Ep 140 - "What is Your Time Worth"

0:00 Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brennan. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours. I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose. No, I don't. I didn't. And I am not happy with it. Hey, y'all. Thanks so much for listening to the show. Hey, if you're not already following, please do so. And ultimately share, right? The coolest currency that we have in terms of supporting this is share it with a friend, share it with somebody, a colleague, a peer, one of your downline team members.

0:43 Let them be able to take advantage of the information you're already leveraging in your favor. And finally, guys, if you hear a show that really moves you, that really moves the needle, will you please leave us a review? Those five-star reviews help Right on. And listen, if you're trying to grow your business, you might consider checking out Floodlight's Business Opportunity Audit. It's free. We provide it at no charge. It's actually what we use to assess new clients as they come in. It's a 110-point assessment for your business. And we've now decided to give access to the general public for it. So go and take our business opportunity audit at floodlightgrp.com. It's going to help you identify the biggest gaps and opportunities in your business right now.

1:25 And at the end, it'll assign you a health score to let you know exactly where your business stands right now. So go check it out, floodlightgrp.com forward slash audit and take the BOA. It's a great way to get a pulse on your business. Hey, so how's it going, man? Good morning. I love taking control. I'm good. I'm really good, actually. Well, yeah, I'm good enough. Today's actually, it's a good enough day. I'm doing the whole, you control your attitude, right? Or at least you should. You choose your response. You choose your response. I'm hanging in that pocket. Overall, things are good. It's all first world problems, of course. That question of how you doing, like this time in my life, this season in my life, it's a bristle to it. I know.

2:05 Like it really just kind of like, I know why people ask that question because I ask it. You know, sometimes I run into people I know, hey, how's it going, man? And it's like, it's such a superficial question. And I think often we're just expecting the standard superficial answer. Oh, I'm good. I'm great. Right. Because most of us, I'm not prepared to dive into it. No, but I think there's also this part of me that's been growing over the last several years where it's like, I actually want to have interactions that are meaningful and less bullshit in my life. Yeah. And more like meaningful connection. And, you know, as you start to have those things where people are honest with you and you learn what's going on in their life. And then you're able to, you feel comfortable sharing, you know, what's actually happening in your life.

2:46 Right. Yeah. It's meaningful. And you realize, especially as people start dying, you get into your forties, that starts happening more often. And then you realize the missed time. It's like all the bullshit conversations you had with somebody when you could have actually been learning more about them and being a part of their life. And you start to have those kind of regrets. And you're like, God, okay, I'm done with bullshitting. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. We dove right in the deep end. Yeah, there we go. That's probably a whole, that would be a whole episode. But you know, it plays into what I wanted to talk about today, actually. Because I think we live a lot of our lives, actually, building businesses, talking mostly about superficial things and never really getting into the meaning.

3:26 I wrote an article recently. It's going to, I don't know when it'll come out, probably somewhere around the time of this podcast. But I wrote an article about this topic called the freedom point. And this is an idea that our whole team has kind of been coalescing around with regard to like retirement with the end game. But it's a really a part of a deeper question of why the hell are you doing this? Hmm. Yeah. And I think you can apply... I mean, the freedom point really centers around somebody's business, their career. It's like when we ask people sometimes, what's your goal? Or people will come to us with, hey, in three years, I want to sell my business. Or, hey, I can tell I'm reaching the end. I want to retire at some point.

4:07 And they've got some sort of initial plan or concept around that. Yeah. Yeah. And often when we start digging in with them, there's just kind of this generalized, like the why behind it is so poorly defined. It's just like, I'm tired. I'm tired of the business. I'm burnout. I'm frustrated. Or I want more time with my, or it gets to the point where it's like, I want more time with my family. I just, my kids, and I don't see them enough. I'm not getting enough time with my wife or my spouse or whatever. Yeah. And that's all good. But I think there's... We've learned to talk a lot about the why behind things. But I think we haven't spent enough time thinking about or talking about or strategizing around the real why. Like, I think there's this why that we tell other people.

4:48 Oh, I want to help people. I want to serve my community. I want to... I want to build up. I want to build a team. I want to create opportunities for other people. We have these external facing whys. You know, it's my faith in God. And I want to create an environment where I can sow that into it. Like we have these things we say are our why. I want to create a better future for my kid. You know, all this kind of stuff. And I'm not saying that stuff isn't real, but I think all of us too, when I reflect on this, we have a more self-interested why. Yeah. That sits beneath all of that. We have a certain dream or desire inside ourselves that, that sometimes is actually built off a negative, right?

