Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: And not a lot of people know this, but I actually don't have any work thing on my phone. On my main phone, I don't have any work thing except for my calendar. So I don't have slack. I don't have my work email even on my phone. I don't have my stripe on my phone. I don't have those things. So I just really have my calendar because I just need to see what's on there and then that's it.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: You weren't born to sit in traffic, work for approval, or wait for Fridays. You were built to be free.
Welcome to Rich and Remote, the show for the ones who dare to do life differently. Here we talk about building businesses that give you choices where you work, how you live and what you create.
This is for the entrepreneurs who crave freedom, financial freedom, location freedom, and freedom from everyone else's expectations. If you're ready to design a life on your own terms, you're in the right place.
Rich and Remote, hosted by Alex and Carla Booth.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Carla Singson and I've been in business for 17 years. Right now, my main focus is proximity outsourcing. My outsourcing company, where I have over 100 team members and I also support other business owners in doing the same thing, basically have a lot of freedom, make a lot of money, grow their business, throw through top tier talent from the Philippines and Latin America. So given that I have a very long time in business already, I have tons of experience hiring people, recruitment, upskilling my team, training them and managing them. And I personally think that is such a privilege and also a huge advantage. But outside of my online business, I'm also a real estate investor. I also dabble in other investments. I'm also a writer and I'm also a public speaker. Actually, I have two podcasts for right now as well. Shout out to my podcast, my first podcast, none of your business, where I discuss topics that are important to entrepreneurs. But we don't talk about business. So it's a great break from talking about business or listening to business podcasts. If you feel like you're experiencing business podcast fatigue and you just want to listen to something fun, something relaxing, but something that's also super relatable as a business owner. Find none of your business on Spotify and Apple podcasts and I'm building a new one. Actually, I'm really working hard on this one right now. It's called Rich and Remote, where I help people live a life on their own terms. So in that podcast, me and My husband, Alex Booth. We talk about how to build location independent businesses, how to travel and not lose your mind while working. We talk about hotels and Airbnbs and places to stay that are work friendly, online work friendly. We also talk about things that we discover along the way. Really we're not telling you we're like super experts on this, but we'll tell you what we've tried and what have worked for us and what we learned from other people who are smarter than us and who are in that rich and remote journey. So visit richandremote.com to sign up for our newsletter and watch out for rich and remote on Spotify and Apple podcasts as well. So I've already spot spent the first two minutes talking about my passions, especially my podcasts. But let me tell you, I work less than 20 hours a week in my main business and of course because I have a team, also because I have certain principles and strategies that I do in my week so that I can set myself up for success. And I also successfully avoid burnout. Now, number one is my Sunday afternoon ritual. And so yes, it is an actual ritual, but it is also more of a mindset for me. So, so the way that things don't go crazy for me in the week is when I can see what the week actually looks like. If I am seeing ahead and I am planning, then my week is just more organized. So I have my weekly standup with my team and I join my team every Monday at 10:00am Central Standard Time to do that call. Wherever I am in the world, I always try to do my best to make it to that call. You know, unless I'm on a plane or I'm traveling or, or it's really difficult. So sometimes I even join this call when I'm on a taxi or something. But I really, really do try to make this call. It says the tone for the week and it's just one hour a week of me really talking to my team and aligning with everyone in that call. I also share some things that I've learned and some general principles that can really help everyone move forward. I also get cliff notes on what everyone in my management team is working on. It. It really, really helps me out. But some Sunday afternoon ritual is when every Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening I spend one to two hours looking at my week, listing down my big three, for example, my big three goals for that week and then looking at how I could achieve it. So I'm gonna look at certain meetings, I'm gonna look at certain connections that I'm going to make certain content that I'm going to make or shoot. So I really plan ahead, as many things as possible, possible. And I also use this time to take care of a lot of personal stuff. Like there are certain credit cards that I personally make payment, or I check with my family office to maybe check in with some of our Airbnbs, or I have to check some stuff with a bank or some stuff with my Philippine taxes or, you know, something like that. So I basically look at my whole life in terms of all the channels that I have in business or to make money. So this is also the time when I look at certain connections that I might have missed in the past week and then I make the those connections or reply to those messages. I really don't pressure myself to reply immediately when I get a message, especially in social media, I give myself grace. And typically I would deal with a lot of messages just in that one hour or two hours in the Sunday afternoon that I use to plan my week ahead. Let me tell you guys, if I do that on a Sunday, my week is always very nice, very manageable. I have lots of time to do whatever I want. And if I don't do that, I'm usually honestly scrambling on a Monday or I'm taking one day at a time and it's not a good experience. I'm just like, I'm feeling very, you know, like, untrusting with myself and like I. I'm scared of what comes around the corner in terms of like, tasks. So another reflection of the Sunday afternoon ritual is every night before I go to sleep, I just very quickly click on my calendar and see what I have for tomorrow. That's it. And I just kind of prep my brain on like, okay, this is what I'm working on tomorrow. And this action really takes like seconds. Honestly, it just helps me kind of close the day and mentally tell myself that, hey, you're going to sleep. These things are for tomorrow. Don't worry about this tonight. So that is also kind of a mini reflection of my Sunday afternoon ritual. And not a lot of people know this, but I actually don't have any work thing on my phone. On my main phone, I don't have any work thing except for my calendar. So I don't have slack. I don't have my work email even on my phone. I don't have my stripe on my phone. I don't, I don't have those things. So I just really have my calendar because I just need to see what's on there and then that's it. And I have enjoyed this freedom from having to like feeling like I always have to work wherever I am. I have enjoyed this freedom for as long as I can remember. And you know what, 17 years in business, if I got this far. And I'm very happy with where I am financially and where I am physically as well. So I don't think I'll be changing anything soon.
