The Best Of the Art of Passive Income Podcast – Productivity Focus

Do you want to escape the 9 to 5, or do you want the freedom to work when you want, where you want and with whom you want? The Art of Passive Income podcast explores opportunities for you to achieve total freedom so you can live life on your own terms. And now here is your host, Mark Podolsky from the Land Geek.

Hey, Mark. Here in this week's the best of Art of Passive Income podcast for our summer 2022 hiatus, I'm really excited about talking about a productivity focus. And so you're going to hear a bunch of conversations from the roundtable as well as our guest Nancy Gaines regarding geeking out. And we're going to share our productivity hacks. We're going to share the top three things that we need to accomplish each day to really just get our priorities in line with the daily to do's and how we do that. We're also going to share with you how we like to start our day and get into a productive mindset. So stay tuned. Buckle up. Enjoy this productivity focused roundtable podcast. Mix up. Want to talk about what are our routines that we are. That we get into, into our work mode? Routines, habits. When we start sort of working in the business, Is this the topic? Am I saying it right?

I think so. It's like, how do we maybe get in the right headspace so that we can be productive? Is there any daily routines? I think that's what you're saying, right?

Daily routines. Right, Scott? Is that, is that a good topic, bossman? Cause Todd, Scott. Todd's already being irascible with the whole scuba thing.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure we'll all have some good things to say and then we'll get around to Scott. He might be a little bit cynical about it, but talk about donuts, that type of thing. But it'll be fine.

Yeah, yeah, I see where this is going. I see this is not starting off well. Oh, man. You see, this is what happens in the last podcast. I challeng Mark's tip of the week and next thing you know, the Mark army has come to attack me. The boss man, Zaino chimed in here. He's staying neutral. That's what he did last time. So the thing is, I see how this rolls, guys.

Don't worry because the last episode was so grateful that it's like we all this gratefulness just came out. So now we're like swinging the pendulum the other way.

Okay, all right. Yeah, I know, I know how this podcast.

I'm not a Mark army member. Team neutral.

He doesn't like neutral. You got to be team Scott.

Oh, I'm not saying that like, I'm.

Certainly not anti Scott. I've been there once and it didn't work out well. So I'm team neutral.

Okay, all right, no problem. I see Bossman. I can see Bossman's loyalty right there. I got you. I got you, Bossman.

Don't worry, Scott Bossman. I'll be sending you a team hashtag, hashtag teammark shirt later this afternoon. Anyways, let's go on with our. Our topic. So, Zen Master, I'm sure you have some routines, some habits. What is it that you like to do to start your day? You know, like that the miracle morning that Hal Elrod book. What do you do to get into a good productive mindset to start running your lab business?

Oh, okay. So of late, my morning routine is. Consists of. I wake up in the morning and I do jump right on the peloton. I think, I don't think you all know that. I joined peloton team a while back. Now I've already hit my hundred run rides and whatnot. So I do a quick peloton. That's how I wake up. Then I do some deep breathing a la Wim Hof. And I told you, Mark, I now have my ice bucket. And since it's. I got it this time of year about, about two weeks ago, it's so outside, it's really cold out, so my neighbors probably think I'm very strange. I go out there and I just hop into my ice bucket for three minutes and then I go into the hot tub of three minutes on the ice bucket and I go back and forth a few times. Then I also do a little, little ritual where I think about, you know, how I want to, you know, say nice things today, do good things today, have a clear head.

And.

And then I. And you know, about 11 o', clock, that's all done and I'm ready to roll.

Wow, that's a phenomenal beginning. I will say that for those of you who are rolling your eyes about the ice bath, there was. There's actually been a study done that it does increase your dopamine levels and it. And it keeps growing throughout the day. So it's. It's really a very.

You told me that. So now I end on the ice. I used to end on the hut, Mark, but after you said that, I end on the ice. And I'll tell you, it makes a huge difference. That feeling just. It carries. It's got some serious holdings power yeah, absolutely.

So when I take my cold shower, I'll start cold, then I'll go hot and I'll end it cold and I feel great. And I have a phenomenal mood throughout the day as opposed to, say someone else might be on this podcast, not naming names, but they might be in maybe a sugar crash mode.

No comment from Mike. I'm going on mute.

We're getting more energy. So, Scott Bossman, what routines, habits do you like to engage in.

Routines and habits? Well, in the mornings I spend a little time with the boys before they get out the door, have some coffee, try to talk to the adolescents in the house and get a little bit of information out of them. In the morning, that's pretty difficult, actually. They're pretty quiet and they don't like to talk. But anyway, I spent a little time with the boys and then after some reading, typically do like to read a little bit in the morning. I try to get my thoughts in order for the day. Something I've been doing recently which I think has been helping me was I reread, I read it a long time ago. Seven Habits by Stephen Covey. Seven habits of highly effective people. And I've been using the quadrant lately. Put things first. Put first things first. And he organizes things in your life by quadrants. And anyway, you're supposed to spend time in quadrant two, which is the not urgent but important things in your life. And those things in your life enhance your long term development. They enhance your goal setting and your and hitting your goals and that type of thing. So I focus on what I'm going to focus on that day in quadrant two. And then I've kind of gotten the habit, Mark. You know, I used to work kind of. I used to work long hours, all day long, no breaks. So I'm in the habit of sitting down for a half hour to an hour and focusing on something and then I'll take a break. So whether it's reading a book or getting on the peloton or getting on the tonal or whatnot, working out, I am working out six days a week trying to read a book a week. And those things I think are helping me just be overall productive.

Wow. Wow. You know, between you and Mike, I am. And this is. If you're listening to this right now, you might be feeling like me, where comparison is the thief of happiness. Don't worry about it. You got to do the best with what you got. Everyone's got a different life. So, you know, don't go there as long as you have One or two really good habits you can build from there. So hopefully Eric Peterson's habits aren't as ambitious. Maybe he starts his day with, you know, something like a comic book.

