Joe Casabona: If you're anything like me, you may have stumbled into entrepreneurship by accident. My church came to me, offered to pay me to build a website, and my website business was born. But you don't stay in entrepreneurship unless you're built for it. And that is exactly the case with today's guest, Dylan Redekop. He fell into entrepreneurship, but now he's built a business that lets him spend time with his family, stay fit, and still grow his Newsletter. In today's episode, we get into freelancing versus Solopreneurship versus contracting. Why balance matters more than hustle and the little systems that we use to keep ideas from slipping through the cracks while still allowing us to stay as present parents. I think you'll really enjoy this episode. Dylan is such a great guy, and I think more people really need to know about him and his work and just be in his orbit. So I'm psyched that he came on the show today. I think you'll really enjoy this episode. And if you're looking for a way to find balance to run your business and get the restorative time you need, something else we talk about in today's episode, you should take the Business Overwhelm quiz. It's six questions, and you will get a personalized blueprint to find clarity in your business based on your answers. That's over at streamlined.fm/overwhelm. But for now, let's get into the intro and then the interview. If you're overwhelmed by chaotic business that's stealing time from your family, Streamlined Solopreneur is for you. Hey everybody, my name is Joe Casabona, and I've been there. And on this show, I will show you how to turn chaos into clarity so you can stop checking your email at the playground. So, I've been thinking a lot lately about, you know, I posted that this reset, selfie reset, let me reintroduce myself thing on LinkedIn, and it's the first time I thought of the term freelancer in probably 10 years. I've been calling myself a solopreneur, and I was like What is the difference? And Justin Welsh's blog post came up about it. I might identify more with the term freelancer than solopreneur because, like a solopreneur is someone who just starts a one-person business. They probably offer a product or service. A freelancer is somebody who makes their skills available to other businesses. I think maybe fractional has replaced the term freelancer. And so I'm reading your bio, how you kind of fell into entrepreneurship. You run your Newsletter. But you do, you know, I don't think this is a secret because it's very public, but you work with Chenell Basilio, a friend of the show. Dylan Redekop: Yes. Joe Casabona: And I suspect that you do some other work too. Do you consider yourself a freelancer? Dylan Redekop: I love that question. I would, I don't consider myself a freelancer because I feel as though a freelancer has a, to quote the taken movie, “a unique set of skills”. I do not necessarily have this unique set of skills. I'm more of a, I've always considered myself, ever since I heard the term generalist and specialist, I've always been like, oh, I am that. I am the generalist. So for me, I kind of use the term contractor, which is, like, very boring and kind of, like, very layman and boots to the ground kind of sounding. But that's kind of how I view myself as far as my work goes. I can do many things, and I can do them competently. But am I an expert at many of them? Not necessarily. So, a freelancer, I would not describe myself as. However, you know, in the right situation, I could potentially pitch myself as one. Joe Casabona: Yeah, that's really interesting because, like, I feel like I don't think I would consider myself a generalist. I think I'm very good at, like, the unique set of skills. Right. But, like, I think I have a lot. Not to brag on myself, but, like, I'm working with Charlotte Crowther on my signature framework right now. Dylan Redekop: Nice. Joe Casabona: And our first call, like, she's the best. Yeah, but, like, our first call, like, sent me into this spiral. Like, what am I,...What do I do? What do I even do? Dylan Redekop: Who am I? Joe Casabona: And I…Yeah, right. I used to make websites, and I have a master's in software engineering, but now I help people with podcasts, but I don't want to just. And so, like, I landed on this term, like, hired gun for being on the Internet. Dylan Redekop: I like that. I like that. Joe Casabona: Right. And, like, I feel. So, I feel like I land, like, squarely in freelancer. Right? Like, I can help you build a website. I don't do that a lot anymore. But, like, I can help you be online and do it well and like, do it, like, without it killing all of your time. And so, like, that's, I've just…That was really top of mind when I read your bio. And so I wanted to ask you that straight away, because on top of your newsletter and working with Chenell, do you. Do you work with anybody else that you could talk about? Dylan Redekop: Currently, No. Joe Casabona: Okay. Dylan Redekop: When I first started working with Chenell last summer, I was doing a bit of other work with another newsletter operator and doing similar work, but also different. And it was all around newsletters that as I ramped things up, working with Chenell scaled that down because I wanted to put basically 90-95% of my focus on supporting her, and also the other percentage going towards, you know, building my own audience and newsletter. So right now, that's kind of taking up most, if not all, of my working time. