Episode 269 with Kris Ward: Time-Saving Strategies for Small Business Owners

My guest on this episode of the Ready Yet?! Podcast is Kris Ward, Founder of the Win The Hour, Win the Day philosophy. Join us as we discuss the power of super toolkits over traditional to-do lists, the significance of managing business interruption, and how to shift from being a solopreneur to a strategic business owner. Chris offers actionable advice on how to work smarter, not harder, and truly tap into your zone of genius. Learn how Chris's transformative approach not only saves time and boosts income for entrepreneurs but also offers them the ability to enjoy their lives, even amid life's unpredictability.

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Transcript

Episode 269 with Kris Ward: Time-Saving Strategies for Small Business Owners

Transcribed by Descript 

Erin Marcus: All right. Welcome. Welcome to this episode of the Ready Yet podcast. And I believe I said this to you when you reached out to me, my guest today, Chris Ward, wins the absolute award for most interesting LinkedIn message. And I, in a world full of increasing AI, where everybody sounds the same, I Appreciate, love, respect the time that you talk to connect as a human and to be an individual.

Erin Marcus: And I know that's not completely what our topic is going to be today, but for someone with a marketing background, yay you. It's not hard to be human instead of a robot, right? No. So before we get into our conversation for everybody, tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what you do. 

Kris Ward: Yeah.

Kris Ward: Chris Ward, I help entrepreneurs stop working so hard. And my clients say they get 25 hours back a week within the first month of working with us. And we help you with what we call your team, your time, and your toolkits. Love it. 

Erin Marcus: It's this is what you do so well in addition to what it is that you do.

Erin Marcus: And this is where I see so many people have challenges. You very easily describe what you do, the benefit to the client it's not complicated, it doesn't have to be fancy, this is who I am, this is the outcome I can offer you. And I think people get, it does go along, because if you think about it, the convoluted, complicated, problem that people have in describing what they do, which is where I help people, is the same convoluted, complicated problem they have in actually doing the things that they do, which is where you come in, right?

Kris Ward: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. First of all, flattery will get you everywhere, Erin. Hello, I got nothing but time for you if you're going to say nice things about me. Come on, right? But yeah, I think what your point Is when I'm talking to people about the efficiencies or inefficiencies in their business, that transcends all elements, right?

Kris Ward: Let's get you from A to B as fast as we can. So that you have more time to stay in your zone of genius so that you can make more money in less time, have a bigger impact and do what you're meant to do instead of all the constant interruptions. 

Erin Marcus: It's so true and My new phrase I've dared a couple of my clients.

Erin Marcus: is to take a blowtorch to their to do list. Oh, I love you. Not even just your pen, but a freaking blowtorch. 

Kris Ward: I say burn your to do list. So I've been saying that for years because a to do list is a percolating list of emergencies, right? And no successful person, no captain of industry, no millionaire runs their business or their day or any aspect of their life off a to do list.

Kris Ward: Right? That does not happen. It's not in chronological order. You can't reassign it. You, it doesn't tell you, you cherry pick, Oh, I've got 10 things on my list. So here's two chick, get those off. Those are the ones that took two minutes. Like you can't strategize, you can't scale, you can't do anything.

Kris Ward: So it's really think of it. If you went to Ikea or you bought some table, you had to put together. And at the end, you get all these nuts and bolts left over. That's what a to do list is. It's a bunch of leftover notes and bolts, and you're like, I don't know where these go, I'll deal with that later, but that's dangerous, right?

Erin Marcus: And it creates more problems than it solves. I have a list, I do have a list, but the way that I use that list is, these are the random things that I have to do, but then there's the block on my calendar to do them. 

Kris Ward: Yeah. Sometimes the list is actually on the block. So what I talk about is we deal with your team, your time, and your toolkits.

Kris Ward: So first off, I would say that 90 percent of people don't know how to use their calendar effectively and that's a problem, all right? That's a big deal. So what they look at their calendar is a memo board or a dumping place or they stuff to do things in between assigned calls like, Oh, I have to meet with Erin now.

Kris Ward: That's on my calendar. And then you would get off the calendar and off the call and you just run around and try to get busy work done. And I've had people say to me Chris, I do that every day. I don't need to remember it. It's this is not a memo board. That would be like saying, oh, my car payment comes out every month, but because it comes out every month, I don't count it.

