0 (2s):
Late that spark fire nation. JLD here with an audio master class on three steps to making more impact in more money with less time to drop these value bombs. I have brought Joe Lao on the mic. He is founded in sold several six and seven figure companies while working 25 hours per week. His approach simplifies the process by focusing on the things that truly matter in fire nation today, we'll talk about Joe's biggest struggle as an entrepreneur. Why so many people struggle with a work-life balance, how to best prioritize your to-do lists, how to focus and today's distracted world in so much more. When we get back from thinking our sponsors,

1 (43s):
We're all looking

0 (44s):
For new ways to stay active from home these days and fight camp can help fight. Can't brings the boxing gym right to your home with a mix of cardio and conditioning for a full body workout. Visit joinfightcamp.com/fire. To get free shipping on your new gym today, that's joinfightcamp.com/fire. Looking for a business coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you to increase our profitability by an average of 104% per year, all for less money than it would cost to hire a full-time minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today with Clay Clark, a former small business administration entrepreneur of the year at thrivetimeshow.com/fire thrivetimeshow.com/fire.

0 (1m 27s):
Joe say what's up the fire nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people,

1 (1m 33s):
I don't know. Ooh, fire nation. What is up, John? I'm super excited to be here. Something most people don't know about me. I was tased with a taser. I law enforcement. Wow.

0 (1m 48s):
I need, I need a little background here because I feel like this is going to be a good vision.

1 (1m 52s):
So yes, you don't have to be a bad guy to be tasty. And here's how so I had this business, which I sell self-defense products like Stan guns and tasers. So I'm one of those guys that I can only sell to things that I believe in and know exactly how it works. So in this case, lucky me, I had to find out what a taser works. So, so I sign up for a taser certificate program that law enforcement has to take if they want to carry a taser. Right. So when did this class, I'm five, 10 and weighed about 155 pounds and skinny Chinese dude. And everyone around me was six feet tall, 200 pounds.

1 (2m 33s):
And they all like some kind of serious law enforcement. Right? So, so I really, I really stood out, but not in a good way. All right. So I went to class star, they just instructor us who wants to be tasted. I feel people raise their hand and volunteer. And of course they picked me can be for, you know, one big guy sat on my left, holding my arm and not a bad guy. So my right hood in my arm. And I was like, what's going on then shock. They say, okay, we just want make sure that you don't fall on your face and break your nose. Okay. That's confident. So the instructor sat behind me and I, here you go. So he goes, I taser taser, boom. Then he hit me with a taser in my back, man.

1 (3m 16s):
I tell you it, her and I, and yes, I screamed and I just fell straight through the grass. So fire nation, personal advice, if you happen to be in a situation that a police is pointing a taser at you, my advice is stop doing whatever you're doing. And just listen, because I'm telling you because it hurts like a, you know what I was,

0 (3m 41s):
Yeah. I can tell you being in the military, we actually had to go through some training where we actually got gassed and we had to take off our gas mask in the room where the gas is going off and you're like, Oh, I can handle it. I can make it happen. And let me tell you, like, you are completely immobilized when it happens. Like you just start, you know, mucus is coming out of your nose. Your eyes are just watering. You can't keep them open. I mean, it was an experience that I literally still can just basically taste that gas in my mouth. So I, I can say via nation, just be a good person. And as I was sharing earlier with you fire nation today, we'll be talking about three steps to making more impact and more money with less time.

0 (4m 24s):
So these are some good steps you're going to hear. And I want to just start off by getting a little bit of background with you, Joe. So what was your biggest struggle as an entrepreneur to getting to where you're at today?

1 (4m 37s):
My biggest struggle is definitely time. It feels like I never have enough time. Right? So on this particular night I was working late on my second business. It just happened to be, is my stunt getting and taste of business. Oh Lord. So financially I was doing, it was doing pretty well, but I was really busy. So I was working really late. And I finally got a chance to went downstairs and grab some dinner with my wife and I, as she was talking to me the entire time. But I, sorry, I didn't hear what that's you say? Because my body was there, but my mind was still thinking about work. So I just keep like shoveling food in my mouth and try to rush back to work. And when I'm finished, I get back to my home office. I was looking at my gigantic whiteboard.