5:33 It's something about our family culture or something about our wounding when we were younger where it's like, okay, part of my why is I never want to experience X. Yep. I never want to be poor again. Yeah. Or I don't want my kids to be poor or be scared of money things the way I was growing up because we always had... So sometimes that real why that sits underneath everything is, I never, ever, ever want to go back to that experience or have my kids, my grandkids, whatever, have that. And then other things are, if we're really honest, for some of us, it's always wanted to have a Porsche 911 twin turbo. Yeah.

6:13 And I know for you, that's a real thing. Like I remember, so it's just so funny to that point. My buddy and I, when we were like 12, we'd sit in Winco Foods. For those of you on the West Coasters, we'd sit in Winco Foods in the magazine aisle back when they had a magazine aisle and we'd read the car magazines. We literally sit on the edge of the shelf in the aisle. Yeah. While mom's shopping. And we'd read all of those $6, $7 car magazines. We'd rifle through all of them. BMW M3s and Porsche 911 twin turbos for whatever reason was my sting. Every single month. And I'd be waiting for the new models coming out and new concept car. And it's like, oh my gosh, whatever. And then when I was 20 years old, my boss had a 911 turbo. And he took me for a ride in it.

6:54 And I just stoked it even more. Oh, yeah. Actually, I was 19 when that happened. But anyways... But my point is, is all of us have these things and some of them we feel embarrassed. It's like, that's not part of the why that we share with say our team. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Or we have this dream of taking our spouse on an anniversary trip to that place in Bali where they're on stilts up above the water and it's like freaking $10,000 a night or some crazy shit like that. Right? Yeah. Yeah. But that might be part of your why. Like, I want to do that thing. I want to have the financial resource and the time to do that thing. And I just... Part of what we've been talking about as a team is that is the stuff that if we get in touch with those things, we identify. them. We do some of the napkin math around that stuff.

7:37 If we build our goals and objectives and our dreams around, like we really build that out, what kind of life am I trying to build or create for myself, my family, my friends, et cetera, and actually put some definition to that, that dream, that why is so much more motivating than, in the dark times when we're experiencing the speed bumps and the hurdles and the desperation and the trough of sorrow than just this generalized public why that we're often aligning our teams around. We want to be the best, not the biggest. We want to help people at their most vulnerable times.

8:18 That stuff is real. But what's really driving you? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think another way to look at it, or certainly part of the internal dialogue with our team and some of our strategic partners is this concept, like you said, of Freedom Point. And the idea is for us to get more intentional about what is it that we're building our business to accomplish? Because I think we all kind of start with this thing of, well, we were talking to a very successful business owner a few weeks back and he made the comment about, it's kind of like this idea of building a business that supports you. Like, what are you trying to do with this thing? Instead of it just being, I got to be in this forward motion.

8:59 If I'm not growing, I'm dying, which all that is very accurate. It's true because there's these postures that you take when you're not pushing for growth. Yeah. Like it's, you do begin to go backwards because you let certain guards down. You stop being as strategic. There's things that happen. But I think the point is, is that we're so excited, for instance, leaning harder into this concept of Freedom Point and helping business owners figure it out. Because then it becomes the real North Star. And it starts driving more of your decision making. It starts giving you a way to prioritize where you're going, where your time's being spent. Like what kind of decisions do you want to make in the business? I think it even comes back and starts relating to where do I spend time, energy, and resources?

9:42 Yeah. Because it's not like you're not trying to solve that equation or make that determination because it's going to be more revenue or it's going to just be more bragging rights or whatever. But it's like, no, that when I spend my time on that, it gets me one step closer to this thing I call freedom point. And for me, freedom point is this. Yeah. It's this thing, this place, this outcome. Yeah. Yeah. And I think of it as simply as, what is the kind of life and circumstances that I want to be in? Yep. Exactly. But like, how do I want to live? Yep. And it's going to look different for everybody. I mean, I really think this is true. Like for some people, that's...

