"I expect that for 2022 and beyond that, many of the virtual practices that have become common these last few years will remain in place."
For almost 20 years, Chris Hanna has built and led game-changing cultures and award-winning teams. He’s been a leadership speaker, virtual coach, consultant, podcast host. Chris is the CEO of CashFlow Tribe, a Canadian company helping real estate investors and entrepreneurs unlock additional income streams, create side hustles and businesses centered around real estate. Anchored by a strong focus on community and results, CashFlow Tribe offers on-demand courses, events, and mentorship programs to help its members knock down barriers that hold them back from reaching their full potential and realizing financial freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Chris Hanna: I’ve been building and leading teams across various industries for almost the last 20 years. Whether in the car rental industry, IT connectivity, real estate training and education or as a leadership speaker or virtual coach, I’ve been passionate about developing high-potential talent and creating game-changing cultures. Never one to try new ideas and approaches, I’ve believed that everything we do as a leaders is a pilot. As a result, we have to continually evolve and rethink our approaches to leading and managing in today’s world.
In 2018 I was named a “Mover & Shaker” in Customer Experience as well in 2020, I was also named a “Thought Leader to Follow in Customer Experience by ICMI. Later in October 2020, the contact center team I led at StarTech.com was named the ‘Best Small Contact Center’ winner as also recognized by ICMI.
I’ve been a Featured Contributor, sharing my insights into the roles leaders have on both the Employee and Customer Experience as both a writer and speaker. I’m also the host of my own weekly podcast, The Chris Hanna Show, where I focus on helping people achieve more.
In 2021 I joined CashFlow Tribe, where I was promoted to CEO mid-way through the year. As a company, we focus on educating our members about how to successfully unlock additional income streams, with a big focus on real estate. With over 4000 members of our community, many of them have created sustainable side hustles or businesses, allowing them to escape the 9-5 grind and achieve financial freedom.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Chris Hanna: The last few years have certainly thrown several challenges at businesses and leaders. However, for companies to thrive in 2022, a few things need to happen.
- The focus needs to be on the needs of the customer. Businesses cannot afford to assume they know the answer. They need to connect with their customers and prospects to understand their pain points and offer a solution that meets their needs. It will be hard to win if they don’t have a customer-centric culture. What’s critical, though, is that the solution needs to be simple. When products or services are overly complex, it makes it harder for users to want to do business with companies. The simpler, the better, with a back-to-basics approach, is often what’s needed.
- Time is the most crucial resource that we have. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can never get it back. So the companies that can successfully monetize time, giving it back to customers, are the ones who are ultimately going to win. Look at a company such as Amazon; they win because they save you time. That’s what the essence of all businesses should be about: saving their customer’s time and closing the gap.
- Leaders need to rethink and evolve their approaches these last few years. It took significant global challenges to realize that many people crave workplace flexibility. In some of my pre-pandemic talks and discussions, I advocated that most people cared about workplace flexibility – being able to work when, where, and how they can be most successful. To avoid losing more great team members, businesses need to ensure they continue offering flexibility for their employees. The workforce has evolved, and so should many businesses in embracing location independence and realizing the 9-5, 40+ hour work week is going extinct.
Some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned are that people make a difference. As a CEO, important strategic and tactical decisions need to be made; what’s often going to help drive results more is connecting with and listening to your people, though.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Chris Hanna: Businesses should focus first on ensuring that they are always offering value to their employees. Without an excellent Employee Experience, the Customer Experience suffers, leading to challenges with growth and profits. In fact, my guiding leadership principle throughout my career has been, “if you take care of your employees, then they will take care of your customers, allowing growth, profits, and most importantly, shared success to follow.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Chris Hanna: Before the pandemic, we were doing more in-person events. After that, we pivoted to virtual events. Both have pros and cons, but ultimately, we found greater success and impact with in-person. As a necessity, virtual events work, but what’s more valuable moving forward is hybrid. Giving customers the option to choose what they prefer is the best way to go. It’s kind of like going to a restaurant. No one wants to be told what to eat. The same goes for events and education. Some people want to experience it live and in person. Others prefer a virtual experience. Another subset of customers wants to attend on their own time schedule, preferring on-demand or pre-recorded content. So we’ve adapted to offer a mix of options depending on the event.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Chris Hanna: When the pandemic started, I don’t think anyone thought it would go on as long as it has. That has been really difficult on a lot of people. The shift to working remotely was more difficult for some, exposing challenges with technology. As leaders, we cannot or should not assume everyone is a fit to work remotely. Throughout 2022 I’ve focused more on finding the right talent who is comfortable working virtually. More importantly, I’ve been working to improve onboarding and training remotely to ensure new team members are better set up for success.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Chris Hanna: I expect that for 2022 and beyond that, many of the virtual practices that have become common these last few years will remain in place. There is a certain level of convenience with being able to do so much from the comfort of your home or wherever you are. However, as the world has been opening up more, it will lead to more people traveling or looking to live life with more location independence and freedom. That alone is going to necessitate more online support across various industries.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Chris Hanna: Our company and staff at CashFlow Tribe are 100% remote, so I am often in front of a screen. Whether it’s Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams, there are many meetings virtually, especially early on with the pandemic. In time, we realized that we could drastically cut down meeting times by being more effective with the correct agenda and attendees. As a result, I’m still in front of a screen at least 6-8+ hours a day. To help break things up, I have been trying to do more work outside, going for walks or doing it from a different location. Armed with just a laptop, it is possible to work from anywhere.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Chris Hanna: While most executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the office, which I do as well, I tend to lean more on a few other tactics.
