Scale Faster, Work Less with Virtual Assistants & Remote Teams! with Kris Ward

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Kris on Connie Whitman’s Show Transcription

CONNIE INTRO [00:00:15] – [00:01:11]  Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Win The Hour Win The Day, and I am your host, Kris Ward. And today we have  an interesting scenario in the house. We’ve got Connie Whitman. Now she’s been on my show before and I’ve been on hers, but she’s a dynamic, uh, sassy human being that’s an expert on sales.

And she had me back on her podcast and we started diving into a conversation that frankly, I think would benefit you because she started to give me. Really behind the scenes stuff of how working with me, because you also happen to be a client, really changed the whole landscape of her business. So she gave us some nuggets and I just didn’t want you guys missing out because, you know, you’re over here listening to me and maybe you’re not listening to Connie’s show.

So we brought it in and we’re just going to dice it and slice it for you and give you some pieces and please let me know in the comments, please reach out to me on LinkedIn if you found this. valuable. So let’s dive in. 

Question #1

[00:00:00] Connie: So of course, you know, my first question, when should we start to build a team, especially if we have new people, new entrepreneurs or, or, um, new leaders, when is it the best time to start?

[00:00:12] Kris: So, first of all, team is a powerful word. And what I want people to understand, it’s not a number, it’s a philosophy. So you can have one VA and that be a team, right? And you can have five, six people and not really have a team. So it’s really the philosophy we teach when we find, hire, on board for our clients and we put the VA through a leadership program.

[00:00:31] So that’s a whole thing in its own. And really, when should you hire? I would say. Day one, and if you didn’t, okay, then today’s the day, right? 

[00:00:41] Connie: Yeah.

[00:00:41] Kris: You absolutely, the time when you don’t want to work crazy hours, when you want to be highly productive, when you want to be focused on the real work, when you don’t want to be caught up in all the pre and post work and the admin work that has nothing to do with your zone of excellence or the service you deliver, and when you want to have more impact with more people, provide more [00:01:00] services, make more money and work less hours, if any of that sounds attractive to you, that’s when you should hire.

[00:01:05] Connie: Yeah. And, and you helped me with that. If you, when we first met, I, I was a hot mess, Kris. I had all of these great things that I had created and I was doing, and I was successful in spite of that need to control everything. And as soon as you helped me shift my philosophy, mindset, all those things. It, it, I was able to breathe.

[00:01:27] I stopped working weekends because I was ultimately working seven days a week, if you remember. And so changing that philosophy. And here’s the, here’s the more important piece of that. Um, Kris, I think and I’ll talk from my own personal experience, of course, it freed my mind from the admin crap of deadlines you got to do and did you send that out and did you upload that and it was I was so inundated with thinking about that stuff that when I came time to create do a video teach whatever I was literally exhausted.

[00:01:58] So my zone of [00:02:00] genius was being put to the test, borderline exhaustion, because of all the admin stuff. Or I could have hired someone to do that. So that shift of when should I do it? And I love what your answer is now today, if you haven’t do it now, um, because it really does create that scalability of working less, making more, um, and it’s so easy, so I, you know, that was my experience.

[00:02:24] Kris: And you know what? That’s the experience of all my clients really, because here’s the other thing. You had been in business a long time and the people I serve, that’s the thing. They look really good on paper. They look successful, but they’re working way too many hours at this point in their journey. So are you getting it done?

[00:02:41] You kind of think you are, but to your point, that’s a powerful point is people think hiring someone who’s going to take more work and have to train them. They can’t do what I do and all this stuff. Well. You’re following the parentified thing we’ve all been inundated with in the corporate world. You become a manager, you supervise, you know, people beneath you and that [00:03:00] becomes your full time job and it’s a whole thing, right?

[00:03:02] And also because you’re set up, you, I think you had hired before working with me as well. And then, so what happens is the setup is you throw a bunch of work at someone like a task, you And then when they get it done, they come to you and they need more because you’re not set up for this. And so then they feel like interruptions, like I’m over here trying to get stuff done and now you ran out of work and I got to find you more work and you know, the tail’s wagging the dog.

