Building a Profitable Coaching Business: Processes, People, and Profit

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation, brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true, actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting-edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome to episode 16 of the Coaching Equation podcast.

0:42 I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners. And in today's episode, I'm so excited to have the opportunity to introduce you to the third member of our amazing trifecta here at Empire Partners, our COO, Vanessa Malkin. Now, Vanessa is an absolute wizard when it comes to the world of operations, systems, processes. And in this episode, we're really going to take a close look at the areas that you can get stuck if you don't have good, solid systems and processes set up in your business. We're also going to give you a really simple framework for setting up and documenting your processes and Vanessa is going to walk you through this step by step.

1:30 Additionally, we're going to talk about how to bring on help, when to do it, and who is going to be the first right hire in your business. This is going to be an incredibly impactful episode, so buckle up for episode 16 of the Coaching Equation podcast. Let's dig in. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop. What's up, dude? What's up, what's up? And we've got the third member of the trifecta in the house today, Vanessa Malkin. What's up, lady? Hey, how's it going? It's going. I'm so excited to have you here and to introduce you to everybody that listens to this show.

2:14 Vanessa is the glue that makes this whole freaking thing stick together at the end of the day. And that's an understatement. It's funny. The first time... I think I've told you this story. I think I have. But Vanessa, the first time that I got introduced to you before we technically got introduced, I randomly get this email one day. I think this is several years ago. I think... 2019, maybe, something like that. I randomly get this email from you that says, Hey, thank you for applying for the recent open sales position at Clients on Demand. Please use this link to book on Mark's calendar to discuss potential opportunities.

2:54 And I'm like... Who the hell is this Vanessa gal? I had been in Clients on Demand as a client and had a great relationship with Mark. And we never had communicated. I don't know that you were on the team maybe the last little bit when I was still a client, but I had no idea who you were. I'm like, who is this chick? And I didn't apply for any open sales position unless I did it when I was drunk, which I mean, I don't know. That's possible. But I was pretty sure that I didn't do it. And that was the introduction to several years of craziness and amazing things that happened and amazing experiences and opportunities. And I got to know you so well when we worked together there.

3:36 And then eventually, Brooke became part of that picture as well. And I'm just excited. Number one, we're, of course, incredibly excited that you're a part of Empire, but especially excited to introduce you to this audience because... I feel like what you do is such the foundation of why we built this company in the first place in terms of helping coaches become profitable business owners. Because you can't do it without the magic that you bring to the table. Yeah. For those of you that are just getting introduced to Vanessa, she is an ops wizard. She is our COO. She just makes operations run smoothly, effectively, efficiently, and she is absolutely the best that I've seen.

4:21 She's incredible. So welcome. Welcome. Thank you. I want to kind of... Now that you're here, we're going to do this several more times. This isn't the last time. By the way, I'm just telling you this. So hopefully you're up for more. I really wanted to start these conversations with you today around stuck points that we get to in our business. And Brooke, I know you've got a strong sentiment around where that first stuck point is. Share more about that. Yeah. So I think that when we look at business, there's the stuff that we want to do, and then there's the stuff that we need to do. And so often we get caught in the doing the stuff we want to do because it's more enjoyable.

5:03 It's more fun. Right. And the stuff we need to do, that's where I always see Vanessa. Like she's always in the need to do stuff. Right. It's the pieces of the puzzle that really will grow in and strengthen a business. And I know we were chatting right before we all popped into here today. You know, there's this dynamic of like where that first plateau that we hit. It usually falls into a couple categories. It's process. Yeah. people and profit, right? We either don't have enough money to get to that next level because we don't have the ability to hire the right people. We don't have the right processes in play, right? We don't have the right structures of the systems or we don't have the right people that are there to help us grow. And so I know Vanessa, this is an area that honestly, it's where we always plug Vanessa in. We're like, what?

