Transcript:
00:01
Derek Fredrickson
I’m excited to welcome today’s guest to the COO Solution podcast, Samantha Prestidge. Samantha is the founder of Auxo Business Services and works with founder-led businesses and companies to help them get out of their own way and accomplish more impactful work. Her approach is refreshingly direct. She helps founders and CEOs simplify how they work, build reliable teams and step into real management without overcomplicating things. She does this through US-based virtual assistant support, flat fee recruiting and strategic integration. What I love about Samantha’s philosophy is that it aligns deeply with what we do here at The COO Solution. And she is not here to babysit founders or hand them a checklist.
01:05
Derek Fredrickson
She is here to help them delegate with confidence, hire the right people and build a business that does not depend on the founder for every single decision. And so today we’re talking about delegation, hiring and the mindset shift that changes everything for a founder who is ready to actually let go. Let’s get into it.
Hey, everybody, it’s Derek Frederickson here, founder of The COO Solution and The COO Solution podcast and very excited for our episode today with our guest, Samantha Prestidge. Samantha, welcome to the show. It’s great to have you with us today.
00:26
Samantha Prestidge
Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited.
00:29
Derek Fredrickson
We’re looking forward to diving in. You and I have a lot in common because we’re going to be talking a lot about delegation and getting support in your business today and virtual assistants and providing that extra layer of execution and implementation for founders and CEOs and the companies that we work with. And so we’re going to just go ahead and dive right in. And I would love to hear from you, Samantha, in your world, we work with founders, we work with CEOs, and I would love to kind of start with when you work with the founder, CEO in the company providing that assistant level support and kind of delegation, what is a common theme?
01:04
Derek Fredrickson
What is the one thing that you see with most founders that is maybe holding everything back, that maybe they know is holding them back, or maybe they don’t know that’s holding them back. What’s your perspective on that when you start to work with a client?
01:16
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, okay, great question. Let me give some context or perspective there to where, you know the types of people I’m usually working with. So I say I like to work with the founders who like to be busy, right? So they don’t respond to the concept of like being burned out. They’re like, of course I want to work 50 hours a week, it’s fine. Like, the only reason they might slow down is if they have kids. And then they’re like, I want to go to their soccer game or I want to have dinner with them. But besides that, they like to work. Right? So I think that’s an important piece of context, right, for the kind of people I’m working with.
01:50
Samantha Prestidge
And most often what I see is like, you know, they might think about handing off low level tasks, but usually it’s like, I know I need help, I just don’t know what I need help with. And really it’s because they haven’t thought through what they want their role as the founder to look like in the business. And I’m sure you see this because you’re introducing maybe their first high level partner as their frac COO. Right. And so we’re, for the first time in their business, someone’s getting into the messy dirty details and asking those tough questions and where they feel like they’ve gone to the principal’s office. Right. And they’re like, no one’s asked me that before. Like, I don’t know how I do this. I don’t know why I made this decision. Right.
02:32
Samantha Prestidge
And so we have to start thinking through things differently, mostly from that context of, okay, where do you want to play in your business and what does that really look like? If you took away the fancy vision statement, the one that you put on your website, that makes it sound cool, and you just thought about your actual vision for like how you want to feel in your business and what does that look like? And that can get uncomfortable right, for some founders, but that’s where we have to start with delegation.
02:59
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, it’s the, I sometimes call it the messy middle. Right. Like kind of opening the hood of the business and with no judgment, looking at what’s working, what’s not working. You have to assess before you say, you know, do less or delegate this or delegate that. And so to take that a step further, when you work with founders around the concept of delegation, you have this idea of the difference between delegating a task and delegating an outcome. Talk to us a little bit about that distinction if you could.
03:26
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah. So I’m going to go back and pick on what I said about low level tasks, which there are low level tasks that can have high impact. Right. So low level doesn’t mean that it’s like not important in the business. It just is something that doesn’t require you as the founder. Right. But oftentimes we’ll think, people think through like a checklist, okay, I want to delegate these tasks and let’s try to hand that off. But when we don’t give the expectations around that, when we don’t give the clear big picture for it, then the decisions around that task still kind of live in your head. You still are then dictating, this is how I want this to get done. And you kind of get in this trap of like, crap. So I need 100 SOPs in my business before I hire somebody.
04:07
Samantha Prestidge
It’s like, no, you don’t. But you do need clarity. So I say delegate the outcome. And so when we build out a job description, I say, okay, you want them to do this task in this kind of way so that it like achieves this result and then you don’t have to think about it. So I think through like what would they need access to or what would your assistant or whoever the team member is needs know the back, like all that information that’s in your head, what do they need to know so that you don’t have touch this task, you don’t have to think about this decision, except maybe like a final approval on something. So think through those big level outcomes.
04:42
Samantha Prestidge
And something else I pick on here is, you know, what’s like the value statement of that role for that assistant or whoever the team member is. And a lot of times founders will say, oh well, if I delegate these low level tasks or I get this admin off my plate, then I have time for more business development tasks. That’s not a value statement because none of those things actually connect. Right. And also I’m assuming you haven’t actually thought through what business development means for you, so you’re just gonna go burn yourself out on one on one networking, which sucks. Right? I say again, like connected to the business, the big picture, when this person is successful in this role, that means this thing for the business.
