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Will Hatton: How To Remove Distraction And Build A Lifestyle Shaped Around Your Biggest Goals
10 years ago Will Hatton founded The Broke Backpacker, an online resource for budget travel, and has since grown it into a 7 figure business. More recently he’s opened the first custom built co-working hostel in Bali – Tribal.
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Lessons From the Last 10 Years
Can you give me a rundown of your story - you mentioned that you'd grown The Broke Backpacker into a massive affiliate for Hostelworld?
Yeah man. So The Broke Backpacker has been going for about 10 years now, a decade in January.
We do a lot in the accommodation space, the gear space, and tours as well. Before COVID, we were at about 1.5 million users a month, which is crazy. When it hit we fell to 200,000 users, and the amount of revenue that we were making from that 200,000 was less than it should have been, because people were just not buying stuff.
We’ve had this slow climb back, and now we are, as far as I know, Hostelworld’s biggest affiliate. I’ve been working with Hostelworld for a long time – I know the guys personally, and I really like what they’re doing. Being a large affiliate for Hostelworld has definitely given us an inside scoop into what people are looking for – where they’re booking properties, and what kind of properties they’re booking.
As I’ve had my own travels, I’ve been looking for the kind of hostel that I’ve now built, and been unable to find it. So I came to the conclusion that there’s a massive gap in the market, which was also what all the data from our Hostelworld bookings was telling us. So we took that, and we were able to use it to guide our project in Bali. We built Tribal, a custom-designed coworking hostel, the first on the island.
It’s also interesting to see the different booking trends around the world, where people are going, where the digital nomad hotspots are at the moment. That’s given us some ideas for how we can continue to move forwards – expanding Tribal has become my main focus over the last year.
There’s so much opportunity here, and it’s just something that I’m incredibly passionate about – actually providing this physical space that has everything that these aspiring entrepreneurs need. So yeah man, it’s been a journey.
How has The Broke Backpacker changed since you started it?
I think the transition has been going from pure adventure backpacking, to offering the option of adventure without always sleeping in a tent, because you start to build an online income.
Look dude, you’ve been doing this for a while now, you know that success is not overnight. It takes a lot of work, and it’s a risk, but the rewards are huge, right? So I’m passionate about creating more content around that now, but trying to be real, and not be someone saying, “You can work on a laptop four hours a week on a beach with a cocktail, and you’re gonna make millions of dollars,” because it just isn’t true.
But that’s not far from the message that a lot of people are putting out. So, I’m trying to be a voice that promotes entrepreneurship but is also real, you know?
On the technical side of things, I’ve been running a bunch of experiments to figure out things like chatGPT and TikTok. I’ll test something like – if we put a post from chatGPT through another AI to rewrite it, can Google spot that? I’ll run these on test sites – not on The Broke Backpacker because it’s a real site and a real brand.
I strongly suspect that at some point, there’ll be a Google algorithm update that penalizes all sites using chatGPT. Even though you can use it to write a blog post, chuck it through an AI detector and have it come back 100% human, I guarantee that Google’s AI detector is significantly more powerful.
It’s very good for reducing the load of critical thinking though. I’m a fast copywriter, I enjoy it and like to do all my own copywriting, but if you were to ask me to think of 20 reasons to visit Germany, I could probably only think of 10 off the top of my head. But chatGPT could spit out as many as you want. You’d probably have to reword all of them, but it’s great for giving you extra ideas.
So I spend a lot of time researching, testing, and experimenting in the online space, so that I can stay current and offer relevant words of wisdom.
How do you balance using social media for your business, without getting sucked into the vortex?
It’s really hard, man. I’ve got friends who are spending like eight, nine, ten hours a day on TikTok. That’s what’s really dangerous about being an online entrepreneur, or an influencer on social media. You no longer have that line between using it for work or fun.
As social media is designed to be addictive, if you can justify to yourself that you’re on it for work, I feel like you’re screwed.
I was actually pretty successful on Snapchat back in the day, but I stopped doing that about six years ago because it was playing havoc with my mental health. I had lots of attractive young ladies reaching out to me, it was super addictive. You end up bonding with your phone because you feel like maybe you’re going to pick it up and someone’s going to be like, ‘cute butt’ or ‘nice smile’ or ‘look at my titties’ or whatever. It was fucked.
I eventually decided I was putting too much time into it for what I was getting back. I thought my time would be better spent on teaching myself SEO, training the team, figuring out my backlink strategy, working out some of the issues on the site, and becoming a more technical operator. So I don’t regret that decision. But we are pretty much all SEO – we’re on socials, but I think less than 1% of our traffic comes from social media.
