Eps 020: Overcoming Time Challenges: A Story of Introversion, Cancer, and Hiring Team Members with Clair Levy

[: 00:00:00

Hello and welcome back to she Leads Business. And today I am delighted to have with me Clair Levy of Precision Resume Solutions. Welcome, Clair. Hi, honey. It's nice to talk to you.

[: 00:00:14

Really glad that you're here. So one of the things I like to do is to get to know the person behind the business. So tell me, what's your most standout memory from your childhood player? I think the biggest thing for me was when my parents got divorced, when I was about eight years old, and my mom I have a younger brother, and my mom was the person that took care of us. My dad, who I love very much, he wasn't as much in the picture, and I guess watching her sometimes have three jobs at one time.

[: 00:00:48

This is in the 80s, so we were latchkey kids, but it was just watching her do that. And then both of my parents are both entrepreneurs. My dad had owned a flower shop and my mom had owned at one time, I used car business, and then, strangely, my dad ended up being in the car business and my mom started working in a flower shop. They're both retired now, but I had so I grew up with entrepreneurs, and it was something I really didn't want to do because I just didn't want to be an entrepreneur. But it ends up that it's something that really fits my lifestyle right now.

[: 00:01:26

Fantastic. And what was most challenging for you when they divorced or in the time after that? We moved several times, so I was pretty shy when I was young. I'm a hardcore introvert, and so my brother is a hardcore extrovert, so we were completely different. So he was always able to make friends really easily.

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And it was very challenging for me because I like one or two good friends, then I'm good, and so getting to know people in the new school was a little challenging. BIOS had one really good friend. I still have one really good friend from high school that I still talked to. They would be a good friend who is still in touch with them after all these years. Fantastic.

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And what would be one of your outstanding great memories from childhood? What makes you smile? Being with my grandparents, my grandfather ice cream papa, he was so fun to be around. He would take me out in the backyard and we'd go hunt for snails, which is very weird now that I think about it. And he would let me put curlers in his hair, and this is when I was younger.

[: 00:02:39

Unfortunately, he died when I was young. I was dying when I was about seven years old, but it was really nice to have him there and my grandmother as well. Both all my grandparents were born as old. Lovely. I'm trying to imagine the hunting for snails.

[: 00:02:52

I'm not sure that's something I would have wanted to do as a child. Yeah, we had hats and we had kids. He was basically getting you to do his gardening? Pretty much, but it was our house. Oh, okay.

[: 00:03:06

Because they lived with us for a little while. Yes. Fantastic. It's good to grow up and not be squeamish when it comes to certain things, isn't it? Yeah, I am squeamish about some things, but other things I'm good.

[: 00:03:22

Yeah. You had good training as a child. Fantastic. Apart from the challenge with moving schools and making friends, what did you most enjoy about school? Did you have a favorite subject?

[: 00:03:37

I love English. I love reading. I read all the time, sometimes two books at a time, and I had always read when I was younger. My mom got me into reading, and so I had thought when I grew up, I wanted to be an English major, and I started doing that. However, while I was in college, I took a communication course, an oral communication course, a speech class, and from there I realized that is what I really want to do.

[: 00:04:04

So I ended up taking a right turn from English, went into Speech communication. And so that has been my career from that point forward. What happened when you left university, then? So when I went to I did it a strange way, going to the university. I didn't go to the university after high school, I waited about three years because in my family, we didn't really talk about college.

[: 00:04:31

None of my parents had gone to college, so it wasn't something that they pushed on us. That's not how it is now, where parents are really gung ho. And it wasn't until but I had such a yearning to learn that I was working fulltime at the time, and I thought, I'm just going to go. So I took a psychology class, and then my parents saw that I was really interested in going, and so then they supported me. And so I was working part time and going to school, and I went first to a junior college, which is where I got into speech communication.

[: 00:05:03

I was on the speech team, the forensics team, and then I transferred to San Diego State University, where I was also on the speech team for just for a year. But I ended up being at San Diego State a very long time because I got two degrees, one in communication and one in psychology. And then I went back because I really didn't know what I was going to do and got a master's degree in communication, which was wonderful. Except for the student loans.

[: 00:05:31

Yes. Interesting. I want to go back to something that you said, which was you said you were on the speech team. Speech communications, forensics team. Yeah, it's not forensics is basically speech, so it's not CSI forensics.

[: 00:05:51

It probably means something specific. I don't know what it is, but basically it's speech. The forensics team is always a speech team, and we would compete locally, but also nationally, so it was really fun. I would have to learn like 510 minutes speeches and we'd go from sometimes in an hour, we'd go from one room and then have to go to the other room in the same hour. So I had a really good memory then, so not so much now, but it was a great experience.

[: 00:06:21

I would have loved that in school. Yes. You didn't have to speech communication. No, I grew up in Ireland. No, not the school I went to anyway.

[: 00:06:31

In fact, I was halfway through high school, or a secondary school, as we call this, in Ireland, before we had a new head teacher come in, who was an English teacher, and he brought in doing shows because they hadn't even had any of that. And I'd come from a primary school where we have loads of drama and dance. In fact, it was kind of like a nuns convent school, it was a private school. And so they actually got in a teacher who used to be on anyone Irish who's listening to this or recognized The Creative Flow, the kind of the national talk show, and she used to be on there with her little dancers. Billy Barry School, I think it was called.

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So I had all of that as a child, but then nothing in high school. And then he introduced this and I was like over the moon, because, how great we're going to put on a show. It's a musical and he gets a good kind of thing. I was always too shy to be in, like the school place. I always wanted to because I was really good at memorizing, but I was just really shy and it wasn't until I went to college that I became more confident.

[: 00:07:38

Well, doing multiple five and ten minute speeches will do that for you and. Competing against other people, and it was one of the best things that I learned in school. It was the greatest class that I had that really like those epiphany moments where it just changed everything for me. It just set my course in the communication realm. I don't know what I would have done had I not taken that course or maybe even that specific teacher.

