In episode 55 of Everything is Up, Tammera Hollerich interviews Christopher Wick, founder of Say Yes! Enterprises, an investment firm focused on saying yes to opportunities and serving others. Christopher shares his journey of saying yes to opportunities and focusing on serving others. They dive into the importance of mindset, skill set, and the impact of mastering time in achieving success.
Tune in to discover how saying yes can lead to extraordinary success and fulfillment in your own life.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:00:40] Say Yes Journey Explanation.
[00:08:45] Focusing on One Thing.
[00:13:28] Overcoming Processes Problem in Business.
[00:16:27] The Seduction of Productivity and More.
[00:18:42] Work-Life Balance Evolution.
[00:24:44] Entrepreneurial Mindset Shift.
[00:26:40] Mastering Time in Entrepreneurship.
[00:32:16] Work-Life Balance for Mothers.
[00:34:24] Focus on Positive Outcomes.
[00:39:45] Choosing a Different Path.
[00:41:58] Impact of Studying Religions.
[00:44:59] Sanskrit Word for Bliss.
[00:48:07] Access to Time Rich Workshop.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Tammera Hollerich
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TammeraHollerich
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammerahollerich/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thollerich/
Christopher Wick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cmwpage/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophermwick/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christophermwick/
WEBSITES
Everything Is Up: https://everything-is-up.simplecast.com/
Tammera Hollerich: https://tammerahollerich.com/
==========================
TIME RICH Complimentary Access!
To claim your access, please visit the website:
Christopher M Wick: https://www.christophermwick.com/
Welcome to everything is up a podcast about the real life stories of people who have created extraordinary levels of success These are conversations with people who are constantly striving to take things to the next level And now here's your host
Welcome to Everything Is Up with Tammera. And joining me today, and I'm very excited about this guest, everybody, is Christopher Wick with Say Yes. I love the name. I just love it. So you're going to have to tell us, Christopher, how you ended up with Say Yes.
Tammera Hollerich
Well, that's a great place to start. Say yes. You know, I was joking. I was on a podcast earlier this morning and he also asked me the reason behind the name. And I think often in life we're actually trained to say no. We walk inside of a store and they say, hey, are you looking for anything? And we say no, even though we've just walked into a store. And what I drew from and my inspiration when I was naming my firm was really saying yes. saying yes to your next opportunity, saying yes to what is right in front of you, saying yes to serving others, saying yes to choosing and really living the life that you want and really focusing on that. And I think often we're so focused on the daily tasks of being human and taking out the trash and answering the emails versus what are you really saying yes to? Like I was sharing with one of your teammates earlier, I've got three interviews today and the one I was most looking forward to was this one because I can tell by your previous recordings that you've done and the shows, the vibe of what you're telling people, the inspiration, overcoming challenges, and really saying yes to that. So I think that it's very aligned with what my entire holding company was designed for, which is really saying yes to your next opportunity, but also for your listeners. So as your listeners listen to us today, I want them to say yes to what we're going to talk about in this episode.
Christopher Wick
Yeah, that's exciting. So tell us a little bit about what YES does. I know it's an investment firm and you have won so many awards and best-selling author, worked with some pretty impressive names. So give us a little bit about what your day-to-day looks like.
Well, my day today is absolutely blissful. And I'm using that word very intentionally because I want your listeners to know that I'm not more gifted. I'm not more talented. There is nothing special about me. I just chose differently later in my career. My story is much like your listeners who are listening to us now. All throughout my 20s, I joked to my team that I worked eight days a week and all I wanted to do was serve. All I wanted to do was give. And as a young entrepreneur, I remember one of my mentors saying business is the sport and accounting is the scorecard. And so I was just measuring everything with ones and zeros and how many people bought the books, how many people came to my seminars, how much money was in the bank. Where I am now is I'm a private investor and a mentor. And so many of your listeners are going to assume, OK, well, I'm not an investor. I don't know what that means. And where I want to start with is how I really began my entrepreneurial journey. I was 24 years old and I had not a clue what I wanted to do. I had not a clue. And I went to business school. And on the very first day of business school, they had us all stand up and say, my name is blank and I want to be blank when I finish business school. My last name is Wicks. That's a W. So I had all this time to think about what was I going to say? And I got up and I said, my name is Christopher Wick and all I want to do is help people. That's how much clarity I had. I just wanted to give. I just wanted to serve. I just wanted to love. And what that turned into is at the age of 24, I started consulting and marketing and I became really, really good at it. Not because I had marketing experience, not because I had all this experience and helping people and helping businesses. But I cared about one thing. that if I could serve the person in front of me that I knew I would eventually win. And I live by one of my favorite quotes is, we make a living by what we get and we make a life by what we give. And fast forward to 24 all the way to 29 years old, I had helped over 500 companies personally. And I'm not like including seminars and books. I'm like personally helping 500 companies, not including my book buyers and people that attend my seminars and people that listen to my media interviews. And at the age of 29, I had an aha moment. And I want to share the aha moment with you now, because I hope your listeners will have the same aha moment. You want to hear it? Yes, I want to hear this. So when I was 29 years old, I had everything on the outside that most people want. I had the