[34] Hacking Productivity by Leveraging Pressure
This is Bootstrapped Web episode 34. It's the place to hear what your fellow bootstrappers are working on and the lessons that they're that they learn by doing so you can apply them in your business. I'm Brian Castle. And today, I've got a special announcement for for you listeners here of Bootstrapped Web. We are introducing my new cohost, Jordan Gal.
Brian Casel:Jordan, welcome to the show.
Jordan Gal:Thank you very much, Brian. I'm very excited. Thanks for having me. Yeah. We've been on a few episodes together and had a good time, and I'm very excited to join full time as a cohost.
Brian Casel:Yeah. This is gonna be awesome. You know, I've been I've been kicking around this idea for a couple of weeks now and I mean, you and I have have been friends for, you know, like over a year in in the mastermind together and whatnot. And and yeah, we did two episodes together. And I just think that the show would really benefit from having a a cohost like you.
Brian Casel:And, you know, I think generally we'll continue to cover a lot of the same topics that I've been covering. But we'll also switch it up a little bit where we're going to, you know, give some updates about your business, about my business. We'll kick around, you know, some actionable ideas and lessons during the main event. And we'll we'll still bring on a guest interview, you know, from time to time. But but yeah.
Brian Casel:You know, I'm really excited to enter into this second chapter of Bootstrapped Web and welcome you as the cohost.
Jordan Gal:Me too. Yeah. We we play, you know, in the same ballpark but not exactly the same things and come at it from different perspective and different history, different experiences. So I think it's good to get different perspectives on things and we think alike on a lot of topics and we depart on on other things. And I think it'll be good for people to hear different sides of the coin, see what they identify with more and see where they lean and, you know, usually agree with me, but I'm sure you'll get a few.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Cool. Definitely. And and I think that's what that's what's gonna make this interesting is, you know, getting, you know, different perspectives, different backgrounds on on the topics that we all kinda deal with from day to day. So for those who aren't as familiar with what you do and your and your business, why don't you tell tell us about your businesses and then we'll get into your your update for this week.
Brian Casel:Like what are you working on right now?
Jordan Gal:Yes. So I have a software company that's CartHook. That's a software as a service that helps e commerce stores recover abandoned carts. You can check that at acarthook.com to see more. And I am not a developer.
Jordan Gal:I don't do any code. So I come at it from a very marketing and sales point of view. And while that SaaS is getting going, which takes a while, I do some consulting work. I help people build their sales funnels. And very recently, I took a lot of my consulting work from building sales funnels for people at Banyan Tree Digital, that's the name of the agency, and applied that to an info product to help people build their own sales funnels.
Jordan Gal:So a little bit of everything, little software, little consulting, little info product, and all very much coming at it from a marketing and numbers point of view.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Very cool, you know, and like lately, you know, for those of you who've been listening to the last few episodes, you heard me kinda talk about how I'm really focusing on figuring out who my audience is here on on this show, who our audience is. And and what I learned is that it it's a lot of people who who are doing kind of what you're doing with the the balancing act between doing some consulting work and also, you know, getting a a product off the ground. I think you're little bit farther along, you know, you've gained some pretty nice traction over the last year with your product, and especially lately with your new info product. But, you know, a lot of us out there have been making this transition yeah, I I think it's going to be really interesting to hear, you know, how how you're progressing with that with this transition, you know, ramping up and then down the consulting work as the as the SaaS business gets off the ground and as these like, you know, one time info products get going.
Brian Casel:So what so today, you know, we're kind of in the middle of near the July. So what are you working on right now? What's kind of like the the update?
Jordan Gal:Yeah. I am in the middle. Well, Carvec is moving along nicely, and I'm looking forward to refocusing on some new marketing campaigns next month. But right now, my focus, my energy is I just sold an info product as a course and sold it as a boot camp. So I held a webinar and sold it.
Jordan Gal:So I had my first students, my first clients, and they have paid for the product, but the product is not completely built. So what I'm doing right now is making sure I stay ahead of what I owe and when the content needs to be published. So I'm, like, in the middle of it. I'm on vacation with my family. I still got all these different things to to figure out, and I think it's very closely related to what we'll be talking about today where, you know, pressure, people expecting things of you has a magical effect on your ability to get things done.
