Inside Marketing with MarketSurge

Welcome to Inside Marketing
With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed: Hello and welcome back to
Inside Marketing with Market Surge.

Today on the show we're diving into
something we all wish we had more

of time, and not just time on a
clock, but time we actually own.

My guest is Steven Jay, the
founder of Reclaim Your Time.

A platform and philosophy that's
helping people break free from

overwhelm, distraction, and burnout,
and finally take back control of their

hours, their energy, and their lives.

Steven didn't just create
another productivity app.

He built a movement around what it
really means to live with intention.

Whether you're a busy entrepreneur,
a creative, juggling too much.

Or just someone who's tired of feeling
like there's never enough time.

This episode is for you.

We're going to unpack the myths around
productivity, talk about what truly

matters when it comes to time ownership,
and learning how Steven turned a personal

struggle into a mission-driven company.

So let's get into it and let's
start reclaiming our time.

Welcome Steven.

Stephen Jaye: Thank you so
much for having me today.

Reed: Yeah, my pleasure.

And, um, as I've learned about your
journey, I, I've observed that you

have done the entrepreneurship, uh,
track for many years and have had,

uh, a lot of experiences with that.

Um, talk a little bit about how
you got into entrepreneurship.

Stephen Jaye: Uh, yeah, so
it's kind of interesting.

I've met a lot of people who kind of
had entrepreneurship, you know, in their

blood, like kind of their whole lives.

Uh, you know, these are people who
started something when they were

a teenager and stuff like that.

Um, that's actually not the
beginning of my journey.

I actually did start my first job.

I went to graduate school and then got,
uh, kind of a regular standard job.

Learning more about myself, I'll put it
that way, that kind of brought me into

that area that like we have different
modes of employment and um, for people

who kind of are raised in that way,
it's, it's kind of initially learning

that, you know, your standard big
corporation job is not the only path

out there that there are many other
ways to build a life besides just that.

And then you start kind of looking
into all the different options.

I know a lot of younger people now
are looking into things like the gig

economy, um, you know, and, and just
other ways to set up life, which is

a very exciting thing to observe.

Reed: It's awesome.

I also started in a traditional
track joining larger companies

and have only recently, become, an
entrepreneur and a business leader.

And, I've loved it.

You know, it's been great.

it's a refreshing, transition.

let's talk about your
latest venture here, as I

Stephen Jaye: Mm-hmm.

Reed: So reclaim your time.

What inspired that creation and was
there like a specific spark that,

uh, inspired you to get started here?

Stephen Jaye: Yeah, it's kind
of multiple sparks to be honest.

So, um, I remember being skeptical
about the whole movement onto

like social media and smartphones
pretty much from the get go.

And it was way back in 2010 when I
would actually start observing people.

Around me.

You know, look at their phone, staring
at their phones pretty intently

without like acknowledging or, or
really focusing on the people that are

actually physically in front of them.

And I remember looking around and
seeing this a little bit and being like.

This is not gonna be good for humanity.

And, uh, boy, do I wish I was wrong.

it was one of those things I
really, really wish I was wrong.

But over time I started to see, some
of the, mental health statistics that I

think a lot of people are now aware of.

The loneliness, the anxiety, the
depression, all really starting to spike.

If you look at any of the
charts around the year 2012.

2012 is a significant year because 2012
is the year that market penetration

for smartphones reach 50% in the us.

So starting in 2012 and onward, more
than half of Americans have a smartphone.

And now you know the numbers
probably in excess of 75, 80% by now.

And so it really kind of comes to culture.

And as that culture takes place, we see.

All sorts of other things,
uh, change unfortunately.

So I observed that and I worked on
my own habits first, but what really

pushed me over the edge was the
pandemic and the move of everything

online, like the pandemic took these
trends, or I should more accurately

say our reactions to the pandemic.

Um, took these trends that were already
happening for most of the 2010s and

suddenly shifted them to overdrive.

Now all of a sudden, we were
doing all of our socializing.

We all learned, you know, after
three months of getting drunk

with our friends on Zoom, we all
learned what Zoom fatigue was.

And, uh, just even everything such
as going around the city and seeing

people convert their parking meters
to like stuff we use on smartphones.

I just started to look at this.

I was like, this is too much.

Everything's suddenly getting
worse into overdrive and, uh, I

need to start figuring this out.

And the first step I needed to
take though was figuring out for

myself my own habit, because.