[00:03:25] And so that’s where we talk about you, you know, we taught you how to do scrub meetings and we talk about how to use your calendar and, and super toolkits and all those things. You’re right. Set you and whoever you’re working with up so that you can always increase the bandwidth on your calendar. And get to the next project because if you wrote one book, you want to write three, if you spoke on one stage, you want to do more, whatever it is, the whole idea to get through your current project is, it’s only going to create more work.

[00:03:54] Like when I wrote my book, When the Hour, When the Day, I was like, Oh my gosh, okay, this is done. It’s done. It was like, there [00:04:00] should be a parade. It’s done. But. Then I needed to promote it and go on podcasts and pitch podcasts and that’s more work, right? So we always want to have the bandwidth to do that.And you can’t do it if you’re running around without a team. 

CONNIE INTRO [00:01:42] – [00:02:03]Okay. Now we’re going to dive into a little bit about how she started to utilize her team. Some of my other clients, some really interesting perspectives and success stories that really have unique scenarios. And I thought you might find them interesting as well as the downfall or, you know, what you need to know about agencies.So let’s just, let’s just take a listen.

Connie Q #2

[00:00:00] Kris: Yeah, but the thing is when you start your own business and people say this all the time, it’s like, this is my, it’s like my baby. I’m like, listen, have you ever, have you ever had a baby? Have you seen people with babies? They get all the help they can get.

[00:00:12] There’s daycares or school. They’re happy to ship that baby off. Right? So you get this false sense that you’re the only one can do stuff. And even if you’re. You know, have this really unique zone of genius. There’s always pre and post work, right? And so, and also I would say to you, you probably thought, okay, great.

[00:00:29] That was a corporate world. I could afford that. But now I can’t afford help. It’s my, it’s my business. Well, first of all, you know, we’re looking at five, six us dollars an hour for a VA. That’s incredibly talented and you can definitely afford that. If you can afford coffee, you can afford that. And you don’t need them full time, especially in the beginning, right?

[00:00:47] We never start them off full time. But the other thing that I would. really lean into is, here’s a quick example. I had a client, uh, when she first started working with us and she’s an [00:01:00] interior designer and she’s like, Kris, you don’t understand. I go into the room. I see stuff. Yes. I’m trained, but like, I, I have to do it.

[00:01:06] I have to see it. And her average appointment was two hours. And of course, like everyone else, she said, My, this is a unique situation. You don’t understand. So we looked at her appointments and I don’t care if you’re a brain surgeon, there’s always pre and post work. And so we looked at the forms that she thought through asking questions, she had to sit there and blah, blah, blah.

[00:01:24] Well, we were able to get her appointments down to about 45 minutes. And not only did it allow her to be much more energized and focused when she was there, because all the admin stuff had been done, but she quickly moved to then having all her staging design appointments in the morning. And she started speaking on really large stages and working with like being an emcee for some events like HGTV and all that.

[00:01:49] All kinds of stuff that she would have never had the opportunity to do so just by making that one shift. And again, she thought you don’t understand my situation is unique. 

[00:01:59] Connie: [00:02:00] Yeah. Yeah. Good is the enemy of great. When things are going well, we think that’s good. As soon as things go bad, we make a change.

[00:02:06] But what if good could go to great, right? We forget that piece of the puzzle, um, where we can work less than obviously make more, what do you think the biggest myth is about team building that you hear from your clients once you show them the way, right? 

[00:02:20] Kris: I think I know for me many years ago, I thought that, well, once I got to a certain level, I could then afford a team, you know, it’s like, Oh, you have to climb the mountain and it’s like, well, when I get there, that’s how, you know, these big people we admire, it’s like, Oh, they have a team, they can afford a team.

[00:02:36] Well, they would have never got to where they are without a team. You hear any success story in the world whatsoever about anything. And it always starts off with, you know, two people in a garage or whatever. They had someone, they had someone, and now there’s simply just no excuse. We’re talking incredibly affordable resources internationally.

