Episode 84
Welcome back to Firing the Man! In this episode, David opens up about his experience of firing the man. He’s been THE man in the last six months and has been enjoying the benefits of owning and controlling his own time since. Like any other ecommerce business owner, he has also faced a few bumps in the road, but his big “why” has helped him stay the course.
Listen to David and learn more about his journey after firing the man!
[00:01 – 03:39] Opening Segment
- David talks about one of his biggest fears
- A little bit of fear can be a motivation
[03:40 – 11:39] Systems and Processes
- Why David took a sabbatical when he fired the man
- We talk about Digital Minimalism
- How does it feel to own your time?
- David shares his experience
[11:40 – 15:53] Firing the Man and Going All In
- The benefits of going full time in your ecommerce business
- Want some Amazon refunds? Check out Getida
- Promo code: FTM400
- David talks about separating his work and personal lives
[15:54 – 22:27] Being the Man of Your Own Business
- The challenges of firing the man
- Weekends are now less important than before
- David talks about the unexpected effects of firing the man to his life
[22:28 – 24:24] Closing Segment
- Connect with us. Links below
- Final words
Tweetable Quotes:
“Give yourself some time to relax and recharge.” – David Schomer
“I think a little bit of fear is a healthy motivator.” – Ken Wilson
——————————————————————————————
Do you have a similar experience? Send us a voice message and let’s see how we can help you!
Email us –> support@firingtheman.com
David 0:00
Real quick before we get into the show, I wanted to share a new service called Getida that Ken and I have been using that has made us over ,000 in Amazon reimbursements. The service requires no monthly subscription, and getida collects a small percentage of the money they recover for you. It takes less than five minutes to set up and works on all Amazon marketplaces. Go to getida.com getida, and enter promo code FTM 400. That’s FTM for firing the man 400 to get your first $400 in reimbursements commission free. How much money does Amazon owe you? There was like this weird dick swinging contest on who could stay in the office the latest. You may like be sitting at your computer doing nothing. But some people got like a sense of pride about like being the last one there. And it’s I don’t have that anymore. And I also like when I get into the office, I don’t you know, there’s no one around that’s like, oh, got in pretty late today, did you hit traffic? You know, I don’t have to make those excuses to anyone I just, you know, I do my work when it fits in my schedule. And when I’m done with that I’m done. And one thing that I think has been challenging is you know, I’ll leave my office during the day and go to the bathroom. And he’s like, hell yeah, dad’s here. It’s time to play. And you know, every so often I’ll stop and we’ll play but you know, our playtime really from like 4pm on it’s Henry and I. We’re rocking and rolling and having fun. And I think it’s been, it kind of hurts my heart honestly to, you know, go back into my office and not be able to play with him as much as he wants to play with me. And when you do have ownership of your time that free time can occur more sporadically, and kinda when it fits your schedule.
Intro 1:51
Welcome everyone to the firing the man podcast, a show for anyone who wants to be their own boss, if you sit in a cubicle every day, and know you are capable of more than join us, this show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your hosts serial entrepreneurs, David Schomer, and Ken Wilson.
Ken 2:15
Welcome everyone to the firing the man podcast. On today’s episode, we’re going to be talking with David, and we’re going to be doing a follow up on his six month anniversary from firing the man. David, welcome.
David 2:29
Thank you, thank you good to be in the studio. And man six months is already flown by and it’s wild. It’s been a wild ride and really excited to recap the last six months and talk about what I’ve been up to some of the things that are going really well some of the, you know, unanticipated consequences of firing the man. And we’re gonna get into it both good and bad for sure.
Ken 2:52
Absolutely. So one elephant in the room that we have to address first. You didn’t go back to work for your CPA firm. Right?
David 3:00
Correct.
Ken 3:01
Alright.
David 3:02
And honestly, like that continues to be one of my biggest fears is like having to go back and work for the man. Especially since I have a podcast called firing the man. Like I feel like, that’s definitely not going on any resume. Right. If I do have to go back but you know, it’s good to know that things have worked out for six months. And you know, all things are pointing to this being a permanent shift.
- Audible Audiobook
- Jake Desyllas (Author) - Jake Desyllas (Narrator)
- English (Publication Language)
Ken 3:26
Yeah, absolutely. And fear does motivate you even more, doesn’t it?
