Kelly Reynolds  

Welcome to the Get your act together podcast. I'm your host, Kelly Reynolds. And today I have I'm so excited about this guest. I have Katie here on our agency series. Hi, Katie. Katie, can you introduce yourself and tell everyone what about your business and about you?

 

Katie Suarez  

Sure, my name is Katie Suarez, I have an agency called the Soar. And my agency is based around supporting residential contractors and interior designers in the residential space. Traditionally, they have been brick and mortar style businesses. And traditionally, they've been quite a bit behind the times as far as technology and those sorts of things. So I work together with them to kind of get them on the online space and get them up to speed and get them ahead of ahead of the game compared to their competitors.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

That's awesome. Yeah. I come from a family of contractors so yes, everything is always in paper on notes and stuck in their pocket somehow. Mays my recollection about businesses, but run. So I think that's a great, great way to Yeah, to niche down.

 

Katie Suarez  

Just laughing with the client today about I recall a couple of years ago, one of the guys came in handed over his timecard have a two by four written. So things have changed a little bit since that

 

Kelly Reynolds  

seems exactly right. From what? Alright, so this is the agency series, right? So why did you become an agency? Why are you not a solopreneur? Why, why.

 

Katie Suarez  

So I've been in the building industry for over 20 years. 2000 was my first job, I just started answering phones, and then the first downturn of the economy occurred. And I was all excited because I was getting a promotion to accounts payable, when really they had let the accounts payable gal go, and gave me a promotion at a lower payment. So but literally overtime, I went through sort of a family of businesses, and wore all the hats, everything, like I said, from answering phones and getting toilet paper at Costco, to a project engineer, field engineer reading plans, scaling, running small punch crews, doing a small like small, retail TI. And then over time, I just really felt comfortable in sort of the accounting, operational space, HR, accounting, contracts, insurance, like all the stuff that business owners think are is boring, but really selling. Right, right. And it's really what you know, I just understood it, I understood the language, I found an affinity for numbers. So continued sort of in an Operations Management slash CFO role through several other companies over the years. And then my husband and I decided that we wanted to settle back down in my home state when we had kids. So came back, I'm fifth generation Montanan, proud of it. So we came back to Montana, and I was working for an electrician. And I realized I have worked for lovely male colleagues. But I still felt this pole between working and being a mom, and just not not feeling comfortable taking time off for my kids, but also not feeling comfortable sacrificing, you know, time with them for work. So I had kind of learned about the virtual assistant space and the online space, explored the online business management certification, and talked to my husband who has been amazing and said, Look, girl, if that's what you want, I know you can do whatever you want, do it. Hmm. Yeah, it was great. So to left, left the work world and started my own business virtually, and very quickly learned that I had, the skills that I had were so vast and so deep, that there were a lot of areas of business that I could cover, but me myself alone, I just I couldn't do it all. So yeah, so started kind of teaching other people, you know, bringing on virtual assistants and online business manager, bookkeepers, and teaching them those things, and just evolved into an agency. So

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I think that's, I feel like that's, that's how it always works. Right? Like, it's very few times where they're like, oh, no, I really had a plan for an agency. And then you start doing it and you're like, Whoa, like, I can do all the things, but I don't want to do all the things.

 

Katie Suarez  

Right, right. And there's a lot of conversation around you know, it's it's hard to manage other people and, you know, be responsible for their their work performance. So I think it takes I don't think it's for everybody and it takes us certain type of personality and a certain person, but it's working well for me so far. So, you know, I enjoy

 

Kelly Reynolds  

what it? Yeah, that's an interesting point. It isn't for everybody, right? And I feel like the idea of agency even in our world is very polarizing. Some people love it, some people hate it. What do you think is so like, are the important things? Is it leadership skills? Is it working with people? Like what do you think you need to be happy with this kind of style? 

 

Katie Suarez  

You know, I think it's it's really a mixture. It's a juxtaposition of all the things. So while you do need good leadership skills, you also need flexibility. While you do need really solid boundaries, and really solid rules, you also need to be able to pivot. And I know that's a buzzword, but just being able to switch it up a bit. I think for me, I tried to come off pretty, not aggressive, but strong, full of like, really solid boundaries. When the time comes. I'm soft, like, and I don't mean soft, like, people can roll over me, but I want to do what's best for the client, I want to do what's best for the subcontractor, what's best for the employee, you know, it's, it's all about getting up every day and doing something you love. And if you're this hard, you know, hard line person all the time.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

So it's not fun, and you usually tend to be really stressed out.

