A conversation with Kirsten Graham, co-founder of Six Figure Business Coaching. Kirsten's purpose and passion in life is helping women start and build successful businesses using the power of leverage.
Kirsten Graham and her partner started Six Figure Business Coaching to help busy entrepreneurs earn more and work less through outsourcing. Kirsten enjoys helping service-based business owners let go of things they don't need to be doing in their business, leverage technology, and earn the money that will provide the freedom and stability they are seeking.
Kirsten shares her journey from realizing the power of video marketing in her own real estate and mortgage career to helping business owners elevate their marketing strategies through outsourcing to the Philippines. Our discussion begins with Kirsten's personal financial challenges during her upbringing, notes her entrepreneurial spirit, and follows how she transitioned her skillset into coaching others on financial and business growth.
Kirsten's insights into the benefits of virtual assistants for small business marketing, the importance of creating standard operating procedures (SOPs), and the transformative impact of managing finances and outsourcing effectively are key highlights. The conversation also explores the value of mindful spending, consistent marketing efforts, and the importance of aligning one's efforts with their values to truly redefine financial success.
“It really taught me the power of video marketing because people would come into the office and they'd watched several of the videos and so they felt like they knew me even though I hadn't met them. So it was a really uncomfortable feeling at first, but that's when I really realized the power of video. When people see enough of your content, they hear your stories, they feel like they get to know you. So when they actually meet you, they're connected to you even though you're meeting them for the first time, and so that was really, really powerful” - Kirsten Graham
Key takeaways:
-Name what you love, and your unique abilities. Kirsten shared that one of her unique abilities is problem solving. She found herself naturally coaching other business owners who perhaps need someone to talk things out with, or maybe to challenge them about things they hadn't thought of. Kirsten also loves numbers, so found herself helping clients who struggle with their finances or business expenses.
-Translate what you’re doing for yourself into a business. Kirsten and her partner Jeanie started outsourcing some of their business support needs to the Philippines about 16 years ago, after finding that the cost of getting similar support from a domestic marketing agency was prohibitive. They decided to partner and help other people hire overseas because it's so affordable, especially for small business owners.
-Consider how you can help others learn from your mistakes. According to Kirsten, there is not a mistake with hiring that she and Jeanie didn't make, from getting taken advantage of by paying someone in advance to probably being the crappiest bosses on the planet. They started their business so that others could avoid making the same mistakes that they did.
About the Guest:
Kirsten Graham loves helping business owners create evergreen value-based video content that showcases their authority to build know, like, and trust. Knowing that time is our most valuable asset Kirsten and her team pair each client with a trained Marketing VA who takes care of video/audio editing, social media and email marketing. This frees them up to focus on making money!
Website: https://sixfigurebusinesscoaching.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstengrahamsfbc/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sfbizcoaching/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kirsten.graham.3517
Free resource: Double Your Income with a Marketing VA
Interested in booking a free consultation? Schedule a call.
Stay connected:
Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
@Rotters5 on Twitter
Connect with Laura on Facebook
Subscribe to my YouTube channel
Subscribe to my newsletter
Get your free copy of Unlock Your Money Blocks Workbook : Your step-by-step guide to unlocking your blocks to financial freedom.
Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment or financial advice. It’s for informational purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.
Kristen Graham
It really taught me the power of video marketing because people would come into the office. And they've watched several of the videos. And so they felt like they knew me even though I hadn't met them. So it was a really uncomfortable feeling at first, but that's when I really realized the power of video.
When people see enough of your content, they hear your stories, they feel like they get to know you. So when they actually meet you, they're connected to you, even though you're meeting them for the first time. And so that was really, really powerful.
Narrator
Welcome to making change with your money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves.
Now, here's your host. Certified financial planner, Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter
I am so excited to have as my guest today, Kirsten Graham. Kirsten loves helping business owners create evergreen value based video content that showcases their authority to build, know, like, and trust. Kirsten and her team pair each client with a trained marketing virtual assistant who takes care of video and audio editing, social media and email marketing so that their time is freed up to focus on making money.
So welcome Kirsten to the Making Change With Your Money podcast.
Kristen Graham
Laura, thank you so much for having me. I've been looking so forward to this. We always have great conversations.
Laura Rotter
Yes. So I'm going to ask you the first question I always ask my guests, which is, what was money like in your family growing up?
Kristen Graham
I would say money was tight.
Yeah. My mom was a stay home mom and my dad worked for Reynolds metals and there were three kids and I actually had scoliosis, so I spent a lot of time back and forth to hospital visits and I was in a. Grace for many years and then I had a steel rod put my back and I was in a body cast, you know, and so all of that, you know, is stress and money, you know, all the money that gets involved in that.
So it was stressful. Yeah, we definitely heard money doesn't grow on trees.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, I was going to ask how that was communicated because it's not always communicated verbally. As you said, you can read it in body language. You can read it in how your parents interacted.
Kristen Graham
Yeah. And I think, you know, we lived in the country, which was really, really nice. So we just had this fantastic out, you know, outdoor lifestyle and, you know, just tons of friends in the neighborhood.
