October 11, 2023 • 21 mins
Are you ready to tap into your genius zone? Our guest, Emily LaRusch, founder of Back Office Betties, shares her insights on how to discover the activities that leads to effective delegation for tasks outside our genius zone.
We also talk about team building and the vital role it plays in business growth. Emily brings her expertise to the table, providing tips on being a leader who nurtures and develops a team to fill the gaps in your business. We delve into the concept of fractional help, discussing virtual reception and fractional administrative services. We also put a spotlight on the critical factor that is often overlooked - mental health.
Want more from Emily? Go to www.backofficebetties.com/freegift to receive a free resource that can help your firm double its income!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This podcast is brought to you by Spotlight
Branding.
Whether your firm only gets afew referrals or it's 100% of
your business, you have theopportunity to double your
referrals through educational,informative content.
The pros at Spotlight Brandingcan help you create that content
through blogging videos, emailnewsletters and more All
(00:22):
designed to help you increaseyour referrals and attract the
kinds of clients you want towork with.
Visit spotlightbrandingcomslash pod to learn more.
That's spotlightbrandingcomslash pod.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
This is Center Stage putting your firm in the
spotlight by highlightingbusiness owners and other
industry experts to help takeyour firm to the next level.
Hey everyone, and welcome toCenter Stage.
I'm your host, john Henson, andthis week we are talking about
what it takes to be a genius,and it's probably not in the
(01:14):
literal sense, in terms of yourIQ level, but in just how you
work and how you are working atyour most optimal level.
Maybe our guest here can maybeexplain it in a different way,
but all of this is coming fromour guest this week, the founder
of Back Office Betty's, emilyLaRouche, and she will really
(01:35):
dive into this with us here injust a bit.
But, emily, thanks for joiningus again.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Thank you, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, so you were one of the very first guests on
Center Stage a couple of yearsago, so I'm really glad to have
you back on here.
I know you do a lot of work inthe virtual receptionist space
with Back Office Betty's, butyou also just in some of the
articles that you've contributedto our website over on the
spotlight insider side.
You have a huge focus onleadership and business
(02:05):
development and what it takes tobe a really good business owner
.
So for people who may not havecaught you the first time around
, tell us a little aboutyourself, Back Office Betty's,
and just a lot of the thingsthat you're passionate about.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Absolutely so.
Back Office Betty's that's theeasy one.
We are a virtual receptionistand fractional administrative
staffing company for small lawfirms, so we provide everyone
from trained paralegals toexecutive and administrative
assistants.
We can do a variety ofdifferent things, like social
media, things like that.
So if you think of theadministrative roles that need
(02:41):
to get filled for a small firm,they want to run like a big firm
.
You need specialty people.
We take care of those andpersonally, you hit on something
that is really important to meand that's leadership
development.
And what's really important tome, more so than the business
and the services we provide, isreally truly mental health, and
(03:06):
that's what we're going to talka little bit about finding your
zone of genius.
Because growing up, just to betotally transparent, I didn't
know what I was good at.
I struggled in school.
Most people would be reallysurprised that I was a little
hoodlum and I just I wasdirectionless.
I didn't know where I was goingbecause I had a genius zone,
and so it's so important for mewhen I'm coaching and working
(03:29):
with other entrepreneurs, tostart there.
Let's find out your genius zone, and then everything else is
simple, and so I do work withthe entrepreneurs organization
accelerator program and do somecoaching there.
Inmates to entrepreneurs dosome teaching there.
And then I also guest lectureat Texas A&M and I work with
(03:50):
them as well in theirentrepreneurial department.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Awesome, yeah, a ton of great stuff there, and so you
talked about your unique geniuszone.
So what is that?
How do you begin to even findout what your zone is?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
All right.
So this is so easy, john.
You just take a sheet of paper,draw a line straight down the
middle and another one acrossand the upper left.
You're going to write great, isit great?
Great, it's something like that.
So you write great.
Then you're going to write inthe next one you're going to say
good like.
(04:27):
Then in the next bottom leftyou're going to put good dislike
, and then in the bottom rightyou're going to put Bad hate.
And so what we're looking at iswhat you're great at and gives
you energy, so you love, so it'sso.
That's what it is.
You're gonna say I'm great andI love, so great love and what
I'm good at, and I like doingwhat I'm good at, but I dislike
(04:50):
doing what I'm bad at and Iabsolutely hate doing.
And you just put Every task,every type of thing, whether
it's public speaking, doingaccounting, talking to customers
, whatever it is fill in theboxes.
Your upper left is your geniuszone and when you work in there
and that's all you're doing, youcan 10x your results.
And For me, when I figured thisout in my business now, my team
(05:12):
is so protective when I try andcreep over to something that I
might be good at, but it's notmy genius own.