10:24 living in a three-bedroom, two-bath ranch house and traveling the world in a bohemian fashion out of a backpack. And that is how they want to spend their life. Eating out at interesting places and interacting with different cultures, meeting up with their friends around the world. And maybe that lifestyle requires a completely different number and set of resources than somebody who wants to... hit a Ritz Carlton on every continent in the world. And like, that's their style. That's their modality. Or to buy a million-dollar RV and travel around all the NASCAR events, you know, like whatever.

11:05 But I got to just think it's so much more meaningful because yes, do all of us have ambition that includes how we're creating opportunity for others? Yeah. sort of the legacy we leave behind, how we're impacting our community, the life that we can help provide or provide a platform for our people. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of pressure in our culture, especially in certain spiritual or religious cultures, that anything that is for you or your family runs the risk of being selfish. Yeah. Yeah. Or materialistic. Or overly materialistic. And yet the reality is still those desires are inside.

11:50 You have things that you want for you, that you want to experience, that you want to give to your wife, to your husband, to your spouse, to your kids, to your extended family, perhaps. Yeah. That is a unique desire that lies inside you. And I think as long as we sort of push those things down or we miss the motivation that comes of saying no, I want that. I was on a hot... I met some buddies for a hot tub sesh last night. My friend Tim and Jared. Jared's a GC and Tim's a really successful real estate guy here in Oregon. Shout out to Discover Oregon Real Estate. And you know, Tim is one of those guys, man. He is chasing a vision for himself. And he was just commenting in the hot tub.

12:31 He's like, you know... A lot of people are like, hey, balance. Hey, you can't have it all. And he's like, you know what? Screw that. I do want it all. He said, having it all, like I want, I want dynamic relationships with my friends, my loved ones, my kids, my spouse. I want high achievement in business. And I want the fruit that comes of that. Yep. Right? And I want control over my time. He's like, I want it all. And the only thing between me having it all is my discipline and how I prioritize and utilize my time. And I, when he said that, I'm like, pardon me, fuck yes. Like, I believe that. I believe that's true. The only thing between... Now, of course, there's luck.

13:13 There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it, right? To get to have it all, quote unquote, right? None of us are guaranteed the time to do that. Sure. Sure. I don't have to guarantee anything, but I think that in terms of the recipe, it's all discipline. It's like, do I have a clear enough vision and have I been honest enough with myself about my desire and what I really want in order to find the motivation to apply the discipline to do it. Well, I think that's huge. And I think you've kind of started to turn a corner here that I know gets me kind of fired up because it's been part of this conversation internally that I've been kind of keyed in on or wrestling with. And it's this idea.

13:53 It's like, okay, what do we do with that? So part of me recently has really began to lean into... So I've got a little bit of religious stuff in my past where it does this thing. And again, I'm not... I'm not anti-religion. I'm not anti-Christianity, any of those things. I'm a believer, personally, in my world. But what I'm saying is this false sense of humility where you can't talk about the stuff that you're chasing because you're materialistic, or again, it's self-centered, or you're of the world, all these different things, pockets of reasoning and meaning. And here's where I'm at. I have a vision that... That when no one's around, if I'm just dreaming, the subconscious things that influence how I look at the future of my family, my role in it, what I want to experience.

14:36 Like right now, we're getting ready to prep for grandkids. Now, let me be clear. I don't have any coming yet. But that's the inevitable. You're not trying to accelerate that. Nope. We're not trying to move that up. If my kids are listening, you just hang in the pocket, guys. You know, there's no, there's no formality around that. But we just, I have a 25-year-old and a 24-year-old. Maybe it's 24, 23, guys. I'm missing the mark here. Yeah. That's an inevitable next part of the evolution of our family is that Jana and I will soon be grandparents. That's the next phase. And so when I start to think about that, I start thinking about all the things that I wasn't able to have as a kid or I didn't quite make it being able to do it with my kids.

15:18 thinking to myself, what is the world that I want to create with my hands, with my priorities, with the way that I spend my time and energy, what I invest in? What kind of world do I want to create? And you and I talk about this a lot. You know that part of Jan and I's dream is a lake front property. with, okay, I'm going to say it, a Nautique G23 Paragon parked out front, or maybe we go Pavati ski boat, surf boat, okay? Not free. These are not free things. You've got some of our listeners salivating that actually know what those words mean. We're very specific in our visioneering, right? Like- I want that world though. Yeah. Like I will, you will find me sometime looking at images online, trying to identify visually the house that for me summarizes the way I'm dreaming.

