February 24, 2024 • 37 mins
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.
Mentioned in this episode:
JV Connect, December 12-13, 2023
Join us for JV Connect, the dedicated networking event December 12th and 13th, 2023 https://www.jv-connect.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michael Whitehouse (00:03):
Welcome back to the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast.
These are bonus episodes thatdid not fit into Season 6, which
was a countdown to JV Connect.
We hit JV Connect and we still had somegreat interviews to share with you.
But don't worry, youhaven't missed JV Connect.
It's a quarterly event.
You can learn more about it by stickingaround to the end of this episode.
We'll tell you all about it.
But right now, check out this nextawesome interview with one of the awesome
(00:26):
people that the Guy Who Knows A Guy knowsand is going to introduce to you now.
Hello and welcome once again tothe 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.
(00:46):
Chris Ward is a, is creating amovement where your business supports
your life instead of consuming it.
Sounds pretty good.
Chris is the founder of the Winthe 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 workas a marketing strategist.
She was relieved that herbusiness had not only survived
(01:08):
her absence, but was growing now.
Chris has completely changed landscape forentrepreneurs by sharing these successful
practices that allowed her absence.
She has shared the stage withquite a few impressive people.
It's people you might've heardof 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.
(01:28):
When the hour, when the day whereshe has engaging conversations
with dynamic guests, coveringa variety of business topics.
So you can get your next win now.
And we're going to talk aboutgetting your next win today.
About how when the hour and whenthe day and how that can apply to
freeing up your time for networking.
That's actually how we met isChris reached out to me on linkedin
(01:49):
and we were talking and I said,I want to get you on the show.
But but how do you tiethis into networking?
And he said, well, youneed time to network.
So tell us about it, Chris,and tell us about yourself.
Welcome to the show.
Kris Ward (02:01):
Thank you, Michael.
It's a very enthusiastic introduction.
I'm going to try to use my radiovoice cause yours is very clear.
I don't think I'm going to competewith you on that, but here I am.
And let's dive in.
All
Michael Whitehouse (02:12):
right.
So when we talked on, on LinkedInbefore the call you were, you were
saying that one of the challengeswith networking is the time it takes.
So you meet a lot of people, youneed 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, whenam I going to fit that in my calendar?
(02:32):
And how can I even run mybusiness with all this?
So talk a little about that.
Kris Ward (02:36):
Yeah.
So we all have been there whereyou're like, listen, I really do
want to maintain these relationshipsand connect with these people.
And yeah, let's do lunch or let'sconnect or have a virtual coffee,
but I really want to have done itmore than I want to do it today.
Cause I don't time for thattoday, but I want to have done it.
Right.
Yep.
And so that was something thatI learned sadly, it took me,
(02:57):
oh my gosh, over a decade.
Of what I realized is I was rotatingrelationships instead of maintaining them.
And especially when I started mybusiness, you know, 14 plus years ago,
listen, let's be just honest about it.
There are relationships with peoplethat would have served me now had
I maintained them or they rose upthe ranks or whatever, they just
would have been a good connection.
(03:18):
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 Ihad no reason to reach out to them.
So just by virtue of maintainingthat 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 itout and chasing or, or, you know, doing
(03:41):
all that busy work or thinking onceyou get past this next thing, ding,
ding, ding, when you hear yourselfsay that, that's a problem, right?
When I work with my clients, they alltell 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
(04:03):
you want to understand is if you're likeme and you used to think, We also have
this quiz sidebar conversation that ittells you about your power personnel.
And everybody has one.
And I've discovered this after many yearsof working so many entrepreneurs, I am
what I call a recovering rush a holic.
So as a rush a holic, I was alwayslike, get some done, go, go, go.
(04:23):
Right.
And you know, busy, busy, busy.
And it's hard to squish meaningfulconnections and with people in between
that when you're in a hystericalmode all the time, rushing, you know?
So I did have to make some fundamental.
You know, differences in my business andthat evolved and came from, you know, the
situation that my husband, when I cameback to work, no one knew of my absence,
(04:45):
they just couldn't believe that they,cause we were very positive in nature.
We just, it was not howwe navigated his journey.
So nobody knew the localbusiness community didn't know.
And so then people started to ask melike, how could you have done that?
And if you could do that, then maybe Ican get to my kids soccer games and I,
you know, start visiting my family again.
Right.
And so that's how, when thehour, when the day evolved.
(05:06):
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'ssomething 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 runningaround thinking once you get past this
next thing, the busy work, all thesethings, but we can, you can do that.
(05:26):
That's easily done so muchmore so than you realize.
When that's done, here's somethingthat serves me really well.
So I have a networking spreadsheetwhenever I'm a guest on a podcast or,
you know, they're on my show or I havea meaningful connection with somebody.
I put them on this spreadsheet.
So that I can maintain this relationshipinstead of rotating it, but here,
(05:50):
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 tohave people that frankly were above my pay
grade, come to my show and, you know, thenI'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 interviewmore people and then the algorithm all
(06:13):
of a sudden floats away that personthat 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 weretalking 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.
(06:34):
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 saidyou 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, Ohmy gosh, I didn't believe it.
I ordered one.
I, I didn't even want to emailyou up front because it's working
(06:58):
so well, but it's been a monthand now it's really working.
La la la la.
And then I get the email backand she said, Chris, I'm so
happy you're sleeping well.
That's amazing.
However, I did not havethat 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 getthem confused, but nonetheless,
(07:20):
I looked like a crazy person.
And then it also makes you less confident.
You don't want to make personal referencesif you're like unsure of yourself.
So I have this networking spreadsheetand 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.
(07:40):
Then I have, I even haveBFF 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 secondand say, Hey, you got to meet
Michael, get them on your show.
Like, can I have that shorthandconversation with, so are they like a BFF?
Then I have something personal about them.
Like maybe when I was just chatting.
(08:00):
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 thatin there because it, it will
anchor that relationship.
And also I can ask youlater about your dog.
Right?
So, it's just really bulletpoints and, but it has changed.
My life, because then I have thisspreadsheet and then I can also go around
(08:20):
Michael and I can say, Oh, you know what?
I met so and so today and then Igo back on the spreadsheet and I
might introduce you to get you on adifferent podcast Because I also have
a column where a Google Docs linkand I go in there whenever I make any
connection with you I document it.
So I'm like, oh, yeah, I sent himthis person three months ago So
I have this, you know a littlejust bullet points of anything.
(08:42):
I've sent you or talked to you about orwhatever So it's clear there And then I'm
confident and I can proceed and peoplethen go, Oh, Chris, Chris is the best.
And she's always connecting me topeople and, you know, they think that
I all remember them like so clearly.
And a lot of them I do now thatI have these notes in front of
me, but it really means that I'mhaving meaningful relationships.
(09:04):
But again.
To do this, you have to have otherthings in place so you're just not
chasing your tail all the time.
Interesting.
Michael Whitehouse (09:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's a great.
I love the spreadsheet concept.
One of the challenges I would have islooking for some kind of, of CRM database
system and they're all built for sales.
They're all, they're all built basedon 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 someonein a few weeks about one that might
work, but I've yet to find onethat can record like introductions.
