This podcast is finally coming back!

This was my first podcast and I started it back in February 2013 as Quality Living Made Simple. I have taken some time off and made some changes (including the name of the podcast).

In 2018, I shared a short 10-part series called Side Biz Start, documenting a little of my journey having a side business as well as bringing some tips for people wanting to get started with their own side business.

Well, since that time, I left my full-time job and took my side-business full time. There are several lessons that I learned as I made that transition, and maybe I’ll share some of that in the future.

Over the last year, I have wanted to come back to this podcast, but between the learning curve of self-employment, trying to grow the business, and navigate homeschooling and activities with the kids, I just haven’t had the proper time to invest in this podcast.

So it sat.

But, we have an odd schedule for homeschooling, so we are now at a break between school years. I have gotten better at managing the home/work balance. And now I’m ready to devote some time to share some things on this podcast again!

So, what are we going to be looking at?

Well, the Success Road podcast is about the journey to reach success – and that means different things to different people.

While I’ll be sharing things that are under the broad topic of self-development, there are a couple areas I really plan to focus on:

• Productivity/time-management
• Habits
• Health

I plan to share these both with interviews with authors or other experts, various forms of case studies, and personal insights and examples.

About every other week, I plan to focus on health. I have struggled with my health and weight for years, but for the first time, I am actually getting help and guidance from my doctor. I have only visited the doctor a handful of times during my 20 years as an adult but am just now working with my doctor and we came up with a plan for me to get back down to a healthy weight. So, I’ll be sharing my own personal progress and insights that I’m learning, as well as bringing on guests to bring additional perspective.

Another thing that has really become interesting to me is with reading books and actually implementing what I’m reading. I have a habit of read a book – actually, usually listening to an audiobook – and mentally making notes of what I can do to improve myself. I may even write a couple quotes down…on a piece of paper that gets lost. I have observed that I have this pattern of inaction, even though I’ve gone through dozens of great books.

Last summer, I was able to be part of an online book club that met about once a week for 30 minutes. We went through two books over a 2-3-month period each. It was great to reach 1-2 chapters a week and then have a time to discuss and reflect over the content. It helped me to start to implement more that I had ever done before.

I also realized during that experience, that I kept thinking about and referencing other books, podcasts, or other resource. And that’s when I got a great idea (well, I think it’s a great idea):

I want to look for and share topics and ideas that are found in multiple resources and bring the different perspectives together. For example, comparing or contrasting ideas in books like Procrastinate on Purpose, The One Thing, and Getting Things Done. Each book focuses on certain aspects of being to accomplish things, so what can we learn from each one individually AND what can we learn by combining the lessons to create a broader view.

I’m not exactly sure how this would look for the podcast, but I do plan on at least sprinkling some of this into some of the episodes.

I hope that you’ll be joining me on this journey, and I welcome your feedback as we go through. Maybe you have a personal story that you want to share as well. Just send me an email, joshua@successroadpodcast.com, and I’ll be happy to talk with you, and maybe even bring you on the podcast!

The first full episode will be released in about 1-2 weeks, so stay tuned for more!

Let’s face it. You’re not Superman.

Maybe you can do everything in your side biz by yourself right now, but there will come a time when you won’t be able to handle it all. You’ll come across something that is outside your skill level or beyond your current knowledge base. Or maybe you’ll run out of time to actually do the work.

Whatever it is, something will stop you from being able to do it all. And maybe this is all you’re looking for – do what you can and then coast. That’s fine. But if you want to scale the business, you’ll need to look for some help.

When you get help and unload some of your workload, it allows you to have more time. You can fill that new time with rest, family time, learning something new, or growing the business more.

Depending on your situation, there could be a number of things you can do to enlist help with:

• • Bookkeeping
  • Sales
  • Marketing
  • Production
  • Customer service
  • Writing
  • Website

To start out, you can just get someone to help part time – maybe just an hour a week. You can then expand as you go.

You can get a Virtual Assistant to help with a variety of tasks, or you can find a couple people that specialize in specific tasks. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. A great book that can help with this aspect is “Virtual Freedom” by Chris Ducker, where he goes into depth on outsourcing to grow your business.

When you do start outsourcing, it will be an investment. You won’t have as much money in your pocket (at least not right away), but it will open doors to additional opportunity.

For my business, Podcast Guy Media, people outsource their podcast production to me. It is something they are needing help with in their business, but can’t do it well or don’t have the time to do it. In turn, I have some people that I’ve enlisted to help with different aspects of the work. I can do all the work myself, but I would be limiting my ability to help more people.

