Everything's over the internet, these people don't know me. Are they're going to trust me to even become part of their business? Where am I going to find these clients? Am I going to make enough money to replace my income? You name it, like I had it, then it was like, Oh my gosh, what if I get sick while I'm working on a client's project, and there's delays and I can't finish, or like that was always in the back of my mind, because Lupus is so unpredictable. You name it, I
had it. I went through it. And it was just like, I have no idea how this is gonna work. But I'm about to test it and see.
This is The MindShift Podcast where we share real stories, real strategies, that will help you find real success. This is the place to hear from people just like you who have taken their ideas, goals and dreams from a point of inspiration to realization or when life knocked them down, from a point of breakdown to breakthrough. I'm your host, Darrell Evans. Let's get started with today's episode.
Hey, my friend, welcome back to The MindShift Podcast. Can you believe it? We are coming up on three years running this show and having amazing conversations with extraordinary entrepreneurs. And I just want to thank you in advance because it's all because of you that we keep coming back together, and reaching out and connecting with incredible people like our guest today. If this happens to be your first time here, my name is Darrell Evans. I'm your host, I'm your
guide, I'm your mentor. And I would encourage you to hit the follow and subscribe button wherever you're listening to this show so that you never miss an episode. And if you're not a part of the Mind,Shift community, you are missing out. There's so many exciting things coming up as we cross the third year of our show, head over to www.MindShiftCommunity.com. It is free to join. That's where all of the announcements come out to our community from and I look forward to seeing you
there. My guest today is known as your secret weapon for getting out of the weeds in your business and back into what you love, so you can focus on growth, innovation, and profits. But that wasn't always the case. You see, in 2013, she was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus and had to retire from her corporate job. She transformed her life, she transformed her business and today, she's a business operations expert who gets super excited when it comes to all things on the back of
your business. Her modus operandi is Kolbe- A: Index 8-6-3-3, Come on Kolbe, let's go. Her Myers Briggs is ESTJ and her rocket fuel is an Integrator. Welcome to the show Gwendolyn Young.
Thank you so much for having me, Darrell. I'm so excited to be here with you.
Let's go. Let's go. So, first of all, where are you joining us from?
I am coming from a south suburb in Chicago, Illinois, call Lansing.
Lansing?
Ah ha.
Okay, perfect. Well, welcome to the show. We've been talking and laughing offline before we got started with this thing, and I know this is gonna be a fun conversation. You know, if you're an entrepreneur listening to this right now, you need someone like Gwendolyn in your life, whether
you know it or not. And I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs who are still solopreneurs getting started, maybe from corporate jumping over, maybe their side hustling, although I don't really love that phrase, perfectly fine if you're running a part time business, but call it a business. Don't call it a side hustle. It just has a bad
connotation to me. But then, when you're growing something special, you will only go so far as the operational systems that you put into your business that are happening repeatedly, over and over again. You see, I'm a visionary. She's an integrator. We're going to talk about what that actually means and why you've got to have your visionary to her integration in
the business. But Gwendolyn take over the mic and tell everybody who you are, how you got here, and let's dive into today's great conversation.
Yes, oh my goodness. So excited. So as you stated, I'm Gwendolyn Young, I'm the founder and CEO of Your Virtual Admin Expert, which is a results driven agency of professional administrative problem solvers. And we help you replace overwhelm with operational excellence and ease. I work with multiple six figure and seven figure business owners who are coaches, consultants, and micro businesses and helping them stay in their zone of genius by managing their entire
backend operations. So I absolutely love what I get to do because I help them to scale faster, quicker, sooner, because they get to do only the things that they can do and let go of all of the other stuff. So you started talking about my journey a little bit about how I got here, which is Is that diagnosis back in 2013 of Systemic Lupus. And, you know, this comes as strange to most people when they meet me, but I had absolutely zero desire to be an entrepreneur.
Really?
Yeah. And nobody believes that when they meet me now. And you know, I was in corporate America, I loved my job, I was going to be the girl who rose the corporate ladder and sat in the C suite and done all the things. And I guess God said, Well, I got a different path that you're gonna take. And so when I got that diagnosis, and I really had to just take a step back and focus on my health and recovery. And during that process, I said, You know what?
I can't go back because I don't want to have to choose between taking care of myself and doing the work that I love. And I literally remember saying, God, what am I supposed to do? Like, what am I supposed to do? And I heard, like, it's in your hands. And I'm like, what does that mean exactly? Like, what do you mean?
Right.
And I was like, Are there people who need operational and administrative support in the virtual space? Like, is this thing? And as I started to do the research, I realized there was this entire industry, doing what I love to do, and they had been doing it for decades. And then I was a little upset, because I was like, I could have been working from home, like, 10 years ago. Why didn't anybody tell me this?
All this time?
And I'm like . . .
All this time?!
Why didn't anybody tell me this? This is just insane.
Right.
And that is how the journey started for me.
You know, can you pause for just a second for those on the other side of the microphone. And even for myself, I think about my cousin, when I hear your story about Systemic Lupus. Can you just pause and tell everyone what that meant in your body? What happens with Lupus in your body and what caused the retirement?
