IAM1448 – CEO Helps Businessowners Train Teams to Increase Profitability

A poorly trained or untrained team is costing your business money and time every day! That's why Dr. Tonya Robertson (founder of Focused Training Solutions) and the team are proactive about ensuring that service-based business owners understand the importance of developing their teams to be more of an asset in order to increase profitability. Focused Training Solutions is not the average employee training agency. Dr. Robertson and the team take a holistic, strategic, and relational approach to ensure the ongoing success of businesses.

• CEO Story: Tonya felt her past including her grandparents' lives was not lived to its potential, and having some regrets about how it should be and could be more productive, maximizing her true potential. That is why she is pouring her energy into her business, training employees and developing teams to be more of an asset to their respective companies.
• Business Service: Develop, deliver, and maintain a team training program
• Secret Sauce: Understanding and bridging the gap. Capture the team right out from the start. Getting to know the people.
• CEO Hack: 12th-week year program making laser-focused planning and making adjustments.
• CEO Nugget: Getting to know the newly hired people and training them. You can bet on Dr. Tonya knowing she knows what she’s doing.
• CEO Defined: Freedom of time. Creativity in finding solutions. Time with family.

Website: focusedtrainingsolutions.com , www.WeTrainYourTeam.com

Facebook: focusedtrainingsolutions

Instagram: focusedtrainingsolutions

LinkedIn: focusedtrainingsolutions

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Transcription

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00:22 – Intro

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 Harkness 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.

00:52 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gretch from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Tanya Roberson of Focus Training Solutions. Dr. Tanya, super excited to have you on the show.

01:03 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

Thank you so much, Gresham, for the opportunity. I am happy to be here.

01:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. I am even happier to have you on as well. Before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Dr. Tanya so you can hear about all these awesome things that she is working on in a poorly trained or untrained team that is costing your business money and time every single day. That is why Dr. Tanya Robertson, founder of Focused Training Solutions, and her team are proactive about ensuring that service-based business owners understand the importance of developing their teams to be more of an asset in order to increase profitability. Focus Training Solutions is not the average employee training agency. Dr. Tanya Robertson and the team take a holistic, strategic, and relational approach to ensuring the ongoing success of businesses. Dr. Tanya, again, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:56 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

I am.

01:58- Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:06- Dr. Tonya Robertson

All right, Gresham, all right. You know, you. I'm a little dated, but we'll rewind that clock. So my CEO story is a bit twofold. So first and foremost, I just simply wanted to break any preconceived notions about what could be. So I grew up as a country girl, in Southern Virginia, raised by my grandparents. And so I did all the things that they told me. I went to school, got the degree, got the good job, and it just, it just didn't feel good. I felt that my, you know, my creativity was capped, my earning power was capped. In addition, you know, I was a teen mom, you know, and I want my children just to be able to know what's possible, you know, so that's one side of the coin. On the other side of the coin, it's really to be able to have a life without regrets. As a business owner, I watched both of my grandparents who raised me pass away.

On their deathbeds, some of the things that they shared with me were a lot of regrets about what they should have done in the past as it relates to traveling more and spending more time with family. Now, I know business ownership can definitely be super time-consuming, but I feel like, well, this venture for me, you know, it allows me to teach others and also myself how to just really structure your team so that they can be more of an asset so that you can do those things that many people regret, you know, as they get older, as it relates to spending time with family or traveling or all of those things associated with time free.

04:12- Gresham Harkless

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate you so much and sharing that.

04:16 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

Yeah. And to add to that real quick, Gresham, I'm going back to the first side of the coin. And being a teen mom, one of the drivers behind that was just being told at that point, you know, what I would not be able to accomplish as a teen mom. So on one side, you've got the regrets that you've been hearing from those loved ones that have raised you. That's really a driving force. And then on the other side, you know, you've got the, you know, the voices that you hear that you recall as that early-age teen mom telling you what is not possible.

04:56 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched a little bit upon, like, how you work with your clients, so I wanted to hear a little bit more on how you're serving them and how you're making their impact on their organizations.

05:06 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

Awesome sauce. So we develop, deliver, and maintain team training programs. And we do that for high-earning, six-figure, and seven-figure CEOs who want productive teams. They want time and freedom, and they want to increase their profitability. And so our signature service is actually just a complete, done-for-you service offering for those individuals. We take the stress, off of their plate as far as knowing how to effectively create that training plan and how to effectively train those teams. And so we create those programs and we deliver them so that the CEO can just go off on his or her own and focus on the money.

05:55 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's so huge. And it's so important. I think especially leaders start to understand that you can't be and do all the things. And even if you know how to do a lot of the things, you don't want to necessarily be in that place where you're doing them all because there's only so much time and of course, you know, energy as well too. So I think what you're doing is so phenomenal because you're helping to allow the person to first of all have the people around him or her that are trained to be able to succeed, but also allowing that person to be where they need to be to hopefully move the needle forward for the organization and the business as a whole.

06:29 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

Yes, yes, absolutely. We uniquely position our training so that we capture the team members right out of the gate. So as soon as you hire them, you know, we customize that onboarding program, you know, they go into job-specific skills training programs. So we have a very strategically thought-out pipeline of long-term training programs for the CEO.

