April 22, 2025 • 57 mins
In this inspiring episode of The Voices of Business, host Joshua Maddux sits down with Ashley Carlson, founder and CEO of Elevate Business Solutions. Joshua explores Ashley’s entrepreneurial journey, from her roots in Santa Clarita to building a remote, women-led team that empowers business owners to reclaim their time. Ashley shares insights on the challenges of delegation, the power of process, and what it really means to grow a business that supports both clients and employees.
What You Will Learn:
- How Ashley’s career evolved from administrative support to business strategy.
- The importance of delegation and how it impacts business growth.
- How to manage and maintain a strong remote work culture.
- Tips for business owners on identifying tasks they should stop doing.
- Ashley’s approach to supporting overwhelmed CEOs and creating structure.
Episode Highlights:
- [00:01:00] Ashley’s early career in Santa Clarita and roles in event management and hospitality.
- [00:04:00] How her CliftonStrengths results revealed her natural leadership and problem-solving abilities.
- [00:07:00] Launching Elevate Business Solutions: from solo work to building a remote team.
- [00:12:00] Behind the scenes: how Ashley manages her remote team culture with pods, Slack channels, and annual retreats.
- [00:23:00] The mantra “You can do anything, but you don’t have to do everything”—and how it shapes her approach to delegation.
- [00:36:00] How Ashley helps clients identify what to delegate and create sustainable business structures.
- [00:47:00] Misconceptions about fractional executive assistants and how her team tailors solutions for each client.
- [00:53:00] A lesson Ashley would give her younger entrepreneurial self about staying true to core services.
Featured Quotes:
"You can do anything, but you don’t have to do everything." – Ashley Carlson
"I am not one who's afraid of building the plane while flying it. Challenge accepted." – Ashley Carlson
"Every visionary needs a Jiminy Cricket—a right-hand person to map it out and bring clarity." – Ashley Carlson
Resources Mentioned:
- Elevate Business Solutions: https://elevatevbsolutions.com
- Ashley Carlson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymcarlson
- Elevate Business Solutions on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatevbsolutions
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome back to another episode of TheVoices of Business, a Santa Clarita
Valley Chamber of Commerce podcast.
It's good to be with you.
I'm your host, Joshua Maddux.
My cohost Corey Nathan is offon another adventure as always.
Um, this is where we talk about businessin the Santa Clarita Valley and really
all over, but a lot of the business ownerswe talk with are right here in our own
(00:29):
backyard and my hometown, Santa Clarita.
Uh, sometimes we don't stick to business.
We'll talk about leadership, managementlife, really wherever the spirit takes us.
So please remember to subscribe ifyou haven't already, tell a friend,
give us a good rating and review.
That really helps us with thealgorithms and all that type of stuff.
Sit back and enjoy the conversationwe're having today with Ashley Carlson
(00:52):
from, uh, elevate Business Solutions,the founder and CEO over there.
Good to have you on.
So you are a native to Santa Clarita.
Um, I know a lot of, uh, know, someof the conversations we've had, it's
been, uh, all over the country world.
(01:15):
Uh, but you're, you're here, here inSanta Clarita, so you've seen, uh, lot
of the development over the years and,uh, the change, change in our value.
Um, so obviously local business owner,but you have had some different background
in, in management really early on.
(01:38):
I wanna talk through like what, what wasthat college trajectory, um, you know,
maybe leading up to that a little bit.
And then what, what puts you onthat sort of management path?
it was always in some sortof administrative or customer
service type of role.
And, you know, you don't reallyrealize it at the time that
you're drawn to certain types of.
(01:58):
Uh, like roles.
And it wasn't until I started goingthrough and searching for career
opportunities, I realized that I, that waswhere I really thrived, is in management.
And so actually my entirepost-college career has always
been based in Santa Clarita.
So I mean, anywhere from, I think Istarted out as an administrative assistant
(02:19):
at a real estate developer's office here.
Then I went to more of eventmanagement at Valencia Country Club.
And then it was, um, it wassales and event planning and
all of that at the Hyatt.
And then my last, uh, careerprior to this was travel agent
at, uh, the local AAA here.
So.
(02:39):
As far as that, that's kind, it'salways been kind of in a management
operations type of role, but Ialso really learned a lot about
customer service and hospitality.
And of course my clientele through allof those was people in Santa Clarita.
So I love helping, you know, our localcommunity and being involved as as much
(03:00):
as possible and helping people withwhatever the event or the business or the
wedding that they're trying to play in.
That's kind of what I've always done.
Yeah, I was gonna say there's definitelya few, uh, well-known names here
locally with the Valencia Country Club,the Hyatt, you know, AAA being some.
Fairly well known businesses here in SantaClarita that, you know, you've been either
(03:23):
in management or planning of some sortwith, with some of those, which is, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
what led you, or what, what for you,like, I would say is like the driving
factor of like, you enjoy that sort ofmanagement or, um, you know, sort of the,
the solution side of, of the business.
(03:46):
Yeah, that's a good question.
And I think that it's somethingthat becomes more clear as you look
back or as you, uh, navigate thingsin a certain way, especially as a
business owner versus as an employee.
I think it becomes a lot more clear.
And I think ultimately it comesdown to, I, I actually just took
a Clifton strengths, um, test andthen, uh, really like I worked
(04:07):
with a coach and learned a lot moreabout myself and my top strengths.
Uh, the very number one is responsibility.
So I have no qualms withtaking responsibility quickly
and, um, just naturally.
So I think that that kind of has todo with management and not feeling
afraid to step in and solve problems.
(04:29):
I am more than that what we do isit's just constant problem solving
and addressing and being creativeand innovative in certain things.
And I always say, you know, I reallydo love solving puzzles, like we do
puzzles here at the house all the time.
So it's almost like that I'm justalways solving puzzles and help,
and I really love being the momentwhere I'm able to help someone.
(04:50):
A business owner, in this case, inour industry or our work now, is the
moment of clarity or relief that Isee when we have either solved their
problem or built a plan that helpsthem get to solving their problem.
And so I really, really enjoy that.
And so I enjoy the people sideof it, but I also enjoy the the
puzzle piece side of it too.
(05:13):
That's awesome.
So you're one of the types of peoplewho, if you go to an escape room,
they just shake their head and say,well, you'll be out in five minutes.
Um,
funny is I've never done an escaperoom and I just a couple of days ago
sent a text to a few friends saying,can we please do an escape room?
I think I would love it.
So that's really funny.
(05:34):
That's hilarious.
I did, uh, we did one for afriend's bachelor party, and
the group of people that went werethe CTO of a company, the head of
an IT department, data securityguy, myself, and then like a DevOps.
(05:56):
Mm-hmm.
that was like the team that went in.
And so literally like we were out in like,I don't know, 25 minutes or something.
It was just ridiculous.
And the guy's like, how, like, I mean.
Have you guys done this one before?
Like, I don't understand.
We're like, Nope, never done this.
We're like, we're literallyall like problem solvers by
(06:18):
train, like in different fields.
Mm-hmm.
Exactly.
And there there is a certaintype of brain that just act like
gets joy out of solving puzzles.
So, yeah.
yeah.
And you get to do thaton a daily basis with
different businesses.
So obviously, yeah, you get todo that on a, on a daily basis.
(06:40):
Um, you now sort of have a businessthat does that for other businesses.
Um, walk me through like what ledto starting your own business?
Um, how crazy were you to,you know, jump into that?
(07:00):
Obviously problem but a little crazy.
I.
Yes, absolutely.
I think you have to be a little bitcrazy to start your own business.
Um, so for me, I actually am athird generation entrepreneur.
I, as I grew up, um, my dad and mygrandfather both were business owners.
My dad still is, my grandfather's retired.
But, um.
(07:21):
The seeing them and their, how they,you know, ran their own businesses.
You see the, you see thegood and the bad, right?
We all know as business ownersthere's a lot of stress that comes
with it and a lot of chaos, but alsoa lot of flexibility and innovation.
And so I ki I grew up around that.
So to me, I think I feltcomfortable with it.
(07:41):
I just knew, I'm gonna say I knew whatto expect, but I definitely did not.
But I felt like it at the time.
Um, and so it didn't feel,it didn't feel scary to me.
It honestly felt natural.
And so when I got to the point,'cause I was working by myself,
um, doing administrative workwhen I had my son in 2017.
(08:02):
And so I did that until 2021 where I felt.
Ready to hire on team and reallyexcited about it and all of that.
And so in 2021 it the second I had thatidea and I was ready, I just went for it.
There wasn't really any reservationsthat I had, and I had a lot
of really great support too.
So not only my family, but also someother local, um, people that I had.
(08:26):
Through the years of working withbusiness owners out here in various
capacities, I was able to lean on themand have them guide me a little bit.
And so it made me feel prepared again.
I probably really wasn't, but it made mefeel, uh, I don't know, no hesitation.
I was just ready to doit and excited to do it.
So.
I think that's interesting.
(08:46):
Like, so you have a, obviouslya generational background.
The sense of like, you know.
Dad and, and grandfather both, youknow, have had or have businesses.
So, you know, obviously seen some of that.
I know oftentimes, like businessowners will be like, yeah, I had this
idea for like 10 years and I sort ofjust marinated on it and I, I thought
(09:07):
about it and I went back and forthand I, you know, finally jumped in.
It sounds like it was a littlebit quicker, like you, you sort of
saw that and
and then took that leap.
What, for you, like, was there areassurance or was it the fact that,
you know, you, you've seen thatyou've lived through it a little bit
more, so you sort of, know, thoughtyou knew what it could to expect.
(09:32):
I, I think it was a combination of alot of those things, of just me feeling.
Like, I had the insider view a littlebit of what it was like to own a
business, but I also think that itwas fueled by the fact that I, at that
time had been doing what I was doingfor about four years and I loved it.
And so I think that it was like, okay,if I could build this, um, even bigger
(09:56):
to continue doing what I love, but expandit to where I'm managing people again
and just bringing in the pieces of myformer career that I really loved it,
it just felt natural and it felt good.
It felt exciting, and I just, Iwas like you said, I just, I really
didn't have any reservations and I,I am not one who's afraid of like
(10:19):
building the plane while flying it.
Uh, challenge accepted.
I will do it if I, if I'mexcited and passionate about it.
I'm okay with solving theproblems along the way.
Right?
Like that's, uh, I just, so therewasn't really, I'm sure there was
hesitation for certain reasons,but never, never enough hesitation
to make me pump the brakes at all.
Got it.
Yeah, I, uh, I love the term,like just, you know, building
(10:42):
a plane as you're flying it.
Yes.
I think, you know, obviously doing someof this freelance esque, you know, as you
transitioned into that sort of validated,you know, the, the next steps it sounds
like,
now obviously it's not just you anymore.
The business has grown.
(11:04):
Um, what does that team look like?
What is, what does that look like today?
Yeah, so we are a fully remoteteam, all women across the us.
So I have 13 employees, uh,a couple of contractors, and
basically we are all primarilyoperations support professionals.
(11:24):
So, um, I have, they're all.
Either part-time or full-timeemployees, and they are a
mix of executive assistants.
And then we also have some bookkeepers,so helping businesses on that side.
I do the business strategy.
So along this journey over the last fouryears, I also, uh, became a certified
director of operations because I, Irealized that I did a lot of that work,
(11:48):
but I didn't have the formal training andframework that I, and resources that I
really craved to have maybe like a moresolid foundation of what I was doing.
And so now I get to do thatwhile my team does more of the
day-to-day implementation execution.
I. And one-on-one support withthe clients on a long-term basis.
And yeah.
And then we have, you know, some of ourteam we've promoted because along the
(12:11):
way I definitely realized I couldn'trun the entire backend of my own
business and do what I needed to do.
So we have promoted and grownthe internal team as well.
They're all still client facing as well,but they have, we have different roles who
handle the things that we do internally.
now, you mentioned the team.
