Episode 29 - Overcoming Obstacles and Thriving as Entrepreneurs With Chelsey Wood

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Libby with Fearlessness. What's fearlessness? It's that underlying grit that empowers us as entrepreneurs to forge ahead.

[00:00:07] Even when hope seems distant, it's that courage to walk through the fires of hell knowing that we're not going to just come out stronger, but better on the other side.

[00:00:15] Stay tuned and learn how to get fearlessness. I'm your host, Libby DeLucien, and I have a very special guest today. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?

[00:00:26] Hi, I'm Chelsey Wood and I am the owner of Spotless Shine. We have a residential and commercial cleaning company based out of Granbury, Texas, which is near Fort Worth.

[00:00:36] And our motto is that we hope to add a little shine to your day. We do that by serving humbly, intelligently, nicely, and exceptionally. Nice. And how long have you been in business? Eight years. This would be our ninth running year.

[00:00:52] Eight years. Nice. So you made it over the five year, you know, statistic that 99% of them fail. I would say the first two years I wasn't even really a business. I was just learning the industry and learning how to be a cleaner.

[00:01:06] And then about the third year mark was when I actually started being the real entrepreneur and really focusing on the business end of things.

[00:01:16] So I like that. So like the first two years, let's talk about the first two years. I think there's a lot to be said in that, right? Like how we start. Do you know we start, we just we just start doing it, start cleaning.

[00:01:31] So tell me about the first two years and then what was the thing that shifted it to say, you know what, now I want to be a business. You know, for those that may be solos out there trying to figure it out.

[00:01:41] So I originally started cleaning because I was trying to finish school and I was working as a Head Start teacher. I had certificates, I had an associate's degree, but I was making $11 an hour.

[00:01:54] And it was just gruesome because I just wasn't making enough money. I was struggling in school. And so I had a horrible boss before we had a great boss and he was awesome.

[00:02:07] And then it shifted and we had a boss who was not a good leader, who was very negative. And after two years of her, I was like, I can't do this anymore. I'm I can make more money cleaning and I'm way better at it.

[00:02:21] And I'll know why I'm doing it and how to do it better because I went to school to become a science teacher. So I originally started this with the thought of teachers don't make enough money anyways. So this will be my side gig.

[00:02:34] Well, after two years, I finished my degree, my second associate's degree. And then I took a year off to kind of just focus on myself and have a break because it took me six years to get the degree.

[00:02:50] So I took a year off and then I re-enrolled to finish my bachelor's program and I was also pregnant. So I was like seven months pregnant. And so I re-enrolled for my bachelor's program and then I had this epiphany that I said, you know what?

[00:03:06] I think this is the wrong decision. Like I just had this gut feeling that was eating at me that I was like, I don't think I should pursue this education path.

[00:03:16] I really think that this business is going to thrive and this is the path that I need to put all my ducks and eggs into into this basket instead of splitting them.

[00:03:27] So that was really just that epiphany of, hmm, I can become a teacher and make forty five thousand dollars a year to start out. Or I can become a business owner and pay my staff forty five thousand dollars a year starting out. So that was that pivotal shift.

[00:03:45] And then it really did happen within a year later. One of my staff made forty eight thousand dollars not including tips.

[00:03:53] And that to me was just like mind blowing that not only does this business support me, but it supports other families and not just minimum wage poverty level. It supports them with actual median income wages. So that was my transition and just I was like, wow. So.

[00:04:17] I mean, I think it's pretty compelling to hear the story because they say that statistically we change careers, not jobs career paths as an adult, like four or five times or four times in your lifetime.

[00:04:31] And I think that that has now up since covid because of the job hopping and people changing jobs.

[00:04:37] But to hear like that you have formal education and that you still decided to go with the route of owning a cleaning company, I think the trades because we'll consider cleaning a trade.

[00:04:50] It's a skilled trade and we don't talk about that much in cleaning that we're actually a trade because we're skilled labor. That there's so much money and potential in the skilled trades sector versus paying for formal education just for a certificate.

[00:05:09] You know, I think if you want to be a doctor or lawyer and you know exactly what you want to do, I just had this conversation with my 16 year old last night told him to clean his room. And he's like, but I have to do my homework.

[00:05:19] I want me to go to college, right? I'm like, I don't care what you do. I'm like, he's like, you don't clean. I'm like, I don't care what you do if you go to college or not.

