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SPI

1:04

Welcome to the Smart Pad of

1:06

Income Podcast, where it's all

1:08

about working hard now, so you

1:10

can sit back and reap the benefits

1:13

later.

1:13

And then now your

1:15

host, he thinks that wings

1:17

sauce in a bubble was one of mankind's

1:20

best decisions. Pat

1:22

Flynn.

1:24

Hey,

1:25

happy Friday, Pat here. I wanna

1:27

do a little reflection. You know, I often

1:29

think about the people who've had the biggest

1:31

impact in my life, especially in my businesses,

1:34

as a brand new business owner in two thousand eight

1:36

after getting laid off, I really had no

1:38

idea what I was doing. Right? And it's always

1:41

always other people in their

1:43

teachings, their encouragement, their accountability, their

1:45

help that has helped me get to where I'm at today.

1:47

This is why joining community is really important.

1:50

This is why finding a buddy or two

1:52

online that you can kind of grow together with is

1:54

really important. One of those buddies that

1:56

I had while I was building my business,

1:58

his name is Chris Tucker. you obviously

2:01

if you've listened to the show before, you know who that is.

2:03

If not, he is a friend of mine

2:05

who I hired his company,

2:07

Virtual Staff Finder. to help

2:09

me find some VAs and then we met

2:11

up in two thousand and ten at

2:13

blog world expo and we've become

2:15

friends ever since and our families know

2:17

each other and we send gifts to each other's

2:19

kids and all that kind of like, we're that close now.

2:22

Right? But Chris has definitely had a

2:24

major impact in my life, not just because

2:26

he's helped me feel like I'm a better basketball

2:28

player than I am after the time I beat

2:31

him in basketball. Mind you, it was

2:33

an arcade basketball. He could probably school

2:35

me on the court, but don't have talk about

2:37

that. Or, you know, just him being

2:39

there for me during tough times like

2:41

any good friend would. But he had one

2:43

particular book come out. that

2:45

made a major impact on my business that

2:47

I wanna talk about today and give credit to you. And

2:49

I wanna run through an exercise in

2:51

that book with you And how do you think

2:53

about this? And whether you pick up the book or

2:55

not, I want you to think about the exercise

2:58

that we're gonna partake in together today.

3:00

because it really is where you get a lot

3:02

of time back. Right? And this book is called

3:04

virtual freedom. And this was back when

3:06

Chris was kind of known as the

3:09

VA guy. He still is kind of known

3:11

as that, although it's more of the YouPrenewer guy

3:13

in building personal brands. And again, you can

3:15

check him out at youprenewer dot com. But

3:18

Before that, virtual freedom, this

3:20

book, has helped tens of

3:22

thousands of people get more time back.

3:24

Right? Because it teaches you how to

3:26

find outside help and how to get comfortable

3:28

with that and the mechanics of that, etcetera. And

3:31

again, he has this business called virtual staff

3:33

finder, where you can go and hire

3:35

the company. You pay them a few hundred dollars to

3:37

go and find a VA for you that you then

3:39

train however you wanna train. And they've been

3:41

vetted. They their skills have been vetted, etcetera.

3:43

I've used a few people from Virtual

3:45

Staff Finder before I decided to hire

3:48

my team in house in the

3:50

United States all in the same time zone.

3:52

So I don't use VAs from the Philippines anymore,

3:54

but definitely still can help you do that. Anyway,

3:56

that's my plug for Chris and his companies.

3:58

But this exercise is

4:00

called the three lists to

4:02

freedom. And the three lists of freedom

4:05

is has been made famous by Chris Tucker. A lot

4:07

of people have talked about it. I've used it.

4:09

And I want you to think about this as well. So if

4:11

you take a sheet of paper and

4:13

you fold it into three columns.

4:15

You have three columns, right, left to middle, and

4:17

then a right. List one, list

4:19

two, and list three. So we're gonna go over

4:21

each of these lists. This is an exercise you can do

4:23

alongside with this podcast or afterwards.

4:25

If you have a team or a

4:27

partner that you're in business with a recommend

4:29

you do this exercise with them because this is where

4:31

both of you can work together to

4:34

get more time back and have a better understanding

4:36

of your time and

4:38

the business that you have, and whether

4:40

those things are in alignment or not. Right?

4:42

So the first list, the first column.

4:45

you wanna list the things that you don't

4:47

like doing. These are things that are

4:49

required of you in your business, but you just

4:51

don't like to do you know, it might

4:53

be something like bookkeeping. If you

4:55

still do that, it might be podcast

4:57

editing, for example, video editing.

4:59

publishing blog posts, like the

5:01

actual mechanical, technical

5:03

part of publishing a blog post versus the writing.

5:06

Right? So list all the things that you're

5:08

doing in your business. that you don't

5:10

like doing.

5:13

Next, list number two, the middle

5:15

column. You wanna write down the things that

5:17

you can't do. with regards to

5:19

this, it might be things that you've tried to do, but

5:21

a fail at big or small.