5:45 help with these two of the three is like her, her go-to zone. So I know with people, that's been an area that you've thrived in. So I'd love to hear just kind of your take on where people come into play and how that helps people break out of that plateau. Yeah. It's funny. I know you want to talk to people, but I want to say, you just said my favorite word process. So we can't, we can't go past that. So just a quick talk on process. Yeah, I come from a background of doing process documentation for large corporations who do ERP, big software implementations. So understanding process has been so much of what I've built my career off of. And honestly, it's even the way I parent today.

6:26 But it's so critical to know what your process is. Yeah. You know, even if you have a really well dialed process in, if you don't have the right people in the place, then it doesn't matter. Like you can have the most streamlined, efficient process, but unless you have like the right key players surrounding you, you know, at all levels, then it really doesn't matter. And so people is an important element of your business. And it's great when you start to scale and you have the opportunity to start adding people to your sphere. Like that's... I think it's such a rush. Like I've seen some people that are like, I'm ready. I'm excited. I'm adding some people to my universe. But then it also could be a little scary too, because then you're like, oh my gosh, I have to like...

7:08 get all of my ducks in a row and make sure that I'm ready and buttoned up to then train somebody or hand over the work. Because for so often for many of these solopreneurs, they're just, they're just doing, you know, they've got to like take care of accounting. They've got to, you know, pay their vendors. They have to get their marketing spun up. They've got to do their fulfillment. They've got to think about, you know, where they want to go in the next three to six to nine months. And then somehow being able to take all of the smaller pieces that you do and hand it off to somebody can be a little cumbersome. But once you get past that, there's so much benefit, like such a high ROI to having good people in your universe. I want to make sure I want to kind of talk to a couple of different groups in this episode, a couple different people, because there are people right now who they're good at coaching and they're coaching and they really don't have much in terms of process set up at the moment.

8:06 And they haven't yet hit that threshold of, oh my gosh, I can't do anything in my business if I don't get some more help. But they're scrambling at the moment purely because they either don't have processes or their processes suck. So I want to get back to the people. Before we go there, for the folks that fall into that first category, what are a couple of simple ways that people can start to get a handle on building processes that are actually effective in their business when they're doing it at the ground level? Yeah. I mean, one simple way that I've started to tell some people is like, as you're executing a process, just start up a Zoom meeting and record.

8:53 Or my favorite is Loom. And Loom is a great tool for you to then be able to record your screen. And it's really nice for you to then just record yourself as you're moving through the process. And there's so many great ways. Actually, one of my favorite, favorite tools is Fathom. It's a great recorder that you can add on to your Zoom meeting. I know, Ryan, you like Otter a lot, which is really great. But it's so great to then be able to just record yourself. And maybe if you've got Fathom in your Zoom meeting, it then transcribes your whole process for you. And you could even take a copy of that transcription, throw it in... I'm starting to speak, you know, Brooke's world. Throw it into AI and say, hey, can you break down my process for me? And then you can really start to see it.

9:34 And then once you see it, whether it's just words written out or even watching it, you're able to then start to see the gaps and then be able to be like, Oh, well, why do I do that? Or, you know, could my system automate sending out that email for me? Or is this something that I could pass on to someone else? But I think leveraging some really neat new tools out there can give you the visibility without having to know a lot about documenting process. I love that. Yet in the world of process, right? It's like we always talk about everyone has a process, whether you know what it is or whether you have a good process or whether you have an optimized process. That's a whole nother animal.

10:14 But I think it's important just to highlight because most people think of process in terms of their fulfillment. Yeah. And at the end of the day, we've got process in our marketing. We've got process in our sales. We've got process in our fulfillment. We've got process in our account. Like every piece of your business, at the end of the day, it is a process. So I think it's just important for anyone who's listening. It's like, okay, how well do you have those processes first and foremost documented? But also, are they in a structure in a way that you can improve upon them? Because that's where it gets really, really fun. That's where I've seen your genius come through. Yes, documenting is one piece of the puzzle. But seeing when you look at a process, the way that you dig in... And I don't even know what goes on in your head and how you put these pieces together.

