Unlocking an Extra Hour: Strategies for Maximizing Time

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast. I’m excited to be speaking with a fellow Canadian today we are, uh, talking to the president of PACE Productivity Incorporated, and what he does is he shows organizations how their employees can gain an extra hour per day for their top priority tasks.

I’m interested to hear about that. Actually, we’re talking to Mark Elwood today. Hey, mark, you ready to rock?

Mark Ellwood: Certainly am

great to be here, Tim.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by.

Mark Ellwood: Story success is I invented a small electronic device called the time quarter. For those who are watching here, it is. This

is the

latest version I

started way, way

back. But

this is, uh,

the current version and, uh, I don’t sell those devices. I lend them out to organizations, uh, and their employees use them

to track how

they spend their time.

So my biggest success

is, you know, people don’t like doing

time studies. They like [00:01:00] doing mine because the device is easy to use. Uh, it gives instant feedback. It’s better than an app. And so,

uh,

I’m very proud that we get a 94% participation rate for

employees

who like doing these studies. That’s my good story.

Tim Melanson: It’s incredible

because I know that time tracking is really not a very popular idea for a lot of people. Right? So if you figured out a way to make it, to make it, uh, palatable and fun, then that’s awesome.

Mark Ellwood: It certainly is. Uh, and uh, you’re only doing it for two weeks, so it’s not like

you gotta do it forever. Our studies

are fairly short term

duration.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Well, let’s get more into that a little bit later. But before we do, I always talk about also the bad note, because sometimes there’s some things that don’t go as planned on your journey. And I’m wondering, you know, is there something that didn’t go as planned for you that we can learn from?

Mark Ellwood: Well, I do those time studies,

but early

on I was trying to sell the device. I haven’t shown this on any other

type podcast,

but [00:02:00] here’s the original version. It’s about a kilogram. It’s heavy

and big

and

clunky. It’s

got metal and wood.

Um,

it turned out that version

was the

world’s most popular product. I. That everybody thought someone else should buy.

So I

went to uh, some, you know, go to lawyers. They’re tracking their time. So I presented to some lawyers and they said not quite right for us. So, uh, I was actually on a national TV program, uh, and we went to some accountants, uh, ’cause the lawyers said

I should talk to

the accountants.

And, uh, they used it. And then at the end they said, well, it kind of worked but not quite right for us. Mark, you’re gonna do really well with independent consultants. So I went to the independent consultants and they said, have

you talked to the lawyers?

So everybody thought someone else should buy it.

I didn’t do

too well with selling the product, but turn that around.

Pivoting is a, is an idea in business that you sort of switch from this to that. So instead of selling the device for three or $400. That didn’t [00:03:00] work. Uh, I’d lend them out and do these time studies and basically charge about $1,200 per person. So I turned something that didn’t work into something that did work.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Wow. Well done. Good job. That’s awesome. And so. What, how long do you think it took from the time that you, uh, started doing this to the time when you really made that pivot?

Mark Ellwood: Um, I should talk about the initial idea that was in, uh, sort of April, way back in 19. Was it 87 or something like that? It was, uh, a September of 19. Uh. 89. I’m skipping here. it it is September 88, uh, the 89, about a year. And, and five

months later I launched

the product. And then it was four or five months after that in early 1990 that I pivoted ’cause the sales just weren’t working.

And so I was on TV and someone called up and said, oh, we need to do a. Study of our sales reps, I

thought, perfect.

So, [00:04:00] uh, we went out, did these sales reps. It was pretty crude at the time. Um, I was looking at the results. I uploaded them onto somebody’s computer and they were all gathered around looking at the results.

I thought I’m onto something here. Um, so four or five months in, um,

when I

realized I gotta switch directions.

Tim Melanson: Good. Yeah. And that’s, that’s some good data

too. Like

do you think like, uh, ’cause I mean, uh,

I imagine there’s

probably someone out there that’s, that’s something that they’re trying and they’re, they’re, they’re working at it and it’s not quite hitting, it’s not quite landing where they want and they’re wondering whether they should pivot or not.

When is that right time? Like what, do you know when that right time is? Is it an amount of time or.

Mark Ellwood: Yeah. Having invented this, I ran a group, a volunteer group called uh,

the Inventors Alliance of

Canada. I met lots of inventors. And what would happen is after two or three years, their business would hit a plateau and it kind of did for mine as well. So for some of them the plateau is like 30, 40, $50,000 or [00:05:00] something like that.