1 (5m 18s):
And as I'm checking things off, I find myself putting twice as many things back to the list. I was so overwhelmed and frustrated because I think to myself, when I would ever get ahead of this and all of a sudden my wife came in and she gave me this look right. You can feel it. It's kind of like the calm before the storm. So as you asked me this, are you coming to bed? Also look at us, look at us, look at this huge Liz, not even halfway done. And then she just really gave me this really sad look and she left. So I went back to work, right? It's legit. I'm not playing, I'm working. So I went back to work. So as I was, man, I started to feel really guilty.

1 (6m 1s):
And all of a sudden it hits me. I am my father. I realized, and I realized I'm married to this amazing woman. I'm not willing married to her. I'm married to my business. Just like my father. He was always busy. He's always put his work first. You'll see John, when I was young, my parents got divorced, right? So it was just me and my father left and he loves me, but he who's never around because he just works a lot. So I decided when I grew up, I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to own my business so I can make all the money I have all the time to spend my family. Well, we all know how that goes. So that was really a wake up call for me.

1 (6m 41s):
And because I constantly feel guilty at work when, when I'm not spending time with my family. And when I finally spend time with my family, I feel guilty for not putting time for my work. So start to wonder if there's such thing as work, life balance and how to do that. So I spent the next few years and tons of money on causes, workshop coaches, and trying to learn everything about play mindset, time management, positivity, you name it, anything that I can get a hands on to help me to get this work-life balance. And after two years of artists like, yeah, God does, but Nope, no, it just put me back way more. So I finally figured it out. So for the past decade, I was fortunate enough to find six companies and sold three of them, but that's not my proudest achievement.

1 (7m 26s):
So today instead of working 50, 60 hours a week, I now worked a productive 25 hours a week. And he's still up having a huge to-do list that make tiny impact and I'll have a tiny list. They make a huge impact to my business. And instead of not able to spend how my family and my wife today, I spent so much time with my family. They actually sick of me. What my, when people ask my kids, what I do for a living, John, I'm telling you, they literally tell the teacher that I don't work. I just play with them all day. That that's not okay. I tell you. So today I tell people I'm a part-time entrepreneur and a full-time family, a full-time family man.

1 (8m 6s):
And my schedules allow me to have this amazing life that I'm like Hispanic. My family put a huge smile on my face every single day. And that's my mission to do the same thing for auto entrepreneur. So they can have this amazing life as well. It's because you see, I believe you should never have to sacrifice your personal life for professional gain. When you master the art and science of being productive, money, relationship, health, whatever you dream off, you can actually have it all.

0 (8m 33s):
So true. Fire nation. I've experienced it over the eight years of continuing to strive towards better productivity by doing things and creating systems and building the right teams, et cetera. And I just love that phrase that Joe shared about, you know, going from a big to-do list and making a little impact, or getting a little done to having a tiny to-do list and getting so much down and having so much impact. And you mentioned work-life balance Joe. And so many people struggle with that. Very thing work-life balance. So what are a couple of your top tips on how you do this successfully?

1 (9m 7s):
All right. I have a little system that I have is called app system. Yep. You heard it right. It's an app. So app, but this app is not an app. They download to your phone. It's an app that you download to your brain, a Stanford attitude and a P stand for productivity and the last piece temper people. And today I want to dive right into the productivity portion, which has three sections, which I call it SPF. I have a lot of acronyms. I know you like them too. So before today you think about SPF is protect your skin. So hopefully after today in this call, you think of SPF is to protect a time. So to answer your question, a lot of people ask me, okay, how do you fit everything into your schedule between business and family?

1 (9m 50s):
Right? And it's a great question. The truth is I don't, I don't try to fit everything into my schedule. You see, when it comes to scheduling, F1 is sinking about fricking filling things. In I'm saying it is about taking things out to make rooms for things that matter things that would take you from where you are to where you want to be. I call this intentional scheduling. So I use the Tom blocking technique. What you do is you block out some time, you block out some of the time on a regular basis, where does 30 minutes an hour, few hours is not important. The key is consistency. And during those times you only work on one thing. It will move the needle.

