86 – Learn to hire: Tom interviews Dr. Sabrina Starling

Episode 086 – Sabrina Starling
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody it's Tom here with episode 86 of screw the commute podcast. We've got a really fun guest. It's Sabrina Starling. She's known as the business psychologist and she is one of the most fun PhD psychologist I ever met. And in one of her just one of her titles besides being a PhD is a BCC Now I went over. I wondered what that was so I went over to abbreviations.com and and found that there are seventy nine meanings for BCC the one I know is blind carbon copy from internet stuff but also and I'm not sure if she knows this. Bcc includes beer can college big conspiracy coverup bottom coil cartomiser Bureau of cannabis control. My favorite is beef carcass classification. So we're gonna get her fun self on here in a few minutes to tell us which one applies to her. All right so last episode was eighty five it was one of our Monday training sessions. On Monday I do an in-depth training session on something that's either made me or saved me a lot of money. And on Wednesdays and Fridays I interviewed successful beef Carcass Classic, successful entrepreneurs. Last Monday I covered crowdfunding where you'll learn how to get money for your creative projects and you don't have to pay it back. How about that. All right our podcast app is in the App Store or in the iTunes area there. It'll do all kinds of cool stuff including let's say you're in the car and you're listening to me fool around and make fun of bccs and then you get a phone call while the podcast that will pause the recording or pause the podcast and you take your call and it starts right back up and all kinds of cool stuff like that. You can check it out at screwthecommute.com/app and then right there we have a whole bunch of training for all the advanced features so that you can really take advantage of it. So check that out. All right now we're starting our monthly youth episodes where I highlight a young person doing great entrepreneurial things. Now you can email me at orders@antion.com for details on how a young person can apply to be featured. Our first young person was Tiffani Hockings who's a young girl helping other young girls. So check out her episode today's sponsor is the distance learning school the internet marketing training center of Virginia. Don't even think about retraining yourself or sending your kids to college until you check out our webinar on higher education. I do not want you wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars and putting yourself and your kids under crushing debt. And we'll have a webinar in the show notes at screwthecommute.com or you can just go directly to the webinar link at screwthecommute.com.

[00:03:58] Let's get to the main event. Just back from a four week vacation. Must be nice. Dr. Sabrina Starling wants to inspire you to tap your potential. She runs her business only 25 hours per week that's most weeks and she's a single mom and author. Her latest in the how to hire the best series addresses the labor challenges in the construction industry. Although the whole series covers a lot of different hiring practices best practices and I I want to personally thank her because it brings a tear to my eye that she did not throw me off her show for talking about my outrageous hiring techniques. Ok Sabrina are you ready to screw. The commute.

[00:04:53] Talk about a question I didn't expect to be hearing in 2019. Here we go. So I am ready to screw the commute and I'm so excited to be here with your listeners because I I remember when I was stuck in my 40 60 hour a week job and commuting and what that was like and I was dreaming of freedom and I I'm ready to hear to talk about let's make that happen for some folks.

[00:05:19] Well yeah and you did it. But tell us what you're doing now with those best hiring stuff and you're a PhD and a BCC. I was afraid to tell you the truth. Sabrina I was afraid because the other thing was the PCC was oh I was afraid to even look at that one. So what the heck do those things mean anyway.

[00:05:43] So BCC stands for a board certified coach although that cannabis control one that sounds interesting.

[00:05:49] That's right. That's an upcoming thing.

[00:05:53] Another career to explore there and PCC stands for professional certified coach.

[00:05:59] Oh OK. So yeah you're all into that. International Coaching Federation. But that could be international cannabis foundation.

[00:06:06] Yeah. No. So I started out with tons to talk about college debt. Oh my gosh. I had a lot of debt finishing that PhD and I was a psychologist working in a community mental health center and I thought I need to do something different with my life. And you know it where it really when it dawned on me is it was a winter morning I was in Wyoming and I I ended up in Wyoming because I had to pay off that student loan debt. I went through the National Health Service Corps in an exchange for two years of service in an underserved area. They would pay off my the majority of my student loans and when I added up the interest on those babies it was like winning the lottery. So that was a no brainer. I was all over that.

[00:06:56] Going to Wyoming is like winning the lottery. You know hear that very often.

[00:07:01] I love Wyoming. It's a it's a beautiful place I wanted it an adventure in life. I had been living in Austin Texas and I was actually I was all set to go to work in a psychologist private practice in Austin Texas. And when I was on internship I was commuting and I was adding up my hours sitting in traffic and it was about 40 hours a month sitting in traffic that's an entire work week.