Yeah, absolutely. I remember it so vividly. It was back in October of that previous year. My husband and I went on vacation to Florida. We were in Naples, the sun was shining, it was beautiful but I literally had no energy to do anything. And I slept the entire vacation. And we couldn't figure out what was going on. And I just thought, okay, you know, we're always moving and doing something when we're at home, maybe I was just a little exhausted. But fast forward until February of 2013.
And I got up one morning to go to work, and my body would not move. I literally could not move, I couldn't get out of the bed and I just was like, okay, something's wrong. It's probably time to go to the doctor. And so my husband got me up, got me to the doctor. And she called the next day and she's like, I need you to go see the rheumatologist and I'm like, Why do I need it? I'm a little stubborn. Darrell. If you haven't figured that out yet.
Operational people, yeah.
Yes. Let's go see the rheumatologist! Tell me what's wrong and tell me how we're going to fix it because I need to get back to work and she's like, I need you to go see the rheumatologist and I'm like, No, you're gonna have to tell me what's wrong, so we can fix it. And she's like, You have to go see the rheumatologist and I'm like, What is this rheumatologist gonna tell me that you just can't tell me? And she's like, I think that you have Lupus. And I didn't know what it was.
Right.
I had no idea what it was. And so I scheduled that appointment with a rheumatologist. They did a bunch of battery of tests, came back positive and I literally just had to figure out like, what is this? What was happening in my body? I had so much fatigue. There were nights my muscles were giving out. My children were picking me up off of the floor.
Wow.
I couldn't do much of anything. It was disheartening. For a woman like me who's been very independent, very ambitious and now I literally had to have other people helping to take care of me. I was taking 14 pills a day just to be functional.
Oh, jeez.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow. So this is 2013. What was the sign that retirement was imminent, like you had, and retirement is a phrase that we have to use here but . . .
Yeah
. . . you could no longer do that job. Because today clearly, you're in a functional healing, managing state to where you're back doing it.
Yeah.
But I also heard you say something about, you'd have never thought to be an entrepreneur. So in that story, is something of obviously a setback, a new awareness of a situation, but it led you to this new discovery, but what was it about the old job that it was like nah, this can't happen anymore. Like I can't do this job anymore.
Yeah. So while I was going through this process and in recovery, on FMLA from work, my manager called me to ask me about something for work. And that was just the shock for me. Because I couldn't understand how you could be so insensitive, that you are calling me, like, I just got a life changing diagnosis. And you're calling me to ask me about something about work. You haven't sent me a get well card, like there was nothing. But
you're asking me about work. And I am literally trying to figure out how I am going to move forward in my life with this new diagnosis and what this means for me. And it was in that moment that I was like, I can't do that, like, I am not going to be asking for permission to take care of myself, I'm not going to be afraid if I'm gonna lose my job, I am not going to be explaining to you when my body needs to rest. Like I just refused. That's that stubborn girl in me where I was just
like, No, I am done. That is not going to happen.
Right.
And so that is when that shift took place. And so I knew if I were to figure out a way to do both, then I could make sure that I had the space to take care of myself when I needed to do that. And that's exactly what this has afforded me the opportunity to do.
It's not funny, but it's funny and 30 something years ago, I was, you know, people who've listened to the show, they know my story, and my teens coming through the world of Taco Bell. And this has nothing to do with Taco Bell, or even the franchise that I worked for. I don't know you before we started the recording of the show. But my gut tells me leading into this diagnosis, you probably balled for that company, you're probably . . .
Absolutely!
You were probably about it when it came to your work, you were like, . . .
Absolutely.
. . . rock solid, but the minute you need just an ounce of space to deal with life, they hadn't figured themselves out . . .
Yes.
. . . and they can't even give you the space. It's like there's zero empathy for your life changing situation, right? It wasn't that you were planning on leaving, you're just like, I'm just trying to deal.
Yes. That's exactly what it was. I can still see my fingerprint throughout that company today. I can walk into a health care center and see something that I did or something I had a hand in building.
Wow. You know, and for those listening to this, I don't bash corporate America, like a lot of the biggest corporations in the world that we admire. We're one small businesses in a garage. Let's keep it 100.
Absolutely.
The reality is when it gets to a certain size, it's just all about the numbers sometimes, and it's not as much about the people and I worked for a company for a hot minute. And when I say a hot minute, it was 10 months. And it wasn't six weeks that I was there before I realized there's no way in God's green earth, I'm gonna stay here because their motto and their mission and their, their mode of operation. We're gonna talk
about that in a little bit. It was nothing aligned with the level of integrity I had, because it was all about their company and not about anybody else. They didn't even have a problem telling us, we're just cogs in the wheel. Do your job, or we'll ship you out. It's not a problem. Now, all that being said, I love the entrepreneurial story. I don't love the health diagnosis that leads to it. But it also led to your openness.
And maybe it was a sign that you would have never considered something that was your blessing.
Absolutely.
Right.
Absolutely.