 

Katie Suarez  

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's necessarily necessary in the role we have it's finance and logic and insurance and contracts. But really, when it comes to the people piece, you just have to have a good mix of the two.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, yeah, the boundaries thing I think is like that was one of the hardest things was trying to find the the mix of, I have to make the right decisions for the client for the for my business, right, like you said, but at the same time, like, I want to be nice and make sure that Mike like being nice and being responsible, like you don't I mean, like, and sometimes those clash. There's definitely people that I've really liked on my team, but they were not a fit. Right, having those like hard conversations. Yeah, those. That's the hardest thing, I think, like that team management. 

 

Katie Suarez  

It is. And when you're when you're a perfectionist, and you do things a certain way, it's really easy for you know, your ego to get in the way and be like no one can do it. But guess what? Guess what, sister? There are people out there, they won't do it exactly like you do. But they are fully capable. Some

 

Kelly Reynolds  

some of them could even be better than you. Right, right. Right. Like, I've got people on my team, they're totally better than me. And they'll be like, Oh, this is awesome, then I don't feel so bad. You can totally take this away from me, because you're gonna do a better job than I will. But the ego you're right, that's hard. It gets in the way. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So, on this idea of like delegating out, it's a huge thing that people come to me talking about a lot, like, how do you touch my like, let people touch your stuff? And and how do you delegate that? How do you trust people to do it? How, like, you're know, you're putting your business on the line? How do you handle that? And did you have a hard time in the beginning doing that?

 

Katie Suarez  

I still have a hard time doing that. Oh, you know, I think if there's anything and I'm still learning, like I'm still in growth phase, right? If there's anything I'm learning, it's to really just, like, let people go with it. You have to trust and let people go with it to an extent that you're comfortable with so that you can rein it back. If there's something wrong, really trusting that other people they meet, like I said, they may not do things the way the same way you do, but they're fully capable of doing it. So and you and I have talked about this before, you know, just being able it's really hard to delegate things to other people when you're feeling responsible. But you just you got to trust the process and and if it is not successful, you really need to question yourself it did I not clearly communicate the requirements, the you know, the process, whatever it is, like that's a reflection on on yourself whether you're cool,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

yes. Wholly agree. Like that's my biggest thing is like, if somebody messes up, my first thought is I must not have explained it correctly. Because if I can do that, like if I explained it perfectly, and there they had the access, and they had the SOP or they had whatever, they had all the knowledge they needed to do and then they messed it up, then that's a whole different story, then we have to look at like, Okay, are you fit for this role? But most of the time, it's just communication. Sure. And some most of the time, I'm sure my husband will definitely this part in the recording, because people tell me all the time that I start conversations in the middle, so I think I've completely explained something and he's like, you skip the first paragraph that was all quietly in your head. And then you told me the rest, and I have no idea what you're talking about. So I, you know, trying to remember that when I'm flaming pester somebody because they mess something up. Okay, calm down. Right?

 

Katie Suarez  

Right. Right, for sure. For sure. Yeah.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

So what is your team look like at this point? Where? What? Like, is it contractors? Is it? How big is it? What does it look like?

 

Katie Suarez  

So, um, we actually had a quarterly meeting at the end of third quarter, and there were nine people, including myself. It ebbs and flows, because right now, literally this week, I just hired my first w two employee. Oh, yeah, no, it's, it's

 

Kelly Reynolds  

a very big deal.

 

Katie Suarez  

I should say I'm in the process of like, the AN OFFER was extended and agreed to. And so we're finalizing the details. And then I have goals to bring on one other at least one other person at the beginning of next year. But otherwise, it's contractors. But what I'm finding is, you know, because I support residential contractors and design professionals, there are so many similarities in the makeup of their team. Obviously, there's exceptions to the rule. But in general, I think I can hit the target pretty close, based upon business's revenue levels, what their team makeup and chemists let their chemistry but their makeup needs to be. Yeah, I think the beauty of of the service we offer is that we have, you know, a variety of roles that we can serve. And if you already have people on your team that you like and want to keep, we can kind of plug and play and fill in the gaps. Or, you know, if you've been juggling all the plates for so long, we can just take over. So it just depends on what the client's needs are.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, I mean, that is so handy. And I think it's one of the really big advantages to having an agency is for those small businesses who don't, maybe they came from corporate, they did a thing, they have their business, they don't know how to run their business. And they need certain people, but they don't need full time people. They don't need a full time bookkeeper, they don't need a full time, whatever. And having that agency to say, no, no, no, we can plug into those things that you need. And you don't you can just hire us, we'll take care of those things without having to hire seven people.

