Business Innovators Radio - Episode 27: How to Work & Stress Less While Efficiently Earning More With Christoph Nauer

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Part of our Construction Executives Live Program Learn from certified business and life coach, Christoph Nauer, as he teaches us how to grow our businesses, double our quality time with family and loved ones and become better leaders at work and home. Learn how the proven Balance 6 system can stabilize our relationship with time, money, health, relationships, self-Improvement, and higher power. It is time for us to find the work/life balance and inner peace that we need in order to be more productive at work and loving at home!In The Zonehttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/in-the-zone/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/episode-27-how-to-work-stress-less-while-efficiently-earning-more-with-christoph-nauer

Welcome to In the Zone and Construction Executives Live, brought to you by U.S. Construction Zone, bringing you strategies for success with construction innovators and change makers, including In The Zone peer-nominated national award winners. Here's your host, Jeremy Owens. Hey there, and welcome back to Construction Executives Live. I am your host, Jeremy Owens, owner and founder of U.S. Construction Zone and three generations improvements out in Sunny. California. Thanks for being here again. A couple quick updates before we get into our live show. We do have a platform update on U.S. Construction Zone that I wanted you guys to be aware of. The cool thing about U.S. Construction Zone is what we're trying to add in terms of products and services is everything that my business at three generations improvements needs. And one of the problems we've had is a referral program. And what we used to do is we used to get these little gift cards. We even put our nice little names and faces on those bad boys. We'd get these

visa gift cards and we would put them in the mail for our clients for referrals or we'd drop them off. The thing that we kind of got burned with is that the expiration date on the card is nothing like the expiration date on the actual gift card. And we were getting burned. People were getting a gift card for $50 or $250 for sale and it would be a lot less than that. So we scrapped the gift card idea, we created a referral program called Referral Gifter. So take a look at it. It's referral, GIFTR.com. We're out of beta now, and basically it's a very simple way for you to send coupon codes or referral

codes to your client, and they can go right into the store and shop at their convenience. You don't have to drop off a gift card. There's no expiration. So all those pain points we have in a referral program goes away. I'm looking for 10 pilot companies to take a look at this. You get 50% off your subscription if you want to take a look. I'm going to accept the first 10 emails I get. So if you're one of those, email me, Jeremy at us construction zone.com.

So excited about that update. And if you guys just want to take a look and provide your feedback, I'm always willing to listen to that as well. So thank you so much. Today we were sponsored by the great team again at Bill 12. I don't know if you saw the program from last week. If you have not, go to our website, US ConstructionZone.com, go to In the Zone and hit up Construction Executives Live. You will see my live show with Les sitting right here last month where we talk a lot about his entrepreneurial spirit, but also Bill 12.com. And it's a way to automate your construction business into a revenue.

new generating machine. Take a look at that. And if you want a free demo and meeting with less, please let him know. We have a great show for you today. This is one that I've really struggled with and Christoph knows that. It is how to work and stress less while efficiently earning more. You know, time management is a big problem for our industry. We'll get into a lot of that subject matter today. We're going to learn from certified business and life coach Christoph Nauer. And he teaches us how to grow our business, double our quality time with family and loved ones, and become better leaders at work and at home. And we're going to learn how the proven balance six system can stabilize our relationships with time, money, health, relationships, self-improvement, and higher power.

It is time for us to find the work-life balance and inner peace that we need in order to be more productive at work and more loving at home. Christopher Nower with Balance 6 is a business coach, Brian Tracy's certified time management master, author, mentor, speaker, and consultant. He helps passionate and purpose-driven business owners run and grow their business. And he has using the Balance 6 method. They learn how to grow their business and double quality time with their family. Please help me welcome Christoph Nowher. to the show. Thank you for being here, Christoph. That's my pleasure. Thanks for having me, Jeremy. Yeah, so let's get into it. I really am curious, how do you get started in this

field of business and life coaching? Well, my wife and I, we're always working full-time, raising three kids, and juggling a zillion of balls. And so we don't want our kids to learn what parenting meant is stressing around, being short-tempered, you know, and always working. You know, and the story I always love to tell is when we decided we really needed a break, we lined up the babysitter, and we were pulling out of the driveway.

The three kids with the babysitter were standing at the top of the driveway, and they were chanting, party, party, you know. We look at each other. Okay, there's something wrong with this, you know. We feel guilty of leaving them with a babysitter and they're throwing a party. I mean, I'm throwing a little part of you, but they know that life is different with a babysitter. Where that babysitter is a family member or not, you know, and that's what it's all about.

They gave us a chance to reconnect and talk about us, you know, not work, not business, not kids, us, you know. And that's quite often what happens is when you have so many things going on, there's no time anymore for each other. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I mean, I'm also fascinated. I know you started in the pastoral ministry and you were there for 20 years. And so I'm curious, you know, what that experience was like. Obviously, you kind of become a life coach as a pastor already. So I'm sure you kind of hit the ground running with your new industry, correct?