05:23
Samantha Prestidge
So if I took my own ops assistant, for example, I’d say like, if she’s successful in this whole laundry list of tasks, that would result in a more white glove experience for our clients, which would mean higher retention and likely more referrals. Right. So there’s a specific business outcome that comes from her doing those tasks. And yeah, I do have more time to go play around in my business, go do business development, go come up with new ideas, but that’s just a byproduct of her kicking ass in this role.
05:53
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, I get it. Okay. I want to take a step back sometimes. I love to ask the question which is why, why this topic? So you have a very successful virtual assistant company that provides VA services. We’ll talk about that in a moment, which I firmly believe in. In addition to the work that we as COOs provide, there’s also a supplementary benefit when you have a really well skilled, experienced, highly-expertised VA that can do that kind of day to day admin implementation and everything else. But I want to go back a step behind and say oftentimes on the show I ask you guys why this topic for you and like maybe how you got into it and why you feel this is very relevant and current now in terms of this conversation that we’re having today.
06:40
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah. Okay. So I have this weird background in people and process which I know is like the cringiest, most common thing that anyone in strategy or business coaching sense. It’s like people process and profit, right? But that really is kind of my background. So my first office job was in a high-volume staffing agency. And so I very quickly went from receptionist to recruiter to personal supervisor and handling accounts. And so I would manage warehouse accounts and call center accounts. Eventually I did higher level stuff too, but that’s where the bulk of my time was, which meant, I’m interviewing like I’m doing the grub work, right? I’m the newbie. So I’m interviewing somewhere between 30 to 50 people a day, five days a week, working like 7:30 to 6:30. And you get to learn a lot.
07:32
Samantha Prestidge
You learn a lot when you interview that many people. And then it’s like, okay, this is what I’m seeing on the resume. Here’s what I’m seeing in like their interview answers, here’s what the clients are saying they need and like, you know, also understanding like, hey, this is a warehouse that needs like just shipping and like finding the inventory in the box. This is a warehouse where like the person eventually is going to learn to make, I don’t know the right term, it’s not LED signs, but you know, like 711 like the signs, right? Like that’s kind of. Yeah, okay. Like whoever’s a scientist or knows more than I don’t call me out on that. But so, okay, like they have to have a little bit more professionalism as you can, if you could even say that in the warehouse world.
08:14
Samantha Prestidge
And having to know the distinctions between different types of warehouses, right? And like really, where do people play the best role and the managers that are there. And so I learned so much in that. And then I went on to do more like executive assistant work. So I know what it takes for a really good assistant. But I also then went on to work in a software company that worked with oil and gas, which also, if you ever want to feel dumb in your life, work at an office that everybody is a software engineer before AI or a geophysicist and every word you hear will go over your head. So here’s me, the lowly little admin project manager person. Like, how do I convince these people that I’m kind of smart, you know?
08:58
Samantha Prestidge
But anyway, they had a really big focus on Lean Six Sigma. And so I got an introduction to that world and like, what does process improvement and efficiency really look like? What are the differences of like corporate processes and resources versus the agility of a small team, a family-owned team, which is kind of what I had worked in before. And so it really is this awesome combination of like HR people, culture, chemistry and vibe. And then process. At the end of the day, we just have to get shit done. If I could say that on this show. And like, yeah, we want our culture to feel good, but like, we still have to get stuff done, we still have to make money or else no one gets paid and no one has a job. Right.
09:43
Samantha Prestidge
So that’s my long, very long winded answer on like how I have this expertise that feeds into this. And like the short, very boring origin story is this I had a Covid baby. I had a baby at the end of 2019. I stayed at home. I was like, I want to get things done. What can I do? I have this cool expertise. So with a seven month old in 2020, I was like, let’s start a business. And we got into this, right? Yeah. So if we fast forward to the relevancy of it. Well, okay, like we’re post Covid. Right. So a lot more people are working remotely. There’s a lot of hype around AI agents. I suggested AI to some companies when they’re like, I just need someone in my inbox. Like, don’t pay a human for that. Like, okay, save your budget.
10:26
Samantha Prestidge
Like save your budget for high impact work. Right. But like go to AI to sort your inbox. It’s not that difficult. Also, maybe just do filters on your Gmail and bada bing, bada boom, you’re done with that, right? Yeah. So I, I see this relevant because we do see this surge of more remote workers. More remote, like online service providers or consultants. Even if they are traveling in-person to their clients sometimes for workshops and things, a majority of their work is still remote. Right. But they need access to the type of support that maybe a corporate team would have. That level of like admin that just knows the back end, but they don’t want to pay a full time employment. Right. So there’s that, that kind of relevancy piece.
11:07
Derek Fredrickson
Okay, got it. So I love what you shared because I think one of the things that when we talked before, you have this idea of the differencing. You know, there’s a part of like, yes, process. Like we can over process to the nth degree where we’re then kind of like getting into the weeds. Like we’re getting into like the rabbit hole versus just like simplifying work. Like what needs to get done? how do you prioritize? So knowing that it’s a combination of process and simplification with the work getting done, when it comes back to delegation, working with the founder or working with the team, let’s talk about trust, because as you’ve experienced, and I know this as well, is that at any level, there is the relinquishing control, even if it’s something as simple as somebody checking their inbox or managing your calendar.
