Welcome to the Freak Show podcast, hosted by Sam Thurmond and Jacqueline Steele Thurmond. Sam is an Air Force Academy graduate and veteran who, after his service and two deployments, escaped the nine-to-five grind by building a real estate investing business that has, to date, accounted for over$50 million in real estate transactions. Jacqueline is an award-winning musician, former owner of boutique branding agency Steele International, and We are
SPEAKER_01so excited to welcome you to the Freak Show podcast, where we center our content around the frequency of belief.
SPEAKER_02Why? Because when we overcome fear and self-doubt, basically by getting out of our own way, we can make the impossible possible.
SPEAKER_01And in this podcast, we are going to share our favorite mindset tools and life lessons that have completely transformed our lives and businesses. So without further ado,
SPEAKER_03let's get freaky.
SPEAKER_01I just had a latte and it's hitting. Have people talked about productivity in podcasts before? Yes. Is it an overdone topic? Yes. He's laughing at me because this caffeine is hitting hard, but I think it's really important. You're going to get me so off topic.
SPEAKER_02Damn episode done is what
SPEAKER_01it sounds like. I don't drink a lot of caffeine. And so when I, when I do get a straight up hit, it, it slams, it slaps.
SPEAKER_02I'm jealous.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But we have seven points that we want to make and I don't want to like beat a dead horse or do things that people have already done. But I think you and I over the last month have been incredibly productive and it's because we have battened down the hatches. We have had better boundaries and we have been focusing our energy in in a much more efficient way. And so I think it's important to talk about those things because I think it's really helpful. And people always want to know how to be more productive, right?
SPEAKER_02Right. Yes.
UNKNOWNCorrect.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Do you want to... Do you want to talk about point number one then?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're going to have to slow down the speed of the track so everybody's like, am I listening to this one and a half speed?
SPEAKER_01I didn't really even realize I was talking so fast.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so what was your question? Anything to add around that?
SPEAKER_01No, I said, do you want to take point number one?
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. All right. Yes, I will take... Point number one. And as point number one, it is putting first things first. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Classic Stephen Covey principle.
SPEAKER_02Right. I mean, that's kind of, I guess, point one and point two are similar in a little bit. But putting first things first, it's prioritizing, racking and stacking what you have to do, what your tasks are, what your goals are, and making sure that those things that have the biggest impact. I feel like...
SPEAKER_01Sorry, my leg's shaking too.
SPEAKER_02Making sure that
SPEAKER_01you're... I'm like an addict.
SPEAKER_02Give me more. There's a couple ways to go about it. You've got the whole eat the frog principle where... You take the biggest thing that you don't want to do and you do that first to get it out of the way because that builds momentum. It gives you a sense of accomplishment because you did the thing you didn't want to do. But at the same time, that's not always what's going to have the biggest impact on your business or your life or whatever it is. But ultimately, you want to do whatever's going to create a lot of momentum for you and whatever's going to have the biggest impact. You want to do that first.
SPEAKER_01And ignore all the other stuff. And that's the end of the episode. No, just kidding. But Stephen Covey and you're right. Point one and point two go perfectly together because point two is the 80-20 rule. And that is the principle of how... 20% of, I'm not going to be able to explain this right now. 20% of
SPEAKER_02activities or tasks result in 80% of your results, production, whatever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so in order to get shit done-
SPEAKER_02Pareto principle, is that what it's called?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Something like that, if that's not it. But the importance of this is- Having clarity around what you need to do. So it's easy to say, put first things first. It's easy to get behind the 80-20 rule. But what I've found for myself is even though I know these things, if I don't have clarity, like a very clear understanding of what those things are, I still flail and waste a bunch of time.
SPEAKER_03So
SPEAKER_01something that helps me is on Sundays or on Monday mornings, I map out my week and all of the things that I want to accomplish within the week. And that's getting me toward what I want to accomplish within the month or within the year. And that keeps me focused. I would say for people who struggle with prioritizing, either you have too many priorities or you can't figure out any specific priorities, this may be controversial, but you may be in the wrong job. You may not have the right goal. And I say that because when you are in the right job, when you do have a goal that really aligns with what you truly want, I think seeing how to take the next step becomes very easy. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think you could summarize the whole episode and it is one of the points, but when it comes down to getting things done, it is to simplify it. Simplify by prioritizing, simplify by identifying what has the most impact, has the greatest outcome, and just focusing on those things and just simplifying in that way. It
SPEAKER_01makes getting stuff done a lot faster and a lot easier.
