29: Winners Master Time

Chris Suarez: [00:00:00] [00:00:00]

Welcome back to the experience growth podcast today. We are sharing an episode which is a little bit different. We're going to flip the script if you will and share a interview that I did with my good friends over at the wind, make, give podcast if you are not a subscriber absolutely do so.

We recently sat down to talk about one of my favorite topics and that is the topic of time. We. We have a conversation around the importance and the practical and tactical ways that we can master time, or at least begin our journey of mastering time. And what I wanted to share before we jump in is that this time mastery has been a focus of mine for probably the last four or five years.

I wrote a class called time mastery. And that was because I believe that if we win on the playing field of time, then we will win the six pillars. Of an experiential life that the premise and platform of this entire podcast see if we're mastering time, we're able to have time to be able to focus on our health and our wealth and our careers and our personal development or spirituality.

Clearly our relationships will improve. And so what I wanted to do for our audience here at experience growth is share that podcast, share that interview and give us an opportunity to think differently and change our perspective. On time itself.

 Ben Kinney: [00:01:31] welcome to the wind. Make, give podcast, season two, it's all about winning. This is Ben Kenny joined today with Chad Hymes and Bob Stewart. We are right in the middle of the traits of a winter series, Chad. And today we are talking about purposely using. Time is that right? Absolutely. Then now, Bob, we are going to interview a gentleman today.

What's his name? Chris Suarez. Who is, uh, one, one of our partners in business, but two just a phenomenal human. He is a great business owner, a great investor leader, a phenomenal writer, uh, more than anything. He's, he's a great dad and a great husband and a great, great human. I really, really hope that you all just truly enjoy Chris as he walks through how to purposefully use 

Chad Hyams: [00:02:35] time.

Bob. This is a, an interesting twist for us because in the traits of a winner series where we are on the beginning of the week, we're talking about one of the traits of a winner and it's been, you it's been me. And it's been been on those conversations. We've been saving the interviews for the end of the week.

Yeah. But we're doing it a little bit differently today. Today we booted Ben. Yeah. I went out and got a master. Of purposefully using time. Hold on, hold on. 

Bob Stewart: [00:03:11] We didn't boot him when we, when we were setting your screaming. Well, no, Ben said, Hey, if we want to talk about time, the guy to talk about time is my partner, Chris.

He he's mastered time even far in exceeding how Ben has. So he thought it'd be a good idea. If we brought an actual master, somebody that's done it already, 

Chad Hyams: [00:03:30] instead of us setting us up for next week's topic, which we don't want to give away of what. We're talking about, as you mentioned a master here now, here's the thing, it's more fun.

If we say we booted Ben, come on, we loaded them on mob. Not here. We can say these things we upgraded. All right. So we went out and we got a guy who has his own podcast, a guy who is a master of using time as we have the conversation today. And we want to welcome to the conversation, our friend, and hopefully your friend, Chris Suarez.

Welcome Chris. 

Chris Suarez: [00:04:01] Well, thanks for having me. I think, um, I think I'd rather be known as the guy that booted Ben, so, 

Chad Hyams: [00:04:06] uh, I'll go. There you go. All right. So it's two against one. Bob. We win. I bet 

Bob Stewart: [00:04:12] I can 

Chad Hyams: [00:04:12] feed. All right. So Chris, we are going through the traits of a winter series and we have been talking to ourselves about the topics and then talking to experts in the industry.

And like Bob just said, as soon as we got to trait number five, which was purposefully using time. Ben immediately said, Hey, we got to get Chris on for this episode. Now we still have our interview episode coming at the end of the week. And folks you'll have to wait until the end. When I tease you at who it's going to be.

We're going to talk to yep. Ben thought we should bring you on for this conversation. Introduce yourself to our audience because maybe everyone doesn't know. Chris, who are you and why are we talking to you today on this topic? 

Chris Suarez: [00:04:53] Yeah. Uh, so, um, I'm Chris. Um, I have, uh, I've been in the real estate industry for about [00:05:00] 20 years, so two decades.

Um, and the reality is I run multiple businesses within that industry. All sort of pointed towards true north, which I think, um, goes to a mean mastering time around a topic. Um, but outside of that, uh, I am a father. I have two little girls, um, 10 years old and 13. Um, that'll teach you to master time real fast.

Uh, I have a phenomenal wife, um, and, uh, and we've recently actually moved out of town, um, onto a small vineyard in farm. Uh, where I spend some of my free time, um, at which we've created by mastering the time when I'm not doing that. So, um, that's kind of a snapshot of who I am. I'm originally from the east coast.

I think that that definitely plays into, um, understanding time and actually wanting to change my perspective around time being born and raised and, and running businesses out there and, and live in, uh, for the most, most of my time, I'm living in Portland, Oregon. 

Chad Hyams: [00:06:02] All right now. That's obviously why I like Chris as well.