11:50
Derek Fredrickson
Like, the letting go aspect of founders is something that all of our clients can relate to in one way or the other. How do you kind of bridge the gap between you are here to serve, you’re here to support with simplifying the work, delegation, process, all of that, but it means you have to let go. It means you need to trust. It means you need to give control for somebody to do what they can do, maybe even better than the founder can do themselves. So talk to us a little bit about the trust factor.
12:15
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah. You know, I heard someone a few years ago kind of describe this in a really cool way of minimizing the blast radius, right? So often I say, okay, here’s this whole job description for an assistant. Let’s assume, like, you’ve got maybe 10 or 15 hours a week that you need this assistant to do well. Maybe we start out at like five hours or seven hours a week, and like, we stagger what they’re gonna take on so that they can do this, like, one or two things really well and then keep adding on to that. And so kind of like, what’s. What is something that’s still valuable. It still alleviates, like, things from your to do list, gives you back your time. But maybe it doesn’t have, like, if they get it wrong, it’s not gonna have, like, detrimental effects to your business.
12:57
Samantha Prestidge
Right. But on top of that’s like the tactical part of it. If we go back to, okay, have we given clear expectations and outcomes and have we figured out what founder want to focus on? Because if you don’t know what those things are, then you’re like, it’s like a, tug of war. I’m like, I have a real fun. Like, yeah, it’s like a tug of war. I’m like, I want to hand this over, but, like, I kind of want to take it back. And you’re going to micromanage it. You’re going to overthink. Are they doing it exactly the way that I would do it versus, like, hey, like, I’ve now filled my time with all this other stuff that I actually want to do in my business. So if they get 5% of this thing.
13:34
Samantha Prestidge
Thing wrong or slightly different than I would do, it’s okay. Because look at all this other cool stuff that I’ve done and they’ve still maybe gotten 95% of it correct because I told them what the outcome was that I wanted. Right?
13:47
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
13:47
Samantha Prestidge
And so, like, even with processes, if you’re building out an SOP, which I’m not hating on SOPs, I do think they can be helpful. Okay. I just think they have a time and a place uh for them. So, like, simplify the heck out of your process. At the end of the day, I have this SOP so that someone can do this task to this level or this standard. And the reason I want it at this standard is so that it could, I don’t know, have a better client experience or have more consistency in our content or whatever the outcome is. Right. And so if I know that outcome, that I can say, I can question parts of the process. Do I need to do this? Do I need data entry here? Do these metrics or KPIs matter? I have a beef with KPIs.
14:29
Samantha Prestidge
I have a beef with them. I’m like, why?
14:31
Derek Fredrickson
Like, why is it we’re all about SOPs and KPIs?
14:35
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah.
14:36
Derek Fredrickson
Okay, go ahead.
14:37
Samantha Prestidge
Okay.
14:37
Derek Fredrickson
Again.
14:37
Samantha Prestidge
No, no. They have, they have a time and a place. So, like, yes, if you have a COO in your business, I’m going to assume, Derek, that I know you, that you guys do really great work. And so if you’re doing really great work and whatever you’re doing is connected back to a strategy, it’s connected back to, like a big picture. Right. But you get these founders, sometimes they’re like, they read this business book or they like, they followed this LinkedIn thing. So now they’re trying to do their best with the information they have. Right. And again, I’m saying you’re trying to do your best. I’m not judging them.
15:09
Derek Fredrickson
Right. No judging.
15:11
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, they’re doing tactical things without the strategy. So it’s like, okay, you want this VA to update the spreadsheet with all these KPIs. Do you look at these freaking KPIs, what decisions do you make with these metrics? Like, yeah, that’s what I’m knocking on.
15:26
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, that’s the rub. That’s a, that’s a great point because I think you touched on a few things and with the founders and the CEOs that we work with, you know, they want process to some extent, they want structure, they want simplification, they want SOPs, they want KPIs. They don’t want to be the one to do it. Right. Because they’re not wired for it. It’s not how they naturally take action, it’s not their strength. So it’s one of those things that they like the idea of it, but they don’t love the idea of them going in and doing it. And I think, especially to your point on KPIs, which is a great one. Yeah, it’s one of the things that we do look at when we work with a client is say, you know, what’s the strategic roadmap? What’s the North Star?
16:02
Derek Fredrickson
What’s the goal? Is it a 90 day goal? Is it a 12 month goal? Is it a 5 year goal to exit whatever that might be? Reverse engineer? What do we need to be doing now in order to have really good progress and momentum to hit those goals? And part of that is tracking KPIs but not having somebody put a number on a spreadsheet just for the sake of putting a number on the spreadsheet. When there’s no ownership, there’s no accountability, there’s no reflection that says, oh, we should be getting 10 leads a week and last week only got one. Okay, but I entered the number, my job is done, I move on to the next thing. Like, no, no, like what’s the insight? What’s the action, what’s the to do?
