September 18, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of the Two Piers Podcast, host Erica D’Eramo sits down with Erika Pherson, Founder and CEO of The Collective Concierge, to explore why administrative support is essential for professional success.
Erika shares her journey from “doing it all” to building a company that helps entrepreneurs and executives streamline their workloads through high-level administrative support, process optimization, and project management. Together, Erica and Erika unpack the challenges of asking for help, the value of delegation, and the systems that make it work.
Listeners will learn practical strategies for identifying which tasks to delegate, building trust with support professionals, and finding the right match to maximize productivity. Erika also explains how effective support goes beyond task execution to provide thought partnership and fresh perspectives.
Key Takeaways:
- Why leaders struggle with delegation—and how to overcome it
- A simple framework for evaluating which tasks to delegate
- How systems and regular communication create trust and efficiency
- The importance of chemistry in professional support relationships
- How thought partnership can elevate decision-making and strategy
Resources & Links:
- Learn more about The Collective Concierge: www.thecollectiveconcierge.com
- Instagram: the_collective_concierge
🎧 Listen now and discover how delegating well can free your time, energy, and focus for the work that matters most.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erica D'Eramo (00:05):
Hello and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm
your host, Erica D'Eramo, andtoday's guest is Erika Pherson.
She's here to talk to us aboutthe role of administrative work
in our professional lives, andwhen and how to ask for help. So
Erika is the Founder and CEO ofThe Collective Concierge a
premier administrative supportand business operations firm.
(00:25):
With nearly two decades ofexperience in sales, client
management and operations, Erikahas built a company dedicated to
helping entrepreneurs,executives and small business
owners streamline their workloadso that they can focus on what
truly matters, growing theirbusiness. Throughout her unique
hybrid approach that blends inperson and remote assistance,
Erika specializes in high leveladministrative support, process
(00:47):
optimization and projectmanagement. Her mission is
simple but powerful, to givebusiness leaders the time and
freedom to scale their successwithout getting bogged down in
the day to day grind. We'll beexploring her insights on what
leads to success when doing itall yourself becomes a
roadblock.
(01:14):
Erika, welcome to the podcast.
Erika Pherson (01:16):
Thank you, Erica, thank you for having me.
Uh, okay, so just quick check,how do you spell your name?
I spell it E R I K A
Erica D'Eramo (01:28):
Right, the incorrect way. No, I'm just
kidding. I know we have Erica'sthat, listen, that use a, k, we
love all Erica's. But I, I swearI did not know that Erika's name
was Erika like was Erika, I justknew The Collective Concierge
when I reached out, I don'toffer preferential treatment to
Erica's. So you're, I thinkyou're the first Erika on the
(01:49):
podcast, actually.
Erika Pherson (01:50):
Oh, I feel special. Thank you.
Erica D'Eramo (01:52):
Yeah. So I really wanted to talk to you about
this, because, well, I've beenfocused on the concept of, like,
asking for help, relying onothers, how and when to
delegate. What does that looklike? What's up for success?
It's a big part of coaching, andit's a big part of working with
leaders, whether they'reentrepreneurs, or they are, you
(02:16):
know, running a multi milliondollar business, or they're a
founder, a tech founder, so thisis just like a consistent,
perennial topic for us. And Ithought, who better to talk to
us than the person who helpsalleviate that pain point,
because you have such a uniqueperspective on this as the
person helping others toactually ask for help. So yeah,
(02:39):
thanks for coming on and sharingyour insights.
Erika Pherson (02:41):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to this conversation and
hopefully educate the listenerson when to delegate and how to
ask for help.
Erica D'Eramo (02:52):
Yeah, because it's not that simple, and I
think we all say like, just askfor help. You need. Just ask for
help. There are a whole slew ofreasons that people struggle to
ask for help, whether it'semotional reasons or practical
reasons or logistical reasons.
So we'll get into all that. Butfirst, let me ask, who is Erika?
What brought you to this part ofyour journey? What was your What
(03:14):
was your the story of Erika?
Unknown (03:19):
So I throughout my couple decades of professional
experience, I always had in theback of my head that I thought I
could do this on my own. But,you know, as life happens, you
need to have some stability, andgoing off my own was probably
not the best idea while raisingmy family and taking care of the
(03:44):
household, basically. But timeafter time in position after
position, I didn't feelappreciated or that I was using
myself to the fullestcapabilities. I had come to a
point in my life where I haddecided that I'm going to try to
(04:04):
go off on my own, where I hadall of those years of
professional experience insideof me that I wanted to bring out
as a service to clients,entrepreneurs, solopreneurs. I
heard that there was a need, Ifelt that there was a need, and
I decided to start TheCollective Concierge, concierge,
(04:25):
word meaning being all things toto my clients. I wanted to make
this white glove service forclients.
Erica D'Eramo (04:36):
Yeah, that's, I think that that question of kind
of, what could I be doing? Whatskills am I leaving on the table
right now? Like, how could I bebetter utilizing my calling my
the skills I've collected overthe years, I that I've honed
that that played a big part forme, too, and I think that that's
a commonality for a lot of folksthat finally decide that they
(04:58):
are going to brave thesolopreneur path, it's that draw
towards really utilizing whatthey have and bringing it to
bear. So I empathize a lot withthat, with that motivator.
Erika Pherson (05:13):
I find a lot of folks in my networking groups
and other entrepreneurs that Ispeak with feel the same way.
Erica D'Eramo (05:21):
Yeah, yeah. So I know when we when we introduced
you, that we talked a lot about,like entrepreneurs and leaders,
but I think that what we aregoing to be talking about today
is often very applicable,regardless of the organization
like you tend to work withpeople in smaller or kind of
bespoke organizations, simplybecause they don't have this
(05:43):
type of support in house. But Ithink that these learnings are
still quite valuable, even ifyou do have administrative
support in house, because Ithink oftentimes people still
don't understand how to utilizethat support in a way that is
most impactful, most efficientkind of uses everyone's time
wisely.
Erika Pherson (06:05):
Yes, I, The great part about what I offer is a
chunk of hours. You know, youdon't have to hire me full time,
you don't have to hire me parttime, but you might have a full
staff, but you are growing, andyou don't need to hire a person
to do what's left, but you havethese projects that are taking
up your time or even overworkingyour current staff, because
(06:29):
you're loading on project afterproject. Well, I can come in
with all my years of experienceand most likely, sort of jump
right in and lockstep get thatproject finished, maybe even
another project after that,where I'm taking that time and
giving you it, giving you thetime back.
Erica D'Eramo (06:47):
Yeah, yeah. So the big question, how and when
is it time to enlist support?
Let's start with when. When whenis it time to enlist support?
When? What are some of thecommonalities that you see about
when is the time to ask forhelp? Whether that's like, bring
in someone like yourself, whocan, you know, do something
(07:10):
scalable, or if you're in anorganization like either hiring
somebody or leveraging thesupport that you have on hand?
Erika Pherson (07:23):
If you ask me this question, I would answer
with, I don't think anybody inthe entrepreneur, solopreneur
sphere should do any admin work,because that's just taking away
their time to build their theirbusiness. However, I know that
there is a cost associated withit, and not everybody right out
of the gate can afford to bringsomebody on to help. I think,
(07:47):
when you are sitting at yourdesk and you're doing your work
and you're working on somethingthat doesn't require expertise,
but it is taking up a chunk ofyour time that you just don't
have, that's when you need tostart thinking about reaching
out. And when that task is onyour plate and you're working on
it, I tell everybody this, writeit down. Write down every task
(08:08):
that you are working on thatdoes not require your expertise,
and then take a look at it andsay, Do I really need to be
doing this? What am I? What ismy value per hour? Break it down
as granular as you can. And ifI'm spending an hour working on
this, and my, you know, my perhour rate is, who knows, $100,
(08:30):
$150 $200 an hour, that's moneyyou're wasting by working on
administrative work that youcould be delegating out. And I
think that that should startsooner rather than later.
