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What Should You Stop Doing? Katie Santoro Shares the Secrets · Budget Your Business

0:00
SPEAKER_02: When I get a request to meet and have a discovery call, and that request comes through at 9 30 p.m., that is a huge warning sign for me.
0:10
SPEAKER_02: I can really see that they are in need from their perspective, working late at night, working on the weekends.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Budget Your Business podcast, where small business owners go to learn how to financially plan for every aspect of their business.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Let's get started with your host, Scott Geller.
0:26
Scott: Hello, and thanks for another joining us for another episode of Budget Your Business.
0:31
Scott: Today I'm joined by Katie Santoro of Lyft Business Resources to talk about the value of outsourced administrative support.
0:40
Scott: Hello, Katie.
0:41
unknown: Hi, Scott.
0:42
Scott: Thanks for having me.
0:43
Scott: Absolutely.
0:44
Scott: Thanks for joining me.
0:45
Scott: So, Katie, for folks who are meeting you for the first time, could you share a little bit about who you are and what you do?
0:52
Scott: Sure.
0:52
SPEAKER_02: So I'm Katie Santoro.
0:54
SPEAKER_02: I am the founder of Lyft Business Resources.
0:57
SPEAKER_02: I do a lot of things, but the business is an administrative support business.
1:02
SPEAKER_02: We provide fractional support to founder-led businesses.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: We also provide like direct hire for people who are ready for that full-time administrative support.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: But a lot of times the businesses we work with really just need that really dependable part-time support.
1:18
Scott: Okay, thank you.
1:19
Scott: And we're gonna we're gonna dive into that that that type of support here.
1:22
Scott: But let's let's kind of start off with how do you define now well I hear virtual virtual admin, outsource support.
1:31
Scott: How do you how what do you how do you refer to it?
1:34
Scott: One, I guess how do you define this this area?
1:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I refer to it as like an administrative support.
1:42
SPEAKER_02: We would say remote administrative support.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't say that we're virtual assistants.
1:47
SPEAKER_02: Virtual assistants can have a lot of different meanings.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: You know, the field had kind of started as outsourced to other countries.
1:55
SPEAKER_02: So looking into you know Asia, really cheap support, which is great if you need really cheap support and that works for growing your business, go for it.
2:03
SPEAKER_02: But then eventually you reach a point where you do need skilled support.
2:07
SPEAKER_02: Um on our team, what sets us apart is we are um we're professionals.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: We a lot of us come with you know five to 10 years of experience.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: And then my firm is backing up your firm by helping your assistant create the back-end processes and document those processes that they need to support you.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: So it's not just that person like doing a task that you ask them to do, which is often what you get from some of the overseas support, but it's somebody who's embedded in your business, um, kind of your right-hand man or woman, if you will, uh, the person who's helping you keep operations running on a daily basis.
2:40
Scott: And obviously the the offshore model is not on site, but do these roles typically work better or do you see them going on site, or is it mainly virtual?
2:51
Scott: How does that side of it work?
2:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're mainly virtual, and that is because our clients are mainly mainly virtual.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: You you're virtual, right?
2:59
SPEAKER_02: Like a lot of us are at home.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: We have our home offices.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: You see a lot of entrepreneurs and founders with home offices because you have no overhead.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: It and our our world has gotten so digital that it's very easy to run a virtual business.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: Every once in a while, we'll put someone in an office.
3:14
SPEAKER_02: There are people who are so old school and want someone in an office, and we get that.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: And if we can make that happen for them, we will.
3:20
SPEAKER_02: But for the most part, the the digital world makes it super possible to have part-time administrative support without having to have an extra desk in your office.
3:30
Scott: I I I I get that.
3:32
Scott: And going back to something you mentioned, you know, it's cheaper if it's offshore.
3:38
Scott: So if it's cheaper, then why can't I just use someone offshore?
3:42
Scott: Uh you can if you want to, Scott.
3:44
SPEAKER_02: Let me know how it goes.
3:47
SPEAKER_02: So I we can talk about the ethics behind it, which is kind of why we prefer and why we've grown as a US-based business.
3:55
SPEAKER_02: When I started this business, I started during COVID.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: I had left my career with very deep burnout.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: I was running a yoga studio.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: I had to close the studio because everything closed down during COVID.