Jordan Gal:That's that's what I'm in the middle of, what's occupying most of my brain space.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Very cool. So let's see. What what am I up to right now? As as I said, you know, kind of figuring out my audience here.
Brian Casel:For those of you who've been kind of following along with with my blog and my newsletter, I have been trying to step up my game there. And just this week, I'm shooting video for a new free course that's gonna be all about productizing your service. And and that's kind of a focus that I'm gonna be, you know, pushing forward in the next few months, and I'm mapping out a plan to come out with like a book and a course around that topic, aiming for November, and speaking of, you know, putting pressure on picking a deadline, I think I'm gonna pick a date for that launch date. I just haven't decided which day yet. It'll be sometime in November.
Brian Casel:But before then, hopefully by the time that this show is publishing, I'm going to be launching this first free course around productizing your your service and starting to make that transition from being a freelancer to to kind of a scalable, you know, product business owner. So that's on on that front, but then kind of my I like to consider it like my day job. My full time job really is running my my main business, Restaurant Engine and and Hotel Propeller. The update that I have there is Restaurant Engine is humming along nicely. You know, that's been that's been growing pretty steadily.
Brian Casel:We've got our systems in place. A lot of it has been systemized, and I've removed myself from a lot of those processes. That's that's going along nicely. On Hotel Propeller, I'm really excited because I this past week I actually got a little bit back into the code and working on a new product feature that site. And so that's the hotel booking system for, you know, like BNBs and hotels to be able to accept bookings through their website.
Brian Casel:So, that was kind of a nice change of pace where like the last few months I've been focused so much on marketing and writing procedures for my team and whatnot. And then for the last two weeks, I've been able to get into a little bit of design, a little bit of code, working with WooCommerce and WordPress and whatnot. And then I was able to ship this this feature two days ago. So pretty excited about that. So yeah.
Brian Casel:I mean, that's that's basically my update for now and let's so in in this topic today, we're gonna be talking about kind of pressure and setting deadlines and and moving yourself forward by putting internal and both external pressure on yourself. And we're gonna get into that right now in the main event.
Jordan Gal:Yes. I don't know anyone in our line of business that walks around feeling great about how much they get done. Everyone you talk to is always at that point of, Oh, I meant to get this done by that date and I'm still working on this and this should have launched a month ago. So it's an ongoing and universal concern and we all find different ways to get it done. And, yeah, it's funny how we're never satisfied with our own performance.
Jordan Gal:And then when you talk to the people, they're like, damn, man. How do you get all of this stuff done at the same time? Yeah. So it's a funny dichotomy between feeling terrible about what you're getting done internally and then actually doing more than you think you are as long as you just keep pushing, knocking things down.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Totally. Alright. So let's let's do it. Alright.
Brian Casel:So today, the topic is hacking productivity by leveraging pressure in your work. And so let's let's dive right into it. So the first point we we have to talk about here is setting an external launch date. What are we talking about there, Jordan?
Jordan Gal:What we're saying is as long as you keep everything bottled in internally and to yourself, there's very little pressure both from other people and from yourself on when something needs to get done by. So you can easily just move it by a week or a few days or get to it just after these next few things on your to do list. But if you set a date, if you say on August 5, I'm coming out with X, it starts to change the dynamic both for people's expectations and also, you know, your own expectations. Whether you set it for a week from today or two months from today, you will start to orient yourself around getting it done by that date. So
Brian Casel:Yeah. Totally. And and, you know, I think this idea of setting a date, setting a launch date, even if it's just for, like, a certain milestone and and what you're working toward, I think this is one of those things that if you're making that transition from client work to launching a product, you know, the when you're working with client work, there there are always deadlines, and you have no choice. Like, you have to launch it for the client by this date because that's what you agreed upon, you know, and whatnot. So you're kinda used to having those hard deadlines, that's not a problem.