(09:34):
Who have I introduced this person to?
It has, you know, sales calls and haspurchases, but doesn't have introductions,
which is the currency of, of networking.
And I'm, I'm getting back moreto the, the almighty spreadsheet.
Simple.
Kris Ward (09:50):
Sorry, this is the concern so many people get confused with being
effective as being productive and beingproductive tends to be this concept of
producing more and going faster and higheroutput where I'm all about school hours.
You should be able to workschool hours, long weekends.
You know, short days, longer summers.
(10:12):
And when I'm often, we have somuch technology coming at us.
And what happens is you alwaysthink new tech is the answer.
And what I would tell you is when you havea team in place, when you have very basic,
what we call super toolkits, they'relike systems and processes on steroids.
And when you know how to useyour calendar, cause 95 percent
of people do not know how touse their calendar effectively.
(10:34):
When you have all these thingsin play, you don't need.
90 percent of the technologythat you think you do, like
this new complicated software.
First of all, I would tell you anysoftware that I suggest to my clients,
it's almost either free or next to free.
And if you can't learn it in five to10 minutes, then it's not the software.
Michael Whitehouse (10:53):
That's what I said already.
Kris Ward (10:57):
There's all these complications about, you know, I'll,
no, I'll show you my spreadsheet soyou can show and tell after the call
and you'll be like, this is geniusand it's so simple, but so impactful.
Michael Whitehouse (11:07):
Yep.
Yeah, no.
And that's, and actually I'malready thinking that I do keep a
spreadsheet of introductions I make.
So I can always look back andsay, did I make the introduction?
And it's interesting to what you'resaying about, you know, how you
have less confidence without thespreadsheet, 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.
(11:29):
I have ADHD.
I don't remember things.
And so I'm, I lead with value.
So in a meeting I'llmake introductions first.
I'm pretty forward with, I probablywon't remember your dog's name or your
birthday or anything else, but I'mgoing 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 meand doesn't remember my birthday.
(11:50):
Sounds good, I like this guy.
But it's, it's, it's I imagine mostpeople are are not comfortable, and it's
probably taken me a while to get to thispoint comfortable to, like if I sent
that email and they were like you're, Ididn't recommend you I would be probably
momentarily embarrassed and then I'd makea joke out of it and then leverage that
(12:11):
into a conversation because now there'svulnerability from admitting a mistake.
And I'd be like, great.
I've got two relationships now beingraised up one from the mistake and
one from, you know, the thank you.
But most people are in a placeof, especially if they come from
corporate where that's very much anenvironment of don't make mistakes.
So I think for most people outthere listening who aren't.
(12:32):
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 (12:39):
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 andit's a really meaningful conversation.
Like it's condensed and we havefun and I really get to know you.
And then you do fourmore interviews today.
And all of a sudden you'relike, Oh wait, hold on now.
Like we bonded so much.
And then four people replaced that.
(13:01):
So I think.
It does really help.
But what it also jars my memory isthen when I have to go through my list,
if somebody, you know, I do want tobe of service and I'm like, Oh, this
person, I really want to get them ona 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 Isee that column, like, Oh, she'd like him.
Oh yeah.
And it just jogs my memory.
(13:23):
And, and I, people, I definitely wouldn't.
I have remembered if I'm nowlooking at the ceiling, right?
So, so it just, again, one of the bigthings that we work with all our clients
is it's really all about brain powerto like, I believe you should start
your day refreshed and leave freshand you should be able to do anything
at three o'clock in the afternoon asefficiently as nine in the morning.
And so when you have these resourcesat your fingertips, and this is just
(13:45):
one of many, you know, things thatwe'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 themiddle of the night going, Oh, right.
And she's like, Steve too.
Right.
Write that down, you know?
So it just, it's really thesimplicity of ease and allowing you
to build more and more effectivenessand efficiency of your business.
(14:08):
So you can leverage it, get more outputin less time and make more money.
Michael Whitehouse (14:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love the spreadsheet.
I'm definitely going tobe building, adding one.
Or, but we're just adding atab to my spreadsheet with
like, who are these people?
I think I tried to do it once beforeand I think I over complicated it.
Yes, we all do that.
Yeah, I like the idea ofjust like picture name.
Personal thing and, you know, and,and like maybe podcast, you know,
(14:36):
podcast and that's, and that's it.
Kris Ward (14:39):
And it's just so, cause I think you're right.
Networking, I reallythink is so important.
And then what happens, this happensa lot with my type of client.
So a lot of my clientslook really good on paper.
They have been in business five, 10 years.
They might have a podcast or bookor they're doing all these things,
but no one knows how many hoursthey're working or that they're
still putting in way too many hours.
(15:00):
For this point in their journey, right?
And so then you try to network or dothese things with sort of clenched
teeth as you're screaming in your head.
I have, Oh, I got toget to that next thing.
And what am I doing next?
Right.
And you, it just doesn't work when yousquish it in between other activities.
Cause you know, it's something youshould do, but it doesn't feel like it's
something you should do when your brainis screaming that you have to get these
(15:23):
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 firstthing that's pushed to the side.
Like, cause it's doesn't have a deadline.
You're like, I don'thave to do this today.
And all of a sudden todayis like, Holy Hannah.
I haven't spoken to that guy in six years.
And now is not the time tocall and say, Hey, I saw you
were speaking on this event.
(15:44):
I'd love an introduction.
I haven't called you in six years.
It's suddenly you're a priority.
Michael Whitehouse (15:49):
Yeah.
Kris Ward (15:53):
Yeah.
So it's so easy to push thatoff to the side and then it just
falls off, you know, the plan.
But I do think your network 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 (16:09):
absolutely.
So tell me more about the,the, the broader win the
hour, win the day philosophy.
Yeah.
Kris Ward (16:15):
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 youare 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'sreally got that parentified system.
(16:35):
So what we're about is about building awin 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 awhole bunch of problems with them.
They undercut the VAs,they sign non-disclosure.
So you are in contract and youthink you're paying 'em eight
(16:58):
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 awhole thing itself, hiring somebody.
So we do that for you.
And then we train you how to do it.
We either do things for youfor speed, or we teach you
how to do it for independence.
And we have this whole leadershipprogram with the VAs, and we do all
this training, teach them how to makesuper toolkits, and we do that because
(17:22):
really what you want to have, you trulydo want to have a team you, whether
that team is one person or two, youreally want to be removed from what
the only thing most of us know is that.
Parentified system and somany people often talk about.
You know, a culture in a company, and theythink I know I did for years that that
kicks in when you got 50 or 500 people.
(17:45):
But a really quick example, Michaelwould be if I was in an ocean liner and
something happened and there's chaosand you know, whatever's an emergency
and there's 500 people on that boatand 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 otherpeople and there's a hole in it.
(18:07):
Everybody in the boat better beable to pull their weight because
we are susceptible to a muchbigger, you know, conflict here.
So that's a big thing is youhave this idea of like so many
people, small business people,they small business owners.
What will happen is they willhire someone and give them
delegate, which is a lateral move.
(18:28):
It never works.