There’s a lot of uncertainty in the SEO space – there have been some pretty nasty algorithm updates recently from Google recently, chatGPT is rearing its ugly head, and how people are consuming content is changing – people are using TikTok and Instagram reels, and that’s something I personally don’t want to do.
With where we’re at right now, I don’t know what’s going to happen to The Broke Backpacker. It’s been around for like 10 years. I’m a writer, I’m a wordsmith, and it remains to be seen if writers and wordsmiths can survive in the changing landscape.
At the same time, I do worry for this next generation of people who are making their money and building their names exclusively through social media. It must be a very delicate line to walk. I’m not sure how I would do it, but maybe it’s possible.
There’s also a lot of really good content out there, which can help you achieve your goals.
You’re 100% right. It’s a tale as old as the lifetime of the internet. It’s an incredibly powerful tool, you can get so much valuable information on any topic you’re interested in. But by their very definition, these platforms aim to keep you on there as long as possible. The challenge is having the willpower to resist that side of things, which is really hard.
How often have you gotten it wrong when experimenting with a new business idea?
Man, I’ve made loads of errors. Let me run you through some of my greatest hits. There’s a bunch, but to be fair to me, maybe some of these wouldn’t have gone wrong if COVID hadn’t popped up.
- So I had an SEO agency, and that was doing pretty well. I had about 20 travel blogs, which were expired domains that I had bought, domains that already had links pointing towards them. This was back in the golden age of sponsored posts, which we don’t do anymore. But we could get a client who wanted to buy posts on like 20 sites, and we could get three grand from one client. And we were chasing hundreds of clients at a time. Then COVID just crushed that because the sites were no longer generating any organic traffic at all, which meant Google just pretty much delisted them. Then that was it. They were all done overnight.
- Here’s another one – how’s this for a niche? I bought a protein powder affiliate site that was specifically aimed at pregnant women – Pro Women Powder. I bought that little doozy for like six grand on Flippa. I was like, ‘yeah, this is niching down. This is where the money is at.’ I don’t want to think about how much time I spent on that site, and it just never went anywhere.
- I had a dropshipping business as well, we were doing basic backpacker products, like hammocks, security belts, packable day packs. I learned some lessons there. So we were fulfilled by Amazon. Basically, I’d order like 500 of one product and ship it to Amazon. They would put it in their warehouse and repackage it. And when someone bought it on Amazon, they would send it out.
That totally failed because shipping prices went up 400% during COVID. But even before that, it was failing for two reasons. The first is I went for the wrong type of products, everything I was selling was under $30, so there wasn’t much margin. You would need to sell tens of thousands of these to make any real money.
The other reason is that Amazon has access to all of the consumer data, and they don’t share it. So they can see which products are really selling well on their platform, and then they just create an Amazon Basics version of it, put it above your products in search results, and undercut you price-wise. There’s a great 2 minute video on how Amazon do this by Peak Design.
I also founded a company in 2016, leading tours to Pakistan and Iran. The business was successful for a few years, but I made some errors with staffing, shall we say, and I’m no longer running it. The lesson there is that I was naive in bringing someone in, and giving them 50% of the company I had spent three years working on, because I needed help. It would have been cheaper, simpler, and fairer if I had just paid them a wage, but I was short on cash at the time. That ended up being a huge mistake.
As a newbie entrepreneur, you might not value your sweat equity as much as you should. It’s tempting to give percentages away to people who can help you grow your business because you can’t yet see the value you’ve put in. But that doesn’t mean you haven’t already contributed a shit ton of value that will eventually show up. If you’ve been working on something for a year and someone comes along, it’s crazy to give them 50% unless theyre a shithot operator who can add a lot of value.
- Here’s another good one. I met a girl in Iran, we got married, and I wrote a story for this newspaper called news.com.au, back when I was trying to become a journalist. They published it, and it went viral. They kept my copy, but it’s amazing how much you can change a story by altering the title and the captions on a photo. The title was ‘I bought a wife in Iran for $30.’ It was pretty upsetting, especially for her parents. The lesson there is to double-check everything before it goes live. I managed to get them to take it down, but it had already been republished in 30 places.
Man, I’ve made loads of errors. Let me run you through some of my greatest hits. There’s a bunch, but to be fair to me, maybe some of these wouldn’t have gone wrong if COVID hadn’t popped up.
