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From Burnout to Breakthrough: Scaling Businesses via Virtual Teams with Alexis Schomer · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:05
  My philosophy around that is if someone can do it 80% as good as you, it's time to let go and train them up.
• 0:12
  Today we sit down with Alexis Schomer, a multi time entrepreneur and partner at your Startup Operations, a boutique agency dedicated to helping founders recruit, train and manage top tier remote teams.
• 0:27
  Alexis launched her career co founding health tech startups during college, navigating co founder disputes and she built a marketing agency before harnessing her own experience to support other entrepreneurs in overcoming the same operational challenges that she once faced.
• 0:44
  In this episode, Alexis shares her honest journey through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, from managing burnout and pivoting roles to the struggle of finding and retaining the right people.
• 0:56
  You'll hear her insights as about leveraging virtual assistants, the right way, the impact of AI on modern business, and actionable advice on scaling teams and letting go of tasks.
• 1:08
  As a founder, if you've ever wondered how to overcome operational bottlenecks and finally scale with confidence, this episode is for you.
• 1:17
  As always, if you found value from this content, please like and subscribe.
• 1:22
  All right, Alexis Schomer, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 1:26
  Thank you for having me.
• 1:27
  Dave, Excited to be here?
• 1:28
  Yes, we're excited.
• 1:29
  You can take the time.
• 1:31
  So Alexis, you've been an entrepreneur for many years and you founded several startups and your current role is a partner with a VA agency which is called your startup operations.
• 1:44
  But you had quite an interesting start to your journey as an entrepreneur.
• 1:48
  Can you just talk about your backstory and how you got to where you are today?
• 1:53
  Absolutely.
• 1:54
  My entrepreneurial journey started when I was in college and I co founded my first health tech startup company.
• 2:01
  We went through the typical startup process of trying to find developers, raising money.
• 2:07
  Ended up with a co founder dispute and a legal battle.
• 2:11
  So I learned a lot from that first experience which took me to my second health tech startup.
• 2:17
  Same similar challenges with finding the right team and really building quality in house people that we could scale with.
• 2:25
  So that was, I would say one of the biggest challenges in the first 10 years of my entrepreneurial journey was really finding the right people.
• 2:33
  I actually funny enough tried using virtual assistants for different pieces like marketing, we tried using virtual developers.
• 2:42
  I would say that I failed many times when I tried originally using them because I didn't understand what it took to find the right people.
• 2:50
  So definitely people and recruitment was a big challenge in the beginning.
• 2:55
  Fast forward five or six years I was, I founded my marketing agency and was building out that team so started to get experience building and working with remote people all around the world.
• 3:09
  I also was helping with a food manufacturing warehouse.
• 3:13
  I was a COO for a period of time, building out an in person team, running a manufacturing line.
• 3:19
  So I've had a lot of different experiences that led to where I am today.
• 3:23
  And Jenna and I founded your startup operations to pretty much help entrepreneurs and startups by giving them the resources that we wish we had when we had our first startups.
• 3:35
  So we are the partner for small businesses.
• 3:38
  We help recruit, train and manage a remote team so that founders can focus on scaling their businesses and really growing and focusing on the tasks that are revenue generating, not bogged down by admin and other internal things.
• 3:52
  Okay, all right, appreciate that and a lot to unpack there with what you're doing now.
• 3:57
  Just one question, talking about your beginnings.
• 4:01
  So you know, we've all heard the stat that, you know, nine out of 10, more than nine out of 10 businesses fail.
• 4:07
  And we see so many people try entrepreneurship and it doesn't go their way or they fail and they give up.
• 4:13
  So after serious, you know, several, you know, early challenges and, you know, setbacks, how did you keep going to, to finally find your stride, you know, multiple businesses down the road?
• 4:26
  That's a great question because I've definitely faced periods of burnout and wanting to quit.
• 4:34
  I would say that I did walk away when I felt that my heart wasn't in it anymore.
• 4:38
  I've walked away from certain roles and startups when I felt like it was my time to move on.
• 4:44
  And I have kind of gone back and forth between making no money, putting everything I have into a startup, you know, trying to raise money, trying to go to market, and also having more of a stable income.
• 4:58
  So for me, having that stability is very important and I balance that by having a revenue generating business alongside the startup.
• 5:09
  So in the early days when we're building out the technology, trying to raise money, I was also doing digital marketing to generate revenue to support myself at the time.
• 5:19
  So that helped me go for longer than if I was just working on a company that wasn't generating, generating anything yet.
• 5:28
  But I would say that even with that, I still had phases.
• 5:32
  And I think that you have to honor how you feel.
• 5:35
  Obviously I think staying committed and being disciplined is very important.