So we're still coming through you.
They give the person theyhired 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 justeasier to do myself, but it's the
infrastructure that's not there.
That's a hugely problematic andwhy you never get to network.
Michael Whitehouse (18:46):
Interesting.
Okay.
Yeah.
So it's about.
Yeah,
Kris Ward (18:54):
and so we use super toolkits, which people often say, well, what's
the difference between that SOP?
So standard operating proceduresare usually not, they're usually
written, not by the end user.
They're static in nature and they'reusually there to cover liability where
super toolkits are breathing documentsthat are constantly changing and evolving.
Allowing for more and morebandwidth on your calendar.
(19:17):
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 wasdone, 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 andI need time to get on the podcast.
(19:37):
So there's always, no matter whatyou think your big ambition is, once
you do that, then you need more timefor the fallout of that ambition.
So we operate under the principle thatyou should be in 60 percent admin mode.
And sorry, 60 percent executionmode and 40 percent admin.
So you should always be doing, youshould always have more bandwidth on your
calendar of sort of your next big project.
(20:00):
And that's what the supertoolkits allow you to do that.
We're always able to move forward.
Like we have really.
Amped up our whole program for ourVAs that, you know, in the leadership
program, now we're making anaccreditation program and they're going
to be tested and there's all thesethings 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 calendarbecause of the super toolkits we use.
(20:23):
So there's always something newand you need to have, be able
to have the real estate on yourcalendar to implement that new.
Michael Whitehouse (20:30):
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 verywell to give an entry point.
That's because I've neverworked in corporate.
So I've only I've heard stories.
But the, the, the, the, the quoteunquote SOP were created was
(20:54):
to give her a starting point.
And then she has authority to changeit 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, youknow, there's one thing.
It's a block of text.
It's, you know, the agreement.
(21:14):
I'm going to give her the agreement.
I'm not gonna make her write that, but Iwas going to kind of give her the outline
and most of the steps and then if shehas a more efficient way to do it, she
can change the document and improve it.
And that worked very well, because insteadof spending eight hours with her going
through the entire process with me, Ispent 40 minutes writing down all the key
things that were cut and paste, like thisis the document that should be there.
(21:36):
And then, you know, make sureyou also do this, this, and this.
And then if she did somethingthat wasn't what I wanted, then
I'd say, correct this thing here.
Which took a lot less time thanhaving her sit over my shoulder,
you know, on Zoom sharing screen forgoing through the entire process.
And it worked, worked way, way better.
So it sounds like you're that that'ssome of the idea you're talking about.
(21:57):
Yeah.
Kris Ward (21:58):
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 untilsomething 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 comingout of all those crazy lockdowns,
we had someone on our team who hadbeen with us a couple of years and
she was our social media manager.
And she was in the Philippines and shehad applied years ago before all the
(22:20):
craziness to go to school in Canada.
So all of a sudden we were given liketwo weeks notice that she was now
accepted and her whole life had tobe like, hello, you got 10 days to
move from the Philippines to Canada.
Now, of course she wanted to staywith us, but it wasn't realistic.
That's another thing when they loveworking with you and it's so easy and
they have so much independence and they'rereally treated as valued team member,
they all say for me and all my clients, itfeels like it's their company and it just.
(22:45):
It's just an exciting place to be.
But so what happens, wefound someone new, Maura.
Well, this was like twoweeks before Christmas.
I hired Maura.
We have this 12 point hiring processwith a 90 percent retention rate.
And then Maura was given all thesuper toolkits and she was up to
80 percent capacity by January7th because they're very clear.
We just hand them over.
(23:06):
It's really like if youwere hiring a carpenter.
You're not teaching them howto be a carpenter, but you
say, here is a super toolkits.
Here is our measurements and wherethe wood is stored and everything you
need to know, you know, because somany times people confuse training.
We're in the SOPs and theSOPs, again, are very dry.
They have too many words.
There's too much ambiguousness.
(23:28):
And I don't, that's, I think Ijust 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 withthe super toolkit that make it
really efficient to whip through it.
So, yeah, but it'sdefinitely along those lines.
Yep.
Michael Whitehouse (23:45):
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 (23:56):
Especially when you create your own new words,
Michael Whitehouse (23:59):
ambiguosity.
Yeah, a lot of ambiguosity going on there.
Yeah, yes.
I like that concept there that youwant to, you know, you want to have a
dynamic system, um, you don't have tobe in everything and, and to accept
that the people on your team may notalways be the people on your team.
Kris Ward (24:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or they may get promoted andyou can't hold somebody there
because you're so afraid of,you know, of a bump in the road.
So it really is likesuspension 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, reallythought the wheels would fall off, right?
And so what we want is peoplesay, Oh my gosh, you know what?
(24:41):
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 thisweek's in chaos or so and so is sick.
Right?
Well, guess what?
That's just nature of lifeand business things happen.
So you want to have thesesuper toolkits so that.
You, you are constantly, you know,keeping the car on the road and you
might hit a little pothole hiccup for asecond, but the wheels don't fall off.
(25:04):
And so for most of myself or my clients,what they'll say is things that would
have derailed me for the week now arelike a 15, 20 minute thing, right?
And so it's just, well,we have one client.
Here's a quick story.
Christine was referredto us by somebody else.
Now, I don't encourage this,but the situation is lots of
(25:25):
times when people refer to me,they, again, this is not okay.
I'm not saying it's okay, but they oftenmiss the first meeting because they are
in crazy zone and their hair's on fire.
So I'm like,
Michael Whitehouse (25:36):
missing the first meeting is a qualifier.
Your ideal clients will miss the firstmeeting because that's, I'm not telling
you
Kris Ward (25:42):
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 Iwas 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, Iwas not into this, but I gave
her the benefit of the doubt.
So we met.
So.
(26:03):
Christine actually said to me,how are you going to help me?
Cause she dealt with companies thatwere looking to sell their business
and they had to get their systems.
And they were like five, 10million 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 manyclients 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, andthere's the clippings of.
(26:25):
From her sessions, live sessions, not evenher giving a testimonial on my website.
And she would tell you that whenshe was started working with us,
she needed to have some sort ofmedication for sleep because of her
adrenaline, all this other stuff, right?
Cut to not only of course, you wouldsay within the first month, was
she getting 25 hours back a weekand all that stuff within the year.
(26:45):
With the VA, we found a super duperkits we put in play within the year.
She was in Costa Ricafor a month with no wifi.
Why the, while the VA we foundfor her was maintaining the
company with everything in play.
She also quadrupled her income and cuther hours down to like something going
from 60, 70 hours down to like 25.
(27:07):
So it's, it's so doable.
And.
And I am so horrified when the sad thingis so many people I work with, you know,
they're in isolation because again, theylook good on paper and they've just like,
trying to get around this next cornerand 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.
(27:28):
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 yourteam, your time and your toolkits.
Michael Whitehouse (27:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that makes a lot of sense.
And, and I, I think also peopleget 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 (27:56):
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 (28:04):
Yeah, yeah, I think that that's the key thing is
that they're like, I got to do thisand you know, these are big clients.
