In this week's episode of Hello Chaos, we had the pleasure of hosting Chris Hines, the founder of PodCentral and a seasoned podcaster. Chris shared his intriguing journey from starting as a sports podcaster to becoming a pivotal figure in the podcasting industry. His story is a testament to the power of aligning one's career with personal passions and the unexpected paths to becoming a founder. Chris delved into the early days of his career, reminiscing about his first live podcast experience, which amusingly took place in a closet due to noise at home. He highlighted the evolution of his interests from sports to creating a platform that helps other podcasters streamline their processes through PodCentral, his podcast management tool. A significant part of our discussion focused on the lessons Chris learned along the way. He emphasized the importance of backing up digital content, a lesson he learned the hard way when he lost crucial podcast episodes due to a computer failure. Chris also shared insights into the value of direct audience engagement and how it has shaped his business ventures. Moreover, Chris provided valuable advice for entrepreneurs, stressing the importance of not trying to do everything alone and the benefits of focusing on one's strengths. He shared his personal approach to celebrating achievements and maintaining motivation through visualizing success and treating himself to experiences that inspire him. Listeners can connect with Chris Hines on LinkedIn as The Coach Chris or on Twitter at Chris Podcasting. For those interested in podcasting insights or needing assistance with their podcasts, Chris generously offers resources and courses for free, reflecting the success and profitability of his agency. This episode is not just for podcast enthusiasts but for anyone interested in the entrepreneurial journey and the lessons learned along the way. Tune in to gain from Chris's experiences and perhaps find that one piece of advice that could pivot your path to success. Remember, Hello Chaos drops new episodes every Sunday, and we're here to dive into the chaotic yet fascinating world of entrepreneurship. Join us next week for more stories where "aha meets oh shit." For more engaging content and resources for founders, visit OrangeWIP's website and join our community. We're currently active in three South Carolina markets and expanding!
Jennifer Sutton: Welcome to Hello Chaos, the weekly podcast exploring the messy and chaotic minds and lives of founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Every week, we get to talk to entrepreneurs from different industries, at different company levels and stages, all shapes and sizes. And we get to hear the real, the raw, the honest, unbiased founder stories. And it's where our mantra is, where aha meets oh shit. We get all the nitty gritty. We drop new episodes every single Sunday. Founders can listen to us on a Sunday afternoon as they get ready for the week ahead, or like the majority of our listeners, they download us on Monday morning. Hello Cast is one of the many resources brought to you by OrangeWIP. That's orange whip w IP for work in progress orange whip is a multimedia company dedicated to serving founders and entrepreneurs and affiliate cities through hyper local media platforms that have been designed to inform inspire and create connections. to help founders succeed. We're an all-in-one content hub for founders with fresh stories, fresh and engaging stories. We curate calendars in the local markets and we create local dynamic roadmaps to help that founder navigate their local ecosystem. We've really done the hard work for founders, so they only need to go to one trusted source to find all the local information they need. We're currently in three South Carolina markets looking to expand to other cities. You need to have an OrangeWIP in every market. My name is Jennifer Sutton. My friends and family call me JJ. I'm the founder of OrangeWIP and will be your host today. And we've got Chris Hines with PodCentral on our podcast. I'm excited to have you. Welcome, Chris.
Chris Hines: Thank you for having me, Jennifer. I'm excited to be here.
Jennifer Sutton: Mr. Mr. Podcasting himself. Well, I'm excited that you're joining us and, uh, and I'm really interested to hear your founder journey. So just start us out. I mean, you've got a, you've got a lot of stuff going on in the podcasting world, the media world. So how did you get started? How did you like get into being a founder?
Chris Hines: It's so funny. I didn't really become a founder for years. I started podcasting first. I just wanted to focus on building the skill first because I just knew that would be so important to building the company. And it actually helped me a lot. I built my first software tool last year, but I've had my agency for a long time.
Jennifer Sutton: When did you start? When did you form? So before the podcasting trend kind of hit?
Chris Hines: Yeah, I was into podcasting back when like, I don't know if anybody listening knows about blog talk radio, but like, I was on blog talk radio. It's been a while. Yeah. And I remember the first I was on Twitter just talking sports and a guy followed he had a podcast and He's like, hey, man, I love your tweets and stuff. I like your content. You should come on the show. I'm like, all right, cool. Let's do it. He invites me on the show and I'm like, this was in like 2015 or something like that. Okay. And I remember having to call it on my phone and my house was super loud. I had to go like run into the closet. I didn't have a studio or anything. And I was in I was in the closet on the phone for like a good hour arguing playoff basketball. It was hilarious So I come out the closet my family's like why are you in there yelling on the phone?
