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James is the founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisors grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard.
James: This week's episode is about five things I do to only work 10 hours per week. Let me give you some real numbers. I track all of my working hours using an app called Toggle. It's basically a time-tracking app, and every single time I do anything work related, like send an email or record this podcast or write my Inner Circle Newsletter, I start the timer there. I've been doing that for years and it's so cool to be able to look back and see how many hours I've worked and which projects take the most time and the least time. [01:01.4]
Over the past few weeks, I've worked this much. I'm going to go week by week—11 hours 14 minutes, 10 hours 51 minutes, five hours 54 minutes, 13 hours 26 minutes, and five hours 26 minutes. For the sake of making a sexy podcast title, I'm going to say I work 10 hours per week. It's a nice round number, plus my average so far this year is pretty close to that anyway. I know there are lots of productivity gurus out there trying to tell you a million different ways to be productive and work fewer hours. I am actually doing it. This is my real life.
I remember one guy sent me this LinkedIn message and said something along to the effect of “James, would you be interested if I could help you implement systems in your business so you could take Fridays off?” and I thought to myself, my guy, I can take Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. You're talking to the wrong dude. [01:55.1]
If you've been in my world for a while now, then you know that this summer, I have been pretty much at the beach 100% of the time, and the few days that I've been at home, I've been hanging out by the pool. This is the kind of stuff I would dream about as a kid. This is what I wanted. I would daydream about how awesome it would be just to hang out at the beach all summer, because I used to work near the beach.
I used to work a stone's throw away from the beach in one of my part-time jobs and I never really went. I would work all summer, just work, work, work, and never actually enjoy the beach, so I remember thinking, Wow, it'd be really cool if I didn't have to do this, and I could just hang out at the beach. I am legitimately living my dream, which is pretty darn cool. So, let me give you some insights and some strategies and some tactics about what I did and what I am doing to only work 10 hours per week on average.
No. 1, most important thing, first off, I worked a boatload of hours to get here. I am not going to sugarcoat things. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to be disingenuous. It was hard AF to get here. I sacrificed years and years of my life to get to this point. [03:03.1]
Get this, this is crazy to someone. I bring this up in dinner conversations with friends and colleagues and people who kinda sorta know me but haven't really figured out my life yet. I bring this up sometimes. Especially because they ask, “What do you do, right? What is your story? What did you used to do? How did you get here?” it's not like I'm just bringing this up, right? I'm not a weirdo, or at least, not most of the time. I have never worked a full-time job in my entire life. I couldn't even get a job.
I remember applying to thousands and thousands of jobs. I probably did, and this is not an exaggeration, 100-plus phone calls, phone interviews and in-person interviews. I did 100-plus of those, at least 100. I got rejected from every single one. I don't even know why. Whatever the reason, I was a loser, straight up. I mean, if you went up to someone and you said, “Hey, what do you call a guy with a college degree who has done 100-plus interviews for a job and hasn't gotten a single one?” the answer would be a loser. It's okay, it doesn't offend me. It is what it is. I'm okay. I call a spade a spade. I was a loser at that point in my life. [04:13.8]
One of the reasons I'm telling you this is because I want you to know if I can do it, you can do it, too. If you have the ability to get a full-time job, you are already miles ahead of me. You are miles ahead of where I was at that point in my life. You have some sort of skill or ability that I obviously didn't have, because it just was not clicking for me. I would go, I would put my best foot forward. I'd try to make a great first impression. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe I was trying too hard. I would dress I would be articulate. I'm a pretty . . . I can do my thing, I can get in there. I can shake my tail feather, and I can . . . hey, whatever. Don't take job advice from me, because I am the worst person to take job advice from, because I've never had a full-time job in my entire life. So, I had to hustle. [05:02.2]
I remember getting turned away from entry-level customer support roles, but then again, I can't blame them there, so good job for rejecting me. I mean, can you imagine me doing customer service? I’d probably be like, Did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in, moron? So, good move on their parts for not hiring me for those roles. But other roles I should have gotten. At least, that's how I feel.
Now, I have had various part-time jobs and gigs over the years—I worked at a clothing store. I worked at a shoe store. I worked at a casino, which was a ton of fun, and I have a lot of crazy stories from those days—but never a full-time job, and I don't want to get all metaphysical on you, but I believe that we become what we think about.
My entire childhood, I thought about being financially free because I grew up in poverty. We barely had any money. I remember one Christmas, I didn't get anything except a paper shredder. That is a 100% true story. The only thing I got that Christmas was a paper shredder. I don't even know where it came from. I don't know really anything about it. I obviously don't think I asked for a paper shredder. [06:09.4]
I'm sharing that with you because you probably didn't come up with such a rough background. I've got so many different things I could tell you about growing up in such a-- I mean, I had a loving family and had awesome people in my family, but we just did not have money, right? Chances are you grew up in a middle class family, because that's what the average is, and you had both parents in the home. I didn't, at least not for very long. I had awesome aunts and uncles and grandparents who helped out, but I did not have both parents in the home. So, if you did and you had a middle-class background, then you have far more than I did.