Brian Casel:But then when you're working on a product, it's your own thing. You can launch it really whenever you want. You can take as long as you as you wanna take as and or you can go as fast as you wanna go. And so it's you you have to put those that pressure on yourself to set that launch date and and and really kind of, you know, be firm about that. But in terms of doing it externally, you know, really launching it like, saying saying what that launch date is publicly, that just adds, like, another level of that pressure.
Brian Casel:Put it out there, you know, especially, like, if you if you're collecting email addresses on a on a prelaunch landing page. You know, have that launch date posted on the landing page, but also start mentioning it in the emails that you're sending to your list. Because, of course, you should be sending to your list regularly prelaunch and and kinda building up that anticipation and whatnot.
Jordan Gal:Yes. And the more you focus on that date, the more likely it'll be that you won't allow yourself to to move off of it.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Exactly. And, you know, the the guy that comes to mind when when we talk about this kind of thing is is Sean McCabe, who well, by the time this publishes, my interview with him oh, no. Sorry. His his interview is probably coming up the week after this one.
Brian Casel:So he's coming up in the podcast, my interview. Our our interview, you're gonna be on that show too. So That's right. So Sean McCabe recently launched his course, learn lettering, and I remember him kinda telling the story about that on on on his own podcast, and he was saying how he he launched it and he sold it, and it did it extremely well. And there was a there was a published date for the when the course would begin, and it was like two weeks away and he didn't create one lesson in this course, like, whatsoever.
Brian Casel:And and he kinda talked about how it, like, for, like, two weeks straight, he he basically worked, like, twenty hour days, you know, recording all this video and making course books and all this create, like, just insane.
Jordan Gal:That's that's pretty hardcore. To to not have done any of it, you really you really need to have a ton of confidence in your ability to, you know, to take what you know and articulate it in a way that people can learn it, which which isn't easy in itself. Yeah. If right. If we look at what I've done over the past few weeks in doing something similar, I did not have that you know, I didn't have the balls to do that, not do any of it.
Jordan Gal:I had what I had done, right? So let's just go back a sec. Yeah. Right? So in in my consulting work, I help people build their sales funnel, right?
Jordan Gal:Figure out what their lead magnet should be, what the content should be in the emails, what the topic should be in each email and what the end result is and right, what a conversion means and how to follow-up. So basically from lead magnet to autoresponder to offer. So once I wrap my mind around the fact that this was valuable for people outside of just a service and obviously I don't want to trade my time for money forever. So I started putting together a course. But before that, when I worked with clients, I started to create the worksheets and the processes and the script and slides and all that while working with clients.
Jordan Gal:So a lot of the stuff that I'm giving in the course is already there because I've already gone through the process a few times with clients and refined it and changed things. So when I launched and sold the product before it was sold, excuse me, before it was ready, at least I had right. I knew I was
Brian Casel:already kind of in the works and you'd you'd already been using it in in practice.
Jordan Gal:So I need to explain certain things, but I didn't I didn't go from from zero. That's that's pretty badass.
Brian Casel:Yeah. But, you know, you you did kind of prelaunch this this product before it was completely ready. Right? So so when you launched this, like, how did that launch go? Like and and how did you go about picking the date that the course would be available?
Brian Casel:Like, how did you map out that schedule?
Jordan Gal:Well, it's it's actually, you know, I guess not coincidentally exactly what you just talked about setting an external date. It was pretty arbitrary. I just set a date far enough into the future that I knew I would be able to get it done by then. But the truth is I was not ready when that day came. I just had to be ready, and so I made myself ready.
Brian Casel:I mean, like, what were the actual what was, like, the actual time frame? So you like, let's say.
Jordan Gal:So internally Like,
Brian Casel:from the time that you decided, okay, I wanna do this course. I I plan to offer this course. How many weeks did you give yourself to until the launch date?
Jordan Gal:I gave myself three weeks, and then I ended up pushing the date back. Right? So I set the internal date along with myself and my employee, Avril, who was helping me. So we set it internally and then because it was only external, excuse me, internal, we pushed the date back twice. Right?
