Focused - 60: Be Strategic About It, with Mike Vardy

Episode Date: November 13, 2018

Productivityist founder Mike Vardy joins David & Mike to tell his free agent story, from Costco to comedian to productivity strategist. He shares how he learned to think outside the big box store, the importance of establishing systems, and how to create time and freedom for what's important.

David Sparks and Mike Schmitz spent their careers working for the establishment. Now they've had enough. They've rebelled against the status quo and are now seeking success on their terms. They are free agents. Welcome back to Free Agents, a podcast about being an independent worker in a digital age. I'm David Sparks, and I'm joined by my fellow co-host, Mr. Mike Schmitz. Hey, Mike. Hey, David. How's it going?

I'm doing great. We have a couple of announcements before, so I just want to introduce our guest this week. I'm so happy to have him on. Welcome to the show, Mike Vardy. Hey, thanks for having me, David. Anytime. Mike is just a really smart guy. He's got a website called Productivityist where he has lots of tips and just good general life advice.

He's also a friend. Mike and I meet up every time he travels through my neck of the woods and catch up on things. And he's got a very interesting free agent journey. I want to share it with the audience today. So I'm looking forward to talking to you about that, Mike. Absolutely. It's going to be fun. Before we get started, however, we do have a brief announcement. Yeah. So friend of the show, Sean Blanc, is putting on a live event, which I will be at. So if you want to come hang out with me in Kansas City in January,

check out the focuscourse.com slash live. And it's basically a live event where you'll be going through the content from Sean's focus course, which is great. I've gone through it myself. It's top notch. And I'm really looking forward to meeting a bunch of other people who have this growth mindset. They want to apply this intentionality to whatever it is that you want to do. So maybe you're a free agent, you want to grow your business. The focus course can definitely help you narrow in on that direction

for where you're going to go. But even if you're not a free agent, even if you just want to apply a little bit more intentionality to all the different areas of your life, the focus course, I can't recommend it enough. And this live event is going to be capped.

I think it's at 40 people. So if you're interested in it, you definitely want to go check out that link in the show notes and sign up. And if you do, it would be great to see you. So if you listen to the show and you happen to be there, make sure you say, say hi, because I'll have stickers on me. And I want to, I want to hear your free agent stories when we meet in person in Kansas city. Yeah. I'm super jealous. I am. I'm super jealous. I think Sean does great stuff. And anyway, so Mike Vardy, tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I am Canadian. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he's nice because he's Canadian.

So basically, I am a father of two amazing kids. And I they were kind of the beginning of my whole journey anyway but just my daughter being born and I mean I know you know a bit of this story David I don't tell this part very often but I'll get into it a little bit basically at this point I was a guy who studied productivity just to get myself ahead when I did have a, you know, quote, regular gig, end quote. And now, you know, years later, I've been doing this for almost a decade now. I basically have my own methodology that I teach called time crafting. And I coach people, I have a couple digital courses, I've got a couple of books. And, you know, I basically am able to travel, I do speaking and stuff like that. I'm actually as we're recording this in Nashville, I just went to a conference

that Jeff coins put on puts on called tribe. So, um, my, my goal is to help people kind of define their day, uh, you know, filter their focus. And then with, through that, maybe you'll make every moment matter. And I've been able to do this for a while now. And it's, it's truly a great way to live because I've been able to marry my love of performing and just infusing some fun into the world of personal productivity and time management. And yet still be able to make a living doing it because the world of comedy in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is not a very lucrative one. very lucrative one. Yeah. Now, now when you were doing your day job, um, um, at what point did you kind of get bit with the bug of, of looking into the, cause I really think productivity kind of stuff was your side hustle for a while. Yeah, it was. So, uh, what happened was, is I was working at Costco and I was running the food court, you know, the buck 25 hot dog in Canada is a buck 99, but, uh, that, and then I was also running the service deli, which is where all the rotisserie

chickens are made. So those two areas are not only, you know, the opposite ends of the building, but the food court one is more immediate, urgency based. Whereas the service deli, you're making things well in advance to try to make sure that you you know, you have you don't run out of stock. And so you've got a production schedule. sure that you don't run out of stock. And so you've got a production schedule. So I'm trying to balance all of that.

Plus, I was dating at the time. So I'm trying to have this whole personal life. And I started to study productivity more. I was looking into GTD and getting things done by David Allen, the Covey method, all that stuff. But the bug really hit to leave the day job when my roommate at the time said, you know what, you're a funny guy. I know you've done some work in comedy back when you were near Toronto. How about you take this improv class? Come to this improv class with me and let's just see how it goes. And I went to the improv class and I was hooked again. Like I was right back into

the creative endeavors all over again. So Costco at that point became less of a priority and taking my performing skills and comedy stuff was what took precedence. And then the interesting thing is from there is I started to do a productivity parody site at that time called, originally it was called F-ing the Dog.