• 5:38
  But if you feel like it's no longer, you know, kind of like your purpose or you need to take a break from the entrepreneurship world and get something else that's fulfills what you need at that time, I think
• 5:50
  that's also okay.
• 5:51
  So I feel like the past, you know, 10 to 12 years I've had influxes of going all in on a startup, you know, having something more stable, and I've just kind of honored what I needed in those different
• 6:03
  phases.
• 6:05
  Okay, I like that.
• 6:06
  I like that awareness too.
• 6:07
  To honor how you feel where clearly the discipline is important, but if your heart's not in it, you, you have to be realistic about that and, and do what fits you.
• 6:17
  Okay, so let's talk about your startup operations.
• 6:20
  So you, you and Jenna built this because you wanted entrepreneurs to have the resources you wish you would have had in previous companies.
• 6:30
  So let's talk about the common challenges because, you know, we hear a lot about virtual assistants and you know, there's a lot of, a lot of companies in the market that do that.
• 6:41
  But one of the common, I think, at least that I've heard, I guess, challenges with that is the entrepreneur says that's great, but am I going to have enough work for them to do?
• 6:54
  Or how, how would I, you know, how would I manage them?
• 6:57
  You know, I've heard that from, from multiple people.
• 6:59
  So sounds like your model is, is different to where you provide management for the VAs for, for the entrepreneur.
• 7:06
  Yes.
• 7:07
  So that was one of the challenges that I faced in my early days and one of the biggest struggles I see entrepreneurs having is the inability or not enough time to actually manage and train the VA.
• 7:20
  So when we talk about VAs, yes, this, it varies from people that need someone for an hour a month to do something small or full time at 40 hours a week.
• 7:29
  We are really focusing on growing businesses that have that full time need.
• 7:34
  So there's not so much the question of are they going to have enough work, it's more about how am I going to onboard them and train them when I'm so busy.
• 7:42
  So, so it's an entrepreneur that has been probably in business for at least a year, is growing and needs the support and is still doing things like creating invoices, creating proposals, sending email, follow ups themselves.
• 7:56
  So this is really kind of the sweet spot that we help people that have their processes in their head.
• 8:02
  We help them get them on paper, we help write their sop, and then we train the virtual assistant so the owner doesn't have to spend 10 to 20 hours a week quality assuring the work or training on the
• 8:14
  nuances of their business.
• 8:15
  That's kind of really the differentiator that we, that we have and we offer is that extra value, that value add so that the business owner or entrepreneur can really focus on what they need to.
• 8:25
  Okay, all right.
• 8:26
  And so when you started this, like, clearly you've got experience with, with marketing and with E commerce and all that.
• 8:34
  So when you started this in such a, I guess, a crowded space, right, where there's, like you said, there's a wide variety of need for a va, like, how did you go about growing and scaling the company and
• 8:49
  going to market?
• 8:51
  Well, interestingly enough, our business has grown to date mostly from word of mouth referrals and networking.
• 8:58
  So our clients refer new clients.
• 9:00
  We have referral partners like a CPA that refers clients that need bookkeeping or admin support.
• 9:07
  So it's really all pretty much grown off of referrals from, from our network so far.
• 9:13
  Okay.
• 9:14
  All right.
• 9:15
  And so along with that, like, as you've been growing and as you've been scaling over these, these past four years or so, what's been, what's been some of the new challenges that have come up in, in scaling this
• 9:29
  particular business?
• 9:31
  So we are a systems first company and we apply this philosophy to our clients as well.
• 9:38
  What we've really focused on and the challenges that we've had is as the team is growing, we want to make sure that our systems are running properly.
• 9:45
  And when I say systems, I mean our onboarding process, our performance review process, things that are preset and predetermined so that we're not scrambling and things aren't falling through the cracks.
• 9:57
  So at each stage of scaling, we enter a new realm of what systems we need.
• 10:02
  Are the current systems running well enough?
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  Do we need to upgrade?
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  Do we need new technology stacks?
• 10:08
  So I would say that the challenges are with every new hire and with every kind of, like, stage of growth, we have to reevaluate the internal structures and systems, which is a lot of effort and time.
• 10:21
  So Jenna and I are constantly thinking of what's the most important process that we need, that needs improvement.
• 10:27
  Is everything running fine?
• 10:29
  We can focus on hiring.
• 10:31
  But yeah, I would say having the right systems internally to set you up for success, for growth, and then always recruiting the best people that you can.
• 10:39
  So.
• 10:39
  So it's refining the best people, I think is probably the biggest challenge and what we put a lot of time and effort into, because when you make a good hire, it can really make.
• 10:50
  It can make or break your business, depending on who you hire.