Erica D'Eramo (08:45):
I think, like in large organizations too, where
people have you can do the samemath, right? You can take your
salary and divide it by thenumber of hours that you work in
a year, and understand how muchyou're spending, I don't know,
collecting your receipts andinputting them, or, you know,
managing calendar invites. Andthat's not to say that sometimes
(09:09):
we have to do some of the thetedium, right? Like I this is
not about work that is below usor is not, you know, that it's,
it's busy work that's never andI think that that maybe is a
barrier to delegation by peopleseeing this as like, oh, it's
less valuable work, and sotherefore I don't want to, I
don't want anybody to feel likeI'm sloughing this off on them,
(09:33):
you know, like I get to do thefancy, exciting work, and they
do the The boring tedium. Theirony is, like, Y'all, you're
not as good at that stuff assomebody else is right. Like,
how often do I actually ask youfor help on something? And it
takes you a fraction of the timethat it takes me, because that's
(09:54):
how your brain is oriented. Likeyou are much more quick and
efficient with knocking some ofthis stuff out that. I am, and
so it's about like finding theright people to do the right
task.
Erika Pherson (10:07):
Quite honestly, my personality, I I derive joy
from knocking off a task. Myfamily calls me the Task Master.
You give me a list. I have listsall the time, and I literally
check it off when I'm done withit and it feels good. So it's,
it's part of my genetic makeupto want to do things for myself,
(10:29):
for other people, and check itoff. And said, that's done.
We've completed that.
Erica D'Eramo (10:34):
Yeah, yeah. So I think that the framing of like,
high value work, low value work,is just a really flawed mindset
or framework for things, becauseit's it's really about like
these are things that need toget done. Doing some of these
things, not doing some of thesetasks will lead to absolute
nightmares. Ironically,ironically, like not taking care
(10:57):
of some of the administrativework would probably throw a
wrench in my business muchfaster than you know, not taking
on a new coaching client or nottaking on a new consulting gig.
So if I want this to runsmoothly, those are quite
important tasks that need tohappen. Yeah, they are like,
(11:18):
make or break it.
Unknown (11:19):
It's true. And if you want to talk about value,
although the administrativetasks do have a lower value,
literally monetary value, theymight have an equal value in in
need to get done. So it's it's athe administrative tasks are a
dichotomy in and of themselves.
Erica D'Eramo (11:40):
Yeah, yeah. I know we always talk about like,
overhead. Are you a revenuesource? Are you overhead? And I
think administrative work isoften seen as overhead, but we
so in an offshore world, youhave what we call utilities,
right? It's like the air system.
Nobody thinks that the airsystem is very exciting, right?
It's not where the hydrocarbonsare in offshore energy. It's
(12:02):
like, not where the revenue iscoming from. It's just in the
background. Nothing will takeyou down faster than your
utility system, 100% right?
It'll and it'll shut everythingdown. You lose the pneumatic
system, you lose the air system.
You lose like process error, thewhole thing is shut down. So
they often don't get the love.
(12:25):
Those systems don't get the lovethat they deserve. And they're
sort of seen as, like,background or, you know, not the
not the sexy stuff, but, man,they are a huge vulnerability to
systems if you don't get itright, or if they're not working
efficiently,
Erika Pherson (12:42):
And parlaying that into the business world,
part of my service is followingup on warm sales leads or warm
calls or client calls, or evenclient follow up that can make
or break too if you have poorcommunication with your clients
or customers, they're not goingto turn back to you, but I can
(13:02):
jump in and make that call sothat you can continue growing
your business. So...
Erica D'Eramo (13:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Truly, I think it's interesting,because when I initially reached
out to look for someadministrative support, you
know, I did not really think interms of revenue generation.
This was more just to make surethat we could keep everything on
the rails and that I wasn'tbecoming a bottleneck for the
(13:26):
organization. And we'll get intoa little bit more about like our
our meet cute story a littlelater, but, but I think that
ironic, not ironically, probablyExpectedly, our revenue has gone
up significantly because of someof what you mentioned, right?
Like we can, even if I'm the onesending the email like it's on
(13:49):
our collective radar. So all ofthose revenue generating
activities are much more likelyto happen, or the the lead
activities are much more likelyto happen when we've got two
sets of eyes on it, and we'vegot accountability partnership.
And whether you do it or I doit, it's much more likely to
happen quickly, in a timelymanner if there's two of us
looking at it. So yes, you'reright. It's not just overhead.
(14:13):
It is revenue generation, evenif you can't see it directly.
But maybe, you know, folksshould right. This is another
piece, is the systems andprocesses that come along with
asking for support.
Erika Pherson (14:26):
Absolutely 100% agree on that.
Erica D'Eramo (14:30):
So then what you know, the systems and processes,
I think, can be a bit of achicken and an egg with asking
for support. I would love totalk about common challenges,
but the immediate one that comesto mind is like, I don't my my
stuff is not organized enough toeven ask for help, right? I
think, like, that is somethingthat maybe gets in the way of
people saying, you know, I'm toothere's the joke, right? I'm too
(14:53):
busy to write or, like, I wastoo busy to write you a short
email, so I wrote a long oneinstead, like being or.
Organized and concise takeseffort, and people maybe feel
like I wouldn't even know whereto start. How do you what's your
response to that?
Unknown (15:11):
It probably is my number one challenge. When I
meet with people, they'll say,Well, how can you help me? And
although I love this question,because I can just start giving
them all the ways I can helpthem. What I find is especially
with entrepreneurs,solopreneurs, their company is
their baby, and nobody can do itas well as they can do it. So I
(15:36):
use that analogy that I spokeabout earlier, about writing
down a list of things thatyou're working on that don't
require expertise, because itreally is an eye opener of where
you're spending your time. So Ido offer that to people who are
potentially thinking of using mebut don't know how to or, you
(15:58):
know, we just talk about whatthey need, and I can start
talking about what is in mywheelhouse, and when they start
hearing like, oh, you can dothat, oh, you can do that, oh,
you can take care of that forme. Oh, my goodness, that would
save me so much time, it sort ofevolves that way. Yeah, it's
just, it's just a matter ofletting go a little bit, and
(16:21):
just just having that ability tosay, okay, and I even say, why
don't you just give me oneproject that you're working on,
see how it works, see how youfeel about it, see how you feel
about letting go a little bit,and then we can go from there.
And inevitably, my plate fillsup with that client.
Erica D'Eramo (16:36):
Yeah, I think that the the like time inventory
is such a valuable tool nomatter what, whether you're
going to ask for help or not. Ithink the first time I
encountered like, a 15 incrementtime interval inventory was in
college. I think my freshmanyear of college, they were like,
(16:58):
You should be there was probablysome time management class or
something that we had to take,but they sort of gave us these
sheets to fill out day afterday. And it's shocking to know
where your time is going,because we, I think we have
these heuristics or these biasesabout how where we think our
time went, on both sides ofthings, we'll think that
(17:20):
something took way less time ifwe enjoyed doing it, we might be
like, Whoa, I spent two hourswriting that blog post, or I
spent two hours playing thecrossword or whatever it is,
right, the Einstein's relativityprinciple, but or vice versa. It
might be like this big projectthat felt so onerous, and then
(17:41):
when you knock it out, yourealize, oh, it only took me 15
minutes to go in and handle thatregistration or that bill or
whatever. So that visibility, Ithink, is so crucial in asking
for help in any sort of way,because you can't really see
where your time is going justfrom getting to the end of the
day and really know what wasvalue add? What did I What could
(18:03):
I have handed off to somebodyelse? What was super critical,
what was just like shiny and Igot distracted?
Unknown (18:09):
Right? And making that list will help clarify that for
sure.
Erica D'Eramo (18:13):
Yeah, yeah. Like, really bringing clarity to it. I
see this a lot too, as myneurodivergent clients as well,
where they build up shame aroundwhat they think, where they
think they spent their time, orthey'll get to the end of a day
or end of a week and be like, Ifeel like I had this list of
five things to get done thisweek, and I didn't do any of
them. Where did my time even go?
Right? And so that clarityreally helps to negate some of
(18:36):
the shame, because you're like,Oh, well, I dealt with this
huge, onerous registrationprocess that I didn't expect to
have to deal with. That's wheremy time went right, and having
that extra set of eyes sort offorces it, in a way, right with
you and I, when we divvy up workfor the week, we have to be
pretty clear about like, howlong we think things are gonna
take, whether it's best for youor me to do it, and be way more
(18:58):
intentional about where the timegoes.