It was a parody of GTD. So instead of GTD, it was FTD and it was EFF, I-N-G, short for efforting, not the other F word. And then we changed it to eventualism. And that's when I got to interview people like Seth Godin and Jonathan Colton, who is, you know, he was one of the people that said, you should quit your day job. You know, he goes, you, you've, you got some legs with this, go, go get out of there. It's your, you know, and then I interviewed David Allen and David Allen, uh, you know, said, Hey, I really like what you're, you're doing. Would you like to write for the GTD times blog, but don't do it as this character, do

it as you. And that was the, the real kind. And that was the real kind of, that was the second phase of this journey where I went from being a productivity parodist to the thing I was parodying. I became the very thing I was parodying. You, in essence, went and joined the man in a certain way. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Exactly, exactly. But the great thing about that was it got me it, it got me into, you know, the realm of working with people at like Cult of Mac and Lifehack and, and the Next Web. And I started doing all of that stuff. And, and, and from there, uh, I was able to kind of build my own, my own company on, on the side. And then ultimately, uh, that's, that's, that's where I am now with just doing that. And, and, uh, it's been, it's been. And it's been quite the journey so far. And we're just, as far as I'm concerned, I'm still just at the beginning of it in a lot of ways.

So, you know, it's interesting to me, the idea of, you know, two or three people coming to you and saying what you're doing, you should be doing that full time. You need to make that your day job. How much resistance did you have when people first started saying that to you? A lot because I had worked for Costco for over 10 years at that point. I'd had a lot of equity built in there. And I mean, I, my goal was to become a warehouse manager at one point because I didn't go to post-secondary education. You know, I went right from high school to working, you to working at a college radio station for a bit. And the well ran dry in terms of grants and funding there. So I had to find a job.

And it just so happened that my mom's husband was working for a Costco and said, hey, why don't you come work here? And that was the beginning. But I had in my head, hey, you know what? I'm going to be one of these, one of these days, this, you know, this whole building will be mine. I will have a building. And I actually remember when we were opening the store in Victoria, myself and another

man who, you know, we were about the same age and we were both kind of on the rise. And we had said, you know, one day this will be ours. He does have a warehouse now in a part of northern Canada, and I don't. And it was kind of like we both kind of ultimately got where we wanted to go in very different ways. But not only just the idea that I thought, hey, I'm going to move up here, and there's still a chance for me to do that. But also, I mean, their money. Yeah. I mean, I had a new baby.

money. I mean, I had a new baby. My daughter was just, I think she was about a year old when the push really started. And my wife's an acupuncturist. That's not a terribly lucrative job either. And I had full benefits. My wife used to joke, it still does, that when I was working for Costco, I'd get four weeks paid vacation. I'd have, you know, bonuses, full benefits. It's really a great company to work for. And when I, you know, said, oh, well, you know, why does this exist for for other jobs, but not for mine? She goes, well, you're not working in the real world. Costco is a really great company to work for in terms of retail and things like that. So there was a lot of hesitation there because I built up so much equity in working for Costco, but the resources, monetary and prospects, what if it fell flat? What if it didn't work?

What was I going to do then? Yeah, a couple of points. First of all, every person I ever knew that worked for Costco is rabid about the company. I don't know what they do, what they put in the water, but everybody loves the company that works for it. But you're right i mean uh making that move from a i think we call it jobby job around here but it is big and um we're just dealing with this right now my wife's hours got cut enough that she's below the benefit you know number in america they do this thing

where they cut your hours and then you don't have to give you yeah same same in canada they do it there too we're just nicer about it we don't of course you are you're apologetic about it sorry sorry we have to do this but yeah i basically pay the cost of a new macbook pro every month to have insurance you know and uh you know and that's that's something that people um you know that's the kind of stuff that does cause resistance. Did you have resistance to the idea of saying, I don't think I could do this, you know, that you're afraid of making this your gig? You understand what I mean? Put the money aside. Are you just afraid that this is something that you couldn't even make work? Yeah, I was because I didn't think it was, quote, a real possibility. There was a real possibility for growth. There wasn't security.