[00:02:53] It’s awesome. Right? So I think the big myth is thinking it’s going to take you more time. And a lot of people come to me and they’ve [00:03:00] tried it and failed. And that’s because they weren’t set up. Correctly, you know, again, back to the task puppet. So you, you need a really basic setup so that then you’re not struggling with, you know, what I call the biggest mistakes in higher building a team.

[00:03:14] And one of them is, uh, dumping, delegating and dismissing. You’re dumping stuff on them and then they just go busy work and come back to you. You’re delegating. Delegating is a lateral move. The work still comes through you. You have to have things in play where they have independence that can work on that.

[00:03:29] And then you’re dismissing them. As the expert that they are by just using them as a task puppet. So that’s a big one there. Also, I really want to mention this because this isn’t talked about enough. Now that the world is sort of coming awake with the power and potential of VAs and the affordabilities for entrepreneurs.

[00:03:50] And it’s an amazing time to be in business. Be cautious. There’s a lot of agencies out there. And the agencies, if you listen to my show, I’ve interviewed a couple of the VAs that worked [00:04:00] with us and things like that. Um, and what happens is the agencies make you sign, the, the VA sign a NDA, non disclosure agreement.

[00:04:08] So you might be paying that agency 10, 11 bucks an hour. And I will back up for a second and tell you that they will just assign someone to you. You’re still not set up for it. It’s not going to work. And it doesn’t. I deal with clients all the time. Like, I’ve been through my third person. I’m in a six month contract with the agency.

[00:04:22] It’s not working. VAs don’t work. Because they’re just throwing somebody at you. It’s kind of like me sending a chef to your house. Connie saying this is an international acclaimed chef and they show up and they’re serving French cuisine and you’re like, my husband’s a barbecue person. Like it doesn’t matter how good they are.

[00:04:38] You’re not set up for this. Right. Right. So you’re paying the agency all this fee. The VA is not getting it and, and they sign NDA so they can’t tell you that. And it’s just a flawed, it’s, it’s just a very, It’s just a horrible system. So be mindful of that. We do it for our clients when they start working with us, mostly.[00:05:00] 

[00:05:00] And we’re not an agency. We don’t pay them. The pay doesn’t come through us. You pay them directly. But we do it just because we don’t want the clients to have that learning curve. We will teach you how to hire others on your own, but we just want to get to it because you need that person to do the other things that we’re going to implement. But the dismissing, delegating, and dumping are the big mistakes. 

[00:05:19] Connie: And it’s so interesting, Kris, because it, and I agree with you a hundred percent, because I’m constantly approached by these VA agencies. Hey, we have these VAs. Um, you know, we can, we can, you know, pony them up for you. And I think, no, I’m good.

[00:05:32] I have my VA. So it’s interesting. Cause let me just share now to build on what you just said, personal experience. My VA, I got through Kris, I’ve had her three years. She is more than a VA. She has become my partner in crime. If you will. Um, she comes to the table with ideas. She handles all the tech for me.

[00:05:51] I send her stuff now, Kris. And I think, Oh, this, I like the idea of this. What do you think? Come back with a business plan for me. Let me know if you think we can use it with my stuff or. Yeah. Can you [00:06:00] investigate this AI? Is it useful or not? I don’t even waste my time reading it anymore. I don’t have the time.

[00:06:06] She vets it out. She knows what my business is. She knows what I’m like. She knows what my zone of genius is, and she knows what her strengths are. So, so all of that helps. The other thing I just wanted to comment on, you trained her, you onboarded her. I think we started with five hours initially or 10 hours a week, and you were guiding me on what.

[00:06:26] To start to give her and how to build that relationships through the meetings and stuff like that. And now three years later, she truly has become a partner. The other piece of the puzzle though, Kris, that was important for me is not only did you help me guess, get the VA and educate her and bring her up to speed.