16:04 Yeah. And I do that, man, because when it's hard, you, I need to know why I'm doing the shit I'm doing and me to say that it's from legacy and all these things. Is it true? It is. It is. But you know what? Let's just face it. I need some other stuff that's more real, tangible, that I can feel with my hands, that I can smell, that give me motivation to do what I'm doing and make sure I'm prioritizing my time. So when I look out on the horizon, my freedom point is taking into consideration, okay? So for me, it's like, I want to do what I want to do. For the reasons that I want to do them. And I want to do those things with the people that I want to do those things with. Yeah.

16:45 And there is, it doesn't matter who you are, what shape, size, or where you're from. That takes monetary assets to make that decision and to create that place and time. Yeah. For you and I, we're business owners. So one of our biggest investments of time and energy to create the opportunity for me to live that out is how we build our business. And then what do I do in my business with my time to make sure I'm getting closer, right? Yeah. So we establish our freedom point based on at some point in the future of our endeavors, we will sell companies. And when we do that, what kind of monetary assets that experience to live out the doing what we want with who we want for the reasons we want to do them.

17:28 And that has made me recently get all nerded out on how I use my calendar as an example. And you and I have been joking about this, but I literally went on a freaking rant with most of my clients recently on, guys, you got to look at this. Oh, dude, are you going to talk about the wage per hour? Are you cool if I do that? Yeah, I do. Please. Okay. So, and again, I think this formula, there's different ways, different contexts, but the point of it is very eye-opening. Yeah, the principle is... It's the principle, right? Okay. So for us, here's how this has worked, okay? So we look out on the horizon. Freedom point, again, if we just boil it down to, it's like when you exit your business What's the number you got to have so that you can live the way you want, doing the things you want for the rest of your life?

18:16 What does that require? You and I have a number. We know. We know what that's going to require. So then we take that thing, okay? And so let's... I'm just going to use some round numbers for shits and giggles, okay? Let's say, and hopefully all your dreams are much larger than this number, but let's say... I need $10 million in the bank doing XYZ in order for me to live that out. Okay, great. 10 million. Yeah, only 10? Yeah, only 10. Okay. So I look out on the horizon. I go, okay, today we're at, let's call it three. I need to be at 10. There's $7 million in opportunity that I need to create with my time. So listen, this is funny. So then I divide that number by 2080. You know what 2080 is? The number of hours in a year that somebody... Those are the average number of work hours.

18:59 Yeah. Okay. Of course, you're doing 100 hours a week. This doesn't count. Sure. In a year. Yep. Okay. That is my hourly wage. That's what my time is worth if I'm chasing my vision. Yeah. So think about that. I take $7 million and I divide it by 2080. And let's just say the number is not 70 bucks. Yeah. And then what I do, okay. And again, hang in the pocket here. It's the principle, right? Of this. We could break it down by- What is that? It's almost, I think that's like 3,500 bucks an hour or so. Oh, and it's probably substantially higher than that. Let's do it. Let's do it really quick. So 7 million bucks. And I'm going to divide that by 2080. That puts me, yep, you're right on target. It's 3,365 an hour.

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21:04 And so AnswerForce.com can support you, be a bolt-on partner to help you consistently produce an awesome onboarding experience with that first call with your client. So AnswerForce.com forward slash answerforce.com. blood light. That's great. CNR Magazine, we're friends with all the folks at CNR. Michelle and her team, they do a great job of keeping their ear to the ground and reporting all the important information from our industry. Right? You want to stay up on all the M&A activity and what the latest best practices are for selling your company successfully. Right? She's got that. Great articles about all the four quadrants of our business. Right? CNR is constantly pushing out great material and leveraging great writers and subject matter experts in our industry.

21:46 It is the water cooler of our industry. So if you're not subscribed, go to cnrmagazine.com. Follow them on LinkedIn. Follow Michelle on LinkedIn. Trust us. If you're trying to stay on top of everything happening in the industry, your best destination is cnrmagazine.com. You guys, many of you have already heard about actionable insights and the training and the technical expertise that they bring to the industry. But how many of you are already leveraging the actionable insights profile for Xactimate? That's the game changer. It's essentially an AI tool that's walking alongside of you as you write your estimate, bringing things to your attention that should be added, that could be considered.