Erika Pherson (19:03):
Absolutely, yes, yeah. It's just a it's just a
matter of reframing how you doyour day and thinking about it
like I said, like you said, andI said, intentionally. What sort
of like the Eat the Frog? Isn'tthere a Eat the Frog? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, you know, you haveto just focus on, on what is
(19:25):
going to move the needle forwardin your company, in your
business, and in whatever you'reworking on and what isn't,
although the what isn't is stillnecessary, it doesn't mean it
needs to be your necessary.
Erica D'Eramo (19:37):
Right? So what are some of the other challenges
you see that either stop peoplefrom enlisting help, or, you
know, get in the way if they,even if they've decided, Okay,
I'm gonna get help, like, withdoing some stuff, or I'm gonna
delegate more, like, what? Whattypical challenges do you see
folks encounter?
Erika Pherson (19:58):
Because I work with several different, not
several, multiple industries.
One of the common issues issystems. They're systems. They
all use different systems. Andbecause they're different
industries, I have attorneys, Ihave financial planners, I have
a manufacturing company, andtheir first concern is, well,
how will you get into my system?
(20:18):
How you know what to do? And forme, the good thing is, is part
of my professional career, priorto The Collective Concierge, I
sold software, a SAS product,for 20 years, so I'm very
comfortable working on people'ssystems and figuring them out.
And that's another part of me isI will, I will figure it out. I
(20:40):
will figure out how to use it,and most likely not by asking
you the client, because that'sthat's deters from what I'm
trying to do is give back time.
I don't want to take more timeup, so I try to learn it the
best that I can, and explain tothem that, yes, you can give me
a username and password to yoursystem, and I can get on and I
(21:00):
can work in your system. It'sokay. So that's, that's one
concern. Another big concern is,how do we work together? How
does it work? They havequestions on, you know, do you
come into the office? Do we doit online? How do I how do I
know what you're working on? SoI need to work through these
(21:20):
problems or these issues orthese questions and concerns and
let them know that it's veryeasy to work together. I like to
set up a like a weekly call sothat we are in lockstep with
each other on what we're workingon, and I really tackle their
challenges by easing their mindwith how I can help.
Erica D'Eramo (21:44):
Yeah
Erika Pherson (21:45):
It's just, it's just a dialog. It's a it's a
dialog of their concern, and youknow my response and my
solution.
Erica D'Eramo (21:57):
Which is really best practice, whether you're a
manager or, you know, whetheryou're managing someone who
works for you, or you'remanaging upward, like that,
mindset of, hey, share yourconcerns with me, share your
idea of success with me, and wewill co create the solution. But
like that, open, open endedquestions, that open mindset,
(22:19):
that is really like bestpractice, regardless of
position, right?
Unknown (22:24):
Yes, yes. And interestingly enough, I'd say
90% of my clients turn to me foradvice on how to do things. What
do you think of this? How shouldI do this? And again, because of
my background, I'm able to pullin all these ideas from other
positions I've worked in andother managers and people that
I've worked with to help answerthose questions and help them be
(22:48):
that thought partner for them ofwhat they need to get done, or
how they need to get it done, orwhat they should do next,
whether it's growing theirbusiness selling I have a client
that's considering selling herbusiness, and we were talking
about what that means for her.
So there are many differentwhat's the word? There are many
different solutions I bring tothe table, not just
(23:11):
administrative.
Erica D'Eramo (23:14):
Yeah, I think that the thought partnership has
been really helpful for me. Andit's an it's another, it's
another demonstration of thevalue of having different
viewpoints and perspectives anddifferent backgrounds in the
room. Because I will say thatbeing an entrepreneur can be
very isolating, very lonely,very daunting, because you don't
(23:35):
have a team of people to look toand say, like, Well, what do you
think? Where am I wrong on this?
Like, what am I not thinkingabout? Where is my blind spot?
And being a senior leader, Ihear the same thing. It can be
very lonely. It can be veryisolating, very daunting. And so
I think it's pretty commonactually, that in these types of
relationships where a lot ofwork is being delegated and
(23:58):
there has to be goodcommunication back and forth.
You know, feedback, withoutpeople taking things personally,
just like that type ofrelationship can create such a
powerful thought partnership.
And you see it all the time inlike corporate entities, where
the administrative assistant onthe team is often the source of
(24:19):
all of the institutional wisdomand the source of insight. And
you could say, like, even as faras, like, how does this look?
What do you think? Can I walkinto that boardroom wearing this
right now? Or should I, like,change something, and you'll get
an honest answer, right?
Because, like, you'veestablished that those lines of
communication and that trust,or, Hey, I'm about to go into a
(24:39):
meeting with this person. Whatdo you think are the pitfalls I
should be worried about? Likethey are another set of eyes and
ears and a sounding board inmany cases. And I love that you
work with so many differentindustries. Because for me, I
could say, Hey, I haven'tencountered this before. Like,
what if other clients don't. Onthat you've worked with, or
(25:00):
what, what systems have otherpeople tried, that you've seen
work, and it's a great way totap into so much more knowledge
than what I would have just inmy in my home.
Erika Pherson (25:11):
Yes, and you had mentioned earlier about clients
potentially being embarrassed byhow their folders and their
files are being stored and thatthey're all over the place. And
interestingly enough, I justreceived a call last week for
someone who just wanted an hourof my time to walk her through
(25:33):
how she should organize herfiles. She's a social media
manager, and she had her clientsfiles all over the place, and
photos here, videos there, andshe just didn't know how to
capture it all in one place, soshe wasn't running around
looking for everything. And Itook a idea from working with
(25:54):
another client of how toorganize her files, and she just
emailed me the other day sayinghow much she absolutely loves
it, and it's working so well forher. So it is very helpful,
regardless of what your desklooks like.
Erica D'Eramo (26:06):
Yeah. I mean, you're like, you're, in a way,
you're a bit of a pollinator,right? You're like, cross
pollinating, just Yes, isdifferent best practices and
insights and ideas, and I thinkthat's hugely valuable, yeah.
So, I mean, one challenge thatcomes up to for me, just
probably unbiased because ofcoaching, but, um, I feel like
people struggle to delegate alot, like it's just it's
(26:28):
constant that this comes up incoaching conversations. Like I'm
overwhelmed. I have a team ofpeople, but I feel like I can't
give them work. And so what areyour thoughts there? Like, when
have you seen delegation work?
What has helped people get overthat resistance to delegation or
or overcome that? Thatresistance or challenge? What
(26:49):
are your thoughts?
Erika Pherson (26:52):
It really comes down to the type of personality
that we're working with, type apeople it takes a little bit of
time for them to actually moveforward and work with me. It
takes me a long, not a longtime, but it takes me a few
calls to be like, this is whatyou need, this is going to work.
(27:13):
So it's personality, it's howlong they've been in business,
if they came from a corporateworld and they went off on their
own and they understand whatit's about to have support like
that, they might be easier towork with. And there are some
people who are just, they just,they're not intentional about
(27:36):
what they need. They're just allover the place. And quite
honestly, that's my leastfavorite person to work with,
just because I can't besuccessful, if they can't let me
know what they need, why theyneed it, you know, I need some
sort of scope of work. So it'sthere are some cases where it
just doesn't work because theycan't delegate, because they
(27:58):
don't know what to delegate,regardless of their lists next
to their computer, or the amountof conversations that we have,
and that's okay, because, youknow, nine times out of 10
they'll figure that out and comeback.
Erica D'Eramo (28:12):
Yeah. I mean, that's well, and they should
come talk to a coach. Becauseoftentimes I think like this is
like, this is the key withdelegation, right? It's like,
usually when there's a barrierto delegation, it's because
people are not clear about whata good outcome looks like, and
can't then communicate that tosomebody else. That I think that
(28:33):
that is, like the number onebarrier to delegation, followed
closely by, what if somebodydoesn't do it exactly the way I
want, which is also about beingclear about Okay, is it the
preference thing? Is this astylistic thing, right? If you
use it, if you send an email anda font that I don't like like, I
(28:55):
can let it go. I can be okaywith that, but that's like a
learned thing, I think for somepeople, especially if they
haven't been in a leadershiprole before. So that transition
point right of either going froma corporate entity where they
were working individually orthey had a lot, you know, and to
shifting into entrepreneur mode,where they are going to have to
(29:16):
get some stuff off their plateif they want to focus on their
quote, unquote zone of genius.