Jennifer Sutton: You're like I was doing a podcast and they're like, what the hell is that?
Chris Hines: Had no idea like it was it's still one of the funniest memories I have of Podcasting is trying to explain to them in that moment what it was and I'll see you on the radio. I'm like Kind of but people can listen to it later. So I Was that was that was the first day I like recorded something that was like live or any type of content, yeah So did you get into was your first podcast then in sports?
Jennifer Sutton: I
Chris Hines: Yes. Yes. My first show was a basketball podcast because that was what I was doing at the time. Like I was playing. I played in college. I got to play a little professionally. I was coaching. I was writing about it. My entire life was basketball. So I was like, well, I might as well start a show. Yeah. start the basketball podcast and it's immediately like super successful because this is again at a time where most people didn't even know what it was. So it was really easy and I was in LA and because of my experience in basketball it was really easy to get some NBA players on the podcast. It was easy. It was just it was one of the craziest times because in the span of like three months things really picked up really fast and then I hit my first roadblock.
Jennifer Sutton: What was that what that was it let your oh shit moment.
Chris Hines: It was just one of the first one of the many So I had on I don't know if people know these players are but they play for the LA Clippers Darius Myles Corey McGeady I interviewed them on my pockets and I'm super excited because these are like NBA players. Yeah, I Felt like if I keep doing this right in a year or two, I could be on ESPN like at that time You're like, I'm gonna be a DJ.
Jennifer Sutton: I'm gonna be a broadcaster.
Chris Hines: Yeah, that was where I was going but I Just didn't know what I didn't know right one day. I wake up. I'm trying to get back to it you know do some edits and edit the content and a computer didn't turn on and I was like, yes, we I take it to the shop and everything and they tell me it's just completely dead. Oh, so again, this time frame, I didn't know that you should back up your content in multiple places. I didn't know. I didn't even know about putting content in the cloud because like it just wasn't as prevalent at that time. Yeah. So I lost all of my content. Oh my God. I only had about six episodes out, but then the next few that would have been the ones to put me over the top, I lost them all. So that was really tough.
Jennifer Sutton: Oh my goodness, so You know you start out doing you know, you found these uh, uh shows this podcaster you said that you built software too Yeah, so I've wanted to build software since man a really long time.
Chris Hines: I've wanted to do that. That was kind of my long-term thing Because my long term my goal my biggest goal was to be a vc Like I want to be able to put money into the hands of people that are trying to change the world. That's my biggest goal To get there, I have to build my own company. So I built my own podcast management tool, PodCentral. And it's incredible because it was a crazy journey for me. And I do everything on no code. I also think that's part of my story as well, is you don't have to be some developer. You don't have to go to Stanford. You can still go and build a company if you just have the right skills and you really put in the work.
Jennifer Sutton: Right. So, so here you, you, you become a founder, um, product software and shows. So you're, you know, entertainment and business at the same time. Um, what do you think is, what's been the most rewarding part of your journey?
Chris Hines: Well, really part of it too, I had to stop the entertainment stuff. I don't do sports anymore just because I didn't, it's one of those things that I have kind of how I look at life. I think you got to choose your purpose over your passion. Right. And I think my purpose for helping people get their voices heard is bigger than my passion for basketball was. So I kind of pushed that to the side. And I think that for me has been the most rewarding because like when I help these companies start their shows and they build brands and they make more money or some people I help them just start shows and they make connections and build all kinds of relationships. It's incredible. Like it's, it's really kind of life changing for me when somebody can just sit there and talk about what they care about and then end up making an extra $2,000 a month. And so some people that changes their life completely, it makes things, everything easier. Um, so that for me, helping people like actually get their opinion out there, their perspective. And that's just fun. I love it.
Jennifer Sutton: Oh, that's fantastic. So what do you think is the, I mean, you talked to different, um, um, owners and founders yourself. You're a founder yourself. What is, what do you think is the biggest misconception or misperception about being an entrepreneur or a founder and how would you debunk it?
