a, I have a pen in my hand. And I've gotten yelled at by Dave before because I'll start going, click, click, click, click, click, click. And then, you know, so I'm always looking for something and I have a guy that I follow on X. There's a guy, his name is Finn or his X account is Fin. Philosopher. Finn. Philosopher.

Okay.

And we talk a lot about doing different things, business. And every year he does a new experiment. He makes a product. He worked. He's just like a regular 9 to 5 guy. Sure, I wouldn't say regular, but he always makes a new product, puts it up on Amazon and sees, you know, sees outside. This year he made the Brain Press and he's selling it and I was like, well, I'm going to support this guy. It's like $8 or something.

Sure.

So I ordered and you get two, you get a black one and a white one and I. There it is. I find myself holding this thing in my hand like all day long. It feels good. It's super tactile. But, but the point I'm trying to make here is the value of experimentation is trying new things and. Oh, look at this. Hilarious.

It's a, I mean it's a fidget toy. It's, it's, it's a fidget toy, Shannon. It's built for people with various things including ADHD and anxiety and all of that. So no great surprise that, that this is something for you. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

And, and so, you know, is that there's that phrase you can just do things right. You can just try figuring stuff out and try to make a product. You can write a book. You can, you know, and you just have to kind of shock yourself out.

Of.

Living the day to day grind and doing the repeat every single day. And you know, like what? I think it was Steve Jobs and said, you know, if you look in the mirror at some point and you just like, man, I'm, I'm doing the same thing in and out, in and out, every single day. You gotta mix it up and try something different. And I just really respect this concept of experimenting.

Yeah.

And trying something new.

Why not? I love it.

I think it's pretty cool.

I think it's great.

So.

Yep.

Check it out.

Nine bucks and you get two of them. That's great.

We'll put the link in the show notes and just go to Amazon. I don't have any affiliation with this.

Well, we'll make a little money if you use our link. We're not too proud to say that.

That'S kind of how that works. Yeah, yeah.

It's in the show notes at Businessbrain show. Yeah, yeah, that's perfect. Brain Press I like. I mean, it's on brand for us even. It's. This is great. Yeah, yeah.

Business brain. I'm sure he copied us. He probably owes us some sort of money anyway.

Well, we're going to get it. As far the, as far as the affiliate revenue, there's no original ideas. It's just good execution. That. What do we say? If you want your idea to be worth a hundred dollars, you write it on a hundred dollar bill. Your idea isn't worth anything unless you execute. So there you go. That's right.

And so if, if you've got stuff like this, things that you've on, whatever merch that you've created, you should let us know. Feedbackusbrain show. We'd love to try it out. And if you want to get it in our hands, like I'm in my hands of working on this thing as we talk right now, we'd love to get a chance to do it.

Amazing. I have, I have an attitude that I want to share. Not like I have an attitude. There's a. I do have an attitude, but I'm going to keep that in check while I share about this really positive attitude that I came up with. It's going to sound negative. The next thing that I want to do though, is I want to tell you about our two sponsors. Because, look, when you're building a business, it can feel like you're juggling flaming swords while riding a unicycle across a tightrope made of tax forms. Been there. And of course, one of the only things that's made that act feel even remotely manageable is our sponsor, Shopify. I use Shopify with my other podcasts to sell merch. And candidly, it's like having a full on e commerce department in my pocket. Storefront design, done inventory management, easy marketing, emails. Shopify makes me look like I've got a Madison Avenue team on retainer. Shopify powers 10% of all E commerce in the US that's not just big, it's cosmic. From household names like gymshark and Mattel to entrepreneurs like us grinding it out every day chasing that charmed life dream. Oh, and that purple shop pay button you love when you're shopping late at night in your pajamas. That's Shopify too. It's why their checkout converts better than anyone else on the planet. That's why that sound keeps happening. Turn your big business idea into kaching. With Shopify on your side. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify..com businessbrain go to shopify.com businessbrain shop shopify.com businessbrain and our thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. And while I have you here, you ever secure your business network so well that it practically whispers sweet compliance into your firewall? No. Then you haven't met our sponsor, NORD Layer. In the time it takes me to steep my mint tea, I could deploy NORD Layer across my entire team. No hardware, no IT drama, just toggle and go. Security that's built for entrepreneurs like us who are out there creating opportunity and don't have time to be worrying about ransomware or shadowy wi fi goblins. It's built on the same standards as NordVPN, but Nord layer is for businesses. You get threat protection, device health monitoring and zero trust access. All running smoothly across macOS, Windows, iOS, even Linux if you're feeling spicy and scaling ad users faster than I can say AI generated revenue stream, which of course, if it's Friday, we say all the time. So grab your charmed life by the firewall and head to Nordlayer.com brain. That's where you get our exclusive offer. Up to 22% off Nord layer yearly plans. Plus you get 10% on top with the coupon code brain. So Nord layer.com brain use code brain for an extra 10% off, risk free with their 14 day money back guarantee. Secure smarter, grow harder, stay charmed. And our thanks to NORD Layer for sponsoring this episode. So last week, a client, I call them nerding clients because we used to call our business computer nerds. But you know, somebody that I used to help with their computer found me and asked if I was still in the business of doing this. And I, I am not in the business of marketing myself to do this because it's very difficult to Trading single dollars for hours, right? But this woman lives nearby. She was always a good client. She was in a bind. I was happy to help her. You know, there's that. I. We talked about the consultant trap, right, where you get to go and you feel like Superman when you help somebody.