There's that transition point,and then there's also the
transition point of going froman individual contributor role
to a leadership role, where wehave to get clear about, how
does it actually impact thebottom line? Does it actually
matter? Why does and if so, whydoes it matter to you? Can you
let it go? Um, where? How haveyou how have you seen people
(29:41):
kind of overcome that, or dothey not? Do they need to talk
to a coach first?
Unknown (29:48):
Yes, they should speak with a coach first. And in some
cases, they don't overcome it.
And again, part of my role is tobe in lockstep with that person.
So if they want Arial, 10 font.
Well then Arial 10 font, it is,it's, it's, it's not about what
I want them. I'm trying to bethere for that person to again,
(30:08):
it's the lockstep that I like tokeep using the term, because
that is really where it's goingto feel impactful for the
client, where they are confidentthat when they pass something
off, it's going to be in theirstyle and represent their
company the way they want.
Erica D'Eramo (30:24):
Yeah, you know, you bring up a really
interesting point, which islike, and I think that there's a
gender element to this, to behonest, I think that oftentimes
women are maybe they facenegative consequences for being
really specific or particularabout their preferences. And so
(30:44):
rather than face thatconsequence, they're like, I'll
just do it myself. And theybuild that into a habit of, I'll
just do it myself, because Idon't want to be difficult. I
don't want to ask for what Ireally need. But I do love that,
you know, in our workingrelationship, I can be super
specific about my punctuationpreferences and my font
(31:06):
preferences and my color and allthese little things that I
learned that because I hadsenior executives be really
specific and really picky withthat with me. And I was never
like, Wow, he's so difficult,right? But I know I hesitate
before even mentioning thatstuff, because I'm like, oh,
Erica, just let it go, like itdoesn't matter. But with you, I
know I can say that, because youunderstand that's like my brand,
(31:29):
and I'm just clarifying mypreferences, right? And you pick
it up, and you're never like,oh, Erica, god, you're so
difficult, right? That's justyou're like, cool. Thanks for
letting me know. Now that's thenew SOP.
Unknown (31:43):
Exactly. Again, it's both being successful. My work
and your work needs to besynergistic, so that it's
working together, or otherwiseI'm not helping you.
Erica D'Eramo (31:57):
Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's Yeah
Unknown (32:02):
And as an entrepreneur myself, I understand the brand.
I understand the the look andthe feel and what you you want
to portray 100% of the time. Andwhy not be that person to help
deliver it for my client? I getit, I if anybody gets it, it's
me.
Yeah, I do think that that playsinto kind of finding the right
(32:25):
balance and the right match aswell. Because I think that was
one of my first questions at thegate was, you know, I tend to be
very detail oriented. How do youfeel about that? Like, are you
in, you know, in terms of aslide deck? Are you going to be
looking for, like, you know, ifthere's a full stop at the end
of every bullet point orwhatever? And you were like,
yes, 100% I'm on board withthat. And if you, if you're
looking for administrativesupport, and somebody is like,
(32:52):
oh, that sounds awful to me.
Okay, that's probably just not amatch, right? They might be
really good at other things, butfinding that right balance, like
I can be very intellectualizedabout things and non linear
about things, and I love thatyou and I are a good balance in
that, and that you can be reallyfocused and, you know, just like
you said, check things off,right, like, keep moving forward
(33:17):
and not do The swirling thingthat I tend to do so it might be
in the reverse for somebodyelse, right? Like they might be
that really linear person. Maybethey do need somebody that's
like, more up in the clouds orwhatever. I think you, you
personally can flex a lot, but Ithink there's an element of,
like, finding that right match.
You're complimenting yourstrengths and weaknesses by
(33:39):
bringing in support.
It's really a chameleontype position in a good way. You
know, I am I can. I havedifferent clients who, like you
described, some who just rollwith it. They just want the
communication sent out. Theydon't care how it looks. And I
(34:00):
have others that are very, veryspecific, and sure I will just
do what is necessary and andthere might be some times where
I might say, does that reallymatter?
Erica D'Eramo (34:14):
I get the opportunity to say yes or no,
yes, it does because, or no, itdoesn't because.
Erika Pherson (34:23):
Yeah, right, and I'm just here to execute. That's
it, Yeah, yeah. So Erika, whenpeople listen to this and
they're like, all right, allright, I need, I need to
actually either rely on my theexisting support in my
organization, or or go findsupport. How do people find
their match like, what? What is?
What does that process looklike?
Unknown (34:46):
I think it's important prior to looking for help.
Again, I might sound like abroken record, but make that
list so that you know whatyou're talking to this person
about, and you know whether ornot it falls in their wheelhouse
and they can handle it in theircomfortable with it. Some people
will just say, Yes, I can dothat, and maybe they can't. So I
would start with knowing whatyou're calling about, and then
(35:11):
discovery calls, they're thebest way to find out if that's
the right match for you, and Ido recommend a video call if
it's possible, because that thatchemistry is more easily found
when you can face somebody on acamera and have a conversation
with them, versus on the phoneor through email.
Erica D'Eramo (35:28):
Yeah, yeah, 100% I mean, it's the same in
coaching, right? Like, coachinghas a chemistry element to it,
and I much prefer sometimes Ican't do a video call and we, we
go with the audio, and that'sfine if the if my client is,
like, offshore or whatever, butyes, I 100% agree there's
chemistry that is a piece,because you will need to, there
(35:49):
will need to be iterations,right? You will need to give
feedback, which stay tuned,because we will two piers is
going to talk a lot about givingand receiving feedback soon. So
if you think like, oh, I want towork with somebody, but I don't
know how to give them feedback,we will talk through that in the
future, the near future. Okay,so chemistry calls inventory of
(36:09):
what you're working on. And ifpeople have listened to this and
they're like, Oh, but I want towork with Erika, I would say,
No, she's all mine. No, I'm justkidding. Um, not at all. I would
love, I would love, for peopleto be able to reach out to you.
So how do they find you?
Erika Pherson (36:27):
I would say, obvious choice. That would be my
first thing. I would say, um,you can find me at
www.thecollectiveconcierge.com
Erica D'Eramo (36:41):
which will have in the show notes,
Erika Pherson (36:42):
Yes. Or I am on Instagram,
the_collective_concierge. Or youcan give me a call,
351-220-1999.
Erica D'Eramo (36:58):
There you go.
Yeah, I think I did give you acall maybe, um, and you're on
LinkedIn as well. So
Erika Pherson (37:05):
I am on LinkedIn.
Yeah, I could be found justabout anywhere you can, even
just Google concierge services,and I should be the first one to
pop up.
Erica D'Eramo (37:13):
Oh, look at that.
Seo. She knows SEO too.
All things, all things, yeah, Ido want to give, like, just a
final shout out here, because Igave my business sort of, I I
realized, you know, I took, Itook a huge pay cut to start two
(37:37):
piers consulting, and that wasbecause I wanted to live up to
my life's potential, right?
Like, I really wanted to doimpactful work that I felt was
tied to my values and haveagency over how I spent my time
and do fulfilling work. What Ifound was I was getting so
caught up in, like, the busynessloop that I wasn't actually
fulfilling that promise tomyself. And so it was like,
Well, if you're just gonna runin the mouse wheel. Just go back
(37:59):
into corporate Erica, and youcan just take home a big pay cut
or a big paycheck. And instead,I said, No, let's see if we can.
Let's put let's put this onprobation. Go see what it would
take to actually be able tofocus on the work that you are
exceptionally good at and havethe business still run. And so
(38:21):
when I met up with you, I wasvery transparent about like,
we're I'm the business is onprobation, because I need to
love what I'm doing. I need tolove running a business all the
things, the administrativepiece, keeping up with it,
getting back in touch withclients, landing contracts, all
of it. So yeah, this was a thiswas an experiment, and we're
(38:41):
doing great. Everything'sgrowing. We're doing great.
Clients are happy. So thank you,Erika.
Erika Pherson (38:50):
Thank you for calling me. It's been a
wonderful adventure with you.
I've learned so much about yourbusiness, which I love. Another
thing I love with all my clientsis I learn a little bit,
sometimes a lot about all theseindustries. Fantastic, and I
love working with you. It's beengreat.
