Millionaire Habits

Business brain, episode 515 out of my Brain on the train on Casual Friday, January 12, 2024. Greetings, folks, and welcome back to Business Brain. Or welcome to Business Brain if it's your first time here. We're the show where we take an idea or three, we dissect it, we analyze it, we crunch it, we pull it apart, we put it back together so that each and every one of us can tune our business brains every single time we get together. Sponsors for this episode include shopify.com businessbrain, where you're gonna go and sign up for a $1 per month trial and squared away@gosquaredaway.com awesome service that employs and empowers highly educated military spouses to become your trusted remote executive assistants. All working on us hours. We'll talk more in depth about each of those in a few minutes. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton, and I'm still out.

Here in Lafayette, California. Dave, I've been wearing the same jacket for the last three episodes.

Yeah, same. That's right. Yep, yep, yep. We should just have episode uniforms.

Early recorded. Yeah, episode uniforms. That's right. That's right.

You could look at Steve Jobs on stage and of course, you know, never, like by quick glance, you wouldn't necessarily know which which time it was or if it was multiple different times.

Yeah, Yeah, I like that.

Yep.

Hey, I'm looking forward to today's show because we're going to talk about avoiding the news. You have a story about that?

I do.

Fascinating.

I am. When I'm in the car, I generally listen to podcasts, you know, spoken word stuff. If I need to listen to music, I will. But for whatever reason, in the car is not usually my music listening time. It just becomes like spoken word stuff. And especially on the way home from gigs because I. That's the last time I want to hear music after playing for hours and hours. So what When I'm driving locally around town, you know, going to the post office or my chiropractor or whatever kind of those, you know, short little trips to grocery store, whatever, I had it in my head that I had to listen to something that would fit into the time period of that drive. Therefore, I, for whatever reason, defaulted to daily news programming like the New York Times. The daily. I mean, every network's got one. And so I. It just became a habit. And, you know, I'm not out every day, so I wouldn't listen to every episode of any given program. I would just kind of look and be like, oh, that topic looks interesting. I'd listen, but invariably it was infusing my brain with all the things that are going on in the news. I should, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I will say that I went years, even while we were running Mac observer without really paying attention to the news, in that it was not a habit. I am aware of the things that are going on in the world. Things filter in without me needing to go and pull the news into my brain. Right. So I would learn the things I needed to learn and certainly could research stuff if something piqued my interest or seemed important. But I wasn't just intentionally shoving news into my head. And that habit changed without really a whole lot of intention on my part in terms of the subject matter. It was like, well, the best thing to listen to is short form stuff. Daily News. There you go. Sure, why not? And that changed about a month ago. Geddy Lee, the bass player and singer from the band Rush, put out his memoir, a book that he calls My Effing Life. And I bought the book and I was about to start reading it and then I thought to look and sure enough, there is an audiobook. No great surprise, it's him reading it. And I thought, well, I want to hear him tell these stories. I'm a huge fan of the band. Like, I want to hear it in his voice. And it's paid off, right? Yeah, it's great. And, and I had like a couple of long car rides, you know, hour and a half long car rides the first week that I listened to this, which was a great way to get started, but it's, you know, 16 hours of audio or something. And so that got me going and certainly got me invested. And now it's the thing that I listen to when I'm in the car. I might only listen to 10, 15 minutes of it at a shot, but that's fine. And I. What I've learned from this is something that I know many of you who listen to podcasts already know. And you're shaking your head at me, you don't need to start and finish the episode. When you start and finish any one given drive, you can pop in and out of an episode or other long form content like an audiobook, as you wish. That's part of the beauty of podcasts. And I know I've preached this, but I've never quite practiced it until recently. Yeah, and look, I, you know, this show we've intentionally made into those same bite sized chunks and it's worked out well for this show. But, you know, I do Giggab, which is an hour long, and Mackab, which is like an hour and a half. And I know people pop in and out. We get notes that are like, I haven't finished the episode yet, but I wanted to comment on this one thing, which is totally fine. It's worked out Great. For almost 19 years. This not having the news intentionally shoved into my brain by me has been a game changer. I'm like, again, I'm fairly aware of what's going on in the world. It's not like I've completely lost touch. Right. You can't avoid it. But not having it be just. It is in now. It is intentional when I consume news as opposed to it just being habitual. And that, I think is a. Is a really important thing. And it served me well for a very long time, and it is, again, serving me well. But I probably went two or three years here where I was just habitually filling my brain with not even news that I wanted to seek out, but just like, what's the best of these five things that I have as an option? I guess I'll pick the third one. Sure. You know, yeah, yeah.