And I mean, but not only that, who was I to do that? Like, who was I to, I mean, there was already lots of people out there that were, you know, kind of were doing elements of what I was doing. I remember, I mean, Merlin Mann was like the guy who I looked to. In fact, you know, when I was doing the parody parody stuff i kind of made him my bill o'reilly of sorts if i was colbert he was my bill o'reilly in terms of like just the whole uh you know antagonistic kind of view playfully so probably should have ran that by him before i did that because when we first met it was not exactly the the the uh the most uh fun conversation we've

we've obviously since had more discussions since then, it's, it's, it's much better now, but, uh, I was just, I, uh, who was I to do that? And, and so there was definitely fear. Part of the reason I think why I try to invoke like this green lantern thing all the time, like I wear a green lantern ring that says, you know, like the will, all that stuff. I, I tend to have those kinds of visual avatars around me because frankly, imposter syndrome still shows up like from time to time. I think, you know, it's one of those things that will always be around. And, you know, money aside, it was like, you know, is first off, is this viable? Am I going to be able to sustain it? What if I run out of things to talk about?

What if, you know, a joke doesn't land when I'm trying to be funny about talking about time management? All that stuff was definitely playing in, which is probably why when I did leave Costco, it wasn't like I quit. I quit in a way that was very strategic. Instead of just upping and leaving, I actually waited until one of the jobs at the front door came up, the people that clicked and the door greeter type people. And I actually, if I remember correctly, I think I was encouraging the manager in charge of that area because they needed more help. I said, Oh, you should post a job about it. And like,

you should get somebody up there. And as soon as he posted it, I ripped the posting down and went into the warehouse manager's office and said, I'm going to give you a month's notice for me to be a manager. And I want this job. And because I had so much seniority, there was nobody that could beat me for that job. So from going, I went from full-time manager making high five figures to part-time door, you know, member service employee who is making, you know, low five figures, but I had control. Instead, if I went to full-time, they would have, they would have said, oh, you have to stay the full 40 hours. Asking to go home early would have been what i would have to do in order to work on the the new stuff i was working on but because i did it that way they had to ask me to

stay late they couldn't schedule me for more hours than i wanted and i had kept all of my benefits i was grandfathered in so it wasn't like i was going to lose any of that stuff. So it was very calculated because I was concerned that what if this didn't work? Because I could just build my way back up again if I had to. Yeah. That was the question I had was, if you take this job, was it kind of a transition where I am leaving and it's just a matter of time? Or if it didn't work out, would you still be able to climb the Costco ladder again if you decided that this wasn't going to work and you needed to do that? Yeah, and that was basically the thought process. I had a feeling that I was going to be leaving.

In fact, one of the guys that worked with me at the front door, he was a guy that I did not like very much when we opened that building. And the reason is because he was a musician, still is a musician, and he was just doing it as a means to an end. It was just his way of earning income so he could support his music career. And at the time when I was working my way up the ladder, I thought, oh man, this guy, he's so lazy and he's milking the system. By the time I left Costco, him and I were buddies because we're both at the front door. And I could remember uh you know you know

kind of inching our way closer and closer to that door he's still there um because again he i mean the music industry is obviously a whole other whole other thing to explore but uh no it was i figured that i was going i was probably going to leave i knew i would never be a manager again um you know that i just didn't want want to have that role of being beholden to a set of bosses within the warehouse, a set of bosses outside of the warehouse that ran those different departments from head office. And frankly, also, when you're in that role, your staff, especially because Costco is such a great company to work for, for their employees, it's really tricky scheduling-wise and stuff to deal with employees from time to time. So I had like a whole bunch of different people I was beholden to, and I knew I didn't want that. I wanted to be one of those people that, you know, the managers had to come and say, hey, would you be willing to do this? So no, I had to, I placed that in, but when I went

home and told my wife I had quit my job, you know, I probably should have phrased it better, because I didn't really quit. I just like changed jobs. And she was nervous too, because, you know, she knew that she knew that there was no way I was going to get back up to that level of income at Costco again, it would just be consistent, which, you know, was better than not having anything at all coming in. At that point, were you what, because you had talked about how you went from comedy to parody to teaching productivity. So at that point, were you still thinking comedy might be the thing? Were you doing the parody stuff? Okay. I was still doing comedy. Yeah, I was doing, we actually, at that time,

my comedy troupe had gone down and performed at San Francisco Sketch Fest. We were doing some, I thought for sure that that was the way it was going to go. It wasn't until, um, near the end of my Costco tenure that the other stuff started to open up, which, which made me feel more comfortable when I actually said, okay,