lifestyle. I was traveling all around the world giving seminars. I've been to almost every major continent. I had written several books at this time. I'd won over a dozen awards at over 500 companies. But I asked myself the question, What am I not doing that the greats are doing? What are the greats doing that I'm missing? Because I've got everything that people want, but how can I go for more? And I looked at the greats such as Richard Branson and Tony Robbins and Warren Buffett, and one of the aha moments that I had was at that time I owned one successful profitable business. But what the greats were doing, Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, and so many others, Bob Crocker, Deepak Chopra, et cetera, is they own multiple profitable companies. And at the age of 29, I decided I want to go out and I want to buy a business. So with no experience, no formal training, no education, I went out and I started buying businesses. As I stand here before you today, I'm 35 years old, and age doesn't matter. It's just a mile marker for me. It's how I keep track of everything. In the past half a decade, I have facilitated over 100 transactions of buying and selling businesses, and I personally have done 32 of my own transactions. Number 32 was yesterday. And so I live, eat, and breathe this. So as your listeners are hearing me now, the aha moment that I want them to have is, How could you go to the next level? What are the greats in your industry doing that you can learn from? And then later, if we've got time, I'd love to talk about time, which is the only resource that all of us have equally. But that was the big aha moment. What was I not doing and what could I do more to go to the next level? How can I give and serve at a higher level? And that was the question. And that question led me to where I am now. So for anyone who's listening, don't self-select yourself as, well, I'm not an investor and I'm not wealthy yet, so I can't learn from this. I want you to know I've been exactly where you are. And literally, my story is very humbling because I started really where everyone starts, where there's basically nothing and you build your way up.
Right. So it's interesting that that was the aha moment for you. And I say that because I have multiple companies and I constantly am hearing. And this is that noise on the outside that I try to tell everybody, don't listen to the noise on the outside, because there's green monsters everywhere. And I'm like, but I constantly am hearing. Focus on one. Do one. Focus on one. But that's really not what the greats do. It is not what they do. There's a lot of movement. Yes, there's a lot that's going on and swirling. I tell everybody all the time, I'm like, my head is a scary place. You do not want to be in it, ever, because there's so much that you're constantly...and people really do think that you're not focused. And that is what I hear. But I am like 10 times more focused than everybody else around me because I have so much of this going on. And that's what I see with you too, right? Is everybody going, no, you really, no. But if you want more, you do have to go do what the greats do. When you said that, I was like, now I've got to ask him who the greats are that he's talking about. But obviously, all of those. Everybody knows Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins, if you're doing anything on the entrepreneurial world. Now you guys all know who Christopher Wick is. So you guys have got Christopher Wick in that little bandwagon that we have here. What are your thoughts on everybody saying, hey, look, really focus on one and be the best at one? Because what are your thoughts there?
Well, that's a very compelling question. And you're right. There's so much noise. And we hear so much noise of, oh, you've got to hustle and don't take weekends and holidays until you have what you want. And we have people saying, focus on one and diversify. And what do you listen to? And really, two things come to mind. As I was doing my research on you and your team and all of your companies, the one thing that I can say, the one thing that you focus on is this common thread of how you're serving others. And for example, even though I stand here before each day with supreme clarity, but when I was 24 years old, all I knew standing up in business school. My name is Christopher and I want to help people. That's the one I'm focusing on. So, I don't care if it's through consulting, investment, banking, real estate, e-commerce. My focus is service. So, I have supreme clarity on that. So, if you have a listener where they've got multiple gigs or they're freelancing or they're doing a couple of things, there is one focus and you just have to determine what is that focus for you? And then strategically, because that's a mindset thing, so mindset is my mind says I just want to serve, I want to help others, and that's really what's paved the way for me becoming so successful. Then the skill set, because there's mindset and skill set, a good coach teaches mindset, a good coach teaches skill set, and a great coach teaches both, right? So the skill set is is focusing on one thing that's really going to be the platform. So, if you have a listener who's got multiple hobbies, multiple interests, multiple businesses, is let's get one of those to where it's really a valuable, sellable enterprise that's going to continue to serve you versus the other way around. Your business should serve you, not you serving your business. Once they've got that, then you can diversify. And so, when I was 24 years old, all I had was that clarity of I just want to help people and I just kept giving, giving, giving and that paved the path to becoming an award-winning marketing consultant. By the age of 27, I started buying real estate. Now real estate didn't take much time, it only took money, so I just kept writing checks and buying homes and then when I was 29, I had enough leverage in the existing business to then go off and buy other companies. And so, in the beginning, if you're new, focus on that one common thread, which you and I have so much in common there. And then the skill set is, once you have that business that's supporting you and not the other way around, it's kicking off great profits, it's kicking off great systems and great procedures, then you can go and diversify. Because diversification is king. When you have at least a dozen streams of revenue. No one owns you, no client owns you, no business owns you, no employer owns you, and that's something I help my students with is how can you create diversified revenue so you're completely liberated.