They're like smack my hand, getout of here, emily, that's not
your lane.
Get back over there.
Because they know we're gonnaget the biggest growth for the
company when I stay in my geniuszone.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, and that's, and you know, especially for
someone who's running their ownbusiness, you know, even if
they're just starting out there,probably, you know they have to
wear all of these hats.
There's no way they enjoy doingevery single thing right, you
know?
I mean, I'm even thinking aboutit just in my own role.
You know the things that I'mkind of responsible before, but
things I don't reallyparticularly enjoy doing and,
(05:49):
like you know, those are thethings that I got to try to
figure out how to get off of myplate, and I think delegation is
a really big part of this and Ithink it's kind of you know, at
least from where I'm sitting,it's kind of at the core of Kind
of uncovering you know whatyour genius zone actually is.
And so you know, I mean, like,how does someone Really start to
try to get rid of the tasksthat fall into those other three
(06:14):
quadrants, outside of thethings that they're great at and
they love to do?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Well, I love fractional experts and so I've
really built my company so I canuse myself as an example.
You know, when I realized thatDoing the work of a COO is a
small company, you're generallywearing several hats, right.
So I was kind of CEO, coo andthe COO role is not my forte,
(06:39):
it's not where I'm great and I'mmore in the strategic and
visionary and thoughts andcreativity, more marketing.
And so what I did is I hired afractional COO and who knew they
were out there but you can getan entire executive team on a
fractional basis.
And so now I've got that.
And then I also hired anexecutive assistant 20 hours a
(07:01):
month.
I hired one of our own as thecobbler with no shoes.
I actually hired one of our ownVA's to come on as my executive
assistant and it's changed mylife.
And so Cameron Harold would sayif you don't have an assistant,
you are the assistant.
So that's where he's alwayssays to start, and I love that
advice.
So I would give the same advicestart with an assistant to
offload all of those things.
(07:22):
And there's things like I wasgoing on a Boating trip and I
was responsible to bring thesnacks, and so I tell my
assistant.
On this day, three months fromnow, I'm responsible for snacks.
Make sure they're delivered tomy house the night before Done.
I didn't ever have to thinkabout it again.
She set it up.
So everything from travelcoordination to calendar
management, to those personalthings, too, that help make your
(07:45):
life easier.
I would start with that.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, and you brought up a great point.
We actually had an episode allabout, you know, fractional Help
.
You go back to episode 119 andcheck that out.
Just talks about all the thingsthat a fractional person can do
for you.
So it's really great companionto what we're talking about here
.
One thing I want to ask youabout because you know it struck
me very Interesting.
You know you talked about howthe, the coo role for you wasn't
(08:11):
really your forte and and itmight work differently in other
firms.
But I'm thinking about this youknow it's like you Built back
office beddies, you know, unlessyou structured it differently.
You know, I'm thinking that thethe operation side of things
was managing a lot of thosereceptionist, building out those
processes and stuff and likethat's kind of the core of the
(08:32):
business, right?
And so you're basically saying,like you, as the founder of the
business, didn't particularlyenjoy handling that core part of
the business and so for, like alawyer out there who's like you
know, oh man, I'm practicing,you know, whatever area of law
they're in, but I don'tnecessarily like it's not what I
(08:53):
enjoy doing.
I'm good at it.
Yes, don't enjoy doing it.
I actually enjoy marketing myfirm more than I actually do
working on cases and stuff, andso you know, I think on paper it
almost sounds like you need toget into another business, but
that's not what you're saying.
You can actually still keepyour business and grow it and
just delegate some of the stuff,even if it's maybe what you are
(09:15):
known for or what you built thefirm on originally.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Absolutely Some of the most successful friends,
entrepreneur friends I have.
They're actually they'regenius-owned as sales.
Well, sales are great, butthere's so many other components
of running a business,particularly the core thing, and
but that's not theirgenius-owned and so really it's
about finding out where you sitand it doesn't matter because
(09:38):
you build the team around you tofill in the holes.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, and you know, and it goes back to you know
what you talked about at thebeginning.
It's not so much about youbeing an executor of the work,
but it's about being the leaderand the developer of the people
who are going to be able to do alot of that work.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Absolutely.
So I'm working with a longtimeattorney.
Right now.
He's opening his first criminalpractice on his own and so you
know he's a little bit in hishead and he's a friend.
So we've been working a lottogether and he's not great
about asking for the upfrontretainer.
He really gets invested intheir cases and wants to help.
He is amazing at the researchand the strategy behind the
(10:20):
defense and so some of thatupfront conversation like that's
just not his forte.
