Join Michael Whitehouse on the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast as he sits down with Kris Ward to explore the Win the Hour, Win the Day philosophy, offering invaluable insights on balancing business growth with personal life, and revolutionizing your approach to productivity and networking.
Transcript
Welcome back to the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast. These are bonus episodes that did not fit into Season 6, which was a countdown to JV Connect. We hit JV Connect and we still had some great interviews to share with you. But don't worry, you haven't missed JV Connect. It's a quarterly event. You can learn more about it by sticking around to the end of this episode. We'll tell you all about it. But right now, check out this next awesome interview with one of the awesome people that the Guy Who Knows A Guy knows and is going to introduce to you now. Hello and welcome once again to the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast. I am your host, Michael Whitehouse, the guy who knows a guy himself. And we today are meeting Chris Ward. Chris Ward is a, is creating a movement where your business supports your life instead of consuming it. Sounds pretty good. Chris is the founder of the Win the Hour, Win the Day philosophy and has a book of the same name. After the loss of her husband, Chris returned to full time. Turned full time to her work as a marketing strategist. She was relieved that her business had not only survived her absence, but was growing now. Chris has completely changed landscape for entrepreneurs by sharing these successful practices that allowed her absence. She has shared the stage with quite a few impressive people. It's people you might've heard of like Jack Canfield and Kevin Harrington and James Malinczyk, who's been on this podcast. She is an acclaimed podcaster. You can hear her own podcast. When the hour, when the day where she has engaging conversations with dynamic guests, covering a variety of business topics. So you can get your next win now. And we're going to talk about getting your next win today. About how when the hour and when the day and how that can apply to freeing up your time for networking. That's actually how we met is Chris reached out to me on linkedin and we were talking and I said, I want to get you on the show. But but how do you tie this into networking? And he said, well, you need time to network. So tell us about it, Chris, and tell us about yourself. Welcome to the show.
Kris Ward:Thank you, Michael. It's a very enthusiastic introduction. I'm going to try to use my radio voice cause yours is very clear. I don't think I'm going to compete with you on that, but here I am. And let's dive in. All
Michael Whitehouse:right. So when we talked on, on LinkedIn before the call you were, you were saying that one of the challenges with networking is the time it takes. So you meet a lot of people, you need to follow up with them and you eventually get to the place. And I've been there, that place of, oh, I want to meet with you, but please don't book a one to one because oh God, when am I going to fit that in my calendar? And how can I even run my business with all this? So talk a little about that.
Kris Ward:Yeah. So we all have been there where you're like, listen, I really do want to maintain these relationships and connect with these people. And yeah, let's do lunch or let's connect or have a virtual coffee, but I really want to have done it more than I want to do it today. Cause I don't time for that today, but I want to have done it. Right. Yep. And so that was something that I learned sadly, it took me, oh my gosh, over a decade. Of what I realized is I was rotating relationships instead of maintaining them. And especially when I started my business, you know, 14 plus years ago, listen, let's be just honest about it. There are relationships with people that would have served me now had I maintained them or they rose up the ranks or whatever, they just would have been a good connection. And it wasn't that I. I neglected them. There was just no, I had, you know, you always have whatever's in front of you is the pressing thing and I had no reason to reach out to them. So just by virtue of maintaining that relationship, it dissolved. And that's just a ridiculous thing. Like it just doesn't work. It doesn't serve you in any way. So you know, when you're grinding it out and chasing or, or, you know, doing all that busy work or thinking once you get past this next thing, ding, ding, ding, when you hear yourself say that, that's a problem, right? When I work with my clients, they all tell me they get 25 hours back a week within the first month of working with us. And what we focus on is their team, their toolkits and their time. So we can touch on all those things, but what really the ultimate thing that you want to understand is if you're like me and you used to think, We also have this quiz sidebar conversation that it tells you about your power personnel. And everybody has one. And I've discovered this after many years of working so many entrepreneurs, I am what I call a recovering rush a holic. So as a rush a holic, I was always like, get some done, go, go, go. Right. And you know, busy, busy, busy. And it's hard to squish meaningful connections and with people in between that when you're in a hysterical mode all the time, rushing, you know? So I did have to make some fundamental. You know, differences in my business and that evolved and came from, you know, the situation that my husband, when I came back to work, no one knew of my absence, they just couldn't believe that they, cause we were very positive in nature. We just, it was not how