[00:05:30] He's like, mom, I said, sweetie, I'm you're not going to just go to just go and come out with debt. I'm trying to convince my oldest daughter who is 17. She wants to go to school for marketing and online web design.

[00:05:42] And I'm like, you don't have to go to school for that, honey. Like she could intern with somebody. I'm trying to convince her, but she is just like dead set with, you know, grandma says that I need to go to school for this.

[00:05:54] And I'm like, no, honey, you don't because you're going to make the same amount of money as you would with all this debt as you would just coming in and experiencing it and learning it. So she just needs to intern.

[00:06:06] I can hook her up with Drew from Larison Media owns a marketing company actually does a lot of marketing and residential cleaning and long care industries. I just got off the phone with him before we started filming this. So I'm like, nice. It's great.

[00:06:19] Love love to get that so she can at least have those opportunities and those resources available to her.

[00:06:26] And I think school is great for some people, but I don't think that as the norm, you know, they go to public school and public school pushes them to go to college. I think like I'm super close with Roger Wakefield and he's huge in the trades.

[00:06:40] He's more in the high skilled labor where it's plumbers and welders.

[00:06:46] But the amount of money that kids can make is probably the same or more if they would consider skilled labor options or even interning options where, OK, I might have to work for free, but I'm learning for free.

[00:07:06] Versus maybe I'm going to go to college and pay to go. I've taught my son he owned he owned he doesn't own well actually owns his own little marketing company that he does marketing now for all organizing all the locations and two other cleaning companies. Nice.

[00:07:21] And it was solely taught by me teaching him how to do it for organize it. And then he fell in love with it and has now since taught his he teaches himself keeps himself up on all the newest software and AI and technology.

[00:07:33] But I love this topic of you went to school and you still chose to go with a cleaning company. Don't you love it when you introduce yourself and they're like, what do you do? Oh, I own a cleaning company and they're like really.

[00:07:47] We don't call our cleaners just cleaners and I made is a dirty road in our company.

[00:07:52] It is a dirty word so what I have come up with and it took me quite a while to come up with this, but the last conference I went to there's like oh, so you have made and I'm like no, no, no, no.

[00:08:00] We have cleaning professionals, but you know we do provide made service, but we're not maids, but we were made to shine.

[00:08:06] So that's kind of my little comeback is we're not maids, but we were made to shine and it's just like me like I went to school to be a science teacher cleaning is absolutely science.

[00:08:17] So I don't teach you know 7th graders science. I teach adults and I teach homeowners, you know proper cleaning methods, proper chemical dilution, pH balancing, you know different types of materials.

[00:08:32] The bone scale of hardiness like that's my favorite one of what things will scratch certain surfaces and just that kind of thing.

[00:08:40] I educated a builder the other other week, you know and I was like no, no, no don't do it that way. Do it this way so that you don't scratch the surface and so of course he didn't listen but.

[00:08:53] But I love that like you're not just teaching 7th grader science or teaching adults how to clean and cleaning is a science and we know that now. From covid has taught us that cleaning isn't just about aesthetics cleaning is so much more than it just looking clean.

[00:09:11] One of the things I took off after covid I mean we fought we fought hard to stay open we fought hard to regain because you know half of our clients canceled, but then we got every single one except for one client back and then we doubled with by May.

[00:09:28] We had doubled our services and then it became the challenge of okay I've mastered how to clean and I've mastered how to market but now I have to master how to lead people and improve systems.

[00:09:41] And that was when I joined the cbf program was right after covid happened and really started and we're still working on those systems because everybody wants to be complacent and they want to do it their way once they're in and it's like hey guys.

[00:09:55] We're a team we are a company we have these processes and these things for a reason and then today I had to tell a cleaner hey instead of telling a client what they should do soft skills you need to suggest to them what they might want to do say I would suggest or you might want to instead of telling them they should do.

[00:10:15] Good.

[00:10:19] She's very blunt and so just like oh I saw that little message through our house call pro app because we see what they say to the clients and I was like oh that's going to come across a little bit too too rough let's let's tone it down a little bit.

[00:10:34] Yeah if they take your suggestion it doesn't work out if because you told them to do it and it doesn't work out or they don't like they're going to blame you versus a suggestion they're going to decide whether they want to do it or not that's the same rule applies with coaching so if you're like business coaching or mentoring or a life coach.