And you think, well, are you happy

with that? ‘

cause after about two or three years, it’s probably not gonna grow massively. Oh, I’m gonna get my big break. Well, you get one little break and it’s a nice sale, uh, but then it sort of settles back down again. So you kind of have to look at your business. I. And say, if after a couple of years if I’m at a certain level and I’m not growing much, it’s, you’re probably not gonna grow.

And so you have to say, is that a SAT satisfactory level of business for me? In my case, it actually took a little longer, it took three or four years, but then I started hitting a pretty good level of sales that sustained me for quite a number of years. So, um. You gotta watch for those signs and listen to what

the

business is telling you to say, keep going, or no, this is just a hobby thing that you’re gonna do on the

side.

Tim Melanson: Because it’s, I,

I think

it’s probably the hardest part, right? If you, you sort of like, um, it’s your baby. You don’t wanna [00:06:00] give it up, you don’t want, so, you know, you’ve got a lot of emotional connection to that, to that product. Right. You might not be necessarily listening

to the numbers

the way you should.

Right.

Mark Ellwood: Yeah,

there’s a difference between being passionate and being stubborn or maybe there’s not a different difference. You’re passionate, you really wanna do this thing, you really care

about it.

But stubborn, when you, you, you’re not able to switch. And maybe there’s times that I didn’t, you know, I got a little stubborn.

Um, so, but you gotta see yourself through that and, and listen to what the, the, the world is telling you about this thing that you’re offering, whether it’s a service or a product.

Tim Melanson: And when it comes down to it, it’s uh, you’re not building it for yourself. You’re building it because you, you need other people to use it. And so if you’re not listening to what they’re saying, then you might

be missing out on

something. ’cause as you mentioned earlier, you didn’t just start over and do a totally different product, you just pivoted.

It was just a matter

of something,

just something that needed to change a little bit. Right.

Mark Ellwood: Yes,

uh, selling [00:07:00] a service rather than the product itself. Now, I did sell some more products. And that kept the cash flow going for a couple of years, so that was useful. Uh, but I haven’t sold one in quite a while and don’t want to. So, um, yeah, PI pivoting makes sense as well. And what you do there is you find the flow, what seems to be working, who are you getting calls from, who is getting satisfied by your product or your service, and just keep going with that

flow and,

and begin to amplify it.

Tim Melanson: I love that. I love that. That’s great. So now what about the band? Like who do you have around you in your business that, you know, keep the wheels turning?

Mark Ellwood: Uh, I’m a solo guy and,

and

you know, when I started, uh, way back then. That was the time where you could start a small business and you could appear to be a large business. So if you could get a nice letterhead done and get a fax machine and your phone and so forth, I mean the, the internet and email came later, but around [00:08:00] 1990 or so, that’s, that’s when you could start your, uh, own business.

And um, so that’s what I did. But you know, people call me, well, how big is your company? And I say, I follow my own advice. I. Contract everything out. Uh, and that

seemed to

satisfy the, you know, big

multinationals who were

hiring me and providing purchase orders and so on. Um, so that’s always been my route, is delegating to others.

I mean, it’s, it’s an electronic device. I don’t know, electronics, so I had to hire a, a computer guy or a graphic designer, a industrial designer. So I, I found all those people and they became part of my team. So I delegated out to them. Uh, I know a little bit about electronics and how the device works, but even today, you know, if a repair needs to be done, I found a guy in Atlanta who does the repairs for me.

Um, there’s some bits of assembly I can do in testing, but hire out people to do things that you’re not good at doing. That’s always [00:09:00] been my, uh, route to success.

Tim Melanson: Wow. So how do you find these people? What’s your process?

Mark Ellwood: It’s not always easy. Um, certainly with the web now, uh, it becomes easier. Uh, you know, Upwork is a site where you can find people to do various types of work for you. Fiverr, uh, is another one, F-I-V-E-R-R. Um, and so, you know, people search for what you need there. Back

in

the early days, ’cause there was no internet.

I think I went to trade shows and asked around a little bit, and so it was networking, uh, really made a difference. Who do you know that can help me? The industrial designer who I’m still in touch with, I met him at a trade show and we made a, a sort of one-to-one connection and that’s what led

to,

uh, him being part of the team.

Tim Melanson: And oftentimes you can get to good people through good people too, right?