I read comic books.

Nothing wrong with a comic book. Absolutely. But it's certainly not tonal peloton, you know, Stephen Covey. First things first.

All right, so I like to get up early before everyone else in the house. That's when I do my exercise. So that's kind of first for me. And that way, by doing it first, it helps me get it done, honestly. Then usually sometime after that, the kids are up and get them ready for school, I'll take them to school. Usually before I take them to school, though, I do go for a walk, a short walk in the morning with the dog. Um, after I take them to school, I'll come back and find my way up to the office. And typically the first thing I'll do is just sit down and think about what needs to be accomplished for that given day. Um, I might write a little list if I need to, or I'll just mentally go through it and then, you know, kind of get started on those things. And as the day progresses, I might run some errands, I might grab some lunch. It just depends. But pretty consistently in the morning, after the kids are at school, I'm coming to my office and getting started on the day.

What time is that? Usually.

That'S about 8:30 ish. I'm up in the office getting started. I typically get up around five, do my exercise. And on that.

That's a, that's a, that's a great morning exercise. Take care of yourself first. Be with the family, then do something a little fun and off to work. I'm afraid to ask Scott Todd about his morning routine because I'm afraid he's going to go on a. On a tangent about me picking on him on this podcast.

No, no, no one's picking on anybody. I just see, I see Mark the. You know, I think that for me, what I'll do is I'll wake up and I do. I have a routine. I head out, I get some. Some drinks for myself, I get a Diet Coke. I, yes, I can drink it at home, but I prefer to go. I prefer to go get one fountain drink. It's my little treat for myself. Gets me out of the house. And sometimes I will sit there in the parking lot drinking my drink, eating my donut. That's true. Which, I don't suffer a sugar crash anytime during the day, by the way. But the thing is, while I'm there, I will go through. And one of the things that I've been really, really good about for a very long time is really kind of looking at the emails that I had sent the day before, the work that I did the day before, and thinking about, is that something that I really need to be involved with or not? And like in the last podcast, for example, I talked about thinking like the CEO and protecting your time and watching it for are you now the IT support person? So as you start to think about the work that you did the day before, I think what happens is you start to realize that you're doing stuff that either you're justifying doing to justify yourself working or you really love the work. And if you love the work, no problem. And if you're having fun with that component, no problem. But oftentimes we end up just swooping in to answer a question and we're doing work that's not providing value to the company. And if you can really protect that time and be the creator of the protector of the time, then I think that that will allow you one to move your business further, faster. And at the same time, I think that what it will do is it.

Will.

Allow you to protect that time and growth that you can enjoy time while you're making the money.

Right?

That's the thing, is it's a balance. So one of the things I religiously do is I always start to question the work that I'm doing or the work that I did the day before and try to re justify to myself, why did I handle that that way? Why did I do it that way? Because I want to basically commit to myself that I only should be doing the stuff that I absolutely need to do or I absolutely want to do.

I love the daily mindfulness of it where you do sort of this autopsy of where you spent your time. And was it on activities that were productive? Were they CEO activities? Were they, you know, $10 an hour activities? Were they $50 an hour activities? And having that mindfulness and doing that autopsy makes the next day so much more productive because then you don't make the same mistake again or you could fall into the bad habit. What Chris, you know, Ducker would call Superman syndrome. Like, it feels good for your ego when your VA reaches out to you, asks a question, and you come in and you save the day and you give them the answer. But ultimately what you're training them to do is to have you keep solving their problem. There's a great Harvard Business review article also called who's got the Monkey? So any kind of problem would then be, okay, now the monkey's on my back as opposed to, you know, you got to hand that monkey back to the person in charge. And it's not easy, right? Scott Todd it does take a certain amount of discipline and mindfulness. Yeah.

I think the thing is like, like you said, you know, we, we want to feel needed in our businesses, but at the same time what that is doing is it's, it's causing work justification. We feel like we have to answer these questions. We feel like we have to do it because if we don't, then we start to feel guilty that maybe I'm not working or I'm not moving the business far enough. It's funny because there were some people that you and I work with on a project and on a given Friday where I wasn't in the office, I don't think you were in the office. I wasn't working on this given Friday. We get a vox from this person who said, hey man, we're over here. It's like, I don't know, it seemed like it was like 3 o' clock in the afternoon for us. For me at least, hey, I'm over here working on the presentation and what do you think about this? And I'm like, dude, it's Friday. What are you talking about? What are you doing working on a Friday? You know, and essentially if you can take that time, the time freedom that you're working to create for yourself and be the, and make sure that your team and other people know like, you're not reaching me on a Friday. It's a protected day. It's my day, it's my time. It's no different than sometimes people feel guilty about reaching out to people on a Saturday or Sunday. Make that same philosophy on Friday. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, right? Like I work a three day week and if that's what you do and you tell yourself that's what you're going to do and then you maximize your days that you're working, it's your business. This is the thing is your business, you can build it to be what you want it to be. And if you want to work seven days a week, I think you'll get burnt out and tired, but that's on you. I'd rather enjoy my time and enjoy my life.

