Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / 204: Kara McKeage | Is It Time for a Personal Assistant? (Hint: Yes!)

Transcript

204: Kara McKeage | Is It Time for a Personal Assistant? (Hint: Yes!) · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:00
  Kara: The number one piece of advice is start paying attention to what is draining you. What are you doing? What's on your plate that you're like, this is exhausting and it's making it hard for me to find joy in life. You know? So just kinda start that brain dump of like, what are the things that you're doing that somebody else could very easily do?
• 0:22
  And start picturing like, what would your life look like, you know, if you weren't doing those things and the freedom that would come from that and, you know, the time that it frees up for you to focus either on growing your business or spending time with your family or self care, you know, which is sometimes the last thing we're thinking of.
• 0:44
  Intro: Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers? Ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more. Then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve, and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love.
• 1:14
  Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams. Now here's Devina.
• 1:34
  Davina: Hi. This is Devina. And before we jump into today's show, I'd like first to introduce you to some of our sponsors. Over the last four years, Noble Marketing has tracked more than 250 law firms and discovered 60 to 80% of new client calls were generated through Google My Business and Google Ads. Basically,
• 1:56
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• 1:57
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• 2:57
  They serve personal injury, family law, workers' comp, immigration, and other types of law firms. Optimize My Firm does SEO the right way, delivering meaningful results with geographic exclusivity and no contracts. Contact them today at optimizemyfirm.com or click the link in the show notes. Hi, everyone, and welcome back
• 3:19
  Kara: to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. I'm your host, Devina Frederick. And today, I'm here with Kara McKeage. Kara is passionate about helping successful women ease the mental load with skilled household support. She is the founder of Pepper's Personal Assistance, a sourcing and placement agency for highly vetted personal assistance.
• 3:39
  She started the business as a side hustle for income and flexibility while raising children, which I know a lot of our listeners will relate to because they started their law firms for the same reason. And now her company has grown organically to a team of 24 employees. She is largely in the Seattle, Washington area, but now they are nationwide with a placement service. So we're gonna ask we're gonna go a little deeper in that and ask her these questions. Cara believes that it's time for professional women to let go of shame around outsourcing household tasks so they can find more time, feel organized, and have peace of mind.
• 4:14
  And I could not agree with her more around that. So I'm glad to have her here today. Thanks, Kara. Welcome.
• 4:20
  Kara: Yeah. Thank you for having me.
• 4:23
  Kara: So tell me a little bit about your background and kind of what led you to start this side hustle that has evolved into this nationwide company.
• 4:33
  Kara: Yeah. So I've always loved supporting other people. I've always kind of been on the back end, you know, in my career early on. And then I was able to be a stay at home mom for eight years with my boys. And once they started school, I was ready to get back into the workforce.
• 4:50
  And my son ended up getting half day kindergarten, which kinda put a damper on his plans to to get back to work. And so I just started kind of side hustle of supporting other people, you know, with their homes and business and loved it. And I was like, this uses all my skills. It, you know, brings me joy to support other people. And so I started looking for more clients once my son started school full time, and it just organically took off.
• 5:21
  Seattle's a hotbed of people that need help. And
• 5:24
  Kara: I imagine.
• 5:25
  Kara: Yeah. So it's been a really great journey. And, you know, like you said, we've grown to I think we're up to 27 employees now. So yeah.
• 5:34
  Kara: So of the 27 employees, how many of them are with you there Washington?
• 5:39
  Kara: So everybody is here in the Seattle area. You know, in Seattle, we employ people. So they're w two employees. Our nationwide placement service is, you know, we get them set up and train them and give them all the tools that we've learned over eleven years in business of the getting started is definitely the hardest part. And so we love helping with that process of making sure it's a great fit and communication is in place and, you know, we have a household guide that helps with, like, that long term success of getting started and building a great relationship.
