There’s nothing quite like that feeling of being in the zone; that place of flow and focus where you do your best work. If you’ve watched Disney Pixar’s Soul, it shows “the zone” as this generally joyful place between the conscious and unconscious world where you find yourself when you’re completely focussed on your craft or work. One of the ways I’m able to find this focus and enter ‘the zone’ is by listening to music. When you’ve got a good pair of headphones on and the right music playing, it...
Jul 04, 2021•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast You’ve probably heard about the importance of providing value to potential customers before they purchase. By providing value first, you build trust and credibility that helps leads to eventually justify paying for your product or service. Free trials and samples are easy. But for coaches and consultants, it’s tricky working out how much free advice to give out without cannibalising your business. The fear is that if you give out too much advice, people won’t need to pay you for your service. Sh...
Jun 27, 2021•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yesterday I turned 30. When you have a significant birthday like this it’s natural to look back on how you’ve grown over the years. Heading into my 30s, I’m pleased with where I’m at in life. When I turned 20, I was still at University and had the goal of running my own business. In my early 20s, I had a couple of great jobs which allowed me to learn a lot and develop as an individual. In 2014 I started my blog and began learning about how to make money online by selling my expertise. In 2016, w...
Jun 20, 2021•25 min•Ep 215•Transcript available on Metacast Forming a new habit can be tough. Whether you’re trying to build a habit related to fitness, personal finances, business or personal well-being, forcing yourself to stop your old methods and start a new habit can feel weird at first. It takes time before the new habit becomes part of your routine and starts to feel normal. Looking back at some of the habits I’ve adopted, there’s one habit that I’ve adopted that’s helped me when forming other new habits. And it’s this: Tracking. Show notes (pleas...
Jun 06, 2021•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast We all have various expressions and turns of phrase that we rely on to make a point and communicate our intentions. However, in this day and age, it’s easier than ever for messages to be misconstrued and taken out of content. Or, if we’re not careful, certain words and phrases can weaken our point and undermine the message entirely. Whether you’re writing an email or talking in person, here are a few phrases and words I’ve tried to remove from my vocabulary, that you should as well. Show notes (...
May 30, 2021•12 min•Ep 213•Transcript available on Metacast We all like to improve on what we’re doing and how we do things. Whether that’s improving a process in your business, learning a new skill at work or the way you take notes in a class. But the improvement often comes with an adjustment period where it takes time to become accustomed to the change before you can enjoy the benefits. This is why making improvements to the way you work can be challenging. And even though your current process may be slower, doing things the way you’ve always done the...
May 23, 2021•10 min•Ep 212•Transcript available on Metacast Out of the box, the Mac is a great piece of kit, but with a few tweaks and some useful apps, you can turn your Mac into an incredibly productive machine. In this episode, I’d like to list some of the tools and tweaks I’ve made to supercharge my productivity while using the Mac. If you’re a Mac user, I highly recommend spending some time learning about each of these tools. I can say with confidence that tools like these genuinely help me to save time so I can get my work done faster meaning I can...
May 16, 2021•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you want to be more organised and effective at managing your time, the key is simplicity. People often come to me for help because their systems are overly complicated and hard to manage. They tell me they spend more time maintaining their system than they do actually doing important work. As I’ve created and shared videos and blog posts, people often tell me how organised my systems appear to be. There’s no real secret other than I try to make things as simple as possible. Show notes (please...
May 02, 2021•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Passive income is often portrayed as the holy grail of earning money online; make money while you sleep, sounds good right? But before you quit your job to embark on the passive income lifestyle, I thought I’d share a few realities you may want to be aware of. To add some context for new readers, my business currently generates revenue in a few different ways. Primarily from providing consulting services but also from digital product sales, affiliate marketing, sponsorships and ad revenue. Some ...
Apr 25, 2021•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast A lot of task management tools give you the option to assign high, medium or low priority status to a task. Personally, I find this pointless and I’ve never liked assigning a priority to a task. In this episode, I explain why. Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/210 If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review. Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminor...