4:07
SPEAKER_02: And I needed something to do to pay the rent on that yoga studio.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: And so I started working as a virtual assistant.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: And what I started finding at that time was the virtual assistants that were in place then, like in the Philippines, they were in person for them.
4:23
SPEAKER_02: So they were in like a call center, right?
4:26
SPEAKER_02: And when COVID happened, everything shut down.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: They all got sent home.
4:30
SPEAKER_02: The Philippines shut down way before the US did.
4:33
SPEAKER_02: And they didn't have the internet at home to continue working.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: So a lot of the executives that I started working with at that time had just been completely ghosted.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: No explanation of what had happened, which kind of left their business, you know, hanging.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: Like if your executive assistant who knows your daily operations, who's, you know, the person taking care of you essentially just disappears, you're kind of in a in a rough spot.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: So I started to see that switch when I started working as a virtual assistant.
5:03
SPEAKER_02: And at the same time, my friends were leaving the workforce because they couldn't manage the lack of child care at the time while also trying to work full-time in an office.
5:13
SPEAKER_02: So I started recruiting my friends because there were women and parents and caretakers in the US who needed the flexibility of this work.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: They had the experience, they just needed the flexibility.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, you see a lot of women in these support roles, a lot of caregivers in these support roles.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: I think it's a very natural caregiving type role.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: So we decided to keep it US-based as I expanded because I knew that there were women that needed that type of work.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: We can be more reliable and more consistent.
5:41
SPEAKER_02: We have, you know, more reliable internet.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: Um, we ask our ask our assistants to work from home, right?
5:47
SPEAKER_02: So that it's a more secure internet connection.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: But if they do need to go on vacation and they want to work one morning, they can.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: We have access to those things.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: And then there's the the the, and it's a little tricky, but the question of pay, we pay our people a living wage.
6:03
SPEAKER_02: When you're looking at other countries, if you're paying the company five to seven dollars an hour, you don't know how much they're paying their virtual assistants.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, there's like if you look at India, they have a minimum wage, but they don't really enforce it everywhere.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: So what are you really paying for and what kind of working conditions are you paying for?
6:21
SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of the ethical side of working overseas and also, you know, the unreliability of internet access.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: There could be unreliability of how the services run, language barriers, difference in business culture, things like that.
6:36
Scott: I really appreciate you sharing the ethical side of it because that's real.
6:40
Scott: And I've I've seen and and heard of and read about some of those similar situations as well, uh, or or facts around outsourcing, right?
6:52
Scott: What what roles do these do you do you see really working in this model?
6:58
Scott: Like what types of not just like types of people, like kind of you know, well, regardless of where they are, but what types of roles within a business do you see the most success?
7:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: So it's usually supporting an executive, right?
7:11
SPEAKER_02: So the CEO, you know, is the CEO of your own company, the amount of tasks that you have to do in a day.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: And that task list every day just grows and grows and grows.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: In addition to being CEOs and business founders, a lot of us who are running our businesses, we're we're humans.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: We've got kids and parents and pets and houses and all these things that we're taking care of.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: And an executive assistant can help in those areas as well.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: Like you can call your executive assistant and be like, can you please reschedule my doctor's appointment?
7:39
SPEAKER_02: And they can help you with those things.
7:40
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, helping executives who a lot have a lot of different hats, a lot of different things that they're doing.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: We fill a lot of roles for like CMOs, your chief marketing officer, where they're they're doing a lot of project management, they're doing a lot of task management.
7:55
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes they need someone to do those tasks.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: So scheduling things on social media, taking the content, separating it into different bits.
8:03
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes that's a role for the CEO too, because they are doing all of it.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: We usually, when we think about how we're gonna match people, we think of different, like you have your executive assistant who is very strong in that, in that task management, the time management, the schedule management, the analytical side of helping the executive.
8:22
SPEAKER_02: And then you have that kind of like marketing assistant who has that marketing brain, that more creative brain.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: So usually we see someone who wants that more analytical brain to support them or the more creative brain to support them.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we have to find both.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: Those are unicorns, they do exist.
8:36
SPEAKER_02: Does that fully answer the question?
8:38
Scott: It does.
8:38
Scott: It does.
