The best business strategies will be all for naught if you cannot impose an effective time management plan on yourself. Therefore, you must know the best way to start your day, put your tasks in order, and stay away from distractions that may disrupt your momentum. Penny Zenker is joined by Chris Kenney, a master sales coach and million-dollar business owner, to discuss how he helps entrepreneurs utilize their time in the most rewarding way, focusing on gathering courage to pursue goals and learning the proper way to quote oneself. Chris also talks about the importance of having a meaningful motivation more than simply earning money, helping entrepreneurs find a bigger reason to give their all in their business.
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Breaking Through Money Ceilings: How Time Management Impacts Income And Lifestyle With Chris Kenney
We’re going to talk a little bit about your belief system, how that might help you or hurt you as you’re looking to work smarter in what you do, some practices, taking a look at the valuation of how you value yourself and your time, and how that shows up in where you spend your time. A perfect person to help us do that is Chris Kenney. He is a master sales coach, million-dollar business owner, and sought-after wealth mentor. He teaches undercover superstars how to break their money rules rapidly, accelerate their income and live with uncommon freedom and choice. When he’s not coaching his private clients, you can find him speaking on stages around the world, sharing his 7-Figure Sales Secrets with brilliant and talented entrepreneurs so that you can step into your legacy work by shedding the chains of money-shame and underearning. Chris, welcome to the show.
Thank you. It’s great to be here.
Many questions that come up for me after that intro. It’s hard to believe that people have shame over making money. Did you ever experience that? Is that something that you overcame and that’s why you talk about it?
That’s a huge thing in my life. My first early childhood memory around money was when I was about 5 or 6. My mom being in the cashier line at the grocery store and getting into a shouting match with the cashier because the cashier wouldn’t take our food stamps. I grew up in an impoverished household. We were living paycheck to paycheck and meal to meal. The cash register person was not taking our food stamps and my mom was shouting. I remember this vividly and she was emotional because we didn’t have money. We didn’t have money for food. At that particular moment in time, I decided that something was wrong with us because we couldn’t pay with regular money. Something must be wrong with us and with me.
As I was going through school, I was a person that was in the free lunch line. At my school back to that, I graduated in 1987. We had a separate line for those that got free lunch. I was bullied around that. Growing up, I was carrying this shame. Into my teenage life, I wouldn’t get dropped off at my house, I get dropped off down the road, I’d sneak through the backyards, and get to my house. I didn’t let friends inside of my house. It was shameful around this whole like, “We didn’t have money thing.” It’s where I grew up. I was also taught that rich people can’t be trusted. I was taught that in order to be rich, you have to be dishonest and manipulative. It’s the core of why I do this work is that I don’t do it for the money as much as I do it for I never want people to feel the shame that I felt all the way through my teenage years, my early adult life, and even into my 30s. There was such a tremendous amount of shame attached to money.
How did that impact you when you started to make money? How did that feel when you started to make money? Did you hold yourself back? That whole thing of feeling that makes you that person who’s dishonest and had to not treat people right because you’re making money.
I did, I hold myself back, and I was a person that was massively undercharging for services and over-delivering for services. I didn’t want anybody to perceive me as dishonest. I came in with that amount of shame. The turning point was the realization that in order to make money, I had to understand that it can’t be about the money. You have to be constantly operating from a place of service and impact service and legacy. One of the things that I teach, Penny is, I teach people how to convert high ticket sales. One of the absolute keys to converting high ticket sales is not having high ticket sales conversations be about money.
Time Management: You’re not working because of the money, but because of the transformation that the high-ticket program can bring.
You’re not there because of the money. You’re there because of the transformation that the high-ticket program can bring, and you are putting a package in front of the person that will get them from Point A to Point B in the best way possible. Oftentimes that ends up being a high-ticket program, but it cannot be about the money. When I started working from a place of an impact than a place of legacy and taking myself completely out of these sales conversations, I’m not going to make this sales conversation about me, I’m going to make it about my potential client, and I’m going to make it about the impact that this can have on the potential client. That’s when things started to change. It’s such an important thing to understand that it can’t be about the money.