Right. You'd have ever even arrived at the door, perhaps. So talk a little bit about that discovery. And then let's really dig into some of that zone of genius.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, people think it's strange all the time, when I say Lupus is probably the best thing that has happened to me. And they're like, what? And I'm like, because it was just a diagnosis, right? And I learned what that was, how to live with it. But I made a decision early on that, yes, I have Lupus, but Lupus does not have me. I am still going to figure out how to live a very full and thriving life. There may be some battles in that. But we're gonna do it. Like I just
refused. And it could be the
Right. stubborn girl in me. I don't know what it is. But I just was like, No, I don't know who you are coming into my life like this, but I'm gonna deal with you. Like an intruder. I'm not, I'm not sure but you're in the wrong spot, we're gonna deal with you.
Like, I'm gonna deal with you. And then we gonna keep it moving. We're gonna figure this out. And, you know, it was literally the best thing because it really got me thinking about that life didn't just have to be lived in a certain context. Work didn't just have to be done in a certain context, right? There were so many other ways to have fulfilling work that didn't necessarily mean corporate America. And don't get me wrong. I love corporate America. Like I was probably a poster child for
corporate America. But it got me to thinking like, oh, there's a whole new world that's out here. And the more I started digging into it, the more I fell in love with it.
I got to ask this because it just strikes me beyond what you said, because here this new diagnosis comes in, you make the decision that, that the company is no longer going to be a part of your daily operating system. But you said that with a bit of confidence that I don't often find when I talk to people who are going through things, and I think back to 22 years ago, that something happened to me. And looking back, it was one of the best
things to happen to me. And yet it was one of the most crushing things ever happened to me.
Yeah.
Because it made me become something that maybe I wasn't prepared to be as a result of the thing happening, right? So what gave you the confidence in that moment, or in that season? Because a lot of people struggle with, oh, this is the end! Or . . . You know, you just said, Oh, I don't know who
Yeah. you are showing up. But we're gonna deal with you. And you know, you probably were like, I'm not sure but I know, you praying because I saw it on your bio. Yes I did.
So I know you had your spiritual dukes up, right? What was it? Was it the spiritual background? What was it that gave you that confidence to make tha, And I'm not saying it's easy, and you and I both know, you can share whatever you'd like, but it wasn't easy. I know for a fact but what was the confidence? A lot of people lack confidence.
Yeah, it was not easy at all. But I think for me, I had sort of this three fold advantage. One, of course, being my faith. Two, being my husband, who was in full support of me doing whatever I needed to do to take care of my health. And then just my support system around me, right. And I was kind of already dabbling in entrepreneurship a little bit, because my mom and I had already started a nonprofit foundation that I had been running for a
couple of years. And so I think, knowing that I had already done something of that magnitude before, combined with that support of my family, and my faith, it was just like, a no brainer. You know, I've had some struggles in my life, I'm not new to struggle. I've gotten horrible things that have happened before. And I've gotten
through all of them. And so it was like, to me, this was just like another fork in the road where it was like, I did that, this might be a little bit tougher, because you know, I'm not going to swear, but Lupus can kick my butt on some days, okay. But I just said, you might win some of these fights but that's it. Like, you're not going to keep me down. But it was the love and support of my family and my faith that just, they were just like, we got you, do what you need to do.
Yeah, so he's so good, right. And if you're in a situation, and you're listening to this on the other side, and whether it's Lupus or something else you're going through, I call it, you know, breakdowns in life, right? The show, we talk about from inspiration to realization, and when life knocks us down, breakdown to breakthrough. Lupus for her was a breakdown, right? In my situation, it was a different breakdown. And actually, we all have multiple breakdowns, some
more severe than others. But the journey is about navigating those two paradigms. And we're always navigating. If technology in this show fails, we would be navigating a breakdown. It's just the reality. So the better we can accept that, the better we can move forward through life. And it doesn't have to mean that what was in our past is our future. We can decide to accept the facts for the facts, which I love that. The mindshift method says, Make peace with the facts. Yes.
Right. Step one in our process, step one in the four part process, just make peace with the facts. You don't have to like 'em. Right, just make peace with 'em. And then you can make a new decision, which she did in step two. She doesn't even know my method by the way, let's be clear. She just follows the method because you know, it's what we all do. It's not because this method came out of some psychology book, or because Darrell's got some special certification. These four steps
apply to everybody. She made a new decision/ That new decision was leave this job, decide what God has for me, and I'm gonna follow that path. My question around your entrepreneurial journey, what scared you the most about starting your own business?
Oh, my gosh, it was everything! It was, Do I really know what I'm . . .
Everything scared you?
Everything scared me. It was like, you work from home but where are you going to find people that want to work with you? It was like, everything's over the internet. These people don't know me. Are they going to trust me to even become part of their business? Where am I going to find these clients? Am I going to make enough money to replace my income? You name it, like I had it, then it was like, Oh my gosh, what if I get sick while I'm working on a client's project, and there's delays and
I can't finish or? Like, that was always in the back of my mind because Lupus is so unpredictable. You name it. I had it. I went through it. And it was just like, I have no idea how this is gonna work. But I'm about to test it and see.
Interesting. So what was it about your background that made you feel like, business operations, was that what you did in your former career? How did you get to the business operations, operational efficiency, operational excellence? How did you get to that part of the world of business?