These clients are very demanding andthey're going to want this to be perfect
and they're going to want, but they'dprobably rather that thing they don't
notice being 80 percent and you havingthe time to talk to them because you're
not running around your hair on fire, then
Kris Ward (28:22):
I would also argue too that there's a lot of pre and post work
that people don't realize are theythey've attached to their actual talent.
So I had another client Sue andshe'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'sgot 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.
(28:43):
It's all this stuff.
Like you don't get it.
So we sat down and we looked at heraverage appointment was about two
and a half, three hours, long story.
Short, we started to look atstuff and she was sitting there
asking questions, filling forms.
Well, there was still pre and post work.
So when we did that, and we turnedthat into admin chores, which by
the way, was easier on the client.
Cause then it was done ahead oftime and it was less involved.
(29:03):
And when we did that, then herappointments got down to about 45 minutes.
So now.
What she's done is she will stackher appointments in the morning and
just do the morning appointments.
And now she's emceeing reallybig events, like for home and
garden, you know, TV network andBrian Balmer and all these things.
And she's doing all these bigthings that she would never
have the time to do before.
(29:25):
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 andpost work that you think.
Is everything, but it's not.
Michael Whitehouse (29:39):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that that's really, reallykey that there's the thing
that you're really good at.
Yeah.
Nobody else can do for youand 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 podcastand it'd be their podcast, not mine, but
I can delegate, I can delegate editing it.
(30:02):
I can delegate writing the summary.
I can delegate.
So actually the entirety I dofor 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 anyof the rest of that because at
one point I'm like, I don't havetime for this podcast anymore.
I, you know, I get on the call withpeople and I gotta do this and I
(30:22):
gotta do that and I gotta edit itand 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 theoutro on, balancing the levels, putting
the, you know, creating the graphic.
It's, it's all this stuff thatat 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 funto do again and same thing with my summits
(30:47):
that it used to be a lot of like, I gottawrite this, I gotta write that and prepare
and then I realized the fun part is beingon zoom, running the room, meeting the
speakers, going into the breakouts, thenot fun part is writing the swipe copy and
writing this and writing that and so moreand more I'm taking all the not fun stuff,
giving it to her, I'm doing all the stuffI do and it's great and, and so, I feel
(31:12):
like the ideal is you get to the pointwhere the only stuff you're doing is the
stuff that you're brilliant at, and ifyou're merely good at it, you don't do it.
Kris Ward (31:21):
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 doingsomething you don't like doing,
then you can't be good at it.
And it sucks the life outof you before you get to the
stuff that does energize you.
So I totally agree.
Michael Whitehouse (31:36):
We have people who think frogs are delicious.
They eat.
Yes.
Yes.
We let them eat the frogs.
And we, we What, what, what cultureseats frog legs, that French?
I don't know.
We hire French people.
They eat frogs for us andwe do the stuff we like.
So yeah, that makes a great, otherwisewhat's the point of, you know, owning a
Kris Ward (31:54):
business?
Yeah.
I agree.
Business should be fun or else.
Why did you leave that job?
I absolutely.
Michael Whitehouse (32:01):
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 likethis, why are you doing this?
Do that.
So that makes a lot of sense.
So is there anything I've not touchedon that I should have asked you about?
Kris Ward (32:23):
Oh, we could talk day and night.
I mean, I could do thisforever, so don't ask me that.
So yes, I would justsay, remember, listen.
It's not about grinding it out.
Your business should supportyour life, not consume it.
And if, you know, people often say,when do you think you should hire?
I'm like, well, you shouldhave done the first day.
You want to get more done and makemore money and work less hours
because it's insanely affordable.
(32:43):
We're talking five, six us dollars anhour, 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 inplace to support the success.
So yeah, you know, just business shouldsupport your life, not consume it.
And it should be
Michael Whitehouse (33:02):
fun.
Yep.
And the other thing I do want to bringup there is, is that, I think some
people like six bucks an hour, we'retaking advantage of those poor people.
But in the countries where they'regetting 6 an hour, often that's
a middle class lifestyle, right?
Well,
Kris Ward (33:16):
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 amotorbike, which a lot of them travel for.
But I know people that work for me or myclients will say, Oh my gosh, like I'm
the breadwinner of the family becausethere it's like 10 a day is minimum wage.
They're making, you know, quite acomfortable living getting to be, for
(33:38):
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 livesbecause they become upper class.
Like somebody who's working forme, 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
(34:01):
entire life, but now because of the incomeshe makes through us, it's a big deal.
Michael Whitehouse (34:06):
Yeah.
So, so, so for those who aren'tfamiliar with like different
cultures and how, just how differentthe cost of living is that yeah.
And, and I think for some of them, theother thing to consider is, is some
people, you know, I want to pay them 40 anhour that if you were to take someone in
the Philippines and give them 40 an hour.
It could potentially, it's just likesomeone over here, if they suddenly
(34:27):
started making 800, 000 a year withoutwarning and without preparation, they'd
probably go bankrupt because they, well,
Kris Ward (34:33):
that's a separate discussion, but I would also say to you, it
just doesn't serve your business.
So you want to have itto be a win for both.
Yep.
Michael Whitehouse (34:39):
Yeah.
So but so for anyone who's like, oh, Idon't want to take advantage of those
poor people and give them sex, butyou're not taking advantage of them.
They're happy.
You're getting them to amiddle class lifestyle.
You're keeping themoff the dangerous road.
I didn't even, I didn't evenrealize that part of it.
But you're, you know, you'retaking good care of them.
And, and just like any placeelse, you take good care of
your people and treat them well.
They treat you well.
And and our new did thiswhole internet thing.
(35:01):
I think it might stick around.
I think it might catch on.
aNd so your podcast is when thehour, when the day, where else
can people connect with you?
Kris Ward (35:09):
Yeah.
You can check me on socials.
Reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Tell people that you tell me that youheard 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 Tfrom Chris K R I S dot com.
Free gift from chris.
com.
We have some goodies there.
You can check out our power personality.
(35:30):
It's customized results.
It gives you immediate feedback ofwhat 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 myaudio book that you can download.
So a whole bunch of goodies there.
You want to check it out.
Free gift from chris.
Michael Whitehouse (35:45):
com even better.
And so since you're listening to this inyour car, rushing between appointments,
what you need to do right now is pull yourcar over safely and take your phone off
the holder and go to free gift from chris.
com and not say you'll do it laterbecause will they do it later?
Chris.
Probably not.
Probably not.
So do it right now.
Pull over safely or turn off thelawnmower or whatever you're doing.
(36:08):
Go to free gift from chris.
com and check out allthe cool stuff there.
It'll only take a minute.
And then you can go back to drivingor mowing the lawn or washing dishes
or doing whatever you were doing.
Sounds good to me.
All right.
Well, thank you forbeing on the show, Chris.
It's been great to have you.
Kris Ward (36:23):
Thank you, Michael.
I appreciate it.
Michael Whitehouse (36:27):
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 forthe next JV Connect.
Learn all about it at jv connect.
com.
You can also get my Five Steps toProfitable Networking course for
free right there on that site.