[: 00:08:06

It really inspired me. What if I should was so inspiring. He was a little graph. He was funny, but he had people that were on the speech team come into the class and do a speech, and when I saw one, I was like, OOH, I could do that. So I was like, I want to do that.

[: 00:08:25

Plus, he was cute.

[: 00:08:30

Not the teacher. The teacher was older, not my time, but the guy that came in and did the speech. He was really cute, but my teacher was just really good at explaining things and encouraging us to participate. He encouraged me to participate in what's called an intramural, where we compete with all the other speech classes in the school and I ended up winning the award for first place. Congratulations.

[: 00:08:58

It was the same with school, but it was pretty cool. Prize is a prize. Exactly, yeah. Where did that lead you to them? So you've done English, speech, communications.

[: 00:09:11

So when you left college, what kind of job are you doing then? I was working on my bachelor's degree for communication, and I was a minor in psychology. And as I was getting out of communication, I was like, what am I going to do with this? It was such a broad category and they didn't really scare us in any particular manner. It wasn't like, oh, you're getting your accounting degree and you're going to be an accountant.

[: 00:09:36

So I freaked out and I said, okay, I'm going to become a psychology major. So then I added the psych major. I finished that one, which all of those were wonderful. All my classes were so great. I loved going to school.

[: 00:09:47

I really miss it. And then when I graduated again, I was kind of like, okay, I guess I'll be in psychology. I worked at a kind of like a rehab center with kids and grown ups who are having problems with substance abuse or sometimes it was like psychological problems. I did that. The hospital closed, and then I ended up working at a network marketing company.

[: 00:10:11

It was okay. I was doing more administrative work because it's what I knew. I still wasn't confident enough to get into my own self and what I wanted to do. And then I was thinking, what am I doing? I didn't know what to do with my future.

[: 00:10:23

So a friend said, Come back to school and take the graduate program in communication. It's really great. So I did, and I taught communication while I was there, and I coached the speech team, the forensics team, for a little while, and it was just a wonderful experience. So when I left there, it was about 2000, and in the United States, or at least in California, the job market just tanked really bad. And so I decided I was going to come back home because I was living in San Diego and my family was in Thousand Oaks, California.

[: 00:10:58

You probably have no idea where that is, but I came back and we have a very large biotech company here that's pretty impressive. So I just started working there, doing temp work, and then I found out that I had to have thyroid surgery, but I didn't have insurance. So I thought, oh, God, I have to get a job. So I ended up getting a job at this company doing administrative work just so I could get the insurance. And I ended up having the surgery, found out I had thyroid cancer and went on from there.

[: 00:11:31

But I stayed in that type of job for six years because again, I wasn't I didn't know what I was going to do? I did do a lot of training when I was there. I did a lot of coaching. I always went beyond what my role was, which was not always my boss. She wasn't excited about that because I was going and helping other things, but I wanted to get the most out of it.

[: 00:11:55

I've always been interested in helping employees. That's just been something that's been a theme for my entire school life. And even later on, I always wanted to help employees. So went from there. I could go on, but kind of.

[: 00:12:10

The point of the podcast is to get to know you. So you mentioned that you just slipped it in nicely about that. You found out you had thyroid cancer. That must have been a bit of a shock when you found that out. When I went to have surgery, we were just going to take out a nodule and so when I woke up, they're like everybody was hanging around the bed.

[: 00:12:31

I'm like, oh. They're like, yeah, that was thyroid cancer. So yeah, that was pretty hard. Thyroid, you have no idea what your thyroid does for you. It affects your energy, your hair, everything.

[: 00:12:45

You're hot and cold. So I had to have my thyroid removed. I had to get the radioactive iodine therapy, which is where they give you a pill that's radioactive. Nobody can be with you for a little while. You'll be in a room by yourself and until they come with a little Geiger counters and they see how if you're less radioactive and then you're at the point where they're like, okay, you can be around other people, then you can leave.

[: 00:13:08

So that was a difficult time for me because it also affected my mood. I was very depressed. I didn't realize it at the time. And so going through that was very challenging. And at the same time, I was at a job that did not fit me.

[: 00:13:22

I was more educated than most of the people that I worked for and they don't like it when you talk back when you're an administrative assistant. They're like being your place. So it's challenging. So that was the first time I had cancer. First time?

[: 00:13:40

So there's been more? Yeah. In 2012, I had breast cancer and I ended up having a double mastectomy. I had chemo. My hair fell out.

[: 00:13:52

It was pretty crazy. I didn't work for about a year as I was going through that. And then I was, okay, I'm not one of those people. I don't see myself as a cancer survivor because I think that's like a suit that you wear around and I don't want to do that. It's something that I have, but it's not who I am.

[: 00:14:13

And so when I went on from there, I was just like, OK, I lived my life and went on to do other things. And then last year, in 2021, we found out it came back. So I had breast cancer again. And my one lesson in that is my cancer was up in my shoulder, which is weird. I had a lump here and nobody was noticing.

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And I'm like, what is this? So I had to really push for them to do an ultrasound and then of course they're like, okay, it's cancer. It wasn't as bad this time. So I was able to go on to adjunctive therapy, hormone therapy, which kind of shrunk it. I was going to have to have surgery again.

[: 00:14:50

They were going to consider chemo and I was like, no, I'm not doing that again. I did do radiation, which was not fun, but I got through it. And now at this point, because it was metastatic, I have to stay on these hormone drugs forever at this point. And they have some really fun side effects. Nothing too horrible with just my hair falling out a little bit and being tired.

[: 00:15:13

So that makes my role right now having my own business a little challenging. You have to deal with a lot. Yeah. Again, I don't see myself as a victim. It's just something I have.