1. So I had an SEO agency, and that was doing pretty well. I had about 20 travel blogs, which were expired domains that I had bought, domains that already had links pointing towards them. This was back in the golden age of sponsored posts, which we don’t do anymore. But we could get a client who wanted to buy posts on like 20 sites, and we could get three grand from one client. And we were chasing hundreds of clients at a time. Then COVID just crushed that because the sites were no longer generating any organic traffic at all, which meant Google just pretty much delisted them. Then that was it. They were all done overnight.
2. Here’s another one – how’s this for a niche? I bought a protein powder affiliate site that was specifically aimed at pregnant women – Pro Women Powder. I bought that little doozy for like six grand on Flippa. I was like, ‘yeah, this is niching down. This is where the money is at.’ I don’t want to think about how much time I spent on that site, and it just never went anywhere.
3. I had a dropshipping business as well, we were doing basic backpacker products, like hammocks, security belts, packable day packs. I learned some lessons there. So we were fulfilled by Amazon. Basically, I’d order like 500 of one product and ship it to Amazon. They would put it in their warehouse and repackage it. And when someone bought it on Amazon, they would send it out.
That totally failed because shipping prices went up 400% during COVID. But even before that, it was failing for two reasons. The first is I went for the wrong type of products, everything I was selling was under $30, so there wasn’t much margin. You would need to sell tens of thousands of these to make any real money.
The other reason is that Amazon has access to all of the consumer data, and they don’t share it. So they can see which products are really selling well on their platform, and then they just create an Amazon Basics version of it, put it above your products in search results, and undercut you price-wise.
4. I also founded a company in 2016, leading tours to Pakistan and Iran. The business was successful for a few years, but I made some errors with staffing, shall we say, and I’m no longer running it. The lesson there is that I was naive in bringing someone in, and giving them 50% of the company I had spent three years working on, because I needed help. It would have been cheaper, simpler, and fairer if I had just paid them a wage, but I was short on cash at the time. That ended up being a huge mistake.
As a newbie entrepreneur, you might not value your sweat equity as much as you should. It’s tempting to give percentages away to people who can help you grow your business because you can’t yet see the value you’ve put in. But that doesn’t mean you haven’t already contributed a shit ton of value that will eventually show up. If you’ve been working on something for a year and someone comes along, it’s crazy to give them 50% unless theyre a shithot operator who can add a lot of value.
5. Here’s another good one. I met a girl in Iran, we got married, and I wrote a story for this newspaper called news.com.au, back when I was trying to become a journalist. They published it, and it went viral. They kept my copy, but it’s amazing how much you can change a story by altering the title and the captions on a photo. The title was ‘I bought a wife in Iran for $30.’ It was pretty upsetting, especially for her parents. The lesson there is to double-check everything before it goes live. I managed to get them to take it down, but it had already been republished in 30 places.
Have you learned about what kind of people you want to work with?
Absolutely. I would say that work ethic and loyalty are way more important than ability. Honestly, you can teach people pretty much anything if they’re hard working and want a job. With The Broke Backpacker, in particular, we’ve done a good job of bringing together a cohesive team. Our people have a lot of pride in the project, and what we’re trying to achieve.
The same goes for Tribal hostel – we’ve got a passionate team working towards our goals there. We look for that passion, for people you can trust, people who have integrity and honor. Because at the end of the day, most entrepreneurs who hire other people don’t end up having much face time with them, which means you need to be able to trust that person.
If they say they’re gonna get something done, they’re gonna get it done. If they say it takes them an hour on their timesheet, it takes them an hour, because it’s quite hard to verify.
I feel like you normally know if you can trust someone in your gut. Now, I’ve got a history of overriding that, maybe because maybe I fucking needed someone in that moment. I’ve now learned not to make that mistake.
If I were to take away The Broke Backpacker, take away Tribal, take away your network, leaving you with just your knowledge and skills, how would you go about building a career for yourself again?
I think that one of my best skills is team-building and building systems. I’m good at figuring out an effective way to do something, and then teaching someone else how to do it. I would probably focus on finding a new niche, really familiarizing myself with it, finding something that could be replicated 100 times, doing it really well once or twice, building a very clear system of how to do that, then hiring a couple of operators to come work on it and do it those 100 times.
This could be an affiliate site where I’m looking at some kind of location-based keyword: “cinemas in x.” Once I design the perfect piece of content and figure out a standard operating procedure, I would get someone to come and help me blow it up.
But “cinemas in x” doesn’t sound very creatively inspiring or fulfilling. I love to write, man. I enjoy writing and teaching. I’ve got a bunch of books that I’ve started but not finished. So maybe I would have a crack at some of those.