David 3:30
Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But in a good way, in a good way. For sure.
Ken 3:35
Yeah, I think a little bit of fear is a healthy motivator. So David, what did you do after you fired the man?
David 3:43
Yes. So I took a three week sabbatical. And, you know, this has been something that once I quit, I felt a real urge to just go into the office and start grinding on my ecommerce business. Because I was nervous that this wouldn’t work. But you know, I reminded myself that this has been a three year journey. I had a plan in place, I had set aside funds. And you know, I didn’t just quit willy nilly, right, I had a spreadsheet and I checked off all the boxes on that spreadsheet. And so I took a sabbatical, I went down to the Florida Keys with my family, which was wonderful, did some tarpon fishing and just hanging out with my wife and son on the beach. And this is something I would encourage everybody to do is when you do fire the man even if it’s a week, just give yourself some time to relax and recharge. You know, if you’ve planned things out correctly, shit is not going to hit the fan while you step away from your business. And, you know, one thing that taking that sabbatical forced me to do was to have a process in place for the team. Obviously, Ken you helped out tremendously while I was gone. But, you know, we had standard operating procedures and a team that was pretty well trained. And so it was refreshing to know that I could take a step away from the business and things you know, wouldn’t go to shit.
- Audible Audiobook
- My Ebook Publishing House (Author) - Matt Montanez (Narrator)
- English (Publication Language)
Ken 5:03
Right. I definitely agree with that, you know, taking time off and I’m happy, you know, you were able to take an extended period off and enjoy that time. That’s kind of what that’s kind of what we’re after, right? We’re after the life that we want to live and spending that time with our family is really valuable. And then to boot sometimes this is when you come up with your best ideas, you know, you can be out there tarpon fishing and think of something that you know, because your mental capacity is wide open, you know, everything’s firing, your nerves are firing all over the place. Did you have any episodes like that?
David 5:32
Oh yeah, absolutely. I have the Notes app on my phone. And when I get away from my desk, that’s when ideas really hit and on one, Ken, that we’ve been talking about recently, and are actually going to implement is bringing some manufacturing over to the US and put a plan in place for that. And yes, I was on sabbatical. But you know, I didn’t turn my brain off completely to business, and it was nice to, you know, sit on the beach and type up some notes and ideas on my phone. And I don’t know, it was really good to step away and working for the man, typically you have like set aside PTO, and you really got to budget those right, you know, you got to save some for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and you know, your trip for the year with your family. And it was nice to take a trip and not have to count days off or not think to myself, alright, if we spend two extra days in Florida that means I can’t take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s. And so that was great. It was absolutely wonderful. And I came back with my batteries recharged. You know, one thing I did specific on my sabbatical was I read this book called Digital minimalism. And it talks a lot about like, addiction to cell phones and technology. And man, it kinda like scared me straight a little bit into, you know, I’ve watched my screen time and be like, man, I spent a lot of time on this device. And so, you know, there was several, like three and four day periods, where I just turned my phone off completely. And, you know, I let my family know, if you need to get ahold of me, call my wife. But that was wonderful. And I don’t know if I’m the only one that’s experienced this, but like, they’re called, like ghost vibrations, where you don’t have your phone with you, but you feel like on your thigh where your phone usually would be, you feel like a vibration. And you like reach down to check it. And it was wild and so you know, especially with email and people wanting responses very quickly, is part of that mental recharge. I think putting the laptop and the cell phone away for a couple days is really healthy and being 100% present with your family and friends and you know, people that you’re talking to.
- Hardcover Book
- Newport, Cal (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Ken 7:43
Yeah, no I have had those before. And I think that’s great that you’re able to put the, you know, electronics away practice the minimalism. Yeah, that’s awesome. So what has been the biggest difference in working for the man versus working for yourself?
