IAM1483 – Admin Expert Helps CEO’s on Business Management and Operations

Gwendolyn Young is the go-to Business and Operations Management Consultant for six-figure CEOs who are ready to greet their next level of growth.

Gifted with both strategic and tactical acumen, Gwendolyn has rightfully earned her stellar reputation as exactly what she is—an indispensable strategic partner who advances every organization that she steps into. The brilliant brain behind several successful companies, Gwendolyn spent 15+ years advising corporate executives who implicitly trust her to devise the systems and solutions that significantly increase their profitability. As the founder of Your Virtual Admin Expert, a multi-six figure results-driven agency of professional administrative problem solvers, she brings her full spectrum of expertise to lead the company’s and client’s success.

Backed by know-how, her high-level education in organizational leadership and business information systems along with a pure passion for people, Gwendolyn is a recognized authority in her industry and a champion who lifts others as she climbs.

• CEO Story: Two Decades in Corporate America, devastated, diagnosed with lupus in 2013. Rekindling her admin job, and did some research on the possibility of doing her job online to support her family. She chose to do the work that she loved in the online space as her own business which gave her the freedom to replace her corporate income, take care of herself, and work with amazing people in the virtual space.
• Business Service: Provide online business management and general administration and operation support for professional service providers.
• Secret Sauce: 2 decades of experience in supporting high-level CEOs. Understands what a CEO needs because she is a CEO herself.
• CEO Hack: A community network, and accelerator for black women entrepreneurs. Having accountability is life-changing.
• CEO Nugget: Invest in your business and yourself. Don’t try to do it alone. Book mention: Master of one – get good at that one thing.
• CEO Defined: Being the coach that brings the team together. Help them see how their task, personality, and gifts create as a whole. And help bring maximum value to the client. Servant-leadership.

Website: www.yourvirtualadminexpert.com

Facebook: youradminexpert

Instagram: youradminexpert

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/youradminexpert/

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Transcription

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00:26 – 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.

00:53 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gretchen from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Gwendolyn Young your virtual admin expert. Gwendolyn, It's great to have you on the show.

01:04 – Gwendolyn Young

I am so glad to be here, Gretchen. Thank you so much for having me.

01:08 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm super excited to have you on. You're doing so many awesome things. So what I want to do is just jump into some of what Gwendolyn has been doing that's awesome before we jump into the interview. Gwendolyn is the go-to business and operations management consultant for 6 figure CEOs who are ready to greet their next level of growth. With both strategic and tactical acumen, Gwendolyn has rightfully earned her stellar reputation as exactly what she is, an indispensable strategic partner who advances every organization that she steps into. The brain behind several successful companies, Gwendolyn spent 15-plus years advising corporate executives who implicitly trusted her to devise the systems and solutions that significantly increase their profitability.

As the founder of your virtual admin expert, a multi-six-figure results-driven agency, and a professional and administrative problem solver, She brings her full spectrum of expertise to lead the company's and client's success. Backed by know-how, her high-level education, and organizational leadership in business information systems, along with a pure passion for people, Gwendolyn is a recognized authority in her industry and a champion who lifts others as she climbs. Gwendolyn, super excited to have you on the show to bit of all the awesome e that you have. Are you ready to speak with the I AM CEO community?

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02:31 – Gwendolyn Young

Oh my gosh recommend that everybody for them because you know amazing. Yes, it sounds a it. So I appreciate you read it.

02:48 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Yes. Here is a little bit more on doing it so that I'm able awesome. Yes. So, to off, I wanted to rewind t bit more on how you got your CEO story.

02:56 – Gwendolyn Young

Oh yes. S America for nearly 2 de in 2013, life struck. I was diagnosed with systemic lupus and I had to retire from my corporate job. And so it was during that recovery period. I was just like, okay Lord, what am I supposed to be doing? Like how can I take good care of myself because lupus was new for me and then do something that I love and still contribute to my family financially, right? So all of these things were kind of swarming in my head. And I just clearly heard, you know, it's in your hands. And I'm like, what does that mean though? What does that mean?