I'm an east coast guy relocated out here to the much more relaxed west coast. So we have that. And now, Chris, you also have your own podcast, so let's give you a little plug right here. Let everybody know how can they check out your podcast if they like what you have to say today? Yeah. 

Chris Suarez: [00:06:20] Um, that's easily downloadable, right?

Anywhere you go. Uh, it's called experience growth. Um, and, and the whole premise of that actually is, um, as I, as I began to look at what was most important, um, in, in life, um, I realized that there was these, these pillars, um, that contributed to, uh, living experientially. Time is sort of the, the underlying foundation of all those pillars.

Um, if we're going to focus on our wealth, we're going to focus on our health. If we're going to focus on our spirituality or business or right. Relationships, we need time to do that. So, um, yeah. Just, just check us out, download experience. Correct. All 

Chad Hyams: [00:06:59] right. Let's get into it. Talk to us and our audience about purposefully using time.

What does that even mean to you? When I just throw that phrase at you? 

Chris Suarez: [00:07:10] Um, I think, I think it comes down to choice. Um, I think so often we believe that, um, our time is, is dictated by things that come up, things that we have to do. Um, other people's, uh, false emergencies become our priorities. So for me, Uh, when it comes down to mastery of time, it, it, it really starts with me deciding us, deciding a group, deciding that we're going to choose, um, what we're doing on a, on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, on a weekly basis, monthly basis, yearly basis.

Um, so much of it comes down to taking back, um, control of choices. 

Chad Hyams: [00:07:53] Do I? 

Bob Stewart: [00:07:54] Okay, so, so. I want to go to one particular thing you just said there are other people's emergencies, because I think a lot of us live in a world, Chris, where especially today, right. We're connected, right. If somebody got an emergency, they emailed us and we don't respond.

And all of a sudden it's the Facebook message. It's the text message like. 

Chris Suarez: [00:08:12] How do you, let's just start there. How 

Bob Stewart: [00:08:15] do you deal with that? Because you're, you're a guy that's that you're in a leadership position. You've got a lot of people that look to you for help for answers for. So, I mean, I'm assuming you're constantly and dated with other people's, you know, false emergencies in there and them trying to make their emergency your priority.

Like, let's start there. How do we deal with 

Chris Suarez: [00:08:34] that? Yeah. Um, one understanding what priorities are, uh, right. Like what, what is my priority for the day, for the week, for the month? Like really, what am I here to do? How do I, how do I provide value to other people? I think for many of us that struggle, um, it starts because we are pleasers.

Like I love helping people, right. I, I actually do get a kick out of pleasing other people. And because of that, if I'm not careful, Like anything that you need, I'll dive and catch and jump and raise my hand and I'll do it. Um, and, and we all need that. Like, we all need to be able to get value by helping other people.

It's just, I needed to create these. Guardrails or boundaries of when is my time to help such that an immediate text, right? Or, or a text doesn't demand, an immediate response. And I think as, as, as you say, you know, as all these sort of avenues of communication became more and more popular, Like it actually is us the human race, like looking for immediate response, it was a phone call and a message.

Then it was an email and a response. Then it was, then it was a text and now it's almost like we expect things to happen faster and faster and faster. Um, and some of us set the set, the standard that as soon as you text. I'll get back to you. So for me, um, it's, it's [00:10:00] making sure that I have time in my world where I can please other people.

Um, but understanding that, uh, that can't be, uh, an instant gratification, uh, response. Um, it, it has boundaries. 

Chad Hyams: [00:10:15] Okay. So we want to make sure that we are purposefully using time. And I got to believe. I mean, I'm not looking over your shoulder. I I've never followed you for a day to see what you do it. I've got to believe though, you lay out a calendar for yourself that you plan.

Uh, so that you can purposefully use time. So let's talk a little bit about that for everybody. Let's give them the short version. Chris, when do you plan your calendar? How far in advance do you plan your calendar? How much of your client calendar do you book up? Talk to us a little bit about some tips and tricks that our audience could put into play today.

To become better people when it comes to using their 

Chris Suarez: [00:10:54] time. Yeah. This is where, this is where I lose some people. Um, because, because when I, when I talk about what my schedule looks like, um, many times people, people believe that it's boring. And, and, and I say that because my Mondays look the same every Monday, my Tuesdays look the same every Tuesday, my Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays pretty much look the same every day.

Wednesday Thursday, Friday, like my weekends, they look the same. So from day to day, like I might be doing something different. However, if I look at my Tuesday through the year, Like I assure you, they all look the same. My Wednesdays look the same. So I begin that calendar at the beginning of the year, based on what I need to accomplish that year and what I need to accomplish in business, but also what I'm working on personally or what I believe my family needs for me this year.

And, and I don't really deviate from that schedule. If you look at my Google calendar down the weeks, the days look the same. Um, in that, in that column, if that makes sense. 

Chad Hyams: [00:12:01] Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I really want to dive into that a lot more yet, Chris, we were not interviewing you at this time last week.