Yes, it was, you know, helping people, listening to them, having empathy, compassion. It's just, that's part of the game, pointing them in the right direction, give them advice. then obviously they can do with whatever I say. They can, you know, but also for them to just have somebody that listens to them. You know, be who they are, they don't have to pretend to be somebody else. That's the same thing with my clients. Be who they are. They don't have to pretend.

There's no judgment. And the more open they are, you know, the better, the more they see results. And the easy it is for me to work with them. Sure. And part of it too That makes total time Yeah And people are reluctant to be vulnerable

You know We're not supposed to be vulnerable In our society But once people recognize Hey you know I'm human he's human She's human You know we have our faults

We have our shortcomings That's the human condition Yeah So yes That part you know Has obviously helped me In this business Absolutely

Yeah Yeah, no doubt. And I'm also curious about the Brian Tracy effect. I know that you're a certified time management master with Brian Tracy. You know, I looked him up in doing the prep. I can't believe he has over 80 books. Obviously, he's been around forever. And he's such a powerful voice, not only in his books, but in his speaking engagements as well. So tell me a little bit about that Brian Tracy program or what that look like for you. Yeah, so, you know, when you get certified or you get your degree or whatever, you know, you realize that you really don't know anything. You may have a little certificate, but that's about it, but you really don't have a clue. And that's when the learning process really starts. And so I needed to surround myself with experts in the industry, you know, and he was one of them.

I followed his stuff for many years. And then I realized when I was on his mailing list, and so he said, hey, you know, I'm offering this certificate. process program and I was like, oh, you know, if I can add this and say, hey, I was certified by this guy, you know, who is known in the industry, that adds value to me, my clients, but also I learned a lot. You know, I know some of the stuff he taught. I was already doing, but I learned a lot of new stuff from him. Right. And so that's what it is. It's a constant learning. Whenever I can learn more, then that's worth.

Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I mean, I'm sure that's where the component comes in. Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Well, great. I mean, so when did you write your book? And by the way, I put the link to your book in the LinkedIn chat already. So, guys, if you want to check it out, he wrote a book titled From No Time to Free time, six steps to work-life balance for business owners.

And so when did you write that book? And I guess what inspired you to do so? It's a good story, actually, because the person who became my book coach and the editor and publisher, she asked me to come and do it for her team on time management, you know. And so I did that. At the end of the train, she said to me, so when are you going to write your book? And I'm like, oh, I don't know. And then she said, well, you said you're going to record the training, right?

And I said, yeah, I always do because that's where, you know, time has future value. And she said, okay, there's your book. I'm like, oh, you know, so I had the recording transcribe. And then I found a friend of mine is actually, you know, she's a, I don't know what you call it, ghost writer. I mean, she's actually a writer, you know. So she took that transcription and took. turn it into actual book.

But that's how that happened. So, you know, people have been telling, hey, you're right, should write a book, you know. But it took that experience for me to actually embark on that and then write it. And so, and then, too, I get to help more people. You know, I can't work with a gazillion people one on one. But I know if you read this book and you want to apply what's in there, it's a game changer.

Right. And, you know, and it allows you 20 bucks if you want a paperback, if you want the version, it's like, what, something, so it's not a, doesn't break your wallet. You know, it gives me a chance

to help more people, you know. Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. It's kind of like, it's kind of what I love about, you know, the podcast life as well, is that there's a chance for you to put your thoughts and ideas

is on paper forever, right? It's like that timeless thing that so many, so many in past generations never had a chance to do. And like we talk about that in construction. Like the baby boomers are starting to retire. There's all these guys with the most tremendous amount of knowledge and experience and wisdom. And it's just going to go away because a lot of them are really to themselves.

They don't really want to be kind of in the open. And so that's what I love about this medium as well. is like you're able to talk about it and, you know, put it down forever. And it's something that not only your peers can go back and look at, but maybe your kids and family members to see a little bit about what your work life was like. So that's what I'm about the book thing too is like, hey, you just got a chance to put all your thoughts and ideas on paper. And then I guess on to the next book, right? Maybe.

Yeah, maybe. So getting into the topic at hand, we've had conversations about our industry struggles with work-life balance and time management. You know, obviously our industry, you know, not that we're the only ones that are like this, but we're very much reactive, I guess, would be a good way of saying it in that we have a great idea of what we want to do that day. We may even have a great an organized to-do list. We may even have a great calendar system.

but when that call or text or email comes and it's a fire that you got to put out it kind of switches your whole day into something out and it's just been a real struggle for a lot of folks and I talk to a lot of people and this is a this is a common struggle for all of us so I guess you know why do you think our industry struggles I know that you service a lot of people in construction already so give us give us your thoughts on why we are the way we are right now Well, I think it's not unique to your industry. So just to put your mind at ease, it's for a lot of people, they struggle that way. As you said, reactive instead of proactive.