David 7:59
Yeah, I would say the biggest one is ownership of my time. You know, one thing that I think people often think is, if you don’t work for the man, you don’t really work at all. And I can say probably the number of hours I’m working per week, is in line, if not maybe a little more than when I was working in corporate America. But that’s totally okay. So like, my typical routine is I’ll roll into the office, you know, around 530 in the morning, and then I’ll work for about two and a half hours. And then around that time, my son wakes up, and him and my wife and I go into the kitchen and we eat breakfast together. And, you know, it sounds like a little thing, but it’s a special time I have with my family every day. And I love that I absolutely love it. And you know, previously, you know, breakfast time would have been when I was in the car on the way to the office. And so that ownership of my time is huge. You know, the other thing is like, flexibility to do what I want, I would say like, and maybe was the environment that I was in, but there was like this weird dick swinging contest on who could stay in the office the latest, you may like be sitting at your computer doing nothing. But some people got like a sense of pride about like being the last one there. And I don’t have that anymore. And I also like when I get into the office, I don’t you know, there’s no one around that’s like, oh, got in pretty late today, did you hit traffic? You know, I don’t have to make those excuses to anyone. I just, you know, I do my work when it fits in my schedule. And when I’m done with that I’m done. And so that’s been great is ownership of my time. You know, the other thing is participation in the upside. Most jobs are compensated per hour, or a salary and sometimes there’s a salary with a bonus component and outside of like the sales industry, there’s not very many organizations that compensate you. I call it like eat what you kill, where if you work more, there is a direct correlation between your work and how you’re rewarded, and, you know, I would say that’s been great is the harder I work and the more like meaningful projects we do in our companies, the more we benefit, and it’s direct. And so that was one of my biggest complaints, you know, where working in the corporate world was, you may have a year where you have 2500 billable hours, and your raise is 7%. And you know, the next year, you have 2100 billable hours, and your raise is 6%. And it’s not a direct correlation between input time and output. And, you know, I would say working for myself, there’s also not a direct correlation, there are some things that I spend time on that don’t yield good results. And so it’s just like, you got to think like, is this a high ROI activity or not? And are there any other higher ROI activities that I should be doing, that are going to help this company grow?
Ken 10:58
Yeah, absolutely. So I want to take a minute to pause and anybody that’s listening to the show that has Tik Tok, or if you don’t go grab it, and then search for firing the man, we have a new Tik Tok channel, and we’ll release some bits on there. And we have one series, it’s called the unmissed. And David hit on that a little bit earlier about, you know, at his old corporate job, there was someone you know, it was always a battle to see who could stay the latest like chest pounding, which it’s definitely not something that David misses. And so yeah, go check out our Tik Tok channel, search for firing the man look at our series unmissed it’s all about what we don’t miss about corporate jobs. Back to the show. So David, whenever you’re working for corporate America, you know, you’re working 8 10 hours. And then so how has that changed from then to like working on like a side hustle?
David 11:51
Yeah, so I would say this has allowed me to be all in on what I’m doing in e commerce. And, you know, previously, I would only have like two to three hours a day. And then I would have to go in and work my corporate job. And so, man, there was a number of projects that I wanted to get accomplished. But that simply just took too long to implement. And so you know, I had a laundry list, I still do of projects that I want to complete. But it’s, you know, it, it makes such a difference when you’ve got, you know, eight to 10 hours to focus on your own projects. And they’re not necessarily like an afterthought, or things that you’re trying to squeeze into your schedule. And so, you know, one huge piece of that is being available during business hours, typically, between like eight and five o’clock, I was busy. And so if I did like call a supplier, I’d do it over my lunch break, or, you know, I’d see if they’d be available for a call after 5pm or before 8am. And it has just been so nice. You know, for instance, like banking, and like establishing a line of credit, it was nearly impossible to do that when you are working during normal business hours. And so that’s been really nice is to just have the day to work on your projects, for sure. Sorry to interrupt the episode, you may have heard Ken and I talking recently about a new tool that we’re using for Amazon refunds. Now I have used other refund tools like this. However, I can tell you in the first seven days, they scrubbed it, the back end of my Amazon account going back 18 months, and found $5,000 of refunds. And the nice thing about this is, it’s my money, Amazon made a mistake, and they are just auditing my account. The other thing I really like about this tool is there is no monthly fee. They only charge a commission if they are successful in getting you your money. Go to getida.com getida and enter promo code FTM for firing the man FTM 400 this is an awesome tool. I can’t say enough good things about it. Now back to the episode.
