WAYNE BROWN: Hello, I’m your host Wayne Brown and welcome to the ET project. We’re delighted to be delivering this podcast for executive talent all over the world whom we’re affectionately referring to as ‘Team ET.’ Today’s guest is Jana Franklin, a serial entrepreneur, franchise expert and business efficiency strategist based in St. Louis, Missouri, this is my first time in this part of the world so I’m excited to explore. Jana is the founder and CEO of CEO Concierge, a premium virtual assistant agency that connects fast-moving entrepreneurs and executives with highly trained virtual assistants enabling them to delegate effectively and lead with clarity. Her leadership philosophy is rooted in intentional delegation, team alignment and creating space for visionary thinking. Jana’s entrepreneurial journey began in the world of franchising where she successfully launched scaled and sold several Fantastic Sams and Jimmy John’s locations under her Strange Allegro and more recently selling her hair salon franchise. Over a decade of owning and operating franchises has taught her the value of building resilient teams, leading by example and designing systems that allow businesses and their people to thrive. Her pivot to the virtual space came after witnessing a growing need among high-level entrepreneurs for reliable, values-aligned executive support. Beyond her professional work, Jana served as president of Entrepreneurs’ Organization St. Louis where she fostered community and connection among growth-minded founders. Team, you may have already taken the step towards introducing remote virtual assistants or perhaps you’re still considering the jump. Either way, you will definitely find this conversation valuable as it’s loaded with insights and tips on how to successfully let go of trying to do it all yourself and leverage someone who is far more likely and capable and consistently delivers on their promise.

INTRO: Welcome to the ET project, a podcast for those executive talents determined to release their true potential and create an impact. Join our veteran coach and mentor, Wayne Brown, as we unpack an exciting future together.

WAYNE BROWN: Hello team, welcome to this week’s episode. I’ve got a question for you; how many times have you ended your day feeling exhausted? It has been a busy day but you feel like you didn’t actually move your most important goals forward. You’re caught in a cycle of administrative tasks, endless emails, probably meetings as well, operational details. And this is so often the theory of trying to do it all yourself, particularly for us entrepreneurs. It’s probably the single biggest bottleneck for ambitious entrepreneurs. So, what if the secret to winning this battle isn’t about working harder but delegating smarter? Our conversation today is all about how to break the cycle and unlock your highest level of contribution by mastering the art of strategic outsourcing. And so here today to help us work our way through that challenge is Jana Franklin, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of CEO Concierge. You’ve built a career in solving that exact challenge, at least in the latter part of your career, so, I’m looking forward to this conversation. Welcome to the ET project.

JANA FRANKLIN: Thank you. Thank you very much for having me on, I really appreciate it.

WAYNE BROWN: Let’s have a look at your journey getting to where you are today, it’s quite fascinating. A serial entrepreneur, a franchise expert, a CEO, of course, and then on top of all that, you’re a mum. So yeah, I’d love to hear a little bit about the journey, if you don’t mind. Was there a catalyst to move into where you are now with virtual assistants from the franchising business, hair salons? Was there a point?

JANA FRANKLIN: Yeah, there was, it was called COVID. Right? No, it was called running myself ragged and overwhelmed and not feeling like I was doing it all, but doing it all wrong. And in fairness, some of COVID contributed to that, but it was like the perfect storm. It was, I think, when the kids had to be at home and that really, I think, set me on a different path. So yeah, it came about because at the time I had a middle school boy and a grade school boy and running two businesses at the time. So, we were running, we had the hair salons, which is a Fantastic Sams franchise and then we have Jimmy John’s, which is a franchise as well, sandwich shops. 