You know, your, your team is.
(12:33):
Pretty much entirely, youknow, virtual and, and remote,
obviously starting the business.
You said 2020 or 2021.
2021.
Okay.
So starting 2021.
So you guys are, you know, four years inor so, how have you seen, you know, just
from like a company culture perspective,like, do you guys stay connected?
(12:54):
What does that look like?
I know for my business, you know,we're, I own a digital marketing agency.
My team is the same.
We're almost entirely remote.
I I have two staff that are herelocal in Santa Clarita, and I
see them maybe once a month.
Um, how have you guys seenthat for, for your business?
(13:16):
Yeah, there's a fewthings that I would say.
I mean, we've learned a lot along the way.
Um, I think that there's a big difference,uh, well when working remotely, a lot
of the times what people, what peopleare attracted to with a part-time
remote role or even full-time, is thatthere is flexibility and we want to
honor that and we want to still havepeople, you know, be able to flex
(13:38):
in their day as much as possible.
A lot of our, like I said, most ofour, or all of our team are women
and most of them are moms and theyneed the time to be able to care for
a sick kid or be there for pickupsor field trips and things like that.
Um, or maybe it's justdoctor's appointments.
And so we want our teamto have that flexibility.
(13:58):
But there also, when you're running abusiness, is a measure of accountability
and that has to happen and consistency.
And so how do you do that?
In a remote world where you can'tjust walk by someone's desk and see
whether or not they're engaged inwork or ask them how they're doing.
Even just connecting withpeople you know, by the printer.
You know, I remember those days of justbeing able to chit chat while we all
(14:19):
waited for what we were printing orin the break room, things like that.
So.
I have, we've worked really hardover the last four years trying
different things to balance thatflexibility with the accountability,
um, and efficiency and productivity.
So a few things that we do is we havesome sort of team meeting once a week.
Um, whether that is a, I mean,I'll tell you how we do it.
(14:41):
So we have one team meetingwhere it's a whole team meeting.
Everyone is there andit is for everyone to.
Uh, or for the, like, department leads, ifyou will, uh, deliver information as far
as updates, initiatives, things like that.
But we also intermix it with some fun too.
We have someone come in one, a teammember, uh, be our co-facilitator,
(15:02):
and they host a fun, uh, like theyget 15 minutes to host a fun activity.
So maybe we've done like a scavengerhunt, we've done meditation, we've done
just like a, a fun quiz or personalitytest and talk about it, things like that.
Um, and then they get to share a platformthat they're excited about and they wanna
share with the team, show their expertise.
And then we have the department.
(15:24):
Uh, leads talk about their updates.
And then we also have a, where we meetin small groups, we call 'em pods.
So everyone's assigned a littlesmall group where they actually get
together on another week and they getto talk about what they're working on.
So we are a group thatappreciates a good spreadsheet.
We are a group that can lean oneach other for, Hey, I have a
(15:45):
client traveling to this area.
Does anyone know any great restaurants?
Um, things like that.
So more small group collaboration.
And then we also have one-on-ones allthroughout the month, depending on the
role and responsibility and all of that.
So one-on-ones are always happening.
Uh, we, we actively use Slackand so there's a, a general
(16:05):
channel where people will justask questions throughout the week.
If it's a certain project, there'sa separate channel for that.
Um, we even have a break roomchannel where it's specifically
for water cooler type chat.
Um, so that's kind of what we, we want amix of collaborate, like where there's.
We, when we came up with our meetingstructure, we wanted to make sure
(16:26):
what is the purpose of every meeting?
What is our goal and how canwe structure it in that way?
We don't want it to be whereevery meeting is just the talking
heads and everyone's listening.
We want a sense of connection.
How can we do that?
We also want a sense ofcollaboration and problem solving.
How can we do that?
So we've put a lot of time in that.
Um, our one-on-one meetings are also,every single one has a, like a, we
(16:49):
call it like a little square, I guess.
Uh, for questions that are circledaround, what's going well for you?
What's feeling sticky?
What questions do you have?
A, a time where both parties canalways give and receive feedback.
Um, I really believe that in a, Imean, any culture, it's important,
but in a remote workspace, you don'thave that opportunity, like I said,
(17:10):
to walk up to someone's desk andyou notice that something's wrong
and you just wanna talk about it.
So you, we have these intentionaltimes to check in that way.
So, yeah.
We did not get there overnight.
All of this structure that I justtalked about, it has been a lot of trial
and error and, uh, we are at a pointwhere it is functioning really well.
And, um, the, the feedback that we getfrom our, the women who work on our
(17:32):
team about how appreciated they feel andhow, you know, just how happy they are,
uh, that, that means the world to me.
So,
Yeah, we, our meeting cycle and alot of what we do is very similar.
Um, we have been in business 18 yearsand started as a lot more in person.
(17:53):
Um,
2019 ish.
We were three days a week inperson, two days a week remote.
was very advanced for the times
it was, and it came out of,
That didn't exist.
yeah.
2019 it came out of the fact that.
I typically scheduled all of my out ofoffice meetings Tuesdays and Thursdays.
(18:17):
And so the team would come in theoffice on a Tuesday and they'd
be like, cool, you're not here.
So-and-so's not here.
So-and-so only works,you know, X days a week.
Um, we also had, you know, some,some of our employees were college
students still or whatever.
And so, you know, people had differentdays that they were, know, in office
or in classes or whatever, and we'dhave staff come in the office and
(18:41):
it's like, cool, it's just me forthe first three hours by myself.
And I drove in for this, like, and that'swhen we started transitioning to like,
okay, cloud storage, remote elements,implemented things like Slack, you
know, did a lot of that type of stuff.
20 18, 20 19. then when Covidhit it was the, everyone
(19:04):
worked from home for two weeks.
Um.
Which we all know how that went.
Um, and so for us it was a littlebit of a different transition
of, we had team members whowere like, I'm going stir crazy.
I need to see another human.
And so Fridays, we just had a Zoom roomthat was open at lunch, and people would
just hop in and do a virtual puzzletogether, or like, and think we've, uh,
(19:33):
had the same challenges of like, do youhave that transparency and that, um,
accountability and productivity without,you know, I've, I've seen the horror
stories of companies, like, we're trackingevery mouse movement on your computer.
And it's like, well, I have twographic designers, maybe one sitting
(19:53):
with a sketchbook for an hourand sketching out some concepts.
Or like, you know, how doyou, how do you track that?
And, and I. the element of like, no,you have to be okay with, these are the
people you've hired and you trust them and
Yes.
we're good.
Um, yeah.
yeah.
It is, it is interesting to hear.
I mean, we're, again, we're Slack.
(20:15):
We do, we have a water cooler channel.
We
off the week with a Monday allall call and, you know, do some
breakout stuff throughout the weekdepending on who's working on what.
Um, yeah, just interesting to hear how itsort of naturally evolved to, you know, I,
I think that's what a lot of companies arefinding is a similar, a similar workflow.
(20:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You definitely need to find a way tostrike the balance between, like you
said, the, the micromanaging and allof that, versus the just studying the
right standards and enough opportunity toconnect, so you still feel that trust, so,
Yeah, and we've, we've tried doing somedifferent, like quarterly outing type
(21:00):
stuff as we're able to or, you know,and sometimes it just doesn't work with
people's schedules or, or whatever.
But, you know, doing some of thattype of stuff is, is still good
as we're, as we're able to, so,
Yeah, we meet, uh, once a yearwith the, like the internal
team I mentioned earlier.
We meet once a year in Nashville,uh, to do just in-person things.
(21:22):
We also, we spend probably two fulldays just strategic planning, reviewing
how the year went, uh, has gone so far,and then planning for the next year.
But there's also a lot of reallygreat, just in-person time.
Even just, even just like wakingup and making breakfast together
or being in the kitchen together.
There's just a sense of connection.
Um, being able to go out to dinner,do fun activities, uh, intermixed
(21:44):
with getting stuff done in person.
I think that, that for, andwe also do a branding shoot.
We get new photos every year too, so.
I think that still incorporatingsome in-person is really important to
just have that quality time together.
And for us, it just happens once a yearand I know we all count down the days.
It's always really fun.
(22:06):
that's good.
and I think there's a, justa bonding aspect there.
I know I served on a board for anorganization and they do, the beginning
of the year, they kick off the newboard with doing a, a weekend retreat.
And board you then, you spend 72hours together and that year is very
(22:28):
different than, you know, that Iserved on it was like, oh, we do a one
hour Saturday conversation and thenthat's the strategy plan for the year.
And it's just like, okay, not as invested.
Um,
you, uh, I think there's aninvestment level there, which is good.
(22:50):
It's good.
So there's a statement that Ibelieve it was on your guys' website
that says you can do anything, butyou don't have to do everything.
What, obviously there's sort of a, amoment in the career path that had a
lesson learned there, but that's alsosort of your guys' mantra a little and
(23:11):
what what you guys help people understand.
Walk
me through
Yeah.
So, uh, the statement forme personally came from my
entrepreneurial journey myself andrealizing, uh, when I was working.
Just me as a freelancer.
(23:32):
Um, I also had just had my son andthen I quickly had my daughter.
So I was raising two babies anda business at the same time.
Uh, and I am a recovering perfectionistand I very much expected of myself
to do everything that I was doingpre-business and pre-kids exactly
(23:52):
the same, plus add on all thoseresponsibilities and do them excellently.
And that just, I wasnot setting myself up.
For realistic expectations.
I was setting myself up forfailure and disappointment.
It there, the expectationswere coming from no one but me.
And so as I, you know, built thisbusiness, I also realized that I was
(24:15):
seeing a lot of business owners doing itfor themselves, maybe in life as I was.
But also typically we see it inbusiness where we see business
owners, um, start solo, right?
And when you start solo, you arethe person who does everything.
And so if you think of all the.
Let's call it pieces andparts of your business.
(24:36):
They're all individual buckets.
You have marketing, you have operations,you have sales and accounting, and
customer relations, all those buckets.
They're very, very smallwhen it's just you.
But as your business grows.
Your buckets of each of thoseresponsibilities, those hats
that you wear become bigger.
And so what I hear all the timeas business owners being like,
(24:59):
I can do, I can do that, I cando that, I just can't get to it.
And I'm frustrated and they feeldiscouraged, they feel overwhelmed,
they feel disappointed in themselves.
Like, why can't I getto it like I used to?
And so I have to explain to 'em,the buckets have gotten bigger.
Your, your ability to do any of thesethings is still there and that's great,
(25:19):
but you can no longer do everything.
And because what will happen is youwill get to burnout, speaking from
experience, you will, uh, exceedoverwhelm, speaking from experience.
And so what needs to happen is we,I go through an exercise with all
of our clients about figuring out.
What to delegate first.
I feel very passionately about, uh,I call it a delegation strategy.
(25:43):
I walk through that with them.
I do it for our EA clients, but Ialso do it one-on-one with people
who don't need our EA services.
Um, really help them identify.
What they don't have to do anymore.
Um, what requires their expertise,which, which has to be done by you.
So for example, you are this podcasthost, you have to be here, but maybe
(26:04):
there's a lot of things pre and postthis call that don't have to be you.
You could possibly delegate those.
So just trying to helpthem understand as much.
'cause when you're so close to it, youreally feel like, no, it all has to be me.
It has to.
And so I help kind of clear thatfog a little bit and identify what
you can delegate, who you shoulddelegate it to, and how to do it well.
(26:24):
Because I, my goal is to get back themback to spending their time on the
things that not only have to be doneby them, but the things that bring
them joy, the reason why they startedthis business in the first place.
Um, so that way hopefully theirtime and energy is spent there.
And or bringing back awork life balance too.
'cause that's typically what wesee as the misalignment there.
(26:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I so resonate with that on multiplelevels because first, like, I'm a
business owner, this is my baby.
If I delegate that,someone's gonna mess it up.
but then again, like you can't juggle14 things well, at the same time,
like, you have to do that to grow.