we navigated his journey. So nobody knew the local business community didn't know. And so then people started to ask me like, how could you have done that? And if you could do that, then maybe I can get to my kids soccer games and I, you know, start visiting my family again. Right. And so that's how, when the hour, when the day evolved. And through many things of myself, I learned like, Oh my gosh, you know, here we are, what am I doing? So as far as networking goes, here's something that was a powerful tool for me. And you do have to have. You have to be out of the chaos. You have to be out of the running around thinking once you get past this next thing, the busy work, all these things, but we can, you can do that. That's easily done so much more so than you realize. When that's done, here's something that serves me really well. So I have a networking spreadsheet whenever I'm a guest on a podcast or, you know, they're on my show or I have a meaningful connection with somebody. I put them on this spreadsheet. So that I can maintain this relationship instead of rotating it, but here, here's how it really all started. So, especially when my podcast started, I realized, oh, my gosh, I was getting these great contacts and I was lucky to have people that frankly were above my pay grade, come to my show and, you know, then I'd be all excited connecting with them. Oh, you know, whatever LinkedIn, Facebook, whatever and thinking, oh, I'm going to maintain this relationship and then. All of a sudden time goes by interview more people and then the algorithm all of a sudden floats away that person that was so important to me last month. Right? So I start realizing. Oh, this is not good. I'm making these connections, but I'm not maintaining them. So cut to a story where. I had somebody on my show and we were talking about people always in kindly talk about my enthusiasm, my high energy. Great. And I said, you know, that's all well and good. People always compliment me on that. However, sleep is the issue, learning how to calm down, go to sleep, relax, all this stuff. So I was talking to someone and she said you know, she was talking about weighted blankets and I was like, ah, I don't know. I've tried everything, but whatever. So cut to a month later. I send an email and I said, Oh my gosh, I didn't believe it. I ordered one. I, I didn't even want to email you up front because it's working so well, but it's been a month and now it's really working. La la la la. And then I get the email back and she said, Chris, I'm so happy you're sleeping well. That's amazing. However, I did not have that conversation with you. Right? So I was like, Oh, now to be fair. There is two women that were on my show. They were both talking about marketing. They were both red heads. I mean, it was really to get them confused, but nonetheless, I looked like a crazy person. And then it also makes you less confident. You don't want to make personal references if you're like unsure of yourself. So I have this networking spreadsheet and column one has just a little snapshot of their picture. It could be anywhere, LinkedIn or a screenshot when they're on my show, whatever. There's a picture. There's the name. We recognize faces more than names. Then I have, I even have BFF best, best business. I would like a BBF best business, but our friend or whatever, like, is it someone I really connect with? I can call them up in a second and say, Hey, you got to meet Michael, get them on your show. Like, can I have that shorthand conversation with, so are they like a BFF? Then I have something personal about them. Like maybe when I was just chatting. You know, with you right now, Michael, maybe you said something like, oh, my gosh, sorry. I'm late. My dog was at the vet. Whatever. I'd be like, okay, put that in there because it, it will anchor that relationship. And also I can ask you later about your dog. Right? So, it's just really bullet points and, but it has changed. My life, because then I have this spreadsheet and then I can also go around Michael and I can say, Oh, you know what? I met so and so today and then I go back on the spreadsheet and I might introduce you to get you on a different podcast Because I also have a column where a Google Docs link and I go in there whenever I make any connection with you I document it. So I'm like, oh, yeah, I sent him this person three months ago So I have this, you know a little just bullet points of anything. I've sent you or talked to you about or whatever So it's clear there And then I'm confident and I can proceed and people then go, Oh, Chris, Chris is the best. And she's always connecting me to people and, you know, they think that I all remember them like so clearly. And a lot of them I do now that I have these notes in front of me, but it really means that I'm having meaningful relationships. But again. To do this, you have to have other things in place so you're just not chasing your tail all the time. Interesting.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great. I love the spreadsheet concept. One of the challenges I would have is looking for some kind of, of CRM database system and they're all built for sales. They're all, they're all built based on the pipeline and based on, you know, there's nothing, Interesting. I, I think there's a couple out there. I'm actually meeting with someone in a few weeks about one that might work, but I've yet to find one that can record like introductions. Who have I introduced this person to? It has, you know, sales calls and has purchases, but doesn't have introductions, which is the currency of, of networking. And I'm, I'm getting back more to the, the almighty spreadsheet. Simple.
