Your Business Should Support Your Life, Not Consume It with Kris Ward

H: So, Kris, as it turns out, we have many things in common. One, we both work with entrepreneurs, two, we both love made up words, and there are many others. But let's just go to the made up words, some of my favorite Kris Ward made up words are, and I hope I don't bungle any of them, focusitis, sufferpreneur, rushaholic, perfectionizer, and jugglerama. And the moment I read these, I realized these so accurately capture many of the struggles that solopreneurs and small business owners have that really hold them back in business. So which one should we start with first?

G: Well, that so, yeah, I've worked with 100 of entrepreneurs over the years, and I found that each one of them fell into one of these 5 categories. And I guess if we're gonna pick one, I would tell you that I'm a recovering rushaholic. And I know for me, Diann, I thought, like, speed was my superpower, I got stuff done. I got more stuff done in anybody else I knew. It still wasn't enough and I just thought, like, get out of my way. I can do this, and I didn't understand that I was skimming over things. I wasn't getting traction, there was no depth to what I was doing because everything was a constant race, and I was always too on the verge of what I call being in hysterical mode because, like, if I went to do something and I thought it could take 10 minutes and it took 12, like, ah, then I'm in stress. Because it's like, oh, there's extra 2 minutes I thought wasted. So these kind of different personalities, they all have their strength but they also you know, there's superpowers in them, but they also have their kryptonite. And so knowing what you are and then being able to clearly see, you know, what do you have to be mindful to navigate around to be more powerful, more effective, and really scale your business and save time and make more money is really super helpful.

H: So if we wanna convert these into language that people maybe who aren't as fond of created words or made up words, the focusitis is the person who's scattered, right? The sufferpreneur is the person who just feels burdened by all the responsibilities in their business.

G: Yeah. So we did we talked about the rushaholic, so then we have the, you know, sufferpreneur. So the sufferpreneur, let's say, would be someone where you feel like you're trying to dig a hole with a spoon or you're trying to make a sandwich without bread, and you feel like you need to do everything yourself, and you're like a one person band. And you're like, oh, you know what? You don't understand, I have to do it myself. This is the nature of my business, my business is different or I can't afford help. And so the sufferpreneur really, you know, is suffering and working long hours and tired and fatigue, but they feel that that fatigueness and that grind is part of the journey, and it's a noble badge to wear. So they are committed, they are hard workers. They are amazing amazing individuals, but, you know, they're depleting themselves like, an Olympic athlete goes several weeks before the Olympics without doing their fitness regime.

So you have to know how to pace yourself and where to put support to when you are the expert. So that's number one, sufferpreneur, so and then if you want, we can look at the jugglerama. Now the jugglerama is really leaning into their capabilities of being a multitasker, and we've all been trained to do that. But even a professional juggler drops balls right? And, again, what happens is there's so much science behind how less productive you are when you are frankly trying to shine a, a flashlight on two spots at the same time, you can't multitask, you can contact switch, that's it. So there is great capabilities in your ability to retain information, burn things, do things quickly, but teaching you the new skill of doing one thing at a time would completely remove your kryptonite and really lean into your superpower. Because you've got all this energy, and you don't realize you're burning it out by context switching, makes sense?

Okay, alright and then the perfectionizer, what they do is they confuse that they think that, you know, what's a really powerful quote I heard is “excellence is not required for perfection”. So that's really important, the perfectionizer has a keen eye for detail and really cares about how they look, and I wanna be professional. I want this to come out just fantastic and you're aiming for the stars, but sometimes you just really need to orbit the earth. And so you can be putting too much muscle into the wrong thing or everything, and then you're not first to market. We've learned so much from the biggest software companies in the world, and what they do is they put out a flawed product.

They get, you know, feedback, and then they perfect it, and they move forward, and they're just constantly evolving. So the perfection really, you know, thinks, oh, you don't understand, I need to look and I had oh, we all have different we all have, I would argue, different traits of these characteristics, but you just have to lean in to the one that is predominantly you. So I know I got held back up in the day thinking, oh, this has to look right, I wanna look like a big boy or girl company and make this just so and then just so you miss the moment, so that's the perfectionizer. And then focusitis, so many people I have been on so many podcasts where people would ask me, well, you know, if you're about getting stuff done and helping people build teams and, you know, saving people 25 hours a week within the 1st month of working with you.

