Foxwell Founders Exclusive: How to fight agency hustle culture and get your time back, Chris Rudolph
Chris Rudolph is one of our coaches for our business. He has helped us get time back and run our business so we have more freedom (which to us means more free time.)
In this webinar Chris shares four top tips on how to begin reclaiming your time as an agency owner. It’s a must watch. Enjoy.
Outline with timestamps
(0:02) Introduction
(2:58) We love travel, adventure, and serve.
We love to travel and adventure but also love to serve.
How hustle became the norm.
The start of the industrial age.
The future of work in the US.
(8:41) Fighting the hustle.
The four prescriptions for fighting hustle.
The first cause of hustle, time.
Avoid multitasking and frequent task switching.
Write down work day by hour.
Having a point and a goal for what you're trying to accomplish.
Theme your week.
(14:57) Setting a theme in your week.
Example of theme in the week.
How to maximize time and productivity.
(17:51) The importance of theming your calendar.
The difference between knowing and doing.
Habits determine the impact that industry leaders have.
Meetings are the most important thing.
Being a warrior for meeting cancellation.
The importance of having a meeting.
(23:58) Using automation to defend your calendar.
One way to defend your calendar.
Using Calendly or a calendar automation tool.
Meet Tracy Matney, a great client of mine.
Defending her calendar.
(28:53) Free agency hustle audits.
Offering free agency hustle audits.
The difference between an agency and the agency you love.
(31:41) The death of the day of rest.
The death of the day of rest.
The history of Sunday blue laws.
Take a day off every week.
The one thing that helps recharge and fill your soul.
(37:19) Take a day off every single week.
Take a day off and live a day longer.
The first step to taking time off.
The best part is the last four to six hours.
The smartphone is addictive.
(42:49) They’re selling your attention.
The attention economy, the power of technology.
What to learn from the Amish.
(44:57) Steps to tame your phone.
Four steps to tame your phone.
Deleting distracting apps from the phone.
Park your phone in another room at night.
Get a $10 old-school alarm clock.
Take a day off every week.
Pick one of the four prescriptions and implement it.
(51:02) What is the most valuable thing for you to know?
The most valuable thing for you today.
Running your own agency is an amazing way.
One of the biggest lock-ins for agency owners.
Blocking off the first hour of the day.
Transcript
Speaker 1 (0:02)
All right, well welcome everyone. So glad to have you. And Chris, so glad to have you, Chris.
Unknown Speaker (0:07)
Everyone Nice to be here,
Speaker 1 (0:09)
transparently. Chris is Chris is actually one of my favorite people. And he actually is a business coach that Gracie and I worked with a long time ago and kind of have continued to just work with and, and work in parallel with over time to make sure that our agency, Foxwell digital that we run is, you know, the most efficient that it can be. And also, knowing that time is the most important thing to us. And this is a particularly important topic, a lot of you probably watching this recorded because we did you know, we do surveys all the time in our membership. And one of the surveys that we had was one of the common themes was need to get time back, I feel overwhelmed. I feel like I don't have time to do things. And I don't have time to do things in a quality way or the time that I want to spend with my family. So that's really why Chris and I concept are doing this because Chris is the person that if I'm feeling overwhelmed, this is he's one of the people I asked. And the tools that he'll talk about today are, you know, things that you can use right now to be better with that. So, Chris, I'll go ahead and put myself on mute, but I will be chiming in. But go ahead and lead it out. And then we'll do some questions and answers at the end as well. But, but thank you, Chris, for being here.
Speaker 2 (1:34)
Hey, you bet. Thanks so much for having me, Andrew. Yeah, this topic is so important. I see for so many agency owners, and thanks for bringing me in to present on it. So we're gonna dive into how to fight agency hustled and get your time back. So you're in the right place, if you're feeling a little overwhelmed or overloaded right now and you just can't seem to break through. Or you're struggling with the side effects of agency hustle, you know, the stress the lots of nights and weekends, like you know, eight zoom calls in a row without a bathroom break. I hear that so much. If that's you, this is going to be perfect for you. And you're ready to learn how to break the hustle cycle, get your time back and build an agency you really love. Again, hey, thank you so much Andrew and the whole founders membership, I've been recently contributing to it and just love the community, a place where you can be supported and share what's working, what's not working. And it can be lonely out there, especially so many agency owners operate their their agency remotely from home or a co working space. And I just love, love the whole concept behind founders. So you may be wondering, who is this guy up here anyways, so if we haven't met before, my name is Chris Rudolph. I'm originally from Madison, Wisconsin, just like Andrew. And here's my family, my wife and three kids. We love travel. We love adventure. But we also love to serve. So in the bottom left there, that's us back in 2019 We did a mission trip as a family to Mazatlan, Mexico. And we were a part of a group that build a home for this family that's been most of family in three days, and just radically changed their life but really impacted ours, as well. And as we were kind of debriefing on our way home, we were like Man, we don't want to do this just once a year. We want to do this on a more regular basis. So we picked up our family, we moved to Tijuana where we could do this on a more regular basis. And that's us in the bottom right doing what you do in Tijuana enjoy some good street tacos. So professionally, I've been a business coach for digital agencies over the last nine years. And I work with some amazing clients. I know a lot of people, you know, whine a lot about their clients or like they said, their business would be amazing. If they just didn't have clients, I feel the complete opposite way I get a chance to work with some amazing people that are doing their agencies are doing really, really powerful things. And so I speak and I coach and I serve a little bit but mainly at a at Digital Marketing conferences. So here's what we're going to cover together, the roots of hustle culture and why it's accelerating so quickly, and it is accelerated really, really quickly. The four common causes of hustle in any digital agency regardless of size, niche or geography, and the four prescriptions for fighting hustle and getting your time back. And at the