 

Katie Suarez  

Right, right. I mean, I find myself doing that in my own business, like, Yeah,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

please,

 

Katie Suarez  

I wish I had a CPA a couple of hours a month, geez, I wish I had, you know, an admin for a few hours a week. And it's really hard to find quality people who can fill those positions. But essentially, you're getting my my people are full time because they're spread amongst a variety of clients. And they're experts in their area, like it's, it's the beauty of hiring an agency is you get, you get the unicorn, you know, to use a buzzword that you're looking for in depth and breadth.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

So yeah, because those expert level people that you want, and you only need a couple hours of, they don't want to just have a couple hours here and there unless you're buying a package of some sort or, but like they, you can't hire those people for four hours a month. Right. But you can as like a whole agency, it really is the big benefit to having at is that access to that high level talent without having to? Well, you can't get it out. Otherwise, you can't get just like really these people that come in for three hours and be like, oh, yeah, okay, unless it's a VIP day or something else like that. And that's a different story. You know,

 

Katie Suarez  

and the beauty of having like, a niche field is, and I was actually just telling a potential client this yesterday, is that you like I have, I've seen 20 businesses doing this thing and can see what the commonalities are, as far as like needs, frustrations, roadblocks, all those sorts of things. So, you know, you get that sort of inside visibility to what everyone else is doing to compare, you know, match your bar against whether you're meeting that or not.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

So I think so many people are anti niche, they're like, oh, no, no, I want to work with other people. But there's, there's like, there's like another skill level when you have that niche, because you know what people need, you know how these people work, like you were saying, I can look at these businesses and based on revenue pretty closely see what they're going to need, and know how to fill that. There's not I don't need, you know, you don't need to go out and research a ton to figure out what they need, because you've seen this before you know how to handle it. And that's the beauty of that niche that I think is great because you are operations, but you are directing it to a certain sector that you've worked with forever and you've worked with them on the other side of it, wasn't it all different ways, right? You you answered the phones all the way through like you've seen all of that kind of back into the business and that is such an asset, such an asset?

 

Katie Suarez  

Yeah, yeah. So, and I think what. So I always look for patterns and commonalities. And so being able to have 20 years of those patterns and honing in those commonalities, it makes it really easy to train new people coming on board on my team, because I know, this is what you're going to see, you know, we, when we bring somebody on board, we already know what tech tools we want to recommend, we already know what you know, we want to get your Google Drive set up, because I guarantee you, they don't have like, back in the days when we had the paper filing system and stack this bid but needed to be filed. i Same thing happens virtually, like, there's files everywhere, and they need to be more commonplace. So it sounds simple, but it's not like getting that set up in a cohesive way. And managing that. It takes a lot. You know, getting on a financial process, I have a process that I recommend for like, you know, tidy Friday is when we're cleaning up the messes Wednesdays are collections, Tuesdays are AP, like, we have a process. And although many people are especially creatives in the design world, or really tactile people in the builder world, they're opposed to processes, because they just are used. But that's the beauty of it is you can just give the process to us, we'll take care of it for you, you will be you you go be creative, go design the most beautiful log cabin, you know ever made or go create, you know, some do some carpentry will take care of all of that stuff and get it organized for you. So

 

Kelly Reynolds  

yeah, I mean, the wonderful thing about having that niche is that, you know, the typical strengths of people that do that work, right? There's a ton of people, every contractor I know has never wanted to do paperwork. You know, like, they don't want to do that they want to go, you know, they know how to be a carpenter, they know how to do whatever. So being able to see that and then talk to that, like in your marketing seems a lot easier than just going, Oh, whatever. I can help anyone, you know. Yeah, right. Right. So let's talk about actually, let's tell the people where we met, because we've known each other for years now. We we Voxer each other at least quarterly to check in. Right. But we met in the deal. Oh, you were I think my first agency coaching round. You may have been like my one of my first coaching people ever. I was wrong. You were so that you were my first round. And I was like, I have no idea what to do here.