(27:09):
I have a, a business coach that one timetold me like, you need a to don't list.
And
you can have a to-do list,but you need a to don't list.
And he is like, and the biggeryou get, the more percentage
of things that you need to doshould go on that to don't list.
(27:30):
He's like, that doesn't meanit's not gonna get done.
But it's not gonna get done by you.
And so there's, I know there was a,I had a professor in college that
would talk about this all the time.
He's like, yeah, it may only takeyou an hour to do it, you can
train someone on how to do itand it'll take you three hours.
(27:53):
He's like, if you mathematically look atthat initially and you're like, oh, it's
gonna take three times longer to trainthat person, to train them once, then
every time they do that, every time, yeah,it's gonna take them two hours the next
time and an hour and a half the next time.
They may never get to the point whereyou are, or they may get there five
(28:17):
years from now, but it's an hourof your time that you don't have to
delegate to or, or use utilize for that.
Yeah, and eventually that person couldeven become faster, you know, because
I think that comes to where are youdelegating it to the right person,
because sometimes, so an examplethat I use all the time is Canva.
(28:39):
I love Canva.
I love using it.
I love designing things in it.
I definitely can.
I, it is something I can do.
However, I know, again, I am a recoveringperfectionist and I, I also have shiny
object syndrome, and so I will endup taking hours to do something that
probably if I just hired someone whois like, that's just their skillset.
(29:01):
Not only will they be faster, but theyalso, they are less attached to it, and
they will churn out a hundred of what tookme for one, because I was so busy looking
at all the other options, you know?
And so I think I actually, I, I teachpeople that all the time that that
point that you had where you feel scaredto delegate your baby because no one
(29:24):
is going to, to do it the way you do.
There's just no way.
Or they won't do it in thetime that it takes you.
And so I actually have a. Uh, likea protocol, a framework that I
follow and I help train people on,on how to delegate successfully.
Because the, not only what I spokeon a little bit ago was the what to
delegate and who to delegate it to.
(29:45):
But I also teach people how to delegatesuccessfully because that ultimately you
not only wanna delegate the time saved onyour plate, but you also wanna delegate
and, and get away the brain space, right?
So if you are delegating the time saving,but you're not doing it well and it's
keeping you up at night, or you, you arehaving the urge to micromanage because
(30:07):
you don't know how it's going, then thatmeans you didn't delegate successfully.
And there's some small things thatcan be done, uh, to make sure that
it's not only saving you time, butit's saving you the brain space.
Yeah.
I am, uh, a hundred percent, uh,guilty of the Canva, Canva element.
I have two designers on staff, andthere'll be times where I'll pop into
(30:30):
Canva and I'm like, so what I havestarted doing is the, what I have
come to like terminology is like thesharpie mockup of like, I need a flyer.
Okay, great.
Grab a sheet of paper and be like,
Yes.
a design it in 30 seconds or less,
take a photo then like, I literallyhave sitting on my desk, a business
(30:52):
card of ours, and we're adjustingsome design language stuff.
And I literally just havelike, okay, this box here is
where I want, like the LA Yeah.
Um, know, just that like,okay, 10,000 foot level stuff.
Like, let's
that's a great example of delegatingsuccessfully because I think the, one
(31:14):
of the things that you need to do is,and what, what the person that you
are delegating to needs to know iswhat does success look like to you?
They don't live in your brain.
If you aren't, um, describing it to themwell enough, what's, what the ultimate,
but like had, had I done this myself,here's what, here's what I'm envisioning.
Here's what's what Iwould consider successful.
(31:34):
You have to be able to, whetherthat is a drawing real quick.
There has to be some way thatyou can verbally, visually
describe what success looks like.
Because they also, in order forthem to do it well, they wanna
know what you're looking for.
So as best you can, even if it is ascribble or a quick voice memo, whatever
it is, uh, they, they should know that.
(31:57):
So I think that's great that you do that.
Yeah, uh, was at a conference upin the Bay Area and I decided to
drive, and so from Santa Clarita to.
Francisco's a bit of a drive and ourcontent strategist ha was, PEs had been
(32:17):
pestering me for months about like,Hey, we need more topic ideas and you
know, elements for blog posts, strategy,And so there was handful of topics
that our team had come up with thatother people on the team were writing.
And there was a handful thatthey were asking me to write.
(32:38):
so just like threw my phone inthe cup holder and hit record
and talked through the topic.
And then
I got to a gas station or whatever,I just drop them in Slack and
the team took it from there.
But it was just those, those elementsof do I need to, if I need to sit
down and type out a blog post, likethat might be getting done next year.
(33:04):
Um, but I can talk through, you
know.
Five minutes of a topic as I'mdriving in the car, like, that's easy.
Yeah, that's a great example.
elements.
So we've been talking about somedifferent examples, like how do you
guys help CEOs or companies decidelike what they should stop doing, you
(33:26):
know, or look at, know, virtual help.
Like what, what does thatprocess look like for you guys?
Yeah, so we, I mean our, the processfor how what we follow is first they
book a clarity call with a, with meand there is a questionnaire in there
just for them to fill out generallyabout what's feeling overwhelming,
um, if they have clarity of what theyneed, what is that, that kind of thing.
(33:50):
And so it's really just helpsme get a little bit more pointed
questions when we do get on the call.
So we make the best of the time.
And then when we're on the call,I just dig a little bit deeper.
My goal is to figure out whatkind of support that they need.
Is it ongoing EA support?
Is it more of a strategy session with me?
Is it someone completely different?
(34:10):
And I have a great Rolodex full ofpeople to refer people to that I trust.
And, um, so that's kindof the goal of that call.
So whether they go with strategy orwith EA services with me, there's
a process of two calls that I dousually where it's, uh, really getting
under the hood of how they operatepersonally, how they operate as a
(34:31):
business, what's, what's feeling clunky.
And I have, I go through, basicallyevery segment of their business to get
an idea of what's feeling good to themas the business owner and what isn't.
Um, I have a lot of.
Ways to ask certain questions thatidentify that, and then I just help them
build the plan of, of what to delegate.
(34:52):
There is a time audit exercise I alsoask them to do in advance of those calls.
That helps me see wherethey're spending their time.
I ask them how they wantto be spending their time.
If they were to fast forward sixmonths from now, imagine your perfect
week, what does that look like?
A lot of the times people are sacrificingpersonal care and as a business
(35:12):
owner, I've been there, I have triedpouring from an empty cup or you know,
pushing on an empty battery, whateverthat is, and you just can't do it.
You start to really like resent going towork and I don't think that that is, uh.
Great for a business owner.
'cause we all started thisbecause we loved what we did.
We wanted the freedom and, but we ended upkind of trapping ourselves a little bit.
(35:35):
And so it's just kind of likeloosening that up a and uh, for
them and being able to have themsee what that could look like.
And it doesn't have to be scary.
I often think that they'rejust too close to it.
And so having someone like mewho can ask these questions and
approach it in that way, who isn'tso close to the business is key.
I mean, I'll tell you, Iwork with someone else.
(35:56):
I have a trusted person that I workwith to do the exact same thing
for me because I'm too close to mybusiness and I need someone to tell
me, Ashley, you don't have to do this.
And, and then first I'm gonna be like, no.
Oh yeah, you're right.
Okay.
So, but when you're close to it,sometimes you just can't see, um,
the, the answers and the solution.
(36:17):
Yeah.
I, I have the exact same element.
Like I have someone who I bouncethose challenges off with a,
you know, off of bit as well.
And I, I think that's something thatbusiness owners sort of sit in this weird
vacuum of, you're not large enough tohave like an executive board of, you know,
five or six advisors who are coming in.
(36:40):
And so you have to sortof find those people.
Maybe it's another businessowner, maybe it's, you know, a
business that's a service, maybeit's, you know, whatever that is.
Um, you need to find that so thatway you don't get stuck in that
vacuum of to do the same thing.
(37:01):
I. That just becomes a vicious cycle.
I think everybody needs a thought partner.
Um, I do really well thinking outloud and processing my thoughts.
And so, um, I have a number of peoplewho I know can be my person depending
on what it is that I need to talk out.
But definitely like, whether it's yourinternal team, you have people that you
(37:21):
trust that you can just talk through.
Um, or if it's like you said, I,there's been a few, I'm not currently
in a mastermind, but there are peoplethat I have connected with through
networking communities or mastermindgroups that I know I can just, Hey,
I, I gotta talk this out with you.
I trust your opinion onthis particular topic.
Let's talk it through.
And it goes both ways.
(37:41):
And then there's also times whereI need to hire someone like me who
can be a strategist and deliver.
And I think you wanna workwith someone like that if you
want a deliverable, right?
If you wanna plan, if youwant a bit more of that.
Um, leaning on colleagues and all that,that, that has gotten me through, uh,
to where I am today probably is justby leaning on people I know and trust.
(38:04):
Um, but I also know when there'stimes where I need, I need something
more tangible, uh, to help meknow, you know, the path forward.
So I think leaning on whoeverit is, is just really important.
Whether it's hiring someone like, like us,a fractional ea or if it's a strategist or
if it's something like what you guys do.
A lot of people, theyneed marketing support.
(38:24):
That's one of their first things theyneed to, um, you know, uh, offload.
You know?
So it just depends on what you need.
And that's also why I always tellpeople, just book a call with me.
I will help you figure outwhat that next right move is.
Because I really think that sometimes.
You just don't know untilyou can talk it out.
So I think ultimately what we'vejust decided here is that you just
(38:45):
gotta talk to people who get it.
Yeah, I will say, I was in, you weretalking about mastermind groups.
I was in a mastermind group for a longtime that was non-industry specific.
Mm-hmm.
which was really goodreally bad at the same time.
Um, it was really good in the senseof, I would bring up an element,
(39:06):
I'm like, this is an issue I'mstruggling with in my business.
And everybody in the room's like,I don't know how to relate to you
because I don't own a marketing agency.
And I'm like, okay, but you could be myclient, or you could be this, you could be
that.
And so through it in that sense a lot.
And sometimes, you know, therewere some questions that were
no, as a business owner, likehow do you guys deal with this?
Um, and then I'm also, Ialso sit in a mastermind now
(39:31):
that is agency specific and.
It's been very interesting.
There was something that we weretrying to do from a project management
perspective, and we were strugglingwith just like some project management
stuff and just accurately tracking somehours and, and having full visibility
(39:52):
on exactly what projects were costingus and just better knowing that.
And one of the guys in the mastermindmessaged me was like, Hey, let's have
a conversation offline outside of this.
And he's like, I workfor a national agency.
over half a million dollars buildinga custom solution for this, and
(40:13):
our custom solution worked worsethan the like, just track your task
in a spreadsheet type situation.
And he is like, in reality.
There is no money you canthrow at the problem to fix it.
It's just getting a teaminto a habit to do it.
that's sometimes I think we look atthe next software application to solve
(40:37):
our problem, whether that's, you know,in my industry it's like, oh, there's
some new AI thing that'll automateall your Instagram posts for you.
I'm like, and they're pretty terrible.
Um, and we look for those softwareapplications that are just gonna
solve all the world's problems.
But that may not be the right solution.
(40:59):
It might be delegating it, itmight be talking it through with
someone else, or it might just
Hmm.
understanding the existingsystem that you have.
Yes.
I agree.
I think we're all guilty of shiny objectsyndrome, especially in this, um, AI world
where you are kind of thrown, uh, we havethe solution for you and all of that.
(41:20):
And I definitely have learned, I will sayprobably over the last couple, like two
years, we have slowed that down a lot asfar as adopting new tools and systems.
And instead, I am, I pump the brakes andnot as big for me because I love, like,
that excites me learning something new.
And so it's very difficultfor me to, to slow that down.
(41:40):
Um, and.
You know, it's okay for us to adoptnew tools and platforms, but none
of it has to happen right now.