So it happens to be Wednesday while we're recording this yet. Last Wednesday, we weren't interviewing you next Wednesday. We're not interviewing you yet here. You're telling me that every day looks the same. You must have some flexibility in there to be able to now have scheduled this opportunity with us.

Chris Suarez: [00:12:24] Yes. I think you used a word right at the end that, that, that fits into my schedule. So last Wednesday, next Wednesday, this Wednesday, I have a block in my afternoon. That is, that is opportunity based on relationships, um, for the future. And so for me, when someone reaches out and says, Hey, can, can you schedule some time?

We always need those blocks because that will happen. And, and there are certain days or certain afternoons where I have the blocks, this happens to be one of them. So it's a way for me to build my relationship with you guys and your audience. And so that's why it fits in. I think we have to be cheerful.

Like I did it the wrong way early where I said, oh, I'm going to block my calendar. I'm going to have every minute and every hour blocked. And honestly, I, you wake up one day and say, I hate it. Yes. Like, you know, I live a fairly structured slash disciplined life, but if every minute of every day is blocked, we'll tap out real fast.

Chad Hyams: [00:13:20] That's interesting you say that. Cause I actually block every minute of every day because it allows me not to then have to think about it. Now I do what you did. I have blocks on my calendar that are open for opportunity. So it's blocked that says, Hey, when I'm going to interview somebody, I now know I've got these three times during the week to maybe fit them into.

But otherwise from when I wake up to, when I go to sleep, my calendar tells me what I should be doing it doesn't tell me what movie to watch that Friday night, but it tells me that I'm going to relax with my wife and we're going to watch a movie because that's our routine. And that's one of the beauties about purposeful using time.

There's no right answer. Can we agree on that? 

Chris Suarez: [00:13:56] Yeah, I believe so. The only thing I'll add to that calendar is for me, um, as I began to study time and look at people that truly were masters off from master time, way better than I do. Right. Um, they, they consistently had white space blocked into their calendar.

I like Jeff Weiner of, uh, right. Says that one of the, one of the most like busiest CEOs of our time has, has 30 minute blocks, six 30 minute blocks a day. Um, for white space and, and what he said in an interview recently, he said that white space allows me to read. Revisit what just happened in my last appointment.

Sometimes we go from appointment to appointment, to appointment and some of them we win and some of them we lose, but we don't have that time to reflect on why we want or why we lost. And so that white space, I didn't have that in my calendar. And a couple years ago, when. When I, when I heard that interview, I said, gosh, I need to build in some white space.

And then I went to everyone in our organization. I said, you need to build in some white space. Otherwise we're going to actually progress [00:15:00] lower because we don't have that time to reflect on where we're winning and where we're losing. 

Chad Hyams: [00:15:04] I love this and folks forget Bob's here, Chris and I are now just going to keep debating this for a while for all of you.

Wouldn't you agree? I could say that. That means he's actually scheduled. Six 30 minute reflection blocks a hundred percent. Yes. Right. Okay. So, and that's folks, I want everyone to hear this. He leaves it as white space and doesn't put anything yet. He knows what it's for. I always fear that when I have white space on my calendar, someone like Bob or Ben, or someone's going to just steal that time and I'm not gonna be able to use it for what I would like to.

So that's why I block it out. And now I know that it's reflection time after an appointment opportunity. Yeah, that's 

Chris Suarez: [00:15:42] that's right. I think, you know, the, the, the interesting, um, one of the interesting things I found as I was just researching time and, and really taking back time and making decisions around our time was, um, was actually the, the Latin root word of decide is that, that CID that said I've shared this with a lot of people, but yeah.

See, it actually means to cut or to kill. So if we're deciding something in our time, it ultimately means we're cutting or killing something, right? Pesticide, homicide, scissors, all those words have that scissor Sid. And that means if we're deciding our calendar, if we're deciding our schedule, we're getting rid of something something's getting caught and we have to make sure it isn't that white space.

Chad Hyams: [00:16:26] Okay. 

Bob Stewart: [00:16:26] So, I mean, Chris, you, you clearly have a lot of demands on your time. How do you decide what gets cut like or how do you decide, you know, Ben talks all the time about, you know, every, every yes. Must be validated by a thousand nos or whatever it is, right? Like, how do you decide who gets the yes. And gets on that calendar and who gets, uh, gets, who gets cut?

Chris Suarez: [00:16:48] Hmm. I think it depends on, on, um, I run multiple businesses. And interestingly enough, my hat that I put on for those multiple businesses I'm needed in different, in, in different avenues, um, for those businesses, uh, if, if it's a business hour, if it's a business day and on Monday, I'm working on this business or Wednesday I'm working on that business.

Um, I have to, I have to make a very clear decision on whether or not. I am doing my job and moving the business forward by saying yes, to this person, to this, to this assignment, to this request for time. Like, and I take that pretty seriously. Like I really look around and I say, gosh, I, I worked for a lot of people and I'm good with that.

