Jim Edwards and Stew Smith discuss the successful trip to Funnel Hacking Live as well as some down time in Aruba. Scheduling the day around your natural abilities, energy levels, up and down times to get things done as well as engage an audience better with more creative content.
The book “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink is the inspiration to this minor change in scheduling. Consider when you work best and make your natural productivity times work best for you.
Get Copywriting Secrets for FREE – Just pay shipping www.copywritingsecrets.com
Check out the Facebook Group – Sales Copy and Content Marketing Hacks at https://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingandcontenthacks/ and for more information on the wizards used to make outstanding sales copy check out https://copyandcontent.ai/.
Don’t want to miss any episodes? Subscribe to “The Copy And Content AI Report” YouTube Channel Here for more information about creating successful sales copy to sell ANYTHING:
Jim Edwards: Hey guys, Jim Edwards here along with Stew Smith…
Welcome Stew …
Stew Smith: Hello, everybody…
Welcome back, Jim…
Jim Edwards: Oh, thank you, sir…
This is episode 57…
Stew Smith: Yes…
Jim Edwards: Which was a fine year if you were a Chevy and a 10 year, 10 episodes from now we’ll get to the year that I was born…
Stew Smith: Yeah!
Jim Edwards: That’ll be coming up quickly…
So today we’re going to talk about what Jim did on his summer vacation, Even though it wasn’t summer…
But first, we want to talk about Stew’s new hashtag but Stew’s pushing…
And I love the tagline…
So tell us what’s going on with you Stew…
As far as your hashtag.
Stew Smith: Here is what you want to do if you want to make your online social media experience a lot more fun, friendly, less stressful, less angry instead of posting or sharing something about some political figure or politics thing…
Post about puppies.
In fact, the new hashtag is all puppies, no politics.
And I’ve got some great pictures, and I’ve created this puppy news channel where we have breaking news every day about what my dog Parker is doing.
And he’s a weatherman, weather dog.
Jim Edwards: Weather dog…
Stew Smith: He has some public service announcements to make…
He does all kinds of cool stuff.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
Stew Smith: Puppy news channel cause no one cares about your political opinion.
That’s our tagline.
That’s what I’ve been doing while you’re gone.
I’ve been busy.
No, I’m actually writing a book and reading a book, so which is difficult.
Jim Edwards: I know. It’s hard and worth it.
Stew Smith: It’s hard to take it in and then spit it out with a different topic…
But yeah…
Jim Edwards: Can I tell you that?
I just found out we crossed the 20,000 books sale mark with my book…
Stew Smith: Nice.
Jim Edwards: That’s pretty good, right?
Stew Smith: That’s big numbers.
Jim Edwards: Not bad for red men in the swamps of Virginia…
Stew Smith: And then you been on vacation, a well-earned and deserved vacation…
Jim Edwards: First, I was at Funnel Hacking Live for a week, and then I’ve been in Aruba for two weeks, and I have to tell you that other than walking onto the beach to do a couple of videos, we didn’t go to the beach one day.
We didn’t get to sit on the beach.
All we did was pretty much, I worked down every morning.
I slept like 10 hours a day.
Stew Smith: Good.
Must’ve needed it.
Jim Edwards: And I worked out every day for as long as I wanted.
Well, you know what I mean?
Stew Smith: Yeah…
Jim Edwards: Without feeling pressured.
But I was actually working on doing my workout quicker than normal with less pause in between sets and stuff.
And then we walked every day and then Terry went to the casino for probably four or five hours a day.
And I sat at the Dunkin donuts in Aruba and read four to five hours a day and took a bunch of notes and stuff and did a bunch of thinking and filled up a bunch of notebooks, and I rearranged my whole day.
I came up with a whole new way of organizing my day based around the book.
“When” by Daniel Pink, which actually went on and did a whole video about why I liked it cause it’s not a time management book, it’s a time usage book, which is different telling you which…
And I’ve done stuff on this before, something called the two golden hours, but he confirmed a bunch of stuff I knew, gave me a lot of new things to think about and really got me to consider how I organize my day.