[00:05:00]

JANA FRANKLIN: And I was running it all. My husband works full time, he’s also a partner in the business, but he’s not in the day-to-day. And so, it was a perfect storm. The hair salons were in the state of Illinois and they were shut down because they were not considered essential and the Jimmy John’s were considered essential, so they were still open. And because of COVID and the staffing and everything that was going on, I really needed to be in the stores, and so that… but I needed to be in the office with all the administrative stuff and so forth, or at home with the kids on their schoolwork, making sure that they were on Zoom. So, for me, it was like, oh, I can’t be everywhere every time. And nor did I want to be everywhere, nor did I… I don’t, I’m good at certain things, I’m not good at certain things. And I really said, “okay, where can I get help?” And I really took the time to say, what do I like and what don’t I like to do? Like, I enjoy being in the stores and training and just kind of having fun and talking and just engaging. And I think I got more bang from that than I do sitting behind trying to figure out why my expenses are so high under a certain category of food, that is not my wheelhouse. And so, we went out and found some virtual assistants that could support me doing the things that they like to do and they’re good at versus the things that I don’t like to do that I’m not good at. And so, we are a perfect match because we, I feel like we’re whole, right? It’s a whole person that’s doing the things I don’t like and I’m doing the things I like. So, it really allowed me to get more focused, more… I mean, we did great during COVID, I know a lot of businesses can’t say that. Well, let me rephrase that, the sandwich shops did great during COVID, not the hair salons, obviously for being closed. So, with that and just bringing my virtual assistants on, I just was like, I took a deep breath. I could take a deep breath and I was like, “okay, there’s something here, there’s something here to this.” And so, with that, and talking to another group of women, business owners, entrepreneurs, mothers, they all had virtual assistants, they were all bringing virtual assistants on. And we’re like, “okay, we’re onto something here.” So that’s how we launched CEO Concierge, because of being an entrepreneur, being a woman, being a mom, being a daughter, being a sister, being a community person. Like, you just can’t do it all, you can’t. And I think that entrepreneurs we are controlling, right? Where we want to have our hands in everything, but at the end of the day, we’re never going to grow and be successful if we do have our hands in everything and so you have to have help.

WAYNE BROWN: Yeah, you open the door there to a number of tangents we can go down. Before we get too deep into it, as we spoke about before we hit record, when we talk about virtual assistants, we could be talking about two different streams of assistance, right? We could be talking about the A.I. digital version versus the outsourcing human version, in your case, we’re talking about the latter, correct?

JANA FRANKLIN: Yes, our virtual assistants at CEO Concierge are in the Philippines.

WAYNE BROWN: Okay 

JANA FRANKLIN: I love, love, love my Filipino VAs, they are awesome. Outsourcing is the second largest industry in the Philippines. I mean, that’s huge if you think about it and it’s human outsourcing. Yeah, AI sourcing is coming, right? Fast, right? And you have to embrace it. You have to embrace it and utilize it how you utilize a VA or how you’re utilizing whatever else you’re using. I call it the shortcuts, right? What’s my shortcut? It’s not going to do all the work for you, but it can help your productivity and it can help your efficiency, to me is the two biggest things. I’m not a good starter. Like if you said to me, Wayne, “hey, Jana, I need you to come up with a strategic plan on…” dah, dah, dah, dah. I’d be like, “okay,” I’d sit there for probably half a day trying to figure that out, right? 

WAYNE BROWN: Yeah.

[00:10:00]

JANA FRANKLIN: So, for me to go into ChatGPT or any of the AI tools, I’m putting that in and it’s starting that process for me to get my brain to like firing on all cylinders. I think it’s the same way for the virtual assistants and the A.I. Yes, it has definite pluses, it has negatives too, right? It’s going to get to the point where we’re not thinking for ourselves anymore. 