 

Katie Suarez  

Because you did great. I mean, I still to this day, years later reached out to you with questions so

 

Kelly Reynolds  

well. And I love that like I was like, No, that's kind of funny. So we've known each other for a long time. And I had a cajole Katie to be on the podcast, because she didn't really want to do podcasts. But I met her and she's here and I love it. So I'm getting to see your face today. If you go to YouTube, you'll see her face too. But like, it's just exciting. And we are very, we went to the D O we're very like minded with numbers and apps, but we have very different businesses, which I always think is very interesting. Part of the reason I wanted to do this HD series, because even the people that kind of the same background have totally different businesses.

 

Katie Suarez  

Yeah, yeah. Like, it's interesting. My agency is based on retainer clients. So, you know, some agencies are based on project, deliverables. Some are based on you know, whatever, but my clients are all retainer and I, I personally love being in the business for a long time and seeing it grow and helping it. I'm not an in and out

 

Kelly Reynolds  

type. That's interesting. Yeah, I feel like I was that for a long time. And I got a little burnt out on that. And I feel like I need to be like, I'm gonna come in and fix some stuff and leave at this point. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's it's so funny how everything changes, like it's cyclical, you know, everyone's talking right now about like, recession, freaking out. And I'm not as concerned like, we're usually the people that figure this shit out. Well, like, we're, you know, this is the we're the ones who fix all the messes. So when it's messy, we're usually great. Like, COVID was great for a lot of us. Yeah, like, I'm not so worried about it. Well, you know, kind of figure it all out.

 

Katie Suarez  

The beauty of what we do is that when times are good, we can help teams that are scaling and growing. And when times are bad, we can help teams that are scaling back. And, you know, they can't afford four full time people anymore. So I think we have a really flexible business model that, that we serve both different business environments.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

And what we do is making people more efficient, which I feel like is very needed in any environment, right? You make more money, no matter what is going on the world if you're more efficient, right, right. So how Oh, you have retainer clients, I'm guessing those are a lot of longer term clients, right? You'd like to be in the businesses? How do you get clients? Like?

 

Katie Suarez  

The reason I, the reason I say is because all of my marketing friends are gonna beat their heads against the law and be like, I understand. All of my clients have been through word of mouth and recommendation, I have big plans for a YouTube channel to really take over the world. But I keep getting the clients thrown in my lab. And I don't say this in a braggadocious way. It's more comical, because, you know, the more you play the lab, right, you're like, I'm

 

Kelly Reynolds  

gonna do this in June, right? Like,

 

Katie Suarez  

it's literally been a year and I paid a lot of money for this channel that hasn't even gotten haven't even written one bit of content for it yet. That's amazing. Um, it because I keep getting new clients. And you know, when you initially are with a client, the first three months, six months, even a year, if your long term retainer, like me, you takes a lot of time and energy, and I, I'd much rather serve them properly and appropriately and get recommendations, then be this face on, you know, a marketing channel or whatever that people don't really know or understand. So my marketing really consists of I just post a couple times a week on social media at the moment. And the rest has all been either. So I have one client that I've been with since day one. And he acquired another business and brought me in on that. So it's been like growing with my clients. I have another client who recommended somebody who hired me, who is now recommended somebody who's going to be hiring me. So it's been like, the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah, which I'm not mad about, you know, but at the beauty to of being at the where I'm at right now is I can kind of pick and choose. I mean, you know, when you meet with somebody, if the vibes are kind of weird, and it's kind of like nails on a chalkboard, you know, and the beauty of it now is that you can you can pick and choose, it has to work both ways. They have to want you just as much as you want to work with that.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Otherwise, it is a nightmare. Yeah, like, every time I even like back in corporate, like, every time I was in an interview, I got that gut feeling like you don't want to work for this guy. And I'd be like, and then that like, ego takes over you're like, but this is a big deal. You should take this job. And it was always the worst decision. Like every time I've gone against my gut. And even to this day, if I get on a call with a client, like, like a discovery call or whatever, and it is awful. Like, nope, now I've listened like, oh, no, you're gonna be a nightmare, like, like, we are not going to work well together. And I think that there's personalities that have to work well. Like, I am very blunt and upfront. And I talk fast. And I'm not like my website isn't flowers and like, I don't know, it's not like I'm not Woo, but like, I don't have everything's not pastels, you don't you don't say like it's very different vibe. And if you want, like you have to match up with those clients. Yeah, especially if you're gonna be long term, if you're gonna do one little project for them and not really deal with them and be done. Fine. But if you're gonna be long term retirement retainers, yeah, we've all had those clients, you're in there, and you're like, This is hell.