And it’s interesting because let me ask you Stew, and I know the answer, but I’m gonna ask you anyway, it’s a leading question.
So make sure you answer it right.
Otherwise, we’ll have to stop recording.
But let me ask you this.
Over the course of the day, do you find yourself with your energy going like this?
So this would be some time between now 12 and two o’clock…
All of a sudden, it really drops…
Stew Smith: Yes…
Jim Edwards: You told me you weren’t tired…
Stew Smith: I’m not tired…
Jim Edwards: Oh, okay.
Stew Smith: Just not as energetic as I was three hours ago.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
Well, this is we call this the bonk or, you know, the dip.
But this is pretty normal.
In fact, this is pretty much what people do.
Stew Smith: Sure.
Jim Edwards: And so if that’s going to happen, why would you plan to do stuff around this time of day at, around between 12 and two, when you know you’re not going to be at your best, and everything’s going to suck.
And yet everybody’s struggling and trying.
So what he suggested, and he said, there’s actually three types of people.
There are larks…
There are third birds.
And there are owls…
Stew Smith: So you’ve got morning larks and night owls…
I’ve never heard of the third bird.
Jim Edwards: Well, he actually did a lot of stuff with scientific studies and other stuff like that.
But let’s say that four o’clock in the morning is a Lark…
Most people don’t get up at 4.
Most people are getting rolling around 6 or 7.
But what happens is that everybody’s following the same pattern…
It just happens later on in the day.
So instead of it being between 12 and 2 because you’re getting up pretty early, I mean you’re up like at 5, 5:30, right?
Stew Smith: 5 yeah.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
So that’s why you’re hitting it between 12 and 2…
If you were getting up 2 hours later, it would be happened in between 2 and 4.
Stew Smith: Okay.
Jim Edwards: So it’s not linked to the sun so much as it is just your personal whatever.
And the third birds are actually the biggest group of people.
But the important thing is number 1, to identify which group you’re in and then just plan accordingly.
Because he said there’s all kinds of stuff that goes on during these different periods where, this time of day, you should be doing what he calls analytical stuff…
So that’s the stuff that requires a whole lot of thinking and writing your thought…
But what he says in the afternoon when you hit when you’re past the dip, and you’ve got energy again, that this is where you should be doing what he calls intuitive stuff.
And that was the thing that I thought was really interesting because he was talking about intuitive…
This is creative stuff like writing is creative, but brainstorming and seeing connections and thinking about what stuff means and other stuff is more intuitive, and it’s better to do that after the dip because your inhibitions are down because you’re still a little bit tired.
So your internal editor is not as active.
So you’re not going to second guess everything that you say and think so much, and it opens up your mind to see new connections…
Whereas in the morning you about get it done, get it done, get it done, done, done, done.
Reps write that article, all that stuff.
But in the afternoon, that’s where you’re able to make connections…
And do that kind of stuff.
I thought that was really interesting, and that was part of when I was sitting at the Dunkin donuts in Aruba for 4 or 5 hours a day…
What I would do would be to write these things down and then say, okay, what if I organize my day like this?
Then I would literally sit there and mentally rehearse a day and think through where would this be?
Where would this make sense, where would this not make sense?
Is this true for me?
And you know some of the stuff I said I’m going to switch it out and I’m going to work out at 4:30 in the morning…
I’m gonna workout from 4:30 to 6:00, and I had this whole thing done…
And then I kept thinking to me…
I said, there ain’t no way in hell I’m going to work out from 4:30 to 6:00 I’m not going to be a Navy Seal…
I’m not going to be an army ranger…
There’s no reason for me to do that.
And I’m happiest when I work out after I’ve worked for a couple of hours…
So that’s where I came up with the new schedule.
But it’s interesting.
And so I made a whole bunch of lists of things that I would consider in creative tasks versus intuitive tasks…
To kind of organize what stuff I’m going to do in the middle or during the day, but at what time I’m going to be doing, cause that was the big thing that he talked about was, sometimes it’s not as important as what you’re doing as when you’re doing what you’re doing.