end, I'll give you an opportunity for some free one on one help from me. So let's talk about hustle. Have you ever heard any of these phrases so good things happen to those who hustle or no one ever changed the world on 40 hours a week that was Elon Musk don't stop when you're tired stop when you're done. I was inside a we work and that was on the water cooler. And then the Robert De Niro version which is rest when you're dead. And then I also saw this one on a pillow at a different we work, TGIF. Thank God, it's Monday. So how did hustle become the norm? So we're going to take a look at a brief history of hustle. This is note by no means a complete history. But I think in order to do something about this problem, we got to know you know how it started and be able to learn from it. So in 1656, the modern clock was invented. And this is why this is significant. Before that, if you've ever been stressed out trying to get to a meeting, or you're late for a meeting, or you're late for your kids soccer practice, you know the stress of that, well, before the clock, we didn't have that, we just had sundials. So with a modern clock that changed everything. And then 1802, the electric light bulb was invented. And that allowed humans to be able to work past sundown. So that really increased the ability for us to work even more. And then in 1913, we had the invention of the Ford assembly line. So that's kind of, especially if you are in the US, that's really held up there as the like the start of the industrial age and is really kind of glorified. But if you really dig into the story, it's really fascinating. So there was actually riots by the workers like 10s of 1000s of people who rioted because of the working conditions and just the pressure and long hours. And they actually had to pay I believe those workers like four or five times what they're making, to finally kind of shut them up and stop them from writing. But there, that's where production and speed really increased in the industrial age. And then in 1946 711, stores were birthed and started to get big. And that was that was really huge in that era, because they were open from 7am to 11pm. unheard of in that time. And then in 1967, there was a famous Senate subcommittee meeting, looking at the future of work. And I want to dive into that a little bit. So it was made up of futurists, such as political theorists, economics, a, and sci fi writers. And here's, they put their heads together, they study this, they really crank this thing out. And their prediction was that by 1985, the average US worker would only work part time, like 22 hours a week, and they would only work for half the year, 27 weeks out of the year. Can you imagine that? So their conclusion was the big problem in the future wouldn't be too much work, it would be too much leisure. I mean, that's just isn't that seems just absolutely hilarious. So by the way, this is where the Jetsons show idea came from, if you're familiar with that, the old cartoon, where machines will do everything for us. And I actually took a look at a few clips of some of the old shows on YouTube. And it's amazing kind of the world we live in, with all the technology, technological advances, that it actually a lot of those things have come true. All right, so in 1971 711, goes 24/7 They don't close, which, which was huge. And then in 1975, McDonald's had started their first drive thru because nobody has time to actually go in to the restaurant, they're in a they're in such a hurry. And then 2000 really the boom of the internet, where you can work from anywhere, and you're always accessible. 2008 the iPhone, App Store, Facebook and Twitter, really accelerate the pace of life 2014 Instant Messaging just booms. And then in 2022, Amazon same day delivery goes national through all their markets. And yeah, because like we, you know, it's, you know, we didn't want to like wait two hours, you know, two days for delivery. We wanted an hour's, and then this year, we just see the huge explosion in AI. And can you imagine what that's gonna look like in a year, five years, 10 years, so everything is increasing in speed. So why does all this history matter? Why not just hustle like everyone, you know, everyone else is doing around us. It's because the relationships with the people you love will suffer. That's why I'm here today. Because I'm really passionate about this. Think about if you're hustling all the time, chronically over and over again, it's gonna affect your kids, your spouse or significant other parents you're caring for and the causes you're volunteering for. So that's why I'm here today because it's not just about, you know, our production, our performance. It's about our relationships, too. So I'm going to share today four prescriptions for fighting hustle, but before I do, let's first diagnose some of the causes a hustle before writing the prescriptions kind of like any good doctor Would soy hustle, cause number one is time. So if you've ever heard yourself say this, if I only had five more hours in a day, that's like every agency owner that I've ever met. So I've got news for you, the solution of the life of hustle isn't more time. And I'm gonna prove this with some logic. So think about it, what would you do with an extra five hours each day? Here's my guess, probably the same thing that most people do fill them with even more things. And you'll end up being more tired burnout, emotionally fried than you are right now. Maybe that's not you. But I'm guessing for a majority of people, that's what it would be. So here's the point, we all have 24 hours a day to fight hustle, it's important that we spend those 24 hours wisely. So a good place to start is avoiding multitasking doing more than one thing, at the same time, and frequent task switching, that's like doing an email here, checking Twitter there, and then maybe working on a slide for an upcoming deck. And you're just switching between all those different, different tasks. So why start there with multitasking and the task switching? It's because every time we get interrupted, it takes 18 minutes to get back in the flow of what we're doing. And that's like, if you if you're familiar with Cal, Newports, deep work book, and the work that he does,
Speaker 2 (11:29)
you know, when it takes 18 minutes to get that level of concentration, where you can critically think about things and be creative. And just think about how much of your role in your company is creative or you know, critical thinking or analyzing something. So if you're getting interrupted, whether you're switching tasks, you're getting notifications on your screens, if you're going to interrupted maybe if you work from home, like from your kids, it takes 18 minutes. So if you're constantly getting interrupted each day, you know, throughout the day, it's no wonder that you maybe get to the end of your workday, and you're exhausted. And you're like, what did I really accomplish that was meaningful.