I am good. I'm good with mentally realizing that right in my, in my, in the real estate business, I have 50 partners right now. I work for them. And so if I say yes to someone else that hasn't committed their business to me and me to them that I'm actually, I'm not doing my job. Like I'm not living up to my obligation or promise to them.

So I think because I, I try to live in a real congruent way by, by delivering on the promises, I asked myself, is this going to affect a promise that I've made to someone at the beginning of the year? Um, and if it is, am I willing to break it? 

Chad Hyams: [00:18:12] Interesting. All right. So things happen, right? We can say that in multiple ways and I'll keep it clean when I just say the things happen, right?

It's going to impact your calendar. It's going to impact your schedule. Something's going to come up. How do you deal with those things that are unscheduled? So that you're still purposefully using time, even though, Hey, you got to deal with the flat tire right now. You gotta deal with the daughter who is sick right now.

You got to deal with the rainstorm that took down one of the trees in the vineyard area or something like, but how do you still purposefully make sure you're using time while also dealing with the world as it shows 

Chris Suarez: [00:18:51] up. I think that comes down to not being inflexible. Right. And, and, and I'm, I come from a long line of stubborn.

Human beings. Like I I'm like fourth generation stubborn. And, and because of that, um, that is a quality trait of mine is I like things to go a certain way. I like things to be in there, certain place. I like, like, I'm just that guy. Um, that has been a challenge. Uh, right. Just transparently. It's always a challenge when, when something unexpected happens.

Um, some of the, some of the work that I did a few years back with the behavioral psychologist really centered around this concept of learned helplessness. That over time, we actually, we actually have this learned helplessness. Martin Seligman did a lot of work with some German shepherds, uh, around, um, over time.

We believe that when something happens, something else has to happen. So for instance, um, he did a study with, with three groups of dogs. The dogs in the first group were placed in a harness and they were administered an electric shock. I'm sorry for all the dog lovers, but they were given a shock, but they were also given a lever.

They could press to make the [00:20:00] shock stop. The dogs and the second group replaced an identical harness identical box. They were given the same lever, but when they stepped on the lever, the shop didn't stop. That's that's the unfortunate right tier, uh, the, the third group of dogs were, they were just placing the hardest prey placed in a box.

They weren't given any shocks. They took those same three groups of dogs. And in the second experiment, They were placed in just a box where all they had to do was jump over a low divider. Right? On one side, they were put, put in the box. They were given the shock. And interestingly enough, the dogs that had been powerless in the first experiment never stepped over the box.

They just kept on getting shocked and shocked and shocked and shocked. Both other groups. They just jumped over, right? Whether the lever worked or whether they didn't get shocked before the minute they got shocked, they moved. How that relates to time is I believe we. Our, our society has created this learned helplessness when something comes up, like I can't do anything other than deal with it.

And, and we, we give away our power to make decisions on how to deal or how to restructure our day. Our stress level goes up. I think learned helplessness is the problem as to why people are not efficient or effective in their time when something comes up because they actually give away all their power around that inconvenience.

Instead of taking a step back making decisions and still saying, Hey, I'm still in control of my time. Although there's something else that needs to fit into my day and now I still need to move. What, what that took over to a different day, a different hour, a different week to still get that done.

Bob Stewart: [00:21:37] Interesting. You know, Ben, 

Chad Hyams: [00:21:38] how you got to talk? I don't want to talk to him right now. 

Bob Stewart: [00:21:43] It makes me in a moment. It makes me think of Ben. A lot of times, it's the leader in an organization that gives people the permission, Chris, like Ben Ben's always said, there's no emergencies in real estate. And like, I've lived by that.

It's given me this freedom to say like, look, I don't have to interrupt my day right now to help this thing. Even though that feels, I'm sure like a really big fire for that person who maybe is, has to learn helplessness in there. Right. But it's, um, I, I don't like I, I get to it and I'll find a place to fit it in.

Right. But there's no emergencies in that, that permission, I think from our leader around that, that concept of time and managing your time and realize you don't have to divert your energy every time somebody has some false emergency. I love that phrase by the way 

Chad Hyams: [00:22:31] you used earlier. 

Chris Suarez: [00:22:32] You know, it's interesting.

Bob is, is Martin Seligman said two things show up. If we're practicing, learned helplessness, like sometimes it slips into our world and we don't realize we're just showing up as helpless. Two things show up. Um, the first one is we check out and we stop trying because we believe we don't have any control.

And I think that's what a lot of people's schedules look like. Wow. We don't have any control. Like. We're we're dictated by whatever business we're in. You, you insert it in our world, real estate and the next person's right. Like it doesn't matter. We just say, this is the business we're in. We just deal with things as a comms.

So, so we tap out like the second one is he said, people become hyperactive. He said, they, they accept every opportunity that shows up. They throw themselves into every assignment, they tackle everything challenge. And honestly, he said, that's, that's a sign that you have learned helplessness as well, because you do not believe you can control what you do when you do it.