I'm going to leave. There was a couple other jobs I had after Costco that kind of acted as bridges, but those were mostly, uh, jobs. And I think that was like a year long period where I worked at an Apple authorized reseller so I could, you know,

get better at Apple stuff. And I worked at the film festival to be able, you know, to kind of organize events better. So, but the, the, the opportunity to do it, not as a parodist, but as a, as a, you know, productivity specialist or whatever you want to call it, was happening just near the tail end of my time at Costco. That's an interesting approach. I have a friend who wrote an article one time on the Asian Efficiency blog about how you should read books to solve specific problems that you have. And it kind of sounds like you identified the knowledge holes that you needed to close if you're really going to do this. And then you kind of picked side jobs that were going to teach you those skills so that you got better with Apple devices or you learned something. And I think that's actually a kind of cool

approach. It reminds me of something Jim Rohn said, where he said, work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Sounds like you've kind of embraced that mindset along the journey. And that's helped you identify whatever the next step happens to be. Definitely, and I continue to do it because I think that, like, you know, recently I went to VidSummit, and I'm learning how to do more video stuff because, you know, I want to be able to apply that. Plus, it brings me back to when I was doing comedy. We would do film sketches. I don't really reveal this. If you were to go to YouTube and type in 30 cent players and type in girls gone mild, you will see Mike Vardy doing a comedy sketch.

It's about three minutes long. It's a parody of the whole girls gone wild, you know, from years ago. Yeah. And it's it's it's harrowing. I look back on it now. I had frosted tips. So there's that. Uh, but it was just, I, I, I knew that, that when I started to really get into the productivity part and figuring out like what areas I needed to fill, I also knew that I, that there was a part of the productivity

and time management space that was, that needed some, some humor and some, some accessibility in terms of like a human approach to it. Because it was very, time management, I mean, we know this project, it can be very dry. And that was the one thing that I wanted to make sure that I avoided. And when I was scaling back my time at Costco and trying to take on these new kind of areas, I didn't lose focus of I wanted to be someone who was going to try to make time management and personal productivity fun, like Merlin had done and still does. Well, so I want to go back to your wife real quick. Did you, so you, did you, had you not

told her your intention before you went in? So she knew it was coming. She had a feeling. She just didn't know. here's what would have happened if i had told her beforehand that i because what happened was when that when that job posting went up there was a hesitation of i'm going to go home and talk to ann about this but i knew that if i went home to talk to ann about it i wouldn't have grabbed that piece of paper at all i would have so i needed to you know i needed to find a way to make it work after I had made the decision. You know, I mean, there's that that phrase, you know, it's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask permission. I think I took that to the the the ultimate level with that, because she, you know, the conversation at dinner was so how was work today? I'm like, Oh, I quit my job. And what what? And I'm like, well, I didn't quit. I didn't quit quit. I just, I stepped down, I go in a month. And again, I said, look, we have a month for me to stay in the current job and then I'll be, so how are we going to do it? So I've, I mean, I've always been somebody who wants to make sure that, that I want to have certainty,

as much certainty in place as possible. So I knew that if I'd given them a month's notice, I was doing two things. Number one, I was setting myself up for a lifestyle adjustment because we would need to adjust our lifestyle. But I was also being gracious enough to say, look, I know if I was to give you the standard two weeks notice, you would have a really hard time filling this role. So I'm going to give you a month. And it worked out perfectly. Like they were happy because they knew that I wasn't really happy in the role anymore. But it gave us the opportunity, them the opportunity to figure out what they wanted to do. It gave us the opportunity to, you know, financially put things in perspective as well as, you know, make some adjustments like

cable TV was gone within, you know, the first week of that. So we made some, some choices, but if I had let my emotion totally dictate what was going on there, then I probably would have just quit outright. So I've, you know, I've always been a bit more reasoned and take reasonable approaches to, to these kinds of things. And it's paid, it's paid off. It's, you know, I mean, I think that that's the amazing thing. And, and, you know, I mean, to be able to talk to you guys about this, you know, we're talking 10, well, what, when did I leave Costco? Yeah. So like over 10 years now, um, to be able to say that, and then you go back into a Costco and you see all the same roles filled by different faces, like nothing has changed. Like, you know, it's, it's quite, and actually one of my, um,

one of the people I hired and brought from Toronto, he left Costco earlier this year in 2018. And he now is a barber and he's working out of his home and he was just featured in a local magazine in town. And he said, you know, I watched what you did. And he goes, this thing came along and I decided to go for it. And now he's doing what he wants to do. So I think the great thing about having a good company that gives you that ability to kind of go through, go through your role and go through the motions and you all of a sudden say, you know, I'm ready to go. It's not like you're jumping out of a plane with, with no parachute. You've, you've, you've got options. So you, so you strategically burned some of the boats

but i'd also point out that he did it like a grown-up i mean i think that if you're about to embark on a free agency you know burning up the old place as you walk out the door is not the way to do it i think you should go out on a high note and, you know, finish it up, give them enough time. And that, because you never know, right? You just never know. I did the same thing when I left my firm. I did not want them to have bad feelings about me as I walked out the door. And I think that's the way to do it.