[00:07:28] You could have had another PhD in that time.

[00:07:31] Well there was a lot of knitting that could have been done. So no I just thought boy and I didn't want to do that the rest of my life so I wanted to find a different place a different way to live and that opportunity came up to go to Wyoming and pay off my student loans and have an adventure.

[00:07:48] Didn't you freeze to death.

[00:07:50] I did and that's how I I made the leap to entrepreneurship because it was another commute in Wyoming in January. It was about 3:00 in the morning. And as a psychologist at this community mental health center I had to be on call. And there is nothing worse than that beeper going off at 3:00 a.m. in January. And when they told me I had to leave my nice warm bed and throw heat up the car get in the car and it was I remember going down I lived off a dirt road and I remember bumping along the dirt road looking up at the big beautiful moon and the snow on the ground around me and it was 20 below. I was freezing my little tushy off and I remember thinking I can't do this the rest of my life I have to do something different. And that's really what got me on the path to looking for how do I repurpose the skill set that I've paid gobs of money for and I'm still paying off at that point. How do I repurpose this skill set and do something for myself that I'm going to enjoy. And that's when I started looking around and I discovered coaching.

[00:09:01] Did you ever have a car accident.

[00:09:04] Oh yeah. My last car accident. I lived in Wyoming I think close to 15 or 16 years and never hit was hit by a deer. But the month before I moved I had a buck run out and pretty much attack the rear end.

[00:09:22] But you might wonder why I ask. You're driving down the road looking at the moon. The other thing is as you know there are laws against knitting and driving. I don't know if you're aware of that. All right. So you say you know you got to get out of that mess and you're obligated for two years. But did you immediately go to entrepreneurship or did you transition. How did you make it from working off those loans to being an entrepreneur.

[00:10:01] So I got this really big tax refund one year and I took that. I think I was close to ten thousand dollars. I had a sit down talk with my husband at the time and I said I need to do something different. And I asked can we use this tax return so I can invest in my coach training because that was pretty much what it was going to cost me.

[00:10:23] So that's what I did and I worked four days a week. I did 12 hour days or 13 hour days and so I had Mondays off and I used every Monday was focused on developing my coach training and my coaching practice. Now the other thing about Wyoming is there's not many coaches in Wyoming that's an East Coast and West Coast thing. So nobody around me knew what coaching was. And the other problem I had is I had a non compete agreement at the Community Mental Health Center where I worked. So I was not allowed to do any sort of therapy practice privately while I held that job. So me being who I am I'm an honest person I know I'm not do anything on the sly. So I went to my director and I said I need to let you know what I'm doing. I'm developing a coaching practice on the side it's coaching it's not therapy so it's it's non it's a non compete. It's not an issue. And he said well you can't do that. And I looked at him and I don't know where this came from because this was stupid. I'm not asking your permission. I'm telling you what I'm gonna do. And I didn't get fired. He just kind of walked out of my office. And so what I. But what I did at that point is we were socking money away to have a little cash reserve in case it took me a while to get my business off the ground. And so I at that point I knew OK I can't get local clients so I'm going to have to do something different.

[00:12:06] And I went to the ICF International Coach Federation which I had joined and they have a coach registry where you can as a client you can find a coach. And I thought I need to get on that coach registry and see if I can get some clients who are not local. And so I joined the registry and then there were tons of coaches on there and I thought oh my gosh I'm never going to get clients here. I have to find some way to stand out in this registry.

[00:12:33] What were you coaching on.

[00:12:35] Anything anybody would pay me for.

[00:12:38] There's a niche right there.

[00:12:42] I was like I've just got to get out of my job I've got to hustle. So I. But what I did is I went on as a potential client and started getting emails from all these other coaches and I started looking at what they were sending and after about the fifth one that I had read. My eyes were bleeding. I was like oh my gosh these guys all say the same thing. I have to find something different. And so I just crafted an email response that I would send out. Anytime somebody requested a coach a coach from that site and it was totally different. And I started talking to them about what they should be looking for in a coach which nobody else was doing that. And lo and behold I started getting clients my first client was in Spain. My next client was in North Carolina. And then I had a client from Canada. And so at that point you know I had some traction going and I thought OK this is good this proves to me I have something that's viable here. And I started getting my courage up. But you know life throws curve balls.

[00:13:44] You're kidding. I thought it was smooth sailing all the time.

[00:13:49] Oh the best laid plans. I got pregnant and I'm a planner and that is not something I would have planned at that point in my life. But ultimately it led to me quitting my job and starting my business and having a baby newborn baby all at the same time. And I don't recommend that as an as an on ramp into entrepreneurship it was it was really rough.