I always talk about the relationship with time that these are relationships that we never give any attention to but they are some of the most important relationships in our lives. For those of you who are reading, what is your relationship with money? People who have money are? Finish that sentence. To get a heightened awareness as to what your relationship is with money is a huge factor because a lot of people think that they’re okay with it, but they find themselves hitting a ceiling and they keep hitting it. For whatever reason, they get knocked back, whether it’s their own business or it’s in their career. They don’t advance, pass a certain, or if they’re in sales, maybe they hit that sales plateau. I want you guys to be thinking about that.
Ask yourself the question, what does money represent to me? The issue with us is if money represents safety for you or if money represents survival to you, and you’re in business, that’s an issue because you won’t collect the amount of money that you could or should be collecting because you don’t want to take away somebody’s survival and safety. That relationship is super important. If I’m going like, “Money is what makes me safe.” I’ve got to go ask somebody for theirs. I’m afraid that I’m going to be taking away their safety and I don’t want to take away their safety. What’s happening is you’re projecting onto your potential clients your beliefs in your relationship to money. Money is simply a tool. I always tell people this, “It’s important to understand about money is that money makes you more of what you already are.” If you’re a bit of a jerk, money’s going to make you more of a jerk. If you’re a nice and generous person, you will be generous with your money, and money will make you more generous. It doesn’t turn you into something you’re not. It makes you more of what you already are.
What would you say to the person so people start to think about it? How do you help people to recognize and get behind that self-confidence? I hear you say, “Change the conversation that it’s not about you and it’s not about money.” It’s about impact, transformation, investment and those types of things. How do you get people to have the confidence to still ask for that? Let’s say somebody says, “I’ve changed the conversation,” but if they don’t feel it inside, it’s still impacting the conversation.
Let me share the story of how this happened for me because it’s profound and it is true in terms of how this happens. This conversation of getting the confidence to ask for the right amount of money or ask for what you’re worth. Even getting to that point of asking for and commanding what you’re worth. I started the business back in 2008. In 2009, I was mentored to raise my rates by 500%. That was the experience I had. I remember I was at $399. It was at $399 a month for coaching. I was being told to raise to $2,500 per month. It triggered every ounce of lack of worthiness that I had, self-doubt, people will never pay me that, people can’t afford that, or this person doesn’t understand my market. There was all this stuff that was coming up. After several months, I was paying this mentor $75,000 for six months of coaching. It took me three months at that rate to be convinced that I should be charging $2,500 a month. A lot of money was coming out of my checking accounts and a lot of credit card debt, but I was in my head about it. I put down a down payment and then I was paying $10,000 a month to a coach back in 2009.
There’s something interesting in that dichotomy. You aren’t willing to ask for it but somewhere along the way, you felt that you were worthy enough to invest in yourself to pay someone else that much. The people that I’ve talked to and interacted with, it tends to be that if they’re not willing to ask for it, they’re also not willing to invest in themselves in that nature. How did you get to that first step? That might be something that people are missing is that you had someone who kicked you in the butt and helped you to get there. How did you get to that point?
One of the things that I live by is this universal law, the Law of Polarity. Here’s what the Law of Polarity says, “Everything in the universe has an opposite and it exists at the same time.” You can’t have left without right. I’ve been without out. Nothing’s out without having in to compare it to. You can’t have hot without cold. I could go on forever with the opposite. That also means you can’t have a problem without also having a solution. Every problem in the universe brings with it the solution because you can’t have one without the other. If we’re not able to find a solution, there is something that we are resisting because the solution has to be here.
Money makes you more of what you already are. Click To Tweet
The universal law says, “It has to be here.” The question I’m constantly asking myself is not what do I do? Rather, what am I resisting doing? What happens is we set this intention. I had set this intention. In my first year in business, I’m going to go out and make $300,000. As soon as I set that out, I know that the universe wants to bring that to me. I want to bring it. I thought about what I wanted and I had a real clear description of what I wanted. I was behaving in gratitude as if what I wanted was already here. The next step in that process is to notice what shows up. The thing that showed up was the opportunity to do this high-ticket mentorship.