Speaker 1 (12:10)
I remember Chris, when we started working together, one of the things that you had us do was write down over a basically a work day, or a full day when we were awake every hour, what we were doing by the hour, and you had us do that for a week. And then we went through and the next phase and did visioning of what's the one year vision or the I think it was the three month or the six month and then the one year and then the five year and then tried to align? How do we do only a few things each day that will get done that have 100% focus to move that forward. And I still use that framework today that are aligned with the goals. And because it was like I, I felt the exact same way on. So you know, getting interrupted all the time. And I'm not saying it doesn't ever happen. But that was a huge unlock for us. So anyway, I just want to validate your point there, that you'll feel like having more time would solve it. But it but it actually wouldn't. It's actually having more a point and a goal for what you're trying to accomplish. And those times. And for me, it's also being realistic, which I'm sure we'll get into this over time. But I just wanted to validate that.
Speaker 2 (13:28)
Yeah, this is this is the struggle right here. Because if it were easy, everyone would be able to do it. But a lot of like this, especially in the tech side, like it's, it's still fairly new. And when you think of the history of mankind, and we're not necessarily taught strategies on how to really respond and be intentional, in our in our in our lives. And so it's a fight. So building these type of habits and strategies really matters. All right, so we're going to do the prescription for this next. So it is to theme your week, I'm not sure if you're familiar with this type of language, but you're going to pick a theme or a focus for each day. And this is a form of batching if you're not familiar with that term that's grouping similar tasks together to do in one period of time to improve productivity. So instead of doing, let's say, a client call, and then email and then going over Twitter, and then doing a couple entries on your QuickBooks, you're batching those those tasks together. So for instance, if you're going to do client calls, that's that's put those all on one day, you can be in client call mode. And in really focus your energy in you tend to be a lot more productive, and it's really less stressful for your body and you're going to have more energy at the end of your day. So I'm going to give you a quick example of theme in your week. So on Mondays, this is just an example you can, you can really set this however you like. So on Mondays, you could be focused in on your team, your team meetings, your one on ones, you know really working through maybe with your team you want to review ad accounts or something like that. Tuesdays, you could dedicate to client meetings, Wednesday's all your sales activities and sales meetings, Thursdays you work on the systems of your agency. And then Fridays, you dedicate that to marketing. So you can you see how this, this can work. Now, this could look a little bit differently for each person. But a little side bonus here, if you batch your meetings, you don't have to get dressed up, or I guess, or put on makeup. You know, every single day, you could kind of batch that process and make yourself more efficient. But this is this is a way that you can theme your week, according to the different focuses. There's another way that I found that's been really effective for my clients. And that's be a maker in the morning, and a manager in the afternoon. That means you shut up before you look at any email slack phone calls voicemails, you really focus in on working on your your business and not in it in the morning. And then you become a manager in the afternoon you can tend to those things, and have meetings and things like that. So as you can work on the business PM, you can work in the business. And I want you to meet this is a great client of mine, Egon Heath, and this is something when I met Egan years ago, he was all over the place I looked at that we first looked at his calendar, and he had meetings scattered throughout the week, and he just didn't feel like he was as productive as he could have been. And he he really took to this theming his weekend be a maker in the morning and a manager in the afternoon. And it wasn't like an overnight transformation was something that he built over time. But now if you email or shoot him a message before 11:30am in his timezone, you want rehear response, because he's been really good at, at shutting out all the distractions and, and really, you know, really working in his working on his business and not in it. And it's made a huge difference for him. So here's my question for you, how could you theme your week to maximize your time? And productivity? What could that look like for you, I want you to, to put that write down if you have a piece of paper, or anything that would that you could really lay that out or a document, what would that that look like in a week?
Speaker 1 (17:51)
I have to good, that's good exercise. For me. It's always how when I've ever I'm going through and kind of theming my week because I I do batching as you talked about input calls on certain days. For me, it's when How much am I assigning deep work sessions or I mean ability to be on like, uninterrupted. That's so huge for me, and I think isn't something I paid enough attention to early on, when we were building. And I think that, you know, building the, the the agency that we have and the community that we have, for me, members are paying for a really unique experience. And so I have to give myself time to actually also not just work on deeper, longer term strategic things, but also concept and think about things that I know, members that are here, you'll know, you know, hopefully you'll notice this that are really impactful. Because they don't have the time some a lot of times to think in that strategic way. So steaming the week is a lot of the things I will say to always about Chris and this is a compliment. But when I first saw a lot of the things you talk about, I thought wow, that's you know, that's that's pretty simple idea I could but and you really start working through this stuff. It's not simple. It's like, you know, it's it is it takes real work and intention. So if you're feeling like that, you know, that's just something I wanted to call out as well. And the work that you're doing is some of these things are it feels simple, but in the actual practicing of it, it's it's very it's hard and it's difficult to get into and it really takes accountability for yourself or with a coach or something to get through it properly.