22:27 All of them items that increase our profitability, increase the effectiveness and the consistency of that scope. And it can do anything from helping a new team member assimilate some estimating best practices. And it also helps the grizzled vets add back that few percent that we've just forgot over time. So actionable insights, get insights.org forward slash floodlight and take a look at what the actionable insights exactimate profile could be doing for you and your team. $3,365 an hour is what my time has to be worth in order for me to go out on my timeline and create that value for myself.

23:08 And that's a non-negotiable. I'm going to create that because that will give me the things I need to live out my freedom point. Being with who I want, doing what I want for the reason that I want to do them. So then I look at my day, my week, the things I'm spending time on. And I ask myself, is that a $3,365 an hour opportunity or time that I'm spending? Or is that worth 20 bucks, 18 bucks, 70 bucks? Because I'm doing something... that one of my team members should do. I should hire somebody for. Right? Or I should just really shrink that time spend into the tightest bucket.

23:48 Or completely scrap it because it ain't going to create value. Or scrap it. Okay? So then, I can't show a visual on here, but so then, okay, we use Google. None of us are ever going to be able to watch Netflix again, bro. I know, I know. So you still got to build in some fun times. For all of us, we got to still Netflix and chill. Well, all right. So one thing. So then what I did is I was like, okay, this is cool in theory. Like, I love the idea. I love this idea that I'm creating a real numerical value to the time that I spend on things, the value of that. And then what I decided to do, and somebody showed us this, is there's an analytics feature in Google, in Google Calendar. Yeah. Okay. I think it's trends or something anyways. Yeah. Look on the left column of your Google Calendar.

24:29 You're going to see this thing under a colored bar that's showing you roughly where your time's going. If you open that up, you can actually go in then and all those little individual default colors, you can give them a title. Okay. And so what I did is I titled all of those based on what that bucket of time is. That category of time. Physical fitness, personal time, strategic time on the business. For me, sales and recruiting is a core function for me to live out that number. I identified those buckets of time where my time potentially goes. And then I started this analytics shows you in a week, where's all your time and energy going? Man, so listen, this is what kicked my ass.

25:11 So I established my freedom point. I then established what I believe my hourly rate is in terms of if I'm using my time highest value, highest return. And then I looked at my calendar analytics and realized, you know how much time I had scheduled, saved, protected, implemented for strategic time working on our business? Less than eight hours in a week. Okay, sales and recruiting. How much time did I have? Less than eight hours in a week. I had a shit ton of internal meetings and I had a shit ton of other stuff I was saying yes to. And on the surface, guys, it's not Netflix. It's on the surface. They seem like viable business things for me to be spending my time and energy on.

25:55 But because I hadn't analyzed and had context of why I want to be spending time and energy in these buckets, I was wasting my time and energy. I was spending the vast bulk of my week. You were just unconscious of it. It was unconscious. Just weren't aware, moving along, doing important things. That's right. Yeah. And especially felt like. Sure. In the moment. But it's like, this gave me a way for me to look at my calendar and have a wake up call. And guys, I wasn't guilt and shame and beating myself over the forehead. It was just like, wow, this is very eye-opening. No, but you've been allowing it to change the way you behave. Very much. So like a couple days ago, we have a strategic partner that we've been cultivating a relationship with and have a really key meeting with one of the C-suites, this partner.

26:40 Mm-hmm. And I reached out to you and I said, hey, we're going to have a meet and greet with this new executive. I need to cut into your strategy time. I need 30 minutes of your strategy time. You're like, nope, you and Wayne do it. You're perfectly capable of representing the team. Just you guys do it. Yeah. I already gave up some of my strategic time for this other thing. I'm not doing it next week. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, all right, understood. You know? And I appreciate it because I know why you're making that commitment. That's it. Right? And it obviously is partners, right? That you being committed to that focus and intention serves my interests as well, right? That's right. And so, but at the same time, I have to tell you the very first time, because I've actually asked you twice about that time slot.

27:22 Yeah. I was scheduling these partner meetings. And you told me no twice. You stuck to your guns. The first time, I was mildly irritated. I said, dude, this is a really important freaking meeting. This is a very important person. And you had actually taken that into account But it still wasn't a third, whatever, a $5,000 time or, you know, and I get that. And that resonates with me more and more as we kind of process this concept. But I think... Well, here's the thing though, dude. The beauty of it is, is that, okay, by the second time you had kind of tried to tap into that and I stood my ground, you even said it. It's like, then you move into this place of, wow, I can trust that and I respect that.