5:23

And it might be things that you know you

5:25

have to do or should do

5:27

in the future, but you just haven't

5:29

pulled the trigger on it because you can't do it. You don't have

5:31

the skills or you don't have the ability

5:34

or the time to do these

5:36

things, but are things that

5:38

perhaps could be done in your business or should

5:40

be done in your business? And list

5:42

number three, this is the money

5:44

list. list number three. That's what I like to call. think

5:46

Chris has called this the money list as well

5:48

because this is where you get the most

5:50

bang for your buck when you hire

5:52

out. This is where the

5:55

differences between scrappy entrepreneur

5:57

and CEO of a company happen

5:59

is here in list number three. And that is the

6:01

things you shouldn't be doing.

6:04

Maybe things that you are doing,

6:07

and it might be things that you like

6:09

doing, and it might be things that you

6:11

are great at doing.

6:13

but you shouldn't be

6:16

doing the level that you're at. Now if you're

6:18

just starting out, you're bootstrapping, you're literally

6:20

wearing all the hats, well then you probably

6:23

even though you shouldn't be doing all

6:25

those things, you kinda have to right now. But you

6:27

still wanna write those things down because they

6:29

become useful to see on paper. or

6:31

on your desktop or even on a notepad

6:33

if you're doing that on your phone right now or even just mentally

6:35

thinking about it. And again, I hope that you do put pen

6:37

to paper on this because something

6:39

will happen when you see a lot of this stuff.

6:41

But again, list number three, the things you shouldn't be

6:43

doing. So to recap, list number one

6:45

on the left hand side. list the things

6:47

that you don't like doing.

6:49

List number two is the things you can't

6:52

do. List number three,

6:54

things you shouldn't be

6:56

doing. So things that you

6:58

are doing. And again, perhaps you

7:00

are great at them and can

7:02

do them. yourself, but you

7:04

shouldn't be doing. So an example of that

7:06

for me would be something like

7:08

editing my podcast. I shouldn't

7:11

be doing that. And there

7:13

was a time where I believed I

7:15

was the only person who could do that. It was pre-twenty

7:17

fourteen. It was twenty fourteen, and Chris

7:19

and I had some long major conversations about

7:21

business and time and and burnout. Chris

7:23

has experienced burnout before to a

7:25

point where it's hospitalized him,

7:28

so he's been very passionate. And

7:30

because he's a friend, he's been very, very

7:32

vocal with me about where I put

7:34

my time. And I'm again very grateful I would

7:36

not be doing what I'm doing today. I would not

7:38

be where I'm at mentally in my

7:40

business if it weren't for Chris. Editing

7:42

my podcast is on that list. I

7:44

was great at it. and I could do it rather

7:46

quickly. And because I could do it

7:48

quickly, I said, well, there's nobody who could do it as quick

7:50

as me. So I might as well do it. Nobody

7:52

can do it in a style that I like. Nobody

7:55

nobody nobody could do it. But

7:57

that was false. I didn't

7:59

think anybody

7:59

could do it.

8:01

But the truth was there are many, many,

8:03

many people who could do that kind of thing better

8:05

and faster. But the bigger truth is,

8:07

I shouldn't be doing that.

8:10

anymore. That's not to say, I'm

8:12

not grateful that I did it. That's not

8:14

to say, I don't recommend that you do

8:16

the things that even though you shouldn't

8:18

be doing them and you kinda have to or should

8:20

at the beginning just to get that experience.

8:22

Case in point with the podcast editing, you know, I

8:24

teach a lot of podcasters over at

8:26

power up podcasting dot com. And

8:29

a question I often get is should I

8:31

hire a podcast editor right away? And

8:33

I always say no. You

8:35

wanna do it yourself at least for

8:37

the first three to five episodes so

8:39

that you understand how it works. You could

8:41

develop a style that you like. You can

8:43

appreciate it. But then when you hire out,

8:45

you can better instruct those people

8:47

or that person or that agency to do it in the way

8:49

that you want. And secondly,

8:51

if that agency or person or

8:53

company folds or goes away or

8:55

ghosts which sometimes happens,

8:57

you can pick up the slack and for

8:59

temporary purposes, you you'd be able to to

9:01

do it yourself again until you find somebody else to

9:03

replace. So

9:06

that's why I think Anyway, a

9:08

little bit off tanched there, but list

9:10

number three, the things you

9:12

shouldn't be

9:13

doing. These are

9:14

the things that are the most difficult to

9:16

let go of. but these are the

9:18

biggest levers to get more time

9:20

back in your life.

9:22

When you let go of these things like

9:24

when I let go of podcasts, And initially

9:26

Mindy took over the editing of podcasting. She's

9:28

now become such a vital person

9:30

in in all of our tech and solutions based stuff

9:33

in our business at SPI media. but

9:35

we have other people editing the podcast

9:37

now. But, oh my

9:39

gosh, she did it just as

9:41

well. And faster,

9:43

and I had more time. And I

9:45

ended up saving about five to ten

9:47

hours per week, which,

9:50

looking back, that's like a no

9:52

brainer. I should have done that starting maybe

9:54

in twenty eleven just less

9:56

than a year after I started my podcast.