• 6:18
  Kara: Good. Good. So I'm gonna go into more detail and ask more questions on that in a minute. But before we go deep dive into that, I wanna talk about the type of services that we're talking about here when you say personal assistant because people may have a very narrow sort of vision or view of that. But I was looking at your website and you guys do just a boatload of different things.
• 6:39
  So why don't you give me an idea of some of the services that are popular?
• 6:42
  Kara: So we focus on household management and, you know, that's I always kinda joke. It's like hiring a spouse to do all the things that we do. Know?
• 6:53
  Kara: Would say saying that they wish they had a wife.
• 6:55
  Kara: Right. Exactly. So but, yeah, our most popular is definitely laundry. You know, everybody, you know, that comes to us are like, I can get the laundry done, but then it sits on the couch or wherever and everybody's picking through. So they always say it feels like a fairy godmother's come in because it goes from the hamper into the closet, you know, the same day.
• 7:17
  So and then vendor management is definitely a popular one because we do all the research and vetting and, you know, schedule the appointment for, like, the gutters getting cleaned before they get booked for the season. And again, it's like magic. Like, you know, our clients aren't doing anything. We've got it taken care of and we're on-site for the visit, you know, from the vendor and everything.
• 7:43
  Kara: Right. So let's kind of give an array because I don't want people to think this is just it's not like housekeeping. Somebody needs to take the dog to the vet. Somebody needs to pick up the dry cleaning. It's a lot of different aspects.
• 7:57
  So tell me a little bit more about the services.
• 8:00
  Kara: Yeah. So it's taking the mental load off our clients is the big picture. Right? We don't want them to have to worry about everything. We've got it taken care of because I think especially as women, that's one of the hardest things.
• 8:14
  Right? You have a household and that's the mental load, the invisible labor that we do every day. Our goal is to come in and take that off your plate. So, yeah, we're doing, you know, grocery shopping, meal prep, like you said, taking the dog to the vet, going to Costco, breaking down the Amazon boxes, you know, taking the returns back and, you know, all those little things that, you know, the
• 8:42
  Kara: Suck up so much time.
• 8:43
  Kara: Exactly. Well, I saw a recent thing that said women statistically do two and a half hours of household chores a day, you know, and that's just the basic chores. That's not all the other things that we're doing of, you know, filling out the kids' school paperwork and, you know, scheduling their doctor's appointments and, you know, all of those things. So there's a lot, you know, that we're doing that we don't have to do ourselves.
• 9:13
  Kara: I wanna read off some of the things, tasks that you can help with. So when you mentioned laundry, tidying, vendor management, grocery shopping appointment, scheduling, food prep, pet care, bill paying, travel planning, that's a huge one. And my husband and I just booked a trip, and it has taken us several weekends to get everything booked that we wanted to book. Home deliveries, home repair, trash recycling, donation drop off, organizing. That would be huge to help a lot of people.
• 9:43
  Prescription pickups, shopping, returns, and then being on-site for some of those vendors that you schedule. So a lot a lot of stuff there that I think probably wouldn't occur to people that there was somebody available that could help them do those things. When you started out, did you start sort of all of these things, or did that evolve as people had needs and they would ask and that kind of thing?
• 10:07
  Kara: Yeah. So when I first started, it was, you know, I think like most business owners, they'll take anything that comes their way. So I was doing, like, returning a pair of shoes to Nordstrom and would never work with that client again kind of thing. They're like, calling me up with, like, one task. And, you know, I learned pretty quickly to build the business.
• 10:25
  I had to niche down a bit and, you know, figure out. So now, like, we have a minimum of fifteen hours a week in Seattle for a six month commitment. We're really looking at building like the long term because that's where the benefit comes of getting, you know, the mental load, stress relief of, you know, having that relationship with one person that gets to know your home and your family and your needs, and you can trust them that they've got it handled and not worry about it. And we get, you know, people that want, you know, childcare or house cleaning, you know, and we've just really focused on just doing household management because that's kind of our zone of genius and what we can train people on and make sure that, you know, you're getting the best service available.