Erica D'Eramo (39:07):
Oh, thank you.
Well, I encourage you to gocheck out Erica's site and reach
out and stay tuned to the TwoPiers podcast and our blog if
you want to know more aboutasking for and receiving
feedback, giving and receivingfeedback, and if you want to
know more about delegating, wealso have a blog post series on
(39:28):
that, which, yeah, Erika helpedme get published. So lots of
resources. And thanks again,Erika for being on the podcast.
Unknown (39:40):
Thank you for having me.
Hello and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm
your host, Erica D'Eramo, andtoday's guest is Erika Pherson.
She's here to talk to us aboutthe role of administrative work
in our professional lives, andwhen and how to ask for help. So
Erika is the Founder and CEO ofThe Collective Concierge a
premier administrative supportand business operations firm.
(00:25):
With nearly two decades ofexperience in sales, client
management and operations, Erikahas built a company dedicated to
helping entrepreneurs,executives and small business
owners streamline their workloadso that they can focus on what
truly matters, growing theirbusiness. Throughout her unique
hybrid approach that blends inperson and remote assistance,
Erika specializes in high leveladministrative support, process
(00:47):
optimization and projectmanagement. Her mission is
simple but powerful, to givebusiness leaders the time and
freedom to scale their successwithout getting bogged down in
the day to day grind. We'll beexploring her insights on what
leads to success when doing itall yourself becomes a
roadblock.
(01:14):
Erika, welcome to the podcast.
Erika Pherson (01:16):
Thank you, Erica, thank you for having me.
Uh, okay, so just quick check,how do you spell your name?
I spell it E R I K A
Erica D'Eramo (01:28):
Right, the incorrect way. No, I'm just
kidding. I know we have Erica'sthat, listen, that use a, k, we
love all Erica's. But I, I swearI did not know that Erika's name
was Erika like was Erika, I justknew The Collective Concierge
when I reached out, I don'toffer preferential treatment to
Erica's. So you're, I thinkyou're the first Erika on the
(01:49):
podcast, actually.
Erika Pherson (01:50):
Oh, I feel special. Thank you.
Erica D'Eramo (01:52):
Yeah. So I really wanted to talk to you about
this, because, well, I've beenfocused on the concept of, like,
asking for help, relying onothers, how and when to
delegate. What does that looklike? What's up for success?
It's a big part of coaching, andit's a big part of working with
leaders, whether they'reentrepreneurs, or they are, you
(02:16):
know, running a multi milliondollar business, or they're a
founder, a tech founder, so thisis just like a consistent,
perennial topic for us. And Ithought, who better to talk to
us than the person who helpsalleviate that pain point,
because you have such a uniqueperspective on this as the
person helping others toactually ask for help. So yeah,
(02:39):
thanks for coming on and sharingyour insights.
Erika Pherson (02:41):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to this conversation and
hopefully educate the listenerson when to delegate and how to
ask for help.
Erica D'Eramo (02:52):
Yeah, because it's not that simple, and I
think we all say like, just askfor help. You need. Just ask for
help. There are a whole slew ofreasons that people struggle to
ask for help, whether it'semotional reasons or practical
reasons or logistical reasons.
So we'll get into all that. Butfirst, let me ask, who is Erika?
What brought you to this part ofyour journey? What was your What
(03:14):
was your the story of Erika?
Unknown (03:19):
So I throughout my couple decades of professional
experience, I always had in theback of my head that I thought I
could do this on my own. But,you know, as life happens, you
need to have some stability, andgoing off my own was probably
not the best idea while raisingmy family and taking care of the
(03:44):
household, basically. But timeafter time in position after
position, I didn't feelappreciated or that I was using
myself to the fullestcapabilities. I had come to a
point in my life where I haddecided that I'm going to try to
(04:04):
go off on my own, where I hadall of those years of
professional experience insideof me that I wanted to bring out
as a service to clients,entrepreneurs, solopreneurs. I
heard that there was a need, Ifelt that there was a need, and
I decided to start TheCollective Concierge, concierge,
(04:25):
word meaning being all things toto my clients. I wanted to make
this white glove service forclients.
Erica D'Eramo (04:36):
Yeah, that's, I think that that question of kind
of, what could I be doing? Whatskills am I leaving on the table
right now? Like, how could I bebetter utilizing my calling my
the skills I've collected overthe years, I that I've honed
that that played a big part forme, too, and I think that that's
a commonality for a lot of folksthat finally decide that they
(04:58):
are going to brave thesolopreneur path, it's that draw
towards really utilizing whatthey have and bringing it to
bear. So I empathize a lot withthat, with that motivator.
Erika Pherson (05:13):
I find a lot of folks in my networking groups
and other entrepreneurs that Ispeak with feel the same way.
Erica D'Eramo (05:21):
Yeah, yeah. So I know when we when we introduced
you, that we talked a lot about,like entrepreneurs and leaders,
but I think that what we aregoing to be talking about today
is often very applicable,regardless of the organization
like you tend to work withpeople in smaller or kind of
bespoke organizations, simplybecause they don't have this
(05:43):
type of support in house. But Ithink that these learnings are
still quite valuable, even ifyou do have administrative
support in house, because Ithink oftentimes people still
don't understand how to utilizethat support in a way that is
most impactful, most efficientkind of uses everyone's time
wisely.
Erika Pherson (06:05):
Yes, I, The great part about what I offer is a
chunk of hours. You know, youdon't have to hire me full time,
you don't have to hire me parttime, but you might have a full
staff, but you are growing, andyou don't need to hire a person
to do what's left, but you havethese projects that are taking
up your time or even overworkingyour current staff, because
(06:29):
you're loading on project afterproject. Well, I can come in
with all my years of experienceand most likely, sort of jump
right in and lockstep get thatproject finished, maybe even
another project after that,where I'm taking that time and
giving you it, giving you thetime back.
Erica D'Eramo (06:47):
Yeah, yeah. So the big question, how and when
is it time to enlist support?
Let's start with when. When whenis it time to enlist support?
When? What are some of thecommonalities that you see about
when is the time to ask forhelp? Whether that's like, bring
in someone like yourself, whocan, you know, do something
(07:10):
scalable, or if you're in anorganization like either hiring
somebody or leveraging thesupport that you have on hand?
Erika Pherson (07:23):
If you ask me this question, I would answer
with, I don't think anybody inthe entrepreneur, solopreneur
sphere should do any admin work,because that's just taking away
their time to build their theirbusiness. However, I know that
there is a cost associated withit, and not everybody right out
of the gate can afford to bringsomebody on to help. I think,
(07:47):
when you are sitting at yourdesk and you're doing your work
and you're working on somethingthat doesn't require expertise,
but it is taking up a chunk ofyour time that you just don't
have, that's when you need tostart thinking about reaching
out. And when that task is onyour plate and you're working on
it, I tell everybody this, writeit down. Write down every task
(08:08):
that you are working on thatdoes not require your expertise,
and then take a look at it andsay, Do I really need to be
doing this? What am I? What ismy value per hour? Break it down
as granular as you can. And ifI'm spending an hour working on
this, and my, you know, my perhour rate is, who knows, $100,
(08:30):
$150 $200 an hour, that's moneyyou're wasting by working on
administrative work that youcould be delegating out. And I
think that that should startsooner rather than later.
Erica D'Eramo (08:45):
I think, like in large organizations too, where
people have you can do the samemath, right? You can take your
salary and divide it by thenumber of hours that you work in
a year, and understand how muchyou're spending, I don't know,
collecting your receipts andinputting them, or, you know,
managing calendar invites. Andthat's not to say that sometimes
(09:09):
we have to do some of the thetedium, right? Like I this is
not about work that is below usor is not, you know, that it's,
it's busy work that's never andI think that that maybe is a
barrier to delegation by peopleseeing this as like, oh, it's
less valuable work, and sotherefore I don't want to, I
don't want anybody to feel likeI'm sloughing this off on them,
(09:33):
you know, like I get to do thefancy, exciting work, and they
do the The boring tedium. Theirony is, like, Y'all, you're
not as good at that stuff assomebody else is right. Like,
how often do I actually ask youfor help on something? And it
takes you a fraction of the timethat it takes me, because that's
(09:54):
how your brain is oriented. Likeyou are much more quick and
efficient with knocking some ofthis stuff out that. I am, and
so it's about like finding theright people to do the right
task.