[00:06:44] I didn’t have to do a thing other than communicate with her with what my objectives were. You had me, you know, through the group coaching and all of those things that I participated in personally, where you helped me shift my mindset of, Oh, that’s another thing I could [00:07:00] give my VA because you, it’s not just one conversation with Kris and you get the VA and you go off to the races.

[00:07:05] There’s so many moving parts and there’s so much capacity within what you’re building with that person, but you need to change your mindset. You need, I needed to educate myself cause I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So that was another, I felt like it was a two prong approach with you, Kris. Where you, I felt safe because I knew that you were vetting the VA out and onboarding them and what have you.

[00:07:27] But on the flip side, I felt like you were having me meet them halfway with what you were teaching me because I had deficits as, and I’m a good leader, but I’ve, I never had a VA before, right? So I had never had a VA for my business before. It was a whole different trajectory of when I had employees and my corporate job. It’s different. It’s just very different. It’s different. 

[00:07:48] Kris: Yeah, and you brought up a couple really good points. I feel like, me and all my clients say this too, is I feel like I have peers. So I come to my scrum meetings in the morning with my team and I’m like, Oh, [00:08:00] I’m thinking of doing this and they’re like, well, we could do it this way and that way and I really get to flush out ideas.

[00:08:05] I’m not presenting as this is what we’re doing and, and okay, they might have a few token thoughts. No, I am surrounded by, I am clearly the dumbest person in the room when I meet with my team. And I’m fine with that. I was like, I make a joke that I’m like, if this was a board, like a public company, they would have me out because they’re all smarter than me now.

[00:08:24] Right? So for sure, you really get to lean on your team instead of this whole parentified way we’re used to in the corporate world, which you spoke to that you’re saying, well, I thought I was a good leader. But how you lead in the corporate world is very different than what you’re looking for when it’s your own business and you’re building a team and the team is going to be very different than what you saw in the corporate world.

[00:08:47] And I think to your point is, it wasn’t about mindset, I was giving you different strategies. Once you put the, that’s a thing. Everyone hears about systems and processes and we have the super toolkit. [00:09:00] Systems and processes are, you know, usually very static in nature. They’re not written by the end user.

[00:09:06] They’re just there to cover liability. And people think, Oh, I don’t want that. Cause they, as an employee, they have these super tools. silly things that they were choked by and like, Oh, we have to do this way, this way, even though it’s been outdated for five years and the corporate doesn’t know what they’re doing, where the super toolkits are breathing documents that constantly allow you to have more and more bandwidth on your calendar.

[00:09:27] And they’re just always evolving. And so those things that we put in play, those very basic infrastructure for you, to Gave you so much more freedom and you’re right to your point is then when you sit down to do work That’s important. You you don’t feel like your brain has been through the paper shredder You are there’s no reason why you cannot start 

CONNIE INTRO [00:02:17] – [00:02:35] Okay. Now we came up from a really interesting perspective of, Hey,  if you could get talent from around the world or just your local community, why would you choose one over the other? And this is a really interesting concept. So I want you to take a listen to this one. 

Connie Q #3

[00:00:00] Connie: I’m in, I’m in Jersey and in the United States. So we have this. The depth of, of knowledge and capability and access is greater because now my VA, right? She’s 23. She’s in it. She’s in the Philippines. She’s, you know, bazillion miles away from me, but what she sees and what she hears in her culture is now impacting my business.

[00:00:22] And I mean that in a good way, right? Yeah. So there’s so much. Such expansiveness with this global market now, because the talent out there isn’t just, well, I need, I need an assistant in New Jersey because I live in New Jersey, the whole world that I can tap into. Um, and that think about the zones of genius out there.

[00:00:39] Um, the innovation becomes, uh, exponential and a heck of a lot easier to get there. I just wanted to comment on that. I meant to mention that before. 

[00:00:47] Kris: Well, that’s a really good point. And I know you’re a hockey mom. So what I would say to you is if you’re going to pick a team for hockey, would you rather them be local or would you rather pick the best players around the globe?