And that's what it's all about. And I was working with a contract, and he complained to me. He said, you know, I called my train, you know, and I need to ask him a question. I need some advice. So then his assistant answers and says, oh, well, his next appointment is on Wednesday at 2 o'clock. And he was irate. He complained about that. And he said, he took the appointment.

And he goes to the attorney and says, you know, what the heck? You know, I mean, I had to wait for you. And he says, well, that's the only way I can run my business. Right. And so when he told me this story, I said to him, I would like you to do the same. And he just looked at me with these big eyes. because one of the things I said to him, let's see, why is the attorney more important than you?

Maybe he has a master's degree or a PhD or whatever, but you don't? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, you know. And so I'm telling this story because it really is applicable to your industry and to what you're talking about, you know. And what happens quite often is when, if we have a

between a real fire the way you put in the actually a conversation with another business zone and he talks about it he says people in our industry are actually they're firefighters the cons are putting out fires and I said to him

well good then I become the one who stops helps you stop the fires right so yes there are emergencies in most industries that's true but I would say about 90% of them are perceived emergencies by the caller or by the client or customer.

Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I think you're right. It's trying to figure out what really needs to happen that day and what can be put in your priority list, but not right at the top. I think that's what we have a tendency to do is like the fire comes and like that immediately goes right to the top. And then you make the calls and you start going down that. rabbit hole and then by the time you're done with it you're like where was I before that and then it's just like you know it could be a half a day and you're like you kind of have that feeling of like

okay I haven't been productive I haven't done anything that I wanted to do today and sometimes it's an entire day and then your next day you you try to start anew and so it's like this kind of vicious cycle and you're right I think we are firemen but I don't think we have a host I don't think we have water necessarily all the time. I think we sometimes are a little out of control. And I think that we've created that as an industry, that everything is immediate. And it's not always, but we definitely all kind of do that to each other like, we need to get this done today. You know, and so it's just, it's kind of, you're right. I mean, we should be able to prioritize and figure out what is a fire and what can be figured out in the coming days, right? Right. Exactly. Exactly. And part of it is, you know,

So the beauty of being a business on an entrepreneur is I'm in charge. It's up to me to decide when I work and when I don't work. You know, when you work for somebody, they just tell you, you show up at this time and you're going to be here at this long. You know, that's, you don't like that. Too bad. Bye. Right.

And that's one of the reasons businesses get started. People want to be their own boss. Right. But then what happens, eventually the business takes over and starts running them. you know and then that's that's where what you're talking about is starting to happen yeah i mean we say this often for us business owners is we we work 80 hours so we don't have to work 40 right i mean it's it's very common for us to to do that we're like hey as long as i don't have to answer to anybody i will put in the extra work right um but uh yeah i wanted to get into the the balance six

program, and obviously what problems you're looking to solve? And obviously, this is, like you said, this isn't just construction. This is really any industry, right? Yeah, yeah. So I believe that when we balance those six that ones that you have mentioned, which is money, health, relationship, self-improvement, and higher your power or spirituality, whatever terminology you want to use, that's when we're the best version of ourselves. So when we are home, all we really home and present to our loved one. Or are we physically present, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, we are checked out. We are at work.

We are like, oh, I didn't get this. Oh, geez. And you can't fool your family. Right. They pick up on this stuff. As a parent, try to fool your kids. ain't working. You know you have kids. I know might have grown. It never worked. They saw right through it. Right. And it's also not, you know, another way of living because if you're

constantly on and you can't shut this off, it's causing stress, you know. And that also does, so that it starts to do so the relationships start to break down if you're not present. Right. And it affects your health. You know. What happens most of the time, then you don't have time to take care of your body, you know, exercise, sleep, whatever it is. So we neglect that because we're always working. Yeah. So that's why those are a part of the sixth. And with my background, I believe that we're all spiritual beings.

So what is it that we do for ourselves to nurture that side of ourselves? Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's just crazy when you, when I read through them or hear you say those six, it truly is powerful that if one of those is out of balance, it messes with all the other ones. It's not like, you know, especially the health one, right? And we've seen this a lot in construction. We have a mental health crisis. We're ranked number two again in terms of suicide, death in any industry. So we have a problem where in our industry that stress continues. And sometimes it leads to drugs and alcohol addiction. But sometimes it's just a depression and mental health funk that has led to suicide. But the one that you see physically the most and easiest is someone's health.

Right. You can go from one year or the next, you see that guy and go, oh, dang, he's had a year, right? you know, you could see it. It may be, maybe it's, maybe it's being overweight or maybe it's their face or maybe it's just something physically that you could say like that person, he's out of balance based on how you knew him or her before. So it's just crazy that you're right, that they all have to be in balance for the whole thing to work, right?

