Will Christensen With Entrepreneur’s Apprentice

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Will Christensen, and he is the co-founder of Data Automation and founder of Entrepreneur’s Apprentice. Welcome.

Will Christensen: Hey, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Uh, tell us about your work. How are you serving folks?

Will Christensen: So there’s two places, but the main thing is I teach people my framework called automate, delegate, eliminate. And I am helping them scale and, uh, run their businesses more efficiently. Connect different dots on one of the original gangsters. From the standpoint of automation, I’ve been doing automation since before it was a buzzword I actually applied to be like the seventh member of Zapier. If you’ve heard of that mainstream company, and they ended up turning me down, and I ended up becoming a key partner of theirs in the early days of their growth around helping companies get on their platform. So got a lot of experience automating, delegating, and eliminating.

Lee Kantor: So what is your backstory? How did do you have that? Just from scar tissue of trying a bunch of stuff, or did you learn from somebody else?

Will Christensen: Great question. So I’ve always been inherently my wife would probably say lazy. I call it efficient. And as I kind of dug into this idea of being efficient and considering all of those different pieces, I just got off on this idea of of making things easier. And so I’ve always looking for the the next way to, you know, let’s make this a little easier next time. Let’s make this a little easier next time. And I graduated from college. It’s about let’s see 2025 Almost 20 years ago. Graduated. I graduated 20 years ago from high school, but college in 2010. And when I when I graduated from college, I went and took my first job and I was the low man on the totem pole. And I did 18 hours of copying and pasting every single week. So like half of my job was copying and pasting to make these big old reports that we would send off to our clients. And, and I was like, this is really dumb, why are we doing this? And they were like, this is the lifeblood of our business. Our clients keep us hired based on how well we do our reports. And so I was like totally bogged down with that.

Will Christensen: And I thought, you know what? I don’t really like this. I don’t know if I like this job. And it was all in Excel, and I was in my boss’s office and I was showing him some of the manual process that I had done, and he showed me a Vlookup and a light bulb went on for me. I was like, Holy crap, if Excel can do that, what else can it do? So I taught myself to code. I became an Excel wizard of sorts and automated all sorts of stuff in that job. Took my 18 hour process down to two hours and fell in love with this idea of making things more efficient. So fast forward several years. I started an automation company before it was cool to have a digital operations company, and we have helped in the e-commerce space and the law space and all over the place, um, connecting different dots. So it’s been quite the journey, and now I’m focused a lot on the delegation side. And, you know, like I mentioned before, the 15 115 rule, all of those different things. I’m digging in and teaching people automate, delegate, eliminate.

Lee Kantor: So the lesson is to if you want something done, hire the laziest person on the team.

Will Christensen: Uh, yeah, you nailed it. So if you hire the laziest person on the team.

Lee Kantor: They’ll figure out the best way to get something done.

Will Christensen: You know, it’s interesting that you say it that way because they have to be to be lazy but driven, which I think is a unique combination. Like I am driven to get things done more efficiently, which might be considered lazy, but like in a healthy way I guess. Yeah, that’s an interesting observation.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, so you, you get the bug to say, okay, I’m going to figure out how to leverage technology to get things done more quickly, easier for however you want to describe it. How did that kind of turn into okay, now I’m going to teach other people this number one and number two, who are the kind of low hanging fruit for this, because not everybody really wants that. Some people take pride in taking a long time to do work and and grinding.

Will Christensen: I think the interesting thing that I’ve discovered is those who insist on doing it manually have not yet tasted the fruit of having some of those things automated, or they’ve automated in such a way that it actually damaged the product. Very common for people to to get overwhelmed or overlook at different pieces of what’s there. Um, I’ve seen some amazing things, um, happen when people open their minds to kind of considering that. So the person who I think is most adaptable and ready to consume that information is the ones that are the ones that are trying it out for themselves. Um, and, and testing things and signing up for new products and considering how things can, can work. The tinkerer, so to speak. Um, and I think the, the way that you help the individual who is more conservative and less interested in trying that new stuff is by showing them the time output opportunities, um, for what’s there, because there are lots of wasted human hours out there today in the world that shouldn’t be Shouldn’t be done by a human.