 

Katie Suarez  

Right? Well, and let's face it, I mean, the building industry is male dominated. And I've been really fortunate that I've worked with men who have been, I mean, they, they aren't soft, you know, but they also like, they treat me with respect and treat me with, you know, they don't they're not like, Who's this little five footer telling me what to do. Um, so it's really at that is the, you know, as common as those two industries are, there's also beauty in that, you know, the building industry is male dominated, and really like factual and, you know, logistic and the the design industry is just more, it's more creative. It's definitely more feminine. And it's been fun working with brilliant business women, because I didn't have that experience in the corporate brick and mortar space.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

So but yeah, be there. That is that was, that's nice. Like, now I have a lot more women that I deal with, where for a long time, I was Wall Street, and then I came into this world and it was male clients. And I thought, well, I know how to deal with men who are often rude. So I guess that's my who I should go after Right? Like I can deal with that. And then you start to realize like maybe you don't have to find some not that men are bad, but like I ended up I have lovely male clients now but like there's a couple that were just like I thought they I could deal with it. So I should and then you kind of merge out of that. And to

 

Katie Suarez  

itself, and like this is a whole nother topic, but it's so funny. You mentioned that They're I don't know about you, but I have sort of sort of this martyr mentality like, well, I can put up with people's nonsense. So 

 

Kelly Reynolds  

yes, ya know, 

 

Katie Suarez  

and I know so many women who really get their feelings hurt about things or, you know, are really sensitive about stuff. And it doesn't one like it does bug you at the end of the day. But in general, like, I feel like it's my duty to take on.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yes, yes. 

 

Katie Suarez  

What, where does that come from?

 

Kelly Reynolds  

That, like, I should protect somebody who's really nice because I can deal with being like having jerks. Like, this is the dumbest thing. This is the dumbest idea. Why am I doing this? And then people are really nice to you. And they're like, Oh, well, you know what you're talking about? Right? So go ahead, and you're like, Oh, it sounds fantastic. Like what the first time someone like that, like, No, you know what you're talking about? Right? It was like, Yeah, but no one wanted to? Yeah, and now it's like, I've had clients that you know, their lawyer, ask them questions. And like, you have to go ask Kelly, I don't know, she knows everything. And it's such a different world now than it was in the beginning. What is the plan? Like, like forward? Like sustainable growth? Like, what what are you planning for the next year? Is that are you worried about too much of like, recession or any of that kind of stuff? Or is it just like, I'm going to truck along? We're going to be fine.

 

Katie Suarez  

Yeah, yeah. I'm not worried about the recession. Like I said, I really feel like, if things go south, we would go after businesses that are you downsizing? Yeah, no. So I'm not I'm not worried about that. My goal for the next year is to really so right now, I'm the face with every single one of our clients, I attend the weekly meeting, I am the person. And I'm delegating a lot of things to other people. And I really, so I am miss middleman. And I really need to work on some. And I don't know the answer to this, which is why I haven't done it yet. But working on how to sort of present the team to clients. So they know, okay, for HR, I need to go to her for finance, I need to go to her instead of Katie. What's the thing? And it's like? I don't know, I don't? I don't know. Let me ask Susie, you know, right. So that's a big one is really figuring out how to present the team. And number two is really locking down the processes and procedures that I have in my head. And I know how things go and know how they should flow, just a second nature. And I hate writing I, when I was a kid, I would read books and novels and all the things but now and choose your own adventures. Now I literally hate I hate writing. I hate it. But I have to be able to document. Yeah, how I do things and why I do things in a cohesive way that's just churn and burn and teach other people how to do it in that way. That's my big goal for next year. And I'm really just resisting that.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

That's so funny, because that is what I'm this is how people so similar can be so different. I am on the other side saying that's all I want to do. Like that is the new pilot program working on now is I'm not selling you on this, right? This is not called Don't worry. No more like I'm like, everyone's like, you don't want to be an SOP writer. I'm like, but I kind of do like if I use my office right now. And like write SOPs and like make dashboards and make all these things nice. Like, you just make the videos and I'll do everything else like that, to me is heaven. And you're like, I don't know, right? Like, I'm all in I'm like, I can make SOPs all day. Because no one's yelling at me. It's very normal