Yes. Yeah. So, you know, peace of mind, being able to come home and leave work at work. knowing I got the critically important stuff done today. Tomorrow's a new day. And being fully there and having something every day for yourself that recharges your batteries. You know?

And the story I try to use to illustrate my point is, you know, Carl Jung, most people have heard of Carl Jung. He happens to be Swiss like myself. he had a house on the lake of Zurich. I did not. I grew up in the outskirts of Zurich. But he was contacted by somebody very influential. She said, I'd like to see you on a Wednesday afternoon, too.

And he said, I'm sorry. I'm not going to be able at that time. She wasn't happy about it. But so she happens to be on a boat driving by his house that time, the day, on Wednesday afternoon. And lo and behold, she sees him sitting in the backyard, thing, his feet in the water. Now, you can imagine what happened, right? So she went home, called him up by rape and yelled at him and said, you lied to me. You know, I saw you sitting in your backyard. You didn't have an appointment. And you can probably see what I'm going to say next.

He said, very calmly, no, it's the week, an appointment with myself. You know, and so I'm using that story for two reasons. First of all, because I'm Swiss and he is Swiss, but also people may have heard of Carl Jung. Most people have never heard of me, you know. And this is just the only other time we get this correctness on the airplane. Put your mask on yourself first before you help somebody else. Right. But other than that, it's found upon.

It's selfish. No, it's not. It's not, really? Because if you don't take care of yourself, nobody else will. And you can't be the best version of yourself. You can't be the best dad. You can't be the best spouse. You can't be the best employer, construction, whatever you work or job you have, you can't do that if you don't take care of yourself.

And so self-care is a priority. It's an a task. It has to happen first and not after. It's not an afterthought, you know. And to make that shift in thinking and prioritizing, you know, quite often it takes time. But eventually my clients get it. We go, oh my gosh, what a change. Yeah, and I mean, no doubt.

It's kind of, kind of sounds like you're talking directly to me, Christoph. Yeah, especially with the selfishness thing. Like, I've always, you know, I grew up with a father that I admire and respect, and he showed me selflessness. But I also kind of have ignored things of my past where I just like think, like, if I did that, that would be selfish. if I pursue this hobby, you know, that means I'm taking away from X, Y, and Z. And so I would just scrap it. I would just be like, that's, you know, for a retirement or another time, right? But you're right.

I mean, in looking back, I go like, oh, crap, you know, I was actually hurting my loved ones in the process because, you know, I thought it was selfish, but it was actually, it wasn't. And I'm sure there's a fine line, right? there's a certain fine line where you cross over and you're like oh you're spending a lot of time of the hobby so that that would be the balance that you need to strike there yes yes so i mean of course if you you know six hours a day you would you do that and maybe two hours a day you work on your business okay yeah no you're absolutely right you're right it's that yeah yeah okay well i want to take a deeper dive in these uh these six areas so we already talked about on their money health, relationships, self-improvement, time management, and higher power or spirituality.

So let's start with the first one, the money one, which ends up being, you know, maybe the biggest argument that you would have with a partnership or with a spouse is the money aspect. So how do we strike balance with that? So you can always make more money. You can never make more time. You know, those two are intimately interconnected. Warren Buffett says it preferably. I can buy anything in the world I want except time.

So time is money. You hear it all the time, but it's actually not correct. So to give an example, for instance, if a lot of people sometimes do other people's work, that's the key component, too, for my clients, they have to put a big D on their computer, which stands for delegate. everything that has to get done, yes, you as the boss, the business zone, you have to make sure that things get done. But don't do the things that can't be done by somebody else. So who on your team can do it?

If nobody on your team or who is working with you can do it, can you outsource it to an expert in the industry? Yeah. Because usually when we do something like that, we're losing both time and money. Right. Let's say I use a silly example, you know, doing your own books. Well, if you're not a bookkeeper, you may make mistakes. You probably don't like to do it, and it probably takes a heck of a lot longer. Yeah.

All right. So let's say you spend two or three hours a week to do your books. Those three hours are gone. During those three hours, you can't do what only you can do. Right. So you, and let's say you can hire a bookkeeper for 25, 30 bucks. an hour, your value is the book, that's a business owner, is a couple hundred dollars or more an hour. Right.

So right there, you lose money and time. Right. Okay. Right. So that's a way to look at how you run your business. So if you run your business more efficiently, effectively, you actually get to do more of the things that only you can do because you make sure all the other stuff, the tedious, time-consuming stuff gets done by somebody else at a lower scale. knowing that that gets all done frees you up. It gives you energy and you,

I'm doing the stuff I want to do and I'm good at. Well, guess what? That energizes you. Right. Plus, you see the business growth. So you focus on the things that you need to focus on as the business owner and get that the other stuff taken care of by others. So that leads to more money, to saving time, making more money.