Uh, I'm not gonna be able to sit here
and preach about having a healthier

relationship with technology.

If everywhere I go, people see
me pulling out my phone and,

and watching random videos.

Reed: Interesting.

So that is an interesting, uh, way
Toi, I mean, I totally accurate.

I think you're articulating
something we all, have felt and

maybe not realize because it.

It creeps up on you.

and, uh, so what was that process?

How did you, how did you
overcome your screen time habit?

You know, like, how did
you learn to control that?

Stephen Jaye: Yeah, so the process really
was a lot of trial and error and research,

which is what the process is for a lot
of things that we're all looking to do.

Reed: Mm-hmm.

Stephen Jaye: you know, one thing is,
whenever I observe is when we're thinking

about these processes is that really
it's a matter of do you want it enough

to go through that trial and error?

And for me, I don't know personally
That I want enough for a whole bunch of

reasons I won't really get into, but I
tried a whole bunch of different things.

I tried declaring the first Sunday of
every month a phone Sabbath day where

I would turn my phone off for an entire
day and you know, make all my plans

the days before so I could just have.

Looking at my screen time on my phone,
and for every 20 minutes over an hour

I spent, I would force myself to either
do a one minute plank or five burpees

depending on the day of the week.

I tried some really, really interesting
things, and then what I really did was

creatively really intently observe, which
is something that's hard to do when you're

constantly distracted by your technology.

So I think it took a little bit of.

You know, a little bit of improvement
on that front to have the capacity to

observe what I was seeing and when I
noticed that I would take a day where I

would go on a, a really long bike ride.

Sometimes I like to do 50, 60, 70 mile
bike rides in a day just to really like

clear my head and my screen time would
be much lower than a day when there's

like, say a, a thunderstorm and not
like a lot of specific other plans.

And I did some reading on the scene.

You know, ideas.

I even took some coursework on social
psychology and behaviorism and uh, yeah.

I came to that realization that it's just
like when you tell a teenager, Hey, you

shouldn't drink, you shouldn't smoke weed.

And the first thing that teenager's
gonna say to you, the same thing.

That was the first thing you said to
anyone when you were a teenager, is.

And then do what instead.

So I came up with Reclaim your time,
essentially based on the idea that

we need to answer that question as
we're all now becoming aware of this,

as we're all looking to cut down
on that screen time and reclaim our

lives from these platforms, these
algorithms is we need to answer that

question and then do what instead.

Reed: I love it.

Um, you, this was a
question I had marked down.

Um.

I'm jumping ahead a little bit,
but tell me a little bit about

the, the books you read that were
helpful, um, in this journey.

I'm a big reader and so I, I'm always
looking for, for good books and, and

especially in this realm, I'm, I'm, uh,
particularly interested, but what, what

do you read that, has been helpful?

Stephen Jaye: Uh, yeah, so it's kind
of interesting that I have like my

personal development books and then I
have my books that are like, kind of a

little bit more specific to the topic.

recently on the topic, there's been
some great books, um, essentially

from like, I don't know, um,
stolen focus, um, to filter world.

And you've been played, these are
a lot of books that kind of really

describe kind of what's been going on.

Um, you know, how these platforms have
worked, you know, their motivations and

everything like that, in the behaviorism
aspect of it, um, you know, atomic

habits and tiny habits are both, great
resources around just how to actually

conduct and facilitate, even if you're
just facilitating your own, uh, behavior.

Replacements around not picking up
your phone even to learn some basic

things such as picking up your phone.

Oftentimes you've neurologically mapped.

Um, that kind of sensory, aspect of it.

You've neurologically met the sensory
of like either looking at a flashy

object or even feeling it in your hands.

And there are sometimes ways to kind of
do some of those behavior replacements.

so those are great.

And then, um, you know, I'll read like
the Daniel Pink and Simon Sinek, um,

you know, those types of books a lot
around just kind of personal growth and

personal, um, improvement and stuff.

Reed: I love it.

I've read a few that you mentioned and,
uh, yeah, they've been, um, love it.

I love that, uh, when
I meet a fellow reader.

so as you've talked about how
this, came about, what is the

Reclaim Your Time platform?

And how does it work?

Stephen Jaye: Yeah, so reclaim
your time platform right now.

It is a behavior replacement program.

It's a course you can sign up
for on my website, and you can

go through it at your own pace.

Or you can go through it, in a group
coaching setting, which I have calls

on Monday nights where people can
hop in and kind of get some more,

additional feedback, additional
assistance through that entire program.