• 11:12
  Kara: Talking about tidying, you're talking about tidying. You're not talking about cleaning things and all that or taking care of your children. That's for somebody else, that area of expertise. So give me an idea of who your ideal client is.
• 11:24
  Kara: You know, it's always interesting to see, like, who's calling us because usually it's women that already are outsourcing because they're c suite executives or lawyers or doctors. They're used to, you know, outsourcing their tasks, which is awesome. We also get husbands calling, and they're like, I really wanna help my wife. She's so overstressed and, you know, but I don't have the time to, you know, do all of these tasks. And so those are a little bit harder because we have to help, you know, the wife kinda get on board with onboarding that successful people, you know, outsource and, you know, there's no shame in that and you can ask for help and, you know, all of those things.
• 12:09
  But yeah. Go ahead. It's nice when somebody has that mindset already of outsourcing because then you can just hit the ground running. Right? They trust and understand how to communicate and feedback and all of that.
• 12:22
  So
• 12:23
  Kara: I find it interesting that it's still sort of the dynamic of the women needing the help because you would think in 2023, we would have evolved to the point where it would be both people needing the help. But men at that career level are often accustomed to having lots of help between a spouse and people at work helping them, whereas women still have work at a high level, but then they have to still run their household. And that's particularly why I wanted to have you on here today to talk about this because I think a lot of women law firm owners still feel that mental load and responsibility of managing every little thing. One of my clients when she first started working with me, one of the first things that we helped her do was have an epiphany or realization that she did not need to be the one driving her kids to their activities in the afternoon while she needed to be at the office or wanted to be at the office managing her law firm, that she really needed somebody else to drive them to those activities. And that made a huge difference in her life very, very quickly.
• 13:29
  So I know you guys may not offer that particular service, but having somebody just to book your travel or schedule those vendors, how often we need to have our windows washed or our gutters cleaned out or the dryer vents cleaned out or whatever maintenance kind of needs to go on around the house and having somebody who can help us schedule that. Because that is really a large part of it is this how much time it takes to schedule things these days. I know every time I try to make doctor's appointments, it's an ordeal. You know? Yeah.
• 13:58
  Through that kind of thing. Right? So tell me about your vetting process for people working for you. You now have 27 people. I'm assuming some of those are helping you run your business, and some of those are working as personal assistants in the Seattle area.
• 14:14
  And now you have this nationwide service where you help make it clear to me and the listeners, your nationwide service, are you helping people get started as a Peppers personal assistant, or are you helping people find personal assistants who may be in their area who've been trained embedded by you?
• 14:34
  Kara: Yeah. So we have what we call the Peppers way that we've developed over the last eleven years. You know, that's kind of what we've seen as the pitfalls of when things aren't successful. Why is that? And so we use that framework and experience to look at, you know, what are the things that make a great personal assistant.
• 14:54
  And, you know, that's things like people who find joy in helping others, you know, who are values based, who are independent, who have run a home themselves and they love it, You know, those different kinds of things. And so we have a lot of questions that we ask to kinda get down deep with that. And then, you know, getting started is just really hard. You know, some people, they don't know where to start. They're too busy to get somebody trained and, you know, onboarded.
• 15:23
  And so we have very specific questions. We ask, you know, clients in the onboarding experience that we know are important and use those to match, you know, it's on both sides, the client and the personal assistant that it's a great match. So we want everybody walking in with eyes wide open of what this is gonna look like. And then teaching people like the Peppers way of communicating, you know, our our clients are super busy and so we wanna be really clear, succinct with our questions, you know, asking them all at one time. Hopefully, you know, in a ten minute check-in weekly of like, they've got their list.