He's going to spend two hourstalking to them and wanting to
tell them all about the strategyhe's thinking of and that's not
the best use of his time whenright now we need to be
collecting the retainer and weneed to be doing the initial
agreements and so that'ssomething that our team can take
over for him.
He doesn't have to do that andhe can really focus on working
(10:43):
on that strategy and doing thelegal research that he's really
good at and offload and kind ofbuild that support team around
where he is good.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, and you know another thing that you mentioned
.
You know I talked about theprevious episode we did around
fractional help.
You mentioned that you guys doyou know virtual reception and
then fractional administrative.
What is the difference there?
You know, I'm assuming thatit's a lot broader than just the
virtual reception, but how doyou know what is a fractional
(11:14):
administrative person?
Do that?
Maybe just the virtualreceptionist does not.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
But it really depends on what the particular need is
for the firm.
So we have one firm that has, Ithink, four or five different
virtual assistants they're using, and so we have some that are
specifically paralegals.
They've spent most of theircareer as a paralegal, so these
aren't just you know,administrative people.
They actually have feet in alaw firm, you know butts in
(11:41):
seats, experience as a paralegal.
So they are using thosespecific skills as a paralegal.
And then another one might bedoing more client care, so that
might be more of a generaladministrative.
So we have a team of differentskilled virtual assistants and
you can use, say you know, theclient care.
Maybe you want them doingcheck-ins and just touching base
(12:02):
, maybe you only need them 10hours a month.
And in the case of Brian, myfriend, that's starting up, he's
going to go with a 10 hours ofparalegal a month and virtual
receptionist.
So the virtual receptionistanswers the phone 60 hours a
month for, as little as you know, less than $400 a month for a
brand new firm that's notgetting a lot of calls and then
for 10 hours of paralegal, it'slike we're looking at like
(12:25):
another $400.
So less than $1,000 a month andhe has reception and paralegal
to augment where he's at rightnow and then we can always scale
up as needed with either of theservices and add on additional
specialty specialist as well.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, and so I love that you kind of talked about
prices there, because that's theone another thing that I was
going to ask you.
You know, especially as you werebuilding up back office beddies
, you know you mentioned thatyou hired some different
fractional thing.
And I know, just in a lot ofthe conversations that I have
with with small firm owners, youknow the cost and the
investment in things is alwaysjust one of the biggest fears or
(13:03):
concerns that they have.
You know, because they they'reso worried about, you know,
putting all of this money andinvesting into something and it
flopping, or them not, you know,feeling like they get the most
out of it.
And so you know from yourexperience.
You know, or you know, eitherwhat you've done in the past or
even what you're currently doingright now.
You know what should a firmowner expect in terms of like?
(13:25):
How much would a fractional,you know, c O, o or C M, o, c, f
, o, anything like that how muchwould that, you know, cost them
and what kind of results or atimeframe, even like, would they
reasonably expect to see?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
So for fractional executive team myself, the
expense has been anywhere from$2,500 a month all the way up to
about $65,000, $7,000 a month.
And so I actually met with agreat panel of women yesterday
who specifically work with lawfirms.
They do fractional CMO, so theywould do something like they
would manage the relationshipwith spotlight and so they would
(14:01):
create the strategy for thecompany.
And so that was one business.
Another one's a fractional CFO,specifically again for law
firms, and usually they'rescalable up or down.
I've used the same thing formyself a fractional CFO, cmo,
coo and really built up my teamthat way.
But I started with an assistantand so, starting low, I wasn't
(14:23):
ready to have an executive teamovernight, and so there was a
period of time where I had towear multiple hats as we
transition and as we grow.
But here's what I'll tell youwhen you're working in your zone
of genius and you start offloading all that other stuff, if
you have a good marketing planin place so that you are
bringing business in, you'regoing to 10x your business.
It works.
When you work the system, itworks for you.
(14:45):
So you've got to have some kindof marketing plan in place to
be bringing in clients.
You can't just say like I'mgoing to sit here and do these
things that I'm really good atand do all the case work, but
have no way to bring in newclients.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, and kind of bringing it full circle.
I feel like you offload thoseitems that are in those other
three quadrants.
You are now able to dedicateall of your time into doing the
things that you enjoy and aregood at, which means you can
really scale in and really get alot more accomplished, because
(15:19):
I don't know how many peopleconsciously realize how much of
this other noise takes up somuch of their time and really
bogs them down and prevents themfrom doing what they actually
enjoy and are good at.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, Absolutely, and I'll give this.
You know, I was terrified aswell when I hired my first
assistant.
Am I going to have enough forthem to do?
Am I going to be able to keepthem busy?
Am I going to be able to paythem?
And let me tell you, I'm on myfourth one now.
I've actually made every one ofthem from part-time to
full-time, you know, made themfull-time employees and then
kept okay, I need another onenow.