Yeah. You know, that brings me to a different but related point. Scott Todd and we were at a mastermind and the guy brought that up in the mastermind sort of In a roundabout way was consistency. So most people are consistently inconsistent. So, and Eric and I were actually talking about it this weekend where if we get a voxer, let's say we consistently, once we listen to the boxer, we consistently get back right away, right? Consistently. But there's other people that consistently don't get back right away to the voxer, and that's okay, too. What we don't like and what most people do, 80% of people, is they're consistently inconsistent. Sometimes they get right back to you right away, and then sometimes they wait two days and you don't know what's going on. So you almost have to choose in certain ways of communicating, whether it's slack or email or voxer. Are you going to be. How are you going to be consistent? Are you going to be the type of person that trains your team? Look, I'm not going to get back to you for probably 48 hours. If I get back to you this week, right, I'm going to be inconsistent with it, or are you going to be like, shiny on the spot with it and within hours you're going to respond. But either way, you want to be mindful of how you're responding to your team. And that's one of the things I'm working on as well. So which leads me to my morning routine or my, my productivity routine. And I, I have to say that I'm, I am inconsistent. My routine is constantly changing. So, you know, I was very consistent with the peloton. Now I'm off that wagon. I was very consistent with trx. Now I'm off that wagon. You know, I was very consistent with my morning meditation for an hour. I'm not doing that now. What I am doing right now is I'm spending about 20 minutes before I go to bed looking at the next day and trying to have as little decision fatigue as much as possible for that themed day. So even on Mondays and Fridays, where I don't want to have any meetings, I want to have a totally clean calendar, do whatever I want to do. I want to know, okay, but what am I going to do that day? So am I going to read? Am I going to work out? Am I going to call Scott, Todd or Mike Zaino and complain about the latest Ted Lasso episode? Because the beard episode was controversial, let's be honest. But I want to have that in my calendar. So I know at 11am I'm doing this because I've been thinking about it earlier. Which book am I going to read and for how long? When am I going to take my long walk? So I want all that in my calendar now. There's flexibility in there, but I want to have my day scheduled the night before, so when my day hits, there's as little decision fatigue as possible. So, in fact, once we're done with this podcast, I know exactly the very next thing I'm going to do, and I've allotted time for that. That's my latest routine. But typically my ideal routine at some point in the day is going to include certainly a workout, whether it's a long walk, whether it's something more intense, which might be body weight exercises. I just joined a stretch lab, so maybe I'm doing that twice a week now. I know. Don't judge. Scott Todd. I saw that look.

What's a stretch lab?

They stretch you out like a professional athlete. It feels pretty good. Oh, wow. Anyways, I do want to get back into my meditation and certainly like Wim Hof breathing, I like to do as well, so. But I, you know, I noticed that I go through phases where I'll read something and I'll try it and then. But I can't do everything, so I have to pick and choose what's going to be best for me. But I am the kind of person that likes to experiment and just try these different things and see what sticks and then forgive myself for investing in a pedal time that I'm not using. But then I'm going to get back into it. But, you know, my next investment will be the tonal, and then I'm sure that will last about three months, and I'll regret that investment as well. But either way, I want to try it. So I thought this was a really good podcast.

All right. So one of the questions that I see come up all the time is I don't know what I'm supposed to do today. And it's pretty simple, right? I mean, as land investors, we. We don't all have the luxury of, like, being born and raised in the land investing community. So this is a new concept for all of us and for many people, you're learning and developing as an entrepreneur. And so it's pretty obvious what our goals are. Our goals are to buy land and sell land, but I think we need to, in the spirit of outsourcing, in the spirit of hopefully making our days a little less chaotic, come up with a list of what must get done every single day. Right. And certain things need to be done on certain days of the week. And so my question for the land investing professionals that we have on the podcast today is what are your top three activities that you do on a daily basis? What do you wake up and say before I check the bank balances, before I do anything else. These are the three things that must get done regardless of whether or not you're on vacation. And the goal here is to strive to be like Scott Todd. When Scott Todd wakes up in the morning, he says, where did I leave my keys last night? Where am I going to go on a flight for? I mean, this guy, his goals are not the same as you and I's, but that's because he's perfected certain things in the business, right? He's perfected the outsourcing, he's perfecting the hiring. Scott Todd has become an expert at hiring experts. And as a result, his top three priorities are going to be different than Eric's or mine or Teresa's or Mark's or Mike's. So I'm curious, what is everybody else's top three non negotiable activities that they must do on a daily basis?

I get the sense Scott Todd's so good at outsourcing that when he goes to bed at night, he actually delegates somebody to dream for him. And he wakes up in the morning, he's like, what I dream about.

I mean, I talked to Scott one time and you know, his top priorities are checking the weather, right? He needs to make sure that there's no turbulent air up there. Picking his flight plans, making sure the donuts got the delivery of fresh flour so that they're going to have donuts ready for him in the morning. I mean, it's rough. He's worried about other people's jobs now. That will influence his day to day activities.

This podcast has just gone off the rails. We should just end it right here.

This is ridiculous. I don't think so. I think, I think we got a good, a good topic let's start with because he loves starting and I think if he didn't start, he would be so disappointed and he wouldn't feel the love. The Zen master, Mike Zano, let's start with you and your team.

I'm happy to go first on this one. I definitely don't want to go after Scott Todd, so I'll go first. So my top three priorities currently, number one, I check on my team. So we have a team of VAs that work for us. So I check in with them each morning and make sure that there's nothing I can do to assist them and what they're doing and so on. So that's number one. Number two, always doing deal review. I do still do our deal review. So we always have a virtual stack of deals that we need to either decide to move forward or to kill them. So deal review is number two. And number three, I'm always looking to somehow improve a piece of the system. So, you know, look at, you know, something that one of the team members is doing. How can I improve it? What's happened over the last week that maybe I need to adjust based on, you know, what they did and, you know, because sometimes you make process, you know, you have to adjust them. So those are the three things that I think about.

I love it. Let me ask you, Mike, when you, when you, when you are in the thinking mode, do you, do you set your priorities that night before? Do you set them on a day of the week? Do you set them up that morning when you and Laura are doing your. Your walk and going to get coffee and, you know, doing some kind of crazy workout?

You know?

