Joining us today is Lloyd Watts, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Audience, Inc., an award-winning technology business that he founded in 2000. Lloyd’s book, The Flow of Time and Money: How to create a full and prosperous life, was recently released by Megawatt Media Corporation.
CM: Welcome Lloyd. It’s wonderful to have you with us.
LW: Thank you so much, I’m delighted to have the opportunity to get to know the DivineCaroline community.
CM: Can you please tell our readers a bit about yourself?
LW: I am the founder of Audience, a technology company that makes noise reduction chips for cell-phones, and the author of The Flow of Time and Money, a book about creating a fulfilling and prosperous life. I believe in living my life to the fullest, and to me that means: Doing things that I love to do, enjoying my relationships with people that I care about, and building a great future that, each day, becomes my present. I feel very fortunate, and I love what I do.
CM: What made you decide to write The Flow of Time and Money?
LW: I have been an avid reader of books on personal success ever since I was a teenager. Over the years, I noticed that the success books were splitting into two groups: Books about money (how to get rich)—and books about time management and relationships. In 1998, I developed a set of diagrams to show, simply and accurately, how money works in personal finance: how we make it, spend it, waste it, lose it, invest it, get a return on it, and ultimately, master it—the whole picture. And once I had developed the Flow of Money diagrams, I realized that Time works the same way—I had found a unified way of understanding the essential elements of a modern life. I put together a seminar and invited my friends to it, and the reaction was amazing. “Wow, I’ve never seen anyone pull everything together so simply and clearly like this.” I began giving the seminar and people started asking for a book that they could take home and dig deeper.
CM: How are time and money connected?
LW: Time and Money are connected in two ways.
- The first way is that Time and Money have the same basic flow structure. They flow IN the same way (you get your weekly job income, and you get your 168 hours each week of time). They flow OUT in the same way (we have some necessary expenses of money, like food, shelter, and clothing, and we have necessary expenses of time, like sleeping, eating, bathing). And there are ways of productively investing both time and money that lead to fulfillment and prosperity (investing money into assets that produce Capital Gains and Passive Income, and investing time in your relationships, education, and health). The flow patterns are the same, and when we truly see the big picture of how we are spending our precious Time and Money, we start managing our lives better to cut out the harmful and wasteful things, and to make the good stuff happen.
- The second connection between Time and Money is that we have ways of turning one into the other. The simplest way to turn Time into Money is to work at a job. Your Employer turns your time (8 hours/day) into your Job Income, at a rate determined by your professional education and relationships. Your Time and your Money are directly connected by your Employer. That is the usual way that the vast majority of people live their lives. The Flow of Time and Money shows you how to eliminate the Employer from your life: by investing in your Life Assets and Material Assets, to produce Passive Income and Capital Gains, so you can live on those sources of income, rather than Job Income, so you can have more Time to enjoy your life and contribute to making the world a better place.
CM: Who are you trying to reach with this book?
LW: I wrote the book to help anyone who wants to be both wealthy and fulfilled, so they can maximize their enjoyment of life and their contribution to the world. I have noticed in every seminar that the majority of attendees have been women, often in their 30s and 40s. I’ve asked why, and discovered that many women care deeply about creating a great life for themselves and their families, but they have been very dissatisfied with the way that Time and Money management have been taught. It appears that my approach of using friendly diagrams and “getting right to the good stuff” really appeals to them. I’ve also noticed that many women are attracted to the idea of becoming fulfilled and financially independent, not just for their own sake, or their family’s sake, but so that they can help make a difference in the world, to make the world a better place. That is an important theme running through the book—conscious awareness of why we want to be successful.
CM: Do you believe that women and men approach the flow of time and money the same way or differently? What challenges could that present?
LW: Of course, generalizations are impossible since individuals are unique, but I do see recurring themes in the attendees of my seminars and workshops.
First, let’s look at the ways that men and women see time and money similarly. Time and Money are gender-neutral. Male or female, we all need money to live and prosper, we all have a limited amount of time, and managing that time well is important no matter who you are. Some people are looking for the best upside – “How can I make the most of my life?” Others are dealing with a recent crisis or problem – “I’m in debt and lost my job, how do I get through this?” Both women and men can be interested in either point of view. The Flow of Time and Money addresses both, and shows how to transition smoothly from the debt trap onto the path of financial independence. I also notice that both men and women, if they have teenage or college-age children, are interested in learning more about Time and Money so they can give their kids the education they may not have had.
Many of the women who attend my seminar are in their 30s and 40s, and of those, a substantial number are recently divorced or separated. Uniformly, they express a newfound desire to know more about finances, and a sense of relief that finally someone is explaining the rules of the game in a way that makes sense. Once involved, they often become vocal advocates and want to share with their friends and colleagues – a noticeable community approach.
The men who attend my seminar rarely mention divorce or separation as a factor in their decision to attend. Usually they cite a general desire for success (how to get rich, how to get started in various particular kinds of investing) or debt recovery as their motivation to get involved.
Part 1 | (Part 2)