Yeah, so when we talk about to serve, right? And it not being self-serving. To tell you, I had a coach once, and I was young and did not even know what it meant. And I am ever so grateful for this one individual teaching me this. Because I come from a family where my mom was a teacher for 35 years, and my dad was in the Air Force. No one in my family was an entrepreneur. I think I belong to the milkman. I tell my dad that on a regular basis, right? I'm like, where did I come from? He was like, I don't know, but I was in Vietnam. So I don't know where your mom was. So we all just kind of laugh. Right. But that I just didn't have anything. I was like, you, I just wanted to help people. And this mentor said to me one time, very similar, but in different words than what you had said. And that is when you do the right thing for the right reasons, the money comes and you do not have to worry about it. And I was like, okay, do the right thing for the right reasons. Got it. Got it. Right. Meaning you can't be self-serving. It wasn't until later that I added to that by saying, you can do the right thing. for the right reason and it still be self-serving like you can right it's not until you really truly understand doing the right thing for the right reason and it not be self-serving that it makes all the difference and I'm so grateful that that was taught to me so early, like in my 20s, because I was in the benefits consulting world in my 20s, in a very white, Caucasian male, over the age of 55, dominant industry. And here I was, this little 28-year-old, in Texas, no doubt. So still with a good old boy system, and we're talking about 25 years ago. So it is different to now. than it was 25 years ago, but I think I know, I know for a fact I would not be here had that advice not been given to me. Then I had to go learn the processes, which is something I really want to talk to you about because you can have a business. And I read where you had said, rarely is it a people problem inside of a business. It is a processes problem. And I am here to stand here today and very humbly tell you, I had a processes problem this morning with one of my companies and It got quickly resolved. I mean, I went back to training at 8 o'clock this morning over processes. Because if processes are not in place, and they are not, and everybody's not rowing in the same direction with the same mindset. I mean, you can teach skill set all day long. I can teach a skill. But mindset is much harder to shift in a lot of people, especially into a service world. What are your thoughts there?
Well, I absolutely agree. And I think I want your listeners to really hear what you said about being in your late 20s and really being a trailblazer and thinking about, you know, not only is it still the good old boys, you know, society now, but 25 years ago, going out there and, you know, pounding the pavement and doing your benefits consulting, what an inspiration, because that tells me about your mindset. That tells me about someone who believes that it's possible. And I tell my students that not only is it possible, but it's probable if you just focus and you focus exactly on taking the right action. I agree with you that I think mindset is often the most difficult and something that pains me is that I believe most entrepreneurs are working too much because that's what they've been taught. Absolutely. They've been taught to hustle. They've been taught to grind. But one of the things that I teach my students is, is could we take a moment to think differently? Can we take a moment to ask ourselves why? And if we think about production and productivity, And I don't want to jump on the bandwagon of us versus them, but I want to acknowledge a belief system that when you worked more and when you worked harder, that was the feeding the machine that was going to more taxes and it was going to more of the institution. And life is very different now. You know, we have more than ever before. We have more entrepreneurs on the face of this planet than ever in human history. And so it's time for them to own that belief system of what do I want to believe? And one of the things I would love your listeners to hear, and I would love for them to hear from someone who's got the assets, the accolades, the wealthy awards. I tell my students, you know, don't listen to someone who doesn't have what you want. Listen to someone who's got it all. And let me be the first person to give you permission to not work as much as what you're currently working. Because what I feel is happening is I feel the seduction of more and the seduction of productivity is actually stealing from your future. And so, when it comes to mindset, one of the first big aha moments I want my students to have is let's think differently and let's have a life by design and not by default. Default is work hard, pay taxes, be productive, be a great member of society. Well, society is different now and you get to be productive and busy and full for your own desires and goals. Makes sense?
Yeah, it does. So when do you think this big shift happened? Because I have an idea of when I think this big shift really started to happen. But what are your thoughts?