And I think by slowing it down and beingmore intentional, like you said, hold
on, is there something that we're usingright now that could solve this problem?
Or is it something that our people couldadopt in order to solve this problem?
(42:01):
I think that that is a lesson thatsometimes is best learned by experience.
Um, but being in being in themastermind groups and people sharing
their, their experiences likethat also I think really helps.
'cause it, it, I think sometimespeople feel like, um, they're
being left out when they hearpeople using all these fancy tools.
(42:21):
And so to hear sometimes other businessowners being like, yes, that's fantastic,
and you don't need these fancy tools yet.
Especially for small business owners.
You have a small budget, everydollar counts and so sometimes
that's difficult to compare toeveryone who has all the fancy stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I, I'll also say like we wereapproached by a project management company
(42:43):
who was like, Hey, our system is cheaperthan the one you're currently using.
I'm like, that's great, but that alsomeans I have to migrate all the data.
Yes.
all of my staff, get innew habits of all of that.
I was like, do you understand?
We literally this morninghad a conversation.
There's a system that we usecurrently we're on like a low tier.
(43:04):
They're changing their pricingmodel and it goes up, I think it's
like 200 bucks a year or something,
Yeah.
And we're like, oh, we couldswitch to this other one that
gonna be slightly cheaper.
But I'm like, okay, let'slook at the staff hours.
Like, can we get this done intwo or three hours of time?
(43:24):
No, we can't.
Like then it just doesn't make sense.
And we move to that new platform and thenthey're a competitor in the industry.
And if your competition raisestheir pricing 20%, then that gives
you the opportunity to do the same.
And so we could switch over and then twomonths down the road, they their pricing
up and we spend all this time retrainingand moving and doing all that mess.
(43:47):
And we're happy with the solutionwe have, like it works great.
There's no problems.
Like, yeah, we
bit, but is it worth 200 bucks a year?
Like no, it's, it's not.
Yeah, I think that that's very, uh,that kind of thinking, uh, is a good re
like example of why every business ownerwho tends to be a visionary, who will
(44:10):
see that and say, yeah, let's do it.
I'm gonna save money.
Easy peasy.
They need that little, uh, I don'tknow, Jim Cricket on their shoulders.
Someone who is, who is a littlebit more process mindset where
they can see the vision that the,that the business owner wants.
But someone who's processoriented, systems oriented,
who can say, that's great.
(44:30):
And just so you know, here'sall of the things that have
to go into it to get us there.
And sometimes they're not saying no,but every visionary needs someone
who's willing to map it out for them.
So that way the visionary, thebusiness owner can then say, oh, okay.
And whether they still wanna do it, atleast they have a better understanding
of what it takes to get there.
(44:51):
Because I think oftentimesvisionaries will, I. Just just
see the, just see the end.
They just see the goal, um, andthey're not quite understanding
all that's gonna go into it.
And so I think having that littlegini cricket as, as your right
hand person is really important.
Yeah.
We were talking before we hitrecord about analysis paralysis.
(45:13):
Um, yeah.
As soon as you, as soon as you startto think about, oh, we could jump to
this platform, it's like, well, there's18 other ones in the same space and
let's evaluate and for all of 'em.
And it's six months later andyou've realized that the one
you're on is probably the best one.
Mm-hmm.
is that shiny, shiny object element there.
(45:34):
And I know for us, like we, youknow, being a marketing agency, like
we've had clients before that were.
Having the conversation of like,okay, we're doing a new website.
You have a thousand pages of content.
Are we migrating thator are you migrating it?
I'm like, oh, we'll just do it ourselves.
Like, do you understandhow much work that is?
Like
gonna take x amount of time per page.
(45:56):
Like, who is doing that on your side?
And they're like, uh, I don't know.
We'll just figure it out.
I'm like, okay, let's, let's make surethat we have that figured out because
we've seen this happen before whereyou guys say you'll do it in house
and then don't have time to do it.
You don't have hundreds ofhours of time to have staff
(46:17):
move that content or do that.
now it's six months down the road andit's still not done, and you've for
this thing you've, you know, boughtand now it, it doesn't do anything for
you because there's no content there.
But
it's, ugh.
So what.
What are some differentmisconceptions that people have?
(46:40):
Um, maybe when they approach youguys, you know, someone who's
listening who is like, Hey, I've gota 10 to 20 person company and this
might be something I wanna look at.
What are, what are someof those misconceptions?
Yeah, uh, we, I mean we supportanywhere from a solopreneur to
corporations with hundreds of employees.
(47:02):
So there, there is always how Ilike to put it, even if, whether
you have an office and you havean in-person, say office manager
or just in-person support people.
We have like, um, legal companiesthat we help with a paralegal.
We have people who have anin-office office manager.
We also have people who are alsoremote or know office support.
And we are, it, um, we can support in alot of ways that take things off the, off
(47:28):
of either your plate as the client or the.
The in-office folks so theycan focus on in-office things.
And so that's kind of part of myprocess is helping, uh, identify
what our scope of work would be.
Um, and I do think that the biggest thingthat people wonder is how effective can
we be on a fractional basis, um, becausewe do, you know, fractional work, meaning
(47:53):
it could be even less than part-time.
The reason why we can still be effectiveis because our scope of work is focused
so we can focus on a certain area.
Let's just say it takes you,it's five hours a week for
you that we're alleviating.
That probably is gonna take us afraction of that amount of time because
(48:13):
we aren't interrupted like you arewhen it comes to doing those tasks.
What the client tends to beinterrupted a thousand times
just trying to answer emails.
And so it takes them so muchtime to answer emails and that's
because they're being pulled inso many different directions.
But if we are responsible forjust scheduling your meetings,
(48:34):
let's just use that as an example.
Those five minute emails, um, we all knowtake five minutes multiple times because
there's a lot of back and forth and so.
But because we are just focused on thatand not being distracted, we actually
can be a lot more effective in our time.
And then that five hours thatit was taking you before it
(48:54):
really feels even more amplified.
It feels like more than 10, more, like10 hours that we're freeing up because
you're not being interrupted as much.
Um, I think the other thing is,is people feel like, well, I don't
need just like administrative help.
Like ca like the typical like calendar andinbox management, um, is I think typically
what people think of when I meet withclients to see how we can support them.
(49:17):
The scope is really wide.
So I mean, as far as administrativeand operations in any business,
that's a really broad.
Area of support that it can look like.
And what we love is thatwe're heavily referral based.
And so our,
our clients all run different types,tons of different types of businesses.
They're different types of people.
They use all kinds of systems.
(49:38):
And we step in and we adopt to that.
And the type of support that everyclient needs is slightly different.
And so I help build that for them.
And.
Our team, uh, our EAs and me also reallystep in as that right hand person.
You need that person who I, some ofour clients put it as they come to me
and say, I need someone to manage me.
(49:59):
And that's what we'll come in anddo and we'll be able to hold you
accountable for, hey, you have allthese ideas, you don't have enough time.
Like we don't have enough time to do that.
Like there'll be that little JiminyCricket I was just talking about.
Right.
So it's, it's just someoneto help manage you.
So you aren't feeling like that out ofcontrol, feeling with too much on your
plate or you don't know where anything is.
I mean, oftentimes we are told byclients like they are so able to do
(50:23):
so much more because we're taking thisoff their plate, or they love knowing
that we are getting this done so theydon't have to worry about it anymore.
Just that sense of, I think, confidence,um, just all of that and clarity and all
of that coming back, I think I. The, mybiggest thing is just book the phone call.
I can help.
I will never tell someone that theyneed my support, uh, with my or my
(50:48):
team support if they don't need it.
I will always say, we're notthe right fit for you right now.
Here's how we could help youand or here's someone else who I
know and trust who can help you.
I ultimately, like I said, comefrom a family of entrepreneurs.
I'm really passionate about supportingbusiness owners and so ultimately
I will never, I will, I want to endthe call with you feeling like you
(51:10):
have a problem, identification anda solution or to in your hands, uh,
ultimately that's all I care about.
Nice.
so
sort of fitness coach esque of likewhat's the, what's the big goals?
Where are you wasting time?
You know, that type of stuff.
(51:33):
bit for the business, but
yeah.
guys can help with whether it's,you know, just strategy side of, you
know, what things are you doing that
you shouldn't be then also, youknow, there elements of that that
could be handed off to you guysand you guys can assist with,
which is cool.
(51:53):
So you could go back and mentoryourself in your first year of
business, what would you say?
I think that one of my biggest lessonslearned in the beginning, uh, I mean
of a few, this is not the only one,but is that I think I was trying to do
everything and not by me personally.
(52:15):
I mean, I was trying, I would hear aclient say what I just talked about,
like their, all their problems and allthe ways that they want me to help them.
And I would try to mold ourselves intosomeone who could do all of those things.
And so, uh, I felt, I think that wemuddled the water a little bit for a
while there and we, we weren't ableto deliver as strongly on the things
(52:38):
that just weren't in our area ofexpertise and they didn't have to be.
But I was so, uh, driven by solvingproblems, any problems that I was kind
of willing to bend over backwards and.
Probably not deliver the strongestservices, um, that we could have had.
We just stuck where our strengths were.
And so I think that that was one of thebiggest things that I learned quickly
(53:00):
is, and we adjusted eventually to reallyjust operation strategy and support.
But for a while wetried digital marketing.
Um, trying to think what else.
We had quite a few different servicesand whether it was a service in and of
itself or it was just broadening thescope of work of what our team did, I
think we just were trying a little bittoo much to just fit the mold everywhere.
(53:21):
And as we grew with more clients, likeI said, the, the muddy water started
happening and we realized we needed toreally get more clear on our scope of
work and deliver well what we could.
I think that's such a good lessonfor so many business owners because
there's this opportunity costof I have staff availability.
(53:44):
could do that.
We're not gonna do it at a hundredpercent because it's not something
we've done 20 times, but we do it.
You jump in, you say, yeah, we'lltake care of that because you're
trying to solve that problem.
And all of a sudden that next clientcomes along, who is a good fit?
(54:04):
Who you've done a hun, you know thatsame execution a hundred times and
now you don't have that availability
because you've taken and it, it, it, Ialso get it from the other side of like,
no, we need to make payroll next month.
Like we need, we need something coming in.
Um,
it is a balance, uh, on that for sure.
(54:26):
And, and we've all, if you're a businessowner, you've struggled with it, but yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, as we wrap things up, I wanna sortof flip the tables, uh, a little bit.
Do you have any questions for me?
So what would you say is yourfavorite, like Santa Clarita event?
(54:46):
Mm-hmm.
Santa Clarita event.
Uh, we were talking, uh, a few episodesago, actually, I was talking with
Dye Thompson and, um, this isn'tnecessarily my favorite one, but,
uh, I loved the Chalk Art Festival.
Like they used to do it at the and thenthey moved it to Downtown New Hall.
Um, and so yeah, that one was super fun.
(55:09):
I love that.
Um, I think if I were to think over thelast year or two, I think my favorite
recently has been concerts in the park.
It has been, so last summerwe went to maybe half of
them and it was such a blast.
The atmosphere, the, um, the fact thatour kids could run and play and enjoy
(55:35):
and, um, they got into the music, whetherit was they knew the songs or not, you
know, I think it's just the being around.
Uh, people and the music, theatmosphere is just awesome.
So I'm already really lookingforward to that for this year.
Yeah.
Nice.
Yeah, the
concerts and the park Love those
events.
(55:55):
So been in a while, but
was years for
me
in between too.
yeah, well we have, we havelittle ones and so yeah,
there's some challenges there.
And then, you know, the, theparking at Central Park is.
Chaotic for thoseevents, to say the least.
(56:15):
You have to get there early andwe've learned to just bring like some
sandwiches or whatever and just kindahang out for a little while before too.
But yeah, there were years we didn'tgo where because our kids were little
as well, but now they're the agewhere if they stay up late for those
events, it is not a nightmare at home.