Ken 13:55
Yeah, absolutely. I can remember whenever I was going into the office working for a corporation, I would get a conference room every day and have that to make my calls and then eat and make business calls at the same time trying to squeeze it all in there. So yeah, definitely don’t miss that. Okay, so, you know, we talked about a lot of all the cool stuff, you know, you took a sabbatical, you know, you spent tons of time you get to eat breakfast with your family. Now let’s talk about what’s been some of the challenges since you fired the man.
David 14:24
Definitely, I would say at the top of the list would be the separation between work life and home life, since they are occurring under the same roof. And, you know, this is one actually unanswered issue and to our listeners, if you have a solution to this, please let me know. But my son is 19 months old right now. We love playing together. And one thing that I think has been challenging is you know, I’ll leave my office during the day and go to the bathroom. And he’s like, hell yeah, dad’s here. Like it’s time to play. And you know, every so often I’ll stop and we’ll play but you know our play time really from like four pm on it’s Henry and I. We’re rocking and rolling and having fun. And I think it’s been, it kind of hurts my heart honestly to, you know, go back into my office and not be able to play with him as much as he wants to play with me. And so, you know, that was one thing when I was working in an office, I would leave the house and I was gone for the day, and there wasn’t that struggle of like, why doesn’t dad want to play with me? So anyway, if any of our listeners have pro tips on this, let me know, I actually am considering, actually, I think I’m going to do this is put up a shop like a pole barn and put living quarters in it and put my office down there. So there is some separation between the house and work, just because you know, we’ve got another baby on the way in November. And I don’t see this going away. And as Henry gets older, I think that’ll be, you know, even more challenging. So that’s been one. You know, another challenge is, as I’ve said on previous podcasts, I’m a pretty risk averse person. And boy, it doesn’t get much steadier than public accounting, the biggest problem in public accounting is turnover. And so it really means you almost always have a job, and you’re very employable. And man, that paycheck is steady every two weeks it shows up in your account. And that’s nice, and you do kind of get hooked on that. And so, you know, for instance, for anyone selling on Amazon, right now, you know that we’re having issues with inventory restrictions, and I’ve had some products that have gone out of stock, and I can’t restock them. And it’s just caused some major issues. And that has had an impact on our bottom lines across the portfolio companies. And so, you know, weathering those financial storms, without the aid of a steady paycheck, does present challenges. And I think, you know, some things that I’m really happy that I did before was, you know, set aside six months of living expenses, and that, you know, makes me feel a lot more comfortable, because we’ll weather these storms and we’ll get through them. But you know, they might last another couple months. And during that period of time that will impact income. There’s no question about that. And, you know, I would say the last thing has been relationships with old co workers, it’s not the same. And that pains me to say it, you know, there were people that I worked with that I talked to nearly every day for eight years, and you really form some tight bonds. And when you leave, you know, everyone says let’s stay in touch. And I’ve made like a concerted effort to stay in touch and grab lunch with people every so often. But it isn’t the same. You don’t have daily touch points. And I think unless you’re very adamant about like, relationship hygiene and like maintaining those relationships, they kind of fall to the wayside. And I hate that. Right. That’s an incredibly huge asset in life is just relationships. So, Ken, I’m curious, like of these challenges, what were some like, that you dealt with? Or that might resonate with you?
Ken 17:52
Yeah, I wouldn’t say most of the ones that you mentioned, you know, my children are older. So I don’t have that. And when you shared that with me, I definitely understood that. But the financial storms, you know, like, you know, same thing, steady paycheck, I mean, that’s kind of like, guaranteed flow of money coming in. So it’s much easier, and it’s much safer. And so, you know, making that switch over there is challenges with that. But the same thing with the relationships, right? Like, sometimes you take that for granted, like, cuz you’re just going through the motions, and you have, you know, Joe at work, or Sally or whatever that you know, you’re chatting with all the time, and then those kind of evaporate, right and go away, unless you’re, like you said, kind of keeping up with them. So I would say yeah, a lot of the same. Let’s kind of switch gears a little bit. Let’s talk about some of the things that like, because you’re a planner, right? You like to have everything planned out in spreadsheets. So what are some of the things that’s kind of popped up that you weren’t really expecting to happen?