Fear is a realistic things that everyone faces. As an entrepreneur, those fears can sometimes be multiplied.

There are numerous things that can bring fear in relation to your side biz:

• • Finances
  • Marketing
  • Selling
  • Rejection
  • Competition
  • Resources
  • Time
  • Support

Whatever it is that can cause you fear, it can hinder the work that you do. It could slow your growth, lower the quality of your work, add stress to yourself and/or family, or a number of different issues.

You can learn to overcome these fears, whether you realize that that fear is not as bad it seems, you take steps to counteract the fear, or you simple get the courage to move forward despite the fear.

1. 1. Understand the fear
   2. Worst case scenario
   3. Best case scenario
   4. Assess the risk
   5. Commit to an action

Do you need help creating a timeline for your side biz and keeping to a schedule? This episode should help you with some tips to simplify the process for you.

• Begin with the end in mind

• • If you don’t know where your heading, it’ll be difficult (or impossible) to get there

• Breakdown into logical stepping stones

• • Start from the end and work your way backwards

• Put realistic timeframes for each step – plus add a buffer

• • The time you set will vary depending on your personal situation and schedule

• Narrow down to the very next action

• • The only way you can really move forward is if you identify what the next thing is that you can actually do
  • Use the principle of The ONE Thing to help with this to not only choose the logical step, but also the best and most effective step

• Schedule time to work on the next action

• • This is called “time-blocking” – treat it like you would treat any other appointment

Resources:

• The ONE Thing
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

There are many obstacles that can hinder your ability to work on and grow your side biz, and I talk about two of those in this episode. These two are your full-time job and family events. Both of these have affected me in the past, so I thought I’d share this with you.

Note: I recorded this episode while I still had a full-time job outside my business. Now I am working on my business full-time, so I'll likely share an additional episode later about the obstacles to working full-time from home.

If you don’t know what you’re aiming at…

• You will wander aimlessly and feel like a hamster running on a wheel

Define what success means for you

• Each person and business has a different idea of what success actually means
  • Profit vs non-profit businesses
  • Side biz only vs full time
  • Size of business
  • Slow and steady vs quick growth
  • Personal vs business
• What does success mean for you?
  • Financial
  • Number of clients
  • Time investment

SMART Goals

• You have probably heard about SMART goals. In case you haven’t, it stands for goals that are:
  • Specific
  • Measureable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant
  • Time-bound
• This acronym can help you as you set your goals, but the basic idea is to have a specific destination to target and set specific actions that you can track to hit that goal in a certain timeframe. In the process, you want to make sure that the goals are a stretch, but still in the realm of possibility.

Don’t get too many

• While going through this process, it can be easy to come up with a huge list of goals. While you may really want and need to hit these goals, it is unrealistic that you’ll be able to make actual progress on any of them if you focus on all of them. So choose just 3-5 that you’ll keep top of mind, and consciously and consistently work toward them.
• To help you keep them top of mind and increase accountability, you can write the goals down on sticky notes, index cards, set reminders or notifications on your phone or computer, etc. You can also enlist the help of someone to ask you periodically how you are doing with them.

Helpful resources

• Your 411 goal sheet from The One Thing
• Video explaining the 411

Everyone has personal limitations

• Last episode, we talked about our skills and strengths, but everybody also has weaknesses and limitations
• As entrepreneurs, we tend to have what I’ve heard called “Superhero Syndrome” – feeling like we can do and handle everything
• Believing this, however, is our greatest weakness
• Acknowledging and admitting your limitations is the first step in being able to overcome them

Understanding your limitations

• After going through the exercise in episode 4, you should have a good idea of what your strengths are. At the same time, you should have revealed many weaknesses.
• The first thing you need to understand is that it is okay to have weaknesses.
• In fact, it is good to have weaknesses.
  • Without weaknesses, you would never need help
  • Without help, your growth will be limited, at least by time and energy
  • Having weaknesses (and addressing them) leads you to seek help
  • With additional help to cover where you are weak allows each of you to focus on your strengths
  • When you each focus on your strengths and work together, you can accomplish more than the sum of what you could do individually

Overcoming your limitations

• To overcome your limitations, you are not working to improve your weakness to make them a strength
• You are working with someone else that has a strength in the area in which you are weak.
• Together, you are able to accomplish much more – not in spite of your weaknesses, but rather because of the help you are providing and receive due to your weaknesses.