[00:00:58] Which one do you want to take to the [00:01:00] competition? So you are so right. You don’t then are limited just by your local, you know, capacity and you then don’t have to give somebody extra hours, which often when you go into a store or service and you know, you don’t get the customer service you want. What happens is somebody has had to hire someone like say back in the day you know, it’s like, oh, I need a video editor to do my videos, but I only have like four hours a week. So then you start giving them something else because no one’s gonna, you’re not going to get a commitment from them for four hours a week. So you’re like, well, I got to give them more hours. So then you start getting them to do other things that are not what they love to do.

[00:01:32] And so then their skillset gets diluted. You’re paying them for things that they don’t want to do, and they’re not doing it well. And so that really, I, As I say that though, be mindful when I talk about teams, I, to me, a big team, a big team is like four or five people. So you don’t need a whole bunch of other things at most of my clients need one or two, right?

[00:01:52] Social media and a VA person. And you can do an incredible amount with that. 

[00:01:57] Connie: Absolutely. I have one more question because we’re [00:02:00] almost out of time, but what are the three D’s? And why are they so important? 

[00:02:05] Kris: Okay, you know your, you know your stuff. Okay. So the three D’s are damaged overhead, delayed income, and diminished opportunity.

[00:02:11] And when you don’t have a team damage overhead is you are the most expensive overhead in your business and you don’t realize that because you think I I have to do it all and so what you’re doing is what you’re not bringing in business.

[00:02:29] So if you had to If you could sell your service, even if it’s something simple math, like a hundred dollars, then how many things are you not bringing in at a hundred dollars when you’re doing the busy work? Right? Right. And then we talk about delayed income. Well, let’s talk about a customer that you could have had in January and you didn’t get till June.

[00:02:48] How much money did you lose there? And if they could have given you one referral and then the most painful of it all, when you’re trapped in the web of admin. Is diminished opportunity and diminished opportunity is [00:03:00] like, Oh Connie, I wish I’d known you did that. I just signed up with somebody. We’re committed for the year.

[00:03:06] And cause you’re just so busy in the busy work with your head down trying to keep up. You’re not out there in your zone of genius building out the business. And so that those are the three Ds that people just don’t talk about enough. 

[00:03:18] Connie: And you said it, you know, before I met you, it was for my whole career.

[00:03:22] I mean, this is just how I’m wired, I think. And, and I just want to ask you one more question about the, um, quiz you created, cause I loved it, but just really briefly when my life, it was the nose to the grindstone work harder, work harder, work harder, And then, you know, meeting you again, I don’t work weekends anymore.

[00:03:40] I, I pretty much Mondays are my catch up days. So I sometimes take it off, whatever, right? So I’m working so much less and I’m making so much more, um, because I’m able, not because I’m just upcharging everything. Cause I have more clients because now I have more bandwidth. 

[00:03:55] What happens by meeting you and me shifting just my whole business [00:04:00] model. I am doing so much more. I’m meeting so much more. So instead of my nose to the grindstone, if you’re not watching the video, you’re on Apple.

[00:04:06] I’m putting my head down. When you’re looking down, you’re not looking up. So how many opportunities over that, 19 years did I miss because it was a nose to the grindstone not looking up and saying, well, I know all of that admin’s taking what opportunities are here, new opportunities, um, that are, are right in front of my face.

[00:04:24] So how much opportunity did I miss for that first 19 years? That makes my brain want to hurt and explode by the way. Um, last thing, the quiz, tell them about the quiz and then we’ll share what we are. 

[00:04:35] Kris: Okay, so after working with so many entrepreneurs, I really noticed a pattern that they fell into one of five categories, right?