16:33
Derek Fredrickson
So there’s that level of ownership and accountability, whether it’s creating, process, creating SOPs that are actually going to move the needle, simplify the work, and especially for KPIs and metrics, so the founder can see and get a pulse of the business. Okay, this is what’s working great. Do more of that. This is what’s not working great. Who owns that number and what are we doing about that? And that’s where I think that bridge of the COO to the founder, but also and the execution layer, things are running more smoothly on the day to day basis.
17:00
Samantha Prestidge
Got it.
17:00
Derek Fredrickson
Okay.
17:01
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, yeah. And like I also, let me also say anything that I make fun of is probably dumb decisions I’ve made in the past. Okay. I have had a ridiculously large spreadsheet. Right. Or like I’ve tracked the number of LinkedIn connections I had in a week. Why?
I’m guilty.
Like I don’t like, but for me, like I’m not doing anything with that information. And so it’s like, why am I tracking this? It’s because at some point I thought, oh, I would be like a grown up business owner if I tracked this number and like, I would then make these decisions based off of it. But that never happened because it wasn’t relevant to my goals. Right, yeah. And so if your goal is to grow to a certain network size or to get to a certain engagement, impression rate on LinkedIn, cool.
17:47
Samantha Prestidge
Track those numbers. That’s super important at that time. That’s not what my goals were focused on. And yet I was like, let me grow up and sound cool because I have this KPI. Exactly. I get it. Not needed. Yeah, yeah.
18:01
Derek Fredrickson
I have a funny story. So when I was doing fractional COO work, I was working with a number of different clients. And, you know, I’m a firm believer in scorecards, dashboards and everything else. So I love spreadsheets. I can spreadsheet anything. And my kids would sometimes make a joke because they would come home from school and they would come into dad’s office and they would see my computer and they would always a spreadsheet. Or they would see something like Asana, which looks like a spreadsheet, and they’re like, what does your dad do? For this is when they’re younger, they know. Now my daughter works with me, so she definitely knows what I do. But they would kind of say, like, what do you do for work? Do you just do spreadsheets? Is that what you do?
18:33
Derek Fredrickson
Like, you just have spreadsheets open on your computer all day long?
18:35
Samantha Prestidge
You just make lists. All day lists and numbers.
18:38
Derek Fredrickson
It’s a lot more than that because then I would run like a Level 10 meeting in Eos World with the leadership team and I would have the spreadsheet and I would be like, this week, on track, off track. We’re off track. Here’s why. Who owns it? What are we going to do? So there’s the accountability part that’s really tied to that. So I love that.
I want to go back. So you mentioned this example, which I loved about kind of utilizing AI with kind of virtual assistant and delegation and everything else. And you said, for example, don’t hire an assistant to like manage your inbox. Like that is something that AI can do. And we could have a whole other conversation on AI because it’s changing every single day.
19:17
Derek Fredrickson
But from your perspective, using that case as an example, where do you draw the distinction that says, yes, this is something that AI can automate? Or streamline or simplify or just make easier versus this is more of a human component that we really want to, I don’t want to say, leverage, but utilize because it’s going to move the needle further in terms of simplification of the work, et cetera. How do you draw that line?
19:42
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, yeah. I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but it’s going to go back to like, tasks and outcomes. Outcomes, Right. So if you as the founder are still okay owning whatever decisions happen with these tasks. Cool. You can use AI to then like help get those tasks done faster. At the end of the day, you still have to own and manage whatever that AI agent is, whatever the instructions are for that and whatever, like ultimate outcome deliverable from those tasks are. Right. So we do have some clients, they don’t ever want to be in their freaking inbox. Like, especially if they’re construction. Like, they want to be in the field or they want to be with their employees and whatever.
20:21
Samantha Prestidge
And so like, we can use AI to help clean up their inbox, but then there’s still a human element of like, okay, this needs to be responded to. Or like, I know from their calendar that he’s at this job site today. This email came through, like, let me send a quick text or call. Right?
20:35
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
20:36
Samantha Prestidge
So that’s how that can work. If you say like, okay, as a founder, here’s the job description I want, here’s where I want to play in the business, because I’m all about. It can be simple and fun and profitable. Right.
20:47
Derek Fredrickson
I love the play theme here. Our audience will resonate with that. They like joy, they like excitement, they like fun.
20:53
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, yeah. If you want to hate your job, go back to the corporate world. But like, you’ve got a business, it could be, even though it’s stressful, it can be fun. Right. I firmly believe that. And so if you say, here’s where I want to play in the business, here’s where I don’t want to play. I don’t want my VA to maybe waste time on certain tasks. Like maybe I have a limited budget, maybe, I only have five hours a week for my budget that my VA can use. Okay. So how can we make them more efficient? So then that five hours is low level but super high impact. And then, here are the decisions and outcomes that they own or that they collaborate with me on. And I don’t have to think so much about this.
21:32
Samantha Prestidge
Like, that mental load is not there because they’re handling it. And so that’s where I draw the line there.
21:38
Derek Fredrickson
Okay. I think one of themes that’s coming throughout, and I’m assuming that our audience knows this, but I’m just going to clarify it just so it’s very clear. And I’d love for you to chime in as well. So what we’re talking about here is delegation. We’re talking about getting support in your business. We’re talking about you, the founder, CEO, getting out of the things that you’re doing that are not the best use of your time, right? And so call it an executive assistant, an ops assistant, a VA, a COO, whatever it might be. This is the concept of there are activities and tasks and time being spent where there’s somebody else or some other thing that can be doing it more efficiently, so quicker and more effectively, which means they could do it better.