Chris Hines: I think this belief that you have it all figured out or that you're going to do it all on your own is kind of weird to me. I meet a lot of founders with that kind of perspective of I'm going to do it all by myself. I have it all figured out. But I also don't think that you need to build a company where you have 50 employees. I don't think that you have to go that route either. I genuinely don't. Right. I think what you have to understand as a founder is you need to learn the right skills for what it is that you want to do. That's the biggest thing, because whatever it is you're not good at, truthfully, you can outsource to somebody else. That's right. And you focus on the stuff that you're good at. You just get better at that. Because for a long time, I didn't think When I was doing basketball podcasts, I worked with a podcast network. And at one point I got eight shows on their sponsor and I wasn't hosting any of the shows. That was the first time I realized like if I do this right, like podcasting can like be my life. I can actually. It can be an actual business. Yes. I didn't realize that before that moment because I had got my own show sponsored and stuff. But it was like it was good in terms of just the content creators perspective. Right. In a business scheme of things. Had to like really stop for a second like wait a second if I have a show Sponsored on a network and I'm not hosting any of these shows and I just get paid like a broker's fee What if I built a software tool? What if I build a bigger network? What if I build multiple networks like my mind kind of exploded in that? Yeah, that's also when I came back down to earth like okay, we need to build these skills Like and not try to do everything you're not good at I'm just focused on the stuff I'm good at and getting better at that so I can be the absolute best and
Jennifer Sutton: Uh-huh. Yeah. No, that's a good lesson learned. We took, you know, and I think you, you said it too. We've talked to founders and it's like, what's your end game? Like what, what, why do you want to start the business? Why do you, what do you want to get out of it? Is it a lifestyle? You know, is that why you're doing it? Because you want more freedom, but a specific lifestyle, you know, to hit a financial goal, or is it you're trying to create something to exit and be this, you know, Go big. I think there's a lot of founders that sometimes don't stop to go, what's my purpose of why do I want to do this? And what kind of world do I want to live in? Because some also have the misperception of, oh, if I start my own business, I can only work three hours a day. And it's like, well, you could, but I'm not sure it's going to be as successful as you think it might be.
Chris Hines: Yeah, that is a big misconception. And if I start a business, I don't have to work as much. I will say I do. And I think in the beginning, you're going to work more because you have to build the skill to be able to work smart. Most people will say work smarter, not harder. But to work smart, you need the right skills because you don't know how to work smart just yet. Right? Like if I have an agency and I just started this agency, if I have a software tool and I just built this platform, I have to know the things that actually are the key levers to pull to get me more results. Until I know that, I have to work hard. So you got to kind of work hard to work smart.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. Oh, that's good. We're going to coin that little phrase for you. That's a good one. All right. So you, you talked about one of your aha moments, but what's another like breakthrough moment or some decision or something that had a significant impact on your business?
Chris Hines: I would say for me, when I realized that I have to just kind of serve my audience and they become kind of your boss, that was kind of transformative for me because in the beginning I had that belief that I'm an entrepreneur. I don't have to work as much, but I started doing this thing where I do podcast audits where people send me their shows, their show details and everything about their podcast and I'll just break it down. Here's how you can improve on your audio or your marketing, all of that stuff. And. I did this for a while. I did maybe, I want to say over 50 calls completely free. Like I didn't charge people a dime. And after that, I realized that I can basically make any product that I want. I can make anything I want now because I've talked to so many podcasters. The experience of being a podcast host is ingrained in my brain. So now that I know all of this, I can make a course. I can make a coaching program, a community. I can host events. I can do whatever I want to because I dug into the market so much. I think market focus might be one of the best things you can have as a founder is like being known for one thing. That right there is probably the biggest key to just build an income on top of itself. Because when people call me now, they know it's for podcasting. I only have to be good at podcasting and I can make money from just being good at that.
Jennifer Sutton: Right, right, right. What has surprised you the most about your journey?
Chris Hines: Honestly, it's still the fact that I get to do what I love to do and I make money from it. I want to put this into perspective. I'm an entrepreneur, right? And I work with entrepreneurs. Part of a service that I have from our clients is virtual production, where when they're doing their interviews or whatever it is, I'm behind the scenes. I'm back there making sure everything sounds good and looks good. The entrepreneurs I work with are essentially 10 steps ahead of me. So what happens is I end up getting paid for them to kind of coach me in a way. Because while they're on there doing interviews, it's one millionaire per month business owner talking to another Fortune 500 CEO. And they're just talking to each other, sharing ideas and strategies. And I'm in the background listening to them both.
Jennifer Sutton: And you're taking it all in.
