IAM1310 – CEO Focuses on Fulfilment Instead of Success

Christan Hiscock is on a personal mission to change the conversation in the business world, moving away from the pursuit of success, to focusing on fulfillment instead. Because if you’re fulfilled, success is a given, but not so much the other way around. You’ll often hear him saying, “You mean more than you know,” because he believes that as people learn to understand their worth, their fears fade, and amazing feats become reality. He considers this the foundation for all his achievements as the Co-Founder and CEO of Kardia and leader of 16 thriving companies. Through Kardia, which means heart in Greek, Christan is determined to bring more heart into the business world.

• CEO Story: Christan was exposed to the business world in his early teens. Completely fascinated with building things, growing, and achieving high levels of success. And so he was focused on learning the business ropes since then. Worked in the financial industry, after which, built his financial group company Kardia.
• Business Service: Impact on the community by building real estate and supporting the community.
• Secret Sauce: Social impact. Thinking about how it will support the people, the community, and the world.
• CEO Hack: Hire that role early before you think you need it. Take time, if you wanna grow. Book Recommended: 5 Love Languages of Love
• CEO Nugget: You mean more than you know. Treat people as they actually are.
• CEO Defined: Holding the vision for the company is going. Clear and focused on the vision.

Website: hellokardia.com

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Transcription

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00:19 – Intro 

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:46 – Gresham Harkless 

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Christan Hiscock of Kardia. Christan, it's great to have you on the show.

00:55 – Christan Hiscock 

Oh, I'm so excited to be here with you.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless 

Yes. I'm super excited to have you on, and you're doing so many awesome things. So before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Christan so you can hear about a little bit, the awesome things that he's doing. Christan is on a personal mission to change the conversation in the business world, moving away from the pursuit of success to focusing on fulfillment instead. Because if you're fulfilled, success is a given, but not so much the other way around.

You'll often hear him saying you mean more than you know because he believes that as people learn to understand their worth, their fears fade, and amazing feats become reality. He considers this the foundation for all his achievements. And as a co-founder and CEO of Kardia and a leader of 16 thriving companies. Through Kardia, which means heart in Greek, Kristen is determined to bring more heart into the business world. Christan, great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO  community?

01:49 – Christan Hiscock 

I am so excited. So again, thank you for the bio.

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01:52 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. Well, thank you for doing all the hard work. Reading the bio is a little bit easier. So, what I wanted to do to kick everything off was whisper the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:02 – Christan Hiscock 

Wonderful. Well, for myself, I was always been kind of excited and enthralled really with the entrepreneurial world. I was I went to an event when I was about 13 years old that my mom was at, and they were talking about business and the opportunity to grow. And it just my eyes just lit up. Like, just like, wow. It's possible to build things and grow and achieve, these levels of success at that time are what I would be talking about. And so I just put me down this mission of like, just really learning and understanding how business runs and operates. And so, I've kind of focused on just learning about business in general over the last years.

02:38 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And obviously, you've been involved in leading and charging ahead with so many thriving businesses. I imagine that there are so many lessons and tools that you learn along the way that probably have helped you, I guess, build a better map trap in terms of how you're looking at business.

02:55 – Christan Hiscock 

Totally. So when I first got started in the business when I was I was primarily doing, like, just odds and end businesses. I had, like, a little vending machine, like, a box that was put into, like, you know, different mechanic shops and things like that. So I'm just learning kind of the basics. But then moved into in my early twenties, I was recruited into the financial service industry. And just really fell in love with that aspect of helping serve families. Like, I remember we'd sit down with families. They'd be in the complete red negative. And, you know, within a meeting or two, we're able to turn their thing around and get them into black and get them moving and, you know, seeing people in front of me crying about just, like, the transformation.

By not things special that I was giving, it was literally just education. And so through that process, I realized if we can educate and teach people and not look down on people, we can really create a massive movement and impact in the financial industry. And so I did that for years, but then also started getting involved in the business's end business development. And so about 5 years ago, almost now, we came together to start a company called Kardia Financial Group is what it was at the very beginning. We had a mortgage brokerage, financial advising, investment advising, these types of things. And it was all for that purpose of how we bring heart to the very much stagnant and transactional industry, which is the financial services industry.

So we named our company Kardia, which is the Greek word for heart because we wanted to bring that heart-centered approach into that business, which was really exciting. And then over time, really what's happened is we've just realized that this way that we building the business, it became more about what type of business it was and more about how we operate the business. And so now we talk about how we create heart-centered companies. And so we do a lot of talks on that, research, writing papers, and writing, articles about it. And now we've kind of  Kardia as a whole is not just a financial company. So we've now just called ourselves Kardia. We have real estate finance.

We own a little chocolate shop in a small town. We're big into the Ecotech space. So technologies that help with the environment and move things forward. And so all of them are run by this principle of how to build a heart center company, which is what excites me, and drives me every day to get up and try to make a difference out here. On my personal side and personal life, I really talk about fulfillment as a metric of our lives because fulfillment is about all aspects of our lives and becoming the best version of ourselves. On the business side, I'm speaking specifically about entrepreneurship. It's about doing good and making money at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive. How can you make that business more of a heart-centered business? They'd be looking at connecting it with some sort of a charity, or organization.

