Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Business Journey podcast, I am Rebecca and I'm so excited to have you guys listen in today. This is going to be such a fun conversation. We have my integrator Kat Schmoyer with us and we just going to dive into the world of what it looks like to have an integrator on your team. Ever since we started working together, we both get tons of questions like What is an integrator? And do I need an integrator? And so I figured it would be helpful just to kind of peel back the curtain and let you guys in on like what it is that we do together. And you may be in the place in your business where you're not necessarily ready for an integrator yet, which is totally fine. If anything, this kid like, you know, help that piques curiosity or, you know, you can save it for a later time whenever you are ready for an integrator. But either way, I think this is going to be a super fun conversation. So, Kat? Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Kat: I'm so glad to be here.
Rebecca: Yay. I think, is this our first episode together or a second?
Kat: I think we did work on quarterly planning.
Rebecca: Yeah. So it is. I love it. OK, well, then people have probably heard you. If you haven't listened to Kat's quarterly planning podcast, it's awesome. Go take a listen. But we just have such a fun conversation to jump into today. So Kat, first, can you like let everybody know a little bit about you? Let's say they've never heard of you before. Like, can you give us like the brief I am Kat Schmoyer, this is what I do.
Kat: Yes. OK. And I'll keep it brief. Don't worry. So I'm Kat, you guys. And I actually started out as a small business owner, being a wedding planner. So I launched a wedding planning company about eight years ago. And over the last eight years, my businesses have just really morphed a lot. My husband and I host creative at heart, so we have an annual conference and a membership community. And then I started business coaching and hosting a mastermind and doing some courses in digital products on my own. So that's what led me into integration and integration is actually a new thing for me in my business. So those of you guys that are either in a pivot or like starting a new part of your business, I feel you. This has been like a crazy year for me of like testing out new things within the world of integration. Rebecca and I have been working together for about nine months now, and about six months ago I started an agency model. So I have a team under me and I work with visionaries and helping make some of their goals come to life and just really be that integrator in their businesses. So it's been kind of a crazy whirlwind of a year, but I'm excited to talk to you guys a little bit more about how Rebecca and I work together and the visionary, integrator combo.
Rebecca: Yay. So good. Love it. And I can't believe that we've been working together for what, 9, 10 months like. I feel like it's it's totally flown by, but also like we've been working together for so much longer. So it's like that weird in between. Yeah, cool. So let's jump in to like what is an integrator like you mentioned, it's kind of, you know, it's newer to you. And you know, we first heard about the term integrator from the book Traction and then in the second book from Gino Wickman Rocket Fuel. And so that's where we first heard about it, and I remember talking to Kat. She I was in her mastermind at the time, and I was asking her about somebody else to be an integrator. And I said, Have you heard of this person? You know, have you do you even know what an integrator is like? I think that I need an integrator on my team, and that's where I like this kind of came from. Was that conversation? But in case people have not read the books, what is an integrator just in? It's like plainest terms?
Kat: Yeah. So the traction like model, if first off, you haven't read traction, I highly recommend it. It's one of her back and i's favorite books, and we like geek out over like business like operation systems and stuff like that. But even if that's not like something fun for you to read, I still think it's a really cool read because it teaches a system called EOS, which is the entrepreneurial operating system. So he specifically works with companies that have 30 to 100 employees. So obviously a lot of you guys are saying you're not in that boat, right? Like even Rebecca and I'm like, We don't have 30 employees, but there's still a lot to glean from, Hey, how can I organize the structure of a small team? And like, how can I make sure that my teams needs are met and the business is growing? And so within that EOS system, he teaches about visionaries and integrators. There's actually a free quiz, too, so we should link that below. So like, if you guys have never taken it, you totally should. Where I have always been like, Oh, I have to be a visionary. of course, like I started a business like, of course, I have vision, like that's like I'm a visionary and I took this quiz a year ago and was very much an integrator, and I'm like, OK, maybe this is like my own personal problem. So I joked that I was an integrator without a visionary for like so many years in my small business sphere. Whereas Rebecca, while she has integrator traits and can like, relate to certain parts of integration, she's the visionary. So Rebecca, as the visionary, is casting vision. She's looking ahead high level. Where do I want the business to go? What are the goals? What are the dreams like? What should we be doing? And she's the face of the company. The integrator is the person behind the scenes that keeps the ship running so that Rebecca can focus on the things. Only Rebecca can do it like only her face. So like a lot of marketing, a lot of content creation, and then the integrator steps in to say, OK, well, what about the team? What about just the day to day operations? How are we making sure customers needs are met and client's needs are met? And like our Trello board is organized? And like all of these backend like systems, if you look at it from like a brick and mortar, the visionary would be like the CEO of the shop and the integrator would be the general manager. So the integrator is in the working relationships of the business day in and day out, whereas the visionary stays high touch and like, of course, still knows what's happening, but not near as much as the integrator.