Chris Hines: It's insane and then after the interview stops sometimes what episode is uploading will sit there and just talk more business so I even I do this thing now always try to throw in some idea or something I'm working on just to get their feedback and it works. That's I don't know if I ever get used to that because I basically. get paid by smarter people to help them with the small things. Yeah. And they give me they give me consulting that is like it's it's invaluable. You couldn't put a price on what I've learned from just my clients. It's kind of crazy.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. So can you can you share like the best piece of advice that you've learned from one of these conversations that you're like, my goodness, I would have never learned this in a book or, you know, it's just been invaluable.
Chris Hines: One thing that one of my clients taught me, um, he does a lot of partnerships. Like he's making, I'm not going to say his name, but he's making like maybe a quarter million a month from partnerships, which is kind of mind blowing just partnerships. And he just broke down like the importance of a relationship. Like he does a little small things like when he has a partner that he has to pay out instead of paying them, you know, net 30, the usual, you wait 30 days to pay him. He pays people within a week. And like it's those little small things that you don't think about like wow, that's actually a big deal. He talked about how he has And he told me I should even do this of like having masterminds that are completely free where people don't talk business and they just build relationships. Because when you build something like that, what happens is you build a community of people that have kind of a shared perspective and business deals and all that stuff will come from it. But while you're at the mastermind event, you cannot talk about business. It's so interesting because it's a way you can build higher quality relationships faster. Where if I'm bringing 50 agency owners together and we're just going to have a party, let's just talk about life, talk about family, whatever. We're not going to talk about business.
Jennifer Sutton: No business. Yeah. That's interesting. Just to get a deeper, we're going to help each other in business probably down the road, but that's not the purpose of this community.
Chris Hines: Because then what happens is you end up forging the right relationships that benefit you most just naturally. Because sometimes what happens when people network is they try to go to the most popular person or the person with the most influence and that might not be the best person for you to work with. But if you connect with 20 people at this event and then four of them are the perfect person for you to work with at this time, that might be the relationship you need to kind of propel things forward. Right. So it's just and even the way he runs his events, it's it's kind of mind blowing. Really? I've learned a lot.
Jennifer Sutton: Well, I'm super curious about this because we've been trying to decide like for orange whip do we create events or community building within the markets that we're in. And we're getting feedback from all founders of some people want know can you do, you know, female founder base no can you do more like in you know we're looking at gaps in the market right there's all these stuff that's already happening in tech or there's stuff that's happening in life sciences but just the broader you know female founders or minority founders there just seems to be the lack of of the access to networking the ability to network and make deeper like forging deeper connections And so some people are like, oh, can you do this online, like a little Facebook group? And people are like, no, no, do live events. No, do them via Zoom. So I'm curious, like, is there any kind of magic formula for creating community? Is it better to do online and maybe one, like, big event together, or do they need to be in person?
Chris Hines: I've seen the balance of both where it works together, where in a month you have two events. One is virtual and one is in person. I think the most successful communities have a common factor, whether it is mothers, whether it is… I saw one community the other day that was only for parents that are business owners. I was like, wow, that's genius.
Jennifer Sutton: That's a really good… I didn't even think about that. That's so good.
Chris Hines: Like that is so good Because it's like it's it's a certain lifestyle. Yeah I and I think that the exclusion is only good if it's like a reason behind it Right, like if there's a reason why you only want women there, right? Then it makes sense if there's a reason why it's only men it makes sense But when you say hey, this is for black founders only I think it needs to be a purpose behind that because if you just say this is for men only then it's kind of like, what's the reason why can other people come? But if there's certain subjects and certain things you're talking about, it might not be for those other groups. So then that kind of makes sense. But I think that specificity and who you're building a community for is a real key to that growth and really sustainability. And I think every founder should be a part of some kind of community because Part of being a founder and doing what we do is you just sound crazy to normal people. Like we're not normal.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. That's right.
Chris Hines: We sound insane.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, when people like to even just list out, um, somebody was laughing, like, Jennifer, you need to put out more. I don't do well promoting myself. I just like, I'm not the selfie type. And, and somebody was like, you need to like list out the things that you do on a daily basis. And I'm like, nobody wants to see that. I think I would give people anxiety if I, what's my, what my to do list is and how I don't get to half of it, um, on a daily basis. because it gives me anxiety. How is that helping anybody? And then when I do list it out, people are like, that's your day-to-day? Yeah, it's not fun.