And so to see that connection is critically important. Right, right. No, that makes total sense. And you talk about in the money subject, you also talk about, you know, staff motivation and retention and construction has a tremendous problem with that. Like we tend to, you know, everything's monetized, right? Everything is lack of loyalty because every position is like a commodity. It's commoditized.

So it's like, you know, you've skipped that step of creating loyalty with your staff. So how do we create more motivation and retention for our team? Okay. So there's two different leadership. Well, there's more than that, but the two different leadership styles. One is called the multiplier and the other is called the diminisher. The multiplier is, hey guys, listen, the goal for this year is for us to do, boom. We want to do this, this, this, this.

And it's a goal that's really outrageous and just a touch out of reach, right? Yeah. So, guys, how can we make this happen? Whoa, hold on a second. you asking me, the boss, the boss asks me, little Joe? Really? Seriously? Wow.

So all of a sudden, you have five, six, ten people put the heads together. And they feel like you actually want to hear what they have to say. Right. That is energizing. And plus, my idea. is my one idea. If I have 10 people with other ideas, all of a sudden, oh,

gee, yeah, great idea. I never thought of that. Right, right. But that's the other part of it. But what it does to the morale is unbelievable. I mean, the productivity is 150, 200%. Yeah. The other approach is to diminish them

where they basically is a dictator. Okay. Everybody sits back and waits for the boss to tell them what to do. they're going to do exactly what the boss tells them to do. No more, no, unless that's it. They don't think, you know, because the boss is going to hear what I think. Right.

He's not interested in my opinion. But activity down to 75%. Yeah, so true, right? So true. Do you hear your clients introduce like any sort of like, you know, profit sharing or money motivation in there, in their techniques? I talked to him about that. I asked him to think creatively.

How can you reward your employees for good performance? So it goes into the whole idea of job performance reviews. I don't have time for that. I'm sorry, you know, we've got to make time for that. If they know, hey, I just got the performance review. My boss is happy with what I do. You know, 80% of what I do, he's happy and he loves what I do. And then he showed me too, you can improve here and here.

Yeah, that's true. That is true. And whenever you do a performance review, you always focus on the positive first. Always. Yeah. You know. But what we do, just like our society, boom, focus on a negative. Yeah.

There's also a way to do a self-evaluation where they look at their own performance. How do you feel? How do you think you're performing? you know. The other part too is share the mission. What is the mission of your company? What's the mission of your business? What is it that you that drives you?

They need to understand the mission. So when they're out there, they can communicate, hey, this is what our company is all about. We are about that, that, that. And I'm here to make sure it happens. So once they're all on board, you know, they're all working together. together as a team, yes, the owner is the leader. But if the leader recognizes and truly it shows appreciation for every single person on his team and values their, it's a game changer. Yeah. Yeah, that empowerment, we've struggled with that, you know, typically

for my management style, just because there's a lot of ego involved, you know, and sometimes these owners are kind of a my way or the highway kind of mentality. and, you know, they never learned it, right? They never went to business school. They never took a class with you. They just, like, they've been doing the same thing for the last 30 years, and I'll be damned if I'm changing now, you know what I mean? Like, so now that we have some younger generation taking these leadership roles,

I mean, I'm hopeful that more empowerment takes place because, like I said, there's a lot of lack of loyalty because that staff meeting is a, is a one person talking and okay everybody go you know and it's just like who i mean it's just not productive like you said it's just you know they they don't know it but it's just not productive yeah well it's you know my social media person she does this post a couple times um the the biggest reason why business owners fail is ego and fear yeah you know so if a leader is are not able to deposit his or her ego at the door, then that's exactly what you're going to see.

I'm not going to change. Well, okay. You're going to do the same thing for 30 years and you're not going to change. Sure, that's your choice. But to do the same things over and over again and expecting different results, we all know what that is. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, totally. Yeah, I wanted to do a little bit more of a deeper dive on the health, the second category of health. I know we talked a little bit about it. Sure. So not only is health important, obviously, in life and in business, but do you ever do any of your clients ever do something as a staff to help improve this? Because I know that health is a very personal thing and it can be a very offensive thing, right? So how do we go about encouraging healthy lifestyle as a staff?

because another problem we have in construction is that we tend to be pretty heavy drinkers. We go to conferences, we get loud and wild and crazy, and it's just kind of a, it's kind of accepted and normal kind of in our industry. So how do we promote a healthy lifestyle? Yes, that's a very good point. I think because it's, as you said, it's very personal, you know. there's you know there's a

encouragement for them to you know go to the gym a couple times a week or you know or you know let's say in a staff meeting you can talk about it what is it that you do for you to keep yourself healthy

okay I did this what about you you did this okay I did this so it's sharing and talking about it you know, and then, you know, so you share what it is you do and how it affects your health and how it improves your health. Right, right. This way it's not dictatorial, it's invitational. Now, if you want, you can get into contests. Okay, so, hey, you know, anybody who goes to the gym three times a week for at least an hour, you know,

They can somehow prove it. You know, they get a, you know, free staff lunch or they get a whatever. Right. They get a ticket to a movie theater or things like that. So it's just kind of getting creative. You know, one of the things I talked to my clients about, too, you know, develop a morning routine for yourself. So a lot of my clients, they hit the snooze button 20 times and then, oh, geez, I got out. You know, and then the rush starts for the day.