You know, when I was 24 years old, it wasn't cool to be an entrepreneur. It was like flaky and kind of risky. I remember one time in my early 20s, I was dating this woman and she said, oh yeah, I told everyone at work, you're an entrepreneur. And I said, no, no, no, don't tell them that. They'll think I'm a bum. They'll think I'm not working. And then I would say in my late to mid, my mid to late 20s, we started to see a shift and really What's cool about the shift is a bunch of people started saying, like, I want to do this differently and I want to work differently. But now what's happened is the pendulum swings both ways. So we had this big shift of people saying, I want to work for myself and I want to live life my dreams. But now what we have, and this is my projection of the world, so it may not be completely true, but what I see a lot of my students and my private clients, is I see a lot of people that are working hard and they're burned out. And they work so hard to figure it out and to do it on their own that every day they're banging at the keyboard behind this computer screen. Do you see the same?
I do. Yeah. And I'll tell you, it's very easy to get sucked in, too. Because, you know, I have this mindset of, I'm not going to the office before nine, right? I'm leaving at a reasonable hour, right? But in the early days, it was, I didn't leave till 10 at night, right? And I was here at six and But I see that there is, I'm starting to see this shift, and I really have seen a lot of this shift since COVID. Because that great resignation, I think when people took a step back, took a breath, and actually really looked at their lives, they went, yeah, I don't want to do that anymore. And I really think that as a whole, and I think Americans are probably the worst because you go into other countries and the street, like I lived in Germany for probably three and a half years. And at 1115 every single day, all of the shops shut down. They all went and had tea and lunch or like whatever you wanted to call it. They came back at two, right? And they were gone by five. And the shops, I mean the place was a ghost town. And I remember that, and then I got sucked in. And it is so easy to get sucked in. But I will tell you, I think the stronger the processes are that the team can follow, the less the owner, the CEO, whoever, has to be involved in the day-to-day, that they can do their job. when they get sucked into doing the employee's job, right? I really think that yes, I do think that that's a problem.
For sure. And you've got the great gift of having lived internationally for a few years. One of the greatest gifts I have from almost being on every major continent is I've seen the way the world lives. And I would agree with you. I think we're doing it a little bit differently. And one of the shifts that I had was I had a belief system I had to work really, really hard to become very successful, which I never really been successful before. So I did. I was trying to make it all throughout my 20s. I would say my primary question was like, how am I going to make it? Like, how am I going to be successful? How am I going to make a way for myself? And I just knew, you know, Zig Ziglar taught me when I was very young, if you help enough people get what they want, you will get everything you want. And I can say that that has been so true for me. And one of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning was working a lot so I could get the success and then I could adjust how I spent my life on how I adjusted my time. And now when I teach my students, I actually start at the very beginning and I start with time. And I'm going to make a statement that's going to seem very controversial. And there's going to be some people that hear this and they're going to be like, wow, that's amazing. I want to be like that. Then there's going to be some people here and they're going to say, I don't believe it and I don't want to live like that. But would you be curious to know on average how many hours I work on a typical week? Yes, absolutely. So there are weeks where I work more. For example, this evening, later in a couple of days, I'll be going and doing a seminar. So when I do seminars, of course, I'm going to work a little bit more. But on average, in my typical average weeks, weeks to weeks, month to month, I work on average 20 to 25 hours a week. Isn't that wild?
Isn't that wild? Yes, it is wild. But you also, OK, so tell me, Probably not just the one thing, but tell me how, because I'm sure the listeners are going, OK, that's doable. I can see it being doable. And I can see how it could be doable, kind of understanding who you are. But tell us how you got to that point.
