Hello you community builders! This is your host Bill Strand and today I wanted to talk about time. When you are building a business you have a love/ hate relationship with time.  Every second is precious and there never seems to be enough of it to get all the action items done. And so we spend our days managing every minute and, no matter what we are doing, we are always asking ourselves if time would be better spent doing something else. That is certainly the way to make sure we are being as productive as humanly possible. Though I have to say that I have been wondering if we are truly a good judge of what is humanly possible. I think we drop the humanly off of it and try to figure out what is possible on after burners. A double espresso doesn’t give enough pep. Ha, that is why they invented a triple espresso!

So, why do we push so hard? Are we trying to prove something? Are we driven to accomplish something? Are we being chased by something? Reasons will be different for everyone.  But I wonder if we ever make it to the point of leveling off the effort. Do we just never get there? Or do we keep moving the goal posts? I don’t have an answer on that.

The line blurs when you are building a business in the field you love. I love what I am doing so much that on my downtime I am working on it. When my wife calls me on it and says I shouldn’t be working I innocently say I am not. Because relaxation for me is working on the things that don’t have a deadline. It is a luxury to craft a podcast episode or website tutorial that doesn’t have a looming publish-or-die date attached to it.  But I think we all know that that is a recipe for a cataclysmic crash waiting sometime in the future. So, I think this episode may be raising a warning flag about the go-go-go.

Once again, I am going against the grain of the work harder message the entrepreneurial community is famous for. But that message is slammed so hard because it has to get over our natural love for the first half of Newton’s first law of motion. An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. So the motivational messages have to amp it up to be able to be a big enough unbalancing force to get over the intense friction that resists the movement of our butts off of the couch.

But, what about the people who do not need motivation? What about the people that are driven to accomplish something. And I don’t say driven to succeed in the sense of riches. I mean, driven to accomplish something. To fulfill a purpose. A mission. There were so many times I was spending way too much time on an educational class for an aspect of the chameleon community and a voice in back was asking how this is going to put a roof over my head. And I always just had to hope that people would keep buying cages so I could pay the bills while I was doing something that had no direct effect on marketing. To those familiar with digital marketing terms, Content marketing is what they call it when you produce helpful and educational content to promote a general brand awareness. That is great as a part of the entire marketing portfolio, but when you are just hoping it works because you are driven by purpose instead of marketing strategy it can get a little hair raising…especially for the other people in the house who are counting on you to make wise time management decisions and keep that roof as part of the family.

When you are driven by purpose instead of marketing strategy it is very easy to be consumed by it and have literally no down time. Do you dream of what you are working on? Yeah…I got bad news for you…that mind is not taking a break when you think it is. I remember lulling off to sleep in the passenger seat and then jerked awake and through my hazy grogginess told my daughter the frames were after me. There is an online photo/graphics processing program called Canva that is optimized for creating social media elements. And they have an incredibly useful feature called frames where you can get an outline of a computer screen or iPhone or T-shirt and place any image on top. That images will then be snapped into the screen area of the frame. So you can easily create a picture of a phone with your image on it, for example. So what happens when artificial intelligence gets out of hand and instead of us placing images on the frames, the frames gain awareness and start looking for images to gobble up. Or… the image makers.  You see where this is going and the dangerous world that I find in that twilight between sleep and awake? You think I might be deep in? Maybe…so this episode is for the side of the entrepreneurial spectrum that does not need motivation. This is for the side that could be consumed by the process.

But let’s not write us all off as just having some sort of mental condition. There is also a realistic sense of urgency that powers us. Is your job damaging to your health? And by this I mean is it so toxic that you have emotional, mental, or physical breakdowns? Considering how many managers take out their emotional insecurities on the people under them this isn’t that rare. So you could be under pressure to create that side business because it is your only escape. Find another job you are told! Well, what if there isn’t another job? There are any number of reasons why people find themselves trapped in a toxic situation. And the quicker they build a sustainable financial stream that isn’t laced with venom the sooner they can start healing. Nothing motivates you to give up binge watching movies like knowing you are dying every day that you don’t have this option built up enough. And if you think I am being dramatic then count yourself lucky that you don’t know how many people live under those conditions. I have worked with them and I have been one of them. Most just bear it. Only a few are able to see their way to building an escape route.

What about age? What if you are in your 50s or 60s or 70s. Building a business takes time. I am part of the 401k generation where it isn’t clear how those later years will be handled. Social security may or may not be around when we retire. Who knows what is going on with that. And the 401k is great in theory, but I know there is a general unease in the mob as to whether it will be enough. And finding jobs can get a little more difficult in those upper years. So, combine inadequate savings, an experience level that may exceed what a company values in a cog in their wheel, and a growing sense of mortality and there is a sense of urgency that may drive you extra hard. How many more working years do you have to establish a business that can take care of you and your spouse in the later years?

Or you just might be thrust into unexpected circumstances like so many people I have talked to had happen during the 2020 pandemic where they found they were out of work and their reptile hobby business was moving enough that it was conceivable that it could pay the bills with a shot in the arm of more time. So, now it is up to you to make it happen before the savings runs out. Starting your own business is exciting, but when it needs growth before it can pay the bills that just keep a comin’ you hear this ticking clock in the background of your life.

So, it may not be just in your mind. You may not be a workaholic, on the spectrum, or any other pop term. You might be concerned about the near and far future. Sound familiar? If so, just remember, as a side note, you are the lucky one. How many people do you hear complaining about the exact same demon that haunts you – whatever it is. Not being happy with their situation. Toxic work place. Dreaming of doing something fulfilling with their life. Being laid off. Worrying about how they will retire. Seeing the years evaporate and not having much to show for it. living paycheck to paycheck. These are all situations any of us could find ourselves in. The suffocating trap is when you don’t know what to do about it or, worse, have accepted it and are no longer looking for a way out. So, you may have one of those anxieties. You may be low-grade running scared. Now, you may have a situation completely different, but with the same end result. But, at least take a little comfort that you know there is a possibility of a way out and you are working towards that. Just knowing that we can take charge of our life is the first step to escaping.