Anyway, I used to dream about being financially independent, so it felt like an unseen hand was pushing me away from these full-time jobs, because deep down, I knew I couldn't achieve the financial freedom I wanted working a job. I understood if I only made $50,000 per year, then I would have living expenses and a car and health-related costs and student loan debt to repay, and all of the stuff. By the time I could save and invest, even if I was cutting everything down to the bone, it would take decades. [07:09.3]
Then, even if I had a high savings rate, if you have a high savings rate, but you're not making that much money, you're not going to end up with a ton of money. It's just math. I didn't want to be financially free in my 60s and 70s. I really wanted financial freedom in my 30s and my 40s, so I feel like my unconscious mind was steering me in the direction of entrepreneurship. Again, don't want to get metaphysical, but I do believe that we become what we think about, and just a lot of strange things have happened in my life that have pushed me to where I am today.
What did I end up doing? I did what anybody would do I think. Just kidding, nobody would really do this, this is so dumb, but it worked out for me. I started a cleaning company. My friend, I was scrubbing toilets at 1:00 a.m. I was in some random office with my face right next to where people take dumps. Who knows what happened in those bathrooms? These people would eat Chipotle and just blow it up, and it was my job to clean it. [08:06.7]
Does that sound glamorous to you? No? Good, because it wasn't. But I got paid, and I was making more money per hour than any of the jobs I applied for, right? That was an awesome feeling. I was on top of the world when I figured that out, when I realized I realized I was making more money per hour. I was making more money than the person who would have hired me. I was making more money than the boss' boss. I spent years building this business and using my marketing skills to grow it, and this is just one of the things I was doing, by the way.
Along the way, I obviously started the advisor coach, because advisors wanted to learn my marketing skills, too. I kept it very small in the beginning. I would go from referral to referral because advisors would basically be like, Wow, this James guy is really freaking good at marketing. You should hire him. You should talk to him. Then the next advisor be like, Wow, you should go talk to so-and-so. You should help this person. That is what happened. [08:54.6]
At the beginning, with my cleaning company, I was still working part-time jobs. There were times where I would work a shift from like 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and then leave to go straight to a cleaning job, because we would do afterhours cleaning, and I might not get home until two or three, or sometimes even four o'clock in the morning, just to go to sleep and do it all over again the next day. There was no free time. I worked. I didn't have time to go out and blow money. I had to save money because that was my circumstance. I didn't really do anything.
This period of time in my life was one of the best periods, but it was also one of the worst periods because it practically ruined my health, which brings me to the second reason. This is the second reason I'm able to work 10 hours per week. Logistically, one of the reasons I'm working so few hours is because I'm spending a lot more time focused on my health this year.
Growing up, I was not the healthiest guy, let's just put it that way. I don't want to get into it, but you were probably healthier than I was. So, yes, that's another “if I could do it, then so can you.” But back to my story. One of my part-time jobs was at the casino and one of the perks I got while working there was a free buffet credit every day, meaning, I could go to the casino buffet and eat anything I wanted. [10:10.2]
That sounds pretty awesome, right? Actually, not everything I wanted. They would have certain things like prime rib or crab legs or lobster tail, and you couldn't have that. The peasants who worked there could not have the fancy food, but you got everything else except for the prime No. 1 entrée that they were offering that night, okay? But I could have anything else. I did and I ate a little too much of it, and I got fat.
To make matters worse, I sometimes didn't remember I didn't go home between shifts and cleaning, so the only options available to me were fast food, because even if I packed my food, I didn't really have a place to store it, because there were so many people in the casino. My little lunch, if I bought a lunch bag that was insulated, it didn't keep it cold long enough, the food would get bad, and I didn't have a place to put it in the fridge, so fast food was really my only option. [10:57.8]
I'm not trying to say that and then have people think, Oh, you could have done this. No, you could have done that. Trust me, I've thought about packing my lunch or I thought about packing my dinner. I thought about meal prep. I've done all of the things, right? I'm telling you, the real only thing available at that time was fast food, especially that late at night, okay? Where am I going to go at 1:00 a.m.? Taco Bell, the 24-hour McDonald's that we used to have that we don't have anymore. Look at what they took from us.