10:59 And I also like to think of myself as being somewhat of a process guy. Oh, you're a process geek. Yeah. You like to think of yourself as, yeah, you whatever. I don't know how I got put into that, that pigeonhole, but whatever. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Mr. Lucid charts. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'm going home now. But no, but how you look at things from a perspective, is it that you usually look towards efficiency? Are you looking towards streamlining? Like what? Okay. Is that? Yeah. It's funny. When I managed a team before, there was always a joke that they would leave for vacation and I would fill in for them and they'd come back and they'd have such beautiful buttoned up processes because I'd experienced the inefficiencies.

11:41 And I was like, I didn't know my people were doing it this way. Like I forgot being boots on the ground. Some of the... the extra steps that you'd have to take. And I'd be like, no, no, no, no, no, we need to fix this. And so it's always to the end of efficiency. And so that's the value of having it documented. And I did mention one word that I want to touch on too is the lucid charts. So that's another great way for you to start having your processes visually documented. So as I mentioned, like a great process that I do right now is I'll have a Zoom meeting with my fathom in there. I'll talk through a process, whether it's with a client or even I'll just talk through my own process myself. Then I'll take that transcription and put it into Lucid Charts.

12:22 And Lucid Charts has this really great wizard where you can pop in basically like if you like can whittle down your process to like, here's my process, you know, step one through 10, it can then actually pop it out for you in Lucid Charts visually. What? Why are you... Of all the people. I've been holding out. What in the what? Seriously. I'm so disappointed right now. We just have so many things to talk about every time we're together, Brooke. It's never an end of topics. That should be the first topic. By the way, V, I want to explain to you how this will go from here. Brooke now will take this as if it was his idea, champion it all over the place. Yeah. That's true. And every once in a while, I'll give you credit for it.

13:05 Oh, I love it. Only if you know this goes from here. I'll give you credit if you're there. Yeah, I love it. Well, you just... Let's start with getting you signed up for Fathom, and then we'll go from there. So yeah, one step at a time. Let me ask you something. When was it that you came to the realization, like if there was a moment or if you can think of a time in your life or a position that you were in or whatever... When was it that you realized, number one, that processes were so important? And number two, when did you kind of go, oh, not only is that important, but I think I like that shit. I want more. Yeah. Yeah.

13:45 So I've actually been in the process world since 2012. So what's that like 12 years now? And I was, I was trained in it. I did some work out in California and actually some consulting around the world. And that was really neat. And it was such like for a high nebulous thing that I couldn't understand the value of it. I felt like you don't really get to see the fruits of your labor. So it was, it was just, I didn't get it, but it wasn't until I was managing a team and there were several maternity leaves. And then you start to feel the loss of a teammate for a good chunk of time. And so it was just like, okay, so we really need to document our processes at this point. And when we finally built out a really beautiful database of it, everything ran so smoothly.

14:31 So when the next person, because there was like a series of maternity leaves, when the next person was on maternity leave, there were hardly any hiccups, because we were able to all know what were the pieces that that person was touching and how we could support that. Even if we did like 60% of their job while they were gone, just like we knew all of the pieces and what to do. And that's when I really understood the value of process because it had like a really strong personal effect on me and my team. And so... Yeah, I think that's where I start to see it now for small businesses. Like, you know, if you could start documenting your process, even today, even if you're a solopreneur by, you know, that fathom to AI to lucid charts, like you could then really have like a good baseline.

15:18 So when you're ready to bring somebody on, it doesn't feel... feel so, so heavy, like you're, you're weeding through a giant tunnel of weeds or something, because it really does have a personal effect on you when you start to document these things. 100%. And I love that you mentioned how it sets you up for success when you're ready. Because I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that business owners in general make, and especially coaches. But business owners in general, we just don't... Oftentimes, we don't have the wherewithal, as you pointed out earlier. We're doing the thing. We're doing the things that we like to do. Or in a lot of cases, we're doing the things that make us money.