WAYNE BROWN: Yeah 

JANA FRANKLIN: But I think for us, our virtual assistants have to embrace it. We need to know, A, what we can utilize it for and help with it so we can be almost super VAs, on steroids with A.I. We also need to know the implications and how it’s going to disrupt our industry. And yeah, it’s already there. I’m already seeing A.I. assistants coming across social media and advertisements and so forth. But I do think that you have to build it, it has to learn you as a client and so forth, just like a regular person. But it’s not going to do some of the things that you need a human to do. And I mean, I can just think of the stuff my virtual assistant has done for me in the last two weeks alone that A.I. could not do. And what I mean, like, making phone calls, talking to customers on problems. Like, my virtual assistants handle my customer complaints and my customer praises, my virtual assistants handle vending quotes, vendor quotes and bids. I don’t know how A.I. can handle that without feeling on the customer end, disconnected. I think eventually that will come as a society, we will get used to being answered by robots or whatever, but we’re nowhere close to that right now. So, I think that if you embrace it and you learn it and you know what you’re up against and how you can utilize it to help you is only going to help everyone. So, there’s calendar management systems out there in A.I., there’s email assistants out there in A.I., there’s copywriting and so forth out there in A.I., but you still need that human touch and I think that’s the key.

WAYNE BROWN: Right. One of the things you… you used the word and it resonates with me, control. So as entrepreneurs, we love to control. I know that you also talk about intentional delegation, my own experience is, this was my hardest transition, was to be able to delegate the jobs that I needed to, the tasks that I needed to rather than hold onto them. And I’m wondering how much has owning a franchise helped you understand that process? Has there been any real connection between running a franchise, which is very system-orientated, very structured, has that helped with being able to delegate?

JANA FRANKLIN: Yeah. I mean, my husband would tell you I’ve always been a delegator. So, yes, for delegation, but also yes for systems and procedures. You buy a franchise because you’re buying systems and procedures, right? I think that if there was two factors in me being able to launch and find and have CEO Concierge, and one, it was because I had a franchise business, I knew… When I bought a franchise business, I did not have the acumen of standard systems and procedures, I worked at May Company, department stores until Federated bought us out, I was in management, I was a delegator there, but I did not really understand what it took behind the scenes to run a big company as far as systems and procedures until I owned the franchise. So, when we launched CEO Concierge, I launched it, I feel like we launched it right because we launched with systems and procedures already in place or already in progress, building them. 

[00:15:00]

JANA FRANKLIN: We launched with people in the right seats, in the right spots versus throwing mud at the wall and hoping something sticks, which is what we did when we started the Jimmy John’s or the hair salons is I was drinking from a fountain hose or a fire hose but if it wasn’t for those systems and procedures that those franchise had, we probably would have failed because it set the base for us. And so, then it allowed me to be like, okay, one of the things that I really took away from owning the franchise, and I think it’s even more prevalent today because you hear about, you know, Gen Z and how, you know, the workforce generations change, right? Because you’re dealing with Gen… I think right now we’re dealing with the biggest widespread employment base of like five to six generations. So, you’re dealing with baby boomers still in the workforce, but you’re also dealing with Gen Z’ers, Gen Alphas in the workforce. And so, it’s like every generation is different. So, for me to delegate to the baby boomer is different than me to delegate to a Gen Z’er.

WAYNE BROWN: Yes.

JANA FRANKLIN: And so, one of the things I took was something, you know, you tell, you show them how to do it, you tell them the why, you have them do it and then you check it, right? So, we could say show, tell, do, review. And that is one of the things that I took from owning the franchises that they talked basically into anything I do anymore, even talking to my Gen Alpha and my Gen Z’er in my household and my husband who is a baby boomer, right? So, yeah, it helps with the delegation, it helps with framing how you’re approaching an employee because of where they’re at in their journey versus where I’m at in my journey. 

WAYNE BROWN: I read somewhere in preparing for our conversation that you had witnessed many entrepreneurs where there was a, maybe a lack of value alignment and that they needed some support, what was the impact of that realization in driving your own businesses? 