Apr 18, 2021•12 min•Ep 208•Transcript available on Metacast On my recent episode of Minor Updates , I shared that I’ve now hired my friend Warwick as a full-time contractor within my business. I’ve been working as a solo-operator since I started my business in 2015 so this is a pretty significant change to how I work. Many of the people who follow my work are freelancers or consultants, like me. So I decided to share how I went about making this decision in case you’ve ever considered doing something similar. Show notes (please leave me a comment with yo...
Apr 11, 2021•14 min•Ep 207•Transcript available on Metacast I was recently contacted by the author, Adii Pienaar, wanting to share his new book all about 'life profitability'. As someone who prioritises building a business that supports the lifestyle you want, this concept of 'life profitability' really got my attention! Adii mentioned that he'd been in contact with one of my online business heroes, Paul Jarvis. You might remember that I interviewed Paul on the podcast all about his book 'Company of One' and building a business that doesn't prioritise gr...
Apr 04, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to episode 3 of Minor Updates . In this video, I share some updates on what I've been up to in the first quarter of 2021. Enjoy! Linked and resources mentioned in this video This is the eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit that we set up at the front door and back garden. Check out Ark and Sea where you can purchase a t-shirt that funds the removal of 1kg of plastic from the ocean. Currently reading Ready Player Two . Here's the Material Dock from Studio Neat that I now have on my side-table. Here's whe...
Mar 28, 2021•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Email continues to be one of the main time-sucks for the average knowledge worker. Every morning I’m greeted by about 20-30 new messages. This is a lot less than some people and I still have to schedule time each morning to process my inbox. In the past, I’ve shared some tips on how to save time on email . In this week’s post, I’d like to drill down into one point in particular, how to get less email. Because if you can reduce the volume of email coming in, this makes processing your inbox a lot...
Mar 21, 2021•9 min•Ep 204•Transcript available on Metacast Tell me if this sounds familiar – When you plan your time, do you ever over-commit and run out of time to do your work? Especially when it comes to doing deep work that generates results but requires real focus. It’s so easy to say, “I’m going to spend the day working on X” only to get bogged down with other admin tasks and distractions. I’ve been caught out by this more than a few times… It’s easy to start your week with good intentions to be proactive and do meaningful work. But often we get p...
Mar 14, 2021•9 min•Ep 203•Transcript available on Metacast About 6 months ago I started ‘Floating’ on a regular basis. Floating is where you lie in a tank of warm, salty water in pitch dark and absolute silence. The high-density of the saline solution makes you feel weightless and the absence of light and sound eliminates all distractions. This is known as ‘sensory deprivation’. What’s the point in all this? When you eliminate all senses this supports deep relaxation, stress relief, and even creative thinking. I did my first float a number of years ago ...
Mar 07, 2021•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast It seems like every day there’s a new tool coming out that supposedly helps you to get more done and be more efficient. And if we’re not careful, shiny object syndrome tempts us to try these new tools because we feel like that’s the answer to better productivity. In reality, the tools we use really aren’t as important as the principles and HOW we actually use the tool. That said, whenever I’m tempted by a new tool or app, I think through the decision very carefully. Recently I was tempted to sig...
Feb 21, 2021•12 min•Ep 202•Transcript available on Metacast We all know about the importance of quality over quantity. And what I find interesting is to think about what you prefer (quantity or quality) as it relates to different areas of your life. We often assume that quality is the better alternative. But this doesn't always have to be the case. The key is to be aware of what type of person you are and be proactive about making the right choice for you. And if you find yourself quite far to one end of the spectrum to ask yourself what it would be life...
Feb 07, 2021•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you want to be more productive, it’s pretty simple… A lot of books, courses and other resources show you how to build these elaborate systems that help you to be more organised, prioritise your work and plan your time. The reality is, if you want to get more done, it’s quite simple… You need to be disciplined and show up to do important work that matters. That’s it. Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/201 If you enjoyed this episode...
Jan 31, 2021•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today I’m recording my 200th podcast episode. I started my podcast back in 2015 when I was still working full-time and I was trying to "make it" creating content and starting an internet business. A lot has changed in that time but the podcast is one thing that’s remained pretty consistent. While the podcast numbers remain pretty steady, I enjoy showing up each week and sharing a thought or idea that may benefit a few people. For this episode, I’d like to share a few of the lessons I’ve learned ...