Yeah, so that was very organic because in my corporate career I was in administration and operations. So I was everything from executive support to chief nursing officers to administrative supervisor and managing three ambulatory care centers, working with physicians, doctors, medical records, and front desk staff, overseeing all of that. And that's where my love for operations came into play. Because I got to see firsthand how all the parts of running an ambulatory care system affected
the patient. So if front desk didn't do their job right, it affected the doctors. If medical records didn't pull the right chart or clean the right reports, it affected the doctors. So I got to see how all of that. If the doctor coded improperly, then it affected the patient and billing and I would get all the phone calls from the elderly patients. So that's where that love for operations
came in. Because I was like, if we don't all get it right and do our part and make sure this is as seamless as possible, it's the patient that's going to suffer in the end. Nothing else matters.
So, oh my gosh, that's beautiful. Two things really beautiful about that. Here's number one. Here you were with a track record of 20 years in an industry called, healthcare?
Yes.
With an intention to detail that says though I don't control all these pieces, all of these pieces affect the outcome of the patient and that's who we're here to serve in the first place.
Yes.
That's what made you a great entrepreneur. Number one, you realize that a, we're here for the patient. And there's a lot of systems and things that have to happen to make that happen properly, right?
Yes.
The other interesting part about it is, it's that caring, and empathy, to be able to sit in the seat of the customer to say, okay, in order for our patient to get the highest level of care from our process and our services, we've got to look at all of these other details. And that now starts to make sense about maybe you know why you're in this
operational perspective. Number one, as an entrepreneur, you're able to take care of your clients, because like you were taking care of clients over there, you just didn't own the facility.
Yes.
You were taking care of the string of events, you just didn't own the ambulatory service.
Exactly.
And now you're taking care of businesses in the same way. But you're also able to sit in the seat, which is also very hard to do sometimes. Sometimes we get all excited about what we do but we don't understand how they feel. The people that we do it for, and it's one of the biggest superpowers of being an entrepreneur is how does my client feel? And how do I fix it so that they love what they got from us? Super nuanced there, but I'm hearing your entrepreneurial journey was actually built there.
Yeah, absolutely it was.
Absolutely. You know, we called out all these four character letters. Let's talk to everybody about Kolbe, your 8-6-3-3. Your Myers Briggs, ESTJ and your rocket fuel of being an Integrator. First of all, let's start with, for those that don't know, what are those three assessments mean in general? And why did you begin to take those? What were you hoping to learn? Give someone an understanding about what they mean, because I'm a big, big, big fan of two of those three.
And let's lay that out for the audience and see how it ties into your journey.
Yeah, so you know, Myers Briggs, it's like a corporate thing. If you've ever worked in corporate, you've taken some sort of personality tests of some kind.
You damn near can't get hired if you don't take one, right?
Exactly. So I was very familiar with them. . .
Like, put your ID down, take a Myers Briggs.
. . . from the corporate sector. And so like taking Myer Briggs in corporate and then I had to take it, I think they had us do it again, in grad school. And so it was just like, oh, that's the thing to do. Right? Let me figure out what I am. And so that's kind of where the Myers Briggs came from. And I was always so surprised by how spot
on they actually were. And I think for the Myers Briggs Personality, it really just kind of confirmed for me what I already kind of knew about myself, but now it was like, Hey, here, the assessment says it too. So now you have to believe it.
Right. Right, right.
But what I found good about that, because I then started having my team take them as well, is it really did help me understand how to communicate with my team and with each other and to help them understand how to communicate with me. And I have found that has just reduced a lot of the confusion and tensions around miscommunication and reading into what people think or feel or how they are, because you have some sort of insight into it already. So that's the beautiful part about it. Now the
Kolbe was new to me. The Kolbe was introduced to me by one of my business coaches.
Okay.
And I didn't really understand it when I first took it. I was like, it's just a bunch of numbers. What does this mean?
Right.
But as I started to dig in to it, it was more like giving me insight into how I literally make decisions and how I operate. And it was so empowering. Because it was like, I'm not broken. Right? Like, Darrell, I thought I was broken. I'm like, I'm not broken. I just have a very specific way of how I'm wired, and how I love It's just how you're wired. to do things. And it gave me some insight into what things were not good for me. Like I understood now, I can't do chaos. Chaos does not work well,
for me. I am a structured individual. And this helped me to also see how I could best serve my clients, right? Because now I'm using this in my discovery process when I'm looking at what kind of environment do they have going on? What kind of person are they? How do they operate? Are they always in chaos? Or are they open to having structure around it? That's going to help me know if we're going to be a really good fit, because I like to stabilize stuff. I can't do chaos. I need to make sure
there's some order there. So these for me, were like so amazing. And then again, it helped me with a team because I realized, I was also looking for people who were a lot like me, and it's like, we can all be fact finders.
That's right. That's right. It sounds funny, like find someone who's just like me, and we'll have a great time. No, you won't. You know what'll happen. Y'all have a good drink tonight. Or y'all go hang out somewhere. But the business guys, y'all look the same on business paper. It sounds odd, but it's so true.
We're gonna to suffer and we're gonna to suffer tremendously.
We're gonna butt heads. We're gonna line but then we're gonna hit heads in ways that don't make no kind of sense. Kolbe got introduced to me in 2003 or 4.
Oh, wow.