The more, the merrier

• Having one person help cover your weaknesses helps a lot; but having more people working together to cover each other’s weaknesses is an even greater help.
• This is because the more people you have working together, the more single-minded you each can be – allowing you to really focus and specialize in a particular area.
• This is also a Biblical principle found in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12:
  • Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
  • For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
  • Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
  • And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Helpful resources

• The One Thing book and podcast

Why you need to identify your skills and strengths

• Everyone, especially someone trying to start a business, should know what they can and cannot do.
• Equally, you should know what you enjoy doing and what you don’t.

How to identify these and take action

• Start by making a simple list:
  • Make a list of what you can and cannot do.
  • After you’re done with that, mark the ones in both lists that you enjoy doing.
  • This will leave you with with four categories of skills:
    • Skills you have and enjoy
    • Skills you don’t have but enjoy
    • Skills you have but don’t enjoy
    • Skills you don’t have and don’t enjoy
• You could also create this in a matrix similar to the Time Management Matrix promoted by Stephen Covey.
• After identifying your skills and pinpointing the target quadrant (skills you have and enjoy), these will become the target you work toward working with as much as possible.
• Working in your strengths is where you’ll be able to grow the best.
• Try to find ways to eliminate (if possible) or delegate (if needed) the skills that you are either not good at or don’t enjoy.
• There may be some things, especially at first, that you’ll need to do that aren’t ideal, but continually work to work more in your skills and strengths.

Helpful resources

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• StrengthsFinder 2.0
• Procrastinate on Purpose
• The One Thing
• Happen To Your Career, free 8-day course

Why is saying “no” so hard?

• Some of us are people-pleasers, so we like saying “yes” to people.
• It makes us feel better when we help others (dopamine).
• We feel like we need a “small distraction.”
• We want to have some fun in our lives.

Saying “yes”

• When you say “yes” to something, you are automatically saying “no” to something else.
• Conversely, when you say “no” to something, it allows you to say “yes” to something else – hopefully to the right thing.
• Saying “no” takes discipline – as we already talked about, it’s not easy.

What to say “no” to

• Social media
• Email
• Amazon
• Overtime
• Friends and family
• Education

What to say “yes” to

• Be purposeful, not entrepreneurial.
• Ask yourself, “What is the One Thing I can do that will make everything else easier or unnecessary?”
• Don’t burn yourself out – take time for personal care

Helpful resources

• The One Thing (book and podcast)
• Essentialism
• Procrastinate on Purpose

Do you have something to say?

• If you have a question or comment, I’d love to hear it! You can contact via the website (SideBizStart.com/contact) or call 405-771-0567.
• You can also leave a comment on the show notes on the website, on social media, or by leaving a rating and review on your podcast player. These not only give me feedback, but can help the community as well.
• I’m thinking about starting a Facebook group that can serve as a way to help you create and keep the right mindset. It’ll be like an informal mastermind group where you can ask and answer questions as well as share the progress of your side biz. If you’d be interested in this, please let me know. I don’t want to create a ghost town, so I want to know that there is interest in this.

What is mindset and why is it important?

• Your mindset is your attitude about what you’re doing.
• If you have the wrong mindset, it can derail the work you’re trying to do.
  • Money-first – this mindset puts you in a place of desperation or greed.
  • All-or-nothing – this mindset puts unreal expectations on yourself and you’ll be more likely to quit.
  • Service-only – this is great, but can lead to over-working and not enough money to sustain your needs.
  • Scarcity – this mindset makes you believe there are only a limited number of resources or customers. If you win, someone must lose. There is some truth to this, but not as a guiding principle.
• If you have the right mindset, it will help propel you forward.

How to create the right mindset

• Acknowledge your limiting beliefs (wrong mindsets) – don’t accept them though.
• Face your fears.
• Take small steps (think incredibly big, but act incredibly small – The One Thing).
• Choose to keep company with people that will help lift you up.
  • Encouraging family and friends
  • Mastermind group
  • Online friends
• Determine to serve first, but charge according to the value for your customer.
• Be purposeful instead of entrepreneurial.
• Don’t neglect your health and personal needs.
  • Sleep
  • Eating right
  • Exercise
• Find ways to educate and grow yourself

Do you have something to say?