28:07 And I think that's what we're saying here. This empowers us as business owners and key leaders, because this is true for key leaders too, is this allows you to have a very good reason and clear context for why you say yes, when you say yes and why you say no and when you say no. And then there's this really cool thing that begins to happen where you don't do mental gymnastics when somebody says, Hey, can you do something here? Because in the past, I just, I was always reiterating, um, my calendar and just saying yes and just filling things in because people asked us because there is value.

28:47 Yeah. But once I established clear differences in the value and what the value proposition of my time was now all of a sudden it's like, I get my own confidence too. Yeah. It's like, no, I say no to that and I'm totally standing my ground and I'm comfortable with it. Well, I think for me too, it forces my head into the right place, seeing that commitment on your part. Like, so I was going to bring... So in my role as president of the company, I have a very particular focus. I engage in certain kinds of conversations with our external partners, our clients, our prospects, and so forth, and our team. And then you have a particular perspective and voice as the CEO. And so I think when you say no...

29:29 You cover that meeting. It orients me around, okay, are there aspects of Brandon's voice or focus or priority that I need to be intentional about bringing into that conversation? Brandon doesn't need to be here. But are there aspects, are there topics or items that I know would be important to Brandon and I can be that proxy. I can bring those things to the table and be intentional about building that in. which frees you up to not be there. 100%. Right? So I think, you know, we talk a lot about extreme ownership. And I think every single time we get new clarity and commitment around something, it allows somebody else on the team greater clarity and commitment to what they're doing for that.

30:15 You know what I mean? Oh, dude, you're spot on. And here's kind of like an element to piggyback onto that is... it actually forces then owners and key leaders to solve problem versus put out fires. Because when I begin to look at where my time and energy goes, and then my intentional focus is on, I want as many hours in the working week to go to the high dollar per hour value things, then all of a sudden, something that you would have inevitably kept putting your time and energy because in the moment it asked of you and it was fine, you answered the problem, you fixed the thing in the moment, You don't want to go back to that bucket. Every week, you don't want to be faced with another opportunity that something pulled you out of those high dollar things.

30:58 And so it forces you to be more focused on intentionally creating solutions, right? Example being like in that meeting, that meeting example that you're talking about. Well, now, since you and I are both clear why I want to be in certain buckets at what time, it forces you and I to create a process then. To where before you engage certain partners in your role, if there is something of substance that I either need to understand or contribute, we will be forced to be more proactive to cover that base. Because instead of us living out the ad lib, the whatever, the adapt and overcome and the firefighting bullshit, We're not going to do that. And so it just changes our behavior. It makes us more proactive in our orientation.

31:41 And I just think so many of our business owners that we work with, and we're no different. We're just as susceptible to anybody we work with. It's always easier to help somebody with their business than it is to implement your own. But what it forces us to do is even help them to have a better reason why they want to spend their time and energy in the shit that in the moment feels like the way long way around. Because they're like, oh, well, then that means I don't have to spend a $70 hour next week. Yeah. I can have a $3,000 hour instead. Right. And I think if you really go through the process of getting honest with yourself, this is all about honesty. It's all about what do I really want?

32:21 Yes. Really? Yes. Not because I feel some social obligation that I should want, but like really tapping into what is my desire? What's my desire? And honoring it. Yeah. And saying, okay, I want this thing. Yep. And in order for me to have this thing or do these things or live this experience, share this thing with my spouse, my kids, my friends, my whatever. Yep. I'm going to need to build this a certain way to be able to provide the resource and or time to live this way that I desire. Regardless of what everybody else thinks I should do, what my parents did, what my brothers and sisters are doing or not doing.

33:04 I think when you get that clarity, it's so much easier to get through the troughs of sorrow than inevitably you're going to pass through. No, it's so true. Here's the other thing too, man. Like, okay, those of you listening right now, ask yourself this question. How many times in the last handful of years have you started the year with this intention of where you want to be at the end of it? Maybe you did some financial planning. Maybe you were looking at your revenue. Maybe you were looking at what kind of roles you want to have hired in the business so that you get a little bit more time back. Whatever the thing is, how many times have you started with the intention with clarity around what you want, but then the reality that you experienced was a 90-degree turn from that or 180-degree experience.

