Meet Kris Ward

Kris Ward is creating a movement where your business supports your life instead of consuming it. Kris is the founder of the Win The Hour, Win the Day philosophy.

After the loss of her husband, Kris returned full-time to her work as a marketing strategist. She was relieved that her business had not only survived her absence but was growing. Now, Kris has completely changed the landscape for entrepreneurs by sharing the successful practices that allowed her absence.

Kris has shared the stage with Jack Canfield - Chicken Soup For The Soul, Kevin Harrington original Shark from Shark Tank, James Malinchak -ABC’s Secret Millionaire, Sharon Lechter - Rich Dad Poor Dad Co Author and Joe Theismann - NFL All star and commentator to name a few. Kris has also been featured on award-winning podcasts, radio and TV shows.

Kris is an acclaimed podcaster. You can hear Kris on her own podcast - Win The Hour Win The Day, where she has engaging conversations with dynamic guests covering a variety of business topics so you can get to your next win now!

We keep thinking we have to add more team in order to keep growing, but what do you think is the biggest mistake that most people make when building their team? 

I think first of all, we live in a magical time and the resources are just so affordable and so endless. You could have exceptional talent in the winner circle part of our package. We will find you a VA and help you hire, onboard and train them. I would say to most people, two things, just two really big mistakes. One is they'll say, “Okay, I need a VA,” and they maybe go to an agency. I've had clients do that. And in the agency, it's a lot more expensive than working with us. You could be an amazing VA, and then somebody pairs you with someone. Let me give you an example like this. It's kind of like… let's say, Lori, I sent you a chef to work with you and your family. And I'm like, “This is a world-renowned chef, world-renowned. You are so lucky to have this chef,” and they send them to your home. And you're like, “Kris, this is a French cuisine chef and my kids are all about chicken nuggets.” This is not going to work, right? 

So what I'm saying is that you can have an exception, you can find somebody extremely affordable and exceptionally talented. But when you're just running around, you know, pivoting all the time, and you're not set up and you're not ready, you're not gonna be able to keep them. And that's one of the biggest mistakes is they're like, “Oh, well, this didn't work. It didn't last.” Yeah. Because you're not set up, right? So, that's a big part of what we do. The other thing I would say is, so many people think about, you know, what they experienced as a team; the hierarchical thing when they worked in any kind of corporation anywhere in the world. And think about it like this… You also tend to think of it as a very parentified system, that working with a team and in a bigger company. And what I would say is the idea of culture, people tend to think when you have a bigger company, 5500 people, you have to think about culture. So, one of the things we talk a lot about in team building, and really implement quite effectively  having a really amazing, uplifting, productive culture when you have one, two or three people on a team. Because think about it like this, Lori, if you were seeing an ocean liner like. There's 500 passengers and something happened to that ship. Maybe there's only 100 or 200 people or 75 people that are highly useful, and they're going to be able to deal with that crisis. Whatever the crisis is, the boats going down. But if you're in a rowboat with two other people, you can make sure this is one heck of a team. Because if there's a hole in that boat, that's it, right? So, I think culture is a big thing, and creating leadership and strength and making them little CEOs of their own departments. Instead of making them taskmasters, throwing tasks at them, just having them try to keep up the panic pace. That's just several of the things that people do wrong.

If I were to start over from scratch at the very beginning, I would focus on those systems and processes for sure.

Yeah, and you bring up a really powerful point. When you have one or two people, or even if you're still a solopreneur, and you think, “Oh, I don't need systems and processes, I do this every day.” But I will bore you with all these studies and how the brain works and stuff. But what I would tell you is, you're using up a lot of hard drive in your brain remembering. Even if you do remember, science shows us that if you have to remember seven things, even if you do it every day, you will often forget one or two, and those who one or two will rotate, and then you use extra brainpower. What's the other step? So that is why at three o'clock in the afternoon, you may be tired, or you think, “Oh, I can't learn this new thing.” Now I'll do it in the morning, right? So, it's even if you just have one person, having effective systems and processes not only allows you to leave work fresh and start refreshed, but it also builds on your strengths, and then allows you brain power, so that you can at four o'clock in the afternoon do something creative instead of being zapped by that.

Connect with Kris!

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect on Twitter

Special Offers: Don’t miss this bonus gift!

Learn Your Entrepreneur Power Personality

https://www.winbacktimequiz.com/

Lori Highby 0:00

Hey everybody, Lori Highby here.