Jan 24, 2021•10 min•Ep 199•Transcript available on Metacast Last week I emailed my newsletter list to learn more about the kinds of things people want to learn about in 2021. And one of the most popular topics that kept coming up is organisation. With so many tools available to us know, if you’re not careful, keeping track of what you’re doing and all your ‘stuff’ can be challenging. In the future I’m sure I’ll be doing a deep dive into this topic and specific tools. For now, I wanted to start by outlining some principles that you can apply to different ...
Jan 17, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the holidays I was listening to an episode of Simon Sinek’s podcast, A Bit of Optimism. And in an interview with Derren Brown , Derren gets you to think about happiness as a verb, something you do, rather than as a noun, something you have. And as I was listening I had one of those moments where the penny dropped and I suddenly realised, of course, you can’t be happy all the time. And yet, as we go through life, we’re lead to believe that if you’re not happy, something must be wrong. We’re ...
Jan 10, 2021•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to episode number 2 of Minor Updates. After recording my first update video a few months ago, I received really positive feedback and people seemed to really enjoy the more informal updates I shared. I decided to close out the year with another update to share some of the things I've been working on and stuff I'm thinking about for 2021. Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » paulminors.com/197 If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave...
Dec 20, 2020•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last year I published a summary of how I spent my time in 2019. It was a fascinating exercise and I received positive feedback on the analysis. Understanding how your time is being spent is one of the best things you can do to make better choices and plan more effectively in the future. So, I thought it would be worth repeating this exercise again this year. NOTE: This analysis covers the period from January 1st to December 7th. So, although the year isn’t over, it gives me a pretty good idea of...
Dec 13, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The end of the year is fast approaching and when you look back and think about everything that’s happened this year, it’s crazy how fast the time has gone by! As the end of the year approaches, I’m starting to think about how I want to finish off the year and prepare for 2021. This is what I’ve got planned so far… Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/195 If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review. Intro/Outr...
Nov 29, 2020•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Even before 2020, I was already spending a lot of time on Zoom. Being a virtual consultant from New Zealand where 95% of my clients are overseas, it’s an app that gets a lot of usage from me. Then 2020 happened and everyone started working remotely and using Zoom to host family get-togethers, gym classes or to catch up with friends while on lockdown. According to Timing, I’ve spent 266 hours on Zoom this year. And I’m pretty sure this is under-reporting as it only counts active time (i.e. if I’m...
Nov 22, 2020•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast As I’m sure you’re aware, journaling is one of those habits that a lot of ‘successful’ (whatever that means) people seem to have adopted. And journalling is often presented through this lens of being a tool to help you be more successful. And I don’t have an issue with that. But for me, journaling isn’t something I do to try and be successful. For me, journaling is a tool to find peace of mind. In this week’s blog post, I’d like to share a few journalling methods for you to experiment with. This...
Nov 15, 2020•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had a great ‘ah-ha’ moment last week. I was listening to an interview on the Tim Ferriss podcast between Tim and Mr Money Moustache (a.k.a Pete Adeney). For those that don’t know, Mr Money Moustache is a pioneer of the F.I.R.E movement (financial independence, retire early). On his blog he deconstructs the numbers behind creating a passive income and living within your means so you can retire early. Anyway, during the interview, Pete said something that really made my ears prick up: "Happiness...
Nov 08, 2020•10 min•Ep 191•Transcript available on Metacast We just got back from a family vacation and it was great taking a week off to relax and spend some quality time with the family. When we were at the beach, my wife, Hayley, snapped these cute photos of me pulling our little boy Jay up a rock and it got me thinking about an interesting metaphor for being a father.. Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/191 If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review. Intro/Outr...
Nov 01, 2020•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast When I think about the habits and routines that have helped me to achieve my goals over the last 5 years, there’s one thing that stands out from the rest: consistency. Put another way, being consistent, is the number 1 thing that has helped me to make progress towards my goals both in business and my personal life. So, if you have a goal in mind and you’re wondering what you can do to reach it, be consistent. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by shiny objects or new ideas. Show notes (please...
Oct 18, 2020•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