I guess it would really depend on what you’re leaving me to work with financially. Do I have nothing? Do I have something? How hungry am I? These are all the questions that matter. You know, if I suddenly needed to make money like that, I would launch another tour company. I would go somewhere like Tajikistan or Afghanistan, take amazing photos, post them all over social media with paid ads, and start a tour company, because the margins are crazy. For about two weeks of work, you can make like 20 grand. So that would probably be what I would do in a tight spot.
Why would you pick somewhere more off the beaten track, like Afghanistan?
By going somewhere like that, there are way fewer operators, so you can quickly make a name for yourself and become the expert on a region. Also, if I were to do it in France for example, the operators who are already there are going to be able to beat me on price, experience, and contacts. Whereas if I were to go somewhere like Tajikistan and spend some time out there making contacts, I could put something together that was genuinely unique, that nobody else is doing. A lot of the time, in countries that are lesser-known, people want to go there on a tour. People are less keen to travel there by themselves, maybe because of poor media representation or, more likely, because the logistics kind of suck.
Also, these places are stunning. A lot of people aren’t familiar with them, so if you put some targeted ads up for hiking in the Celestial mountains of Tajikistan – sign up with me it’s only $2,200 for 14 days, I’m going to organize all of your logistics, and I’m going to take you to the best photo spots, that’s a really unique, valuable offer.
The margins are great as a result, you might make about $1200 per customer. A lot of influencers have started running tours, I wasn’t the first. But I was the first to do so in Pakistan, as far as I know.
What skills do you wish you were better at when it comes to business?
I wish I was better with Google Sheets, honestly, it’s really useful if you’re trying to crunch data. More technical knowledge of how the backend of a website works would be good too, I’m pretty reliant on my developers to do most things. But on the other hand, I think that really comes down to deciding what skills you want to invest in for yourself. You can’t do everything.
But what frustrates me is when someone’s like, “I’m going to outsource my SEO.” You can’t outsource your SEO, it’s too much. You can’t outsource your whole content system and link-building system to somebody else, because anybody who’s good is doing it for themselves. They’re not available to clients.
So some things you have to learn, but do you need to learn how to build a website? Maybe not. Maybe it’s better just to spend that money on a professional and focus on another skill, maybe the content creation processes, or just organization. I’m super organized; it’s a skill that I’ve developed over time, and it makes a huge difference.
I also think communication is really important – being able to clearly communicate what you want, what you expect, and how you want it done. Being able to give people feedback in a way that is not beating around the bush, but doesn’t crush their soul either.
I think being honest is very important too. I’ve had issues in the past where I’ve acted quite conflict-averse, which meant I didn’t tell someone their work was unacceptable when I should have. So it’s important to be honest and get your expectations out there.
Being honest with yourself can be really hard. Are you actually happy with what you’ve done today? Are you moving in the right direction? Are you doing the right thing? It can be difficult, but I’m always trying to be honest with myself, and as clear as possible with my team.
I’ve also found that when you’re doing collaborations, interviews, or pitching for a spot on a podcast, people want the honest story. They don’t want to hear that your life is amazing and everything was easy because that’s a shit story. It’s not true. So, I think it’s incredibly important to be honest.
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
What are the most common remote work jobs you see at your hostel?
I see a lot of people coding. There’s also quite a few people coming in who I couldn’t tell you exactly what they’re doing, but it seems like they’re trying to figure out how they can leverage chatGPT for content creation. That’s the obvious thing to do with it, but it can do so many other things as well.
A lot of copywriters as well, but I felt like copywriting is a hard gig. I was a copywriter before I was doing my own thing, but it’s hard to find people who will pay you what you’re worth if you’re good – there’s a lot of people out there doing it, and a lot of people buying it don’t really care how good it is.
Also some freelance photographers, and we’ve got a couple of podcasters who are in pretty regularly. Dropshippers obviously, people doing SEO, affiliate marketers – that kind of vibe, the classics. SEOs, affiliate marketers, copywriters, and dropshippers are the big four.
I think now that shipping costs have bounced back to what they were pre-COVID, there’s a lot of movement in the dropshipping space again. I think there’s actually room to get into it at the moment, if you pick the right product.
Any common struggles you see with the remote work lifestyle?
You have several crowds here in Bali, and maybe the least fun one to be a member of is the newbie entrepreneur. You’re rubbing elbows all day with the more fun crowds of people who are here on holidays, or people who maybe have already made it, who have got money and are visibly living a very good lifestyle, which quite a few people are.