They can do it, they can hang.
Um, but for a while we werelike, eh, not worth it.
(56:39):
Yeah.
I, I get that.
Awesome.
Well, if people wanna keep up with youand all the great things that you guys
are doing, how can, how can someonefo uh, find the business and find you?
Sure.
Uh, our website is elevate vbsolutions.com and we also are active
on Instagram at Elevate VB Solutions.
(57:00):
And then I'm also pretty active onLinkedIn myself, so I believe mine
is Ashley M. Carlson on LinkedIn.
Awesome.
And we will have all of those links,which I already have in the show notes.
and so if anyone wants to reachout, we'll, we'll find you there.
So, Well, as always, please follow, rateand review wherever you get your podcasts.
(57:23):
You can find the podcast, the Voicesof Business on Social Media, Santa
Clarita Valley Chamber, myselfas Joshua Maddux on LinkedIn.
Corey is Corey s Nathan.
love to have you or another localbusiness, join in on the conversation
if you're a Chamber member.
Thanks for listening andwe'll see you on the next one.
Welcome back to another episode of TheVoices of Business, a Santa Clarita
Valley Chamber of Commerce podcast.
It's good to be with you.
I'm your host, Joshua Maddux.
My cohost Corey Nathan is offon another adventure as always.
Um, this is where we talk about businessin the Santa Clarita Valley and really
all over, but a lot of the business ownerswe talk with are right here in our own
(00:29):
backyard and my hometown, Santa Clarita.
Uh, sometimes we don't stick to business.
We'll talk about leadership, managementlife, really wherever the spirit takes us.
So please remember to subscribe ifyou haven't already, tell a friend,
give us a good rating and review.
That really helps us with thealgorithms and all that type of stuff.
Sit back and enjoy the conversationwe're having today with Ashley Carlson
(00:52):
from, uh, elevate Business Solutions,the founder and CEO over there.
Good to have you on.
So you are a native to Santa Clarita.
Um, I know a lot of, uh, know, someof the conversations we've had, it's
been, uh, all over the country world.
(01:15):
Uh, but you're, you're here, here inSanta Clarita, so you've seen, uh, lot
of the development over the years and,uh, the change, change in our value.
Um, so obviously local business owner,but you have had some different background
in, in management really early on.
(01:38):
I wanna talk through like what, what wasthat college trajectory, um, you know,
maybe leading up to that a little bit.
And then what, what puts you onthat sort of management path?
it was always in some sortof administrative or customer
service type of role.
And, you know, you don't reallyrealize it at the time that
you're drawn to certain types of.
(01:58):
Uh, like roles.
And it wasn't until I started goingthrough and searching for career
opportunities, I realized that I, that waswhere I really thrived, is in management.
And so actually my entirepost-college career has always
been based in Santa Clarita.
So I mean, anywhere from, I think Istarted out as an administrative assistant
(02:19):
at a real estate developer's office here.
Then I went to more of eventmanagement at Valencia Country Club.
And then it was, um, it wassales and event planning and
all of that at the Hyatt.
And then my last, uh, careerprior to this was travel agent
at, uh, the local AAA here.
So.
(02:39):
As far as that, that's kind, it'salways been kind of in a management
operations type of role, but Ialso really learned a lot about
customer service and hospitality.
And of course my clientele through allof those was people in Santa Clarita.
So I love helping, you know, our localcommunity and being involved as as much
(03:00):
as possible and helping people withwhatever the event or the business or the
wedding that they're trying to play in.
That's kind of what I've always done.
Yeah, I was gonna say there's definitelya few, uh, well-known names here
locally with the Valencia Country Club,the Hyatt, you know, AAA being some.
Fairly well known businesses here in SantaClarita that, you know, you've been either
(03:23):
in management or planning of some sortwith, with some of those, which is, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
what led you, or what, what for you,like, I would say is like the driving
factor of like, you enjoy that sort ofmanagement or, um, you know, sort of the,
the solution side of, of the business.
(03:46):
Yeah, that's a good question.
And I think that it's somethingthat becomes more clear as you look
back or as you, uh, navigate thingsin a certain way, especially as a
business owner versus as an employee.
I think it becomes a lot more clear.
And I think ultimately it comesdown to, I, I actually just took
a Clifton strengths, um, test andthen, uh, really like I worked
(04:07):
with a coach and learned a lot moreabout myself and my top strengths.
Uh, the very number one is responsibility.
So I have no qualms withtaking responsibility quickly
and, um, just naturally.
So I think that that kind of has todo with management and not feeling
afraid to step in and solve problems.
(04:29):
I am more than that what we do isit's just constant problem solving
and addressing and being creativeand innovative in certain things.
And I always say, you know, I reallydo love solving puzzles, like we do
puzzles here at the house all the time.
So it's almost like that I'm justalways solving puzzles and help,
and I really love being the momentwhere I'm able to help someone.
(04:50):
A business owner, in this case, inour industry or our work now, is the
moment of clarity or relief that Isee when we have either solved their
problem or built a plan that helpsthem get to solving their problem.
And so I really, really enjoy that.
And so I enjoy the people sideof it, but I also enjoy the the
puzzle piece side of it too.
(05:13):
That's awesome.
So you're one of the types of peoplewho, if you go to an escape room,
they just shake their head and say,well, you'll be out in five minutes.
Um,
funny is I've never done an escaperoom and I just a couple of days ago
sent a text to a few friends saying,can we please do an escape room?
I think I would love it.
So that's really funny.
(05:34):
That's hilarious.
I did, uh, we did one for afriend's bachelor party, and
the group of people that went werethe CTO of a company, the head of
an IT department, data securityguy, myself, and then like a DevOps.
(05:56):
Mm-hmm.
that was like the team that went in.
And so literally like we were out in like,I don't know, 25 minutes or something.
It was just ridiculous.
And the guy's like, how, like, I mean.
Have you guys done this one before?
Like, I don't understand.
We're like, Nope, never done this.
We're like, we're literallyall like problem solvers by
(06:18):
train, like in different fields.
Mm-hmm.
Exactly.
And there there is a certaintype of brain that just act like
gets joy out of solving puzzles.
So, yeah.
yeah.
And you get to do thaton a daily basis with
different businesses.
So obviously, yeah, you get todo that on a, on a daily basis.
(06:40):
Um, you now sort of have a businessthat does that for other businesses.
Um, walk me through like what ledto starting your own business?
Um, how crazy were you to,you know, jump into that?
(07:00):
Obviously problem but a little crazy.
I.
Yes, absolutely.
I think you have to be a little bitcrazy to start your own business.
Um, so for me, I actually am athird generation entrepreneur.
I, as I grew up, um, my dad and mygrandfather both were business owners.
My dad still is, my grandfather's retired.
But, um.
(07:21):
The seeing them and their, how they,you know, ran their own businesses.
You see the, you see thegood and the bad, right?
We all know as business ownersthere's a lot of stress that comes
with it and a lot of chaos, but alsoa lot of flexibility and innovation.
And so I ki I grew up around that.
So to me, I think I feltcomfortable with it.
(07:41):
I just knew, I'm gonna say I knew whatto expect, but I definitely did not.
But I felt like it at the time.
Um, and so it didn't feel,it didn't feel scary to me.
It honestly felt natural.
And so when I got to the point,'cause I was working by myself,
um, doing administrative workwhen I had my son in 2017.
(08:02):
And so I did that until 2021 where I felt.
Ready to hire on team and reallyexcited about it and all of that.
And so in 2021 it the second I had thatidea and I was ready, I just went for it.
There wasn't really any reservationsthat I had, and I had a lot
of really great support too.
So not only my family, but also someother local, um, people that I had.
(08:26):
Through the years of working withbusiness owners out here in various
capacities, I was able to lean on themand have them guide me a little bit.
And so it made me feel prepared again.
I probably really wasn't, but it made mefeel, uh, I don't know, no hesitation.
I was just ready to doit and excited to do it.
So.
I think that's interesting.
(08:46):
Like, so you have a, obviouslya generational background.
The sense of like, you know.
Dad and, and grandfather both, youknow, have had or have businesses.
So, you know, obviously seen some of that.
I know oftentimes, like businessowners will be like, yeah, I had this
idea for like 10 years and I sort ofjust marinated on it and I, I thought
(09:07):
about it and I went back and forthand I, you know, finally jumped in.
It sounds like it was a littlebit quicker, like you, you sort of
saw that and
and then took that leap.
What, for you, like, was there areassurance or was it the fact that,
you know, you, you've seen thatyou've lived through it a little bit
more, so you sort of, know, thoughtyou knew what it could to expect.
(09:32):
I, I think it was a combination of alot of those things, of just me feeling.
Like, I had the insider view a littlebit of what it was like to own a
business, but I also think that itwas fueled by the fact that I, at that
time had been doing what I was doingfor about four years and I loved it.
And so I think that it was like, okay,if I could build this, um, even bigger
(09:56):
to continue doing what I love, but expandit to where I'm managing people again
and just bringing in the pieces of myformer career that I really loved it,
it just felt natural and it felt good.
It felt exciting, and I just, Iwas like you said, I just, I really
didn't have any reservations and I,I am not one who's afraid of like
(10:19):
building the plane while flying it.
Uh, challenge accepted.
I will do it if I, if I'mexcited and passionate about it.
I'm okay with solving theproblems along the way.
Right?
Like that's, uh, I just, so therewasn't really, I'm sure there was
hesitation for certain reasons,but never, never enough hesitation
to make me pump the brakes at all.
Got it.
Yeah, I, uh, I love the term,like just, you know, building
(10:42):
a plane as you're flying it.
Yes.
I think, you know, obviously doing someof this freelance esque, you know, as you
transitioned into that sort of validated,you know, the, the next steps it sounds
like,
now obviously it's not just you anymore.
The business has grown.
(11:04):
Um, what does that team look like?
What is, what does that look like today?
Yeah, so we are a fully remoteteam, all women across the us.
So I have 13 employees, uh,a couple of contractors, and
basically we are all primarilyoperations support professionals.
(11:24):
So, um, I have, they're all.
Either part-time or full-timeemployees, and they are a
mix of executive assistants.
And then we also have some bookkeepers,so helping businesses on that side.
I do the business strategy.
So along this journey over the last fouryears, I also, uh, became a certified
director of operations because I, Irealized that I did a lot of that work,
(11:48):
but I didn't have the formal training andframework that I, and resources that I
really craved to have maybe like a moresolid foundation of what I was doing.
And so now I get to do thatwhile my team does more of the
day-to-day implementation execution.
I. And one-on-one support withthe clients on a long-term basis.
And yeah.
And then we have, you know, some of ourteam we've promoted because along the
(12:11):
way I definitely realized I couldn'trun the entire backend of my own
business and do what I needed to do.
So we have promoted and grownthe internal team as well.
They're all still client facing as well,but they have, we have different roles who
handle the things that we do internally.
now, you mentioned the team.
You know, your, your team is.
(12:33):
Pretty much entirely, youknow, virtual and, and remote,
obviously starting the business.
You said 2020 or 2021.
2021.
Okay.
So starting 2021.
So you guys are, you know, four years inor so, how have you seen, you know, just
from like a company culture perspective,like, do you guys stay connected?
(12:54):
What does that look like?
I know for my business, you know,we're, I own a digital marketing agency.
My team is the same.
We're almost entirely remote.
I I have two staff that are herelocal in Santa Clarita, and I
see them maybe once a month.
Um, how have you guys seenthat for, for your business?
(13:16):
Yeah, there's a fewthings that I would say.
I mean, we've learned a lot along the way.
Um, I think that there's a big difference,uh, well when working remotely, a lot
of the times what people, what peopleare attracted to with a part-time
remote role or even full-time, is thatthere is flexibility and we want to
honor that and we want to still havepeople, you know, be able to flex
(13:38):
in their day as much as possible.