I think that the other thing, too, is that, like, I'll go back there. And there's still quite a few people that I hired that are working there and some of them will work their way up to management now as well. And I get a lot of it was just free. It's like, what's it like out there? Because again, it's so they're just so through like it's just they live that Costco lifestyle, which, you know, is is a great lifestyle if you want that lifestyle. If you don't, though, then it's it's like most jobs where they pay you well, they treat you well. So there's that golden handcuffs element that can show up. And that was the hardest thing. That's the hardest thing for a lot of people to break is what if I give

this up, what's what am I going to do if it doesn't work? And I think that if you are strategic about it and you you know, you make the right moves and you build on the side while you're you're still in in that situation the the landing is going to be a lot softer and and the potential is going to be a lot greater than if you just say you know what i'm tired of this place and up and and you up and quit so so once you get out you you made your move and you've got started on your own what's the first big bucket of cold ice water you had poured over your head and how'd you get past that? So this is actually a really good one.

So I was the editor of Work Awesome and of the Net Setter. That was the first big thing that I did. And actually Work Awesome was the first one and then the Net Setter, I got added to the Net Setter. These are both websites that were owned by Envato. I say were because within two weeks of me,

uh, leaving and venturing out and making this my full time gig, uh, Envato just announced that they were selling those websites. So, uh, I went from having, you know,

basically a lot of work that would have been, you know, would have sustained me while I built my other stuff on the side. Cause I was still kind of building productivity of stuff on the side back then, it was called Vardy.me. To have the safety net of those two websites, and be and related to my work, no less, because they were both related to productivity, but Work Awesome still around now. In fact, I think if you look at Work Awesome podcast episodes, you probably still I think, I think, David, I think I even interviewed you for the Work Awesome podcast back in the day. You know, I think you may have.

Yeah, it's still, it's still, so my presence is still there, but it went from, I have, I have this nice little nest egg to, uh-oh, now what do I do? Now, what happened after that was I had to find something because there was no... But the opportunities were greater because I knew that I had already built up a bit of equity online. I'd already done some of the non-parity stuff. So that's when the next web showed up. I don't really read their stuff that much anymore, but I was their productivity and Canada editor, which meant that my job was to do all the tech stuff for Canada. I don't think they knew how big Canada was for me to do that job. But nonetheless, I took it on. And I just waited until the Lifehack gig came along. And I kind of bided my time because I didn't want to do tech news.

Not to that degree. I mean, I was fine with reviewing apps and going to things like Macworld, like I did with Cult of Mac, but I was not going to be the guy that was monitoring news feeds all day long and writing about, oh my God, this just happened with so-and-so and so-and-so. So once Lifehack came along, that was better.

But it was a real rude awakening almost right out of the gate, because I thought I had everything set up. And I'm like, Okay, this thing is, I can manage this for part of the day. And then I can dive deeper into my own productivity stuff. And suddenly, there was nothing there to sustain that. So I had to I had to scramble a bit. But again, it didn't, I had composure, you know, and I think that was the thing is that when something like that happens, one of the things I've learned about productivity is sometimes you just need to slow down for a sec so you can have clear, reasonable thoughts so that you can move forward in the right way, as opposed to just, you know,

firing on all cylinders and hoping that something works out. Yeah. I think whenever you have, I think this is a problem of our free agencies. Once you get out on your own, if something falls out that you didn't expect to happen, it's very tempting to just grasp onto the very first line that drops. And that's because when you work for the man and they lose a big client, it's somebody else's job to figure out where the company is going to make the money. Now you, you don't know whether or not that means

you're going to lose your job or not, but when you're on your own, it's really up to you to find it. So it's very tempting to just grab the very first thing that comes down. And I think that can be a mistake. And there was quite a few jobs that were out there that, you know, I could have grabbed. Um, and, and, uh, I just decided that, no, you know what? If I take that, that's going to be the new trap. That's going to be the thing that, you know, because it's going to. And that was back when, you know, you'd get paid, what, 20, 25 bucks a blog post or something like that. So I was looking.