So I made a list of things, remember the creative or analytical stuff would be at the beginning, and then intuitive stuff would be at the end…
And the other thing though you got to understand is that your customers, the people paying attention to you are bonking, at the same time…
You got to know when or when are the majority of your people in there…
And I realized like for me normally been doing webinars at what?
1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon?
Well, think about it…
If I’m blanking at 1 or 2 in the afternoon, am I giving my best presentation now?
And are the people that are listening or paying attention, are they in the best frame of mind to receive what it is and putting out there?
Stew Smith: Good point.
Jim Edwards: So I’m going to try something different.
I’m moving all with the exception of 1…
I’m moving all of my regular webinars to 11 o’clock in the morning Eastern.
Stew Smith: Okay.
Jim Edwards: Now if you think about this…
Stew Smith: That’s a good time…
You think about it, 11 out on the West coast, it’s 8 in the morning…
People could say, “Oh, that’s too early”.
Okay, well, catch a replay.
I mean if you think about though, all the people over in Europe, 5 hours ahead of us, 11 o’clock that puts them at 6…
That’s when most people are having that second wind…
Stew Smith: Yep.
Jim Edwards: So I’m going to try that out and see how it goes and nothing else.
And 90% of the people will watch a replay anyway.
So why not do it when I’m feeling my best?
So as you can see, I put a lot, I’ve got it color-coded, and I did a lot.
So here are the things I’m planning on doing in the morning.
Stew Smith: All right.
Jim Edwards: Making wizards, modifying wizards, using wizards to make content, creating scripts for content, whether it be videos or podcasts, outlining webinars, outlining trainings to deliver troubleshooting wizards, presenting classes or webinars, writing sales copy or teasers promoting content we’ve already created, whether with email, social media, paid or outreach defining/planning challenges…
I’m going to start doing a bunch of copywriting challenges, creating, defining processes, blueprints, and checklists…
So that’s the stuff for the morning.
That is all about getting into flow.
That’s the other big theme in this book; it’s all about being in flow with the right activities, with the right time for your body and mind, and it all makes sense, to me at least.
Stew Smith: It makes sense…
It makes a lot of sense…
And especially your 1:00 PM podcast, webinar change…
Jim Edwards: Yeah…
Stew Smith: Cause I know I’m pretty much useless right after lunch…
Jim Edwards: Yeah, me too.
Stew Smith: That one o’clock class was awful in college…
Everybody had a hard time staying awake.
Jim Edwards: So the other thing that he talks about is taking a nap, and he brings up Stew’s favorite, the nappuccino, and he even calls it the nappuccino…
But a couple of things you said about naps is number one, it used to judge them as only for the week, but then he did all these studies and stuff and showed that if you take a nap the right way at the right time, it can actually reinvigorate the entire rest of your day.
But you can’t take it for too long.
And so he said the optimal amount of time for it is somewhere between 16 and 20 minutes.
16 and 22 minutes, I think, is what it was…
Somewhere in there…
But what you need to do is you need that to take a little bit of caffeine, have a cup of coffee, have something I did some half calf this today just to test it out.
And that was the other thing.
I cut out all caffeine except for this one thing I’ll do a half calf.
I have drinking no caffeine in the morning.
Stew Smith: That’s good!
Jim Edwards: And he showed the research but that caffeine in the morning actually affects your ability to lose weight because it activates something else…
I don’t remember what it was, but the thing is I’m awake in the morning…
I don’t need caffeine in the morning.
Yeah, that’s a good point…
But I need it in the afternoon.
So I was starting to have some atrial fibrillation issues in the morning, and so I said, okay, I’m going to cut out the caffeine.
And I cut it out for almost two weeks, and that went away.
And then while I was in Aruba, I started experimenting on myself with an iced coffee with a half calf in the afternoon and didn’t have any other negatives.
So, and it was revving me up.
So the bottom line says, take a nap, set your alarm for like 30 minutes from when you finish the coffee.
It takes most people like seven minutes to fall asleep…
And then if you’re asleep for between 16 and 22 minutes and then you wake up, that’s the perfect thing.
And then go for a walk after you’ve done that.
Stew Smith: Yup.