Welcome to the Social Capital podcast. Our show notes are found at social capital podcast.com. So you the listener, I want you to know that I appreciate you and I'm thrilled to have you here for another episode. If there's ever anything that I can do to support you, please reach out. That being said LinkedIn is the channel you're gonna find me on just search for Lori Highby you can simply click the Follow button, as I post daily information about marketing strategy tips, all podcast episodes and upcoming events. If you'd like to connect, make sure to send a note with your connection request that references social capital. I can't wait to hear from you. Social capital podcast is sponsored by Keystone Click, a strategic digital marketing agency that believes in order to successfully market to your ideal customer, you have to first understand your customer. Learn more at Keystone click.com Today's guest is Kris Ward. Kris is creating a movement where your business supports your life instead of consuming it. Kris is the founder of the win the hour win the day philosophy. After the loss of her husband Kris returned full time to your work as a marketing strategist. She has relieved that her business had not only survived her absence, but was growing. That's amazing. Now Kris has completely changed the landscape for entrepreneur entrepreneurs by sharing the successful practices that allowed her absence Christus has shared the stage with Jack Canfield Chicken Soup for the Soul. Kevin Harrington original shark from Shark Tank, James mallet Malin check, I think I said that right ABC secret millionaire Sharon ledge, lecturer, Rich Dad Poor Dad, co author and Joe thiese been NFL all star and commentator just to name a few goodness, Kris. Fascinating. She's also featured she's also been featured on award winning podcasts radio and TV show. She's an acclaimed podcaster you can hear her own show when the hour when the day where she has engaging conversations with dynamic guests covering a variety of business topics so you can get to your next win. Now, Kris, welcome to the show.

Kris Ward 2:16

Well, thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Lori Highby 2:19

I'm excited to have you quite the impressive background and some amazing lineup of individuals that you share the stage with. So cool. Thanks. Do you want to share a little bit about your philosophy actually, though, when the hour when the day philosophy? Let's talk about that.

Kris Ward 2:38

Yeah, so you covered it in the intro. And you know, what I would tell you is the first couple of years I worked in business, I work insane hours. And my husband was always saying that you know what, I was always stealing from sleep. He says you're getting up earlier earlier staying later and later. And it was about the two year mark that I was sat down and told those losing some of my charm. Apparently, if you're being exhausted all the time, I think she edgy, right? So I literally went from working 16 hours a day down to six. And that did not happen overnight. But to move the story forward, it was really pivotal. And luckily I did that because it was a couple years after that, that my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. And I had been pulled away from the business for about two years. And when I returned after his passing my existing clients, the business community, local business community, nobody knew it was not how we navigate navigated his journey, we were very positive in nature. And so people were just shocked. And they said, like, how could we have not known. And if you could be away, and we did know that my clients started to say to me, Well, maybe you could help us stop missing times with, you know, friends and family and our kids soccer game and all this stuff. And so I started to work with them under that capacity. And it really just took off. And then I realized that the people I worked best with or I think really needed me the most where people don't look good on paper, they've been in business five years, you know, five plus years you you you're out on social media, you look good, you've got a lot of things working, but you're still working too many hours at this point in your journey. And so as my clients tell me all the time in the winner's circle that they all say they get 25 hours back a week within the first month of working with us. So it's really that your business should support your life, not consume it.

Lori Highby 4:20

Oh, I love that. And I think a lot of our listeners are going to be interested in everything you have to share. How about you enter a couple of questions around just the team because I know a lot of entrepreneurs are probably experiencing challenges with that. And we keep thinking we have to add more team in order to keep growing but what do you think is the biggest mistake that most people make when building their team? Oh,

Kris Ward 4:46

there's so many oh my gosh, I get I'm really passionate about this. So I think I think first of all, you know we live in a magical time and the resources are just so affordable and so endless and you could have exceptional talent like in the Winter circle part of our package, we will find you, you know, a VA and help you hire onboard and train them. Because I would say to most people, two things, just two really big mistakes. One is they'll say, Okay, I need a VA and you know, and they maybe go to an agency, I've had clients do that. And in the agency, a, it's a lot more expensive than working with us. But be, you could be an amazing, you know, VA and then somebody pairs you with someone, let me give you an example like this. It's kind of like, let's say, Laurie, I sent you a chef to work with you and your family. And I'm like, this is a world renowned chefs world renowned. And you are so lucky to have this chef, and they send them to your home. And you're like, Chris, this is a French cuisine chef and my kids are all about chicken nuggets. This is not going

Lori Highby 5:49

to work, right? Yep, yep.