A lot of our, like I said, most ofour, or all of our team are women
and most of them are moms and theyneed the time to be able to care for
a sick kid or be there for pickupsor field trips and things like that.
Um, or maybe it's justdoctor's appointments.
And so we want our teamto have that flexibility.
(13:58):
But there also, when you're running abusiness, is a measure of accountability
and that has to happen and consistency.
And so how do you do that?
In a remote world where you can'tjust walk by someone's desk and see
whether or not they're engaged inwork or ask them how they're doing.
Even just connecting withpeople you know, by the printer.
You know, I remember those days of justbeing able to chit chat while we all
(14:19):
waited for what we were printing orin the break room, things like that.
So.
I have, we've worked really hardover the last four years trying
different things to balance thatflexibility with the accountability,
um, and efficiency and productivity.
So a few things that we do is we havesome sort of team meeting once a week.
Um, whether that is a, I mean,I'll tell you how we do it.
(14:41):
So we have one team meetingwhere it's a whole team meeting.
Everyone is there andit is for everyone to.
Uh, or for the, like, department leads, ifyou will, uh, deliver information as far
as updates, initiatives, things like that.
But we also intermix it with some fun too.
We have someone come in one, a teammember, uh, be our co-facilitator,
(15:02):
and they host a fun, uh, like theyget 15 minutes to host a fun activity.
So maybe we've done like a scavengerhunt, we've done meditation, we've done
just like a, a fun quiz or personalitytest and talk about it, things like that.
Um, and then they get to share a platformthat they're excited about and they wanna
share with the team, show their expertise.
And then we have the department.
(15:24):
Uh, leads talk about their updates.
And then we also have a, where we meetin small groups, we call 'em pods.
So everyone's assigned a littlesmall group where they actually get
together on another week and they getto talk about what they're working on.
So we are a group thatappreciates a good spreadsheet.
We are a group that can lean oneach other for, Hey, I have a
(15:45):
client traveling to this area.
Does anyone know any great restaurants?
Um, things like that.
So more small group collaboration.
And then we also have one-on-ones allthroughout the month, depending on the
role and responsibility and all of that.
So one-on-ones are always happening.
Uh, we, we actively use Slackand so there's a, a general
(16:05):
channel where people will justask questions throughout the week.
If it's a certain project, there'sa separate channel for that.
Um, we even have a break roomchannel where it's specifically
for water cooler type chat.
Um, so that's kind of what we, we want amix of collaborate, like where there's.
We, when we came up with our meetingstructure, we wanted to make sure
(16:26):
what is the purpose of every meeting?
What is our goal and how canwe structure it in that way?
We don't want it to be whereevery meeting is just the talking
heads and everyone's listening.
We want a sense of connection.
How can we do that?
We also want a sense ofcollaboration and problem solving.
How can we do that?
So we've put a lot of time in that.
Um, our one-on-one meetings are also,every single one has a, like a, we
(16:49):
call it like a little square, I guess.
Uh, for questions that are circledaround, what's going well for you?
What's feeling sticky?
What questions do you have?
A, a time where both parties canalways give and receive feedback.
Um, I really believe that in a, Imean, any culture, it's important,
but in a remote workspace, you don'thave that opportunity, like I said,
(17:10):
to walk up to someone's desk andyou notice that something's wrong
and you just wanna talk about it.
So you, we have these intentionaltimes to check in that way.
So, yeah.
We did not get there overnight.
All of this structure that I justtalked about, it has been a lot of trial
and error and, uh, we are at a pointwhere it is functioning really well.
And, um, the, the feedback that we getfrom our, the women who work on our
(17:32):
team about how appreciated they feel andhow, you know, just how happy they are,
uh, that, that means the world to me.
So,
Yeah, we, our meeting cycle and alot of what we do is very similar.
Um, we have been in business 18 yearsand started as a lot more in person.
(17:53):
Um,
2019 ish.
We were three days a week inperson, two days a week remote.
was very advanced for the times
it was, and it came out of,
That didn't exist.
yeah.
2019 it came out of the fact that.
I typically scheduled all of my out ofoffice meetings Tuesdays and Thursdays.
(18:17):
And so the team would come in theoffice on a Tuesday and they'd
be like, cool, you're not here.
So-and-so's not here.
So-and-so only works,you know, X days a week.
Um, we also had, you know, some,some of our employees were college
students still or whatever.
And so, you know, people had differentdays that they were, know, in office
or in classes or whatever, and we'dhave staff come in the office and
(18:41):
it's like, cool, it's just me forthe first three hours by myself.
And I drove in for this, like, and that'swhen we started transitioning to like,
okay, cloud storage, remote elements,implemented things like Slack, you
know, did a lot of that type of stuff.
20 18, 20 19. then when Covidhit it was the, everyone
(19:04):
worked from home for two weeks.
Um.
Which we all know how that went.
Um, and so for us it was a littlebit of a different transition
of, we had team members whowere like, I'm going stir crazy.
I need to see another human.
And so Fridays, we just had a Zoom roomthat was open at lunch, and people would
just hop in and do a virtual puzzletogether, or like, and think we've, uh,
(19:33):
had the same challenges of like, do youhave that transparency and that, um,
accountability and productivity without,you know, I've, I've seen the horror
stories of companies, like, we're trackingevery mouse movement on your computer.
And it's like, well, I have twographic designers, maybe one sitting
(19:53):
with a sketchbook for an hourand sketching out some concepts.
Or like, you know, how doyou, how do you track that?
And, and I. the element of like, no,you have to be okay with, these are the
people you've hired and you trust them and
Yes.
we're good.
Um, yeah.
yeah.
It is, it is interesting to hear.
I mean, we're, again, we're Slack.
(20:15):
We do, we have a water cooler channel.
We
off the week with a Monday allall call and, you know, do some
breakout stuff throughout the weekdepending on who's working on what.
Um, yeah, just interesting to hear how itsort of naturally evolved to, you know, I,
I think that's what a lot of companies arefinding is a similar, a similar workflow.
(20:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You definitely need to find a way tostrike the balance between, like you
said, the, the micromanaging and allof that, versus the just studying the
right standards and enough opportunity toconnect, so you still feel that trust, so,
Yeah, and we've, we've tried doing somedifferent, like quarterly outing type
(21:00):
stuff as we're able to or, you know,and sometimes it just doesn't work with
people's schedules or, or whatever.
But, you know, doing some of thattype of stuff is, is still good
as we're, as we're able to, so,
Yeah, we meet, uh, once a yearwith the, like the internal
team I mentioned earlier.
We meet once a year in Nashville,uh, to do just in-person things.
(21:22):
We also, we spend probably two fulldays just strategic planning, reviewing
how the year went, uh, has gone so far,and then planning for the next year.
But there's also a lot of reallygreat, just in-person time.
Even just, even just like wakingup and making breakfast together
or being in the kitchen together.
There's just a sense of connection.
Um, being able to go out to dinner,do fun activities, uh, intermixed
(21:44):
with getting stuff done in person.
I think that, that for, andwe also do a branding shoot.
We get new photos every year too, so.
I think that still incorporatingsome in-person is really important to
just have that quality time together.
And for us, it just happens once a yearand I know we all count down the days.
It's always really fun.
(22:06):
that's good.
and I think there's a, justa bonding aspect there.
I know I served on a board for anorganization and they do, the beginning
of the year, they kick off the newboard with doing a, a weekend retreat.
And board you then, you spend 72hours together and that year is very
(22:28):
different than, you know, that Iserved on it was like, oh, we do a one
hour Saturday conversation and thenthat's the strategy plan for the year.
And it's just like, okay, not as invested.
Um,
you, uh, I think there's aninvestment level there, which is good.
(22:50):
It's good.
So there's a statement that Ibelieve it was on your guys' website
that says you can do anything, butyou don't have to do everything.
What, obviously there's sort of a, amoment in the career path that had a
lesson learned there, but that's alsosort of your guys' mantra a little and
(23:11):
what what you guys help people understand.
Walk
me through
Yeah.
So, uh, the statement forme personally came from my
entrepreneurial journey myself andrealizing, uh, when I was working.
Just me as a freelancer.
(23:32):
Um, I also had just had my son andthen I quickly had my daughter.
So I was raising two babies anda business at the same time.
Uh, and I am a recovering perfectionistand I very much expected of myself
to do everything that I was doingpre-business and pre-kids exactly
(23:52):
the same, plus add on all thoseresponsibilities and do them excellently.
And that just, I wasnot setting myself up.
For realistic expectations.
I was setting myself up forfailure and disappointment.
It there, the expectationswere coming from no one but me.
And so as I, you know, built thisbusiness, I also realized that I was
(24:15):
seeing a lot of business owners doing itfor themselves, maybe in life as I was.
But also typically we see it inbusiness where we see business
owners, um, start solo, right?
And when you start solo, you arethe person who does everything.
And so if you think of all the.
Let's call it pieces andparts of your business.
(24:36):
They're all individual buckets.
You have marketing, you have operations,you have sales and accounting, and
customer relations, all those buckets.
They're very, very smallwhen it's just you.
But as your business grows.
Your buckets of each of thoseresponsibilities, those hats
that you wear become bigger.
And so what I hear all the timeas business owners being like,
(24:59):
I can do, I can do that, I cando that, I just can't get to it.
And I'm frustrated and they feeldiscouraged, they feel overwhelmed,
they feel disappointed in themselves.
Like, why can't I getto it like I used to?
And so I have to explain to 'em,the buckets have gotten bigger.
Your, your ability to do any of thesethings is still there and that's great,
(25:19):
but you can no longer do everything.
And because what will happen is youwill get to burnout, speaking from
experience, you will, uh, exceedoverwhelm, speaking from experience.
And so what needs to happen is we,I go through an exercise with all
of our clients about figuring out.
What to delegate first.
I feel very passionately about, uh,I call it a delegation strategy.
(25:43):
I walk through that with them.
I do it for our EA clients, but Ialso do it one-on-one with people
who don't need our EA services.
Um, really help them identify.
What they don't have to do anymore.
Um, what requires their expertise,which, which has to be done by you.
So for example, you are this podcasthost, you have to be here, but maybe
(26:04):
there's a lot of things pre and postthis call that don't have to be you.
You could possibly delegate those.
So just trying to helpthem understand as much.
'cause when you're so close to it, youreally feel like, no, it all has to be me.
It has to.
And so I help kind of clear thatfog a little bit and identify what
you can delegate, who you shoulddelegate it to, and how to do it well.
(26:24):
Because I, my goal is to get back themback to spending their time on the
things that not only have to be doneby them, but the things that bring
them joy, the reason why they startedthis business in the first place.
Um, so that way hopefully theirtime and energy is spent there.
And or bringing back awork life balance too.
'cause that's typically what wesee as the misalignment there.
(26:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I so resonate with that on multiplelevels because first, like, I'm a
business owner, this is my baby.
If I delegate that,someone's gonna mess it up.
but then again, like you can't juggle14 things well, at the same time,
like, you have to do that to grow.
(27:09):
I have a, a business coach that one timetold me like, you need a to don't list.
And
you can have a to-do list,but you need a to don't list.
And he is like, and the biggeryou get, the more percentage
of things that you need to doshould go on that to don't list.
(27:30):
He's like, that doesn't meanit's not gonna get done.
But it's not gonna get done by you.
And so there's, I know there was a,I had a professor in college that
would talk about this all the time.
He's like, yeah, it may only takeyou an hour to do it, you can
train someone on how to do itand it'll take you three hours.
(27:53):
He's like, if you mathematically look atthat initially and you're like, oh, it's
gonna take three times longer to trainthat person, to train them once, then
every time they do that, every time, yeah,it's gonna take them two hours the next
time and an hour and a half the next time.
They may never get to the point whereyou are, or they may get there five
(28:17):
years from now, but it's an hourof your time that you don't have to
delegate to or, or use utilize for that.
Yeah, and eventually that person couldeven become faster, you know, because
I think that comes to where are youdelegating it to the right person,
because sometimes, so an examplethat I use all the time is Canva.