22:21
Derek Fredrickson
Because in some cases those tasks and activities that you’re doing are not your strong suit. You don’t love doing them. They’re not fun, it’s not joy, it’s not play. So guess what? You avoid it. You distract. You drag your feet. When you go to do it, if you stink at it, you’re actually costing your business money. So the idea here, just to reframe it for the audience, at a high level, very practically speaking, is that when you bring in a resource that you are outlaying in terms of the investment for them to do the work that you don’t…, that you no longer have to do, the investment comes back. That’s why I say investment. It’s not a cost, it’s not an expense.
22:54
Derek Fredrickson
You’re investing back into your time by the fact that you’re paying somebody like a virtual assistant X amount per hour for certain amount of hours, for a certain amount of weeks, etc. per month for them to handle and manage all these activities, and then you get your time back. And if you do the math, this is the ROI and say, what is your dollar value per hour? And what could you be doing back into the business that’s a better use of that time? That could be business development, focusing on the vision, networking, whatever that might be. I don’t take credit for this expression, but my wife uses this all the time. She’s like, you could go and take a nap, right? Or you could go eat chocolates on the beach. It’s up to you to use that time as you want.
23:35
Derek Fredrickson
But if you reinvest that time into exponential growth activities that are going to move the needle through your business and are more aligned in how a CEO Founder should be thinking and working. That’s the needle mover for the business. So it’s an investment, not a cost. And the investment back is time, which you can then reinvest to make more money because you’re paying less than what you’re getting back in return for that time that’s being used elsewhere.
24:00
Samantha Prestidge
Yes.
24:00
Derek Fredrickson
Would you say something similar or how would you contradict or supplement that?
24:05
Samantha Prestidge
I would, I’d say something similar, but I want to pick on a few things and rather just kind of expand with clarification. So I don’t think, I disagree, but a few things. First off, like you are making a point, like it does come back to the numbers. Right. Like I said at the beginning, like I’m all about people feeling good in the business, but you still got to get stuff done. The business still has to make money, right?
24:24
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
24:25
Samantha Prestidge
So you know, if we look at cost sometimes then we say like okay, like if we go back to the really crappy goal connection of like this VA handles these tasks so I have more time for business development. Well, we don’t work with clients who don’t have strong sales systems. Like, because you’re just putting way too much pressure on a non revenue generating role to, at some point, have this revenue ROI for you. And so the clients that we work with, you know, we have clients that, you know, they all, they’ve just broken six figures or something. They’re not like rolling in dough, but they do have like some stability to their leads or their projects. Maybe their projects are 12 month term things. Right. So there’s some stability there. And so I’d put emphasis on figure out your sales stuff first.
25:13
Samantha Prestidge
I’m not going to be the ops person or admin person that’s like we’re so important. Like no, we’re not the most important. Like your sales are most important. Right.
And so then the other thing that I would pick on is going back to, I was like, I forgot my thought for a second. But going back to what your hourly rate is. And I picked on that because that framework, that mindset does work for some people. For other people it doesn’t land. For me, it didn’t land because I was like, well here’s my hourly rate when I have a project or when a client works with me, here’s what I charge. However, I’m not actually billing the business that amount. Right. So that framework never resonated for me. But there’s, there are some people that it does. Right.
25:54
Samantha Prestidge
Because for me I’m like, well, it’s still $0. Like me doing the work means like 100% profit margin on something. Right. And so that’s what I go back to, like, okay, what are the things for the business that I may be not great at or I can’t be consistent at anymore? So let’s click on my, ops assistant, for example. Again, like, there were some data entry errors that were happening because I just didn’t have the time to be super consistent and actually accurate with things. There were some, you know, small VA performance issues that usually I would have caught earlier on, trained the VA on, or helped the client communicate better that were getting missed. And so there was a legitimate cost that was happening on the business. Right.
26:36
Samantha Prestidge
So now my assistant handling those things, keeping an eye on those things, keeps that cost, minimizing that risk for me. Right. Which does allow other areas to grow, which does allow for higher profit margin, retention, referral, all that stuff. Right. But, so that’s why I have to tie her job description to some kind of business goal. It cannot be just tied to what’s the time I’m getting back in my day. Just because if that’s how my brain worked at that.
27:05
Derek Fredrickson
Time, you know, I, I totally get that. That’s a great distinction, and I think it makes complete sense. It’s tying it back to the goal as opposed to just like the ROI of the cost piece. I think what I like about this analogy is that, you know, everyone started somewhere, right? So, you know, our clients multiple seven, multiple eight figures, they remember the very first time that they hired somebody and this thought process rolled into their mind, which is like, I have to hire somebody, I have to pay this person. It’s going to cost me. Like, that’s, it’s the mindset shift, which is you are not actually paying money or it’s not a cost, it’s not an expense, it’s an investment. And when you make that investment and get that back tied to a goal, that’s where things really start to shift.
27:47
Derek Fredrickson
So you’re kind of cascading that. And of course, like you said, it’s built up over time in terms of trust and being able to rely on others and rely on the process and those that are coming to you, kind of batteries included, of what they know how to do and do it very well, which I know we talked about once before, which is. I love that expression. So, okay, I get it.