[: 00:15:26

Okay, I get it. I got it. Let's move on. Let's figure out how to live with this. Absolutely.

[: 00:15:31

And I commend you for that. I think a lot of the time, as you say, it's a question of identity. So that distinction of seeing it as something separate to you rather than being a part of you, I think can only be helpful in your future, this kind of situation with it as well. Because if you where people take these kinds of things and make them part of their identity, then why would they let them go when it's part of their identity? Now don't get me wrong, I do play the cancer card every once in a while and when it benefits me so I get pulled over all I have cancer.

[: 00:16:10

It's actually happened one time, but this was a long time ago. But for the most part it's just something I deal with. And every day I'm just, okay, how am I going to do this? Lately it's been challenging because I get tired in the afternoon. So I ended up taking a nap every day.

[: 00:16:26

So that kind of messes up my whole day. But luckily I work for myself. I can do what I want and I can set my own hours. So that's what I do exactly. I try and have a nap most days and I don't have cancerous.

[: 00:16:39

Excuse, it just works my body. It was the thing I came across for my kind of hormone type. Look up the hormone type. And that was one of the tips was have a nap. Just a 20 minutes nap between twelve and four.

[: 00:16:53

And I didn't have it today actually. We're recording this in the afternoon in my time zone. I put it in my calendar every day, but I don't always have it. Every day, yes, I will see how I feel and what other priorities I might have. So sometimes I might skip it or I might do a little bit of sewing instead.

[: 00:17:14

But yes, I have that breakdown of time to allow that. And I know even there are times even when I'm not actually tired, just lying down in a dark room for 20 minutes, actually, I feel more refreshed afterwards. Yeah, you can recharge. Yeah. So why not?

[: 00:17:33

There are people I know who are like, oh my God, I could never nap. If I was to lie down like that, I would sleep for the whole afternoon and then not be able to sleep that evening. But I guess it's the thing you've got to do what works for you. I never thought I would nap. It never even occurred to me to do it until I read it as a tip for kind of my hormone type in my body.

[: 00:17:52

But yeah, I love it. Join the club. Absolutely. Join the Nap Club, folks. Comment below wherever you let us know.

[: 00:18:07

Now we wouldn't want to say nappy time here in the UK because nappy means diapers. Diapers. Nap time.

[: 00:18:17

All right, fantastic. So you said you didn't get to work for a year and like, now you're running your own business. So how did that transition come about? So when I was working at the biotech company, we had a very large layoff. It was the first one that we had, the first of many that came after us.

[: 00:18:37

And we were given this career transition program that we went through. And I went through it. We were just basically for our company. And so it was really fun because you were with all these people that have been laid off and yeah, of course some of us were depressed, but so I went through the program and when I saw one of the speakers I was like, OOH, I could do this. So I did.

[: 00:18:58

So I decided that's what I want to do. I had already had gone back and got a life coaching certification. And so I had that in my back pocket and I just decided, this is something I want to focus on again. It has to do with employees and career. And so I ended up working for that company.

[: 00:19:16

And I worked for that company for about 14 years. So I did this about 14 years where I coaching one on one. Sometimes I would have 100 clients at one time and not all at the same time. And I was doing webinars, I was doing workshops, creating workshops. It was really fun working on resumes, things like that.

[: 00:19:38

So I did that for about 14 years and then it was like 20, 19, 22,020, where I was just like we were very underpaid. It was draining to do that, stressing over money. And so I was just like, I can't do this anymore. I just wanted to go out on my own. So I actually had to go on a stress leave because I was so stressed out at the time.

[: 00:20:03

But during that time, I used that to learn about becoming an entrepreneur. I got my two resume certifications. I took tons and tons of classes. I joined groups, and so I had about six months where I was able to roll out my program. And then in 2021, in January, I launched, although it wasn't really big launch, but I did launch, and I've been doing that ever since.

[: 00:20:29

So I've been having my own resume writing business since then. Fantastic. Congratulations. So who are the people who you typically work with, Clair? I usually work with executives, so people that are director level or above C suite CEOs, things like that.

[: 00:20:47

But I also have worked with people and just regular kind of jobs managers. I try not to do college students because that's not really where my forte is. They don't have enough experience, and it's just too difficult. So mostly I work with executives, and I also have some subcontracting work that I've been doing, and that's all executives. I get to meet such wonderful people now, just on the phone.

[: 00:21:10

But it's still it's like you make a connection really quickly, and I become a really good expert. Just enough to make me dangerous in, like, all different industries, all different types of jobs. We could talk about it. We could talk about marketing or whatever it is. I know a little bit about everything because I do have to do research when I work on somebody's resume.

[: 00:21:33

Fantastic. What would you say has been your biggest lesson in becoming an entrepreneur yourself?

[: 00:21:45

So probably that I need to have more organization, a little bit more of a schedule. At this point, I'm just like, whenever I feel like working, I do. Sometimes I don't feel like working. So I like to be organized. It's something I strive for, but it's something that I struggle with as well, is to become very organized, have certain times that you do certain things.

[: 00:22:11

Even keeping track of how much time I spent on a resume, I try keeping track, but then I forget you get into it and you're not but you just get very focused. And so you forget to say, oh, this is when I ended. So probably that part and finding that doing this all by myself because I'm single, I don't have any children, I live by myself, and so I have to do everything myself. It's challenging. It's challenging to do all the different parts that it takes to be an entrepreneur.

[: 00:22:40

It's so much more than just being a resume writer. There's the marketing, the sales, the social media, everything else. It's a lot.

[: 00:22:51

It is indeed. I'm curious about something that you said, Clair, which is that you like to be organized, yet it also sounds like you're resisting being organized. I don't know if I would say I'm resisting it. I sometimes take the hard way of organizing things. So sometimes I will spend time organizing something that it's really not important, it's just something that I like organizing things.