Chris Hines: And there's some people that can relate to it, though. That's the fun part. I think as founders, that's kind of where we want to go, is where there are people that think like us, because like mission people. Yes, it has the same mission or they have the same like perspective so that when you are successful, when you have a big win, they cheer you on. You know, it's hard to talk to those people who. you know, they work a regular nine to five and they don't see the bigger picture like you. So when you have your SAS that you just launched and you get, you know, your first user, you're super excited and pumped up and they're like, that's not a big deal. That's one person. It's only 50 bucks. Like, you don't understand that this is the start.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. This is exciting. Um, uh, that's such good advice. I'm going to, I'm, I'm absorbing it. It's like Chandler, the heart producers, like, yeah, he took notes. We need to do something. OK, if you could pick two things you could change about your business, anything good or bad, what would you change about how your business is doing and why?
Chris Hines: Oh, two things I could change. Yeah. One thing I'm working on, I'm trying to change, but if I could change it, like snap my fingers, I would. I would prefer to do my podcast audits in person. I would love to just, because I had literally, I went, I built an old travel podcast studio. I can put it in my backpack. And my goal is this year is to get more in-person interviews done. That's kind of the goal here. It's been challenging because now I'm in Seattle, I'm not in LA. In LA, it would be super easy. But when I'm in Seattle, it's just harder because it's not as many people that I'm looking for. So that's one thing I would change. The second, I mean, It's just, it's so good. In terms of my agency, it's kind of perfect right now. Like I just, I love how that works.
Jennifer Sutton: It's just running like a good, well-oiled machine. I love that.
Chris Hines: It's really fun. I'm, I'm thankful that my agency flows the way it does. Cause it just, I feel really lucky to have that kind of company set up. Now with my software, I would change a ton of things to just make that run smoother.
Jennifer Sutton: You're like lessons learned on that one. Yeah. Um, all right. So Chris, what are things, what's something that our listeners, um, can't find about you in, on LinkedIn or, you know, in it, like, but that would be interesting or surprising to learn about you.
Chris Hines: Um, I, when I tell people to say, don't believe me. So I think that this is the one. When I was in high school, I was one of those people that kind of did everything. I was what I call a chameleon. I was everywhere doing everything. I played sports. I was at a bunch of different clubs. What most people probably will never believe is I know how to play five instruments. So like, I actually know how to play.
Jennifer Sutton: Okay, you gotta list them out. You gotta list them out. I gotta know.
Chris Hines: Clarinet, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and I think it's a baritone. Oh my God, it's been so long.
Jennifer Sutton: The really big saxophone? The big, big, big saxophone? Is that the baritone?
Chris Hines: One of the big ones, yeah. So I learned how to play a bunch of instruments in high school. Like, I did that and I was also on a basketball team. I was just doing everything. But most people don't know, I played instruments for a long time. It was just something I wanted to learn how to do.
Jennifer Sutton: Do you still play them? Do you have instruments like in your house that you're like, let me just pick this up.
Chris Hines: You know, I don't, but I'm going to, because now that I've built this studio out, like I know the walls are like playing right now, but I ordered all this stuff from Amazon. It's going to look completely different in a way. Now I'm getting back into everything and it would literally just be a hobby for fun. Like I'm not trying to make money from it. I'm not going to make songs or anything. I just want to do it, you know.
Jennifer Sutton: Uh, I love it. Um, all right. You mentioned this, like the, how do you celebrate the wins and getting around people? Who's been, who's been your biggest cheerleader for you?
Chris Hines: Oh, you know, I would have to say my kids are how many kids? So I have three girls. The two that live with me, one is six and one is three. They are just, oh my goodness. Yeah, it's perfect. I taught them how to use my podcast equipment so they wouldn't tear it up. They respect it. Yeah, they respect it. They support anything that I'm doing, man. And I can tell them, oh, it's like this. I can tell them I got a new client or I got a new customer and they lose their mind. Like anything that dad does, they just love it. You're the hero. Yes. I love that. It's fun. Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, when my kids were, my kids are now their youngest is 13. My oldest is 23. And, uh, but when I started, I have a marketing company as a, as a, another sister company to orange whip. But when I started that 10 years ago, my two youngest, yeah. Anytime I did anything, they would, they were my biggest cheerleaders. They were wonderful. It was, and I miss that age when, you know, they were two and four when I started the company. Miss it. Yeah. Enjoy. Enjoy that age.