You know, I, I wish I had the type of person had like this action plan for my whole week, but the reality is I just, if I, if I focus on those sort of generic topics, I know I'm doing the right thing. So those are sort of, those are there every day. Right. I just keep it simple in that regard. I wish, you know, I'm a big fan, I always say it, of backpacks and notebooks because they represent organization to me. And so I'll buy, you know, I have them all over the place. It doesn't mean I'm organized. So I wish I could plan my week out ahead of time. Maybe somebody on this call does that, but I don't at this time.

Okay, let's go to the technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, what are your top three priorities that you try to accomplish each day?

Believe it or not, mine are essentially identical to what Mike just rattled off. I guess I could add a couple other things that aren't necessarily daily, but things I look at weekly or monthly. And that's, you know, I'm going to be checking metrics for the business just to make sure we're on track to achieving goals, moving in the direction we want to be moving in, and also planning for deals of the week. We schedule those monthly. I still choose the properties, choose the deal we're offering, and stuff like that. So I think probably in the not too distant future that'll be handed off to my sales manager. But for now, I'm still doing that. So that happens on a monthly basis. Um, and, you know, communication with the team is super important. It doesn't always happen every day, I wouldn't say. But there are certain scheduled ongoing calls that happen each week. There's check ins throughout the week as needed, different things like that. But, you know, trying to stay out of the small tasks as much as possible and keep those on the shoulders of my team and, and, you know, looking at different systems, processes that we can build to make things run smoother or more efficiently.

I love it. I love it. Terea putting in the reps. Harris, so are your top three priorities besides bone broth in the morning?

Bone broth in the mornings, that is a top priority. The gym in the mornings, that's a top priority. In terms of the land business, I get up and I look at our leads almost every morning when I get back from the gym, I just look at where the lead count is. How well did we do yesterday? I might touch base with some members of the team if necessary. I don't do it every day. I am a big fan of just going into some of my Facebook accounts and I just will play around in there like, like, scroll, scroll, like, like scroll, scroll. So I might take 10 minutes a day and kind of go through a couple of the accounts.

Scroll, scroll, like, like.

But for the most part, I don't have anything that I do every day in the business. Tuesday mornings, tip of the week. So I start trying to dig out something that will inspire the lanky community.

I love it. I love it. You know, but, you know, I know, I know we were joking around a little bit about, you know, bone broth and the gym and Mike, you know, you know, doing his morning routine. And, you know, I know Eric and Tate cycle, you know, peloton. Actually they both have pelotons now. But, but self care is a big part, I think for everyone on the roundtable, even Scott Todd in that donut. It's is a form of self care that we all do before we go into our priorities. I do think it's something that should be mentioned, it shouldn't be overlooked. But I'd love to hear Tate's thoughts on this.

You know, my top three priorities, you know, they, they started off as something different than they are now, but I think for our viewers, I'll go back to what they were. And my top three priorities were, you know, make sure the mail was getting sent. Obviously, LG Pass has kind of eliminated that because there's some cool automation with our Drip feature there. I always wanted to make sure that ads were Being posted, that the marketing was happening and that the leads were getting followed up with. Those used to be my top three priorities. Now it's a little different. I spend a majority of, you know, some time on a. On a frequent basis doing county research. Right. That's something that I really enjoy doing. It's something that I've got people helping me with, but I'm reviewing it. I'm also spending time solving problems, right? This account's blocked, this zap, stop working. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I spend a lot of time problem solving and troubleshooting and then ultimately collecting money. I need to make sure we're getting paid. That's another area that I spend some time doing. Every single. Well, weak. But those are some of the ideas that come to mind for me. But the idea with this is if you kind of have a roadmap, it makes sitting down for that 60 minutes of focused energy really productive. I see it happen all the time where people sit down, they go, all right, time to work on the land business. What should I do today? And they don't know. And if you don't know, well, then you're spending time working on something that might not need your attention or you're neglecting another area of the business. So I think focus time, and that's something that we drive home a lot, obviously, in the coaching program is know what you're going to do every single day, and if you do, you can outsource a lot easier. You can meet with your team a lot more efficiently. So it's pretty cool.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, last but not least, Scott, Todd, I doubt you have three priorities. What's your half priority?

Yeah. Okay. Well, you know, I mean, Tate with his, you know, introduction there, kind of stole some of my joking. But that aside, basically, you know, I do. I do function or serve in that function of like a CEO, right? So I am getting up, and while I'm not necessarily spending hours and hours in the business every single week, what I am doing is I'm just making sure that I understand where everything is. You know, I might. Might look at the bank accounts, right? I want to know what the bank balance is. I want to know that we're moving money and that, you know, if we're sitting heavy on money, I know what that we need to deploy money, and then I can kind of like, tell the team, we need more land. Let's go find land. You know, so. So the money aspect is one of them making sure that the money's getting there. That's an important piece, because if you don't make sure that the money's getting there, you got different problems. Kind of like what Tate was saying. You want to make sure that you're collecting the money. And so I'll kind of look at that. I look at how much we collected the day before, so that I just kind of have an idea where the bank accounts sit just to make sure everything's going smoothly. After that, I'm just kind of seeing if there's any roadblocks.

Right.

So I might scan through email, see what's there, and see if there's a way that we can kind of remove a roadblock or see if I see an ongoing pattern for roadblocks or bottlenecks, whatever word you prefer. And then if so, then I might, you know, kind of point things out to the team. And, you know, the one thing I do every single month religiously is I am every month as. Just as I teach in flight school, is I redraw the entire business end to end. So I understand what's going on with that. And I'm always looking over that process map or swim lane to make sure I like what I see. And if it used to be, how do I get myself out of it now? It's like, well, where's the repeating bottlenecks? Where's the. Where's the stuff that I continue to have to kind of get involved with or keep my eye on? I've tried to figure out a better way of doing things there. And today, I mean, ultimately, I spend more time kind of with. Outside of my land business, with Land Moto and also with LGPass. So that's kind of a. A fun pastime more than actually working in the land business.

