Full Transcript for Streamlining Systems & Strategies to Scale Your Business with Diane Lam

sometimes they don't. 00:04:28.259 --> 00:04:31.160 And I've come across a lot of business owners who say exactly what you said. 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:39.509 I hired a lot of people, but they are still kind of CEO slash, coo, managing a lot of different parts. 00:04:39.509 --> 00:04:44.661 When you peek behind the curtain, what is it through your eyes that you see? 00:04:44.661 --> 00:04:49.182 Is it they're using too many different types of software? 00:04:49.182 --> 00:04:54.190 Is it something in the execution that their people should be doing Like? 00:04:54.190 --> 00:04:55.637 What does that look like to you? 00:04:56.430 --> 00:05:04.851 I'd say, like a majority of the time there is a lack of process, of actual results driven process, right. 00:05:04.851 --> 00:05:12.452 So a lot of times they've leaned on oh well, if I just get the right CRM or if I get the right email marketing platform that will do everything. 00:05:12.452 --> 00:05:19.858 So they lean heavily on the technology component without really having a lot of clarity as to like well, how do I actually want to do my marketing? 00:05:20.300 --> 00:05:20.680 so that. 00:05:20.922 --> 00:05:23.154 I can pick the software that will support that process. 00:05:23.154 --> 00:05:34.261 Or they've gone on the other side of things, like, oh, I hired all the people, I hired a social media manager, I hired a you know, a content writer, I hired someone to do my graphics, a VA to do the posting, all those things. 00:05:34.261 --> 00:05:37.420 But again, their process is lacking, right? 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:41.134 There isn't a lot of clarity in terms of, like, well, are you getting the results that you want? 00:05:41.134 --> 00:05:42.375 Are you marketing the way that you want? 00:05:42.375 --> 00:05:43.257 Are you marketing the way that you want? 00:05:43.257 --> 00:05:43.958 Are you or are you just? 00:05:43.958 --> 00:05:56.694 Did you just record a loom video and recreate a process that keeps you doing the marketing, feeding the machine constantly, right? 00:05:56.713 --> 00:06:04.867 So a lot of times, that's what I see as the primary drivers that, like you, lean too heavily into a few different areas, and a lot of times, the missing piece is actually the clear process that gives you the results that you want, right? 00:06:04.867 --> 00:06:07.077 I don't think a lot of people talk about systems in this way. 00:06:07.077 --> 00:06:17.420 When I'm thinking about a system, I was like it needs to give me a good result, I cannot like what am I doing now and just write down the steps, because that's not actually be how I want to work If I'm doing all the marketing. 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:23.862 I don't want to do that Like document a system that then recreates me doing all the marketing myself. 00:06:23.862 --> 00:06:29.619 So really looking at it from the end point of like, is this actually getting me the result that I want? 00:06:29.619 --> 00:06:42.235 And then I get the tech that's actually going to serve me the best and then I can pick the VAs or the automations or whatever it is, and that's usually the missing component is that we don't have enough process or the process isn't giving us the result that we want. 00:06:43.016 --> 00:06:59.769 Okay, one of the other things you brought up was automation, and then automation can go in a few different directions, because there's software automation and nowadays, with nearly any tool that even does automation, there's an AI component. 00:06:59.769 --> 00:07:09.880 Nowadays, like, just what are your thoughts around why, like, automation alone does or doesn't do it for businesses that want to have strong systems in place? 00:07:10.843 --> 00:07:17.526 I will say that automation is really powerful to a certain extent, but to automate fully is impossible, right? 00:07:17.526 --> 00:07:25.081 Like, even big businesses like Facebook that has billions of dollars to spend on technology, cannot automate fully. 00:07:25.081 --> 00:07:28.858 And it's just like, well, a lot of the tools that we're buying, too like, we have to use out of the box. 00:07:28.858 --> 00:07:29.930 We're not app developers. 00:07:29.930 --> 00:07:34.730 I'm not going to create my own bot to like do the thing exactly how I want it to be automated. 00:07:34.730 --> 00:07:48.079 So we're also limited by what automations are available in the tools that we're using, right Like, I sign up for ActiveCampaign, I'm restricted to the automation that ActiveCampaign has allowed me to use within them, right? 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:50.949 So I think that there is a lot of power in automation. 