You don't understand I have ADHD and it's like, I'd say listen, I'm not a doctor, but I would tell you 80% of the people who said that to me were not diagnosed, and they were confusing the lack of systems and supports that were roadblocks in their success with their inability to focus on one thing at a time. And so they're scattered all over the place and, really, they identify with focusitis, but they're just lacking some strategies. And for focusitis, you know, they really just keep thinking, oh, if I had more discipline, if I could just focus harder, and they don't understand. It's not a character flaw. It's a lack of strategy and systems.

H: I do have ADHD, and many of the people I work with do. And I think whether you do or whether you don't, it's what you make it mean that makes all the difference. Because if you say, well, I have ADHD and that means I can't do xyz, you're in deep trouble. If you say I have ADHD and that informs me that I need systems and structures, like my life depends on it because my productivity actually does, that to me is the distinct difference. So I think we still have one more, which is the jugglerama.

G: Yes. Yes. Yes. I think we started off there. So the jugglerama is really the one that's Excellent at multitasking or that's been their superpower up until now. And what happens is that's where we had talked about, you know, even a professional juggler drops a ball. So there is great strength in your ability to keep details, but you can't be leaning into that.

H: Do you find, Kris, with the people that you work with and have worked with for many, many years, that it's a hard sell for them to see themselves in these descriptions, or do they tend to say, yep, that's me. I get it.

G: I think what I have found, you know, when people join us in the Winner Circle Club is that there's great relief because you're following first of all, the number one thing you're following that's a misnomer is this idea that the grind is part of the entrepreneurial journey. And if you really truly follow anyone's success story, when this they turn the corner, when success begins is when they start to systemize things and when they start to know how to build a team. Having a VA, you know, there's great talent from the Philippines, very affordable, having all of that is not building a team, there's a big difference there. But when you hear about anyone's success, it's when they stop trying to do it by themselves. They know how to build a team, and they start putting systems and processes in place, so that's fantastic. But up until then, what happens is we all run around judging ourselves thinking, oh, if I was if I was more organized, if I was more focused, if I had more discipline. And so I think there's great relief understanding that's not a character flaw. You just don't have things in place to support you and if you do have perceived character flaws, then we can help you even more because you really need these.

H: No, it's absolutely true. I think many of the people that we both work with do not realize how institutionalized they are when they first start their own business. They don't really realize that I mean, so many people who start their own business, I'm sure you will agree, think, I don't wanna have a boss anymore. I know what I'm doing, I'm better, smarter, faster, more creative than the people that have supervised me. I can do this, and are completely unaware of just how much they needed and benefited from the structures, the systems, and the supports that they had in the workplace. Now they're out on their own, now they get to be without a boss. Now they have to be first the boss of themselves and then eventually their team. And that's when they start to realize, oh, as a matter of fact, I do need structure and systems and supports because I may be super talented, but I'm absolutely floundering.

G: Yeah. I think Diann for that is there's a couple things I wanna sort of tap into it. And one is the corporate world, wherever you are it can be North America, it could be England, Australia and what it is, it's very parentified. And so we all have, like, our supervisor or a manager or these things, and what they do is they supervise our work as an employee, like a parent, child, a teacher student type situation right? And the same thing, then we go, well, I don't wanna have these systems and processes. I had that in a job, it was very stifling, because those were not written by the end user. They're static in nature, they were there to cover liability. And so, you know, I would say that what we've designed in the Winner Circle Club is the super tool kits that constantly allow you to compress time and be more and more efficient because you always have the next thing. When I wrote my book, you know, Win the Hour Win the Day, I thought, oh my gosh, have a parade. I'm done, we're good.

I'll never do anything, you know, this big again. Then all of a sudden a year later, it's, oh, we have the podcast. When they are when the day podcast like, there's always going to be another thing, another stage you wanna be on. And so you have to have the ability to be more and more efficient to continuously find bandwidth on your calendar so you can do new ambitions and scale your time. And with that comes also the conversation of being a boss. I don't traditionally use that word. I know you're using it because it's a common word, but also associated with that is people talk about delegating and I say delegating is a lateral move. It the work still has to come through you so what we do is we really put these things upside down. And as far as building a team and having leadership and having, you know it's a very different setup than being a boss and delegating. So here's a quick example, it's kind of like so many people will talk about a company and a culture and they'll think that the culture kicks in when you got 50, a 100 people, whatever.