Kris Ward:Sorry, this is the concern so many people get confused with being effective as being productive and being productive tends to be this concept of producing more and going faster and higher output where I'm all about school hours. You should be able to work school hours, long weekends. You know, short days, longer summers. And when I'm often, we have so much technology coming at us. And what happens is you always think new tech is the answer. And what I would tell you is when you have a team in place, when you have very basic, what we call super toolkits, they're like systems and processes on steroids. And when you know how to use your calendar, cause 95 percent of people do not know how to use their calendar effectively. When you have all these things in play, you don't need. 90 percent of the technology that you think you do, like this new complicated software. First of all, I would tell you any software that I suggest to my clients, it's almost either free or next to free. And if you can't learn it in five to 10 minutes, then it's not the software.
Michael Whitehouse:That's what I said already.
Kris Ward:There's all these complications about, you know, I'll, no, I'll show you my spreadsheet so you can show and tell after the call and you'll be like, this is genius and it's so simple, but so impactful.
Michael Whitehouse:Yep. Yeah, no. And that's, and actually I'm already thinking that I do keep a spreadsheet of introductions I make. So I can always look back and say, did I make the introduction? And it's interesting to what you're saying about, you know, how you have less confidence without the spreadsheet, not having confidence. What if I make a mistake? And one thing for me. That I've, I've embraced is just, you know, radical authenticity. And, you know, I'm, I'm very open. I have ADHD. I don't remember things. And so I'm, I lead with value. So in a meeting I'll make introductions first. I'm pretty forward with, I probably won't remember your dog's name or your birthday or anything else, but I'm going to make three grand introductions for you before this call's over. So you don't care. And people are like, well, okay, that's cool. He makes introductions for me and doesn't remember my birthday. Sounds good, I like this guy. But it's, it's, it's I imagine most people are are not comfortable, and it's probably taken me a while to get to this point comfortable to, like if I sent that email and they were like you're, I didn't recommend you I would be probably momentarily embarrassed and then I'd make a joke out of it and then leverage that into a conversation because now there's vulnerability from admitting a mistake. And I'd be like, great. I've got two relationships now being raised up one from the mistake and one from, you know, the thank you. But most people are in a place of, especially if they come from corporate where that's very much an environment of don't make mistakes. So I think for most people out there listening who aren't. crazy like me. That's really powerful to be able to, to have that confidence and not, and you know, not make those kinds of mistakes.
Kris Ward:Yeah, and I have no problem owning my mistakes or being fun about it. No big deal. But at the same time, what happens is, you know, you and I were spending, like, we would spend 30 minutes together and it's a really meaningful conversation. Like it's condensed and we have fun and I really get to know you. And then you do four more interviews today. And all of a sudden you're like, Oh wait, hold on now. Like we bonded so much. And then four people replaced that. So I think. It does really help. But what it also jars my memory is then when I have to go through my list, if somebody, you know, I do want to be of service and I'm like, Oh, this person, I really want to get them on a bunch of shows who really connected. They helped me with something. Let me see if I can make some intros. So then I go through with my visuals and I see that column, like, Oh, she'd like him. Oh yeah. And it just jogs my memory. And, and I, people, I definitely wouldn't. I have remembered if I'm now looking at the ceiling, right? So, so it just, again, one of the big things that we work with all our clients is it's really all about brain power to like, I believe you should start your day refreshed and leave fresh and you should be able to do anything at three o'clock in the afternoon as efficiently as nine in the morning. And so when you have these resources at your fingertips, and this is just one of many, you know, things that we've implemented, it just frees you to hop on and do something quick. So that way I'm not. Getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night going, Oh, right. And she's like, Steve too. Right. Write that down, you know? So it just, it's really the simplicity of ease and allowing you to build more and more effectiveness and efficiency of your business. So you can leverage it, get more output in less time and make more money.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. Yeah. I love the spreadsheet. I'm definitely going to be building, adding one. Or, but we're just adding a tab to my spreadsheet with like, who are these people? I think I tried to do it once before and I think I over complicated it. Yes, we all do that. Yeah, I like the idea of just like picture name. Personal thing and, you know, and, and like maybe podcast, you know, podcast and that's, and that's it.
