The First Ten Hours: How to Buy Back Your Time (Without Burning Down Your Business)

Most business owners start a company chasing freedom.

And then—almost immediately—they trade a 9–5 for the “privilege” of working 24/7, carrying more stress, more risk, and a calendar that feels like it’s owned by everyone except them.

That’s not freedom. That’s a trap with a logo.

In one of my LIVE365 morning sessions (I go live every day at 8:00 AM Eastern on Facebook), I talked about a concept that hits entrepreneurs—especially contractors—right between the eyes:

Your first ten hours.

Not ten hours someday. Not ten hours when things slow down.
Ten hours back, starting now.

Because once you reclaim time, you don’t just “feel” better… you get your life back.

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Freedom Isn’t a Feeling. It’s the Hours You Control.

Let’s start by clearing up a lie that keeps people stuck.

A lot of owners talk about freedom like it’s a future destination:

• “Once we finish this project…”

• “Once we hire a couple more guys…”

• “Once we hit the next revenue number…”

But here’s the truth:

Freedom isn’t margin.
Freedom isn’t revenue.
Freedom is the hours you can control.

If you don’t control your hours, you don’t control your life. Everybody else does.

And I’ve lived that. When everything runs through you—every decision, every fire, every client issue, every approval—you don’t have a business.

You have a bottleneck.

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The Four Lies That Keep You Chained to the Business

When owners tell me they “can’t” buy back time, it usually comes wrapped in one of these phrases:

1. “I’m too busy to change.”

2. “That’ll slow us down.”

3. “No one else can do it.” (Translation: no one else can do it like I can.)

4. “Now’s not the time.” (Winter. Summer. After this job. After the next job…)

Those aren’t reasons.

They’re chains.

And the longer you wear them, the heavier they get.

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Step One: Find the Leaks

Time doesn’t disappear. It leaks.

And most leaks fall into three buckets:

1) Repeating Tasks

The same admin stuff. The same back-and-forth. The same busywork you shouldn’t be doing.

2) Repeating Problems

The same preventable chaos, because nobody took the time to build the system.

3) Repeating Decisions

You’re deciding the same thing over and over because there’s no standard—no SOP, no rule, no delegated owner.

If you’re constantly solving the same issues, that’s not leadership.

That’s you living inside a loop.

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Step Two: Plug the Leaks (Four Options)

Once you see the leak, you don’t need a motivational quote. You need a move.

Here are the only four ways to plug it:

1) Delegate

Assign it to someone who can own it.

2) Systematize

Create an SOP so it runs the same way every time.

3) Schedule

Put it in the right place with boundaries—stop letting everything interrupt everything else.

4) Eliminate

Some things don’t need to be done at all.

And here’s a key line:

Make tasks “audition” to get on your calendar.
If it’s not worthy, it doesn’t get on.

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Why Buying Back One Hour Feels Better Than a Big Check

This part surprises people.

When you buy back your first hour, it hits different than making money.

Because money is renewable.

Time isn’t.

You can always sell another job.
You can always make another dollar.

But no one is making more hours.

That first hour you reclaim is you breathing again. It’s you remembering what it feels like to not be pinned under the business.

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Don’t Buy Back Time to Do Nothing—Buy It Back to Do What Matters

Buying back your time isn’t about sitting on the couch.

It’s about redeploying your hours into what actually moves the needle:

• Better leadership

• Better health

• Better marriage and family time

• Better planning and thinking

• Better growth (personal and professional)

Buying back time is about doing what matters.

Not doing more.

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The “First Ten Hours” Breakdown

Ten hours per week doesn’t sound crazy until you do the math.

10 hours/week = 520 hours/year.

That’s not a productivity hack.

That’s essentially giving yourself months back every year.

Here’s how to find those ten hours without nuking your business:

2 Hours: Admin You’re Still Doing

Invoices, scheduling, reminders, uploading, organizing—stuff that isn’t owner-level work.

2 Hours: Phone Calls Someone Else Can Handle

Not the CEO calls. The routine calls. The “someone else can clean this up” calls.

2 Hours: Chaos That Gets Fixed With Systems

Every time you “just handle it,” you guarantee you’ll handle it again.

2 Hours: Firefighting That Goes Away With Structure

Most fires are just symptoms of no standards.

2 Hours: Low-Value Work You Shouldn’t Touch

The stuff you do “because it’s faster if I do it.”

That’s the trap.

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The Simple Filter That Will Change Your Life

Ask yourself this question:

“Does this really affect my life?”

If the answer is no…

Let it go.

Some of you need that on a sticky note.

Because you’re carrying things that don’t deserve to be carried—just because you’ve always carried them.

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“Who Not How” in Real Life

Here’s what this looks like in the real world:

• A VA takes over repeatable admin and content tasks.

• Someone else owns the podcast process from “record” to “published.”

• Groceries get delivered instead of you burning an hour and your sanity in the store.

• A cleaner handles the house so your weekends don’t disappear into “maintenance mode.”