And so I started thinking about all the admin and operations work that I had done in the corporate sector and began researching to see if it was possible to do it in the online space and then I found out there was this entire industry doing what I love online and I was like seriously I could have been doing this from home the entire time and no one thought it was important enough to tell me that.

And so it's interesting because I had 0 plans to become an entrepreneur, right? Like I had no desire. People talking to me now are like, I don't believe it, but I'm like, I loved corporate America. Like I'm not the person who hated their job and was trying to get away from their boss. Like that was not my story. But I had a decision to make, right? I had a decision to make, either go back to corporate America and try to navigate that bureaucracy when it came to needing time off, doctors visits, vacations, you know, things like that. Continue fighting the Social Security Administration to prove that you needed the support and had a disability worth getting support, right?

Or create a business that had the potential to replace my corporate income, give me the freedom and flexibility that I needed to take care of myself and I'll work with amazing people across the globe. So I chose number 3. And here I am today chatting with you and doing this work that I love with amazing people in the virtual space.

05:13 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love you telling a story and how that has progressed and everything. I love that aspect about it being in your hands and actually hearing actu and being able to realize everything. It's almost a for this exact moment, li alive so that you could d you're doing now.

05:31 – Gwendolyn Young

Yes, ab very crazy when I say it, but I tell people, you know, lupus was probably the best thing that happened to me because I never would have made the transition if I had not had that experience and that event happen in my life. Now, trust me, I am not saying that having lupus was the best thing that happened to me, just saying that that event and diagnosis started a path that really changed my life and it actually turned out to be for the better.

06:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely And definitely not the same as Lupus, but I started a lot of the blog and everything that I do, largely because I tore my Achilles tendon. And I was on a path to doing the thing that I wanted to do. And my Achilles tendon tore, and it put me in bed, and I had to redirect. So it's not, as you said, I definitely wouldn't want that pain back. And I bet you wouldn't want those experiences back. But you know, without those, a lot of times we wouldn't redirect to where we ultimately should be.

06:32 – Gwendolyn Young

Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

06:35 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more on how your clients are. Can you take of the awesome things that these awesome entrepreneurs do with entrepreneurs?

06:46 – Gwendolyn Young

And online business management and operations support for providers, coaches, and so I love working with entrepreneurs. And so, you know, we provide online business management and general administration and operation support for professional service providers, coaches, and consultants across the globe. And it's So rewarding because we're helping them give their clients the mental, physical, emotional, and financial well-being support that they deserve by taking care of all of the backend stuff.

So because we're managing the standard operating procedures, we're putting the processes in place, we're taking care of onboarding the clients, we're making sure your calendar is good, your travel is taking care of during the research, all of these things, they get to be in a position to do the thing that only they have the genius to do, which is the best part about it. So they get to work with clients on changing their lives. They get to grow their program. They get to make more money.

They get to spend more time with their family. That's really the biggest piece. That's super exciting. I had a client one time that said, I'm a better dad and husband because of the work that you're doing. That to me right there, is the reason to keep getting up every day and doing it because not only are we making a difference in his business, but now in his family life, which is gonna then affect the community and all these other pieces of wellness. Oh my gosh, so excited. So that's the work that we do with the way that we support them integrating into their team and taking over some of those key roles and responsibilities that need to get done but not necessarily done by them as the CEO.

08:28 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I love that. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:39 – Gwendolyn Young

It's really funny because I do the work of supporting CEOs, right? But then I'm also a CEO. And I spent 2 decades of my career supporting high-level CEOs. And I think that's what makes me so very unique because I can see it from both spectrums. Right. I understand what a CEO needs because I am a CEO and I sit in that seat. But then I've supported them for decades. So I also can anticipate what they need and know how to support them in the best way.

And I think that is what makes me so unique and makes my agency so unique because it's how I train my staff as well, right? To look from both sides so that they don't go in just as these task-oriented people but as true business partners to our clients and that's what makes us different. And I think that's my secret sauce. It's like you want to talk strategy, Let's talk strategy. Do you just want to get it done? Cool, I can get it done. Do you want to talk about putting into the system?

