Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / Navigating the Role of a Fractional Chief of Staff with Georgi Fiedler

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Navigating the Role of a Fractional Chief of Staff with Georgi Fiedler · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
• 0:03
  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs, the
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  founder and CEO of Mylance, your host today.
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  And today I am joined by Georgie Feidler.
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  Georgie, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me,
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  Bradley. I'm excited to be here.
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  Awesome. Well, really excited to chat
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  with you. Georgie is the founder of Higher
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  Train Inspire. She helps CEOs break free from
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  the daily grind. As a fractional chief of staff,
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  We've had a number of fractional chief of Staffs come through my
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  lands and also a ton of people wondering what is a fractional
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  chief of staff do or can I do this role fractionally?
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  And I always say yes, but not one myself.
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  I don't really know how to share exactly what that looks like.
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  So maybe you could just share a quick intro in how you got into
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  this and what does a fractional chief of staff do?
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  Yes. So I started this business back
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  in 2016 as a way to let me be at home when my kiddos were little
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  and still contribute on a part time basis to different
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  companies. And I, I, you know, have had a
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  couple of stints back and forth back into corporate, but
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  ultimately kind of came back to this right after COVID and, you
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  know, the whole world changed the way that I would describe a
• 1:23
  fractional chief of staff, at least hire, train, inspire.
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  What we do is really serve as a GPS for small to mid sized
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  businesses. So we're guiding founders,
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  typically founders, sometimes career CEO's, but oftentimes
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  founders and owners through the people, processes and systems
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  that turn tribal knowledge into transferable value.
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  So whether they want to retire, sell, scale.
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  We come in when a founder says I'm ready for what's next, but
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  their business isn't. Super helpful.
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  And to everyone listening, the ability for someone to say in
• 1:54
  two or three sentences what they do is what so many people
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  struggle with, right? And you've been doing it for
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  what, nine years? You said 2016.
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  So how long did it take you to get to that two or three concise
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  description? Nine years, No, I love that you
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  called that out because we've done actually this last quarter
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  was a huge focus on that because I had a really hard time
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  articulating it simply. It kind of reminds me of that,
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  that picture, I don't know if you've ever seen it, but
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  Picasso's the bull. It shows his original rendering,
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  which is, you know, in depth with all these details and then
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  he just kept erasing, erasing, erasing till literally there
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  were 6 lines left, but was undeniably a bull.
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  I think you go through that same process when you try to figure
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  out how to articulate what your company is and what it does, and
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  you have to go through the complexity to get to the
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  simplicity. Wow I I love that analogy.
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  It's also reminding me I went to an investor dinner recently and
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  the founder trying to pitch his startup spent literally 45
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  minutes trying to describe what the company did and and the
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  facilitator asked like raise your hand in the room if you
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  have a clear understanding of what the company does. 45
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  minutes in and three hands and I was like, Oh my God, this is
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  what you completely lost every single person.
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  Like, you're not going to raise any money here.
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  So it's so important. It's so challenging.
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  And I appreciate your honesty of yeah, it took most the better
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  part of a decade to figure this out.
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  Yeah, I mean, you don't start out with that clarity.
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  I mean, despite what everyone wants to tell you, right?
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  Like it's built step by step through trial, error, listening
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  and lots of evolution, right. And that's not, that's not a
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  sexy answer, that's not a fun answer, but it is, it's, it's
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  the truth, right? So the person listening that is
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  either launching their business or already launched it, but they
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  don't have a clarity around their offer, their value prop,
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  their ideal customer. What do they have to do?
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  Like they're not going to get clarity by sitting in a room,
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  right? Like what do they have to go do?
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  What is the mindset required to go do it anyway?
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  Yeah, I think when I look back at my experience, right, in the
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  early days, I, I went through and created a list of services
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  and it was all the stuff that I thought that people would really
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  want to know. And that was just a complete
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  waste of time, to be honest. Like in in the early days, it's
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  not about launching A funnel or an offer suite, right?
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  You just start helping and you and you learn through that.
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  You know what actually brings value?
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  So my first clients, they came to me through reputation,
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  relationships, and word of mouth that that's what it was.
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  I made a conscious choice. Now, this might not be a choice
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  for everybody, but I made a conscious choice for my first
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  few years to say yes to almost everything.
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  That way I could figure out what actually felt aligned to what I
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  wanted to do and what actually brought value and what didn't.
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  So I think that that was probably one of the, the
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  differentiators for me was, was I'm just going to say yes and
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  what's the question? And then I will figure it out
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  how to do it. And then through that, I'm going
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  to learn what actually has impact.
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  What was the experience? Maybe emotionally, as you're in
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  that early phase trying to, you know, saying yes to everything,
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  probably, I don't know, you tell me, what was that like?
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  Like I said, it might not be for everybody.