And, we're also in the process of
building an app that's going to, help

people honor those screen time limits.

I think we're all familiar with
the current iPhone app where

you set a screen time limit.

And at the end, it just gives
you a screen that says you've

hit your limit with two buttons.

Okay.

Or ignore limit.

in my conversations I've noticed that
at least 90% of all people ignore

those limits when they hit that screen.

a lot of other apps out there, there's
some really good ones, but a lot

of them are really kind of focused
on tracking and sometimes blocking.

the app that will be available
hopefully by the end of the

summer, is one that's going to.

help you continue to answer that
question of what to do instead.

So you hit your screen time limit and
will prompt you to do other activities

as opposed to ignore, limit, which
case you're still on your phone.

Reed: Hmm.

So it sounds like, uh, you know, and I,
I love this approach of it, it seems like

a positive way of, habit forming, like
new habit forming rather than just create

a void or, uh, like kind of a fast, you
know, you create like an alternative path.

Um, for you personally, what
have you found most effective

in replacing screen time with?

Stephen Jaye: Yeah, so there's a few, uh,
that I kind of cite the most commonly.

Uh, one is reading.

We kind of mentioned that before.

Uh, you know, I don't sleep with
my phone and I tell everybody,

don't sleep with your phone.

Sleep with your loved
one's, not your phone.

Uh, so I put my phone in a different
room, in which case I'll have books

or even sometimes some other type of
activities of my brain's a little bit

tired, such as word search and Sudoku.

Things that are, you know, more.

I don't know, just there, but still
offline and still not bombarding

you with, with content, sometimes
content that'll make you depressed.

Uh, a couple other, you know, really
advanced techniques that I have.

If you wanna get to the next
levels, I do find myself, um.

Out and about, and I
don't have my backpack.

I have a backpack that I bring with me,
um, most places, and I almost always

have a book with me so that if I arrive
for a meetup before someone else does,

I'll pull out the book and start reading.

But if I find myself without
the backpack, the, the clearest.

Tactic I do is like, take a
deep breath and actually just

look at the world around you.

And I've done some really silly
things where I will, um, word jumble,

words I see on sign somewhere.

So if I see like two words, I'll
try to jumble them up into two

different words to, you know, I
don't know, just to keep engaging my

brain without pulling out my phone.

So.

That as well as this green tea
technique I use personally to solve

my mid-afternoon energy crash.

Reed: Okay.

Stephen Jaye: have that two, 3:00
PM after lunch, the energy crashes,

and that's when the times when I
found I would waste the most time

watching YouTube videos on my phone.

Reed: Hmm.

Stephen Jaye: and there's a technique
people use called the green tea Technique,

where you actually make a cup of green
tea and then you let yourself take a nap.

But you know, the green tea
will wake you up in 30 minutes.

I can't figure it out if it's because
of the caffeine or because it makes

you have to go to the bathroom.

But either way, it wakes you
up in 30 minutes and then you

wake up more refreshed and
more productive after that nap.

Reed: interesting.

You know, I've actually heard this
from another source, but randomly it.

Stephen Jaye: Yeah,

Reed: it was on this college football
podcast, and these guys, they watched

like every college football game and,
you know, they'd get tired in the

afternoon, just like you described.

And so they'd, drink a cup of
coffee and then take a nap.

And he said like, I'd

Stephen Jaye: yeah,

Reed: I'd feel like I'm
catapulted into the,

Stephen Jaye: yeah.

Reed: doing it to get more screen time.

Stephen Jaye: yeah.

But.

Reed: same similar concept.

That's, that's great.

Um, So would you, would you say that
the of Reclaim Your Time is more

focused on, uh, seizing the benefits
of, uh, limited screen time or,

more of an emphasis on productivity?

Stephen Jaye: Productivity is a great,
uh, you know, byproduct of it, but I

don't wanna limit it to just productivity.

It's wonderful.

And, you know, anyone out there
concerned about productivity,

it's, it's great for it.

But, uh, I really want to leave it
up to the, the user, the customer

for whatever you want with that time.

Because people have different definitions
of what it means to be productive.

When I talk to people about their
motivations for wanting to reclaim that

time, uh, you know, I'll get a lot of
things such as I wanna spend more time

or more quality time with my children,
Some people's definition of productivity

might not include that, which is, you
know, I don't want that limitation there.