Kris Ward 5:51

Lori Highby 7:53

Yeah, I can I can see that for sure. What are some of the biggest, I guess? What's the biggest myth about building that team? Well, I,

Kris Ward 8:02

I hope this has gone by now. But sometimes people still think you know, what, a It's not affordable. I mean, you can get exceptional talent for, you know, five, six US dollars an hour, it's unbelievable. The world is just we're just working in such a lucky time. Right? So there's that. And then there is this idea that it's a lot of work to train them and to do all this stuff. And I don't have time for that. Or it's or it's easier to do it myself or they won't care like I do. Right? So that's a very short sighted, really, frankly, I would call suffer printer philosophy. So what I would say to you is, you know, like, for example, we had a situation where, two years ago, right before Christmas, somebody on my team, got an opportunity. She's in the Philippines and she got an opportunity to go to school in Canada. So she and this was when we're still coming out of the chaos of the lockdowns and stuff. So she had applied years before and now was given two weeks notice that she was accepted. So two weeks before Christmas, one of our team members, we only have you know, we have four now, that's one quarter of our team is leaving, and she was a social media manager. So we found someone hired onboard them in Kaysville, who is leaving trained Maura. And because of our super toolkits in our efficiency in our setup, by January 5, Maura was up to 80% capacity, we never missed a beat, right? So the idea is all this upfront work or it's too much time or you know, you're always gonna be like just the headache of it all. That's just there if you don't have effective systems and strategies, and what you know, are super toolkits is a big part of that. And they're like, my clients tell me like systems and processes on steroids, because most people push back on systems and processes because they're used to them again in the corporate world, because they're not written by the end user. They're static in nature. They're just there to cover liability. And then you Why don't have a business to have freedom and have ideas, right? So we have these super toolkits that allow you to accelerate all your ambitions really quickly. So yeah, so it's thinking that it's a lot of upfront heavy work. That's not the case.

Yeah, I am a big believer in systems and processes. And I, it's something that it took me a while because you know, is you scale your team? Those become more and more important. And, you know, if you're just two or three people, you kind of think that, Oh, it's fine. We don't need this. But the reality is, as you mentioned, you have changeover in staff. And then scalability, it only makes sense. And I'd say that's one thing that if I were to start over from scratch at the very beginning, I would focus on those systems and processes for sure.

Yeah, and you bring up a really powerful point is that when you have one or two people, or even just your if you're still a solopreneur, and you think, Oh, I don't need systems and processes, I do this every day. But, you know, I will bore you with all these studies and how the brain works and stuff. But what I would tell you is, you're using up a lot of hard drive in your brain remembering, even if you do remember, science shows us that if you have to remember seven things, even if you do it every day, you will often forget one or two and those who one or two will rotate and then you use extra brainpower. What What's the other step? So that is why at three o'clock in the afternoon, you may be tired, or you think, Oh, I can't, I can't learn this new thing. Now I'll do it in the morning, right. So it's even if you just have one person, having effective systems and processes not only allow you to leave work, fresh and start refreshed, but it also builds on your strengths, and then allows you brain power, so that you can afford o'clock in the afternoon, do something creative, instead of being zapped by that.

Yeah, I love that. And I agree with that. And I like that you talked about the creativity because especially in I mean, we're a marketing agency, creativity is kind of what we thrive on. But if we're always stuck in that, what am I, what am I supposed to do next, or you know, I've been I've done this a million times, I just I'm kind of stuck, right now, you're losing that opportunity for creativity, because your time and energy is going on the tactical or the administrative things that are just, you know, just as important. But having that process creates efficiency. And nowadays, you can find ways with like AI and automation to even expedite that efficiency. With those processes in order to have more room for creativity.

Your brain is meant for creating ideas, not for storing them.

Another question for you. So what are the three Ds and why are they so important?