• 16:02
  They can just bang it out and, you know, hit the ground running. So we have a lot of tools, you know, that we train people on in the placement process. And then we have like a Slack channel that has a lot of trainings and documents and tools that the personal assistant can use. And they can connect with other personal assistants, which is something that our employees really like is that they have coworkers. Because if you just hire a personal assistant directly, they don't have people to talk to or to get vendor recommendations from.
• 16:35
  And, you know, so it's a real community that helps retain people.
• 16:41
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• 17:15
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• 17:28
  Kara: The way your business model works nationwide is you are recruiting people to be personal assistants, and people are calling you saying, I need a personal assistant, and then you are matching them up with somebody who's a good fit in their area. Give me an insight into your vetting process because I can imagine one of the concerns a lot of people would have is, well, this is a stranger coming into my home. So how did you overcome that to begin with? And then what vetting process do you have in place to sort of reassure people?
• 18:00
  Kara: Yeah. That's like one of the most important pieces. Right? It's like because it is very vulnerable to bring somebody into your home. And so, you know, it's important that we hire based on values and we put a lot of effort into like the reference checks So making sure like we're talking to, you know, people that they've worked with in the past and finding out, you know, the good and the bad and, you know, doing a very thorough background check, you know.
• 18:28
  Eleven years in business, we've never had any issues because it is, you know, a high priority for us that we're getting really quality, trustworthy people. So it's an important part of it.
• 18:41
  Kara: And then you invest in the training of those people. Right. Correct. Your process, Peppers Way, so that they're not going in not having any idea how to help people or what to do. I thought it was very interesting you said that, like, communication, making sure you're batching your communication because I can just envision somebody just texting you all day long and wanting asking you this or asking you that.
• 19:03
  Kara: Like You don't wanna be pinging. No. It gets very overwhelmed if you're pinging your client all the time. And just even simple trainings like, you know, using bullet points and here's your action items and, you know, we go through all of those things as well just to make it easier for everybody and setting the expectation.
• 19:25
  Kara: So what do you think really sets this service apart from other personal assistants or personal assistant service?
• 19:32
  Kara: Yeah. You know, there's not a whole lot out there to begin with, especially eleven years ago when I started the business. I kinda modeled it off of a woman that was in London. I was like, this is really cool. You know, I happened to stumble across her.
• 19:47
  But, you know, there's obviously a lot of placement services out there, you know, that are placing everything from nannies to, you know, like high end butlers. I think Peppers is a lot more kind of for the everyday person, you know, not just the ultra high, you know, wealth type people, but, you know, making it kind of down to earth and practical, which is a reflection of me as a person of like, you know, we all deserve to outsource and get that support, and we don't have to do it alone. And just making it a warm positive experience where it's very, you know, we're on your team, and we're here to support you, and, you know, reflecting those values back with our personal assistance.
• 20:32
  Kara: How long generally do personal assistants once their place stay with their families? And do they support more than one family at one time?
• 20:40
  Kara: Yeah. So we've had, you know, personal assistance be with their clients for seven years and, you know, that person in particular, they retired and, you know, moved into a condo. And they're like, I really need, you know, that much support anymore. We had a woman business owner who was a widower and two teen boys. And once they, you know, went off to college and she got remarried and got a partner that, you know, where it really was fifty fifty, she was like, I love you guys.
• 21:12
  It's been five years. I'm so grateful. But, you know, I don't really need the service anymore. But typically, you know, our goal is, you know, at least two or three years, you know, sometimes it's people just kinda getting through, you know, the certain stages in their life and, you know but, yeah, our goal is is long term. So I think I answered your
• 21:35
  Kara: question. Yeah. For sure. One of the things that you mentioned is that your goal was to really make this available to not just royalty and billionaires, but actual people out there working and who have families, everyday folks. Can you give me an idea affordability of it?
• 21:53
  You know? Some idea of what it might cost you to have a personal assistant.
