12 May 2011 ~ 15 Comments

The Art Of Time, Income And Mobility – FA051

Audio

Discover The Importance Of T.I.M.

Once you master the art of TIM…

Your life will be your own.  You will have the freedom to do what you want, when you want and where you want.

TIM & the Internet Lifestyle

Developing systems so you can control your Time, Income and Mobility (TIM) is the key to having what people perceive as the Internet Lifestyle — you know, lounging on the beach running your business from a laptop with just four hours a week of work.

This episode is a philosophical discussion and less a How-To.  The reason?  Most of the problems that prevent us from gaining control of our Time, Income and Mobility come from our cultural upbringing.

We, Izzy and Tim, promote developing an Internet-based info-product business because this kind of business inherently lends itself to TIM principles.  Once you develop the systems, technological and human, for your online business, you will have control over your Time, Income and Mobility.

And when you have control of TIM, you have control over your life — that equals real freedom.

Enjoy your Foolish Time, Income and Mobility,

Tim and Izzy

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  • http://www.filmmakingnaturally.com Kevin J Railsback

    I know as I’ve grown older my priorities have changed. When I was in my twenties, it was all about having a new Z28 Camaro and then cruising in a ’69 Mach 1 Mustang.
    But as I grew older, the material things weren’t nearly as important to me as the time I had to enjoy them.
    I’d be working 45 days in a row, many of them 12 hour days. Well, it’s kind of hard to enjoy that Camaro when it’s parked in the garage because you don’t have the time to drive it.

    Money was also a big thing because it allowed me to buy the Camaro. So I took those 12 hour days every day to make more money so that I could buy more stuff.

    But I’ve realized that it’s only money. I can always make more. But time, once it passes, you can’t get more of it and you can’t go back to revisit it.

    So now I’m working to structure my life to give me more time. I have a roof over my head and clothes on my back and food in my stomach so, my basic needs are met.

    I guess they say the older you get, the wiser you get. All I know is there’s a reason that Tim is spelled with a capital T cause that’s what’s most important to me today, Time. Maybe as I continue this journey it’ll be spelled TiM. But eventually we’ll reach true TIMdom.

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    Well said. Now we have to make sure you have enough TIM to travel the world making award winning films.

  • Craig VDB

    Hi Tim, 

    I am going to first apologize for all of my questions – I’ve been learning about the Lean startup methodology ;)

    I’m interested in hearing more about you running your business from your smartphone.  I’m curious what apps you are using as well as what apps/features you are missing.  I would like to find holes in the apps marketplace.

    Are you using iPhone, Android or some other OS?
    What apps do you use that allow you to run your business on your smartphone?
    What features/business functions are missing from your phone that will allow you to run your business more efficiently?

    To paraphrase Carnegie: it wasn’t the gold diggers who got rich during the rush, it was the people selling tools like shovels and blue jeans who became wealthy.

    Thanks!
    Craig

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    I no longer use my smartphone to run my business. I’m using a 11″ Macbook Air now. I seldom use my smartphone for anything other than calls, texting and email, oh, and surfing the net when away from home.

    The approach I took 5 to 6 years ago, was to research phones and applications that would allow me to run most things I needed such as ability to blog, communicate around the world (couldn’t do skype back then on a cell phone) and then actually put the research to use.

    Even then, my knowledge wouldn’t have worked for someone who needed to code on a regular basis or needed to update products on a website.

    For my business as it stands, I would need some way to connect a high quality microphone and headphones to my mobile phone so that I could record this podcast with Izzy. Since that doesn’t exist, I plug a high-end mic into my laptop.

    Lastly, I use the least amount of software and hardware necessary to accomplish my tasks. That makes me one of the worst people to ask about apps since I consider most to be superfluous at best and complete time-sucks at worst.

    To run an internet-based info-product business, one only needs a way to create product, share files, access a couple SaS applications (ie. bookkeeping & project management) and have the ability to communicate. Just use the least amount possible to do these things efficiently.

    Sorry I couldn’t be of more help with apps.

  • Craig VDB

    Thanks for the reply Tim.  You were the second person in a week who mentioned that they currently or want to run their business from a smartphone (the other was an interview on the Startup Success podcast of Scott Gerber, author of Never Get A Real Job  http://startupsuccesspodcast.com/2011/04/show-106-scott-gerber-author-of-never-get-a-real-job/) so I thought I would investigate further.

    That totally makes sense that it is difficult/impossible for you to run the Foolish Adventure podcast and business from a mobile device.  The hardware just isn’t there yet.  Thanks for your time and love the podcast!