[00:14:14] However I got a jump in here because I've been preaching for years. If you have all this online stuff that I teach and course coaching is still considered a distance profession you can do it from anywhere. If you have all that in place you've got time for the babies and you've got time for the family and things. Or if you get sick or hurt or something you can still keep money coming in.

[00:14:39] Absolutely. And it was all online. If the Internet in Wyoming is behind the times with the internet but it was just coming around back then and the Internet made all of that possible. If I had not been able to be on the Internet it wouldn't have worked. The other thing is is that I invested in working with a mentor someone who had built an online business and I learned from her because you know that part everything that you do Tom to teach people how to be successful online and the simple things that you teach makes such a huge impact. And that's how I built my business I had to I had to learn that world and the other thing that I did that was key to my success. This ties into something you do really well yourself to Tom. And that was I got talked into doing a presentation for the Chamber of Commerce and I hated public speaking. Oh my gosh I'm an introvert You know if you put me in a party and I'm just like Please let me find the nearest wall. That's not my place. So I I got talked into doing this this talk and they asked me to pick a topic and I said well time management sounds really good because my gosh I needed help with time management with everything just like like I thought if I do a talk I'll learn something about this it'll help. And we had 40 people in attendance at that talk.

[00:16:11] My daughter was probably three months old at the time when I did that so I was she was not sleeping through the night I probably was lucky to get two or three straight hours of sleep at any given time. Somehow I gave a coherent talk and people who were in that audience became clients. Some of them were clients with me for eight or nine years. So that really speaks to the power of speaking like there is no better way to build a business and get yourself out there than to talk and to just share your knowledge.

[00:16:48] Absolutely. You know what. Certainly everything I teach can be done without speaking so for people that are absolutely never going to do it but I can tell you that it's like a catalyst that like accelerates everything and gives you bursts of income if you can get really good at it. So I've been teaching for many years so. So how did you transition into being a hiring expert.

[00:17:15] Ok. So a lot of the folks after I quit my job and you know let me just say something out there to your listeners too who are thinking boy I'm ready to quit my job and how do I how did I do this my accountant the first year I was in business asked me. He said you know for tax planning purposes just how much do you think you're going to make in this business this first year. And I looked and I said I have no idea. He said We need a number. Just throw a number out. And I said OK ten thousand dollars. You know at the end of that year I had made nine thousand nine hundred seventy six dollars and forty cents.

[00:17:50] You should have said a lot more.

[00:17:52] I didn't have a coach telling me that my accountant for goodness sake. So be when we declare something and we get intentional about it it happens. And that has been my experience over and over every year as an entrepreneur I'm real careful about the goals I set and I make sure I say way more than ten thousand dollars. Because you could make it happen. So I. Your original question was How did I become you know an expert on hiring.

[00:18:25] I started having local business owners seeking me out for coaching. Back then the buzz word was work life balance. They wanted help with work life balance. I could do that as a psychologist. That was fun to me to coach on that. But you know after a while we were spinning our wheels and I was realizing it's not that they want to work 70 hours a week what their what their struggle is is they don't have the team members in their businesses that they are confident and that they can rely on in order for them not to be working so hard. They feel like they have to do everything. And so I started looking into how to help them with their team members. And I initially we focused on how do you get more engagement and more productivity out of the team you have while beating your head against the wall. These teams were filled with warm bodies. And that's what I discovered is these guys most of them were men we're putting up with warm bodies in their businesses the people who show up late leave early stand around you know looking like I don't know what to do with myself. Meanwhile the business owner is busting his tail. And so you know I said we've got to stop this. This does not work. You cannot coach warm bodies to be better. Let's take a different approach. And there that's the statement that I kept hearing over and over. We're in a rural area. We can't get good help. This is just how it is. We have to make do. And I started buying into that. And then one morning I woke up and I had this little thought run through my head or is a question and the question was What if that's not true.

[00:20:02] What if this is some crap we're telling ourselves. This line of crap that we're all buying and feeding into what if it's not true that because we're in a small town in a rural area we can't get good help. And so that kind of that put me on a quest I thought I wouldn't go out there and I want to find successful entrepreneurs who live in rural areas who have great team members and I want to find out what they're doing to get those great team members. So I just started talking to people and said Hey do you know anybody who has great team members. And you know every one of them would say no I don't. And I said well you have a couple of great team members right. And I said Yeah but I don't know really between you and I don't know what I did to get them on my team. They just kind of fell in my lap and and so if you find answers to this questions this question that you asking please come back and tell me because I have no idea. So I'm persistent. I didn't stop with that I said OK let's look at your best team members that you currently have. And just tell me the story of how they came to be working for you and Tom time and again it was the exact same story and you know what the secret was: good networking.