Jim Edwards: So the big thing is also to take mini-breaks throughout the day, like work for 15 minutes and then stand up and go for a walk for five or 10 minutes.
And I started making a big list of all the things that I can do in that 10 minutes…
Like pull up pyramids and push up pyramids and other stuff that used to be hard…
And I’d be like, Oh yeah, I can go bust out 55 pull-ups in 10 minutes…
And then I woken up…
So he said even to plan your brakes, like take plan, make them good.
Stew Smith: You know why?
If they’re not on the schedule, they don’t exist.
Jim Edwards: Exactly!
Stew Smith: You got to plan those things.
Jim Edwards: So here’s the list of intuitive tasks that I made, and if anybody cares, I mean, I’m happy to share my new daily schedule.
Stew Smith: We should do a podcast or a blog post of your list.
Jim Edwards: We can do that.
So here are the intuitive tasks that I came up with.
I’m just going to keep adding to the thing.
I’m whiteboarding ideas.
That’s a real intuitive thing, and that’s fun too in the afternoon.
Podcast interviews, Facebook live broadcast, contacting folks about sharing content.
And then I said I need to develop a syndicate for social media content, sharing answering questions on social media and turning that into content, strategizing, upcoming launches and promotions, demonstrating stuff…
Answering questions live and writing, spinning wizards…
Finding new uses for wizards, which I think is big…
Critiquing copy and meetings with others…
So that was something else…
I’m going too many directions, but you would not believe how many people came up to me at Funnel Hacking live and told me, “Hey, I’ve been using Funnel Scripts, and you’ve never talked about this, but I use this one, this one and this one and I get this.”
I was like, “Holy crap, that’s amazing you said that on video…”
And they did…
But I got some great ideas about how to even use my own stuff from people.
Stew Smith: That’s awesome.
Well, that brings me up to another thing that Jim and I are going to do.
And that is, we’re going to have another segment each week where we interview people on Facebook who are pretty active.
Not only active in posting but active and sharing critiquing others when they asked for it.
And just get some of your feedback on how you are using it in your business and maybe kind of do a two through and after with you focusing on your journey.
Jim Edwards: What sales copy, specifically sales copy and content.
So what did we decide to call it?
It was actually pretty cool…
It came up with them while I was on the beach…
We’re going to call it, What’s Your Sales Copy Story?
Stew Smith: Yeah…
Jim Edwards: Well, look at how everyday entrepreneurs just like you grow their business with more clicks, more sales, and more profits using the power of words.
So, it’s going to be kind of a combination of critiquing discussion, brainstorming, coaching, all kinds of stuff.
So if there’s something that you’d want to talk about when it came to copy, if there’s a way that you’re using the wizards that you’re finding success, if there’s something that’s not clear, whatever it is you can jump on with us and we’ll just talk with you over cup of beverage.
Stew Smith: Non-caffeinated.
Jim Edwards: Non-caffeinated at this point.
But I think it’s going to be fun and we’ll figure it out together so it’ll be good…
Stew Smith: Yeah.
That was our new ideas as Jim was on his like I said, well-deserved recovery period vacation.
But let’s just talk about that, why you need to do that.
Not everybody can go to Aruba for two weeks.
We get it.
But yeah, I mean if you can just get away, unwind, and there’s a term that we use and in fitness, especially in the tactical fitness world where we actively pursue recovery.
So you are constantly on a search for things that help you recover from the stresses of the day.
Whatever that is.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the fire you’re fighting or bullets flying over your head or paying bills at the end of the month…
Stress is stress, and we have to learn to get good at dealing with that stress.
And a lot of times like what Jim was doing was just resting, digesting, getting a little bit of physical activity out of his system and kind of engaging that parasympathetic nervous system where it brings you down, and it really can help you get healthy too because stress is our number one killer.
Jim Edwards: Sure.
Well, I think stress is the new smoking sort of stress the old smoking as far as sitting’s the new smoking, which I guess bullshit, but okay.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: So I think the biggest thing,( and by the way, by the end of the, I didn’t need the two weeks…)
I mean I was, ready to come home after the first 10 days and the last four days I was like.
Stew Smith: I’m sure, I mean nuts being gone that long.