So that was always really nice. So I think there was a lot of things to do that didn't require money, which was really good. You know, we would go on vacation to the beach, we'd go to NAGPAD, but nothing really extravagant. Like we weren't traveling to Europe and things like that. So, but yeah, money was definitely not free flowing, so to speak.
And I think you need to pick up those, those, those thought patterns around money. It doesn't grow on trees.
Laura Rotter
Yeah. Where did you grow up, Kirsten? I grew up in Virginia. Ah, so, so there were beachers nearby. Yeah, yeah. And I think also when we grew up, there wasn't even a knowledge of, sort of, the kind of ostentatious consumption and things that we're all aware of now through social media, through lifestyles of the rich and famous.
It really wasn't as obvious that you could even, I think, as you said, travel to Europe on vacation.
Kristen Graham
Yeah, yeah, that definitely wasn't, you know, you may have had friends that had bigger homes or better cars, or you may have had friends that had, it was, there was not a big emphasis on it. I think there wasn't as much.
Like you said, consumerism, and we just didn't focus as much on who had what, you know, it wasn't really that, I think it was also not this driving force to make millions, right? You know, it's a very different environment now, especially in business.
Laura Rotter
So Kirsten, do you remember having jobs growing up? What was expected of you in terms of your contribution to the family or, or to your education?
What were the expectations?
Kristen Graham
That was the oldest, so I did a lot of babysitting to my siblings, and then also I did a lot of babysitting for the neighborhood kids, so I started babysitting really early on, and that was nice because that was always money, and then eventually working like fast food, you know, the whole, the whole kind of job like that.
But yeah, we were also taught to be responsible, so I think I bought my first car really early on. And paid my auto insurance. So that was, you know, just being that responsible person was nice. Definitely wish we'd had more money lessons growing up, you know, as far as investing and saving and how, you know, how easy it is to go in debt when you're not expecting it with all the things that can happen.
So I, I feel like money wasn't really talked a lot about, but we all definitely had jobs.
Laura Rotter
Were you expected to use the money from the jobs to contribute to household expenses or was it your money and you were?
Kristen Graham
It was our money. Yeah, it was all our money.
Laura Rotter
Which is very nice. So, you know, appreciating that though money may have felt tight. There was not an, any sort of expectation that you needed to somehow contribute to the family.
Kristen Graham
Right. And it's funny because you don't really think about it, but I'm looking back and I probably knew a lot of people that did have to contribute to their family, you know, and so you just don't really think about it or how many kids, you know, they're struggling, you know, with 14, 15, 16 to help their parents make rent.
So definitely did not grow up in that environment, but yeah, it makes you appreciate what you had.
Laura Rotter
And what was the expectation around going to college?
Kristen Graham
There wasn't an expectation, no. I didn't, I went to college part time, but I didn't finish college. And I think it was more, education was important. We learned, we read a lot of books, there was museum visits, things like that were really important, but the emphasis on college wasn't there.
Laura Rotter
Which, yeah. You know, to a certain extent is a positive because again, as you said, when you grow up where money isn't plentiful, college, of course, it's so much more costly now, but like going to school is costly. And certainly in families of people I've interviewed, there might've been an, you know, if you go to college, there's an expectation that will lead to a certain kind of job or, so it sounds like.
If you wanted to go and you started, you could, but it wasn't, uh, a have to in your family, right?
Kristen Graham
Yeah, I think if I had, you know, I said I had a steel rod in my back, but I think if I had been able to pass the medical, I probably would have gone into the military. Really? So, yes, although my dad used to joke that.
If I, you know, if I wanted to go to the military and I need to start as a general because I'm always Yeah, I became self employed really early on in life So I think that was a journey in and of itself. Like I don't think I would survive at all in a corporate job
Laura Rotter
Oh, so please Please tell us a bit a bit about that.
What was the first thing you did?
Kristen Graham
So by 21, I had my real estate license and I started selling real estate at 22 And I spent 25 years in that industry Between selling real estate and then owning a mortgage company and a title company. So I just have always kind of been that entrepreneurial person. But I also really believe in education.
And I think that's one of the things I love about entrepreneurs is they love education. They're always looking to learn and grow and evolve. And so, and I think if you're going to be self employed, you really have to consider. It is a, it's a, it's a learning curve. , it's a curve that never really stops, right.
So, yeah, so I love, I love learning new things and I love, I love working for myself. Yeah.
Laura Rotter
Kristen, what drew you originally to real estate and was it re residential real estate?
Kristen Graham
It was initially, yeah. Yeah. I just love everything about real estate. I think for a lot of, for a lot of families, owning a home is one of the ways that they build wealth initially.
I think that's really important. I think we definitely need to work on equality with home ownership, which is getting harder now with prices the way they are, but yeah, but it's always been drawn towards negotiation. I think it's part of it. I love negotiating and then finance and numbers though, kind of like the whole package.
Laura Rotter
So tell me about your draw to finance and numbers, because you said, and I was going to confirm that this is true for so many of us, that you didn't grow up with any idea of. You know, I have my adult children coming to me because nobody teaches it in school. What percentage of my income should I pay, be paying for rent?
How much should I put in my 401k? What should I be saving outside of my, you know, like, nothing, nothing, nothing is taught. We're just expected to know. So, what, Was your facility with numbers, what drew you to working with that?