[00:21:16] A lot of times they were referred by family members or they were people that the business owner had come across in the community and just you know it just kind of fell into place. And what I started noticing was a trend and that is that good people know good people. "A" players hang together. So if you have great people on your team and if you're a team of one you know "A" players because you're the "A" player in the business. You have other people around you who are "A" players and all you have to do is start being more intentional about your networking. And that's what I teach now is a system to attract "A" players into small businesses so that you are never in a place where you're having to put up with warm bodies because that is the biggest threat to the profit of a business.

[00:22:08] That doesn't have to be rural. It's where you got the idea.

[00:22:13] I cut my teeth in the hardest place. There's more antelope than people in Wyoming. If I could solve this problem in a rural area I knew I could solve it. And that's what happened is when my book came out and it's you know the subtitle is How to how to hire the best in rural areas. And I got started getting calls from people about you know I'm not in a rural area I'm in New Jersey and I can't find good people I'm in San Francisco and I can't find good people would your system work for me. And I said I don't know but let's try it. And sure enough it worked. And you know at first Tom it was amazing to me because I created a course and I thought oh my gosh what if this doesn't work. But every time I took people through that course they started finding people and I had clients telling me that the worksheets you know one of the worksheets is the ideal employee template where I have them like spell out what the ideal employee looks like. I had a client say that is like magic Sabrina once I got super clear on what I was looking for then I can go out there and I can tell everybody I know this is who I'm looking forward to who. Who comes to mind and you know that's the key is you don't want to say Who do you know who's looking for work. You want to say here's the type of person I'm looking for. Who comes to mind because inevitably and a lot of your listeners are like this those "A" players they are employed they are not on Craigslist. They're looking for work. So you have to use some good networking techniques to get them into your business.

[00:23:49] All right. Now in your new research and I'm no expert on this by any means but I've always heard that paying more money doesn't mean you're going to get a better person or better mix of people. Right.

[00:24:00] No no no. And I actually encourage you not to pay good money. I encourage people to look at paying around the 65th percentile as a starting pay and you can find what the 65th percentile is by going on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site. And so what that allows you to do is you can say to the people that you're interviewing Look I'm paying more than most employers in this area but I'm not going to pay you at the top of the scale you come into the business and you prove to me that you're worth it. Then I will pay you in the ninetieth percentile. And so what you want to do as you're bringing them on is you want to lay out clear criteria for advancement results that you're looking for from them that tie into a time frame and their pay raises so they can see because this is one thing that a lot of corporate interviewers say is yes there's opportunities for advancement here but they're not clearly spelled out. If you as that small business owner spell out those opportunities for advancement you put it on paper and you hand it to the interviewee and then on the back you have some testimonials from your current employees who are totally tickled pink working for you. That is going to put you head and shoulders above a corporation that might that person might be interviewing with. That might be offering them a higher start pay but you're showing them a clear progression how you're gonna get them to really good pay over a couple of years time when they give you results.

[00:25:48] Something you've done that I think is brilliant is in this series that you've got. You have one for construction. What's the main title.

[00:26:00] The first book was how to hire the best. That was a overall area. So my book my second book that I'm working on now that's going to be out hopefully by the end of this quarter is how to hire the best the construction addition.

[00:26:12] Yeah that's brilliant because I teach this all the time as if you can put the name of the group you're targeting in the title of your product. You can get way more money and it's an easier sell. So I can see future ones like how to hire the best in the hood. That's the next one.

[00:26:34] Yeah. Now the next one I want to do is the how to hire the best the overall but that. Yeah. That absolutely is my intent that there will be a series and we will go industry by industry.

[00:26:44] Yeah industry by industry you'll sell way more and they'll eat him up they'll buy them in bulk because they'll buy them at associations for that industry. And have you speak and yeah all that stuff.

[00:26:56] And for your listeners too as your business evolves. You have to pay attention to who's buying from you the most and who is getting the best results. And so when I looked out into my business and because I was coaching everybody and anybody right when I started I started looking at who's purchasing coaching services the most. And it's it was entrepreneurs in the construction industry. So that was a no brainer that the next book has to focus on the construction industry.

