Unknown Speaker  0:01  How to quickly find time for your new ventures.Unknown Speaker  0:05  Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to makeitoptional.com. Once again, that's makeitoptional.com.Unknown Speaker  0:18  How to quickly find time for your new ventures is for you. If you are in the middle of building a side business, you want to continue to build a side business, and you are constantly sinking in quick send, whether you're at the corporate office in the nine to five, or you are working on your nine five to nine, or you just want to have some time for yourself or with loved ones, been there, done that. And my goal for this very brief episode is that you take away one nugget, because I want you to understand how you can quickly find time for your new ventures. One of the things that happens, this happens very frequently. It happens with anyone that I'm almost anyone that I speak to that's coming to me on an advisory call. You've been chatting for the DMS on LinkedIn for a while. DMS, direct messages, and one of the things that constantly comes up is I am feeling constantly drained. I feel like I am never moving forward, and using hard words like never moving forward, which usually never, is never right and always is always when I'm wrong. I think it's something like that. But as someone who is a high tech and a high achieving executive, this is something that happens quite frequently, and I know that there was a certain point in my career where I felt like I was especially when I was building my business on the side. I was a young father. I had, you know, these aspirations to continue to move up the corporate ladder. I wanted to be a great husband, I wanted to be a great father, I wanted to be a great coworker. I wanted to give and contribute to everybody. And at a certain point in time, it's very easy to feel like you're falling constantly, or you're you are sinking in quicksand. This is one of these things in especially, you know you want to perform. You want to continue to perform at a high level. I know that I wanted to continue to perform at a high level. At my job. I wanted to be known as the guy who could deliver constantly, being able to deliver, right? And I wanted to make sure that I had quality time with the family, I was going to the gym, and that I was building a successful side business, right? Because those were the things that, if you'd asked me, that's what I would have told you. And I wanted to really as I was doing all of these things, because this was a choice. This was not something that I needed to do. This was something that I wanted to do. I wanted to build my own dream and be a very good corporate citizen and build somebody else's dream. At the time, I didn't have a problem with that. I'd never had a problem with it. Actually, even on my LinkedIn moniker, back in the day, I used to say Happy corporate employee like you can go look it up, if you can look that back that far. But I really wanted to prove for myself and to other people's that to other people that I could actually do what I said I was doing, which was be a top talent at the company I was working for, and be able to build my own dream at the same time roll in and live in the life that I wanted to live, in the lifestyle that I wanted to live. But the more and more that I did this without a clear plan, I felt like I was constantly not able to find time for the ventures that I wanted to be able to do. And more importantly, it felt like I was constantly sinking in quicksand. I was exhausted. I didn't know like, where I was going to get the energy from to get into the next day. I felt like my brain was constantly on fire. This is one of these things that I constantly ask people like, Hey, did you feel like your brain was on fire? Because it felt like my brain was on fire for such a long timeUnknown Speaker  3:28  that I got tired of it. I was like, Man, I don't want to feel like this anymore, but I just start realizing that the one thing that makes every single person on this earth the great equalizer is the 24 hours in a day, 168 hours that you have in a week. It is the equalizer, because you get the same amount that I get. We all get the exact same amount of time. And it was, how do I start to leverage this time so that I can find more time to feel great about what it is that I'm doing? And most importantly, I wanted to continue to move my new ventures forward. So, you know what I did? I stopped because, like, one of the things in the busyness, busyness of corporate is that you have to find time to stop,Unknown Speaker  4:07  stop it, all right, you have to stop it. And then I stopped. I started recognizing some patterns as I was auditing my time, figuring out where I where the where the holes were in my day, in my calendar, meaning the not the busy time, the productivity, the loss of productivity time. And so once I started to do that, you know what I did? I did two things that really scared the poo poo out of me, but eventually were the things that were that made the biggest impact on and for me in terms of being able to find time for the things that I wanted to do. And specifically I'm talking about this very brief episode, is for new ventures, right my side business. And so I did two things, hold, hold on to your seat, because they're kind of radical. They're kind of radical. One was I started toUnknown Speaker  4:56  either, yeah, first of all, first of all, I, what I did is I.Unknown Speaker  5:00  Started to batch things together so where I could right? And I understand in corporate, like everybody lives in these 30 and 60 minute slots. I get it. I've been there, done that, bought the t shirt, but I started as much as I possibly could. I would batch activities right when I needed to start to do demand