So we, we believe that we have to do everything. So whether you're the tap out, I can't handle this. Or whether you're the, Hey, you're always running down the hallway. You're always high energy and you're always dealing with some sort of like crazy nightmare. Like we know people like that, both of them are signs of learned helpless.

Hmm. 

Chad Hyams: [00:23:51] Interesting. Interesting. So Chris, when may give, we talk about health, wealth, leadership, and legacy, and we're focusing on obviously, traits of a winner right now. Winners, aren't only business success stories. Winners have a great family life or personal life, whatever their choices are they've made in that area.

How does this apply? To your personal world. Do you schedule your kids? Are you scheduling your wife on the calendar? How often are you on vacations? How do you make that stuff all work as well? When it comes to purposefully using time? 

Chris Suarez: [00:24:24] Yeah, I'll be honest. The only reason why I cared about time was, was because, um, I got to a place in my world where my personal life didn't seem like it was a priority.

And a lot 

Chad Hyams: [00:24:38] of people probably get there. And that might be that breaking point. Yeah. I 

Chris Suarez: [00:24:41] think sometimes we get there. Sometimes people tell us we're there. Um, in my case, someone told me I was there and I had to really take a step back and honestly reflect on that. Um, and I think it, as I started to do that, um, I looked at my dad, it, you know, my dad was a worker.

And, um, [00:25:00] he got to, I don't know. I, I should know how old he is, but he's, he's retired. He's in his late sixties. Right. But, um, he worked every day at Xerox was a copier repairman. And, um, he got to a place in his life where, uh, we wanted to go on vacation with him. I wanted to take them on vacation. We were going to go and spend a summer in Europe and we said, Hey, come, come with us, come with us.

And, uh, he said, no, right. All expenses paid be with the grandkids, spend some time with me. Uh, that was probably the least attractive. But, but he said no. And, and, and that was because. You know, his, he was having surgery on his knee and my mom was having surgery on her shoulder. And I realized that something's wrong with how we live guys, like something's wrong because we, we, we put all of our time into the front end of our lives to get to a place where we retire or knock stuff off our bucket list.

And, and then we actually no longer have the energy or health. And so for me, time management was this way to live backwards, to take the time that the 10 or 11 years that the, the average American puts into retirement and take those 11 years and intersperse them through the. Through the peak health years, right.

Which is typically our 40 years of work. So when you look at the average lifespan of a 78 year old person, unfortunately Americans live 78 years. We retire. The average age is 67. So when you do the math, I got 11 years at the end. And during our learning phase and our searching phase and our working phase in our earning peak phase, like we're just.

We're just like head down doing anything other than living. And so for, for myself and my family, I said no way, like that's a terrible ROI. I'm going to invest 40 years into work to get 10 years back later. Like that's a negative 75% ROI on my time. And I just tapped out, like I said, there's gotta be a better way.

And so, so we built our schedule. When you say, Hey, what does your world look like? I have time every week that is blocked off for family and kids. I have time every year where, where I'm disconnected and, and, you know, prior to COVID for the last six years, we've lived out of the country for three months out of the year.

And that was a way to just separate or change my environment and my working during that time. Yeah. Guys, I am you guys know well, yeah, I do. However, it was, it was a, is a way for me to reset and grab those years later on in life and bring them to a time when my kids are at an age where they're having fun.

And I'm at an age where I can not find like our health is good, we're happy and we're experiencing life it today rather than tomorrow. 

Bob Stewart: [00:27:43] I mean, you built a whole, your entire business is built around experience, like your, your real estate business. Anyway, that I, that I first entered was introduced to you by experience real estate.

Like literally the concept of experiencing that, that time when you can enjoy it. 

Chris Suarez: [00:27:59] But Bob, the only reason why we named it, that  to give a secret is because I needed this constant reminder that that was the purpose of business. Because if I didn't have the constant reminder, I am the guy that puts my head down and goes to work.

Right. I was raised by my dad. I'd be the copier repairman for 55 years, you know, doing nothing other than that, like I can put my head down and do the same thing every day. And it was this reminder. That the purpose of life is it's to be experienced, right? Like with those that we love. And so I said, Hey, I'm going to name my, my company and our charity around experiential living for this constant reminder and mirror.

Write this check to make sure that I'm, that I'm actually delivering on the mission. Chris, 

Chad Hyams: [00:28:46] let's 

Bob Stewart: [00:28:46] say you are Chad and I'm not by the way, like I've gotten better over the years. Like Chad knows. I've got time on my calendar for lunch with my wife once a week. And we've got our scheduled time where we, grandma comes and watches the kids and we'd go out with him.

But in my work world, I've, I've gotten better. But, um, but, um, it's not like you, uh, my, my Mondays don't always look the same. How does somebody who let's say is just, they're just living by the seat of their pants, where everybody else's things and they're busy all the time. How do I start to make that like transformation into.