It's really, really worked for me and I've really managed it pretty good throughout the years. My second principle is I really try to stick to a four hour call window. So when I say that I typically only work less than 20 hours a week, the way that I think about that is my limit is 20 hours of like hard work or like real work. Okay, I'm going to discuss what is like not real work, but still work later. But if I give myself just a four hour window, say I'm only taking call between 1 to 5 Central Standard Time, it helps limit my work to those four hours in the day. So times Monday to Friday, five days, that would be 20 hours. So that would be my four hour call window. Which means that I can take calls within those hours. And of course if I have a client or if I have someone really important that I need to connect with and they're not available, of course they're going to request and I let them request a separate hour. But let me tell you, this request to have like a morning meeting or something like that, it doesn't even happen like once a week, so it probably only happens like twice a month. And I'm always happy to like make that adjustment, like no problem. I'm actually, I have nothing against taking calls in the morning, but I just noticed that if I limit my call window to four hours, it helps me really manage my 20 hour work week. So on top of that, I want to share a few principles that I also do. All calls are going to be 30 minutes or less. There's going to be an agenda, there's going to be a clear start and end time. Except for my podcasts, because most of my podcasts are an hour long. Except for Rich and remote, that's under 30 minutes. But for my none of your business podcast, where I've ran that podcast for three years, almost all of the episodes are, are more than one hour. So of course I, I'll do more than 30 minutes. But my connection calls are 30 minutes. And we always have an agenda. And if the agenda is kind of heavy, then we might have an email exchange before that, so that we cover as much as possible and then we cover some of the more important things on the call. And of course, you know, as like additional, like legal, maybe like advice. Also think about the things that you want in writing and maybe you can email that and the things that you want to mention on the call as well. So right now, although, you know, there are AI assistants assistance or AI transcription services on calls, AI recordings on calls, it's still good to kind of differentiate what you're gonna write on an email and what you're gonna mention on a call. So those are some of my rules. You know, have a set agenda, and if someone books in my calendar and the agenda is not clear, I cancel the call, I email them and I clarify. But if they don't clarify, I cancel the call. Because to be honest with you, being in this business for so long, I don't know where, you know, sometimes where my calendly link lands or, you know, where someone found my calendly link or someone found my connection and who sent that, who gave them that link. And so I always have to accept calls only with an agenda. And I have to know what we're talking about. There has to be a clear agenda for the call for me to show up in the call. So now that my team has actually invested in SEO and AI search and of course pr, and I've gone on so many podcasts as well there, we've been receiving booked calls from our website because you can just book a call on our site and sometimes these calls go to me. So we've been receiving calls with no agenda. And then when I get on a call, some of these people were actually people looking for a job and they, they use the call to apply for a job, which is an instant no, an instant disqualification because it's also very clear that this calendar is for clients or this calendar is for people who are looking to hire someone for their business. So also have your non negotiables in like taking calls, taking meetings. It's really healthy and it's one of the reasons why I can limit my focus work to less than 20 hours a week. Now next is number three. I really like this one because I don't think anyone will disagree with me on this, but have your health non negotiables. So before you are a business owner, you're a human being, and the better your health is, the better you will be performing as a business owner as well. And so I would really encourage you to have a lot of like health non negotiables as a business owner to really take time to take care of your health. So, so this could look like making my own food, cooking my own like dishes, even like making tea. Exercising, setting aside time for mindfulness, like reading. And not just like, you know, wasting my waking hours watching Netflix or going on rabbit holes on Reddit. But I always make way for four things in my day. Good food, like typically something that I would, I would make or maybe I would go out and I would buy that food. I do step away from, from work to do that. It also helps me clear my mind. Next is exercise. That's a walk or run, a swim or going to the gym, whatever I'm working on, going to Pilates, yoga, paddle board. So whatever that is, I always make time within my day. And honestly my most, most, most minimum is just trying to get to 10000 steps a day. I would just go for a walk, go for a long walk, maybe pop a podcast on. I really like doing that and taking those breaks help me breathe like mentally in my day so that when I do