Speaker 2 (19:37)
Yeah, that's a really good point. Andrew, I know a lot of like, none of this is rocket science. But there's a difference between knowing knowing something and doing something. And I think you first have to have to be aware of it and no, no it but then it's really making it a habit that that makes all the difference. So a lot of times I when I've studied like experts and some The different industries, the people that are like the industry leaders, a lot of times they it's not like what they what they know is different than anyone else. But it's what they do and what they do their habits really determined, you know the impact that they have. Alright, we're onto hustle, cause number two, and if, from this picture, you can probably guess what it is, it's meetings. This is probably one of the most frequently thing things that I hear from phone clients that is really stressing them out. And really holding them back is just so many meetings. So I really want to address this. So I'm going to give a prescription for meetings, you need to defend your calendar, like your life depends on it. And I'm serious about this. So first thing, you need to change the locks on your calendar access. That means that someone you know, within your organization or from the outside, can't just automatically book in your calendar automatically. So this is very common in corporate cultures, and probably accounts for the lack of productivity in many like big corporations. But you need to change the locks where you have some control and your access. If you don't like pretty much none of the rest of the stuff I'm going to share with you will will work. And then I want you to audit your reoccurring meetings a lot of times, you know, we just we just keep adding reoccurring meeting after reoccurring meeting. And over time, you know, your entire week can be filled with meetings. So you want to ask yourself two questions, which of these reoccurring meetings is essential? And which ones could be cancelled with very little impact? And I want you to be really ruthless about this, you know, what are some meetings that could be an email, or they just aren't, maybe they served a purpose for a while, but they don't anymore. You need to ruthlessly eliminate those and only keep the most essential ones. So an audit can be a great way to free up your calendar, and really make a difference.
Speaker 1 (22:06)
Yeah, and I'll just say one thing on this that I've done that you encouraged me to do, Chris early on was to be that warrior for meeting canceling. And actually to an all of us that are on here, we're marketers to be to market to your clients, that the meeting isn't actually that impactful. If it was, you know, we had weekly meetings. And so redefining that so I went on a rampage and started pitching people on, look, let can we have like, do we need a meeting, if we do, let's have a 15 minute meeting or a 30 minute meeting every two weeks. AND, and OR let's also coordinate on slack for a lot more. So because with Slack, I can control when I'm signing in or out to work on it. Right. And so that's an interesting, that was a really interesting shift. And was really what opened up a huge thing for me, because if I it wasn't that I'm canceling this, I'm important, I took it through the lens of I know you got a lot of stuff going on, I know that things are not in your world, I want to make my communication to you as simple as it can be. And, and through that lens people were very, very open to it. And I also went through Chris had me you had me rate meetings, I don't know if you remember this of like the insolence of like importance of of each of them. And they were out of 10. And like, pretty much all of them were like a four. So none of them were doing that impactful is because of what is what I thought I needed to do. So anyway, that was a that was a really, I think that some of it is you're defending it for yourself, but you're also selling it to the clients of them getting their time back. And it was really successful, to be able to push that. So
Speaker 2 (23:56)
yeah, that's a really good point. Like it can give them their time back. And they have, you know, just, it's valuable for them. But also, if you're scattered, and your focus is really all over the place, you're not going to be able to deliver for the clients and whatever role in your agency that you play, for you to really show up and in the fullest way and give them the most value. You can't be all over the place and spending time on like Andrew was saying, like meetings that are one twos, threes and fours. You want to be spending most of your time and you know the eights, nines and 10s. of importance of meetings. All right. Another way to defend your calendar is to really use automation. So I recommend using Calendly or a calendar automation tool. This is a huge, huge part of it. So when you are getting meeting requests, you know, you're not going to be you're going to say no more than you can say yes, but this is a way that you can give options. So for a meeting that should happen. You know, when someone says, Hey Andrew, can I, you know, meet with you on Monday at 8pm. Instead of saying no, you can give them options, you can give them a link to your calendar. And but those are on your terms. And you can also sync this up with your theme. So if you only meet with clients on Tuesdays, you can set that within your calendar tool. So people like options, they don't like to be told no. So this is a great way to do it. It also saves a lot of time on the back and forth when you're trying to set up a meeting. Like, you know, a lot of times we're working with people in different time zones, you know, they're throwing out times you're thrown out times. And that wastes a lot of time back and forth. And a lot of frustration. Just use a link or embedded calendar like like you see here with Calendly. And it just saves a ton of time. You can really customize your availability, it could be based on themes or and tight windows. And you can also ask custom questions to get a clear meeting outcome beforehand. You know, if there isn't a clear meeting out outcome, you don't want to have that meeting. But with a clear meet outcome, you can get right to it. And you can make maybe an hour long meeting only be a 15 minute meeting, when you have a clear a clear outcome beforehand. On that topic, if you don't have a clear outcome and a reason that you should be in this meeting, just default an answer tentative or maybe an ask these two questions when you have a meeting requests. So what's the number one goal to accomplish by ending this meeting by the end of this meeting? And then the second question is, how can I contribute to the discussion. So you want to always want to have a clear goal, and a clear reason why you should be there. And if you if these aren't clear for both of these, you know, it could be an email or a Slack. So I want you to meet a great client of mine, Tracy Matney and and I think you'll see where this defending her calendar really comes into play. So two years ago, I met Tracy, she was selling $500 A month packages, agency