Mark Ellwood: That’s right. Uh, you, you should have a network and you know, you don’t need to. A lot of people have coaches these days. There were no coaches back [00:10:00] then. Um, but find other successful entrepreneurs who you can network with and con have conversations with if you do need a coach, well, all right. Uh, that’s, that’s useful.

I didn’t have one, but I,

I

had people who were giving me some advice along the way.

Tim Melanson: Uh,

you don’t necessarily have to hire a specific coach when you have good people in your network.

Because

they all have sort of a little bit of advice that they can give you. Right?

Mark Ellwood: Exactly, and, and maybe I was smart that I was well organized and figure things out. So that was useful that I had those kind of project management organizational skills and I guess I was blessed to have those, so that that certainly helped me as well.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And and also like you said, I mean, I don’t know if everybody has the idea of. Uh, finding someone to help them in, in delegating. I think a lot of people sort of go, I’m gonna just figure this out myself. And it

seems like you have

a little bit of both. Right.

Mark Ellwood: correct.

You gotta work. On your business rather than [00:11:00] in your business. That’s the idea that e Myth book. Um, and just if you’re doing something repetitively or something that’s drudgery or administrative, then find someone else, delegate that to someone else to do it for you. There’s lots of people who would like to do it, and they’re out there, and so I’ve hired.

Probably dozens over the years to do different aspects of what I need. You know, I have a huge database, um, uh, to, to gather all this time study data,

and I

found a guy to build that database and then he’s moved on. So I found a guy if I needed a little tweak or repair or something, I found another guy who can, uh, work on that database for me.

You know, I don’t have to do it myself.

Tim Melanson: And, and

you know what,

like, uh, one of the things that keeps, kind of keeps coming up is that you mentioned the word drudgery, right? Well, you know, your drudgery

is

someone else’s excitement. Like there’s, you know, different people, different personalities, and I,

I do find

that interesting

that,

you know, it’s just, oh,

I’m not

gonna be able to find anybody to do this.

[00:12:00] This is just so annoying. And then you end up, you end up finding out that that is exactly what lights that person up. And you’re like, wow, okay,

well this

is interesting, right?

Mark Ellwood: They have to be excited and, and they have to say, wow, that’s really neat. Wow. I like what you’re doing. That’s the person that you wanna hire to be part of your team.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, because if you, if you give them something that they’re excited about, uh, I think one of the, one of the ideas that kind of came a, a while ago to me through one of the mentors is that someone said, well, no one’s gonna work as hard for your business as you would work for your own business. And so, you know, I think maybe the hack is, well, why don’t you find somebody else?

Business

It is to do that thing that you’re

trying get someone to do. Right

Mark Ellwood: and here’s the tip.

Tim Melanson: for their own business.

Mark Ellwood: Here’s a tip. Pay them what they wanna get paid and pay them on time.

Uh,

don’t ever mess with money. Don’t look for discounts. Uh, you know, they’ll, if I always figured I could talk someone down by [00:13:00] 10%, but I didn’t. Instead I paid them what they wanted,

they’d give me 20%

extra in terms of value.

That’s what you wanna be doing, so pay them on time for sure.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, so I, I so agree with that. And, and when you think about it, uh. I think if you put yourself in the other, in the other scenario where someone’s trying to talk you down on

your price, how

does that make you feel? Right. It’s.

Mark Ellwood: You know, have a policy about that

and. It’s always

helpful if you can get something in return. So, you know, tell you what, I can reduce 10%, but

if you can give

me a really good referral or a good testimonial, then I’m happy to do that. Uh, or something, some sort of, uh, trade off. Um, but be clear about your prices in the world.

I’m in the time studies, I’m pretty firm. I also do some facilitation and training and the rates

there are

variable and sometimes it is a

little

tricky to figure out. This is what I need to be [00:14:00] charging, but I know this for sure. Whatever you’re charging today,

if

you charge 10%

more tomorrow, the

market will be fine with that.

So don’t under, uh, value

yourself

for

sure. I.

Tim Melanson: I agree with that. So let’s talk

about getting fans. Now.

You, I mean, you’ve been doing this for a long time now. I’m wondering actually first, how have things changed from then to now? Or have they.