Jordan Gal:So two more weeks. I was gonna do the webinar to Tuesday and then I moved it another Tuesday and moved it. So I moved it two weeks back. And then about three weeks before the webinar itself, I set the external date. Once I did that, the date didn't move anymore.
Brian Casel:Yep. Right. Once you announce it publicly. So when you so when we say internal and external, internal, you put it on your own calendar. So you make a plan around that and, oh, you know, these different things are coming up.
Brian Casel:Let's push it back a couple weeks. Yes. Then you decided to start you you were paying for ads, right, to get get people to the landing page and and start, you know, getting people on the webinar. And on that landing page publicly, that's where you post the date. Right?
Jordan Gal:Exactly. And and go to webinar hat, you know, sends out the date and time. You know, it's pretty set. And if you want people to show up on that day,
Brian Casel:you Don't touch it.
Jordan Gal:Don't you you don't wanna change it. And then you add the additional pressure of spending, you know, a thousand bucks in Facebook ads and you are gonna get it done. One way or another. Right? So it's funny what what we're talking about.
Jordan Gal:It's exactly how it worked. Once it was internal, that's one level of pressure. And I'm speaking to my employee, I'm saying, Avril, this is the date we're gonna do it. But it doesn't hurt at all to change the date. So I changed it.
Jordan Gal:Then the second it became external and I spent money and I told people about it and I, you know, told my family about it and this whole like excitement and pressure, there was no way I was moving off that date. And so the three days before the webinar, I'm at work till 11:00 at night, getting things done, trying to make things perfect, practicing. And that's exactly what we're talking about. Wouldn't you force yourself into this corner using these different pieces of pressure, you you perform better.
Brian Casel:Yeah. And, you know, you you brought up an interesting piece here, you know, and that's kind of like the financial aspect. Right? Like, you did spend, you know, significant funds on on, you know, advertising for this webinar and then this course that's that doesn't exist yet. So, like, kind of leveraging that financial pressure to to help push you along and and help help ship.
Brian Casel:But this is also to help self fund your business, not only the info product business, but to also kinda sustain you as you're launching this the SaaS and doing the consulting work. Right? So, like, you're you're kind of investing upfront, but getting the timing right so that you can kinda stay afloat during this period of transition.
Jordan Gal:Yes. But I think what what that is, that's strategic.
Brian Casel:Yep.
Jordan Gal:And and that is very difficult. You're you're better at this than I am. Thinking strategically and then acting on it is something I do not do well at all. Right? I really wanna get rich.
Jordan Gal:So I should just work all day because I truly, very honestly want to get rich. But that's just not enough. It's right. I want these things, but then to go into the office and get these smaller tasks done, that larger strategic vision is not enough to motivate me. So when I think about it as, okay, I wanna launch an info product so that I can efficiently bring in revenue while focusing on the software company that brings in less revenue now, but has a higher potential in the longer term.
Jordan Gal:When I think strategically like that, it makes perfect sense to me. But when it comes down to it, I don't get anything done because of that. The reason I get things done is because I spent a thousand bucks on Facebook ads. Yep. And I told people about it.
Jordan Gal:And now that I have customers and they paid me money and I told them that the content is coming out on Wednesday, I'm doing it because I told them it was gonna come out on Wednesday. Right. And I wanna look good and I I yeah.
Brian Casel:So Yeah. I mean, like, the risk of, like, kind of, like, going back on that promise is that's such a high risk that you're you're gonna get it done, you know. Right. You can do it. Hook or by crook.
Jordan Gal:But relatively speaking, in the larger picture, what I wanna accomplish in my life, that isn't really that important. But that is the same thing that make sure that it gets done.
Brian Casel:Yeah. I I mean, like, thinking like, for me that that financial pressure, the way that I come out this is I I tend to think now in terms of years. Like, this year, 2014, I kinda have this vision or this goal of I I kinda just think, what do I wanna make this year? What what do I wanna bring home in terms of income? And and then also I'm I'm also looking to next year, 2015.