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  I found it very exciting because I like to do a lot of things and
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  I enjoy figuring out problems. Some people might not like that,
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  but I think that for me, it was very exciting to look at an
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  opportunity and say yes and then go back and say, okay, now we're
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  gonna figure out how to do this right.
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  We're just gonna figure it out. And that's so much of, you know,
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  the, the very clients that I serve.
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  That's what they're doing in their businesses too.
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  So it really gave me a kind of a unique perspective to come
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  alongside of them and kind of walk with them in the journey,
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  'cause I'm like, trust me, I know what you're talking about.
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  I know what you're doing. I get it.
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  I feel it. Give us an idea how, what does
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  your business look like today? You said we, is it multiple
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  people? How big is the business?
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  Anything you're willing to share around revenue or monthly
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  targets that you're hitting to give or just audience a sense of
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  of what you're doing today? Yeah, so I I brought in help
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  early. It's not because I was trying to
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  scale fast, but because I wanted to take a real summer vacation
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  and actually be off. So I usually handle between 4:00
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  to 9:00. Clients is typically my, my, my
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  bucket. I am currently trying to figure
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  out how to scale beyond that. A lot of that requires teaching
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  people kind of the magic that I'm doing with with my founders
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  and with coaching. So I would say, you know, what
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  we're doing is we're supporting founders during inflection
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  points, right? They're either growing, burning
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  out, they want to retire, or they're thinking about an exit,
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  right. So something needs to be
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  different and how they are doing things because something is
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  different in the results that they want to get.
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  So we really work. I have a, a senior client
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  partner, she's kind of my apprentice, my right hand
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  pouring a lot into her so she can she can step up.
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  We have talent partners, we have some enablement folks.
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  And again, they're not all employees, right.
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  We've, we've grown through through contract resources as
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  well, which has been really helpful in, in finding that.
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  I think we're really in an interesting time, especially
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  post COVID where we've moved so much to a gig economy.
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  And that's really, you know, that's been helpful for
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  organizations like mine who, who need, yeah, right.
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  We, we need that type of that, that type of, of, of workforce.
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  So we're, we're really working through 5 interconnected areas.
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  I've got, you know, people, which is really around org
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  structure, team clarity, strategic recruiting.
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  We've got process which is around operational enablement
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  systems, not that we're doing the systems implementation, but
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  we'll do system scoping, vetting, project hubs,
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  dashboards, SO PS that type of stuff, my founder coaching and
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  then strategic facilitation. So again, when you're at an
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  inflection point and they're trying to do something
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  different, they run into a lot of walls.
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  And so it's bringing the right people together within the team
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  and figuring out where do we need to go and where are we?
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  And then let's snap out a plan to get there and then let's
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  actually execute that. So I would say, you know, that's
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  how my team is contributing and that's how we're working closely
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  with the founders, the leaders. Sometimes we step into interim
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  roles to guide the team, but our goal is never to, to do that
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  for, for long. I always, I always tell my my
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  clients that if we do this right, eventually you're not
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  going to need us. And that's, you know, maybe not
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  the greatest business model because I'm working myself out
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  of a job, but it's what's required, right?
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  It's what's required to give them the impact and to reach the
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  goals that that they want to reach.
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  So I would say that, you know, the company went through a lot
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  of different evolutions in that time.
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  Like we've had times of of crazy growth where again, I was
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  saying, yes. So I'm just like, well, we're
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  going to figure it out. And then this last year has been
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  really interesting is kind of the economic climate and
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  everything has changed a little bit.
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  We never ever did marketing before.
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  And that's probably not a great thing to say, but that's the
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  truth of the matter. I had plenty of business based
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  on word of mouth, right, based on, on relationships that I
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  created. And it was, it was, you know,
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  understanding who I want to work with, right?
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  And now we're really in that that new evolution of how do we
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  learn how to market on purpose. And so, so much of the work that
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  we've done in the last three quarters, it it really feels
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  like a new season for me and an exciting season.
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  It's it was, you know, about clarifying my brand, the voice,
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  what is the messaging? It was about starting to build
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  content, right, that, that shares what I'm about and what,
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  what we're bringing and the impact we can have doing
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  podcasts like this one, right? That's part of my marketing
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  plan, identifying ideal referral partners, right, who I have a
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  few, but how do I, how do I start to replicate and expand
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  that in a meaningful way? So for me, it wasn't about
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  becoming a marketer because that I am not right.
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  I've, I've done sales and marketing and business
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  development. I did that for 8 1/2 years.
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  You know, it's, it's not a superpower or anything.
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  It's about making it easier for the right people to find me and
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  then knowing exactly what to say.
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  Yeah, Yeah. Amazing.
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  Yeah. Thanks for walking through that.
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  So how many people right now are part of the I'm going to just
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  call the firm. We have 7.
