IAM1876 – Admin Expert Helps CEOs on Business Management and Operations

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Gwendolyn Young Teaser 00:00

And I spent 2 decades of my career supporting high-level CEOs. And I think that's what makes me so very unique is because I can see it from both spectrums. 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.

Intro 00:25

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 are in search of. This is the IAMCEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:51

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast. And I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know, that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year.

And we're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them, the business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, and what I like to call the CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month, we are focusing on operations. These systems will set you free. So think about systems, think about flow, sustainability, potentially working out in your morning routine, waking up, early e-commerce, and different business models.

Think of the operations in the. Models that basically set up the foundation to allow the creativity within organizations, but also to make sure the trains are running on time and things are going as they should.

Now, this is extremely important because we often turn to the sexy parts of business and forget about the operations and how important that is.

So I really want to focus this month on this specific topic. So sit back and enjoy this special episode at the IAMCEO podcast.

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Gwendolyn Young of your Virtual Admin Expert. Gwendolyn, it's great to have you on the show.

Gwendolyn Young 02:11

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

Gresham Harkless 02:16

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.

And Gwendolyn is the go-to business and operations management consultant for six-figure CEOs who are ready to greet their next level of growth gift with both strategic and tactical acumen.

Gwendolyn has rightfully earned her stellar reputation as exactly what she is an indispensable strategic partner who invests every organization that she steps into. The brilliant 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.

And as the founder of your Virtual Admin Expert, a multi-six figure results-driven agency, professional and administrative problem solvers. She brings her full spectrum of expertise to lead the companies and client success.

Backed by know-how her high level of 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 touch on a little bit of all the awesome expertise and knowledge that you have. Are you ready to speak to the IAMCEO community?

Gwendolyn Young 03:37

Oh, my gosh, I am and I am recommending that everybody has their bio with them because. That sounds pretty amazing.

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Gresham Harkless 03:47

Yes, it sounds amazing to read it, but I imagine it's a lot more exciting by doing it. So I appreciate you doing it. So that I'm able to read it. So, to kick everything off. I wanted to rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started what I call your CEO story.

Gwendolyn Young 04:01

Oh, yes. So was working in corporate America for nearly 2 decades. And then back 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 this was new for me and then do something that I love. And then still contribute to my family financially, right?

So, all of these things are swarming in my head and I just clearly heard, ‘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've done in the corporate sector. and begin 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 zero plans to become an entrepreneur, right? I had no desire. People talking to me now are like, I don't believe it, but I'm like, I love corporate America. I'm not the person who hated their job, who was trying to get away from their boss. 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 meeting time off doctor's visits vacations, things like that, continue fighting the Social Security Administration to prove that you needed the support and had a disability worth getting support.

Or create a business that had the potential to replace my corporate income. It gave me the freedom and flexibility that I needed to take care of myself and 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.

Gresham Harkless 06:13

Nice. Absolutely. It's almost as if you're set up for this exact moment. Everything was in a line so that you could do everything that you're doing now.

Gwendolyn Young 06:21

Yes, absolutely. It sounds very crazy when I say it, but I tell people, 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 happened 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.

Gresham Harkless 06:50

Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more here, on how you work with your clients. Can you take us through some of the awesome things that you're doing to support these awesome entrepreneurs?

Gwendolyn Young 07:00

Yeah, I love working with entrepreneurs. And so, 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 back-end 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 travels taking care of during the research, all of these things. They get to be in 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. That 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 going to 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 clients. And so the way that we support them, and that is really integrating into their business as part of 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.

Gresham Harkless 08:43

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

Gwendolyn Young 08:54

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. Is 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.

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 you want to talk strategy. Let's talk strategy. You just want to get it done. Cool. I can get it done.

You want to talk about putting in the new system. All right, let's talk about the process. So, 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 five 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?

Gresham Harkless 10:16

Awesome. Awesome. I love it. 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?

Gwendolyn Young 10:28

I think where the real moments came in for me was in community. So, I don't know if it could be a community, but there's a community that I joined it's called Sistahbiz Global Network. And it's 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 bit. 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 a sabbatical right, as a CEO and letting the team manage it. And let's see how that looks. Getting those things done.

Hey, did you do your pitch deck? Because you need to get in front of some investors to get those things. Having that accountability, it 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 because it's always oh, no, I'm not going to be the one on the top of the line.

So, I think for me, community has been huge and I even think back to some masterminds and things like that that I've been in having that consistent community and knowing that I'm not going at it alone and always having somebody like, Hey, did you do? Hey, how's is it going? Those check-in moments has been life-changing. It has been a game changer for my business.

Gresham Harkless 12:20

I love it. I love it. So I was asking now for what I call a CEO nugget. So it's a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say, you might tell your favorite client, or if you happen to a time machine, you might tell your business self.

Gwendolyn Young 12:33

So I would have told myself early on to invest in my business into investing 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.

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 2nd 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 of One. Oh, my God, that's amazing. Get good at the one thing work on that 1st, don't try to do every single thing at once because it just dilutes your focus and it slows down your success tremendously. So those would be my nuggets for entrepreneurs or to my younger self.

Gresham Harkless 13:52

I love it. So, wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on the show of Gwendolyn, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Gwendolyn Young 14:03

So for me, it is being the coach that brings their team together and really helps them to see how their individual task, how their individual personality, their individual gifts, 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 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 they can serve our clients in the most effective and efficient way as 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.

Gresham Harkless 15:03

Gwendolyn, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, 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 about all the awesome things you are working on.

Gwendolyn Young 15:19

Yeah, so I would love if you guys would connect with me across social media. You can find me as Your Admin Expert across all the channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, 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 yourvirtualadminexpert.com and opt-in there, you're going to get this amazing great download.

That's going to 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.

Gresham Harkless 16:05

Nice, I absolutely appreciate that. And of course, to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information that shown us 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.

Gwendolyn Young 16:17

Thank you so much.

Outro 16:19

Thank you for listening to the IAMCEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. IAMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at ceohacks.co. This has been the IAMCEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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