In this episode of the SIA Business Show, Liam shares his valuable insights on topics like: - 2:40 First business at the age of 18: Innovative Skate Guards for Ice Skates – Used by hockey players or figure skaters (He had used Pakistani manufacturers.) - 4:55 First business became a success; no need to do a part-time job like other students. - 5:19 Selling the first business to pay for Graduate School - 5:34 Setup a more successful tutoring business during graduate school - 5:39 Family's wish to go for the 'safer choice' of pursuing a doctorate in sociology - 6:58 How Liam looks at a business venture being a more stable option than any 'stable job'. "I am in control of my security. You are not." - 9:20 How family and friends don't get the fact that location independent entrepreneurs are not on vacation all the time. "I travel 3-4 months out of the year. But I am not on vacation. I am working." - 9:34 "We want to empower workers to work wherever they want, whenever they want." - 9:41 The link between remote work and happiness - 10:00 Introduction to Time Doctor and Staff.com. Details on how these tools help you analyze your own productivity and that of your employees - 11:00 Difference between time spent on a task and actual productivity. "Just because you are in the office for 10 hours day doesn't mean you got anything done." - 12:29 Wrong perspective of employers: "Because you are in an office and I can see you tapping on your keyboard, that means you are doing something." - 13:30 Why Liam prefers employees who can work with them long-term in a full-time capacity - 13:50 "Agencies/consultancies are selling time and they want to sell as little as possible for the maximum return. On the reverse side, I want as much time as possible for as little money as possible." - 14:38 Employee hiring and onboarding process of Time Doctor and Staff.com [They use over 200 job posting boards and sites] - 15:17 The 300-30-3 rule for employee recruitment by Liam & Company to find the right culture fit - 16:22 Liam's definition of culture fit - 19:00 A unique video policy of Time Doctor and Staff.com along with a more innovative and upcoming VR based initiative for helping the team reduce the 'loneliness' typically associated with remote work - 20:28 An example of KPIs in place for measuring employee productivity by delving deep into how the content marketing and SEO team of Liam's companies measure their progress - 24:37 Why Liam loves Ahrefs, and his favorite variable of the platform - 27:33 Liam's thoughts on people, processes and tools: what comes first? - 28:14 How the Distraction Economy is investing "trillions of dollars" apart from employing thousands of PhDs, psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists to find out "how to distract you and how to KEEP you ADDICTED" - 30:13 Example: Super Cell – Clash of Clans & Clash Royale make a couple of billion dollars a month through microtransactions - 31:06 The only KPI that YouTube's ranking algorithm cares about is watch time - 34:53 Comparing your productivity to your health, revenue, and other metrics. Liam reveals a secret internal Fitbit integration project. - 41:46 Why Liam distanced himself from execution, and why he sees himself as an executive rather than an entrepreneur. He spends 2 hours each day just thinking. - 42:50 Why SAAS is Liam's most favorite business model - 43:15 The quest to follow Peter Thiel's 10x better 10x cheaper mantra of exponential innovation - 43:27 How a machine-learning algorithm of Liam's startups can predict with 89% accuracy if your employee is going to quit his job 6 months before they actually do. - 50:40 Why Liam thinks remote work is still in the early stages of its evolutionary process, and his predictions on its future - 51:15 Why Liam and team are organizing the Running Remote Conference in Ubud, Bali BONUS: Listeners of this episode can avail what Liam calls "the biggest discount we have given to anyone" if they plan on attending the Running Remote conference. Use code: sayedirfan for 30% off.