33:53 Meaning, it didn't happen. And I think one of the things that this is really helping me is that when I want to do something for the right reason, when I prioritize this behavior, I either do it or I get really damn close. Mm-hmm. Meaning the outcome is a far different experience than I've had in the past. And so in and of it, that itself, it's so worth it. Here's another thing that I've been kind of processing with this is I got rid of a to-do list. And it was all part of this maintenance of where I'm spending my time. Because this is what I kept running into, man, is that I would go all day long. 10 hours, 12 hours sometimes of everything from formal to miscellaneous engagement.

34:35 And my to-do list didn't get shorter. Then I go into the next day, all day long, start to finish. Nothing on the to-do list got hit. And often what was on my to-do list was things like the hard shit. It's why you didn't throw it on your calendar right away. It's things like documentation I need to build for contracts, service contracts, new consultant service agreements. This strategic stuff that helps me scale, grow, and sell my business is on my to-do list. And my calendar is taken up of meetings and shit all day long. And my to-do list never goes anywhere. So then I'm like, I'm at 60 hours a week and the to-do list hasn't gone anywhere. Hmm. But I'm still saying yes to people because there's a blank spot on my calendar.

35:17 So then when I started doing, and we had a dear friend that kind of bitch slapped me with this, right? Bitch slap. He said, don't use a to-do list. If you say you're going to do something, immediately put it somewhere on the calendar where it fits. Now, so what I try to do is I will update agenda items inside. Let's say if I have a strategic block next Tuesday for two hours, whatever, and I get off a call with somebody and I need to do something to implement a system, a process, a strategy, I'm going to book it in that two-hour block on my agenda. I've got it saved for strategic time. Here's the two things I plan to do during that window. But here's the beauty of it. Another example, a webinar. You're going to do a piece of content training. Well, it's not just the training that should be on your calendar.

35:58 Where's the several hours of time doing research, creating your outlines, building your slide deck, preparing the resources, meeting with the people? Where's all that at? And often what I see is it's not on my calendar, but I've got four hours that I have to commit before I do this one hour webinar on next Friday. Where is it? Well, now, dude, there is no such thing as a to-do list. You and I get off the phone. There's a due date and there's a due date. There's a due date and a due date. That's right. What do you have to do to be ready? And then there's the due date of when you're going to do it, right? Yeah. And that shit is all on my calendar. And what that's allowed me to do also is, bro, I just say no because there's no time on the calendar to do it.

36:43 So instead of the mental gymnastics of I say yes because the blocks open and then I punt those mission critical have to's in my to-do list. It's like, no, I can't do that next week because I'm fully booked already. Love to talk to you about it two weeks from now because I've got an open time on XYZ date. But until then, I got do and do. And it's, dude, it's been some of the most freeing experiences I've had. And although my workload's not changing, my life's not getting easier. I just can see by the analytics. You're getting more important things done. getting more important things done. And dude, I got to tell you, when I go home at night, I feel rad when I know I got the real shit done.

37:25 It feels like garbage when day after day I go home and my to-do list is just right behind my skull. And yet I spent all day giving, doing, and being caught up in stuff that felt right in the moment, but it just didn't move the needle and it just I'm fumbling in right now. Like I am just learning firsthand the value of this, which is kind of embarrassing to say to a certain extent, but it's just real. Like it's just real, you know? It is real, man. But the motivation, man, it's like, yeah, dude, I think we all can get swept up in YouTube. But you know, sometimes now on a Saturday morning, yeah, I pull up YouTube videos of Pavati boats on demo at Lake Powell.

38:10 And I'm dreaming, baby. Yeah. I'm like, I'm charging up the Y afterburners. I'm going, that's an expensive boat. But my grandkids look really sweet in that. And I can't wait to have that back-facing camera recording my grandkids having their first surf. Like, I like that dream, dude. And I will put in the work to buy that boat if that's what it requires. And if somebody else doesn't agree with that, great, you go do you. Yeah. You're not running my companies or owning the shit I own. Yeah. This is my dream. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's all about the Pavadi, baby. It's all about it. Oh, this has been good, man. Well, let's... Should we land the plane? We should. Yeah, otherwise we'll just... Proverbial plane. I'd like a plane someday. That's yours. That's in your wheel.