- Sports metaphors – Depending on the person (as you need to know your audience), I will use sports and poker metaphors to help illustrate various points. For example, as a Canadian leading a Canadian company, I love hockey and often speak in hockey terms to help get the point across.
- Leverage music and videos – Working remotely, we aim to kick off important meetings and discussions with music or inspirational video clips from popular movies. There are many great examples to pull from YouTube to help you get the point across or theme a conversation. I am very deliberate about the lyrics of a song to help illustrate a critical point. For example, Kenny Rogers’ famous song, ‘The Gambler,’ was used during a meeting when I talked about stopping an initiative that just wasn’t working out for us that was draining resources. “You need to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run.”
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Chris Hanna: In North America in particular, we’re in the midst of what’s become known as The Great Resignation. More people are leaving the traditional workforce in search of something more. As a result, it’s getting harder to retain specific talent. That’s a challenge to keep staff motivated and in it through the long haul, especially when there is adversity or challenges. This is why I believe CEOs and leaders need to prioritize the Employee Experience now more than ever. If we don’t produce the type of environment where people want to show up versus feel the need to show up, many businesses will be in trouble.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Chris Hanna: I’ve just recently gotten more exposure to Crypto and NFTs. From my limited insight so far, it’s clear that those are critical for individuals to know more about. Whether through courses, mastermind events, or just trying to figure it out on your own, it’s vital to learn more here. I see the ability to use NFTs as a tool to help generate additional revenue and flip specific industry processes on their head, with real estate, too.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Chris Hanna: As a leader, whenever someone leaves the organization or team, I must always point the finger at myself. What was my role in their departure? Is there anything I could have done differently? Were they set up for success? Did they feel empowered, appreciated, or valued?
I hope that leaders see the data and think about what they can do differently, but I fear that too many old-school leaders look at people like pawns on a chessboard. Unfortunately, there are still quite a few terrible leaders who haven’t realized that they need their employees a lot more than they think. When employees are thought of as replaceable or that there isn’t an impact, it often leads out-of-touch leaders to continue making the same mistakes that drive people away. What’s often worse, though, and not talked about are those who “quit and stay.” They are mentally checked out, not aligned, and don’t care. More often than not, they pass that negativity on to others and create a poor culture. The reason it goes off the rails is that everything begins with leadership.
Leaders need to not just run once or twice a year engagement surveys, but they need to take action on the feedback given. Hold regular 1:1s and touchpoints while also finding ways to celebrate growth, results and learning opportunities with their employees. It doesn’t need to be all cupcakes and parties either. Engagement can’t be bought. It needs to be genuine and authentic, and everyone needs to know that the leader cares about you, professionally and personally.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Chris Hanna: Great question – CEO’s are responsible for the vision and strategy of the organization, so the business superpower I would love to have would be to see the future.
Having that ability would give me the insight to know when to pivot, what to introduce more proactively than reactively. The more proactive we as leaders can be, the less chaotic changes will feel in the business, leading to a stronger culture and results.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Chris Hanna: Success to me means happiness.
Happiness is about loving what you do and having the freedom and flexibility to be the authentic you. I consider being authentic one of the ABCs of Success. All leaders need to be Authentic, Bold, and Confident. When they do, they will be more successful as they are their true selves.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Chris Hanna for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Chris Hanna or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