Kris Ward: The money is gone. So you do have to put your work on your own work on the calendar because you may be stumbling into the day thinking you have eight hours and you only have five. And so right there, the math is off. So then when you are working with what I call your team and a team is a philosophy, not a number, you can have a team of one.

Kris Ward: So we find hire and onboard virtual assistants for our clients and then you're hitting the floor running. Behind the eight ball trying to catch up dumping stuff on this poor assistant in a like spray of panic and then you just spread the chaos because adding more people to chaos does not create calm Because right from the beginning you've got issues with the calendar Then you're using a to do list, which instead of what we call our signature super toolkits, which means that you constantly can just do something, duplicate it.

Kris Ward: It's effective. There's no human subject to human error. There's no missteps. You've got a super toolkit. You follow it. Boom. It eliminates all to do lists. My clients don't have to do lists. They don't need them. They've got the super toolkits. And then you really can start to lean in to that zone of genius where your clients are paying you to be, which is where the real revenue is.

Erin Marcus: And one of the things that happens it's very interesting to me because, I know you, you and I were chatting before about what we really want people to know is that the outcome of this situation is that you're killing your income. But the interesting thing that I see is that when most people have a revenue problem, They throw a marketing tactic at it and marketing tactics are not the solution to every business problem you have.

Kris Ward: No. Think about it like this. Think about it. If you were a courier, okay, so I'm a courier and I'm going to deliver packages and I hop in my car and I drive a package to location a and I give it to person. If that's the plan and I get the package, it's all pre labeled, it's all good, and they give me a list and say, here's all the packages you have to deliver today.

Kris Ward: Boom. Excellent. No problem. So let's say, I don't know, I can deliver 15 packages in a day. Let's say I work for another, and I get paid per package. Like every package I get on time, I get a 5 bonus. Now, if I work for another organization where I have to print out the label and I have to put the address in, and then I have to check on the map where it is and organize, okay, I'll go that one first and that one second.

Kris Ward: Do you think I'm going to get the same packages delivered that day? No, because I've got the, all that admin work to do. So I might get seven out. That's understandable. Even if I'm good at printing the labels, even if I'm good at sussing it out on the map, these are two or three different steps that I have to take before I can even deliver it.

Kris Ward: It eats up time and brain power. So now I'm not focused on that. And that's what happens. That's what people are doing with their business. They're like, Oh yeah I just, I just got to do this thing here and this thing there. And I would say even if you're a brain surgeon, there's always pre and post work that someone can relieve you from because you need to be in that lane where people are paying you for your expertise.

Kris Ward: And not only is that where the revenue is, but also what you're trying to do. Like when you try to find, hire and onboard a virtual assistant, you Now you're doing it because you're, you need help. It's a whole career on its own. So it's like me saying, Oh, in between me doing all my activities in the day, Aaron, I'm just going to throw together some marketing strategies.

Kris Ward: It like, I can't stick that in amongst all the other things I'm doing in my zone of genius. It's a whole nother career. That's what people don't get. And and as I'm listening 

Erin Marcus: to you, I said, you know what I see? That it'd be interesting to see how you see it manifest. Is, one of the reasons, first of all, there's the knowledge, right?

Erin Marcus: People don't know how to do this, that's totally fair, right? There's the knowledge. But I watch, one of the things I say to people a lot is when you're trying to grow your business, if you're going from me to we, if you're really trying to go from solopreneur to business owner, it's not more work, it's scarier work, right?

Erin Marcus: You don't have to do more work, you have to do scarier work. And I watch people hide in the work. 

Kris Ward: Yeah. 

Erin Marcus: They hide in the busy work. I can't go do the thing that scares me because my subconscious is justifying. So I'm curious, I love working, the people I work with that I absolutely love, it's if you can just, if they can just grab on to this a little bit, they take off with it, right?

Erin Marcus: So where do you see resistance to this and how can somebody like, Here's the deal. I want people to reach out to you. I want them to buy your book. I want them to hire you to do all these things. That's great. That's the how to. That's phenomenal. If someone were listening right now and they're hearing their inner self, stop them from taking any of that action, how do you see this manifest and what do you tell people to get past it a little bit?