00:07:50.949 --> 00:07:57.117 We have to know that automation is literally for things that can be standardized, that are repeated over and over again, and there are not any changes. 00:07:57.458 --> 00:08:01.615 The second that you start to change or customize things, your automation capability starts to degrade. 00:08:01.615 --> 00:08:08.971 Yeah, you can customize a few things within certain bounds, but the more custom it is, the less likely that you're going to be able to automate it, right? 00:08:08.971 --> 00:08:10.355 So that's just something to really keep in mind. 00:08:10.355 --> 00:08:13.894 And like, the more that you want to change or like, rapidly iterate. 00:08:13.894 --> 00:08:22.619 You know, or, like I have, I've seen someone who had like a massive it was like a 60 step zap where, like this happens, or this happens when you have those many decision-making levels. 00:08:22.978 --> 00:08:39.173 It's really hard to automate those kinds of things too because, yeah, the tools get confused when you're like, okay, I want you to want to fire in this scenario and this scenario, but what about this scenario when, like, a client responds to an email that we then sent them, the automation doesn't look for that email or that maybe they sent you. 00:08:39.173 --> 00:08:54.499 Maybe you have a sales automation right, like, oh, I'm

following up, following up, following up on a proposal, but then, like that client replied and said I'm going on vacation for two weeks, like I'll get back to you, then the automation doesn't know to look for that. 00:08:54.499 --> 00:09:01.479 So that's where you start to see breakdowns in automation, especially when they get really long and complex or when they have a lot of customization in them. 00:09:01.479 --> 00:09:14.253 So, yes, you can do a lot with automation to take care of some of those repetitive day-to-day tasks that maybe fall through the cracks a little bit, but I wouldn't say that it's something that will like revolutionize your business, because a lot of stuff you just cannot automate. 00:09:14.734 --> 00:09:26.221 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and so that could be for a business or a coach who is already in a place where they have some systems in place. 00:09:26.221 --> 00:09:33.432 It's keeping that in mind right, that the automation is there and it can support you, but it's not going to do everything for you. 00:09:33.432 --> 00:09:36.359 It doesn't replace human interaction. 00:09:36.359 --> 00:09:44.359 So, on the human side, who would be or and it could be person and or people? 00:09:44.359 --> 00:09:46.624 But what kind of role steps in? 00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:53.759 So let's say I am a coach or consultant, I have built this amazing course. 00:09:53.759 --> 00:10:02.144 Let's just say that I'm selling and I have some systems in place that help get people through my funnel. 00:10:02.144 --> 00:10:09.576 They buy the course and then they start getting emails and then maybe they're getting some upsells and things like that. 00:10:09.576 --> 00:10:17.541 And it has become overwhelming for me when I start to turn it over, who am I looking for to turn this job? 00:10:17.541 --> 00:10:22.018 And that's like one piece, one of the systems, right, but there might be many others behind the scenes. 00:10:22.018 --> 00:10:28.597 The CRM system Right, but there might be many others behind the scenes. 00:10:28.597 --> 00:10:31.344 The CRM system, those types of things you mentioned. 00:10:31.364 --> 00:10:32.486 Who do I turn that over to? 00:10:32.486 --> 00:10:33.850 Or and or people and or person. 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:38.697 I think in this particular scenario I would probably look for like a tech VA. 00:10:38.697 --> 00:10:39.320 Or you could like titles. 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:40.524 Ok, honestly, like let's just take a step back. 00:10:40.524 --> 00:10:41.610 Like titles mean nothing in the online space. 00:10:41.610 --> 00:10:44.274 Anyone can call themselves anything they want. 00:10:44.274 --> 00:10:49.551 It's more important that you really look at what services they're offering to make sure they're a match for what you need. 00:10:49.932 --> 00:10:57.918 So the most like general thing I would look for is like a tech VA, because if you have a funnel based system right, like you're doing, you're doing the course. 00:10:57.918 --> 00:10:59.442 It's a digital product. 00:10:59.442 --> 00:11:01.212 You have the funnel set up. 00:11:01.212 --> 00:11:06.744 Maybe you have multiple funnels set up and like if you have upsells, downsells, tripwires, things like that, the funnel has gotten very complex. 00:11:06.744 --> 00:11:11.081 You need someone who can really manage the technology side of those things. 