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  Seven of you and you said 4 to 9 clients at one time.
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  What is the average monthly retainer, let's say for a client
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  for you guys? So we have moved and we're still
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  actually finalizing this. This has been kind of a gradual
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  thing that we've done over the last year or so.
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  We're moving to what's called a unit based pricing model.
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  And this is, this is things that I've learned as I've worked with
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  a lot of, you know, CFOs and, and things like that.
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  One of the things that my clients often need when they're
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  prepping for sale, due diligence and all of that is to get their
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  books in order, right? And so I've, I've worked very
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  closely and I've learned through, you know, osmosis and
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  that relationship that, that even even and pricing, right?
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  Like it's not a guess, it's a math problem.
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  And so we, I really went from, hey, this is what I think, you
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  know, and that's what might be to no, let's work in reverse and
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  let's make it a math problem. Let's figure out what my cost
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  per unit is and let's create pricing based on that.
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  And so that's what we really moved to.
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  And so we have different levels, right, depending on on what the
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  person or what the, what the client needs.
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  So you know, if they just need a little bit right, a just in case
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  that might start off like $500 per month.
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  We have some clients who you know are at $11,000 per month.
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  It's just it is a range. And then one of the things that
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  we're working on this next quarter is to actually be
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  intentional about designing a customer service delivery model
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  that aligns with those different things, right?
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  Because right now so much of that has just been in my head,
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  right? I know it when I'm meeting with
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  founders, they tell me a problem and I'm like, Oh yeah, that's
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  what we have to do. And then we go do that.
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  Obviously, that's not easy for my team to learn or scale to,
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  right. And so I've got to get that out
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  of my head, right, Which is, is the is the next step in in the
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  journey. Very cool.
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  I want to hit on a little bit the comment you made at the
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  beginning of the pot around you started this to to spend more
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  time with your family and it's one of the things that helped me
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  be so passionate about this space is because you can really
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  make it work for you. And a big story I heard from
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  women were one single moms of spending time with their kids,
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  but the other one was the gender pay gap because you get to
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  choose your rates. No one's coming down from the
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  top saying you make this and he makes that.
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  You get to choose your own. And that gives you that
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  ownership, that power that you don't have, no one has as an
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  employee. I'm curious, do one of those
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  resonate more than the other? And I'd love to just hear you
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  talk through it. Yeah, both of those resonate
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  with me as well as the third thing which I'll talk about.
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  So I think just just to validate what you said, I, I definitely
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  built this business to work and still be present for my family.
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  My husband, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder
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  three years ago. It was three years ago
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  yesterday. And so he's full care, right.
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  My kids, I have one of my daughter's is on the spectrum.
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  And so that, that requires, you know, a lot for me and the, the
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  journey that we've been over for the last three years, this, this
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  job and this work that I do because I love it so much was
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  just such a like a source of, of comfort and just, it was, it was
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  a respite for me. Like it was a place to go that
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  felt normal. Nothing else did.
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  And because of the flexibility that it offers, like I would not
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  have been able to show up the way that I did for my family
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  over the last three years if I didn't, if I didn't have this.
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  Now, I am not AII call myself an I've called myself an accidental
• 14:16
  entrepreneurs for, for years. I, I think there's two different
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  types of, of, of small business owners and entrepreneurs.
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  There's the ones who are kind of born that way.
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  They're typically really crappy employees, right?
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  And they always, they always dream of the freedom of doing
• 14:31
  their own thing. I that that's not me, that
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  wasn't me, that's not who I was. It was never part of my plan,
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  but through my experience and through just my, my journey,
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  right, I, I came to appreciate what, what that meant.
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  And I think that really started with with my husband.
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  He was a software engineer before he became disabled.
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  And but he was probably the first type, right?
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  He wasn't a crappy employee. He was a great employee, but he
• 14:59
  always dreamed of of the freedom that doing his own thing, right,
• 15:04
  hanging out your own flag could, could have.
• 15:07
  And he was so big on us, you know, varying our revenue, new
• 15:11
  streams, right? Not having all of our eggs in
• 15:14
  the job basket, right, but really creating different,
• 15:17
  different opportunities. And we would talk at dinner
• 15:20
  every night. He's a learner and an ideator.
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  So he had all the ideas, right? I'm a planner and an executor.
• 15:27
  So we are very complimentary that way.
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  And we were at the dinner table one night and he's telling me
• 15:33
  about his latest and greatest, you know, idea, something that
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  he's learned. And I sat down my fork and I was
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  like, babe, I love you, but I cannot go through another dinner
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  where you're telling me about these amazing ideas that we have
• 15:45
  absolutely no intention of executing on.
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  So the next week he bought the book Get Shit Done.
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  He read it and two months later we had four businesses.
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  So the book works. Yeah, yeah, the book works.