So let's say, Diann, you're on a cruise and there's, like, I don't know, 500 people on this cruise ship and there's some hiccup, some mini emergency, and things get a little hairy. And so all of a sudden, you're a smart person, you go and find the people that look like they're getting it done. We're gonna get this situation under control or get off the ship or something and so you might hook up with 50 other people, out of the 500 people, you're hooking up with 50. If you were in a rowboat with 2 other people, you better make sure that this is a highly efficient team. So if you get a whole in that boat, then you all have equal ability to solve problem. And so that's the difference in having building a team and having culture versus delegating. When all of a sudden things go awry and you've got a 500 people, well, who's in charge? Who's this, that, whatever? It gets really messy really quickly and that's just you're right, we've people have no understanding of how institutionalized they've been and how broken that system is.

H: So well said, if somebody is starting their own business and they're used to doing things on their own. In fact, most of the people listening are not just starting, they've been in business for a while. They're accustomed to doing things on their own, they may have a virtual assistant. They may outsource different aspects of their business, but they probably haven't yet committed to building a team, so where would they start with that? Let's say they're you know, they may already have virtual assistants. They may outsource whenever they need some copywriting or they need to get their website updated. They have a production company that that does their podcast, helps them with their blogging, social media, whatever. But the way you're talking about building a team, can you do that with people who are all contractors, who are working with others? Are you talking about people who are dedicated and devoted to only working with your company.

G: No. You can build it, the concept and philosophy of teamwork transcends all relationships right? So, you know, if you align it with sports, there's people that come together and have a really effective team, say in basketball for the Olympics right? And they weren't a team previously, and they have less time, but they have a team philosophy, and they have a coach that is going to imprint upon them. Here's what this team will look like for this event so I do think sometimes people think they have a team and they don't. Or they're they have what I call vendors like, yeah, this is a person I throw my podcast to and they produce it, but they own the they have the systems and processes. You're really just they're just a vendor, they're not part of your team, right, in any capacity.

They're not even following your infrastructure so you can definitely create a team philosophy for sure. We lean into that very heavily in the Winner Circle Club so and that is where the people you work with, whether they're, you know, outsourcers from the Philippines for 5, 6 US dollars an hour, that's where they become, like, little CEOs of their own department, and their ability to really be effective, it is amazing. So I talk about the 3 biggest mistakes you bill have when you're building a team and I the 3 D's, dumping, delegating, and disregarding. And so dumping work on someone like a task manager here, you know, you're just dumping, okay, here's the overflow, get this done and there's no growth in that. It's just keeping up with, you know, like the fire burning right? And delegating, as I said before, that's like the lateral move. The work still comes through you, you're managing it. You're the bottleneck, it's still a problem.

And then disregarding, this is the one we don't talk about enough. It's ignoring your team's unique talent and leaning in instead of bearing them with tasks and really leaning into finding out what they do love and what they do best and what eats up more of their time in their calendar. And this is where when we do work with people who already have a team, we can take it from, you know, whatever, let's say 40% efficiency, then they think they're at a 100 and then really amp it up like putting a new motor in a vehicle. So there's things that even when you think, oh, you don't understand. I have a team, I've been doing this for years. I have outsourcers, they're loyal to me. This is great, I'm not a sufferpreneur and all these things. It's like, oh, okay, maybe you're like the high school track star, but let's get you to the Olympics.

H: You just raised a question in my mind, and I'm thinking about the developmental trajectory of an individual business owner. And a lot of people will be a little bit defensive and say, oh, I have a team I outsource to people, they've been working with me for a long time, yada yada yada. How can you help that person recognize that what they actually have is not working as well as they think it is like, what would their clues be? Because, course, everybody wants to get more done. Everyone wants to make more money with less time. Everyone wants to scaling is very big. Everyone's talking about scale, scale, scale, you know, leverage your talents and so forth. But what would be the clues to that business owner that they actually need to do something about these traits.