8:39
Scott: So do you see problems with pulling things away from some of these business owners or executives?
8:48
SPEAKER_02: Like, do they have trouble giving it up?
8:50
Scott: Exactly.
8:51
SPEAKER_02: We well, yes, of course they do.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: Um but you know, I think a good executive assistant mirrors that in that they want to figure things out and do things as well.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: And there is a trust building period.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: You're not just gonna invite someone into your business and be like, here, do all these things for you for me.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: You want to build trust, and that takes a little while.
9:10
SPEAKER_02: For some of us, it comes a little bit easier.
9:13
SPEAKER_02: We really try and find executive assistants who are trustworthy and know what they're doing so that you can hand something off to them.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: Of course, there is, you know, gonna be communication and a feedback loop and all of those things.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: But eventually, as you begin to trust that person, more and more gets handed off.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes that trust is, you know, trust in giving them your personal information.
9:33
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes that trust is trust in them doing it on time.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it's trust in knowing that they will figure it out without your help.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's the most important part.
9:43
SPEAKER_02: Trusting that somebody is going to figure it out without your help.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: That's where you really start to see that uh like lift of the mental burden of everything.
9:52
Scott: Speaking of trust, do these individuals, do these do these uh support staff, do they provide support on the business and then maybe also the the personal side too?
10:02
Scott: Do you see that?
10:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we see that a lot.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: We have to remind people a lot in like our discovery calls, you know, we talk about what's going on in their business, where they can use help.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: People don't realize that your executive assistant can help you personally as well.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: And we're happy to.
10:18
SPEAKER_02: We want to, right?
10:18
SPEAKER_02: Like your business can't run if if your life is going awry, and vice versa.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: So if you need them to step in and help with things, like I've had my assistant help me.
10:27
SPEAKER_02: I needed a I needed a specific doctor.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: And you know, you you go onto the insurance website and then you're down a rabbit hole.
10:36
SPEAKER_02: She found me a doctor and she helped me make an appointment.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: So that was something that was just sitting on me so heavily.
10:42
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay, well, I've got this list of things that are important to move my business forward, but like I need this thing for my health.
10:48
SPEAKER_02: And my assistant could step in and be like, yeah, let me help you with that.
10:53
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
10:53
SPEAKER_02: We're managing a lot here, Scott.
10:55
SPEAKER_02: We all need an adult to be more of an adult.
10:57
Scott: Uh, you're very right about that.
10:59
Scott: So I as a CFO and a fractional CFO, I can absolutely see the financial benefit of bringing somebody on that's not a full-time, right?
11:10
Scott: Versus So why does this work, or what are some of the other benefits outside of financially versus hiring somebody internal to come into the business?
11:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: One of the things that originally made me want to start and grow this business, and this goes back to before I even left corporate America.
11:34
SPEAKER_02: I saw time and time again um people coming into these support roles.
11:38
SPEAKER_02: So I started in the legal field, started as a legal assistant, and then a litigation paralegal.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: And the newer legal assistants would come in and they would start as they would usually start with the new attorneys, right?
11:48
SPEAKER_02: Like you get a new attorney, new legal assistant.
11:51
SPEAKER_02: And the attorney was just kind of trying to figure out life and like law, and didn't really have time to teach the admin side to the assistant.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: So there was there was a point where I was like, I could, I could have a business where I teach people how to be admin assistants.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: Like there's something here where like that is needed in businesses, especially with like smaller firms.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: You know, you you you talk to somebody who is like their third or fourth day, you can tell they're almost in tears, they're working with a smaller firm attorney, they don't have the support they need.
12:21
SPEAKER_02: I was lucky to be in bigger firms where I had the support that I needed and I was I was trained by other people, but we were trained by other admins, not by our boss.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: Your boss doesn't train you, the executive doesn't train you, the admin trains you.
12:33
SPEAKER_02: So we've always stripped, we we've we've created, we've created a mentorship program that does that training.
12:41
SPEAKER_02: So that's a benefit that that we particularly do.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: I know there's other firms that do it as well.
12:47
SPEAKER_02: So you are not trying to hire an admin and teach them how to be your admin.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: You are hiring someone who has administrative experience, could probably run circles around you in admin, and also has the support behind them to help them figure out problems so that you don't have to as an executive.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: Every time your admin has to come to you and ask you a question, it's stopping your day, right?