[: 00:23:18

I go into people's houses and clean out their closets. So it's something I enjoy doing, but it's not always value added. There's not always the best way to use my time. Got you. Okay.

[: 00:23:31

And when you were saying that you work when you feel like it and not when you don't, is that a motivation thing or is that a health energy thing? Probably more of a health energy thing. Because I love my job, I love what I do. I get excited every morning. Before.

[: 00:23:49

I did. Not now. I'm like so excited to do my job. It's not a job for me, it's just a vocation. It's something who I am now and sometimes I get up a little later.

[: 00:24:01

But I also work really everyday, which is probably not the best thing to do. I do work over the weekends and over holidays, but not because I feel like I have to, just because I choose to. And sometimes I work till twelve at night, but then I won't be working like four or 5 hours during the day. So it just depends. You sound a bit like I did when I first started opening my business, actually.

[: 00:24:27

And I used to there were times when I was going out for a walk with friends, but there was no planning in it. Somebody would call and go, hey, we're going here, do you want to come? Yeah. Okay. And then I often ended up working late or over weekends and things.

[: 00:24:44

And at the time I felt a great freedom in that. However, looking back on it, it wasn't very productive for me. It's really interesting. Like now my time is the most structured that it's ever been in my life. Yet I actually have got more free time.

[: 00:25:00

That's interesting. Yeah. What's your secret? One of the things we talked about when we first met, which is flow. Yeah.

[: 00:25:08

So you watched a video on that? Yeah. What stood out to you about that? Clair? Probably what you were saying about doing what you're really good at and what you enjoy doing and delegating maybe the things that you don't want to do because it can be stressful to do something that you just don't enjoy doing.

[: 00:25:28

I don't love doing social media. I don't really go onto my Facebook page. I'm much more private person. So to have to go out there and put up ads or whatever it might be, I just don't enjoy doing that. So I actually have not done any marketing in my business yet.

[: 00:25:48

But I've gotten clients because I get a lot of referrals. People find me on LinkedIn, find me on Google. So doing what you're really good at, making sure that's how you flow, so you're not fighting against whatever it is that you trying to get done? Definitely it's that path of least resistance. We think of a river flowing through the countryside and the banks of that river is the structure of that flow.

[: 00:26:21

And what often happens is that if people don't have the appropriate amount of structure for their flow, then they either end up where their flow is like a dribble amongst all this structure. They've overdone it or they've underdone it and then the water breaks the banks and that's when people tend to get overwhelmed. Yeah, I can definitely see how that can happen. Something I've been working on. So it's interesting that today your clients have come without you having to go out and kind of heavily market yourself, shall we say, is you getting the level of clients that you want to be in terms of volume.

[: 00:27:05

At this point I am, because I still am doing my subcontract work. So that is my fail safe. And I do maybe one or two resumes for them a week. It takes a lot more time to work on a resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letters than you would think. People think you just whip those out.

[: 00:27:22

But it takes hours and hours because you're really creating something from all these different sources of information and you're trying to brand somebody so you're creating their whole brand and helping them realize how amazing that they are. So I think that for me, the level of what I'm able to work I have a lot of clients right now and I'm finding it a little bit more stressful because you have to go from one client to another. So it's almost like you're going to a different life because you get very involved in that and so it can be a little challenging. I'm like, oh wait, I forgot there was the other person I was talking to you about this. So right now my level of clients are good.

[: 00:28:03

But I would love to be able to do more work, maybe by having somebody work with me or being able to delegate some of the administrative things that I have that I've been doing that probably should not be doing.

[: 00:28:18

What would you like to delegate? The social media. So if I do social media, some of the administrative things, just working on creating ads or sometimes it's a matter of I use the app called Incognito. It's a form, how to create forms. And so sometimes I have to go back in there and fix my automation and so having someone else do that would be great.

[: 00:28:42

Somebody that knows a little bit more about something than I do because I have to learn a lot of new things and every new thing that I learned, it's like taking it space in my brain.

[: 00:28:54

Get to somebody else. That'd be good. Yes. You said earlier on that you love to learn. I think the expression you used was that you learned you yearn to.

[: 00:29:07

Learn. So in terms of making that switch, being able to bring on another team member to help you with the actual client delivery work, and being able to have one or two people to help with admin, to help with social media, what's getting in the way of you doing that?

[: 00:29:34

Probably I've never been a manager, so I've never had to manage another person. I did have somebody help me for about a month. I'm doing administrative work and it was a struggle because I was having to figure out they were working four date 4 hours a day. So I had to figure out something for them to do those 4 hours. And I felt like it's taking me more time to teach them how to do what I need done than if I just did it myself.

[: 00:29:59

So I was having a really hard time delegating things to them and then I would have to explain how something works and I would rather them already know how to do those things. I want them to be more of an expert than I am and say oh yeah, I can do this, let me take it over for you.

[: 00:30:16

That's a very common problem when people hire their first people that they don't have the roles. And it's a lot easier to delegate a process, right, that's already been created. You just bring people through it step by step. You can make a video, a screen share with some kind of recording. People go back to they can write it out step by step.

[: 00:30:42

So there's a whole process of creating those processes to delegate. Because even with the client delivery work, there will be things that you don't even know you do necessarily. Yeah, I try to become efficient, so when I do something, I do it the same way. So that I faster at what I do. So I do create processes.

[: 00:31:10

I don't necessarily document them all the time, but I do have processes that I have and how I do my work. It's the things that when I first started work doing this business, I was in that shiny object thing where everything seemed so cool and I was getting all these apps and tools that I could use, and it was really exciting. And I really wanted to learn how to use all of them, but I just realized I don't have time. If I had somebody else that could know how to do something, it would be helpful. I did have somebody.

[: 00:31:39

I went to a training where she gave us a process about how to onboard a client, how to offboard them, the automation. So that was so helpful. Doing that, having that process, it was just like a game changer and then. It'S putting those processes in place in the rest of your business. So this is a very common journey for people where they start off and they're the experts, they know what to do and so they do that.