generation activities, they were all done pretty much at the same time when I needed to fill in my CRM, which was an amazing CRM that I used to use. I'd fill out my stuff. When I needed to do my expense reports, I batched all of that stuff so that my mind was only thinking about one thing during that fixed period of time, batching. That's the first thing. Use that run with it. If you got questions about it, ask me. Secondly, this is the part that could scare you a bit. I started to if I couldn't delegate a responsibility, especially on those recurring meetings. Anybody who's been in corporate, you're listening, you're watching an executive level, mid level doesn't matter, right? Frontline, Frontline, mid and top of the organization. It's all the same. But I started to really if I couldn't delegate my responsibility at a meeting for somebody to somebody else, then I just if I wasn't adding value, I had the conversation with my boss like, what exactly do you need? What do you want from this particular meeting? What do I need to produce as a result, as an outcome? And I gave that to my boss. If there was nothing expected of me, there was no way that I was going to start wasting time sitting in a meeting where I didn't contribute. I didn't have a recap. I didn't have an action like, what was I do? Like, that's just 24 hours in a day. Hello. When you want to invest your time and energy and something that you care about in a in a quality time, in a side venture like this episode, stop doing stuff that doesn't actually move the needle forward, and start doing the things that help you to be more productive, not busy, like busyness, right? So,Unknown Speaker  6:47  and this was tough, right? Because as I started not going to those meetings like, my ego took a hit, because part of it is that, yeah, you're in the meeting. People know who you are. You've got your own personal brand. You've got your ownUnknown Speaker  6:59  things that are associated with the brand that you have represented, and so your ego kind of needs to be in those meetings too. To say that, yeah, Billy was there. He was there. But then Billy started saying, Well, what am I actually doing? What am I contributing? And the answer was, nothing, or there was nothing expected to be contributed. I stopped, going full stop, and yes, it was hard. It wasn't easy, but I had to, like, I had to put my ego aside say, hey, look, this is that, like, there's a higher calling, there's a bigger reason for me being able to be here, and that's to contribute, not just to sit on a call.Unknown Speaker  7:32  And so the thing is, is I started realizing, like, what I took away from this very simple activity, to start to get more time for my new ventures, is that in the very beginning, I started getting more of my time back. AndUnknown Speaker  7:44  then what happened from there, when I parlayed that time back, is I started showing up even sharper at work, because the time and energy that I was using, I was using on either recharging my self care, my side venture, which energized me, then that made me help. It helped me to show up. Even better for my nine to five. Can you believe that? Yes. Why? Because I was a productive person. I was productive employee, and it made me feel great to know that I could produce at work, stay in the top talent program, be near the top of the of the chart, because that was important to me. Some people just want to low, lay low under the radar that wasn't me. I just wanted to be able to contribute and do what I needed to do, and make sure that my KPIs key performance indicators were achieved. The rest of the time. Was for meUnknown Speaker  8:34  and the things that gave me more positive energy. So not only did I perform better at work, I had much more pump punch in and pep in my step, pep in my step, a lot more energy for my five to nine.Unknown Speaker  8:49  And you know what? What I realized through this whole thing, and when you are able to quickly find time for your new ventures, you realize, and this is what I realized, is that I was able toUnknown Speaker  9:00  prove that freedom wasn't about money.Unknown Speaker  9:06  It's really about how you have the opportunity and control over investing your time. That was what the thing that like, and it's lesson that stuck with me to this day, to this day. And so, asUnknown Speaker  9:20  I mentioned, like this, is the thing that's the key, study your calendar. Figure out what's what's there, what's not, and then be ruthless about the way that you manage your time.Unknown Speaker  9:30  Ruthless, because at the end of the day, when you can feel more productive and you're getting more of the right activities done, I promise you, you are going to feel better about what you do, and that feeling better about what you do is going to pour over into your corporate life. It's going to pour over into your home life. Is going to pour over into your side ventures, your side business, or your whatever, your new venture is, right? And so here's the thing, if that's you, I'm really hoping that this has helped you. And if you know somebody who's suffering through this, they feel like they're.Unknown Speaker  10:00  Constantly following quicksand. Care enough about them to share today's episode. Share it with them, please. And then go the next step, share it. And then care, share and care make sure that you're there you're talking to them about what you learned in the episode, to give them the opportunity to speak to you about what is happening. Be that person that cares enough to share and then follow up. Because while you're doing that, guess what I'll be doing? I'll be right here. Yes, I will be and I'll be preparing for the next episode. So until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very, very much.