The last piece of that process is to keep moving in faith. It’s a model that I teach called the THINK Model. Think of what you want, that’s the T. The H is Have a clear description of it. The I is Insert gratitude as if it’s already here. The N is Notice what shows up. The K is Keep moving in faith. The solution showed up in my experience but I had to be willing to step in, and I had to be willing to move in faith. That was the solution that was presented to me. In terms of the noticing of what shows up, the things that show up usually have three characteristics. Number one, they’re scary. Number two, they make you incredibly uncomfortable. Number three, they’re expensive either monetarily or emotionally, if not both. That is what happened. This was monetarily expensive and some are emotionally expensive because it was stressful to go through that, but it was the solution.
It can hold you accountable because you are not going to spend that money and not follow through.
It was accountability that I’d never experienced. I got to a point where I ran out of money. I was bouncing my health insurance. I couldn’t even pay for my health insurance. I remember standing in my kitchen, I’m in a 400 square foot apartment, and I’m like, “Am I going to quote this high fee? Am I going to quote my old fee?” Meanwhile, I’m going broke.
I want to say to everybody who’s reading, I don’t recommend that you go to rock bottom like this.
This is what happened to me.
I’m saying to them like, “This is why you’re here is to learn from someone else’s trials and tribulations so that you don’t have to.” Please read it carefully and choose.
Time Management: If money represents survival to you, it could be an issue of taking away somebody else’s survival and safety.
Not everybody has to. You don’t have to hit the bottom and you don’t have to like run out of all of your cash. What I would say is when solutions show up, pay attention, and be willing to move in faith. Your solution might not be a $75,000 solution. There’ll be something else that shows up in your experience. I quoted the $15,000 for several months. I developed this horrible case of verbal vomit. I started like, “You get this,” which is the worst thing to do in a sales conversation that we should be doing. I was a nervous wreck. My heart was racing. Finally, the person says to me, “Let me think about it.”
I started ranting into my response like, “Let me think about it.” At which point she said, “Stop it.” I don’t have to think about whether I’m going to do it. I have to think about which credit card to put it on. She paid me in full which was wild. I gave her a 10% discount. She paid me $13,500. The learning here was my first thought after she paid that was, “This person’s insane.” They’re about to pay me $13,500 for coaching. The lesson that I learned from that is that confidence will always come from doing. What happened, she paid the $13,500 for months, and then she renewed for another $13,500.
I was starting to go, “I am worth this.” This person paid me and then paid me it again. I wouldn’t have grown into it if I wasn’t willing to quote it first. I had to quote the high rate. I always tell people three things, I say, “Decide what you’re best at,” that’s number one. Number two, charge a premium for it. Number three, do your best to become it. It was after I charged the premium that I grew into the premium, we get tied up. We go, “I can’t quote that yet because I’m not worth that yet.” We’re waiting and we’re going to wait a long time if we keep waiting.
There are other ways to recognize them. That quoting it is a valuable part of it. When I made a big shift to know that I was worth it and I could do this and get over that self-doubt, it was a comparison to someone else who I knew I was better than. We were working side by side. They were coming in as a contractor. This was in a different context is what you’re talking about. We worked side by side and they were making twenty times what I was making because I was working for someone else. I can’t be an entrepreneur. I don’t have an education, I don’t have this, and all that stuff that we go through and you went through as well. My thing that came up is like, “He’s doing it. I know I can deliver at least what he’s doing so why not me?” It could be a question that we ask ourselves. It can get ourselves into action, do it, see, and people are going to buy from us and we’re going to deliver. It’s getting to a place where you’re pushing yourself to get outside your comfort zone in that context.
Quote slightly more than what you think you’re worth, start doing that and you’ll grow right into the new rates.
I love what you said that you were challenged to raise it 500%. For those entrepreneurs that are out there that are in a position to do that, look at doing that. I’ve done that year after year. I look to double my rates. That does challenge you too to come up with new ways of doing things and bringing out the best in yourself to rise to the occasion.
It puts you and your clients to a higher level of accountability. You show up differently when you’re charging more and so do they. Everybody’s winning.