If you can pay someone less than your effective hourly value to do a task…

Unload it.

Not because you’re above it.

Because your time has a better use.

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Start Smaller If You Need To

Maybe you’re reading this thinking:

“Bob, ten hours sounds awesome… but I can’t get ten.”

Cool.

Go get one.

Where can you find one hour this week?

• One task delegated

• One decision standardized

• One meeting eliminated

• One process documented

• One boundary enforced

Momentum doesn’t start with ten.

It starts with one.

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Two Books That Will Drive This Home (Over and Over)

If this message hits you—and you can feel that pull to reclaim your time—there are two books I recommend that will absolutely reinforce the point and keep you sharp as you grow:

1. Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
   This book forces a mindset shift that most owners never make: stop asking “How do I do this?” and start asking “Who can help me get this done?” That one change alone will begin to break the bottleneck cycle and create real leverage.

2. Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
   This is a straight-up playbook for treating time like the asset it is. The core reminder is simple: if you want to grow and scale, you have to stop trying to do everything alone—and start deliberately buying back your hours with the right people, systems, and boundaries.

Honestly, I feel like these are the kind of books you could read a couple times per year—because the lesson is never “learned once.” As the business grows, the demands grow. And you’ll constantly be challenged to go back to the same question:

Am I trying to figure out “how” again… or am I finding the right “who”?

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Your Challenge

This week, don’t aim for perfection.

Aim for progress.

1. Identify one time leak.

2. Pick one way to plug it (delegate, systematize, schedule, eliminate).

3. Redeploy that hour into something that actually matters.

And if you want to keep going deeper into topics like this, come hang with me on LIVE365.

I’m live every day at 8:00 AM Eastern on Facebook, talking leadership, business, sales, discipline, and how to build a company that supports your life—not consumes it.

 

The Discipline Stack: How Real Momentum Is Built (One Rep at a Time)

Nobody loses their edge overnight.
They lose it one small excuse at a time.

And here’s the flip side most people miss:

The same way you lose your edge is how you build it — one rep at a time.

This is Day 3 of the Mental Toughness for Owners series, and today we’re talking about something that quietly separates high performers from everyone else:

The Discipline Stack.

Not motivation.
Not hype.
Not big, dramatic moves.

But small actions, stacked relentlessly.

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Big Results Don’t Come From Big Moves

Most people chase the highlight win:

• The big contract

• The breakthrough month

• The sudden surge of momentum

But the truth is simple:

Big results aren’t built by big moves. They’re built by small actions stacked relentlessly.

Discipline compounds faster than talent.
Consistency beats intensity — every single time.

Anyone can get fired up and run through a wall once.
Real winners are the ones who show up and tap the wall every day.

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Endurance Training Taught Me This the Hard Way

You don’t train for an endurance event by doing 100 miles in one day.

You train by:

• Running 6–10 miles

• Doing repeats

• Hitting hills

• Showing up again tomorrow

Great weeks stack into great months.
Great months stack into great years.

Business works the exact same way.

Your life is just a scoreboard of what you do most.

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Where Discipline Actually Breaks

Discipline doesn’t usually fail during the big moments.

It breaks in quiet ones.

Here are the three most common fracture points:

1. When nobody is watching

2. When you’re tired

3. When you don’t feel like it

Those moments feel small — but they’re decisive.

They are the micro-decisions that shape who you become.

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The Discipline Stack: Your Ladder to Momentum

This is where everything comes together.

You don’t need 10 new habits.
You need three, stacked correctly.

STEP 1: The Foundation

One habit you must protect daily. No negotiation.

Examples:

• Workout

• Sales call

• Morning huddle

• Quiet planning hour

This is the habit you do even when no one is watching.

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STEP 2: The Protector

The habit that ensures the foundation actually happens.

Examples:

• Laying clothes out the night before

• Blocking your calendar

• Packing your gym bag

• Accountability texts

If the foundation fails, it’s usually because the protector wasn’t in place.

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STEP 3: The Multiplier

The habit that compounds everything else.

Examples:

• Reading

• Journaling

• Planning tomorrow today

This is where momentum accelerates.
Now you’re not just disciplined — you’re scaling discipline.

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The 7-Day Discipline Stack Challenge

Here’s the challenge:

1. Pick your Foundation

2. Protect it

3. Multiply it

4. Do it for seven straight days

And understand this:

One week from now, you won’t be different — you’ll be dangerous.

Because you’ll know what it feels like to operate at a higher standard — and it becomes harder to tolerate anything less.

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Final Thought

Discipline isn’t who you are.

Discipline is who you prove you are — every single day.

Stack the reps.
Protect the basics.
Let momentum do the heavy lifting.

And remember:
Nobody builds an edge overnight — but anyone can build it one day at a time.

 

Stop Babysitting Adults: Build Leaders, Build Standards, Build a Culture That Wins

It was five below zero up in Island Falls, Maine when I hit record for this LIVE365.