It can be challenging to be around that, to feel like you’re struggling day in and day out. But Bali’s also unique in that there’s a lot of people doing that, so you can still find your community, find people who you vibe with, who you can brainstorm with, and team up with.
Another common one worth mentioning is a lot of people fuck up their visas, and it ends up costing them money and time. I’ve had so many people staying at the hostel who, in one way or another, have messed up their visas because they didn’t do the research beforehand. Now, I’m not a visa agent, so please, nobody sends me these questions. But get the right visa. That’s my advice.
What are some common mistakes you see remote workers/aspiring entrepreneurs making?
So particularly here in Bali, a lot of people are trying to make a name for themselves as an influencer. But being an influencer is only a very small section of the online gigs that are available, it’s just by far the most visible. So, a lot of people, when they think, ‘Oh, I want to travel the world and make money,’ they’re like, ‘influencer.’
Whereas it’s actually a very difficult, saturated market to get into. You’d be better off going for something like dropshipping. It’s not sexy, but you can put it on autopilot, scale it, and build something huge in three years.
You also see people coming out here all the time, I don’t want to say they don’t have the appetite to do the hard work, but the problem is they don’t manage to build the routines and discipline that’s required to actually get it done.
“I think that anyone can succeed, if you want it enough, if you have that drive. It really helps to need it. When I was starting out, I was up against the fucking wall.”
Maybe they want to be an entrepreneur, but they end up spending too much time on the social media side of their business, or on redesigning their logo over and over, rather than trying to topple that one big business domino every day. Doing the things that suck, like outreach or designing an email funnel. The difficult stuff, that really requires focus.
I think that tends to be what separates successful entrepreneurs from non-successful entrepreneurs. Although there’s definitely plenty of flukes on both sides – you get some people who deserve to be successful and aren’t, and some people who maybe don’t deserve the level of success they’ve had. But in general, if you’re unable to build that routine, if you’re unable to build that discipline, it’s pretty hard to be successful.
Do you think there’s a lack of clarity - they're not aware of where they need to be investing their time, or they actually just don't want to sit down and do the hard stuff?
I think it’s both. The lack of clarity is definitely there because, unfortunately, you have a lot of people in the influencer camp who are selling this lifestyle and indicating that it’s easy, glamorous, and fun. It mostly isn’t. While a lot of influencers are showing off amazing experiences they’re having, those are all collab-sponsored, like hotel stays, trips, etc. It’s not actually money in the bank.
But I think that anyone can succeed, if you want it enough, if you have that drive. It really helps to need it. When I was starting out, I was up against the fucking wall. I had a wife to support and no money. Until then I’d been selling T-shirts and weed and stuff, then suddenly I had this girl who had dropped out of dentistry school to marry me in Iran.
There was a lot of pressure, and I borrowed money I couldn’t repay, so there was financial debt looming over me. If I was unsuccessful, that was it. I didn’t know what I was going to do.
So having that fire underneath you to push you forward through the discomfort is super powerful. If you’re also able to tap into whatever insecurities, rage, anger, self-loathing you may have internally, you can use that as fuel to project you forward, until you get to a point where you can afford to focus more on your mental health.
So the procrastination is always there, you just have to find ways to push through it.
book release
If you’d like to beat perfectionism and start consistently investing time into the habits you’d like to be in your own life, our upcoming book is a comprehensive guide to achieving exactly that. Subscribe to the waitlist for a free copy when it comes out.
These days you must have less of that desperation to make something work. So what do you find motivates you now?
Well, both travel and online entrepreneurship have changed my life, so these days I’m really passionate about sharing that and providing a resource to help people with these two things.
I’m passionate about expanding my coworking hostel business, which is aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs. I see that as a 10-year journey, because I want to get up to 20 hostels over the next 10 years. I want to do retreats, talks, and events.
I want to make it easier for people to access a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, digital nomads, remote workers, because I didn’t have that, and that made my own journey a lot more lonely.
I think ‘What is your why?’ is a really interesting question. About a year ago, I was really struggling with it. I’d built a travel blog which had more than a million users a month, and I’d opened my hostel. I had money, so I wasn’t worried about that anymore.
“To re-find my ‘Why,’ I had to hit all the basics: I had to be doing something creative, something physical, and something that had an element of service.”
So then I was like ‘What are you doing, man? You seem to just be spending a lot of time in the gym, which is cool. But what are we doing with our life here bro?’
So I went away and made a list of things I wanted to do by the time I was 50. And now I’m working on ticking those things off. Some of these things are physical, some are spiritual, some are creative, and some are business-related. I think I’m just someone who needs a big list of goals to aim for, otherwise I get depressed.
