IAM368- Strategist Works With Small Businesses to Manage Their Office operations

Laura has nearly thirty years of experience managing front- and back-office operations and serving as a trusted assistant and advisor to executives. She works with solopreneurs and small businesses developing and implementing their office administration/management, digital marketing, and business operations strategies. Collaboration and true partnership are key for Laura in building her relationships with her clients.

• CEO Hack: Analog tool – The Rocket book
• CEO Nugget: Add new skills, drop some and the services you started with should evolve – where you start is not where you stay
• CEO Defined: Culture creator and vision holder

Website: https://adminderella.com/

https://www.rocksdigital.com/author/laura-darkstar/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adminderella/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Adminderella/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lauradarkstar

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Laura Darkstar of Admin Derella.

Laura, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Laura Darkstar 0:40

I'm glad to be here. Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

No problem. Super excited to have you on. What I want to do is read a little bit more about Laura so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Laura has nearly thirty years of experience managing front- and back-office operations and serving as a trusted assistant and advisor to executives.

She works with solopreneurs and small businesses developing and implementing their office administration/management, digital marketing, and business operations strategies. Collaboration and true partnership are key for Laura in building her relationships with her clients.

Laura, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Laura Darkstar 1:16

I certainly am.

Gresham Harkless 1:18

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to ask you for what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business?

Laura Darkstar 1:26

Well, I had a corporate career of about 25 years and was doing executive assistant and office management work. And was sort of in the cycle of interviews, pledging loyalty forever, working somewhere for 18 months to two years and then they downsized. Of course, admin staff were the first to go.

So after a particularly heartbreaking downsizing, I decided I was tired of being an expendable commodity and I had the skills, I had the technology backing. I was just going to go into doing what I had been doing as sort of my side hustle for all my corporate career and turn that into my full-time gig. So that's what I did.

Gresham Harkless 2:20

Awesome. Well, I definitely appreciate you for doing that. I too, have been laid off and nearly laid off a couple of times and that is not fun at all. So I appreciate you for having the guts to be able to go on your own and take that expertise and that knowledge and be able to build your own business.

Laura Darkstar 2:38

It was sort of a logical next step for me. Just because you get in that cycle, and you need to make the decision, am I going to keep doing that? Or am I going to take my skills and expertise and actually do something really useful with it?

Gresham Harkless 2:58

Exactly. And you start to make a bigger impact or not necessarily a bigger impact, you get to make a different impact maybe I should say, and you get to do it, and building something and putting those bricks in place.

Laura Darkstar 3:09

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 3:11

Nice. I know I talked a little bit offline about how much I loved your name. So can you tell us a little bit more about Derella and everything that you're doing and how you're supporting the clients you're working with?

Laura Darkstar 3:21

Well, if Derella comes from Admin, and Cinderella was the person who was always working behind the scenes, cleaning up the messes that everybody else made, making sure that her stepsisters and stepmother always looked perfect and on point. That's what I do for my clients.

I do all the behind-the-scenes stuff to make sparkling shiny, and so they get to shine, and I don't want to be in the spotlight. I want to be the light that makes my client shine. So what my clients do is really complex a lot of times, and I like being behind the scenes and making it look easy.

Gresham Harkless 4:06

Nice, well, I definitely appreciate that. I'm sure everybody in your client list appreciates it even more, just because a lot of times when you think about starting a business especially or you have a business, you don't think about those admin things that you have to do.

But if you don't do those things, then you won't be able to be as successful as you could be. So it's important to be able to find somebody like yourself and Derella and be able to do that so that you can shine as best as you can.

Laura Darkstar 4:36

What happens so many times for solopreneurs is they do everything because they have to when they first start their business and they just get a point of not being able to grow anymore because they can't do all of the admin stuff and things that are outside of their zone of genius and continue to grow their business and do what they do best.

So I tried to take off their plates, everything that's, you know, not their specific zone of genius, which ends up being everything from like email management to project management, and team coordination. So I sort of have a broad spectrum of things I can do for people.

Gresham Harkless 5:22

Nice, that makes perfect sense. And let me ask you this, Do you know? Or have you seen it? Or could you consistently say, if there's like some signal or something that happens with clients that you've worked with, or clients that you've seen even then make them say that, hey, this is now the time to bring in somebody else.

I've gotten past that point, or do you do it from day one?

Laura Darkstar 5:47

Usually, people contact me when they've sort of hit that wall themselves. They've gotten to the point where they've realized there are things they should be doing, maybe software they need to be implementing, and they don't want to take the time to learn and know how that all works.

Or they've just reached a point where they're spinning their wheels, because they're tied up with admin stuff, and they're not able to grow any further without outsourcing some of that to somebody else.

Gresham Harkless 6:24

Right, that makes sense. Usually, that's a big pain point where you know, there are not enough hours in the day you need those 30 hours in a day, which don't actually exist. So you have to be more efficient with everything that you're doing. I appreciate you for helping your clients and helping so many people to be able to do that.

You might have already touched on this, but I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This is for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Laura Darkstar 6:54

I'm somebody who has a very broad spectrum of skills. So I'm not somebody who's just going to be doing tasks for you, but I talk strategy with my clients too. I can take what I've learned, as a business owner, I can take what I've learned working with other business owners, and say, there's an easier way to do this, or why don't we try doing something different than what you've been doing, and see if it works.

It makes things easier. So I would say my secret sauce is the breadth of experience and skill set.