• 15:57
  And this was this was around, this was around 20 like at the
• 16:01
  beginning of 2016. So the, the businesses were a,
• 16:06
  you know, Amazon merch business. We had a book reseller business.
• 16:10
  We had some Amazon products that we launched that we imported.
• 16:14
  And the 4th 1 was my agency. Sad to say, the other three are
• 16:18
  not around anymore. Couldn't, couldn't keep it all
• 16:21
  going on on my own. I think we have a few shirts on
• 16:24
  merch that that still sell, but that that's how this all got
• 16:27
  started, right? It was really from from him.
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  And I think, you know, as I went, I went back into corporate
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  after a few years of doing this. Then COVID happened, right?
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  Everything changed. I had to lay off with the
• 16:40
  company that I was with. We laid off about 60% of our
• 16:43
  workforce. And I was the last person to get
• 16:46
  laid off, which was the very first time that ever happened to
• 16:48
  me. And I mean, that's, that's the,
• 16:50
  that's the like punch in the gut right there.
• 16:53
  I mean, you get it and all of that.
• 16:54
  And they brought me back, as you know, their contractor.
• 16:56
  They were, you know, one of my first clients when I started
• 16:58
  doing this again. But I, I think where I really
• 17:04
  realized that this was on purpose was probably a couple
• 17:09
  years into doing this after COVID, right?
• 17:11
  I was very picky. I wasn't in any rush to get back
• 17:14
  into the workforce, but this really amazing opportunity came
• 17:17
  along. It, you know, was a great title.
• 17:20
  It was a great pay. It was great company.
• 17:22
  And I was in the last stages of the interview process.
• 17:26
  And, you know, it's, we're starting to talk logistics and,
• 17:29
  you know, this problem here and meeting this team here.
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  And I just had this feeling in my gut and I was just like, I
• 17:37
  don't want this. And that was kind of my aha.
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  And I was like, OK, I'm doing this on purpose.
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  This isn't just the just until COVID stuff is over.
• 17:44
  This is, this is on purpose now. And you know, that's when I
• 17:48
  chose, I chose the path and, you know, write your own adventure
• 17:51
  instead of letting someone else write it for you.
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  And I really haven't looked back since then.
• 17:57
  And I think, you know, yes, the, the, the gender pay gap and,
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  and, and all of that is, is very true, right?
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  In my particular roles that I worked for in companies, you
• 18:06
  know all the things, right? When you work in, in HR and
• 18:09
  people in operations, like you know how the sausage is made to
• 18:13
  speak. And it was always really
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  difficult for me as an employee, my identity and my brand.
• 18:22
  I, it was so tightly tied to the company that I worked for,
• 18:26
  right? And I would do all of this work
• 18:28
  with them to create, you know, our values and to articulate our
• 18:33
  brand and who we were to employees and to customers.
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  And then when you're in the boardroom, often the only woman
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  at the table, right? Some of the decisions that are
• 18:44
  made are not based on, right, They're, they're based on
• 18:47
  something different. And that was always really hard
• 18:49
  for me to rectify. So when you're on your own and
• 18:53
  when you have your own firm that your brand is tied up into,
• 18:56
  right, I'm working with these companies still, but there's
• 18:59
  something that's very freeing about not being an employee
• 19:02
  because my brand isn't tied to that, right?
• 19:05
  I can give recommendations and they can disagree and do
• 19:08
  something different and that's OK, right?
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  It's it's, I don't know what happens, but there's some kind
• 19:15
  of mindset shift and there's like freeing of that reality
• 19:18
  when you're doing your own thing in a fractional capacity versus,
• 19:23
  you know, being an employee. Yeah, there's so much there.
• 19:26
  We could dive in for a long time.
• 19:29
  I want to go back to there's a period of time.
• 19:32
  You said you were saying yes to every opportunity.
• 19:35
  I went through a similar time. I'm curious.
• 19:38
  Those opportunities don't come to you when you're sitting in
• 19:42
  your home, you know, playing with your kids, right?
• 19:44
  In some way, shape or form, you have to be out there creating
• 19:47
  those opportunities so that you can say yes.
• 19:51
  What were you doing during that time that generated the
• 19:54
  opportunity so that you could say yes and have that
• 19:56
  experimentation time? Yeah.
• 19:58
  So I think this goes back to those relationships and
• 20:03
  partnerships, right, When you. When you work from a abundance
• 20:10
  mindset and not a scarcity mindset, right?
• 20:12
  And I think that's really key you, you come across people,
• 20:16
  right, who, who are are aligned or adjacent to what you're
• 20:20
  doing, right? And I never viewed those people
• 20:22
  as a threat, right? Like even if we had some
• 20:24
  crossover in what we were doing, I never viewed them as a threat.
• 20:27
  I always viewed them as like, great, this is a, this is a, a
• 20:30
  person to walk along with. This is a community.