Lee Kantor: Now, who is your ideal client? Is it that kind of solopreneur that kind of has a taste of this, but kind of is overwhelmed by all the possibilities? And would you know, sometimes you need help, but sometimes you need a helper, you know?

Will Christensen: Yep. So so my experience is the individuals who I can help the most are the overwhelmed entrepreneurs who are having a tough time keeping up with sales and fulfillment. So they, you know, they’ve gone out and sold a whole bunch of stuff, and now they’ve got to go fulfill that, and then they’ve got to run back and get the sales pipeline going. And they’re kind of going back and forth between those two. Those are the individuals that I can have the greatest impact on. Um, because I’m able to, um, help them see where they’re challenged and create a pathway for growth. Using automate, delegate, eliminate. Um, and we do that with an entrepreneurial cloning chamber, actually.

Lee Kantor: And what does that mean?

Will Christensen: So the entrepreneurial cloning chamber is, uh, a program that I’ve created. It’s community meets staffing meets coaching meets apprentice. So I call it Entrepreneurs Apprentice. And basically, we clone an entrepreneur, um, first physically. So we, we help them find a young entrepreneur who has the aptitude to lean into risk, to pay attention to detail, to care about this company as much as they do. And it’s the perfect, um, first step towards letting go of the business, because I found that if you just let go and hand it to someone like a VA, oftentimes that VA is not as invested as you. They’re just there to do the 9 to 5 thing and be done. And so it can be quite difficult to get some of those different things to play out the way you want them to. Whereas in apprentice, with our With our guidance, we we guarantee the relationship success.

Lee Kantor: So how was that person, um, compensated? Is it they are going to be the successor or they are just paid an hourly wage?

Will Christensen: Great question. So, um, they actually get a stipend from Entrepreneur’s Apprentice. They’re at 1099. And that’s on purpose because we’re helping them take on their first client as an entrepreneur, essentially. So they invoice us and then we invoice the, um, entrepreneurs on a monthly basis and support them both in the relationship. Um, and so that’s kind of how the, the model comes together. Um, I tell people it is a great idea to show that entrepreneur that you’re willing to put a piece of the business out there for them to, um, consume and or become an owner of, um, if they’re willing to, to push in that way. I knew we were on to something when, um, one apprentice, about six months into her apprenticeship, turned to her mentor and they had been doing payroll together, and the mentor had had been taking pay cuts for the past couple of months because the business was struggling. And she turned to him and said, I think it’s my turn to take a pay cut. And I about lost my crap when I heard this story because I was like, wait a second. She cared enough about his business that she was willing to let go of her ego and even some of her money. She was like, you told me that I should treat this like it’s my own business. And if it’s if you’ve been taking a pay cut for the past six times, I think it’s my turn to take a pay cut. And so it’s just fascinating to see her level of commitment and drive to, to grow and help that entrepreneur.

Lee Kantor: So what is your kind of day to day look like? Um, it sounds like you have a bunch of different tools at your at your disposal and a bunch of different initiatives that you have. Kind of leveraging some of those tools. So what is kind of a day in the life of will look like?

Will Christensen: Well, right now it’s a lot of discussions like this one. I’m I’m guest podcasting. I think I’m I think you’re my third podcast today. Um, so today’s an abnormal day. I don’t usually have three podcasts in a day, but I do record, um, for my own podcast. I record 3 or 4 episodes. It’s called automation Hunter. Um, and I also record two episodes for another podcast that we started a year and a half ago called, um, Monetizing Your Mental Capital. And that’s more around e-commerce and helping, um, e-commerce sellers, uh, with that side of scaling the business. And so I spend a fair amount of time on calls like this, podcasting. Um, and then I also meet with individuals who are my ICP ideal customer profile, as well as systematic referrers of those individuals. So anyone who’s, um, getting in contact with overwhelmed entrepreneurs on the regular. I meet with them as well. Um, and tell them about the business and, um, you know, get lots of referrals that way and connect those different dots. And then outside of that, I’m supporting the mentors and the apprentices as they work together.