Mark Ellwood: Uh, certainly the internet since I started and, you know, phones. It’s interesting, I looked up your business and yeah, everyone’s got a way to

contact

people. We went skiing recently, uh, to, uh, Vermont to Sugar Bush, and we

stayed at a

bed and breakfast and the fellow there, um, he, he, uh, was doing a presentation to other bed and breakfast owners, and he had these 10

tips.

I

think I only got two of them. But anyway, the number one he said is. Answer the phone. So I always say, make it easy

for people

to contact you. Um, and I’ve got my address up there. [00:15:00] Now. There’s some women who run their businesses who feel a little cautious about giving out too much information. So, you know, I, I, I understand that.

But for. Most, for the most part, make it easy

for people

to reach you and contact you. In my case, it’s email or through the website or the phone. I pick up

the phone

and I still do get calls. That has changed. People are phoning a lot less than they used to

in

terms of, uh, getting fans. Well, I run a couple of niche businesses.

The time studies, I said the facilitation work as well. People aren’t sit standing around at cocktail parties, uh, talking about, you know,

do you know of someone

who could do a time study? So I’ve done lots of things. I sent out newsletters physically. I sent them out, licked envelopes and send out newsletters to people.

I went to networking events and trade shows and did advertising and. Did PR and so on. The thing that worked best for me is I want people to find me, so I use Google [00:16:00] AdWords. So we all have websites, and you should have a website. Don’t go cheap. Um, so I wrote, well, five actually, but, uh, there’s four main ones that for the different parts of the business, and they’re, they exist for different reasons.

But I use Google AdWords, so if somebody types time study or a facilitator, there’s a good chance they’re gonna find me. Now your website will get natural traffic and some people sell SEO services, that search engine optimization, and I figure why pay that person $1,500 a month where I can pay Google itself to put me on the front page of Google.

So I use, uh, Google AdWords. That’s how Google made their money over

all the

years I. So I pay per click. So when you click through to my website, that’s gonna cost me a, a dollar or a dollar 50 or something. Um, and that’s worth it. That’s had a five to one payback

for me.

So every dollar I invested

in Google

AdWords had a, at least a five times that in terms of [00:17:00] returns, just for during the first contract, let alone.

Repeat business and referrals and so on. So that’s how I get my fans. Uh, social media is newer in the last 10 years or so, so I’m on LinkedIn and I spend some time on that. Uh, but

you can’t be on all these

different, uh, social media things. That’s

a great

hog of time. So focus on what works for you. Fill, figure out

your business

machine for marketing and keep doing more and more of that.

Tim Melanson: Wow. I love that. That’s a really good answer. Uh, and I, I agree. Um, so for, uh.

For

the, for the ads. I, I, I do agree with what you’re saying, uh, especially with the, with purchasing the ads directly from the company. You can do that on Facebook and you can do that, or like on the social media platforms, and you can also do that on Google.

And, uh,

I, I

think you’re right because a lot of people will sort of focus on this SEO type stuff. Either for themselves, they’re trying to [00:18:00] learn it, trying to grow, but you’re, you’re,

you’re

fighting with everybody else who’s also trying to do the same thing, and it’s just gonna keep on shuffling. You know?

You’re gonna get bumped down and you’re gonna get frustrated and try to get back up again. When I mean, like you say, why not just throw some money into the ads and do it

that way? Right.

Mark Ellwood: So there’s advertising, there’s pay

per Click.

So ads is, you know, it’s a

visual

picture or something. Eat at Joe’s or whatever. It’s Buy My thing. Um, whereas pay per click as people are doing search and just ask yourself this, how, when was the last time you searched for something, a pair of shoes? A.

What’s showing on at the movie, theater, whatever, we all continue to use search and that won’t change. Maybe

AI will affect that a little

bit, but uh, I want to be in that game where someone says, I.

I,

I gotta find someone. Where do I find someone and they’re gonna search and find me. I’m am, I’m sort of reinforcing that with my website

and with social

media, they may, they might go, yeah, I heard about you somewhere, or podcasts like [00:19:00] this.

Um, so there’s a little bit of reinforcement, but, uh, Google AdWords for me is

the main

driver of my business network. So they don’t, they don’t all work. I mean, there’s some money I spend on those that don’t come back, but generally speaking, it does.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and I think just one more thing to mention on that is that I have, um, spoken to a lot of people that sort of use the whole, I don’t pay for ads as some sort of badge. And I, I, I remember I used to say it as well, you know, I, I, I don’t have to pay for ads because,

you know,

whatever people find me for whatever reason.