JANA FRANKLIN: For me, there’s a level of discomfort, right? All of a sudden, you’re like chucking along and then you’re like, whoa, back up, something is not right, something’s not jiving. And I could think like, my culture is great, I’m leading them on the right path, and all of a sudden, but then something happens and whether it’s a sign or whatever, and it’s just like, I’ve ran smack into the wall and so whether it’s all of a sudden, I’m experiencing turnover or like cashflow issues or something, it’s like, I’m not aligned. Or my people are starting to quit or something is happening or they just have to sit me down and have a conversation with me that I’m overwhelmed. And so, for me, it’s almost physical because I always get a discomfort in my body. I’m like, something is not right, something is stressing me out and I can’t picture it, figure it out what it is and so for me, it’s sitting down and figuring that out. So, for me, it was, I am running myself ragged, I am not happy, I am doing everything, not getting anything done and my business isn’t getting any better. Like, it was just a constant hamster wheel and it’s true, I think it’s very, very true for entrepreneurs because we have that control issue, we want to be in control. We think that if we don’t have, I mean, sorry, I shouldn’t say, “we,” I think that if I haven’t checked that box or approved that, that it won’t happen and you got to let go of some things, I can’t do it all and I’m not the best, I know that I’m not the best. So, for me, it really took finding that once I had that support and they were in the right spot for me, it was like the light bulb turned on because I was like, “oh my God, I actually can sit down and work on strategy. I can work on why this particular store isn’t functioning to the level of the other stores.” I can get more nitty-gritty in the details that I couldn’t before because I was running myself ragged, just dealing with problem after problem, after problem, after problem, email after email, right? And so, for me, bringing my VA in, it allowed for her to do the stuff that was dragging me down, that I was not good at, or that just was very time-consuming.

[00:20:00]

JANA FRANKLIN: But it didn’t need to be me, it doesn’t need to be me. So, it doesn’t need to be you doing everything, you’re strong at certain things and other people are strong at certain things, it’s no different than having a bookkeeper because I’m not good at numbers, I mean, I can do numbers, but I can’t tell you how to do a journal and to bring QuickBooks, right? So, it’s really like sit down, figure out what you like, what you love, what you hate doing and if like I say, “Wayne, what have you thought about in the last five minutes that you’re like, oh, I’m going to get off this podcast and I got to go do this and this and this and this.” Out of those things, what do you like, what do you just do because it’s almost a habit because, and then like, is that a good use of your time? My father was an attorney, my mother was a CPA, they owned their own practices, they billed by the hour, right? They knew their worth because of their billable hours. What is your worth as an entrepreneur? Like for me, is it delivery driving today for the store because they had no drivers? Probably, because I want them to have the revenue. Is it, you know, I don’t know, cleaning the grease trap? Probably not. Go hire someone to clean the grease trap because that’s not a good use of my time because it’s not helping… yes, it’s helping the store, but it’s not financially helping the store. So, for me, it really took like, what should I give up that someone else can do and doesn’t mind doing it, you know? And so, I think entrepreneurs really need to know what their worth is by hour. Because I think it’s easier, if you put it that way, then you’re like, “no, I don’t want to do that, no, I’m not going to do it.” It’s easier to say no when you know your worth too.

WAYNE BROWN: One of the hot topics around the circles at the moment is proximity bias. Meaning if you’re not visible and not sitting beside the boss, the likelihood of being promoted is minimalized compared to somebody who is there. Have you had any experience like that or is that something you’re even conscious of as a leader? 

JANA FRANKLIN: I’m conscious of it, it doesn’t affect me. And maybe… so, I’m Gen X-er, so this is… you know, I’ve looked into the generational thought process because I deal with so many different generations. I think that A, I don’t like titles and B, I’m just like, if you’re doing your job and you’re doing a good job and you’re… like, I have a saying, at least in the stores that if your name is talked about three times about an issue, chances are you’re not around for very long, right? So, for me, like no news is good news. And a person that puts their head down and doesn’t get overwhelmed and puts their head down and does their job and goes above and beyond, and is just pleasant and, you know, just… that, to me, I recognize so much faster than someone that is, you know, trying to get promoted, I don’t know, trying to get promoted, I really believe in the Peter Principle, I don’t know if you know what that is, I think we have a tendency to promote people up and past their level of excellence. So, I’ll use this as an example, hairstylists are not necessarily good managers and we have a tendency, and even in Jimmy John’s, I could tell you the same thing, I had a tendency early in my career to promote a good stylist into a manager, that doesn’t translate at all, because it’s a totally different work system. You’re managing people versus being an artist, cutting people’s hair, having a conversation, customer service interaction, right? Whereas management, you’re managing your staff, it’s not the same thing. And so, I think for me, it’s like, it goes back to integrity, you say you’re going to do it, you do it, you don’t do it, it’s like, okay, well. So, for me, I’m aware of the promotional hierarchy, but at the same time, it’s not something that affects me.