Brian Casel:What is 2015 gonna look like financially for me? So now how do I how can I be strategic about the the projects and the things that I plan to launch over the next twelve to to eighteen months? So to to put things in place so that I can either meet or exceed that goal for the year financially and and, you know, remain comfortable with my family, paying the bills and and and whatnot. So, you know, I I mean, I know that I'm being a little bit vague here, but but it's you know, I I try to because it sometimes it's easy to stick to, you know, just the things that that make a quick buck right now, whether that's doing another client project, you know, a high a high paying consulting gig or, you know, I don't know, doing doing like a a quick increase in price on your on your SaaS product when really long term that doesn't make a lot of sense. You know, I I think it's just an important to start thinking strategically and and really think ahead the next twelve to eighteen months to kinda put pressure on yourself that way.
Brian Casel:Because I I would hate to get to the 2014 and look back on this year and be like, man, I made some wrong decisions in terms of what I chose to work on and because I've made that kind of I made those those mistakes in the past, and I'm I'm trying to to learn from them.
Jordan Gal:Yeah. I I think that's that's closer to the ideal. And and I think it's difficult to do. I know personally, I'm I'm not good at thinking twelve to eighteen months and doing things now based on that. But here here's what I would ask you.
Jordan Gal:Do you think that you think more along the lines of twelve to eighteen months because you are more stable now in Restaurant Engine and your income in general as opposed to a few years from now even though you knew you should be thinking strategically twelve to eighteen months, but because you weren't stable the same way that you just you just weren't.
Brian Casel:I I think yes. I I think you're exactly right. A couple of years ago, like, three years ago, I I definitely had more of a mindset of, hey. Let's just try a whole bunch of things and see what sticks. You know?
Brian Casel:Get get involved in all these different products and launches and projects and and see see which ones see which one or see which ones kinda start to take off. And that that was good in a lot of ways. I learned a lot and I picked up a lot of new skills, especially in terms of, like, marketing and also design and and whatnot. But at the end of the day, I I found that when I scaled things back and focused on one big initiative at a time, that's when I started to really see the incremental growth, you know, steady steady growth especially in restaurant engine. That's kind of what what happened at the beginning of this year is is I I pulled out of the other stuff and I focused just on that and so now where I'm at in terms of thinking in in the next year, year and a half yeah.
Brian Casel:I mean, engine is steadily growing. I I would certainly like to see that growth rate in improve and and we're working on that. But I am starting to look ahead into the next phase of kind of like my entrepreneurial career, if you will. I I hate to talk about it that way, but but whatever. Career.
Brian Casel:It's like you know, I think now, like, especially this stuff, you know, getting into education and and doing this podcast and doing a lot of the writing, I I kinda see that being the big focus for me moving into 2015. So I'm trying to put the pieces in place to make sure that what I'm doing is gonna really gain traction so that education can be the main focus in in 2015.
Jordan Gal:And and so if you are gonna pull attention away from Restaurant Engine, then it's gonna be it'll be worth it.
Brian Casel:Yeah. And and the things that I'm doing in that regard is I'm trying to systemize and delegate and make Restaurant Engine as efficient as possible running running without my direct involvement. You know? That's that's kind of my goal between now and next year is it should right now, I'd say I'm, like, 50 or 60% of the way there. By next year, it should be completely just running on its own and growing on its own, and I just kinda check-in from time to time.
Jordan Gal:Yeah. Just make all of us jealous and hate you that that you've actually done the hard work it takes to to get that done. So yeah. It's I'd say that. It well, still, it's it it is running, and you are not doing all the work.
Jordan Gal:And that's that's that's heading in the right direction.
Brian Casel:It's true.
Jordan Gal:Yeah. Yeah. So I yeah. Think it's difficult for people depending on what stage you're at. Right?
Jordan Gal:Like, I want my bullshit detector to go off when I hear you talking about twelve to eighteen months. But just because I actually know what you've done and six months ago you said, you know what? I think I'm gonna focus on Restaurant Engine. And then all of a sudden, you know, not surprisingly, it is it has a lot more momentum and growth since you've done that.