  • http://www.mattpaulson.com Matthew Paulson

    Particularly enjoyed this episode. I’m one of those young-twenty somethings (I’m 25) that has been focused on building a high-income (even at the expense of  time). I made three times what I did two years ago, but my life hasn’t really changed. I bought a new car (a ’12 Ford Focus) with cash, which was nice, but after listening to this episode, I think I might start winding down some of the high time-consumption money-generating things I do, especially freelance web development.

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    There’s nothing wrong with earning a high income, I just don’t want to trade my life for it. If a project looks like it will take a lot of my time, but not give me long-term revenue, then I choose not to do it.

    Making websites isn’t a bad way to make money, you just shouldn’t be the one doing it unless you have a burning passion to design great websites. Otherwise, set up a system to acquire customers, have others build it, someone to do quality assurance and you cash the checks and pay the people involved.

    That is probably a 2 year process of building and tweaking the system so that afterwards you can own a business that builds custom websites.

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    Craig, I just listened to that interview of Scott Gerber — it was really good. Thanks for recommending it.

  • http://www.mattpaulson.com Matthew Paulson

    Tim – I think freelance web development is in retrospect, a terrible business. You get a one-time payment up front from a customer and they will expect you support their website at no-cost for the next several years. A couple years down the line, you have needy customers, lots of support headaches and no ongoing income coming in. You might be able to get some hosting income out of people, but a lot of people aren’t willing to pay anything more than the cost of a DreamHost account or will want to make use of their own hosting. I actually sold all of my web-development business to another company. It’s saved me a ton of headaches and my income hasn’t really dropped at all.

  • http://amateuronlineentrepreneur.com Charlotta Baath

    I’m an avid listener to Foolish Adventure. Thank you for what you do!

    Just wanted to add to your discussion as to why not more people are considering an internet business.

    I have just started out and I have to say a lot of it is pretty hard. I’m a person who never once put anything publicly on my own facebook wall. Now I have to “put myself out there” everyday. And it is both scary and time consuming.

    In addition, nobody is listening yet, and you have no guarantee that they ever will. I think it is a big hurdle that many people fall over, and I can only hope that I will not be one of them.

    I think the internet is fantastic and I love the fact that anyone can set up shop there (or should I say here?). Just wanted to share the thought that it’s not exactly easy. :)

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    Thanks for being a listener. It is tough to put oneself “out there.” I was really resistant to doing a podcast, but now it is one of my favorite things to do.

    But the best part of doing business online is you don’t ever have to put yourself out there. People buy products from others they don’t know all the time. They just want to get the value promised in exchange for their money.

    I have a friend who built a $500k per year business using a pen name. He wasn’t hiding anything bad, he just didn’t want to become “known.” He just wanted to run a business that sold great products without any fanfare. You could do this too.

  • http://andrewsviewoftheweek.com Andrew

    The other thing I hear from time to time is that people don’t what to have to share “everything” about their lives on the blog.  Usually the comment is directed at Facebook or Twitter but I hear it about bloggers.

    The cool thing about this business is that you get to set the limits of what you do.  Do you want the business to be about you or your passion?  You get to adopt whatever persona you want – real, invented, just part of who are…  For example, I’ve made a personal rule on my blog and Facebook page to never talk about my work (day job) or to talk about certain family members – there are parts of my life that are private.

    The whole point about launching into a “foolish adventure” is that it isn’t easy – there are a lot of problems to solve.  You can view not getting an audience as either a reason to quit saying, “I am no good at this I am done.” or you can view it as just another challenge in the business, “Okay, I am not generating an audience, how do I fix that?”

    It is daunting, scary, and not easy but for some of us that is the whole reason to give it a try.

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    Andrew,
    I agree 110%. For me, I thought the prospect of working for someone else, especially a corporate or government agency, for 40+ years to be extremely daunting and scary. I found the idea of having someone else able to tell me what to I had to do and where I had to be for most of my life with the hopes of a wonderful retirement at the end of the rainbow.

  • Anonymous

    I loved this episode!!!! I have been working for the past few months to really streamline things and automate as much as possible in order to give myself more time. I have mobility and the site is growing pretty well (income). Something this show made me think about that you guys wouldn’t expect is that I feel trapped by my kids school schedules. I hate only being able to travel on their predetermined vacations, which are also the most expensive and crowded times to travel. So, here I go…thinking about homeschooling again (we’ve done it before). Sure, I have the mobility to take the laptop to the pool in the summer, but I want the mobility to take the laptop to the pool in Hawaii in October or February! I guess I could always leave the kids home, but I kind of like them…lol!

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    My daughter is homeschooled. I quite enjoy having her around during the day. Take them to Greece and discuss mythology, philosophy, mathematics and democracy. Now that would be an education.