It was a huge gift. And I will tell you, it's a very polarizing statement. When I give seminars, I've had people sitting in the front row, crossing their arms. I had one woman say, don't you feel lazy? And I thought, thank you for asking that, because I know there's many of y'all who are currently defining your value based on how hard you work. And ask me how I know. There's many of y'all who are listening who define being heroic by working a lot and pulling long hours at the office. Ask me how I know. And so I come to you saying like, hey, I used to be like you. I used to work 80 hours a week. And really where it all started was when I was in my late 20s, I had the business, I had the relationship, I met my wife in my late 20s and this beautiful love story was blossoming and I had all these things that I wanted and I decided I still wanted more and so I decided in my mid to late 20s that I wanted to become a competitive athlete. And I just thought, this will be great. I'll do this cool thing. I'll step on stage. And I was competing in amateur bodybuilding. I'd never done it before. I had no athletic experience. So I thought, this will be like running a marathon for some people. And I'll just go and I'll bodybuild. And I realized how much of my time would be needed for training. And one time I was training with my trainer. I was on the elliptical. and my trainer had these big old biceps and he said one day he says okay Christopher now we're going in the next phase of your training and you're gonna have to give me more time and I'm on the elliptical and I'm like well how much more time are you gonna need because I was working 80 hours a week and he said you're going to need to give me nine and a half hours of your time to train every week so we can get you ready for show. And I'm on the elliptical and I said nine and a half hours like we were doing like an hour a few days a week. How are we going to do nine and a half hours? And he said something that was so profound. And with his big old biceps that were bigger than the size of my head, he crossed his arms and he said, I thought you said you were an entrepreneur and there I am on the elliptical and I said I am an entrepreneur that's why I work so much and he said he said if you're an entrepreneur then figure it out and it was in that moment I remembered who I was and so not only did I shave off nine and a half hours for my business I went from 80 to 70, 70 to 60, 60 to 50, 50 to 40, 40 to 30, and for years I worked 30 to 35 hours a week. I finally got this mastery of understanding. Figure it out. And the reason I became an entrepreneur was to serve and to love and to give. I did not care about lining my own pockets. I was not money motivated. I cared about changing lives and serving others. But only one person was suffering in all of that. only one person. As I'm flying around giving seminars and writing books and helping companies, the one person that was suffering was me, because my entire life was focused on giving and serving. And then I really understood the difference. And instead of doing the formula, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to earn a lot, and I'm going to create great wealth, and then I'll get to rest. I decided to flip that on its head. And so what I would love to save your listeners time on is don't go and be like me don't get the success that by the relationships in the business first and then decide oh I deserve a nice life to decide now I'm an entrepreneur I'm a mom or I'm a dad or I'm a brother I'm a friend or I'm a husband or my wife and I want to be that trainer and I want to say to you figure it out. And the way that I do that is I help my students master, not manage their time. Mastery is different than achievement. An achiever is going to want to keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. I used to be an achiever, so ask me how I know. A master has wisdom and that's the first thing I start with my students and my private clients. I always start with time because here's what's really cool. You and I both, we have completely different backgrounds, but we have a lot in common with service and giving back. But there's one thing that we know is totally equal between you and I, and that's you and I both have 24 hours every single day. And that's what's liberating, as we know, time is the great equalizer. The garbage guy has 24 hours, the president has 24 hours. And the question is, is how will you spend those hours to get what you want in business and life and your relationship and your body but also to have a life by design and not by default.
Yeah time is I think an entrepreneur's worst nightmare because they they're especially those and ask me how I know right um those that have multiple businesses because there's there's this going on here and there's this going on here and it's like pull pull pull pull pull and then it's like well i didn't get to do what i needed to do today or what i had planned today because i got pulled over there or i got pulled over there or i got pulled to that and that is where mastering time becomes I think even if you're not an entrepreneur I mean let's just say you work for a company you want to be effective you want to be a fabulous employee to a company that values you right master time because you can become so much more efficient with mastering time and Hello, my name is Tammera Hollerich. I need help mastering time, right, on a regular basis. But it is at least something that we're striving for. One of the things that I love that I read about you is that your big goal for 2024 was to take your team to four-day work weeks. Yes. Okay, so in that four day work week, are they working on average 40 hours or did you pull that back for them? So that's a great question.