And as much as the weather can punch you in the mouth up here, it actually sets the stage for a leadership truth that a lot of business owners need to hear:

When it’s cold, you don’t complain about the cold.
You adjust the gear.
You get the right layers, the right boots, the right plan—because the conditions don’t care how you feel.

Leadership is the same way.

If your team feels like a mess… if your day feels like chaos… if you spend your life putting out fires…

It’s not because your people are broken.

It’s because your leadership model needs upgrading.

When Leadership Turns Into Adult Daycare

I used to joke that I ran an “adult daycare.”

And if we’re being honest, there are plenty of days where business owners still feel exactly like that:

• Constant reminders

• Constant follow-ups

• Constant fixing things that “shouldn’t” need fixing

• Constant emotional babysitting

• Constant rescuing

But here’s the hard truth:

If your day feels like adult daycare, it’s not a “them problem.”
It’s a leadership problem.

And before you get defensive—good. That’s the point.

Because the moment you stop blaming your team and start looking in the mirror, everything can change.

The Difference Between Babysitting and Leading

Babysitting is emotional.
Leading is structured.

Babysitting sounds like:

• “Don’t forget to do that.”

• “I need you to be more careful.”

• “Come on, man… we’ve talked about this.”

• “Just give it to me. I’ll do it myself.”

Leading sounds like:

• “Here is the standard.”

• “Here is what good looks like.”

• “Here is how we measure it.”

• “Here’s when we review it.”

• “Here’s what happens when we hit it—or miss it.”

When you babysit, you’re reminding people.
When you lead, you’re measuring performance.

When you babysit, you’re fixing mistakes.
When you lead, you’re teaching standards.

When you babysit, you absorb everyone’s stress.
When you lead, you transfer ownership and hold accountability.

When you babysit, you’re constantly rescuing.
When you lead, you’re developing people.

And here’s the line that matters most:

Every time you save someone from accountability, you steal their growth.

Read that again.

If you keep stepping in, covering mistakes, smoothing problems over, and shielding people from consequences… you’re not being a good leader.

You’re training dependence.

The 4-Step Burnout Loop That Destroys Leaders (and Culture)

Here’s how good leaders burn out and cultures rot from the inside out:

1. You remind
   “Hey—don’t forget to do that.”

2. They repeat the mistake
   Same issue. Same excuse. Different day.

3. You get frustrated
   Now you’re irritated, short, and carrying resentment.

4. You take the work back
   “Just give it to me. I’ll do it myself.”

And the worst part?

That loop feels “productive” in the short term… because the work gets done.

But long term, it creates:

• A team that waits to be told

• A culture that avoids ownership

• A leader who’s buried, bitter, and exhausted

• A business that can’t scale because the owner is the system

So the question isn’t whether your team is capable.

The question is whether you’re willing to stop enabling dependence.

The Shift: Build Leaders With Structure, Not Emotion

If you want to stop babysitting and start building leaders, you need four things:

1) Expectations in writing

No guessing. No assumptions. No “they should know.”

Write it down. Make it clear. Have them sign off if needed.

2) Metrics, not emotions

Not: “That really pissed me off.”
Instead: “Here’s the standard. Here’s where you are. Let’s close the gap.”

Metrics remove drama. They create clarity.

3) A review rhythm

Weekly check-ins. Monthly reviews. Scorecards. Whatever fits your operation.

But it can’t be random.
It can’t be “when you remember.”
It has to be a rhythm.

4) Clear consequences (and rewards)

Consequences aren’t mean. They’re leadership.

And don’t miss this part:

Reward the behavior you want more of.

If someone is stepping up, improving, taking ownership—call it out. Reinforce it. Build momentum.

Because culture isn’t what you say once.
Culture is what you inspect and reinforce over time.

Adults Don’t Need Motivation—They Need Clarity

Most people aren’t lazy.
They’re unclear.

They don’t know exactly what winning looks like.
They don’t know how performance is measured.
They don’t know what happens if they don’t deliver.

So they drift.

And when they drift, you get frustrated.

But your frustration doesn’t fix the problem.

Clarity does.

The Leadership Challenge

Here’s your takeaway assignment—simple, but not easy:

Pick one person or one role you’ve been babysitting.

Then answer these three questions:

1. What expectation do I have that isn’t written down?

2. What metric isn’t tracked?

3. What consequence isn’t enforced?

That’s it.

Those three questions will expose exactly why you keep carrying what other people should own.

And if you want to start clean in the new year, here’s a powerful rule Wendy says to me all the time:

“If you haven’t given someone an expectation and told them what to do, adjust your expectation to zero.”

That one stings… because it’s true.

Final Thought

Leading people is work.

It requires you to get uncomfortable.
It requires hard conversations.
It requires standards and structure.

But the payoff is everything you want:

• A team that owns outcomes

• A culture that holds the line

• A business that grows without crushing you

• And a life where you’re not carrying the whole thing on your back

And remember—just like the winter up here in Maine…

There’s no such thing as bad conditions.

Only an outdated system.

Upgrade the system, and you upgrade the outcome.