• 20:33
  This is, you know, potential partner, you know, and I think
• 20:37
  that was one of the key things. The the second thing I would say
• 20:40
  is the, the way that I approach working with my clients is very
• 20:45
  much like an integrator, right? I can help them when I
• 20:48
  understand their, their business and the emotion that they have
• 20:53
  tied to it and the journey that they're walking.
• 20:55
  And I'm looking at all of those pieces, right, like so many, you
• 20:59
  know, people that are helping in a fractional capacity.
• 21:04
  There are specialists, right with with, you know, deep
• 21:07
  expertise in this one little thing.
• 21:09
  And that's what they're doing. I operate very much, I operate
• 21:13
  differently, like I operate as AT shaped executive.
• 21:15
  So when I say T right, I have because of my journey and
• 21:18
  because of the career that I've had, I have a very broad
• 21:21
  understanding of business acumen.
• 21:23
  I've worked in a lot of different functions and a lot of
• 21:25
  different industries. And then I go deep in a few
• 21:27
  areas like operations, enablement, HR, right?
• 21:30
  So what that's enabled me to do is plug into multiple teams and
• 21:33
  founders across different industries and really connect in
• 21:36
  meaningful ways with not only the company, but their other
• 21:39
  partners that they have. So, you know, a lot of my
• 21:42
  referrals have come from people that I have worked with that
• 21:46
  have been, you know, part of, of another company and in a
• 21:50
  different way, right, Like maybe a CFO or maybe this is one that
• 21:55
  happens really often is, you know, the, the the company or
• 22:00
  the founder will go to a private equity firm and, you know,
• 22:04
  looking for, you know, money or investment or to sell, right?
• 22:09
  And often times they'll look at them and they'll be like, Nope,
• 22:12
  you, you would never get through diligence.
• 22:15
  You don't have a company yet. You have a job.
• 22:17
  It doesn't operate without you. And so they send them to, you
• 22:20
  know, the McKenzie Bain deal people, right, essentially.
• 22:24
  And I've, I've worked with those people in, in different
• 22:26
  companies and, and they've just kind of seen the way that I've,
• 22:28
  I've worked and again, partnership mentality, building
• 22:32
  the relationships, abundance mindset.
• 22:34
  And they've, they've enjoyed working with me.
• 22:36
  And so when they have other clients that, that they get
• 22:40
  referred to by the PE firm, they'll look under the hood and
• 22:43
  they'll be like, oh, you're a mess.
• 22:44
  Like go talk to Georgie, right. So that was a lot of it was just
• 22:48
  again, those relationships in, you know, really coming with an
• 22:52
  abundance mindset, working with, of people with positive and good
• 22:56
  intentions and, and making those connections and the work, you
• 23:00
  know, it speaks for yourself when you do the work and it's
• 23:04
  not, you're not coming from a place of what's in it for me,
• 23:08
  But how can I help? How can I truly make a
• 23:11
  difference? How can I truly impact, right?
• 23:13
  People see that, they feel that it, it feels differently, you
• 23:17
  know? Yeah.
• 23:18
  I mean, there's a few things there.
• 23:20
  And one of them is, and you said it early on, there's an
• 23:23
  integrity piece that you have really upheld in your business
• 23:26
  of I'm going to get the job done and then not, you know, move on.
• 23:32
  You're going to move on without me, right.
• 23:34
  And as you said, maybe not the best business model, but it
• 23:36
  actually is because clients feel that integrity, that genuine
• 23:40
  authenticity, right? And then there's so much more
• 23:43
  likely to refer you, whether it's a client or friend or
• 23:47
  Holly, whoever it is. That comes up a lot on this
• 23:50
  podcast with guests. They talk about how important
• 23:52
  the integrity pieces. And you don't see LinkedIn post
• 23:55
  talking about integrity in business.
• 23:57
  I just, you don't see that kind of conversation, but it comes up
• 24:00
  so much about how important it is.
• 24:03
  So I just, I love hitting on that.
• 24:06
  You mentioned abundance mindset a few times and I think it's
• 24:09
  this cliche phrase that we throw out there and you know,
• 24:12
  Instagram all the time, whatever it is.
• 24:14
  What does that really mean in practice?
• 24:17
  If you can really conceptualize, what does it mean to have the
• 24:20
  abundance mindset that is, as you said was like so important
• 24:24
  in you opening all these doors? What does that really?
• 24:26
  What does that really mean? Yeah, I think it goes back to
• 24:29
  what you just said, Bradley. It's the integrity part, right?
• 24:31
  It's the checking your intentions that's just always
• 24:34
  been part of of who I am. Like, I don't know how to be
• 24:38
  different. It, it might stem from, you
• 24:41
  know, my own, my own faith and, and, and value system, right?