[: 00:32:03

But then as you get busier, as you said, it's hard to do all those different things. So certain things end up getting not done. And typically people procrastinate over things that are out of flow for them and that feel uncomfortable for them. So it sounds to me like there was two issues with the first person that you hired, not with the person you hired, but in hiring the first person, two issues as number one, the mindset of not seeing yourself as a manager. And then the second event, the clarity wasn't there ahead of time of what is this person actually going to be doing, and understanding that.

[: 00:32:43

Yeah. So something you've mentioned a couple of times, which I think is very relevant, and I just want to highlight to you, because sometimes people say things, but it hasn't actually quite sunk in, is that you want somebody who's actually going to show you what needs to be done in the business. Right, exactly. That's what I want. That kind of person, they cost more money than the person who doesn't know and the person who needs you to spoon feed every single little thing.

[: 00:33:11

Exactly. So is that an issue, having to pay more to hire team members who actually are going to bring that expertise to your business, not just their time? It's this fear that you're not going to be able to take care of yourself. So while I probably have enough money to do that right now, it's that I'm taking care of myself and only I'm the only one that's doing that. So I have to rely on myself.

[: 00:33:38

And so it's that concern that if I pay them, that means I have to work so much more and can I take on more without realizing that if they take that off, I played, it's not something I have to do anymore. That frees up your time to be able to do more work. So then the issue is about having the right kind of clients coming through in order to be able to pay both yourself and this team or team members. So let me ask you a question. Where would you love your business to be in ten years time?

[: 00:34:14

Ten years? Ideally, I would like to have a group of resume writers working for me. I would like to have we talked about this last time, a digital course that I create because I love teaching. I just love training and doing things like that. So I'd love to have that and making much more money that I have, but also having the freedom to take the weekends off or enjoy my Christmas holiday or whatever it is.

[: 00:34:45

Take a vacation. I haven't taken a vacation in 15 years. Let me just check that again. You haven't taken a vacation in 15. Years because the company I worked for, you were always scrambling to try to get more work.

[: 00:34:57

That's how you got paid. It's hourly and so it was just that what is it called? The rat on the house. So I just didn't have the money to take vacations or take the time off because if I didn't work, I didn't get paid. What if you could achieve that in two or three years instead of ten?

[: 00:35:20

Oh, that would be awesome.

[: 00:35:23

I think that's totally doable. If you go about it the right way. Sometimes we have to make something so far away that you think, oh, I've loads of time, I could do this. And then things start coming out that you would actually really love. There's nothing there that I don't think you may have.

[: 00:35:43

In a year you could have one or two people. In two years you could have a few people. It might be even more than that. Are you putting yourself first in your business? Yes and no.

[: 00:35:54

So I do take my health is an issue, so I am gentle with myself in that sense. If I need a nap, I take a nap. But at the same time, I don't really take weekends off. I work every day, but not because I have to, just because I choose to. When we had the pandemic and everybody was sequestered, for me, it was actually I was like, oh, this is great.

[: 00:36:20

Not so great that we have the pandemic, but that I got to stay home all the time because I'm an introvert, I like to be home. So since then, I've just really dug into that to become a little bit of a hermit. So I don't go out as much as I used to before, which to me it's not something that I feel a loss of. It's just, hey, this is who I am, this is more comfortable to me. So I'm doing what I choose to do.

[: 00:36:44

And the clients that I work with, I will not work with somebody if I feel like they are going to be difficult. We call it the pita tax, which is pain in the ass text. We know that one. I just will not work with somebody like that. And I don't have this fear that I won't get another client, which is what I had before.

[: 00:37:03

I had a fear that I wasn't going to have enough work. Now I have more of a feeling of abundance that they're just going to come to me. And so I'm like, oh, there they are. In that sense, I am taking care of myself. But probably another way I'm not because I'm not taking any time off, I'm not doing anything.

[: 00:37:25

I've become, like I said, a hermit. So that's probably not healthy in not. Taking this time off for yourself. Weekends, evenings, I mean, it's great that you take your naps, etc. However, not having downtime is actually slowing you down.

[: 00:37:45

I do have downtime. I do watch television. I am an avid TV, watcher all the cable networks, and so I do have time to do that and I definitely take those times. But I don't have as much time to see my family or go out with my friends because for me I always choose to. I'd rather work sometimes.

[: 00:38:06

So I definitely feel like I'm missing out on something. But at this point I don't feel a great loss. But it probably is not as healthy as it should be. I think bearing in mind the health issues that you've had, having this time off is even more critical. It's important for everybody, but allowing yourself the time to be able to spend time with other people and it's interesting.

[: 00:38:33

I realized recently that I haven't been getting out enough and I'm an extrovert. And I realized that's because of the pandemic, I wasn't going out dancing, I wasn't seeing friends as much as I would have done and things like that. And like you, I work from home, I have a home office, I do all my work online pretty much apart from doing the team workshops for a local business then that I would go and do at their business. And so I was at a couple of events a few weeks ago where I got to dance and that was the first time I had danced properly. There's this thing called Body Groove if you like dancing, check it out.

[: 00:39:17

It's amazing. There's this lady called Mitzi and it's dance classes online but they're prerecorded, they are videos, right? They're not like this is not Jane Fonda, this is not lines of people in Leotard who are absolutely perfect and things like that. She does it in a way where it's very natural movement. You work to your own rhythm and she guides you.

[: 00:39:48

Yet there's a lot of freedom within it to do what you want. So it's fantastic. I love it. However, not the same as being on Dance More with People and live music or DJ and it blew my mind and I realized, oh my gosh, my soul has missed dancing. So I'm now on the hunt.