(28:39):
I love Canva.
I love using it.
I love designing things in it.
I definitely can.
I, it is something I can do.
However, I know, again, I am a recoveringperfectionist and I, I also have shiny
object syndrome, and so I will endup taking hours to do something that
probably if I just hired someone whois like, that's just their skillset.
(29:01):
Not only will they be faster, but theyalso, they are less attached to it, and
they will churn out a hundred of what tookme for one, because I was so busy looking
at all the other options, you know?
And so I think I actually, I, I teachpeople that all the time that that
point that you had where you feel scaredto delegate your baby because no one
(29:24):
is going to, to do it the way you do.
There's just no way.
Or they won't do it in thetime that it takes you.
And so I actually have a. Uh, likea protocol, a framework that I
follow and I help train people on,on how to delegate successfully.
Because the, not only what I spokeon a little bit ago was the what to
delegate and who to delegate it to.
(29:45):
But I also teach people how to delegatesuccessfully because that ultimately you
not only wanna delegate the time saved onyour plate, but you also wanna delegate
and, and get away the brain space, right?
So if you are delegating the time saving,but you're not doing it well and it's
keeping you up at night, or you, you arehaving the urge to micromanage because
(30:07):
you don't know how it's going, then thatmeans you didn't delegate successfully.
And there's some small things thatcan be done, uh, to make sure that
it's not only saving you time, butit's saving you the brain space.
Yeah.
I am, uh, a hundred percent, uh,guilty of the Canva, Canva element.
I have two designers on staff, andthere'll be times where I'll pop into
(30:30):
Canva and I'm like, so what I havestarted doing is the, what I have
come to like terminology is like thesharpie mockup of like, I need a flyer.
Okay, great.
Grab a sheet of paper and be like,
Yes.
a design it in 30 seconds or less,
take a photo then like, I literallyhave sitting on my desk, a business
(30:52):
card of ours, and we're adjustingsome design language stuff.
And I literally just havelike, okay, this box here is
where I want, like the LA Yeah.
Um, know, just that like,okay, 10,000 foot level stuff.
Like, let's
that's a great example of delegatingsuccessfully because I think the, one
(31:14):
of the things that you need to do is,and what, what the person that you
are delegating to needs to know iswhat does success look like to you?
They don't live in your brain.
If you aren't, um, describing it to themwell enough, what's, what the ultimate,
but like had, had I done this myself,here's what, here's what I'm envisioning.
Here's what's what Iwould consider successful.
(31:34):
You have to be able to, whetherthat is a drawing real quick.
There has to be some way thatyou can verbally, visually
describe what success looks like.
Because they also, in order forthem to do it well, they wanna
know what you're looking for.
So as best you can, even if it is ascribble or a quick voice memo, whatever
it is, uh, they, they should know that.
(31:57):
So I think that's great that you do that.
Yeah, uh, was at a conference upin the Bay Area and I decided to
drive, and so from Santa Clarita to.
Francisco's a bit of a drive and ourcontent strategist ha was, PEs had been
(32:17):
pestering me for months about like,Hey, we need more topic ideas and you
know, elements for blog posts, strategy,And so there was handful of topics
that our team had come up with thatother people on the team were writing.
And there was a handful thatthey were asking me to write.
(32:38):
so just like threw my phone inthe cup holder and hit record
and talked through the topic.
And then
I got to a gas station or whatever,I just drop them in Slack and
the team took it from there.
But it was just those, those elementsof do I need to, if I need to sit
down and type out a blog post, likethat might be getting done next year.
(33:04):
Um, but I can talk through, you
know.
Five minutes of a topic as I'mdriving in the car, like, that's easy.
Yeah, that's a great example.
elements.
So we've been talking about somedifferent examples, like how do you
guys help CEOs or companies decidelike what they should stop doing, you
(33:26):
know, or look at, know, virtual help.
Like what, what does thatprocess look like for you guys?
Yeah, so we, I mean our, the processfor how what we follow is first they
book a clarity call with a, with meand there is a questionnaire in there
just for them to fill out generallyabout what's feeling overwhelming,
um, if they have clarity of what theyneed, what is that, that kind of thing.
(33:50):
And so it's really just helpsme get a little bit more pointed
questions when we do get on the call.
So we make the best of the time.
And then when we're on the call,I just dig a little bit deeper.
My goal is to figure out whatkind of support that they need.
Is it ongoing EA support?
Is it more of a strategy session with me?
Is it someone completely different?
(34:10):
And I have a great Rolodex full ofpeople to refer people to that I trust.
And, um, so that's kindof the goal of that call.
So whether they go with strategy orwith EA services with me, there's
a process of two calls that I dousually where it's, uh, really getting
under the hood of how they operatepersonally, how they operate as a
(34:31):
business, what's, what's feeling clunky.
And I have, I go through, basicallyevery segment of their business to get
an idea of what's feeling good to themas the business owner and what isn't.
Um, I have a lot of.
Ways to ask certain questions thatidentify that, and then I just help them
build the plan of, of what to delegate.
(34:52):
There is a time audit exercise I alsoask them to do in advance of those calls.
That helps me see wherethey're spending their time.
I ask them how they wantto be spending their time.
If they were to fast forward sixmonths from now, imagine your perfect
week, what does that look like?
A lot of the times people are sacrificingpersonal care and as a business
(35:12):
owner, I've been there, I have triedpouring from an empty cup or you know,
pushing on an empty battery, whateverthat is, and you just can't do it.
You start to really like resent going towork and I don't think that that is, uh.
Great for a business owner.
'cause we all started thisbecause we loved what we did.
We wanted the freedom and, but we ended upkind of trapping ourselves a little bit.
(35:35):
And so it's just kind of likeloosening that up a and uh, for
them and being able to have themsee what that could look like.
And it doesn't have to be scary.
I often think that they'rejust too close to it.
And so having someone like mewho can ask these questions and
approach it in that way, who isn'tso close to the business is key.
I mean, I'll tell you, Iwork with someone else.
(35:56):
I have a trusted person that I workwith to do the exact same thing
for me because I'm too close to mybusiness and I need someone to tell
me, Ashley, you don't have to do this.
And, and then first I'm gonna be like, no.
Oh yeah, you're right.
Okay.
So, but when you're close to it,sometimes you just can't see, um,
the, the answers and the solution.
(36:17):
Yeah.
I, I have the exact same element.
Like I have someone who I bouncethose challenges off with a,
you know, off of bit as well.
And I, I think that's something thatbusiness owners sort of sit in this weird
vacuum of, you're not large enough tohave like an executive board of, you know,
five or six advisors who are coming in.
(36:40):
And so you have to sortof find those people.
Maybe it's another businessowner, maybe it's, you know, a
business that's a service, maybeit's, you know, whatever that is.
Um, you need to find that so thatway you don't get stuck in that
vacuum of to do the same thing.
(37:01):
I. That just becomes a vicious cycle.
I think everybody needs a thought partner.
Um, I do really well thinking outloud and processing my thoughts.
And so, um, I have a number of peoplewho I know can be my person depending
on what it is that I need to talk out.
But definitely like, whether it's yourinternal team, you have people that you
(37:21):
trust that you can just talk through.
Um, or if it's like you said, I,there's been a few, I'm not currently
in a mastermind, but there are peoplethat I have connected with through
networking communities or mastermindgroups that I know I can just, Hey,
I, I gotta talk this out with you.
I trust your opinion onthis particular topic.
Let's talk it through.
And it goes both ways.
(37:41):
And then there's also times whereI need to hire someone like me who
can be a strategist and deliver.
And I think you wanna workwith someone like that if you
want a deliverable, right?
If you wanna plan, if youwant a bit more of that.
Um, leaning on colleagues and all that,that, that has gotten me through, uh,
to where I am today probably is justby leaning on people I know and trust.
(38:04):
Um, but I also know when there'stimes where I need, I need something
more tangible, uh, to help meknow, you know, the path forward.
So I think leaning on whoeverit is, is just really important.
Whether it's hiring someone like, like us,a fractional ea or if it's a strategist or
if it's something like what you guys do.
A lot of people, theyneed marketing support.
(38:24):
That's one of their first things theyneed to, um, you know, uh, offload.
You know?
So it just depends on what you need.
And that's also why I always tellpeople, just book a call with me.
I will help you figure outwhat that next right move is.
Because I really think that sometimes.
You just don't know untilyou can talk it out.
So I think ultimately what we'vejust decided here is that you just
(38:45):
gotta talk to people who get it.
Yeah, I will say, I was in, you weretalking about mastermind groups.
I was in a mastermind group for a longtime that was non-industry specific.
Mm-hmm.
which was really goodreally bad at the same time.
Um, it was really good in the senseof, I would bring up an element,
(39:06):
I'm like, this is an issue I'mstruggling with in my business.
And everybody in the room's like,I don't know how to relate to you
because I don't own a marketing agency.
And I'm like, okay, but you could be myclient, or you could be this, you could be
that.
And so through it in that sense a lot.
And sometimes, you know, therewere some questions that were
no, as a business owner, likehow do you guys deal with this?
Um, and then I'm also, Ialso sit in a mastermind now
(39:31):
that is agency specific and.
It's been very interesting.
There was something that we weretrying to do from a project management
perspective, and we were strugglingwith just like some project management
stuff and just accurately tracking somehours and, and having full visibility
(39:52):
on exactly what projects were costingus and just better knowing that.
And one of the guys in the mastermindmessaged me was like, Hey, let's have
a conversation offline outside of this.
And he's like, I workfor a national agency.
over half a million dollars buildinga custom solution for this, and
(40:13):
our custom solution worked worsethan the like, just track your task
in a spreadsheet type situation.
And he is like, in reality.
There is no money you canthrow at the problem to fix it.
It's just getting a teaminto a habit to do it.
that's sometimes I think we look atthe next software application to solve
(40:37):
our problem, whether that's, you know,in my industry it's like, oh, there's
some new AI thing that'll automateall your Instagram posts for you.
I'm like, and they're pretty terrible.
Um, and we look for those softwareapplications that are just gonna
solve all the world's problems.
But that may not be the right solution.
(40:59):
It might be delegating it, itmight be talking it through with
someone else, or it might just
Hmm.
understanding the existingsystem that you have.
Yes.
I agree.
I think we're all guilty of shiny objectsyndrome, especially in this, um, AI world
where you are kind of thrown, uh, we havethe solution for you and all of that.
(41:20):
And I definitely have learned, I will sayprobably over the last couple, like two
years, we have slowed that down a lot asfar as adopting new tools and systems.
And instead, I am, I pump the brakes andnot as big for me because I love, like,
that excites me learning something new.
And so it's very difficultfor me to, to slow that down.
(41:40):
Um, and.
You know, it's okay for us to adoptnew tools and platforms, but none
of it has to happen right now.
And I think by slowing it down and beingmore intentional, like you said, hold
on, is there something that we're usingright now that could solve this problem?
Or is it something that our people couldadopt in order to solve this problem?
(42:01):
I think that that is a lesson thatsometimes is best learned by experience.
Um, but being in being in themastermind groups and people sharing
their, their experiences likethat also I think really helps.
'cause it, it, I think sometimespeople feel like, um, they're
being left out when they hearpeople using all these fancy tools.
(42:21):
And so to hear sometimes other businessowners being like, yes, that's fantastic,
and you don't need these fancy tools yet.
Especially for small business owners.
You have a small budget, everydollar counts and so sometimes
that's difficult to compare toeveryone who has all the fancy stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I, I'll also say like we wereapproached by a project management company
(42:43):
who was like, Hey, our system is cheaperthan the one you're currently using.
I'm like, that's great, but that alsomeans I have to migrate all the data.
Yes.
all of my staff, get innew habits of all of that.
I was like, do you understand?
We literally this morninghad a conversation.
There's a system that we usecurrently we're on like a low tier.