 

Katie Suarez  

I kind of like me, I think I have a Napoleon Complex. Like, I like I don't mind being yelled at. I don't mind having and this is me my Enneagram eight personality. Like I am super cozy having difficult conversations. I don't take any finance now. And while I hope other people don't take things personal that I say I know they do. But it doesn't bother me it really, it doesn't bother me one little bit.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

That's great. I have a totally makes. I'm one of those people that like I'll slam on the mug. You're never gonna believe it, Brian is in there. Like, oh my god I have to deal with as I like. And then I get mad like, I don't tend to be like, it's more like, a lot of curse words come out. And I don't need this. But you know, like, it's very funny. So I'm a six. I'm not an eight. Apparently, that's a little different. I worry about things more. But yeah, I don't like to get yelled at you. I think you could probably deal with it better. But I think I'm just like burnt on it. You know, after all this year so

 

Katie Suarez  

well, and when you're, you know, like I said when you're sacrificing time with your kids and your family. Yeah, really like and you stay up at night worrying about these businesses and then they yell at you for something. It's a sucks,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

it sucks. Yeah, yeah. And I'm a worrier, like, I will wake up three in the morning and wonder if you know that payment got made or that thing and like I. And sometimes if I can't go back to sleep, I will come out to my desk at 3am to check on something, because it's quicker to check on it than it is to lay in bed for the next 45 minutes telling myself to stop worrying about it. Which by the way, I'm married to you. I come back and Brian's like, Where were you? I'm like checking those payments. So we all make mistakes in agencies, and especially like growing them, right? What is like one big one that you were like, cool, like, looking back now? It was a big mistake, maybe not, like maybe not error? Like it didn't cost a lot of money or anything, but like, what is the thing that like, you made the mistake, and it was like, Oh, I get it now. Like you had to do that to like, think differently. Like,

 

Katie Suarez  

you know what, it would probably be at the beginning. And like I couldn't, I wouldn't change this and I couldn't, but at the beginning just taking on anyone who would hire me. You know, there are some industries that I had no business being in. And, and not because you know, I can run their finances, I can, you know, run their admin piece. But one of the beautiful things about my niches that I can also sort of bridge over to the project production side, because I've seen enough of it. Whereas some other industries, like googling. And like, you know, it's hard. When you're strong personality like me, that's like, well, you should do this. When I don't have a you should do this to tell somebody. It's just it's feels yucky, and you feel impostor syndrome, and all the things. So I mean, it took, you know, kissing a few frogs to find my prince, if you will. But it just, it was yucky. So yeah, yeah. You know, it was hard. So,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I mean, I think that goes back to the whole, having a niche is great. Because you know, the answers. There's a lot of people trust me out there. There's a lot of people that I did it for a long time when you're living in the beginning, and you're trying to figure out and you want a recommendation on something. And yeah, we have like the do community, we have the OBM community, like all that kind of stuff. But like being the person who already knows the thing is great, because so many people spend money paying a VA to look things up. Yeah, yeah. Because they don't know. They don't have the experience there. And that's great. If you know, you know, you're getting a beginner person and all that. But if you're getting someone who knows that special stuff, you get answers. Right, right set of just what you could have Googled,

 

Katie Suarez  

right, right? I think to like, even within my niche, even honing down even more to, like, I've had builders that I've contracted with that really don't, they're not interested in technology, like they are stuck on the check behind the desk. And, you know, as much as they want to grow and change, they're really not interested in that. And that's okay. But, you know, one of the things when I'm when I'm parsing out who I want to work with is, hey, are you interested in growing? Are you interested in learning more? Are you interested in expanding your choices? And even, you know, another little thing that's hard is I have some local clients, and that's been a challenge, because they're you, I'm, I'm down, I'm 15 minutes away, why can I come by the office? You know, and I certainly can, but that's just not the model. It's not the most efficient. It's not the best bang for your buck. And it's not the model that my agency is, is built on. So, you know, I'm fortunate that I have all the time zones. But there are a couple of local clients too. And it's always a challenge at first, like, do we see you do you come in the office? How does that work? So? Yeah,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

that's kind of a right. I feel like there's a there's a couple of clients over the years who are like, no, no, can we just have calls like, all the time and I'm like, you don't want to pay me to be on all these calls. You don't need any of these. Yeah, but like, there's a but this is it's comfort. Yeah, yeah. Like just having you come in makes them feel better.