(15:53):
Now I need another one.
And so the company continued togrow.
My biggest fear was that Icouldn't pay these guys, but
every time I offload more, I amno shortage of things to do that
are within my zone of genius,that are helping the company
grow.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, and I think that comes with, you know, just
as a byproduct of a companygrowing right, you get bigger
and bigger and you know morethings come up.
And one other thing I wanted toask you about you know how you
know, is there any sort ofrhythm for maybe even updating
your zone of genius or anythinglike that?
Like, for example, like you sayyou sit down and did it right
(16:29):
now and you maybe you have likefive things in there and you
just focus on those five thingsand then maybe like a year from
now you know you've grown biggerand now maybe you're like that
item number four, you're not asexcited about it.
You know, do you kind of juststart that process all over
again and look for ways to kickthat out of the zone and
(16:50):
delegate to someone else?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
That's a good question.
I actually do review it everyyear.
So every year we do anaccountability chart review.
The first time I did myaccountability chart, john, I
was sitting in about four seats,and so it was really
embarrassing actually to be like, oh my gosh, we're such a tiny
company that me and my otherexecutive I was just me and her
at the time we were sitting inall these seats.
It was too many, and so welooked at it.
(17:15):
We were like, which of theseare in our least zone of genius
areas?
And then how do we get someoneelse in this seat who's a
specialist?
And, holy moly, it changed mylife, it changed her life.
When we started filling in theseother roles with people who
loved it and were passionate andthe one I'm really thinking of
is finance.
So I just got our finance girlshirt says a freak in the sheets
(17:36):
and it's got the Excel logo.
I mean because she is legit afreak in the sheets, she nerds
out on it, she's high on lifewhen she gets to work in there.
And for me and Caitlin we werejust like, oh my gosh, kill me
now.
This is horrible.
So it's amazing when you startfilling in those roles and just
get yourself out of one thing ata time and look at it every
year.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, and I mean it's such a great example because I
mean, like even right now, as werecord this, I've actually had
to take back over ouradministrative and finance
duties internally here on atemporary basis, and one of the
things that I was actually kindof hesitant about doing that is
there was just some financetasks in there that I just did
not enjoy doing and that, youknow, you talk about the zone of
(18:19):
genius.
You know balancing or you knowreconciling credit cards and
bank accounts is just I hateddoing that.
But then there were some otheraspects of it that I actually
enjoyed.
You know there was a lot ofspreadsheets in that.
I need to probably find one ofthose shirts for me where, you
know, I just enjoyed being inthere and that was totally fine.
I was totally happy, you know,taking that stuff back.
But you know we were able tooutsource some of that stuff to
(18:42):
a bookkeeper and so it wasn't,as you know, it's not as
draining or even draining it allreally right now for me to be
having those extra tasks.
Even though it's more work onmy plate, it's still in that
zone of things that I enjoydoing.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah.
So I mean it's like there's nolimits what you can do when it's
something that you actuallyenjoy doing, Right, and so that
whole saying of you're nevergoing to work a day in your life
.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Exactly, yeah, you know and and that's and that's
really where you want to be as abusiness owner.
You know, and you know the thekind of concept of working on
your business instead of in itand all that, and so I think
this is a really good tool thatcan help people really visualize
it and, you know, build aroadmap for helping them offload
a lot of that stuff and reallyset the right expectation.
(19:28):
So I really appreciate youcoming on and talking about that
.
Could you let everybody knowjust what Backoffice Beddies has
going on and all the servicesthat you guys provide for people
?
One more time yeah, absolutelyso.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
we are a virtual receptionist and virtual
assistant including legalassistant staffing company.
We help take the risk out ofdoing all the recruiting, hiring
, training and helping toaugment the staff on small law
firms.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Awesome, and I know that your team had given me a
link to go to that is in theshow notes to go check out the
resources, and we'll expand onthat more in the show
description.
So you guys definitely go checkthem out, check out everything
that they've got.
You know, definitely one of thethings that I fully believe in
is that you should not beanswering your own phones.
(20:17):
You should absolutely bedelegating that often and having
someone handling that for you,and I know you guys do a lot of
really good work over there.
One final question for youbefore we wrap up here.
If you had one final piece ofadvice for our listeners, what
would it be?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
The same thing I tell all the texts they and M kids.
Get your mental health right,because you're going to be told
no, you're going to be rejected.
All of your childhood wounding,maybe your ego will get in the
way of your happiness and yourbusiness.
So find your zone of genius.
Live in bliss.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Awesome, love it.
And yes, I love the mentalhealth note Definitely something
that isn't touched on enough,but it is.
It is really, really importantto just keep in mind and have
those discussions and go see atherapist if you need to.
It's really great.