• 10:53
  Yeah, and I'm sure every entrepreneur can relate to that too.
• 10:58
  And, you know, I even, I recall something and another, he was actually a marketing guy, and his advice too was hire the best people.
• 11:06
  Don't just hire who you can afford, which, you know, you first hear that, it's kind of like it'll mess with you.
• 11:12
  It's like, well, how am I?
• 11:15
  But such great advice because like you, like you said to the wrong, the wrong hire can, can set you back immeasurably.
• 11:25
  And the right hire can, can, you know, just set you up for success.
• 11:29
  So, so important to find the right people.
• 11:31
  And I'm sure you've heard hire slow fire fast as well.
• 11:35
  Yes.
• 11:36
  Yeah.
• 11:37
  And I guess for me personally, that's also been a challenge that I've been working on overcoming as an entrepreneur is letting go of people when it's time.
• 11:44
  I tend to want to hold on to people because of the emotional connection that you build with someone.
• 11:50
  So if I was to give advice to other entrepreneurs, I would say when you see the red flags have a system in place that allows you to let go quickly of people that don't serve you or don't serve
• 11:59
  the company.
• 12:01
  Okay, and that was kind of leads into my next question too, because you, you mentioned one of your earlier companies, there was a partner dispute.
• 12:10
  And so often we see partnerships go wrong in business.
• 12:14
  So how do you and your, your current partner complement each other to, to make a successful leadership team?
• 12:22
  Yeah, this is actually a topic that I get asked about a lot because people are confused why I still continue to have partners when I've had bad experiences.
• 12:31
  I, I, I feel like it's, it's kind of like dating.
• 12:35
  You know, you might date someone that it doesn't work out with, but that doesn't mean that there's someone out there that's a perfect match for you.
• 12:41
  I feel like Jenna and I are the perfect match for each other.
• 12:44
  We're very similar in a lot of ways, which typically I would say is not the best for a partnership because you want that complimentary skill sets.
• 12:52
  But then we've found over the past few years, like how we are very complimentary.
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  So one example would be, you know, someone that prefers a lot of collaboration versus someone that prefers to work in a silo.
• 13:06
  So having those types of differences allows you to see things from both sides.
• 13:12
  And I think that that's been very crucial for us and especially with our team, is working with each other and being kind of polar opposite in some ways.
• 13:21
  We found the middle ground and that helps us relate to everyone that we onboard as well, because they'll fall somewhere in the middle.
• 13:28
  Okay, and is, is she the answer to the system to fire fast being that you tend to be emotionally connected?
• 13:35
  I mean, is she the opposite where she can Just fire him fast?
• 13:40
  I would say probably so.
• 13:41
  Yeah.
• 13:42
  Especially when, when she's giving kind of outside advice to me and, and same in reverse if I'm giving outside advice to her.
• 13:49
  But yeah, I would say, like she has a more analytical brain, so she's able to kind of just look at the facts and make a decision without emotional involvement in that.
• 14:02
  Okay.
• 14:03
  All right.
• 14:04
  And so you've, you've had this company now for four years, and one of the big changes, not just in business, but in everyday life that has burst on the scene in the past three, four years is AI right
• 14:20
  to where now, present day, as we're recording this, it's absolutely everywhere and it's evolving so fast and no telling where it's going to go to next.
• 14:29
  But how is the advent of AI changed the business and good or bad, and how have you reacted to that?
• 14:40
  I think it's been incredible for the business.
• 14:42
  AI has basically allowed our virtual assistants to become exponentially, like, effective and more efficient, I would say.
• 14:51
  So A task that maybe used to take someone a full day to complete, like eight hours of work, they can probably now get done in about two hours, so then they have an extra six hours to do more.
• 15:03
  So our team is AI powered, AI enabled.
• 15:06
  We encourage the use of AI, but we also train and teach them how to use it properly.
• 15:10
  We don't want people relying on AI.
• 15:12
  We want them to use it as a tool.
• 15:14
  And this has allowed, myself included, just an extreme increase in efficiency.
• 15:21
  I saw a project that I worked on a couple of years ago that I know took me three weeks to complete, and if I had to redo it now, it would take less than a day to complete because
• 15:31
  AI can analyze data so much more quickly than I could.
• 15:35
  So I would say that AI has been amazing for our industry.
• 15:39
  There are tasks certainly that AI has replaced, and that will continue to happen, which is why our team is trained on how to use it so that they're not getting left behind.
• 15:49
  They're just now evolving to new tasks or AI management.
• 15:54
  Okay.
• 15:55
  All right.