[: 00:40:11

I went to a dance class last week. It's not the right one for me. I'm going to have another one scheduled in a couple of weeks time. I'm determined to find one or two dance classes go to regularly because that's something that feeds my soul. It's physical exercise.

[: 00:40:25

I get to interact with other people and even for introverts you still need to interact with other people and I know you are with your clients. However, it's a different quality of interaction doing that with people who are not your clients. Right? I used to dance as well, doing ballroom dancing and salsa dancing. I took a lesson and that was so fun.

[: 00:40:51

But then I got sick and it was harder to do that. But I miss it. I do. I used to do belly dancing too. Which was really fun.

[: 00:41:01

I ended up at a ballroom class but it was like sequence dancing and for me, it was too formula, but I did lots of salsa dancing. I love salsa dancing. I'm on the hunt for something kind of jive. Swing dancing, I think. Oh, yeah, swing dancing.

[: 00:41:17

That's what I'm on the lookout for. So whether it's dancing or something else, it's by prioritizing you in your business and creating the time to allow for other kinds of creativity and interactions with people, it will feed your business. The very fact of creating boundaries and parameters in your business will force you to focus on what really matters.

[: 00:41:55

I totally see how that can happen. And then the quality of your downtime is going to massively improve. Yeah, I can see that. I definitely feel like when I have too much work, it does get a little stressful because it's taxing my brain. I'm writing and all the time and then not having any other creative outlets.

[: 00:42:17

I used to play the guitar, I did all these other things, but I haven't done those things in a long time. I miss it, but I haven't found the time to do it. But you don't find time, you make time. That's true.

[: 00:42:31

It's the choices that you make. And this comes back to you prioritizing yourself. So doing that is going to allow you to actually be more creative in your business. It will allow you to really hone in on, these are the things that only I can do, or at least only I can do right now, and these are the things I want off my plate. So let me hire somebody in who's going to do that for me.

[: 00:42:56

Exactly. That's what I need to do.

[: 00:43:01

And it's putting that structure in place. I'm a big fan of 90 day Plans, where you've got crystal clear clarity on what are the business building projects that you're going to put in place because you can do something significant in 90 days, but it's not so far out that you lose sight of what it is, which is what often happens when people do annual plans. So 90 days are fantastic for that and getting really focused on the business building projects, what are the processes that you need to either create and implement or improve or just run the day to day things in your business? And what's the promotional activities? Is it a project?

[: 00:43:46

Is it a process? What is it? And being able to then review every quarter how things have worked and build mastery momentum around those, so that by the time you come to the third, the fourth quarter of the year, you have learned so much about you. But if you haven't had the plans and associated measures with those, then you just wouldn't have had the same quality of learning with us. Right, I agree.

[: 00:44:18

I agree. So one other thing I want to talk about briefly as well. I also sent you a video about marketing. Right. So tell me what was most significant for you in that.

[: 00:44:33

So I watched it about a week and a half ago. So my memory is not as great. But I dig that they were talking about it's about messaging, getting the right message out, speaking to what their biggest concerns are. Not what you want to do necessarily, but what they need. Right.

[: 00:44:53

And it doesn't have to necessarily be your way all the time. You have to kind of adjust it to who they are, adjusting that message to meet that need. So it's all about them. That's what I got. Great.

[: 00:45:07

And do you feel right now that your messaging does that? Yes or no? So my messaging is just really my LinkedIn page and my website, which I definitely think could do some work, but at least it's there. I have something people think it looks good, so I'm like good. But I do want to explore a little bit more about understanding people's concerns so that I can address those concerns.

[: 00:45:34

So that's part of the whole sales process as well. When you're talking to a client on the phone, you're trying to explain find out what their pain points are and then how you can help them with those pain points and how you're different than other people, why you should work with me. One of the things I always advise people to do is to have their website so that literally within three minutes, three minutes, 3 seconds.

[: 00:46:03

So what I advise people to do is that when somebody lands on your website, they literally are able to tell in 3 seconds, 5 seconds at the most. Is this for me? And is it different? Because better is good, but different is better than better, right? Unique.

[: 00:46:21

Unique, yeah. Yes, unique. That's tapping into their emotional hot buttons is this balance of logic and emotion. What are the things that really set you apart from the competition? So I'm not seeing that when I land on your web.

[: 00:46:38

So it's quite possible that when you are having individual conversations with people that might be there, I think there's a lot of good things in your LinkedIn profile. You're used to writing LinkedIn profile to get people a job. So there is some good things in there. I'm not sure that I'm actually hearing what makes you different from other people who do the same thing. Right.

[: 00:47:11

And it's the same with the website now, when you have achieved that, it doesn't just make your generating of a potential new clients so much easier. It also allows you to charge more because you're not going to be competing on price. So a proportion of your time is spent subcontracting, which earns you less per time than when you work directly with your own clients. And if you're able to then also charge a little bit more and attract people more easily, then that's going to help you to be able to hire the team that you want. Because this is one of the other things that often gets in the way of that is being able to afford that team in a way that you're not just thinking, I've got the money today.

[: 00:48:02

I know that money will be there in three months, six months, ten months down the line. Because I actually have a system that attracts and converts clients in a predictable way. I definitely need a better system. So if that client and attraction is really key, what happens a lot of the time is that people are attempting to do that without the right foundations in place. And the foundations to attract and promote the right clients is one of your market dominating position, which is not just the messaging, it's what goes on in the business that sets you apart as well.

[: 00:48:45

So quite often when I'm working with clients, we're innovating around what you do, or maybe you've already innovated, but you're not sharing what those innovations are, or they're not articulated in such a way that they're landing with your ideal clients.

[: 00:49:03

So there's the operations aspect of it, and then there's the messaging aspect of it, and then it's about, okay, so what's the marketing activity that actually will attract the right people? And what are the kind of processes and structures that you have in place that will allow those prospects to then become paying clients? Yeah, it's funny. It's like dr. Kiel Thyself I'm really good at helping other people identify what their specialty is or their unique value proposition, but it's much more difficult when you have to turn it on yourself and figure out what it is for you.