So here’s. Here’s the next part. So founders are listening to this, like, okay, I don’t have an assistant. I don’t have a VA. Maybe I have an executive assistant or maybe I just, I’m thinking more about where I can get additional support in the day to day of my business.
28:21
Derek Fredrickson
So then they’re going to go and they’re going to maybe write a job description, they’re going to maybe go hire on their own. They’re going to figure out what they need to go and do about that. Is that a good approach or I know like, we’ll get to how you guys operate, but I think that’s usually like, okay, I need to find that person. Let me go find, hire, recruit, train, onboard that person. Is that the right approach or is there a different approach? Or like, what happens when founders go down that path? Let’s start there.
28:46
Samantha Prestidge
Well, let’s go back to like, we like to be simple and fun. Right, Derek? And so even in like you describing that process, like you took a heavy sigh with that. Right? So like, that is not for most people. That does not sound fun. I love interviewing people. And still there’s parts of that process that I’m like, oh my God, I don’t want to do it. Right. And so let’s, let’s super simple framework that I like to work with. And if you’ve got someone from Derek on your team, they can walk you through this. Right. Which is super awesome. And like, I would also say like, you know, if you’ve got a, you shouldn’t have a frac COO without having an assistant. And that doesn’t mean that the assistant has to come first.
29:22
Samantha Prestidge
But like, I’m assuming maybe if someone hasn’t had an assistant, they’ve blurred the lines and like, oh, like my COO can go execute on these things. And your COO is like, no, I will not.
29:33
Derek Fredrickson
Or vice versa.
29:34
Samantha Prestidge
Right?
29:34
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah. You’re asking your executive assistant to think big picture and strategy. They’re like, but I’m managing the office, you know, or something.
29:40
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, exactly. Like they can come up with ideas, they can have initiative, but like initiative for their lane. Right, sure.
And so anyway, so I like to say map it. Keep it delegated. So map it out. If you’ve done EOS or you’ve done some other kind of simple business model. You know, everything breaks down into three buckets ultimately – how you get your clients, how your clients pay you, and how you do the thing that you sold. Right? So sales, cash and ops. And so just map out the business and then say, ok, from here’s where I want to play in the business. And I just love to do this on a Canva whiteboard. If you’re an in person kind of, you can have like your flip chart, sticky notes and have like a serial
30:18
Derek Fredrickson
killer wall or mind map or something like that.
30:20
Samantha Prestidge
Yes. You know, like you could look crazy, get the red string across the walls, do it, whatever you need. But then say, okay, here’s what I’m gonna keep as the founder, here’s what I’m gonna keep right now. And then here, what’s left over? Okay, I’m gonna delegate these things. And from what’s left over, does that make sense for it person to be in one person. A lot of our virtual assistants do work as generalists across all those buckets. But sometimes it’s like, no. Like you do need a marketing strategist in this area or you do need more of an Integrator for these roles. And so not everything’s gonna fit into one job description. But let’s take what does fit together and then say, okay, here are the tasks.
30:58
Samantha Prestidge
And because I thought through why these tasks matter, then I can now say, okay, I have the outcomes for this and so I can have on that job description like this role, like, here’s the purpose for this role. And then because I know the outcomes, I know this is the kind of person that would do well in this role. So when I do job descriptions, I never put requirements. I always say this role is a fit for you if… and I list out very specifically. And then I say this role is not a fit for you if, like these things are true for you, like, and we call that out. And so that’s a much easier way to go about job description posting and then interviewing those people.
31:37
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, I call that, I love that. I call it hiring copy. We have sales copy. Right. Hiring copy is. It’s going to attract those that really resonate because this is the role for you if. And it’s going to repel or unattract those that don’t align with that. And there are plenty of people out there that love any type of work in the right type of way. But it has to be positioned. I love what you shared about starting with what’s the outcome? Like starting with the end goal in mind. And then this is what we do as well, like reverse engineer and be like, okay, this is the kind of expectations I know, not really requirements, but this is what is expected and what they’re going to align to and what they get excited about.
32:13
Derek Fredrickson
And then being able to see that first from the founder perspective like this. I want to spend more time in client acquisition, I want to spend more time in partnerships or maybe I’m still involved in the delivery. That’s fine. Whatever it is that you want to do that you feel is going to be in your zone of genius, that’s going to really contribute to the bottom line. But then what are those other things that might be getting in the way? And start with that and then find the people to come in to do that. Okay, so I know also that with your virtual assistant company, which we’ll talk about in a moment, you work primarily or maybe exclusively with US-based virtual assistants. And so I’d love to hear your thought. We talked about that once before.
32:48
Derek Fredrickson
But I know, you know, in today’s world, there’s a lot of people that are looking to do things, you know, faster, cheaper, et cetera. And there’s, you know, offshore and different areas. What’s the rationale or what’s your thinking and feeling around US based assistance in terms of what you provide for your service?