Much better to be in charge of your own content and what you take in. And that's a habit that I want to definitely dive. I want to dive into that and a couple other habits in the second part of the show. I think it's definitely worth talking about.

All right, look. When we're running our businesses, it often feels like there's never enough time to tackle all the priorities right, like managing your inbox and schedule. Like, for me, that can take a lot of time out of my day. And then balancing just professional and personal life can be difficult. The little things pile up, right? Even simple tasks can be super distracting from the important work. Things like coordinating travel or planning an event or scheduling guests for a podcast is always more complicated than I expect. And that's why I'm so excited to talk about our sponsor, Squared Away. It's brilliant. Squared Away empowers highly educated military spouses to become your trusted remote executive assistants. I love this idea. It like, how brilliant is this? Right? Military spouses, they've got that drive and dedication. It's a fantastic talent pool. Squared Away Assistants specializing. Giving you your time back to focus on what really matters. So whether you need administrative support for your team, an extra hand with a new project, or help with even personal priorities, Squared Away Assistants anticipate your needs and let you focus on your high return tasks. They deliver top notch work at a fraction of the cost of a full time employee. Squared Away teammates operate in all US time zones and work as W2 employees, not contractors. And the sky's the limit. Squared Away offers custom plans to give you exactly the support your business needs to thrive. I highly recommend checking out Squared Away today. See how they can help you. Just go to go squared away.com that's gosquaredaway.com G O S Q U A R E D a w a y.com and our thanks to Squared Away for sponsoring this episode. About six years ago I got involved with this new business. I was brought in to help make sure the money was flowing in the right direction and kind of keep things on track and over time, you know, responsibilities expand. One day we were in a staff meeting. I was there with my two partners and we decided we should add merch to one of the things that we offer, you know, for our users. And it was obvious that it fell to me to figure this out. And it was the farthest thing from my mind like I had when I woke up that day. I had no idea what to do. But by the end of that day we were selling mugs and T shirts and you know, merch in our store so easily. All because I used our sponsor, Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business from the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage. Yep, they manage online and in person all the way to the did we just hit a million orders Stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. So whether you're selling shipping supplies or promoting productivity programs, hey, Shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all in one e commerce platform to their in person pos wherever and whatever you're selling. Shopify's got you covered. And you can sell more with less effort now thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI powered all star. No matter how big you want to grow, Shopify gives you everything you need to take control and take your business to the next level. And I love this about Shopify. All of my friends that use Shopify have similar stories to mine. It's fantastic because businesses that grow grow with Shopify because you're a business brain listener. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com businessbrain all lowercase go to shopify.com businessbrain now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com businessbrain and our thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. So Shannon, when I shared with you my habit changing, unintentional habit changing of my news consumption or my, my content consumption for this episode, you, it resonated with you and reminded you of, of other habits we might be able to change.

Yeah, I want to talk about this news habit too. One of my follows on the X platform is, is Steve and, and his account name is Millionaire Habits, which I think is great. And I love his handle Steve on Speed. But he was posting, you know, just kind of a laundry list of, of ways to, to make money. And you know, his concept is, is, you know, millionaire Habits. Of course.

Sure. And it's got that, that, that's a great T shirt thing. So you know, Millionaire Habits, it's a good brand right there.

And so one of them that I really like and resonated with me when you mentioned the news is he posted. Very few rich people are addicted to the news. The news is designed to make us upset, angry, fearful. None of these emotions help us to build wealth. Rich people are too busy getting rich to worry about the day's manufactured drama. I love that.

I think it's true. Yeah.

And you know, because it is, I.

Mean there is news out there that's important to be aware of as a functional member of society.

Yes.

But you know his term addicted, my term earlier a habit, you know, they, they are not the same thing, but they certainly resemble one another. They look the same. You know, I was able to break this habit very easily by, by simply having something else that I wanted to listen to. That, that I, that I was willing to break my habit for. That's all it really was. And now I've got, I've queued up a bunch of things that I'm looking forward to. Long form stuff that I've, I've missed out on.