Kristen Graham
So I think when you think about more, when you think about buying a house, there's always a mortgage involved.
And I just, I ended up getting more interested in the mortgage side and that's where I spent most of my career. And so just basically what I learned was the guidelines that the lenders offered and that was really, you know, the debt to income ratio and the things like that was really just where my first lessons started.
And You know, if you think about it, if your debt to income ratio for the house that you buy, it can be 50 percent of your gross income.
Laura Rotter
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's part of the budgeting that I teach to my clients, which is looking at your net income. First of all, people, when you first start to work, do you get your first paycheck?
You're like, wait, wait a minute. And then looking at that and saying, if you put have tos in place, Not only your, you know, your mortgage, but then the electricity and your Netflix bill, all these have tos that you've committed to, if that eats up. More than half of your net income, you're not going to have time for fun, or money for fun, and you're not going to have resources to save.
And, yeah, living in the New York City area, that's, that's, you know, that's not always so easy to do.
Kristen Graham
I think the other thing people don't consider is maintenance, what it costs to maintain a home. I think that's something that so many people leave out of their budget and it's, you know, can add up quickly.
And one of the things I used to talk about is if you're buying a 10 year old house and it has a 20 year roof expectancy, you In 10 years, you've got to buy a roof. So when that roof is due, it's not a surprise. It's not an unexpected expense. It's an expected expense. It's our choices and whether or not we choose to pay for it.
Laura Rotter
And another good point when buying, I mean, I personally dealt with this when I decided to downsize, when I left wall street and was looking at what can I afford in a lifestyle. going forward that even if I could afford, I had a very small mortgage on my home at that time, but with a 6, 000 square foot house, the monthly cost of heating it and was on an acre of land.
So the monthly cost of having someone come and mow the lawn. So there are expenses that come along with a certain kind of house independent of just the mortgage and the insurance and the taxes. So it's important to take. All of this into account and looking at the house.
Kristen Graham
Well, then it's also our time. I think it's so sad because of the society, we've become slaves to our stuff, right?
It takes time to clean a 6, 000 square foot house or keep it organized. Or even if you have someone in coming in to clean it, you're still, there's still a lot to maintain inside the home. And it's like, is that really what you want to do with your time? And then all of the things that we buy to fill the homes, you know, at the end, when you downsize, how much of the stuff that you let go of, you actually missed today.
Laura Rotter
It's a very, very Good point. And again, when I do values exercises with clients who, for example, might say, I value my family, that's one of my top three values. And then you say, okay, but you bought this expensive house and these expensive cores. And that means you spend less time with your family so that you're working to support your things.
And, That can be jarring for people when they realize that they've made certain choices that take away from what it is they say is most important to them.
Kristen Graham
Internally, I'm a minimalist. Externally, I haven't gotten there yet. I would like to fully be one of those complete minimalists, but I do really question purchases more now than ever before.
And not just from the money aspect, but from the, well, I really, really use this. Is it really going to do what I need it to do? Do I have something that I could already use? And, and so it's really questioning, what do I want to bring into my environment? So not just about the money, but just having more and more stuff in the house.
And so just trying to figure out with each purchase, you know, is it, is it worth my time to maintain it? I love that there's a woman who has a YouTube channel. It's called, I think it's Minimalist Mom. And she refers to it as inventory. And it kind of takes the emotional, the emotional connection to it.
Everything you own is inventory you have to maintain. So whether it's the toiletries and the cleaning supplies under the sink, whether it's the clothes in your closet, whether it's the books on your bookshelf, it is all. Just inventory. It's just stuff that we have to maintain. And so when you start kind of thinking about it like that, I think it makes you question, do I want to spend money on this?
And is it going to bring me value? Or would I rather do something else with that money and something else with that time?
Laura Rotter
Thank you. I love that point, Kirsten. And I also would add to that something I read of the, um, The 24 hour rule that if you see something that you'd like to purchase to then wait on it 24 hours and see if when 24 hours passed you still Want to purchase it or was it just sort of by instinct?
And nowadays, of course, it's so set up so easy for us to buy things, right? You're scrolling Instagram, something pops in, you've got the credit card saved. And before you know it, you've bought something. And I think what you said of just recognizing that it's more stuff, right? I think of a business, right?
It costs money to maintain inventory. And just to take that deep breath and check in, take the time and see whether it is something you really want to purchase.
Kristen Graham
And that's something that, I'm sorry, that's something that Jeannie and I do within our business too, because it's really easy to have shiny object syndrome.
Is that new software going to change our business? Do we really want to go to this conference? You know, it's easy to spend money in your business. So it's always important to actually evaluate that. And making sure that whatever we're spending our money on in our business. Is, you know, there's, there's no magic wand, right?
If there is, I would buy that. There isn't need to invest in tools. We need to invest in our business, but we have to make sure that we're have realistic expectations of what we, of what we want that tool to do. And then we have to be clear. Are we going to really use it? Because I know in the past we've bought some really fun software that we really didn't use as much as we should have or could have.
So I think if there's questions about, you know, What we're buying, even within our businesses, too.
Laura Rotter
That's a very good point. Sometimes in business, we imagine that everything's going to have a return on investment. And by the same token, when I work with clients to go over their expenses, and I find this also With business, keep track of your recurring expenses because you can sign up for something and then completely forget that you've signed up for it.
