Distracted Coach Creates Accountability Software

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

What's up, my friends? Welcome to a brand new week. I'm so excited. Lots of fun stuff is in the mix, including the relaunch of The Side of Soul Society. This has been long in the works, something like nine months, I believe, and I'm really excited to share that with you very soon.

But hey, this is the episode. This is the regular episode. So let's talk about overcoming distractions. Do you ever find yourself unfocused or unable to complete the things you need done? Well, join the club.

I have struggled with procrastination for a long time. I was finally gonna do something about it today, but then I decided, well, I'll just put it off until tomorrow, like there's time, right? Okay, but seriously, I have previously mentioned on the show a couple of things I do to stay on track. Most of my solutions are self-managed. I tend to use timers and work from a task list so I don't get too distracted.

But what if you need some kind of outer accountability to stay productive and avoid distractions? That's what our story is about today, a distracted executive coach who creates accountability software. Recognizing his own need for accountability, this coach develops a tool to allow those who work alone to overcome procrastination. It's a really fun tool and resource. I had not seen it myself before, and I think it's gonna help a lot of people.

So stay tuned for that story. [Music]

After becoming a remote worker, Taylor Jacobson went from being a star performer for his employer to almost getting fired due to his inability to focus. What's a remote worker to do when they struggle with holding themselves accountable? Well, enter FocusMate, productivity software for people who work alone. Taylor calls his product virtual co-working.

He defines it as enabling two people who work anywhere in the world to pair up as accountability partners. These partners work side-by-side, virtually, while working on their respective projects. Taylor came up with the idea while working with one of his coaching clients. Prior to creating FocusMate, he spent several years working as an executive coach, with clients like Yale and Cornell University. One day, Taylor and a client decided to experiment.

They got on Skype together for a couple of hours, keeping the video on while they worked. They messaged each other with each task they were working on. Taylor was writing a blog post. His client was making a presentation. He said it worked insanely well.

Neither had ever felt so productive. That experience gave him the idea for FocusMate, and he immediately got to work making it happen. The idea was if someone wants to work virtually with an accountability partner, all they need to do is schedule work time in 50-minute blocks based on availability. Startup costs for FocusMates were approximately several thousand dollars. Taylor and his team of two are still working on price points.

They earn what Taylor calls 100% donation-based revenue. As part of that, they have an investment campaign where users can pay now to invest in the service in exchange for a future discount. So far, they've raised $88,000 from that campaign. For various donation price points, contributors receive subscriptions and credits for friends. They're currently averaging 400 users per week.

One common theme they hear is how the tool has not only helped them significantly increase productivity, but also decreased anxiety or guilt. Because people are getting more work done, they no longer feel guilty or worry about uncompleted tasks during their downtime. One user said in three months' time of using the service, they've been able to complete projects they had put off for over a year. Taylor now works on FocusMate with the hopes of making it his full-time work. However, he did retain his biggest executive coaching client, which is paying his bills as he grows the hustle.

All right, so he is all about staying focused, being productive, and being accountable in that productivity. So we ask him for some of his top tips for staying on task while working remotely. And here's what he said. Number one, optimize your workspace. Make it a place you want to spend time in.

If you feel happy in that space, you'll be empowered by it. Remote workers have the advantage of being able to customize their workspaces. So if that's your situation, you should maximize that tool. Number two, create a clear separation of workspace and non-workspace. Mental conditioning is powerful, including our environment.

So use that to your advantage. And three, find ways to create structure, accountability, and human contact. When you're not working in an office with regular hours and colleagues, this leaves a big gap in those areas. So you'll want to be intentional about eliminating those gaps. Again, structure, accountability, and human contact, which is exactly what he's trying to address with his tool FocusMate.

Speaking of being intentional, Taylor and his team's focus for 2019 is to turn FocusMate into a sustainable business. He's staying on track with this goal, working productively to make it happen without distractions. [Music]

Okay, so I wanted to do a little website critique of this project as I tend to do from time to time. I really think it's such a great idea. And obviously he's helping hundreds of people already, presumably many more to come.

So well done, Taylor. And three things I liked about the website, first of all, really clear structure for how it works. If you go take a look at FocusMate.com, which of course we will link up in the show notes, you kind of understand right away what it's about. So there's not a lot there to really distract you, which of course is good, because that's kind of the key promise of the whole tool to help you work without distractions. Now second, I also liked on the about page, he basically said, if you've got any questions or comments, feedback, email me personally.

And here's my email address. I like that touch. Also a photo of him, which is cool. So it creates this whole like relatable structure with the tool. The tool is gonna help you.

And here's the person who made it. And the third thing I liked was he has some really specific statistics to kind of back up his claim. So a lot of businesses, they have really generic claims. Hey, this tool is gonna help you. Or this tool is gonna help you be more productive.

Well, that's great, but is it really? This tool is gonna help you be more focused. Okay, but how? And how has it worked for other people? What are the measurable results?

And so he shows that 51% of tested users have converted to paying customers. And active users are booking 11 50-minute appointments each week. Now, why does that matter? Basically it shows that the tool is really working for the people who try it. Like there's a really high buy-in rate there.

So it doesn't mean it's gonna work for everybody, but it does show that this is a proven solution for a lot of people. And so if you're in that situation, the odds of you being able to benefit from it are pretty decent, at least 50/50. Now in the spirit of constructive critique, just one thing that I wondered about, so several things I liked, only one thing that I wondered about a bit, was this service requires you to use your webcam. And basically like, have the video turned on and the other person can kind of see you there. And I think for some people, that creates an immediate resistance or an objection, or just kind of a block.

And so on the website, it says, it's got the tips of how to use it. It says, be present and active, keep your webcam turned on the entire session, use chat to share your progress on tasks during your session and acknowledge your partner's progress too. To me, just as like a social engineering thing, I wonder if there's something they could do to provide some reassurance to anybody who might be concerned by that. Personally, when I think, oh, could I use some help with accountability and productivity? Yes.

Do I want somebody watching me on video the whole time? Will I work? No, I really don't. So that was just my impression. Overall, very positive impression.

Just that one thing I kind of wondered about. So not telling him how to run his business because obviously he's doing really well. And we wish him every success here from Side Hustle School. Hopefully some of our listeners can go and check it out. And hey listeners, hope you enjoyed this episode.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. It's my goal to encourage you each step along the way, especially with this new year, as we start new projects, as we work to kind of get closer to the goals that we believe in. And anything we can do to work intentionally, to focus and to proceed without distractions, well, that can only help get us closer to those goals. Okay, our show notes for today's episode are at sidehustleschool.com/751. That is for episode 751.

I hope you'll join me again tomorrow and all this week with a bunch of fun stuff that we are rolling out. I'm so excited to be able to do this for you. Much more is on the way. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School. [Music]