 

Katie Suarez  

Right? Well, and if you think, you know, the remote world versus brick and mortar also, there were the people you worked with, were always at someone's desk talking to them. And not I don't mean like not working like talking out ideas and really like, and then there were the people that focused and did their work. And I think the people who needed that interaction, it's really hard for them to work virtually. With because they either want to meet all the time, or they can't focus. And then the people who really liked to just sit at their desk and put their head down and get their work done. I think the virtual world works really and compartmentalize their time. Yes. People like me that it works really, really well.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

So what does your day look like? Then? Like, what would your day your week? Like? Are you managing people all day? Are you in meetings? Are you in client calls, like what is your day week look like? Typically,

 

Katie Suarez  

that has evolved. I will tell you, even three months ago, I was in meetings all the time. And while I understand the importance of meetings, I couldn't get any actual work done, because I was meeting all the time. I have since consciously, not only tried to decrease meetings, but also fill them into one day. So I have kids, so I get up in the morning and get them off to school, sit down to my desk, I'm usually at my desk by 830. I usually have meetings starting around nine on Mondays, I try to get all my meetings done early, so that I can have the rest of the day to put out a fire or, you know, there's always fires, I'm sorry, I don't care how organized you are, there's always buyers. So I usually have my morning meetings around nine, I do most of my weekly meetings on Mondays. So that then I can have the rest of the week to work. And then we, my team, we all have different schedules. So like I said, I have an accounting schedule. We have we meet weekly with my OBM I use all I know you're supposed to be efficient and choose one or two, but I use all the communication channels with my team. So I'm either slacking or boxing or emailing or texting or calling. I, I just, um, I mean, when you have six businesses that you're supporting, and they all have, you know, teams of up to five, that's like 50 people. So you've got to be flexible in how they can contact. Yeah, I'm sure someone else would say no, you need to find out like,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

do you find it hard to like, keep track of it, though.

 

Katie Suarez  

I don't simply because we use a project management tool. And my OBM is amazing. She like she's really, really good at bulldogging that that clickup? She's like, these things are past due, or you either gonna do them today. Or she's much more sweet about it than that. But it's basically are you gonna do it today? Should we push out on next week? Or can somebody else do it for you? That's amazing. Yeah, she's really good about that. So yeah, and, and I know that things like the day to day stuff, mostly my team can do I really just do the fires at this point. So

 

Kelly Reynolds  

got it. That's good. Yeah, you're actually I'm getting a little like, I can't imagine like messages coming from every place, mostly because the thing is, I read them, right? Because like the little thing, the red button comes up, whatever it is. And I read that, and then I'm not somewhere I can write anything down. And I'm a person who has to write everything down, or it completely was just goes right out of my head. So then I have like, messages that I'm like, oh my god, I can't read this. So I'm gonna totally forget as soon as I get that on my desk, and then like, I get a message like, hey, that's so like, try to keep them at least centralized to a place. But I understand like, there are definitely we use Slack for the most part, but we have clients who can handle that.

 

Katie Suarez  

Yeah, yeah. Like, I totally missed a piece. So I do have people manning the emails. Lots of makeup. Yeah, there are two really big clients that I generally man the emails just because there's always something unusual happening. But there are some other ones that I have someone Manning and they go through and either delete the junk or say, Hey, Katie, this is a fire or just put it in, click up for next week or so like, so I do have people, you know, when you have 8 billion email addresses there. I have people manning those.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Okay, that makes more sense. I was just saying that's another that's a lot of onslaught of messages. And I feel like when that happens with me, it is how I wasted day. Yeah, because I want to make it all organized. So I have to go through the entire inbox and make sure everything is organized when that's totally not what I should be doing for the day. But it sucks me in totally, totally hole like 45 billion messages in my inbox like I can't start twitching like you can handle it. Yeah, yeah, having people to handle emails is a key. Yeah, love it. So alright, this last question is we gotta wrap up here. But if people a lot of people that are been listening to this series, they are thinking about having an agency or they're just starting out. And it's always like, I don't know if I want an agency because I think most of us kind of happen into this whole thing. What do you think is so important for an agency like As an agency owner, what do you think? Is it leadership? Is it? I don't know, what do you think is like the thing you're like, oh, that's like a make or break. Like, you have to like people, you want to have to be able to talk to people, what do you think is important? When you're starting or growing an agency,