33:07
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, and so let me first say I’m not going to knock internationals. It is difficult to find your fit internationally if you’re not working with a really good agency. And there’s a lot of bad agencies out there, both on the international and U.S. side. Right. So you can find good talent internationally. Oftentimes, like if you have a super tight budget, maybe that is the route that you need to go. However, a lot of these international agencies also, because it’s cheap labor, right, like hourly cost is lower, they require 30 hours a week or more. And so you’re often not getting part time, like super part time support. And so it might already exceed your budget even though you’re getting more hours.
That’s true.
And so, you know, that’s just something to keep in mind.
33:54
Samantha Prestidge
Again, you can find the right fit that way if that’s what you need to do. A lot of our clients have had either really bad experiences with international virtual assistance or they’ve never had an assistant before. And they are willing to pay. They don’t want to deal with the communication and cultural changes right. Now that’s a small element of why you might go with a US based person. But that does have a really big impact on maybe how much you need to oversee. And so what I’ve heard with most people that go international is that they’re delegating tasks and there’s still a lot that they have to think through. Or like maybe they have worked with that person for two years.
34:31
Samantha Prestidge
Now their business has scaled, but now they still have, they have all this work that maybe requires higher critical thinking that they don’t think they can pass off to this person because they’ve always just delegated tasks. And so your assistant is not going to be a COO, they’re not going to be an integrator, but they, we like I still train them and expect certain levels of critical thinking, problem solving and initiative in their. And you’re often not going to find that when you go the international route is my experience.
35:00
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, I, I, my experience as well. And again, we’re not knocking it. You know, there’s pros and cons across the board, but I think you hit on a couple things. There’s the critical thinking, the strategic problem solving. I call it like the next step ahead, where if you’re delegating the task, not an outcome, they may be able to execute on the task, but if the task requires another step, you know, that, you know, pivot. I did this and then something else came up. It kind of blocks and there’s like not this proactive strategic thinking of what do I do next? How can I, how can I do this in a different way? It’s kind of stop and then start, then, then stop, as opposed to, okay, I’m owning more of the outcome. I can see what the next steps may be.
35:39
Derek Fredrickson
Let me think about what may need to be the case to execute on that within kind of reason and supervision to some extent. But I think it comes back to delegating outcomes, not tasks, and having more strategic thinkers, more high level problem solvers and using more judgment as opposed to just kind of like getting it done.
35:56
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, yeah. So I always say we wanted a system that has initiative, judgment and follow through and ultimately that then becomes very proactive support. And you’re right, it is like this start, stop again situation. And that then just becomes like exhausting. The delegation feels like a to do rather than like a thing to leverage. And then you don’t, you know, you’re like, okay, I’ll just do it myself, you know, and then that’s a horrible trap. We definitely don’t want to be in.
36:20
Derek Fredrickson
No, exactly. You don’t want to create more work. The whole idea is to create less work, more fun work. Which again, I love the idea of play, not more work. We’re having to like, yeah, you’ve delegated some, but then you actually have to spend more time kind of supervising and checking and yeah.
36:33
Samantha Prestidge
And I’ve also found, again, like, I, I’m going to just repeat myself because I love people and like, I’m not knocking it. You can find good support. Right? Like, but what I’ve also found is like, that those cultures, you know, and whether you go like the South African or Nigerian route, whether you go the Philippines route, a lot of those cultures are a little bit more people pleasing in their support. And I am, I’m like, ask for forgive. Like, ask forgiveness. Don’t wait for my permission, go do it. And challenge me if you think I’m making a dumb decision, especially because I’ve given you the goals, I’ve given you the big picture context. So what if I’m delegating something to you and you’re like, but Sam, you actually wanted this or I did this and I know that this is gonna happen.
37:10
Samantha Prestidge
Like, I want that pushback. I think you don’t often find those when someone is used to people pleasing too much.
37:17
Derek Fredrickson
Yep, that’s a great point. Great point. So tell us about your service. I mean, we’ve talked a lot about what you provide in this case or like the idea. But like, tell us a little bit more about how you provide your service. Obviously, like I said, you have a virtual assistant company, US based, skilled, trained, vetted, of course, based on your process. So tell us a little bit about more of where people can find your services. Find out more about you, your organization, if they’re thinking about getting that type of VA level service support.
37:44
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, so LinkedIn is a great place. Samantha Prestidge. Look me up on LinkedIn. That’s a great place to start also because, like, my website is not like, the name of it is not super SEO. I like the name. So LinkedIn is the place to go. And I mean, I just, I help people that like to be busy, but they want to enjoy that busyness, they want to have fun in their business and they’re being like bogged down by all these other things. And so we bring that people in that process, we bring that operations kind of mind and strategy to who we might match you with. And like, do they have the confidence, do they have the competence and the capability to grow with you? And so that’s what you’re going to find with us.
38:22
Samantha Prestidge
If you are at that point of like, you no longer want to do these things, you don’t want to pass them off to COO. It doesn’t make sense for like, you know, your project manager or salesperson to do these things. These are truly admin things and like helping you just like have a brain again and like, not have a mushy brain.
38:39
Derek Fredrickson
Cool.