Sure. You know, so I said, what would you like your morning to look like? And then they talk about it, you know, and I share what my morning looks like. And then I said, okay, so how can we make this a reality? Because if you have the morning routine that sets you up, that you need and want, you're going to be a better, again, better person, better leader,

better performer, you know, you're just a different person than when you rush from one thing to the next. So these are all things just to, all of that, all I'm saying is it has to be invitational. If people are into contests, yeah, then you could do that, you know.

So whoever spends more time in the gym this week, who has the most time this week, you know both right yeah something to motivate it and to to show that it's it's important and and that obviously it's important to to their productivity in their life as well right i mean you can't be who god designed you to be without you kind of feeling comfortable in your skin and being able to do what you need to do to perform a job and to perform life at a normal level um so do you do you feel that health is usually before a lot of the other categories, you know what I mean? Like, or is like, do we need to fix some of the other categories and then fix health? Because

sometimes I see it the other way where someone improves their health and then sure is shit. The other four things go right in line with it. Like they, so it's almost like it helps, obviously their productivity. It helps their relationships at home, you know. So I mean, how do you coach that, I guess? Well, part of it is, you know, we're now in our initial conversation, you know, I want to find out what their biggest pain points are. We'll address those first, you know. Okay. But the overarching component is time management.

That kind of dictates everything. So, and those are the things that most of my clients struggle with, and that's the skill set that we work on to improve. And so part of that is, okay. We're going to block time for your gym or for yoga or to go for a swim or whatever it is that you want. Each client is different. So if you love to swim, do you swim? No. Why not?

No, I don't have time. Well, it's never on your calendar, right? No. Okay. So get up in the morning, you know, go swim for an hour. Right. Shower, go to work. Right.

Or go for a run. You know, go to gym. pump weights, yoga, meditation, you know, riding a bike, whatever it is, you know. And then it means you block, you know, time on the calendar for that. It is reserved for you. Like to call Jung said, it's an appointment with myself. For him, it was sitting in the backyard, then his feet in the water. Great.

Yeah. For other people, it's an hour of yoga. One of my clients needs her massage. She says, you know, once she's had a massage, you know, like, okay, block time for that. Yeah. You know, so that's the whole idea of time blocking. That's one of the things we talk about.

And not to blow that stuff off, you know, which is mostly what we do. You know, if something gets hectic or we get busy, that's what we drop. Right. Yeah, the health one tends to be the one. I mean, I know for me personally, it's like, you know, that will be the last in line, right? If I have time, I like to get a workout. But I have never put a workout on my calendar not one time. But I mean, but that's probably very common, right?

Like most people put on things on the calendar that they have to do that day. And they don't put on the things that they should do or want to do that day. I guess that's the tricky part, right? Yes. That's the prioritizing, you know, and that's, we do a lot of work on that, is, you know, prioritizing. And yeah, yep, and you're right, you know, we, stuff again on the calendar is client appointments, you know, meeting clients. Right. But other than that, usually it's not, you know, and that's one thing I work with my clients who change that.

Yeah, I mean, while we're on the subject of the time management piece, since that is, That is such a big struggle for so many of this. Let's continue down that. So, you know, obviously the time blocking is one of them. Do you encourage your clients to block out things for each of those categories, meaning like, you know, spiritual and relationships? Do you encourage even the blocking out things with your spouse? You know, like, is it pretty much everything?

Yep. Okay. Yeah. So, yes, if you're in a committed relationship, you want to nurture that relationship. Yeah. Because you don't want to look at your spouse 10 years later and say, oh, have we met? You know, and that's easy to do because you usually both have a career. That's usually the case.

There's the kids, you know, and they all take up all that time. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, oh, what about us? You know, that's kind of like what my wife and I experienced. Okay. And then we get short-tempered, you know, and the kids don't deserve parents who are stressed out. Because when we stress out, we don't really, you know, we're not the best version of ourselves. Nobody wants to be around us.