[00:10:54] Or even with professional organizing I cannot tell when I was organizing the field someone what to get rid of cannot tell you that's outdated or you should throw that away because if they do and they regret it then that emotion is tied back to the company exactly back to me.

[00:11:10] I can only make suggestions and ask questions for them to think on another level.

[00:11:16] And I think that is a great you know topic because so many of us business owners we don't teach soft skills like I realize a wood recruit so you know I own a cleaning company but I also would recruit.

[00:11:30] You know cleaning company we had pretty good soft skills but we recruit is it more of a techie company and I realized like all the all the all of our staff is super techie and they lack soft skills.

[00:11:41] And so we do soft skills training we were doing it every week and then now we moved it back to biweekly and then we're going to move it back to monthly monthly because they were super fast and efficient to fix something but it didn't relate to our customers.

[00:11:55] Because it was too techie it was too technical and in business it's interesting because I what I have to work on my soft skills. But I have to work on my soft skills.

[00:12:08] I do too so I definitely learned how to work on my soft skills and you know being that business professional you go oh I can't say what I really want to say to you. No I have my.

[00:12:21] Water down just a little bit and that way you know you still come across as a professional and I think having our cleaners titled cleaning professionals helps them embody that persona of no we're not just cleaners you know we're not just this low tier entry level worker.

[00:12:39] Like we actually and I tell them like you guys know what you're doing you know why you're doing it and you know how to do it.

[00:12:46] I said so that is what I want y'all to understand and you know relay that to those clients and then not every client the right client you know if they treat you poorly and. And you know you feel like they're treating you less than.

[00:13:00] We'll get rid of them you know so I'd rather keep the cleaners who make me more money than a client who belittles them because again we know that a cleaner can provide more value than one particular client can.

[00:13:14] And it's always always the cleaners fault always always when something happens. Always the cleaners fault like I don't care if something goes missing if the house smells like pot like if there's oil on the driveway like I could just keep going.

[00:13:32] Oh yeah it's always the cleaners fault it's pretty amusing and we have a great retention at our at organize it but the other day it was pretty funny.

[00:13:43] We are clear got accused of someone said your clear smoking weed in my house and then that's when lippy gets involved I barely get involved and the cleaner was so upset. Your college son that came home what happened.

[00:14:00] That happened for us to so we like this cleaner was seven months pregnant and she was crying to my my ops manager that it wasn't her she's like i'm pregnant like I can't believe the lady if I wanted to smoke pot why would I do it in her house.

[00:14:16] She's like I have my own house she goes but i'm pregnant like I would never do that like. Anyways like oh gosh and come to find out it was one of it was one of the kids is in the house. sneaking around because mom wasn't there.

[00:14:33] Dad was traveling and what better than to blame it on the cleaning tech I said we get blamed for everything like yeah we got somebody misplaced passports and I had sent a Hispanic cleaner and automatically they took my passports and i'm like they're legal they wouldn't take your passports like.

[00:14:51] You know they're they are a authorized person to be here they don't need your passports I promise you. yeah so if you are a house cleaning customer and you're listening it's always the cleaner's fault but it's typically not the cleaner's fault because.

[00:15:07] They would know like they're going to get caught if they're doing some there's camera even my the cleaning tech that got accused of smoking the weed in someone's house she goes.

[00:15:15] She was miss Lisa because Lisa is the one who's handling she goes tell her to check the camera she has cameras everywhere. So we have clients I tell my cleaners I said the biggest thing that will get you in trouble is your mouth.

[00:15:25] I said i've gotten myself in trouble with my mouth I said, because not only do clients have cameras in the house they have speaker boxes in the house and they are listening.

[00:15:35] I said you know so I said, you have to watch your mouth you cannot speak illy of the client you cannot give your opinion of the house and it's judgment because if you do while you're in that customer's home they're going to know.

[00:15:49] So and the other part Chelsea is we're paying our cleaning technicians over 44 40,000 50,000 a year right that isn't minimum wage they don't actually need to steal. No they don't like most of my cleaners drive nicer cars and I got.

[00:16:08] And so I had a renovation subcontractor contractor he goes how much do you pay your girls and I was like 20 $20 an hour about and he was like they all drive nice cars and i'm like well yeah because they get paid well and they get to and from their jobs like I need them to be reliable.