Erika Pherson (10:07):
Quite honestly, my personality, I I derive joy
from knocking off a task. Myfamily calls me the Task Master.
You give me a list. I have listsall the time, and I literally
check it off when I'm done withit and it feels good. So it's,
it's part of my genetic makeupto want to do things for myself,
(10:29):
for other people, and check itoff. And said, that's done.
We've completed that.
Erica D'Eramo (10:34):
Yeah, yeah. So I think that the framing of like,
high value work, low value work,is just a really flawed mindset
or framework for things, becauseit's it's really about like
these are things that need toget done. Doing some of these
things, not doing some of thesetasks will lead to absolute
nightmares. Ironically,ironically, like not taking care
(10:57):
of some of the administrativework would probably throw a
wrench in my business muchfaster than you know, not taking
on a new coaching client or nottaking on a new consulting gig.
So if I want this to runsmoothly, those are quite
important tasks that need tohappen. Yeah, they are like,
(11:18):
make or break it.
Unknown (11:19):
It's true. And if you want to talk about value,
although the administrativetasks do have a lower value,
literally monetary value, theymight have an equal value in in
need to get done. So it's it's athe administrative tasks are a
dichotomy in and of themselves.
Erica D'Eramo (11:40):
Yeah, yeah. I know we always talk about like,
overhead. Are you a revenuesource? Are you overhead? And I
think administrative work isoften seen as overhead, but we
so in an offshore world, youhave what we call utilities,
right? It's like the air system.
Nobody thinks that the airsystem is very exciting, right?
It's not where the hydrocarbonsare in offshore energy. It's
(12:02):
like, not where the revenue iscoming from. It's just in the
background. Nothing will takeyou down faster than your
utility system, 100% right?
It'll and it'll shut everythingdown. You lose the pneumatic
system, you lose the air system.
You lose like process error, thewhole thing is shut down. So
they often don't get the love.
(12:25):
Those systems don't get the lovethat they deserve. And they're
sort of seen as, like,background or, you know, not the
not the sexy stuff, but, man,they are a huge vulnerability to
systems if you don't get itright, or if they're not working
efficiently,
Erika Pherson (12:42):
And parlaying that into the business world,
part of my service is followingup on warm sales leads or warm
calls or client calls, or evenclient follow up that can make
or break too if you have poorcommunication with your clients
or customers, they're not goingto turn back to you, but I can
(13:02):
jump in and make that call sothat you can continue growing
your business. So...
Erica D'Eramo (13:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Truly, I think it's interesting,because when I initially reached
out to look for someadministrative support, you
know, I did not really think interms of revenue generation.
This was more just to make surethat we could keep everything on
the rails and that I wasn'tbecoming a bottleneck for the
(13:26):
organization. And we'll get intoa little bit more about like our
our meet cute story a littlelater, but, but I think that
ironic, not ironically, probablyExpectedly, our revenue has gone
up significantly because of someof what you mentioned, right?
Like we can, even if I'm the onesending the email like it's on
(13:49):
our collective radar. So all ofthose revenue generating
activities are much more likelyto happen, or the the lead
activities are much more likelyto happen when we've got two
sets of eyes on it, and we'vegot accountability partnership.
And whether you do it or I doit, it's much more likely to
happen quickly, in a timelymanner if there's two of us
looking at it. So yes, you'reright. It's not just overhead.
(14:13):
It is revenue generation, evenif you can't see it directly.
But maybe, you know, folksshould right. This is another
piece, is the systems andprocesses that come along with
asking for support.
Erika Pherson (14:26):
Absolutely 100% agree on that.
Erica D'Eramo (14:30):
So then what you know, the systems and processes,
I think, can be a bit of achicken and an egg with asking
for support. I would love totalk about common challenges,
but the immediate one that comesto mind is like, I don't my my
stuff is not organized enough toeven ask for help, right? I
think, like, that is somethingthat maybe gets in the way of
people saying, you know, I'm toothere's the joke, right? I'm too
(14:53):
busy to write or, like, I wastoo busy to write you a short
email, so I wrote a long oneinstead, like being or.
Organized and concise takeseffort, and people maybe feel
like I wouldn't even know whereto start. How do you what's your
response to that?
Unknown (15:11):
It probably is my number one challenge. When I
meet with people, they'll say,Well, how can you help me? And
although I love this question,because I can just start giving
them all the ways I can helpthem. What I find is especially
with entrepreneurs,solopreneurs, their company is
their baby, and nobody can do itas well as they can do it. So I
(15:36):
use that analogy that I spokeabout earlier, about writing
down a list of things thatyou're working on that don't
require expertise, because itreally is an eye opener of where
you're spending your time. So Ido offer that to people who are
potentially thinking of using mebut don't know how to or, you
(15:58):
know, we just talk about whatthey need, and I can start
talking about what is in mywheelhouse, and when they start
hearing like, oh, you can dothat, oh, you can do that, oh,
you can take care of that forme. Oh, my goodness, that would
save me so much time, it sort ofevolves that way. Yeah, it's
just, it's just a matter ofletting go a little bit, and
(16:21):
just just having that ability tosay, okay, and I even say, why
don't you just give me oneproject that you're working on,
see how it works, see how youfeel about it, see how you feel
about letting go a little bit,and then we can go from there.
And inevitably, my plate fillsup with that client.
Erica D'Eramo (16:36):
Yeah, I think that the the like time inventory
is such a valuable tool nomatter what, whether you're
going to ask for help or not. Ithink the first time I
encountered like, a 15 incrementtime interval inventory was in
college. I think my freshmanyear of college, they were like,
(16:58):
You should be there was probablysome time management class or
something that we had to take,but they sort of gave us these
sheets to fill out day afterday. And it's shocking to know
where your time is going,because we, I think we have
these heuristics or these biasesabout how where we think our
time went, on both sides ofthings, we'll think that
(17:20):
something took way less time ifwe enjoyed doing it, we might be
like, Whoa, I spent two hourswriting that blog post, or I
spent two hours playing thecrossword or whatever it is,
right, the Einstein's relativityprinciple, but or vice versa. It
might be like this big projectthat felt so onerous, and then
(17:41):
when you knock it out, yourealize, oh, it only took me 15
minutes to go in and handle thatregistration or that bill or
whatever. So that visibility, Ithink, is so crucial in asking
for help in any sort of way,because you can't really see
where your time is going justfrom getting to the end of the
day and really know what wasvalue add? What did I What could
(18:03):
I have handed off to somebodyelse? What was super critical,
what was just like shiny and Igot distracted?
Unknown (18:09):
Right? And making that list will help clarify that for
sure.
Erica D'Eramo (18:13):
Yeah, yeah. Like, really bringing clarity to it. I
see this a lot too, as myneurodivergent clients as well,
where they build up shame aroundwhat they think, where they
think they spent their time, orthey'll get to the end of a day
or end of a week and be like, Ifeel like I had this list of
five things to get done thisweek, and I didn't do any of
them. Where did my time even go?
Right? And so that clarityreally helps to negate some of
(18:36):
the shame, because you're like,Oh, well, I dealt with this
huge, onerous registrationprocess that I didn't expect to
have to deal with. That's wheremy time went right, and having
that extra set of eyes sort offorces it, in a way, right with
you and I, when we divvy up workfor the week, we have to be
pretty clear about like, howlong we think things are gonna
take, whether it's best for youor me to do it, and be way more
(18:58):
intentional about where the timegoes.
Erika Pherson (19:03):
Absolutely, yes, yeah. It's just a it's just a
matter of reframing how you doyour day and thinking about it
like I said, like you said, andI said, intentionally. What sort
of like the Eat the Frog? Isn'tthere a Eat the Frog? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, you know, you haveto just focus on, on what is
(19:25):
going to move the needle forwardin your company, in your
business, and in whatever you'reworking on and what isn't,
although the what isn't is stillnecessary, it doesn't mean it
needs to be your necessary.