[00:27:27] You know I love that so much because I always talk and I think you even quoted me about people brand themselves into the poorhouse. They think they know what they're going after and what they want to be. But I say put good products and services out there and the marketplace will tell you who you are not what you think you want to be. Hey that's a pretty good quote there.

[00:27:55] Just a side note to that. I became the business psychologist and just a few years ago and that came from my clients labeling me.

[00:28:05] Exactly I'm the king of kaching because my e-mail goes kaching all the time and one of my one of my students nicknamed me that. So if you boil this down I know everybody should get your book but give them a couple tips on how to get started. If they want to go in and hire some good people.

[00:28:26] So I look at this ties back to the conversation you and I had when I interviewed you last week for my podcast profit by design and start out when you're looking to delegates don't just don't just try to put it go out there and spend money and get rid of things that you don't like to do. That's not the way to start. You do have to do. You have to wear every single hat in your business so you understand what the what the roles are that you're you're delegating. But as soon as you have some money coming in and you're able to cover your living expenses and you're not starving then you absolutely need to start delegating and look at what you know. I like to teach I have a webinar called How to make your time worth ten thousand dollars an hour and look at what are the ten dollar an hour activities that you're doing versus hundred dollar versus thousand versus ten thousand dollar an hour activities. And in the ten thousand dollar an hour activities are the things that are serving your very best tippy top clients who bring in the most revenue for your business that you love working with that you are systematizing. That's a ten thousand dollar an hour activity a ten dollar an hour activity is running to the post office. And so stuff like that is what you want to look at delegating first.

[00:29:49] You need to know how long it takes to make a post office run. If somebody takes three hours to do what you know is 20 minutes and it's not right there's something wrong.

[00:30:00] Yes. So that's why you need to wear all those hats in your business first before you can delegate because you will. People will pull the wool over your eyes all the time and tell you oh no. I was stuck in traffic in Wyoming on that dirt road.

[00:30:31] Okay so. So they gotta learn not to delegate too fast.

[00:30:35] Don't delegate too fast. And then once you start delegating. Look at what you personally procrastinate the most on because what we procrastinate on are the things that are outside our strengths and that is something to look at at delegating but then before you delegate it make sure you're really clear on not the task because you're not delegating a task you're delegating a result. If I'm delegating someone running to the post office for me I'm not that's not the piece that that's not the result I'm looking for the result I'm looking for is that whoever I'm shipping something to gets that thing on time. So that's what you delegate is the result you're looking for. And then you want to think through the person that's going to do this.

[00:31:24] What personality characteristics do they need to do to get this result day in and day out for me and get it an exceptionally well at or to do to do what they need to do to get that result and do it exceptionally well. And so if I had a new entrepreneur that I coached a few years ago. He had a kiosk in the mall and he was at the point where he had been wearing all the hats himself and he was really tired and he hired some college buddies to come and stand at his kiosk and do sales for him so he could go in the back and make it was a food product so he was going to make the food product. And he said you know they suck. They're awful. And and so we got to talking about it and what he had done is he had hired introverts masquerading as extroverts. And so he had a couple of friends who they did a really good job the first hour but after a couple of hours each day they were on their phones and they were they actually had their backs turned to the customers walking past and what he had done when he was in that role is he would stand there and he would call people out across the mall Hey come try my product you want to give us you know here's a sample come try it. He would and he could do that for eight hours extroverts can do that because that gives them energy. Someone like me I'll be on my phone after two hours I'm totally wiped out. After two hours of that business. So you know just him getting clear on OK. I need an extrovert in this role and that that got his he got him moving in the right direction. He hired a couple of different friends and they did great.

[00:33:04] I know this networking you were talking about earlier you know talking about going to these network meetings where you stand there.

[00:33:12] No no. Just start telling anybody and everybody that you know about that kind of person that you're looking to hire. So you know I go get my hair done. I talk to my hairdresser because do you know hairdressers know a lot of people you know another good source is if you have a brick and mortar business and a postman or a post woman comes by every day or your U.P.S. driver they know a lot of people they are in and out of businesses every single day. Talk to them tell them who you're looking for. And the thing is is that when you're hiring somebody who's currently employed you need to catch them on the day that the boss ticked them off.

[00:33:57] And so you have to be aware when you start reaching out you're gonna be talking to people who maybe the boss just gave them a raise yesterday so they're not ready to jump ship. But if you stay in contact with them two months from now. Yeah the boss just gave a raise two months ago but he's been really cranky lately. Maybe they're ready to jump ship then.

[00:34:15] Great point. Now You ever been screwed over a business.