00:11:12.211 --> 00:11:23.398 I think the biggest part about technology and automation that people also kind of forget is like it requires maintenance, like yes, you can set it and forget it, but like softwares update themselves and when those things update, sometimes they get broken. 00:11:23.398 --> 00:11:29.611 When your offer changes, you need to make those updates across the board and you need to know where specifically to make those updates. 00:11:29.611 --> 00:11:43.456 So I would say they probably need someone who is a tech focused, either virtual assistant they might even call themselves an OBM someone who has a very tech focused background in the softwares that you're using in your funnel, because not all tech VAs, again, are created equal. 00:11:43.456 --> 00:11:45.479 Some of them focus on particular software. 00:11:45.479 --> 00:11:54.702 So if you hire a tech VA that specializes in like go high level but you're using like active campaign, that's not going to work either, right. 00:11:54.724 --> 00:12:19.120 So you find someone who's really specific to the technology that you're using and in this case I'd probably say that they might want to consider as a second layer someone who can support them in terms of the writing elements, because in a funnel like this, in a digital product, a lot of it comes down to your words and your messaging and the content that's being distributed within the funnel Like that's, 50% of your funnel is the actual words that are being sent out. 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:27.844 So if those pieces are not really really strong or something that you don't want to continuously create or don't have the bandwidth to create which I see with a lot of business owners, that's. 00:12:27.844 --> 00:12:29.815 The next step is like we need someone to manage the tech. 00:12:29.815 --> 00:12:36.770 We need someone to manage the content that are in the messaging that is going out in that funnel as well, to continuously feed it and get you out of the day to day. 00:12:37.432 --> 00:12:39.096 That's huge Gosh. 00:12:39.096 --> 00:12:40.639 You hit on so many great points. 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:54.195 So another thing too you've used some terms of different types of tools that people can use, and I want to break some of those down like as options, because some people know what these tools are and some people are like what is that? 00:12:54.195 --> 00:12:54.836 Or I heard of it. 00:12:54.836 --> 00:12:58.313 I'm going to raise my hand on one of them, Dubsado. 00:12:58.313 --> 00:13:04.575 I have no idea what Dubsado really is or what it does, but

I hear a lot about that one. 00:13:04.575 --> 00:13:07.414 I think there's another one, Boxer, or something that might start with a V. 00:13:07.414 --> 00:13:10.783 You brought up ActiveCampaign. 00:13:10.783 --> 00:13:26.615 Help everyone understand, like are these a one size fit all type of tool that's helping you manage different pieces of those systems, or just what are some of these tools that people have access to check out? 00:13:26.995 --> 00:13:29.376 Yeah, okay, so let's start with some of the things that you mentioned. 00:13:29.376 --> 00:13:29.878 Right? 00:13:29.878 --> 00:13:34.001 So Dubsado I think they've shifted a little bit of how they market themselves. 00:13:34.001 --> 00:13:35.797 They used to call themselves a CRM. 00:13:35.797 --> 00:13:38.187 They're not really a CRM in a traditional sense. 00:13:38.187 --> 00:13:38.590 Right? 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:40.197 So Dubsado is a business management tool. 00:13:40.197 --> 00:13:46.663 It lets you do like your very light lead tracking through, like your sales process. 00:13:46.663 --> 00:13:50.279 It lets you do proposal in contracts, like you know your outbound sales stuff. 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:54.663 Like once you've gotten somebody on a sales call they've said, yes, you need to do, like a contract, some sort of proposal. 00:13:54.663 --> 00:14:00.475 You can do that and then you can get it very seamlessly to invoice, right, like that's really the power that it has. 00:14:00.475 --> 00:14:04.441 It has some other features around, like a client portal and things like, but they're all. 00:14:04.441 --> 00:14:09.006 I don't think that they're very usable when we think about, like, what is a client portal? 00:14:09.006 --> 00:14:10.428 How is a client going to interact with it? 00:14:10.428 --> 00:14:17.528 For the most part, the power is really in that contract proposal, invoice, streamlining, setup, right. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:29.822 Like so if you were to sell the same products, the same packages, and it doesn't change a lot, once you start to vary a lot of stuff, the Dubsado starts to break down a little bit. 00:14:29.822 --> 00:14:32.046 Their automation capabilities are not built for that. 00:14:32.046 --> 00:14:41.731 So if you are looking to really streamline your sales process, I'd say Dubsado is a good business management tool for that and it really depends on, like, what you're selling. 