It's really important.

Yeah.

I do the same thing. So I thought I'd jump into a few of these other habits that I like and one of them is that most millionaires are self made. Yes. We all get help but the vast majority don't inherit our wealth. It's, it's, it's proven.

Yeah. We're given a leg up to. Yeah. I mean, you know, we all start.

With a very family education. All this kinds of stuff, whatever. On and on and on.

Whatever it might be. Yeah. We don't, we're not, it's not created in a, in a vacuum but, but it is an opportunity to be either ignored or, but leveraged.

That's right.

Yeah.

And so he says, you know, rich people earn it, they start a business, they invest in real estate, they invent a new product. But here's the key is they provide value. And that, that's it. If you can provide value in such a way, your chances of building wealth are just, you know, far higher and you attract luck. And whether that's value to other people in all different forms, it would have.

To be value to other people in whatever form that is. Right. I mean, provide value. Yeah. Rich people are rich because they provide value to other people. Like that's how that works.

That's right. Another one is perfect. So getting rich is a habit. Habits are things we do without thinking about them. Rich people's habits are different. Rich people rarely complain, think long term, have tangible goals, which I would train that, change that to. They have proved. They use proven systems.

Sure.

They know that time is money. That's why they call it time well spent, because you spend your time every single day.

Every time.

Yeah. And he also adds a diet and exercise regularly. I don't know about that, but I. Exercise, yes. Diet, no, not for me, but I'm.

Aware of what I eat. But only because I did that thing a couple years ago to try and solve again, not a diet or weight problem, but I had this thing that was driving me crazy with those little lumps that I get in my arm.

That's right.

Didn't help the lumps, by the way, but I did as a byproduct of it. It was the byproduct of the failed experiment was that I relearned what a portion size is. I relearned how to eat. Yeah. And once I had that knowledge, I had a desire for that knowledge, which again turned out to be failed or flawed. But once I had the knowledge, it was like, oh, this makes a whole lot of sense. And do I, do I still eat ice cream and drink alcohol? Huh? Yep. I just am aware of what those things mean when I put them in my body.

That's right. I had a big bowl ice cream last night. I knew exactly same what it's doing.

I did same and I knew it was going to be okay.

Yeah, fine. This is one I love. I make this comment all the time. And I've actually done the T shirt hold up thing on X is, you know, I always say the right spouse is a force multiplier. And I stole that from Colin Powell. He had a phrase that he said, optimism is a force multiplier. And I totally agree with that.

Yes.

But I've learned That the right spouse is also a force multiplier. Steve says your significant other will make or break you. I am. I am where I am today because of the person I married. The right spouse will support you in your goals, not stand in your way. And, you know, so that. That's it. It seems so basic, but whoever you wind up with and whoever you are around.

Yeah. It's that pyramid you were talking about a month ago. People pyramid. Yeah.

Yes. You want to be surrounded by people that support you and lift you up. Not question you are jealous of, you don't believe in. You think you're flaky because you're trying 10 different things and you hope one of them sticks. Because especially as a new entrepreneur, you know, when you're just getting started, you know, it's very easy to be around people that doubt you.

Oh. That want to ridicule you. That's the default.

It's more common. Yeah, that's right. So that's where I always say, don't talk about what you're going to do. Talk about what you've done, because that helps solve that problem. You got to.

You can get away with that with a lot of people. You can't get away with that with your, Your partner. No. Right.

Like your spouse.

They.

Correct.

Like this people pyramid thing, I would say it's. It like, it starts with your, Your partner, whoever. Whoever that that is. And, and if you don't have one, I like. I would say some people might argue that that would be a benefit in a sense, because not having one is better than having a partner who is doubting you.

Yeah.

Because if, if you are being doubted at every turn and you can't get away from it because you literally live with the source of that doubt. You're not going to do this. You're.

If they. Yes. And if they treat you that way.

Yeah.

Think about if you ever have kids with that person, how they're going to treat your kids.

Yeah.

And how that is that cycle is going to go. Because, you know, not to make this. Not about having. Make a show about having kids, but your kids are like a grand experiment, right?

Yes.