[00:25:00]

WAYNE BROWN: Right 

JANA FRANKLIN: And also, the other thing I would tell you is tenure doesn’t affect me either. I think that people like, “oh, I’ve been here a year, I should get a raise. Oh, I’ve been here two years, I should get a raise. Oh, I should get more vacation,” dah, dah, dah. Okay, but are you an A player or are you a C player? Because if you’re an A player, you probably already have gotten those things, right? If you’re a C player, there’s probably a reason you haven’t gotten those things. So that’s kind of how I try to approach it. 

WAYNE BROWN: Exactly. Let’s dive in a little bit to the actual business itself, the Concierge business. You emphasize matching personalities and skills as part of the process that you adopt. Can you step us through that a little bit, please?

JANA FRANKLIN: I’m sure you have had bosses or people in your life that you just don’t click with. And so, as a business owner, as a human being, personality is a lot that dictates the way you lead or how you manage or how you work. And so, personality assessment, personality fit is very important to us in addition to the skill sets. So, you could have on paper, all the skill sets, but you could be with my personality, not a good fit, they can be a great fit for your personality, Wayne, but not mine. And so, because, you know, if you know a CRM, if you know HubSpot, then you probably are going to know higher level, right? CRMs are pretty easy to, once you know how to do a CRM, it’s pretty easy to switch from CRM-to-CRM companies. There’s always nuances that takes you maybe a week to figure out. But if you are a person that is very impatient and no detail, and your VA is the same, you guys aren’t going to get anything done and nothing is going to be documented, right?

WAYNE BROWN: Yeah. 

JANA FRANKLIN: So, for me, and I use me as the example, my level of autonomy is very high, my level of detail is very low, I’m very impatient, I have a high sense of urgency and I can take or leave working with people, I can work… it doesn’t matter. So, for me, my virtual assistant has to have a level of autonomy because if they’re asking me a thousand questions, or if they’re asking me the same questions 6,000 ways, I’m just like, “oh, okay, what are you not getting?” Right? Like it comes to me, like they’re not getting it, which is not the case, they just want to make sure that they’re being perfect. But for me, I have to have someone that has autonomy, has to have a sense of urgency, but patience and has to have a level of detail because I don’t. And so, that’s what we… we utilize that along all of our other assessments to find those match… to start with that match. So, for example, I’m what’s called an enterpriser, I just explained it to you, so, I would, if I was a client, they’re going to say, we are going to say, “okay, she’s an enterpriser, she needs these three personality assessments as a VA.” So, we’re going to go out and specifically look… after the skill set is found, after the experience is found and stuff, we’re also going to look at the personality. We’re not going to interview someone that’s not going to connect with me at all; it’s just a waste of my time. And so, it really helps us narrow it down because to me, the fit is important, the fit is the most important. Key here though is, and this has happened to us, is the client hands the VA over to a direct report that’s not the client’s personality and then all of a sudden, we have an issue because we’re like, “wait a minute, you gave us… we matched your VA six months ago to you, and now you are not you!?” So, it really makes a huge difference, if that makes sense. 

WAYNE BROWN: There’s another element that I know myself in bringing a virtual assistant on, and that is how to bring them up to speed in the shortest amount of time. Do you actually take on that role or that task when you’re hiring for a client?

JANA FRANKLIN: Yes, we try to, as much as the client will let us. So, that being said, we do a huge… so we do a ton of training and a ton of upskilling. Between our hiring and strict recruiting process to our training process and upskilling, that’s where I think we differ a little bit more. 