• If you have a question or comment, I’d love to hear it! You can contact via the website (SideBizStart.com/contact) or call 405-771-0567.
• You can also leave a comment on the show notes on the website, on social media, or by leaving a rating and review on your podcast player. These not only give me feedback, but can help the community as well.
• I’m thinking about starting a Facebook group that can serve as a way to help you create and keep the right mindset. It’ll be like an informal mastermind group where you can ask and answer questions as well as share the progress of your side biz. If you’d be interested in this, please let me know. I don’t want to create a ghost town, so I want to know that there is interest in this.

Welcome to the first episode of Side Biz Start

• What is this podcast?
• Main topic – why start a side biz?
• Who am I?

What is this podcast?

• Help you start a side biz
• Help you grow your side biz
• Help your personal growth
• Give you support, encouragement, and inspiration

Why start a side biz?

• You just want a little extra income
• You want to replace your current job, but don’t want to leave your job right away
  • You Can Test Your Product Before Taking the Leap
  • You Won’t Incur as Much Risk
  • You Can Use Your Salary to Help Fund the Business
  • You Can Build Your Business Slowly
  • You Can Keep Your Job Benefits
• You Can Do What You Love
• Financial freedom
• Time freedom
• Be your own boss

Who am I?

• Personal history
  • Didn’t grow up as an entrepreneur – I shied away from everything to do with selling
  • In high school, I started doing some “side work” by getting a part-time job…and then a second part time job
  • After graduating high school, I often had either college with a job or (at least) two jobs
  • Around 2003-04, I dabbled a bit into some kind of newspaper ad/mail scheme
  • Around 2006-07, I started creating some websites for pastors and churches I knew
  • This continued until 2010, when I started to see that I had actually created a side-biz
  • I took college classes to improve my skills from 2010-2013
  • From 2010-2015, I continued to create websites for a small handful of clients
  • I started podcasting in 2012
  • 2015 was the year I switched my side biz from website creation to podcast editing
  • I officially started Podcast Guy Media, LLC in 2016
  • I slowly grew the side biz until I got way too busy and started outsourcing some work in 2017
• Personal realization
  • I like taking different personality tests to learn more about myself
  • One of the realizations that I’ve had while comparing and blending the results from different tests is that I haven’t be working in some of my strengths – specifically that of learning and teaching what I learn
  • This podcast is to help me share what I have already learned, what I’m currently learning, and also for me to continue to learn as I talk with guest experts and others in the trenches

This is a short update announcing a series talking about starting and growing a side business. 

Our guest this week is Aaron Walker. He has started several businesses throughout the years, but his current endeavor is "View from the Top."

Aaron shares some fantastic things, including:

• How he started is first business
• How he retired several times, the first time at age 27
• How he recovered from a tragedy
• How he helps men grow themselves and their business through his mastermind groups

Aaron has generously shared several things for you to download:

• Personal Assessment
• What Do I Want?
• Steps to a Productive Day

Just go to http://viewfromthetop.com/success

Dan Black was on the podcast to talk about his book "The Leadership Mandate" back in episode 33. That was back when this podcast was Quality Living Made Simple. I'm actually going to replay that episode for you here in minute, but before I do, I wanted to let you know that Dan has written a new book that is now available. It's called "The Little Book of Personal Growth: Start Growing and Achieve your Potential."

You can get your copy on Amazon. Until August 3rd, it's available for $2.99, which is about half off. So hurry and grab your copy right away. You can also get a PDF copy of "The Leadership Mandate" for free if you forward your Amazon receipt to thelittlebookbonuses@gmail.com.

I think I will also throw in a bonus for you. If you also forward that Amazon receipt to me, I'll send you the PDF copy of my book, "Leave Nothing Undone: 13 Key Lessons from the Life of Joshua." My email is joshua@podcastguy.co.

You can get the book by going to joshuarivers.net/dan. That is also an affiliate link, so I'll get a few cents for you using that. It's also no extra cost for you, so it's a win-win!

Any way, here's the interview I did with Dan Black before. When we get back, I'll give a quick overview of what you can expect from his new book.

Jim Woods joins us today on the podcast to share his entrepreneurial journey. He has been on the podcast a few times (under Quality Living Made Simple) to talk about the e-books he helped co-author. You can find those episodes here:

• Simplify Your Goal Setting (#30)
• Ready, Aim, Fire! Book (#56)
• Learning How to Improve Your Focus (#63)

Besides writing all the time, he has created a great course for writers: Write Publish Share. Jim talks about the course and offers a discount for the listeners of the podcast!