They're. They're taking in all this stuff, like by osmosis, your actions, the way you and your spouse interact, the way your businesses impact their life. Because like, if. If you're just, if, quote, thinking that being busy is important and you're home late every night, what do you think they're going to think about being a business? They're going to be like, I don't ever want to do that because my dad or my mom was never home. And so you're teaching people this stuff all the time. And that support from your spouse to be successful in business, to build wealth, to give you that Runway, to be successful, because let's face it, there's a lot of failure involved.

You're gonna fail.

Success. Of course.

Of course.

Yeah, definitely. So let me see if anything else it talks about, you know, you don't need to hustle 24, 7. Burnout doesn't help you get rich. It makes you less attractive. Yeah, it's. It's that concept of focusing on outputs more, on inputs that we've been talking about lately.

Yep.

Burnout means poor decisions, more fatigue, less motivation, poor sleep. So, you know, proper rest and sleep means you can push harder during the day. What else does he got here?

I've been tracking my sleep with my Apple watch for the last month or so. And, you know, it's just that whole that which is monitored is managed kind of thing. I'm not obsessing about it, but I'm certainly aware of it because I'm just wearing my. I wound up getting a new Apple watch, and so I have an old one and was like, well, let me just use this for sleep. And it's been enlightening. And not again, I don't think about it much, but I find that I am habitually being a little more aware of. Well, if I go to sleep now, I know I need to be awake by whatever, 8am, 7, whatever it is the next day. So. Yeah. And I know that six hours of sleep is the right number for me. You know, if I get a little more than six, I'm good. If I get less than six, five hours, probably not. You know, I can function, sure. But it's like, I'm gonna have a better day if I. If I get my six hours. And so just being aware of, like, of that has been super helpful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do a whole show on sleep. It's critical.

Oh, I. We should. That might be worth finding a guest for. Like, somebody that's great. If you. If you're great about. If you're. If you're into this sleep thing and you know things about it or know someone who is feedback at. I almost said the other show. Feedback at businessbrain show. I. If I had said the other one, it would still would get to me. It would be okay.

Like, all right, I'm going to leave you with one that I really like as we wrap up here. And this Is from again, from Steve on Speed Steve Millionaire Habits on X Twitter. He says passions don't pay the bills. That's a T shirt right there. Generally your strengths pay the bills, not your passions. Passions are more creative, strengths are more marketable. Follow your strengths. Oh, what? I did it. Oh, yeah.

That's interesting.

Yeah. Where did I get it? I lost. There you go. Oh, yeah. Follow your strengths, then pursue your passions without worrying about earning a full time income. And I like this because I've seen so many people ruin a hobby or something they're interested in by trying to turn it into a business. Right.

Yeah.

The quickest way to destroy your hobby.

Is try to make money to make it a job. That's it.

Oh, it's terrible.

I kind of did that, but I picked like, I have a lot of hobbies. You know, like the nerdy computer thing is one and then like music would be another. And I've, I make money from both of those. And if you work for the irs, I can prove to you that both of those are businesses. However, I, I put food on my table with the nerdy hobby that I've turned into a business because there is a strength there. I'm. I feel like I'm a pretty strong musician too. But it, if I wanted to make money with music, I would almost certainly have to tour on the road all the time.

Yeah.

You know, or producer or I would have to live in, you know, a major city. New York, Louisiana, London, Nashville. Nashville is hard to make money as a musician. Talk to me on our other show about that. It's a great place to play music. You will not make money unless you are at the top of the food chain. I know a guy who played in Nashville forever. He played for 50,000 people and made $50 because that's what the club next door that had 50 people in it would have paid him. And the person who was playing for 50,000 people knew it didn't matter who was playing the drums behind him. Anyway, that's my Nashville thing and that's a common thing in Nashville. But certainly you make money. But I chose to do this because it means I travel slightly less.

That makes sense. Yeah. So what are your habits for building wealth for success? Call them millionaire habits or what have you, but we'd love to hear from you. Feedback at Businessbrain show. I think we're about to roll out maybe a new contest for I think so emails that come in if we feature them on the show. So reach out and let us know what you think. Yeah. Share. We could build our stronger business brains together.

Feedback at BusinessBrain show check out our sponsors go squared away.com and shopify.com businessbrain and keep on living that charm life. Have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.