Oh, I know that very well.

I know. And so I was like, oh, the allure of feeling like Superman. I'm going to go do it. And so I did. And it worked out fine. It all like, it was great. Like everything was great. But what I realized, and I was, as I was leaving her house, I had to go see her twice because of course there was okay, you know, there was something. But as I was leaving her house the second time, I was thinking Sort of. I had a bunch of parallel thoughts sort of swimming around in my brain. And one was from a client that I had years ago who said to me, you know, you're more expensive than other people, but you're so much faster than other people that it's actually worth it. And he said, so you're really not more expensive. And I said, right, that is intentional. I charge more per hour, but I am interested in getting this done as quickly as possible. And I realized it was in my head because I had basically just done the same thing with her. These days, I don't. Like, I really squeezed this into my schedule that I did not have time to do, but I did it. And I'm happy you wanted to help her, right? I did, and I'm happy I did it and I made some money and it's all fine. But, you know, I was thinking, you know, I could have. The way it worked, I actually wound up bringing, like, she had this hard drive she needed to migrate data from one to the other. And it was just way more efficient for me to do it in my office where I didn't have to spend any time just sitting there waiting for it to finish. I could do all the other things. And then two hours later it was finished or whatever, and I started. I was thinking, you know, I could. I could have organized things, like, I'm pretty good with customer service and with people when I need to be. I could have organized things so that I got paid to just sit there for that time, but I had no interest in being paid for that time. And I started thinking even back to when consulting was the primary revenue generating stream that I relied upon, I had the same attitude. I was never interested in how much I could soak a certain client for. As soon as I got there. I was always interested in taking care of them as, you know, properly and getting out as quickly as I possibly could because I didn't have time to be there. And I thought, what an interesting attitude. Because the attitude is, I need time more than I need money. Now, there are times in my life when that has not been true. Like, you know, like when I needed the money more than I needed to finish the job and go home and sit on my couch and do nothing, Right?

Yep.

And yes, gotta be.

It has context, right?

Yeah. But even then. Even then, when I needed the money more than I needed the time, my attitude was exactly the same. It was, I need time more than I need money. I am not interested in just being here because the clock is ticking. And There's a value in that. I think there's a value for my customers in that, but there's a value for me in that. It's. It creates that. That confidence. Right. When a client sees that, oh, this guy is more interested in being efficient than I am, and it's my money being spent. You earn so much trust just implicitly from that.

Yeah, it's a good point. And, you know, it's funny how you, as you mentioned that I can look back years and years and years ago, even when we started, you know, Mac Rescue, we were doing consulting and that kind of thing in the beginning because we didn't know where the business was.

Of course, you do all the things.

Yeah, everything.

Right.

And I can remember showing up and immediately thinking, how fast can I get out of here?

You know? Yes.

And because it's not that I enjoyed it, and I liked working with people, and I love solving the problems and all that stuff, but as I was sitting there in my head, I just like, okay, I got, like, five other things. Okay. What I got. It's the same way I think now where. Even right now, unfortunately, I. I'm future. What's the phrase? I want to. You know, I'm always future thinking, which cannot. Which can be bad. Right. Because.

Right.

It's tough sometimes to be in the moment, but I'm already thinking of, oh, we got another episode, Then I got to do this, then I got to finish this, then I got to get on the road. Then I get. So there is a lot of value of being in the moment, but that future thinking, it does tend to make you more efficient, and especially when you're working with customers, that you can hit the ground running and be like, okay, I'm gonna get this done, and I'm moving out.

Yeah. I'm already thinking of, when do I get to leave? When is this over? And it's not that I don't like being there. It's not that I don't like helping them. I actually love that kind of work. It's. It's. In a sense, it can be inefficient, but there's ways to make it efficient. But. But just the idea that. That mindset of valuing your. Your own time more than the client's money.

I love this. And it values you forward. Yes. It's. I. I always talk about, you know, what you want to achieve, your story pulling you forward. This does, too. Because even things like. Not that this is the context of your. Your. Your point, but when you have to do things you don't want to do. I'm constantly thinking what it's going to be like when I'm done, right when I. Okay, I have to eat. And maybe that is a client you're going to go solve a problem with, because you're just like, I don't want to. I don't really want to deal with this client or whatever. I don't want to solve this problem either. But that future thinking gets you through it faster because my mindset is like, okay, I'm going to be done with this in a little while. I'm going to leave. It's going to be great, and I'm going to be finished.

So I already know where I'm going to be next. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Awesome. It's a great idea.

Yeah. It was one of those things that was like, oh, I got to. I got to, like, capture this. And I tried. I actually, I think I use Siri to, like, you know, try and log this note for me. This. I don't want to lose this because it's a valuable thing. Yeah, yeah. If you've got a valuable thing, let us know. Feedback at BusinessBrain show. We absolutely want to hear from you. We want to. You are, as you are, a part of this show, so make sure. Make sure you send it in. Feedback. BusinessBrain show. Keep living that charmed life and we'll see you on Friday.

See ya.

Then. We're off.