Amy Walker and her Management Tips & Client Acquisition Strategies

The strength of your system determines the strength of your hire.

Hey, it's Shalane for John Jonas from onlinejobs ph. And we are so excited today to talk to Amy Walker, the CEO of Amy Walker Consulting, small business strategist, speaker, and author. And Amy's going to share some details on her business with us as well as her outsourcing experience today. How's it going, Amy?

So good. Thank you so much for having me.

Oh, we're so glad to have you. So we are recording this in April of 2020, which means Amy and I are both home and we may have visitors pop in.

If anyone hasn't yet had a zoom interruption, they are living alone.

They're seriously missing out.

You have four and each child. You never know. You do the best you can.

Okay, so Amy, tell us what your business is and what you do.

I work with small business owners on their client acquisition strategy. So we help them find the simplest, most effective way to be able to acquire their ideal client consistently. So it's sales and marketing and we work with really well with service based business owners, but we've worked with a lot of different types of industries. My favorite client to work with is the maxed out Solopreneur where they are doing well, but they cannot seem to get to that next level of growth because there's too many things rolling through them.

Hey, that's our favorite kind of person to work with too. We know that solopreneur very well. Well, that's wonderful. How long have you been doing that?

I've been running this company for seven years. It's always easy to remember because I started it six weeks before my fifth son was born. So my business is the same age.

As my baby w and five kids at the same time. I mean, how do you manage that having good help?

Which is one of the reasons why when I first got introduced to onlinejobs Ph, I was like, this is a thing of beauty because for me, when I launched my company, I had a newborn, I had an 18 month old, I had a kindergartner, I had a second grader and a fifth grader. And my husband was working nights and going to school full time. And so from the very, very beginning, I made a really wise decision that I needed to have help in my. I didn't know about outsourcing overseas at that point in time. So I was hiring stateside help. And it was all very part time. It was all independent contractors. But from the very get go, I would do things like I would sell a program and I would forget to charge the card and then I'd go to charge the card two weeks later and it would decline and they're like, oh, I thought you already charged it. Oops, no. Well, can you wait two more weeks? And I'm sitting there going, yeah, I can. I don't want to. My bills don't say that I can, but yeah, I guess I will. And so for me, just it was probably two months in that I hired my first independent contractor and realized I just was not going to be able to succeed in business if I tried to do it alone.

So do you have a software that you love to use to create your standard operating procedures? And how did you find that and what do you like to use?

So I'm going to be honest. In the very beginning I started very, very simply with Google Docs. And so I would create a Google Excel spreadsheet that would have the tasks that they were supposed to do, a definition of what my standard was for when it was done, well, the frequency with which it was supposed to be done. And then they could go in and check in what they had gotten done. And if it was a longer process, I would create a step by step, like for example, booking me for speaking gigs. I would have, you know, a list of all the people that I, they had found that they could pitch me to and then like the step by step process of what happens with each task. And there are still areas of my business that I manage that way. We also now use a tool called smartsheets. It's really similar to Asana. And what's the other one? It's not Asana. Now I can't even think of it. It's really similar to just, you know, a project management tool, but it's a little bit less expensive if you have a smaller team. And the reason why is you don't. Not every person has to be a user. Trello. That's what I was thinking of. So similar to that. But not every person has to be a user. You can have just one or two users who are going to actually create the tasks and then you can invite everybody else in to manage it. And so that's a tool that we use now. And then we use infusionsoft to run. That's our CRM. And so we have our sales system and the sales processes are built into infusionsoft. But I really think you don't have to start with something complex. I mean, even now, today our system is very simple and then it's just a matter of having great communication and great expectations of what the tasks are and what the deadlines are and allowing your team to be able to feel like they can come to you and say, that's going to take a little bit longer than you think it is, Amy, and you being willing to hear and you know, and talk that through.

Okay, so I love what you say about great having great communication, how important that is, what to you are the most important elements of your communication with your Filipino workers?

