The Priority Show

Episode Summary: What Mike has been doing to find focus and clarity in business and life, starting with a hurricane evacuation packing list and turning into a full self-audit and decluttering of his home and work environment.

What You’ll Learn

• What Hurricane Irma’s evacuation packing list taught Mike about real priorities
• A practical purging technique for decluttering a home room by room
• Why simplifying physical space is really a mindset hack, not just tidying
• The “snowball effect” of small positive habits compounding into bigger clarity

Lyrics Trivia

“Take what you need and leave the rest.” What song are these lyrics from, who wrote it, and what band played the original? The song is The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, written by Robbie Robertson in 1969 and originally performed by The Band. It’s been covered widely — Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and a favorite version by The Jerry Garcia Band. (“Dixie,” for context, was the nickname for the Confederate States.)

What Is This Episode About?

Clarity is the state of being clear, and this episode is about finding clarity on goals and priorities — largely by simplifying and removing the distractions and external noise that cause overwhelm. The goal: inspire a step back to look at the big picture across job, business, podcast, social channels, and branding, and honestly assess whether time is actually going toward what matters most.

The story that started it: evacuating for Hurricane Irma meant packing 4 bags of essentials and valuables and accepting that everything left behind — including the place of residence itself — might be destroyed.

What made the cut: good podcasting and audio gear, camera equipment — DSLR, lenses, GoPros, chargers, batteries, a laptop, an iPad, and some clothes. The old faithfuls: a Shure SM58 and a Martin acoustic D16 guitar. (Full gear list on Kit.) Take what you need, and leave the rest.

Post-Irma Self-Audit

A hard look at business and personal goals followed: are priorities actually in order? Is time going toward the most important things while building the personal brand and business? The honest answer — wheels had been spinning for months, and a real pause and recalibration was overdue to avoid working in circles instead of moving forward.

What Got Done, and What You Can Do

Clean house — literally and figuratively. Starting with the evacuation bags themselves, sorted into two piles: keep and sell. Then room by room, sorted three ways: keep (used regularly, actually needed), toss (not even thrift-store worthy), and sell (real resale value). Facebook Marketplace worked well for local sales — some spam and time-wasting inquiries, but genuine success with minimal effort.

Simple Is Good

Less clutter, more productivity and motivation — a feeling worth chasing on repeat.

A Purging Technique (for anyone who struggles to let go)

• Dump entire drawers or shelves of clothes and only put back what genuinely can’t be parted with. Be ruthless — most discarded things are forgotten almost immediately.
• Don’t stop at big items — cleaning supplies, hotel toiletries, kitchen gadgets, Tupperware, plastic bags, tote bags, old magazines, paperwork, orphaned cables, excess silverware and dishes, spices, mugs, trinkets, old artwork.
• Start with the easy stuff: dump out desk and junk drawers. If there are 1,000 paperclips, toss 975 — plenty for years.
• Don’t save things “just in case.” That old suit is never getting worn. Thrift store donations are tax-deductible and genuinely appreciated.

Clean

Cleaning itself fuels the same positive momentum — open windows for fresh air and light, dust off equipment, clear the desk surface, sweep and mop, wipe counters, and finally deal with whatever’s been sitting in the fridge for months.

Mindset

The real secret isn’t the decluttering itself — it’s building the habit of staying aware of what actually matters and leaving no room for what doesn’t. The process is genuinely fun and a little addictive, and it tends to save and make money at the same time: once you realize you don’t need more stuff, the buying mindset naturally fades, and selling off things that have been sitting around adds up.

The Snowball Effect

Making the bed in the morning is a small habit that starts a chain reaction — pick up the clothes, then the towel, then everything else that’s out of place, because momentum is already going. That’s what prioritizing and simplifying does more broadly: small, positive habits compound and make it obvious what’s out of balance. This isn’t about being a minimalist or a clean freak — it’s that less stuff means less to manage, and more clarity on what actually matters. Try a small step and see how it feels.

Priority

Priority means something regarded as more important than something else. The real question: is more time going toward what’s genuinely important, or toward email replies, Facebook browsing, and Instagram scrolling? Having less to manage and clean makes it easier to maintain good habits across every part of business and life. Next up: reducing digital clutter and simplifying business workflows — Episode 109.

Show Notes & Links

• The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
• The Jerry Garcia Band version
• Mike’s Podcast Kit
• Mike’s Photo/Video Kit
• Shure SM58
• All of Mike’s Gear
• Facebook Marketplace

Related Episodes

• Episode 109: The Digital Cleanup Show