Will at the Tribal opening ceremony
I find the lifestyle outside of work incredibly important too, both for your wellbeing and your productivity during work. It’s also very easy to neglect.
It’s super easy. I mentioned earlier that I went through this period where I was really successful, then COVID came along and wiped it all away. My marriage broke down, I had a lot of problems with alcohol and drugs, it wasn’t pretty.
To re-find my ‘Why,’ I had to hit all the basics: I had to be doing something creative, something physical, and something that had an element of service. If you can find these things, they’ll project you forward, so that you’re excited to go to work.
These days, 9/10 day I’m excited. I like working. When I didn’t have that reason to work, and I wasn’t doing very much, I was way less happy. So I think if you can find that passion and nurture it, keep yourself hungry in some ways, I think that’s a good move.
How do you show up for work on those days when you don't feel like it?
Normally I’ll choose something from my to-do list that’s easy to complete, just to give myself a win.
I use Trello for my digital organization, and I’ve also got static whiteboards all over my house. So I’ll wander around Trello or my whiteboards, and I’ll find something that looks fun to do. Maybe a tongue-in-cheek creative post about some time I was hitchhiking through Iran. I’ll start the day with that – usually it’s something that’s not going to make me any money, nor is it particularly useful to complete. But it is useful, because it gets me moving again, and from there I can move on to something else.
I’m also quite good at knowing when I need to take a break. I find it important to maintain a balance between doing meaningful work and burning myself out through too much digital stimulation. If I don’t want to work, I’ll ask myself why, and usually the reason is that I’m tired of looking at my screen. I also like to take a digital detox at least twice a year, I find that really important.
For more like this, check out Will’s article on his website: 82 Lessons from 15 Years of Travel and Entrepreneurship
Optimizing Your Lifestyle
What does an average day look like for you at the moment?
I usually get up around six o’clock. I have an ice bath at home and I get straight in, first thing. It’s a discipline thing – I don’t let myself go on my phone until I’ve been in. So I jump in there, and I’ve got my goals and some affirmations written on the walls. I’ve got these static whiteboards – it’s my thing.
I’ve got like 50 of them all around the house. My girlfriend hates it, but they’re everywhere, shouting messages at me all the time. So I sit in the ice bath for like three, four minutes and go through those.
Then I get out, go to the gym, sauna, ice bath again, and then try to start work by nine, whether that’s at home or at Tribal. I normally try to finish work by 4pm, sometimes I’ll go to the gym again, or socialize, or journal. In the evening I tend to do some mobility exercises, or plan out my week.
I’m big into planning; I get a lot out of it. I’m also hugely into habit tracking. I won’t run you through my whole routine, but I think it’s worth mentioning that pretty much the last thing I do every night is this: I’ve got a whiteboard right next to my bed where I’ve got the habits I’m trying to cultivate. I give myself a tick on each of those if I’ve been successful. At the end of the month I copy my scores into Trello, and I’ll ask myself a few questions.
Will’s Monthly Questions For Focused Improvement:
- What are your goals for this upcoming month? (Often, this refers to which habits I want to focus on)
- What did you learn in the past month?
- What went well this month?
- Did you fuck up this month? – How can you ensure this fuck up ends with this month and doesn’t continue?
- How are you doing in your romantic relationships this month?
- Month Summary: just a quick one or two paras on major events of the month worth remembering
- What are you proud of from this month?
- How do you feel creatively, spiritually, physically, emotionally, as a friend, as a partner, as an entrepreneur (I often give these scores out of 10 and then expand with some notes)
Will’s Monthly Questions For Focused Improvement:
1. What are your goals for this upcoming month? (Often, this refers to which habits I want to focus on)
2. What did you learn in the past month?
3. What went well this month?
4. Did you fuck up this month? – How can you ensure this fuck up ends with this month and doesn’t continue?
5. How are you doing in your romantic relationships this month?
6. Month Summary: just a quick one or two paras on major events of the month worth remembering
7. What are you proud of from this month?
8. How do you feel creatively, spiritually, physically, emotionally, as a friend, as a partner, as an entrepreneur (I often give these scores out of 10 and then expand with some notes)
I’ve been asking myself these same questions for like five years, so it’s really interesting to go back and see how my answers have changed. Then, once I’ve wiped that clean, maybe I’ll be like, “Okay, well, clearly, your meditation habit just is not working, because you’ve only meditated once this month, so let’s take that out of the routine, and put in something else.”