00:14:41.731 --> 00:14:46.121 So if you don't sell that kind of thing, you probably, if you sell digital products and courses, you don't need Zubsado. 00:14:46.121 --> 00:14:50.568 But if you do contracts and proposals and things like that, zubsado is a good tool for that. 00:14:51.315 --> 00:14:52.600 Voxer is a communication tool. 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:53.403 It's like a walkie talkie. 00:14:53.403 --> 00:15:00.168 So if I want to like chat back and forth with you and send some voice notes back and forth, voxer is a good tool for that. 00:15:00.168 --> 00:15:03.820 I will say the limitations are that it gets really messy. 00:15:03.820 --> 00:15:13.211 If you have more than one person in a chat with you or you want to organize your conversation, it's very, very hard to do that Like I would not do it in Voxer. 00:15:13.211 --> 00:15:24.504 I do not recommend for like a big group chat where you actually like want to either save or remember to go back to something, or you want to talk about specific topics and be able to organize it. 00:15:25.466 --> 00:15:37.541 Not great, but I think you want to have a conversation back forth, like consistently, like with a lot of one-on-one coaches, like they love using that, or if you're working directly with a client as a consultant, and they just want to be able to ask you questions and you respond perfect. 00:15:37.541 --> 00:15:43.104 But anything bigger than that I think it's really it gets very messy very quickly. 00:15:43.104 --> 00:15:49.981 So those are kind of the first tools that you, uh, that you, you, you put out there to ask questions around Um. 00:15:49.981 --> 00:15:57.427 And then I know I've mentioned some different variations of tools through this conversation as well and I will say that I actually don't care about the software. 00:15:57.427 --> 00:16:00.203 Like I don't care what tool you use. 00:16:00.546 --> 00:16:07.504 Um, it could be high tech or low tech, there's a lot of options out there and, um, some of the things that I mentioned are like it really ties back to your process. 00:16:07.504 --> 00:16:09.107 What are you actually trying to do? 00:16:09.107 --> 00:16:10.244 What are you trying to achieve? 00:16:10.244 --> 00:16:13.183 Right, because that will help you pick the tech. 00:16:13.183 --> 00:16:32.980 So that's why I'm always very process driven process first before anything, because I don't know what I'm doing, it's really hard for me to pick the tech that's going to help me stay organized and work in that process and if I don't have the tech, I also can't automate right. 00:16:32.980 --> 00:16:41.826 So they're all kind of tied together and they flow into each other and it really depends what you are doing within your business what technology is fit for you, but I will say that there's probably some pretty core tech that I'll say pretty much every online business needs. 00:16:41.826 --> 00:16:47.370 You generally will need some sort of project and task management tool to keep track of all of your work. 00:16:47.370 --> 00:16:53.879 Like I was literally on the phone with someone earlier this week and they like showed me their pile of sticky notes and then they like knocked over a glass of water. 00:16:53.879 --> 00:16:59.475 Well, that's exactly why it needs to be somewhere else. 00:16:59.475 --> 00:17:00.698 It puts you up. 00:17:00.698 --> 00:17:07.459 If you want to delegate and work with virtual assistants or anything like that, then it's somewhere where they could actually have access to it as well. 00:17:07.459 --> 00:17:28.665 Cloud storage is

also another piece where, like well, if you're creating materials for clients, like deliverables, that has to go somewhere and it can't just all go to your downloads folder, so it's like where you're like searching around for it, so putting it somewhere where it can be organized per client and and like you can create templates, and things like that are going to be really important, like literally every business. 00:17:29.748 --> 00:17:32.251 Do that, um, and I will say also email marketing software. 00:17:32.813 --> 00:17:52.809 Um, because, like, yes, I personally believe in email marketing, but also, like, it's probably like fact-based, like statistics wise, one of the places that people are still actually selling the most and you're not like at the whim of, like, well, you know, you know Instagram decided to do this today with the algorithm, or, you know, tiktok's getting banned or whatever it is. 00:17:53.131 --> 00:18:04.267 So email marketing, I think, is one of the key tools that I always recommend that a business owner have, and I can't think of a single business that doesn't need or shouldn't have an email marketing platform. 