However, I, I do think that maybe. 10 years before the whole social media thing, ads were expensive. You had to buy a billboard. I mean, it was expensive. I get that

right. However, um, and then, and then for the first part of social media, I don’t know if

they were

necessarily as effective. Now, especially with the data that

these companies

are collecting on us,

[00:20:00] and

the ability to show the ads to the right person, like they’re

you, you’re using all of

the money that they’ve spent

in targeting those ads

to the people that.

Should be seeing your ad

for

and, and

how much

do you spend on, on ads? I mean, it’s probably in the hundreds, wouldn’t it be or is?

Mark Ellwood: Um, I spend about, uh, a thousand to 1500 a month. Um, there, there’s a bit of a theme here, which is invest money in your business if you have an internet connection or if you have a smartphone. Yeah, indeed you can start a business and be creative. Oh, I use this program and I use that app, and so on. Um, but you know what?

Spend a few dollars on the delegating to others, as we talked about, or advertising or setting up a website, doing everything for free. It kind of works, but it’s not as professional. It’s not as guaranteed as investing the money you need to in your business, uh, hire someone like you guys, uh, to do the creative work for you, uh,

but spend

a few [00:21:00] dollars rather than trying to do everything for free.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I think the only part, the only thing that you could do for free is the

referral thing.

So if you do a really good job at servicing the customers that you have, then you can get referrals and you don’t have to pay for them.

But

other than that, you need to put some money into it. Right? Yeah. So now let’s talk a little bit about the cash flow.

So now we’re talking about

spending money

on delegating or spending money on ads. Like how do you make sure that you’ve got the right kind of formula going where you’re putting enough money out that you can get some business back, but you are making enough money to cover that money that you’re putting

out?

Mark Ellwood: I created a little spreadsheet for myself, a cashflow spreadsheet when I started. I’ve used it every ever since. I probably look at it at least every two or three days or so, and basically on the create your own, um, here’s the money that’s coming in over the next few months. Here’s the money that’s going out.

Now you probably

have a

better idea about what’s going [00:22:00] out. Uh, it’s, uh, paying for your various services, your phone or internet or whatever. Um, uh, it may be taken out a loan, so there’s interest, payments, uh, rent, if you have that, um, uh, internet stuff, uh, and so on. So your expenses are, you can, you can.

Show those over the next year, and I have mine that go out over a year. In terms of money coming in. It’s kind of hard to predict. Maybe you’ve got some contracts coming up, maybe you’ve got repeat income, which is good. I don’t, but some people will try to get regular, like a retainer or repeat income every month.

So you can put that on terms of uh, what’s coming in.

Um,

I tend to go out two months, so if I don’t know, that’s that I’ve got a contract

or some

something in the next two months. Uh, the rest, you know, farther out is just kind of estimates, uh, within the next two

months.

That’s pretty well gotta be guaranteed.

So anyway, you take your income and subtract [00:23:00] off your expenses and see what’s left, do this thing over the next year or so. A cash flow spreadsheet like that you can make your own, uh, is absolutely essential. And then that ties in a little bit. I put my sales on that as well, and I use some of that for my accounting every year.

Get

your accounting set up properly. I don’t, I don’t do it myself.

I pay

someone else. I do my own. Uh, well in Canada there’s HST

we can do ourselves. That’s a, a kind of a retail sales tax. Um, so I do that myself. Um, but uh, the cash flow spreadsheet is really a really powerful tool. Simple to do. Make it up yourself.

Again, expense, uh, sorry. Income on the top. I bought a year out and

expenses on

the bottom, see what the difference is. And every, the end of every one month is the beginning of the next month. So every month I knock off the pre, previous month and it sort of turns over to the next one. It’s a simple thing to do, but a powerful tool I.

You can [00:24:00] actually, um, have positive

cash flow, but be

losing, uh, income or losing business. So, um, you know, maybe money’s coming in, but in terms of your expenses going out, they’re gonna be quite high. So you gotta watch that

as well.

What do your expenses look like and how do you wanna forecast that over the next while and keep those expenses to a minimum as much as you can.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And also taxes as well. That’s a, a big one. When you’re self-employed, all of a sudden you’re

responsible for that.

Right? Doesn’t come directly off your

pay.