9:58

If only I knew, this is

9:59

why

9:59

I'm passing this forward to you. I want

10:02

you to check out virtual

10:04

freedom. You could get it on Kindle. You

10:06

can, I believe, get the audiobook for

10:08

it. Or you can just get the

10:10

physical copy. It's fantastic.

10:13

I remember when Chris was

10:15

designing the cover for that. He he allowed me to

10:17

offer some input for that, which is really

10:19

neat. But This one particular exercise

10:21

is just a little Costco

10:23

size sampling for you of what else is

10:25

in this book. And I'm

10:27

not getting paid to say this. I don't even think Chris

10:29

knows I am saying this, but hopefully

10:31

he randomly listens to this episode

10:33

and, you know, I know his birthday came up and

10:35

this is not a birthday present. I already

10:37

gave him something else. But hopefully,

10:39

Chris, you're listening and I want you to

10:41

know how much of an impact that

10:43

you've had on my life and the

10:45

lives of others. And hopefully this episode can

10:47

start that for others too. So three

10:49

lists of freedom, things that you

10:51

don't like doing, things that you

10:53

can't do, and the moneymaker,

10:55

the things you shouldn't be

10:57

doing. Maybe even just for now, think about one thing

10:59

that you probably shouldn't be doing that you're still

11:01

doing that you know is taking up some time

11:04

probably good at it, but you know

11:06

at this level you shouldn't be doing.

11:08

Now, I I wanna also end by saying you

11:10

don't have to let go of everything. There

11:12

are things that on paper, I

11:15

shouldn't be doing, but

11:17

I choose to do them. I opt

11:19

in to them knowing that it's

11:21

gonna take time. But what I love about that is

11:23

that I'm not mad at

11:25

myself for that. I chose

11:27

that direction. And the thing I'm talking

11:29

about is my own presentations, my

11:31

webinars, my slide decks

11:33

for stage talks. I do all

11:35

of that stuff myself, including all the

11:37

graphics, the storyboarding, choreography,

11:40

etcetera. That's all me because I really

11:42

enjoy that. And although it takes time, I could I

11:44

could get some time back, that's one

11:46

thing that I'm okay spending time doing.

11:48

it's not a waste to me. So

11:50

don't feel like you have to really

11:53

have everything on that third

11:55

list dumped off to somebody else.

11:57

But at least keep the things that you

11:59

know you're most passionate about that you're

12:01

most excited about that you can't imagine

12:03

letting go. Okay. Fine. Keep those for

12:05

sure. You can have more time for

12:07

those by letting go of the other things that

12:09

you are also doing that you probably

12:11

shouldn't be doing. So I hope

12:13

you enjoyed this episode. Thank you

12:15

again to chris ducker. You can find about

12:17

upreneur dot com and check out

12:19

his book virtual freedom. which

12:21

contains the three lists to freedom and

12:23

many, many, many more things for you.

12:25

So I appreciate you, take care, and

12:27

happy Friday. I hope you enjoy the weekend.

12:29

and look forward to serving you next week if you aren't yet

12:32

subscribed for whatever reason, hit that subscribe button. It's

12:34

super easy. It's cheap. It's free.

12:36

Consider that like a little high five for put in my hand

12:38

up now. That's a way to high five me. Hit

12:40

that subscribe button. And you got

12:42

another episode delivered to you on Wednesday, and

12:44

it's gonna be an epic interview coming up.

12:46

I promise you. Thank you so much,

12:48

peace out. And as always, team Flynn for the

12:50

win. I can't even say

12:52

team Flynn for the win. There we go. Don't edit

12:54

that that out. This is real life. Alright.

12:56

Take care, everybody. Cheers.

12:59

Thanks for listening to the SmartPassive

13:02

Income podcast at smartpassive Income

13:04

dot com. I'm your host, Pat

13:06

Flynn. Our senior producer is

13:08

Sarah Jane Hess. Our series

13:10

producer is David Grabowski, and our

13:12

executive producer is Matt

13:14

Gartland. Sound editing by Dunkin' Brown.

13:16

The smart passive income podcast is a

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production of SPI Media. We'll catch

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you in the next session.

13:29

If I

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had to distill what we do here at SPI,

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probably a major part of that definition would be

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this. We help people like you

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get unstuck. I've been doing it

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for over a decade on the SmartPass of

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Income podcast through our course offerings,

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communities, SPI pro. We've been helping you

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get out and stuck. And the same thing more

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recently with our community for beginners, SPI

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learner. Recently, we thought, why

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not create a short simple way

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Subscribe for free at smartpassiveincome

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You've probably

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community before. Maybe you've considered

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joining or just maybe you're not sure

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about it. or maybe your business just

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pro yet, but you still want a safe

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community to support your passion project, your

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If you fall into that last category, I

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The SPI Learner community is a safe

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at today. So if you're ready for more

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accountability in your business and a support network

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of trusted individuals, Look no

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further. The learner community is exactly

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where you need to be. Just head on over to

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