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Cool, Cool, I like that. Um, speaking of Chenell, Chenell has the Growth in Reverse newsletter slash podcast. Dylan Redekop: She does. Joe Casabona: Um, your newsletter is called Growth Currency. I don't know if anybody's put this question to you, but how would you say you are different, like what differences exist between your two newsletters? Dylan Redekop: Oh, that's a great question. So everybody, more people listening to this will know Chenell than of mine. You probably know what Chenell does. Reverse Engineers, how, you know, newsletter creators grew to 50,000 subscribers or more. And so she does a lot of deep dive style content where she spends hours and hours researching how people grew the newsletters and monetized them and then publishes that. My content is more around, at least in the beginning, I was really good at finding, like curating content, opining on that curated content, sharing how I would do it, and then also writing articles about how I am growing my own newsletter, how I'm monetizing my own newsletter, and my thoughts and ideas around how to do that, including like mindset. Because I started writing my newsletters, like I'm going to publish a hundred weekly editions of this thing before I stop. Like 100 in a row. And that was like my goal. I started on Substack, 50, Geez, was that 50? No, sorry. 100 weeks later, which is about two years, I was able to, I was able to achieve that. So I just kept that kind of framework as I was growing mine. And the newsletter has grown and evolved. And in terms of the difference between our two newsletters, I think hers has much better content. And if I'm being completely honest, and I'm not just saying that because I'm working for her, she puts a lot of time and effort into it. Whereas mine's more of a curated sort of thing with an opinion-based newsletter. They're both focused on newsletters, but sort of different approaches. Joe Casabona: Yeah, it kind of sounds like Chenell focuses on like what has worked, and you're focusing more on like what's working for me right now. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: Right. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Our newsletters do serve a very similar audience, but our content is very, like you can be subscribed to both of ours and see very different content. At least you could. Now, there's a lot of growth in reverse in my content, promoting our podcast and talking about the community a bit more. That being said, it's still, you know, written by me, and it's not strictly driving people to growth in reverse. However, there's definitely a little bit more content in there about Growth Reverse Growth Reverse Pro than there used to be. Joe Casabona: Yeah. So this is another really interesting thing I think is, you know, you're a contractor for Chenell. I do contract work for both Justin Moore and RSS.com. How often do you promote the growth and reverse stuff in your podcast? Is it like when it really makes sense, or is it like every time? Like, I'm...Because… Dylan Redekop: You mean my newsletter? Joe Casabona: Yeah, I'm sorry, in your newsletter. Yeah, yeah. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, there's, I don't know if there's been an addition in the last six months that I've published that has not featured some. Whether it's the podcast or an article or something about the community or a challenge that we're doing, there's pretty much always something in there. And for me, it's a kind of cliché, rising tide lifts all boats sort of mentality that I'm going into it with, because if I grow my audience, I can grow her audience, and we can both succeed sort of together with that. So, I have some stake in that too, from a professional standpoint. And, you know, just from a creator standpoint, helping out somebody who I deeply respect and admire and want to see them succeed as well. Joe Casabona: Yeah. That's… I love that. It reminds me of when I interviewed Matt Medeiros on this podcast a few weeks ago. Dylan Redekop: Okay. Joe Casabona: And I asked him, like, how he… He's like in the…He's like a friend from the WordPress space in the podcast space. Dylan Redekop: Okay. Joe Casabona: But I was like, how do you, because he's a dad of 3. He has a full-time job. He has two side hustles. I'm just like, how do you, How do you? Right. And he mentioned, like, common threads make his side hustle sustainable. So, like, his side hustles are tangentially related to his full-time job, and his full-time job benefits from it. His side hustles benefit from it. And it sounds very similar. Right? It sounds like the contract work you're doing for Chenell, there's a symbiotic relationship there. Right. It's not, they're not competing for time, or one's not parasitic to your time, they're symbiotic to your time. Dylan Redekop: Yep. I think that's a good, a good way to put it. Yeah. And I think if you can, just on a side note, if you can find a side hustle that also benefits your 9 to 5, you know, day job, that's really bringing home the majority of your revenue. Man, that's a good place to be in. Especially if the side hustle, I don't know if you can figure out the fun part, the part that you really enjoy about your job, where 75% of it, you're just like meh. But the other 25%, I like this part of my job. Help grow that, improve your job. I think that's a really cool way to go. It reminds me of Tom Orbach, who's in the growth and reverse pro community, who writes about marketing ideas. And most of that content comes from his actual job, his full-time job where he's testing these marketing ideas or searching for new marketing ideas, and then he's like writing about them also in his newsletter, I assume with full permission from, you know, his job to do so. But he's found a lot of success doing that. So I just think, side note, that is a great strategy if you can, if you can figure that one out. Joe Casabona: Yeah. It like, it lends sort of credibility. Right. When I was in the web development space, I would seek jobs, and they would, there would be a clause in the contract that said like, you can't do side work. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: And I never understood that. I understood that from a, we are worried you're going to burn yourself out. Dylan Redekop: Okay. Joe Casabona: Or we are worried we're gonna steal. You're gonna steal our coach customers. