Create Extra Money By Creating Extra Space

I think whenever you or whomever you're going with go on these strategy days, you guys should feed yourself something, whether it's a book or audio or podcast, something that kind of gets your wheels turning, even if it's not thinking on exactly what you're thinking on. Listen to someone who's in the energy of what you want to listen to.

So you're getting kind of primed up.

Yes.

Before you create the space to then do the work.

Because otherwise you can feel like you're pulling from an empty space if you're not in that place yet. And there's nothing like somebody else to help you get in that place. And we're back with another episode of He Said, she Said.

We're back from Santa Barbara. First of all, how freaking gorgeous is Bacara at Santa Barbara?

If you have never been to Santa Barbara? It is like a place I didn't actually know existed. It's the perfect getaway for relaxing. If you love nature and sunsets in the ocean. It's like you can waste away there. It's absolutely a spot where I'm like, I could just die here watching the ocean.

So I'm sitting here confused. You're like, it's a spot I didn't know existed. I think we've been staying there for, what, eight years?

Oh, I'm saying I didn't know existed. Sorry.

Oh, like that level of beauty. Yeah. See, Laurie does this thing where I'm not in her brain, so she just says part of the thought.

Does anybody else do that listening? Oh, my God. You guys are probably laughing to yourself because we will pick up, like, I'll tell him something mid thought, and he'll be like, what are you talking about? You didn't even tell me the beginning of that thought.

You guys, here's exactly how it'll go. So it'll just be quiet, right? I'll be quiet. Lori, be quiet. We'll be sitting next to each other, and she'll say something like this. She'll say something like, you know, I don't think that's the right answer anymore. I really think we should go the first route. Like, out of the blue. She'll say that. I'll be like, well, what's not the right. What are you talking about? And she's like, oh, that's right. I forgot. You're not in my brain. I was just still having, like, a half hour conversation about what to do or what not to do about, I don't know, my new company or this or that. She does this to me all the time.

You've been doing it too. Like, you'll talk about something, except you'll just have told me about four things and you'll say something about four.

Yeah, I do. And I'll bounce back. So I'll talk about four subjects at once and then I'll bounce back to the first or the second with, yeah, I'm hard to follow. I get it. I get it. Guys, we had the best. And like, this is what the subject will be about, you know, like creating space to talk and dream and work your business from the outside. But we just had the best three and a half hour drive up to Santa Barbara. We had to go up for our friend's book launch. Matter of fact, shout out to Robin Long, her new book.

Well, to the Core.

Well to the Core. Go get it. We sure. Her book launch was in Santa Barbara last night. So we went up there because she and her husband met her. Awesome. And wanted to support her. So go get that book. Well, to the core. But we drove three and a half hours up there from our Newport home is the most beautiful drive where I don't even. Do we turn it on? Yeah, we turn on one podcast, but we're just like talking and remodeling our businesses and dreaming. And then today we had a three and a half hour drive back. That's seven hours of uninterrupted brainstorming together that we haven't had before. And here's the important thing. And this is where I want, you know, it starts to turn towards all of you listening. There's people out there that you probably want to brainstorm with. There's people out there that you probably want to strategize with. And I sure as heck know that it's always better to get outside your business so you can look upon it instead of always looking at your business from the inside. Right. Well, Lori is one of those people that I always want to strategize with, but she's too busy. I know that sounds crazy, but if you guys saw our lives, just like your lives, it's too busy for us to find these large swaths of undivided attention for me to run things by her and get her ideas and get her strategy and vice versa.

So, you know, with this conversation of creating these spaces, because Chris and I, what we not only just realized from this, but we've had this realization because you and I have had quite a few car rides this year. So we had the ride to Wisconsin, which was like four days on the road and then we had the ride back and then we had this ride. And we've been taking a couple of these other pockets like this last weekend we actually got a full weekend together and we took our dinner times to do like these strategizing dates of reimagining our life. Because what we realized is that without doing these things, which we hadn't done a ton of this in the past few years, cause we have been so busy. What we've realized is that we were really kind of living in the same problem over and over again and not really getting the solution and just doing what was already there. Because what was already there was easy. And it was bringing in what we wanted, but not our dream idea of what we want. And we weren't necessarily in our dream life, but it was going good. And so what these pockets have done is make us reimagine what everything could look like and reset our goals and then align our goals. So these pockets are not only important, they're a necessity. And I just want to share that. I'm reflecting on all the podcasts I've had with some really successful people and they all say things that kind of just bounced off me and it hasn't really impacted me until now. And that is they actually schedule think time into their calendar. It doesn't have to be sit down and think time. It's just dedicated, intentional time where it could be, hey, we're going to do a two hour walk this Saturday, but we're not just going to go on a walk together to connect. It's actually going to be, we want to solve this one problem or we want to rethink what this particular thing could look like. So you need to create these pockets, but then set the intention for that particular pocket. And what happens is it's insane what you're actually going to solve in this amount of time. I say at least give yourself two hours, if not like four to five.