SPEAKER_02Because... so much of the hangup is, are the distractions along the way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And if you think about this as like a circle within a circle within a circle, in the nucleus, in the innermost part of the circle is, in the nucleus, if you've seen Nacho Libre, in the innermost part of these circles is your priorities, right? You have to identify clearly what your priorities are and what steps you need to take in order to like, completely accomplish that priority. And then the next circle out I would say is creating a zone in which you have as small amount of distraction as possible. And so I said, put your damn phone away because our phones and even our computers, if we're constantly checking our email, they are so distracting. And I will be thinking of the next thing I need to do. And then all of a sudden a text message comes in. And then if I look at my phone, then I forget the next thing that I was going to do. So if I really want to focus on something, I put my phone away from me. Another great thing to help eliminate distraction is using a timer. And sometimes I have this little strawberry timer that I got on Amazon. Sometimes I will put that on for an hour or 30 minutes or whatever increment you want to do and completely focus like a racehorse that has the little blinder things on on either of their eyes. I focus on the task and you will be astounded at how much you can do when you eliminate distractions. And again, this circles back to like when you're doing something you love or when you're working towards something that's really aligned with where you want to be, it's very easy to do this because it feels good to do it. If you are working towards something that's out of alignment, I agree. Okay. Another thing that I think is important to talk about is monetizing your time. And everybody has heard this saying, but time is money. And if you are wasting a bunch of time checking emails or flipping between web browsers or getting distracted and ADDing through different tasks and bouncing all over the place, you're wasting time and you're essentially wasting time. potential money that you could be earning, right? Oh, I'm about to sneeze, Sam. Mango. Okay. And you don't want to be wasting money, right? Right?
SPEAKER_02That's right. But I think I look at... You're not wrong in what you're saying, but when I say... monetizing time where the way that I take that is or the way I think we intended it
SPEAKER_01was putting a value on your time I need to lay off the caffeine
SPEAKER_02you do is putting a value on the not just on your time, but on the task, putting a value on the task of what you're using your time to do. So is it a$10 an hour task? Is it a hundred dollar an hour task? A thousand,$10,000 an hour task and putting a value on that. So then when you look at it, if you go through your day and all you've done is 90%,$10 an hour tasks, then you're That's ultimately going to be your outcome. But if you spent your day doing$1,000 an hour tasks,$10,000 an hour tasks, that's going to be your income. So it simplifies how you prioritize and also in that process identifies what you need to either create a process around or avoid. who you need to hire and what they should be doing because it's not worth your time to spend your day on those$10 an hour tasks.
SPEAKER_01If your time is worth$1,000 an hour.
SPEAKER_02Right. So maybe you're at a point where you're still learning and you're growing and toward whatever you want to do and you don't have that experience yet. So you have tasks that are$50 an hour tasks or$100 an hour tasks. Well, then you focus on those. And then when you get to the point where you are capable of leveraging your time to create more and more opportunity, that number will grow. But focusing on, and I can do, I am just as guilty of doing this too, because there are so many little$10 an hour tasks that come along with looking for real estate, buying real estate, remodeling houses, managing rental properties, selling them, yada, yada. There are so many little tasks that go along with that. Oftentimes, I catch myself doing those tasks just because they need to get done, whereas I need to have someone else that I pay to you know,$20 an hour to go do 30 of those tasks, you know, today. And I go focus on finding a deal, finding an opportunity, those$10,000 tasks, whatever it is, an hour. And ultimately, that translates to the outcome. That's how you determine and you prioritize and forecast how productive your day was.
SPEAKER_01That was beautifully said. When you first read that, I don't know if it was a meme or it was something that was shared on social media about$10 an hour tasks. Like if you're spending your time on$10 an hour tasks, something, something, something. But you shared it with me and I want to say it was when we still lived in Georgia.
SPEAKER_03And
SPEAKER_01it was so... What's the right word when you are faced with something you don't really want to be faced with? Not activating, but I read it and I realized-
SPEAKER_02Struck a chord with you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I was spending so much of my time on tasks that needed to be done, but in the grand scheme of things were the least important.