Myers Briggs in 96 or 7. And but Kolbe was the one that changed the game
Yeah. for me. Disc was in there as well. And then only recently was rocket fuel the Integrator, Visionary. So it's a little late to my, I already knew what that was gonna tell me. So I didn't need to take it. But I took it anyway. I took it anyway too. Yes!
But let me tell you what I learned about Kolbe and see if you agree. Kolbe is powerful of not, because it's not a personality assessment. It's a mode of operation, which I said in your intro, your modus operandi. Like, I started using that phrase regularly after going through the Kolbe experience. Because the goal is not what's your personality? I want to know what you're naturally going to do under these circumstances. I want to know how you're wired to react with or without training about this
topic. Because that is not teachable. That's how you are. And the better I know how you are. I don't mean to preach on this but I get fired up about it. Because personality don't tell me what you're going to do.
It does not.
It doesn't teach you if a customer come hollering at you, they don't tell me what you're going to do. The personality don't tell me what you're gonna do. Your natural mode of operation is either you're an understanding and empathetic person, or you're not. Like, I'd rather know that you're not so I don't put you in a customer service role.
Yes, yes.
You see what I'm saying? Ain't got nothing to do with your personality. And that was the game changer for me. I'm not an affiliate for Kolbe. I've just been using it since '04. I just say that these personality assessments, there's a lot of them, then there's enniagrams and all the other ones. I'm not knocking any of them. But you've got to find the one that finds out the person's natural mode of operation. And by the way, Kathy Kolbe, the psychologist or psychiatrist, I apologize. Kathy
Kolbe, if you're listening. When she figured this out, she said it's not changeable.
No, because it's about your habits.
It's about how you're going to react. And you can learn like disc says, I know we're on a slight tangent, I'll pull us back. Disc says there's something that your natural state and you're adapted state.
Yes.
You're adapted state means you are becoming something you're normally not, for the role, the position or the circumstance that you're in. The problem is, is if you have to do life or business for a long period of time in an adapted state, you will find that stress, that pressure, that energy, that drain, and we don't want to work people and that's what corporate America does. Corporate America don't care about your . . .
No!
. . . they want you to adapt to whatever they tell you to do. And if you don't do it, we'll just find something else to do it.
And they're not trying to role fit.
No!
They're trying to fill a position but they're not trying to make sure that the person is aligned to the role. And that is what Kolbe helps you do. No, no, no, because listen, you were
Right. I'm soryy, I didn't mean to pull us off on that. But . . . preaching to the choir. I was about to be like, where's the offer plate? Because that is what it is.
Yes.
Us entrepreneurs who are growing businesses And I'm sure you're using this as you're because one of the words that I hate about the way we think building your teams to serve your clients. Right? about businesses when we are not corporate America is we call ourselves small businesses because there's these labels out there. We need to remove that label because sometimes our small thinking keeps us small.
All that being said, I brought that up and wanted to spend some time there, is that I run across a lot of companies that are constantly telling me that they've hired this person and they didn't get the job done.
Absolutely.
Let's go down to that last one, the Integrator They hired that person, they didn't get the job done. Well, I did the same thing in the early 2000s. And then at some point, you have to question why is that? Was it really them? Or was it your lack of understanding who they were when you brought 'em through the door? Because you were just trying to offload Visionary. Like you said, you're an integrator on the last one. things off your plate. And you just said, go do this stuff,
right? I see it in my space of digital marketing all the time. Well, I'd had this person doing Facebook ads, or I had this person doing SEO or I had this th, th, th, th, th, the! And the answer is, well, they didn't get the job done. Hmmmm, I wonder if you hired the right person, but how do you know? So I want to bring us back to your operational background. Now you've learned about yourself? Why is that so important? Like it was an area that is so critical to moving forward in
business. But why is that so important?
It's critical, because visionaries are your big thinkers, right? They have all the ideas, they know why we should do something, or they have the great ideas that could potentially garner a bunch of influence or money, or whatever it is, they have the big ideas.
Right.
But they get stuck. They're not very good at execution. And that's where your integrators come in. I am an executor. I can take your big idea and I can chunk it down into phases of how it needs to be done, and make sure that it becomes a reality. I can also push back on you to remind you of all the other great ideas that you had before the 95th great idea. And why it may not be the time to actually do it right now. So you can kind of think of me, the Integrator, as
kind of the harmonizer. I am the person who maintains the harmony amongst all the different pieces that are happening in your business. Because our visionaries are so high in their thinking and thinking about forward movement, they don't sometimes understand how some of the other functions in the business play into that, or how that idea could disturb some of the other functions within the business. And that's where I as the integrator comes in and says, Okay, hang on, I get that
you want to do that. But let's first see what's happening in finance. Let's first see what's happening in operations. Let's first see if sales and marketing can manage that idea. Right? And so I'm kind of this harmonizer in the middle of all of the pieces keeping it together. Does that make sense?
100%. Which makes me want to ask this next question then, because you said something earlier about you don't do chaos. You just said that you're the harmonizer?
Yes.
Am I right? Or am I wrong that the vast majority of the time that you come into an entrepreneur's or business' world, there's some level of chaos . . .
Absolutely.
That you're met with? And so my question is, is what are the top two or three areas of chaos that you tend to have to come in and harmonize, right, right away? What are those top two or three things?