So that's going to do it for usthis week.
Thank you so much forcontinuing to listen.
If you have not done so yet,please leave a rating and review
(21:11):
.
It really does help the showout more than you could ever
imagine.
That's going to do it, emily.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
My pleasure.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Thanks for listening to learn more.
Go to spotlight brandingcomslash center stage.
This podcast is brought to you by Spotlight
Branding.
Whether your firm only gets afew referrals or it's 100% of
your business, you have theopportunity to double your
referrals through educational,informative content.
The pros at Spotlight Brandingcan help you create that content
through blogging videos, emailnewsletters and more All
(00:22):
designed to help you increaseyour referrals and attract the
kinds of clients you want towork with.
Visit spotlightbrandingcomslash pod to learn more.
That's spotlightbrandingcomslash pod.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
This is Center Stage putting your firm in the
spotlight by highlightingbusiness owners and other
industry experts to help takeyour firm to the next level.
Hey everyone, and welcome toCenter Stage.
I'm your host, john Henson, andthis week we are talking about
what it takes to be a genius,and it's probably not in the
(01:14):
literal sense, in terms of yourIQ level, but in just how you
work and how you are working atyour most optimal level.
Maybe our guest here can maybeexplain it in a different way,
but all of this is coming fromour guest this week, the founder
of Back Office Betty's, emilyLaRouche, and she will really
(01:35):
dive into this with us here injust a bit.
But, emily, thanks for joiningus again.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Thank you, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, so you were one of the very first guests on
Center Stage a couple of yearsago, so I'm really glad to have
you back on here.
I know you do a lot of work inthe virtual receptionist space
with Back Office Betty's, butyou also just in some of the
articles that you've contributedto our website over on the
spotlight insider side.
You have a huge focus onleadership and business
(02:05):
development and what it takes tobe a really good business owner
.
So for people who may not havecaught you the first time around
, tell us a little aboutyourself, Back Office Betty's,
and just a lot of the thingsthat you're passionate about.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Absolutely so.
Back Office Betty's that's theeasy one.
We are a virtual receptionistand fractional administrative
staffing company for small lawfirms, so we provide everyone
from trained paralegals toexecutive and administrative
assistants.
We can do a variety ofdifferent things, like social
media, things like that.
So if you think of theadministrative roles that need
(02:41):
to get filled for a small firm,they want to run like a big firm
.
You need specialty people.
We take care of those andpersonally, you hit on something
that is really important to meand that's leadership
development.
And what's really important tome, more so than the business
and the services we provide, isreally truly mental health, and
(03:06):
that's what we're going to talka little bit about finding your
zone of genius.
Because growing up, just to betotally transparent, I didn't
know what I was good at.
I struggled in school.
Most people would be reallysurprised that I was a little
hoodlum and I just I wasdirectionless.
I didn't know where I was goingbecause I had a genius zone,
and so it's so important for mewhen I'm coaching and working
(03:29):
with other entrepreneurs, tostart there.
Let's find out your genius zone, and then everything else is
simple, and so I do work withthe entrepreneurs organization
accelerator program and do somecoaching there.
Inmates to entrepreneurs dosome teaching there.
And then I also guest lectureat Texas A&M and I work with
(03:50):
them as well in theirentrepreneurial department.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Awesome, yeah, a ton of great stuff there, and so you
talked about your unique geniuszone.
So what is that?
How do you begin to even findout what your zone is?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
All right.
So this is so easy, john.
You just take a sheet of paper,draw a line straight down the
middle and another one acrossand the upper left.
You're going to write great, isit great?
Great, it's something like that.
So you write great.
Then you're going to write inthe next one you're going to say
good like.
(04:27):
Then in the next bottom leftyou're going to put good dislike
, and then in the bottom rightyou're going to put Bad hate.
And so what we're looking at iswhat you're great at and gives
you energy, so you love, so it'sso.
That's what it is.
You're gonna say I'm great andI love, so great love and what
I'm good at, and I like doingwhat I'm good at, but I dislike
(04:50):
doing what I'm bad at and Iabsolutely hate doing.
And you just put Every task,every type of thing, whether
it's public speaking, doingaccounting, talking to customers
, whatever it is fill in theboxes.
Your upper left is your geniuszone and when you work in there
and that's all you're doing, youcan 10x your results.
And For me, when I figured thisout in my business now, my team
(05:12):
is so protective when I try andcreep over to something that I
might be good at, but it's notmy genius own.
They're like smack my hand, getout of here, emily, that's not
your lane.
Get back over there.
Because they know we're gonnaget the biggest growth for the
company when I stay in my geniuszone.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, and that's, and you know, especially for
someone who's running their ownbusiness, you know, even if
they're just starting out there,probably, you know they have to
wear all of these hats.