packages to restaurants, coaches and local businesses. So didn't really have a clear niche was all over all over the board. She had a small team of contractors working for but she had an open calendar, when we looked at her calendar, it was like filled with meetings. And I'm like, when do you actually get to do deep work? When do you get to meet with your team? When do you need to get a chance to really do things that that matter and really lead your agency. So she was working like 10 hour days, her son was an after school daycare because she needed that time to work. She said that wasn't something that she wanted to do. She just needed that time to be able to keep up with things. So this is Tracy now and this wasn't overnight by any means. This was a process. It's not a magic pill. But she has a clear Micronet she really narrowed her niche. So she's helping seven, eight figure eight figure business coaches scale their free challenges with chat marketing. And so she got very specific, I can't underestimate that enough. That's probably another topic for another day. But getting really clear and tight on on who you work with and what you do for them. And then she themed her week and defended her calendar. And this was tough, there was a lot of resistance at the beginning of this. And she didn't think she could do it. But she did this over time. And now she works five to 10 hours a week, she homeschools her son, and she's selling five to 15k per month packages, she's upgraded her team, and she still has a profit margin of over 50%. So it's been a big transformation. It was not overnight, there was not a magic pill. But this was the really the activity that really, really started this kind of evolution in her agency and how she worked in her agency, and just made a huge difference. So before I share prescription number three, I want to offer some free help I'd mentioned at the beginning. So if you'd like some additional help on this topic, I'm offering a few free agency hustle audits. So during this 45 minute session, we'll get under the hood of your agency and situation and try to uncover any hidden challenges that are maybe stressing you out or causing you to hustle or really sabotaging the growth of your agency. Because if you're hustling and you're not in, you're scattered and you're not focused, it's also affecting the growth side of your agency. And by the end, you'll leave confident with a clear next step to fight hustle and get your time back. So I'm offering free four of these sessions. So the first four who sign up, this is how you can schedule them. So I'm working with clients, you know, throughout my week, so I've got time for about one of these a week here for the next month, but I want to really be of assistance to this community. So yeah, so go to agency hustle.audit.com and you can get plugged in the first four people and we'll get a chance to sit down over zoom get under the hood of your, your agency and really find out what's what's causing you to hustle.
Speaker 1 (30:05)
Yeah, and I just want to I mean, this is something that I think is great, it's, it's, it's a good thing to do does no commitment or anything of doing it and for Chris, it's, it's very selfless to them to offer this you know, Chris has worked with us he's worked with, you know other people in our world like Zach stuck and David Herman and he's working currently with Matthew get Tozi. So, you know, this is the kind of thing that even if you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, it's worth, I'm sure there's even other free resources, Chris, you have that if you get the four of these, if you get for these, Phil, there's other things you can send over. But it's worth your time. I think, if you're if you're here, you might be feeling that that a little bit. And it's a win, it's always helpful to just talk about it with someone to and whose entire career and now it's been one of running this business, Chris 10 years, almost 10 years, right, like of doing work with agency owners, specifically, like that your whole life for 10 years has been this. And so anyway, just it's a really nice officer. Thanks, man.
Speaker 2 (31:18)
Hey, you bet I there's such a lot of times, there's a small difference between an agency that you run that you dread and the agency that you love, like a lot of times, it's not that huge of a gap. And sometimes it can be just, you know, a few tweaks that you really implement consistently, that can make a big difference in that, so I want to be able to help up. All right, Rhonda, hustle, cause number three, and that's the death of the day of rest. So this, kind of the roots of this, both in the Jewish and Christian religion, traditions, also known as Shabbat, or Sabbath. So their original purposes, we're gonna go way back in history, here's the original purpose of those that Shabbat or Sabbath is stop working, rest, delight and worship. So with this, in those cultures, all businesses that were non essential, were closed. And this really paved the way for Sunday blue laws in the US, which were, there were actual laws in the US. That said, you couldn't be open on Sunday unless you fall into a few essential categories. And we're gonna dive into that a little bit. So you kind of see where, where this is headed, and what and its impact that we've had today. So actually, in 1610, blue law started in Virginia colony. So this is even pre United States of America. And it was really to guard not only the speed of life, but preserve things for family and faith in things like that. So in 1776, the US becomes a nation blue laws are already widespread. And they're a part of the DNA of the US. Now, even up to the 1950s cities like San Francisco would still shut down at 6pm on weekdays, and all day Sunday. So like, if you, if you were in San Francisco, on a weekday at 7pm, it would just be like a ghost town, or I were on Sundays as well. Can you imagine that today in the middle of like, the Silicon Valley, you know, it's just quiet and businesses are all closed. It's hard to believe that wasn't that long ago. In the 1960s, US state started abolishing blue laws. And in 1971 711, goes 24/7 I know I picked on 711 a lot, but they were just like the, the on the front of of the wave of this. And then in 1991, the final state abolished blocks that was North Dakota. And now Hobby Lobby and Chick fil A, the ones that are they're closed, you know, a day a week are the outliers. Just because we've really gotten away with this. We're truly a 24 sevens, you know, type of culture when it comes to business and commerce. So Sunday is went from a day of rest to a day of frantically running errands, DIY home projects of buying more crap that we don't need, or getting a jumpstart on the work week. So the question is, has our culture actually slowed down long enough to ask the question, What will this new pace of life do to our mind, body and soul? I don't think so. I think it's just accelerated faster and faster and we've kind of lost touch of this. So here's the prescription. Take a day off every single week. cease working, craft what I call a day of delight to something