So as long as it's like, okay, something
that's going to be good for you is

gonna be some obvious differences.

Like, I wanna start getting in fist
fights in, in the back alley in Rhino

is not gonna be what people want.

Reed: So, you know, the elephant
in the room is, you know, the irony

we're talking through screens here.

Um, doing a podcast, which is
for my business personal brand.

Um.

As a productive, uh, use of time.

how do I balance the, the benefits I
get from, you know, these platforms and

you know, like you said, I'm sure you're
on screens as you're developing the app

that's coming out later this summer.

How do you, make that judgment of what's
the right amount of time to spend on

screens versus when you drift maybe.

Stephen Jaye: Yeah, so I like to
give people this distinction between

intentional and unintentional
screen time, because the right of

mouth is not gonna be one number.

And for example, if you're
a coder, a developer.

You know, that's your job,
that's your livelihood.

So you're naturally going to likely spend
eight hours a day in front of screens and

a lot of that's really productive stuff.

So when I talk about intentional
versus unintentional, what I really

mean is screen time's intentional.

If you know why you're doing it.

you are in control of what content you're
consuming and you have a clear endpoint.

for example, you wanna watch a
two hour movie with your family.

That's not necessarily unintentional.

I could be intentional because I know
what movie, I picked this movie out,

I'm doing it to have a relaxing but
still quality time with my family.

My screen time is done when that two
hour movie ends, when those end credit

goes, it's this kind of open-ended, I let
Netflix play again and again, or I just

scroll with no clear end time, and all of
a sudden the algorithm is dictating what

content I'm consuming as opposed to me.

That's when we hit that unintentional
screen time, and that's the stuff

I think we all need to limit to
pretty much nothing if we can.

Reed: Okay.

Now, tell me about your users, and
your adopters, do they have something

in common that attracts them to this?

does the, customer you envisioned differ
any bit from the early adopters here?

Stephen Jaye: So.

I have a pretty broad idea, so I didn't
come with a very, very high level of

attachment of who the early adopters are.

You know, a lot of people will come
to business and they'll say something

like, my early adapter, I have this
persona, he's 36, his name is Chris,

and you know, he's starting his first
business, but he likes to play golf

on Saturdays, and his favorite ice
cream is Rocky Road or something.

You know, I'm not really
kind of getting into that.

Broader idea is that the people who
attracted this program are gonna be

people who have some kind of a desire
to improve something because you

know, that same thing with kind of
all self-improvement and anything that

we're gonna look at, uh, people have
to have some level of desire for that.

And there are people who just either
don't or are in a place where their

needs are a little bit different.

What I mean by that is that I.

If someone's really, you know, a lot
of these people are people who have

a really high amount of screen time,
but there are people whose needs, um,

they're, they're feeling so far down,
which is, you know, really incredibly sad.

I mean, I have no intention on
writing on these people, people

that are so far down that.

What they really, really need at first
is, is as a therapist, is some sort of a

program to get them to feeling a little
bit better about themselves before they

can even try to tackle on taking on this,
this really, really addictive technology,

which Christ Harris described as a.

Supercomputer pointed at your brain.

Um, but there's also people who
don't like on the other end of

the spectrum, there are people
who kind of have it all already.

You know, I'm already successful,
I already got my life on lock.

Um.

I'm already doing the kind of thing I
really want to do, and therefore they

don't really need kind of anyone to come
in and help them with habits as much.

So it's really those people that
are in the middle of those two

ends of the spectrum that have
some sort of desire as well as some

amount of like open-mindedness to,
to try to do something different

that are the users of this program.

Reed: It's awesome.

Uh, you know, and I love that this
is so, um, I mean obviously it's

the smartphones and the screens
that we have to use everybody.

It affects everybody.

And there's an unlimited
audience for this platform and.

Um, so let me ask you a little bit, if
we can zoom out a little bit as your role

as the founder of, reclaim your time, how
would you define success for your company?

is this something that obviously
is very important and dear to you?

are you able to quantify it any way, or,
what would you like success to look like?

Stephen Jaye: Yeah, and this is where I
run up, against some conventional wisdom

quite frequently because conventional
wisdom always says the idea of specific,

measurable, you know, all that.

Stuff That is all well and good,
but if I think about my motivation

for the business, my motivation
is a lot around kind of cultural

change and a cultural movement.

And so, you know, for example, if you
look at, screen time in general, like

right now, it's hard to quantify what
the average screen time is because

there's a lot of cases where people
are in front of multiple screens

at once, so you can't just take.