I didn't want that kind of role. I wanted something with a bit more meat to it. And I wanted something that was related to my field. more meat to it. And I wanted something that was related to my field. I mean, I wasn't going to go, you know, write about, you know, stuff that had nothing to do with productivity and time management. Like even the next web gig where I was doing the tech stuff for Canada. The reason I did agree to do that was because they gave me the productivity stuff as well. So again, I didn't take just the Canada gig. I said, look, you know, I want this. And I said, well, we need someone to cover Canada too. I'm like,

all right, I'll do that. But I, on the condition that I get to do this and that's what, and that's, that was super helpful. Same thing with cult of Mac. I mean, that was another one. They said, we want you to do like apps and stuff like that. I said, well, as long as I get to write productivity articles, like that's my big thing. And so I was steadfast about that and it paid off. This episode of Free Agents is brought to you by FreshBooks. Everyone likes to save time, but it is especially important when you're a freelancer. And our friends at FreshBooks can save you up to 192 hours with their super simple cloud accounting software for freelancers. By simplifying tasks like invoicing, tracking expenses, and getting paid online, FreshBooks has drastically reduced

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so was there ever a point when you're trying to write the productivity articles and work awesome the other the other sites uh you are closing up shop that you ever thought, well, maybe I should go back to comedy or maybe I should go back to Costco? Or did you just kind of view it as, I'm going to find something else in this space because this is who I am now? So there's been a couple moments over the years.

When Target moved to Canada, they were right by our house. So I remember seeing target show up and for a split second, my brain, wouldn't it just be easier to just do that? Like I could walk to work. I could just be like, wouldn't that just be easier? And that lasted all of about five seconds before I said, are you nuts? Like what? So, so no, there was no, there's, I'm, I'm at the point now where I'm unemployable. Like I just can't, um, you know, I, I can't imagine not doing what I do now. And, and, um, back then I knew there would be something. I mean, I had a real strong feeling that the online world, uh, especially, you know, the productivity space, it was just starting to get going as much as the, you know, as much

as, you know, Danny O'Brien and had done the life hack stuff. And as much as, you know, um, pro bloggers, job boards were going like crazy. I said, there's going to be something here for me consistently. And I just put my nose to the grindstone and kept at it. Yes. There's all, and there's still moments where, you know, uh, where you go, Oh, wouldn't it just be easier if, you know, but the thing is, is that disappears pretty quickly because I think it's a very subjective term. Easy for the moment, sure, but not over the long haul. So I guess the answer is, yes, I've had those moments and they, and B, they, they, they dissipate pretty quickly. Do you ever get nervous that maybe you've hit, or not you, but the industry

has hit like peak productivity? Like, there's so many people talking about this stuff now that maybe it's not sustainable at some point in the future? I think that life hacks have hit peak productivity for sure. I think that now I think the deeper stuff is still where we can go. I think that, you know, I mean, I remember writing an article when life hacker I mean, this would be a great example. Like when when when people get greedy and life hack did this too. When I was writing for life hack, I wrote an article called what the bleep happened to life hacker and it was after Gina left. And there was an article, David, you might even remember this, where there was an article that said, here's a lifehack.

Keep your buns, the bottom of your hamburger bun, from getting soggy by putting the lettuce leaf underneath the hamburger. Lifehack. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, come on. Like, really? Have we gotten to that point? So I wrote, like, I mean, so I think we got to the point where it was all about page views, right?

Like how many, so when Lifehack, I'd reached a certain level of getting us the amount of traffic that they had set for me. I said, okay, good. We're there. And then they said, okay, now we want you to triple it. And then we want you to do five or six articles a day. And I said, I'm not doing that. I just wrote an article about how Lifehacker has been doing that and the quality has gone down. I'm certainly not going to do it for Lifehack. And I was actually, I quit. I gave them a month's notice and I said,

I want a going away article though. And I still get emails from people that want to write for Lifehack. And I said, you know, you've got to contact these other people. But I think that that's reached its peak. But I think that time, the study of time and the study of personal productivity, the human behavior component will, I think there's always going to be room for approaches that you can take and, and, and depth of study in it. I mean, I mean, Cal Newport talks about this in his book, deep work. I mean, the, the time management book, how to live on 24 Hours a Day, was written over 100 years ago. And if you read that book now, and I think you both have probably read it, it's like all that's changed is the implements that people use to keep themselves from staying focused.

So I don't think it will. I think that certain people might stand out more. I hope that's the case and I hope I'm one of them. But I don't think that productivity, I think that the definition of productivity for people will maybe change or it will become a little bit clearer than it's just not just about doing things fast, but doing things, you know, in a more intentional way. That's what I think is really happening. Because when you see Lifehacker putting articles up saying how to set up a threesome, that tells me

that there's some weirdness going on in the space, that clearly they're running out of material in that kind of way. But on the productivity, and I would also say that now humans are under attack for their time more than ever. So there's a good reason why this stuff is still very relevant. Right. Right. But getting back to your free agent journey though.