that really feeds your soul. It can include rest, worship, time with loved ones, naps, whatever fills your soul do it. Now when I say like take a day off and relax this is normally what comes to mind I've I've actually asked clients this I've kind of walked him through this. So it doesn't you know is this is really sounds like an onion. is in a day off for you go for it. But if you think like, oh my gosh, I'm going to just sit in the lotus position and meditate. And after five minutes, I'm going to be like, out of my mind. Don't think of your day being like this. Think more like this. I don't know if you've if you've seen the movie yesterday, if if you have typed in the chat, yes, I'm not gonna spoil it for you. But it's basically where 24 hours your kids make the rules, you give them a few guidelines, but they really craft the ultimate day. Just a forewarning. If you are a parent, your kids, and you watch this, they're gonna love it. It's a it's a great movie, but they're gonna hold you to this. So just so you know that upfront. So I want you to think on your day off, what is the one thing that would help you recharge, and fill your soul. This is very different for different people. I know some people that the idea of mowing their lawn on their day off is work. It's drudgery. It's not restful. And then there's people like me that actually enjoys mowing lawn. And that's where I have time to really think deeply. And it really recharges me so everyone's a little bit different. So think, on your day off, what is the one thing that would help you recharge and fill your soul?
Speaker 2 (36:22)
All right, if you're thinking like a day off, no way, if you're still not convinced. In 1793, France changed its calendar to attend a work week in order to boost productivity. So they've made this country wide. And the experiment basically crashed and burned in less than 12 years. Why was that? Well, there were a huge increases in exhaustion, injuries, illness, even to like work animals and the work animals died. So it just was a huge failure because you just can't violate, you know, work 10 days in a row just really hustling. And if you're still not convinced there was a major Longitudinal Study of Seventh Day Adventists. So this is a religious group that is ultra strict about taking Saturday's off. What's great, you know, from a research standpoint is they're not only in countries in the West, but they're in all different types of countries, developing countries, in very different cultures. So you can really get a great a great sample of people to really test this. And what the study found is that 70 avendus, live just over 10 years longer than the average human in the area that they lived in. So pretty significant across the board. So let's do the math on this. So if there are 52 Saturdays per year, and the average life expectancy, let's just a as seven, eight years, that's 4056 Saturdays, often average lifetime, the divide that by 365, it's 11.11 years off. So that's almost exactly what the study came up with as far as the people that live longer. So the conclusion is take a day off live a day longer. So I think that's really, really significant on just the nonstop hosteling what it does to our even our physical bodies, in that our bodies are really designed to live in this type of rhythm. So when it comes to taking a day off, you need to have a plan just by having it on your calendar. And in sticking to it. What I found is that this doesn't work. Because, you know, you're like, oh, great, I'm going to take every Monday off, or I'm gonna take every Saturday off. You get to it, and then you're like, Okay, what do I actually do. And if you don't have a plan, and a strategy, you're just going to, you know, you're going to get bored easily, and then you're just going to revert to what you used to do, it'd be more and more discouraged. So the first thing is to pick your day, it doesn't matter which day, just pick a day that you're gonna have off every single week. You want to block that off your calendar, and you want to get everyone on the same page in your life. So if that is your family, if that's your roommates, whoever else is in your life that you need to get on the same page with really syncope because that you really self sabotage or sabotage each other if you're not on the same page. And then you want to have a day off design session to really plan out what is that day going to be look like? It doesn't have to be hour by hour. But what's the basic framework that you're going to have for that day off, and then you just need to start it and stick with it. Even if you feel you're failing? At first. If this isn't your norm, it can be really tough and there's going to be a lot of resistance, but just stick with it. So if anything if you're feeling a little guilty of like, how do I actually take a day off? You have my permission. Remember, it's like having your favorite holiday 52 times a year. That's what it's been. It's really like changed, changed my life. So you Want to make it like that you think about how kids are at Christmas. You know, like when they're when they're, you know, it's getting to be close to Christmas, they're like they can't, they're so excited, they can't, they can't just like contain themselves. That's how you'll start to feel with this day off. And when you start to crave it, like in in, if something comes up in your schedule where you can, you're gonna know it, you're on the road to success. And here's a little pro tip, like the best part is the last four to six hours. I can think of this last week that sometimes at the beginning, it's a struggle to really, you know, just get be relaxed and slow down. But it's really that last four to six hours, that really makes a big difference. All right, we're on to hustle cars. Number four. And I know you're probably curious what this one is based on this picture. But it's the smartphone. So here's a couple of facts, you know, 2008, iPhone, comes out the App Store, Facebook and Twitter. Now the average iPhone user touches their phone 2617 times per day. And this is, you know, this, this research is probably well outdated, it could be even more more to that. And here's another stat, there's an average of 5.4 hours a day of use over 72 sessions for the average person. Now, I actually took a look at this and updated this since I started posting some of this research a year ago, it's actually doubled in that time. So I think this is really significant. This is something you really want to pay attention to. So almost five and a half hours a day per use over 72 sessions. This is not necessarily like watching a an hour long movie on Netflix, this is, you know, 72 sessions that's checking your phone very, very frequently. And it's really doubled, you know, in the last in the last two years. And it's also they showed us double for millennials. I don't know there's not research that I could find about Gen Z, but I'm guessing that's pretty, pretty similar. So I don't know if you know, like slot machines make more money than the film industry in baseball combined, even though they only take a quarter at a time. Why