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Podcast

High Standards Aren’t Harsh. They’re Respect

By admin — 2 days ago

I believe that as female founders, high standards are our strength.

Women founders often second-guess themselves. We ask for excellence, then wonder if we’re being too demanding. We hold people accountable, then feel guilty for making someone uncomfortable.

But high standards aren’t harsh. They’re clarity. They protect our teams, our clients, and the purpose we’re building toward.

Strong boundaries aren’t unfair. They help the right people rise.

And when someone isn’t aligned, letting go isn’t failure. It’s leadership with compassion.

Because we can be kind and still be clear. We can care deeply and still expect excellence. That’s not a contradiction.

That’s respect — for ourselves, for our vision, and for the people we lead.

So don’t shrink your standards to make others comfortable. They exist for a reason. And they keep you, and your business, aligned with what matters most.

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They Cut Us Out. And Here’s What They Lost.

By admin — 1 week ago

And no, I’m not mad. But I do want to tell you what they gave up.

Here’s what happened.

Two months after we placed a fantastic team member with a client, the client ended the contract. They went direct, cutting us out — even though it was against the agreement.

It’s a common assumption. They saw a great hire and figured they could just go direct and keep the magic going. From the outside, it looked like we added a markup and then disappeared.

But here’s what many business owners forget when they think like that.

We didn’t just plug in a person and walk away.
We listened when they told us what they needed.
We politely disagreed and recalibrated the role so it made more sense.
We filtered over a thousand candidates across three time zones.
We onboarded, aligned, and coached through the first thirty days.
We ran reviews, check-ins, and gave her a roadmap to thrive.
We stayed in the background to solve problems before they turned into churn.

What they saw was a great hire.
What they missed was the system behind her success.

Great hires aren’t just people. They’re the product of systems, coaching, and care.

If you’re not hiring every week, you don’t have hiring systems. You don’t have a ready pipeline or a backup plan. You don’t have time to coach, review, and replace.

And that’s the invisible value a good agency brings. It acts like a fractional HR department, always there to step in.

So yes, they saved money on paper. But with the next hire, they’ll be starting from scratch — without the systems that made this one thrive.

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Don’t Hire a Captain If the Ship Isn’t Built

By admin — 1 week ago

“Should I hire an operations manager?”

Maybe not.

The inbox is overflowing, deadlines are constant, and you’re still the one catching the details. The instinct is to think, “If I just find the right person, they’ll clean this up.”

I used to believe an operations manager would save me. Until the third one quit.

Here’s what I’ve seen inside my own company, Gorilla Stationers, and in many others: operations and building are two separate things. Most operations professionals are great at optimizing, but not at building systems from scratch.

If intake happens five different ways, case handoff depends on memory, and no one’s really sure who owns what, most operations managers will struggle. They first need to understand what’s going on, then build a system, and only then can they run it. When they realize it’s not about running but about building, they often leave.

So before hiring someone to run the ship, ask yourself: is the ship built?

And by built, I mean:
• Standardized onboarding
• Clear case handoff
• A follow-up system that doesn’t rely on you at 10 p.m.

These are the things we as founders have to create first. In my experience, maybe one in a hundred operations managers is both good at building and happy to do it.

They’re two different jobs.

Don’t hire an ops lead to figure it out. Build the system first, then hand over the keys.

Because even the best captain can’t steer a ship that’s still under construction.

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Podcast

Stop Hiring the Person You Like. Start Hiring for What You Need.

By admin — 1 week ago

If you don’t know what you really need, you’ll hire the person you like most.

I’ve read hundreds of small business job descriptions, and 95% make the same mistake: they’re more of a wishlist than a job description.

A typical one looks like this:

We want someone who can:

  • Manage the calendar

  • Write the newsletters

  • Run operations

  • Handle support

  • Think like a strategist

  • Execute like a machine

  • And work across four time zones

What’s the problem with that?

It mixes six completely different skill sets: administrative, creative, operational, technical, strategic, and customer-facing. That’s not a job. It’s a fantasy.

If someone like that existed, they’d already be running their own business, not applying to work for yours.