Every problem in the universe brings with it the solution, because you can't have one without the other. Click To Tweet
You were telling me as we were talking some of the productivity best practices that you do now in your business. I’d love to hear a few of those tips and tricks for people who are reading and saying, “I’m there. How do I make it so I don’t work myself to death?”
One of those things is charging enough. Understanding and looking at the role of your belief system coming in. In other words, if you believe I have to work hard for the money, you will create that in your business. In terms of productivity, the practical piece of it is the most important thing. This what’s worked for me and I can’t even say that I’ve ever studied productivity but here’s what I know, if I don’t work this way, it has a massive impact on my production. I work in 90-minute segments. I’m doing 30-minute coaching calls, and I never do more than three in a row, I’ll do three and then I’ll take a break, and then I’ll do three more, and then I’ll take a break.
The break is to get myself recalibrate and recollected. That’s the number one thing. I don’t do things in my business that doesn’t light me up. That’s important like the things that are monotonous and tedious. I had a virtual assistant. I’m not a detail person. Spreadsheets overwhelm me. Anything related to detail, I outsourced that, and I outsourced it right away. That helps keep me productive. I make the bulk of my decisions in the company based on, “Does this feel energetically heavy for me? Does this feel like it’s inflow?” If it feels energetically heavy and it needs to be done, then I’ll outsource that. The things that feel light and that I feel inflow with, those are the things that I do and that I run within the company. I’ve been able to maintain and grow with that in mind.
What you said is important that you know the things that feel good and the things that you want to do and what you don’t want to do. People don’t think about why I don’t want to do this. They go on and try to do everything. If you can get clear on what you love, what brings you energy, and what not to do in all contexts whether it’s for your business. There are some people for corporate. When we want to determine what makes us productive, it’s also knowing what not to do, not to check news and social media, and stuff in the morning. What not to do’s are as important as what to do.
I talked about the news and I was like, “Can we please stop watching the news?” It’s toxic. Waking up in stress response in the morning. It’s the worst thing you can do is turn on CNN in the morning.
If somebody wiped away all your computer and you had to re-install everything. Outside of your mail, calendar, and the essentials, what’s the first app that you would install that helps you to be productive that supports your day-to-day productivity?
I put a huge focus on physical fitness in my life, self-care. I start my morning with meditation, movement and then good food. It’s MyFitnessPal. Tracking my food is important to me. It’s one of the keys to keeping my energy where it is and for me to be able to get on camera. I do all of our product launches through Facebook Live. I’m constantly live on camera. I want to feel good in my body. I want to feel confident, strong, in command, and exercise brings that for me. It’s the fundamental base for all that I do. If I’m not feeling good and vital in my body, I feel like I struggle. I start to go up in my head. I feel like we’re either in our heads or in our bodies. If we’re in our heads, we’re dealing with all the negative chatter and all the crap that can go on up here. When I feel like my head is getting overly active, that’s when I go and I exercise. It’s a movement to get myself back into my body. It would be a fitness app of some sort because that’s the foundation. If I feel like crap, I can’t show up and do what I do.
Time Management: Quote slightly more than what you think you’re worth, start doing that, and you’ll grow right into the new rates.
I always say that it’s not what we do with our time. It’s how we show up for our time. I believe that it’s about the energy that we’re creating, moving our body, and movement sleep are the essentials. Self-care is, unfortunately, the first thing that we toss out the door pretty much but it’s the most important thing.
In this house, we moved in here in July. The first thing that we worked on that we wanted to get complete was the home gym. The COVID was going on and we can’t get to the gym. Hardwood floor put in, the home gym system, the cage system, or the Peloton bike. That was the first thing that we did was how are we going to sort out our fitness?
You have your priorities straight. You know that when you take care of yourself, you’re going to be able to take care of others. I know this works this way for me. You mentioned a level of confidence that comes from feeling good and moving. That goes into your ability to ask for that fee that you’re looking for and feeling good about you and your body is part of the whole picture.
It’s at the core, the foundation, and it’s something that we can all take for granted. COVID has certainly brought us all to another level of awareness around health. I don’t take for granted my health. When I also think about what’s going on in the world, it becomes more important for us to look after ourselves in that way. I want to know that if I catch that, my body’s going to be able to get rid of it because I’m in good physical condition. It’s a motivation as well to stay on top of it.