1 (10m 32s):
It is not about being perfect. It is about breaking things down into simple, small steps and making progress. Dan, you will plan the rest of your schedule around that tumbler. And you can have multiple tumbler for the day for all the important things like workout, play, spend time, yourself and your family, whatever you like when you stick to this technique, no matter how your days go in the long run, you're going to achieve everything that you want because you're making progress to your goal every single time. And that's what I call it. Intentional scale,

0 (11m 3s):
Intentional scheduling. And that's just a word that I feel like so many of us don't even utilize in our day-to-day life, intentional scheduling and just being intentional in general. Cause fire nation, if you're not being intentional, what you're doing, you're just being haphazard. And again, you're having these big to-do lists and getting little done as opposed to tiny to-do lists and making massive impact. So, Joe, what do you want to share to close down this specific topic we're talking about right now with those top tips on how to have that work-life balance in a meaningful way.

1 (11m 37s):
Cool. The second steps I want to talk about is prioritized to impact. Now I have a three, a simple three step process called palletizer impact. And one of my students Roseanne asked me what the heck is. That is a mouthful, right? And we met at this one of my workshop as she's your typical entrepreneurial Jon high achiever, very capable. She wants to learn everything and do everything. It's just constantly being busy. And she has this huge to do list and everything on it is important. And she asked me how to prioritize it. So you see being busy is different than being productive. Being busy is about getting things done.

1 (12m 19s):
Being productive is about getting the important things done. So every time when you're not prioritized impact, you're wasting time leaving money on the table. And more importantly, you're not achieving your mission. So the three steps I call it www to pile ties to impact is who what, and when the first step is who, what you need to do is to figure out who you are and your true value and your identity. And what you want to be known for is because when your time spent is not aligned with your value and your identity, you're going to have burnout regret and live a mediocre life. The two of us, I don't know what is truly important.

1 (13m 0s):
If you don't know what is truly important to you, how do you know what is important? Right? So first figured out your value and your identity and what you want to be known for. The second step is what first ask yourself this question. What is your goal? What is the finish line look like for this product service project or even a business right at down. And it asks us up this simple question on every single item on your to-do list. You ready? The question is what could possibly happen if I say no to this and why? Right. Ask this question. This will force you to think logically, once you're done with this lab, once you, once you're done with this step, your list is going to shrink a lot.

1 (13m 43s):
I guarantee you and whatever is left on this on the list is probably important. Now the last step is when, and this is my secret sauce. What are you doing right now is joy timeline and ask yourself, when do they become important? There are a lot of important things in business. That's true, but they usually don't become important at the same time. Let's say you're starting a business or launching a new product. The two main events, marketing and transaction. So what'd you do is you draw two vertical lines and divide and divide your timeline to three areas. If you look at it, each area is like a stage of business, right? The stage on the left, in this case, it's like, pre-marketing the middle stages between marketing and transaction and a stage on the right is after transaction.

1 (14m 30s):
So what you would do is look at your remaining to do lists, which are all the things should be important and see which stage the items falls in. And each stage your item will go in order from top to bottom. So you have something like one, two, three, four on the left stage in this example, pre-marketing and then you have another one, two, three, four, go down list on the middle station. In this case will be marketing and transaction. And then you'll also have one, two, three, four, five, whatever you have left in the last stage, which is the transaction after transaction and boom, just like that is to have a one dimension to do list. You now have a two dimension. This what I call a success list. And because you are divided and because they are divided by stages, when implemented properly, you now have an actionable brew pin to get all the important things done in most efficient way.

1 (15m 21s):
The last step is focused to finish. Now I'm going to get going. This one keep on rolling brother of a gig is up. All right. So when it comes to focus, entrepreneurs are thinking about it wrong. The other thing about it like this, the key focus is just thinking about one thing they should be thinking about. Like this, the key to focus is eliminating or other distractions. I call it focus to finish that two types of distractions, internal and external. And today I want to focus on the external distractions. Now you're putting all the effort to intentionally schedule your work with Tom blocking, and then you figured out what needs to be worked on by prioritize impact.