[00:34:19] I've been in business 14 years so yeah at least 15 times a year. So what did I do about it. I learn.

[00:34:37] Obviously not if it's 15 times a year.

[00:34:40] There's all kinds of different ways that it can happen. You know every every scenario is is a learning process. I think I'm trying to think about where it was the worst time that it happened. I think as a coach being too trusting and trying because we were I'm just naturally a helper so trying to help people who really don't want to pay for the help and don't want to make progress. I think that over the course of 14 years of being a coach I every year I encounter that and have to get better and better. We really try not to even bring those people into the business.

[00:35:22] You can't say what I say. I always say listen I'm not your psychologist.

[00:35:26] You know. I have said as your business coach.

[00:35:36] Your industry is regulated right.

[00:35:43] Coaching isn't regulated but psychology is. I could not be out there doing therapy services as a coach.

[00:35:58] There is the old joke is I never met a psychologist that didn't need one.

[00:36:03] That is true. I tell you and if I had continued in that career for the rest of my life I would have needed lots of lots of therapy.

[00:36:13] Tell the truth. Did you ever fall asleep during a client session.

[00:36:17] No no. I have been a bad employee myself. You know I you know I talk about hiring the best. I slept on the floor of my office. I would close my door and sleep and I was pregnant at the time so you know. Come on. But still I did that on the job. So yeah.

[00:36:39] Well is that the most bizarre thing that you've done. I mean you're bound to run into craziness just talking to people as much as you have.

[00:36:50] I you know the most bizarre thing that I have ever done. I can't think of anything like. I think that's the worst thing I've ever done as an employee asleep on the job. Well gosh it's bizarre. But I can tell you what I what we used to do at the things that we saw in that community mental health practice the way that people conducted themselves because we we really dealt with the the most mentally ill people and I would see them in town and I would know what they how they acted in our office and I thought I can't imagine if they go into their bank and go up to the teller window and act like that what the teller or the general public would think.

[00:37:43] And it's certainly not a laughing matter. But I mean I know in nurses and in this kind of business there's a lot of black humor that goes on because just to cope with a lot of bizarre stuff these folks do that. That is just crazy to the general public doesn't see these things all the time.

[00:38:03] It is. And the point where I knew I had to get out of the profession is when you know I was do those evaluations when people would say they were suicidal and I had to go about them. The point where I would be going up to the hospital to the E.R. to meet with someone and just feel like you know I don't care anymore I don't care. And that's that's a bad place to be. And that's burnout. And I have a feeling there's probably some of your listeners who are in a place like that with their job where they're just like I don't care. That's when you know you've got to get out you've got to do something different.

[00:38:35] So what do you like best about working for yourself and what's the worst part.

[00:38:38] The best is I just took a four week vacation. The best is that every I structure my business so that I can be there with my kids and have time with them that I'm in control of my schedule. The worst is that I'm in control my schedule because I will work excessively hard and I if I don't put the brakes on and have some some limits on me thankfully my kids are great at saying Hey Mom you know you said you're not going to work on Saturday. Oh yeah that's right.

[00:39:08] Are they part of the business at all.

[00:39:11] Not yet. My my 12 year old is very eager so she's going to start doing some social media posting for us and some simple admin tasks. My 4 year old she's not quite ready for that.

[00:39:23] Oh I don't know about that. I mean I just gotta. I subscribe to the thing called the good news network. Know all the regular news is kind of nasty in this 8 year. I think I mentioned this in your podcast this 8 year old made 22 million last year on YouTube just reviewing toys. And they're getting more and more little cute kids on they're doing stuff. Getting millions of views.

[00:39:51] Yeah. And so you know I have always protected my oldest and my youngest too from social media. And so I think this is it. She's my twelve year old is at the right age to start introducing her to social media. She's got her knitting YouTube podcast and just being there and guiding her through that. And you know some of the tips that you shared with me about how we can take her hobbies and our mutual hobby around knitting and monetize that I've been talking to her about that I think it's it's an excellent opportunity I think we need to introduce our kids to entrepreneurship and teach them young because like you say a college education it's pricey and it's not always the best investment.

[00:40:31] No for sure. I mean it is right for some people but it's clearly wrong for a lot of people and if you ever watch that webinar I did on it that exposed a lot of the things colleges are actually in my not so humble opinion fraudulently doing like inflating grade point averages and things like that. There's even a whole Web site gradeinflation.com chronicling how they're doing this to make it look like they're doing a better job of teaching. A lot of the things I covered in the webinar were not me because I haven't been in that arena for a long time. These were high level people in the education arena claiming that the thing is going down the tubes. Yeah but so what can people get off you. I know definitely your books but I thought I heard you say you had a course. What do you got to offer these folks to help them.