15:59 And listen, operations, processes, that kind of stuff is not sexy. It's not sexy. Yes. Right? It doesn't show up. Yes, it does. I've had multiple people tell me, they're like, but this just doesn't feel fun or sexy. And it's like, yeah, I get it. But it's necessary. Like, if you want the other parts to work, then you've got to take care of this. It's like doing the dishes or the laundry, like just maintenance, get it done. So... That's right. The other part though, too, is that a flailing or unprofitable business, that ain't sexy either. And you can't have profitable and thriving without solid processes and information. So make sure if you're listening to this right now, go back and you're kind of in the beginning stages of your business or...

16:46 you're in the middle of your business and you're listening to this Vanessa talk about these processes and you're like, oh shit, I haven't documented any of this stuff. Go back and capture the very simple procedure that she gave you because it's really a great starting point. And when you get to a point, let's say you're at a spot right now where you're like, you know what, I'm going to do this. I'm going to take Vanessa's advice and I'm going to document my processes, but I can still do this stuff on my own. I'm not yet ready to bring somebody on. Great. When you get to a point where, as Brooke mentioned earlier, you hit that threshold where you can no longer do it on your own and you need to bring somebody else in, you've now got built-in onboarding, which is a huge piece of the puzzle.

17:29 How many times, you guys, you know, we... One of the things that we do at Empire Partners is to provide both virtual assistance and fractional services, depending on what you need in your business. And one of the things that we see all the time, I'd love for you guys to talk about this, because you see it every day, you hear it every day, is people lamenting over how long or how arduous the onboarding process is going to be if they bring somebody else on. And they avoid doing it in the name of that, which is craziness. I actually just had somebody reach out to me today that they were like, I'm holding off because I need to get my ducks in a row to get started. I understand because it is overwhelming. But at a certain point, too, it's almost like, well, there could be value in having that person come on.

18:14 And maybe even there, the beginning point of you starting to document your processes. Like one way that I used to have is before AI was like a huge thing, I would screen record myself. I'd hand it to my teammate and I'd say, OK, document this process. And what was great was it gave the opportunity for us to not even know that AI was available and leverage that awesomeness. But then it anchored for them what the process actually was as they were documenting it. It was twofold in that I was passing something on. And it was anchoring the information for them. And then we'd review it again together to make sure everything was buttoned up. And as it truly was, maybe I missed like a nuance, like exceptions are always, always in present, but it was, it was a great way for us to get things done instead of like getting ready to get ready.

19:01 The way I look at it is if you're in that moment or in that mode where you're like, I need to hire somebody to help me more times than not, it's already too late. Right. Because you're feeling the pressure of there's too much on your plate to be able to tackle all of it. And now you're going to stack on recruiting somebody. You're going to stack on hiring them and taking them through that gauntlet. Then you're going to stack on training them. Then you're going to stack on managing them. So I just, I just always want to encourage everybody. One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader, especially in the coaching business, you've got to be able to anticipate and you've got to start to see where your thresholds are at. So when you have about 10% of your bandwidth left, that's when you want to go hire that next person or that first person so that you can then have the window of time and the energy to be able to support them coming on.

19:46 But I agree with you so much, Vanessa. How many people... I don't even know how many people... This happens all the time. We have a number. We have a number in our contact list, Brooke. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure we do. Yeah. There's this dynamic of, oh, I don't have my world organized or I'm afraid they're going to see my messy, dirty room. And we're afraid of being judged because our world isn't organized, not realizing we're hiring an organizer. So I think that that's just another important piece for people to realize. We know your room is going to be messy. That's exactly why you need to bring on this next hire. So that they can organize, document and optimize your world. Right? Yeah. So, and I, I really like to say it's so that you can own your desk as a CEO. Instead of taking care of all of that groundwork, you're actually like elevated to another level because you're, you're not having to worry about that anymore.

20:34 And then not only bringing somebody on could offload some stuff, but maybe they could help you to streamline and make things more efficient. So they're like, okay, well, I took what I got. I'm ready for more. What else can I help? What else can I support on? It's a great point. It's a great point. And actually you, you and Ryan were instrumental in this, right? So like we, we brought on a VA to our team to help with the podcast of all things. Right. And it was fascinating because I, Ryan clearly has a huge background and, and this space of things and, you know, journalism publications and whatever the heck we call it podcasting. Is that what we just call it now? I don't even know. Broadcasting, podcasting, journalism, all the things. Yeah. Clearly not my lane. Uh, yeah.