38:39
Samantha Prestidge
Let’s get you an admin or executive assistant. Let’s, let’s make the matching process super easy. We have a short list, a lot of agencies, you have to pay a pretty hefty recruiting fee for them to even go find your person. We’ve got a short list, you’re paying a much smaller onboarding fee. And then it’s like, hey, well, I’ll get you someone in like the next one to three weeks. You’ll meet them, we’ll get them started and we’ll plan out their whole onboarding plan of how do we get them integrated so you don’t have to think that much. We make it super simple and again, we then stagger and make it make sense for whatever you’ve got going on in your business. So if nothing else, just follow me on LinkedIn for super simple, fun content, guys.
39:17
Derek Fredrickson
I love it. And your model is very similar to ours, right? We’re like, again, sometimes our clients, like, they may know that they want a COO and they’re going to go and find their coo, but they don’t know what they don’t know about hiring, recruiting and training the coo. And so when they come into our umbrella, we provide the structure, we provide the framework, we provide the methodology of how to do what we do because we’ve been doing it, we’ve got the capacity, we’ve got the team on place that knows how to do that work, they’ve been screened, etc. And it’s a, it’s a match slash partnership as opposed to just like, well, here you go, here’s just somebody I found and go and do it like with you.
39:52
Derek Fredrickson
It’s a similar organization, similar structure where you’re providing the support, you’re finding them, you’re screening them, you’re doing all of the things so that they’re set up for success not only in the VA that you’re placing, but also for the client to know that they’re going to be successful with that other level of support. and is the. Yeah, go ahead.
40:09
Samantha Prestidge
Oh, I was gonna say, like, you make a good point of kind of like the things that we think through and the questions that we ask. And so I, I had clients joke with me and so now it’s my ongoing thing of like, it’s kind of like business therapy. I’m like, I’m gonna ask the questions you haven’t asked before that make you like, oh, like you think of something new. But the difference is I’m not gonna be a therapist that drags out the answer. I will give you the answer. Right, so questions and answers all in one.
40:32
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, I love it. I love it. And your VA services, are they both part time and full time? Is that optional or what? How does that work?
40:40
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, so we don’t often go full time. We have had clients that they grow to the point where they’re like, I want to steal this VA from all their other clients and like, they’re going to go full time. And I’m like, awesome, like, so happy that your business has grown to that. But often we’ll stop at 20 or 25 hours a week. Now we do have some clients that like, hey, like, they want me to maybe a 20 hour week executive assistant and then maybe like 10, 15 hour admin assistant. And so they kind of play with the budget there because there’s different rates for that. So, yeah, often five hours up to 20 or 25. And if you have to go more than 25, you probably need W2 and you don’t need that contractor relationship anymore.
41:17
Samantha Prestidge
And then we’ll help our clients kind of figure that out.
41:20
Derek Fredrickson
Okay. And is the area mostly like ops, admin, kind of back office? Is it also marketing that they could help with or like other functions the business? Like, where do they fall there?
41:30
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, we’re generalist. So my only disclaimer is like, let’s have realistic expectations for the role that we’re filling here. At the same time, like, we’re not marketing strategists. So I would say 90% of our clients at some point. Can you help me with an email newsletter? Can you help me with LinkedIn? Can you like make this landing page? Like, absolutely. We will not, however, take ownership for maybe the conversion on that or on those things because we’re not the strategists. We’re really great executors. And there’s definitely some things that I can help strategize with just for my own marketing ups and downs. So I’ve got some smarts on that front and I do strategize with clients and with VAs. Right. We do skill development and all that.
42:10
Samantha Prestidge
So yeah, so they can play in all of those buckets we’ve had. We do podcast editing. We do a variety of things where we can execute on this process. And we can play a little bit with the strategy, but we’re not gonna say like, hey, like we’re the podcast editpors that are going to make you the top 1% podcast. Like, that’s not us.
42:29
Derek Fredrickson
They’re a step in the process, but they have to, you know, maybe like a CMO or a COO is going to be more owning the outcome. The not outcome, but like the strategy, like what we’re doing. And then the VA is a integral part of the execution in order to make that happen. Yeah.
42:44
Samantha Prestidge
And so the strategy is the how, like how we’re going to get to this outcome. Right. That still leaves. There still lives a lot of execution in between.
42:52
Derek Fredrickson
Sure. Okay, got it. Well, if you’re a CEO, founder, listening to this or watching this and you’re thinking, I need to get some admin support, I need an Ops assistant, VA. Check out Sam. I just, I love the way that you talk about what you believe in and how you operate. And I think just, it’s a very, It’s an ideal differentiator. I think in the marketplace where there’s a lot of people offering VA services offshore us, doesn’t really matter. But if you’re thinking about getting VA support in your business as a CEO, as a founder, check out Sam, go to her LinkedIn.
43:24
Derek Fredrickson
And in some cases, like I’ve talked about with you, with our COOs, you know, working with the founder, you know, utilizing VAS, where the COO can stay in their lane and they can rely on somebody that is in their lane more and that execution day to day level. So I love that. Check out Sam. That’s the idea there.
43:40
Samantha Prestidge
Thanks, Derek. Thank you.
43:41
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, of course. Thank you, Sam. This is a really great conversation. Thank you for being part of the show. Really enjoyed it. Yeah. So thank you.
43:48
Samantha Prestidge
Yeah, thanks. Have an amazing rest of your day, everybody.
43:51
Derek Fredrickson
Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you soon on the COO Solution podcast. Thanks, everybody.