Mark Ellwood: Yeah, I’m a corporation and, and there’s some advantages to corporation costs a little more to do your taxes every year, but there’s benefits ’cause you can keep money in the company or you can pay yourself a salary

and

shunt money back and forth. And also, uh, if you’re doing business with large corporations, they’re probably gonna want you to be a corporation.

Um, so,

and

you might need to have insurance, uh, for some of them I, that’s been the

case for

me. [00:25:00] Um, so, uh, being

incorporated

has some advantages, uh, for gaining large, uh, purchase orders from major corporations. If you’re a one-on-one consultant and someone is just paying you, you know, a few dollars here and there, I suppose you can do that.

But, uh, being a corporation certainly helps.

Tim Melanson: I incorporated at the beginning of this year

myself too.

And, uh, it was, it was literally on those kind of.

Principles, you know,

speaking

to my, my money guy is

like, uh,

it’s not necessarily for everybody, but there are some advantages to doing that. Um, but, uh, but yeah, I, I love your, I, I like your idea of the spreadsheet now.

Okay,

so

we are just getting

started though. Isn’t there situations where you

might

need to put a little bit more money out that’s coming back in,

you know, at least to

get started.

Mark Ellwood: I certainly did, uh, ’cause the sales weren’t there early on and I had to go and find extra money and was paying a lot of interest. I mean, one loan

was. [00:26:00]

Hold

on here.

15% interest. Uh, now interest rates were quite high

at the time.

I paid that off fairly quickly. I went to family and so on. So, you know,

start off

your business.

With some money in the bank. Um, I talked to, I mentioned the inventors that I helped, and sometimes we get someone who is 40 years old, he was trying to invent this thing. I’d say just tell me a little bit about, you know, your financial situation. Do you own a house? No. Oh, you rent? Well that’s okay. And you know, what kind of savings have you got?

And it usually like $200 or something.

I just

thought to myself, if you’re 40 years old. And haven’t put some reasonable amount, amount of money aside for retirement or savings or buying a house or whatever it might be. It’s unlikely that you’re gonna be able to manage your finances effectively. As an entrepreneur.

I’m a little cautious there, but somebody who’s, who’s well into their fourth

decade, it

doesn’t have anything to show for it. [00:27:00] It’s not likely that they’re gonna be a good financial manager. That was my conclusion. Um, so, um, if you’re thinking about starting a business, do be putting some money aside. Now you’ve gotta be doing that to buy a house or get married or go on a big trip or for retirement.

You’ve gotta be doing that anyway. So put some of that money aside so that when you do start your own business, if you haven’t started yet, you’ve got a little bit of savings and you can invest that in the

business.

Then maybe you go to friends or family and convince them to invest. And there’s different ways to do that.

There’s some government loans out there, or if you’ve got a scientific product, product like mine, yet there’s some, uh, research and development fees. If you’re a corporation, you can get a tax credit. There’s people who will help you with those. So that’s another advantage of being incorporated. But you know.

We’ve only got a couple of

minutes here. Find someone who can give you professional advice on money management. Even just pay some accountant. Just [00:28:00] say, let me pay you $300 and give me an hour of your time. Even if you’re not gonna hire them long term, they’ll give you lots of advice like I am. Uh, but you need to be a good money manager for sure, and that will make a difference, uh, down the road.

Tim Melanson: I

have nothing

to add to that. That was

set.

So yeah, like you say, we are running outta time, so it is time

for your

guest solo.

Tell

me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Mark Ellwood: I continued to do these time studies and I’m doing, uh, some research on senior

executive women.

Some said senior, like

old, no,

they’re senior in the company. So executive women who are managing a lot of people, uh, I, I’m looking at them to track their time with the time quarter device. Doesn’t cost them anything.

Uh, so, uh, I’m looking to recruit some of those women. In fact, I’m looking for someone to help me recruit them as well. Um, and so, uh, just see if I can get a lot of women involved, uh, because [00:29:00] maybe then they’ll hire me at some point, but if they don’t hire me, that’s okay. The other thing I’m kind of excited about, I’ve done four First Nations projects, uh, over the last couple of years.

So I’m looking at marketing my services to First Nations as well for team building and strategic planning and, uh, facilitation work. Those are the two things that I’m

excited about.

Tim Melanson: That

does sound exciting. And so tell me like, what would, uh, what would

these women

need to know in order to know that they wanna work with you?