Rebecca: Yes, that's the perfect definition right there. And what's so funny is you thought you were the visionary when it turns out you were an integrator. And for me, working at the church, a lot of guys know if you've been around for a while that I was a youth pastor full time. I worked full time at a church for nine years before transitioning to my business. And while I was there after, you know, getting out and reading this book, I realized that I was the integrator there that in our like youth team, that's the role that I felt was the integrator because I was kind of second in command there. They had our like youth director. That's the visionary. And then I came in and like, made everything happen. And so when I first read through traction and through rocket fuel, my first thought was, Oh, I don't need an integrator. I know how to do all that stuff that literally I'm like, Oh, I can just do both because I was an integrator for so long. And whenever you and I started working together, I can't even explain how much of like a breath of fresh air it was of like, Yes, I can integrate, but it's not, you know, my full gifting. I like you said, I carry those some of those traits, but I don't like, thrive in it. And when we took the visionary integrator quiz, I was clearly a visionary. And, you know, almost like doing those integrator things was kind of draining some of my energy rather than, like really empowering me and filling me up. And so by us coming together, man, it just like took our business to a whole new level because I was finally operating in my gifting and, you know, my strengths. And so that is one thing I would say is so cool about the visionary integrator relationship is just that the strength meld is meld a word mesh well, maybe melded mesh and meld they they mesh together so well to just take the whole business to another level. That's why that book is called rocket fuel, because they say that that visionary and integrator relationship is the rocket fuel that makes the business go. It launches it up. And so I feel like I definitely saw that this year in our business. By bringing you on that, we were able to go just to new heights because like I thought I was an organized person, I was. I mean, I am. I'm decently organized. But yeah, but I also thought I was like, super good at making systems and workflows and like, you know, optimizing stuff. And then I soon realized I'm not as good as that as I thought. Like, that was a blind spot for me because Kat came in and was like, OK, this is great, but let's do it this way. And she like so kindly in the way only Kat could do, like, move some things around to optimize the way that we did things really just to use our time more efficiently. And it's been such an incredible thing I would like to ask can we talk a little bit about like what your role looks like specifically on my team? Like, tell everybody, what does that look like in like the day to day?