So, for example, I'm on a board of advisors of a fantastic organization called Space for Humanity. They do some amazing things when it comes to this thing called the overview effect helping people make mindset shifts and utilizing this whole idea of space travel as part of their their tool. But for us, like, some of my businesses, one of them in particular, our technology company is actually aligned with them to pledge five percent of our profits to that organization on an ongoing basis. So as we scale, they also get to have renovated generate from it.

From their perspective, why we say it is strategic philanthropy is that they're also willing to now promote us and wanna talk about us and what we're doing because it aligns. And so you don't necessarily have to be the work that you're doing. Doesn't have to necessarily be that impact you're talking about, but how do you use that to support other people? And that's what we've done. And that that business specifically, I talked about eco. We actually are making a lot of impact just by the business itself. But again, how can you look at linking things and doing good and making money at the same time as we've said? It's about creating that impact with the work that you're doing. Right?

There's a lot of work being an entrepreneur, being a CEO, building businesses. It's like, let's make sure that work is not just gonna put money in our bank accounts because, at the end of the day, that doesn't necessarily serve the greater purpose. What is that money doing? What is the purpose of doing? So put some meaning behind the work that you do. So you can look into that relationship and fulfillment. Right? So, like, in a relationship, you might be a person that got if you ever read the famous book, Five Love Languages. It's just so powerful. If you're listening to this and you're in a relationship of any kind, it means every one of you gotta read that book. One of the all-time classics.

06:54 – Gresham Harkless

So I guess, could you take us through I know you touched on a little bit how you work with your clients, how that process works, and what you feel is kind of, like, what I like to call your secret sauce and what you feel sets either you individually apart or their organization and makes you unique.

07:05 – Christan Hiscock

Yeah. So I think for us, what we've done within Kardia as a whole is that we've kind of created companies, that are focused on the people first, the kind of stuff we've been talking about. It's focusing on what's kind of the impact that we can make in the community around us, or the international community. Right? So all those things need to be part of it. So I'll give you an example of a couple of our businesses. So one of them, we talked about a lot, which is I'm in partnership with the fantastic business partner Carolyn Gallardo, and we have Kardia Communities.

And so Kardia Communities is all about building projects that are based on real estate, and looking at how we can support the community from bringing, you know, good housing, affordability, but then also bringing with our partnership with our other company called Kardia EcoTech, which is our CEO's guy named Al. He brings in searches and finds technologies like farming containers. So we have, like, a farming container, for example, that produces a prude produce. That can be good food, natural, good substance that we can then sell into the communities that we're in can the boxes be on one of the Kardia communities properties that we have as a ranch, right, as an example?

And we're kind of looking at creating sustainability. Within that Ecotec. We're also looking at putting a solar plant on one of our properties. And so all of that, that's very directly related to obviously making an impact, social impact. We're looking at affordable housing models with this energy. Like, it's very clear that that bam. That makes sense. But now on the other side, what I've talked about why it doesn't necessarily matter the business is Kardia also owns a chocolate shop. Like, legitimately, we make chocolate in a chocolate shop locally, and we sell it in a town. People look at it, you're just selling chocolate. What's the power of that? But for us, it's like, okay. But everything we're doing, we're buying that. We're structuring it. One, we're treating our employees fantastic. Right? Giving them the opportunity, and we're serving them.

And then how does that impact the community? Well, guess what? Talked about strategic philanthropy. So we're looking for nonprofits. We're looking for organizations that have part-time raising money for their organization's patience because it's really hard as a charity. That's the biggest thing. You're always asking people for money, but they're like, well, what do they get in return? Obviously, they get turned into feeling good, but for a lot of people, it needs to be tangible to get a lot more. So we're looking at partnerships with not local nonprofits to say, hey. Send your send your donors and send your people who wanna support you over to the chocka shop. Get them to buy their Valentine's Day stuff and their Christmas and Easter chocolates from us, and we'll give you a percentage right off the top to your nonprofit so that you can actually have a revenue source by them buying chocolate.

So, like, that's an idea of thinking of, like, yes. I have an eco-business and real estate that's very clear, but I also have a chocolate business and it's doing it's still making a social impact. And because we're utilizing those tools. So that's kind of the example of the differentiator is that anything that we're doing, we're thinking, how is this gonna be supporting our people? How support our communities? And then also how does all of it working together support the international support this world to help us grow and become a more sustainable place.

09:58 – Gresham Harkless 

Nice. I absolutely love that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:12 – Christan Hiscock 

So for myself, I think really, and this depends on what scale. So I'll give you an idea for, like, if you're a CEO and you have a company and you have a component is, and you're or you grow about to grow a company. Right? I'm way more efficient because the teams have built around me. So first off, I have hired an executive assistant who has worked with me for several years now. She's one of my first hires, actually. So a lot of people look, they build something, then they build it. But I hired early because I realized I needed my brain capacity to focus on the impact I wanna make.