• 21:56
  Kara: Definitely. And that is something that we help in the placement service as well of doing kind of a market research of, you know, what the going rate is because obviously, you know, in Topeka, Kansas, it's gonna be much different than San Francisco. You know? So in general, I would say, like, nationwide, it's probably around $30 an hour just as, you know, it could be anywhere from 20 to 60. But, you know, I think most of it's gonna be anywhere in the 30 to 35.
• 22:26
  That's what it is here in Seattle as well. So and then, you know, we recommend making them w two employees and we have two really great companies that we recommend that make it super easy, you know, for payroll and everything. We kinda learned the hard way during the pandemic. You know, people that are contractors, they didn't qualify for unemployment. And so I really push for especially with women, it's a disservice not to make them w two employees and then the role it really is appropriate to do.
• 23:00
  So you have to think, you know, 10 to 15%, you know, on top of that for that.
• 23:05
  Kara: Interesting because I was envisioning independent contractor because I know so many sort of if you just hired a personal assistant to run errands for your whatever, they would probably be independent contractor. But I can see in your sort of movement to help support your own people who are personal assistants encouraging their clients to make them employees. And paying those taxes probably helps everybody Mhmm. Stay out of trouble with the IRS as well.
• 23:34
  Kara: Right. Yeah. That's true. Unless they have their own company, you know, if they have a LLC, you know, like when you think of most house cleaning companies. Right?
• 23:43
  You wouldn't make them an employee. But, yeah, typically, you know, when you think about, like, their future with Social Security and Medicare, if they're not putting any money into that, you know, it's not good when as they get to retirement age. So I think it's an important
• 24:02
  Kara: decision. So I'm curious about the name of the business because I'm not calling you Pepper right now. So how did you go with the name?
• 24:10
  Kara: Yeah. So it kind of started as a joke before actually started the business at the time. The Iron Man movies were really popular with Robert Downey Junior. Gwyneth Paltrow was Pepper Potts' personal assistant. So that's kinda how it started.
• 24:26
  And, you know, so I was like, I need Pepper to do I had a client that would say, I need Pepper to do x y z. And I was like, oh, that's a cute name. That's
• 24:35
  Kara: why I keep It's a wonderful name. It's very memorable. It's cute. And, you know, it sounds like a really fun name, which probably, you know, sounds like it's been a very fun business for you
• 24:46
  Kara: Yes.
• 24:46
  Kara: To run into. Are you surprised by the level of growth that you've experienced?
• 24:50
  Kara: Yes. When I started it, I really was thinking, oh, I'll just get a couple of clients for myself, and it'll give me the flexibility to kinda keep the stay at home mom status. And after about two years, it was like I had to make that decision of, am I gonna hire and grow this, or do I just say no to people and become choosy? And I've always been kind of adventurous. So I was like, yeah, let's see how it goes.
• 25:15
  And it's been just, yeah, really wild to, like, be an entrepreneur and have to learn all the business stuff and the leadership stuff. And it's been a really great growth opportunity for me. So I'm really grateful, you know, for
• 25:30
  Kara: the journey. Entrepreneurship, it'll make you or break you. You'll even really grow where you're like, oh my god. Scarred for life. I know one of the big challenges for women law firm owners over the last couple of years has been hiring.
• 25:43
  It seems like there's a been a shift in our culture as far as what people want in terms of work. Have you noticed that in your industry as well? Has it been more of a challenge sort of vetting people and hiring people and keeping people?
• 25:59
  Kara: Yeah. It was really interesting. I feel like 2022 was like a revolving door. It was pretty wild because we had always been really great at retaining people. And there was just so much movement in the world, you know, people getting divorced or moving or, you know, getting job offers that we couldn't compete with.
• 26:20
  And this year, it feels like it's stabilized. I'm like, where's the wood to knock on? But it's been Yeah. Like, we're getting so many amazing applicants right now. It's Wonderful.