Kat: Yeah, absolutely. So in any integrator, so I know Rebecca talked a lot about like being most integrators are typically organized. They're really good project manager. So project manager meaning like you can look at like, OK, we're having a Black Friday sale. So like, what do we need to do to make the Black Friday sale happen and kind of like organize that like a task list in a way that makes sense and feels like productive and efficient. So integrators usually have that skill set, and I'm trying to explain this to you so that y'all, if you're listening, maybe you're like, Oh, I'm maybe you're like me and you're like, I've. I was a visionary. I'm an educator and maybe you're like Rebecca and you're like, Oh, no, not my strength. I want to help you like self-discovery right now. So project management is definitely like a large part of the role I play in Rebecca's business. We like right now, we're prepping for Black Friday. We're going to be prepping. We do a lot of launch prep. So every quarter we're looking at what's on our marketing calendar and what does that need to be. And so it's not just in me doing the implementation, but it's me delegating to Rebecca's team. Rebecca has a dynamite team like these women are incredible. You like Rebecca needs to do podcast with like every person on the team, just like said and she has a full time team members as well as subcontractors. And then we'll soon be having part time employees. So I spend a lot of my time in Slack, which is a communication tool, just like making sure the team is good, like answering their questions. Do they have what they need, like? What's a pain point here? What's a missing link that we need as they're working on projects? I'm also in Trello a lot, which is the task management system that we use. That's how we organize all of the content. So Rebecca puts out a lot of content. If you guys weren't aware, we've got the podcast, we've got the YouTube, we've got multiple emails that go out a week plus our sales plus our launches, plus Instagram like all the content. So I do a little. I sit a lot and more of a marketing director seat as well, just making sure the team knows what to put out, when and how that brand messaging and marketing needs to sound. So a lot of what I'm doing is that project management, it's keeping track of like a team pulse. How's our team doing? What do we need? Are we getting to burn out? Do we need to slow down pick up? Like, what is that? And then also getting to talk high level strategy with Rebecca, which is like one of my favorite things. As an integrator, you might be a little bit more pessimistic than a visionary. Maybe that's just me, I don't know. But Rebecca, nice conversation. So like, bring me an idea, and then I'll be the one that's like, well, not to be the Debbie Downer, but what about this? And then but we get to have a really cool conversations around like, what would that look like for the team or what would that look like for Rebecca's audience? And what should we do? And so Rebecca and I are in Vox a good bit like voice chatting about just ideas that Rebecca has or collabs that Rebecca wants to do, and then things that we decide, OK, we like this. Let's take it one step further. She'll pass it off to me so that I can then project manage and delegate it out to the team.
Rebecca: Yeah, I like to think of Kat as like we have all the moving pieces, and she comes in and pulls all those moving pieces together to make sure they're all going the same direction. And we also call Kat the Dream Killer because
Kat: it's like the worst.
Rebecca: I think it's the best because as a visionary, I have a lot of ideas, and most of them, I would say, are not like stellar ideas. They're OK. They're not bad, but they're not the things that are going to like, really push our business forward because we really want to do the things that are the best ideas. And so those Vox conversations are so helpful for me that I can say, like even last week or earlier this week, I was sending ideas. I'm like, OK, I think I want to do this. I don't know what that looks like, like, help me talk through that. How can we formulate this thing? And so, you know, sometimes it's a, you know, conversation in an hour. Sometimes it's like over weeks where we're like, you know, constantly going back to this idea and, you know, shifting it and seeing, how would our people like it and just all the things, how the different ways that it can look. It's like having our two brains together. Kat comes in and thinks very like strategically and says, How can we make this happen? I say I have this really big idea. She's like, OK. But like, logistically, how can we actually pull this thing off? And so that, I think, is one of the most valuable pieces because once we do say, OK, logistically, this can be done. I just need like a yes, it can be done. And then I pass it off to Kat because before that, it's going back and forth of like, is this something we should do when we decide, yes, we're going to do it? Then I pass it off to her and my brain space is saved for just creating new ideas. So I'm like, Kat said, doing the things only I can do. I'm, you know, dreaming and thinking of new things. I'm creating content all the time. I feel like I'm always doing podcasts, always doing YouTube videos, you know, serving our students well. And but Kat, then I can pass it off to her and she says, OK, team like let's mobilize. And she's passing off things to everybody to say, OK, Amanda does socials. And you know, Tya, you're going to do this part and kajabi and all, you know, all the other things. And so that makes it easier on me that I'm not having to have individual conversations with all my team members. Not that I don't. I still do. I interact with our team all the time, but Kat is able to act as that like general manager, if you will, in a store to to make sure that everybody has their to dos, that everybody's, you know, doing the things they need to do so that I don't have to check in and say, Hey Tya, did we get this email scheduled? Kat can check in and I can, you know, save my brain space on dreaming up new ideas and creating content. So that's been that's kind of a snapshot of like Kats Roll is in my business and I will say like Kat was one of the best hires that I ever made, just because we were able to push everything forward so much faster. Our team launches very well, which we found this year. And it's just been so awesome to see like how well our team works together when we're all rowing the same direction. And so Kat makes sure that we are still rowing the same direction. So it's very helpful. Kat, what say people are listening here and they're like, Whoa, slow down. I don't have a whole bunch of employees. I don't have a whole bunch of contractors like, where do they go from here? At what point? I guess? Let me say this. When would people be ready to bring on an integrator? At what point in their business are you like? Yes, now's the time to bring out an integrator. Maybe in the sense that you and I work, but also in the sense of your agency model because they know that they're different.