Brian Casel:So Yeah. Yeah. I mean, really that that idea of focus. And I and I and, like, now that I've been doing that, I start to hear it again and again. Like, today, was listening on Mixergy, and the guy was saying, like, you know, the big turning point for me was when I put everything else down and I focused on the one thing.
Brian Casel:And I hear it again and again, you know. I mean, at the same time, you know, I look back two, three years ago and I don't regret doing all the different things that I got into. I mean, I learned so much, you know. A lot of it is how I got to where I am right now. So, you know, I I think every year is it's it's it's an is a learning opportunity.
Brian Casel:You know? That's what this game is all about.
Jordan Gal:Right. Faster you can learn, the the faster you'll get to a position where when an opportunity comes along, you'll be able to take advantage of it the the right way.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Totally. So why don't we talk a little bit about this getting things done method that that you've been telling me about?
Jordan Gal:Okay. So Getting Things Done. Right? Everyone is familiar with the very popular book, and the whole philosophy is just breaking it down into actionable tasks. So all of you Getting Things Done freaks out there, don't go correcting me.
Jordan Gal:I'm not like a big advocate, but what what I do is get overwhelmed when I look at a a project. If I just have one thing on my to do list that is a giant project, I just look at it and I hate it and then I hate the person who I'm supposed to do it for and then I hate myself for not doing it and it's just this awful cycle. So the only way I do it is I break out that project in the getting things done method into these little actionable tasks And then I ignored the big thing and I just do the first one. And then that gets me like a little high. Yeah.
Jordan Gal:A little, oh, that wasn't so bad.
Brian Casel:I'm Putting that that check mark or crossing out on the on the pad, you know. There's nothing Yeah.
Jordan Gal:And then once you once you start it, you realize you kinda enjoy doing it a lot more than you dreaded, you know, looking at it or looking forward to it or whatever you had to do. Yeah. So I like I like that little boost of little progress and a little bit of progress and a little bit of progress and then, you know, next thing you know, you find that little flow area where you're enjoying it and you're just, you know, moving a lot faster. And it's never as bad as you expect it to be. Yeah.
Jordan Gal:But for any any big hairy project, that's that's what I do. Just break it down and I look at the first one and I say to myself, let me just bang that out. Fifteen minutes. And then just once you get started, then the instinct of getting things finished that you started kicks in and, you know, next thing you know, two hours go by and you kind of enjoyed yourself and
Brian Casel:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, like, think this ties back into that, like, internal pressure idea. Right? So list out all the all the tasks that you need to check off in order to achieve this big thing that you're going for.
Brian Casel:But it's I think it's really all about that very first task. Like, just get your feet in the water. Just do that. Just get started. And then it starts to snowball because it's so much easier to say, like, alright.
Brian Casel:Yeah. I I know I'm gonna do that thing or I'm gonna launch this big thing. But it's so much easier to just push that off and and because it's so big, it's so intimidating. Like, I've got so many other things on my plate right now. I'm gonna I'll do that next month, and then I'll do that next month, and then all of a sudden it's next year.
Brian Casel:You know? But if you just start that first and second step, then it's like, alright. Well, now I'm like in the now I'm like in the middle of this thing. Like, I can't have like a half done project, you know? And and you start to have that internal pressure of like, am I the kind of guy who starts something and doesn't finish it?
Brian Casel:So yeah. I mean, that that at least works for me. Like, even on, a practical level, like, the morning, I get out of bed and the last thing that I wanna do is is be working out. But I I know that if I could just get the gym shoes on, get over to the gym, or get outside alright. I'm already outside.
Brian Casel:Now I might as well run.
Jordan Gal:You know? Right. And then then it's not as as big of a of a of a deal to to just do. Yeah. Everything we're talking about is right?
Jordan Gal:That's why we're calling it hacking productivity. It's because you're almost tricking yourself into a position where you're doing things that if you just were standing still and procrastinating, you would put off. So whether it's this external pressure or putting out a date or someone paying you and then telling them that you'll do something for them or breaking things down and getting started, it's almost like forcing yourself into a situation that you're more likely to succeed in whatever you're trying to do, right? This happens to other people when they go to an office and have to answer to a boss. That's why they get things done because there are people counting them and their job depends on it.