Erica D'Eramo (19:37):
Right? So what are some of the other challenges
you see that either stop peoplefrom enlisting help, or, you
know, get in the way if they,even if they've decided, Okay,
I'm gonna get help, like, withdoing some stuff, or I'm gonna
delegate more, like, what? Whattypical challenges do you see
folks encounter?
Erika Pherson (19:58):
Because I work with several different, not
several, multiple industries.
One of the common issues issystems. They're systems. They
all use different systems. Andbecause they're different
industries, I have attorneys, Ihave financial planners, I have
a manufacturing company, andtheir first concern is, well,
how will you get into my system?
(20:18):
How you know what to do? And forme, the good thing is, is part
of my professional career, priorto The Collective Concierge, I
sold software, a SAS product,for 20 years, so I'm very
comfortable working on people'ssystems and figuring them out.
And that's another part of me isI will, I will figure it out. I
(20:40):
will figure out how to use it,and most likely not by asking
you the client, because that'sthat's deters from what I'm
trying to do is give back time.
I don't want to take more timeup, so I try to learn it the
best that I can, and explain tothem that, yes, you can give me
a username and password to yoursystem, and I can get on and I
(21:00):
can work in your system. It'sokay. So that's, that's one
concern. Another big concern is,how do we work together? How
does it work? They havequestions on, you know, do you
come into the office? Do we doit online? How do I how do I
know what you're working on? SoI need to work through these
(21:20):
problems or these issues orthese questions and concerns and
let them know that it's veryeasy to work together. I like to
set up a like a weekly call sothat we are in lockstep with
each other on what we're workingon, and I really tackle their
challenges by easing their mindwith how I can help.
Erica D'Eramo (21:44):
Yeah
Erika Pherson (21:45):
It's just, it's just a dialog. It's a it's a
dialog of their concern, and youknow my response and my
solution.
Erica D'Eramo (21:57):
Which is really best practice, whether you're a
manager or, you know, whetheryou're managing someone who
works for you, or you'remanaging upward, like that,
mindset of, hey, share yourconcerns with me, share your
idea of success with me, and wewill co create the solution. But
like that, open, open endedquestions, that open mindset,
(22:19):
that is really like bestpractice, regardless of
position, right?
Unknown (22:24):
Yes, yes. And interestingly enough, I'd say
90% of my clients turn to me foradvice on how to do things. What
do you think of this? How shouldI do this? And again, because of
my background, I'm able to pullin all these ideas from other
positions I've worked in andother managers and people that
I've worked with to help answerthose questions and help them be
(22:48):
that thought partner for them ofwhat they need to get done, or
how they need to get it done, orwhat they should do next,
whether it's growing theirbusiness selling I have a client
that's considering selling herbusiness, and we were talking
about what that means for her.
So there are many differentwhat's the word? There are many
different solutions I bring tothe table, not just
(23:11):
administrative.
Erica D'Eramo (23:14):
Yeah, I think that the thought partnership has
been really helpful for me. Andit's an it's another, it's
another demonstration of thevalue of having different
viewpoints and perspectives anddifferent backgrounds in the
room. Because I will say thatbeing an entrepreneur can be
very isolating, very lonely,very daunting, because you don't
(23:35):
have a team of people to look toand say, like, Well, what do you
think? Where am I wrong on this?
Like, what am I not thinkingabout? Where is my blind spot?
And being a senior leader, Ihear the same thing. It can be
very lonely. It can be veryisolating, very daunting. And so
I think it's pretty commonactually, that in these types of
relationships where a lot ofwork is being delegated and
(23:58):
there has to be goodcommunication back and forth.
You know, feedback, withoutpeople taking things personally,
just like that type ofrelationship can create such a
powerful thought partnership.
And you see it all the time inlike corporate entities, where
the administrative assistant onthe team is often the source of
(24:19):
all of the institutional wisdomand the source of insight. And
you could say, like, even as faras, like, how does this look?
What do you think? Can I walkinto that boardroom wearing this
right now? Or should I, like,change something, and you'll get
an honest answer, right?
Because, like, you'veestablished that those lines of
communication and that trust,or, Hey, I'm about to go into a
(24:39):
meeting with this person. Whatdo you think are the pitfalls I
should be worried about? Likethey are another set of eyes and
ears and a sounding board inmany cases. And I love that you
work with so many differentindustries. Because for me, I
could say, Hey, I haven'tencountered this before. Like,
what if other clients don't. Onthat you've worked with, or
(25:00):
what, what systems have otherpeople tried, that you've seen
work, and it's a great way totap into so much more knowledge
than what I would have just inmy in my home.
Erika Pherson (25:11):
Yes, and you had mentioned earlier about clients
potentially being embarrassed byhow their folders and their
files are being stored and thatthey're all over the place. And
interestingly enough, I justreceived a call last week for
someone who just wanted an hourof my time to walk her through
(25:33):
how she should organize herfiles. She's a social media
manager, and she had her clientsfiles all over the place, and
photos here, videos there, andshe just didn't know how to
capture it all in one place, soshe wasn't running around
looking for everything. And Itook a idea from working with
(25:54):
another client of how toorganize her files, and she just
emailed me the other day sayinghow much she absolutely loves
it, and it's working so well forher. So it is very helpful,
regardless of what your desklooks like.
Erica D'Eramo (26:06):
Yeah. I mean, you're like, you're, in a way,
you're a bit of a pollinator,right? You're like, cross
pollinating, just Yes, isdifferent best practices and
insights and ideas, and I thinkthat's hugely valuable, yeah.
So, I mean, one challenge thatcomes up to for me, just
probably unbiased because ofcoaching, but, um, I feel like
people struggle to delegate alot, like it's just it's
(26:28):
constant that this comes up incoaching conversations. Like I'm
overwhelmed. I have a team ofpeople, but I feel like I can't
give them work. And so what areyour thoughts there? Like, when
have you seen delegation work?
What has helped people get overthat resistance to delegation or
or overcome that? Thatresistance or challenge? What
(26:49):
are your thoughts?
Erika Pherson (26:52):
It really comes down to the type of personality
that we're working with, type apeople it takes a little bit of
time for them to actually moveforward and work with me. It
takes me a long, not a longtime, but it takes me a few
calls to be like, this is whatyou need, this is going to work.
(27:13):
So it's personality, it's howlong they've been in business,
if they came from a corporateworld and they went off on their
own and they understand whatit's about to have support like
that, they might be easier towork with. And there are some
people who are just, they just,they're not intentional about
(27:36):
what they need. They're just allover the place. And quite
honestly, that's my leastfavorite person to work with,
just because I can't besuccessful, if they can't let me
know what they need, why theyneed it, you know, I need some
sort of scope of work. So it'sthere are some cases where it
just doesn't work because theycan't delegate, because they
(27:58):
don't know what to delegate,regardless of their lists next
to their computer, or the amountof conversations that we have,
and that's okay, because, youknow, nine times out of 10
they'll figure that out and comeback.
Erica D'Eramo (28:12):
Yeah. I mean, that's well, and they should
come talk to a coach. Becauseoftentimes I think like this is
like, this is the key withdelegation, right? It's like,
usually when there's a barrierto delegation, it's because
people are not clear about whata good outcome looks like, and
can't then communicate that tosomebody else. That I think that
(28:33):
that is, like the number onebarrier to delegation, followed
closely by, what if somebodydoesn't do it exactly the way I
want, which is also about beingclear about Okay, is it the
preference thing? Is this astylistic thing, right? If you
use it, if you send an email anda font that I don't like like, I
(28:55):
can let it go. I can be okaywith that, but that's like a
learned thing, I think for somepeople, especially if they
haven't been in a leadershiprole before. So that transition
point right of either going froma corporate entity where they
were working individually orthey had a lot, you know, and to
shifting into entrepreneur mode,where they are going to have to
(29:16):
get some stuff off their plateif they want to focus on their
quote, unquote zone of genius.
There's that transition point,and then there's also the
transition point of going froman individual contributor role
to a leadership role, where wehave to get clear about, how
does it actually impact thebottom line? Does it actually
matter? Why does and if so, whydoes it matter to you? Can you
let it go? Um, where? How haveyou how have you seen people
(29:41):
kind of overcome that, or dothey not? Do they need to talk
to a coach first?
Unknown (29:48):
Yes, they should speak with a coach first. And in some
cases, they don't overcome it.