When people learn that I work 20 and 25 hours a week, one of the first questions I get is, well, how much how much does your team work? I have team members who work and it really is based on their choice because I think the most empowering thing you can do for someone is let them choose. So I have some team members who work 15 to 20 hours a week and I have some who work 40. I do not allow in this stage of my career anyone to work more than 40 because I feel like they're stealing from their family and their life. my team the whole reason we do this business stuff anyways is to take care of the ones that we love and so when we transition to a four-day work week and we successfully did that so here we are in the almost the end of q1 of 2024 and we successfully did it and here's how we did it one is by understanding time so the same process i take my clients and my students through I took my entire staff through. And for my fellow entrepreneurs on the call, I want y'all to hear me say that the same love and attention I give my clients and my students, I give that to my employees. And when you're in a service business, if you're a marketing agency, if you're a coach, if you're a graphic designer or a website designer, you're so focused on serving the client that it's like you just want your team to like do their jobs. But what I learned is very early on in my career. I learned that I had to treat my employees just like I would treat a client. Of course, there is a different power dynamic, but I also have the same aspect of service. So I let my team choose how many hours that they would like to work a week. And then we transitioned to the four day work week, which was a must for me. And one of the reasons I can work 20 to 25 hours a week on average, and there are some weeks a couple of weeks ago I worked only 17 and then last week I worked 27. So there's definitely a range. But one of the reasons I'm able to do that is my work isn't impacted and defined in value by my time. My work is impacted and defined by value by the outcomes that I meet. So if I'm able to do an investment or close a deal or help a client coach through an issue, my value is determined by the outcome. On average, it takes me less than 12 minutes to solve one of my clients' issues. So I know I can go in and I can jump in and help them solve it. The same thing with my team. They've been taught all these years, clock in, clock out, clock in, clock out. But I changed and helped them identify that their work was valued by their outcomes, not their time. If it takes my team seven minutes to do something, I think it should take 30 minutes. I think it's great. Bill Gates once said, if you want something to be done efficiently, give it to a lazy person. Now, I don't use the words lazy or unproductive, but I do know if someone can find a way to get the outcome met, that's what I'm all about. And so my team, we probably work four days a week, but we have that stair set. So my company always has full time coverage. We have some employees that work Monday through Thursday, some that work Thursday through Friday. And so for my listeners, I want you all to hear whether you're an employee or an entrepreneur, because I have clients and students who are W-2s. I've got some that are entrepreneurs. One of the big questions I ask is, how much more will you give up? Ask me how many meetings or how many family events I've missed because I was working. Ask me how many things I've been late to because I wanted to do one more email. And so we've all been there. And so one of the questions I ask is how much more will you give up is. I think that that would be a great question to ask now to finally say, yes, I don't want to manage my time. I want to master it because it's the one resource we all have. Every single country is 24 hours unless there's something new. Every single person is 24 hours. Every socioeconomic class, every gender, we all have 24 hours. And let that be the thing you commit to mastering because it affects every area of your life.
Yeah, that's such a big thing. One of the things I and a lot of my employees are moms or single moms. And from early on, even when I didn't have children, it was so important for these women. I'm like, you're a mom first. Like if you have kids, like you are a mom first, right? If you are married and you have a significant other, they are second. And then third, while it's not always conducive to the business plan, like always my term, right? Not always conducive to the business plan, then you're an employee. So if I find out you missed one of the kids' field day or you missed their program because you were here, we have a problem because that is not how this has got to go. And that was, it's hard for some people that are in that clock in clock out mindset to shift that mindset a little bit in that. No, you can't miss that set because you can't get it back. Those are things you cannot get back. And it's interesting how, They then appreciate right now you have a team that will work hard and appreciate what they have in the team that they work for because everybody's covering each other's back to make sure somebody doesn't miss this or somebody doesn't miss that. And it is about outcomes because if if the work doesn't get done. All of a sudden, our community has, we just let them down, right? And we have a heart in our, like, in one of the logos on one of the companies, there's a heart and it is to ensure the employees make sure that they always know that we are not there to break their heart. Like, because I have a balloon company. as one of the companies. And if you walk in with the wrong color, or you show up with the wrong yard number to go in the yard, you are literally going to break that mom's heart. So there's this focus of productivity, but the outcome being positive, having those positive outcomes. And I think too many employers, especially those that are in that rat race, and on this hamster wheel working these 80 hours a week, Either their processes are not in place, and they're missing something in a process, or they're hammering down on the employees about time instead of outcomes.