Jordan Gal:And that's that's a that's what brings a lot of misery to people who work in jobs that they don't like. And at the same time, we have a little bit too much freedom in that there isn't the same type of corporate oversight that, you know, that a lot of people need. And because of that, we tend to drift and then hate ourselves for it. So we're almost recreating little aspects of what happens in a normal corporate culture without any of the other bad stuff. It's just that, you know, human beings, I don't know about you, I'd rather be lazy and hang out and do nothing.
Jordan Gal:That's my natural state, at least for as long as possible. Yeah. But if if you wanna get things done, you have to figure out a way to put yourself into into into the right position.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Totally. And, like, this this last point here, you know, you you wrote down competitive juices. But you know what? That that kinda got me thinking about, like, getting the creative juices flowing.
Brian Casel:Because I I know a lot, you know, a lot of listeners on this show, you know, I I can probably relate to the idea of if if you're a designer or if you're a coder, once you start coding a new feature, coding a product, or once you start designing something in Photoshop, for a couple of days there at least, that's for me, like, that's all I can think about. I like, even at night or when I wake up in the mornings, like, oh, I was, like, halfway done with that design yesterday. I wanna keep working on it today, and I wanna keep working on it tomorrow because I started it and I'm making a lot of progress and it's I'm seeing this creation come together. But once you you know, so it's all about starting it and then dedicating or planning ahead. So this is this is where that, like, what what do you work on today that those creative juices merges with, let's be strategic about what we're working on and work towards the big goal.
Brian Casel:Right? So what I've been doing lately is I'll look at the upcoming month. I usually do this on the first of the month. I'll take some time to think about what I'm gonna work on this month, and I'll pick maybe three or maybe four things, and I'll dedicate an an entire week to each of those four things. So that way, every day of the week, I'm just working toward one thing.
Brian Casel:I'll dedicate like four or five days. For for example, I mentioned early on that I just launched this hotel booking feature on Hotel Propeller. So I gave that project two weeks of my time. Two straight like, fourteen days straight, I mean, not including weekends. You know, every day, I made a little bit more progress, you know, coding it a little bit more, designing it, tweaking the CSS, and at the end of ten to twelve days of work, this thing shipped.
Brian Casel:You know, I I kinda put it in my Trello calendar, planned it all out, and then I I had the freedom to know that, like, okay, for the next full week, this is all I need to work on.
Jordan Gal:I I I think it's great. I I don't identify with the the creative side of it as much. And it sounds really nice to marry both the strategic and then say, okay. Now I have time. And in that time, I'm gonna enjoy the creative process of doing something I like to do, you know, in the design and and development aspect.
Brian Casel:I should say this is a deviation. I haven't really done much design and code lately until this past week. But
Jordan Gal:Which is probably one of the reasons that that you enjoyed it so much. Yeah. Right? That you haven't you haven't done it in a while and you kinda rediscovered it. Yeah.
Jordan Gal:I think I'm I'm much more motivated by, you know, just dollars and cents. So to get something done and right back to what you brought up originally in the in terms of the competitive juices, yeah, I just I I like to compare myself to people. I just I can pretend that it's not healthier, but that's just me. Okay? I'm, you know, that's just who I am.
Jordan Gal:There's no reason to lie to myself about it. And that gets me going, man. You know, I see people making money. I see people with nice houses and and I am okay with using those material things. I know that those aren't the most important things.
Jordan Gal:Right? I care about my family, my kids. That's really what I care about. Like, if I, you know, sold my company for a bunch of money, I'm not gonna go buy a Bentley. Not really.
Jordan Gal:But but looking at other people and comparing myself to them and people that I know and that I know I'm just as capable of. Yeah. I I use that as motivation to get things done and move forward and, you know, get to the next milestone and the next revenue milestone and and make more money. Yeah. I think you just have to know who you are and what works for you.