13:11
SPEAKER_02: And then you're you're doing the task switching, the mental task switching.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: And we all know how much time gets wasted if you pull out of one task into another task.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: So you really want someone who's gonna come in and already know the answers to the question or have someone else to ask.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's a huge benefit other than the financial side of it.
13:31
Scott: I yeah, I I can see that having somebody that almost knows what they're gonna do before they walk in the door is I mean, it's kind of like hiring an administrative full-time, but they've already been in that role for 20 years, right?
13:45
Scott: Versus hiring something that's that's that's straight out of the blue.
13:48
Scott: But yeah, I I can see that that that's really interesting that you you put them through this mentorship program so that they're I you know it's gotta set them up to be more successful.
13:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we want a long-term relationship.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: Once you have a good relationship with your executive admin, you don't want that person to leave ever.
14:05
SPEAKER_02: We just promoted mine, and I'm very happy for her, but also I'm like, dang, now I don't have an EA.
14:11
SPEAKER_02: And it's really hard.
14:14
Scott: So uh one aspect of that I'm curious about, do many of your um employees do they ever roll over like into a full-time role?
14:23
Scott: Or they do you kind of make keep everybody in in your business?
14:27
Scott: Does that does that happen?
14:29
SPEAKER_02: It it does happen.
14:30
SPEAKER_02: There's uh the option in our contract, a buyout option.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: We've had a couple.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: It's always really, really sad for us because we love our team members so much, but it's also really exciting that the the business has grown enough that they can bring someone on full time.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: And that's usually our request.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: We don't require it in the contract, but usually if you're gonna buy out the contract, we we want you to bring them on full time and give them more than we can give them.
14:54
Scott: Right.
14:54
SPEAKER_02: And that's usually the way it works out.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: So we we have, you know, we have one client who they they've already done that with us, and then they came back and asked for additional executive assistance.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: They see the power of what an executive assistant can do in the executive's role to like help the executive be more efficient and functional.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: And they like that's their goal, right?
15:18
SPEAKER_02: Like have us hire someone for them, have that person work for them, get them up to speed for a couple of months, and then if they love that person, they're set up to employ and they can buy up the contract.
15:29
SPEAKER_02: And that's what that's that's still meeting our goal of like keeping parents and caretakers in the workforce.
15:35
Scott: Right.
15:36
Scott: You you're you're still helping at the end at the endpoint, you're still helping your client in what they're with what their needs are.
15:43
Scott: Great.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: And we're helping our employees with which is really important to us, yeah.
15:47
Scott: So it's it is a win-win.
15:49
Scott: It might might short term hurt you, but long term it's gonna help your business as well.
15:53
Scott: I feel like.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, of course, we we do the the numbers behind it and make sure that we're not losing because we do put a lot of time and effort into developing our our executive assistants.
16:05
SPEAKER_02: So financially, it's not that much of a hit for us, and it's more of a just keeping things flowing.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: We're happy for everybody.
16:12
Scott: As a as a business owner, as an executive, what are some of the warning signs that they might be ready for this type of role or for for an outsource support?
16:23
SPEAKER_02: When I get a request to meet and have a discovery call, and that request comes through at 9:30 p.m., that is a huge warning sign for me.
16:33
SPEAKER_02: When I have a call schedule with someone and they're double or triple booked, and they're like, hey, I have the reschedule.
16:39
SPEAKER_02: So reschedules, trying to contact me late at night, I can really see that they are in need from their perspective, working late at night, working on the weekends, feeling like you're not getting anything done.
16:52
SPEAKER_02: We we all have those days where we sit down with a really long to-do list and it feels overwhelming.
16:56
SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the day, you're like, I didn't do anything.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: I have no idea what I did today.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: Like we all have those days, but those days should be far and few between.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: You should be able to end your day and say, this is how I moved my business forward.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: If you're not having those days, you probably need some support.
17:13
Scott: I I I feel those days.
17:15
Scott: I I I I know those days.
17:16
Scott: And and yeah, it does.
17:17
Scott: You're right.
17:18
Scott: It's uh I I guess when you feel too many of those in a row or too many of those in a week, that's probably a really good warning.