Well, I have noticed the very first thing is, is that when I hire a new, new team member, there is a hesitation around me and a desire to please. But there's not a lot of like, trust and rapport built at the very beginning. And so, and I've always wanted my team to have a really tight knit working relationship, a lot of trust. I want our team to be very positive and the Filipino team members are equal team members. And so from the very beginning, I put in effort to just kind of break down the gap between where they see me when they first come on the team and where I want them to see me, which is we are co collaborators. I am not an untouchable, unreachable resource that you need to worry that if you ask me a question, you're going to bug me and I'm going to be frustrated. Like I, in the beginning, have to set that context. I welcome your questions, I welcome your ideas. I know where I want us to go. But sometimes you'll see a different aspect of this than I do. And I want to hear that from you. It's valuable to me. And so I think just inviting the context for the type of culture that you want, the type of communication you want. And sometimes I've seen people kind of treat their vas differently than they treat their stateside team. And like, it's the same team, it's the same. We live in different places. So you got to bring them into all the meetings and even. And accommodate the difference in time schedule too. Like, we've had meetings where, you know, I've had team members in the mountain west who are up at 7 in order to have a meeting at 9, my time in order to have a meeting at 10 in the Philippines and that it might not be the most convenient for any of us, but we've. I'm not going to schedule a meeting at, you know, 3:00am for them because I wouldn't want someone to schedule it at 3am for me. And so I feel like the more that you just create a context that they'll feel from you like, oh, they actually care about me. Like I'm an important part of the team. I have a voice, you know, asking for opinions and meetings from everybody, not just a select few. That for me I feel like you have to prime the pump a little bit more maybe with your Filipino bas. And also I think for me I know what it's like to live in a foreign country and have a language gap. And so I feel like I naturally have a little bit of patience for that because I've been on the other side and I just feel like it takes a little bit more priming of the pump and then consistency. In the beginning we always do weekly meetings, but in the beginning we also try to do daily check ins as we're getting going until we hit our rhythm and our flow and then a lot of email. I also use Marco Polo with my team members and so they can send me video messages. I can send them back video messages and that way they can send me a message when they're working. If it's, it's the middle of my night, I'll check it in the morning. And it allows us to be able to interface and have that voice to voice without having to actually get on a call at the same time because sometimes it's just, it's not the most convenient.

That's a great idea. I had heard about using Marco Polo for work before. I think that's fantastic, especially with the time zone differences. Thanks for outlining that for us. I know that onlinejobs ph we're super passionate about that, about creating relationships with outsourced workers and the importance John will get on his soapbox about that all the time about I guess investing interest and care the same way you would if it were someone you were sitting next to in an office all day. These are incredibly intelligent individuals. They have access to extensive training and educational resources out there and a lot of people take that for granted. So it's really neat to hear how that affects your team. So how many workers do you have have employed currently overseas?

So right now I actually only have one and then I've hired three others for one of my clients that I help manage his marketing. So me personally, I have one, I'm getting ready to hire one that is working for one of my clients. I'm getting ready to bring him on board with my team as well. Total of three. But one of them will end up with two contracts here pretty quick.

So what does your main virtual worker do for you right now?

So he is my editor. Well, I'LL tell you what all of them are and what their different roles are. So I have one that's editing my YouTube channel, and so he edits the video content and he gets that ready to go. I also. I would have more, except I also have a couple teenage boys who are doing, like, keyword research for me and doing some help on my podcast, which are normally tasks that would go to the Philippines, but these boys need money for school trips next year, so they're working for me. And then I also have a researcher that anytime we need to research and get a database, we'll reach out to her, and she does a great job. It's just kind of hit and miss, you know? Like, right now I am wanting to find all of the conferences that have canceled so I can reach out and see if they need any virtual speakers. So that would be a great task to reach out to my researcher, who's kind of like, does tasks and then doesn't, depending on what the needs are. And then we. I also have a graphic designer that if I have graphics projects, I can send out to, but that's, again, kind of more of a project basis. And then we have for my client, we've got on his team two people. One of them produces his podcast, so researches and finds all of the guests that we would like to have, reaches out to the guests and invites them to be on the show, make sure that we get all the information we need from the guests, and then actually downloads and edits the recordings, gets them uploaded onto Lisbon, promotes it, and shares all of the promotional materials with the guests to make sure that they're doing that as well, and then sends out the thank you card. So, like 90% of the effort is done through our virtual assistant. And then my client just has to actually get on and do the interview, which is great. We also have another assistant there who is just kind of catching administrative task overflow that we need help with. Awesome.

Okay, so what is your recruiting process?

It's the same as it is Stateside. It's the exact same recruiting process. So I post the job. Now, one thing is that's different is your amount of applicants is huge. You post a job on online jobs, and it's like you get a ton of applicants. And so I have found I have to be really quick at either they impress me or they don't, because that it gets a little overwhelming to look in and see, like, I have, you know, 50, 60 new applicants. And so I'll go in and really quickly just, do they impress me? Or do they not? And I'm. My nature is I want to look for everybody's to be good, like find what's good in everyone's. And I just can't because there's too much volume. So the next thing that I do is I do an interview, and I'll do that through zoom, and then I do a skills assessment. And that's something that I'm a big believer in because I really think in this day and age, anyone can make themselves look like they're amazing, but I need them to actually do. I need to assess their skill level. So, for example, you know, I do with my video editor, I did have them send me their portfolio of projects they had worked on, but I also had them watch a couple of my videos and tell me what they felt we could do better and find some examples on YouTube of videos that they thought created a, you know, had a good style, that we could do something similar to that. And then after I've done the skills assessment, then if I want to do second interviews, because I'm still not quite sure, then I'll come back and I'll interview again. But I do think it's important to ask, ask really clear questions about, you know, their. What kind of equipment and setup do they have there, what's the Internet situation like, what. What other companies are they working for and how much availability do they have for me? And just really go through any questions or doubts that you have in your mind. Ask them so that you don't walk away from that conversation still wondering, is this going to work? You really feel confident that it will.