(43:04):
They're changing their pricingmodel and it goes up, I think it's
like 200 bucks a year or something,
Yeah.
And we're like, oh, we couldswitch to this other one that
gonna be slightly cheaper.
But I'm like, okay, let'slook at the staff hours.
Like, can we get this done intwo or three hours of time?
(43:24):
No, we can't.
Like then it just doesn't make sense.
And we move to that new platform and thenthey're a competitor in the industry.
And if your competition raisestheir pricing 20%, then that gives
you the opportunity to do the same.
And so we could switch over and then twomonths down the road, they their pricing
up and we spend all this time retrainingand moving and doing all that mess.
(43:47):
And we're happy with the solutionwe have, like it works great.
There's no problems.
Like, yeah, we
bit, but is it worth 200 bucks a year?
Like no, it's, it's not.
Yeah, I think that that's very, uh,that kind of thinking, uh, is a good re
like example of why every business ownerwho tends to be a visionary, who will
(44:10):
see that and say, yeah, let's do it.
I'm gonna save money.
Easy peasy.
They need that little, uh, I don'tknow, Jim Cricket on their shoulders.
Someone who is, who is a littlebit more process mindset where
they can see the vision that the,that the business owner wants.
But someone who's processoriented, systems oriented,
who can say, that's great.
(44:30):
And just so you know, here'sall of the things that have
to go into it to get us there.
And sometimes they're not saying no,but every visionary needs someone
who's willing to map it out for them.
So that way the visionary, thebusiness owner can then say, oh, okay.
And whether they still wanna do it, atleast they have a better understanding
of what it takes to get there.
(44:51):
Because I think oftentimesvisionaries will, I. Just just
see the, just see the end.
They just see the goal, um, andthey're not quite understanding
all that's gonna go into it.
And so I think having that littlegini cricket as, as your right
hand person is really important.
Yeah.
We were talking before we hitrecord about analysis paralysis.
(45:13):
Um, yeah.
As soon as you, as soon as you startto think about, oh, we could jump to
this platform, it's like, well, there's18 other ones in the same space and
let's evaluate and for all of 'em.
And it's six months later andyou've realized that the one
you're on is probably the best one.
Mm-hmm.
is that shiny, shiny object element there.
(45:34):
And I know for us, like we, youknow, being a marketing agency, like
we've had clients before that were.
Having the conversation of like,okay, we're doing a new website.
You have a thousand pages of content.
Are we migrating thator are you migrating it?
I'm like, oh, we'll just do it ourselves.
Like, do you understandhow much work that is?
Like
gonna take x amount of time per page.
(45:56):
Like, who is doing that on your side?
And they're like, uh, I don't know.
We'll just figure it out.
I'm like, okay, let's, let's make surethat we have that figured out because
we've seen this happen before whereyou guys say you'll do it in house
and then don't have time to do it.
You don't have hundreds ofhours of time to have staff
(46:17):
move that content or do that.
now it's six months down the road andit's still not done, and you've for
this thing you've, you know, boughtand now it, it doesn't do anything for
you because there's no content there.
But
it's, ugh.
So what.
What are some differentmisconceptions that people have?
(46:40):
Um, maybe when they approach youguys, you know, someone who's
listening who is like, Hey, I've gota 10 to 20 person company and this
might be something I wanna look at.
What are, what are someof those misconceptions?
Yeah, uh, we, I mean we supportanywhere from a solopreneur to
corporations with hundreds of employees.
(47:02):
So there, there is always how Ilike to put it, even if, whether
you have an office and you havean in-person, say office manager
or just in-person support people.
We have like, um, legal companiesthat we help with a paralegal.
We have people who have anin-office office manager.
We also have people who are alsoremote or know office support.
And we are, it, um, we can support in alot of ways that take things off the, off
(47:28):
of either your plate as the client or the.
The in-office folks so theycan focus on in-office things.
And so that's kind of part of myprocess is helping, uh, identify
what our scope of work would be.
Um, and I do think that the biggest thingthat people wonder is how effective can
we be on a fractional basis, um, becausewe do, you know, fractional work, meaning
(47:53):
it could be even less than part-time.
The reason why we can still be effectiveis because our scope of work is focused
so we can focus on a certain area.
Let's just say it takes you,it's five hours a week for
you that we're alleviating.
That probably is gonna take us afraction of that amount of time because
(48:13):
we aren't interrupted like you arewhen it comes to doing those tasks.
What the client tends to beinterrupted a thousand times
just trying to answer emails.
And so it takes them so muchtime to answer emails and that's
because they're being pulled inso many different directions.
But if we are responsible forjust scheduling your meetings,
(48:34):
let's just use that as an example.
Those five minute emails, um, we all knowtake five minutes multiple times because
there's a lot of back and forth and so.
But because we are just focused on thatand not being distracted, we actually
can be a lot more effective in our time.
And then that five hours thatit was taking you before it
(48:54):
really feels even more amplified.
It feels like more than 10, more, like10 hours that we're freeing up because
you're not being interrupted as much.
Um, I think the other thing is,is people feel like, well, I don't
need just like administrative help.
Like ca like the typical like calendar andinbox management, um, is I think typically
what people think of when I meet withclients to see how we can support them.
(49:17):
The scope is really wide.
So I mean, as far as administrativeand operations in any business,
that's a really broad.
Area of support that it can look like.
And what we love is thatwe're heavily referral based.
And so our,
our clients all run different types,tons of different types of businesses.
They're different types of people.
They use all kinds of systems.
(49:38):
And we step in and we adopt to that.
And the type of support that everyclient needs is slightly different.
And so I help build that for them.
And.
Our team, uh, our EAs and me also reallystep in as that right hand person.
You need that person who I, some ofour clients put it as they come to me
and say, I need someone to manage me.
(49:59):
And that's what we'll come in anddo and we'll be able to hold you
accountable for, hey, you have allthese ideas, you don't have enough time.
Like we don't have enough time to do that.
Like there'll be that little JiminyCricket I was just talking about.
Right.
So it's, it's just someoneto help manage you.
So you aren't feeling like that out ofcontrol, feeling with too much on your
plate or you don't know where anything is.
I mean, oftentimes we are told byclients like they are so able to do
(50:23):
so much more because we're taking thisoff their plate, or they love knowing
that we are getting this done so theydon't have to worry about it anymore.
Just that sense of, I think, confidence,um, just all of that and clarity and all
of that coming back, I think I. The, mybiggest thing is just book the phone call.
I can help.
I will never tell someone that theyneed my support, uh, with my or my
(50:48):
team support if they don't need it.
I will always say, we're notthe right fit for you right now.
Here's how we could help youand or here's someone else who I
know and trust who can help you.
I ultimately, like I said, comefrom a family of entrepreneurs.
I'm really passionate about supportingbusiness owners and so ultimately
I will never, I will, I want to endthe call with you feeling like you
(51:10):
have a problem, identification anda solution or to in your hands, uh,
ultimately that's all I care about.
Nice.
so
sort of fitness coach esque of likewhat's the, what's the big goals?
Where are you wasting time?
You know, that type of stuff.
(51:33):
bit for the business, but
yeah.
guys can help with whether it's,you know, just strategy side of, you
know, what things are you doing that
you shouldn't be then also, youknow, there elements of that that
could be handed off to you guysand you guys can assist with,
which is cool.
(51:53):
So you could go back and mentoryourself in your first year of
business, what would you say?
I think that one of my biggest lessonslearned in the beginning, uh, I mean
of a few, this is not the only one,but is that I think I was trying to do
everything and not by me personally.
(52:15):
I mean, I was trying, I would hear aclient say what I just talked about,
like their, all their problems and allthe ways that they want me to help them.
And I would try to mold ourselves intosomeone who could do all of those things.
And so, uh, I felt, I think that wemuddled the water a little bit for a
while there and we, we weren't ableto deliver as strongly on the things
(52:38):
that just weren't in our area ofexpertise and they didn't have to be.
But I was so, uh, driven by solvingproblems, any problems that I was kind
of willing to bend over backwards and.
Probably not deliver the strongestservices, um, that we could have had.
We just stuck where our strengths were.
And so I think that that was one of thebiggest things that I learned quickly
(53:00):
is, and we adjusted eventually to reallyjust operation strategy and support.
But for a while wetried digital marketing.
Um, trying to think what else.
We had quite a few different servicesand whether it was a service in and of
itself or it was just broadening thescope of work of what our team did, I
think we just were trying a little bittoo much to just fit the mold everywhere.
(53:21):
And as we grew with more clients, likeI said, the, the muddy water started
happening and we realized we needed toreally get more clear on our scope of
work and deliver well what we could.
I think that's such a good lessonfor so many business owners because
there's this opportunity costof I have staff availability.
(53:44):
could do that.
We're not gonna do it at a hundredpercent because it's not something
we've done 20 times, but we do it.
You jump in, you say, yeah, we'lltake care of that because you're
trying to solve that problem.
And all of a sudden that next clientcomes along, who is a good fit?
(54:04):
Who you've done a hun, you know thatsame execution a hundred times and
now you don't have that availability
because you've taken and it, it, it, Ialso get it from the other side of like,
no, we need to make payroll next month.
Like we need, we need something coming in.
Um,
it is a balance, uh, on that for sure.
(54:26):
And, and we've all, if you're a businessowner, you've struggled with it, but yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, as we wrap things up, I wanna sortof flip the tables, uh, a little bit.
Do you have any questions for me?
So what would you say is yourfavorite, like Santa Clarita event?
(54:46):
Mm-hmm.
Santa Clarita event.
Uh, we were talking, uh, a few episodesago, actually, I was talking with
Dye Thompson and, um, this isn'tnecessarily my favorite one, but,
uh, I loved the Chalk Art Festival.
Like they used to do it at the and thenthey moved it to Downtown New Hall.
Um, and so yeah, that one was super fun.
(55:09):
I love that.
Um, I think if I were to think over thelast year or two, I think my favorite
recently has been concerts in the park.
It has been, so last summerwe went to maybe half of
them and it was such a blast.
The atmosphere, the, um, the fact thatour kids could run and play and enjoy
(55:35):
and, um, they got into the music, whetherit was they knew the songs or not, you
know, I think it's just the being around.
Uh, people and the music, theatmosphere is just awesome.
So I'm already really lookingforward to that for this year.
Yeah.
Nice.
Yeah, the
concerts and the park Love those
events.
(55:55):
So been in a while, but
was years for
me
in between too.
yeah, well we have, we havelittle ones and so yeah,
there's some challenges there.
And then, you know, the, theparking at Central Park is.
Chaotic for thoseevents, to say the least.
(56:15):
You have to get there early andwe've learned to just bring like some
sandwiches or whatever and just kindahang out for a little while before too.
But yeah, there were years we didn'tgo where because our kids were little
as well, but now they're the agewhere if they stay up late for those
events, it is not a nightmare at home.
They can do it, they can hang.
Um, but for a while we werelike, eh, not worth it.
(56:39):
Yeah.
I, I get that.
Awesome.
Well, if people wanna keep up with youand all the great things that you guys
are doing, how can, how can someonefo uh, find the business and find you?
Sure.
Uh, our website is elevate vbsolutions.com and we also are active
on Instagram at Elevate VB Solutions.
(57:00):
And then I'm also pretty active onLinkedIn myself, so I believe mine
is Ashley M. Carlson on LinkedIn.
Awesome.
And we will have all of those links,which I already have in the show notes.
and so if anyone wants to reachout, we'll, we'll find you there.
So, Well, as always, please follow, rateand review wherever you get your podcasts.
(57:23):
You can find the podcast, the Voicesof Business on Social Media, Santa
Clarita Valley Chamber, myselfas Joshua Maddux on LinkedIn.
Corey is Corey s Nathan.
love to have you or another localbusiness, join in on the conversation
if you're a Chamber member.
Thanks for listening andwe'll see you on the next one.
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