G: That's a fantastic question, Diann, I don't think I've been asked that before. So what I would say is some of those clues are, are you taking what I call laptop free vacations? You are not now on vacation with your family and hiding like a little drug addict in the closet trying to answer a few more emails right? Are you taking vacations at all? Do you take 2, 3 vacations a year like this life's freedom lifestyle you're promised when you started, or are you taking less vacations than when you had a job? So are these real vacations? How often do you have vacations? How quickly can you implement goals? If you have a goal and say, Kris, I wanna get a book out, is that something that you'd be, oh, this time next year? Like, yeah okay, we're really gonna work on this now or it's getting closer or, you know, got busy, so and so got sick or this happened. So can you implement a goal and consistently be realistic with a reasonable time frame to execute that goal? That's a business, that's not a you know, that's the difference.

And so, also, do you have the ability to make more money with your current calendar demands. Like, okay, right now, we're at capacity but if I wanted to take on this new ambition and make cash into this new opportunity, would that increase my hours? Can you work 4 days a week comfortably and still make the same amount of money? And if not, why are you still at this point working 5 days a week? So that's when I could take you to, oh, you've got a team. You're not in crisis mode, but let's get you to a new level of business because it's not enough just to keep treading water. It's really about this lifestyle that you expected when you started the business. And I would question, are you there yet?

H: This is so good because you're absolutely right. What is the number one reason people tell me, people tell you that they decided to start their own business. They want more freedom. They want more flexibility. And many people use the expression, which I think has become a little tiresome, but we both understand what it means. They wanna stop trading time for dollars. They want to be able to leverage what they do well and not be tied down. However, tell me if I'm wrong, aren't most self employed people actually working more hours for the same or less money than they were in a job at least until they figure some of these things out.

G: Yeah. So they are self employed, and that's the right term. They don't have a business and what I would say is your business should support your life, not consume it right? And that's a really powerful statement that you said. And I don't know how many times I'm sure you've met somebody that start a business that's new and and then, oh, why'd you start a business? And they'll say if you say something like, well, I want to spend more time with my family. Well, good luck to that, you should gather them around and say goodbye because unless you do something different, most people are gonna be stuck in that crazy workaholic mode, like working insane hours.

If you're lucky a couple years, but most people the people that I tend to work with most, they look good on paper. They have a podcast. They have a book. They might have a small team, but they're still working way too many hours at this point in the journey. They're you know, they're in business 6, 10, 15, 20 years, and they're, like, always thinking once I get past this next thing, oh, you don't understand. Once we get the website up, once we start the new show, once this world crisis is over or once summer vacation's over, oh, so and so is sick. And it's like, that's not a business, that's like family dynamics. So if you hear yourself saying, once I get past this next thing, things will be different, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, that is a warning bell.

H: And that speaks very clearly to the name of your book, to the name of your podcast, to the name of your business, because Win the Hour, Win the Day. Yes, it's catchy. Yes, it's clever. I freaking love it. It's memorable, but win isn't about winning. It's about what is next and that that's everything, isn't it? Like, what do you actually need to do next and it's probably not what you've been doing.

G: No. Not at all. So that's the whole thing, can you keep moving, so what is next? I call it a win team or what is next team. So we can always be moving on to what is next and so we you know, I meet with my team daily. We have little 15 minute scrums, you know, based on the book Scrum from Jeff Sutherland do double the work in half the time and we have built other things upon his framework. And what happens is when we have these little scrums, it's not me checking their work or talking about what happened or what we assigned last week or anything like that because they're all independent, and they have their own, you know, their what we call their weekly job bio and things like that. But what happens is, like okay, so now we're talking about the second book. This is what we're looking at so we're always talking about what is next, and we're putting a plan in place constantly

So where do we have to find time? What do we have to do? How are we gonna communicate this? Who's who's taking this on? Oh, we you know what? The launch of the podcast is very different, same as the book, so let's do it this way. Boom. Boom. Boom. The funny thing is too, I'll tell you, Diann, when I started my podcast, my podcast is not about all this because people who are productive ever effective you know, they the people who really need my help are not gonna tune in to this kind of conversation weekly on my podcast. So my podcast could be anything from sales to social media, all this other stuff. We have great guests like yourself and all that stuff. So when I finally decided to have a podcast, I met with my team and shame on me. I said to them, okay, so and so is finally convincing why I should do this. We're gonna do a podcast, and I think we'll do it in the spring, and we'll nail down the dates in our next scrum.