There's no way they enjoy doingevery single thing right, you
know?
I mean, I'm even thinking aboutit just in my own role.
You know the things that I'mkind of responsible before, but
things I don't reallyparticularly enjoy doing and,
(05:49):
like you know, those are thethings that I got to try to
figure out how to get off of myplate, and I think delegation is
a really big part of this and Ithink it's kind of you know, at
least from where I'm sitting,it's kind of at the core of Kind
of uncovering you know whatyour genius zone actually is.
And so you know, I mean, like,how does someone Really start to
try to get rid of the tasksthat fall into those other three
(06:14):
quadrants, outside of thethings that they're great at and
they love to do?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Well, I love fractional experts and so I've
really built my company so I canuse myself as an example.
You know, when I realized thatDoing the work of a COO is a
small company, you're generallywearing several hats, right.
So I was kind of CEO, coo andthe COO role is not my forte,
(06:39):
it's not where I'm great and I'mmore in the strategic and
visionary and thoughts andcreativity, more marketing.
And so what I did is I hired afractional COO and who knew they
were out there but you can getan entire executive team on a
fractional basis.
And so now I've got that.
And then I also hired anexecutive assistant 20 hours a
(07:01):
month.
I hired one of our own as thecobbler with no shoes.
I actually hired one of our ownVA's to come on as my executive
assistant and it's changed mylife.
And so Cameron Harold would sayif you don't have an assistant,
you are the assistant.
So that's where he's alwayssays to start, and I love that
advice.
So I would give the same advicestart with an assistant to
offload all of those things.
(07:22):
And there's things like I wasgoing on a Boating trip and I
was responsible to bring thesnacks, and so I tell my
assistant.
On this day, three months fromnow, I'm responsible for snacks.
Make sure they're delivered tomy house the night before Done.
I didn't ever have to thinkabout it again.
She set it up.
So everything from travelcoordination to calendar
management, to those personalthings, too, that help make your
(07:45):
life easier.
I would start with that.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, and you brought up a great point.
We actually had an episode allabout, you know, fractional Help
.
You go back to episode 119 andcheck that out.
Just talks about all the thingsthat a fractional person can do
for you.
So it's really great companionto what we're talking about here
.
One thing I want to ask youabout because you know it struck
me very Interesting.
You know you talked about howthe, the coo role for you wasn't
(08:11):
really your forte and and itmight work differently in other
firms.
But I'm thinking about this youknow it's like you Built back
office beddies, you know, unlessyou structured it differently.
You know, I'm thinking that thethe operation side of things
was managing a lot of thosereceptionist, building out those
processes and stuff and likethat's kind of the core of the
(08:32):
business, right?
And so you're basically saying,like you, as the founder of the
business, didn't particularlyenjoy handling that core part of
the business and so for, like alawyer out there who's like you
know, oh man, I'm practicing,you know, whatever area of law
they're in, but I don'tnecessarily like it's not what I
(08:53):
enjoy doing.
I'm good at it.
Yes, don't enjoy doing it.
I actually enjoy marketing myfirm more than I actually do
working on cases and stuff, andso you know, I think on paper it
almost sounds like you need toget into another business, but
that's not what you're saying.
You can actually still keepyour business and grow it and
just delegate some of the stuff,even if it's maybe what you are
(09:15):
known for or what you built thefirm on originally.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Absolutely Some of the most successful friends,
entrepreneur friends I have.
They're actually they'regenius-owned as sales.
Well, sales are great, butthere's so many other components
of running a business,particularly the core thing, and
but that's not theirgenius-owned and so really it's
about finding out where you sitand it doesn't matter because
(09:38):
you build the team around you tofill in the holes.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, and you know, and it goes back to you know
what you talked about at thebeginning.
It's not so much about youbeing an executor of the work,
but it's about being the leaderand the developer of the people
who are going to be able to do alot of that work.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Absolutely.
So I'm working with a longtimeattorney.
Right now.
He's opening his first criminalpractice on his own and so you
know he's a little bit in hishead and he's a friend.
So we've been working a lottogether and he's not great
about asking for the upfrontretainer.
He really gets invested intheir cases and wants to help.
He is amazing at the researchand the strategy behind the
(10:20):
defense and so some of thatupfront conversation like that's
just not his forte.
He's going to spend two hourstalking to them and wanting to
tell them all about the strategyhe's thinking of and that's not
the best use of his time whenright now we need to be
collecting the retainer and weneed to be doing the initial
agreements and so that'ssomething that our team can take
over for him.
He doesn't have to do that andhe can really focus on working
(10:43):
on that strategy and doing thelegal research that he's really
good at and offload and kind ofbuild that support team around
where he is good.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, and you know another thing that you mentioned
.