Jim Edwards: But it also was good because I was practicing a few things like practicing, not checking my email until after I had read and exercised and created and done some stuff instead of letting that blow my mind.
Also, what happens is we tend to at least I tend to really get an action mode.
And so every once in a while, it’s kinda like a review every year with your doctor or a review every year with your financial planner…
You got to stop for a minute, stick the periscope up and look and make sure you’re still moving in the right direction…
Say, okay, I want to head this way now and in I want to change shoes, and I want to change the oil in the car, and I want to do some other stuff that when I put my head back down, hopefully, I have done enough that I will keep myself moving in that direction.
Something that I’m doing differently this year is I realize when I go away and when I come back as a giant to-do list of all the shit that I think I need to do now because I’ve had some chance to actually breathe and I forget about all the pain I create for myself by just blindly charging ahead and doing a ton of stuff, which granted I’ve gotten really good results from blindly charging.
Stew Smith: There’s nothing wrong with it, but, like I said, if you can be smarter and actively pursue recovery somewhere throughout your day, otherwise it starts.
Jim Edwards: But I think you have to actively pursue recovery at least every three to six months the same way mentally, instead of just grinding away and grinding and grinding and grinding…
Which by the way, I think the term grind is if you want to hustle and grind, you’re an idiot.
I’d rather flow and roll myself, but, okay, so good example, right?
Here’s the list of all the big things I need to get done real fast.
There’s a ton of stuff I want to launch.
Start launching the copy challenges is the backend for the Copywriting Secrets Book.
I want to integrate the avatar with Funnel Scripts and with the Jim Members Method Premium.
I gotta finish making the traffic secrets scripts.
I gotta get my promotion together for the traffic secrets affiliate contest.
I to start promoting author wizards more.
I need to create a framework script.
I need to promote the Jim boat.
I came up with a really cool idea called the copy hacking that I wanna develop with you Stew on the live stuff where we’re analyzing different copy and it’s all kinds of cool stuff.
But in the past we’d be like, “Okay man, here’s the list. Here’s the day.”
And within three days, I would have made myself absolutely insane…
Now when instead what I’m doing is my team is, we’re getting together on Friday, and we’re going to take a look at all this stuff, and we’re going to prioritize and also see how we can take an integrated approach with this.
So that by maybe we can tie these coffee challenges into the traffic secrets scripts and the traffic secrets affiliate contest so that as I bring everything along, everybody can it’s like “I can bring five things along at one time instead of bringing one thing along in five different turns.”
If that makes sense…
Just being smarter about it because the other thing is that time people talk about time is the most valuable resource time.
Time’s really the only thing that we have.
We get to choose how we use it, but I’m choosing to be a little bit smarter with it.
Then I have been in the past being not just more efficient but more thoughtful about everything.
So anyway, that was quite the vacation and lots of stuff swimming around in my head.
I need to review my notes from all these books and stuff.
Stew Smith: Well, slowly, but surely you got plenty of things to do, and you’re right, you don’t need to get them all done this week.
But this was one of them.
We’ve got a podcast done.
Jim Edwards: Exactly.
Stew Smith: A little bit about your schedule…
When are you going to be most productive in the day?
I think everybody should know that…
Jim Edwards: I agree.
Stew Smith: And what works for you, right?
We tend to be creatures of habit, and sometimes making these changes can feel a little offsetting at first.
But give it a try, give it a good college, try for a couple of weeks and see how it works if not, go back to what works for you.
Jim Edwards: And don’t try and change everything all at once.
That’s the other thing.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: I mean, I’m used to getting up this early, so that’s not a change if you really want to come down to it.
When he really, really comes down to it, I’m making 3 changes to my schedule.
But one of them is not very big.
The other one’s not very big, and the other one will become natural quickly.
The first big change to my schedule is I’m moving my meeting with my team from 6:45 in the morning till 10 o’clock in the morning…
The other thing that I’m saying is don’t even look at email until after you have the meeting with the girls.
That’s the second one.
And then the third one is no afternoon webinars.
Only do them at 11.