And someone said to me, Kris, you have a big speaking gig in 4 weeks, why don't we launch it then? I'm like, I don't even know where like, I have nothing. I don't even know do you call up 1 800 podcast? I knew nothing right? And I said, what do you mean do this in 4 weeks? I don't know anything and he said, how annoying to me, Kris, we have the book, we have the systems. We know how to execute projects quickly, this is what we do. Why can't we do it in 4 weeks? And I was like, well, I can't argue my own logic. So we did get it up in 4 weeks, and I'll tell you a couple quick things that we did. One is we had systems and processes in play from the book.

It was very similar to the book as far as launch goes. I always do the most important work 1st hour of the day, so then it's done and you've got consistency and you build on it and you don't waste your brainpower doing emails. And we didn't just get it up, we launched number 2 in our country, Canada, and we were top, I think, 30 in the US. And now we have, you know, over a thousand star reviews. So we didn't just get it to air, we did a launch, and that's because of the way we can constantly get to what is next.

H: That is extremely impressive, and it's also amusing and poignant because this is what you teach. This is how you lead, this is what you do, but you still need to be reminded to take your own medicine and that's very heartwarming for me because oftentimes, that's exactly what we need. And to be reminded you actually know how to do this. In fact, when clients tell me, I don't know, I will usually counter that with either yeah, you do. Or okay, that may be so, but what if you did? Usually, it's right there, but there's something blocking it. Now, I'm a former shrink, so full disclosure, I'm often fascinated by what is the thing that's standing in their way.

But I love your approach because you just sidestep that. You're like, it doesn't matter what's standing in your in your way. We could go down that rabbit hole indefinitely and be no further along than before we started. What matters is what's next? Because the focus is on action, not an insight. Insight is great! I freakin' love insight! But it's not enough! You need to take action, you need to think about what's next. And if you're so focused on the next and the next and the next, maybe for the perfectionists and the procrastinators and the people pleasers and the overthinkers and the second guessers, maybe they can interrupt that pattern by focusing on what's next and getting themselves into action and not more thinking. What are your thoughts on it?

G: Yeah. Well, if I can, you know, push back a teeny little bit, what I wanted I'm very mindful of the words I use. And so to me, this is a part where people get confused and I think you're very correct in what you're saying, but the word action also people get confused with activity versus results. So then they start pivoting like, oh, you know, I remember way back in the day in the beginning where I worked insane hours the first couple years, it's like, oh, I read a book on the weekend. Well, cut to Monday morning, now my team, we're going, oh, I read this amazing book, we're gonna do this now right? And so do not confuse a dog digging a hole is not being productive. And so this is what I really am passionate about is because it's really about do you have strategies.

Do you have systems in play that have given you success that can build on more success, and you have a framework that you can constantly scale because action is where people go wrong. It's like, okay. I'll you know, you know what, we're gonna do this podcast in a couple weeks. So if even if we got it up, a lot of companies in my position would have been working insane hours up until that and then drop the ball on all their other projects. And as you probably know, Diann, 3 weeks later, 90% of podcasters don't last past 3 weeks. So then you get, like, oh, yeah, we burned ourselves out right. You know, whatever, I'm a jugglerama. I can do all these things. I got the podcast up, this is exciting. Cut to 6 months later, oh, yeah, what happened with that? You know so the action can be deceiving and confusing.

H: Yeah. Action for action's sake is probably a lot of time and energy and effort wasted because it's not strategic. And it's not aligned with your goals, and you're not thinking about what comes after that. It's just random, just shooting what is it, the expression, throwing spaghetti at the wall. I wanna come back to couple of things that really, really, I think are really resonating with people listening. Is the difference between, you know, you and I both know in the last number of years, at least the last 10 years, certainly in the last 3, some of this influenced by the pandemic. This promotion of the entrepreneurial lifestyle, the laptop lifestyle, the freedom lifestyle is heavy. There are tons of people promoting this idea that, you know, start a business, change your life, work from the beach, cut your hours, blah blah blah. But if you don't do it the right way, you're not an entrepreneur. You don't have a business. You've created a job for yourself with no benefits, no retirement, no way to leverage or scale it.