I believe in that as well. I also am subject to the excuses and things that come up that say, “I’ll do it later,” and then I don’t do it later. For me, I have to do it in the morning, or else I know I can get swept away. What about you?
It’s the same thing. I have peaks and valleys too. I’m human. I have times where I’m active about it and I have times where I’m not active about it. I feel like I’m in one of those shifts where I had about 4 to 6 weeks where I haven’t been active with it and now, I’m getting back into being into it. In this work, it’s realizing that we’re all going to hit our stuff and our blocks. Those that do well, it’s not that they never hit blocks, it’s that they move past the blocks faster. That’s how I see myself with fitness. When I go off the rails, I’m never off the rails for that long, and then I’m back on.
When I go off the rails, I might gain 2.5 pounds. I’m not going to gain 15 pounds and go on 6 months eating binge. It’s not the experience that I create. It has to be a morning thing. I used to lie to myself and say, “I’ll do it later,” but I would get swept away. Once you’re off for the day, you’re like, “I’ll have the chips, I’ll have a bowl of ice cream, and I’ll get on it in the morning.” It escalates. It starts with one bad decision of not exercising leads to multiple bad decisions that day. It trickles into the next day, and then into the next day. It can go downhill from there.
One bad decision of not exercising leads to multiple bad decisions for the whole day. Click To Tweet
It’s like an avalanche. Once that first decision, it does topple from there.
It has to be an early morning finger. It just doesn’t happen.
I want you guys did think about that, what excuses are coming up and reasons why you don’t have the time? Do it first thing, make it the first thing that you do when you get up that it’s a priority, and create a ritual around it so that you’re not starting your work until you get that done.
It could be something super simple. It could be anything. It doesn’t have to be this massively rigorous thing. It could be a twenty-minute walk.
Go out and get a dog so that you have to walk the dog.
Go and get some movement in.
Thank you, Chris, for all that you’ve shared with us. We went a little bit longer than we had anticipated, but I would imagine we could talk all day.
Time Management: COVID has certainly brought us all to another level of awareness around health.
It could happen. No question.
Tell the readers where can they find and reach out to you?
The easiest place to find me is right inside of the private Facebook group. I have a private Facebook group it’s called, Sales Mastery Inner Circle. Hop over to Facebook and type that into the search bar. We do a complimentary show there every Thursday. There’s live teaching every Thursday. On Tuesdays, we also do complimentary ten-minute laser coaching sessions. I do three of those every single Tuesday. There’s lots of free content in there. We’ve also got something depending on when this is going to air, I’m not positive as to when this is going to air but we’ve got something coming up in December inside of the Facebook group. That might be applicable and might not be. Hop over to Sales Mastery Inner Circle, that’s the best way to find me.
Chris, thank you for being here.
It’s a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Thank you all for being here. You got to think about your mindset and relationship around money and so much more. Be thinking about as if you’re an entrepreneur, what you’re charging. If you’re not an entrepreneur and you’re in corporate, it’s as important to look at where you want your career to go, what you were purposefully creating about your belief systems, and how that supporting you or holding you back from moving forward. You can be thinking about in both cases, whether you’re an entrepreneur, or you’re in the corporate world. Don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes or wherever you are like Spotify to get notified about the new shows or jump over to YouTube. I’ve created a new channel there and the videos are posted. You can look for me too and connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or anywhere like that. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.
Important Links:
- Chris Kenney
- Sales Mastery Inner Circle – Facebook
- Facebook – Penny Zenker
- LinkedIn – Penny Zenker
- https://www.ChrisKenneyCoaching.com/Steps
- https://www.Linkedin.com/in/TheChrisKenney/
About Kris Kenney
Chris Kenney is a master sales coach, million-dollar business owner, and sought-after wealth mentor. He teaches undercover superstars how to break their money-rules, rapidly accelerate their income, and live with uncommon freedom & choice. When he’s not coaching his private clients, you can find him speaking on stages around the world, sharing his 7-Figure Sales Secrets with brilliant, talented entrepreneurs, so they can step into their legacy work by shedding the chains of money-shame and underearning.
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