Scale Your Business with Virtual Assistants: How High-Performing Entrepreneurs Buy Back Their Time

In this insightful episode of The Nathan Newberry Show, host Nathan sits down with Chris Kille, founder of a virtual assistant company that helps entrepreneurs scale by buying back their time. Chris shares his entrepreneurial journey, from washing windows as a kid to building multiple successful businesses, and reveals how virtual assistants became the key to his business growth. Discover how high-performing entrepreneurs can overcome the time management challenges that keep them stuck on the treadmill of daily operations.

The Entrepreneurial Journey: From Hustle to High Performance

Chris Kille's path to entrepreneurship began like many success stories—with a natural drive to hustle. Growing up in a small Pennsylvania town, Chris was always looking for ways to make money, from washing windows and delivering papers to flipping comic books.

"I've always kind of been out there grinding and hustling ever since I was a little kid," Chris explains. This early entrepreneurial spirit would eventually lead him to start multiple successful businesses, including a payments processing company that he's currently in the process of exiting after nearly 19 years.

However, Chris's journey wasn't without challenges. After graduating college, he struggled to maintain traditional employment:

"I couldn't keep a job coming out of college...I'm not a very good employee. I'm very opinionated, and it's taken me a long time to actually grow a filter."

This difficulty holding down jobs eventually pushed him toward entrepreneurship out of necessity. After becoming the top sales representative at a payments company, Chris discovered their compensation plan was predatory. When he confronted management and threatened to reveal this to other employees, he was immediately fired—leading him to start his own payments company on May 12, 2005.

Like many entrepreneurs, Chris found himself on the "treadmill" of business ownership. Despite building a successful company, he was spinning his wheels, moving sideways instead of forward. This all changed when he discovered the power of virtual assistants.

Defining High Performance Through Time Control

For Chris, high performance isn't just about working harder—it's about having complete control over your time while still achieving your goals. He defines it as:

"Being able to have complete control over your time and your schedule while still living the life that you want to live...making the money and changing lives, having the impact that you want to have while still being able to do what it is that you like to do."

This definition highlights a crucial insight: true high performance isn't measured by hours worked or even revenue generated, but by the quality of life you can maintain while achieving business success.

Two key traits Chris identifies in high performers are:

1. Fearlessness and tenacity: "When you start a company, it has to work. You're going to find a way to make it done. You're not going to quit. I will keep doing it over and over and over again until I find the way that's going to work."
2. Continuous improvement: "If you sit back on your heels and say 'Hey, I'm good, I'm fine here,' you're doing everybody around you a disservice...It should be everybody's goal that wants to be an entrepreneur...to build something as substantial as they can because that's how you're going to be able to help as many people as you can."

Chris structures his day around these principles, time blocking his schedule to ensure he maintains focus and continues improving. His current daily routine includes:

• Morning exercise
• Daily meeting with his executive assistant
• Learning time (currently focused on sales training)
• Networking calls midday (Tuesday through Thursday)
• Sales calls in the afternoon (aiming for three appointments daily)

This structured approach helps him maintain both productivity and personal well-being—essential components of sustainable high performance.

The Virtual Assistant Solution for Scaling Your Business

Chris's breakthrough came when he discovered virtual assistants in the Philippines. After struggling to scale his payments company, he decided to explore this option, though it took time to find the right approach.

"I could have hired somebody else, but at the time I thought it was too expensive, and me being stubborn, I said I'm going to figure it out on my own... What ended up happening was, because I learned how to do it, I was able to replicate it over and over again."

The impact was transformative. Not only was Chris able to "scale the hell out" of his payments processing company, but he also discovered a passion for connecting entrepreneurs with virtual talent. This led him to start his virtual assistant company four years ago.

His approach differs from many virtual assistant services in several key ways:

• Focus on high-level talent: "We don't work with entry-levels. We're not training them up. We're coming in with 10-year established people."
• Better compensation and culture: "We're able to give them more money than they can get anywhere else, a more independent workspace, just a better culture overall."
• Quality over cost-cutting: "What we find is we attract the best of the best for that reason, and that makes our life so much easier."

For entrepreneurs just starting out, Chris emphasizes that virtual assistants should be one of the first investments they make. He references Dan Martell's "replacement ladder," which positions executive assistants as the first hire entrepreneurs should make. By delegating tasks that don't require their unique skills and vision, entrepreneurs can focus on moving their business forward.

This approach addresses one of the fundamental challenges entrepreneurs face: deciding between continuing to do everything themselves or taking the risk of hiring help. Virtual assistants offer a solution that balances quality and affordability, allowing entrepreneurs to scale without breaking the bank.

Building a Remote Team with Global Impact

Beyond the business benefits, Chris found profound fulfillment in creating opportunities in the Philippines. While his payments business was financially successful, he describes it as a "necessary evil" that became too commoditized to remain fulfilling.

In contrast, his virtual assistant company allows him to make a meaningful difference:

"Not only are we able to help my clients here, but also we're really changing lives in the Philippines. A lot of those guys and gals over there, they don't get treated very good, and they get paid even less."

Chris's commitment to this mission is evident in how he structures his team:

• Fully remote work environment (after discovering an office space was "the worst money I've ever spent")
• Annual team retreats (increasing to twice yearly) where team members gather for recognition and celebration
• A vision to impact 1,000 people in the Philippines—"I want to make them rich...whether that's financially or in their life from a fulfillment perspective."

This global impact has become the driving force behind Chris's business, demonstrating how entrepreneurship can combine profit with purpose.

Advice for Entrepreneurs at Every Stage

For entrepreneurs at different stages in their journey, Chris offers targeted advice:

For those just starting out:

• Avoid shiny object syndrome: "Keep one focus, try to keep one product, one offer that is something that's easy to fulfill on your side."
• Delegate early and often: "Get stuff off your plate early and often."
• Use a delegation checklist: Chris offers a free guide to help identify tasks that can be delegated, available by DMing him on Instagram (@chriskille).

For all entrepreneurs:

• Manage your time effectively: "It all really comes down to time management in my opinion."
• Focus on continual learning: Chris dedicates specific time blocks to learning, currently focused on sales training despite already being highly skilled in this area.
• Maintain physical discipline: Having grown up playing sports, Chris found that physical fitness was a way to "outlet a lot of my frustration and my anger," which carries over into business discipline.

The core message for entrepreneurs at all stages is clear: your most valuable resource is time, and learning to leverage that resource through effective delegation is the key to sustainable growth.

Conclusion: Buying Back Your Time for True High Performance

Chris Kille's journey illustrates a critical lesson for entrepreneurs: scaling a business isn't just about working harder—it's about working smarter by focusing on what only you can do and delegating the rest.

By partnering with high-quality virtual assistants, entrepreneurs can break free from the operational treadmill and dedicate their energy to strategic growth. This approach not only leads to business success but also allows for the lifestyle freedom that many entrepreneurs seek when starting their ventures.

Whether you're just beginning your entrepreneurial journey or looking to scale an established business, the principles remain the same: identify what only you can do, delegate everything else, and structure your time to maximize both impact and fulfillment.