Lee Kantor: Now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the EOS model where there’s visionaries, and I think it’s called integrators. Um, it sounds like you have a you’re kind of a flavor or a, a taste of that is inside of your methodology. Uh, can you explain, for those who aren’t familiar, kind of the different roles of the entrepreneur and the kind of the person that would be delegated to.

Will Christensen: Yeah, absolutely. So so there’s two different books I’ll pull from here. So one is rocket fuel, and that’s the EOS system. And you have visionaries and integrators. Visionaries are those individuals who have big ideas. They’re about selling things. They’re they’re kind of that future thinker. Often the visionary is the visionary is the one who starts the business. Not always, but often. That’s the individual who starts the business and they’re trying to figure out how to scale it. But in order to achieve any sort of scale or make any money, they actually have to do it well. The doing it part doesn’t light them up. It actually really frustrates them. And so they need to find somebody who’s an integrator who can kind of fill that other side. So Michael Gerber, in his book, he talks about three different individuals the technician, the entrepreneur and the manager. And the technician handles the now, the manager handles the past and the entrepreneur handles the future. And so it’s similar to the visionary in the integrator. And the integrator handles the now and the past and the visionary handles the future. So so whether you’re whichever side you’re you’re more familiar with these apprentices that we find in any individual for that matter, even if you don’t hire an apprentice, they need to be a get or done kind of person. And so I love asking people that question like, are you more of a get or done person or an idea person? Which is a really tricky question because everybody wants to be both, right? Everybody wants to be both. But I found that the ones that are most honest and will open up and say, you know what, I ideas are not my strongest suit. I like them, they’re fun, but I just I don’t have this like unending flow of ideas coming from me. I’m more of like a let’s get this crap done kind of person. And I found that the person who answers in that way is going to make a decent integrator. Um, and there’s several other things you should test for, but that’s a decent beginning indicator that you found the right sort of integrator.

Lee Kantor: And then you are kind of a matchmaker in finding the right visionary for the right integrator, and vice versa.

Will Christensen: Correct. So individuals who come to me and they’re looking to try to figure out, you know, where to go about that process and what to look at look at that they are. Um, often they’ve hired a VA and it didn’t work out. Or they haven’t hired a VA yet, but they’re pretty confident they’d mess it up. Those individuals, um, or even they’re just looking to to to see whether or not a VA is the right pathway. Those individuals come to me and I give them a Colby test. Colby. Um, and, uh, that Colby test tells me a lot about the things that light them up, the things that give them energy. Um, so it’s it’s different from a true personality test. It’s more of a modus operandi test. So the way that they function in the world. Um, after we give them that, we then matchmake them with somebody who is their opposite.

Lee Kantor: Now, earlier you mentioned a 15 115 rule. Do you mind sharing a little bit about that?

Will Christensen: Yeah, absolutely. So uh, 15 115 is a methodology that I came up with. And I just added something to it today. So I’m excited to this will be the first place that I’m, I’m debuting another piece to the 15 115 role that I think is going to be pretty powerful. So, um, what you’re what you would do is you get out a sticky note and you put that sticky note on your desk, and you and you write 15 115 at the top. And the 15 115 is to remind you to write down anything that is taking you more than 15 minutes a day, more than an hour a week, or more than an hour a month. So you’re writing down 15 one one, right? So 15 minutes, one hour, one hour. Then the last five is do it five times manually. So 15 115. Um, after you’ve written it down, you’re then going to start doing tally marks. So let’s say it was like invoicing and you’re like, well, I do invoicing once a week and it takes me about an hour. So each week you would write down those tally marks when you got to the fifth tally mark. So if you’re if you’re doing tally marks, you get one, two, three, four, the diagonal tally mark.