You know I talked about theprevious episode we did around
fractional help.
You mentioned that you guys doyou know virtual reception and
then fractional administrative.
What is the difference there?
You know, I'm assuming thatit's a lot broader than just the
virtual reception, but how doyou know what is a fractional
(11:14):
administrative person?
Do that?
Maybe just the virtualreceptionist does not.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
But it really depends on what the particular need is
for the firm.
So we have one firm that has, Ithink, four or five different
virtual assistants they're using, and so we have some that are
specifically paralegals.
They've spent most of theircareer as a paralegal, so these
aren't just you know,administrative people.
They actually have feet in alaw firm, you know butts in
(11:41):
seats, experience as a paralegal.
So they are using thosespecific skills as a paralegal.
And then another one might bedoing more client care, so that
might be more of a generaladministrative.
So we have a team of differentskilled virtual assistants and
you can use, say you know, theclient care.
Maybe you want them doingcheck-ins and just touching base
(12:02):
, maybe you only need them 10hours a month.
And in the case of Brian, myfriend, that's starting up, he's
going to go with a 10 hours ofparalegal a month and virtual
receptionist.
So the virtual receptionistanswers the phone 60 hours a
month for, as little as you know, less than $400 a month for a
brand new firm that's notgetting a lot of calls and then
for 10 hours of paralegal, it'slike we're looking at like
(12:25):
another $400.
So less than $1,000 a month andhe has reception and paralegal
to augment where he's at rightnow and then we can always scale
up as needed with either of theservices and add on additional
specialty specialist as well.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, and so I love that you kind of talked about
prices there, because that's theone another thing that I was
going to ask you.
You know, especially as you werebuilding up back office beddies
, you know you mentioned thatyou hired some different
fractional thing.
And I know, just in a lot ofthe conversations that I have
with with small firm owners, youknow the cost and the
investment in things is alwaysjust one of the biggest fears or
(13:03):
concerns that they have.
You know, because they they'reso worried about, you know,
putting all of this money andinvesting into something and it
flopping, or them not, you know,feeling like they get the most
out of it.
And so you know from yourexperience.
You know, or you know, eitherwhat you've done in the past or
even what you're currently doingright now.
You know what should a firmowner expect in terms of like?
(13:25):
How much would a fractional,you know, c O, o or C M, o, c, f
, o, anything like that how muchwould that, you know, cost them
and what kind of results or atimeframe, even like, would they
reasonably expect to see?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
So for fractional executive team myself, the
expense has been anywhere from$2,500 a month all the way up to
about $65,000, $7,000 a month.
And so I actually met with agreat panel of women yesterday
who specifically work with lawfirms.
They do fractional CMO, so theywould do something like they
would manage the relationshipwith spotlight and so they would
(14:01):
create the strategy for thecompany.
And so that was one business.
Another one's a fractional CFO,specifically again for law
firms, and usually they'rescalable up or down.
I've used the same thing formyself a fractional CFO, cmo,
coo and really built up my teamthat way.
But I started with an assistantand so, starting low, I wasn't
(14:23):
ready to have an executive teamovernight, and so there was a
period of time where I had towear multiple hats as we
transition and as we grow.
But here's what I'll tell youwhen you're working in your zone
of genius and you start offloading all that other stuff, if
you have a good marketing planin place so that you are
bringing business in, you'regoing to 10x your business.
It works.
When you work the system, itworks for you.
(14:45):
So you've got to have some kindof marketing plan in place to
be bringing in clients.
You can't just say like I'mgoing to sit here and do these
things that I'm really good atand do all the case work, but
have no way to bring in newclients.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, and kind of bringing it full circle.
I feel like you offload thoseitems that are in those other
three quadrants.
You are now able to dedicateall of your time into doing the
things that you enjoy and aregood at, which means you can
really scale in and really get alot more accomplished, because
(15:19):
I don't know how many peopleconsciously realize how much of
this other noise takes up somuch of their time and really
bogs them down and prevents themfrom doing what they actually
enjoy and are good at.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, Absolutely, and I'll give this.
You know, I was terrified aswell when I hired my first
assistant.
Am I going to have enough forthem to do?
Am I going to be able to keepthem busy?
Am I going to be able to paythem?
And let me tell you, I'm on myfourth one now.
I've actually made every one ofthem from part-time to
full-time, you know, made themfull-time employees and then
kept okay, I need another onenow.
(15:53):
Now I need another one.
And so the company continued togrow.
My biggest fear was that Icouldn't pay these guys, but
every time I offload more, I amno shortage of things to do that
are within my zone of genius,that are helping the company
grow.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, and I think that comes with, you know, just
as a byproduct of a companygrowing right, you get bigger
and bigger and you know morethings come up.