If you're not routinely checking your credit card statements, you might be surprised by these apps or sites you've signed up for. And you're like, wait, what? What is that I'm paying for? I don't, I'm not even using it. Why am I paying for it? So Kirsten, could you walk our listeners through, as you said, you had a long career in real estate and on the mortgage broker side, what was it that changed and had you put your entrepreneurial efforts elsewhere?
Kristen Graham
So a couple of things in that journey happened. I did a lot of loans for self employed people and so they own businesses so I would see their personal tax returns and their business tax returns. And I would always get asked, you know, can I pick your brain? So I did a lot of like mentoring and coaching, not meaning to really fall into that category.
But one of the people that I ended up mentoring is now my business partner, Jeannie. And, um, she was actually a client and she had started a business. And when she called to check on interest rates, I'd asked how her business was going. And so she said, you know, it's going really well. I just don't really have any friends or family members that own businesses.
I'm thinking about trying to find, you know, some way to connect with other business owners. So I offered to meet her for coffee and connected with her. And so that kind of led to me actually starting to do video marketing. So in 2007, we started creating YouTube video content for our mortgage company, which I think is why we stayed in business.
We were not after the, after the 2008 crash, we were not thriving, but we survived. So I think just having all of these different people come into my life who have to be mentored. So eventually I started taking paid clients and then that turned into a full time coaching practice. My mom was, she was diagnosed with cancer.
And so she had a five year battle with cancer and she was towards the end of that journey. And in 2013, I was just, I was tired of the industry. So I just shut down my mortgage company, shut down my title company, because at that time you couldn't really sell it. I mean, the economy was coming back, but it wasn't anywhere close to what it needed to be.
And then I just started coaching full time and so that, that was kind of that transition there and it was a good transition. I wasn't expecting it. It definitely wasn't something I planned for. I didn't think I would leave real estate. I thought maybe I would switch to a different side again. I love it. I absolutely love it.
Laura Rotter
So can I ask you a couple of questions? So, first of all, you said we started to do videos for the mortgage broker. Was that you with your partner? Had she joined you in the?
Kristen Graham
No, she didn't join me. She actually just encouraged me to do them because she had a, she had a digital marketing agency. And so I, I did a few videos, a lot of the loan officers.
So we, as an office, we started doing video content and it just really turned out to It really taught me the power of video marketing because people would come into the office and they'd watch several of the videos and so they felt like they knew me even though I hadn't met them. So it was a really uncomfortable feeling at first, but that's when I really realized the power of video.
When people see enough of your content, they hear your stories, they feel like they get to know you. So when they actually meet you, they're connected to you even though you're meeting them for the first time. And so that was really, really powerful. And so I was very grateful that Jeannie actually, you know, encouraged me to do that and talked me into it.
And then eventually we ended up having a business together.
Laura Rotter
Oh, thank you for clarifying that. And I'm curious, Kirsten, you, you mentioned again, your interest in the numbers, but you said that more and more people were informally coming to you for coaching. Why do you think that was? What skills did you have?
Could you identify that had people coming to you?
Kristen Graham
I think I'm just, I think one of my unique abilities is just problem solving. And, and so that's something or, or just helping people rationalize things. You know, sometimes the business, you know, the right thing to do. But you just need someone to talk it out with, or you need someone to maybe challenge you in a way that things maybe you hadn't thought of, because again, sometimes we get so stuck in a rut that we can't see all of the, you know, all the way around.
So, I ended up just really enjoying helping people. It's really about bringing out the best in them. Coaching is about helping them figure out what's best for them. But, you know, asking lots of questions and sharing resources with them. And then at the end of the day, they make their decision. I always tell my clients, you know, when they're up against something hard, and maybe I think they should do one thing or they think they should do something else.
You know, at the end of the day, you always have to decide it's your business.
Laura Rotter
So what kind of coaching were you doing when you first started? Because this sounds like General business coaching.
Kristen Graham
It is general business coaching. And I still feel like it is general business coaching. I did help a lot of people learn with budgeting.
I know we've talked a little bit about that. I love the app. You need a budget, Tom. Why now? And so I still help clients to even to this day who say they're struggling with their finances or their business expenses. So I'll usually have them use that app to be able to track where their money's going, because it's like you said, we sign up for things and we continue to pay for it, even though we're not using it.
Having a budgeting app where you are predicting what you're spending in each category. You're not just accounting for it after it's been spent. So I still work with people quite, quite a bit on that, um, which I love because I love the numbers. Most business owners, their biggest struggle is marketing, you know, generating leads and closing enough sales.
And that really boils down to marketing. So for us pairing together and helping them get the support that they need to have ongoing marketing was why we ended up building our partnership.
Laura Rotter
So I find that partnership fascinating. So can you give us a bit more detail about. Exactly what it is you provide.
Kristen Graham
Sure. So Jeannie is, she actually owned a marketing agency. So her whole background is marketing and of course, mine was mortgage and then finance and business. So we kind of partnered with that. And one of the things that we found was a lot of small businesses cannot afford to hire, You know, an agency, a marketing agency is going to be three to five grand a month in a lot of cases, and, but they need support.