17:25
SPEAKER_02: When that is when that is more normal, that that's when it's a sign that you need help.
17:30
Scott: Yeah.
17:31
Scott: Well, Katie, this has been really interesting.
17:33
Scott: I appreciate you walking through this.
17:35
Scott: And and I'd like to take advantage of a few more minutes to ask you some questions as Katie, the business owner.
17:42
Scott: I love getting examples of how business owners plan their business.
17:47
Scott: So how do you manage the businesses, you know, the business uh financials and and planning aspects of it?
17:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we we are very fortunate in that we have a recurring revenue model, which is allows us to really project out and know what we're gonna, what we expect to make for the year.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: And we're not always spot on, but we are spot on enough to where we can manage our budget pretty easily.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: We do a lot of planning that is and we do a yearly budget, and it's usually based, it's based on last year's financials and then our projections for this year.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: Um, we look at percentages, right?
18:23
SPEAKER_02: Like we'll say, and I have a business partner.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: So when I say we, I mean she and I.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: We'll say, you know, last year we spent 10% of revenue on marketing.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: Were we comfortable with that?
18:33
SPEAKER_02: Did that feel good?
18:33
SPEAKER_02: Did that get us where we want to be?
18:35
SPEAKER_02: And then we'll say yes, no, we'll adjust it as as needed, and then adjust it against this year's projections.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: So the number will change, the you know, the percentage changes a little bit, the number changes.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, we do monthly KPIs, like we're watching our numbers, we're watching more than our financial numbers, we're watching my networking activities, my marketing activities.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: We're watching what's happening with our employees, how much time we're spending training them, how much time, how much time they're taking off, right?
19:02
SPEAKER_02: We pay for PTO.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: Unpaid time off can be a really huge, huge hit for us.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: So we watch those numbers.
19:11
SPEAKER_02: Um, we just kind of watch all the trends.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: And then, of course, like a quarterly at the end of every quarter, we look at what we actually spent, we readjust our budget for the rest of the year.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: Are we comfortable with it?
19:22
SPEAKER_02: Are we not comfortable with it?
19:23
SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of like an ongoing.
19:25
SPEAKER_02: We always have our hands in the numbers, we always want to know what's going on.
19:30
Scott: Well, that's great to hear because not everybody does.
19:33
Scott: What would you say the hardest part or more or or your or the biggest challenges for you planning the business?
19:40
SPEAKER_02: The big biggest challenge business planning, like right.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: Not being able to tell the future.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: Like, if I could just have like a crystal ball and be like, this is what the job market is gonna do, this is what the economy is gonna do, this is what the world is gonna do.
19:57
SPEAKER_02: Like, if I could really see all of that, that would be really helpful.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: That's the biggest challenge is the unknown.
20:03
SPEAKER_02: We can plan for all the knowns.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: We can plan for all the risks of the unknowns, but you never know what's really gonna happen.
20:11
Scott: I I covet COVID taught us that, right?
20:13
Scott: And the and the reason it got you into this, even in the first place.
20:16
SPEAKER_02: It did, yeah.
20:16
SPEAKER_02: And it, you know, every day you open the news, something's gonna change.
20:20
SPEAKER_02: We just had a really bad jobs report, which the prior months we had really had really great ones.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: So something like that hits you, and you're like, wait, hold on, I thought we were on the up and up, and now we're not like what is happening?
20:30
SPEAKER_02: So those are the things that make it challenging.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: You have to you have the plan for the best case scenario and the worst case scenario and the sideways scenario.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: You've got to always be planning for everything.
20:40
Scott: Yeah, I I agree with you on that one.
20:42
Scott: If you could, one more question if you don't mind.
20:44
Scott: If you could go back say three or four-ish years, what would you do differently?
20:49
SPEAKER_02: There's a couple of like marketing campaigns I probably wouldn't do that just didn't work, and I feel like we waste a little bit of money, but that's marketing for you, right?
20:59
SPEAKER_02: Like you kind of don't know how it's gonna turn out.
21:01
SPEAKER_02: There's not a lot I would change.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: This on a on a more personal note.
21:05
SPEAKER_02: This past year, uh, my mom who lives with me had a lot of health challenges, and I needed the space to take care of her.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: I needed the space to take her to her doctor's appointments and do everything that was done that needed to be done.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: And we've always built this business to allow for flexibility.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: So, not flexibility in the you work two hours this week and 20 hours next week, but flexibility in like these are the hours you've committed to working this week.