Kris Ward:And it's just so, cause I think you're right. Networking, I really think is so important. And then what happens, this happens a lot with my type of client. So a lot of my clients look really good on paper. They have been in business five, 10 years. They might have a podcast or book or they're doing all these things, but no one knows how many hours they're working or that they're still putting in way too many hours. For this point in their journey, right? And so then you try to network or do these things with sort of clenched teeth as you're screaming in your head. I have, Oh, I got to get to that next thing. And what am I doing next? Right. And you, it just doesn't work when you squish it in between other activities. Cause you know, it's something you should do, but it doesn't feel like it's something you should do when your brain is screaming that you have to get these other things done, like you got a new. Client, you have to on board, you have to do all these things. So then networking is the first thing that's pushed to the side. Like, cause it's doesn't have a deadline. You're like, I don't have to do this today. And all of a sudden today is like, Holy Hannah. I haven't spoken to that guy in six years. And now is not the time to call and say, Hey, I saw you were speaking on this event. I'd love an introduction. I haven't called you in six years. It's suddenly you're a priority.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah.
Kris Ward:Yeah. So it's so easy to push that off to the side and then it just falls off, you know, the plan. But I do think your net work is your net worth you. I don't need to tell you that, but it's one of the most important things and the first thing to go. Yeah,
Michael Whitehouse:absolutely. So tell me more about the, the, the broader win the hour, win the day philosophy. Yeah.
Kris Ward:So when we talk about that again, we focus on team time and toolkits. So your team, here's the thing. In the corporate world, wherever you are in the world, what happens is most of these relationships are parentified. So you work for somebody, your manager, supervisor, and it's really like your parent, they check your work and it's really got that parentified system. So what we're about is about building a win team, a what is next team so that you can get to what is next and what is next. And in that we have a leadership program. We find hire and on board. VAs for you. Were not an agency. 'cause that's, VA agencies have a whole bunch of problems with them. They undercut the VAs, they sign non-disclosure. So you are in contract and you think you're paying 'em eight bucks an hour and you're not. All these other things. But for the efficiency of what we do, we don't want that learning curve with. You know, that hire it because it's a whole thing itself, hiring somebody. So we do that for you. And then we train you how to do it. We either do things for you for speed, or we teach you how to do it for independence. And we have this whole leadership program with the VAs, and we do all this training, teach them how to make super toolkits, and we do that because really what you want to have, you truly do want to have a team you, whether that team is one person or two, you really want to be removed from what the only thing most of us know is that. Parentified system and so many people often talk about. You know, a culture in a company, and they think I know I did for years that that kicks in when you got 50 or 500 people. But a really quick example, Michael would be if I was in an ocean liner and something happened and there's chaos and you know, whatever's an emergency and there's 500 people on that boat and I find the hundred, you know, really, they look like they got a plan. I'm sticking with these people. Let's stay with them. This is a good plan. Great. If I'm in a rowboat with two other people and there's a hole in it. Everybody in the boat better be able to pull their weight because we are susceptible to a much bigger, you know, conflict here. So that's a big thing is you have this idea of like so many people, small business people, they small business owners. What will happen is they will hire someone and give them delegate, which is a lateral move. It never works. So we're still coming through you. They give the person they hired a bunch of overflow work. And then when they catch up from that, then it's back on you to produce more. And then you think, Oh, it's just easier to do myself, but it's the infrastructure that's not there. That's a hugely problematic and why you never get to network.