So, I was pounding down casino buffet food and fast food almost every single day. That is not good, not even from a getting fat perspective, a gaining weight, a caloric surplus. But think about the blood pressure. Think about the heart health and the diabetes and all the things that come with that. I did that for years. So, if I could go back in time, I think I would tell myself to do whatever it takes to go a little bit easier on the food. Don't eat as much. Just be very cognizant of what you put into your body. I was never on my deathbed or anything like that, but it just was not a good idea. [11:57.2]
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On the other end, I was never shredded or anything even throughout my entire life. My entire family is kind of built and stocky. We don't really have washboard abs. None of us are lean. We're just built. I don't really know another way to describe it. We're wider. We're thicker. It's not really fat. I mean, yes, I have fat people in my family, but I also have people who are relatively lean. But I started to pack on the pounds when I was eating this fast food and casino food, and that wasn't good.
I started focusing more on my health around 2017. That's when I started turning things around. I primarily focused on eating better and getting better sleep. Those were the two things I went hard on. I did that all the way until the beginning of this year, and I went absolutely crazy with my health, starting in January 2025. I increased my exercise. I increased my sleep quality, I mean, the little that I could do. I was already pretty dialed in. I increased my supplementation. I got blood work. I figured out what was going on with my biomarkers. I did my red-light therapy. I did my skincare, everything, and it's working. If I look at pictures of my face today compared to pictures from even a few years ago, I look so much better. My biomarkers are so much better. [14:08.0]
Here's something crazy. One of the health metrics that I track because it's a predictor of longevity and overall health, and if you can increase this number, then it lowers your mortality risk, the number is heart-rate variability. My heart-rate variability is in the top 1%. I am in the elite athlete level for heart-rate variability despite not being an elite athlete. The reason that's so wild to me is because I've never really done much cardio, at least not in my adult life.
The thing that takes up the most time is easily the exercise. On average, I work at about six hours per week. That doesn't mean I'm going hard that entire time, because I do one-minute rest periods for many lifts. I do three minutes for the big ones. But exercise has a lot of stuff that comes with it, driving to the gym, driving back, getting a shower, setting up, getting ready, it just takes a bunch of time, and I've mentioned a few times on the show that I've been training my grip, too. [15:01.2]
It is so hard to have a good grip, literally, a literally a good grip with your hands, because it's neural, it's not muscular. It's really a strength-based thing and it's so slow because your hands can only do so much. But just today, I got a brand new grip implement called the Little Big Horn and it's meant to mimic the horn of an anvil, a blacksmith's anvil. That stuff is hard. Most blacksmith anvils weigh between 100–200 lbs., and grabbing it by the end like that is no easy task. But it is fun for me, I like doing it, I enjoy it, but goodness gracious, does it take a ton of time.
My point here, I know I'm rambling a bit, but just trust this, I prioritized my health, which means I also prioritized fewer working hours. We only have 24 hours in the day. Some stuff just takes time. I'll give you a few examples. First, I'm working on a stretching and mobility program right now. I am so inflexible, it's hard to believe, but I'm changing that. [16:00.6]
The most optimal time spent stretching is 10 minutes per body part per week. That's just what it is. It is the science. If I'm interested in getting more flexible hamstrings, quads and calves, for example, that's 30 minutes a week right there. If I had three more body parts, that's 60 minutes a week right there just with the stretches. You have to do those things. You have to actually put in the time if you want optimal results. There is no way around it. There is no way to make it more efficient. You just have to put in the time.
I also do one-minute rest periods between isolation exercises. The rest period is going to be the same for every exercise I do. The physiology is going to be the same for me, for Elon Musk, for the homeless person on the street, my mother, my everyone, right? It's going to be the same. I cannot change my physiology or human biology. There is no software I can buy. There is no virtual assistant I can hire. I have no choice but to just do it and eat the time cost. [16:55.5]
Moving on, No. 3, another thing I did so I only have to work 10 hours per week is my time-tracking. I mentioned this earlier, but I want to stress it again. The reason my time-tracking has been so critical is because I can do a forensic analysis of what I did and how long it took. If I can go back and look at a report and see that I worked 14 hours a week, but one hour wasn't even necessary, I could just get rid of it. Then I can cut something else, and I cut something else, and I become a little bit more little bit more efficient here and so on, and that's how it works.
I wouldn't have made as much progress if I did not have a tracking system in place. Time-tracking is one of the most important things you can do if you want to become more productive, because you need to know where your time is going. You need to have a long-term, unbiased, accurate view of what you're doing so you can make changes that move the needle in your life and in your business.