If you are young, financially stable, and your biggest concern is boredom and living a life without purpose then you are in an excellent position. Realize that your biggest danger is comfort. Most of the middle class will not rise above that because why risk a comfortable thing? And, I am not sure I have a compelling argument against that! But know, that if you do have that sense that you need to be doing something else that now is the time to do it. The opportunities now with the internet and being able to literally run a business from your phone mean you can do so much. But you have to do it. Your advantage is that you have time. But the sense of urgency for you is to take it seriously now – before you blink and find yourself with a mortgage, funding a couple college educations, and wondering if that 401k is going to be enough. The greatest type of time is time to make and recover from mistakes.

So, where does this leave us? Well, I am hoping that this episode just gives you the time to think about what drives you. Is it a desire for a greater purpose? A sense of urgency with fleeting time? Maybe you just work all the time because you are doing what you love and you have successfully made your passion your livable income. That is what I call success no matter how much the income is! But with that insight into what drives you and what is important to you you might be better prepared to have a conversation with your partner and kids as to why you are doing what you are doing. And, it has to be honest. None of this wrapping it up in the reason that you think makes you the underdog or hero and is designed to get sympathy or admiration. None of this manipulation garbage that everyone instinctively knows isn’t the truth. I am talking about the deep down real reason that drives you. Share that with the closest people in your life. The ones that are your support staff. The ones that are sacrificing time with their favorite person for your goal. Let them know what that goal is. And, yes, the hardest part may be figuring it out yourself. Oh, we are so good at creating those hero narratives in our head and believing it ourselves. I encourage you to take some time and really figure out what is driving you. And then share the good, the bad, and the fears with the people that care the most about you. I understand that some of you may not have a person close enough to trust. That is just the reality of life. But, at least be honest with yourself. That will have to be enough.

So, where do we go from here. Well, we charge forward! No matter what drives you, we need to make forward progress and get there. Obviously, you are the one who knows your situation best. All I can do here is help however a voice from the ether can! Well, there actually are some things I can do.

And I am going to start with websites. Starting a website is one of the foundations of having a business in this digital world. You can review episode 2 for all the reasons why a website is so important. But I am pretty far into making a class that will lead you through a step-by-step process from having and understanding nothing to creating a functioning ecommerce website which is not only capable of having your products listed for sale, but will have branded products for sale that we will develop during our time together. I am going to kick this class off during next week’s Thursday meditation. Since I get to do anything I want on Thursdays I am going to use the next four Thursdays to get everyone who wants to have a website having a website! I am setting it up so you can do a little every day. It will probably take an average of 30 minutes a day depending on what we are doing. But, by the end of this four week time you will have that website. It will cost you around $100 for the hosting and such. We will do some logo creation so that can be anywhere from free to hundreds of dollars depending on your ability and what you want. But that is it. The biggest thing holding most people back from having that website is not knowing what to do or what all the terms mean or what they need. We all know it is all sitting on YouTube just waiting for us to spend the time to slog through videos and and pick out which ones are giving the right information. Well, I need to put together an ecommerce website right now and so I will be doing it right along side you and will be showing you exactly what I use and will explain why. So you can follow the exact steps I lay out and watch me as I do them. There. It doesn’t get more real or useful than that. This project is a little bit more straight forward as far as putting a roof over my head. Because a number of the services I use have affiliate links all I have to do is have you click those links when you buy the hosting services and, at no additional cost to you, they will pay for the time to put together this class and run the program. So this whole thing will cost you only what you buy as far as website hosting and logo creation and whatnot. So this is one of those rare situations where all three parties get something out of the process. So, if you have been thinking about making a website then join me starting next Thursday. I will lead this on the reptileentrepreneur.com website, the reptile_entrepreneur Instagram account, and this podcast. There will be lots of YouTube videos, but you won’t get context unless you access them through the website.

So, I have no answers for how we approach time and how it just disappears other than to make the most of every moment. I know that sounds like a useless cliché. And that is how it is usually used. But if you are one of those people who are driven for a purpose and you value each minute then I think we are the ones that can truly live that saying. I have to share that one of the most humbling and sense of purpose moments I have had was when a listener shared with me that, after listening to one of these meditation episodes, he decided to take the next day off of work to take his daughter to her first day of kindergarten. That guy gets it. When I sit and think about the successful people I bumped into because of this show, he is high on that list.

So, you know, we all have a place here in the community. Our community needs all of us. The breeders, the manufacturers, the distributors, the artists, the keepers…all of us. And the most important thing we can do is find where we want to be and if we are spending time, we spend time building that place where we want to be. Sometimes I laugh when I look at what I am doing. I am trying to carve out a place helping people start websites and podcasts and YouTube channel and breeding businesses in this frontier niche of the reptile community. What in the world am I doing with my life? I am having the time of my life. That is what I am doing. I am working from before sun up to after sun down, but I am taking breaks to watch shows with my daughter, chasing my dogs around the yard, and giving my wife random hugs during the day. I have no idea how this is going to end. But I would rather see how this story ends than try to cram myself into a mold where I just don’t belong. So, I am going to hang out here with the rest of you people who get that “I am sorry, I don’t understand, what did you say you do?” from anyone who asks you your job. I don’t know what all is on your to-do list, that minute to minute account of your life, but if making a website is on there then I can at least help get that one off!  And, that is what I am doing with my life!

 So raise a glass of that triple espresso and put another quarter in the rocket ship ride. This is Bill Strand signing off! I’ll see you next time!