Do you see that a lot? Yeah. And what a disservice, because I love that you train your team, that you're a mom first. And I heard something last week that made me pause. I was consulting with one of my clients, and they said moms pay themselves last. And I thought about that. I thought, wow, what a chilling statement. Over 90% of my staff are moms. And I love it. I love working with moms. Because if you give a mom 15 things to figure it out, she's going to make it into a plan. What could perplex me a mom is going to figure out. But when I heard someone say moms pay themselves last, I thought, man, I feel so sad hearing that because out of anyone on this planet, they should be taking care of themselves first. But it reminds me what I tell my students. You are a human being, not a human doing. No one's walking around being a human doing, but we get so caught up in pro formas and PNLs and did we hit our KPIs and did we get the positive reviews. that we we fall asleep and then we wake up we fall asleep and we wake up and one of the things I help my students do is to remember to remember who you are whether you're an entrepreneur or mom or dad or sister or brother to remind them figure it out because that is who you are but also you're a human being and This could sound airy-fairy and woo-woo if it was coming from someone who did not have the stuff that I had. It was coming from someone who didn't have the track record, but I learned through trial and error and my formula was backwards. First, it was like achieve, succeed, find a way to make it, and then I'll take care of my life. And then when I finally realized, oh, it's the other way around, something miraculous happened when I took away nine and a half hours for my business so I could train more as an athlete. I started making more and I remember telling my trainer I am busier right now than I've ever been in my life with my hobbies which was training and becoming an athlete and I was making more in my business. and my trainer associated to my health and how disciplined I was, how strong I was, which I think was true. But also what I was starting to get is I was starting to get supreme focus. When I come in and I only know like today I'm working six hours or tomorrow I'm working seven or maybe Thursday I'm working three, I know here's what I've got, and here's what I need to achieve in that timeframe, and here are the non-negotiables, or here are the things I must do. When I work 17 hours a week versus 27, all of that is very varied in terms of how I feel and my energy. But then there's also weeks where I'm doing a seminar four days out of the week, and maybe I work 68 hours instead of 25. But what's important is the outcome is not measured by time. And that's why I think of any meeting, is longer than 30 minutes unless it's like a big staff meeting but if any meeting is longer than 30 minutes there's an inefficiency somewhere so I teach my students a meeting framework of how to get things done of course interviews and things like that are very different because there's all this thing that you're absorbing courses are different because there's all these things that you're learning but the only meeting that I ever have that's longer than 30 minutes is typically a quarterly staff meeting everything else is 30 minutes or left but also to create white space because if you're an entrepreneur like I used to be and you've got a 1 o'clock, a 2 o'clock, a 3 o'clock, a 4 o'clock, that is chaotic to do that. So when you go down to 30-minute meetings, what's great is you do a meeting, then you have some mental space. You have some white space to prepare for your next one or prepare for maybe some emails or prepare for talking with the team or maybe go make a cup of tea and remember, oh yeah, I'm a human. I'm not just a machine working here at the keyboard. That's what we've got AI for in robots. They can be the little machines. But here, we need to take care of ourselves so that we can serve. And when I realized at 29 years old, OK, there's something I'm missing. I was realizing, one, I was the only person suffering because my clients were getting great things and my audience members were getting great things. But I was working so hard to do that. And I think that there's a lot of self-worth tied into that. There's a lot of mislearning and there's a lot of deprogramming you have to do, which is why I want all your listeners to know if you're working 80 hours a week, one, it's not your fault, and two, you can choose differently. You just have to have a follow a proven framework. And that's exactly what I give my students is this is exactly what to do. And on average, I help my students and the first 21 days of working with me, I help them save on average 5 to 15 hours a week. Proven, like this is not a marketing thing, it's proven. I've got students who say I saved 7 hours this week, I saved 15 hours this week and that's the range 5 to 15 hours and what would your life look like if you could buy back 5 to 15 hours and I've had students who are moms, they're caregivers, they're entrepreneurs, there's a whole slew of them and it's available to anyone.
That's what's so powerful about this whole conversation is that statement right there. You, no matter where you are in your life right now, You can choose differently. And it's, you know, I know people are going to sit back here listening to you and I and go, well, but I have this and I have this all the way, like the excuses, right? Because that is what that then becomes is the excuse, but you can choose differently. And just sitting here thinking, giving back five hours to your spouse. right? What would your relationship look like if you gave them five more hours a week? Ivan and I were just talking, and he sends me this whole slew of emails yesterday, and it is date night, right? So he sends me, we're going to Bass Hall. These are our date nights for the next year. And I said, Yay, this is so exciting. And I said, OK, so I have some for you. And it was literally dinner with me. Because my husband's the president of a company, a construction company, and he travels all the time. And I'm like, but it's a choice that we want to spend time with each other. And it's that time that I literally, like you, have said, no, this is a choice. And I can choose differently. And you can buy back time. having team members help you, you don't, I think entrepreneurs think they have to do it themselves. I don't know what that is or where that comes from, but I think that maybe that's a hiring issue that maybe some of them have that they just don't have the right team members. But I do, I've talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and they're like, Well, if I want it done right, I have to do it myself. And I'm like, yeah, but that's processes. Again, where's your process in all of this? OK, so last thing before I let you go, because I do know that we've been on for about 45 minutes. I read that you have studied a plethora of different religions. I have, yes. OK, so curious, my mind wants to know, of all of the religions that you have studied, Which one do you think had the greatest impact on you?