• 24:47
  Values are really huge for me. I want to have people in my own
• 24:52
  team that I'm values aligned with.
• 24:54
  I, I enjoy it much more when I get to work with founders who
• 24:57
  I'm values aligned with. That doesn't always happen.
• 25:00
  There are some that are, are, you know, that I've learned over
• 25:03
  time the hard way that are like deal Breakers for me, right?
• 25:07
  And, and so it's OK to also fire a client if, if there is a
• 25:11
  disconnect there. That's one thing that I've
• 25:13
  learned as well, but I, I think it goes back to check what
• 25:17
  you're doing is has good intentions behind it.
• 25:21
  Like it's not, it's really easy when this is your, your full
• 25:25
  time gig, right, to focus on the, the money and the bottom
• 25:30
  line and all that. And yes, you do need to do that
• 25:32
  because if you don't, then you can't continue to offer your,
• 25:35
  your services. But the whole purpose of you
• 25:39
  coming and, and, and operating in, in your, your agency as a
• 25:43
  fractional is to help somebody, right?
• 25:46
  You're, you're helping them do something that they can't do and
• 25:50
  their own team can't do. And so how are you doing that in
• 25:53
  a way that is, is creating value and impact versus just, you
• 25:59
  know, checking boxes, right? So many, so many companies, they
• 26:03
  have, you know, 80% of their workforce is just checking
• 26:06
  boxes. That's what they don't need
• 26:07
  another one of those people, right?
• 26:09
  They need someone who's going to come in and be like, okay, I get
• 26:12
  it. Like let's go, let's go do
• 26:14
  things that matter. Let's go make an impact.
• 26:18
  So I think that that's, that's, you know, one of the, the things
• 26:23
  you know, there's, there's a lot of learning that happens in that
• 26:25
  too. Again, like going back to the,
• 26:27
  the things that I, I wish I would have known earlier in all
• 26:31
  of this is, is, and I learned the hard way is again, you don't
• 26:34
  need to have everything buttoned up and beautiful out of the
• 26:37
  gate. Like I've talked to I, I've,
• 26:39
  I've had a couple of referral partners refer me to people who
• 26:44
  are thinking about becoming a fractional that I've seen that
• 26:48
  really increase in the last two to three years.
• 26:51
  And part partly is because of where the talent market is right
• 26:54
  now and, and the economy, there's less of these, you know,
• 26:59
  175 to 275 K full time W2 jobs available, right?
• 27:05
  That is shrinking. That that is shrinking.
• 27:07
  And so you have a lot of people who are, you know, more seasoned
• 27:12
  in their career that are kind of like, I can't find something.
• 27:15
  And so let me look at fractional.
• 27:18
  And I've talked to a lot of those people and they all have
• 27:21
  that mindset of, oh, I have to have it all built.
• 27:23
  I have to have everything figured out and, and, and
• 27:27
  wanting to just, you know, make sure every saying is, is great.
• 27:31
  I so I'd say that that's something to, to be aware of is
• 27:35
  that clarity comes through through the iteration and
• 27:37
  through really having a heart to help.
• 27:40
  And then boundaries. Boundaries are really important.
• 27:43
  They're part of your brand. I think you have to teach people
• 27:46
  how to engage with you. Which is true across every
• 27:49
  relationship you'll have in your entire life.
• 27:52
  Teaching people how to engage with you, whether it's romantic,
• 27:54
  friend, family, business, right. Like I love the of that.
• 28:00
  And I see the third thing I've learned and this is more
• 28:02
  recently is to me doing the great work is the best
• 28:07
  marketing, right. It speaks for itself.
• 28:09
  If I, if I make an impact and I do the right thing, it's going
• 28:12
  to speak for itself. And I think I've always believed
• 28:14
  that. But one of the things I've
• 28:17
  learned is that I still need to follow up and follow through
• 28:20
  like I need to call that out. So one of the most recent things
• 28:23
  that we've implemented in our organization is a quarterly
• 28:26
  review with each one of our clients to remind them of all of
• 28:30
  the things that we just did for them this quarter.
• 28:32
  Because I think that there is just that natural and, and maybe
• 28:36
  not everybody is this way, but I know that I am, I, I am a
• 28:39
  planner. So I'm always looking to what's
• 28:41
  next, right? How do we innovate?
• 28:42
  How do we improve? What are we doing next?
• 28:44
  And I don't take enough time to look back and be like, Oh my
• 28:46
  gosh, look at everything that we just did.
• 28:49
  That's huge. So I would say putting that into
• 28:52
  place has been really beneficial not just for our clients, but
• 28:56
  for me as well. Yeah, there's, there's such an
• 28:59
  amazing, whether it's like book or blog article.