No. 4: I have built systems in my business. I talk about this all the time on the show, so I won't belabor it here, but email marketing is a system. Online advertising is a system. Direct mail is a system. All of those things work for me either largely or completely independently of my time. [18:01.8]
I recently sent out another 5,000 direct mail pieces. It took me maybe 10 minutes to do it. That is a system. If you're a financial advisor in the United States, there is a very high probability you have received a piece of mail from me. That's pretty cool feeling. It's awesome knowing I could walk into a room of financial advisors anywhere in America and know that it is a statistical certainty that at least one has either seen me online or has received something from me in the mail. That is awesome. I love that. Now, of course, it took time to build these systems. But if you build the systems, then once they're built, they don't take that much effort.
Think like an investor. How much time does it take to invest a million dollars? A long time, right? I mean, maybe a couple years. If you're earning a ton of money, maybe shorter than that, it could take decades, but the time is going to pass anyway, and once you have that money invested, then you can just collect the dividends. A little bit of dividends, they come while you're building and while you're building, and then once you're there, you’ve got the money. That is how systems work. The dividends grow as long as you're willing to do the work and build them. [19:08.7]
Finally, No. 5, I have trained myself to be a sprinter, not a marathon runner. Most people approach their work like they're training for a marathon. Just to clarify, I think your business, your goals, your progress, all that, I think that should be a marathon. I think you should keep your eye on the ball for decades, not just a few months or a few weeks. I think you should think long term, right? But when it comes to the nitty-gritty, actually doing the work, and using your mind and your body and your energy and pouring that into your business, you should be a sprinter.
People think like marathon runners when they drag tasks out. They multitask. They check email 25 times a day. They think, Oh, I've got to get this done and I get this done, so they stretch a 90-minute task into six hours. That is a broken way of thinking, because here's the thing—you can't just stretch these tasks out. If time is a finite resource, then it's foolish for you to take longer than necessary. Just because you can take all day doesn't mean you should. [20:09.7]
I treat my working hours like a sprint. If I sit down to write an email, that is all I am doing. I don't have any distractions, no phone, no checking stats, no just quickly browsing social media, none of that. I have trained myself to be 100% locked in for short bursts of time. That is the key. When I record a podcast, I sit down, I record. I don't mess around with setup for an hour. I don't rehearse 20 times trying to make it perfect. I get it done. When I write a newsletter issue, I give myself a strict block of time. I sprint, I get in, I get out.
Not to go off on a tangent, but that actually has been far more successful for financial advisors, because they want the information. They want something applicable. They want something that they can implement in their business right away, and it's easier for me to give them that being a sprinter than being a marathon runner, because if I'm a marathon runner, I give them something super deep and philosophical and absolutely earth-shattering, and quite frankly, it can be overwhelming for a lot of people. So, with the newsletter, with the Inner Circle, me being a sprinter actually is better for financial advisors. [21:13.8]
Anyway, this approach forces me to focus. There's a huge difference between being busy and being productive and being effective. You've probably heard the quote, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” That's Parkinson's law and I fight it by giving myself less time on purpose. If I told myself I had to work 40 hours per week, I'd fill it with nonsense. But if I tell myself I only have 10 hours, I start cutting the fluff. I eliminate, I delegate. I ask myself, “Does this really move the needle?” and if the answer is no, it goes. It goes bye-bye. I say, “Adios, thing.” I'm not going to do it anymore.
This sprinter mindset helps me a ton. I don't create content every day. I might sit down for two hours, knock out a bunch of content at once, then I'm done for the week or the month, and that's really cool. I do the same thing with email marketing. I do the same thing with ads. I do the same thing with newsletter prep, you name it. It is a sprint, rest, sprint, rest—that is the cadence. [22:11.4]
So, there you have it. We're going to wrap this episode up. Those are five things I do to work just 10 hours per week. Remember, this is not theory. This is not some productivity hack I found on a blog or something I read in a book and decided to try. This is real life. These are the exact things I have done and am doing to create a business and lifestyle that I love. I'm not saying you should aim to do this. I'm not saying that you should do any of this. I'm not saying you should do anything I ever recommend on this podcast. That's not the point. The point is to build your life the way you want it.
Work backwards from the life you actually want and make decisions accordingly. That's what I did, and if it sounds like something you want, just know that's possible, but you've got to be willing to figure out what works for you and what you want and how you're going to get there. [22:56.5]
Most importantly, you have to take ownership. That's what it is. Nobody's coming to save you. Nobody is going to hand you your financial freedom on a silver platter. If you want more time, you want more income, more peace, more whatever, it is on you. The good news is, if I can do it, someone who literally couldn't get hired for entry level jobs, the biggest loser you've likely ever met in your entire life, you can do it, too. You just have to want it badly enough.
Thank you for listening. If you got some insight from this episode, share it with another financial advisor who needs to hear it. If you haven't already, go to TheAdvisorCoach.com, check out the stuff I've got there for you—and I will catch you next week. [23:35.1]
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