Time. And, and maybe your, you know, you said it's a choice and maybe the first thing I have to do is just the fight I want to change, but like, how do I really start to take those concrete steps to like change living, you know, busily to living like, you know, as a master of time, 

Chris Suarez: [00:29:33] Yeah, I think sometimes, um, doing, uh, doing a few exercises will help.

Um, I came across, uh, Amanda cams work early and she's written some, some, some great books on time. Sure. It off the clock, uh, the new corner office, she wrote the book 168 hours. And that probably opened up my eyes to realize that, Hey everybody, you me. The next person has, has the same amount of time. That week 168 [00:30:00] hours every single week.

Some of us work 40 hours. Some of us work 50 hours. Some of us sleep eight hours, some of us sleep five hours. But the fact is, is even if you worked 40 hours and slept eight hours a day, you'd still have 72 hours. For everything left in her life. And when I heard that, and then she actually does a phenomenal Ted talk where she brings us through, Hey, 72 hours after 40 hours of work.

And eight hours of sleep is a lot, like if we're working 50 hours, we still have 62 hours of life. Right. Spend two hours a day with your kids. You still have 48 hours. Like, you know, even if we worked out at the gym for an hour every day, we'd still have 41 hours a week. You know, if we read a book for an hour every day, we'd still have 34 hours.

Like you cook, like every day, you still have 27 hours. You have friends over a couple of nights. Like I don't, but if you did, you'd still have 20 hours, like. Like you ran errands and went shopping and hour a day. You still have 13 hours a week. You want to watch TV, knock yourself out. Like you still have 10 hours a week.

If you watch an hour, like at the end of the day, we actually have more time than we think. Like Chad mentioned having his time blocked. It's beautiful to do that. And then you realize where your 168 hours went. It probably didn't go where you think it did. Like we could be massively effective and efficient.

Like, I actually believe that our problem is not having enough time. It's just how we use it. And when I, when she took us through that 168 hours, I was like, wow, like, what am I doing with my hundred and 60th? 

Chad Hyams: [00:31:35] Yeah. Here's my takeaway from what Chris just said, he's amazing at subtracting by seven. It was amazing how he just kept going.

I was like, no, no, wait, wait. I'm counting on my, no Christian. That was amazing. 

Chris Suarez: [00:31:48] I am sure if anyone plays it back, I'm going to be way off, but as close enough, 

Bob Stewart: [00:31:54] I bet. The other thing he's really good at is multiplying 

Chad Hyams: [00:31:57] by 3%. Right. Yes. I'm sure he's pretty good at that one too. All right. So Chris, but let's get really practical.

Okay. So I think this is where Bob was going. You are clearly someone who has mastered time, and you've mentioned some people who have mastered time. Me. I feel I have mastered my world and my time. Uh, but there are the 80 20 rule out there is always going to apply in 80% of the population is running around like chickens with their heads cut off, being busy, not being productive.

So let's put a. Bob in front of you, let's put Joe public in front of you, whatever it is. And they're saying, Chris, I need to start building a calendar. That's going to help me. What would the first few steps be? Give our audience those practical steps. They should take their blank calendar. What should they put on it first?

What should they put on it? Second? What should they plan so that they can start purposefully using time? Yeah. The 

Chris Suarez: [00:32:53] first question I'd ask him is what's the most important thing in their world to them right now that'll be different. Right? And so I'm not going to ask them to start filling stuff into their calendar first until they actually do the heavy work of figuring out what's most important to them right now.

And that's a difficult question because we all want to say, it's my kid, it's my wife. It's my family. But, but we have to ask ourselves, is it because if it is, 

Chad Hyams: [00:33:17] I put you on the spot, what's your answer? Um, my, my boys. Okay. So Chris worked with Bob. He says, it's his boys. And knowing Bob, it probably really is.

Yeah. 

Chris Suarez: [00:33:27] So then, so then tell me what time with your boys looks like in a perfect week. If you had your perfect week, you got to build it, you got to select it. What would a perfectly 

Chad Hyams: [00:33:38] look like? Sorry, 

Bob Stewart: [00:33:39] there'll be an hour in the morning where we get them up. Get them ready for school breakfast. Um, let them know that the mom and dad are here every morning when they wake up.

Um, there would be, and then they, they go to school there they're Montessori school now. So we would, we would pick them up at, at five o'clock and from five to eight, I would put all of my distractions aside and we would have dedicated time every day with those boys from five to eight o'clock now inside of that, we have baseball T-ball practice or swimming lessons or whatever in that time.

Um, and then, um, on the weekends there would be. You know, some, some real dedicated time to those boys on the weekends. I still like to go golfing every now and then Chris or whatever. Right. But, um, it looks something like that. 