Correct, correct. So I think part of that time blocking and time management piece is kind of what you talked about earlier, is that you need to have someone or a staff of people that you can delegate to, right? And I've struggled with this because I lost a key employee this last year, and I am struggling with, I don't have people that I used to have to delegate things too. And so I'm on the search for that. So obviously in your client relationships, you have to actually have those tough conversations about, you know, you may need to hire somebody or you may need,

some personal assistance in this area, in this area, because we only have a certain amount of hours in the day. And unfortunately, our careers do take up a big chunk of that. So, delegation to me is a struggle, especially right now. So how do you help people with that? Yeah, so that's, you're absolutely right. You know, you need to hire, but I don't have time to hire. Right. You know, because hiring somebody is up that takes a lot of work. I'm working with a client on this right now. She currently does two people's jobs. You know, I'm saying, come on. You can't continue to do it that way. You know, you're going to burn yourself out. And so that's where time has future value. Yes, you know that you need to hire and that takes time. You've got to find the right

person. You got to interview and then even once you find the right person and you got to train. I don't have time for that. But if you don't make time for it, you're going to be in the same position three, six months, 12 months down the row. Totally. Yeah. And so that's where then maybe you cut back on certain items

right now and focus on that because that has top priority because you know once I have that that person again to do this, this and this, boom, the sky's the limit. My business is going to go bz-bz, you know?

And two, sometimes, you know, hey, I'd love to do this addition to your house. I'm currently, you know, seven months out, eight months out. With that time frame, work for you. No, no, I've got to have it right now. Okay, sorry. Yeah.

No, because you're so good, Jeremy, I'm willing to wait for you. Yeah. All right, awesome. All right. Let's, you know. And that's the part, too, is, we think we need to jump. When the client says jump, we say how high.

Right. Now, there's abundance mindset or, you know, or the scarcity mindset. Yes, yes. You know, and we have to decide in which one mindset we want to operate. Right. So who is my mind? ideal client everybody and a lot of well you probably ahead of the game but

even for a lot of business it is that yeah I'm gonna lose business now and then when they work with the wrong person they they just use up all their time right but they really hardly you know in the end get nothing you know the 80-20 rule right right yeah No doubt. I mean, it's a real struggle. And then back to that, back to the relationship piece a little bit too, because, you know, as, as my viewers know, I'm a vulnerable guy. I've struggled with the relationship aspect. I'll give you an idea of my vacations. My vacations always come with a laptop in tow. And they always pretty much start with me checking in on work while everyone's sleeping, which I can justify because they're still sleeping. But the relationship part is very hard for me because it's hard for me to turn off my business. And when you're an owner, it feels like it's always on. And the phone doesn't stop ringing and the emails don't stop coming.

So how do you advise your clients to shut it off sometimes? Well, I think you have two choices. You can either shut off or not. And if you don't, you know what happens to you. Yeah. You know, there's no, and it's not healthy. So, ideally, you have a partner or a manager or somebody that when you're gone, he or she, you know, can run the show for you. Right.

You know, if you all by yourself and you got nobody, then I would say start looking for somebody else. so that again it goes to what you were saying about the hiring you know so when you're on vacation that you can go and you can unplug you know and you you let the staff know under no circumstances are you just calling me yeah unless well you give them the parameters you know this or this or this then fine but outside of that you make the decision you're all smart people, you've been in the business long enough, you understand the business, boom, go do it. Right.

What that does too, it goes to that what we talked about earlier about that employee empowerment and retention. Right. Oh, Jeremy's on vacation. He trusts me to make the right decision. Right. Whoa. Wow.

Yeah. See by that, you know, that is extremely empowering. And they want to make sure that they don't disappoint Jeremy because he put his trust in me. I want to make sure I do not disappoint him. Right. Yeah, so true. I mean, on the flip side, like, you know, relationships with my staff has never been a struggle because I do care about them personally.

And I think as an industry, we struggle with obviously vulnerability, one of them. But talking about people's actual lives has been a struggle for a lot of managers in our industry because they're kind of used to put your head down, do your work. You know, don't necessarily pat people on the back too much because you don't want them to get too, like, comfortable, right? You just, if they're doing good, let them keep doing good. But you don't really reward people. You don't ask about their lives. many times you don't even know if they're married or have kids or what you do for fun. It's just so much work.

And everyone feels like there's so much work coming at us that you tend to skip the step of asking about people's lives. So how do we get better at this? Obviously, it starts in the staff meeting. It starts from the top down, right? You have to do it or no one else is going to do it. Yeah. For instance, you know, if you have a once a quarter or if that's too much, much twice a year, you have a fun staff getaway. You know, you go out for dinner or you go

golfing or you go whatever, you know, and during that time, you just shoot the breeze. You're just time, you know. So you can say, hey, we're not going to talk shop, okay? That's the only rule. We're going to just have it, enjoy each other, each other's company, and whatever, you know, or you can do one where it's a combination thereof, you know, so we're going to talk. We're going to talk about business first for a couple hours. Yeah. We're going to have lunch, then we're going to go play golf in the afternoon or whatever.

Right. And it's building a bond, you know, with folks. Yeah. You know. And yes, you talked about relationships. Yes, I talk to the people who are married all the time. Hey, you have a date night once a week? You're like, oh, what?

No. Okay. Let's start with once a month, okay? Yeah. Tell the babysitting you show up Friday at 6 o'clock on my house. Right, right. And, you know, if it's not in here, it doesn't happen. Yeah, you're so true.