38:50 It is. I got a tattoo on my arm of a little private plane. And for me, it sparked off when a buddy took me... Remember when the tsunami hit Japan? Yes. Right? Yeah. Well, there was... They thought that there was going to be a pretty substantial wave that was going to hit the Oregon coast. Yeah, that's right. And it was like, whoa, sky is falling kind of thing. Yeah. Well, my buddy who owns a Cirrus SR-22, really awesome sportsman. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, turboprop, really fun, sporty plane. Actually has a full cabin canopy parachute system. It's one of the few planes, but I think it's patented. I think they're the only plane that has that. Anyway, it's very cool and has these joystick controllers, single pistol grip controllers on either side of the cabin, and it's really fun.

39:37 Anyway, he called me up, and I was in a team meeting with my state farm team, and he's like, hey, dude, do you want to go fly over and watch the tsunami come in? And you're like, hell yeah. And so he's like, meet me at the Corvallis airport in 15. So I ended my meeting a little bit early. I drove out there, hopped in his plane. He was taxiing on the runway and we fly to Newport. 30 minutes, we're there. And it's like, just incredible. And we're flying across the surf and watching these ripples of waves. It turned out to be a total non-event. Yeah, nothing, yeah. But he let me fly with the joystick and it was just, I was hooked. So anyways, that's part of my dream. So what's the travel? Like you kind of like the bohemian. I love changes of scenery. I just said love that. Between you and I, I probably love our business travel more.

40:19 I have more of an affinity for it. I don't get tired of it quite as fast. Yeah, it's not probably. Yeah, it definitely. I feel like I'm picking you up off the ground sometimes when we come home. Like, oh God, it's Friday. Thank you. Yeah, bro. But you know, we can people watch. Anyway, so yeah, let's land the plane. We talked about this idea of the freedom point. You know, I think it's all about, we're going to inevitably talk more about this. And you'll see stuff on LinkedIn and whatever that we're putting out, because I think it's such an important concept to help construct, okay, what is the math? Think about what are your true desires and start to put some napkin math to those things. Make it real. Because if we make it real, then all of a sudden we can start to reverse engineer and say, okay, well, what kind of enterprise value do we need to create in our business in order to cash flow the amount of resources we need and keep our business into perpetuity?

41:12 Or what kind of enterprise value do we need to generate to maximize the value of an exit, of a sale, right? And then all of a sudden you can create a very vivid roadmap. Okay, then what levers do I need to pull in my business? Where do I need to focus my investment, my time, my effort, my life force into the business to build that with a lot more intentionality and focus? And I think potentially accelerate your pathway to get there, right? Or 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, that's what we're talking about. Freedom point. Think about yours. And then like we always mention, if this stuff holds value, take a next step. If you've been thinking about kind of kicking the tires with the idea of hiring a consulting company, having a coach, having an outside third party that can help...

41:56 create roadmaps for you, hold you accountable, help you equip your team. Measure. Yeah, measure, right? If you're looking for that kind of partner, the best place to start is go to floodlightgrp forward slash audit and take our health and value assessment. It is awesome. We've been preparing to roll out this new health and value assessment. And listen, I'm a little self-conscious when I say this because everybody and their brother has a freaking free assessment. But you know what? Just check it out. You got to check it out. You're going to end up... It's going to kick out a 25-page report that's just rich. And it's going to give you a really interesting picture, not only of... your current enterprise value, but also a health score that's bonafide.

42:40 Like it's, this is data and research based. This can help you identify where are the real gaps in my business now. And what is the possibility? If I shore up those gaps, what is the potential enterprise value that exists? Kind of the stored energy that's in my business now that if I make some tweaks, if I pull on the right levers, this is what it's going to be. I can accelerate towards that new enterprise value. It's a very, very cool thing we've been working on for some time. So anyways, www.flylightgrp.com forward slash audit. Check it out. It'll take you about 15 minutes and then our team will offer you a free advisory session to go through that and identify and essentially start roadmapping and game planning.

43:21 How do I get there? And then if you want a partner, well, you can choose. We'll tell you I'm a boss, all that stuff. Yeah. Okay. Love it. Till next time. Think about it. Establish it. See you next time. Okay, bye.