And one other thing I wanted toask you about you know how you
know, is there any sort ofrhythm for maybe even updating
your zone of genius or anythinglike that?
Like, for example, like you sayyou sit down and did it right
(16:29):
now and you maybe you have likefive things in there and you
just focus on those five thingsand then maybe like a year from
now you know you've grown biggerand now maybe you're like that
item number four, you're not asexcited about it.
You know, do you kind of juststart that process all over
again and look for ways to kickthat out of the zone and
(16:50):
delegate to someone else?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
That's a good question.
I actually do review it everyyear.
So every year we do anaccountability chart review.
The first time I did myaccountability chart, john, I
was sitting in about four seats,and so it was really
embarrassing actually to be like, oh my gosh, we're such a tiny
company that me and my otherexecutive I was just me and her
at the time we were sitting inall these seats.
It was too many, and so welooked at it.
(17:15):
We were like, which of theseare in our least zone of genius
areas?
And then how do we get someoneelse in this seat who's a
specialist?
And, holy moly, it changed mylife, it changed her life.
When we started filling in theseother roles with people who
loved it and were passionate andthe one I'm really thinking of
is finance.
So I just got our finance girlshirt says a freak in the sheets
(17:36):
and it's got the Excel logo.
I mean because she is legit afreak in the sheets, she nerds
out on it, she's high on lifewhen she gets to work in there.
And for me and Caitlin we werejust like, oh my gosh, kill me
now.
This is horrible.
So it's amazing when you startfilling in those roles and just
get yourself out of one thing ata time and look at it every
year.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, and I mean it's such a great example because I
mean, like even right now, as werecord this, I've actually had
to take back over ouradministrative and finance
duties internally here on atemporary basis, and one of the
things that I was actually kindof hesitant about doing that is
there was just some financetasks in there that I just did
not enjoy doing and that, youknow, you talk about the zone of
(18:19):
genius.
You know balancing or you knowreconciling credit cards and
bank accounts is just I hateddoing that.
But then there were some otheraspects of it that I actually
enjoyed.
You know there was a lot ofspreadsheets in that.
I need to probably find one ofthose shirts for me where, you
know, I just enjoyed being inthere and that was totally fine.
I was totally happy, you know,taking that stuff back.
But you know we were able tooutsource some of that stuff to
(18:42):
a bookkeeper and so it wasn't,as you know, it's not as
draining or even draining it allreally right now for me to be
having those extra tasks.
Even though it's more work onmy plate, it's still in that
zone of things that I enjoydoing.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah.
So I mean it's like there's nolimits what you can do when it's
something that you actuallyenjoy doing, Right, and so that
whole saying of you're nevergoing to work a day in your life
.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Exactly, yeah, you know and and that's and that's
really where you want to be as abusiness owner.
You know, and you know the thekind of concept of working on
your business instead of in itand all that, and so I think
this is a really good tool thatcan help people really visualize
it and, you know, build aroadmap for helping them offload
a lot of that stuff and reallyset the right expectation.
(19:28):
So I really appreciate youcoming on and talking about that
.
Could you let everybody knowjust what Backoffice Beddies has
going on and all the servicesthat you guys provide for people
?
One more time yeah, absolutelyso.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
we are a virtual receptionist and virtual
assistant including legalassistant staffing company.
We help take the risk out ofdoing all the recruiting, hiring
, training and helping toaugment the staff on small law
firms.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Awesome, and I know that your team had given me a
link to go to that is in theshow notes to go check out the
resources, and we'll expand onthat more in the show
description.
So you guys definitely go checkthem out, check out everything
that they've got.
You know, definitely one of thethings that I fully believe in
is that you should not beanswering your own phones.
(20:17):
You should absolutely bedelegating that often and having
someone handling that for you,and I know you guys do a lot of
really good work over there.
One final question for youbefore we wrap up here.
If you had one final piece ofadvice for our listeners, what
would it be?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
The same thing I tell all the texts they and M kids.
Get your mental health right,because you're going to be told
no, you're going to be rejected.
All of your childhood wounding,maybe your ego will get in the
way of your happiness and yourbusiness.
So find your zone of genius.
Live in bliss.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Awesome, love it.
And yes, I love the mentalhealth note Definitely something
that isn't touched on enough,but it is.
It is really, really importantto just keep in mind and have
those discussions and go see atherapist if you need to.
It's really great.
So that's going to do it for usthis week.
Thank you so much forcontinuing to listen.
If you have not done so yet,please leave a rating and review
(21:11):
.
It really does help the showout more than you could ever
imagine.
That's going to do it, emily.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
My pleasure.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Thanks for listening to learn more.
Go to spotlight brandingcomslash center stage.
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