is that? Because they're addictive. So addiction and distraction is where the money is. So here's my question. Is the smartphone more like a computer in our pocket? Like as Steve Jobs describes it? Or is it a slot machine I'm leaning more towards, it's more like a slot machine. So here's a quick news flash your phone doesn't actually work for you, even though you paid for it, you probably paid a good amount of money for it. It works for multibillionaire corporations in California, and you're not the customer, you're the product. They're selling your attention. I know we know, as marketers, we all know this, we're, we we work in this space every single day. That's why they call it the attention economy, a company can only get your money if they can get your attention. And I bet you didn't know this, that for years, Silicon Valley Tech executives have been sending their kids to device free private schools that cost a lot of money. Because they know the power that that technology and these devices have on them. And it made me think of back in my childhood, the late Biggie Smalls said never get high in your own supply. I think that's kind of the their line of thinking here. They know the power of, of these these screens and these devices and how addictive they are. And, you know, they're sending their kids to schools that they don't have them. So what's the solution? Like? Should we just dump our phones and move off the grid and just check out a life? I'm not suggesting that I mean, you can if you want to, but I don't think that's the answer. So here's what we can learn from the Amish of all people. So you just noticed that I just went from Biggie Smalls to Amish and like two slides. So here's what we can learn from the Amish. You know, contrary to what most people believe, they're actually not against all modern technology. When a new tech is launched, they evaluate it from the sidelines, and they let the rest of us volunteer for the human trial. We're like the lab rats. It's amazing. Then they have after you know the human trial has taken place. They have a community wide conversation about it. And they really they ask the question, is this new tech, a net positive or not for our community? So with the car they decided against it, saying that they would destroy it would destroy their tight knit community and just give life to consumerism. So when she loved to be a fly on the wall when they were when they were meeting discussing the smartphone, I can't imagine what that discussion was look would look like. So the answer isn't just to check out a life and move off the grid. Here's a prescription that can help you. You want to tame your phone. And when I say tame And if you look as tam up in Webster's, it says, To change your domesticate from a wild or savage state. So if you're trying to tame your phone, it may feel like this sometimes. Because that phone, it's a really, it's powerful, it's very, it can be very addictive. So I'm gonna give you four steps to tame your phone. So step number one, is just turn off all notifications and alerts. And this could go for other devices as well. But just like turn off those notifications and alerts, remember I was talking about every time you get interrupted, it takes 18 minutes to get in that same level of flow, you know, that concentration and critical thinking. So we just want to turn those off, if you're getting dings and buzzes at you all day, you're just not going to really show up and have the impact that you want. Step two is to delete distracting apps from your phone. So this is different for everyone. For you, it could be social media apps, it could be news apps, it could be gaming apps, it could be email, it's a little bit different from every person, but you know, like, what are the ones that that you get stuck, and you go down a rabbit hole with, delete those apps.
Speaker 2 (46:12)
And then you want to get off text and messenger, and into Slack and email. And there's a couple of reasons for that. The first one is, is that text and messenger, there's automatic expectation that you have your phone on you and you'll immediately respond. Like if you've ever had someone like you, you didn't respond, or you didn't look at your phone for 20 minutes, and they're like, calling you, you know, are you still alive? Is there something wrong, because there's that immediate expectation of a response. And that's a really reactive type of situation. And you can't really get out of that. So we want to move those conversations into Slack and email. Because with Slack and email, there's not as much of a immediate expectation for response, it can be that way with some people. But there's more of a there's I guess there's more of a buffer there. The second reason is that with texting messenger, it's really difficult to have another member of your team, or a virtual assistant help you manage that. But in Slack and email, you can do that. So that it's not, it's not up to you, and you can have others manage those inboxes and, and make you more efficient, so you're not tempted to go down that road. And then they can make your time when you are responding more productive. And then step number four is to park your phone at night in really, really far away from your bed or in another room. So why should you do that? Or, or should you just skip on it. So I saw a stat the other day it said 93% of US adults sleep near their phones a really high percentage. And what that does is it reduces sleep, your working memory and problem solving skills. And they found that like the problem solving skills, even if it's turned off, and you're in airplane mode, having it near there can really affect you. Also, 76% of US adults say grabbing their phone is the first thing they do upon waking. So that's like the first thing you do. And you look at this thing, you know that it's the ultimate distraction piece that really sets the tone for your entire day. And, you know, you'll just go into distraction in whether it's email or social. That's really it changes your state. And it's just not a way to start the day. So here's my conclusion, park your phone in another room and get a $10 old school alarm clock. Now I'm really like I'm pretty upfront, and confronting to my clients who who use their phone as an alarm. And that's their big reason for not getting old school alarm clock. I'm like, Just get the old school alarm clock and they're like whining about it. And I'm like, it's like $10 on Amazon. And I still get some resistance sometimes and I'm like you just bought a $1,200 phone you can do a $10 alarm clock. So that's, that's a it's a big hack is to have that old school or plaque park your phone in another room. All right, so of the four prescriptions that I that I just went through which one do you need the most which of the ones is going to make the biggest difference for you? Number one to theme your week. Number two, defend your calendar. Number three, take a day off every single week. Or number four tame your phone. I'd love to hear from you if you could type in the chat 123 or four like which one of these four prescriptions do you need the most?