[00:16:27] Yes, so I mean I think it's funny like the topic like you coming from.

[00:16:33] That formal education background to choosing to go into cleaning then encouraging your child saying like hey maybe you don't need to go that route maybe you can go this route there's other ways and then going from seeing all that then to.

[00:16:48] I think the stereotype that trades whether you're a cleaning technician or you cut lawns we the trades get put into even in long carry here my friends say oh you know the sprinkler broke and they're going to blame it on the lawn care company or something happened and oil in the driveway it's their fault.

[00:17:09] Is you know, we still get some of those stereotypes and I love how you then kind of flip it with your staff to say you're not a maid you are made to shine. We do the same thing we call our cleaners we call them technicians yes.

[00:17:26] What their texts that's the short term the technicians because if they're at a restaurant and it's Saturday night there at a club or a bar and they meet somebody I want them to be proud of what they call themselves.

[00:17:38] And not say oh i'm a maid or i'm a cleaner no you're technician you're highly skilled trades.

[00:17:45] So another thing that a client actually told us is that cleaning is an art and so all of our cleaners are also artists, so we have different ones with different artistic skills.

[00:17:56] Like I can do metals all day left and right and get them you know i've done some brass metals copper metals getting the patina right it's hard.

[00:18:04] But it takes you know practice to get it right and then I have another cleaner who's fantastic at glass I leave streaks she gets it streak free and i'm over here cussing doing touch ups on a piece of glass on a post construction i'm like why am I doing this to be the one here.

[00:18:23] yeah and they are we've had customers say to us that our cleaning technicians or it's like watching a symphony. Because they all have intentional movement intentionality to their movement.

[00:18:35] And I was like oh wow like that's a really good explanation of our cleaning techs so you know I think that it's it's great so anyone that's listening you know.

[00:18:46] Going through what you went through like paying for education getting a few certificates even having your daughter consider that you know if anybody's questioning should they go back to school or.

[00:18:56] Should they go back to school or if they're doing a side gig right now like how did you talk yourself through that like what are some suggestions that you could give others.

[00:19:05] So I would suggest you know schooling is not always the best option but always invest in yourself so just like how you do you invest in learning.

[00:19:15] You can take conf go to conferences get mentorship mentorship get business coaching that is the equivalent to going to school you are learning how to better your skills.

[00:19:29] And your business is your grade not you know your grade you're going to get how your business is doing how your business is thriving that's going to tell you how much you have retained from learning that knowledge and that information.

[00:19:44] So you know every year I go to different conferences and I do the coaching programs my grandma's like that's a waste of money and i'm like but the business is growing.

[00:19:53] And now she's starting to see she's going oh because I could take four days off and the company isn't going to crash without me. Like when I went to Arizona this is the first time my goal was to go a whole week but I went four days.

[00:20:08] And I only had to have contact with my manager who we call her a shine success coordinator because she coordinates things and then our top tier cleaners.

[00:20:18] Their detail specialist so they know that above and beyond they pay attention to those details they can lead a team they can do quality checks and then that was another thing is just.

[00:20:29] Giving them that position and trusting them to do it and then instead of me going and doing quality checks I send them I say hey you're in the neighborhood.

[00:20:38] Can you go do a quality check on so and so's house okay great they gave me the feedback but then I took it another step further I said okay now you're going to go do another quality check before they finish at the next house.

[00:20:49] And then you're going to give them feedback from you know what you had to correct at the first house but then you're going to make them correct their things at the second house.

[00:20:58] And just give them that constructive criticism and that's one of the big things that we're big on is you know we're not criticizing you because you're not doing good.

[00:21:07] We're going to give you constructive criticism so you can do better and that has really just made a big difference. In not only our company culture but our retention rate too because they feel empowered.

[00:21:22] You know and like I said we're trusting them to do their job but also trusting them to lead others and that has been just pivotal. Well you know what they say is the true sign of a leader right is the ability to create other leaders.

[00:21:40] Yes so I would say i've read john maxwell's book 21 laws of leadership and just like that law of the lid like you can only do so much by yourself.

[00:21:50] But you add others and then you grow and that one was just like i'm like okay now i'm getting this you know like i'm trying to learn everything but i'm not getting anywhere. Oh let's teach others how to do this you know so.