So we decided to help our clients actually use video marketing by pairing them with a virtual assistant in the Philippines, because it's very affordable. And actually, Jeannie and I started outsourcing about 16 years ago, back when she was, I was mentoring her and her business took off kind of quickly after we did some, did a focus group, then that led to some classes.
And then after the classes that led to her phone ringing quite a bit, and she needed to hire help. And I said, I've read an article about outsourcing overseas when you want to try that. And she said, okay. So that kind of led us on this journey of hiring for her agency overseas. And then I hired, you know, for myself, and then we decided to partner and help other people hire overseas because it's so affordable, especially for small business owners to be able to outsource overseas and get the support that you need in your business.
Otherwise, you're doing everything on your own, and that can be really challenging and draining mentally, physically and emotionally.
Laura Rotter
And so if I decided that, you know, I want to help marketing my business again, what is it that you do more specifically?
Kristen Graham
Sure. So what happened was lots of people asking us when they realized we were outsourcing, you know, well, could I hire a virtual assistant?
And, you know, Jeannie and I like to say all the time that we, we did it wrong and we did it wrong, right? There is not a mistake with hiring that we didn't make from getting taken advantage of by paying someone in advance to probably being the crappiest bosses on the planet. Because, you know, like, there's just times you're so busy and you're trying to delegate, but you really haven't created your SOPs.
You know, you're not using the project management software. You're not, you're not providing structure to be a good leader. And so that was, that was some of the hard lessons we had to learn. Can you define an SOP? Yeah, just standard operating procedure. So step by step how things are done. And if you, if you document everything that you do and how you do it, it makes it a lot easier when you bring someone on to get them up to speed and to train them.
And I think for women, especially we hear it all the time, you know, if I have to spend so much time teaching someone, I'll do it myself, right. You know, it's going to take me a long time to train them. I'll just do it myself. And I get that if you're really, really busy in your business, it's hard to take the time to be able to bring someone on.
That's why you want to start documenting things before you're so busy. That you can't stop to document it and then bring someone on, you know, sooner rather than later. I think that's the other thing we often wait a lot longer than we should to hire and getting the support in your business frees you up to do what you love doing.
It frees you up to be in your space to make the change in people's lives and to do the things that you love doing and having someone else working on some of the things that you love doing. You know, you could do, but they're not the best things for you to be doing with your time.
Laura Rotter
It's hard. It's always the sort of which comes first, the chicken or the egg, because often small business owners feel like, well, I want my revenue to be X before I start spending money on assistance.
On the other hand, if you don't start spending money on assistance, it's hard to build the business to get to a revenue stream. That you want so it's, it's, it's a constant little dance that most business owners do in terms of bringing on help. And I guess one of the things that's nice about a virtual assistant is if you bring someone on and you agree to a certain amount per month and it doesn't work, the revenue doesn't justify it.
You, you haven't taken on an employee. So again, what comes up as I say that though, is. More specificity, like how long, what's the commitment if, if someone were to hire a virtuous assistant through you, how does that process work? What's the term of the commitment?
Kristen Graham
Sure, sure. Yeah. So when we decided to help, we decided we needed to be very specific because I feel like so many people join coaching programs.
And I'm a coach, so I 100 percent believe, right. But sometimes we need people to do things for us. You know, I think that's the other thing with being a small business owner. Sometimes you just need to hire someone to do things. So when Jeannie and I put this together, we really wanted to have as much of it done for our clients as possible.
So when they join our program, we actually are helping them understand how to create great video content, you know, what their keywords need to be. We're helping them understand their, their marketing plan, what platforms are they going to be on, how are they going to build their email list. You know, what technology do they want to use?
So we help them with all of those things. And then we actually have the virtual assistants. We've already interviewed them. We've hired them. We put them through a paid internship. So they have to graduate this entire process before they're eligible to go to work for one of our clients. And on the flip side of that, we do a lot of training on both sides of this fence.
So for our clients, we talk a lot about cultural differences, how to be a great leader, how to be a great boss, how to coach your virtual assistant, they're creating content you don't care for. Like, I don't, you know, how do you get them to create things that you love? And so we spend a lot of time around coaching them.
We also spend time with our Filipinos talking about Americans. We communicate very aggressively. We don't know that we do, but we do. And so encouraging them to speak up and hopefully what happens, well, not hopefully It does happen when they actually come together. They have a better understanding of each other from the start.
And we have a process when they bring on that virtual assistant, that there's things that they do immediately to build that relationship. And get to know each other quickly. The other thing that we've done for our clients is we have all of the SOPs, all of the standard operating procedures for video production, social media marketing, email marketing, blogging, course creation, because that's another thing.
Your virtual assistant can do all of your course creation editing. So we have all of the structure in place and we've trained the virtual assistants on it. They've actually used those SOPs in the paid internship. So they know them inside and out. And then for our clients, we've provided training for them.
I think SOPs are one of those things that you can't learn from just watching a video. You have to actually get in there and use them.
Laura Rotter
I've done that in my business. It's time consuming.
Kristen Graham
It is. But once you get used to using them, especially, you know, 90 percent of the work in those SOPs is being done by the virtual assistant.