The number one thing that I come in and do is I come in and I look at your processes, because it is the fastest way I'm going to be able to get some order and some structure in place, and be able to understand why you have chaos and where your chaos is. So we're coming in and we're looking at what are your processes? Do you have standard operating processes? And if you don't, it's the very first thing we're doing. We're creating
them. Because, again, I can't do your chaos like, that chaos pace for me is like an adaptive state. And I'm going to reduce it and minimize it as much as possible. So number one is your processes. After we look at your processes that I'm going to dig into your systems. What systems do you have in place within this business that is helping you do what you need to do to deliver your service, all of the things? And I'm going to take a look at, do you have the right systems in
place? Do they play well with each other? If they don't, we're going to have to make some changes. What do we need to put in place? What do we need to cut out? And sometimes what do we just need to stop doing at all? Because I find with a lot of entrepreneurs, they have shiny object syndrome, unfortunately. And they want to implement all the things. Oh, I heard so and so was using and I want to do that. Oh, I was at a conference and they mentioned this and I think we should implement that.
And then they go and buy all these things. And nothing works. But it's because they haven't really taken a look at, is this really the right system for me? And does this system work with the processes that I've developed in my business?
Right.
Those are my top two.
You know, oh my geez, there's so many places for us to go on this thing. Shiny Object Syndrome. If you're listening to this right now you already know what it is. We all have it. It just is what it is. Look, to a certain degree, even though you're an operational efficiency back end person, I'm sure you had a little bit of it at the beginning and you have some from time to time because you're a growing entrepreneur who's growing your business.
Oh absolutely!
Should I do left? Or should I go right? Should I do this? Should I do? It might be a good idea. We all have it, but we have to fight it right? So but that comes back to setting a vision for what we want. And having a clarity of purpose so that we can know what is a yes and what is a no.
Absolutely.
I always say that the best thing you can do in business is build your no muscle.
Yes.
Build a muscle where you can say no more frequently than yes, because so many of the good ideas are good. But it doesn't mean they're good for you now. Right?
Right.
And that's, I'm just as guilty of that. So how is your team structured to work with a company that you come into, or an entrepreneur? Because I'm on the other side of it, and I'm gonna play audience member who's never worked with a virtual operations expert or virtual admin expert. How does that work? How many people are on your team? Or is it just you and a couple people? How does that work? And how does the interface work? Is it through
Slack? Or how do you guys work together if you're virtual?
So when we get a client that comes on that wants to work with us, we have a team. So there's about, there's seven of us now on the team. And so . . .
Congratulations.
Thank you, super excited about that. So when the client comes on, we first do what's of course, is that, an issue intake call. I've already gotten all the details and know what their issues are. We've done that in the discovery call. So our first kickoff call is setting that 90 day priority, what are the top things that you want to work on over the course of the 90 days, and then everybody has an operations manager support person, and then has an admin support person as
well. And so that admin person that is connected to that account, that's where those introductions happen. We also have a project manager on our team that keeps all of the pieces flowing together and manages all the tasks and deliverables. And so they sort of have their team, right? Their ops person, their admin person, we have a project management system, that's where all the tasks are loaded up. It's where we track all of the milestones for the project. And then we
have email communication. So we literally insert ourselves into the clients business. We make it as easy and seamless as possible. So they create us an email address on their server, so that everything stays branded. We communicate through their email, so that if we're communicating with their clients, their clients have zero idea that we're an actually separate company.
Wow!
It just flows as if we're a natural part of their team. So they can communicate with us through that email, they can send their request, their task, we schedule a weekly meeting with every client. So it's, you're getting updates, we're talking through projects, if stuff comes up. And then we have our chat channel as well for in between meetings and things like that, if they need
to communicate. If there's an emergency, we have a team email, that the client can email to the team and it goes out to our Operations Coordinator, and she responds or makes sure it gets to the appropriate person. And so we've tried to think about all the ways to make it as seamless and easy as possible for the clients that we work with. So we're literally, it's like you're hiring a person without hiring a person, we literally integrate into your team.
I love that. So I know there's a lot of things you do for companies, but you said we're starting at processes, we're gonna then look at systems. If someone is on the other side of overwhelm, they're sitting in that frustration, they're sitting in, I've got too many things to do. Another phrase is, I'm wearing too many hats in my business, there's not enough time in the day to move
my business forward. What do you suggest that that person do, because the longer they sit in that state of overwhelm, and frustration, and staying outside of their true DNA, or their true, I call it superstar DNA, but whatever their unique zone of genius is, they don't realize that even though they're just getting started, or maybe they don't think that they have the room in their budget to hire someone, it's costing them way more money, trying to figure it out. Do you agree with that?
Absolutely I agree. 100%.
You're also a fractional COO, and I think for our listening audience, and for myself, how does that work? Like, what's the difference between, because some people get caught up in VA and, you know, virtual assistant world is, is a big topic today. Running even back office admin for someone is a different story. But what is a fractional COO and how does that differ? Or is it different than what you're discussing up to this point?