This is interesting because I've read a lot of biographies, so that's my favorite kind of book to read a good portion of. These famous accomplished people I read about, they have the common theme of they have like scheduled think time like once a week where they sit in their office totally quiet and can't be bugged, or they go on long walks or they do their own solo trips and they have this think time that I don't have. Like, you know, we're always improving. This is one of the improvements I want to make. I want to build in scheduled think time for myself because look what happened in the last seven hours, right? So three and a half hours to Santa Barbara, three and a half hours back. Guys, here's some. Some real talk. You want us to peel back the layers or, you know, open the curtains or whatever the. The saying is open the Komodo. You want me to open Lori's robe? Here it is.

Oh, gosh.

So in the last seven hours of road tripping together, we completely remodeled my elite mastermind that I run each year to be more elite and way freaking better and more high impact. But these are ideas that came from Lori challenging what I'm already doing, because what I was already doing was really, really good. But sometimes really, really, really, really good stops you from rethinking what could be great, right? And so the elite mastermind for next year, for 2024, is going to be probably two to three times better than it's ever, ever been. And it's already famous for being epic, by the way. Shameless Plug. If you guys want to apply, you have to be making more than a half a million dollars for the year that you apply for. That's in your business. But if that's you, like, you want to fight to get in this room, go to Chrisharder Me Mastermind to check it out and apply. Seriously, go to Chrisharder Me Mastermind, check it out and hit apply. Because I do all the interviews in time order of those applications coming in. But okay, so that's the first thing we accomplished, right, is we remodeled the mastermind to be even better, thanks to your ideas where I haven't had time to ask you these questions. Second thing we did, unrelated to that, we added about a million dollars of new income for 2024 to the plan that we already had that already fit into our alignment and schedule of things we were already doing. I don't want to get too specific, but let's just say we saw some inefficiencies and some missed opportunities that we were able in the trip up and the trip back to do some planning, do some texts, do some brainstorming, and realize, wait, we just generated an extra million dollars for next year, above and beyond what we thought we were already planning to make in seven hours of brainstorming. And then you with, oh, almost said the name of the company. Oh, my God, it almost slipped out of my mouth.

That's coming in.

You know how Lori's pivoting from light pink to the new company that's owned by light pink? She's about to announce it, and I almost let it Slip out of my mouth. That would have been horrible. I guess I could have edited it out, but let's just say mystery company. That's going to be now, soon here. Right. The big pivot you were able to figure out. Well, I'll let you say. Cause I don't wanna give anything away.

I was able to figure out exactly what I'm doing with my starter kits.

Oh, starter kits. What's in a starter kit, Lori?

Oh, it's so good. So freaking cute. So amazing. It's gonna make you feel so good. It's gonna make you look your best.

I'm just saying, here's what happened. She's like, okay, Kris, if these were your margins, if this was your marketing budget, if this is what you were trying to accomplish and your starter kit is your first impression, give me some ideas for blank. And would you price it at blank? And would you do option A or would you do option B when it came to your margins? Right. So we are able to have those conversations when I'm usually too busy to sit down and have those conversations in a very pointed, intentional way without interruptions and that kind of thing. Right. So, wow, three and a half hours up, three and a half hours back. That open space was priceless.

Yeah. You know, I want to point out we did a couple things on this particular trip. I feel like we started with the intention of wanting to solve some things, but also I noticed that when I first got in the car, I wasn't totally in the mood to, like, talk or listen to a podcast because I feel a little fried sometimes from my weeks and I feel like we've been working so much. So I was like, no, but I want to utilize this time. So I made myself listen to a podcast. So we turned on a podcast and I turned one off. Actually, I think we turned 2 off because I was like, no, I want someone super high energy and super, like.