Chris Suarez: [00:34:20] Yeah. So I just took some broad strokes and it sounds like there's about, and it's hard to put a number on this because sometimes we don't feel good about it, but it sounds like there's about 25, 26 hours a week with those boys that need to get put into the calendar, which is good news because you know, you have a hundred.

68. So where are those? 26, 27 hours. Let's fill that in first. And you're beginning to build your perfect week. Now what's second, most important to you. And, and what does a perfect relationship look like? Or what does a perfect job look like? Or role look like some of us wake up and we might say, Hey, this isn't the right job for me.

If what's most important to you right now is. If it's X or Y [00:35:00] or Z, like you have to work backwards from most important and fill in that calendar. Now here's the catch you might, you might say. Well fun and kids and family and relationship and TV and, and cooking are all the most important. And I'm going to come back and ask the question, well, how do you actually make those important if you don't have it?

Yeah. If you're not effective or you're not efficient in your role or your job or your, your wealth pillar of your world. Like, I think, I believe that spirituality ends up in there and, and wealth ends up in there and career, which is different than wealth ends up in their relationship. Ended up in there, like there's these, these pillars of our life that are important probably to all of us.

And as we go through, whatever's most important to you is going to show up first and then get layered on second and third and fourth. And some of us need to come into an employer perhaps and say, Hey, I realize that this is getting into the way of what's most important right now at this phase of life.

Can we talk about this? What could this look like? Uh, in our, really in our work relationship and our employer, employee relationship, that's important. But if I, if I employ someone and they come to me and say, Hey, I'm trying to master time. Can we, can we figure out, um, how I can, I can master my personal life while mastering my career life.

I'm going to have that conversation. And the fact is, is, you know, You mentioned the 80 20 principle just a few minutes ago. I believe that I think we throw that out there, but we don't necessarily live that way. The 80 20 principle Bob would say that, you know, 80% of the income you make for this company, it comes from 20% of what you do.

So if you find yourself working 10 hours a day, I can get 80% of the revenue that you're generating for our company. Right. Probably in two hours, let's sit down and talk about what are the most important two hours. And let's talk about whether or not we were able to leverage the 80% of the income that comes from right.

The, the, the, the other hours that you don't have to be there, or someone else could do what you want. Hmm. 

Bob Stewart: [00:37:07] Hmm. I think as an employee, those are like, Unless you, you kind of, you know, are in an organization with somebody like you, that's talking about this and sharing this and making this a priority for everybody in the organization, as an employee in most organizations that the discussion you just suggested, we go, oh, and have with our co like, we're just, that's, it's not even on the plate, Chris.

Right? Like it's not even on the table. Like. 

Chris Suarez: [00:37:29] Then then we're working at the wrong organization or we just haven't brought it to the plate because I assure you any, any, uh, any business owner today should be willing to have this conversation. Um, now, like, you know me, I'm like, I'm like, get it done kind of person, like, like, I, I want results for sure.

But to be honest, I want to believe that that everybody in my world wants the same results. And I guarantee you, the results will show up if they're happier in and outside of, of the job. So I think, I think that conversation is changing. And if it's not where you're at, I don't know. I, I, this is a popular thing to say, then you need to change where you're at.

Chad Hyams: [00:38:14] Doesn't matter if it's a popular thing to say. Cause it's probably the right thing to say, Chris, and we appreciate that about you. I'm going to ask you one more question before we get to the good stuff you mentioned earlier, I'm going to call back to, I'm going to let everybody know Bob, the interview that we did about purposefully using time.

We had the pleasure of talking with, well, he's now a fire Marshall. Used to be a firefighter for years. And one of the reasons we went to a firefighter for this conversation, Chris is Ben talks about this all the time. When you have lots of fires, you gotta make sure you put out the right fire first. How do you deal with that?

When it comes to purposefully using time, you've talked about keeping your priorities, your priorities you've talked about life does show up, but when there are multiple things that are happening, how do you know where to start. So that you can purposefully use time and handle the challenges in front of you.

Chris Suarez: [00:39:09] Um, I think I'd have to, I'd have to, I'll share with you how my my year begins. Um, I, I have one priority every single year. Right? I put out this year paper WhatsApp. 

Chad Hyams: [00:39:23] Can we ask what it is this year? So you can share and we can work off it altogether. 

Chris Suarez: [00:39:28] Um, yeah. If I looked at the top of my, my sort of GPS for this year, it relates to, um, I'm in a real estate business.

Right. So it relates to how many homes, um, where we are going to sell, what volume that equates to what revenue that we'll, we'll bring in. What profit margin that shows up as, and how many people need to need to be in that organization. Right. So that one goal has five metrics. 

Chad Hyams: [00:39:59] Now I've got 

Chris Suarez: [00:39:59] it. [00:40:00] Um, I look at every single week, right?

We, we happen to be recording this halfway through the 14th week of this year. The only reason why I know that is because every single week to me is one of 52, which means at the end of this week, I'll be 27% of the way through my year. Chris, you 

Bob Stewart: [00:40:20] can tell you're you have a really good command of time.