00:18:04.267 --> 00:18:16.701 But more than that, it can also double as a platform for you to be able to automate your onboarding and offboarding processes, to be able to, like, work, manage your clients and kind of see what they've purchased, if there are courses. 00:18:16.701 --> 00:18:26.406 It can be like a mini CRM if you want it to be, if that's what you need, and so I think there's a lot of power there because you can use it for multiple things and it also drives your marketing engine. 00:18:26.406 --> 00:18:33.311 So I will always say that, like, you will always need some sort of email marketing platform within your business. 00:18:33.311 --> 00:18:34.596 I think those are probably my top three. 00:18:34.596 --> 00:18:40.762 I mean, like taking money in a payment platform is kind of a given, but those are kind of my top three, like everyone needs. 00:18:41.474 --> 00:18:44.904 Yeah, I mean, though, I love those, those are really great non negotiables. 00:18:44.904 --> 00:19:05.686 And then back to your point about just not caring about the software but caring about the process and just people needing to remember, like, what's the big result, because, ultimately, like you're helping people find that freedom, and so to find that freedom, we got to attach things that help them get there, which just absolutely makes so much sense, wow. 00:19:05.686 --> 00:19:13.156 Which just absolutely makes so much sense, wow. 00:19:13.156 --> 00:19:18.508 So I guess I'll end just kind of on one final question, just kind of as we wrap up our conversation in general, which is what? 00:19:18.508 --> 00:19:18.769 What? 00:19:18.769 --> 00:19:31.700 Give me an example of like a success story where you're like this was like picture perfect, ideal, of like how someone was able to get their systems in place and get to that place where they had that freedom they wanted. 00:19:32.261 --> 00:19:33.044 Yeah, of course. 00:19:33.044 --> 00:19:38.192 So, like I've had a lot of clients who were wanting to scale to agencies, right, like they were done for you. 00:19:38.192 --> 00:19:44.096 They wanted to build a bigger team, they wanted to be able to pitch bigger clients, and one of them actually came to me. 00:19:44.096 --> 00:19:46.579 They were a team and they're like we've done some of the things. 00:19:46.579 --> 00:19:49.285 Like we recorded a bunch of Loom videos, we have some SOPs. 00:19:49.285 --> 00:19:55.903 Like we hired like a few VAs to help us with the admin tasks, but like I don't know, it's just not working. 00:19:55.903 --> 00:19:57.367 Like it doesn't feel easier. 00:19:57.367 --> 00:19:59.499 Like I'm still working a lot. 00:19:59.499 --> 00:20:01.503 Like my partner is working all the time. 00:20:01.503 --> 00:20:08.384 Like like this is we're working more than we work in corporate and it seems like we're doing the right things right, like so we don't know what's wrong. 00:20:08.384 --> 00:20:09.647 We need someone to just tell us. 00:20:09.647 --> 00:20:12.203 We cannot like try and figure it out anymore. 00:20:12.203 --> 00:20:17.103 So with them, I really went through an assessment period where we were like, okay, well, what is what do you? 00:20:17.103 --> 00:20:18.246 What is the lay of the land here? 00:20:18.246 --> 00:20:20.058 What's really the big gaps? 00:20:20.058 --> 00:20:30.318 And looking at that, I was like, oh well, you have tons of SOPs but they don't actually produce the results that you want. 00:20:30.318 --> 00:20:30.921 So this is not how you market. 00:20:30.921 --> 00:20:35.959 Like this is not what you're doing to actually generate your leads, so that is not usable in that way at all. 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:41.317 A lot of the work was still being done between, like a share drive, just between the two partners. 00:20:41.317 --> 00:20:46.803 It was like, well, if you have these VAs, this is why it's taking you so long to prepare, like to get them to get work. 00:20:46.803 --> 00:20:53.240 You're not using them because you're saying, oh, I can just do it faster because you can't get to the work. 00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:56.194 They cannot get to the work, so you need to move off of the share drive and put it somewhere where the vas also have access. 00:20:56.194 --> 00:21:05.162 And also the fact of the matter is you hired a bunch of general vas to help you when you're really bogged down in the delivery of all of your work. 00:21:05.162 --> 00:21:13.563 I would probably refocus my hiring or my team structure to for people to help you really deliver these work your clients. 00:21:14.064 --> 00:21:31.636 And they also had some big gaps within, like, their sales system where they're like, yeah, we want to pitch bigger corporate clients, but like we don't know what to use and like I mean we send this Google proposal, like we make it in