So you've been doing it 10 years, Mike. And there's some people listening that are maybe just getting started or thinking about getting started. Um, what was the biggest surprise for you once you kind of got started being a free agent and going out into the world? I think the biggest thing for me was that the systems that you, you put in place when you take the time to set up the systems, give you so much more freedom to work and to build and to,

to explore then, um, then you think, so, you know, when you first get started, you're likely just to, and I was like this, you just, you know, you're just trying to make things work. You're putting things together. It's, you know, there's chicken wire involved. I'm sure there's all that stuff, but then eventually you, you take a breath and you say, okay, well, this seems to be happening consistently. How would I set up some kind of repeatable system or some framework? And you think it's just going to help you with that one thing, or it's only going to be useful for a limited period of time. But then you find out that, oh, wow, this is something that I can keep using again and again and again, and it's freeing me up to do deeper work or to get better at my craft or whatever. I mean, my podcast, um, I've been podcasting for at least 10 years now,

uh, probably a little bit longer. And I've got that, that framework that I've kind of built, uh, you know, the interview kind of framework, which is not obviously not alone. I'm not the only one that does it, but I mean, it's been sustainable. It's, I mean, sure I've evolved and I've gotten better at it. I'm loathe to listen to one of my early episodes, but you know,

I think that that's something that, and if I was starting again, I would listen to, you know, I would definitely try to set up systems earlier. But again, you're just trying to make things work. I would say that that's probably the biggest thing that I was surprised by. Not that the systems worked. I mean, we know that, but that they were, once you put them in place, they were useful for maybe a more sustainable period of time and in other areas that I never even thought I'd be able to use them in. that you didn't really see yourself doing.

Like you mentioned, you were just learning how to get better at video, which I'm sure when you started 10 years ago, video wasn't on your radar. But I think that that's kind of an essential skill for a free agent is to recognize what's the thing that's going to be next and then to develop the skills that allow you to thrive in that environment.

How do you balance that between figuring out what you need to get good at and just going hard on the systems that you already have in place? Well, I mean, this is probably where my theming of time comes into play, right? Like, so, you know, and even mode-based work. The idea that, you know, I mean, I'm actually wearing a shirt today that says never stop learning from my friend Tom Franklin from College Info Geek. I think that you always need to have time set aside to get better at the things that you already do so focus on mastery but then also you know do research as to what

emerging things you might want to look at whether it's an app that you might want to research so i mean recently evernote's been in the news a lot more and some people are thinking about you know leaving evernote which has been a mainstay in the productivity space for as long as I've been around. And so what do I, how do I figure out what the next thing might be? Do I care what the next thing might be at this point? Is it, is that, is that relevant to what I'm going to be doing? I think that, that my framework when, and actually today is, as we're recording this today, the theme of today is training it's my training day so it's i train others i train myself so that's the focus for today so that's one of the things that was built through you know my years of studying productivity is saying okay i need to have an overarching focus for each day and then use you know what are the biggest things i should

be focusing on and right now they're like video So video has an entire day of focus. Audio has an entire day of focus. And so does training. The other two are more, you know, optimization and deep work, which those things can fit into for sure. But I'm, you know, I want to, I want my brain to be able to go on Tuesday when it wakes up to not go, well, what am I going to do today? It knows that it's video day. So what video am I going to work on? Am I going to make video? Am I going to learn more about video? Am I going to write scripts? What am I going to do? Same thing with audio and training. So that's kind of how I've kept either along the curve or ahead of the curve when it comes to that sort of thing. And it's allowed me to do things like say, you know what, there's a couple of video conferences coming up. I'm just going to go

attend those. It gives me the pause to be able to go, okay, I need to double down or triple down on this. So I'd say that's where it happens. And mainly it's because I just try to be more aware of what's going on around me than just attempt to be in this constant state of execution. Easier said than done, brother. It's true. It's true. Absolutely true. I mean, you know, that's why I say it's an overarching focus. There are days, there are days where that doesn't happen, but I definitely try. And I think by having it in place, it gives me a better chance to make that happen than if I didn't have it in place at all. This episode of the free agents is brought to you by Squarespace. Make your next move and enter offer code FREEAGENTS at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

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your first purchase. Thank you Squarespace for all of your support of the free agents. So go back to the guy that was working at Costco. And by the way, I think the food industry is like the hardest job in the world. I know everybody I know that works and that works harder than anybody else I've ever known. So I guess maybe you got some work ethic out of that, too. But the yeah, yeah, definitely. But the but so go back to that guy who's who's getting ready to leave. What's the one piece of advice you would give him that you wish you had at the time? Who?