Kat: Yeah, that's such a good question. So first of all, I think if you do have employees like it, whether they're full time employees, or maybe you have several assistants that are acting as like subcontractors. So like virtual assistants and things like that, you might be listening to this and thinking like, Wow, I want a relationship like that. Like, I want somebody that can manage that team so that I don't have to worry with those day to day operations. So it might be a great fit for you to reach out to an integrator in our industry. You're going to see the term online business manager a lot as well. It's usually an OBM. An online business manager is similar to an integrator. Now it just kind of depends on like have they read traction or rocketfuel, you know, the books that we're talking about and like really going into like the EOS model, the way that Rebecca and I do. But a lot of OBMs have similar traits to integrators. So if you're struggling to like Google, you know, integrators in the creative industry, you're like, try to Instagram it or whatever. Look for OBM. Some virtual assistants have started to move into OBM like they'll act as a virtual assistant for a few years and feel like they have got, you know, a leg underneath them and can now move into more of an online business manager role. So that can be a good fit with my agency model what I found. So I was working with Rebecca for a few months, and I realized that Rebecca was like the exception in our industry. Like, not everybody has a big team because we're small business like it's solopreneurs or you have an editor and a virtual assistant and that's who you're working with. Like, you just don't have a big team and that's OK. Some of you guys listening have no desire to manage a big team like you were like, Nope, I don't want to deal with the overhead of like the expenses of like you're paying for these people and like, that's their livelihood. Maybe you don't feel like you have the strength to manage. My mom and I, my mom never wanted to be a manager like she, like, stayed in the same position at her job for 40 years because she was like, I don't want it. Like, I don't want a promotion like I don't want to do. And I'm like, OK, we're so different in that way, but maybe that's you. Maybe you don't want to manage, and that's OK. I realized a few months after working with Rebecca that there were people in the industry that were just the polar opposite of Rebecca that didn't want a team for whatever reason. And so I started my agency model, which I have a team under me. And so when I work with my clients on the agency side, they're working with me and then I'm delegating to my team. Or maybe you just have a team of like that one virtual assistant. And so I loop your virtual assistant into, but I also utilize my team to get the job done. A lot of the visionaries who I'm working with now, actually all of them at this moment are heavy on the service side of their business or wedding photographers, wedding planners, but building digital products too. And as you all know, that is a lot of time to do both. It takes a lot of time to serve your service based clients well, but then also want to, like, launch a course or focus on list growth or focus on marketing strategies. And so my team steps in to say, Well, what can we take off of your plate that you don't have to do? And so we're able to do that in that agency model where you don't have the overhead of the team. If you are, like, intrigued with any of that, I would really just sit down and look at what you're currently doing in your business, similar to what we're back and I talked about early on. Like, of course, it sounds like a super fun and like probably enticing to everyone like, Oh, well, I want like a right hand person. Like, I want to only do the things that like I can do, but like, really assess that because you want to assess that from a financial standpoint, you want to make sure you're like making the right decision when you're either going with an agency or hiring an OPM, but also that your business is at the right place financially where you feel like. This is the next step that will bring revenue growth, because this is the higher that should absolutely affect your revenue in a positive way. So I would just take a good look at your finances and then also take a look at what are you doing like physically, what are you doing in the business? And are you feeling like you have to do all the things and that it would be better for you to start to outsource some of that little by little?
Rebecca: Yeah. And I would say, if you're not outsourcing at all right now, the first step would be like hire a virtual assistant or hire a an editor. Your first hire should not be an integrator, for sure.
Kat: Correct.
Rebecca: I feel like that was worth clarifying.
Kat: Yes.