SPEAKER_03And
SPEAKER_01that mindset shift of like these$10 an hour tasks forced me to hire someone, but then also it forced me to look at what I was doing. This was before we had Roman and go, is this getting me, is this the 80-20 principle? Is this 20% of what I'm doing getting me 80% of the results? And in so many ways, I was not doing that. So it really helped me like tighten up the ship. Then, The next caveat of that is when you monetize your time is when you have children, I like to ask myself, is this worth time away from Roman? And we pay for someone to watch our son. And so is this task worth what I'm paying this person to watch my son when I could be watching him or whatever? Is this really worth my time? And am I making good use of this time that I'm paying someone else to watch our son? And that has been confronting as well. That's the word I was looking for, confronting. And look, it's uncomfortable when we're talking about productivity, when we're talking about getting shit done. It's uncomfortable to confront... patterns that we have gotten comfortable in. But if we really want to expand beyond them, we have to confront them and we have to get honest with ourselves. And I think we've talked about the first quarter of this year and some of the challenges that we've faced in past episodes, but it was so confronting that it forced me to completely reevaluate how I was approaching my workday, and as a result, I feel like I have become 10 times more productive.
SPEAKER_02Well, we confuse busyness with productivity, and they're not the same thing. You hear that a lot. Yeah. And being able to look at something and put a dollar figure on it when it comes to businesses is just really super helpful to help you identify that 80-20. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so we talked about this a little bit already, but number five on the list is simplicity. And this is really, to me, the best... You're so
SPEAKER_01good
SPEAKER_02at this. It's the way that I work the best is to set a goal, identify the activities involved with achieving that goal, and then putting... just basically putting a daily task or a weekly or monthly, how often they need to be accomplished down and then checking them off as I go. So if I have to talk to an order, I've shared this before, but if I have to talk to, if I have to analyze a hundred deals before I find one that works for us, that means I need to talk to you know, 30 wholesalers. And in order to talk to 30 wholesalers, I need to reach out via text or email or social media X number of times. So I can break that down, each of those tasks, into a daily goal. So I talk to four people a day. That means I end up analyzing 30 deals a day. And then that results in one deal, two deals, three deals a month, whatever it is. So simplifying the tasks, even though those tasks are relatively simple, the yield that they bring is very large. Whereas if I spend my day turning on utilities or canceling insurance or setting up lawn service, whatever it is, I'm not getting... a return out of those other than the fact that they just need to be done. They're not making money. But these other tasks that are relatively take the same amount of time and the same level of complexity, by doing those, they pay off 10x. So as opposed to having what makes it so powerful as opposed to waking up and saying, okay, what do I need to do to be productive today? I already know that. And as long as I as long as I check that box off, I know roughly what my outcome is going to be. And
SPEAKER_01you are so good at this. You are such a good micro thinker. I think I am much more of a macro thinker, but in studying the way you do things,
SPEAKER_02that was like a backwards compliment. No,
SPEAKER_01it was not a backhanded compliment at all. You're such a good
SPEAKER_02small thinker. I'm a much more appalled thinker.
SPEAKER_01No, I don't. No, no, no, no, no,
SPEAKER_02no. I'm joking. I know what you meant.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I did not mean that as a backhanded compliment in any shape or form because you've inspired me so much to approach my workday differently because I used to be so broad with what I was doing that I ended up doing$10 an hour tasks all day long. But you have taught me through studying you and through asking you questions and through watching how you create the outline of your day, you have helped me understand how to do the same. And so for instance, I have several projects that I'm working on right now that I am just bursting at the seams with excitement about, but I want to give you guys some examples of what, or a couple of other examples of what this can look like in your day to day. So let's say you want to write a book. It can feel very daunting to sit down and go, okay, I'm going to start writing a book. However, if you break that down and say, okay, my book is going to be 10 chapters. Okay. I'm going to outline what each chapter is going to be about and I'm going to title it. And then under that chapter, I'm going to have five bullet points that I want to incorporate into the meat and potatoes of this chapter. And then I'm going to have one line at the end that's able to summarize that entire chapter. Okay. And you go step by step and you drill it down from macro to micro. You could do the same thing if you were, let's say, creating an app. You go, okay, I have an idea to create this app. What do I need to do first? Well, I need to have a general idea of what I want this app to do, right? And then you go, okay, now I'm going to find somebody who can create the app. Then you find somebody who can create the app. Then you create designs within the app. Then you create the user experience within the app. Then you create the meat and potato of what is going to be inside of the app and put that in. Then you do testing. Then you release it. There are ways that you can figure out how to drill down all the specifics of what can seem like a very daunting task and make it very bite-sized. There's a saying, and it starts with a question. It says, how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time. And I think that with big goals and big dreams and big projects like the ones we're taking on, Sam, it has become so much easier to get good at finishing out those projects by taking one bite at a time. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01I think the last point we need to make is work like a lion.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I
SPEAKER_01love this one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think the gist behind working like a lion is that, again, we steal ideas from other people that we follow, but the conversation was about...