Michael Whitehouse:Interesting. Okay. Yeah. So it's about. Yeah,
Kris Ward:and so we use super toolkits, which people often say, well, what's the difference between that SOP? So standard operating procedures are usually not, they're usually written, not by the end user. They're static in nature and they're usually there to cover liability where super toolkits are breathing documents that are constantly changing and evolving. Allowing for more and more bandwidth on your calendar. And because no matter what you're doing, you know, when I wrote my book, when the arrow in the day, I thought when it was done, there would be a parade in my honor. Like the book is done. All right. I am now at peace with my life. Right. But of course, that's the starting point. Well, now I need to promote the book. Now I need to be on podcast. Now I need to pitch the podcast and I need time to get on the podcast. So there's always, no matter what you think your big ambition is, once you do that, then you need more time for the fallout of that ambition. So we operate under the principle that you should be in 60 percent admin mode. And sorry, 60 percent execution mode and 40 percent admin. So you should always be doing, you should always have more bandwidth on your calendar of sort of your next big project. And that's what the super toolkits allow you to do that. We're always able to move forward. Like we have really. Amped up our whole program for our VAs that, you know, in the leadership program, now we're making an accreditation program and they're going to be tested and there's all these things and that takes some legwork. We're setting it up now as I speak, right? Well, that's fine. We found the bandwidth on my calendar because of the super toolkits we use. So there's always something new and you need to have, be able to have the real estate on your calendar to implement that new.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, no, it's definitely key. And that makes, makes a lot of, I found a lot in my business, the more I've been able to systematize. And have those dynamic kits because I've, I've one assistant helps you, you know, setting up summits and things like that. And and, and it's worked very well to give an entry point. That's because I've never worked in corporate. So I've only I've heard stories. But the, the, the, the, the quote unquote SOP were created was to give her a starting point. And then she has authority to change it in any way that makes sense to her. Cause originally I was like, okay, so I'm going to work with, I'm going to take her through step by step, inch by inch of this whole thing. And I thought, you know what? The software is pretty intuitive. No one taught me to use it. Why don't I give her, you know, there's one thing. It's a block of text. It's, you know, the agreement. I'm going to give her the agreement. I'm not gonna make her write that, but I was going to kind of give her the outline and most of the steps and then if she has a more efficient way to do it, she can change the document and improve it. And that worked very well, because instead of spending eight hours with her going through the entire process with me, I spent 40 minutes writing down all the key things that were cut and paste, like this is the document that should be there. And then, you know, make sure you also do this, this, and this. And then if she did something that wasn't what I wanted, then I'd say, correct this thing here. Which took a lot less time than having her sit over my shoulder, you know, on Zoom sharing screen for going through the entire process. And it worked, worked way, way better. So it sounds like you're that that's some of the idea you're talking about. Yeah.
Kris Ward:So also it happens too. Sometimes people get caught up in like, Oh, I work with so and so and they're amazing and they're amazing until something happens or whatever they need to change your job or, or they're amazing. Maybe you want to promote them. I know for us, when we were coming out of all those crazy lockdowns, we had someone on our team who had been with us a couple of years and she was our social media manager. And she was in the Philippines and she had applied years ago before all the craziness to go to school in Canada. So all of a sudden we were given like two weeks notice that she was now accepted and her whole life had to be like, hello, you got 10 days to move from the Philippines to Canada. Now, of course she wanted to stay with us, but it wasn't realistic. That's another thing when they love working with you and it's so easy and they have so much independence and they're really treated as valued team member, they all say for me and all my clients, it feels like it's their company and it just. It's just an exciting place to be. But so what happens, we found someone new, Maura. Well, this was like two weeks before Christmas. I hired Maura. We have this 12 point hiring process with a 90 percent retention rate. And then Maura was given all the super toolkits and she was up to 80 percent capacity by January 7th because they're very clear. We just hand them over. It's really like if you were hiring a carpenter. You're not teaching them how to be a carpenter, but you say, here is a super toolkits. Here is our measurements and where the wood is stored and everything you need to know, you know, because so many times people confuse training. We're in the SOPs and the SOPs, again, are very dry. They have too many words. There's too much ambiguousness. And I don't, that's, I think I just made a new word, but anyhow. And yes, there you go in, in it. And there's a lot of clutter. So there's all these nuances with the super toolkit that make it really efficient to whip through it. So, yeah, but it's definitely along those lines. Yep.