I love this. So the three Ds, I talked about three Ds all the time, to me, they are damaging overhead, delayed income and diminished opportunity. And so when you don't have a team that you you know, at all, when team or anyone that you could leverage effectively, what happens is damaging overhead, you'd be the most expensive, cause damaging overhead and your company. So say Laurie, whatever package you sell, let's keep the math really simple. And say you sell a package for $100. When you're saying okay, I'll just stay an extra hour or two, and then you get caught in that case, the hamster wheel of admin admin, you know, you're not bringing in that $100, you're not doing all that you need to be doing with the sales and the networking or whatever. So you are costing your business 100 bucks an hour, because you're not bringing in business. So you are the most damaging overhead in your business. Right? Yep. So now, nevermind, if you've just brought in one package or one client, and if they gave you one referral, so you're the most damaging overhead, then delayed income is because you're trapped in the chaos of admin. What if you got a client in June that you could have had in January, right? And you're like, Ah, so now we're looking at delayed income, because you're trying to do it all you're juggling. You don't have an effective team. You don't have systems and processes in place. You don't have a win team. And then I think the most painful one of them all, is diminished opportunity when somebody says oh my gosh, Laurie, I wish I I didn't know you did this. I just hired somebody last week, we're locked in. Oh, the lifetime value of that client and again, referrals and other things that could come from it. It's incredibly costly. And this is what's happening the 3ds when you are just not leveraging your talent, your creativity, scaling your business because you're just in that the hamster wheel of admin work. The web of admin I call it

I love that. I'm just sitting here going yep, yep. I'm hearing you loud and clear. Wow. Yeah. Thank you for that. Those are those are great items a damaging overhead delayed income and diminished opportunity. I think every opera, every entrepreneur has probably checked those boxes at some point in their entrepreneurial journey and probably multiple, at the same time, I'm sure. Alright, so Oh, sorry.

So I just want to add to that, because I think it's really important. Don't get confused when you have a team with what I call a win team. So you may have one or two people, and then just be mindful, you may think, Oh, they're highly productive, they're really effective. And everything I throw at them, they just get stuff done. But you're still doing that hamster wheel thing. So those three Ds can still be in place, even when you have a team, because you're not building any momentum, you should constantly be compressing your work, right, we call that the 6040 formula, you shouldn't be in admin mode 40% of time and creative mode and other ambitions 60% of the time. And you should always because you I'm sure you can list five big projects you have right now, Laurie, like, you know, we're starting to talk about our second book, well, where's that time going to come from, I have to be able to compress some of the work so that I then have more space on my calendar, right? So just be mindful. Those three Ds aren't just if you don't have a team, they're also how can we make your team more effective?

Yep. Yep. Love that. I think that's extremely powerful to really lean into your team so that you have the time and the capacity to do those big brain thinking type of things, because we don't give ourselves enough time to be able to do that. And that's those are our that's our power. That's our strength, right? The brand thinking, love or ...

The freedom to do amazing things like this, like, you know, I need to be here, I need to do this, I would want doing this. So clearly, I need room on my calendar to be able to do things like this and my team can take care of the admin chaos.

All right, I'm going to ask you a fun question. Okay. If you could go back to your 20 year old self, what would you tell yourself to do more of less of or differently with regards to your professional career? Okay, well, that

is really a timely question, because we have just created this quiz. After working with hundreds of entrepreneurs, I have noticed that they fall into one of five categories. So we call it your power, personality, and my personality from doing the quiz and you guys can have it. It's free gift from chris.com. It's in there free fr EE gift from Kris .com takes like 30 seconds you get customized results with you know, things that lean into your superpower and help you avoid your kryptonite. For me. I'm a recovering Rushaholic, I everything was in a rush. And I thought that was my superpower. I thought, Oh, I get stuff done really fast. And go, go go, nobody gets as much done as me. But I was always in a race in a panic to get to the next thing. What I didn't understand was I was skimming over details. There was no depth, there was no traction to ideas. It was just a sort of a surface level, an adrenaline high of just throwing things off the to do list and stuff like that. So learning to slow down and that being speed is not my superpower. Mighty change my entire life.

Yeah, that. Wow. Yeah, that is great. I love that piece of advice there. I'm gonna give you the opportunity to interview me What's something that you'd like to ask me, Chris?

Oh, wow. There we go. It's been what has been your biggest high. And although I'm very positive person, I guess I don't want to say your biggest low What's your biggest high and your biggest lesson in your business career?

Oh, that's a good one. Okay. Definitely make makes me think through things here. The biggest Hi, in the career. What I know, I know what this is so. And it happened, I guess maybe in the last two years here. There's an organization that I've been a member of for quite some time called agency Management Institute. And I don't know if you're familiar with it or not. It's for the marketing industry. And the gentleman who runs it. He has like masterminds or peer groups for marketing agency owners, but he also has workshops, and that he teaches year round to not just the owners, but to also the various team members for the various roles within the organization. And he asked me to take over teaching the at Boot Camp workshops, which are account executive boot camp workshops. And not only was I flattered, I was flattered that out of you know, he's got this huge network of marketing agency owners and I was the person that he reached out to but education and teaching is a core personal value of mine and it just kind of really made me feel good and proud about myself that I got to I get to do this amazing thing and help mentor and educate and encourage you know, up and coming. marketing professionals. was to just be awesome and do better at their roles. Well, that is something to be

proud of good for you that is quite exciting. And yes, you're right. There's many to choose from. So hats off to you that you were chosen, obviously, you know, what you're working hard on is, is being put out there effectively, because they recognize that.

Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate your sharing the instead of saying it's a little but the biggest lesson learned in this one, it so I was actually reflecting back on this fairly recently. But it was a big lesson for me as a leader. Right after my, I'd say about a year, year and a half after my father unexpectedly passed away. There was one day in the business where I had three team members. And you know, we're a small team to begin with, we're a team of eight or nine at the time, three tap team members on the same day all resigned. So, you know, that was a really challenging moment for me as a leader and a business owner. And I realized that I was not in the best mental state, I was still kind of grieving my my late father, which, you know, I will forever continue to grieve him, but I was still learning my emotions, and I wasn't necessarily, you know, the bright, smiling positive face in the office. So I learned that my energy is exuded to the rest of the team. So I have to, I have to bring, I have to bring it every day, regardless of what's really happening. You know, in my personal world, I have to, I have to be the energy and the motivation for my team. And I do everyone struggles with that. But that was a huge lesson for me.

That is, I can really relate to that even what I have learned is you are responsible for the energy you bring to the room. And I had a lesson similar to that on a much, much smaller scale. And it was something as simple as I was going on business trip, and somebody said, Oh, the week before it's gonna be rough. And I'm like, Well, what do you mean? It's like, oh, well, you run around and in a panic when you have to like to get everything done before the trip. And so as a recovering rushaholic, I now learn, like, even if I have a team meeting, or I feel like oh, you know, whatever, I feel rushed, I will sooner cancel the meeting than show up rushed, because I am now in my head screaming, can they not talk quicker, go go, we gotta get this done, I have to get to that thing. You know what I mean? And so even at the most micro level, you're right, you really permeate the room that you're in. So it does make such a difference on the smallest scale. So that's, that has been a lesson for me as well.

Yeah, and just just real sidenote with the like, I travel a lot, and it sounds like you do too, or you did at one point for your career. Yeah, I do tend to like, Rush beforehand, but I try to slow down. Because that, you know, slow down and step back and get some clarity on not only what do I need to do now before I leave, but I really tried to set myself up for success when I return so that I'm not scrambling going, what the heck was I working on what I need to do, like just really even take the time to map out what my calendar is going to look like for the first you know, two or three days, and I come back from something so that I'm ready to go and even getting ahead on some tasks so that I'm not freaking out or scrambling to get some stuff done. And sometimes I surprise myself like, Oh, I already did that. Cool. Good job, Laurie.

Yeah, we have I call it you have to slow down to speed up. And because they call it snow banking, if you're shoveling snow, you just pile it high on both sides, it doesn't go away. And so if you're not careful, whether it's vacation or business trip, you can then snowbank before and after which again does not help you. Right. So I totally agree. Yeah,

I love that. Chris, do you have any final words of wisdom that you'd like to share with our listeners?

I just think business should be fun. And if not, why didn't the you know you could have stayed at a job that probably paid or had less overhead and better hours because there's laws in the land to protect you from working insane hours that you would put upon yourself so you know, business should be fun. It should support your life and safe consume it and definitely check out our quiz people are finding it incredibly helpful to lean into their superpower and know their kryptonite and whether your gut focus on industry or perfection. iser check it out free gift from chris.com.

That's awesome. We'll definitely include that information in the show notes. Speaking of if anyone is interested in getting in contact with you, what is the best way that they can reach you?

Yeah, I'm on all the socials. But like you I'm a big fan of LinkedIn. You know, send me a message and say you heard me on Lori's fantastic podcast, and we'll become quick friends. And yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to connect.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Chris. Thanks so much for being on the show. Definitely. enjoyed the conversation and we'll be in touch. All right, this wraps up our episode of social capital A huge thank you to Chris for taking the time to connect with us. If you have a burning marketing or relationship question, reach out. I'd love to answer it on the show. And as mentioned before, connect with me connect with Chris on LinkedIn. Definitely looking to hearing from you and I hope you enjoyed today's show so go out there and get noticed