And it's very clear what the boss has to do. The owner has to do in order to give that. Virtual assistant, good videos to edit and how to give them feedback and how to move everything through the pipeline so that they're consistently getting great content produced for their social platform. So we're not looking for people that just want to have a virtual assistant for a couple of weeks or a month.
We're really looking for people who want to create, you know, video content, whether that's talking head videos or podcast style videos and who wants to have ongoing production processes done for them. And so, yeah.
Laura Rotter
Did I answer all your questions? I'm sorry. It does. I guess I'm wondering whether when a contract is signed, you're obviously investing a lot of time in training the VA.
So what is the commitment that's asked for when the contract is signed?
Kristen Graham
Yeah. So the virtual assistants, we do something a little bit different here too. We don't act as an agency. So what happens is our clients do not hire through us. So we're not marking that up because we also feel like there's a First of all, a lot of the virtual assistants are not treated very well at the agencies.
Sometimes they don't get paid, they're often working for lots of different clients. And it's hard to have a real relationship when your paycheck is being paid by the agency and not by the person you're working for. So our clients actually have their virtual assistant go to work directly for them. They pay them.
They're on their team. That person was 100%. You know, they're overseas contractors, so to speak. So we don't market up. And that's what makes it a lot more affordable for our clients, is we're not marketing up. You know, instead of 250 a month, we charge 700 a month, and we would keep, you know, the majority of that.
That's what the agencies do. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's a great business model for certain things. But for us, we want our clients to be able to commit to having that person with them part time for a very long time. And so there is not a contract signed between us and the virtual assistant and the client.
So what, what happens too, is we always tell our clients, we had one person who had a situation where she ended up in a horrible custody battle with her husband. And so she just said, I don't have the money, but I also just don't have the bandwidth to create content right now. It's just, I'm just, it's a bad space in my life.
We brought her virtual assistant back into the paid internship, and so we will bring the virtual assistants back in if for any reason the client can't continue to work with them, and then we'll place them with a new client. So we do our best to make sure that that virtual assistant has a job, and then when our client wants to, you know, come back into the process, we'll help them get another virtual assistant.
Laura Rotter
And the flip side, what if A virtual assistant is sick or something happens to them, how, how would that work?
Kristen Graham
So what we do is we do guarantee our virtual assistants for 60 days as long as our clients are following the process, so to speak. And then after that, it really is about the relationship. So I can't guarantee that someone's going to work for you forever.
So we have clients that lose their virtual assistants. One just recently lost her virtual assistant after about eight months, but often they weren't, they weren't really using the structure of the system. I think it was a little bit out. You know, a lot of things going on over there. And so her virtual assistant took a different job.
So we'll help her get a new virtual assistant for a fee. But most of the time, the goal is to have that lasting relationship. And that's what we find, you know, more than often, they're going to stay. Now, we have had a couple of other things that have happened. We had a client whose virtual assistant went on maternity leave.
So we had some graduated interns who just went to work for her. Or one of them went to work for three months and then came back. So we try to have flexibility because life happens. And then, you know, we want to be there to support them. But also we find that a lot of our clients go on to hire different additional team members within the within the first year.
Laura Rotter
So Kirsten, I'm curious, was there any time when you transitioned from Being a mortgage broker, then a coach, this business that you needed to transition your finances in a certain way that, you know, you had to be aware of, you know, making a leap to be doing something new.
Kristen Graham
Well, first of all, 2008 real estate says everything.
Yeah. I think there were good lessons that came out of that for all of us, you know, but Definitely, you know, like you got downsized and when I moved to Florida, I downsized and I think just becoming less and less. Interested in stuff and more freedom is really what drives my, my choices now, but yes, with the business, there's always, I think, ups and downs as far as, you know, roller coaster income, and I think it's just a matter of watching your expenses on both sides.
You know, your personal expenses and your business expenses, but I think another fun thing to do, which is making a game. Like, we, we try to. Calculate the profit margin on the business. That can be kind of fun for a lot of people. What is your profit margin on your business each month or each year? You know, are you being as profitable as you possibly can?
And that's the other thing. I think sometimes people waste money on things they shouldn't in their business and don't invest in things that they should. And I always like to tell people, if you had a magic wand and you could have an extra 20 hours a week that you could work, what would that be worth to you?
You know, and for 275 or 250 a month, you could have someone working for you 20 hours every week. So investing in other people to do things is how you really grow a business rather than trying to do everything yourself, you know, eliminate, automate and delegate. You know, those are the, that's the order in which we need to do things to be profitable.
And then make a game of it. Gamify your profitability. I love that.
Laura Rotter
I love, first of all, the way you, you really enjoy the concept of budgeting, of watching what's going out relative to what's coming in and being very intentional about that, which, you know, I often say to people, financial planning is not rocket science.
It is exactly that. Just being mindful of the choices. that you make. And I also like, Kirsten, the way you refer to bringing on help as an investment, which indeed it is. There are expenses, right? Shiny new app. I think that'll be fun, but really investing in getting help that's appropriate so that you do free up another 20 hours to do what's in your area of expertise and what really can make a change in your business.
So I love both those ideas.