21:30
SPEAKER_02: If you need to work them in the evenings or on the weekends because you have other responsibilities, then go ahead and do that.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: I didn't always allow myself that.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: I always piled on and piled on and piled on.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: And I was in the middle of this, and I was really kind of like spiraling.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: And my business partner was like, You created this for this exact reason.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: Like you created this so that you can flex your hours to do what you need to do.
21:52
SPEAKER_02: Go and do it.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: And I got to lean into that and it it felt amazing.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: So looking back over the last couple of years, I don't think I would change.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Change anything.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: We really stuck to our mission to create that type of environment, and we've done it, and it works.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: And we're still super effective and efficient.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: We do a great job.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: We do a great job at our jobs.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: And then we get to go home and do a great job at all of the other things we have to do.
22:18
Scott: So that's a refreshing answer.
22:21
Scott: And I really like this.
22:22
Scott: And I think to me, from hearing you talk about it, it's it's because you had that mission and you knew what it was and you believed it.
22:31
Scott: It sounds like you believed in it, you lived it.
22:33
Scott: Well, maybe you personally didn't live it fully, but you you came aware that you weren't and and made it made a change to so that you were living it.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: We did exactly what we set out to do, and I wouldn't really change anything.
22:47
Scott: Well, good.
22:48
Scott: Well, Katie, I I like to wrap up all of our shows with one to three immediate takeaways that our listeners could literally put into action as a turn off the podcast.
23:00
Scott: Uh, what can you share with us today?
23:02
Scott: And if it's something you already mentioned, that's fine as well.
23:06
SPEAKER_02: I think from from the admin perspective, if you are if you are having more days that feel overwhelming than not, it's time.
23:15
SPEAKER_02: It's time to hire someone.
23:17
SPEAKER_02: From the business side, like keep your hands in the numbers and know what's going on at all times, because then you can plan for what's coming and what's not coming.
23:26
SPEAKER_02: And you know, you're able to plan for the worst and hope for the best.
23:30
Scott: I like that.
23:31
Scott: Thank you.
23:32
Scott: We uh we also enjoy a good podcast or book recommendation.
23:35
Scott: No, before we were on, you were you were looking at your before we went live, you're looking at your bookshelf.
23:41
Scott: So what did you did you decide on one to share with our with our listeners?
23:44
SPEAKER_02: I did.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: One that is, and everybody's heard of it, I'm sure, but pivotal for us was traction, the EOS system.
23:51
SPEAKER_02: We used it to really define the biggest thing for us out of that book, the biggest take home was defining our seats and defining our roles so that we can clearly say, like, that is not my role and not my seat, and I'm gonna delegate it to the correct person.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: Creates a lot of like it clears up a lot of ambiguity that you have as a business owner wanting to do it all.
24:12
SPEAKER_02: I can look at that chart and say, nope, not me.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: And it's not my fault, it's not me.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: I'm not I'm not failing, I'm just passing it to the right person.
24:20
Scott: Yeah, yeah, that we've we've had that come up a couple of times, but it it that that just proves that it works and it helps, it's helped a lot of businesses.
24:27
Scott: So thank you for that.
24:29
Scott: Well, we're we're coming up on our time and and this has been great.
24:32
Scott: What where can people find out more about you and the business online?
24:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn, of course.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: It's Katie Santorio.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: We're on Instagram, which I don't really love, but you know, I'm supposed to be making videos, which I hate doing.
24:49
SPEAKER_02: Some of this might end up on there actually.
24:51
SPEAKER_02: And then Lift Business Resources.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: We are about to launch a new updated website, which we're really excited about.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: And then you can just email it, me, Katie at liftbusinessresources.com.
25:02
Scott: Well, thank you, Katie.
25:04
Scott: I appreciate your time today and uh joining us.
25:07
Scott: Yeah, thanks for having me.
25:09
Scott: Well, folks, that's it for today.
25:11
Scott: Hope you join us next time on our next episode of Budget Your Business.
25:15
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25:23
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25:31
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening, and we hope you join us for our next guest on Budget Your Business.