Will Christensen: You need to do it without a keyboard. So you go find, uh, there’s there’s several different voice, uh, apps that you can use where you can talk to your computer instead of typing. Um, and it’s kind of an annoying thing to do, but take and this is the part that’s new. This keyboard keyboard trick is new. Take the keyboard out. Um, like like set it to the side and only use your mouse and only use, um, beyond the mouse. Uh, this voice typing technology and anything that can be done without touching the, um, keyboard means that it went straight from your brain into the computer. That’s going to be a harder thing to automate. That’s probably a more delegate task. If you’re touching the keyboard, there’s probably an opportunity, because then you’re taking it from an app inside the computer to another app inside another computer. You know, you’re copying and pasting. You’re you’re digging into some of those different pieces. So. So I guess if you’re not using the keyboard, no copying and pasting either, because if you’re copying and pasting, that’s that’s an indication that there’s probably a good opportunity to automate there. So that’s 15 115 with the no keyboard rule on the fifth try or fifth manual attempt.

Lee Kantor: And then that helps you kind of build these standard operating procedures, uh, for the most important activities you’re doing.

Will Christensen: You nailed it. So so the that part is actually key to the entire process, because once you’ve done it five times manually, then you actually have enough information that you can write that standard operating procedure. If you haven’t done it five times manually, you don’t know enough about the IFS, the thens, or the buts that are going to come up in that process, and you’ll automate something that doesn’t need to be automated because you don’t know how often things are going to come up in the process. And if you try to automate it, it’s not automatable well, write down the SOP and hand it to somebody else to do, and you’ve delegated it.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, say there’s somebody listening here that’s like, you know what? Uh, that idea person. I need someone that’s a getter. Done person. I’m going to contact Will and his team. What does that kind of first conversation look like between you and that ideal prospect? What? What are the questions or homework you’re going to give this person so they can ensure that this is going to be a good fit for both of you?

Will Christensen: Yeah. So the first questions I’m going to start asking them are things like tell me a little bit more about the biggest pain in the business. And if they just start to describe a pain where they’re trying to chase their tail between sales and fulfillment, um, that’s an immediate okay. Yeah, there’s something here. The other thing I’m gauging on that call is, is this person humble enough or coachable enough, um, that they’ll listen. And so that first call is often a coaching call. So we get really clear on what it is. That’s their long term vision and what they’re trying to do. Um, if the individual that I’m working with is not currently bringing in enough money to make ends meet or look at those different pieces, sometimes I can help have a sales boot camp that we put people through. Um, but a lot of times that means they need to struggle or find a niche that that works a little better before they come to me. Most of the time when they’ve come to me, they have, um, a system that’s working. They’re making a decent amount of money, but they’re like, I can’t even keep up with all the business like I got, I got I’m completely overwhelmed, um, with some of what’s there. Or, um, I know I could keep up with the business if I could figure out how to get my sales pipeline to go. Well, and I already have 3 or 4 clients. I just need to figure out how to scale that up. So those two different scenarios we dive into. What’s the bottleneck? We look at, you know, what is it that you’re really facing. And most of them come away saying, you know what? I’m the bottleneck. And if that’s true, we can help you.

Lee Kantor: And then once you all agree that, hey, this could be a fit. How long does it take to see kind of noticeable results? Is this something that you got to be in for a year before you start seeing anything? Or is there clues early on that this is working and that you should kind of be doubling down?

Will Christensen: So, uh, there are clues early on. We actually have a six week guarantee. So you put down a deposit, and if at any time during those six weeks, you’re like, yeah, this isn’t for me, we refund you. No questions asked. So, like, we’re that confident in the first six weeks that you’re going to find and see results, um, that we that we guarantee it. So and the reason for that is we don’t allow people into the program who aren’t going to succeed. Um, so we we vet out entrepreneurs who are willing to change and grow, um, and connect some of those different dots so that we, you know, get to a place where everybody’s happy. The the key indicators for success that often people find are just raw time saved. If you think about a new employee, they often don’t make real impacts till like month three. Not so with an apprentice, because an apprentice is meant to take on tasks that are ambiguous that you didn’t even know how to do yourself. So go change my domain name on G-suite or Google Workspace from Equity Comm or excuse me, from Web Services net to equity. Com that was the first task I gave to my apprentice when I brought her on three years ago. And she said, do you know how to do that? I said, no. She said, I guess I’ll go figure it out. And she did. So. So did she take down the email server? Yeah, for 15 minutes. But she knew to call my cell phone. And she saved me five hours of time that I would have had to go in and figure that out myself. Did it take her five hours? No. It probably took her, like ten. But it but it didn’t matter because she saved me five hours in her first week.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the best way to connect? Website.