[: 00:49:46

What makes you different than all the other people that do this? You're different, but how do you say that, hey, I'm fun to work with, I'm very focused. Be a great experience for you. You're going to learn so much about yourself. So that's what I've been struggling with.

[: 00:50:00

And you're not alone in this. This is something I talk with a lot of business owners about, some here on the podcast. But many conversations that I'm having in my day to day business where businesses do not have this nailed, even very well established businesses that might have 510, even 25 more staff, and they actually don't have some of them. Don't have any market dominating position, let alone a strong one that actually would have their prospective clients going. Yeah, I'd be a fool to go anywhere else where you're really creating that monopoly of one.

[: 00:50:39

You're not alone with that. And this comes back to the river banks. These are all structures to build in your business to allow you to have more flow which will reduce stress levels and allow you to create the volume of flow you want so that you can be hiring these great resume writers to have that business where you are able to step back from the day to day. When you're genuinely the CEO of your business, working in your business, you are able to step back. So in those stages of growth where first off, it's looking at, okay, so who do I hire first?

[: 00:51:21

Is it someone to do client delivery? Is it someone to help me run the business? In the background, I think there's a piece of exploration work to do to make that decision and then looking at putting these structures in place. So what do you do first? What do you do next?

[: 00:51:39

What do you do after that? So to have a step by step plan in place okay. This seems like a lot to do, but if I break it down piece by piece, then I can implement it. If I don't start, then in a year, two years, I might not have moved very much further. Yeah.

[: 00:51:58

If I start investing in these foundations, I wish I had done it so much sooner in my own business. I kept rushing. I kept rushing off to implement a new idea or some shiny objects kicking in with, oh, there's this new fab, this new tactic. Do this and it will get you the results you want super fast. And no, because I didn't have those foundations in place, I didn't understand about flow.

[: 00:52:27

I still had certain mindset issues that were causing me to not move forward.

[: 00:52:35

Yet. When you're able to work piece by piece, structure that I've said in terms of 90 day plans, how you structure your week, focusing on what you do best and delegating everything else, or just switching strategies sometimes can make a huge difference as well. Okay. For job hunters, job hunters live on LinkedIn, the type of job hunters that you help professionals. Yeah, definitely.

[: 00:53:03

So LinkedIn is the space for them.

[: 00:53:09

What I'm thinking about here. Okay. So I got all these thoughts flying through my head right now. That's why I'm going. Because quite often newer business owners are under the mistaken belief that social media is the one and only way to get clients and referrals.

[: 00:53:31

Yes, there are so many other strategies to get clients for you. I think LinkedIn is quite a key space for you to be in. Yes, I agree. And it's not the only one. Maybe just questioning myself, I was about to say I think you would be silly not to maximize it yet.

[: 00:53:56

Also, it's not necessarily essential if you were to have other strategies working for you. I'm just thinking about who you hire, what they're doing for you, et cetera. So I think looking at where your clients are coming from, from a numbers point of view, would be helpful with that, as well as looking at other strategies, once you've got some of these foundations in place, it's really about creating assets that are going to work for you over and over again. I totally agree. Like I said, when I took that course to teach me how to onboard clients, it was such a relief.

[: 00:54:35

It was like, oh, my God. Somebody could show me what to do, and I could do it. And then you just take it from there. That was really nice. I need help to understand how to do that.

[: 00:54:45

So it's great to say, oh, this is what you should do. But I need somebody to show me. How to do we all learn in different ways, don't we? And being shown how to do something for so many people is a very effective way. So they're not left trying to figure it out on their own, and they're actually able to talk it through and be able to go, okay, so here's step one.

[: 00:55:07

Here's step two, and be able to work it through like that. Yeah, Absolutely. Claret. What's been? No.

[: 00:55:16

I'm going to ask you a different question. What's? Something that you're going to do differently as a result of our conversation here today. I think I'm going to work on creating more of a schedule for myself so I could be a little bit more organized and look at what I'm doing to see what I could offload to somebody else. I have been trying to pay attention to that, but it's just when you're doing the business, it's hard to work on the business.

[: 00:55:41

So I think I need to spend a little bit more time working on the business or hiring somebody to help me figure out how to do this. I've had help in terms of getting started with advice. I used score, which in the United States is part of the small business association. And they were very helpful. But I feel like I just almost want a partner that knows things that I don't know.

[: 00:56:04

So we can, like, work together.

[: 00:56:08

For sure. I think that would be really helpful for you. Because quite often, business owners don't know what they don't know exactly. Picture, the head blown emoji. And it could be quite simple for somebody who's been there and done that, who's learnticular strategies and ways of doing things, then it's a lot easier.

[: 00:56:34

And just going back to what you were saying about when you're working with your clients, you're helping them to understand about their personal brand and positioning to get them a job. And it's harder to do it for yourself. It is for everybody. Even I've worked with marketing experts who do this for other businesses. And yet, when it comes to their own business, it gets neglected.

[: 00:57:01

And part of that can be the balance of working on versus in the business. And it's also that thing about saying regular listeners are maybe fed up with me saying it's so true is that you can't read the label from inside the bottle. That's Interesting. A lot of people that I work with, even marketing people. I'm thinking, why are you coming to me to do your resume?

[: 00:57:24

But it's very difficult to see yourself objectively. Usually when I'm done with my clients, they're like, wow, I didn't realize how amazing I was. And it's because they just take for granted the things that they do and they don't highlight those things. And so that's one of the things that I love to do, is bring out the amazing in my clients. But it's a lot more challenging to do it on myself.

[: 00:57:46

I'm not really good in therapy. I love to do this with clients. I really like what you said, bring out the amazing. And that's exactly what it is. Bring out what's not just amazing, but what are the distinctions and the differentiations in that.