Awesome.

Great.

Do you have any other advice for someone who might be hesitant to jump into the outsourcing endeavor?

Well, my best advice is the strength of your system determines the strength of your hire. And so a lot of times what I've seen people do is they try to hire something out. They haven't fully explained it. They haven't really built out this, you know, the standard operating procedures. And then they bring somebody else in to do it and it doesn't go well, and they buy the story that I have to just do it myself. No one can ever do it as well as I can do it. The reality is somebody can do it better than you can do it. Because be honest, not every area of our business is our genius. Right? So you can take the things that you're average or mediocre or bad at and give it to somebody who's good at it. Anybody can do it better. But you have to prepare the context for them to be successful. And so it's worth investing time. The other thing that I notice is business owners are so pressed for time. We have a lot on our plates, and so I notice a tendency that we feel like it takes too long to be thorough in our training and delegation. And it's such a worthwhile use of your time to really just dig in and train on exactly what you want and set standards. And like, right now, with my video editor, we set a goal that by the end of April, I would not have to review any of the videos that he edits that, like, the standard would be every single one is done and complete. Well, guess what, we're not there yet. So I've got to continue to have that conversation of, this is our goal. This is where we want to be. You still got a couple of mistakes in there that I'm catching as I go through. It's gotten a lot better. But what will it take for you to get to that standard level and then be consistently working with your people to get up to the standard that you want? And even things like I've been thinking through, sometimes he'll go for a longer stretch before he adds in anything extra, or sometimes he puts in too much extra. And so maybe I need to go through and think, well, how many seconds is it before I want to see something visually on the video and how much is too much? And, like, if I haven't defined that standard yet, I can't expect for somebody else to just magically, intuitively know my style and my vibe and my brand. And I think too many people want that type of magical connection that only happens through communication of standards because everybody has a different definition of what it means to do XYZ task.

That's great. That's so great. Train, train, train. That's another one of John's favorite soapboxes. So do you keep your trainings on file for future workers, or how do you keep that organized?

That's a really good question and one that, honestly, I've done a lot better with, with my stateside team members than I have my overseas team members. I do every time I need to show them how to do something. I do record it and I do email it, but I haven't. You know, it's funny, until you said that, I was like, I didn't realize I wasn't doing that with my, like, my sales team is probably my most defined system. I have a training library. So there's a training document, and inside of the document is links to the videos of me showing how to do each thing, and that's probably our next level that we need to get to.

I came across something where you said play big, or you made a big deal about playing big as an entrepreneur, as a solopreneur. Will you talk to us a little bit about that and how that has played into your business development? Kind of the story? I mean, it sounded like it was something that really comes from your core.

Yeah. So this is a really interesting question because I just turned 40, and I feel like in turning 40, I'm having all of these just, like, new layers of understanding of myself. My 30s was a decade where, like, play big and go full out was totally my mantra. And I hustled and I worked hard and I built something that, you know, would last and would provide for my family. And it was very accomplishment driven. And towards the end of my 30s, I also kind of burnt myself out a little bit. And so stepping into this next decade of my life, what I am realizing is that but in order to be your best self, you have to have both sides of that coin. You have to have the drive and you have to have the nourishment, and you don't have to go at, like a sprinter's pace for long periods of time. It's okay to have seasons where you're pushing and then seasons where you're solidifying what you just built. And so I absolutely believe that we have barely scratched the surface of our potential as humans. Like, we barely know what we're capable of. And the more that we learn and uncover what our gifts and our talents are, the more that we get to step into that space of just being. And that's where I feel like my shift has happened is the last 10 years. I really felt like it was about striving to become. And now I feel like it's about being who I am. That I, you know, I have gifts and I have talents that are just an innate part of me. Whether I'm being super productive or I'm not, I'm still valuable and still great. And so this next phase of business for me feels more. Still feels driven. Like, trust me when I. When I tell you I'm feeling more peaceful, it's not because of lack of doing things. Like, we're launching a podcast right now. We're launching a new mastermind right now. We're booking out speaking gigs right now. Like, there's a lot of movement still going on, but it just feels more peaceful. And I'm more aware of what my boundaries are. And so that whole play big idea, I think, is so important. And I think we need to play big, but play better. It's not just about playing more. It's about, you know, because for me, it was always like, run more, hustle more, do more. And now it's like, no, just be better in each area that I do. Maybe I do less overall, but I want to do those things that I do more intentionally and better and more thorough so that there can be more just joy along the journey.

Thank you so much for your time and for sharing that. I can't wait to write this blog post and get this edited and published. Yeah, I just. I really appreciate it. Wish you all the best and lots of success and especially with this next hire. And we can't wait to follow and see what else you're doing in the future.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

That was Amy Walker, the CEO of Amy Walker Consulting. You can reach out to her@amywalkerconsulting.com you can also experience what Amy has experienced with online workers from the Philippines by exploring onlinejobs, phone.