Kris Ward: Yeah. So one of the things that break my heart is there is this concept that it's all character flaws. Oh, if I was more organized, Oh, if I was more disciplined, and first of all, discipline erodes the battery. And also, there's business. So there's startup. And then you get all excited when you get through the, Oh my gosh, like I had nothing and I got the website up and I got a few clients and so then you get this false sense of empowerment because what got you here will not get you there.

Kris Ward: So you went from startup and you, Did all these insurmountable things and you stayed in business more than five years. So then you think that, that was the hardest part of the climb. So why can't I get to the next stage? So you think it's just a matter of being even a little bit more organized and it's not, it's a whole new skill set guaranteed.

Kris Ward: And I would also argue that being organized. is a deficit because then you just reorganize yourself, right? If 

Erin Marcus: you think that's the key, you'll just keep doing that. Yeah. Actually get anywhere. 

Kris Ward: So here's a quick example. Someone was referred to me and, I'm not saying it's okay, but this does happen.

Kris Ward: Sometimes people will say, Oh my gosh, I need to meet with you. Strategy call. I need your help. So I showed up. She missed the appointment. It's happened more than once. That's why they need me. Their hair's on fire. They're running around like crazy person. So then I'm like, okay, no problem. I knew who the referral was.

Kris Ward: I met, went to meet with her the second time and then she didn't show up. And I'm like, okay, you know what? Who's the fool? I'm out. So she begged me, please, Chris, I need your help. I'm so sorry. I guarantee I'll show up this time. Please. I'm like, I don't know. Whatever. Okay. No problem. So I show up. So here is this client.

Kris Ward: She says and I didn't know this at the time, she was working insane hours, like 100 hours a week. 

Erin Marcus: Oh my God. She 

Kris Ward: was having to take medication at night to sleep because her adrenaline and her cortisol was so out of whack. And she said, you don't understand. There's just too much work to do. That's another thing I hear all the time.

Kris Ward: You don't get it. It's just too much work to do. Now her job, her business was she helped companies of five and 10 million get set up to sell with their system. So she said, I don't know how you're going to help me because I help them with their systems. There's just too much work to do. So I said I've never failed yet.

Kris Ward: I'm just, that's what we do. So that's what I know how to do. This is what we do. So here we are. So I start working with her and not only, and I've got clippings that's on LinkedIn. It's not even a rehearsed testimonial. It's just from our sessions. She would say that her income up, went up four times. Four times of what it was.

Kris Ward: Her hours went down to one fifth. The virtual assistant that we found hired an on board for her, which we do, and we just do that to get to the real work. We're not an agency. We don't take a cut of it. It's not where we get our work. It stops the bleeding. It stops the bleeding. We find you somebody to stop the bleeding so we can get to the real work, which is the Super Toolkits, our signature program, Super Toolkits.

Kris Ward: Within the year, she went to Costa Rica for a month with no Wi Fi, and that virtual assistant ran the business. That's Super Toolkits. So I'm here to tell you, you think it's about getting time back. You think it's about being more productive and getting more done. You think it's all these things, but the reality is it is where your income is.

Kris Ward: You are so constantly interrupted by this busy work that it's like. One, my, my birthday's approaching and it reminded me one year I was talked into they were like, Oh, we should have a birthday party for you, blah, blah, blah, right? My family. And I was like, all right. And then I decided the last minute we would have it at my house cause we had a pool at the time.

Kris Ward: And I thought I'm the common denominator. So all these people who they're not in each other's worlds, won't be at one friend's house over the other. They'll be at my house where they know fine. The point of this story was, it was the dumbest thing I had ever done, because I could not be the host and the guest at the same time.

Kris Ward: Every time I sat down with someone, I'd go to sit down with you, Erin, for two seconds, and say, oh my gosh, and then you gave me a present, and somebody said, hey, do you know where the bowls are? Oh, I'll get that for you. I know where that is. I never made my way back to people like you and finished the conversation.

Kris Ward: It just never happened. I didn't get to see anybody. They didn't know each other, and I was the common denominator. It was just constant. Interrupted, interrupted itis, right? That's what you do with your business. When you do all that admin work, it's just constantly you're interrupted. And the sad thing is you have no idea about the income you're missing out on.