Michael Whitehouse:Also, like I said, too many words and ambiguous, which is why there's so many words, so it's not ambiguous, but yeah, often words create confusion, not clarity.
Kris Ward:Especially when you create your own new words,
Michael Whitehouse:ambiguosity. Yeah, a lot of ambiguosity going on there. Yeah, yes. I like that concept there that you want to, you know, you want to have a dynamic system, um, you don't have to be in everything and, and to accept that the people on your team may not always be the people on your team.
Kris Ward:Yeah. Yeah. Or they may get promoted and you can't hold somebody there because you're so afraid of, you know, of a bump in the road. So it really is like suspension in your car. I don't know. Back in the day when you were younger, if you had a clunker and all of a sudden you'd hit a pothole and it's like, really thought the wheels would fall off, right? And so what we want is people say, Oh my gosh, you know what? Summer's coming. Christmas coming. Oh, we're launching a product. Oh, I got a new client on boarding. And there's always something that this week's in chaos or so and so is sick. Right? Well, guess what? That's just nature of life and business things happen. So you want to have these super toolkits so that. You, you are constantly, you know, keeping the car on the road and you might hit a little pothole hiccup for a second, but the wheels don't fall off. And so for most of myself or my clients, what they'll say is things that would have derailed me for the week now are like a 15, 20 minute thing, right? And so it's just, well, we have one client. Here's a quick story. Christine was referred to us by somebody else. Now, I don't encourage this, but the situation is lots of times when people refer to me, they, again, this is not okay. I'm not saying it's okay, but they often miss the first meeting because they are in crazy zone and their hair's on fire. So I'm like,
Michael Whitehouse:missing the first meeting is a qualifier. Your ideal clients will miss the first meeting because that's, I'm not telling
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Kris Ward:to go do that because it's not, I don't enjoy it, but it has happened more than once. So she missed the second meeting and I was like, next to that, we're done, right? But she reached out to me and said, please, please, please, please, so and so said all these things about you. I am so sorry. I swear. And I was like, okay, I was, I was not into this, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. So we met. So. Christine actually said to me, how are you going to help me? Cause she dealt with companies that were looking to sell their business and they had to get their systems. And they were like five, 10 million companies getting their systems in play, ready to be sold. She goes, I help people with systems. How can you help me? I just have too much and too many clients and all these things. I'm like, I don't know, but I do know I can do it. All right, fine. So she would tell you, and there's the clippings of. From her sessions, live sessions, not even her giving a testimonial on my website. And she would tell you that when she was started working with us, she needed to have some sort of medication for sleep because of her adrenaline, all this other stuff, right? Cut to not only of course, you would say within the first month, was she getting 25 hours back a week and all that stuff within the year. With the VA, we found a super duper kits we put in play within the year. She was in Costa Rica for a month with no wifi. Why the, while the VA we found for her was maintaining the company with everything in play. She also quadrupled her income and cut her hours down to like something going from 60, 70 hours down to like 25. So it's, it's so doable. And. And I am so horrified when the sad thing is so many people I work with, you know, they're in isolation because again, they look good on paper and they've just like, trying to get around this next corner and how many corners have that been? How many years have you been doing this? So that's the thing I want to tell you. It's not about hard work. Or you, you'd have done it by now, right? It's a, it's a whole different thing. It's just, you need to focus on your team, your time and your toolkits.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. Yeah. That's, that makes a lot of sense. And, and I, I think also people get so caught in the weeds and that they over prioritize everything. When everything's a 10, nothing's a 10. So that the other one delegates, I can't do it as well as I can like, yeah, but nobody cares. How will you do that?