Will Christensen: There’s two places to connect with me. One is on LinkedIn. So just William Christiansen. And if you if you type in William Christiansen Data Automation or William Christiansen Equity Hammer, you’ll you’ll come right up. Um and then equity Hammer. Com is my website where I describe several of the different ventures that I’m working on. And there’s a spot where you can, um, connect with me there to talk about an apprentice.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we wrap up, I have a question about the apprentice side of things, and it sounds like an important component, but what is for the young people out there that are listening? What are some things they can be doing to get on your radar when it comes to something like this?

Will Christensen: Absolutely. So if you go to Equity Hammer Apprentice, there is a really extensive, um, questionnaire. It’s like 13 questions that you have to fill out. And that’s how you start the process of going to the pool and kind of connecting those different dots. So if you are that young entrepreneur and you’re like, man, I want to mentor, um, I encourage you to, to come and apply for the program and know that it’s, I mean, it’s only 3% that actually make it all the way through to the end, but don’t let that discourage you. Dive in. Um, I’ve been very, very impressed with the level of candidates that are coming through the pipe. Um, and we’re working on other offerings for the other 97% to, to help them better their skills and better their aptitude to connect with mentors.

Lee Kantor: Are these people in college right now or in school right now? Are they graduated? Like, where are they at in their kind of career when they are kind of intrigued by the apprenticeship.

Will Christensen: Early career, slash college? So I’ve got a guy who just graduated this last year, and he’s been doing like a grocery store thing in between to kind of supplement while he’s doing his apprenticeship. Um, I’ve got others who, um, they’re not going to school at all. This is just what they’re doing. And I’ve got others still that are doing 18 to 20 credit hours and still managing to keep a mentor very happy with the level of support they’re able to provide while they’re going to college.

Lee Kantor: And any advice for the entrepreneur out there who maybe is not ready for your services but would like to get better at this kind of, uh, automation delegation elimination strategy? What are some low hanging fruit for them?

Will Christensen: So the first thing I would tell that individual is it’s probably a good idea for you to consider going and getting the $20 a month plan on, um, ChatGPT. Um, the advanced mode is, is pretty amazing in there. And, um, it’s good enough that it, it does all sorts of cool stuff. So like if I were to, you know, bring advanced voice mode to this podcast and say, hey, advanced voice mode, like, tell me, you know why? Why should an entrepreneur use you to get better at automating, delegating, or eliminating?

Will Christensen: Three steps freeing up more time to focus on strategic growth. It’s like having a personal assistant to enhance your productivity.

Will Christensen: And I could, like, have conversations with you while I’m driving in the car.

Will Christensen: Exactly. That.

Will Christensen: Being said to stay productive on the go.

Will Christensen: Well, thanks for being on the podcast. Do you mind saying hi to Lee for me and and hi to the. Hi to the listeners.

Will Christensen: Sure thing.

Will Christensen: And hello to all the listeners. Thanks for having me on the podcast.

Will Christensen: Great.

Will Christensen: So that was completely unplanned. Um, but but I’m trying to point out to you that if you’re not already using AI, that’s 20 bucks a month. If you can afford 20 bucks a month as a business owner, you got you got bigger problems than that from that side of it, right? There’s a product issue at that point. Um, but but that’s that’s the sort of automation that’s at our fingertips right now. And if you want to coach, that can help you get better at automating delegate and eliminating 20 bucks a month. There’s one of your back pocket.

Lee Kantor: Well, well, thank you so much again for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Will Christensen: Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.