Kris Ward: And you keep thinking once I get past this next thing ding. That's the problem. 

Erin Marcus: And that's, it's such a huge point. I see that as well. And I get it. I have the, my brain works the same way I've been there. I am there, I get it. You go through, it's, they say a new level, new devil.

Erin Marcus: I say new level, same devil, different outfit, right? We all go through this, but it's thinking that I'll solve it once I have the money to solve it when you'll never get the money. If you don't solve the problem. 

Kris Ward: No, I call it the three D's, damaging overhead, delayed income, diminished opportunity. So damaging overhead, any time that you're spending on the busy work on the admin work, the web of admin, let's say for simplicity sake, Erin, that you could sell a package for a hundred dollars.

Kris Ward: So when you are busy doing that work, then you're not bringing in that package for a hundred dollars. And now what is that going to look like when, that person, that, that client could have referred you to one other person, right? So you are now billing your agency a hundred dollars per package because the money you're not bringing in is really what you're billing your business.

Kris Ward: Then delayed income. What does it cost you when you've got business in June that you could have had in January? That's huge. That's six months there, right? And then the most painful of it all is diminished opportunity. When someone says, Oh my gosh, Erin, I didn't know you did that. I just locked in with somebody else and the lifetime value of that customer.

Kris Ward: So damaged overhead, delayed income, diminished opportunity. You are the bottleneck in your business and you're costing yourself finances and limitations and you're the choking point like you have no idea you're measuring time because you don't have the capability or the instruments to see how much money you're losing 

Erin Marcus: and It's the thing that the phrase that I use to talk about this also is business owner mindset.

Erin Marcus: Yeah. So there's things I say, there's things from your corporate experience and your jobs that will kill you as an entrepreneur but there's also some really important lessons. And to me, work ethic was one of them, right? I can tell when I've worked with corporate executives, they show up at a, they work the day, right?

Erin Marcus: They work the day. And the other thing is delegation. 

Kris Ward: The other 

Erin Marcus: thing that is fantastic about people with corporate experience is they understand they should be doing What they're supposed to be doing and other people should be doing what they're supposed to be doing. And I said if back when I was in corporate, if I would have, gone into the marketing department and started futzing with the website, I would have been chased out with pitchforks and torches.

Erin Marcus: Why would I do it now? And so it's really talking about not just recognizing that there's a different way and there's a different way that's possible and beneficial. But what you're talking about is, this is how a business is run. As opposed to a person whose self identity is, I'm over here trying to do a thing.

Kris Ward: Yeah, you bring up some really good points. First of all, I would encourage you to take our quiz. We've got this quiz, check out free gift, free F R E, gift, G I F T, from chris, K R I S dot com. Free gift from chris dot com. And in there, We have found that after working with so many entrepreneurs that they tend to fall into one of five categories, right?

Kris Ward: And so it'd be really interesting. I know I'm a recovering rushaholic. And so it will be interesting to help and it's quick. It's easy. It takes a couple of seconds and just get customized results. And that also will give you a lot of information to your point about the corporate world. There are some really Bad things that, we've been institutionalized with the corporate world.

Kris Ward: And I understand what you're saying about delegation, but I am going to pick on that just a little bit. To me, delegation is a lateral move and the work still comes through you. Because if you were in a company right now, Aaron, and they said, Aaron, you are so good. Great at sales. We're going to make you head of sales.

Kris Ward: What would happen then is you would get a sales team and you would likely stop doing sales and you would be managing the sales team. We can't do that as entrepreneurs. We want more time to do what we want to do not less. So the way we have it set up. is we have what we call a win team. So you, what is next?

Kris Ward: So you can get to what is next. And it's based on not only just how we communicate in our daily scrums and our super toolkits, our signature program that changes everything because the delegating takes up time as well as those SOPs that you rejected, the standard operating procedures. They were traditionally not written by the end user.

Kris Ward: They were there to cover liability. And and they're muddled in with training and they're hard to make and time consuming. Our signature super toolkits, the real big difference is the ease of use and how quickly they are to make and to edit and how much time they give you back instantly. So that's where you tend to go, Oh my gosh, this doesn't work.