1 (16m 9s):
Now let's make sure you actually get it done on distracted. So there are five secrets for undistracted focus. The first secret is communicate with those around you. You are important person, which is a great thing, and people want your time and attention. And that's an indicator that you're important. So you should embrace that right. Is a positive thing. The key to harmony is communicate your work schedule your time block when you are, when you are going, when are you going to start and finish? And when you will be available to them, put up a no interrupt the sign, close the door and get to work. When you communicate, keep people in the loop and set expectation.

1 (16m 51s):
It will. I mean, you no longer feel guilty. You're focusing on your work and not them. So that's secret number one,

0 (16m 57s):
All right, fire nation. We're going to get to these other four strategies. As soon as we get back from thinking our sponsors, looking for a business coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you to increase their profitability by an average of 104% per year, all for less money than would cost to hire a full-time at minimum wage employee, I, our nation meet Clay. Clark clay has been coaching businesses just like yours since 2006. Yep. Even through the great recession. And he does it for less money than would cost to hire a full-time minimum wage employee at a time when Inc magazine reports that by default 96% of businesses will fail. Within 10 years. Clay's helping businesses like yours to grow on average by 104% annually. How's this even possible Clay only takes on 160 clients.

0 (17m 38s):
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0 (18m 22s):
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0 (19m 18s):
So Joe we're back and I'm really loving how you're breaking down these five secrets, you know, to stay focused in this incredibly distracted world that we live in here today, you've already shared one. You've got four more to share. Now in fire nation, I know that some of this may be kind of difficult to follow just in the audio only version, but make sure you stick around until the end. Joe's got something pretty special for you that we will share. Joe, take it away with numbers two through five.

1 (19m 43s):
All right, let's do this. The second secret is what I call, create a stop like effects. This one is my favorite. You know, you like to work on a clean space. You just don't like to clean it. Right? And that's one of the reason that you like to go to places like Starbucks. Yeah. Because every time, every time when you get there, you can expect the place to be clean. So we can just sit down and just jump right into work. So why not create a Sam thing at home or your office? So this is how you do it. Have a workspace that is only for work. I would literally put up a sign there. So no one would do anything except for you do work. The key is Fonny clean, leave it clean and have it ready to go all the time.

1 (20m 29s):
And that's the stock secret. Hashtag bring your own coffee. So tip number three to secret. Number three is to turn off all notifications. Now this seems like an obvious choice, right? But it is extremely important. Research showed up every time when you are distractor, it takes about 20 minutes. Get back to focus. Imagine you only get distracted light three times a day. I mean, that's a good day. That's a whole hour wasted. I don't know about you, but I definitely can use Aisha hour a day. So what do we do as this? Leave your phone iPad and all your attention grabbing devices, our website of mine, close your Facebook and all your social media set up, do not disturb on your phone.

1 (21m 12s):
And computer implemented our office email and remember there's time for those things, but just not when you're trying to focus and get things done. So that's secret number three, secret number four, remove clutter virtually only half the file that you're working on open and make sure you clean up your desktop. I know some of us that like to use our desktop as a file folder, but that, that, that is okay. But when your work just create a new folder and drag everything in that little tiny folder, and when you're done, just bring it back out. It was to be there, chose me. So the second thing is for your fees for physically, keep only the things out that you need to work on for this one particular test.

1 (21m 57s):
When you clear both your virtual and physical workspace, your brain is now clear to focus and that's secret number four. All right, last secret, last but not least secret number five. This is a fun one are from your goal. Yes, I've imagined is one of the most effective self improvement techniques. Basically you write on your, go read it out loud to yourself every day, visualize and feel the success you want the cheap. So why not use it with your Tom block? What do you do is write on your, go in just a few words on a sticky note. You're not supposed to write a whole paragraph, write just a few words. That's how you are sick. You know, for your work session, his study showed up, you have 42% more likely to achieve your goals.