Kris Ward:Well, and, and, you know, three people doing it at 80 percent of what you could do is a whole lot. A hundred percent, like, come on, you know, so yes.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, yeah, I think that that's the key thing is that they're like, I got to do this and you know, these are big clients. These clients are very demanding and they're going to want this to be perfect and they're going to want, but they'd probably rather that thing they don't notice being 80 percent and you having the time to talk to them because you're not running around your hair on fire, then
Kris Ward:I would also argue too that there's a lot of pre and post work that people don't realize are they they've attached to their actual talent. So I had another client Sue and she's a designer and she said, Chris, you don't understand. I go into people's homes. I look at the stuff and although she's got a background in design, she's not even something I can teach another designer. Most people just have too much furniture. It's a decluttering. It's all this stuff. Like you don't get it. So we sat down and we looked at her average appointment was about two and a half, three hours, long story. Short, we started to look at stuff and she was sitting there asking questions, filling forms. Well, there was still pre and post work. So when we did that, and we turned that into admin chores, which by the way, was easier on the client. Cause then it was done ahead of time and it was less involved. And when we did that, then her appointments got down to about 45 minutes. So now. What she's done is she will stack her appointments in the morning and just do the morning appointments. And now she's emceeing really big events, like for home and garden, you know, TV network and Brian Balmer and all these things. And she's doing all these big things that she would never have the time to do before. And she's so thought, no, this is my talent. This is, it's very personalized. I go into these people's home. We can't leverage or scale this. So there's always pre and post work that you think. Is everything, but it's not.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. Yeah. And that that's really, really key that there's the thing that you're really good at. Yeah. Nobody else can do for you and there's everything else. So, you know, like for me, it's, it's the being on camera part. So I run, run summits, podcasts, whatnot. I couldn't delegate interviewing people. Then someone else would be on the podcast and it'd be their podcast, not mine, but I can delegate, I can delegate editing it. I can delegate writing the summary. I can delegate. So actually the entirety I do for this podcast is book the call and show up here and talk to you. Everything else, Kendra takes care of. anD so I don't take care of any of the rest of that because at one point I'm like, I don't have time for this podcast anymore. I, you know, I get on the call with people and I gotta do this and I gotta do that and I gotta edit it and I gotta put it, I'm like, wait a minute, I have an assistant. I bet she can do all that stuff. It's the same every time. It's putting the intro on, putting the outro on, balancing the levels, putting the, you know, creating the graphic. It's, it's all this stuff that at first, like, I don't know how I'm going to explain it. I'm like, this isn't rocket science. And Kendra's pretty smart. She can figure it out. So, you know, and now the podcast is fun to do again and same thing with my summits that it used to be a lot of like, I gotta write this, I gotta write that and prepare and then I realized the fun part is being on zoom, running the room, meeting the speakers, going into the breakouts, the not fun part is writing the swipe copy and writing this and writing that and so more and more I'm taking all the not fun stuff, giving it to her, I'm doing all the stuff I do and it's great and, and so, I feel like the ideal is you get to the point where the only stuff you're doing is the stuff that you're brilliant at, and if you're merely good at it, you don't do it.
Kris Ward:Yeah, I agree. I mean, people often say, you know, do you believe in eating the frog? You do that work first. I'm like, there should be no frog to eat. Like if you know, you're doing something you don't like doing, then you can't be good at it. And it sucks the life out of you before you get to the stuff that does energize you. So I totally agree.
Michael Whitehouse:We have people who think frogs are delicious. They eat. Yes. Yes. We let them eat the frogs. And we, we What, what, what cultures eats frog legs, that French? I don't know. We hire French people. They eat frogs for us and we do the stuff we like. So yeah, that makes a great, otherwise what's the point of, you know, owning a
Kris Ward:business? Yeah. I agree. Business should be fun or else. Why did you leave that job? I absolutely.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. Some other thing is not fun. It'll give you a paycheck like every week, the same paycheck, usually a big one. If you're well skilled. Very little overhead. Yep. I mean, I don't know what that's like. Cause I've never done it, but I've heard. And so if you don't like this, why are you doing this? Do that. So that makes a lot of sense. So is there anything I've not touched on that I should have asked you about?