All right, let's map out the process. Like, so like I've got this brain that can see and speak to all parts of it. And that's what my clients really appreciate. So it's not like they're trying to find 5 different people that they can have a conversation with. They can literally have me as their point of reference and then we can map out, okay, who do we need to make it actually happen and execute on it?

10:02 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, I love it. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an that you have. But what's more effective and the real moments came in the community. So I don't know if it could be a community, but there's a community that I joined. It's called System Biz Global Network, and It's this accelerator specifically geared for black women entrepreneurs to help them build scalable businesses. And being in that cohort for 9 months literally helped to change how I saw my business as a CEO. Because I started to see it as this asset that I had, not just something that I had created, but it was an asset that I had that could potentially even be sold one day, right?

10:55 – Gwendolyn Young

So that got my mind thinking in a different way of how I handle it and manage it. And that has been life-changing. And the accountability of that group of, hey, did you get your SOPs done because we're working towards the goal of you taking sabbatical, right, as a CEO and letting the team manage it, and let's see how that looks. Getting those things done, like, hey, did you do your pitch deck because you need to get in front of some investors to get money? Like those things, having that accountability has been life-changing.

And because you don't wanna be the person to show up in the cohort meeting, not prepared with your stuff done, made me very productive, very, very productive, because it's always like, Oh, no, I'm not going to be the one on the chat. So I think for me, the community has been huge a to, you know, some master that I've been in a community and knowing at it alone and always ha hey, did you do? Hey, how like those checking momen changing has been my business.

12:11 – Gresham Harkless

I love it I want to ask you now for a nugget. So it's a little of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say you might tell your favorite client or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your business.

12:24 – Gwendolyn Young

So I would have told myself early on to invest in my business and to invest in myself and not try to do it alone from the very beginning. And alone doesn't necessarily mean building a team, but I probably would have joined a community or gotten a business coach or done some of those things a lot sooner. Because the safety that I find in that and the value that it adds, cuts the learning curve tremendously, almost in half, right? So don't be afraid to invest in yourself, invest in your business, invest in the tools that you need, because those things are going to help you build a solid foundation so that you're prepared when the clients come when the business scales when all the things happen. I think that's going to be important.

And the second tip that I would add to that is don't try to do everything at once. Get good and master the one thing. There's a book called Master One. 0 my God, that's amazing. Get good at the one thing. Work on that first. Don't try to do every single thing at once because it just dilutes your focus and slows down your success tremendously. So those would be my nuggets for entrepreneurs or for my younger self.

13:45 – Gresham Harkless

I love it. So I want 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 the show. So Gwendolyn, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:56 – Gwendolyn Young

So for me, it is being the coach that brings the team together. And really helps them to see how their individual task, their individual personality, their individual gifts, and the things that they do, create us as a whole and help us to add maximum value to the clients, right? It's really helping them to understand how it aligns with the vision and the mission of the organization. That's what it is to me. And then it just means making sure they have access to the resources they need to deliver great service, right?

So it's almost as if I am the servant to my team, right? To make sure they have what they need, when they need it, make sure they're trained on how to use it so that they can serve our clients in the most effective and efficient way possible. So that's what I think of when I think of being a CEO. I'm really just here to serve my team and make sure my clients are well taken care of.

14:58 – Gresham Harkless

Gwendolyn truly appreciates that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I was passionate about than Mike was to see if there was anything we could do to let our readers and l how best people get out about all the awesome they were working on.

15:14 – Gwendolyn Young

Yeah, so I way connect with me across can find me as your admin expert across all the channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. And then if you head over to my website, you can opt in for a free download that I have for you. So if you go to your virtualadmintexpert.com, up in there, you're gonna get this amazing great download that's gonna really help you think about if you are in that true CEO role, or if it's time to make some changes or transitions. Other than that, I would say own your power, stand in the role, execute the vision flawlessly, and make sure that you have the right team supporting you to get it all done.

16:02 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely appreciate that. And of course, to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information, the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you and your team, and find out about all the awesome things you're doing. And of course, get that downloadable. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:15 – Gwendolyn Young

Awesome. Thank you so much.

16:16 – 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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