The fact that you can rattle off we're in the Fort halfway through the 14th week, like you're clearly in touch with 

it, 

Chad Hyams: [00:40:28] right? 

Chris Suarez: [00:40:29] So I am, but that's because every single Sunday, right. I sit down, I say, Hey, what week are we in? Where are we? And then I look at every one of my business partners and I look at, they have the same formula as a main goal.

And I say, Hey, what was their goal? And what percentage of the way towards their goal are they right? So, so I know our organization right, is, is 23% of the way towards our yearly goal. Uh, 27% of the way through the year, like we've got a 4% gap. Now, then I look at that piece of paper and I only have three priorities.

Like this is simple, right? A lot of people use that. GPS. I have three priorities to get to that goal. When you, when you run your business that way, any business, that way I'm able to very clearly see. Which priority is being executed, which one isn't. And if there's a gap I'm going to focus on which one is not such that by, by executing that priority or pushing on that priority or potentially making the hire to drive that priority, we make up that gap.

But so many of us wait until month 3, 4, 7, 9, and then we realized, gosh, we are far away. Like I can never get too far off. Of that goal. Um, but it also allows me to say, what does my schedule look like? Have I followed it if I'm following it and I'm off a goal that I'm just missing. Some people, uh, like it doesn't, it doesn't stress me out because I look at it each and every week and I'll figure out some of this, like, Hey, if I'm 3% off and I'm not executing four things on this sheet of paper, like I'm just going to cross those off.

I don't need to jump into four of other things that means I'm executing something else really well. Let's double down. So remember, like I'm going to decide or eliminate. Other things, um, just, just to focus on what's going to drive that ball forward. Okay. So what I hear 

Bob Stewart: [00:42:19] you saying, Chad's question was how do you make those picks when, when multiple competing things?

I mean, you're basically going back to the priorities going, there's two things I could be doing here. Does one of those things get me any closer to one of these points? 

Chris Suarez: [00:42:32] Yeah. I never have to create something. Yeah, halfway through, uh, unless the world shifts and, you know, COVID shows up in paper and say now, right.

But, but the fact is, is every single, you know, I look back over the last three years and that yearly goal three years ago, we're a 98% of goal two years ago. We're a 99% of goal. Last year. We're at a hundred, 2% of goal, like a hundred percent of the way through the year. Like you don't get that close, that deviation, isn't that close without tracking that every single.

Weak, and then you can't get that far off. You can't get that far off your schedule either. I heard one thing sometime ago and I'll just share that and, and, and then I'll shut up. But, um, you know, we all have bad days and sometimes bad days roll into bad weeks. Like we can all have a bad week. Right. But the fact is, is sometimes we look.

Back. And we said, man, I had a bad month. If you have a bad month, it's you? It is your fault. Like any, like, you know, you mentioned kids, sick dog died flat tire that can a bad day can easily roll into a bad week. And Monday we just need a redo. But if I have a bad month, that's me and I have to really look at why.

And how did that happen? I'm okay with anyone in our world, having a bad day, even a bad week, you have a bad month. Something's wrong. 

Chad Hyams: [00:43:54] Keep that in mind, folks, as you are purposefully using time building your calendar is knowing your priorities. I think Chris has done an excellent job at sharing a lot of that with us.

And again, as I've already mentioned, our episode, we're going to drop on Friday to an interview with a fire Marshall firefighter for years, talking about how. In the fire world, they use time and you get to hear Bob get very excited about the siren on the firetrucks and stuff. So make sure you subscribe.

We're not done here yet, but I want to make sure that you have subscribed to our podcast so that Friday's episode just drops right into your podcast device, wherever you're getting them so that you don't miss that opportunity. Now, Chris, a while back, you mentioned you had a charity. And here at wind may give during season two, we are focusing on the give of when may give and we are naming a charity with every episode that what we are doing is for the first 30 days, every listen, that episode gets, we're going to match with dollars as a donation to the charity.

So Chris, you have your own charity. What was that charity again so that we can make sure [00:45:00] we send the donations to the right place. Yep. 

Chris Suarez: [00:45:02] The charity has experienced giving. Uh, we believe that giving is experiential. So whether that's money, whether that's work, whether that's energy, whether that's time, whether that's emotion, like we can all give and that giving creates an incredible experience.

So, um, yeah, I appreciate that greatly. That is, that is phenomenal. Well, if 

Chad Hyams: [00:45:22] Chris brought any value to you, we hope you'll share this episode with as many people as possible. And we hope you check out Chris's podcast. We hope you join us in our Facebook group. facebook.com/groups/win. Make, give where we will give you links to Chris's podcast as well, so that you can make sure you hear what.

He's got to say now, Bob, we've got one more trait to talk about next week and it's going to be the sixth and final trait in the traits of a winner series. So folks you don't want to miss, as we wrap this up with what that six trait is going to be, and until our next episode, as always, .