21:14 But the beautiful piece of this is he was wise enough and the leadership of him was like, hey, let's hand this off to someone else. And the thing that was so cool about it is when we brought on Ralph to actually help with the podcast side, he immersed himself in something and gave concentrated focus. Whereas if we were to do it, could we get it done? Yeah. Are we super passionate about how all the little nuances and all these little things happen? Not really, but he's so into it because his passion is there. It's like, holy crap, the outcomes that we're getting because he's so into it. It's next level. And at the end of the day, it would not be a wise move for Ryan's hours to be sucked into that side of the biz.

21:56 So I just think it's just important just to kind of lay out for anyone who's listening. When do you hire them? It's not when you need them. It's before you need them. Yeah. Yeah. hire people to do the things that you're perhaps not super passionate about that they love. One of the things too, I love that. And one of the things I want to mention, and by the way, shout out to Ralph. He's so awesome. Ralph, he's so awesome. Ralph, we love you. We love you, man. One of the things I think that's really important too, is that right now, yes, we're sort of talking about like that initial threshold, but... The truth is that you're going to have multiple times in your career where you're going to have to address this issue.

22:36 It's not just going to be once. You will bottleneck yourself. I'm just coming out. I mean, look, I'm not afraid to out myself. Like this has been a big topic of conversation this year and especially recently. And I think... A couple of things that I think are really, really valuable that I would suggest. If you're wondering where you're at right now, or if you're wasting your time, or if you need help. First of all, make sure that you put yourself around a group of people in your environment who will call bullshit on you. Number one, if you've got somebody amazing on your team like Vanessa, Vanessa will literally go, Yeah, you're not doing that anymore. I put a meeting on the calendar for Wednesday, and we're going to figure out how to extricate you from that.

23:17 Oh, okay. Okay. Or, you know, I just spent a couple of days last week with our mastermind group with, you know, with brand builders. And, you know, I was vulnerable enough to share some of the challenges that I've had with my time recently. And I'm not gonna lie, I got my ass handed to me by all of the awesome humans at the table. But they also had some really, really fantastic ideas. on how I could get clear on what I should be doing, what I shouldn't be doing. And one simple way, and this isn't the first time you've probably heard this if you're listening to this right now, but if you're hearing it and you haven't done it, you should. Go brain dump everything that you're doing.

23:57 And not just everything that you're doing in your business, but everything that you're doing in your life. Brooke and I connected. I've got a friend who we connected with some time ago, who is big in this space of staffing and stuff like that. And she was like, yeah, I've got VAs homeschooling my children. And we're like, what? I didn't even know that was a thing. Holy shit. Right. But until we go through the process of realizing what are all the things that we're doing, and then even a simple process of like, okay, on a scale of one to five, like five being, I love this, and I should be doing it. And one being, I hate this, and I have no business doing it. Ranking everything that you've got going on and figuring out how much stuff is there that you could really offload to somebody when the time is right, which is now probably.

24:47 It's probably right now. Yeah. If we're making your chest tight right now and your stomach do somersaults, it's probably right now. So yeah, but it's okay. You can still like, even if you're past that point, like I said, there's still opportunity for your resources to help you maybe document or streamline some things, even if you're past the point where you should have probably brought them on. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to add one other piece because I think this is so critical. You know, the way in which we sell a business is usually predicated on how we start a business. And I know that there's so few coaches that ever get into the game with the intention of selling their business one day.

25:28 But the reality is you absolutely can. And it comes down to a few different pieces. It comes down to your brand recognition or your marketing, right? It comes down to your deliverables, which is a fancy way of saying your process, right? And it comes down to your database. It comes down to the humans that you have in your world. And part of that database is also your team. And so I think I love that this conversation has unfolded this way because at the end of the day, your business, you want to go get a giant business loan or you want to go get investors or you really want to like really take things to the next level. They're going to want to know what is your marketing? What is your process? And who are your people? Yeah. And so this really fits into that space of like truly running an actual business comes down to the pieces that you do so beautifully, Vanessa, which is the people and the process.