[00:30:00]

JANA FRANKLIN: So, if you are using HubSpot for your CRM and you’re using Asana and you’re, you know, platforms or whatever, we’re going to go out and try and find someone with the personality fit, but also with those skillsets. So, they’re already a step ahead of that. So, when they step into that role with their client, they can be that sponge on the actual company information because they already know how to do that other stuff, that client is not having to spend any time with them on learning Asana or any database, they’re not learning that, what they’re learning when they’re with the client is the client’s culture and how they do things. We, if the client will share like their learning management tools or anything like that, we will go through and do that with them during training. The other thing that a lot of our clients don’t have that we talked about earlier is SOPs. So really talking with the VAs when they’re first going in, if they are learning stuff from their client and there’s no SOP, they are building an SOP for that client as they’re learning it. So, they’re already adding value by creating policies and procedures for their client as they are learning it. What I love that I have encountered with my staff in the Philippines is they love to learn. So, for example, I had a conversation with a VA about learning a particular platform and they just took it on their selves to learn and to go out and research it and then sent me a sheet on it. And I was like, “okay, I didn’t even ask for this.” But they were like, “yeah, but I want to upskill. I want to keep learning.” I have noticed, at least with my team in the Philippines, that they want to keep educating themselves and grow. And to me, that is huge, that is huge, because it’s only going to add to me. And you know, when they learn something, then they teach me, I’m like, “oh my gosh, that’s so cool, I didn’t know that.” So, I mean, that’s where it goes back to the A.I. stuff, it’s like, they have to constantly be upskilling. And so, we do a ton of upskilling for our team. But yes, there is a learning curve. I mean, I think there is a misconception that what VAs are going to come in and know how to deal with the company, if the client hasn’t given us anything about their company, then it’s going to be hard to do that, right? I know something about Excel, but I can never go work at Microsoft, if that makes sense.

WAYNE BROWN: Yeah, for sure. So, you’ve answered a number of the reasons why, to this next question, which I’ve been mulling over since we first connected, why will I come to you and ask CEO Concierge to find me a VA versus going out myself, going to a freelance platform, and I won’t mention names, but finding one myself. You’ve mentioned a couple of reasons, which are very powerful, do you have a punch list of points that you would answer that question?

JANA FRANKLIN: Well, I actually don’t have a punch list, but I probably should create an actual physical punch list. But, I mean, a couple of things, one, an agency is vetting the candidates for you and giving you the support and the training. You don’t know what you’re getting, quite frankly, either way, you don’t know what you’re getting, but because we’re taking the personality into account, because we’re taking the education into account and the processes and all the assessments we have in play, your fit, for the most part, is going to be a stronger fit than you doing it on your own. However, going back, so that could be a whole different, going back to knowing your worth. Is it your time? Do you have time to vet, to place, to interview, to train, to upskill them and to keep up with them and support? If you do, then go direct. But most entrepreneurs are overwhelmed as it is. And this is just adding a thing to your list and not deducting from your list. So, what I would say is an agency is going to help support and upskill your VA and support the client.

[00:35:00]

JANA FRANKLIN: We support the clients. I have been on numerous calls with clients about… I get a lot of emails about, I don’t know what to give my VA, I don’t know what they should do. And I immediately, I try and respond because I’m like, “okay, what did you just think about in the last five minutes? Give it to your VA,” right? I mean, I was with one of… I have a friend that’s a client and she’s in Ohio, I’m in Missouri, but you know, she says to me all the time, “I don’t know how to delegate to her, I don’t know how to tell her what to do,” and dah, dah, dah. And I’m just like, “you know what, how about this…” So, she has WhatsApp, they do WhatsApp. My friend just talks to WhatsApp and sends it to her VA and then her VA takes it and is like, “okay, I know what to do,” because my friend doesn’t know how to delegate. She comes up with great ideas and everything, and she has a conscious stream of what she needs to do, but she’s like, “I don’t know how to tell my VA to do it.” And I’m like, “just record it as you’re thinking of it and send it to her.” And that’s what she does. And so, there’s a level of support and a level of upskilling. When you go direct, it’s you, it’s you. And so, it goes back to knowing your worth. And the other thing is for us, I am a Philippines entity, I give my team benefits, that’s very important for me. And so, when you’re going direct, you’re dealing with independent contractors and so they can quit and leave you very quickly and they’re not getting benefits. And for me, it’s about work-life harmony for everyone. And I want to be able to support the virtual assistants and grow them as well, so, that’s part of it. I think a lot of people also think that going to an agency is more expensive and it’s not necessarily because you go back again and figure out what your time is worth, because if you’re doing all the work and you’re having to take away from actually growing your business, it’s probably not worth it.