Yeah, no, absolutely. For me, I don't want to just say exactly what Scott said, but that is my priority is thinking like a CEO, really. I like to think out a week in advance, sometimes a month in advance, like, what is the big goal I want to accomplish for that week or that month? And then what are the tasks associated with accomplishing that goal as well? But also, you know, who are the people that are going to be responsible and empowered to doing that so that I can have the time to, you know, read or think strategically and look at things a little bit more creatively about the business and life in general?

So.

My top priority is really just thinking strategically about the business. And if that is happening because I'm in something, well, then that type of priority then shifts like, well, how do I get out of that So I can get back to that CEO role. But I really liked what everyone had to say. And Tate, I think it was a really great topic to bring up, not just for newbies, but even for people who are more advanced in the business. Because if we don't really, we're not really intentional about our day. The day just goes, we go to bed at night, like, what do I do all day? And it just, it's like putting, you know, like sand in your, in your fingers. Everything just kind of slips through. Tate, do you agree?

Yeah. I mean, you know, time management, it's possibly one of the greatest skills that you can develop either, you know, early on in life or later on in life, because we're all given the same amount of time every single day. But the people who know how to use it correctly get significantly more done. You know, to run a land business by yourself will take your entire day, it will guarantee. But if you learn how to run a land business using other people's time, you can magically do whatever you want, whenever you want to. And that's really what this business, this lifestyle is truly about. It's about learning how to use your time well and rely on other people who are willing to donate their time to help you get from A to Z faster. So ultimately, that's what it comes down to, in my opinion.

Yeah, I agree 100%. Tree Harris, do you want the last word on this?

Sure.

I agree wholeheartedly with Tate. I think in the beginning we can get so bogged down on just in minutia trying to figure out what to get done. How do I get it done? So just sitting down and planning it out, out. Even if it's a daily basis or a weekly basis, just being intentional. On Mondays, this is what I do. On Tuesdays, this is what I do. It just helps until you get into a better cycle of managing your time.

Nancy Gaines.

Hey, guys.

Nancy Gaines, in case you don't know her, is the CEO founder of Gain Advantages Inc. And has been advising small businesses and Fortune 100 companies how to increase revenues through proven systems for almost two decades. She is a best selling author and international keynote speaker. She's kind of a big deal. Nancy's been named in the top 100 productivity experts to follow on Twitter and as a global podcast downloaded in over 75 countries. Her passion is compressing the time it takes for entrepreneurs to get profitable because slow, inefficient, drives her nuts. Nancy Gaines, how are you?

Welcome. Hey guys. I'm so excited to be on the show. This will be a one up episode. I can already feel it coming on. Scott, you ready?

Let's roll. Well, before we get into the one upsmanship, I want to rewind the clock a bit, Nancy, and just hear how you sort of became this productivity automation superhero. So how did you start? How did you end up where you are today?

Sure, great question. About three, almost four years ago now, I was in the corporate world, loved my job, and I was finding out that I was getting my work done quickly and watching other people's struggle to late hours into the night. And I didn't realize I had this gift. One thing, but the real reason I quit is I was sitting in a motivational talk and this guy, kind of like a Tony Robbins guy, was pumping us all up, telling us we need to do bigger things in life. And I'm like, no, I kind of like my job. Good salary, it's very comfortable. And I had this, aha. Maybe I was complacent. So I pulled out my laptop right there and wrote my resignation right there in that class. And then I told my husband later and ever since then, what did your husband say?

I just have to know.

So he was on a different flight. He was coming in that evening and I went to pick him up at the airport and he barely had a suitcase in the trunk. But I'm like, honey, I'm going to be an entrepreneur. And I was hoping he talked me out of it, actually. I hope I wanted him to say, it's hard. We got a great job, we've got a secure future, we're paying down our house, you know, things are great. But instead, instead he gives me this big hug and says, you got this, sweetie, go for it. And then I was committed. It was hard, though.

That's, you know, that's beautiful. That is like the perfect support statement. Scott. Todd.

Okay, Mark, so could you have fostered that same support for like, your wife comes in, she's like, I'm quitting my job. You're like, yeah, no.

I'd like to think I'd have that response. I mean, I can tell you right now, if I was in Nancy's situation, probably not. I would have been like, what? You didn't tell me about this. We didn't talk about this first. So I think that really says a lot about that relationship.

Oh, he is awesome. But you know what? I think we all thought it would go so much better, so much quicker. Being an employee is way different than being a business owner. So we had some points where we're like, should we go get a job or stick it out? Probably every entrepreneur feels that way, right?

No, absolutely. And I think that you kind of have this issue as far as like the big buckets of the benefits of entrepreneurship. It's time. It's flexibility, it's freedom, and then it's hopefully money, right? Where the employee has sort of security, but they don't have the time, they don't have the freedom, they don't have the flexibility. And then you make this huge trade off to get these things and all of a sudden you're like, wait, I missed the security. Did you feel that way, Nancy?

Oh, absolutely. Just because I was a great employee didn't mean I was going to be a great business owner. And I totally thought, I'm consulting to these Fortune 100 companies and I'm rocking it. How hard can it be to just manage me? It was hard. And I'll tell you why. Because I did not have systems in my business. I was driving all over town, meeting anybody for coffee, hoping they'd buy my stuff. And that is not a system. That's a hope, a wish. So as soon as I started putting things in place, like figuring out what days I'm going to go out and network and figure out who I was going to talk to, and breaking up with things that didn't work, that was a turning point.

So how long did that take for you? And was there a mentor that sort of helped you sort of, you know, create that sort of systems light bulb? Or were you already kind of that person? And then you get, then you're like, oh, wait, if I can do this at my job, I can do this.