26:17 And that's such a great point, Brooke, relative to potentially looking at selling your business. We ought to make an episode about that at some point because it never gets talked about in the coaching space. And it's wild. Most other businesses, when somebody... If you're a founder, you're intending on exiting at some point. And that's not the way people look at coaching businesses. So we'll, we should explore that in and of itself. But one of the things I want to hit on with, with the time that we've got here, guys, is who is the first hire that we make to help alleviate some of the overwhelm and the stress and doing things that we shouldn't be doing? Who's the first hire?

26:58 In my opinion, it's a virtual assistant. Yeah. Um, I think it's a great starting point to like offload some of that low hanging fruit, easy work that then will allow you to grow or take it to the next level. I thought that was a trick question. I was gonna be like, Oh, yourself. Um, I saw your face. That's why I was like, I don't want to hear your answer. Put me in coach. Put me in. But no, I was going to say yourself. And the reason I was going to say that is so often we see ourselves as doing all the things that we don't actually look at ourselves as a function of the business. We see ourselves as the entire business. Yeah. And I, but I do agree with you a hundred percent. I mean, in terms of the first person you actually put on payroll, someone other than yourself who's taken money out of the business.

27:42 Yeah. I would vote a VA every single time. Mainly just so you can free up your brain, the brainwave piece of it. But also, I'm going to make a bold claim. This might get us kicked off the podcast platforms, but I'm going to say it. The job market in the States and in Canada and Europe right now, it's funky. Finding really high-quality, talented people who love to work, who want to work, who take pride in their work, who want to do a good job, who want more hours... who are proud about the quality that they deliver. That's a really tough thing to find right now, stateside. And what I can tell you is on the VA side, when we go out of our own country, holy cow, it is a completely different, it's just a different culture.

28:26 And the caliber that they're bringing to the table, the level of knowledge and expertise that they bring to what they're doing is, in my opinion, is far superior than the bulk of what we're seeing stateside. I think there's definitely truth to that. Let me ask you guys something because you guys talk to people about this every day, literally. What do you say when – I would say, and tell me if I'm wrong. I believe that probably the biggest objection that people have with bringing even a virtual assistant onto their team initially is, I've got to go spend the money on this. And we know that that's faulty logic, but I want to hear why.

29:09 Because everybody, I feel like most people have that thought. Shit, I've had that thought. So why am I an idiot? Maybe I'm not an idiot. You're not an idiot, right? Why is it faulty logic? Why is it faulty logic to think, well, I'm not going to spend the money on a virtual assistant right now. I'm just going to keep hacking away at this on my own. Why is that faulty logic? I want to hear Vanessa's thoughts first because I'm like... I don't know, Brooke smirk. And I know we're running out of time. I mean, it's always the spend money to make money. Honestly, like you have to invest in yourself. And you also have to make sure that you like, I know for many people I've seen and experienced it where it's like, this is tight on my wallet, or this is tight on like, the revenue that I'm taking home.

29:57 I can understand that. But also, like burnout is a real thing. And that would be very costly, very costly. So So do you want to spend a little bit now to offload that? Or do you want to pay a big cost later when things crumble and you potentially close your business because you're like burnt out and overwhelmed and don't want to do it anymore? So, but Brooke, I want to see what your smirk says. I'm glad you went first and gave a beautiful feminine answer to it because my site's like so much more linear logical. Mine is, it's more of a, from a vantage point of, Hours allocated. So if I am spending 20 hours a week doing administrative tasks, sending emails, managing my calendar, doing the stuff that I don't like doing, versus if I had 20 hours a week to prospect and to reach out to my clients or to go have more sales engagements.