Rebecca: But once you do, you know you, you are outsourcing. Maybe you have a virtual assistant and you have an editor and you're looking to like, take the next step. Then maybe, you know, something like an integrator with the agency model that Kat has would be a really great step. We do it a little bit differently because I have my own team, and so we don't use the agency model simply because I have people already on my team. That Kat comes in and manages. But if you don't have all the extra subcontractors Kats team does, and so you can basically hire car and you get her team with it. And so kind of think of it, as you know, bringing on those extra subcontractors, the copywriting, you know, the the people that are experts in those fields that you know, the graphic design, the web design, like you don't want just anybody randomly doing those things like you want the experts to do them. And so that's where you know, that agency model comes with, which is genius. It's so smart. Let's say people are like, Nope, that's cool. Like, I'm just not there yet. I'm not ready. I have not hired anybody. What are some things that you think they could be doing now to prepare for this season that they are ready? Like, what could they be doing just to get themselves ready, get their business ready so that whenever the time does come, that bringing on an integrator is easier?
Kat: Oh, that's such a good question. I feel like there's like a couple different things, but I don't want it to be like, now you have a laundry list of things. First of all, I would encourage you to decide, like, do you really want that? Like is bringing on an integrator or just team growth, something that you genuinely want and there is no right or wrong there? Again, some people don't want a team like one of my best friends in the industry, like she loves that it's her and she doesn't have to worry about anything when it comes to managing a team, even like outsourcing to an agency. She's just like, No, I like that it's me, and I make sure that the workload on my plate works for me. So just ask yourself that question because you don't have to build a team to then be successful. You can absolutely have a successful business if it's you, and that is awesome, it's your dream and your business. So ask yourself that first, if you're like, Yes, I know that I want to focus on team growth. I know that I love the idea of like the visionary integrator combo. Like, what would that mean over the next year? I would start to get organized and your business a little bit. It doesn't mean that you need to hire systems, experts or like, completely overhaul all the things, but I think that you need to start to get a little bit more organized and honestly more strategic and what you're doing so that you're setting up a path for the team to come in. So maybe that's, you know, taking all of your to dos off of that note pad that's sitting on your on your desk and like putting them somewhere electronically where, you know, like, Hey, if I brought on a virtual assistant, this would be really easy to like, share with her and pass off tasks and slowly start delegating some of those things. So jumping into a tool like Trello or Asana or something like that, I think could be really helpful for you as you're starting to think through. What does this look like to scale? Because that's that's what it means, like, that's what you're doing when you're bringing on a team is you're starting to scale because you want to work less and or you want to do other tasks so you're passing things off to a team member. So getting organized and, you know, thinking strategically about some of that would be really helpful. And then the third thing that I would recommend, I'm all about quarterly goals, which we like mentioned briefly in the beginning, I would start to think about goals that are focused on team growth being a goal for you. And so what does that look like? What do you need to do in order to bring on a team as it finances that are holding you back? So then what are some of those goals you need to set in order to make sure that you're being really strategic with every move you make in your business? So that's starting to bring on a team makes sense for you.
Rebecca: Yeah, and one thing I would add to that that you can do to prepare, I guess two things. The one thing is to start documenting your processes, like how you do things step by step, even if it's like we keep saying Trello because our whole team uses Trello. And so maybe you have a Trello card with a checklist of this is how I upload a gallery. I do this this, this, this and this and like document that process because it helps to be able to bring on somebody like a virtual assistant. But then when you're ready for an integrator. Or you can say these are my current processes. How can we make them better? Because if you don't have your processes documented, then it's going to be a lot harder for your integrator to come in and like they have to watch and observe how you do things and then say, OK, if we change this little thing, we can do it faster or do it easier. And so I would start now documenting your processes. That's just good. Business like business habits to do is document all your processes, whether it's a checklist or you're using Loom, which Loom is free where it does like screen recordings. So literally just like records yourself doing whatever it is you do all the time. And that way you can have this library that's built up to be able to hand to somebody and say here, like, this is how our business runs. I feel like just having an integrator on the team is a great step to be able to scale. And like Kat was saying, not everybody wants a team, and that's OK. Like, my business coach has built several, I guess, $2 million businesses from the ground up with no team. And I know a bunch of people that have built millionaire businesses with no team and they don't want a team. And to me, I'm like, I love leadership and working with people, even though I'm an introvert. I still love working with people, so I can't imagine not having a team and doing it all by myself. But it can absolutely be done. And so if that's you like awesome, at least you got like a peek inside my business and you don't have to implement this stuff. But if you do want to scale with a team, which I will say, I love it, it's just been so fun to be able to do this thing with people and take people along and be able to, like, be a blessing in their families lives just with the role that they play in my business. And that's been the coolest thing I think about having a team for me. So there are definitely benefits. If you're like, OK, that kind of intrigues me, then maybe this role is for you just getting to the place that you, you know, like I said financially, that you are ready for it. Like you don't want to bring on team members until you have a lot of extra profit that you'd be able to justify bringing on team members. The integrator role is such a vital role in my business, and so I wanted to be able to share that with you guys so that you could get a feel for just a little bit of what our business looks like because I know it's not the norm in our business. We have, you know, in this in the world of small business solopreneurs, it's odd to have a team. So I wanted to show you guys like what that looks like. Kat, before we close off, do you have any questions for me that you feel like people would want to know?