And a lot of this other stuff that's happening, like scheduling meetings, like, even meeting you and not booking this. None of this. I actually just met you for the first time because the whole team's taking care of all of this behind the scenes. And now I get to have this great conversation with you. But I haven't thought of emails and this and that. So I think a hack really is to hire that role early before you think you need it. Because I feel like you'll you'll just expand and whatever cost it takes for you to hire that, you'll recuperate by just freeing up that brain capacity. So I think that's a big one for someone that's scaling and growing the business and going through, for everybody then.

So whether you're growing a business or a solo entrepreneur, maybe you don't need an executive assistant because you're just doing this scenario or you're whatever the listeners are. The other hack I would say is to take time. Like, if you wanna grow and go take time off. Right? Like, don't be the badge of honor that I never take time off. I never get sick. I never do this. Like, I've done interviews when they're telling me this. I'm like, well, I'm gonna make you take time off for one if you work here. Right? I'm gonna make you go and go spend time with your family or go on vacation or do these things. So for you as an entrepreneur, don't sacrifice like that. I don't I don't believe in this hustle culture, this grind, grind, grind. You waste way too much of your impact by doing it. I'm not saying go slow. I'm a massive visionary. I wanna accomplish major things on this planet.

I just actually totally without a shadow, don't believe. By taking time off, I go faster because I free up that capacity to not just be living in exhaustion all the time. I meet with so many entrepreneurs, they're just exhausted because they just always go, and that's what they've been told to grind. So that's another hack. Take time off. Literally just I'm not working. Turn your phone off. Whether you're an introvert, go and just be by yourself in the woods or go for a hike by yourself for, like, a day and just take it off. If you're an extrovert, shut off your phone and just go hang out with friends and just, like, not think about it. And trust me, it'll regenerate you to be able to do your impact work even more than when you step back to it.

12:29 – Gresham Harkless 

I love that, that hack. And you might have already touched on this, so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So there's a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

12:46 – Christan Hiscock 

I think this one's relatively easy for me. I think it'd be a saying, and it would be, you mean more than you know. And so I actually have that as a tattoo on my arm so people who are watching the video can see it. You mean more than you know. And why I say that as it's like a CEO or a nugget for you is because you mean more than you know, guess what? The people around you mean more than they know. So what that means, if you really internalize that, you realize, hey. I gotta treat people, like, the way that I feel that they actually are. But don't assume that they know that you love them in your personal relationships.

Don't assume that you think your employee thinks that you are working hard. Express it in ways that make sense to them. And to you, obviously, say it to them. But if there are people that like gifts, like, buy that five dollar Tim Hortons or Starbucks card for somebody. Right? Like, just really realize that people have value and that it's your job as a CEO and a leader above all else to empower your team members to see their value and their worth. So that's what I would say for sure because they mean more than you know, and you definitely mean more than you know.

13:49 – Gresham Harkless 

Nice. I absolutely love that. I might have to get that tattooed on myself too because I think that's such a great message.

13:55 – Christan Hiscock 

Yeah. One of my friends did too, actually. He's not he has it on his arm now too. It's pretty funny.

14:00 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. It's so powerful because I think, as you said, it creates such a strong ripple effect. Well, now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:13 – Christan Hiscock 

For me, what CEO means is that I am holding, the intention. I'm holding the vision for where the company is going. And so because of that, I keep a deep responsibility to protect that and to keep it strong, keep it focused, and keep it very clear for people. A lot of people have confusion in the business. They don't even know why they're there, what they're doing, and what force. So we need a very clear directive of what you're doing, and why you're doing it. And you as a CEO are to hold that vision. So I think you're a visionary. I think you have to be. And I think you have to be a person who's willing to hold it and then also inspire other people to push that vision forward.

14:49 – Gresham Harkless 

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Gresham, I truly appreciate that definition, and I, of course, appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you, your team, and find out about all the awesome things you all are working awesome.

15:05 – Christan Hiscock 

I love it. Well, you can find me on all social media platforms, at Christan Hiscock. But if you go to my website, it's all there. So christanhiscock.com, c h r i s t a n, h i s c o c k, christanhiscock.com. Then you have my social links, and you can follow me there. I post videos and you'll have articles that are going on the website, and we're in we're actually upgrading that all right now too in the process. So you'll be linked to some of the pieces I've been featured in and different articles. I write. And then on the company side, it's Hello, Kardia.

Kardia with a K. So hellokardia.com. And that's where my website is that talks about the different ventures we're going on and the people that are involved and all that kind of stuff too. So there are two platforms, and I'd love to hear from you. Right? So jump on my website. And if you have questions or thoughts or, opportunities to share,  ask questions. I'm open to being able to do that or even on my social media platforms.

16:00 – Gresham Harkless 

Nice. I definitely appreciate that. And so, of course, making it even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you and connect with you, find out about all the awesome things you all are working on, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:11 – Christan Hiscock 

I love it. Well, thank you very much for having me on the show. It's a true honor.

16:14 – Outro 

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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