Brian Casel:Yeah. Yeah. It's really I mean, I think the competitive the competitive juices I don't I don't know that I really get motivated competitively, but I definitely have the same thing where I'm where I look at other people and even I mean, I, you know, I fall into the same, like, kind of material stuff too. You know, I want I want my family to live in a nice house and, you know Yeah. And take take nice vacations and whatnot.
Brian Casel:But especially within entrepreneurial circles. Right? Like, the the personalities and the and the personal brands that are out there. I mean, we all we all know them. We all follow each other's blogs and and Twitter and and, you know, it's it it it can be either inspiring or it can be demotivating.
Brian Casel:Like, oh, that guy just launched something. $50,000 launch, $100,000 launch, you know. Oh, man. Like, why why can't I do that? You know, you you could either think of it that way, like, can't that be me?
Brian Casel:Or you can think of it like, I that can totally be done. He did it. Like, you know, I that that means I can do it. You
Jordan Gal:know? Or both.
Brian Casel:And I mean, like, the the way I looked I like to look at it is, like, I'm let's be realistic. I'm not gonna match that this year. That's just not in the cards. But maybe it just means I'm a couple years behind him or her, you know. And and if I just put the right pieces in place and learn the right things in the right sequence, I can be on the same track.
Brian Casel:You know, that's that's what really inspires me when I when I read and watch what others are doing.
Jordan Gal:I think it's good. Yeah. I I I think the human piece of it is that both happen. It's that that animal greed, you know, comparing yourself to other people combined with the, you know, the quieter, more sophisticated asp view of, okay, I can do that, you know, and I'm putting the pieces together to get there. And maybe I'm not there quite yet, but I will get there if I do this and do this and do this.
Jordan Gal:That it's doable. They're just like me, and they're doing it. And so there's no reason I can't do it. I just have to, you know, keep going.
Brian Casel:Yep. Yep. Cool. So I, you know, I think we we kinda covered a lot of ground here. I hope I hope I hope you guys found this, you know, interesting, and and hopefully, you know, you had some interesting good takeaways that you can apply.
Brian Casel:You know, we're gonna you know, Jordan and I are are gonna work hard on putting together lots of new topics in the upcoming weeks. And and, you know, just we are really hungry for your feedback. So do, you know, let us know what you think, what you wanna hear more about, what you wanna hear less of, and we're gonna work all of it into the show for sure.
Jordan Gal:Yes. And and we enjoy opening up and talking about our situations, and I think that is helpful. But to a degree, what we really wanna hear is a little bit more tactical what you want us to talk about specifically. Yeah. And we've we've just been doing so many different things.
Jordan Gal:You almost you almost don't realize that you that you have a lot to teach. Right? I just put together my first webinar. It was painful. All these little different things that I just couldn't find good information on, on the reminder emails and setting this up and connecting these two things.
Jordan Gal:And when should I remind people and how quickly should I follow-up and when should I make the recording available and what copy should I use and so a lot of these types of detailed nitty gritty things we wanna get into and we wanna provide whatever experience and advice we can. So, yeah, get that into us, email us, and we'll incorporate it into the show.
Brian Casel:Yeah. And I like how that you just brought up webinars because that's something that you know, you just did your first one. I I still have never really done a web well, I was I was like a guest on a webinar. But I wanna start doing some webinars, and that's something that I have planned for this year. Actually, next month is I have a goal to do a webinar.
Brian Casel:So after I I get one under my belt, and you you probably do a couple by then, we we gotta do a show all about webinars. Maybe bring on someone else who's kind of like a webinar expert. We'll see.
Jordan Gal:Yeah. I I think that'd be helpful.
Brian Casel:Cool. So alright. So, yeah, that that kinda wraps it up today.
Jordan Gal:Excellent. I'm going back to the beach in beautiful Western Michigan.
Brian Casel:They have oh, you're you're near the lake there?
Jordan Gal:Yes. Yes.
Brian Casel:Very cool. Alright, man. Well, yeah, we'll talk we'll talk next week. Thanks for listening.
Jordan Gal:Thanks again for having me. I'm looking forward to to working together on this and and exploring some interesting topics together. Cool.
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