1 (22m 44s):
If you write them down, then what you would do is read it out loud to yourself, visualize and feel how you were few when you finish what you set out to do without for the particular Tom block session. So the key is, write it out, read it out and make it clear and focus on one thing only and get it done. And these are the five secrets for undistracted focus,

0 (23m 7s):
Fire nation. I'm just going to circle back to two that I really resonate with. Number one is the creates a Starbucks effect. I mean, I love just coming back to a clean space. I always, as the last thing I do every day is just do a complete sweep of my office so that when I walk in in the morning, I'm just like, yes, this space feels clean and I'm just excited to be in here. And then affirm your goal. I mean, 42%, that's a massive number. So fire nation affirm your goal. And Joe let's end with a bang. What do you wish you knew when you first started out? Share that with fire nation,

1 (23m 42s):
Man, John so many things, but one thing is I wish I knew how much time, money and stress are saved myself by just working with a coach who has done what I want to achieve. Like, like, let me give you a lot. We will live example, right? So I like to stay fit. And I have been working with our personal trainers a few years ago. I want to take my game to the next level. So I decided to try something completely different. I wonder what was someone who live and breathe fitness? So I decided to work with a professional boxer and man, I thought I knew fitness, but this guy is a whole new level.

1 (24m 23s):
And not only he knows a mindset and the tactics on how to get me to the best shape of my life. The most important thing is he taught me how to live and breathe like athlete. So I can stay for the rest of my life every single day. And that changed my life completely and find nation, whatever you want to achieve, don't try to do it alone. If it's money, find someone who has a lot of money learn from them. If it's time, find someone who lives a productive life, learn from them. When you do that, not only you save yourself a ton of time and money and stress, you actually get to where you want to be a lot faster birder and more importantly have so much more fun along the way.

0 (25m 5s):
You have dropped a ton of value bombs and fire nation. I really hope you're going to apply one too. Who knows? Maybe you all started gonna apply three of these secret strategies that Joe has shared with us today in your life for what is going to turn out to be massive results, Joe, I know you got something special for fire nation. So take a minute to share it. And then we'll say goodbye

1 (25m 26s):
Aristotle. One of the greatest philosophers said, knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom, find nation. Your business is that we've flashing of your beliefs and values. It has real impact on how your business runs and grows. One of the best kept secrets of a successful entrepreneurs. They all know themselves and their values very well. I want to offer you a chance to take a very useful personality assessment. This assessment is value-based as only going to take you 90 seconds to complete this powerful assessment is responsible for helping some of my students to gap a few hours of the time.

1 (26m 7s):
Every single day, it has also helped the artists identify and delegate 90% of their work so they can completely free themselves up for the things that matter as a special gift for five nation. I just loved you guys, right? Based on the unique result of the assessment, I will personally give you three custom tips that you can implement right away on how to skyrocket your productivity so we can get things done faster. And stress-free these a hundred percent customized tips for you. It's because everyone is different. The two of us, we all have strings and witnesses, J O D has them. I have them every single successful guests that come on this show hassled.

1 (26m 49s):
The secret to being a successful entrepreneur is all about maximizing your strength and delegating your witnesses. Now I'm going to help you to do that. So let's take the assessment www.moretimetospend.com/fire and get your three custom tips today.

0 (27m 8s):
Fire nation. Are you maximizing your strengths and delegating your weaknesses? I hope so, or I hope you're at least moving in that direction. Let this assessment help more time to spend.com/fire and fire nation. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with JL and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And if you head over to EOFire.com and type Joe in the search bar, his insurance page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about today. Best show notes in the biz, and again, fire nation and your call to action is that assessment moretimetospend.com/fire.

0 (27m 48s):
Joe, thank you brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with fire nation today, for that we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side

1 (27m 57s):
That your John's Hey,

0 (27m 59s):
Fire nation today's value bomb content was brought to you by Joe and successful entrepreneurs. They accomplish big goals, huge goals, and that's what I created the freedom journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal. And we're talking to 100 days, fire nation step-by-step. So visit the freedom journal.com use promo code podcast for a $15 discount as a thank you for listening to my podcast and I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side. We're all looking for new ways to stay active from home these days and fight camp can help fight. Camp brings the boxing gym right to your home with a mix of cardio and conditioning for a full body workout.

0 (28m 39s):
Visit joinfightcamp.com/fire to get free shipping on your new gym today, that's joinfightcamp.com/fire. Looking for a business coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you to increase your profitability by an average of 104% per year, all for less money than would cost to hire a full-time minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today with Clay Clark, a former small business administration entrepreneur of the year at thrivetimeshow.com/fire thrivetimeshow.com/fire.