It's so right. You just have to block it in, right? And then I wanted to talk a little bit about the self-improvement aspect because we talked about it earlier. This is, for our industry, we have a low barrier of entry, right? You don't need to have a degree to be a business owner. You can go take your contractor's license. And within six months, you could have a shop if you really wanted to.

And you're an owner. And now you're an owner and a manager. And you don't have necessarily experience in these ways. So how do you go about coaching people to improve continuously? Because there's a tendency to once you get started, you get busy that, you know, I'll do that. conference or all do that coaching or that training another time but that another time does doesn't happen like a year goes by five years will buy and you go like I haven't done jack to improve my managerial or leadership skills we need in our industry how do you go about

coaching people on it it's not on here right you know that's really what it's about you No, it's like the one thing that I work with my clients on is really building a schedule and a plan. When we briefly talked, you know, the first count, there's three pillars to my coaching. The first one is clear. Gotta clearly know where you're going to go. Right. So that means the whole idea of goal setting, and we set goals, smart goals in those categories. Yeah.

Once we know where we want to go, we've got to create an action plan. And third, you know, the skill set that we have to improve. on and most of my client skills that they need to improve on is around time management. So those are the three pillars on which my coaching practice stands.

And nothing happens if you don't block time for it. If you don't set time for it, set aside time for it. And then once you're okay, I need to learn more about X. Okay, where can you do that? Right.

When is your next course? Right. Go sign up. So, you know, between now and our next call, I'd like you to tell me when the next course starts, you know, and that you have registered for it. Your homework is to register for that course by the time we meet again. Yeah. You know? Right.

And then accountability, right? And then holding that person accountable, that's the key aspect that, you know, we all need as leaders. for sure. I wanted to touch on this last one before we ran out of time, but, you know, obviously, you know, we can all argue this may be the most important topic, and that's higher power. I know that a lot of people have different, quote, organized religions, or maybe even it's more on the spiritual side of life. But how do you go about coaching when we all have so many different religious and spiritual backgrounds? Well, you know, if people tell me that God is important in their lives, then I know.

Then I say, okay. If that's the case, you know, do you set time aside to commune or be with God, you know, whatever that form that takes? Is it prayer? It's in meditation. Is it reading scripture? Is it whatever it is? If they don't talk about it, you know, at some point it comes up. You know, I mean, I had a person she said that she was.

an atheist, but she called her her time that she put aside for herself, her Zen time. You know? You know, so again, it goes all into the time block. What is it that feeds your spiritually? What it feeds your, you know, and whatever that is, okay, then let's make sure that that happens in your time, in your day. And then let's, you know, put it down the ground. Yeah, yeah, no doubt.

And, you know, as we wrap up here, if someone was to go about wanting to meet with you, Christoph, and talk more about this Balance 6 program, obviously they just need you. What's best email to you to just get on your calendar and just basically just have a one-on-one, right? Yeah, they can go to my website, Balance6.biz. And there's a link there where they can schedule an assessment. And just click on that. and that takes you to my calendar and you can book it. Okay, great.

There's no strings attached. There's nothing. There's no cost to that. It's just a chance for me to learn what it is you're looking for. And then at the end of the call, if you want to work with me, great. If not, that's fine too. Okay. Great.

And then also you were saying that you have a kind of a one-pageer, especially designed for the construction industry that may be helpful for a lot of us, business owners. And would that be best for them to email you for that? that? Correct. Yes. Just send me an email and say, hey, I'd like a copy of that. And yeah. Okay. And your email's running the website then? Yes. Okay. Or it's life at balance six stuff. Okay. Okay. Got it. I appreciate you being here, Christoph. I know that you have seen a lot of us struggle through these topics and we appreciate your insights and I look forward to staying

and touch with you. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. I'd love to help. Yeah. Thanks for some. All right. All right. Thanks again, guys, for another great show on construction executives live. I'll keep you posted on our next event next month. I still have a couple.

I'm trying to iron out some of the details. If you could to be included in all of the communication for U.S. Construction Zone, if you go to the homepage, we have a newsletter sign up right on the homepage. If you could add your name there and email, that would be. be helpful that way you are in touch with the new programs and new platform updates and things of that nature. Also, if you have any subjects that you want me to touch on, please send me an email, Jeremy, at usconstruction zone.com or if you have a great speaker in mind, please let me know. As you know, I'm really after more of these difficult subjects, you know, things that really

matter both professionally and personally. So I'll be thinking about that, whether that's, you know, whether that's mental health or whether that is some sort of personal development thing that you think that we need work on as an industry. Please do let me know. And thanks again for the team at build12.com for their sponsorship. We appreciate their support as we continue to do these monthly live shows. So thanks again for being here. And we will We'll see you next month. Bye. You've been listening to In The Zone and Construction Executives Live with Jeremy Owens.

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