• 29:02
  I, I, I've taken a few notes as you're talking, you said
• 29:05
  something earlier about market on purpose, which I think is a
• 29:09
  really great phrase of so many people are used to the referrals
• 29:12
  and just coming in through word of mouth and all, all of that.
• 29:15
  But it's only, it only gets you so far.
• 29:18
  Sometimes it gets you nine years, but at some point it
• 29:21
  stops. It could be 6 months, it could
• 29:22
  be 9 years and then doing the great work is the best
• 29:26
  marketing, but it's not all that's required, right?
• 29:30
  It might be like 90% of it, but then there's the 10% of the
• 29:34
  marketing on purpose that like has to happen to really grow the
• 29:39
  awareness of your brand and what you do and then let word of
• 29:42
  mouth and on down the line, like compound with the marketing on
• 29:46
  purpose and growing awareness and on down the line.
• 29:48
  So there's a, there's a interesting story to tell there.
• 29:52
  We're almost at time, but my, I really want to hear from you
• 29:55
  about you shared around the mindset early on and that it was
• 29:59
  kind of fun to just experiment and learn new things and you
• 30:02
  didn't know what you didn't know and that was OK.
• 30:04
  Almost everybody I talked to you, probably everybody has had
• 30:07
  some imposter thoughts along the line along the way.
• 30:12
  Have those come up for you? If so, what did that look like?
• 30:15
  And if not, I'd be curious to hear about that.
• 30:18
  So in Imposter thoughts, tell me a little bit more about what you
• 30:23
  mean. Are you talking about like
• 30:23
  imposter syndrome or what am I even doing?
• 30:26
  I read an article why we should not call it imposter syndrome.
• 30:29
  OK, that we should call it. I was like a Harvard professor.
• 30:33
  Someone wrote about why we should call it imposter
• 30:35
  thoughts. So that was like 6 years ago,
• 30:36
  and I've just changed my language around it.
• 30:38
  Yeah. But yeah, imposter syndrome,
• 30:39
  Same, same idea. Yeah, I think the way that it
• 30:42
  probably has shown up for, for me is in moments of, of, of
• 30:49
  struggle, right? Or like this, this didn't go
• 30:52
  great, right? These, these learning moments,
• 30:54
  right? Because I've had seasons of
• 30:57
  really high capacity work and everything's going great and
• 31:00
  we're moving and we're moving. And then seasons like, you know,
• 31:03
  what I shared, what I had, what I went through with my husband,
• 31:05
  where I had to intentionally pull back.
• 31:08
  And again, I think that's, that's the point of this model
• 31:11
  and, and why it works, right? It's not a get rich quick model.
• 31:13
  It's a build life you want to live model.
• 31:16
  So don't come into this like, I'm going to be rich, right?
• 31:19
  That's, that's I, I think probably a misshaped
• 31:21
  expectation, but I, I think it's when I run up against a, a, a
• 31:27
  struggle. And so for me, like what that's
• 31:29
  probably looked like is when I've had to do things that are
• 31:34
  not in my strength, right? And that's almost like a double
• 31:36
  edged sword because I think the, the other part of that is when
• 31:40
  you are working in your strength, sometimes things are
• 31:43
  coming across like they're, they're so easy for you that you
• 31:46
  don't tend to value them, right. And so I think that that's that
• 31:50
  part where that's really helped me is that I have somebody who
• 31:57
  tells me the truth. And I know that sounds really,
• 32:00
  really simple, but this is kind of a take your own medicine
• 32:03
  thing. Like that's one of the things I
• 32:04
  do for my founders is I tell them the truth when no one else
• 32:07
  does in a really loving way with good intentions, but I still
• 32:10
  tell them the truth even when it's hard to hear.
• 32:13
  I think you need that person in your life.
• 32:14
  You need someone who is going to tell you the truth and, and call
• 32:18
  things out and be like, Hey, this is right.
• 32:21
  And you're like, ah, OK, got it. So I think that that's key to
• 32:26
  get through those moments. It where you're like, oh, what
• 32:29
  am I even doing? You know, this thing exploded or
• 32:32
  what is this even for me? It's, it's again, those things
• 32:35
  that I'm really bad at, like things that my husband used to
• 32:39
  take care of, you know, the tax stuff, the finance stuff, the
• 32:42
  like all of that, right? You know, I spent time in
• 32:45
  finance and there's a reason why I, I didn't want to do that
• 32:48
  anymore because I find it soul sucking.
• 32:50
  I do sorry to those of you who don't, I love you for it, but
• 32:54
  it, it's, it's really finding people who can bolster you up
• 33:00
  right when you're in in, in those moments.
• 33:03
  So for a while I had like my escape, like my escape plan, you
• 33:09
  know, when you're, when you're going through that, you're like,
• 33:11
  oh man, what if I just, what if I just like gave it all up and I
• 33:15
  just found a little cabin in the woods and we just escaped.