Our goal is that in two days, you'regoing to get over 100, 000 of value
from the connections you made.
(36:48):
And this applies whether you are brandnew 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 areright there on the website.
Welcome back to the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast.
These are bonus episodes thatdid not fit into Season 6, which
was a countdown to JV Connect.
We hit JV Connect and we still had somegreat interviews to share with you.
But don't worry, youhaven't missed JV Connect.
It's a quarterly event.
You can learn more about it by stickingaround to the end of this episode.
We'll tell you all about it.
But right now, check out this nextawesome interview with one of the awesome
(00:26):
people that the Guy Who Knows A Guy knowsand is going to introduce to you now.
Hello and welcome once again tothe 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.
(00:46):
Chris Ward is a, is creating amovement where your business supports
your life instead of consuming it.
Sounds pretty good.
Chris is the founder of the Winthe 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 workas a marketing strategist.
She was relieved that herbusiness had not only survived
(01:08):
her absence, but was growing now.
Chris has completely changed landscape forentrepreneurs by sharing these successful
practices that allowed her absence.
She has shared the stage withquite a few impressive people.
It's people you might've heardof 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.
(01:28):
When the hour, when the day whereshe has engaging conversations
with dynamic guests, coveringa variety of business topics.
So you can get your next win now.
And we're going to talk aboutgetting your next win today.
About how when the hour and whenthe day and how that can apply to
freeing up your time for networking.
That's actually how we met isChris reached out to me on linkedin
(01:49):
and we were talking and I said,I want to get you on the show.
But but how do you tiethis into networking?
And he said, well, youneed time to network.
So tell us about it, Chris,and tell us about yourself.
Welcome to the show.
Kris Ward (02:01):
Thank you, Michael.
It's a very enthusiastic introduction.
I'm going to try to use my radiovoice cause yours is very clear.
I don't think I'm going to competewith you on that, but here I am.
And let's dive in.
All
Michael Whitehouse (02:12):
right.
So when we talked on, on LinkedInbefore the call you were, you were
saying that one of the challengeswith networking is the time it takes.
So you meet a lot of people, youneed 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, whenam I going to fit that in my calendar?
(02:32):
And how can I even run mybusiness with all this?
So talk a little about that.
Kris Ward (02:36):
Yeah.
So we all have been there whereyou're like, listen, I really do
want to maintain these relationshipsand connect with these people.
And yeah, let's do lunch or let'sconnect or have a virtual coffee,
but I really want to have done itmore than I want to do it today.
Cause I don't time for thattoday, but I want to have done it.
Right.
Yep.
And so that was something thatI learned sadly, it took me,
(02:57):
oh my gosh, over a decade.
Of what I realized is I was rotatingrelationships instead of maintaining them.
And especially when I started mybusiness, you know, 14 plus years ago,
listen, let's be just honest about it.
There are relationships with peoplethat would have served me now had
I maintained them or they rose upthe ranks or whatever, they just
would have been a good connection.
(03:18):
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 Ihad no reason to reach out to them.
So just by virtue of maintainingthat 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 itout and chasing or, or, you know, doing
(03:41):
all that busy work or thinking onceyou get past this next thing, ding,
ding, ding, when you hear yourselfsay that, that's a problem, right?
When I work with my clients, they alltell 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
(04:03):
you want to understand is if you're likeme and you used to think, We also have
this quiz sidebar conversation that ittells you about your power personnel.
And everybody has one.
And I've discovered this after many yearsof working so many entrepreneurs, I am
what I call a recovering rush a holic.
So as a rush a holic, I was alwayslike, get some done, go, go, go.
(04:23):
Right.
And you know, busy, busy, busy.
And it's hard to squish meaningfulconnections and with people in between
that when you're in a hystericalmode all the time, rushing, you know?
So I did have to make some fundamental.
You know, differences in my business andthat evolved and came from, you know, the
situation that my husband, when I cameback to work, no one knew of my absence,
(04:45):
they just couldn't believe that they,cause we were very positive in nature.
We just, it was not howwe navigated his journey.
So nobody knew the localbusiness community didn't know.
And so then people started to ask melike, how could you have done that?
And if you could do that, then maybe Ican get to my kids soccer games and I,
you know, start visiting my family again.
Right.
And so that's how, when thehour, when the day evolved.
(05:06):
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'ssomething 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 runningaround thinking once you get past this
next thing, the busy work, all thesethings, but we can, you can do that.
(05:26):
That's easily done so muchmore so than you realize.
When that's done, here's somethingthat serves me really well.
So I have a networking spreadsheetwhenever I'm a guest on a podcast or,
you know, they're on my show or I havea meaningful connection with somebody.
I put them on this spreadsheet.
So that I can maintain this relationshipinstead of rotating it, but here,
(05:50):
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 tohave people that frankly were above my pay
grade, come to my show and, you know, thenI'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 interviewmore people and then the algorithm all
(06:13):
of a sudden floats away that personthat 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 weretalking 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.
(06:34):
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 saidyou 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, Ohmy gosh, I didn't believe it.
I ordered one.
I, I didn't even want to emailyou up front because it's working
(06:58):
so well, but it's been a monthand now it's really working.
La la la la.
And then I get the email backand she said, Chris, I'm so
happy you're sleeping well.
That's amazing.
However, I did not havethat 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 getthem confused, but nonetheless,
(07:20):
I looked like a crazy person.
And then it also makes you less confident.
You don't want to make personal referencesif you're like unsure of yourself.
So I have this networking spreadsheetand 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.
(07:40):
Then I have, I even haveBFF 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 secondand say, Hey, you got to meet
Michael, get them on your show.
Like, can I have that shorthandconversation with, so are they like a BFF?
Then I have something personal about them.
Like maybe when I was just chatting.
(08:00):
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 thatin there because it, it will
anchor that relationship.
And also I can ask youlater about your dog.
Right?
So, it's just really bulletpoints and, but it has changed.
My life, because then I have thisspreadsheet and then I can also go around
(08:20):
Michael and I can say, Oh, you know what?
I met so and so today and then Igo back on the spreadsheet and I
might introduce you to get you on adifferent podcast Because I also have
a column where a Google Docs linkand I go in there whenever I make any
connection with you I document it.
So I'm like, oh, yeah, I sent himthis person three months ago So
I have this, you know a littlejust bullet points of anything.
(08:42):
I've sent you or talked to you about orwhatever So it's clear there And then I'm
confident and I can proceed and peoplethen go, Oh, Chris, Chris is the best.
And she's always connecting me topeople and, you know, they think that
I all remember them like so clearly.
And a lot of them I do now thatI have these notes in front of
me, but it really means that I'mhaving meaningful relationships.
(09:04):
But again.
To do this, you have to have otherthings in place so you're just not
chasing your tail all the time.
Interesting.
Michael Whitehouse (09:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's a great.
I love the spreadsheet concept.
One of the challenges I would have islooking for some kind of, of CRM database
system and they're all built for sales.
They're all, they're all built basedon 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 someonein a few weeks about one that might
work, but I've yet to find onethat can record like introductions.
(09:34):
Who have I introduced this person to?