 

Katie Suarez  

you have to know that you like, you have to be comfortable managing people and coaching people and sticking your neck on the line for people and defending your team. So if you're the type that, you know, Suzy makes a mistake, and you go to the owner and go, Yeah, unfortunately, Suzie made mistake, it's probably not the business for you. And not that that's right or wrong. Some people just, it's hard to take ownership for somebody else's mess, right? But you, you have to be willing to go, you know, what, we didn't make a mistake, we're going to fix that, like, you know, be the big buffer between if you want to keep good people, you have to protect them. Um, so really just managing people and also being comfortable delegating stuff. And like I said, I'm learning that myself. It's just really hard when you're a control freak, and when you're perfectionist, and you know, you you aren't have been responsible for yourself, your whole life, and your reputation is important to you. And all these other people are doing that it's really hard and you have to be comfortable with, you know, the hard times and, andvget, like giving it to other people and taking the heat when it but yeah, and that's a totally developed skill. 

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, I don't think anyone's really great at it. If they care about their work, right. Like it's, it's, it's a struggle for all of us. Yeah, it was a constant struggle, even now. i There's so many things. I'm like, I'm gonna do that. I shouldn't be doing that. No, now it's gonna be late, because I don't have time to do it. Right. Yeah.

 

Katie Suarez  

But silly things like, you know, someone enters a customer in QuickBooks and spells it wrong like me meanwhile, like I forgot to, you know, file tax or something that's

 

Kelly Reynolds  

like, yeah, that there's some typo in the task and teamwork that no one sees, but our team that like, oh, yeah, but like, my tasks right now in teamwork. I feel like everything's late for my own stuff. Yes, I work. Clay works all fine. It's like my own internal stuff. Poor Jessica waiting for me to do like a whole list of marketing stuff. I'm like, I swear I'm getting into it. Yeah. And instead of organizing my damn inbox,

 

Katie Suarez  

you got to be able to laugh at yourself, right? Like, well, that's

 

Kelly Reynolds  

1. We've been having technical stuff.

 

Katie Suarez  

Um, you just have to be able to laugh at yourself. And really, just, like, I think I hope that's one thing that my clients appreciate about me is, if I make a mistake, or notice mistake, I try to like address them for say, hey, just so you know, this happened. Because hiding behind it and trying to sweep it up it just from their perspective, it feels yucky. And it feels like you're being sneaky. And I rather I'd rather myself feel yucky being like, tail between the legs. Sorry, mom. I made a bad choice than having them be like, you know, she's sneaking around about this. What else is she sneaking around, right?

 

Kelly Reynolds  

And I feel like owning up to that not just as like a person but also as agency and we're like, you have to take care of her team. Like before, you're not pointing to Susie and saying, Oh, she did it. Like we're a team. I'm taking care of these people. I'm defending them. And we're just gonna own up to our stuff and keep going. We're gonna do this. We can. Yep, yeah, right. We're gonna do a great job. But you know, we're not perfect. So right, for sure. For sure. I love it. Alright, Katie, where can everyone find you?

 

Katie Suarez  

My website is soarwithsuarez.com. And all of my social media handles are Soar with Suarez. So Insta Facebook Linked in. I have a shell of YouTube channel. If you want to spy on my shell Feel free. But yeah, or just you know, if there's any inquiries or questions, you can always reach out to me as well. So

 

Kelly Reynolds  

all right, and we will put all that information in the show notes for the people who are not running right now. We're driving a car, so like to make like to shout him out. So if you're not running into anyone, and you're running and

 

Katie Suarez  

listening to us, I'm so sorry for you. That sounds like torture.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

What do you mean? Like this is like we're talking operations like it's running. It's just the running part. I was like working on I don't know what you're talking about. You and I fun? Yeah. The running though. No, yeah, I want to love running but don't. I ran track and I still like it. So Katie, it was great to see you. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And I We'll see everyone else next week. Thank you so much for joining me this week. If you have an agency or want to create one, come join my facebook community, get your agency together, where we talk all the things growing and scaling your agency for shownotes more info and all the things head over to Reynolds obm.com. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Reynolds OBM. And finally, if you enjoy this podcast, I would love for you to give us a review on iTunes.