Kat: Oh, OK, I feel like I should have written some, and I'm like, Oh, now, now I need to put Rebecca in the hotseat. I feel like it would be cool from going back to like our visionary integrator. Like, obviously those are like the roles that we're playing in your business. And just, I mean, I feel like that self-discovery defines a lot of our personalities and just like why we are the way that we are. Can you speak to being a visionary and how did you like? How did you start to let go of some of that vision to like, bring on team members? Because I'm feeling like that might be some people's hesitation is like, Well, I can just do it now, so I'm just going to do this or like nervousness around like, you know, I don't want to give people my email password or my WordPress, you know, like really letting other people into their business. But yet, I mean, you do it really well. I mean, I feel like every couple of months, Rebecca is like, OK, we need a new hire. I'm like, Oh my gosh, OK, so you do it really well and you're not afraid. So I would love for you to speak to that because I feel like that's unique for a visionary to not be afraid to hire.
Rebecca: Yeah, that's a really good question, especially because I am a control freak. And so I will say this has been a process of like not being afraid to hire because when I first brought on my very first, my assistant, so is was Amanda. Amanda is our social media and PR girl right now. But at the time she was my assistant. She was my very first hire. She's my virtual assistant. And I remember like slowly and I mean, so like painfully slowly letting go of certain things, my business where I would hand her something like, very cautiously, I'm like, OK, Amanda, here you go. You can take this piece of my heart. And then I would just like, see how she did. And then if it didn't go well, I would take it back really fast. And then I would like slowly slide her something else. And then I, if it didn't go well, I would take it back really fast. And so that I mean, she and I were together for a year before I hired anybody else. And so we had a whole year, just the two of us for me to learn how to let go of control. And so that, I think, is partly built just over time with trusting people. You know, it's hard to trust somebody with a piece of your business. This is your baby that you like. Built from the ground up. I invested so much myself into it that is really hard to to let go and pass something off. But I think just over time, I built that trust up with Amanda knowing, OK. When I hand her something, she handles it well, she handles it with care as if it were her own business. And so I was able to start like passing more things off. And then I think it got to the point where really we just like smashed through the wall that now I'm not afraid to pass things off because I saw the benefit of passing it off, but it took us a while to smash that wall down.
It was like brick by brick, like day by day. We were taking it apart slowly. And then, you know, one day the wall just wasn't there anymore. And we are able to, you know, bring on more people. I think moving from contractors to then hiring employees is like a whole other wall of, OK, now these people are trusting me for their salary, like this is playing a role in their family that I think was really terrifying. But even getting through that, knowing that by bringing them on our business grows. We I don't bring people on like flippantly whenever I decide, I usually like think about it for months and then very quickly, I say, OK, what? We're bringing on this person, they start next week. Like, we move, you know,
Kat: literally like she will like vox me on a Sunday and be like, I remember you're like, Tara starting tomorrow. I'm like, I'm sorry. What? Like, when did this happen?