Chris Hines: It's a good age. If there's one tip I want to give the founders is I had to work on this a lot. Yeah. I think you have to get good at celebrating yourself by yourself. Um, that was something I had to really learn because it's kind of like, you can get so stuck in trying to build a business and trying to make this improvement and figuring stuff out. Cause there's always more that we want to do. That's right. That you forget to take care of you. That's right. Um, one thing I started doing is my favorite thing is hotels. I just love going to really nice hotels, trying to room service. I love that. That's my favorite thing. I don't want to take anybody.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, that's just like your reward. You're like, okay. I had a great great day. I got a win I'm gonna go check out. I'm gonna go do an a weekend stay over here.
Chris Hines: Is that what yeah, that's And it's usually something really I have a whole list. There's really nice hotels like I want to go to the five-star places and try the food out and you know, just you know kind of relax, but I think that's kind of my thing and I also like the environment to of being in a I think certain places kind of motivate you and inspire you more. Just being in the right place. Like when I grew up and I was younger, I grew up in Compton, California, and we would, me and my brothers, we would go to like Beverly Hills. We didn't have any money to shop. We would just go over there. But it was something about being on Rodeo Drive and going into stores and just looking around that inspired me to like, I don't know, I feel like it always made me want to be better. It's like, I want a better life than what I have now. And this is what better looks like. When you go to Brentwood and you see those houses, it's like, OK, I want one of those. That's inspired for me.
Jennifer Sutton: It brings an energy. Yes. I think that's the whole thing of social media, the influencers of like, oh, you scroll. But Chandler and I, we're Instagram scrollers. We're like, we get sucked in. And we're, you know, oh, I like I want to go to the Amalfi, the what is the Amalfi Coast? Or like, that just that hotel looks glorious. Right? Oh, make my bucket list. Make my bucket list. I like I saw there was a something that just I put this on my bucket list to have because I didn't know it existed and nor would I because there's no way I could ever like I would have to do uh grow a lot more to be able to afford this but it's a in Canada at Vancouver up to the mountains it's this luxury train like old school like beautiful beautiful train that's all glass so you're going through the mountains with this like panoramic views you end up at the this resort but it's like um three thousand dollars a night per person To get to take this train to like get you to this like resort destination And then the train back, you know, it's like a seven day and it's required It's not like you can just do like a one day or two day. It's literally like you're there for seven days Wow, yeah see stuff like that. I think it's three thousand like well, no wonder I have like how come i've not heard about this i'm like well, no wonder it's out of my One day, though.
Chris Hines: One day. One day. That's my perspective on all of it is one day I will have those things. And I think it's good to have those kind of bigger picture things that you want in life. For me, it just helps me do the stuff I don't want to do in terms of working and being consistent and disciplined and all of that.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. OK, well, speaking of like the disciplines and the routines, do you have any like tips or tricks or things that you've incorporated into your, into your life that's like, OK, this stuff, I have to do these things to keep me organized or structured. I've got a little, you know, I've got a few things to like help me. I'm just curious of what, what you do.
Chris Hines: Um, so just, this is going to look crazy, but this, these right here are my different planners. So I have a different planner for each of my businesses and that helps me stay so organized. Like it, it's a game changer. Um, it helps me keep track of all the tasks I need to get done, what I'm working on, um, podcast stuff, content, all of that. And I like to do the handwritten stuff because it just has more of an impact. And it's something I've been doing since. Man in the past five years now, like I literally have a bunch of my planners from the past five years so I can go back and look at my progress on me and like It's crazy reading it sometimes because I remember writing about where I am wanting to be where I am now How did it go?
Jennifer Sutton: That's when you reflected. Are you there?
Chris Hines: Yeah, I mean with the agency specifically the fact that it's exactly what I described and like Honestly, right before COVID, that's when I was like, okay, I want my agency to look like this. This is what a perfect agency looks like. And now I have that where I can learn from my clients. I get paid. 10 times more than I was making then Literally 10 times.
Jennifer Sutton: I hope you celebrated when you were just the moment of you look back and reflected on that journal or that that planner and you're like Dang, I did it. You needed it. You needed to go to a hotel that night, right?
Chris Hines: yeah, but I think everybody should do this in like the handwritten version because That boost of energy you get when you go back and look at it. It's it's a it's a different type of joy and Some for some people I think it'll be relief because sometimes we feel like we're not making progress But then you look back where you were a year and a half ago, and you actually did make progress.