Unknown Speaker (49:43)
All right, I'm seeing number four team your phone. Seeing someone's theme in your week. Yeah, which one do you need the most? Number three take a day off every week that that's a hard that can be a real hard one.
Speaker 2 (50:03)
Alright, so here's your next step, just pick one of those prescriptions, the one that you really need and just start implementing it right away. Don't try it, you know, you can, you can certainly use all four of these. But trying to do them all at once might not be the best to really make this a habit. So pick one, and start implementing right away. So as you start doing this, I want you to be patient with yourself one of my favorite authors, John, Mark comer said, start where you are not where you should be, I know you're gonna have a high expectation that say, you're going to take a day off, or you're gonna theme your week and really have your calendar under control. And the reality is, is that that might not happen perfectly right off the bat. So just be patient with yourself, you're going to have some some days that you're going to take a step forward, and then some that you're going to take a step back, just stick with it until it becomes ingrained. As a habit it could take, it could take several weeks, but start where you are not where you should be. So I'm curious, I know, I covered a lot today. So from everything that I covered, what was the most valuable thing for you? I'd love to have you type in the chat, you know, everything that we covered a What was the thing that was most valuable for you?
Speaker 1 (51:20)
Yeah, we can. And we can also if you have questions, we can also allow, like, I can allow people to talk. So you know, people want to want to ask questions, or want to dive into something more specifically, let me know, we can, we can definitely if you I think you can raise your hand and I can allow you to talk and we can have a conversation about it as well. Since we just have a few more minutes before our session is over. But yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, for me, you know, the the thing that's always valuable about I mean, there's a lot of it, that's valuable to me, the the strategic, taking the time to be intentional and strategic is always the is always going to be important for me. So when I feel overwhelmed, and when I feel like I'm doing too much. The The last thing I want to do is sit down and plan. Yes, that's, that's the thing that I need most is to sit down and, and plan and to go through it and to say this is this is how I'm going to plan this out. This is how I'm gonna think about this. That's the, that's the first thing. So kind of slowing down to speed up, you know, or to get the time back that I feel like I'm missing.
Speaker 2 (52:57)
Exactly. That's, that's right on. So just a couple final thoughts, and we'll open up for q&a. You know, running your own agency, it's an amazing way to have freedom, and really make an impact. I can't think of a better way to do it. But the journey is not for the faint of heart. If you've been in this, you know, six months, a year or more. You know, you know what I'm talking about? So whatever you do, don't do the journey alone. And that's what I love about the founders group is that be a part of a community be a part of advisors, mentors, peers, that can help you but just don't try to do to do it alone. That's the that's the most difficult way forward. All right, so we'll open up for some q&a, if you want to connect with me. Here's my email, LinkedIn and Twitter. And then if you want to jump on one of those four, agency hustle audits, go to agency house audits.com. But with that, let's open up for some q&a.
Speaker 1 (54:05)
Well, if we don't get any, any q&a All I'll ask one question that I have, which is as folks, what you you talk to a ton agency owners, and you see the issues so blatantly there? What's like, what do you think is the the thing that is the immediate, one of the biggest unlocks for them? I mean, it's you talked about, you know, some of the things today you talked about taking a day off you talked about the phone is it though that where they started looking at the calendar and and assessing that first or what what's the piece that and all the times that you've done this and meaningless to work with hundreds of agency owners to this point, that he's like, Oh, wow, that's such a good point. I when you're really looking at the calendar with them or whatever that is.
Speaker 2 (54:57)
Yeah, Andrew, that's a great question. And it's actually The first practice or you can use the term habit that I teach is, you know, when I talked about like the maker in the morning, a manager in the afternoon and like, cut out all, you know, like email, all input and just work in deep work. That's the ideal. A lot of most people that I've talked to are so far from that they're there, you know, the moment they sit down to their, their laptop, or their computer or their device, they're on and they're getting, you know, notice pop, pop ups, notifications, email slacks. So the first thing I recommend doing is blocked off the first hour of your day of your workday. And shout out the world for that shout out all notifications, distractions, don't check email or slack and dive into the one thing that's going to make the biggest difference for your, for your agency, you know, and even say, in the next year to get where you want to go. Block off that, that least that first hour, and gradually increase that as you have success up to let's say, four hours, you know, and that's that's the one habit that I think is made the made the biggest difference and I in of all the clients that I've worked with those that can really nail down that habit. The impact and the trajectory of of their business in their life has just been off the charts of it
Speaker 1 (56:37)
well, if there's no other questions right now, you have Chris's contact information. This is gonna this is recorded for all of the members as well. So if you're watching this in the recording, Chris is available for you. He's in the membership. He's also available for you the email and anytime but Chris, thank you for joining us today and doing this. I appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker (56:55)
It's my pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Andrew.