Yes. So your fractional COO is more like gaining a leadership person on your team without having to hire an official executive for your company. And so this role actually helps you build out your organization. It's helping you understand things like your metrics. It's looking at the things that you, as a visionary, and CEO, don't necessarily have the space for. But you need somebody to do it. So we're looking at how do we improve the
processes in your business? From a big picture standpoint, in relation to helping you fit your goals? We're looking at your metrics and helping you build out key performance indicators. What are the things that you actually need to be hitting, on a weekly, monthly basis in order to get to your goals and grow your business? We're helping you look at what policies are missing from your business, who are the key stakeholders you
need to be partnering with? We can help you with recruiting, if you need to bring on a team member, things like that. We're working with you to support your team, if you have one, what are your benefits look like? All of those things. And then of course, with financials and
budgets. So that's where your lower level admin staff, they're going to do more of like the research, data entry, managing your calendar, managing your schedule, your travel, they're not necessarily going to be able to help you strategize.
Gotcha.
And that's the difference between the two.
At the fractional COO level, are you actually getting your hands into the work? Or is it more of a coaching and guiding strategic leadership role?
Yes, it's more coaching and guiding. So we're not necessarily doing the work. But we are overseeing your team that is actually doing the work. So it also helps relieve you from having to do that team management piece that a CEO doesn't necessarily need to do. It gives the CEO one person to connect with and work with. And then your COO manages everything else.
Got it. Wow, time flies fast when we haven' good conversation, let me tell you. You also have a podcast. Is that right? Is it Leading, Leading Behind the Scene?
Yes.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Oh, my gosh, this was one of my kind of favorite little like passion projects. So Leading Behind the Scene is basically like your weekly dose of inspiration to help equip you to excel in business and life. So we talk life topics, we talk entrepreneurship topics. And the reason this was important to me was because too many times I've seen where us micro businesses, we get caught up in just one facet, right? Working in the
business. But my motto is that you bring you to work, you can't run a business without yourself. And so we have to address both the things that are happening in the business, but also the things that are happening in our lives. And so I was like, what if I could just talk about it all and not have to be just, like siloed into talking about business and entrepreneurship because I am part of the business and entrepreneurship.
And if I'm not well, the business isn't well, and I want to talk about some of that stuff, because nobody's talking about it.
Right. Right, right.
And so I interview just like small businesses, entrepreneurs, who are not necessarily influencers or big companies, but they're doing amazing things on their level. And they've had some life experiences that they can share that will help equip us to be better as we're growing our businesses, not to mention some of my own personal things that I talk about on the show as well.
So we talk about, you know, the importance of being persistent in business and sharing how life experiences have shaped us to be that. How to be resilient. What to do when disruption happens in our lives, right? Because sometimes there's a personal disruption that happens that could affect the business, but nobody wants to talk about it, because, I don't know but I want to talk about it. So . . .
Yeah.
We're talking about it, and leading behind the scene.
see. And they'll only show you what they feel comfortable sharing with you. But they won't share the dirty down, the real story of growing a business, the real story of being an entrepreneur, the real heartache stories, because listen, at the end of the day, you don't know what you're made of until you lead yourself
through a challenge, right? And it doesn't matter if you own a business because look, we all had to lead our way through a pandemic, and what lockdown meant and what non essential versus essential meant and whether you do or don't want to work. I mean, all of us had to do the thing we had to do to lead ourselves through that. But it's even more important as an entrepreneur and a lot of entrepreneurs fly even if they're a CEO or owner, founder
of the company. It's a little bit more of a lonely journey than when you're working in a cubicle with 25 other desks and y'all can all have the same conversation at the break. Y'all can all take a smoke break if you do that thing . . .
Yes.
. . . at the same time and kind of do your little rant session. Entrepreneur to entrepreneur, we sit across this screen. And you can sit here and go through turbulence by yourself.
Yes.
By yourself, even if you've got a team because some of your team ain't got nothing to do with the story that whatever's going on up here, they're down here. You don't come down there and tell 'em. You can't tell 'em.
Yes. And if you don't have that support . . .
Right. Sometimes your spouse or significant other doesn't even understand it. Right?
Yes.
Everybody thinks that when you own the business, your life is golden. That, there's this interesting dynamic I hear from people, you know, I, I wouldn't trade being an entrepreneur for the world. But somebody's like, Oh, I wish I was in your shoes. I say you better be sure you can wear these.
Yeah.
If you can wear these things, it's yours!
I'm like really? Be real careful what you ask for!
Careful.
Be real careful what you ask for.
Careful. You used to wearing sandals, these is war boots, you know what I mean? No disrespect our military folk. But . . .
Well, different.
You know, these boots strap up a little different.
So different.
So listen, Gwendolyn, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. (a) thank you for leading in the area that you are because you're serving entrepreneurs, you're serving business growth. And there's a lot of stuff out here in the marketplace where entrepreneurs are jumping out because it's easier than ever to start a business or people that
want to be entrepreneurs. And they really have been sold a bill of goods that is just go get me a domain name, or forget a domain name, some of them just want to sign up on Instagram and Tik Tok and hope that that's gonna take them to the Promised Land. You might as well go get a lottery ticket, I'm not saying it's not possible, but you misunderstand the game of business. That's like someone saying I'm gonna go start me an NFL franchise and just win the Super Bowl. Good luck with that.