Tv, video games, laptops, computers,
and smartphones, and just take all

those numbers and add them together
because how many times have you

seen someone that had the TV on and
they also have their phones out?

But there are some estimates that point
to that number being above 11 hours

per day, in this country right now.

So, you know, success obviously would look
like seeing that number actually start

to come down at some point in the future.

But, also, a lot of that
success kind of shows up in

secondary and tertiary impacts.

this is where I feel like when we
implemented social media and smartphones

to begin with, we didn't actually
think about secondary tertiary impacts.

When we looked at these things, all
we did was look and be like, oh, cool.

I can share photos with everyone
on this Facebook wall because, you

know, Facebook was the big platform.

Then when everything really ramped up, I.

And you know, the idea that, oh, maybe
it's gonna actually make us lonelier.

Oh, you know, because it's gonna
replace, you know, the more in-depth

actual communication person with a
bunch of kind of, I don't know, surface

level, you know, interactions or,
you know, the really nasty stuff that

we see on some of those forms now.

So we never thought about that
secondary, tertiary, which is

one trying to do different.

And I pray we do different with AI, by
the way, but that's a whole nother um.

Uh, a whole nother conversation, but
you know, like if someone reclaims

an hour of their time per day from
an Indictive platform, what they do

at that hour is something that I'll
probably never really know unless

that person kind of specifically,
you know, makes an effort to tell me.

There are some innovations,
maybe some new creativity, a new

music genre could even develop.

It's been about, well, 50 years
since we really developed a whole new

music genre, so, so yeah, all that.

All that stuff coming in would just
look like success, but it's way more

subtle than saying if I reach 100
million in valuation, have valuation

and stuff like that, you know?

Reed: Yeah.

No, I love it.

and, um, I'm sure that having a,
philosophy driven, business, you

know, that you really, I mean it just,
I'm sure it just feels different.

So I am, really impressed
with what you're doing.

And I think we covered everything.

Is there, anything else that people
should know about your platform?

that I didn't touch on?

I feel like I'm coming from an outsider.

I might wanna, give you a chance to,
elaborate on anything that was missing.

Stephen Jaye: Um, yeah, well,
just, just two things real quick.

Number one is that the website
is reclaim your time.co.

Um, I don't have the domain for.com,

it's just co reclaim your time.co.

And then the second thing that I'd
just really like to tell anyone

hearing about this issue in general
is that it is not your fault.

Um, you know, I talked about
that supercomputer pointed at

your brain, the platforms, every
one of them that's addicting.

People left and right.

Right now they're all built.

With one goal in mind.

If you read any book about Mark
Zuckerberg, the history of Facebook slash

meta slash whatever it's called, by the
time you're listening to this, um, or any

other platform like Twitter X or whatever
it's called, by the time you're listening

to this, the, you know, they really, all
economic incentive is to bring in as much.

User hours of engagement
possible because that is what

the value of their business is.

It's entirely, dependent
on that ad revenue.

And the ad revenue really
comes in with number of hours.

So they built these things
to purposely be addictive.

And so I really want anyone who
may be struggling with this, anyone

who may be listening to this and
saying something along the lines of.

Oh my God.

My phone said I spent four hours
and 18 minutes on screens and I

watched all this yesterday and now
I feel like shit about myself to

really, really take a deep breath.

And I just wanna say,
it is not your fault.

You are not to blame for this.

They built this, On so many types of
psychological tricks from, sensory

overload, those flashing lights and
everything to the variable reward system

that is used to, hook people into,
gambling a lot of other things and drugs.

So really, the journey starts with
recognizing that These platforms are

causing big issues, but also recognizing
that this is not your failure.

This is not your moral failure.

This is not some sort of thing
that you did wrong, like,

oh, I am not tough enough.

I don't have enough
willpower, anything like that.

Reed: I love it.

Thank you so much, Steven.

And um, again, that's reclaim your time.co

and um, I will include that
link in the show notes.

Um, Steven, it has been really, I'd
say, inspirational to, to talk with you.

and I'd hope that, like you said,
that anybody struggling with this,

knows it's not their fault that
there are, solutions and remedies

to, controlling the screen time.

So um, enjoyed our conversation
and I hope we can talk again soon.

Steven.

Stephen Jaye: All right.

Uh, thank you so.

Want to stay ahead of what's actually
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Head over to Market surge.io

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