We wanted it to be like, high paced, high vibe.

Yes.

I'm like, okay, I'm not quitting until I find something that's like this. So we listened to a podcast that we found that was like, that very, like, hardcore motivation. And afterward, it's like it got the juices flowing and the ideas flowing. And, you know, even when I was writing my book, Chris, if I knew I had a writing day, yes, I trusted my intuition would tell me something, even though that didn't happen every day. But I always started those mornings, no matter what, with podcasts, because other people's thoughts and ideas start the engine of your thoughts.

And ideas.

So I think whenever you or whomever you're going with go on these strategy days, you guys should feed yourself something, whether it's a book or audio or a podcast, something that kind of gets your wheels turning, even if it's not thinking on exactly what you're thinking on. Listen to someone who's in the energy of what you want to listen to.

So you're getting kind of primed up before you create the space to then do the work.

Because otherwise you can feel like you're pulling from an empty space if you're not in that place yet. And there's nothing like somebody else to help you get in that place.

So guess, like, who could you do this with? It doesn't have to be your significant other. Rarely, it's going to be your significant other. Listen, Lori and I are just blessed. We're just fortunate that it happens to be each other that we get the best ideas from or that happens to be each other, whose counsel we seek and who we love strategizing with. And like I said, how long has it been, Lori, since I've been able to have your undivided attention to spend. What did we spend three of those seven hours on? Remodeling the mastermind, making it better. I just couldn't get three hours from you of, you know, straight hours before. So mine happens to be my wife, hers happens to be her husband. But who could yours be and when could you do it? And I mean, like, let's really think about this right now. That's not a rhetorical question. Is there a certain friend that you could start setting these open space dates with? Is there a certain mentor that you could invest in so that you have force placed open space dates with a mentor who's helping you get outside your business? And look in. Is there a small group that you could put together once a month? Right? You buy the dinner, they all get together or you take turns buying the dinner. Everyone gets together, you know, once a month. You guys are going to spend a four hour dinner, each person getting an hour or a two hour dinner, each person getting a half an hour, like really structured. The point is there's people that need to create the space out there in addition to you. So who could you partner up with in order to create that space? And even, like I just said, all these biographies I'm reading, could you just do it by yourself? Could you hit pause in life? Could you set up some boundaries? Tell the family, tell your friends, hey guys, I got some new rules. Don't Think I'm weird, but I'm gonna start doing a half day trip once a month or I'm gonna start spending one afternoon by myself at the spa. Or I'm gonna start right. Like I need space to think. And by the way, you probably need a little more than you're gonna take. So this is my caveat, this is my warning. Don't schedule in. Well, I'm just gonna start taking two hours a month. No, this was seven hours, two, three and a half hour periods back to back basically of undivided attention ride. So you're gonna need some serious space for the serious magic to happen. But my God, it's so freaking worth.

It, you know, And I think as you enter into those times, you just enter with some questions and you have to be wildly open because, you know, a lot of the answers that I was giving to Chris, he was like, ooh, that feels a little risky. Ooh, I don't know how that feels. And it was like, or, ooh, people.

From the past might not like that change.

Exactly. And so when you're entering into this time, you have to know that you are intentionally working your hardest during this think time to reimagine your perfect ideal scenario. Sometimes that's going to mean raising your prices. Sometimes that's going to mean letting go of certain clients. Sometimes that's going to mean letting go of certain relationships. And I think the reason why people avoid this time is because it's going to be answers you don't like at first and they're going to challenge you. And so this is such valuable time to sit and not only look at those and say, well, yes, this would be my ideal situation to get paid this much and have less clients or whatever this looks like. But then you have to get right with it. It's almost like allowing yourself to sit with it and say, what am I going to keep doing? Am I going to keep going down the path of living this life I don't like, and charging the same thing or doing the same thing and never getting out of it. And if the answer is no, then you understand that you're either going to make the tough choice of ripping off the band aid and doing the thing that you actually want and trying it because you don't know if it could work. It could be magical.