I’m terrible at meditating, so that happens almost every month. And then, the next month, I’m like, “Let’s put it back in. Let’s see how we do.” So I’ll see which habits aren’t working, take those out and put new ones in. That really helps me stay focused.
I’m also a very win-oriented person. I have about 20 habits up on the board, so every day I’m definitely going to be able to tick some of them off. Having this as the last thing I do every day really improves my mood.
So you focus more on the things you do get done, rather than the things you don’t?
Absolutely. I mean, at the end of the month, I’m definitely asking myself some hard questions, like, ‘Did you hit your fitness goals this month? Did you drink too much this month? William, have you been smashing too much alcohol?’ Because, you know, that’s a thing that happens sometimes. But I always try to be kind to myself, and celebrate my wins rather than beating myself up for my failures.
Previously, I was definitely like, ‘You suck, man, and you need to get better.’ I was really hard on myself, which definitely helped me be successful. This is what I was referring to earlier – using what you’ve got to project yourself forwards.
But I think it’s important to be kind to yourself as well. That’s a shift I’ve made over the last couple of years.
I find if you're too hard on yourself, you can burn yourself out quicker than you would otherwise.
Absolutely. But you’ve also got to be real with yourself – you’ve got to ask yourself if your behavior is serving your ultimate goals.
That’s definitely important for me, say if I’m wanting to have a drink when I shouldn’t, or if I decided to watch an hour of TV while on my static bike, but I’m not on the bike, I’m lying on the floor, watching the second episode of Vikings because I’m obsessed with Vikings.
I’ve actually got a big sword over here. Sometimes I swing it around my head – a lot of fun. Anyway, I’d be like, ‘Hey, dude, you should probably fucking go downstairs and journal and get in the sauna and go to bed.’
So, I think having standard questions that you can fall back on, like, ‘Does this serve my goals? Is this going to get me where I want to be?’ has been useful for me.
How do you go about prioritizing your goals or routines?
I’ve got my own value system. I’ve spent quite a lot of time writing a manifesto over the last 10 years, and I tweak that every few months. I’ve got my five core values, and I filter everything I do through those – trying to make sure everything I do moves me in the direction I want to be going. You know, I want to be creative, have a family, not worry about finances, have adventures and be outside, and have chill time that’s well spent.
I’ve got a super addictive personality, so I don’t allow myself to play video games. There were also various behaviors that, for a long time, I was like, ‘Maybe you can just do it every now and then,’ but it’s like, no, I just can’t.
So my core habits have been the same for a few years, like the ice bath, the journaling, physical movement, and mobility. Without the mobility exercises I find working out just fucks me up, I start getting problems with my posture.
So, I’ve got my core habits, and those get prioritized based on what goals I’m focusing on at the moment.
It seems that everything you do has a context, a good reason, there's nothing you do just because ‘Oh yeah why not, that sounds cool’
I still have some impulsive behaviors, but not many. My day is pretty regimented. It’s important to know what I want to be doing, so if I have a couple of spare hours in my day, I’m like, ‘Okay, the acceptable things that you can do now are A, B, C, or D.’ Otherwise, you know, I’m just like everybody else, man. It’s way too easy to fuck around on YouTube, or Instagram, or Tinder, or whatever. But I don’t want to do that. It’s a waste of my time.
I find that motivation often comes in cycles - there can be days, weeks or even months of lower energy.
Yeah, for sure. There are definitely periods where I’m feeling less motivated, less energized. In these moments I just try to bring it back to basics. For me, those are:
- Have you journaled?
- Have you been to the gym?
- Have you spoken to another human being about something other than business?
- Have you been outside and felt the grass between your toes?
Sounds super hippy, but these things are my fundamental blocks to feeling energized. If I get really busy with a project and I forget them, my energy suffers as a result. But then when I put them back in, it usually doesn’t take long for me to feel recharged.
Is sleep one of those basic blocks for you?
Yes, I used to not really sleep. I would do an hour and a half to two hours a night – I could do that for a while and be okay. I thought it was a gift, but actually it probably wasn’t. I’ve really dialed in my sleep over the last year and now I’m in a much better place.
I actually have two phones, and at 8 pm, I move my main phone into a different room. The one I keep with me only has Spotify, Audible, podcasts and music on it, no social media. That way I’m not staring at a screen at night, and there’s less light going into my eyeballs. I’m not quite sure of the science, but my sleep’s been much better since then.