[00:41:32] So I'm writing a book. The four week vacation and we have laid down I've laid down a challenge to some entrepreneurs and they've accepted it. They're they're working on their four week vacation we have six of them right now who have taken a four week vacation.

[00:41:47] Let me get this straight see because I think I had a four week vacation over the last 40 years in business total.

[00:41:56] That's different. Yeah. Where your business is automated and you have the team in place that they can handle things and your business can go through a complete cycle of sales collecting money delivering services you know getting more sales etcetera. That's what we're we're aiming for. And so really what I'm out to do is to rewrite the story of entrepreneurship that you can have a successful business that supports the lifestyle you desire. You don't know you can't do that the first week you're in business you can't do it the first year you're in business but you can build a business that does not require you to work 60 to 80 hours a week and never take a vacation. So my goal is this year we have six. Next year I want 20 entrepreneurs who've taken a four week vacation. I'm documenting their journey from the moment they commit to that four week vacation to what happens after they take it. And so I have a four week vacation jumpstart course that is free and it's available at tapthepotential.com/Tom.

[00:43:01] Wow what a creative link to that. Tapthepotential.com/Tom how did you possibly think of it. Well that's all that high education you have see I'm just a country bumpkin.

[00:43:19] So your listeners can go there and get their hands on that course. And you know I know you also have a lot of listeners who are just starting out. So one final thought I want to share with them is that I started my business when my daughter was a newborn. And so I was real clear with myself. I was only going to work 25 hours a week when we put limits on our time. We get the important stuff done. And if you're in a in a job currently and you're thinking I don't know how to get my business started if you can carve out 10 hours a week I know you can get your business started.

[00:43:52] Sounds good. So we have to take a brief break for our sponsor which is usually me and when we come back we're going to ask the business psychologist what a typical day looks like for her and how she stays motivated.

[00:44:08] All right folks the internet marketing training center Virginia is a distance learning school. But I want to ask you Do you know what the colleges and universities are doing. Speaking of colleges and universities according to gradeinflation.com they're raising grade point averages to make it look like they're doing a better job of teaching when there's a mountain of evidence that they aren't. I really want you to watch the eye opening higher education webinar at screwthecommute.com/webinars and be prepared to be mad when you see what's going on. One of the things that was chronicled over 2000 students were tracked through colleges various colleges they were spending eight hours a week total total. Going in and preparing to class the rest of the time was eating and partying. Now I don't know if you want to mortgage your house to just pay for a big party or what. So check that out. And these. This is not me talking. These are very high level educational people exposing what's going on in the college arena. I don't want you wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars if it's not appropriate or necessary for your education or your child's education. Check it out at screwthecommute.com/webinars and also check out the Internet marketing training center it's the only licensed Internet and dedicated internet marketing school in the country. And you can find that at IMTCVA.org.

[00:45:51] All right let's get back to our superstar guest Sabrina Starling. What's the name your podcast profit by design right.

[00:46:00] Profit by design podcast.

[00:46:02] And so you run that and you run your business what you claim only twenty five hours a week which is a lot of entrepreneurs are thinking oh my god I got to do 80 90 hours a week so. So tell us what a typical day looks like for you.

[00:46:19] All right. So I usually wake up if I'm lucky at 4:00 a.m. Not on purpose Gosh I wish I could sleep longer but that's just the circadian rhythm that I was blessed with. So sometimes it's three thirty but I get up I read and I read I I read books about business or novels or whatever I feel like reading and that's that has been key to my journey is just constantly learning and I or I listen to podcasts and I knit or I listen to an audible book and I knit and you know I'm just taking some time for myself because that's I'm an introvert. I need my quiet time in the morning and then I get my kids get up and I now have them automated That we have such a good routine that I actually leave the house and go for a walk for an hour while they get ready for school. My 12 year old and my 4 year old they know what to do. And so they I find they do it better when I'm not in the house when I am in the house. That's when the meltdowns happen. It's for whatever reason and and so then I get back we leave for school drop em off at school. I get myself ready. And then my day starts with. Sometimes it's a meeting with one of our strategists or a client meeting. I eat somewhere in there. And then you know I have I. And this is really what has been stressful for me that I'm working to change as I really sit in meetings Tuesday through Thursday one meeting after another just sitting. I can't stand it six seven hours.

[00:48:05] Why don't you get one of those desks that you can stand up on.