Here’s what to do instead:
1️⃣ Write down everything you wish this person would do.
2️⃣ Circle the three most critical things.
3️⃣ Build a role around those, not all seventeen.

Once you’ve found that person and developed a good rhythm, go back to your list, see what’s still open, and hire the next person.

Hiring isn’t about finding magic. It’s about making trade-offs and slowly building a team that can cover all the tasks you want to delegate.

Focus beats fantasy. Every time.

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Podcast

What I Found in Argentina

By admin — 2 weeks ago

There’s been a lot of talk about Argentina lately.

I’d like to share my take. Not on economics or politics, but on something I’ve come to know well: its people.

When I first started working with Argentina, I didn’t know what to expect. What I found was creativity, honesty, and a kind of grounded intelligence that’s hard to put into words.

People who don’t just show up to work — they show up with the intention to improve, to change, to build something meaningful.

People often talk about outsourcing as a cost decision, but for me, it was never just that.

I love Argentina. And if I can work with people who bring creativity, grit, and a sense of calm to every challenge, how could I ever say no?

Today, many of our most important projects are led by incredible professionals from Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Rosario — people who bring warmth, clarity, and an unshakable sense of purpose.

That spirit has become part of who I am.

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Podcast

Everyone Knows an Emma (and That’s the Problem)

By admin — 2 weeks ago

Everyone knows an Emma.

Emma, the founder drowning in to-dos.
Emma, who swore this month she’d finally get help.
Emma, who spent three hours on Fiverr trying to find “a VA who can do everything.” I call them unicorns.

I’ve met many Emmas, and here’s what I’ve observed: Emma isn’t the problem. The hiring process is.

When her inbox hit 1,200 unread messages, Emma went to Fiverr. She typed “virtual assistant, reliable, proactive, English fluent” and hired someone in 48 hours. For two weeks, things looked fine. Then tasks slipped, instructions were repeated, and eventually, the VA disappeared mid-project.

So Emma said what many founders say in this situation:
“I guess I’m just bad at delegating.”
or
“There are no good people out there.”

But here’s what really happened:
• Nobody helped Emma define what she actually needed.
• Nobody asked, “What will success look like 90 days from now?”
• Nobody said, “You don’t need a VA, you need a project coordinator.”

Marketplaces can’t ask those questions. They just match keywords. They don’t challenge business owners on what they think they need. Marketplaces are built for transactions, not transformations.

Good agencies are different. They sit with the messy notes from founders, the voice messages, the vague frustration of “I just need help,” and turn that into a clear process. They design a role before the hire.

That invisible work — the questioning, the clarifying, the diagnosing — is what turns a two-week freelancer into a two-year team member.

So stop the cycle of hiring before understanding.

Before hiring, take the time to:
1- Get help defining what you truly need.
2- Map the skills to your real priorities.
3- Make sure your new hire has the context to succeed.

The goal isn’t to fill a seat fast. It’s to know when Fiverr fits, and when it doesn’t.

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Hiring Doesn’t Fix Chaos, It Amplifies It

By admin — 3 weeks ago

Before you hire, ask yourself this: am I ready for a new team member?

A lot of founders are in pain. Overwhelmed. Buried in tasks. Stretched too thin and running on fumes.

So they do what feels logical: they hire someone. Maybe a VA, maybe an operations manager, someone to finally take things off their plate.

And here’s what I’ve seen again and again: if the foundation isn’t ready, the hire won’t save you. Most people don’t come in and build systems for you. They execute what’s already there.

So before you hire, ask yourself:
• Are your workflows documented?
• Do you know what success looks like in this role?
• Is there one central place for tasks and communication?
• Are you available to onboard and give context for the first two to four weeks?

If the answer is no, even the best hire will feel lost—and so will you.

Hiring doesn’t fix chaos. It amplifies it.

And yet, this happens all the time: founders hiring to feel productive instead of getting prepared, adding people instead of fixing systems, confusing motion for progress.

Hiring isn’t about making you feel less lonely in your business. It’s about making it run better. And that only works when there’s clarity.

So the next time you’re tempted to post that job listing, pause and ask yourself: are my systems ready?

The right hire can be transformational, but only when the business is ready to receive them.