[: 00:58:01

And then allow that person to just have much more ease and flow in attracting and working with not just the right clients. That's very important. Obviously also the right team members. When you got a clear vision and you have that direction and plans, and people can see that, they can so buy into that. Whereas if a business is, oh, we do this, that just doesn't have the same resonance at all.

[: 00:58:38

Right. And that's often how people end up feeling like a cog in the machine. Whereas when you have and this could even be freelancers, I'm thinking of one of my subcontractors who really act and behave like a huge part of my team because they just go buy into what the business is all about and what we're looking to achieve. Right. They buy into the vision, they buy into the why of the business.

[: 00:59:08

And that makes a huge difference. And it's wonderful to work with people who do that. So all this works on multiple levels. Yes. I don't feel completely prepared to hire someone because I don't have a great system.

[: 00:59:23

I have somewhat of a system, but I don't have a really good system where I could say, here, this is what you do next, and this is what you do. And so it's almost like I would be embarrassed to hire somebody at this point, but tell them, I think you. Would still run into the challenge that you did first time around. Let's put some of this stuff in place and then it's going to be so much easier. And it may be the case that some of those pieces you don't even need to put in place.

[: 00:59:47

It's just about getting clear on, I need this person to put this in place. Who's the best provider for that? Right. So you don't have to be the one to put in place all the systems and all the processes, but identifying which ones in which order, I think will be very helpful. Yeah, definitely.

[: 01:00:10

Where do I put my attention first? Exactly? Yes, and I think what you said about creating more structure around your time will help because that actually will free up your time. Because I'm telling you, okay, in my opinion, you may be great, but in my opinion, when you work weekends, when you work those late nights, you are not as productive as if you actually. Have more time off and came.

[: 01:00:41

I do say I'm a night owl. I realize that. So me working late at night is like my great productivity point. So for me it actually works. But the weekend, I would definitely like to have some time off.

[: 01:00:56

It would be nice. You're your own boss, you can choose to do that. I need to set some bigger boundaries because I'm having client meetings on the weekends because I know it's free. But in a way it's nice because I have that flexibility and I have that openness to do that. Whereas before when I was working for a company, I was like, no, my weekends are my weekends and I'm never going to do anything.

[: 01:01:21

So at least now I feel a little bit more flexible. But at the same time, it's not always helping me in who I am and what I do. Exactly. One of the things you talk about a lot is how my weekends are free. So I'll just do x.

[: 01:01:37

My weekends are free. I'll just do this other thing. Oh, I'll have this meeting. I don't mind. I don't have anything planned.

[: 01:01:43

So guess what the solution to that is? I have to make some plans. Yes, you make some plans. I have to see people. Maybe you go to a dance class.

[: 01:01:55

Maybe you arrange family or friends. Maybe you block out time to hole up in your room and play guitar. Maybe you have a one on one lesson. Have someone come around to your place and teach you or you learn online or there's probably a whole host of things that you could do. In fact, you know what I would love you to do?

[: 01:02:15

I'd love you to make a list of 20 things that you would like to do in your spare time. That's going to be interesting. Okay, challenge taken. You going to send me that? Yeah, I will.

[: 01:02:36

Fantastic. So by having that list and getting excited about those things, then you're going to have a whole plethora of choices of, oh, I can do this or I could do that, I could do this other thing. And then you can start planning to do those things and they're in your calendar. So when somebody is talking with you and look, every now and again I will do some work on the weekend or I will do something in the evening. I had a meeting last night with somebody central supplier that I'm talking to.

[: 01:03:15

And just because of the way my calendar was, I didn't want to wait until I could have done it in my office hours time just because of it's. Something I want to implement reasonably quickly. So I went, okay, on this occasion I'm going to have this meeting at 07:00. However, that was my choice. It was the exception, not the rule.

[: 01:03:33

Still be flexible when you need to be. However, when you've already got things planned in, it's going to be so much easier to say no to yourself. That's actually what and it's not even saying no to yourself. It's actually saying yes. It's saying yes to more creativity.

[: 01:03:49

It's saying yes to taking care of yourself. It's saying yes to taking care of your relationships. You don't have to be out and around loads of people all the time. Fully. My husband is an introvert in the personality profiling I do, he is the most introvert profile.

[: 01:04:10

I would never arrange more than two things a month for us to go out. In fact, a month for him to be involved in is enough because it's too peopley out there.

[: 01:04:27

But you can find other things to do. Yeah. Book clubs. I love reading. Yes, that's a good idea.

[: 01:04:35

Something for your trending number one. Exactly. I need to do a little bit more living because I think when the pandemic hit and when I got sick, it was I was like, oh, it's over. I'm just waiting till it happens. And so now I feel like I need to make the choice to live and take advantage of all the things that are out there.

[: 01:04:57

So thank you. You're very welcome. Clair, what has been most significant for you in our conversation today? Probably just making me realize that I need to take care of myself more, put myself first, and that I don't have to do it alone, that it doesn't have to just be me. I can get some help.

[: 01:05:17

I really look forward to hearing about your progress. Thank you so much for being here today and sharing your journey, Clair. And I'm excited to see that list of 20 things because it might start some ideas for me too. There you go. There you go.

[: 01:05:33

Very great. That's wonderful. Thanks, Luna. You're very welcome. Now, Clair, do you want to let people know where people can find you?

[: 01:05:39

And of course, we will add this to the show notes as well. Sure. You can find me on my website at precisionresumesolutions. That's plural.com. And my email address is clair clair@precisionresumesolutions.com.

[: 01:05:52

And as we discussed, she's also on LinkedIn as well. Okay, Clair. Thank you again. It's a wonderful getting to know you better. We look forward to look forward to speaking with you again in the future.

[: 01:06:13

Bye for now. Thanks, Una. Take care.