It has, you know, sales calls and haspurchases, but doesn't have introductions,
which is the currency of, of networking.
And I'm, I'm getting back moreto the, the almighty spreadsheet.
Simple.
Kris Ward (09:50):
Sorry, this is the concern so many people get confused with being
effective as being productive and beingproductive tends to be this concept of
producing more and going faster and higheroutput where I'm all about school hours.
You should be able to workschool hours, long weekends.
You know, short days, longer summers.
(10:12):
And when I'm often, we have somuch technology coming at us.
And what happens is you alwaysthink new tech is the answer.
And what I would tell you is when you havea team in place, when you have very basic,
what we call super toolkits, they'relike systems and processes on steroids.
And when you know how to useyour calendar, cause 95 percent
of people do not know how touse their calendar effectively.
(10:34):
When you have all these thingsin play, you don't need.
90 percent of the technologythat you think you do, like
this new complicated software.
First of all, I would tell you anysoftware that I suggest to my clients,
it's almost either free or next to free.
And if you can't learn it in five to10 minutes, then it's not the software.
Michael Whitehouse (10:53):
That's what I said already.
Kris Ward (10:57):
There's all these complications about, you know, I'll,
no, I'll show you my spreadsheet soyou can show and tell after the call
and you'll be like, this is geniusand it's so simple, but so impactful.
Michael Whitehouse (11:07):
Yep.
Yeah, no.
And that's, and actually I'malready thinking that I do keep a
spreadsheet of introductions I make.
So I can always look back andsay, did I make the introduction?
And it's interesting to what you'resaying about, you know, how you
have less confidence without thespreadsheet, 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.
(11:29):
I have ADHD.
I don't remember things.
And so I'm, I lead with value.
So in a meeting I'llmake introductions first.
I'm pretty forward with, I probablywon't remember your dog's name or your
birthday or anything else, but I'mgoing 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 meand doesn't remember my birthday.
(11:50):
Sounds good, I like this guy.
But it's, it's, it's I imagine mostpeople are are not comfortable, and it's
probably taken me a while to get to thispoint comfortable to, like if I sent
that email and they were like you're, Ididn't recommend you I would be probably
momentarily embarrassed and then I'd makea joke out of it and then leverage that
(12:11):
into a conversation because now there'svulnerability from admitting a mistake.
And I'd be like, great.
I've got two relationships now beingraised up one from the mistake and
one from, you know, the thank you.
But most people are in a placeof, especially if they come from
corporate where that's very much anenvironment of don't make mistakes.
So I think for most people outthere listening who aren't.
(12:32):
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 (12:39):
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 andit's a really meaningful conversation.
Like it's condensed and we havefun and I really get to know you.
And then you do fourmore interviews today.
And all of a sudden you'relike, Oh wait, hold on now.
Like we bonded so much.
And then four people replaced that.
(13:01):
So I think.
It does really help.
But what it also jars my memory isthen when I have to go through my list,
if somebody, you know, I do want tobe of service and I'm like, Oh, this
person, I really want to get them ona 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 Isee that column, like, Oh, she'd like him.
Oh yeah.
And it just jogs my memory.
(13:23):
And, and I, people, I definitely wouldn't.
I have remembered if I'm nowlooking at the ceiling, right?
So, so it just, again, one of the bigthings that we work with all our clients
is it's really all about brain powerto like, I believe you should start
your day refreshed and leave freshand you should be able to do anything
at three o'clock in the afternoon asefficiently as nine in the morning.
And so when you have these resourcesat your fingertips, and this is just
(13:45):
one of many, you know, things thatwe'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 themiddle of the night going, Oh, right.
And she's like, Steve too.
Right.
Write that down, you know?
So it just, it's really thesimplicity of ease and allowing you
to build more and more effectivenessand efficiency of your business.
(14:08):
So you can leverage it, get more outputin less time and make more money.
Michael Whitehouse (14:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love the spreadsheet.
I'm definitely going tobe building, adding one.
Or, but we're just adding atab to my spreadsheet with
like, who are these people?
I think I tried to do it once beforeand I think I over complicated it.
Yes, we all do that.
Yeah, I like the idea ofjust like picture name.
Personal thing and, you know, and,and like maybe podcast, you know,
(14:36):
podcast and that's, and that's it.
Kris Ward (14:39):
And it's just so, cause I think you're right.
Networking, I reallythink is so important.
And then what happens, this happensa lot with my type of client.
So a lot of my clientslook really good on paper.
They have been in business five, 10 years.
They might have a podcast or bookor they're doing all these things,
but no one knows how many hoursthey're working or that they're
still putting in way too many hours.
(15:00):
For this point in their journey, right?
And so then you try to network or dothese things with sort of clenched
teeth as you're screaming in your head.
I have, Oh, I got toget to that next thing.
And what am I doing next?
Right.
And you, it just doesn't work when yousquish it in between other activities.
Cause you know, it's something youshould do, but it doesn't feel like it's
something you should do when your brainis screaming that you have to get these
(15:23):
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 firstthing that's pushed to the side.
Like, cause it's doesn't have a deadline.
You're like, I don'thave to do this today.
And all of a sudden todayis like, Holy Hannah.
I haven't spoken to that guy in six years.
And now is not the time tocall and say, Hey, I saw you
were speaking on this event.
(15:44):
I'd love an introduction.
I haven't called you in six years.
It's suddenly you're a priority.
Michael Whitehouse (15:49):
Yeah.
Kris Ward (15:53):
Yeah.
So it's so easy to push thatoff to the side and then it just
falls off, you know, the plan.
But I do think your network 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 (16:09):
absolutely.
So tell me more about the,the, the broader win the
hour, win the day philosophy.
Yeah.
Kris Ward (16:15):
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 youare 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'sreally got that parentified system.
(16:35):
So what we're about is about building awin 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 awhole bunch of problems with them.
They undercut the VAs,they sign non-disclosure.
So you are in contract and youthink you're paying 'em eight
(16:58):
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 awhole thing itself, hiring somebody.
So we do that for you.
And then we train you how to do it.
We either do things for youfor speed, or we teach you
how to do it for independence.
And we have this whole leadershipprogram with the VAs, and we do all
this training, teach them how to makesuper toolkits, and we do that because
(17:22):
really what you want to have, you trulydo want to have a team you, whether
that team is one person or two, youreally want to be removed from what
the only thing most of us know is that.
Parentified system and somany people often talk about.
You know, a culture in a company, and theythink I know I did for years that that
kicks in when you got 50 or 500 people.
(17:45):
But a really quick example, Michaelwould be if I was in an ocean liner and
something happened and there's chaosand you know, whatever's an emergency
and there's 500 people on that boatand 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 otherpeople and there's a hole in it.
(18:07):
Everybody in the boat better beable to pull their weight because
we are susceptible to a muchbigger, you know, conflict here.
So that's a big thing is youhave this idea of like so many
people, small business people,they small business owners.
What will happen is they willhire someone and give them
delegate, which is a lateral move.
(18:28):
It never works.
So we're still coming through you.
They give the person theyhired 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 justeasier to do myself, but it's the
infrastructure that's not there.