Kris Ward:Oh, we could talk day and night. I mean, I could do this forever, so don't ask me that. So yes, I would just say, remember, listen. It's not about grinding it out. Your business should support your life, not consume it. And if, you know, people often say, when do you think you should hire? I'm like, well, you should have done the first day. You want to get more done and make more money and work less hours because it's insanely affordable. We're talking five, six us dollars an hour, but it's really not whether I've had clients come that were paying 50, 60 bucks an hour for, you know, a VA or whatever, and it's really not about. How much you're paying. It's the infrastructure put in place to support the success. So yeah, you know, just business should support your life, not consume it. And it should be
Michael Whitehouse:fun. Yep. And the other thing I do want to bring up there is, is that, I think some people like six bucks an hour, we're taking advantage of those poor people. But in the countries where they're getting 6 an hour, often that's a middle class lifestyle, right? Well,
Kris Ward:they become the breadwinner. So not only are the roads quite dangerous, say over in the Philippines, so they don't leave the house and be on a motorbike, which a lot of them travel for. But I know people that work for me or my clients will say, Oh my gosh, like I'm the breadwinner of the family because there it's like 10 a day is minimum wage. They're making, you know, quite a comfortable living getting to be, for the most part, flexible with their hours. So no, they are quite thrilled with this. It's, it's a win for them. And it's a definitely a win for us. Yeah. Yeah. So you're changing their lives because they become upper class. Like somebody who's working for me, she's got to get in a car. And she said like. over in the Philippines, the wealthy have cars. And she's like, this is so exciting. And so many people I know, you know, would never dreamed of having a car their entire life, but now because of the income she makes through us, it's a big deal.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. So, so, so for those who aren't familiar with like different cultures and how, just how different the cost of living is that yeah. And, and I think for some of them, the other thing to consider is, is some people, you know, I want to pay them 40 an hour that if you were to take someone in the Philippines and give them 40 an hour. It could potentially, it's just like someone over here, if they suddenly started making 800, 000 a year without warning and without preparation, they'd probably go bankrupt because they, well,
Kris Ward:that's a separate discussion, but I would also say to you, it just doesn't serve your business. So you want to have it to be a win for both. Yep.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. So but so for anyone who's like, oh, I don't want to take advantage of those poor people and give them sex, but you're not taking advantage of them. They're happy. You're getting them to a middle class lifestyle. You're keeping them off the dangerous road. I didn't even, I didn't even realize that part of it. But you're, you know, you're taking good care of them. And, and just like any place else, you take good care of your people and treat them well. They treat you well. And and our new did this whole internet thing. I think it might stick around. I think it might catch on. aNd so your podcast is when the hour, when the day, where else can people connect with you?
Kris Ward:Yeah. You can check me on socials. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. Tell people that you tell me that you heard me on this really fantastic podcast. We'll become fast friends. You can also check out free. Free F R E E gift G I F T from Chris K R I S dot com. Free gift from chris. com. We have some goodies there. You can check out our power personality. It's customized results. It gives you immediate feedback of what your strengths are and things to help you navigate, whether you're. And I believe we still, I just put it up there. So we got a free version of my audio book that you can download. So a whole bunch of goodies there. You want to check it out. Free gift from chris.
Michael Whitehouse:com even better. And so since you're listening to this in your car, rushing between appointments, what you need to do right now is pull your car over safely and take your phone off the holder and go to free gift from chris. com and not say you'll do it later because will they do it later? Chris. Probably not. Probably not. So do it right now. Pull over safely or turn off the lawnmower or whatever you're doing. Go to free gift from chris. com and check out all the cool stuff there. It'll only take a minute. And then you can go back to driving or mowing the lawn or washing dishes or doing whatever you were doing. Sounds good to me. All right. Well, thank you for being on the show, Chris. It's been great to have you.
Kris Ward:Thank you, Michael. I appreciate it.
Michael Whitehouse:Thank you so much for joining us on the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast. I'm your host, Michael Whitehouse. Be sure to join us for the next JV Connect. Learn all about it at jv connect. com. You can also get my Five Steps to Profitable Networking course for free right there on that site. Our goal is that in two days, you're going to get over 100, 000 of value from the connections you made. And this applies whether you are brand new in business or well established. So be sure to join us. JV Connect. Dash connect dot com in March, June, September and December. All the dates and details are right there on the website.