Google Docs, and they're like you know, like would you be cool if you got this and you know we were going to charge you, we wanted to double. 00:21:31.636 --> 00:21:35.526 They wanted to double their pricing, like 25, 30 K, like like. 00:21:35.526 --> 00:21:36.859 Well, I mean, it depends on your client, right? 00:21:36.859 --> 00:21:42.159 You're telling me now that you are, that you probably you're telling me that you probably, they probably, were not going to receive this. 00:21:42.159 --> 00:21:46.205 Very well, cause you're, we should watch you about the google doc already, right? 00:21:46.205 --> 00:21:56.723 So, knowing those things, we went through and I recommended like a new sales process, one that included a more high-tech um proposaling software, something that would do the reminders for them. 00:21:56.723 --> 00:22:00.259 That was kind of in play, where they had a catalog of items they could just like. 00:22:00.259 --> 00:22:03.586 Once it was built, what they needed, it did the reminders for them. 00:22:03.586 --> 00:22:09.508 It pushed them to the sales platform when it was done, like all their invoicing within there. 00:22:09.895 --> 00:22:13.769 Once that was built, they felt a lot better about pitching bigger clients. 00:22:13.769 --> 00:22:15.315 They reorg their team. 00:22:15.315 --> 00:22:21.147 They hired a bunch more of strategists and writers to help them because they were a writing agency. 00:22:21.147 --> 00:22:32.289 They did a lot of writing, content creation, messaging, work, things like that for a lot, of, I think, large and mid-sized businesses and they really wanted to move to those big corporations that have big names. 00:22:32.289 --> 00:22:42.654 So that really helped ease up the delivery and they went from like I mean, they were working like sometimes 60, 70 hours a week and they're like, oh my God, I was like the first parent in the school pickup line. 00:22:42.654 --> 00:22:47.644 I've never been that way, so really being able to cut their workload in half. 00:22:48.185 --> 00:22:56.522 And we worked together for three months and then we extended it for one month just to wrap things up and like give them some more like consulting support and they were on their own for two months. 00:22:56.522 --> 00:22:59.277 After six months later they were like they sent me a note. 00:22:59.277 --> 00:23:05.960 It was like, oh my god, we just closed and we just pitched and won our first corporate client and into the six-figure engagement. 00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:16.682 But where it was like, oh, now we are walking our talk, now like we feel really good about showing quadrupled our pricing and like or like, yeah, we can handle it Right. 00:23:16.682 --> 00:23:26.259 You show up a different way when you know like my business can back me up when I say that this service is worth, you know, a hundred K. 00:23:26.259 --> 00:23:31.338 It is worth it and it's we have the process and the journey that we're going to take you on. 00:23:31.338 --> 00:23:32.141 That matches that like. 00:23:32.141 --> 00:23:33.084 That's really, really powerful. 00:23:33.084 --> 00:23:38.226 So that was like one of the best success stories I've ever had was like wow, you guys really took this to heart. 00:23:38.414 --> 00:23:41.163 You said you spent four months with them and they adapted it. 00:23:41.163 --> 00:23:42.826 And well, really three initially. 00:23:42.826 --> 00:23:46.682 I mean that's just really fast adaption on their part. 00:23:46.682 --> 00:23:50.188 And then them being willing to take your guidance and act on it. 00:23:50.188 --> 00:23:51.170 And I've been there. 00:23:51.170 --> 00:23:57.885 Proposals are so time consuming, so to have something in place that really let them whip through it, I mean that's huge. 00:23:57.945 --> 00:24:05.805 So yeah, you have to build a lot and we put a lot into the build mode right, like in that framework, we built a lot of things. 00:24:05.805 --> 00:24:10.990 We brought in a lot of my own team members to like help, support and build out the foundation. 00:24:10.990 --> 00:24:12.551 But it was all about the planning right. 00:24:12.551 --> 00:24:14.734 They had no idea what was possible. 00:24:14.734 --> 00:24:23.202 You know it usually takes a little bit longer for owners to like really integrate all of this stuff, but they're like no, we're ready, like I trust I'm going to do the thing. 00:24:23.202 --> 00:24:24.817 I'm like okay, like I love it. 00:24:24.817 --> 00:24:25.920 I'm so proud of you guys. 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:27.583 I'm super excited to see where you go next. 00:24:27.943 --> 00:24:29.365 Wow, very cool. 00:24:29.365 --> 00:24:30.888 Thank you for sharing, diane. 