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Yeah. Joe Casabona: Right. But like, there's a different clause for that. I was always very like, don't tell me how I can spend my time. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, totally. Joe Casabona: Like, unless you're gonna pay for my whole life, you cannot tell me how you're gonna spend time, I'm gonna spend my time. But also like the things I'm doing in my side projects, like, I'm bringing those skills to the job. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: So, like, you know, I just, I never understood that. And it was always like a no for me. I was always in those interviews. This is why I'm unemployable. In those interviews, I would say I have a, I have a side business and I'm not going to give it up for this job. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, yeah. Joe Casabona: So if I can't do both them, I am walking away, Dylan Redekop: I mean, I would respect somebody, honestly, as somebody who's looking to hire someone who has that much conviction win hat they're doing. So, I think that anybody who doesn't hire you because of that obviously is not the person you want to work for. But anybody who does, I think that actually says a lot about them, too. Right, in terms of respect and admiration. I had a funny story that reminds me of a job I had. I'm not going to say when, because I don't want to expose anybody in particular, but one of my many jobs I've had in the past, we were one of our employees who worked kind of, you know, that I was a direct report to. He had an Instagram. A personal Instagram side hustle, and it was literally not making money. He had, like, maybe 15 followers. But I was told that I needed to have a chat with him and tell him that that was not allowed. And there was no mood. What do you call it? Moonlighting? No. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Moonlighting is okay. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Yes. Okay. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Dylan Redekop: Like, you're not allowed to moonlight while working at this place. And I thought that I'm like, I struggled very much with this conversation because I felt like a hypocrite, being that I was writing, you know, my own personal newsletter at the time, and wanting to ramp that up. And I just wasn't, you know, obviously sharing that, because at least I wasn't now, especially. So, I think that is a failing strategy in the world we live in. And though I understand from the business owner's perspective, they want all of your time and attention and energy to be creative, energy especially to be focused on helping him grow his business, I also think that's not realistic. So yeah, it was a weird conversation. And that just yeah, that reminded me o what you just said there. Joe Casabona: Let's get into, like, the core questions here. I think we did a really good job of, like, setting the table. Right. Because we're both trying to kind of do the same thing. You have a number of children, right? Dylan Redekop: I have two. Yep. Joe Casabona: You have two. Okay. I wasn't sure if that was, like, public or if I was getting the… Dylan Redekop: No, no, that's all good. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So with that in mind, there are, like, a few, I like talking about workflow and, like, how we work, find balance and so, like, what's. I know tools don't make the business, but like, everybody has that tool that they rely on, right? So like, what's one tool that you couldn't run your business without? Dylan Redekop: I'm looking at my tabs in my browser right now and scanning to see which ones are the most open. I see a lot of Google Docs, I see Loom, and I see ChatGPT. So just on the face of it, those ones come to mind. I also see a kit tab open. So yeah, those would be kind of my main tools that I am using right now. ChatGPT is, I mean, we could go into long, long talks about how that works and what we do with it. But I think you can kind of surmise the different use cases I have for it. Kit, obviously, to publish my newsletter and grow my newsletter with creator, network, lead magnets, landing pages, all that sort of stuff. And Google Docs is where I like to spend my time writing. I don't love it as a word processor, but it just is the most cohesive piece of the puzzle, I guess, because I use Google Drive and everything like that. So I use Google Docs for a lot of ideation, first drafts, and that sort of thing. Joe Casabona: Cool. Which actually leads me to another question I have, which is like, where do you, tasks, ideas, things that you need to do, where do they go when you think of them? Right. Because I mean, like, inspiration can strike any time, right? So, like when you're at your computer, where do they go when you're out and about? Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: How do you handle that? Dylan Redekop: So, I'm horrible with, I mentioned commitment phobia. I'm horrible with like note-taking, idea, idea gathering. So I've got like, I've got a workbook here where I write down ideas. I've got a Google tab open over here where I have it, it's literally called Ideas. I have Google Notes where I, not Google Notes. Sorry, what is it? Google Keep? I think it's like a notepad, sort of like Apple. Yes. I think for Google. Joe Casabona: Are you an Android guy? Dylan Redekop: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, Google and Android. So I use that for ideas. We usually do more so when I'm out. Um, and then I'll also, when I'm out, I'll just fire up ChatGPT and like record an idea or, and get it to like either remind me of it, which I haven't done often lately actually, or kind of spitball, like when I'm driving, I'll turn it on safely and just do like the voice, the voice chat with it while it, while I'm driving through like Bluetooth. Joe Casabona: Yeah. You know, this is really interesting because if you had taught. If you talk to like five years ago me, I would be like, people talking to their phone is unhinged. And now I think I probably talk more than I type. Like, the first time I got a voice note from somebody, like an audio note from somebody instead of text, I'm like, what the hell is this? And now it's like my preferred method for sending and receiving. Dylan Redekop: Dang. Excuse me. So when you say that, are you, do you mean like voice dictation to text message, or literally voice note send? Joe Casabona: Voice note send. Dylan Redekop: Interesting. Joe Casabona: I think you know Sarah. You know Sara Loretta. Dylan Redekop: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I know Sarah. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Right. So, like, the first time it was her, and I'm like, God almighty, what is this? That I have to, like, stop what I'm listening to to listen to this. And now it's like, yeah, this is way more convenient for me. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: Especially when I'm like, got my hands full with whatever else I'm doing. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. An example of. I did that this morning. Similar, but not. So, It was voice-to-text, so not quite the same. But I wanted to send my wife an update. Would drop my daughter off at kids camp today, and she was struggling a bit, so I got a call from the amp director, and so I just wanted to give my wife an update, but I didn't want to type it all out. So I just fired up Whisper Flow on my computer, spoke into this mic, and dictated it. Whisper flow cut out all of my ums and ahs. And it even, like, put the right, like, quotations. Like, she said, da, da, da, Dad, I don't want to be here. And I said, Don't worry, hon. I know you can do this. And like, it was just like, wow, that was so much faster. Even though I sent it as a text, it was just still so much faster than just typing it out. You know what I mean? Joe Casabona: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like, and maybe this is indicative of getting better. Dylan Redekop: Yep. Joe Casabona: But, like, I do the same thing with Whisper Memo. Or, like, now it's like, it's an, that's an iPhone app that, like, works on my watch. So, like, when I'm driving, right? Dylan Redekop: Yes. Joe Casabona: But that also has, like, Zapier hooks built in. So if I start a voice note with, like, an article idea, it'll send it to a specific Zapier. Ooh, like Zap Webhook. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: And like, same thing. Like, it'll clean everything up and do whatever it needs to do. And like, that's just, I don't, I have not felt it good enough to replace me sitting down and actually writing on my writing app. Dylan Redekop: Mm. Joe Casabona: But I do find it better than just like writing an article about Aaron Judge, Joe Torre, Like, I would look at that like a day later and be like, what does that mean? Whereas like, if I'm just like talking at my phone for like a minute, and then it turns into like a loose kind of fat outline. Yeah, I found that really helpful. Dylan Redekop: Wait, do you rate Yankee content? Joe Casabona: I wish. The Yankees are in a lot of my analogies. Dylan Redekop: Okay. I love it. Joe Casabona: Especially during the baseball season. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, of course. Joe Casabona: That's what, I watch like every game more or less as long as I can. Okay. So I mean, I think this makes sense, right? Because I think like a lot of us struggle with like, or at least I've been thinking about this a lot. I don't want to stop playing with my kids to write down an idea and I also don't want to lose that idea. And I think it's probably like, ah, some of them are... I used to be really bullish on like no lost ideas. Right. No idea left behind. And now I think it's kind of like, well, priorities and some ideas are going to be lost and most of them are not very good anyway. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. I think that's a good, it's a good mindset to have. I am probably not great at that. Although I found myself in the last year, you know, year and a half to be really be letting go of the working when I'm not working kind of mindset, when I was working more so in the corporate world. And like my free time was also my like side hustle time, my newsletter writing time, my ideation time. But it was also obviously my family time. And so those two worlds collided a little bit more frequently. I remember I came up with the name Gross Currency while I was playing with my 2 year old daughter on her landing. Like it was, it was just like so, so I did the thing where I'm like, oh, I gotta take the like voice. I can't remember if it's a voice note or I just wrote it down, but I'm like, I like that. So I'm gonna, you know, keep that. And my daughter was too, so she probably didn't even clue in that I was doing that. But I think there's a time and a place for like a good idea that you definitely don't want to go. There's a, I think people will forgive you if you take a whole 20 seconds and do that. But at the same time, you don't want to every five minutes be taken 20 seconds or every two minutes be taken 20 seconds distracting yourself. You know, your kids are going to pick up on that pretty quick, that you are not fully engrossed in the activity and that you're distracted. And whether they say anything or not, that leaves a bit of an impression on them. So I think that a really good idea will probably come back to you. I'd like to even venture a guess if you don't have a chance to write it down or you don't want to show that you're being distracted. So, and if it doesn't, somebody else will grab that idea out of the ether and run with it. And, you know, you can just give them a hat tip and say, you're welcome, because I passed on that one. Joe Casabona: Yeah, I put it out there. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, exactly. Joe Casabona: It's like everybody who says I said this. I thought of Facebook before Facebook. Right. And so I'm like, oh, I could have made Facebook. And, No, like, I could have made a website. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: That worked like Facebook. Dylan Redekop: No, there’s only one Mark Zuckerberg. Joe Casabona: Right. as far as we know, at least. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, fair. No, I just, and I. What I mean by that is, you know, he is obviously a very, driven is an understatement. But he's a certain person, and he took Facebook to where it is because of how compelled and how driven and how convicted he was on the idea and on the business. And the Vanderboss or whatever the twins name, that he stole the idea from like, whether he did or he didn't, he took it to the level that I don't think they would have been able to. Joe Casabona: Right. Yeah. I mean, case in point, right? Like, they have Winklevoss. Dylan Redekop: [Inaudible 23:20] Joe Casabona: I was like, this is close, but I would not. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Dylan Redekop: I knew I had something there. Right. Joe Casabona: Yeah. I mean, like, case in point, right? Like, they,, It's not like they came from nothing. They came from money. And, you know, they became crypto bros for a while. Maybe they still are, but, like, Dylan Redekop: Should Have stuck with it. Joe Casabona: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Dylan Redekop: Hopefully, they're sick of it. Joe Casabona: NFTs, baby. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: But, yeah, so you're right. Like, it takes a lot more than just an idea. And I think remembering that is important and capturing the ones that really feel good is all, like, taking 20 seconds. I think, like you said, is probably fine. Also, probably the reason I do a lot more dictation now. Because I'm like a slow. I never got like T9. I think we're of a similar age where you remember T9 texting. Dylan Redekop: Oh, yeah. Joe Casabona: Yeah. I couldn't do that. And now it's like, I just like can't. I think it's because I downgraded from the iPhone. Not downgraded. I went from the iPhone Pro Max to the iPhone Pro and like the size difference is just enough that I keep messing up typing. Dylan Redekop: Oh my God, that's hilarious. Joe Casabona: Anyway, okay, so I really like this. Let's talk about like a good work day for you. Like, what would you consider a productive day? Dylan Redekop: Man, that's a good question. Because a productive day for me is less about how much work I got done. It's more about, I think, how I felt, how my energy was, how distracted I was, how so to some degree, how much work I got done. But really it's just like, man, did I feel good about the progress I made on things and the focus and time and attention I put into things today or was I just like a show of, I woke up, I had coffee, then I wrote an email, then I got up and had another coffee. And then, you know, I said bye to my kids and then came back and I, you know, started writing out something else and got distracted by text message. Like, you know what I mean? Like all of these interruptions. Did I give in to the interruptions or did I stay focused and on task? So I think, I think for me, a good workday is one where I feel good about the focus and energy I put into the day. And not necessarily like, man, I cranked out eight hours of solid work today. It was like, hey, I cranked out like five hours of focus. Like building energy, focused, moving the, what is it like a ten thousand dollar hour, ten thousand dollars hour work? Joe Casabona: Yeah. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. As opposed to the ten dollars an hour work. Joe Casabona: Yes. I'm gonna credit Khe Hy with that. That he's the first person I heard it from. Right. Dylan Redekop: That's it. Yeah. Joe Casabona: He was also on the podcast. I guess I'll link to a bunch of previous. Dylan Redekop: Oh. There you go. Joe Casabona: I was psyched about that. Right. So, but I think this is such a great way to look at it. Right. Because like, I can have days where I worked a lot. Like, I've pulled a couple of 12-hour days recently because I've been taking full days off to spend with my parents, because they're visiting as we record this. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: And My wife will be like, how was your day? And I'm like, I got a lot done. I didn't necessarily, you know, I did like a lot of context switching, and there was, you know, just like distractions and things like that. But then like, the days that feel really good are the days where I feel like I did good work. I think that's a really, really important thing to think about. And I think like, again, I'm giving myself as the guy who talks about systems and processes and time boxing and stuff like that. Like, I'm giving myself grace because I have seeded priority to my children while they're home for the summer and my family while they're home for the summer. And so like, the business is a little bit more chaotic in the service of maybe spending more time with my family. Dylan Redekop: The things that really matter, maybe, potentially. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I think like, that's a really interesting. That's a really good answer. I think. Now, I don't want to embarrass you, but when we met… Dylan Redekop: That’s for how to do. Joe Casabona: Yeah, great, perfect. When we met in Boise in real life earlier this summer, you, it turns out you're like jacked, like, super fit. How do you, this is like around hobbies because I think we all have hobbies. Dylan Redekop: Yep. Joe Casabona: Or we all should have hobbies. How do you make time for things like that? I assume you go to the gym. You got to tell me you go to the gym. Because if you're like, no, I'm just like this, I'd be really sad. But like, you know, family business. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: And then, you know, staying healthy or doing whatever it is you choose to do with your free time. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Oh, well, don't hate me because I hate the gym and I don't go. But, but I've got like, so I do still a form of workout, like push-up bars. Joe Casabona: Okay. Okay. Dylan Redekop: I have a pull-up bar in my garage. So I do, I like to do challenges. Joe Casabona: You do stuff. Dylan Redekop: I do stuff. Yeah, I do like more, I like more like calisthenics, like body weight workouts as opposed to… Joe Casabona: Yeah. Dylan Redekop: Big, heavy grunting, pushing weights around, which, trust me, I would love to do if I didn't totally mess up my back doing that 10 years ago. So I just really can't do it anymore. And so my workouts are that. But even more so, I got into triathlon like two years ago and so I had an old bike my dad gave me. I'm like, hey, I can run. I like to run. And I got a bike. I just need to figure out how to swim. So now my workouts are not going to the gym, but instead spending time doing one of those three things. So I, not every day. I'd love to do it every day, but time permitting, I'll do one or maybe two of those kind of training sessions per day. I'd love to do it during my lunch break at midday. And then like tonight for example, I probably won't have a run today, but I have a running club I'm part of in the evenings. And so that does take a bit of time away from family. But they do also sometimes come out, especially in the summertime when it's nice out. They'll hang out at the park that we're doing like track drills at and I'll still see them and they're still like a part of it. But yeah, it's when it comes to that sort of, you know, balancing family hobbies, slash fitness and work, sometimes some of those things have to join up together. So yeah, that's an example of when they do join up. But otherwise, yeah, I can typically do it when people are either at school or at work. So I'm not taking time away from my wife and my kids to train. Although I will still go for maybe an hour-long run. Run on the weekend, but or, ride. But yeah, I tried not to let that interfere too much with time off of work. Joe Casabona: Yeah. And, but like to. Oh gosh, I almost said double-click. I hate saying that but I think to drive home this point. Right. Like restorative time is important. Right. Like my wife and I, we don't want to say explicitly in front of the kids. Like when we can tell one of us is getting annoyed and frustrated, and maybe not being the best parent we can be. And so we'll say, do you need a break? Right. And like that's like, that's our code for, this isn't a question. Go away. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. Joe Casabona: Go somewhere. Dylan Redekop: My wife has sent me away a few times because of similar. Yeah. Joe Casabona: Yeah, mine too. Interestingly, my wife is less likely to take that directive when I say it, though. So. Yeah, she's been better over the summer, though. I think it's like, it's hard, right. Because she works like three 12-hour shifts, and so, as a nurse. Yeah. So like, you know, it's hard. I'm more willing to take it because I am home all the time, and when the kids are home and I'm home, I see them. But, like, she'll leave the house before the kids wake up and get home after. At least the Littles are in bed. And so on the day she's home, I think she feels like she needs to maximize time with them. But… Dylan Redekop: Yep. Joe Casabona: You know, like, I mean, like you said about productivity, like, four good hours with your kid is better than five crappy hours with your kid, right? Like, If that one hour is going to make you a better parent for the rest of the four, then go for it. Dylan Redekop: It's true. It's true. I just get, I don't know, grumpy down a little bit if I don't get a little bit of that in over a period of time. I'm not saying, like, I have to do it every day, but if it's been like, yeah, three or four days, and I'm like, man, I haven't done anything for my own personal health and fitness. And it's also like a meditative time. Like, I love. I mentioned I joined a run group, which is fun, but I love mostly training on my own. And just like being with, being outside, being with my own thoughts. Usually, that's a good thing. Sometimes not. But yeah, being with my own thoughts, pushing myself, being proud of the fact that I'm hopefully extending my life a little bit by exercising, and also being a good role model for my kids where they see, hey, dad likes to… Dad enjoys being physically active and he, he likes doing his passion around it. And so it's not this thing that they feel they have to do or that is like a kind of torture or anything like that. So, yeah, I think, I think it's important. At least it's important for me. And that hobby might not be obviously physical activity for other people, but it might be, whether it's even like gaming or just chilling out, watching Netflix or gardening or, you know, woodworking. You know, it can be anything. But as long you have to take some of that time for yourself so that you can fill that bucket and then be more present for your family. Joe Casabona: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And we all need that restorative time. Right. You know, when our battery gets low, we need to recharge. That's what the, again the shed with the Yankee game and the cigar. That's what that is for me. Dylan Redekop: Exactly. Joe Casabona: Though I am trying to. The gym has worked for me. I don't like, I don't like working out. I shouldn't say that I like how I feel after I work out because I give Maximum effort, right? Dylan Redekop: Yes. Joe Casabona: I don't like, read like, you know, there are people who are like, on the treadmill, like, reading or watching tv and just like, no, I have to be like, gripping for dear life if I'm not like, drenched, if my shirt is not a darker shade when I'm done, I don't feel like I worked out enough. But it's like the inertia of getting to the gym is the thing that's like the hard part for me. Dylan Redekop: Yeah. The black shirt better be blacker, you know, by the time you're done with the go. Joe Casabona: Yeah. I always wear a gray shirt. Right. Because I, you can tell when you've sweated through that. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I can tell so can everybody here work my ass. , Joe Casabona: That's right. Everyone knows. Yeah. Wild, right? Okay. So we've been talking. I feel like we've covered a lot of different topics, but there's this thread through it. Right. Like, how are we building our lives to be successful business owners in our own right and then also be present for our family? What's something in your business or your workflow that you know needs improvement? Dylan Redekop: Most of it? I say that kind of jokingly, but also I'm probably my own worst critic. So, I always, many days I feel like I could have done more. And this goes back to the other question you asked. And those days where I feel like I had a really solid energy day where I was not distracted, where I was not this and that. I wish those days were more, more frequent. So not necessarily a workflow or anything like that. But I just, I need to button down the number of distractions I have. So a really simple, basic thing I could do is just throw my phone out in a different room. I find myself when like Descript is taking a while to load, I'm like, gotta get out my phone and do whatever, whether it's check a text message or scroll Instagram or check my fantasy football team. Like it, I will find something to distract me while that wheel is spinning. Right. But that's stupid. Like, A, I have a computer here that I could just tab over, so I don't need the phone here to distract me from that. And B, it also turn like, it turns 30 seconds into like maybe 10 minutes of, you know, pointless scrolling. So, I think eliminating distractions, basically, is what I'm trying to say here is probably the biggest opportunity I could have in making my days more productive. Um, it's easier said than done, but I think it's it's a simple, a simple step that I could move towards with more focused work and focused time. Joe Casabona: Yeah. That's a great one. And it's something that we all struggle with. Right. Like I keep my phone here because I usually have it in the standby mode for iPhone, and it has the time but it also has my current time tracker. Dylan Redekop: Oh nice. Joe Casabona: And so like I do that's like the way that I know if it's time tracking. But if my watch buzzes too much, I have a button on my stream deck to turn on the most aggressive focus mode like do not disturb mode on my phone so that only my wife can break through if something happens. And my kids schools. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which actually my kids school now because my youngest is moving to where the big kids are. She's out of daycare, and my wallet is happy, and I'm happy. Dylan Redekop: Oh, I can relate to that. Joe Casabona: Right? Now we're going to get to a rapid-fire question, but there is one more question I want to ask. I think this is really, I like this question especially for contractors, generalists, the guns for hire freelancers or whatever. How do you manage client communications without it taking over your whole day? Because there are some days where I feel like I am a chronic email checker. I don't have any social apps on my phone, and so when I'm mindlessly scrolling the, I go to the email app and then my cgm, my glucose monitor app. Dylan Redekop: Right. Joe Casabona: And then I just repeat that cycle. So like what do you do to manage client communications? Dylan Redekop: So good question. So right now my, you know, my main client is Chenell and so, we don't really have any hard and fast rules about communication. So, we honestly do a lot of SMS texts back and forth and I've got an app on my computer that just connects to my Google messages and I assume she does as well for her iPhone. And so we definitely communicate most frequently and quickly that way. Email is less frequent. And then we also will use whatever project management tool we are currently working with because we've changed a few times. We will also send messages in there. But sorry, I should also mention Loom and Tella. So, we have a few different ways of communicating. My preferred method is especially just like quick, fast and easy is like send me a text or I send her a text and we get back to each other relatively quickly that way, and it doesn't take up too much time like drafting an email, opening up Gmail, and potentially getting distracted by something else in our inbox. You know, trying to type out what we want to say. Coming up with a, like an email subject line. Not that this is like a marketing thing, but just like all these little things that we have to think about, take up so much more time than they probably need to. So email is a less, a less-used way of communication. So… But if I was dealing with a new client, that would probably be the predominant way I would go. That being said, I still love using Loom or some kind of video capture tool where I can just like speak and show. And Loom is big on like you saved a meeting. And I'm also like, well, I probably also saved an email to some degree at least writing an email that may not translate. Whereas if I just record my screen and my voice and show you what I'm doing or what I need or what I think you could improve on or need help with, then that's going to save a lot of time and energy and trying to decode the message that I am encoding. Joe Casabona: Yeah, absolutely. So let me ask because I don't think I'm ever going to be able to find this app again. But when I was in the Android army, the thing that I hated the most was that I couldn't send texts from my computer. And there was an app, I think it was called like Mighty Chat or I think ManyChat. But also that's another thing. Like there are a lot of AI bots now called with the word chat. So, I can't remember it but like is it just like Google Chat now for you? Dylan Redekop: Yes, well, it's Google Messages. So the same Apple comes on your phone that is basically the SMS messaging system. It would be iMessage but for Android. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Dylan Redekop: And then you can just download that right to your desktop. So it's sitting in my taskbar on my Windows computer. So much better than probably what you were dealing with back, however long ago that was. Joe Casabona: Yeah, over a decade now. Dylan Redekop: Oh yeah. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Right. And it was like a whole big thing. God, I'm gonna have to…there's, it's probably on my blog. I'll find it later. Okay. Well, I'm hearing the footsteps upstairs. Hopefully you're not. Otherwise, my setup is not doing its job. Dylan Redekop: I cannot hear footsteps. You're good. Joe Casabona: Fantastic. And so, but that means that we're almost out of time. And so I want to do a couple of rapid-fire questions for you. Email service provider. I know the answer to this one. Dylan Redekop: Kit Joe Casabona: What's your favorite calendar app? Dylan Redekop: UGH! I hate calendar apps. So, sorry. Let me rephrase that. Are we talking about just like, what do you use for your calendar? Like Google Calendar, or are you talking about bookings? Calendar links, like book booking links and stuff? Joe Casabona: Ooh, great question. I was thinking like, what do you use for, I use Fantastical for my calendar and I suspect most people just use the stock calendar app on their phone. Dylan Redekop: Google Calendar. Joe Casabona: I think you mentioned. Yeah, Fantastical is Apple ecosystem only, but it's amazing. I like, I pay 60 bucks a month. A year for it. A month. Oh my God. 60 bucks a year for it. And it's super worth it. Yeah, right. For a thing I'm in every day. Note-taking, I know you mentioned this already, but what's your note-taking app of choice? Dylan Redekop: I will go with Google Keep just because I use it sometimes on my computer, but often on my phone. And that's where I will take quick notes. But if I'm on my computer and I have ideas, I just throw open a Google Doc. Joe Casabona: All right. Google Doc. Would you, would you say that Google Doc is like your personal knowledge management system? Have you heard of PKM as a thing? Dylan Redekop: Yeah, yeah. I'm so, so terrible with that stuff. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Dylan Redekop: So, my personal knowledge management, my PKM, is everything. Joe Casabona: Nice. Love that. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, it sucks. Joe Casabona: File storage. I think you mentioned Google Drive. Do you use anything else? Dylan Redekop: I have used a…Oh. What do you call them when, like physical drives, external drives? Because I'm running out of space on my Google Drive and on my computer. So no, it's pretty much strictly Google Drive that I use. Joe Casabona: Awesome. And then last thing, and I'm keenly interested in this because you said you and Chenell have switched a lot, but project management, what are you currently using for that? Dylan Redekop: Okay. Do I don't know how much I should say about this because it's not necessarily public knowledge, but there have been. Joe Casabona: Where you.. Dylan Redekop: There have been a few popular ones that we've tried. So we've tried using Notion, and I've had over the last six or seven years a lot of like, hey, I'm gonna try Notion. I'm good at it. And then like falling off it and then trying to like, hey, everybody's using. This has got to be something I'm missing. And then I just. It's this constant battle of like, it just doesn't work for me, for my brain, for the way I work, for the way I organize things. And so we were using that, and we used it for the better part of the year. But we've recently switched to something else. And I mean, I don't know why I'm keeping it. We started using Trello because it was like, honestly, so simple, and we're both very adhd, and it's just like, no, I just need to see everything and then be able to, like, move things simply. Definitely like limited functionality in terms of, like, how deep you can go with it, and how you can make things more, Geez, I don't know. Like, Notion you can do so much with, but that was part of the problem. So we just love, kind of, We love the box that is Trello, and it's just so easy for us to see where things are, where they need to go, who's doing what, and the different, like, it's just. We've only been using it for a few weeks, but it's been, it's been a bit of a game changer. So will we stick with it? We'll see. But that's where we're at right now. Joe Casabona: Well, I like that. I like that you're evaluating because I think I use Notion now, but, like, also, like, I for some reason need to customize all the views for everything forever. And like, Notion works for me for that. Right. Dylan Redekop: Yeah, that's good. Joe Casabona: Awesome. Dylan, this has been great. Dylan Redekop: It has. Joe Casabona: If people want to learn more about you, where can they find you? Dylan Redekop: You can find me on predominantly you find me on LinkedIn. You can subscribe to my newsletter @growthcurrency.net, and you just, you know, search Dylan Redekop on LinkedIn. I think I am the only one. I'm sure Joe will probably throw that in the show notes, and I don't really hang out on Twitter anymore, and geez, yeah, those are kind of the two main, main places you'll find me. Joe Casabona: All right. So, yeah. I will link all of that in the show notes over at streamlined.fm or wherever you happen to be listening and/or watching this. Until next time. I hope you find some space in your week.