I mean, it's not unpossible. But it's more difficult than you think. So without someone like Gwendolyn in your business, on your team, behind the scenes, sitting beside you, as an entrepreneur, you're just not gonna make it. Years and years ago, 20 years ago, is when I let that sit in and I finally got the realization and one of the exercises that I was taught back then by my coach, this is 2003. I remember her telling me, You're not selling any other services for the next 90 days, I
paid her. And she's like, Yeah, we're not going to sell anything for the next 90 days, we're going to do these processes and these systems. And I'm like, I got to eat. And she was like, you can go get some business,
That part. but you ain't gonna eat that long if we don't fix all this here, right. And so that exercise was challenging, painful, but necessary, and it then allowed me to bring in the right people to help me actually double and triple, you know, so it's the hard work that no one wants to do. Sitting next to someone like Gwendolyn, who can see things you can't see and can take your chaos and organize it, right? And she can also tell you, your chaos is not for the day. So you got to put that on
the shelf for a later day. Funny story, and I'll wrap it up and tell people where to find you. I remember I was talking to this guy. He says, he knows I have a digital marketing business. I'm an entrepreneur podcast, he knows the whole story. And he's like, Hey, man, I got these ideas. Can I run 'em by you? I'm like, you can run 'em by me. I'm just not sure how much help I'm gonna be able to give you. So he ran 'em by me. And I said to say
it was like five ideas. And I'm like, which one are you most passionate about? And he goes, Well, I'm most passionate about this one. And I said, Okay, well just do that. He goes, Yeah, but I'm also doing this. I said, No, no, no, no, you asked me for my advice. You can't do all six of these things. At the same time, I said, which one are you most passionate about? And he told me which one I said, Well, you need to just do that. He goes, okay,
okay, okay, I hear you. And he goes, what do you suggest I do, and I gave him a plan. And so the next time I run into him, I said, so how's that going? And he goes, Well, you know, I started this other thing. And that is why you need an integrator.
And so here's the issue, going back to a little bit of joking around Kolbe, and Myers Briggs, and understanding whether you're a visionary integrator, he's a visionary. I saw that. And he needed an integrator. He needed a Gwendolen. He needed someone who could take his chaos and his ideas. None of his ideas are bad that, none of them were bad. But you just can't execute on all of
them at the same time. And so I have a process, which means let's scale back to scale up, which means, let's do minimum viable execution to make sure that this works, then we can do something else. So anyway, Gwendolyn, been a pleasure chatting with you. You've got all sorts of free resources, ways people can connect with you. Where would you want people to connect with you, if they're sitting on the other seat saying I need a Gwendolyn in my life? I need someone to organize my
chaos, to harmonize, right? to help me put some systems in place. Where would you want them to connect with you?
Yes, absolutely. So I want you guys to go to www.NoMoreOverwhelm.com. And go ahead and schedule a call. Let's get on the phone and talk about what some of those things are that are causing chaos and giving you really, really bad headaches in your business. So www.NoMoreOverwhelm.com And then I also have a freebie for you.
If you go to www.YourVirtualAdminExpert.com and opt in, I have a download for you which is a free assessment That's really going to help you figure out if you're really operating in your zone of genius in your business. It's very enlightening. So I'm gonna encourage you to go ahead and download that, it's completely FREE. And definitely subscribe to the podcast, www.LeadingFromBehindTheScene.com. You can go subscribe, listen to the episodes. And you can find me across all social media
channels @YourAdminExperts. So, Darrell, this was so much fun.
Thank you for being here. Gwendolyn, it's just a great perseverance through your story, great recognition to say, Okay, this is what it is, but you're not going to take over my life, you're going to be a part of it, maybe. But we're going to work through it. And we're going to pivot and it looks like it's set a path for you over the last seven years, eight years or so to really just really go to that next level of your life and your career. You've done 20 years of great
work in your prior journey. Last little piece, I'll say to this for everybody listening, what you've been great at for 15, 20 years somewhere else, those skills are transferable.
Yes.
Everybody thinks well I don't want to start all over from scratch. No, no, no, you're not starting from scratch because you take with you what you learned. You take with you, the skills you built up, you take with you your discipline, you take with you your intuition, you take with you all those things to that next venture. Just because the grass is you know, on a different side of the of the fence doesn't mean starting over. And I hear a lot of people get stuck with that.
So congratulations to you, Gwendolyn on starting this entrepreneurial journey, and then serving the entrepreneurial community, which I'm extremely passionate about. I always ask my guests the final question if you've listened to any of my shows, and that is if for some odd reason, we know Lord, we don't want that to happen. But if this happened to be your last day here, what would you want everyone to remember you for?
I would want to be remembered for making an impact in someone's life. Whether that be making your business easier, making your life more fun, adding some joy somewhere in the world. I want to be remembered for adding joy and peace. That's what I want to be remembered for.
Can't be any better than that. Hardest service, servant leadership. Gwendolyn thanks so much for being on The MindShift Podcast. I look forward to us staying connected.
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
Hey, my friend. Thanks again for listening to today's episode of The MindShift Podcast. Listen, let's not have the conversation in here. Connect with me on social @MrDarrellEvans on almost all the platforms. With the exception of Facebook. My Facebook fan page is @DarrellEvansFan. Until next week, remember you're just one shift away from the breakthrough you're looking for.