• 15:55
  And so being that you work with a wide variety of small businesses in various industries, and oftentimes you're dealing with the, the growing scaling company that, where the, the entrepreneurs are overworked and overwhelmed, and that's where you come
• 16:11
  in to help, like talk about some of the biggest mistakes that you see entrepreneurs making right now.
• 16:18
  I would say one is thinking that you can do everything better yourself.
• 16:23
  So being afraid to let go or delegate, I see that a lot and I can really relate to that, I think that that holding on and being a bottleneck in your business is stopping you from growing.
• 16:34
  So that's definitely one of the common mistakes I see.
• 16:37
  Even people that are open to delegating, there's still this fear or barrier of letting go.
• 16:43
  And my philosophy around that is if someone can do it 80% as good as you, it's time to let go and train them up.
• 16:50
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• 16:55
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• 16:57
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• 17:05
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• 17:13
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• 17:21
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• 17:27
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• 17:37
  You know, sharing that and sharing my experiences helped entrepreneurs let go.
• 17:41
  Also, having someone like myself or Jenna in the middle that the person can trust and us being able to quickly pick up and understand a business that's also helped with this barrier of delegating to a virtual assistant is
• 17:53
  having someone like us managing them.
• 17:57
  Okay, all right.
• 17:58
  And so that's interesting.
• 18:00
  So 80% is good.
• 18:02
  If the rule is if someone can do the task 80% as good as you, it's time to let go and train them up.
• 18:08
  And then that frees the entrepreneur up to take on more work or the net more important tasks and continue to grow the business.
• 18:16
  Absolutely.
• 18:16
  And you know, that's not a hard.
• 18:18
  It's not a hard 80%, but I would say that people often get stuck in like the 90% where they think that, you know, it's like a small detail that that was missed or just like a small detail that
• 18:30
  they think they could do better.
• 18:32
  If it's within the 80%, let it go and train them up.
• 18:35
  That's kind of how I've been.
• 18:37
  That's the, the philosophy I've been using.
• 18:40
  Okay, all right.
• 18:41
  And so four years in, you've been growing steadily.
• 18:46
  You haven't had to spend much on advertising because there's been so much referral, networking.
• 18:51
  And given where you are now, what, what's next for your startup operations?
• 18:57
  Well, we really think that next year is going to be our year of growth.
• 19:01
  I do want to start advertising and reaching More people outside of the networks that we have.
• 19:07
  So we are looking to hopefully, you know, double the business, meaning doubling how many small businesses that we can help.
• 19:15
  We plan to possibly niche into one to three areas so that we can be very focused and really become like experts and start to pre train VAs in those spaces.
• 19:28
  So this is all kind of the plan to scale getting a VA staffed more quickly, which would mean if we have industries that we're niched in, this it would make the whole process easier.
• 19:39
  Right now our process is super white glove and very custom per business, which takes a lot of our time on the training, the understanding of the business.
• 19:48
  So as we're growing and scaling, the more we can niche, the faster we can scale.
• 19:54
  Okay.
• 19:55
  All right.
• 19:55
  And so if there are entrepreneurs out there that are hearing this and they've thought about virtual assistants and they, they know that they have some areas where they need assistance with but they're not sure or they're, they're saying
• 20:08
  what about the language or what about, you know, this or that?
• 20:11
  I mean, what, what would you say to those entrepreneurs that it on the fence and aren't sure if it's right for them?
• 20:17
  I would say start by thinking about what you want to delegate, which is usually the hardest part.
• 20:23
  I would say for the next week, tasks that you are continuously doing.
• 20:28
  So repetitive, mundane tasks, things that are below your pay grade, things that take a lot of time that you wish you didn't have to do.
• 20:37
  Start to build a list of what these are and then also start to build a list of what processes you have in your business.
• 20:44
  Do you have a process for client onboarding?
• 20:46
  Do you have a process, process for employee onboarding?
• 20:48
  Do you have a process for invoicing and financing?
• 20:52
  Thinking about these things will really help you realize how much you can delegate.
• 20:56
  And then in terms of like the language barrier, that that's never an issue because we are only.
• 21:03
  Most VAs that you work with have excellent English written and, and verbal.
• 21:09
  Okay.
• 21:10
  All right.
• 21:10
  And Alexis, if people want to reach out to you and learn more about your startup operations or get in touch online for any other reason, what's the best way people can find you Online?
• 21:20
  Our website, ustrive, operations.com or any of the social medias as well.
• 21:25
  Okay.
• 21:26
  All right, we'll link all that in the show.
• 21:27
  Notes for everyone.
• 21:28
  All right, well, Alexis, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and sharing all this valuable wisdom from your journey with our listeners.
• 21:34
  We greatly appreciate it.
• 21:36
  Thank you.
• 21:36
  Dave.
• 21:36
  This was a blast.