[00:48:08] Yeah that too. But being in front of a zoom call that length of time is just too much. So you know and then we do small group coaching and then I usually try to leave an hour before I go get my kids to just wrap up a little details of what needs to be done. Then I get my kids we come home or we go to whatever activity is the activity of the day that they have we come home we get dinner and you know my favorite thing lately is I'm ordering those meals that everything comes chopped up. I know I get to cook but I'm not having to think I can just cook and enjoy the kids and we hang out. We do not watch TV. I. And I think that's been one of the best things and our household is to get rid of the TV because it forces us to read or we listen to podcasts or we just talk and interact well and that's it. And then we go to bed. You know I don't have much excitement here to offer.

[00:49:06] Where you live anyway what part of the world.

[00:49:10] I live in Louisiana. Alexandria Louisiana. I was raised here. I bought a house across the street from where I grew up. It is at the entrepreneur's retreat center we host business retreats here once a year and it's a great retreat setting. And I lived in. I lived in Austin I lived in Wyoming. I moved back here about three or four years ago. I never thought I'd come back but I am back and my parents are across the street and it's a great it's a great setup.

[00:49:52] Oh well how far is it from New Orleans.

[00:49:55] We were just in New Orleans so it's about three and a half hours.

[00:49:58] That's about the only experience I have in New Orleans that I've actually played in the Superdome. Played football. We played in the Superdome it was the hardest. I went to college on a football scholarship and a top 20 school and we played in the Superdome played Tulane and it was the hardest game ever. We head down there and they're saying oh don't worry it's it's humidity controlled in there. Yeah from 99 percent outside to 98 percent inside it's like there was actually guys crying. It was so hot.

[00:50:46] When I get off the plane. I used to live in Wyoming and I would come back and visit once a year and in Wyoming is the most arid place that you can live and then you come to Louisiana in the summer. You get off the plane and you just feel that wall of humidity so I can't even imagine.

[00:51:04] It was such a memorable trip because and also I know you probably don't know this but the floor is metal and it's covered with astroturf so that they can change it into a hockey rink or a basketball court or something. So you hit the ground and you hear the metal. And then then all us country bumpkins for West by God Virginia is where I went. They took us to Bourbon Street and here is the most bizarre stuff we had ever seen. This is in the mid 70s. There was a guy on the street that had a sign on him that said kick me for a dollar totally true. And there was the strip joint and you had to weigh more than 250 pounds to get into the strip joint and all the strippers weighed more than 250 pounds. And then we're driving around and I'm thinking man this must be a rich area. All the cemeteries are all these big monuments. They said no you dummy the bodies would be floating down the street because the water table's so high. If you want to sweat it it's a good place to go that's for sure. So. So let's see. So how do you stay motivated.

[00:52:31] How do I stay motivated. I you know learning from others and I constantly because being an entrepreneur is tough and we start off all of our coaching sessions talking about wins and successes hearing other people's wins and successes keeps me motivated when I am down and I reflect on my wins and successes that helps me stay motivated and I have noticed that we can be very much in the weeds and things can be very very tough from day to day.

[00:53:03] But if you are really clear on your goals and you have a big picture in mind that you're working toward with steady progress from year to year things get better. And that's how I stay motivated. I when I started out in my own business I just wanted to have freedom. That was really all I was after. And I've created that and I remind myself over and over. Be clear what you want and go after it because you can make it happen.

[00:53:29] That's a great parting thought for all our screwballs. We call them screwballs that listen to this podcast. So if anybody has wants to get in touch with you what's the best way. And we'll put everything in the show notes so they can reach you. What's the best way.

[00:53:46] Best way to find me is at our Web site. Tapthepotential.com.

[00:53:53] We'll have that in the show notes for you and definitely get a hold of her book because you really are going to need help if you have a good solid growing business. And she's she's the one she's the bomb on. Telling you what to do what to look for and how to get the best people. So so thanks Sabrina so much for coming on. You've been just a hoot. I was said to be clear. I didn't say that was Hooters. I said you've been a hoot to be on. Just love getting to know each other and that's been really great and very good insights for our people so thanks for coming on.

[00:54:34] Thank you Tom. It's an honor to be here. And any of your screwballs who are listening. I'm I'm honored that you've taken the time to listen today.

[00:54:45] So hey everybody get a copy of the the app. Check out Sabrina's stuff in the show notes. And we will catch you on the next episode. Catch you later.

Join my distance learning school: https://www.IMTCVA.org
OR
Join the mentor program PLUS get a FREE Scholarship to the School: https://www.GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com