Rebecca: Literally. And so I like, simmer on it for a while, and then when I'm ready, it's like, we go super fast. And so that's how I treat my hires. But it did take a while to be able to let go that control when like rule, I guess I use is that if somebody can do something 80 percent as good as me, then I will pass it off. And so I think that's when, like mental barrier that people have is, well, I could just do it myself because I'm going to do it better anyways. And there's probably truth to that. Like, you know, how you do things like, yeah, you're probably going to do it better than somebody else unless they're like an expert in something you know, nothing about. That's the exception. But like, for example, my bookkeeping, I love bookkeeping. I am a nerd who loves numbers and I it took me so long to pass off my bookkeeping because I just truly enjoy that part of my business. And I'm like, Why would I hire somebody else to do something that I'm enjoy that I enjoy and that I'm good at? Like that doesn't make any sense, but it got to the place that I said, OK, if I can pass this off and she can do it 80 percent as good as me, which spoiler alert, she does way better than me at my books. Again, I thought I was great at it, and then I saw her processes. I'm like, Oh, this girl knows what she's talking about. So now, Madison, you're amazing if you're listening. But I think whenever I got to the place, I was like, OK, if she can do it, 80 percent is good. That's good enough because it frees up my time to be able to do things that bring in more revenue. That bookkeeping does not bring in more revenue. Is it vital to a business? Yes, absolutely. But it is not affecting our bottom line at all. And so that's the kind of thing that you're like, OK, but if I hire them, it's not making me more money. The truth is, by hiring that person, it's saving you hours to then put towards things that only you can do. Kat was saying the things only I can do creating content marketing stuff like that that's actually bringing in revenue. So by bringing that person on, we made more money. Not only did we make the money that we're paying her every month to do our bookkeeping, but we made more than that, which shows that it was a good hire. And so that 80 percent rule, although it can be like terrifying to say like, this person's going to be doing something less than I would like, they're not going to be doing it as good as me. But the bottom line at the end of the day is you will make more money because you'll then have time to market and to bring in revenue. So that's that's like the long answer. It wasn't brief at all. That would be my long answer. It's like letting go of control. As it took practice, it took trust. But once we were there, now I trust my team and you know, we're about to bring on some new hires and it's going to be kind of the same process of I'm going to pass things off and see if they can hit that 80 percent mark. If they can't, then we'll talk about taking some things back and changing stuff, moving people around. But if they hit the 80 percent mark, they keep it and, you know, we grow that way. So there you have it.
Kat: I love that. Now, I think that 80 percent is such a good way to think through that process. I also want to add, and I know this conversation isn't around hiring, but just because of that conversation, I want to just, I guess, empower you guys listening. I also think a lot of this comes down to finding the right people, too. And so when you're looking at like Rebecca mentioned, like if you haven't brought on anyone yet and you like the idea of an integrator or team growth down the road, a VA is a great first person to like start with because it can be little. Just like she said with her situation with Amanda. Like maybe give a little take a little, just as you like, get used to the process, that's totally normal. But it's making sure you have the right person sitting in that seat. And that's why the cool thing about our industry, if you search virtual assistants, you're probably going to find a lot of them. And that's great because there's different personalities and different skillsets and you can find somebody. That's the right person in the right seat for you. And then that will allow you even more trust in that person and in the relationship. So sometimes you might have a bad egg, like maybe I mean, I've hired and had to fire. And those are really sticky situations I don't love to repeat, but that's just part of team growth. But when you find the right person in the right, you really can let go of that control and feel that empowerment to continue to hire.
