Geordie Wardman: SaaS Builder And Owner

Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Jordy Wardman with us. He is a 15-year entrepreneur, SaaS builder and owner, author, and just started a software consulting service. So welcome to the show, man.

Thanks Tyler, how are you?

I'm doing great, man, how are you?

I'm doing great, thanks.

Awesome, brother, I'm pumped to have you on the show. The first question we ask on the Business Blast is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

So I was thinking about this when I went through the show notes before the questions you sent, and I think one of the biggest changing points for me in my life was probably about 7 years ago. I was living in Mexico at the time, and I have my family— I was living with my family, which I still live with. And I had some friends coming to visit me from Bermuda, where I'm originally from, and they were all sort of full on in vacation mode. And they were down in this beautiful house. And, you know, like, my wife was like, okay, well, we're going down to see our friends. And I was like, oh man, I can't, you know, I got all this stuff going on. And she looked at me and she's like, you know, you've been worried about this for like 6 or 7 years. You've been telling me for 6 years, like, 'Oh yeah, what if we lose this contract?' Or, you know, in 90 days, basically, I felt like— I always felt like my business was 90 days away from, you know, some event that I couldn't control happening. And I was just like, I thought about it and I was like, 'Wow, you're right.' And she was like, 'You basically have wasted 6 years of your life worrying about something that never was going to happen.' And I decided like that then and there that I was not going to worry about like things that I didn't. And it sounds so simple, right? You say, I don't worry about things you don't have control over. But when I look back on it, it was like I was always worried that, you know, like, oh, a hotel is going to cancel this contract on us because at the time that's what my client was, big hotels. And And if one big client canceled from me, we would be struggling. And they never did. And I was always able to make something happen. And so that was probably 7 days— 7 years ago, I decided that I was just— then and there, I knew that I could always control the things that I had control. And I just was going to stop worrying about the things I didn't have control. And since then, I can't tell you how much the quality of my life has improved. And, you know, like, at that I went down and I hung out with my friends, you know, and just had a great day and I didn't worry about things. And from then it's just, you know, my life has just changed so dramatically.

Yeah, man, I appreciate you sharing that with us. I think definitely like worrying doesn't help, but it is something that sometimes comes on and we're not like aware how much it's happening. So I'm glad that after 6, 7 years that it's gotten better.

Yeah, it's basically gone now. You know, I mean, there's still, you know, you still think about things, but at least it's— if it's something I can control about, I get up early in the morning and I get the stuff done and whatever. But, you know, if I can't pay bills, you know, I know I'm gonna make something happen to be able to cover that.

And, uh, the next one I have for you, man, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

So one of the things I was thinking about this is, um, one of the things that I have to deal with is I try and find, um, uh, really good developers for, you know, for my clients who are basically people looking to build software. And one of the things that I do is, um, that I like to ask is, are you— do you consider yourself a full-stack developer? Developer? And in that question, what I'm really asking is like, are you just like, are you a good developer or are you a great developer? And the difference between a good developer and a great developer is like curiosity, going out and finding, you know, what, you know, outside of, you know, like what's happening in the industry where someone that's good knows how to program. You know, and they're good at coding. Someone that's great is someone that's curious, that's going out, is broad. And my feeling working with these types of developers is that the work that they can get done, the difference between good and great is like exponential. So I think the advice is when you're looking to work with someone, think about exponentially greater, you know, good is from great is from good.

Yeah, no, I agree that I can actually relate that to with editors for books. That's my background. And it is unbelievable. And you're as yourself an author, like, and I'm not sure if you have like a professional editor with your book or not, but an editor can completely change the outcome of your book. Like, it is Drastic. And there's definitely different caliber of editors from good to great. So I agree. The next one I have for you is, what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.

So I think one piece of advice that has stuck with me was something a mentor gave me about probably 10 years ago. And I'm saying this because I need to remind myself of it. And a lot of us as entrepreneurs forget it is finish the task at hand or nothing gets done. So in other words, like, don't you know, like, if he's working on something or if I'm working on something, I don't want to work on another thing. I'm going to sit there and finish that one thing, that one project. And I need to do that because it's, you know, for example, right now I'm in the process of selling one business. I have another business going, my SaaS. And so when I'm doing that, what I do is just say, okay, I'm not even going to think about these other businesses right now. They're running. I'm going to do work on this one thing until it's done. And then I'm going to, you know, stick my head out and see what the next thing is that I need to do.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

I think for me, over the years, I look back and see where I was when I was younger and the relationships that I had. I had a lot of really good friends when I was younger that I have since probably let lapse. And I would tell my younger self is don't forget about maintaining your relationships, you know, nothing so important that you can't, you know, do a better job of that. And of course, right now I could reach back out to them. But those— some of those friendships have faded, you know, so I would, I would just say, you know, keep in touch with those relationships, because they're the most important thing, I think.