30:44 So I look at it really from a vantage point of revenue generating time. There you go. So to make that upfront investment of, you know, let's call it a thousand bucks to per month to have 20 to 40 hours a week freed up of stuff I don't want to do. Holy cow. How much more valuable is my time if I can put that? And here's the important piece. You've got to reallocate your time. It's not just offload. But reallocating that time into revenue-generating activities, that's usually where my head goes to is like, how do I get more revenue-generating activity time? Because, yeah, I mean, I've been fearful too of like, shoot. For me, it hasn't been so much of spend the money piece. It's been more of bringing this person on is going to eat up a certain amount of hours to train them and bring them on.

31:28 And I feel like I don't have that time yet. And you're a control freak. And I'm a control freak, yes. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm not coming to these calls anymore. This is like... HR. Beat up on Brooke Day. Seriously, man. And I don't even have the power to mute you guys right now. This is why I usually host all those sessions on my line. But no, you got nothing here. But yeah, I think you do need to be realistic too. Not only the financial investment piece, 100%, but the big piece of that is also, if you're bringing somebody on for 20 hours, don't just immediately assume that frees you up for 20 hours. Yeah. It's probably going to free you up for 15. So just factor in, okay, you're bringing them on for 20. You're going to have five hours a week that you're going to help support them and manage them and get them going.

32:11 Be realistic about how you're going to bring them in and free things up. I love that you talked about revenue generating activities because I think circling back to that list of stuff that you're doing in both your life and your business, one additional little activity to add to this. Figure out what your hourly rate is. Now, hopefully, most of you listening to this call right now are not doing your coaching session. It's not like by the hour, hopefully. We can talk about that on another episode. But... When you factor in, regardless of where you are in your business, when you factor in the amount of sales that you personally bring in the door, the amount of coaching sessions that you fulfill on that people are paying you for, right?

32:55 What is your hourly rate? And for every hour that you are wasting doing something that isn't generating money for your business, you're literally costing yourself and your business that revenue. every hour that you're doing that. Yep. So how much does that add up, right? Even if you're at the lower end of the spectrum, as it relates to how much you're pricing your offer at, let's just say that, that, you know, you've got a three month program. Let's say it's a thousand bucks, right? One new sale, right? Would cover your VA for 20 hours a week, rather. So I think it's really important to think about it in that context, because it's super easy to just go straight to the money and oh, I can't spend it and I can't afford it.

33:41 And the truth is, in most cases, we can't afford not to. That's the truth when we get to that stage. So guys, this has been awesome. I'm so glad we got a chance, number one, to introduce Vanessa. But to get in, this is such an important topic. And I'm really looking forward to further episodes where we can deep dive a little bit further on both staffing and personnel and how to do it right and who to hire and when and all the things. And also just getting our hands dirty and operations and all that stuff. One of the things I do want to mention, I referenced this earlier in the call, that we do staffing and provide virtual assistance and fractional help in your business. If you're at a point where you're like, hey, you know what?

34:22 You guys are right. I need to figure this out. I need to grab an assistant. I'm going to throw out this URL and we'll link it up in the show notes. So it's really easy for you to just go click on it. But go to www.empirepartners.io forward slash coaching dash assistance. I'm going to say that one more time. www.empirepartners.io forward slash coaching dash assistance. You can go explore what we do with this entire thing there and book a call to just discuss what your needs are and how we might be able to help. But this really is the right place to start in terms of a virtual assistant. And if you need more than that, in terms of fractional help, we've got that too.

35:04 But it would encourage you to go check that out. Do the homework. If you've been going through this episode and this has been resonating with you, make sure to go make your list of stuff that you're doing in your life and your business. Figure out what's not serving you right now. Figure out what your hourly rate is. and how much money you're wasting in your business right now, how much revenue you're not getting. And make the commitment to not just strengthen your business currently, but to give yourself the opportunity to grow and scale moving forward. Brooke and V, any last words before we part ways today? No, that was epic. Although I may have to decide whether or not I want to come back to another episode. That was going to be my thing. I've enjoyed this tremendously. This has been blood beating Brooke up.

35:45 So... Thank you guys. I really appreciate hopping on chatting with you folks. Yeah. Looking forward to more. Likewise, gal. Likewise. Thanks guys. Thank you for listening to this episode of the coaching equation podcast and we'll see you on the flip side. Take care. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform. To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go.