Mark Ellwood: They’re, um, managing staff. They work for a large corporation. Uh, they’re struggling with their own effectiveness, so we’re looking at proactive versus reactive time. Uh, they, I’ve got a list of activities for them to track, send them the device, track

their time

for a couple of weeks, and then. I’d give them some feedback, give them some tips and ideas.

There’s no charge for this. And then they’re part of a pool. And so I’m looking at what else other things can I do with that, that pool of women who’ve been [00:30:00] involved, uh, putting on workshops for them and, and, uh, podcasts and so forth. So, uh, it’s a research project. I go and present at time use conferences, so I’m a research guy and if, uh, if nothing comes of it, that’s fine, but I’m looking for more people to

be

involved and again, maybe they’ll hire me someday.

We’ll see if

that happens.

Tim Melanson: School. So,

you

know, you’ve, you’ve worked with a lot of different organizations. I’m wondering, is that

something that we

would be surprised by about how people spend their time.

Mark Ellwood: Yes. Uh, since I started, uh, people spend about 25% of their time on administrative tasks. And way back

then,

there were no internet or smartphones or anything.

And

with technology

we keep

inventing more and

more ways

to be out

of touch with each other.

So, um. I’m convinced that 10 years from now, I don’t make too many predictions, but if, if people are still working in knowledge worker jobs, and some of those may disappear, but if people are [00:31:00] working in knowledge worker jobs, they will continue to be burdened by administrative tasks.

So the successful people are spending more of their time on what matters most and,

and

spending, uh, not just 20% of their time on their top priority activities, but getting up into the 30 or 35%. So everybody who says AI is gonna make a big difference, well, all those other technologies made a difference very quickly.

Uh, I’ve measured unnecessary email. It’s 3.4 hours per week,

and

so email’s good, but it it’s a time burden as well. And so those who talk about AI changing our lives. Yeah, it will, but there’ll be some burdens and some time wasters that come along with that. So don’t rely entirely, entirely on technology.

Focus your time on what matters most. That’s my message to the world. I.

Tim Melanson: So really what you’re saying is that with all the technology that’s happened,

we

are still spending around the same amount of time

on that, on that administrative stuff that we

Mark Ellwood: That’s [00:32:00] right. Now we’re able to do more stuff. I mean, guys like me, I’m able to do much more, but there still is that administrative burden. So you gotta watch out for that, delegate it, you know, hire someone to do it, uh, automate it or whatever. Um, but

it,

it will still be part of, of every knowledge worker job.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Wow. That’s really interesting. And I, I think it, yeah, I can attest to it too, because I don’t necessarily spend any less time with the admin, but you’re right, I can do more with the admin now that I’m using some AI tools. Really interesting. Awesome. Well, so who, um, how can people get in touch with you then?

Mark Ellwood: Uh, I’ve got a couple of different websites, but the main one is get more done.com and just. Go to the contact page and contact me through that. Um, if you’re interested in some, uh, time management tips, I’ll give them, send them to you at no charge. A an article called Putting a Priority on Your Time. If you’re interested in the women’s study, contact me through that so it’s

getmoredone.com.[00:33:00]

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So before we

go, who’s your favorite rockstar?

Mark Ellwood: Uh, Peter Gabriel, uh,

without

a doubt, um, he’s had a long, long career. He’s done some very innovative stuff. Um, and, uh, he’s also contributed to world music, so, uh,

he’s my

guy.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Awesome. Uh, yeah. I remember learning quite a bit about him when I was learning music, and he’s very complicated. He’s not one of those simple musicians I don’t think. Right.

Mark Ellwood: He’s, he’s, he loves the textures of music. He’s also a great poet and he is, uh, writes terrific, uh, melodies and teams up with, uh, excellent people, something that we should all do. So, uh, a lot to be said for him.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think Sledgehammer is one of my favorite songs. I just, I love that song. It’s

so good.

Mark Ellwood: my favorite in your eyes is the song my wife and I dance to at our wedding. It’s got so many terrific textures in it. If you don’t know that

song,

go and listen to it. [00:34:00] Actually watch the, on YouTube, watch the concert version of it. It’s absolutely stunning.

Tim Melanson: Oh, love it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me

today, mark.

This has been a lot of fun.

Mark Ellwood: Great to be here, Tim.

Tim Melanson: Awesome.

To the listeners, be sure you subscribe, rate, and comment, but we’ll see you next time with Work on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast and let’s always go to workathomerockstar.com for

more information.