My phone hygiene was pretty terrible before, I used to sleep with my phone in the bed. When I was beginning my entrepreneurship journey, I felt that part of my edge was that I was very fast at responding. It felt good, like balls were coming in, and I was knocking them out super fast, to keep things moving as fast as possible. It was quite addictive. To be honest, I really liked it.
Do you struggle with procrastination?
I do. Here’s a tip – I read about it online a few years ago. Often, if I’m writing something I’ll leave a sentence unfinished. When I come back to it, I can always finish the sentence, which is way easier than starting a new one. So, I do that, and boom, I’m writing again.
I’m all about finding an easy win when I’m procrastinating. It’s all about getting started, right?
Let’s say I’ve got to write a blog post, and I don’t feel like writing it. I’ll start by looking at some pictures that I feel would be a good fit for the post, then maybe I’ll write some captions for the pictures. I’ll go from there and before you know it, the post is done. So I always try to find the most easy, enjoyable thing I can start with.
What about something like the ice bath? There’s no easy way to get into that.
Sometimes I’ll go to the room where it is, and I’ll just look at it for a while before I get in. I’m not gonna lie, there is sometimes a bit of face slapping that occurs before I get myself in. There’s also some writing on the wall that indicates I’m a little bitch if I don’t do so. I’ve made it quite hard to not get in the ice bath.
Environment is absolutely key, and the house I’m in now is my first one ever. Before that I was living in tents, hostels, and people’s houses on the road, for a decade.
Being here makes sticking to my routines much easier, because everything is in a different zone. I’ve got the place that I sit to journal, I’ve got the place where I workout, I’ve got the place where I eat, I’ve got the place where I stretch, the place where I do my ice baths, and the place where I do my work. And I only use these spaces for that one thing.
That means when I step into that space, I know what I’m there to do, and I tend to just start doing it. It took a while to build these associations, but now they’re really helpful.
I don’t think that it’s actually too hard to condition yourself. Get yourself some static whiteboards, put them up on the wall, and you’ll just start taking in the messages on them subliminally over time. They’re just so powerful, highly recommended.
Do you hold an expectation for yourself over how many things you're going to tick off on your whiteboard each day?
I have a certain number of things I’m going to tick off in a week, but I’m able to be flexible within the day.
But also as I finish ticking them off for the day, I can see where I’m at in the month. I can be like, ‘Okay, your score over here is not good. So if we’re going to have an appropriate score for this habit for the month, this needs to be a focus for the next few days. Let’s make sure we get this one in. And look dude, you’ve been to the gym every day for the last eight days. So if you don’t go to the gym tomorrow so you can do creative writing instead, that’s fine.’ So the monthly scores help me course-correct as I go.
So you write all this stuff down, rather than trying to keep track of it in your head?
It’s not even just about that. It’s all up on my wall, so I can eyeball my progress at any time. I can look over right now and be like, ‘Okay, I haven’t caught any sun this week, and I haven’t listened to a good podcast this week. But I’ve managed to go out for a long walk every day. I’ve hit the sauna every day. So maybe tomorrow, I don’t need to go for a walk or hit the sauna. It’s more important to listen to a knowledge-enhancing podcast.’ The info is up there, and it makes it way easier.
Are you always pushing for more from yourself, or are you satisfied with your output most days?
I’m pretty satisfied with my performance. The single reason for that is ticking off what I’ve done each day – it’s essentially a gratitude practice. You’re taking 20 seconds at the end of your day to be grateful for what you’ve done, to recognise and celebrate it. It’s too fucking hard to write it all into a journal, so just stick it up on the wall and tick it off.
Until I started doing that, I would work until like 3am. It’s been a game changer for me, I highly recommend it.
Are you satisfied with where you're at in general?
Yeah, I’m living a pretty great life, honestly. I have my challenges, my down days, times where my self-talk still needs work. There are definitely times when I’m like, ‘You’re a fucking loser. What’s wrong with you, man?’
But I’m aware of that, so I can work through it. I’m creatively fulfilled, romantically fulfilled, I’ve got my dogs, I’m not worried about money, and I’ve got projects I’m passionate about. I feel pretty lucky, honestly, but I did work pretty hard for it and lived rough for many years.
Any tips on self-talk, on changing how you view yourself?
A good strategy has been thinking about how I want to see myself, how I want to talk to myself, throwing that into some affirmations, then putting them up on the wall where I’ll see them regularly.
The first thing I say to myself every morning is, ‘You are A, B, C, D, E, and F. You are working on one, two, and three. You accept these weaknesses. These are your strengths. This is where you’re going, and this is who you want to be.’ I’m just coding myself every morning, and that makes a big difference to me.
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