Gresham Harkless 7:41

Nice. And I heard you mentioning that Zona is genius, especially because I think sometimes as business owners in definite solopreneurs, or even small teams or big teams, you kind of want to have an understanding of what your strengths and weaknesses are, what your gifts are, what you do best so that you're able to spend more time there.

A lot of times, we're so close to what it is that we're doing, we're doing so much that we need somebody that's able to provide that strategy, provide that insight, and tap into that level of expertise so that we are able to be our best selves.

Laura Darkstar 8:13

That's what I help people do, is figure out all of the things that they don't really need to have their hands on. And so many times I hear somebody say, well, but telling me how to do that just will take more time than it takes for me to do it myself.

I always tell people, if you explain it to me, once I document the procedure, you never have to do that thing again.

Gresham Harkless 8:43

Absolutely, absolutely. And that ends up being a time saver for you just telling somebody again, and again, and again, you start adding that up, you could have just had somebody that was an expert at what it is that they're doing.

Laura Darkstar 8:54

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 8:56

Nice. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Laura Darkstar 9:09

I know, it's really easy to think that doing everything electronically and online is the best way to do it. But I would say don't be afraid of using analog tools. One of my favorite tools is called the Rocket Book. It's no book that has a little code on it. You can take a picture of the page once you've written on it, and it uploads it to the cloud. So it's sort of the nice hybrid between I can take notes by hand and not having to be distracted during a client call.

By having some programs open and typing, I can just take my notes by hand and then I can upload them right into the cloud.

Gresham Harkless 9:54

Nice I haven't heard of that, but I definitely appreciate that. I'd be able to write things down because I love writing myself and to be able to take a screenshot and have that take a snapshot of it and be able to have that into the cloud. And so you can access that at any time.

Laura Darkstar 10:12

It's magical.

Gresham Harkless 10:16

Absolutely, absolutely. And I expect nothing less from you. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This is a word of wisdom or piece of advice or if you could hop into be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Laura Darkstar 10:32

The set of services that you offer when you start can and in most cases should evolve. And as you acquire new skills, add them to your offerings, but don't be afraid to drop the things that you don't enjoy as much.

Where you start is not where you have to stay.

Gresham Harkless 10:51

Nice. And oftentimes, if you hold on to those things, it's hard to go to that next level. So you do have to be able to delegate or drop things off or do those things in order for you to get to that next level.

Laura Darkstar 11:01

And a lot of times, you start doing things, and you decide, I don't really enjoy this piece of it or that piece of it. But you think that people expect that from you. Don't be afraid to drop things and add new skills.

Gresham Harkless 11:18

Absolutely. So that's definitely a great reminder. I think, when you're dialed into your zone of genius, and also your mission and why you're doing what you're doing, it's easier to make those decisions.

So if you know that if you started a business that has work-life balance, or whatever your goal or mission might be a lot of times if you remind yourself of that, then it becomes easier to make those decisions.

Laura Darkstar 11:42

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 11:44

Nice. Now, I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote and quote CEOs on this show.

So Laura, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Laura Darkstar 11:55

The CEO is the culture creator, and the vision holder. They're really the person that everything starts and ends with them. The old thing, the buck stops here. And so they hold the vision, and everything trickles down from the CEO.

Gresham Harkless 12:20

Absolutely. And I think too, especially with that culture piece, because a lot of times when you might work in a certain environment, you don't necessarily like it or be part of a certain team, you don't necessarily like it. But as the CEO, as the person who has started the business or the organization you have, you can implement a lot of those things, you can make changes to a lot of those things. So it's kind of on you to create that culture, to create that vision so that not only yourself but also the team members are able to thrive in that situation.

Laura Darkstar 12:49

And having the vision, and being able to articulate that is so important.

Gresham Harkless 12:57

Exactly, exactly. Because everybody has to be able to understand exactly what you see, as best as possible. Laura, I truly appreciate your time. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can hear about all the awesome things you're doing and how best to get ahold of you.

Laura Darkstar 13:20

If you're a solopreneur or a small business owner, and you're just feeling overwhelmed, we should have a conversation. A lot of times those conversations end up with me just saying, Okay, this doesn't sound like right now is the time for you to keep in touch and we'll move on it then.

Sometimes it generates a new client for me, but I like to have those discussions and sort of talk a little strategy and see where the people are. The best way to reach me is I do have a contact form on my website, which is adminderella.com. You can email me at Laura@adminderella.com. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Twitter. Twitter, however, does not allow anything with the word admin in it. So I'm actually Laura Darkstar on Twitter

Gresham Harkless 14:22

I really never knew that. So that's interesting to know. But I appreciate you for doing all the awesome things that you're doing to help so many people shine, we will have those links for Twitter and every other social media site in the show notes as well as your website so that people can follow up.

I think again, sometimes we're so close to everything, it's very hard to get a different perspective. So I appreciate you for having those conversations so that we can kind of just do sometimes just say dive into all the things that we're juggling and how best we may need help or may need help further down the line. So thank you so much for that.

Laura Darkstar 15:00

I'm happy to provide the platform to sort of have people bounce ideas off me. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be a client right now and that's okay too.

Gresham Harkless 15:17

Absolutely, yeah, it definitely helps that you get everything out sometimes. So, we will have those links in the show notes. Laura, thank you so much again for your time and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Laura Darkstar 15:28

I hope you have a really great weekend, Gresh. And it has been a pleasure being here.

Outro 15:34

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co.

This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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