There's there's, there's more out there than what's here. Uh, you know, look beyond the, the box of Costco, the big box store. Uh, you know,

I would have hoped I would have done that earlier. Um, and know that it's not the end of the road. I mean, when I moved out, the reason that I got to move out west was because I waited and waited because I was in the Toronto area for a while. And I actually did supervisory work there when there was a mat leave going on, maternity leave. And I was waiting for the opportunity to – and one guy who worked out west, he was one of the head office guys.

He goes, the way you move up is you have to be willing to move. And he might as well have just said to me, Mike, if you move, we will promote you. That's basically what it was. And so I did it. And I think that, again, that move was huge too, because I didn't know anybody in British Columbia. Like I moved with 800 bucks in my pocket and, you know, that was it. I knew no one one so i was starting life all over again and i think because when i first got there that's all that was all that was there for me was costco i i dug in deep which is probably why i'm able to do that with productivity and stuff so i would say that that number one there's more beyond the big box store so pay pay attention. Number two, save your money. Like don't, don't, don't spend

what comes in consistently because I mean, you're making good money and you're using it. You're, you're, you're, you're frittering it away on silly stuff. So I would, you know, my wife is far better with finances than I am. And I, you know, if I had had that discipline early on, then I probably would have had a much easier time leaving because I would have had a bit more financial backing to do it. So those would be the two things, you know, look beyond the big box store and, you know, watch your pennies. Don't go buy the new hotness just because, you know, in the moment you have the money for the new hotness, right? Great advice. A little bit less specific, for somebody who has an idea they want to try something and they're working in a store. Maybe it's not a big box store, but what's something you would encourage potential free agents about who want to try their thing, whether it be comedy or productivity or what have you?

their thing, whether it be comedy or productivity or what have you? Well, it comes in two phases. Number one, if you're doing it while you're sustaining the current level of employment, like when I, you know, when I was doing the full-time management job, I had to be very clear about when it was work time and when it was, you know, side hustle time. But I had to earmark that. And I think that's what I would do too. So if somebody, if you were, if you're out there listening and you're like, you know, I need to know when to set aside the time and I don't feel I have it, you have to make the time. So make it. And it doesn't have to be, remember, you know, it doesn't have to be done tomorrow. Like be done in a day. I mean, if you're focusing on something that requires craft, it's never going to be completely

done in some manner of speaking anyway. So just give yourself the time because you don't want to, you don't want to put yourself in jeopardy in the job that's kind of keeping you going. Now, if you're ready to kind of make the leap, then I would be strategic about it. Look at the opportunities you have within your company and figure out, hey, can I step down to a smaller role? Can I go part-time? Can I transfer into a different department? That maybe the hours are more conducive. Because that's the other thing is my job, when I worked for the member service department, I was definitely working the mornings. I was like, 8 a.m. to, I think, 1. Whereas if you want to, maybe you want to be a stock person that gets there at 5 in the morning and is done by 10 so that you can have the rest of your day to do your other work.

But I would say be strategic about it. Don't just let your kind of muse or emotion drive you. Say, okay, well, what can I – and by the way, chances are if you ask your employers, like, hey, you know what, I'm looking at doing this, most of them, they want to keep you around because it costs a lot of money to train somebody new. So if they can help you out, and especially if you're not doing a great job in that position anymore, or you know that your time's almost up, I'd say ask. Say, hey, you know what? I'm thinking about doing this. Is there another role that might be more suitable that allows me to help you, but I can also help me at the same time. And by the way, if you don't get the answer you want, then you already know that you're probably making the

right choice to leave anyway. Yeah, I agree. And if you need help theming your days and managing your time, you know a guy. Yeah, yeah, just reach out. Mike Vardy, thank you so much for coming on and giving a little bit of advice and telling us about your story. I'd recommend everybody head over to Productivityist. Mike has a lot of great Mike Vardy, thank you so much for coming on and giving a little bit of advice and telling us about your story. I'd recommend everybody head over to Productivityist. Mike has a lot of great things to say over there. And I do like the fact that Mike brings a little comedy and fun into this stuff too, because getting your life together doesn't have to be just serious business. It can be a little fun as well. So head over to productivityist.com. Any other places people should

go to see you, Mike? No, I mean, that's the big place. I've got the podcast, the Productivityist podcast, which has been running for quite some time now. And if you're looking for a way to kind of get jumpstart the year you want, which may involve you becoming a free agent, then I have a course called the Now Year Action Plan that you might want to look at. It's a simple course that allows you to kind of start the year you want anytime you want. So you can check that out as well. Yeah. And I like what Mike said. You can start that anytime you want. You can start that in November. It's okay. I don't know why everybody thinks you have to wait until January to get your act together. Right. Absolutely. Okay. Well, thanks again, Mike. And I'm sure we'll be hearing from you again and thank you for listening

and we will see you all in two weeks