Jennifer Sutton: I totally agree Yeah, I've told this story a few times, you know when I did I uh started the agency which is which is bright it's a sister company um I did like a three-year plan you know brand the financials staffing like where I wanted to be in three years I la when I reflected on it after like the you know the fourth year I look back I was like I got to the financial goals uh which was amazing like almost to the dollar. I mean it was crazy how I hit the, but in terms of the number of clients that I thought and the size of clients, the type of clients, the staffing, I was off on the roadmap. to get there completely was it you know my my road was all over the place but I hit the the ended up the financial the KPIs of of that but it was crazy and then you know I did another like three year and then another three year plan but uh It's just, it's fun to look back to go, what has changed? We did that. We, we went through last year for the agency, kind of practice what you preach in terms of, you know, marketing, but what we do for our clients. Agency owners are, are We, we don't practice what we preach sometimes. And so we went, we went back and reviewed our mission and vision and our, you know, marketing and how we presented. And it was amazing after having like a whole nother team to kind of put eyeballs back on us. And we pulled back up our vision and, you know, mission and vision. It was like, Dang, it's just wordsmiths differently, but it, the context was still there. So it's like, okay, we're doing something right, you know. Right, yeah, that confirmation, yeah. That validation. But that's, but I, and I'm also a tactile person, like, I like to write things down. even though I know we try to get everything electronically, but I need to write. There's something about that of just taking notes. And I've told this story of kind of what my, I don't know, my journaling, because I don't do like, there's a lot of founders that I've talked to that journal like full out pages every day. I can't do that. I don't have time for that. Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. Especially when you're already doing like your, you know, your to do's, your tasks, we've got project management, people are coming at you like 1000 miles a minute. But I do this at night, I do keep a small planner journal, um at my bedside and before I go to bed I kind of clear out my head and I do answer three questions and I write them down as like what what was my moment of joy my my greatest moment of joy for the day and then I I answer what was the the um the thing that gave me the most anxiety or stress you know sometimes it's like uncomfortable conversations or Might have lost a client or you just, you know, maybe you've like, I messed up, I failed, you know, at something. Um, but just to get that off, I've written it. It makes me go to sleep better. And then the third one is what am, what am I most looking forward to tomorrow? You know, the next day and doing that daily. And that's been fun. I've been doing that for a little over a year and I love going back because the things that gave me. That I was worried about or stressed out about six months ago or a year ago, it's like, That's nothing. That's kid's play.
Chris Hines: Even if problems change on you, that's growth right there.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. And then things that you look forward to or you manifest or whatever, it's just fun to see some of that stuff come to light, but to track it. I mean, I think that's the most important thing is document it. Document your journey and a little bit of your life. especially as a founder and owner, CEO of running a business, those insights, I think, can just be invaluable and help with leadership and confidence and all of that. That's my two cents. So, okay, I asked this of everybody, and I'm curious of what your answer is going to be. If you had to sum up your founder entrepreneurial journey in one word, what would that word be and why?
Chris Hines: One word for this journey. So do you mean the journey so far, just everything that's happened so far?
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, yeah.
Chris Hines: Summary, huh?
Jennifer Sutton: Okay. Like if you had to go, I reflect back, this is my journey. What is one word that kind of sums up?
Chris Hines: I would say alignment. Because for me, I've been able to do this thing where everything that I do kind of ties into my bigger vision for the next 10 years. I have like a 10 year plan of what I want. And it's so interesting. I didn't realize how impactful this was. I made it when I was 25 and I'm 32 now. It's crazy that once I wrote that down and said, this is what I want it to look like at 35, I've just been able to add building blocks. So every product, every service, everything I'm able to do, all the events I speak at, even a podcast that I'm a guest on, they all align together. That is one of the things I appreciate most about my life is when I have to go and work, I'm never working on something or doing something I don't want to do. So when I was younger, I've worked in retail. I did construction. I worked with a trash company, worked with the city. I've done so many different odd jobs. At 25, I was like, look, I want to have successful companies that all work together. And I've been able to design my entire life that way. And I will always appreciate that. So alignment is kind of my work.
Jennifer Sutton: Alignment. I love it. So I, so you're the 99th founder that we've asked this question. I get a different word from every single person in that crazy.