For me the second one. But boy, I spent probably, I spent over six figures in education in the first 18 months. So much money that the IRS sent me a love letter and said, could you please come into our office and verify all this? So, yeah, I got the audit letter because the outflow was so much higher than the inflow. But the turning point, I don't know if you've got this where you guys live, but we've got streets where the lights are not timed. So as soon as you get up to the speed limit, bam, you get red lighted and then you get up to the speed limit again. Do you have that street in California and in Florida?

Yeah, of course.

I think everybody does.

Yeah, I have. Yeah, I'm in Phoenix, but yeah, yeah.

Well, that one street, I'm at the stoplight and I'm just getting really annoyed because they're just not. It's not a system. Right. And I'm like, systems. These lights aren't a system. I don't have systems in my business.

Hello.

So I do this. U turn, went home, put all my great knowledge, I spent all this money on into systems, and that's what I teach today. You need systems in sales, marketing, your team, money and operations. Same way in land. Right. In real estate. No systems. You're going to be a mess.

All right. Phenomenal. So let's get geeky. Nancy, what is your advice to the new entrepreneur? Setting up their systems? What tool would you recommend today? And then also, how would you recommend that they actually create their first system and actually think about it? That's a big question.

But, yeah, let me kick off. Do you know what system actually stands for, either of you? S Y S T E M. It stands for save. Save yourself some time, energy, money. Write that down. Save yourself some time, energy, money. It's kind of like investing. It's compounding. You put the effort in now to put in some structure and system doesn't have to be it. It's just a process. Put the time in now. It's gonna compound over time and pay back over and over. The other thing, do you know what the best system to have is?

No.

The one you actually do.

There, Mark.

Yeah.

Yeah. She dropped the mic on us.

She did.

Right.

So we got some makeup to do.

Yeah. So whatever. Anything that you're actually going to follow. So the number one thing I would start with is get your time organized. One of my favorite things to use, and I know you use this, Mark, because I used it for your podcast, is a scheduling link that you could just send to people to connect with you versus hey, are you free on Thursday at two? No. How about Saturday at one? And that is so wasteful. So number one, if nothing else, go get a tool I use. You can book me or schedule once. What do you prefer?

I like any of them, actually. I just use acuity. But that works. Yeah. I mean, just for me. I don't know if it's the best one, but it works for me. And you know what? It's the system I use.

Scott, talking to Use acuity.

Use acuity. Okay. See?

Yeah. So these. Is that free or paid?

Paid.

Paid, yeah.

Sent. Some of these are paid, some of them are free. But that will. Let me ask you this. Do you think you got back at least one, maybe two hours of your week in scheduling time with that tool?

Yeah, I mean, I think that. I mean, like, just alone. The fact that you can Send someone a link. And Mark, I think a lot of people even discount this because, like, they think, like, okay, I have to like have a podcast or, man, I used to use this thing when I was, like, when I was taking sales calls, whatever. I'd send a link and saying, hey, just go ahead and book. Take a 15 minute time slot with me. Let's talk about the land. People would do it and yeah, I would get back. Well worth that time.

Yeah, it's totally worth it. And for people that don't have a scheduler, don't worry, nobody can see what's. They only see if it's available or if it's booked. So nobody sees what you're really doing in that time. You can schedule a time for a nap if you wanted to. Nobody knows. So, yeah, that would be the first tool I'd start with. How about you, Scott? What's your favorite tool you think people should use?

Oh, I like Hazel on a Mac. Do you use Hazel?

Do you have a Mac?

I don't use a Mac. But what does it do?

See, that's the problem.

I just won.

There's the mic drop. Mic mark. All right, so look, here's what Hazel does. Hazel, you know, the old housekeeper Hazel, the TV show Hazel.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so that's where it gets its name from. And what Hazel does is it allows you to set up all kinds of rules for your computer, right? So like, hey, every after 30 days, delete my trash. Take these files that are in my downloads file that we all know just lives there forever. After seven days, move it to the trash. Then it cycles out, right? So I have my computer working all the time to take stuff from your desktop. You know how you just save something on your desktop real fast? From my desktop, I have a cleanup folder. So every night at midnight, it cleans whatever's on the desktop and moves it into the cleanup folder. When it's been the cleanup folder for a few days, boom, it's gone. But my favorite use, my favorite use of Hazel is when you team it up with something like Zapier, right? So now you get really geeky. So, like, you save a file, like you scan. Like I'll scan a file from my scanner here, put it into Dropbox, and I'll, I'll label it like deed, for example. And then you have, then you have Zapier. I'm sorry, Then, then you have Hazel that watches that folder. And when it sees the word deed in the file, it moves it into the deeds folder because all my scans go into the same folder. It moves it into the deeds folder. And then you get zapier. That takes the deeds folder, watches that. And then it sends an email to my intake manager who files and records the deed.

Bam.

I think Scott won. Round one goes to Scott.

Yeah.

All right, Nancy, let's go to round two. Go to round two. All right, so once you've got your scheduler. Right.

Right.

What's the next system that a newbie should set up?

Their magic number. So the magic number is basically your hourly rate. So you got to figure out whatever your hourly rate is or what you'd like your hourly rate to be. Delegate everything below that number. It's below your pay grade, so you're only focusing on tasks that are that number or higher. Too many people say, oh, it'll just take me a second to book a reservation or to make a copy. All of that's probably below your pay grade. Somebody else can do it better. And this extends into your personal life. So stop cutting your grass. You could probably find someone who can cut it better than you for a lot less than you make. Stop doing your laundry. Stop cooking all that stuff. Stop cleaning your house. Somebody could do that. Probably better and less expensive than your magic power number. What do you think?

I feel like we are long lost relatives.