David 18:50
Definitely. So I would say at the top of the list is weekends are like, much less important. I remember when I was working for the man, you know, I would I live for Fridays. I mean, I couldn’t wait until the weekend. And I think, you know, when you make, Ken we saw a notary this morning, had to get a contract signed. First thing she said is, hey, it’s Friday. I’m ready for the weekend. And you know, that’s something that is not as important anymore. Because, you know, I do have ownership in my time. And so, you know, I’ll be honest, like, a good bit of Saturday mornings, I’ll work. And that’s not a big deal. But you know, if I need to take off a random Wednesday, that’s also not that big of a deal. And so, I had like this deep love for weekends. And I still do, right. But what I realized was that deep love isn’t for weekends, it’s for free time. And when you do have ownership of your time that free time can occur more sporadically, and kind of when it fits your schedule. And so, I don’t know do you get jazzed up about Saturdays anymore?
Ken 19:54
Not as much as I used to and it also translates to I’ve realized that also translates to holidays like we recently, you know, we’re taping this, it’s July 9, and you know, we were making some plans with some friends for Fourth of July. And you know, they work full time they have jobs and they’re like, yeah, let’s, you know, these plans. And oh, you know, we’re off on Monday, because a holiday, and then you know, it just kind of hit me like holy shit there’s no holiday, there’s no weekends or holidays, when you’re self employed, like all of your time is yours, and you can kind of do what you want with it. And so yeah, that definitely stood out. So David, any other unanticipated outcomes?
David 20:33
Yeah, for sure. And this last one probably is what hit me by surprise the most and that is man, I crave social interaction. And, you know, if I think of like an appetite for social interaction, that appetite was fed through interacting with my co workers. But unless I make a concerted effort to go out to lunch, or go to breakfast with people, an entire week might go by, and the only people that I see like, physically is my wife and my son. And so, you know, the other day, I’ve had a neighbor, not like direct neighbor, but he lives down the street, he has a fishing boat. And I just saw him out in his yard. And this is like, kind of uncharacteristic of the way I go about things. But I just stopped by and introduced myself, started chatting with him. And I invited him over for dinner, him and his wife and and my wife was like, David, that’s so weird. You just invited a total stranger into our house. And she’s like, you never would have done that before. And I was like, No, you’re right. But when I was doing it, it was like, I didn’t even think about it. I’m like, nice to meet you, Tom. You know, you like fishing, I like fishing come over to my house. And so I don’t know, it’s been good. And so you know, one thing I have been doing is trying to get lunch or breakfast, or just meet up with people at least once a week, and kind of fill that socialization like appetite. So anyway, if you fire the man, you may be inviting strangers over for dinner. And your partner may think it’s strange, and you know, in some ways, they’re right.
Ken 22:05
That’s awesome. No, I’m happy to hear that it’s, you know, it’s like humans need human interaction, right? We’re like we, especially with everything that’s going on the world in the last 24 months. And so that I don’t think that’s where you’re at all, David, but maybe your wife does. But humans need humans. And you’re kind of going through this process of kind of adjusting, adapting to your new environment. And that’s one of the ways you’re doing that. So, pretty cool. David, thanks for sharing your six month anniversary to all the listeners out there. We hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, you know, hit us up, go to the website www.firingtheman.com, click on the mic and send us drop us a note, questions, whatever. We’re here for you.
David 22:42
Alright, we’ll see everyone next week. Thank you everyone for tuning in to today’s firing the man podcast. If you liked this episode, head on over to firingtheman.com and check out our resource library for exclusive firing the man discounts on popular e commerce subscription services. That is firingtheman.com\resource. You can also find a comprehensive library of over 50 books that Ken and I have read in the last few years that have made a meaningful impact on our business, for that head on over to www.firingtheman.com/library. Lastly, check us out on social media at firing the man, and on YouTube at firing the man for exclusive content. This is David Schomer
Ken 23:25
and Ken Wilson. We’re out
David 23:43
Before you go we wanted to share a new service that Ken and I’ve been using called Getida that has made us over $10,000 in Amazon reimbursements. The service requires no monthly subscription and getida collects a small percentage of the money they recover for you. It takes less than five minutes to set up and works on all Amazon marketplaces. Go to getida.com getida.com and enter promo code FTM 400. That’s FTM for firing the man 400 to get your first $400 in reimbursements commission free how much money does Amazon owe you?
Transcribed by https://otter.ai