Honest to God, everything else I’ve been doing plus or minus just without the, I’m gonna always do this.
I always have eaten lunch.
I always have loved taking a nap.
Now I’ve given my permission myself, permission to take a nap every day as part of the process and to take a walk after lunch and after my nap…
So, but if you think about it, even though it feels different, it’s not, I’m just organizing things a little bit differently.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
You haven’t added any hours to your workday, you just moved the things that make sense in your brain that may be a little more productive for you…
Jim Edwards: And I have been doing plus or minus this already, so it’s like I was 98 yards down the field and now I’m learning how to take it the last two yards over the goal line…
Stew Smith: Well, you know what I mean?
Sometimes that missing let’s say two to 5% can make a big difference…
In what you get done in a day.
Jim Edwards: Absolutely.
Stew Smith: And now you’ve been productive.
Now you’re highly productive.
Jim Edwards: Yep.
There’s one other thing he discusses in, but not in this book discusses in another book.
It’s called Drive, where motivation and stuff come from.
But the one other thing that we’re going to do in our team is on Fridays we’re going to adopt something called FedEx days.
Where basically you have 24 hours to work on something that you normally either wouldn’t be working on or that you’ve been putting off where you have permission to put everything else aside and only work on this one thing until it’s done.
But you only have that one day to do it, and I think that’s going to be really good too because like for example, we got to get the sales page done for the Jim Boat.
So if we didn’t set aside and say, okay, today whatever the day is is not going to be this Friday, but next Friday is going to be the day to get that done…
Hell or high water…
You want to get up at 3 in the morning and work on it…
You want to work on it until 10 o’clock at night, however long it takes, but before you’re done for the day, that thing must be done or that part of it or whatever you define.
This is the thing that I have delivered by the end of the day.
Stew Smith: I think we all work a little better on deadlines too.
Jim Edwards: That’s the only way I can work.
Stew Smith: Yeah, I need a dead line.
Jim Edwards: I have to have, or it never gets done, especially a writing deadline…
That’s very helpful for me…
So if you don’t have the book, get the book Copywriting Secrets I really highly recommend the book When by Daniel Pink, the full name of it is “When The Scientific Secrets Of Perfect Timing.”
It’s really good, really good…
Recommended, highly told everybody to get it.
Everybody’s bought it, and nobody’s read it.
Come on, people.
I’m like Stew did you read it?
And he “No I.
Stew Smith: I download it.
I’m reading a book that is very similar actually.
It’s called Why We Sleep.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
What’s that about?
Stew Smith: Why we sleep the importance of sleeping right.
And all the different aspects of naps.
And why there are people like he uses the term morning Lark and night owl, as well.
But it’s neat…
It’s just neat to kind of better understand it a little bit, and he gives some insights on sleeping better having really productive sleep, taking short naps, cappuccinos, nappuccino, whatever…
Jim Edwards: There you go.
Cool…
Stew Smith: Doing all that stuff too.
So yeah, it’s like I said, in the end, it’s all about recovery because your number one recovery tool is a good night’s sleep.
Jim Edwards: Yes.
Stew Smith: No matter what your stresses are in life, a good night’s sleep is your number one recovery tool.
And if you sleep poorly, your stress can become chronic, and it usually exhibits itself in your annual medical checks.
Jim Edwards: Sure.
And your everyday mood.
Stew Smith: And your mood and yeah.
Jim Edwards: Cool…
All right, guys.
Well, get a nap, read the books, go check out the Facebook group content marketing.
And look what we may be tagging you with a request to be on the show.
So get in that closed group and start working.
Jim Edwards: Absolutely.
And the cool thing we’re up like over 11,000 members in there now I mean, there’s stuff going on in there that I have no ideas going on as far as people asking for help and getting feedback and other stuff.
Stew Smith: People are very helpful.
Jim Edwards: Yes.
Extremely.
So mainly because we kick out the ass hats who aren’t.
So we curate the group and have nice people.
Stew Smith: That’s what groups are for.
Jim Edwards: That’s right.
Cool.
All right, everybody…
Have a great day, and we’ll talk to you soon.
Bye-bye everybody.
Leave a Reply