And, you know, kind of going on a little bit of a different path, but in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

So for me, I have— I've been experimenting with minimalism in the last sort of year. So I spent last year, I spent— I was doing a project where I was buying nothing new for a whole year. It had to do with trying to give up plastic. And as part of that experiment, it basically made me like just completely free of wanting materialistic things. Because obviously I couldn't buy anything. So the freedom that I have now to just like walk through a city or, you know, just go anywhere and not want to buy anything has made the quality of my life just so much more because now I'm not worried about like the house that I live in, the car that I drive, the, you know, the money that other people are making because I really don't want anything. And I'm just able to enjoy my time with my friends and family more and just enjoy myself more. So I think having very simple needs has been my key to overall happiness or greater happiness.

And what is the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Um, So I read the book, it's called The One Thing, and I can't recall the author. I think it's Peter Gross or something. But anyway, I just read and I reread that. I remember it being profound for me at the time. And I reread it probably about a month ago and I really, really love it. And it basically, just like the title sounds, it says, What, you know, boils down to what is the one thing that you can be working on that makes everything else unnecessary? In other words, to achieve your goals. And when you stop and look at that, you can break it down to like a year, a month, two weeks, and a day. And you can just ask yourself that one question over and say, that's what I'm trying to do now. So everything that I do, I'm always trying to ask myself that one question. So what is the one thing I can do that makes everything else irrelevant to achieve my overall goal? No matter what it is.

Yeah, fantastic book and fantastic lesson. I forget the quote, but it's something like, if you chase two rabbits, you'll catch none. But if you chase one, then you'll get it or something like that.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's definitely true. I figured in the entrepreneurial world, a lot of I think people know that book and maybe they were like me and they read it 4 or 5 years ago, but rereading it was just as good for me as reading it the first time because we forget this stuff.

Yeah, absolutely, man. I'm huge on audiobooks, so I do the audiobook like 1.5, 2 times speed and then I'll like re-listen to it. So I get a lot of books done that way. It's really good.

Yeah, me too. I'm big into audiobooks as well. It's great. They're great. Yeah, 1.5x the speed as well is great.

Yeah, 1.5x is perfect. 2x sometimes I completely miss it.

No, then I don't retain it.

Yeah, I agree. Have you ever heard of a guy named Jordan Peterson?

I have too. The 12 philosophy— 12 philosophies.

12 rules for life. Yeah, 12 Rules for Life. And then his first book actually before that's called The Maps of Meaning. And it's like 30 hours, but it's like, you know, he talks about pretty— I don't know how to say it.

It's pretty deep. Yeah, it's very philosophical. And yeah, you're like—

So that's—

You basically don't retain anything because it's so long and you're like speeding through it. So yeah.

Yeah, I tried his on 2 times and I was like, nah, that ain't going to work on this.

Yeah, yeah.

But the next one I have for you, man, is what is your favorite quote and why?

Okay, let me see. Okay, so I have a friend just told me about this one and I really liked it. So it's not my quote, but I got it from him, but it's now become my favorite quote. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask. And what he's saying, it's basically, it goes back to the one thing as well. If you ask yourself that, you know, what's the question? What's, how can I 10x what I'm working on now? Or how can I, you know, like sort of the questions that you ask, if you level up the questions that you ask yourself, the destination that you're trying to reach can be achieved in a more efficient and in faster manners, basically. And he was the proof of that because he was telling me, he's like, I've been using this one guiding principle for the last sort of 8 months or something. And he was like, you know, we were sort of at the same point like 3 or 4 years ago. And he's like, you know, closing in on $2 or $3 million a month in revenues after like 8 months of starting a business. And I was like, how are you doing this? And he's like, it's like, I journal and I use this one guiding principle. And I was like, well, sounds like it's a good principle. I'm gonna make it mine.

Yeah. I love it, man. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

Well, I say just starting a business, as I mentioned, or as you mentioned in the intro. So you can find me at onestop.io. And that's number one, one-stop.io, or it's onestopdevshop.io.

Perfect, man. Thanks again for jumping on.

All right, thanks, Tyler.

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