• 33:17
  And you know, I think about that for like 5 minutes and I'm like,
• 33:21
  OK, all right, bring it back to it.
• 33:23
  Like, let's go figure this out, Let's go solve this.
• 33:25
  But that doesn't happen without a community, without people
• 33:28
  around you, right? Somebody who's telling you the
• 33:30
  truth, somebody who's reminding you of, of the good things that
• 33:34
  you, you have done. You know, that looking back part
• 33:37
  is, is so important. And then honestly, the third
• 33:40
  thing for me is just faith, right?
• 33:42
  Having faith that whatever happens, it's going to be OK,
• 33:46
  right? Like I, I will be OK.
• 33:48
  There are worse things that can happen.
• 33:50
  Having it at macro view really, really helps me get through
• 33:54
  through those things. So and.
• 33:56
  I'll take that last piece one step further to say, you know,
• 33:59
  whatever happens, it's going to be fine.
• 34:01
  I will be fine. And whatever happened just
• 34:04
  happened for me right there. There's yeah.
• 34:09
  Like there's something here for me to learn, experience, grieve,
• 34:13
  feel, whatever it is that will serve me, even though it might
• 34:17
  be painful, uncomfortable now, but it's happening for me.
• 34:21
  And if you can always have that lens, it kind of goes back to
• 34:23
  the abundance mindset a little bit around, yes, this is
• 34:27
  happening for me. So great feel all the things
• 34:30
  right. I'm not trying to gas like the
• 34:31
  people not feeling, but then have the awareness of even if
• 34:34
  you can't see what it is that there is something on the other
• 34:37
  side of this that will that will benefit you maybe forever so.
• 34:40
  Yeah, I love that you said that, Bradley, because you don't.
• 34:44
  You don't get to the next step or the next level or to a better
• 34:47
  place. If it's if it's all like
• 34:50
  sunshine and rainbows that comes through pain and suffering and
• 34:54
  learning right? Like there again, it's it's the
• 34:56
  balance, right? You, you, you don't have
• 34:58
  compassion without without suffering.
• 35:01
  You don't have joy without pain, right?
• 35:03
  You have to go through those things to get to the other side.
• 35:06
  The the magic is in recognizing that reality and leaning into it
• 35:11
  while it's happening instead of like after.
• 35:14
  And you're like, oh, yeah, that happened again, you know, So
• 35:18
  that's an opportunity for everybody.
• 35:20
  And and, you know, I still have my moments where I, you know,
• 35:22
  have my escape hatch for for a second and then I'm like, all
• 35:25
  right, let me just remind myself there's bigger things going on
• 35:28
  here. And it is ultimately for my
• 35:29
  good. Right.
• 35:31
  Yeah, I like to say nobody ever grew from their comfort zone,
• 35:35
  right? Like if we could just have all
• 35:36
  this growth and transformation and whatever from our couches,
• 35:40
  we would do it, right? But that's not what it takes.
• 35:43
  It takes getting in the arena, getting messy, getting knocked
• 35:46
  down, getting the bad review or the just rejection or whatever
• 35:50
  it is and growing through whatever things that came up for
• 35:54
  you, right? What story did you tell yourself
• 35:56
  when that happened? You know, all of those things.
• 35:58
  So yeah, the only way to do is pick yourself up and get out
• 36:02
  there and get back in the arena and keep playing.
• 36:05
  So. Yes, I love that.
• 36:07
  Tell our audience if they want to find you, if they want to
• 36:09
  work with you, how do they find you?
• 36:12
  Yeah. So you can go to my website,
• 36:14
  www.hiretraininspire.com. You can book time with me from
• 36:18
  there and we are also on LinkedIn.
• 36:20
  OK, awesome. And you do like a free console
• 36:23
  call or something like that for potential clients?
• 36:25
  OK, OK, great. We'll link it in the show notes
• 36:27
  so people can find you more easily as we wrap up anything
• 36:32
  you want to leave our audience with.
• 36:35
  Yeah. I think for those people who are
• 36:38
  in the process of of, you know, the, the fractional work, I
• 36:44
  would say just again say yes and use that to reflect constantly
• 36:50
  and evolve often. Amazing.
• 36:52
  Well, this is great. Really enjoyed having you and
• 36:54
  getting to learn from you myself on the podcast.
• 36:57
  So I just appreciate your time and wisdom and just sharing your
• 37:01
  journey and the lessons learned with us.
• 37:03
  It's a lot. It's very valuable, you know,
• 37:05
  for nine years of going through the journey to just be able to
• 37:08
  share it in 40 minutes a lot. I'm sure there's tons more but
• 37:12
  just really appreciate your time and and wisdom today.
• 37:15
  Yeah. Thank you so much for having
• 37:16
  Bradley. This is great.
• 37:17
  Yeah, you're welcome.