06:56 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself individually, the business, or a combination of both. But is it your ability to kind of understand and bridge that gap, part of your secret sauce, what you feel makes you unique?

07:10- Dr. Tonya Robertson

I definitely say so. I think we're unique in that like I mentioned, we capture, you know, the team member right out the gate and just, you know, really learn what it is that they need and create training that's going to cater to their learning type. So that, you know, we eliminate training time for the CEOs, because oftentimes a lot of time is wasted just creating that one-size-fits-all training and assuming that everyone is going to get it. And the state of the workforce has changed, a lot is changing. And so all of that needs to be taken into consideration. And as the CEO, you know, with the background in education, technology, and all that great stuff, I feel like, you know, I am uniquely positioned to lead my team and to be able to just really, aside from that, be relational with the CEOs and the business owners. That's super important to me. I'm a customer service maniac.

And so, you know, it's important for me that we are just delivering excellence, walking in excellence in all that we do and being accountable. So, you know, with that in mind, I want to. One of the ingredients, I'd say the secret sauce is being super relational. Getting to know the people outside of the title of CEO, you know, what do they like, you know, tell me about your family. What are you doing this weekend? So, you know, understanding that human side of the CEOs that we work with and also their teams and that, you know, has helped us and, you know, we build forever relationships from that. So that is definitely my secret sauce and I feel like is what has contributed to the success of the company.

09:14 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:27 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

That's a great question because I recently implemented what's called a 12-week year. Not sure if you've heard of Brian Moran, and I think I have his name correct. So one of the mastermind groups that I'm a part of, he recently came and did a training for us and it was so awesome. And I feel like, why didn't someone tell me about this a long time ago? And so I've begun to implement the 12-week year and it has since just really streamlined my focus. Gresham and I've been able to accomplish a lot in just a short period of time. So for me, I'd say if you haven't checked out the book, I know just in general, as CEOs always have a gazillion thoughts and ideas running through our heads of services or products or just various ways in which we can make money.

And sometimes it's hard to just focus on a few things. And so the 12-week year, helped me personally to be able to do that. So, yeah, I'd say that that's definitely a CEO hack.

10:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And it's so funny that you said that. And if you're watching, you can see I definitely lit up when you said that because I haven't read that book, but I've heard that book often, over and over again. So this is, I think, my kick in the butt to make sure that.

11:01- Dr. Tonya Robertson

I can check this out.

11:02- Gresham Harkless

All right, you got to check it out exactly. Because I've heard and correct me if I'm wrong. It's all about not trying to think that, okay, this is what I want to accomplish within 52 weeks in a year because that seems too long. And if you say this is just what I want to accomplish in a week, that's too short. So you have that 12 weeks too, as you said, so, well, experiment with different things that you want to work on or just any goals you really want to laser focus on for those 12 weeks. Three months. And you can start to reassess them and change and make adjustments every quarter essentially. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a C nugget. So this is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:47- Dr. Tonya Robertson

My advice to CEOs is there is some accountability on your part. Don't skip the CEO work. You can't just hire the team and expect them to know what to do immediately out the gate with minimal supervision and poor training. They are human. Get to know their human side, their people first. And then the second part of that question is you also mentioned, like, what would I have told my younger self? So for that, I would say bet on me, right? And I didn't do that. I bet too much want other people to open doors and create opportunities for me. I feel like I almost put my destiny in everyone else's hands and I would have just bet on myself more because I know that I'm capable, You know, I now know my worth. You know, all of these things. I know. Hence the step out into entrepreneurship. Now, you know, there are times that are challenging, of course, but you know, I know that I can create opportunities that are going to be solutions for other business owners. I know that with that there's no cap on my earning power. So yes. So those. That's my CEO nugget. And that's what I would tell my younger self.

13:22- Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I love that. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Dr. Tanya, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:35 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

One freedom. You know, now I will always preface this with there's still work to be done, you still have to do the work. And oftentimes because I get lost in the enjoyment of what I do, I may end up putting in more than the 40 hours a week that I used to put in for the corporate, the other organizations that I used to work for and did not enjoy. But now I can do this for something that I'm building. So I had that freedom. I'm super grateful for that. The freedom. And as I mentioned before, there are no limits to my, you know, my earning power. Yes. So freedom, no profit limits, and then creativity. Because, you know, if we create solutions as CEOs, we can wake up tomorrow and it's like, hey, you know, I think I can add on a solution for this problem. So, you know, the creativity part is definitely meaningful as well. And then, you know, aside from that, the fact that I get to homeschool my daughter, there's just so many opportunities to just bond with family and again, create that life by design.

15:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we'll definitely have to have you back on to hear a little bit more, you know, on your perspective on bad questions and all the awesome things that you've been working on. So of course I appreciate that. I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

15:23 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

So take a look at how we train your team if you'd like, and interview us to see if we'd be a great fit for your business. And I just want to reiterate that CEOs, you know, stop hiring the team without a path forward. You know, we're able to help you. We have some great resources on the site and I just want to thank you, Gresham, for having me. If the opportunity prevails for me to come back again, I'd love to. So thank you so much again.

15:54- Gresham Harkless

Yes, I absolutely appreciate you. And of course, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes. So definitely look forward to having you back on the show. Talk about all the awesome things that you're working on and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:06 – Dr. Tonya Robertson

All right, awesome.

16:07 – Outro

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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