• 26:30
  Flooded where it's like, we need more clients to match these, you know, amazing people with. But we put a lot of effort in creating a really positive culture. We just hired a new employee manager that's just incredible. And I'm super excited. You know, she's really focused on kind of the radical candor feedback and, you know, making sure that we're paying a competitive wage and offering benefits you know Wonderful.
• 26:57
  Those kind of things. But really living the values is what we've always focused on too. Not just saying them, but our employees love working for Peppers. So it's been really great.
• 27:09
  Kara: Right. Wonderful. Any plans for expansion or franchising or anything? Or you just kind of displacement services sort of working for you?
• 27:18
  Kara: Yeah. I don't. You know, like I said, I'm kind of an accidental entrepreneur. I'm trying to balance my life as well, you know, and outsource as much as I can so that I have the balance where I can really focus on my boys who are 17 and 20 now, and we're heading into senior year and, you know, all the fun stuff with looking at universities. So I'm like, I'm trying to, you know, focus on these life changes coming up.
• 27:46
  I'm excited, you know, with the placement service because I think we can help a lot of people and, you know, that brings me a lot of joy and fulfillment.
• 27:55
  Kara: Good. Good. If there's any advice that you could give women, law firm owners, women who are maybe doing too much in how they think about what they can outsource, what would it be? Because I'm sure that you sometimes have to help people realize. Yeah.
• 28:10
  What kind of advice would you give? So you mentioned earlier maybe if a husband calls you and then you're, you know, having to talk with somebody who hasn't considered the possibility, what are some things that we should think about in terms of how we value our time and that kind of thing?
• 28:24
  Kara: Yeah. The number one piece of advice is start paying attention to what is draining you. What are you doing? What's on your plate that you're like, this is exhausting and it's making it hard for me to find joy in life. You know?
• 28:39
  So just kinda start that brain dump of like, what are the things that you're doing that somebody else could very easily do? And start picturing like, what would your life look like, you know, if you weren't doing those things and the freedom that would come from that and, you know, the time that it frees up for you to focus either on growing your business or spending time with your family or self care, you know, which is sometimes the last thing we're thinking of. But, you know, I'm personally really trying to live that of like, I just decided I'm blocking Wednesdays off and it's wellness Wednesday where I'm gonna focus on myself. And I can do that because I've outsourced, you know, a lot of the tasks that I was doing. So
• 29:24
  Kara: Yeah. I made a change at the beginning of the year myself where I've always worked out and exercised, but I'll hit periods of time that are really intense and they'll fall off the radar. But in my mid fifties now, I'm looking at it going, I really need to prioritize this. And so what I did is I moved my start time in the morning for work so that I had extra time in the morning that is dedicated just to resistance training, weight lifting, working out for that consistency for that sort of wellness and having, you know, people who support me in that and make help make that time available for me has been huge. So I do am a firm believer that we have to put ourselves on the calendar first.
• 30:07
  Yes. Because if we don't, then you can't pour from an empty vessel. Right? So Yeah. I appreciate you coming on and sharing this resource for people because I know there are many that are probably gonna hear this and say, I need to check this out.
• 30:20
  So tell us how we can find out more information about your business and connect with you.
• 30:27
  Kara: A great place to go is just our website, which is paseattle.com, and you can check out our services there. I also love connecting with women on LinkedIn. Know, my personal page is Kara McKeage, and we also have a business page. But I love cheering on women and, you know, liking the posts and interacting and all of that. So that's kind of a fun way to get connected as well.
• 30:52
  So
• 30:53
  Kara: Good. Good. And we'll include those links in the show notes for people who wanna reach out to Kara and maybe get a personal assistant.
• 31:00
  Kara: Yes. There's a thought. Alright, Kara.
• 31:04
  Kara: Thanks so much for being here. I really enjoyed it. Yeah.
• 31:07
  Kara: It was great chatting with you, and thanks for having me.
• 31:11
  Intro: If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us at wealthywomanlawyer.com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.