SPEAKER_01Was it a podcast that we listened to?
SPEAKER_02It was like a reel.
SPEAKER_01Oh,
SPEAKER_02okay. But the whole concept was people feel... Or maybe it was a podcast. People feel like if I put... eight hours in, I have to put in eight hours or 10 hours or 12 hours a day. And that, um, generates 12 hours of output. And while that may be true in like a nine to five, um,
SPEAKER_01it's not
SPEAKER_02where you're, yeah,
SPEAKER_01there's no way. There's no way our brains aren't, we're not created to be focused for that long.
SPEAKER_02So at any rate, it's basically saying to sprint. And what the way that I relate to that is I have, um, a lot of times when I'm being my most productive in a groove where I'm being my most productive is I have what I call a power hour in the morning. And what that is, is all of, I can get 90% of the things I need to get done in a day within an hour. If I just sit down, put the phone away and have the list of the things that I need to get done, I can pretty much knock everything out within an hour. And then that opens up the rest of the day for networking, creativity, whatever those really big challenges dollar amount tasks are or concepts are, which are like networking and being creative and those sorts of things, developing new ideas. Those are the really big ticket items. If I sprint in the morning, I can get that stuff done so fast and it just opens up so much more bandwidth. And the key to it is trying to get it done before the rest of the world wakes up. So having that hour from 6 to 7 a.m. or 6.30 to 7.30 before the phone starts blowing up, the emails start coming, everybody's asking you to do things. If I can get that hour in, I can get all of that stuff done within an hour. But the converse of that is if I don't get it done in the morning, then it does take me the rest of the day to get that stuff done because there's so much less focus because there's so much more stuff going on. So when I think work like a lion, that's kind of how I perceive it. It's like running sprints, sit down, hard focus for a short period of time, and then you kind of can sit back, relax, open yourself up to opportunity, creativity, meeting new people, those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's how I interpret it too. And I love the phrase work like a lion because I feel like it's very memorable. Although I have to say, male lions don't really do a whole lot. It's generally the female lions. So there's some, I do have some hangups on this. But overall- I think it's important that we balance sprints with rest. And I think you and I in the past have thought, the longer I sit at my computer, the more I'll get done. The more I just keep chipping away at this, the more I will The more I force myself to keep chipping away at this, the more I'll get done. And we have both found ourselves in a cycle of burnout over and over and over and over because we would have these sprints of information and then try and keep limping along, trying to keep up with that sprint pace without having any kind of downtime in between. And I think what you and I have gotten much better at is... I call them nanny hours, which... Maybe that's a terrible thing to say, but during the time our son has wonderful childcare, that is when I am doing the things that I need to do, whether that be doing a sprint or taking a 30 minute lunch and reading a book just to enjoy it. Creating that kind of cadence allows me to get so much done in one day. Okay. Anything you want to add and what question do you want to leave our listeners with?
SPEAKER_02No, I don't think we need to complicate it any more than that. But the question that I would ask is, how can you simplify your day to get more done?
SPEAKER_01Beautiful. Thank you so much for listening and we will catch you next week. Thank you so much for listening to The Freak Show with Sam Thurmond and me, Jacqueline Steele Thurmond. We would love to connect with you via our website, beckonliving.com and on social media.
SPEAKER_02You can find us on Instagram and TikTok at Beckon Living, and you can join our email list to receive uplifting messages, podcast and business updates, and discounts on high-frequency products just for our freaky community. Cheers to high-frequency living.