You've traded one job for another, and you've probably dropped your hourly wage. And so many people are fond of saying they have a business when they don't actually have a business, they have a job. And part of the responsibility for that is the way entrepreneurship has been sold to so many people for years. Your understanding about business is at least in part connected to the fact that for a very personal and unfortunately tragic reason, you had to step completely away from your business for a period of time, and yet it kept on running. And that may be another question to ask in alignment with the other ones you did about vacations and can you make more money without having to add so many more things? Can you step away for a period of time and have your business continue to run. That may be the most obvious question to ask yourself, could you step away, can you step away for any reason?

G: Yeah, that's a really important point. First of all, I don't understand this whole push about the have your laptop on the beach. You can't even see the screen like, that's the biggest miss of the myth I've ever heard, and I don't think you're focusing on anything. You can't just do business and like, this is the whole I'm like, what are they talking poolside, you're not paying attention. You're skimming emails, you're juggling, you're doing all this stuff. So first of all, that's just full of rubbish. That's my pet peeve when people say, oh, look, I'm traveling with my laptop, well, I don't think you're doing a good job. But anyhow, I don't think you're serving anybody well and what don't get me started on that. So I think what you're referring to, Diann, yes, when I start my business, I worked insane hours and, you know, I was working 16 hours a day.

And after about 2 years, my husband said to me, you know what, you're losing a little bit of your charm because I was constantly exhausted. And he said I was always stealing from sleep, getting up earlier and earlier and staying later and later. And I thought being a hard worker was noble, and this was part of the journey like, I gotta get this business off the ground. But 2 years without sleep is two very long years. So I literally went from working 16 hours a day down to 6. Now that did not happen overnight, that's a whole story in its own. But to move this story forward, luckily, I did because it was a couple years after that that my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer, and I was pulled away from the business for about 2 years. Now when I returned after his passing, my existing clients I was, you know, doing market messaging and all that stuff as a marketer. And my existing clients had no idea of my absence and nor did the local business community.

It was just not how we navigate his journey. We are very positive in nature and they said to me, Kris, if you could be away for 2 years and we didn't know, like, or a week or a month. Maybe you could help us get to our kids' soccer games and spend times with our family and friends. And and so I started working with them under that capacity right? Because here's the reality of it you know, everybody has things going on in their life, and when people would bestow sympathy upon me, I'd say, look, everybody is something. This is my something right now but the reality was if I came back to that first of all, he saw how hard I worked and so if he thought for a second that he was bringing down my company. I wasn't a 100% sure, but he was my priority, and we had all these appointments and so I'm like, yeah, everything's fine.

But, you know, the reality was I was now returning down in income. Like, it was not the time for me to whip up a resume, try to be charming an interview and learn a new job. So this could have brought my whole life to my knees had I not returned to a functioning business. So it's you know, you may say my story, people would describe it as, you know, at least tragic, but everybody has something, an ailing mother or things happen. Things happen and can you have a business that will support your life instead of consuming? Or the moment you stop sort of like a balloon tapping it, it just falls to the ground and boy, that's not what you need when other things are going on.

H: And you're absolutely right, everybody has something. It doesn't have to be something on the magnitude of what you experienced. But if you're human, sooner or later, something is going to happen that's going to interfere, hijack or completely disrupt you from being able to work these ridiculous hours and trying to be everywhere. And, you know, pain can be a great teacher, and it's unfortunate how often, how many of us will push ourselves to the very limit before we will begin to implement these things. I mean, I think anyone listening can identify themselves probably pretty readily in one of your descriptions. The conversation we've been having about systems and structures and being able to delegate can build a team. It's all very logical, and it makes complete sense why it would be the solution to having a job with no benefits and having an actual business. Do you think that the system that you use, that you teach, that you help your clients with works for everybody. And do you think that every business owner can will be able to adopt this mindset and make these changes. Or have you found there are some people that just can't do it for whatever the reason.