[00:04:42] So we’ve got this quiz and the free gift from Kris. com, free GIFT from Kris. com. Check it out. People tell me all the time, Oh my gosh, Kris, you just got right inside my head. And so, We’re all a little bit of a lot of personalities, but there’s going to be one that’s predominant So we [00:05:00] talk about being a rush a holic focus itis There’s a whole bunch of different things in there and I would encourage you a perfectionizer I would encourage you because there’s strengths and weaknesses to each one and there’s a superpower but there’s also things that you have to go over so I am what I call a recovering rush a holic and And I thought that speed was my superpower.

[00:05:22] I got a lot done. I moved quickly, get out of my way. You might even notice I talk fast, but I, but I have really slowed down, but I thought that was my strength. And I did not realize I was skimming over things. Everything was a rush. The adrenaline was always going. It didn’t allow for deep thought or focus.

[00:05:40] I didn’t understand the details I was missing. And I also, wasn’t the, I wasn’t bringing an enjoyable energy to the room that I was entering. And I will tell you, in case you ever wonder, you know, Evan, who works with me, I said this once, and it does not work when you ask somebody to speak quicker, they do not warm up to that.

[00:05:58] So I was always on this, like, go, go, [00:06:00] go. You’re talking to you slow. Let’s go. Right. And I thought that was how I was helping my business. And it was, it was my weak point. And so understanding your power personality and how to work around it. Hugely helpful. And so 

[00:06:13] I took the quiz guys and I know you’re going to be shocked.

[00:06:16] I too am recovering Russia. 

[00:06:20] Connie: Yes. Yeah. That’s why I love you, Kris. And it’s funny because what you described in Evan is a delight. You know, I love him and he, um, is so calm compared to us. But here’s the thing. Think about what you said. Talk faster. We can turn people off. Think I am not working with that maniac.

[00:06:38] Right. So instead of being a great boss, right, or a great leader or whatever, we are actually diminishing the value that we give ourselves, but the value that we put on other people and without realizing it like, Oh, I love having. Well, he felt like, you know, I’m putting him down because I’m rushing through everything.

[00:06:56] And he thinks, well, I just blew another meeting. So it’s [00:07:00] that internal talk. We think we’re doing great. And it’s a superpower. Meanwhile, the re the havoc relieving the wake of destruction behind us is just, it’s not okay. You know, it’s just not okay. 

[00:07:11] Kris: No. And so like for focusitis, you know, you really have a laser like focus and that’s fantastic, but you have to know where to point the laser.

[00:07:19] So there’s definitely strengths to each one and how you lean into those strengths will empower you. 

[00:07:24] Connie: Yeah. So here’s the deal. If you have questions for Kris directly, email her Kris ward at when the hour, when the day. com. website. Check it out when the hour, uh, when the hour, when the day. com ends, the big bonus gift for you is free gift from Kris.

[00:07:41] Kris is with the K by the way. com. I will put all of that in the show notes. Please go take the quiz. Um, check out all the cool stuff that Kris has. Trust me. This will change your life. And Oh, by the way, even cause I have a lot of corporate, right? Kris, you know, I play in the corporate world. Um, all my corporate peeps out there [00:08:00] check out Kris’s stuff.

[00:08:01] Trust me. She can streamline, help you build a real dynamic team. Even if you already have a team in place, there’s so many remarkable tools and resources, and it’s probably still worth having a conversation with Kris. She’s brilliant. Um, listen, man, this is not her first rodeo either. And, uh, she, she you’ve dialed in and it’s funny because, you know, after your, your husband had passed and your business had grown, you had foundationally built so many beautiful things.

[00:08:28] And now, man, you’ve just amplified since then and just have refined and refined and refined. And now you’re just spreading the word and sharing the wealth with everyone. So I’m honored to have you in my life, my friend, you know, that, you know, I love you. Um, and I really hope that people reach out to you because you’re, you are a needed resource.

CONNIE OUTRO [00:02:42] – [00:03:04]  Okay, lots of real and raw stuff there. I hope you found it helpful. Please share this business show with a business buddy because boy oh boy, we don’t need to be isolated banging around on our own. Please share with a business friend and keep the reviews, comments coming. I read every single one of them. Reach out to me on LinkedIn and we will see you in the next episode.