That's a hugely problematic andwhy you never get to network.
Michael Whitehouse (18:46):
Interesting.
Okay.
Yeah.
So it's about.
Yeah,
Kris Ward (18:54):
and so we use super toolkits, which people often say, well, what's
the difference between that SOP?
So standard operating proceduresare usually not, they're usually
written, not by the end user.
They're static in nature and they'reusually there to cover liability where
super toolkits are breathing documentsthat are constantly changing and evolving.
Allowing for more and morebandwidth on your calendar.
(19:17):
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 wasdone, 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 andI need time to get on the podcast.
(19:37):
So there's always, no matter whatyou think your big ambition is, once
you do that, then you need more timefor the fallout of that ambition.
So we operate under the principle thatyou should be in 60 percent admin mode.
And sorry, 60 percent executionmode and 40 percent admin.
So you should always be doing, youshould always have more bandwidth on your
calendar of sort of your next big project.
(20:00):
And that's what the supertoolkits allow you to do that.
We're always able to move forward.
Like we have really.
Amped up our whole program for ourVAs that, you know, in the leadership
program, now we're making anaccreditation program and they're going
to be tested and there's all thesethings 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 calendarbecause of the super toolkits we use.
(20:23):
So there's always something newand you need to have, be able
to have the real estate on yourcalendar to implement that new.
Michael Whitehouse (20:30):
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 verywell to give an entry point.
That's because I've neverworked in corporate.
So I've only I've heard stories.
But the, the, the, the, the quoteunquote SOP were created was
(20:54):
to give her a starting point.
And then she has authority to changeit 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, youknow, there's one thing.
It's a block of text.
It's, you know, the agreement.
(21:14):
I'm going to give her the agreement.
I'm not gonna make her write that, but Iwas going to kind of give her the outline
and most of the steps and then if shehas a more efficient way to do it, she
can change the document and improve it.
And that worked very well, because insteadof spending eight hours with her going
through the entire process with me, Ispent 40 minutes writing down all the key
things that were cut and paste, like thisis the document that should be there.
(21:36):
And then, you know, make sureyou also do this, this, and this.
And then if she did somethingthat wasn't what I wanted, then
I'd say, correct this thing here.
Which took a lot less time thanhaving her sit over my shoulder,
you know, on Zoom sharing screen forgoing through the entire process.
And it worked, worked way, way better.
So it sounds like you're that that'ssome of the idea you're talking about.
(21:57):
Yeah.
Kris Ward (21:58):
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 untilsomething 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 comingout of all those crazy lockdowns,
we had someone on our team who hadbeen with us a couple of years and
she was our social media manager.
And she was in the Philippines and shehad applied years ago before all the
(22:20):
craziness to go to school in Canada.
So all of a sudden we were given liketwo weeks notice that she was now
accepted and her whole life had tobe like, hello, you got 10 days to
move from the Philippines to Canada.
Now, of course she wanted to staywith us, but it wasn't realistic.
That's another thing when they loveworking with you and it's so easy and
they have so much independence and they'rereally treated as valued team member,
they all say for me and all my clients, itfeels like it's their company and it just.
(22:45):
It's just an exciting place to be.
But so what happens, wefound someone new, Maura.
Well, this was like twoweeks before Christmas.
I hired Maura.
We have this 12 point hiring processwith a 90 percent retention rate.
And then Maura was given all thesuper toolkits and she was up to
80 percent capacity by January7th because they're very clear.
We just hand them over.
(23:06):
It's really like if youwere hiring a carpenter.
You're not teaching them howto be a carpenter, but you
say, here is a super toolkits.
Here is our measurements and wherethe wood is stored and everything you
need to know, you know, because somany times people confuse training.
We're in the SOPs and theSOPs, again, are very dry.
They have too many words.
There's too much ambiguousness.
(23:28):
And I don't, that's, I think Ijust 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 withthe super toolkit that make it
really efficient to whip through it.
So, yeah, but it'sdefinitely along those lines.
Yep.
Michael Whitehouse (23:45):
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 (23:56):
Especially when you create your own new words,
Michael Whitehouse (23:59):
ambiguosity.
Yeah, a lot of ambiguosity going on there.
Yeah, yes.
I like that concept there that youwant to, you know, you want to have a
dynamic system, um, you don't have tobe in everything and, and to accept
that the people on your team may notalways be the people on your team.
Kris Ward (24:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or they may get promoted andyou can't hold somebody there
because you're so afraid of,you know, of a bump in the road.
So it really is likesuspension 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, reallythought the wheels would fall off, right?
And so what we want is peoplesay, Oh my gosh, you know what?
(24:41):
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 thisweek's in chaos or so and so is sick.
Right?
Well, guess what?
That's just nature of lifeand business things happen.
So you want to have thesesuper toolkits so that.
You, you are constantly, you know,keeping the car on the road and you
might hit a little pothole hiccup for asecond, but the wheels don't fall off.
(25:04):
And so for most of myself or my clients,what they'll say is things that would
have derailed me for the week now arelike a 15, 20 minute thing, right?
And so it's just, well,we have one client.
Here's a quick story.
Christine was referredto us by somebody else.
Now, I don't encourage this,but the situation is lots of
(25:25):
times when people refer to me,they, again, this is not okay.
I'm not saying it's okay, but they oftenmiss the first meeting because they are
in crazy zone and their hair's on fire.
So I'm like,
Michael Whitehouse (25:36):
missing the first meeting is a qualifier.
Your ideal clients will miss the firstmeeting because that's, I'm not telling
you
Kris Ward (25:42):
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 Iwas 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, Iwas not into this, but I gave
her the benefit of the doubt.
So we met.
So.
(26:03):
Christine actually said to me,how are you going to help me?
Cause she dealt with companies thatwere looking to sell their business
and they had to get their systems.
And they were like five, 10million 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 manyclients 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, andthere's the clippings of.
(26:25):
From her sessions, live sessions, not evenher giving a testimonial on my website.
And she would tell you that whenshe was started working with us,
she needed to have some sort ofmedication for sleep because of her
adrenaline, all this other stuff, right?
Cut to not only of course, you wouldsay within the first month, was
she getting 25 hours back a weekand all that stuff within the year.
(26:45):
With the VA, we found a super duperkits we put in play within the year.
She was in Costa Ricafor a month with no wifi.
Why the, while the VA we foundfor her was maintaining the
company with everything in play.
She also quadrupled her income and cuther hours down to like something going
from 60, 70 hours down to like 25.
(27:07):
So it's, it's so doable.
And.
And I am so horrified when the sad thingis so many people I work with, you know,
they're in isolation because again, theylook good on paper and they've just like,
trying to get around this next cornerand 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.
(27:28):
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 yourteam, your time and your toolkits.
Michael Whitehouse (27:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that makes a lot of sense.
And, and I, I think also peopleget 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 (27:56):
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 (28:04):
Yeah, yeah, I think that that's the key thing is
that they're like, I got to do thisand you know, these are big clients.