work the 20 hours of work, then I'm focused and my brain is in its best state. So food exercise number three would be mindfulness. So every day I try to listen to like a long affirmation audio or manifestation audio or I would meditate for like at least 20 minutes. And this is pretty funny because sometimes I'd be meditating and then I would fall asleep. So sometimes if I'm meditating, I would set an alarm because I would be so, so relaxed. Then I would like literally fall asleep. I've tried meditating. And then I would wake up to my own snore because I started falling asleep and then I start snoring because I'm sleeping wrong. But it's pretty funny. But I do set aside time to be mindful during the day. Sometimes that could also mean like maybe doing a simple puzzle or reading the Bible or reading something that is like self help or something that helps you be more relaxed. Even like reading tarot cards on your own, reflect on it, journaling. So these are really, really good mindfulness practices. Next is play. I set aside time of my day to, to do a little bit of play. And sometimes it's something shallow as like you know, going out for a walk and getting a KitKat or playing the guitar for a little bit, writing a poem, reading a poem, listening to a poem or watching like a spoken word thing or watching a comedy skit.
So something that just I'm just doing for pure pleasure. And happiness and joy and fun. So sometimes you can mix and match. These things, like food and play can be one thing, like what I was sharing with you with a Kit Kat, although it's not healthy. Or exercise and play could be one thing too. Like you can play paddle with your friends connections as well. So making connections with other people is also a good thing to add in your day. So all of these things, I would say there, I call them my health non negotiables, because these things really take care of my mental and my physical health, which helps me show up in my business more. And next and last principle. And I think this is the most important to listen to. So as you notice, I never really shared any, like, productivity tools or whatever, but these are certain overarching principles that help me work 20 hours a week so that I can focus on the highest ROI tasks and I'm not burnt out and I'm not overwhelmed. So the last principle is know to fully know and fully accept that my main job as a CEO is to make good decisions for the company. And so, to be honest with you, if I want you to take away something from this video, it is that your main job as a CEO is to make good decisions in your company. And whatever gets you there, you should do that. Sometimes it's meeting, sometimes it's marketing, sometimes it's leadership. Sometimes it's going to this conference, sometimes it's reading, sometimes it's play, sometimes it's traveling, sometimes it's quiet time, Sometimes it's stepping away from your business for a while. But whatever that looks like, you know, if it helps you make better decisions for your company and it helps you make a better leader out of you, and you might think, oh, my God, Carla, that's kind of a slippery slope because I'll just stop working. But, you know, let me tell you so that you're not gonna fall into some trap of, like, laziness or too much pleasure that is outside of the work that is needed in your business. You can, of course, look at the numbers. So are the things that you're doing reflecting in the revenue or the profit of your business? Is it reflecting in the health of your team and how they feel about the future of the company? So those are the things that you can use to kind of help you not, like, abuse the certain freedom that you have because you're the CEO and you're the owner of your company. So I hope that you learned something from. From this video. I really took time to make this, and I really wanted this to feel genuine and tell the truth about how my day really goes. So honestly, none of my days are like the same. Sometimes I have I'd have a week where I don't have any calls at all and sometimes I would have honestly a 10 hour day or a 12 hour day. Sometimes it just gets busier. So it's not a hard and fast rule. And that's the thing with business. You do have a lot of space, you do have a lot of freedom. But sometimes in order to get that freedom, you also have to build certain things and have to work on certain things as an investment towards your future. So the future can be better, can be easier, and have more spaces to breathe. And also follow me on Instagram at Carla Stefan and don't forget, if you want to get that rich and remote life, Visit our website richandremote.com and I'll see you soon.
Thanks for listening to Rich and Remote, where freedom isn't a dream, it's a decision. This is Karla, this is Alex Booth, and this is our journey to our dream rich and remote life.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: If this episode inspired you, share with a friend who's ready to live life differently too. This is perfect for entrepreneurs who crave financial freedom, location freedom, and freedom from the opinions of others.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: And don't forget to leave a quick review. It helps more freedom seekers find this show.
Big thanks to our sponsors, Huckleberry Consulting, getcsm and Proximity Outsourcing.
[00:19:03] Speaker C: See you in the next episode and check out our online hangout spot richandremote.com.