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Podcast

The Art (and Science) of Hiring in 2025

By admin — 3 weeks ago

Over the past 24 years, I’ve read thousands of resumes, interviewed hundreds of people, and hired across multiple companies. I thought I had a ton of experience — until I met Cecilia and Victoria. I’m in awe.

Why? Because Cecilia and Victoria are true experts at sourcing new team members. The other day, I did a quick calculation: between them, it’s easily over 40,000 interviews throughout their careers. That’s an incredible amount of experience.

And I’m not saying this because they are part of my team, but because I’ve seen firsthand how much hiring has changed over the past 24 months — more than it did in the previous 24 years. Hiring hasn’t gotten easier. Quite the opposite.

I think this is one of the biggest challenges small companies face today: finding the right people in a sea of opportunities. Getting hiring right determines the success of any business. Get it right, and the business grows. Get it wrong, and it stagnates.

Here are three timeless techniques Cecilia and Victoria use when interviewing candidates after scanning thousands of applications:

1. Details that hurt
Anyone can talk about wins. The real test is whether they can tell the story behind them in vivid detail — what really happened, who was involved, and what the friction was. They even ask small things like what the weather was like during a specific event to test authenticity.

2. Process over polish
They ask candidates to walk through how they did something, step by step. Real experience is a little messy. Made-up experience sounds like bullet points. They look for the small missteps and corrections that prove genuine experience.

3. The pause
Real memory makes people stop and think. Over-rehearsed answers don’t. When on a video interview, do the eyes move slightly as they recall, or do they stay fixed? That’s a subtle but powerful signal.

These are fundamentals in a hiring process that has only gotten more complex in recent months. But they remain the foundation — even in a world of a thousand resumes and AI-polished applications.

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Podcast

The Real Cost (and Value) of Outsourcing

By admin — 3 weeks ago

There’s a common misconception about outsourcing: that agencies charge double what employees get.

Looks like a nice business model, doesn’t it?

Here’s what most business owners don’t see.

Before a single interview happens, a good agency has already spent hours on these five things:

1️⃣ Understanding the company, its values, its workflow, its pain points.
2️⃣ Writing and rewriting the job description so it actually reflects what’s needed, not just what sounds good.
3️⃣ Filtering hundreds of applications, spotting who’s real and who’s copy-pasted their resume with AI.
4️⃣ Vetting for skills and mindset, because the wrong attitude costs more than the wrong tool.
5️⃣ Mapping cultural fit: who will thrive with your leadership style, your pace, your expectations.

By the time a small business owner finally meets a candidate, the real work has already been done, even if they never saw it.

The value isn’t in “finding someone.”
The value is in hiring with a level of quality most small companies struggle to reach, simply because they don’t hire often enough to build these systems themselves.

Good outsourcing doesn’t cost you more. It saves you from paying for the same mistake twice.

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Podcast

Leadership That Starts at the Kitchen Table

By admin — 3 weeks ago

Marlene Dandler built her company and a community from her kitchen table.

This week, I sat down with Marlene Dandler, founder of Seashore Academy, a fast-growing network of private hybrid schools that started right there — at her kitchen table.

What inspired me most wasn’t just how far she’s come, but how she leads: with clarity, care, and the conviction that great education, and great leadership, both start with human connection.

My three top takeaways:

1️⃣ Hiring for alignment, not background
Marlene explained that her toughest hires were leaders from traditional education, talented people who struggled to embrace Seashore Academy’s flexible hybrid model. What finally worked was finding a leader who shared her excitement for change and innovation.

2️⃣ Leadership energy trickles down
She compared leading her company to parenting: when she’s calm, the household, or the business, is calm. Her morning run and prayer aren’t just self-care, they’re her leadership practices.

3️⃣ Culture travels through connection
She keeps her on-site and remote teams united through short daily video huddles and by sharing photos from the classrooms, reminding everyone, even those thousands of miles away, of the joy they’re helping create.

Conversations like this remind me how much leadership is about intention — who we hire, how we show up, and how we stay connected across distance.

Grateful to Marlene for sharing her story, her heart, and her wisdom.

Full episode coming soon.

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