Rebecca: Yeah. And one thing just on like this vein that we didn't intend to go on is that I always hire for personality. I'm hiring to say who fits our brand values, who fits in with the rest of my team, or if it's just you like who meshes with you, like you don't want to work with somebody you don't like. You want to work with people that you enjoy being around because you're going to share a lot of time together. And so I always hire first for personality and then for skillset. And so, you know, Kat and I working together as visionary an integrator, we together place people on my team. We are I feel like we're constantly just like shifting, doing micro shifts, shifting people around to my business where, you know, we have this team member doing this thing, but we say, Oh, but what if we just move them over here just a little bit. If they're in this spot instead, they could be, you know, more in their strengths, and then we can move this person over here. And so it's like a dance that we're constantly shifting people around because we know they're a good fit for the team. They've proven that, like the personalities of our team are amazing. They all mesh so well together and they all fit our brand values. That's my top priority. And then we place them based on their strengths. So it may take a little bit to find the right seat as long as you get the right person on the bus. And so like for Amanda, yes, we we started Amanda in a totally different seat and then I realized that she nails my brand voice. Amanda was the very first person in my team to completely nail my brand voice, meaning she could type something like she wrote an Instagram post, like shouting out my husband one day and he came to me that day. I was like, Oh, that was really sweet. I said, What? I didn't even know she like posts it out on her Instagram, and I looked I said, Oh, Amanda wrote that. And my own husband had no idea that it wasn't me. I'm like, Yes. Nailed it. And so whenever I found that was her strength, I said, OK, Amanda. Forget everything else. This is all you're going to do is nailing my brand voice. You know, this is going to be your role. And so we moved her to a different seat and then hired to fill the empty seat. And, you know, we continue to move people around. So I think that's another way that an integrator is helpful is they help you see, you know, a different perspective of the team because I may see the team through one lens and she sees them through a different lens. And so by the two of us coming together, we're able to really see the people as a whole and we don't have blind spots because now two of us are looking from two different directions to see where our team strengths, where are the weak parts and what can we do to show people around? So that's another way that integration really helps us. Just it gives you another perspective, another lens to view from to see the big picture of your business. Because I know it's visionaries, we can be like one track mind visionaries can be very like, Let's just go. This thing's awesome. Everything I do is awesome. And I think that's also the three in me that I'm an achiever. Like, I just want to go, go, go. And by having the integrator beside me, I'm able to. She kind of reins me back or says, Here, let me show you this same picture you're looking at, but from a little bit of a different angle so that you can see, you know what it is, what challenging spots are about to hit, or logistically some things that you're not thinking of, because I am, like, known to forget very important details that Kats like, Hey, also, by the way, don't forget about this. And it's just been very, very helpful to have that second perspective. So I would say, if you're eventually wanting to grow your team, have that integrator role, be on your like dream list of team members to add. I know for us, we always know like who our next two hires are going to be. Maybe not people, but we know like those are our dream hires. If we were to hire more people, where would we put them? And we have this like org chart of like who is on our team? And then we have these like extra boxes that are empty that we're like, I would love to have somebody here that, you know, our finances do not allow it right now, and that's OK. But at some point, I would love to have this person on the team or this role. It's not necessarily a person, but I would love to have this role filled. And so maybe that's what you do is you start off with you, your editor and your virtual assistant, but you have two hires that you would love to make maybe say. I would love to bring on a copywriter and I would love to bring on an integrator, put them there so that you can see what your team would eventually look like and then work towards it to get there. Because you absolutely can just know like it. It takes time. You have to be patient with team building, for sure. But I. So we can be done, so that's kind of my I feel like that's a good like tie the bow on ordering on our conversation. So Kat, thank you so much for coming on and just sharing about what you do as an integrator and how we work as a team. I know that this conversation is going to be helpful to people, whether they're ready for it on their team or not. It's still one of those that's like it's good to hear about. So thank you so much for just kind of opening up and sharing with that today.
Kat: Thank you. I love talking about it. I mean, you know, you and I both we love talking about this whole thing. And I have some more blog posts on my blog to you about integration and like, think about this before hiring an integrator like those kinds of things. So if you guys just go to the blog and search integrator like on the blog, you're going to see some stuff pop up there, too.
Rebecca: Yeah. And we'll link Kat's blog here. And Kat, can you tell me where else can they find you? What's your website? Instagram, all the things.
Kat: Yeah, let's hang out on Instagram for sure. I love to chat and DMs. I know everyone says that, but like I genuinely do so like, please, if you listen to this and it like resonates, let's talk. Or you take the like rocket fuel quiz and you determine if you're a visionary, an integrator, please tell the guy, again, love this stuff. I want to know my Instagram is @KatSchmoyer, so my name and then at my website is Katschmoyer.com.
Rebecca: Easy peasy and we'll link all of that for you guys so that you can have it super easily. Cool. So we'll go ahead and close out for today again. Thanks so much. This was super awesome, and I can't wait for it to go live for people to hear it. So that's all we got, guys. We will see you again next week. Bye.