[00:22:07] And it's not even just teach others it's let's let go of control yeah and give them the we have to let go of control first.

[00:22:16] I agree so i have to minimize my micro managing skills just a little bit and just kind of like or turn my phone off and ignore them if they have a question.

[00:22:27] Sometimes I just don't i'm learning to not put out all the fires and most of the time they will figure out what they need to do. So it's it's been a challenge but it's definitely it's working so.

[00:22:44] Yes and so I love that the micro managing part in the putting out fires because I always say and I was so guilty of this the organizer side of me was like i'm the only one that can do this and no one can do it better than me.

[00:22:56] But I was my own bottleneck I was my own problem and then I had to learn to give up control.

[00:23:02] But then if I didn't know how to do something I would be I would then retreat back to like oh well i'm just gonna go make some cute binders and organize them because i'm comfortable with that.

[00:23:13] But it's easy I know how to do it instead of saying like I may not know how to do this but i'm going to lean into my team.

[00:23:20] And see if they can help me figure it out see if I can empower them to find the resource versus kind of just going back to that comfort level of only knowing what I know.

[00:23:34] But I love the fact that you had said ignoring the text and I know that feels to our listeners like mean or like oh my god how could you ignore them.

[00:23:46] But what we mean by ignoring the text is you cannot always be the source of all truth or all answers because then we're not giving our team the ability to think freely and independently.

[00:23:59] So if you're ever asking yourself like why can't my why they keep asking the same questions well because you keep answering them.

[00:24:04] Yeah you keep holding their hand through it and they're never going to learn it on their own because if you let them learn it on their own they're gonna go oh I had to put effort into this so instead of the quick oh let me do this let me do this.

[00:24:18] So I had told a cashier at H.E.B. he kept giving his other aisle all of the produce codes and i'm like if you let him look it up.

[00:24:26] I said he's going to retain those a lot faster because he's not only going to have to read it but he's going to have to go through that pain of learning it versus relying on you to do it for him so.

[00:24:38] Absolutely yeah and then you know going back to that what is the worst thing what's the worst thing that's going to happen if you just kind of let it burn. Most of the time nothing like. Nothing.

[00:24:52] Yeah most of the time you know it's nothing happens you know they may get frustrated and I have one cleaner who asked me questions a thousand times a day.

[00:25:01] I literally have her on silent because i've told her several times setting those boundaries is hard i've told her from 7am to 1pm you need to reach out to our manager after 1pm to 7pm you can reach out to me but after 7pm please don't message me.

[00:25:16] And so now i've literally because she doesn't follow those boundaries I just have all of her notification silence so she calls me I don't get it if she texts me I don't get it like i'm not blocking her but I have it on silent so that when.

[00:25:31] And then I decide is this worth answering or not or is she going to figure it out or remember hey here's the process of what we're supposed to do you know and reach out to the other resources and because we have our shine success coordinator.

[00:25:46] And we have the other cleaners who they can help you know with questions or issues so. yeah I love that and you know Chelsea has an advantage because her last name is shine. I actually that's not actually my last name.

[00:26:01] Oh well that's on the end of everything yes so here's a funny story i'm actually going through a divorce and so my name is Chelsea wood but a while back my Facebook had gotten hacked and I had to create a new one and the primary thing that I use Facebook for is for marketing getting people relationships and so I said if my last name you know is shine people are going to recognize it better.

[00:26:26] And then here's the most comical thing ever that my lawyer just loved so I never knew my dad my original last name is stone i've never known him could care less to ever meet him and so with my fedora's I said can I actually get my alias name as my last name because I want to choose that because i'm married to my business anyway.

[00:26:51] So you're changing your last name to shine. And i'm requesting it to go back to change my last name officially to shine because I don't know if I will get married again that's far fetched and if I do then I don't know if i'll change my name.

[00:27:04] I was like well that's not fair her last name is shine. nope so that's kind of my running joke is i'm married to the business so. It was funny because for the longest time, my real name is not Libby. Yes.

[00:27:20] it's not kind of where I got it from was from following you and then going home.

[00:27:26] And for the longest time my last name was not delusional now it is my husband's last name, but my real name is Barbara Elizabeth Garcia I did recently hyphenate my last name so now as Garcia delusional which was a mistake because it's a hassle. Because it's a hassle.