I think that's a really good question. And one of the greatest gifts of being able to travel over the world and give seminars and help people was everywhere I went, I wanted to learn. So at this stage of my life, I've studied every world major religion. I read several different religious texts of all different religions. And the first thing I want to say is something one of my mentors taught me years ago, is the truth is in the overlap. So, no one is right and no one is wrong. And so, I come with a really beautiful message of like, hey, we're all human beings and there's not one that I can say is more right or more wrong because the truth is in the overlap. One of the greatest gifts I was given from studying religion was really an understanding of East versus West. And anyone who listens to me, they'll hear this very much in my speaking and how intentional I am with that. Out of all of the religions that I have studied, one of the most impactful lessons I have learned was really from Eastern religions. So that's Buddhism, that's Jainism, that's Hinduism, and then there's also a faith called the Baha'i Faith, which is really a smorgasbord of almost everything. It's actually one of the world's youngest religions. And so I don't ever say that I subscribe to any particular religion because I'm team human. But what I learned from studying Eastern religions was how much I think in the West we have a little bit backwards or a little bit crunchy where things are a little bit tense or we're following certain dogma or certain beliefs that really aren't serving who we are. And in the Eastern religions, specifically three religions I've studied deeply, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, really talk about going with that, where there is not a something out there that's going to help you. And of course, you know, of course, prayer is very important. So I encourage everyone, if prayer is one of your practice, keep doing it. I know I do it too. But to really know that everything that you would ever need is inside of you, that you don't need a prophet, you don't need an idol, you don't need someone to come and save you. Everything is within us. And this comes from studying all the world's major religions and reading the Bible and reading the Koran and really reading the religious texts of Buddhism and Hinduism. And for really to know it's all within me, which I think is very empowering. So even as an entrepreneur or a mom or a dad or an employee to know, Everything I need is within me, which is very empowering. And so at any moment in time, the question becomes, how can I support myself through this? How can I create the life that I want? And one thing I would love the listeners to take away, I love that you asked about the spirituality, is something that I teach my students is having a morning practice that supports your entire day. You remember at the beginning of this interview, I talked about I live a really blissful life. Well, would you like to learn a word from a different language real quick? Yes, yes. Okay. So Sanskrit, which is the world's longest language, it's the oldest language that we know of is Sanskrit and it's found in Buddhism and Hinduism, all different Eastern religions. There is a Sanskrit word for bliss and that word is Ananda. Ananda means bliss and the type of morning routine that I have create what I call a non-consciousness. So if you can quiet your mind, it only takes me less than 15 minutes. I've done morning routines anywhere from seven minutes to like an hour and a half a day. And really where I found my sweet, sweet spot was really 15 minutes. So I want to tell you like you're not too busy to do this. But every morning I access Ananda consciousness before I go off and become a doer and do all these things. So I can always find that moment back. Even before I got into this interview with you, I had some time in between meetings. I just took a moment to really refocus, get another cup of tea and then come back to that Ananda consciousness, that blissful consciousness to create that calm and presence. And one thing I think that you can agree with and hopefully your listeners will agree with too is, In this moment with you, I have been absolutely present. I'm not worried about emails. I'm not worried about Skype messages. I'm not worried about my phone. I'm completely here in this moment because the beauty is in every unrepeatable moment. Unrepeatable moments. How powerful is that?
Yeah. I mean, we can't go back and get it back. Right. And that's exactly like what I was talking about with these moms that are in my office. You, you, you will never get that back. So let's not miss them. And I do, I love that you have been so present because it has made this interview so wonderful. Like it's just been, this is one of my favorites. I've just got to say, this has been, I mean, this is great. So Christopher, so, How do our listeners get in contact? Easiest way to get in contact with you if they wanted to have you as a coach. How would they do that?
Absolutely. So the hub of everything I do is my personal website, ChristopherMWick.com. So Christopher, it's spelled as it sounds, M as in Michael and Wick, W-I-C-K. And that's my personal hub. So it's going to show you my investment company. It's going to show you my books. It's going to show you my workshops. It's also going to give you a big green button that says email me and my team. And I would love to gift all of your listeners. If they write in to us or if they sign up for my workshop, I would love to give them complimentary access to my workshop called Time Rich. And so, many people want to be rich financially or they want to be rich with the body of the relationship. And really, what I teach my students, the first thing I teach every single student, every single client, is how to become time rich because it all starts with time. So, every listener, I don't care if it's today or if it's three weeks from now, I want you to have complimentary access to Time Rich, and just go to my website, ChristopherEnwick.com, email my team. There's also a button that will lead you to the Time Rich workshop, and we'd love to have your listeners. And this is extended also to your listeners, but also your team. Please share the link, and we'd love to have everybody.
Christopher, that is so gracious. Thank you so very much. All right, everybody. This is everything is up with Tammera and Christopher M. Wick at ChristopherMWick.com. And you just heard Christopher say he's giving us complimentary access to Time Rich, which I 100% believe all of you should just take him up on it. It will add so much value to your life. Christopher, you are amazing, and I am so grateful that you took so much time out of your day today to spend with us and give us such valuable wisdom. Thank you so very much. All right, everybody, make sure you like and share. Everything is up with Tamera and Christopher.
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Everything Is Up. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way, you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And remember,