And again, part of my role is tobe in lockstep with that person.
So if they want Arial, 10 font.
Well then Arial 10 font, it is,it's, it's, it's not about what
I want them. I'm trying to bethere for that person to again,
(30:08):
it's the lockstep that I like tokeep using the term, because
that is really where it's goingto feel impactful for the
client, where they are confidentthat when they pass something
off, it's going to be in theirstyle and represent their
company the way they want.
Erica D'Eramo (30:24):
Yeah, you know, you bring up a really
interesting point, which islike, and I think that there's a
gender element to this, to behonest, I think that oftentimes
women are maybe they facenegative consequences for being
really specific or particularabout their preferences. And so
(30:44):
rather than face thatconsequence, they're like, I'll
just do it myself. And theybuild that into a habit of, I'll
just do it myself, because Idon't want to be difficult. I
don't want to ask for what Ireally need. But I do love that,
you know, in our workingrelationship, I can be super
specific about my punctuationpreferences and my font
(31:06):
preferences and my color and allthese little things that I
learned that because I hadsenior executives be really
specific and really picky withthat with me. And I was never
like, Wow, he's so difficult,right? But I know I hesitate
before even mentioning thatstuff, because I'm like, oh,
Erica, just let it go, like itdoesn't matter. But with you, I
know I can say that, because youunderstand that's like my brand,
(31:29):
and I'm just clarifying mypreferences, right? And you pick
it up, and you're never like,oh, Erica, god, you're so
difficult, right? That's justyou're like, cool. Thanks for
letting me know. Now that's thenew SOP.
Unknown (31:43):
Exactly. Again, it's both being successful. My work
and your work needs to besynergistic, so that it's
working together, or otherwiseI'm not helping you.
Erica D'Eramo (31:57):
Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's Yeah
Unknown (32:02):
And as an entrepreneur myself, I understand the brand.
I understand the the look andthe feel and what you you want
to portray 100% of the time. Andwhy not be that person to help
deliver it for my client? I getit, I if anybody gets it, it's
me.
Yeah, I do think that that playsinto kind of finding the right
(32:25):
balance and the right match aswell. Because I think that was
one of my first questions at thegate was, you know, I tend to be
very detail oriented. How do youfeel about that? Like, are you
in, you know, in terms of aslide deck? Are you going to be
looking for, like, you know, ifthere's a full stop at the end
of every bullet point orwhatever? And you were like,
yes, 100% I'm on board withthat. And if you, if you're
looking for administrativesupport, and somebody is like,
(32:52):
oh, that sounds awful to me.
Okay, that's probably just not amatch, right? They might be
really good at other things, butfinding that right balance, like
I can be very intellectualizedabout things and non linear
about things, and I love thatyou and I are a good balance in
that, and that you can be reallyfocused and, you know, just like
you said, check things off,right, like, keep moving forward
(33:17):
and not do The swirling thingthat I tend to do so it might be
in the reverse for somebodyelse, right? Like they might be
that really linear person. Maybethey do need somebody that's
like, more up in the clouds orwhatever. I think you, you
personally can flex a lot, but Ithink there's an element of,
like, finding that right match.
You're complimenting yourstrengths and weaknesses by
(33:39):
bringing in support.
It's really a chameleontype position in a good way. You
know, I am I can. I havedifferent clients who, like you
described, some who just rollwith it. They just want the
communication sent out. Theydon't care how it looks. And I
(34:00):
have others that are very, veryspecific, and sure I will just
do what is necessary and andthere might be some times where
I might say, does that reallymatter?
Erica D'Eramo (34:14):
I get the opportunity to say yes or no,
yes, it does because, or no, itdoesn't because.
Erika Pherson (34:23):
Yeah, right, and I'm just here to execute. That's
it, Yeah, yeah. So Erika, whenpeople listen to this and
they're like, all right, allright, I need, I need to
actually either rely on my theexisting support in my
organization, or or go findsupport. How do people find
their match like, what? What is?
What does that process looklike?
Unknown (34:46):
I think it's important prior to looking for help.
Again, I might sound like abroken record, but make that
list so that you know whatyou're talking to this person
about, and you know whether ornot it falls in their wheelhouse
and they can handle it in theircomfortable with it. Some people
will just say, Yes, I can dothat, and maybe they can't. So I
would start with knowing whatyou're calling about, and then
(35:11):
discovery calls, they're thebest way to find out if that's
the right match for you, and Ido recommend a video call if
it's possible, because that thatchemistry is more easily found
when you can face somebody on acamera and have a conversation
with them, versus on the phoneor through email.
Erica D'Eramo (35:28):
Yeah, yeah, 100% I mean, it's the same in
coaching, right? Like, coachinghas a chemistry element to it,
and I much prefer sometimes Ican't do a video call and we, we
go with the audio, and that'sfine if the if my client is,
like, offshore or whatever, butyes, I 100% agree there's
chemistry that is a piece,because you will need to, there
(35:49):
will need to be iterations,right? You will need to give
feedback, which stay tuned,because we will two piers is
going to talk a lot about givingand receiving feedback soon. So
if you think like, oh, I want towork with somebody, but I don't
know how to give them feedback,we will talk through that in the
future, the near future. Okay,so chemistry calls inventory of
(36:09):
what you're working on. And ifpeople have listened to this and
they're like, Oh, but I want towork with Erika, I would say,
No, she's all mine. No, I'm justkidding. Um, not at all. I would
love, I would love, for peopleto be able to reach out to you.
So how do they find you?
Erika Pherson (36:27):
I would say, obvious choice. That would be my
first thing. I would say, um,you can find me at
www.thecollectiveconcierge.com
Erica D'Eramo (36:41):
which will have in the show notes,
Erika Pherson (36:42):
Yes. Or I am on Instagram,
the_collective_concierge. Or youcan give me a call,
351-220-1999.
Erica D'Eramo (36:58):
There you go.
Yeah, I think I did give you acall maybe, um, and you're on
LinkedIn as well. So
Erika Pherson (37:05):
I am on LinkedIn.
Yeah, I could be found justabout anywhere you can, even
just Google concierge services,and I should be the first one to
pop up.
Erica D'Eramo (37:13):
Oh, look at that.
Seo. She knows SEO too.
All things, all things, yeah, Ido want to give, like, just a
final shout out here, because Igave my business sort of, I I
realized, you know, I took, Itook a huge pay cut to start two
(37:37):
piers consulting, and that wasbecause I wanted to live up to
my life's potential, right?
Like, I really wanted to doimpactful work that I felt was
tied to my values and haveagency over how I spent my time
and do fulfilling work. What Ifound was I was getting so
caught up in, like, the busynessloop that I wasn't actually
fulfilling that promise tomyself. And so it was like,
Well, if you're just gonna runin the mouse wheel. Just go back
(37:59):
into corporate Erica, and youcan just take home a big pay cut
or a big paycheck. And instead,I said, No, let's see if we can.
Let's put let's put this onprobation. Go see what it would
take to actually be able tofocus on the work that you are
exceptionally good at and havethe business still run. And so
(38:21):
when I met up with you, I wasvery transparent about like,
we're I'm the business is onprobation, because I need to
love what I'm doing. I need tolove running a business all the
things, the administrativepiece, keeping up with it,
getting back in touch withclients, landing contracts, all
of it. So yeah, this was a thiswas an experiment, and we're
(38:41):
doing great. Everything'sgrowing. We're doing great.
Clients are happy. So thank you,Erika.
Erika Pherson (38:50):
Thank you for calling me. It's been a
wonderful adventure with you.
I've learned so much about yourbusiness, which I love. Another
thing I love with all my clientsis I learn a little bit,
sometimes a lot about all theseindustries. Fantastic, and I
love working with you. It's beengreat.
Erica D'Eramo (39:07):
Oh, thank you.
Well, I encourage you to gocheck out Erica's site and reach
out and stay tuned to the TwoPiers podcast and our blog if
you want to know more aboutasking for and receiving
feedback, giving and receivingfeedback, and if you want to
know more about delegating, wealso have a blog post series on
(39:28):
that, which, yeah, Erika helpedme get published. So lots of
resources. And thanks again,Erika for being on the podcast.
Unknown (39:40):
Thank you for having me.
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