Chris Hines: That is very interesting.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, yeah. And I love it. I love the fact that we all have different journeys. But it's interesting that we all seem to have very like-missioned outcomes and goals. That, like, freedom comes, freedom comes up a lot of, I want to have the freedom to make whatever decision I need to make, or whatever purchase I want to make. Um, that, that is, it seems to, you know, when you boil it all down of like the outcomes, but we all have a different journey word and I love it.
Chris Hines: Yeah. That's interesting. Out of 99 people. Wow.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so we'll, and we'll just keep asking. We're going to keep asking that question. All right. So, so you are, you know, been in the podcast world. I'm curious. What is, what's your favorite podcast? Like, what is your, like, is that hard? Is that like, like choosing your babies?
Chris Hines: I get asked this question a lot, a lot, because I've listened to, oh man, I listen to so many shows now. It's crazy. I think I have favorite shows in categories. That's kind of how I do it. Yes.
Jennifer Sutton: It's the same thing. Like I'm a movie TV fanatic. And so if someone says, what's your favorite movie? I'm like, which genre?
Chris Hines: Right. That matters.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. All right. So let's just, so what is your favorite one? Like, um, favorite podcast and like more lifestyle. Um, and then what's your favorite, like business podcast?
Chris Hines: Favorite lifestyle as a tough one. Um, I don't, I don't even listen to it. You know, what's weird about me is I actually cycle through my show list every three to four months. So I'm not like, I don't want to get in a bubble of like, I want to listen to the same thing over and over again. So I'm always changing it out. Um, one show I've been listening to consistently, uh, my first million with Sam Parr. I love that show. Um, I like, uh, James Wedmore. He has a really good show, the mind your business podcast. I love that show. Yeah. Yeah, I love those kind of shows for like entertainment and stuff I think Joe buttons podcast is hilarious and I just love what he does as a podcast host And that's Joe button. Yeah, Joe button.
Jennifer Sutton: He's been I'm not hurt. Okay.
Chris Hines: I need to look that one up Yeah, he's been podcasting since like 2011. It's been a long time.
Jennifer Sutton: He's like one of the firsts I
Chris Hines: Yeah. Yeah. He's up there with like Joe Rogan and people like that. Um, so I have a lot of various podcasts I listen to and then because of how my business works, I'm listening to 20 to 30 new podcasts every week. Oh wow. Like all the time I'm listening to shows and it's nonstop. Um, that's just how my company works right now. I love it though. I love listening to the new shows and you know, you get to consume a lot. Oh, and that's also why I have to change it so much too, because it's just a lot of listening. It's a lot.
Jennifer Sutton: Oh, my gosh. I would love that. Just the variety. Yeah. And the content. Well, that was my last question. This thing goes so fast. I'm always amazed how fast it goes. All right. So how do you want people to connect with you or engage with you or your company? How do you want to leave us?
Chris Hines: I like personal connections. On LinkedIn, you can search me on LinkedIn, Christopher Hines. Hopefully you could put a link to it in the show notes because my name on LinkedIn is The Coach Chris. I'm on Twitter, at Chris Podcasting. You can reach out to me there. Just send me a message if you have any questions about anything, about the software. If you need help with your podcast, I'm the person that gives away the courses and all of that stuff for free. My agency is so profitable now.
Jennifer Sutton: I just give all the wet ass to free like Well, we might have to look it up for ourselves We're taking notes Oh my gosh that that's fantastic Thank you for being a being a guest and I love talking with you and I hope hope we will continue our community building together Thank you for having me You are so welcome. Again, this podcast will be published this coming Sunday and available on all podcast platforms. So please subscribe and like and share Hello Chaos and help us grow and build a more connected entrepreneurial community. Again, HelloCast is one of the many resources brought to you by OrangeWIP. That is OrangeWIP for W-I-P, for work in progress. We are a multimedia company dedicated to serving founders and entrepreneurs in affiliate cities. We are 100% free. Just an email to join the community. We are in currently three markets in South Carolina, with goals to expand to be in 30 markets in five years. So go to our website, orangewhip.com, and find your city and subscribe. Check out the latest edition of the local magazines, the local digital zines. We featured, actually, Hello Chaos and all the founders that we've collected just over the last two years. And I think we highlighted the words, the variety of words. So, hopefully you… Go and take a take a read it was great if you like to be a guest on our podcast or support us in an email to Hello at orange whip calm y'all. Thank you for tuning in to hello cast It's where aha meets. Oh shit, and I am your host Jennifer Sutton JJ. We will see you again next week