Kristen Graham
And I think it was interesting because earlier, Laura, you were talking about like, what do we delegate in our business? Like, what can we let go of? And for a lot of our clients, they're not spending 20 hours marketing a week. But can you imagine where your business would go if you had someone who was spending 20 hours a week, just focusing on your marketing?
I can't tell you how many times I've asked someone, do you have an email list? And they say, yes. And it could be 500 or 5, 000 people. The next question is, well, when's the last time you email them or how often do you email them? I've never emailed them or it's been six months, right? Yeah, it just happens because you get busy, right?
You're busy with client work. You're busy like just trying to close that next sale. So it's not that they're bad people. They just don't have enough time. And can you imagine how your business would change if you're consistently putting out great SEO rich content every week in social media content, and you are emailing that list every week?
Can you imagine how that can change your business? And I know in marketing and we all hear it. It's the exact same thing with your finances. It's consistency, right? It's not a matter of all of a sudden. You just pull a million dollars out of the air and there's your retirement account. It's consistently putting a little away right over time.
And it's the same with marketing consistently showing up and marketing to the point where people really get to know who you are and. Again, video builds a relationship with them. I'm not going to be everyone's cup of tea, so if they don't like me, that's okay, because, you know, there's someone else out there better to serve them.
But if people get to connect with your content, then they can decide, well, I really, I like that person, and now I want to, have a conversation with them. And I cannot tell you how many calls I've been on where people quote things that I've said. Or they quote things that have genius said, because they've watched our content.
Laura Rotter
I do. I send out a weekly newsletter and it occurred to me when someone reached out and was like very casually starting conversation that like, they think they talk to me every week.
I don't talk to them every week though. So it was like, it's sometimes a little jarring, right? That like, Oh, there's a familiarity that they have with me that I don't necessarily have with them.
Kristen Graham
But you are talking to them every week. You're keeping your word to them. You're showing up. They gave you their email address for some reason, whether it's an opt in or a meeting with you or something.
And then every week you consistently showed up to give them value. You weren't asking them for things. You were just showing up. And showing your passion and educating them and helping them. And that's what builds the relationship is the fact that you continuously show up. So you are in some ways talking to them.
Laura Rotter
Thank you. So Kirsten, as we get towards the end of the conversation, you started to talk about this with the last question, but how has your definition of success shifted over the years and perhaps even financial success?
Kristen Graham
I think it has to do with age, right? Time becomes more valuable than money in a lot of ways.
And so that, you know, and then I think also thinking about how we can actually help people, you know, being able and I know you and I've talked about this before. It's not about having every client come to us. It's having the clients that we can actually, like, really serve, you know, that we can build the relationship with and we can truly help them.
And I think as we get older, too, it's like having this desire to make the world a better place. And you may think, well, you know, you doing a financial plan for someone. How does that really change the world or me helping someone hire a virtual assistant and really get excited about their marketing? How does that change the world?
We really change the world one person at a time. You know, if if that person brings him more income. From having the support in their business, or they feel more confident because they have someone to help them that changes their life in a lot of ways, thinking with you, if they consistently invest and put money away, that may mean that they're paying for the grandchildren to go to college, or they're able to take the family on vacation, you know, or they're not going to be a burden on their children when they're older, that changes a lot of things.
That is the trickle down effect. Really.
Laura Rotter
Yes. And I do think. That there's a level of anxiety in our world about time, which you help people use more efficiently, about money, which I help people use more efficiently, and that too, you can't quantify it, but if you can lower that level of anxiety, if you can help people to take a deep breath, to feel okay, to feel, you know, More organized, more clarity about how they're moving forward with their marketing with their finances.
I do think that's a gift. Again, we can't necessarily put exact dollars and cents to it, but it's so helpful and so important. And I remind myself of that every day, because again, I don't know That, you know, what we do is it's not rocket science, but it matters. It really, really matters. And so you've seen the shift in your own life to put more emphasis on time than money.
Kristen Graham
Absolutely. And I think I'm going to circle back to like what this conversation, for me, the things I did not expect to hear when we really started this program of helping our clients with their marketing virtual assistant I didn't expect to hear things like I finally feel like a real business owner or I didn't realize how lonely and isolated I was in my business.
I love getting up and collaborating with my virtual assistant. We meet three times a week and it's the best, you know, the best time for me because I just really enjoy working with someone else on these projects or things like, especially for women. I had no idea how much I was beating myself up and constantly criticizing myself and telling myself that I couldn't do it and I couldn't make it because I couldn't get all these things done.
And now I have this virtual assistant working for me and I see that I can do something bigger and better than I ever imagined because now, and now I know what it looks and feels like to have the port. Those were things I wasn't expecting. And I'm sure for you, it's people who can sleep at night because they know they're not living paycheck to paycheck.
Or that, you know, husband or wife who has to come to you because, you know, a spouse passed away and life insurance was needed to be able to survive. So there's things like that, that we don't think about. It's not rocket science, but it really does matter and it changes people's lives. And I think it makes them, you know, if you're not stressed out in your business, you're going to be more present with your family.
You're going to go and do more of the things you enjoy. You're going to take better care of yourself. And those things, you know, That's what builds our life is all of those things, not just our business, not just our finances, but the people in our lives and the experiences that we get to have beautifully, beautifully said.
Laura Rotter
So Kirsten, is there something else, anything else you'd like to share with our listeners before, before our conversation ends?