Yeah, it's incredible. Like we're all caught up in the freeway of life. It's going so quickly. And there's 10 lanes to your left, and there's 10 lanes to your right. And you're stuck in the middle and you're just kind of going down the freeway and you can't find an exit in sight until you say enough is enough. I need to get off this freeway and stop driving in the wrong direction or ready for this. Enough is enough. Even though I'm going in a good direction, I know there's a better route. And so you got to hit pause on your navigation, find the nearest exit, take a breather and figure out a better path. I'm imploring you to do this.

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I just want to end on this with really thinking about, you know, Chris and I don't know if all of these things that we just planned are going to work, but here's what we're committed to. Here's the belief that we know is going to work for us to make this plan work. We have decided that, yes, if we launch certain things or change certain things up and it's not maybe received in the exact way we want or we don't get the exact numbers that we want in the beginning, we've decided that that's your sign to figure out how to get them, how to work harder. What else do we need to do? Do we need to go on podcast tours? Do we need to do more marketing? Do we need to nurture our listeners more? Do we need to hire someone to help us with something so it's never a, oh, that didn't work. It's oh, where can we refine this to make this plan work? So we don't even have. It's not working as an option. We've committed to the idea of committing to these things that are aligned with our lives and aligned with who we are and aligned with our skill sets and aligned with where we want to go. And we are now going to adjust anything that doesn't fall into that.

Oh, my God, you just freaking reminded me. I forgot in this drive, we just committed to an extra like $30,000 a month retainer on something that's going to change and help everything that we're doing right Like, I don't want to get too specific yet, but just trust me, you guys are going to want to follow along. But we committed to paying, let's just say a service, $30,000 a month in order to get us closer to our dreams faster. That's like a big commitment that wouldn't happen without this open space where we sat. Like, okay, do we really want to do this? Here's the upside, here's the downside. What's the worst that could. That all happened on this freaking seven hour round trip. I forgot that. Wow. Okay, so I'm out of my mind, excited. I'm imploring you guys to create the space to create the magic. Let me repeat that. Create the space to create the magic. We will even help you create the space to create the magic. Matter of fact, we've been kind of hinting around at these three elegant networking dinners that we're going to throw this year. We're throwing three beautiful dinners in three epic cities. And the only people that are going to be there are high level performers who are hell bent on growing their network and collaborating and brainstorming with new people once and for all. Like your best year of networking ever. No fluff, no learning, no teaching, no sit in a classroom, no none of those things. It's straight networking exercises for a half a day that leads into an all night elegant dinner. Like we're even gonna ask you to dress up because we're like send around photographers, get you content. It's going to be epic. So if you ever wanted to change the people so you could change the ideas and have better collaborations and up level your network, you have to be at these three dinners if you want to find out more. Text us the word dinner and we'll start jamming back and forth. Text us the word dinner to 310-421-0416.

You know, so many things are going to come out of this networking dinner. It's not just creating a new network, but you have to really look at your brand perception as well. Position yourself with other people who are doing big things.

Oh yeah.

And so aligning your brands with other people who are doing big things and showing it, that's why we want to make sure that you're dressed up, that you look the part that you look like you're doing big things because you are and you will be. But that is such an important piece that so many of you are missing because you're computer warriors and you sit all day and nobody wants to align with you because you don't look like you have an exciting life or the things that people want. So this networking is all about not only creating this incredible network of people who truly we believe your network is your net worth. And every time you go into a new room, you expand the possibility of making so much more money because each singular person is a possible new source of income that you didn't have before, but now also elevating your entire brand perception. That's why you're gonna dress up, we're gonna get photos, we're gonna do all of the fun, amazing things to uplevel the crap out of your whole brand. This is the thing that you need. And if you're sitting there going, oh, my God, how am I supposed to do this on my own? You don't. You can literally join this and come in and do it all at once.

Like, listen, tired of the same old recycled things you're trying. Get new ideas by getting a new network. Get the shortcuts by getting a new network. Get brand new support by getting a new network. Get brand new up level results by getting new period. That's it. So listen, text us the word dinner to 310-421-0416. I'm not kidding. You're gonna want to be there. It's gonna sell out in like 10 freaking seconds once we finally share. You know when you guys are gonna be able to join us for these three dinners, but text us the word dinner to get on the VIP list to find out first to 310-421-0416. All right, thanks for listening. We always love to appreciate you.

See you next week.