00:24:30.888 --> 00:24:43.015 Wow, I could go on with more questions because, wow, there's just such a great conversation and systems need it so much and really running our businesses day to day and helping us get where we want to be. 00:24:43.015 --> 00:24:47.146 I want to end our conversation with a couple of quick lightning round questions. 00:24:47.146 --> 00:24:51.962 And first question I want to ask you. 00:24:51.962 --> 00:25:07.364 So you've been on the agency side of things, you're now helping businesses create these systems and scale, but if you weren't doing any of those things let's say we were in an alternate universe what would Diane somewhere else be doing? 00:25:08.545 --> 00:25:12.107 You know, I think that's actually a good question In an alternate universe. 00:25:12.107 --> 00:25:36.290 If I would if I'd never had this background, I'd probably be a teacher teacher, not a math teacher, because I'm not good at math. 00:25:36.290 --> 00:25:39.077 Teacher of I think that that's what I would be doing. 00:25:39.598 --> 00:25:40.421 Very cool. 00:25:40.421 --> 00:26:00.294 Second question is just about, like if you the you today, let's just say who has all this amazing knowledge in how to run a business was talking to you when you first were

starting, what would the you of today say to you of the past? 00:26:01.255 --> 00:26:19.355 I would tell my past self to not just chase the money, to do what actually feels good and aligned and that you actually want to do good and aligned and that you actually want to do, because I spent a lot of my business years chasing the money and I burned out every single time. 00:26:19.355 --> 00:26:29.101 Right, I can do a lot of things and I can push it, I can hustle, I can grind and I can make a lot of money, but I ultimately ended up with businesses I didn't like right and that's what kind of led me to like. 00:26:29.101 --> 00:26:37.587 I'm on business iteration number five today, because if you want to be sustainable, you have to do something that you feel good about, that you feel aligned with, that you really want to do. 00:26:37.587 --> 00:26:40.665 And that's the lesson I'm learning now, some lessons I like to learn the hard way. 00:26:41.166 --> 00:26:42.288 Yeah, all right. 00:26:42.288 --> 00:26:44.333 Well, we'll end on that note. 00:26:44.333 --> 00:26:48.287 Diane, you have a free resource that everyone can get a hold of. 00:26:48.287 --> 00:26:49.970 Can you tell us a little bit about that resource? 00:26:50.490 --> 00:26:50.851 Yeah. 00:26:50.851 --> 00:26:57.608 So I think that one of the first places I see a lot of business owners go is like they want to hire support and it makes sense right To get some lift in your day to day. 00:26:57.608 --> 00:26:59.775 They want to hire a virtual assistant, maybe an OPM. 00:26:59.775 --> 00:27:06.924 So I put together a what to pay your VA rates guide because I think like well, can I afford? 00:27:06.924 --> 00:27:08.868 It is often a big question. 00:27:08.868 --> 00:27:22.868 So every year I update this guide based off of what I see from people who apply in my business, based off of, like you know, a lot of the searches that my clients are bringing in, like you know, candidates they're seeing, and then also like what I'm seeing, like as people advertise their services. 00:27:22.888 --> 00:27:30.538 So this isn't just like I pulled the numbers out of the air, but it is a good reference point for the top six most common types of VAs that I've seen. 00:27:30.538 --> 00:27:35.449 You know what is the pay range that you can expect. 00:27:35.449 --> 00:27:38.496 So like you can kind of know within your budget, like kind of where you're landing. 00:27:38.496 --> 00:27:43.344 And I do break it down between US based and overseas based so that you also have that reference. 00:27:43.344 --> 00:27:48.967 And I just think it's really helpful for anyone who's considering hiring or is like nervous about making their first hire. 00:27:48.967 --> 00:27:52.615 It's a good resource to know like, hey, where's my budget? 00:27:52.615 --> 00:27:53.757 Am I in the right range? 00:27:53.757 --> 00:27:55.560 Is this like too far out of left field? 00:27:55.560 --> 00:28:02.268 And to give you to literally level set so you can go into the hiring process with some confidence that you're like, yeah, I can do this and it's going to work for me. 00:28:02.869 --> 00:28:08.230 Wow, that is a super useful resource and if anyone wants to grab it, go ahead and take a look at our description. 00:28:08.230 --> 00:28:15.632 We'll have a link posted there where you can get access to it, as well as Diane's social media links, so you can get in touch with her and reach out. 00:28:15.632 --> 00:28:18.670 If you want to chat with her one-on-one, all right. 00:28:18.670 --> 00:28:21.219 Well, thank you so much everyone for listening today. 00:28:21.219 --> 00:28:23.465 Thank you so much, diane, for being here. 00:28:23.465 --> 00:28:26.335 Until next time, everyone, bye, bye.