[00:27:41] it's long.

[00:27:42] flying and it's long and did they put the hyphen is there a space between the hyphen because then they can't find my reservation and so Libby has always been my nickname so I went by Libby delusional for the longest time and it's nowhere on my name as a legal name I call it my stage name.

[00:28:00] it's your stage name and Libby's just my nickname i've had it since I was a kid growing up is I didn't give it to myself.

[00:28:07] But it's not my real name so it's funny because you know I do things and they're like low Libby delusional and then they're like we don't have that we don't have anybody by that name and yeah it's me yes.

[00:28:18] Yes, so my coach coach here i'm from she does house call pro and does is a conquer coach and she's also in Dallas women professionals but. yeah I know her as my.

[00:28:28] yeah I followed her for years since I joined house call pro and that was literally my first introduction into like business development was through house call pro and I was amazed.

[00:28:39] At how much a software company gives back to grow their business leaders you know because you know when they grow we grow we grow they grow.

[00:28:49] And I've you know she's been my mentor for years, but then I went to the conference in January and I was like okay got to get back in coaching because i'm getting too trapped in being in the business not working on the business so so she's got my name hyphenated with wood hyphens shine.

[00:29:08] Yes that's awesome I love that so it's great because you can you know you can rewrite anything you want right you can rewrite your past you can write your future and as far as like our names yeah I just stuck with Libby delusional because honestly I liked it.

[00:29:28] It was i'm the only Libby delusional in the world now there's no one with that name is really easy to get the URLs.

[00:29:35] But I like how you use shine to really lean into your business and it's memorable because people can remember your company then remember your name and they associate you with the business so that was a good good move one of the things that we recently did last year,

[00:29:51] Good one of the things that we recently did last year so we had our values and our mission statement but then I was like you know what our motto has always been we hope to add shine through to your day.

[00:30:02] How can we accommodate this to literally have that anagram of shine so it's serve humbly intelligently nicely exceptionally so that way it's easier for the cleaners to remember what our mission statement and values are.

[00:30:16] And then I got this from a Howard partridge coaching conference he did the disk training and he had bracelets you know that said you know what personality or well again we want to add shine to your day so I started creating these and they say I shine because.

[00:30:34] And then you fill in the blank so we give these out to all of the kids the teenagers even adults and then they actually glow in the dark so that was a thing that my t-shirt gal who does all by branding for me she's like I can get ones that go in the dark I'm like that is perfect.

[00:30:48] And it's just so empowering because we have a mental health crisis and when I created these we had had like two suicides back to back in the high schools and it was just.

[00:30:59] It was two different high schools it was the regular high school and then a private Christian high school so it's like doesn't matter you know which you know schools are going to it's still affecting them the same.

[00:31:10] So I wanted to promote positivity positive self image you know give purpose to these kids and it just goes perfectly with our business and then adapting the mission values and statements to that it just.

[00:31:24] It's flowing so good and I'm like this this is going to kick off so amazing so yeah it's amazing owning a business and how we can you know make an impact in our community no matter.

[00:31:36] How big or small the businesses or the impact so that's great so before we wrap up Chelsea what would you what's the what's the advice you would give anybody who is just starting out.

[00:31:50] I would say you know definitely ask questions no question is too dumb and so I started by asking my clients questions I started by asking what do you do.

[00:32:03] How do you make your money if you can afford these services what do you do what would you suggest some of my clients are actually their business owners and they're my mentors.

[00:32:15] And then also I posted this on my Facebook is you know winners are people who are not afraid to lose so you are going to fail you're going to hit you know some bumpy courses you're going to hit rough waters.

[00:32:31] But you know push through those because you're going to have your bad moments but then you know through all of those bad moments you're going to learn lessons so always you know take those bad moments as expensive experiences. I love that I call them expensive experiences experiences.

[00:32:53] So I love that so and you know to end on this there's no there's no losing there's only winning or learning.

[00:33:02] And so guys, that is a wrap into the heart of fearlessness remember every step we take is a move towards our own strengths and courage keep walking through those fires because on the other side of it lies a version of ourselves that's unstoppable.

[00:33:17] I'm libby reminding you to embrace your fearlessness until next time stay brave stay bold and keep pushing forward.