I feel like I found my female doppelganger.

Yeah, exactly, Mark.

I mean, do you.

Do you use that same logic, Scott?

I use it so viciously that it's a huge, huge relationship strain because everyone looks at me like, why do you delegate everything? I'm like, well, it's below my pay grade because I look. Because, like. Like, my wife's like, you know, why aren't you doing that? Or, you know, or I'll say to her, like, why are we doing this? Like, she's like, will you run to Chipotle and go get the kids dinner tonight? I'm like, sure. I go on my phone, I and I order Chipotle online and have it delivered. She's like, no, just go and get it. Why are we paying this premium to have somebody else you know, go and get it? She's like, you're so lazy. I'm like, no, no, I'm efficient. I'm like, this time I can be doing something more productive than standing in line at Chipotle. Like, I've got 11,000 days left if I'm lucky. Like, is that really how I want to spend my time? I valet park. I mean, anything to save me time, I will do.

It's nuts, Mark, though, Nancy, I would, I agree with everything you're saying there. I agree. Right, but. And maybe you'll get to this. But the one thing that I would add to it is I always do one more thing in there. So I definitely agree. You should, you should have an hourly rate for yourself. Anything below that hourly rate, you should, you should get rid of. But. Or delegate it. But I also use the. I use this and I also teach it, like in flight school, Mark, which is I look at everything I'm doing. Can I eliminate this job? And if I can't eliminate it, then I will attempt to automate it. If I can't automate it, then I'll delegate it and, you know, like something. Something like, you know, I've got the robotic vacuum cleaner I like. Maybe. Who doesn't, right? You guys are probably like, duh. But man, if I can automate something to save it so I don't have to delegate it, that's like a dream to me. And so now you start to take like, okay, do I spend $500 on a vacuum cleaner or 250 on a vacuum cleaner? One of those robotic ones. It becomes a no brainer because, man, am I going to save two hours over the next year. I could do it every year.

Right?

I like that. Well, then I can plus one that. I love how we're playing off each other. I see people struggle with priorities too. So I came up with a little formula for what is a priority. Because everyone's like, they're all priorities. Number one, does it make you money? Number two, does it save you money? And number three, does it systemize or automate something? If it doesn't hit one of those criteria, not a priority. Back to you, Scott.

I'm gonna let you win this round.

Yay.

Ding, ding, ding, ding. Do we have sound effects on this podcast, Mark?

We can edit it and create some sound effects. Nancy gets round two. So let's go to round three, which is we've got our scheduler, we've got our sort of priorities. We know our effective hourly rate. So we know you know what to delegate, systematize and automate. And basically, if you got a really high hourly rate, it ends up looking like you don't do anything. So the question then, Nancy, is when you have a really, really high hourly rate, what do you do? What can't? What should not be automated, what should not scale?

Right.

What should not be delegated, what should not be systematized? What are those things for?

You probably face to face relationships, this actually frees you to be present with your clients, get new business, your family, whatever, even yourself, having some me time. Use that hour to the highest and best use. We actually call that habu h a b u highest and best use of your time. So I like to separate thinking from doing. I think too many people get into the doing mode and they don't step back and think about it. They just dive into a task. But if they would have taken 10, 15 minutes of that powerful hour to think about goes so much faster because you know what you're doing. So there's some tips around a little bit around all that.

Mark, Scott, Todd, what's your high, boo?

I would say that it's, it is about, you know, taking, taking the time. I think we're going to have to like agree on this one because I think it's about taking the time to do the stuff that's important to you. I think that's really what it boils down to, whether it's, whether it's the face to face relationships, spending your time the way that you want. I mean, Mark, I will tell you that I know that you, you count down your number of days left. 11,000, whatever. It's been 11,000 for a while now.

But.

All right, let me just, let me just check. Let me just check. Hold on.

So while you're checking, I would just say that our time here is ultimately limited. And so if you can use that time that you've created. Because remember, like my own thought process is that delegating and automating allows me to multiply my time. So if I can do that, then what that will allow me to do is it will allow me to live the life that I want and do everything I can do. And honestly, I don't, I mean, like, this is a foreign concept to people who have their, their day job simply because of the fact that, you know, you can't delegate your work. I mean, if you have an assistant, you can. But look, we're all paid. When we're sitting in that corporate environment, we're paid for our brain, our labor, whatever it is. We're paid, you know, paid to lift stuff or we're paid to do the heavy lifting with our brains. And you can't just say, hey, this is Bob. Bob's going to be sitting in on these conference calls for me, for here on out, and Bob's going to run all these ideas by me and I'll just kind of. You won't have a job.

Right.

So it's really a foreign concept, but once you have your own company once, you have your own time. If you're not investing your time to get rid of the work so that you can enjoy your time, you're making a mistake.

I have to agree on that one too.

See Tide.

All right, so Nancy, I've got 11,020 days, 13 hours, 18 minutes in three seconds left as of right now. And it's counting down. I've got the death clock.

You lost her, Mark, you lost her.

No, I, I know it's his. Well, what age are you planning on? Because I'm planning on 100. What, what does that equal?

I'm not.

Because that's not this, you know, that's really, really.

Nancy, he took the easy way out. Just went to this website that will ask him a few questions and then you know, he's not going to calculate to 100.

I think I'm like the average male.

80, 81, 82 ish.

Yeah, maybe even lower.

See, Mark, I'm planning on going to about 140.

Man. You probably could, but how much of that's gonna be quality though?

140.

140. Lucid, active.

You'll win every 10k because you'll be the only one in your age group. You can take the 10K, the triathlon, the downhill skiing race. You just have to show up.

Imagine my story, man. I could be like the best known guy ever.