Kristen Graham
Yeah, I think with money, I think don't be afraid of your money. You know, I always. Like you said, I kind of make a game of budgeting and whenever I try to help someone learn budgeting, I try to make a game of it because you can either you can either have the stress of looking at your budget and making decisions in the moment about where am I going to spend my money or you can have a lot of stress over the fact that you spent money you shouldn't have.
So it's always a lot easier when you start looking at your money and making conscious decisions. This is how I'm going to spend it. This is why I'm going to spend it this way. And even in your business. And you're still gonna look back and there's gonna be mistakes like, Oh, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I hadn't bought.
There's always gonna be that. But at least making a conscious decision in that moment. And I think over time, you realize that stuff does not make you happy. It's the people, the time and the experience and in some ways, financial security and business security. Those are the things that make us happy. You know, feel good in our day to day lives.
Laura Rotter
Yes. And I strongly agree. Happiness is an inside job. You can accumulate as many things as you want, but that's not going to bring you true happiness. And I do also similarly like to equate budgeting with mindfulness. There is a way in which. People can feel that they're going to be constrained if they, for example, as you said, name how much they want to spend each week on fun, and then see that they're, they've already spent that by Wednesday.
And I like to make the point that It's your money. You can continue to spend, but you have the knowledge. You put a system in place to have the knowledge that you don't have to spend a Sunday once a month, looking back, but that you can see in real time, how much you've spent relative to what you thought you'd spend, and then use that to make a decision and not to berate yourself, tell you you're a bad person, or otherwise, you know, tie it to.
You know, your morality or something. I mean, no, it's just a piece of information. And the more information you have, the better your decision making process will be.
Kristen Graham
Laura, and I love that. And I like the fact that you've already spent all of your money on fun. We'll go find something for you to do for fun, right?
So your fun budget's out. Okay. Well, what could you do that's fun that doesn't cost money? And I think that's where we end up drawing on our creativity. You know, because it's so easy to in our culture to go to coffee and go to lunch and go to dinner that, you know, there's just always food involved, right?
I mean, it is, it's all that every networking event has food. It's really nice when you can say to someone, Hey, I'd like to meet with you for a one to one, but instead of grabbing coffee or lunch, how would you feel about going for a walk on the beach? We can still talk business. We can still get to know each other.
But, you know, it's, it's just a different way of doing things or, you know, again, just sometimes it's like, instead of going to spend money, let's go to a park or let's do something different. And I don't think it has to be a punishment. It just has to be a creative, a shift, a creative shift.
Laura Rotter
So are there any resources you'd like to share with our, with our listeners or any websites to direct them to if they actually are intrigued by your virtual assistants?
Kristen Graham
Absolutely. So our business is six figure business coaching and that's S I X figure business coaching. And I do have a resource for everyone here today. It's called double your income with the marketing virtual assistant. And you can go to outsourcingforbosses. com to get that outsourcingforbosses. com.
And that's just a resource about what a virtual assistant could do for you. And I will, of course, include that in the show notes. Thank you, Laura. And you're I mean, I just love having conversations with you and your passion for helping people. I think a lot of financial planners don't do what you do. A lot of them don't spend time helping their clients really budget and encouraging them because it is an emotional stress for a lot of people and to have someone like you on their side, encouraging them.
And knowing that, you know, you don't expect them to get it right. So to speak, you just, you just want to encourage them to keep trying until they become more and more comfortable with it. And then it becomes a way of life. And that's when things really, really changed. I think it's great that you do that with your client.
Laura Rotter
And I, I think it's great that you bring so much energy again to the budgeting conversation. Yes. And I think that's relatively unique and clearly something that has made a very big difference for you and you've seen it make a difference for others. Thank you so much for taking the time, Kirsten. This has been a great conversation.
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Kirsten Graham of Six Figure Business Coaching. And here are my takeaways. Name what you love and your unique abilities. Kirsten shared that one of her unique abilities is problem solving. She found herself naturally coaching other business owners who perhaps needed someone to talk things out with, or maybe to be challenged about things they hadn't thought of.
Kirsten also loves numbers, so she found herself helping clients who struggled with their finances or business expenses. My second takeaway? Translate what you're doing for yourself into a business. Kirsten and her partner Jeannie started outsourcing some of their business support needs to the Philippines about 16 years ago.
After finding that the cost of getting similar support from a domestic marketing agency was prohibitive, they decided to partner and help other people hire overseas because it's so affordable, especially for small business owners. And finally, Consider how you can help others learn from your mistakes.
According to Kirsten, there's not a mistake with hiring that she and Jeannie didn't make. From getting taken advantage of by paying someone in advance, to probably being the crappiest bosses on the planet. They started their business, So that others can avoid making the same mistakes that they did. If my interview has struck a chord with you, please don't hesitate to schedule a consult with me by emailing me at laura at trueabundanceadvisors.
com. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss next week's episode. And if you love the show, a rating and a review would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. And we'll help others just like you to find it. Thank you so much.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to Making Change With Your Money. Certified Financial Planner, Laura Rotter, specializes in helping people just like you organize, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning. Go to www.trueabundanceadvisors.com/workbook for a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer. Please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.