These clients are very demanding andthey're going to want this to be perfect
and they're going to want, but they'dprobably rather that thing they don't
notice being 80 percent and you havingthe time to talk to them because you're
not running around your hair on fire, then
Kris Ward (28:22):
I would also argue too that there's a lot of pre and post work
that people don't realize are theythey've attached to their actual talent.
So I had another client Sue andshe'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'sgot 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.
(28:43):
It's all this stuff.
Like you don't get it.
So we sat down and we looked at heraverage appointment was about two
and a half, three hours, long story.
Short, we started to look atstuff and she was sitting there
asking questions, filling forms.
Well, there was still pre and post work.
So when we did that, and we turnedthat into admin chores, which by
the way, was easier on the client.
Cause then it was done ahead oftime and it was less involved.
(29:03):
And when we did that, then herappointments got down to about 45 minutes.
So now.
What she's done is she will stackher appointments in the morning and
just do the morning appointments.
And now she's emceeing reallybig events, like for home and
garden, you know, TV network andBrian Balmer and all these things.
And she's doing all these bigthings that she would never
have the time to do before.
(29:25):
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 andpost work that you think.
Is everything, but it's not.
Michael Whitehouse (29:39):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that that's really, reallykey that there's the thing
that you're really good at.
Yeah.
Nobody else can do for youand 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 podcastand it'd be their podcast, not mine, but
I can delegate, I can delegate editing it.
(30:02):
I can delegate writing the summary.
I can delegate.
So actually the entirety I dofor 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 anyof the rest of that because at
one point I'm like, I don't havetime for this podcast anymore.
I, you know, I get on the call withpeople and I gotta do this and I
(30:22):
gotta do that and I gotta edit itand 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 theoutro on, balancing the levels, putting
the, you know, creating the graphic.
It's, it's all this stuff thatat 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 funto do again and same thing with my summits
(30:47):
that it used to be a lot of like, I gottawrite this, I gotta write that and prepare
and then I realized the fun part is beingon zoom, running the room, meeting the
speakers, going into the breakouts, thenot fun part is writing the swipe copy and
writing this and writing that and so moreand more I'm taking all the not fun stuff,
giving it to her, I'm doing all the stuffI do and it's great and, and so, I feel
(31:12):
like the ideal is you get to the pointwhere the only stuff you're doing is the
stuff that you're brilliant at, and ifyou're merely good at it, you don't do it.
Kris Ward (31:21):
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 doingsomething you don't like doing,
then you can't be good at it.
And it sucks the life outof you before you get to the
stuff that does energize you.
So I totally agree.
Michael Whitehouse (31:36):
We have people who think frogs are delicious.
They eat.
Yes.
Yes.
We let them eat the frogs.
And we, we What, what, what cultureseats frog legs, that French?
I don't know.
We hire French people.
They eat frogs for us andwe do the stuff we like.
So yeah, that makes a great, otherwisewhat's the point of, you know, owning a
Kris Ward (31:54):
business?
Yeah.
I agree.
Business should be fun or else.
Why did you leave that job?
I absolutely.
Michael Whitehouse (32:01):
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 likethis, why are you doing this?
Do that.
So that makes a lot of sense.
So is there anything I've not touchedon that I should have asked you about?
Kris Ward (32:23):
Oh, we could talk day and night.
I mean, I could do thisforever, so don't ask me that.
So yes, I would justsay, remember, listen.
It's not about grinding it out.
Your business should supportyour life, not consume it.
And if, you know, people often say,when do you think you should hire?
I'm like, well, you shouldhave done the first day.
You want to get more done and makemore money and work less hours
because it's insanely affordable.
(32:43):
We're talking five, six us dollars anhour, 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 inplace to support the success.
So yeah, you know, just business shouldsupport your life, not consume it.
And it should be
Michael Whitehouse (33:02):
fun.
Yep.
And the other thing I do want to bringup there is, is that, I think some
people like six bucks an hour, we'retaking advantage of those poor people.
But in the countries where they'regetting 6 an hour, often that's
a middle class lifestyle, right?
Well,
Kris Ward (33:16):
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 amotorbike, which a lot of them travel for.
But I know people that work for me or myclients will say, Oh my gosh, like I'm
the breadwinner of the family becausethere it's like 10 a day is minimum wage.
They're making, you know, quite acomfortable living getting to be, for
(33:38):
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 livesbecause they become upper class.
Like somebody who's working forme, 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
(34:01):
entire life, but now because of the incomeshe makes through us, it's a big deal.
Michael Whitehouse (34:06):
Yeah.
So, so, so for those who aren'tfamiliar with like different
cultures and how, just how differentthe cost of living is that yeah.
And, and I think for some of them, theother thing to consider is, is some
people, you know, I want to pay them 40 anhour that if you were to take someone in
the Philippines and give them 40 an hour.
It could potentially, it's just likesomeone over here, if they suddenly
(34:27):
started making 800, 000 a year withoutwarning and without preparation, they'd
probably go bankrupt because they, well,
Kris Ward (34:33):
that's a separate discussion, but I would also say to you, it
just doesn't serve your business.
So you want to have itto be a win for both.
Yep.
Michael Whitehouse (34:39):
Yeah.
So but so for anyone who's like, oh, Idon't want to take advantage of those
poor people and give them sex, butyou're not taking advantage of them.
They're happy.
You're getting them to amiddle class lifestyle.
You're keeping themoff the dangerous road.
I didn't even, I didn't evenrealize that part of it.
But you're, you know, you'retaking good care of them.
And, and just like any placeelse, you take good care of
your people and treat them well.
They treat you well.
And and our new did thiswhole internet thing.
(35:01):
I think it might stick around.
I think it might catch on.
aNd so your podcast is when thehour, when the day, where else
can people connect with you?
Kris Ward (35:09):
Yeah.
You can check me on socials.
Reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Tell people that you tell me that youheard 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 Tfrom Chris K R I S dot com.
Free gift from chris.
com.
We have some goodies there.
You can check out our power personality.
(35:30):
It's customized results.
It gives you immediate feedback ofwhat 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 myaudio book that you can download.
So a whole bunch of goodies there.
You want to check it out.
Free gift from chris.
Michael Whitehouse (35:45):
com even better.
And so since you're listening to this inyour car, rushing between appointments,
what you need to do right now is pull yourcar over safely and take your phone off
the holder and go to free gift from chris.
com and not say you'll do it laterbecause will they do it later?
Chris.
Probably not.
Probably not.
So do it right now.
Pull over safely or turn off thelawnmower or whatever you're doing.
(36:08):
Go to free gift from chris.
com and check out allthe cool stuff there.
It'll only take a minute.
And then you can go back to drivingor mowing the lawn or washing dishes
or doing whatever you were doing.
Sounds good to me.
All right.
Well, thank you forbeing on the show, Chris.
It's been great to have you.
Kris Ward (36:23):
Thank you, Michael.
I appreciate it.
Michael Whitehouse (36:27):
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 forthe next JV Connect.
Learn all about it at jv connect.
com.
You can also get my Five Steps toProfitable Networking course for
free right there on that site.
Our goal is that in two days, you'regoing to get over 100, 000 of value
from the connections you made.
(36:48):
And this applies whether you are brandnew 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 areright there on the website.
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