Yeah. My biggest fear is losing a sense of taste as I get older. Is that odd taste? Taste? Yeah. You lose your sense of taste. Yeah, we think it's odd, bland and I love food, Nancy. All right, I don't want to digress about my personal issues. All right, let's get back to Nancy. Nancy, what is the worst advice you see or hear given in your area of expertise of basically small business consulting and having entrepreneurs get a quality of life and create systems and automation?

The worst advice I've seen.

Yeah.

Probably trying to be everywhere, you know, instead of niching down. This isn't really about systems but people. The sooner you niche down to exactly what you do, the sooner your business is going to take off. Like you guys are very niched land. When people need land, they probably think of you versus another real estate company that does. Oh, we help anyone who's going to buy a house. Well, I know probably 25 realtors and I'm not even in your field. Who am I going to send business to for a referral? Probably the last person I saw because they're top of mind. So niche in whatever your business is.

Niching down I love it. Round three, Nancy Scott.

We're going to give that to her.

That's a buy. Is that a buy?

No, no. You're up. You're up.

All right. So, Nancy, what are some of the mental sort of barriers that people have to overcome? What are the people who actually end up fighting you on when you say, hey, look, you got to eliminate, you got to delegate, you got to systematize. Here, here, here, here. I'm looking at your business and they say, what?

Oh, this is a classic question. This is awesome. Every entrepreneur, at some point when their success is really taken off, their business is just growing. They have to choose between growth and control because it's their right, their baby, they grew this business, but at some point, it's going to choke hold them if they don't let go of some control, do some delegation, do some automation, because they can only get so far in their business. They are one person. So the ever argument of growth versus control, what's more important to you? You're smiling. They can't see this on the podcast, but you're smiling.

I'm smiling because I have struggled with this for years. And the funny thing is, once I surrendered and began to delegate, I mean, life went from black and white to color, food tasted better, everything was better for me. But it was really, really hard to let go. And I wish I knew you 10 years ago, right, where you could just said, hey, Mark, let go and you'll grow. But it took a long, long time. And a lot of it was, I would tell myself, well, I enjoy this, I'm good at this, I'm being productive. What am I going to do with my time if I delegate this? Right. Even if intellectually I kind of knew, I didn't, I didn't want to let go. So how do you help people let go? Or do you say, it's up to you? Maybe there's nothing wrong with having total control with the realization that you're just not going to grow.

Yep, that is exactly the conversation. And most people are a little offended right off the bat, but they have to let it process for a couple days, couple hours, couple weeks, and they come back and say, that was one of the best tips you've ever given me. So, yeah, they don't instantly say, okay, yeah, here you go, you're right. Never. It's a big step.

So, Nancy, can you give us an example of something that you let go of and you're like, you're just journey with it.

So this is really minor, but I had this eight page PDF document that I needed in Word so I could change the words around. It was a contract, which was really good. And I didn't want to pay $1,000 to have it. So I got on fiverr and I paid $5 to this girl in Jamaica to type it because I knew that would take me four hours. Are you okay, Mark?

I'm okay. Yeah.

So I, I went on Fiverr. I found this girl from Jamaica, paid her $5 to type this, and I'm like, she's gonna make all these mistakes. I'm gonna have to proofread it. Blah, blah, blah. It came back in 45 minutes. It was absolutely perfect. I'm like, if I can do that for $5, imagine what I could do with $50. Imagine what I could do with $100. And it was a big turning point to just let go and let somebody else do something. But I was scared.

Yeah. Yeah. Scott, Todd, what was one of the things that you let go of and you were really scared of?

I'd say when. When I added people on my team to do sales, that was really scary for me because that was, you know, at the time I did it, Mark, I was. Little did I know, but I was literally about three months away from being like, unemployed. And I had just added somebody and really I was on a good roll and I didn't want it to stop. And then when I added this person, it took them a little bit of time to get up to speed, and they've been phenomenal ever since. But that said, I will tell you that I was really scared about letting that thing go. And I almost made the decision when I found out I was being laid off. I almost made the decision like, I'm going to take that back because every dime will help. And looking back, I'm so glad I didn't make that decision. Just let it go.

Yeah. Nancy, what do you tell the person that, you know feels like they're. They're, you know, they don't have the capital. They have to do everything themselves because they've got. They don't have the money to do this.

That comes up all the time, Mark, for sure. So first of all, we do the same exercise we did. We figure out their hourly number and then we talk about it doesn't have to be an employee with payroll taxes and contractors starts find somebody on my favorite site. So here's a great tip. My favorite site to find help is hiremymom.com hiremymom.com this is basically mostly us based Women professionals, college educated, who left the work world to have a few kids. But they want a little bit of money on the side and they want to keep their skills fresh. You can find graphic designers, admin help, accounting. Anything you can think of is on this. The list is like 25 categories and they're really good.

Why is this better than Fiverr?

You're in the same time zone. They're a little bit more expensive, but I think you usually get what you pay for. Hiremymom.com so yeah, you don't have to jump in and hire somebody full time. You can just hire different tasks. Plus, the beauty is you can have three people on your team that have three really good skill sets instead of trying to find that in one person who's a jack of all trades.

Wow, this is cool.

Yeah.

Employers join now. What do you think, Scott?

Oh, and it's free, by the way. It's free to post. It's like match.com for outsourcing. Elijah Maeve.

I like it. You got virtual assistants, bloggers, writers, social media marketers, graphic designers, e commerce. This is everything. Legal and real estate assistance. Holy cow.

Yeah.

And if you don't like somebody, you break up and you find a different person. So there's no long term commitment if if doesn't work out.

See, Scott, this is what happens when you have so much time. Like Nancy.

This is what happens, isn't it?

That's kind of cool. See, we thought, we thought we were the only ones that had the time to find these kind of cool things. But no, I think we have to start like a, like an automation support group. There you go with Nancy.

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