G: No, not at all. So we created and put a lot of effort into, you know, the founder of what we call Super Toolkits. And, you know, I've got I think I even have it on LinkedIn now. We just put up another video where somebody he was saying he'd been in business for, like, 10 years, and he got teary eyed. And he said, this is the first time I have a business with legs. I thought I had a business all these years, but I didn't realize I was just running around trying to keep it afloat. So I think very much, you know, to the conversation too. A lot of people come to us when they've had some sort of situation like, oh my gosh. You know, there's just all kinds of horrible stories, I don't wanna be graphic where people are just burning the candle at both ends, and things happen because they're exhausted. I know personally I damn near burned my house down several times because I put something on the stovetop, boiled an egg, and I'll answer a few more emails and, oh my gosh, remember an hour later right?

So people also get into dangerous situations by running around like a full multitasking, but we have seen it impact and really, we had one client. She came here's a funny story and she worked with, like, big companies, $5,000,000 companies, and she helped them with their exit strategy. So it's really a lot about systems and she said, Kris, how can you help me this is crazy but back up for a second. I don't say it's okay to do this, but a lot of times when people meet me to hire me, there's a significant amount that mess up the first appointment because they're just so running around like a crazy person, and if they could get everything done, they wouldn't need me. So I can be forgiving about that, she missed the second one, and I said, no. We're not doing this like, who's the fool to show up for a third appointment? And she begged me, I really need your help. I'm so sorry, I swear and she was in England. I swear this won't happen again, right? So that's fine, we met and she's like, I don't know how you're gonna help me, my hair's on fire.

She's taking medication to help her sleep at night. She said the adrenaline's just so high. She's got all these big project she's working on, she'd been in business for, like, over 12 years. We worked with her, it wasn't, you know, months later that she was saying, oh my gosh. She's taking evening walks in the woods. She's doing all these thing within the year, she went on a month long vacation in Costa Rica without a cell phone and her team of two outsources from the Philippines, and I use the word outsourcer even though I don't like it because now they're part of her win team. So, you know, they ran her company and we were able to do that within, like, 8 months and she had a lot of systems in play because that's what she sold. But we put the Super Toolkit in action, and it was a game changer for her as it is for everybody else in the Winner Circle Club.

H: I can't even imagine what a difference that made in this person's life. So, as we're wrapping up, Kris, what is the one thing that you want anyone listening right now who's thinking, yeah, but that all sounds good, but my business, you know, you it just doesn't work that way. And, you know, a lot of people, let's face it, we think we're special snowflakes. We think we're the exception. We think we've tried everything. We think, you know, we may even admit that we're floundering in some way, but we always think we're an exception. What would you say to that person?

G: Well, you may be special, but you're not unique, and the fundamental principles of business are the same. And so everybody, if you're sitting in a room and you think your business is different, your situation is different, then I say this affectionately, that's a rookie mistake and you know, until you sort of figure that out, you're really making your life much harder. But even if something as simple as Amazon, we have more in common with them as far as a business goes and we don't. At the end of the day, that is somebody that just scaled and really leveraged systems and processes. That's all he did that was different than anybody else you know? So, if you think your business is unique or special, great. Reach out, tell me you heard me on this great podcast and let's have a conversation, but I'm telling you your business should support your life instead of consume it, and business should be fun. Or why didn't you stay at that job with less overhead, better hours, higher hourly rate, retirement plan, weekends, vacations, everything.

H: You have had so many mic drop moments in this conversation, Kris. I honestly do not know which one is gonna end up being the audiogram, so good. Love it. Love it. Love it.

G: Well, thank you.

H: What is the best way for people who want to get more Win the Hour, Win the Day Kris Ward into their life. What is their next step to stay connected to you beyond this interview?

G: Yeah. I would encourage you to take the quiz. It's really you get immediate customized result. It takes, like, 30 seconds to do it, and you can grab a copy of the quiz at freegiftfromkris.com. There's some other goodies there but check that out and take the quiz, and that will be step one to being enlightened and giving you some time back and really people tell me all the time how eerie it is that I've labeled them and got in their head, so that that will just be an asset for you. And just reach out to me in whatever social you're on and tell me that you heard me on this fantastic podcast, and we'll be fast friends.

H: I love this so much. And by the way, if you're driving right now, do not try to write down that URL. I will make sure to link to it and other ways to connect with Kris in the show notes. That's all for now. Thanks so much for being here Kris.

G: Thank you.