Kris Ward: I tried it in the corporate world, so then I'll have none of it. But you are just a sufferpreneur until you fall over on your desk in exhaustion. So I have to 

Erin Marcus: ask, where, what got you here? Why here? Why is this your thing? 

Kris Ward: That's a really interesting question. So when I started my business 14 plus years ago when I started out, I was doing market messaging and I was working insane hours.

Kris Ward: My husband said I was always stealing from sleep. I was getting up earlier and staying later and later. So I was told about the two year mark that I'm starting to lose some of my charm and I was like, oh my gosh This cannot be because I was exhausted all the time and I was like, oh, he's my biggest fan He supported everything I was doing the business.

Kris Ward: I cannot be this cannot be happening. I cannot be short with him So I made some changes. I went from literally working 16 hours a day down to six now This did not happen overnight. This is a whole story on its own However, to move this story forward, luckily I did because a couple of years after that, my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer and I was pulled away from the business for about two years.

Kris Ward: When I returned after his passing, my existing clients had no idea of my absence. It was just not how we navigated his journey. We were very positive in nature. And so they started to come to me and say like, how could you possibly been away? And if you could do that, maybe you could help us get to our kids.

Kris Ward: Soccer games and start spending time with our friends and family again. And so I started to work with them under that capacity. And I started to realize that the people who needed me most looked good on paper. They were in business five, 10 years. They were making money. They might have books or podcasts.

Kris Ward: But they were still working way too many hours for where they are at this point in their journey. And they weren't making the amount of money that they should be making at this point for their accolades. And so that's how it all unfolded with win the hour, win the day. It's, 

Erin Marcus: you're like me, this is the story, these are the facts, right?

Erin Marcus: But the emotion behind it is most of us go into entrepreneurship, into having our own business because we want to create something, but we want to have the freedom and control over our own world. And it very quickly, to your apt description, becomes the opposite of all of those things. And one of the things that's become so important to me.

Erin Marcus: Is creating a business that supports my life. Not working instead of my life, and I love my business, right? You can still love your business and wear your hard worker badge of honor that is part of our identities, right? And not make your entire world. I say that, right? You're missing your world. 

Kris Ward: Yes, and I say that all day, every day.

Kris Ward: You can have a business that supports your life instead of consuming it. And business should be fun, right? A hundred percent. Or why did we just stay that job we didn't like? But yes, have a business that's, and more than that too, Erin, life has interruptions and you can take the emotion out of that story.

Kris Ward: And if I had to return to a failing business and then start a job search and try to be charming and interview and learn a new position, I did not have the bandwidth for that after losing my best friend. Life has interruptions, parents get sick, things happen. That's where I'm at 

Erin Marcus: now, I'm schlepping the floor.

Erin Marcus: I would not be able to go to take care of my mother at this extent if I wouldn't have created the business that supports my life. 

Kris Ward: 100 percent. So things happen. So then you can't be looking at everything else in your life saying you better keep it together because the thing that needs the most oxygen is this.

Kris Ward: Absolutely. 

Erin Marcus: I think that's a great place to land. I don't know. To me, the money is one thing, the achievement is one thing, but this is why. This is the why behind needing to make these changes so that you could have the flexibility so you could have your ability to focus where it needs to focus and where it's going to mean the most.

Erin Marcus: Absolutely. So if people want to continue this conversation with you and learn more about how you do this for them, how they can apply all this, what is the best way for them to get ahold of you? 

Kris Ward: As I hang out a lot on LinkedIn and tell me that you heard me on this fantastic podcast and we will become fast friends for sure.

Kris Ward: There are some really cool downloads. There's some good stuff in our free gift free F-R-E-E-G-I-F-T from Chris KRI s.com. I put something special in for your listeners, Erin. I put a version of my book, so you wanna grab that quickly 'cause it won't be there long. So yeah, reach out and yeah, listen, it's just.

Kris Ward: It should be easier. It should be easier. There's just a way to have all that you dream to do and have fun while you're doing it. 

Erin Marcus: Love 

Kris Ward: it. We will make sure 

Erin Marcus: the links are also in the show notes so that you're just a click away from everybody. Thank you for hanging out with me today. You know I love chatting with you.

Erin Marcus: This was awesome and it's so important. So thank you for sharing that with us. 

Kris Ward: Oh, thank you for trusting me with your 

Erin Marcus: audience.