WAYNE BROWN: It comes back to that self-awareness of your self-worth and really capturing how much time it is taking. We have a lot of business owners listening as the audience, a lot of leaders, what would be a couple of steps they could take coming out of this conversation? They’re overwhelmed, they’re considering their first VA, are there a couple of key things that they can start to do immediately that’s going to help them move forward?

JANA FRANKLIN: Yeah. I mean, first and foremost is really take 30 minutes, use your phone recorder, use a piece of paper, I don’t know what you use, but sit down and really be like, “where am I really spending my time and what am I getting from it?” For example, me working on any type of insurance audits is a complete waste of my time because it’s so cumbersome and I have to do them every year, workers’ comp audits, everything, right? And it’s so cumbersome and I’m usually having to email six different people to get the information anyways. So, for me, I was like, “that is on my VAs.” I’m like, “here’s the email, run with it.” And they’ll ask me like two questions and they’re done. It’s done and submitted, right? So, it’s really sitting down and figuring out where you’re wasting your time, where you’re finding that you’re getting angry and frustrated very easily, because that to me is like not a good feeling and why would you want to live in that? And where do you want to spend your time? Is it with your kids? Is it with volunteering? Is it in your store? I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, and you’re not growing your business and you’re on that wheel, something is not working and so you’ve got to figure that out, like, you’ve got to figure out your self-worth and you’ve got to figure out where you’re spending your time. And then it’s really like, okay, after you feel like, okay, I knew that I’d rather be in my stores having fun versus doing payroll or anything administrative. I hate getting quotes, which I get three quotes to everything I do. So, for me, it’s like, that is a complete waste of my time. So, I was like, “okay, I’m going to offload all this and I’m going to go have time from 10:00 to 1:00 every day to go into my stores, if I want to.” That was the key, if I want to. So that allowed me to do that because I got rid of the stuff that I did not like or I’m not good at. And I am spending the time on things that I like and that I’m good at. And that’s important because my business has never been better and I am not in it as much.

[00:40:00]

JANA FRANKLIN: And so, like then I think, here’s a question to ask yourself then, I’m the cog in the wheel and I’m the one holding this up because I’m micromanaging. And so that was like, okay, guess what? It’s still running and it’s actually running better because of where I’m spending my time and so for me, that was really eye-opening. So yes, I would say sit down and do your list and then really look at where you want to go and what you want to spend your time on and who can take over that list of what you don’t want to spend time on, chances are it’s a virtual assistant and chances are you’re going to find someone that really wants to do those tasks and then that’s when you come to us and be like, “okay, this is what I want.” Or even if you don’t know what you want, we can help you get there, right? And so, that’s kind of our process. And then the other thing is we offer part-time. So, 20 hours a week, which is only four hours a day. So, a lot of our clients are part-time and then roll into full-time because they’ve gotten their feet wet, they’re like, “okay, this is working, I’m ebbing and flowing, I need more hours.” And so, it has allowed them to ramp up. And then I have clients call and say, “you know what? I’m ready to add another VA in this particular area.” So, for me, what I did about a year and a half ago is I took my VAs and got them very niche in my Jimmy John’s. So, one is running payroll, one is doing all of the HR, onboarding, all the paperwork, everything, and then one is doing recruiting and one is doing bookkeeping and one is my catch-all. So, I have five VAs in my Jimmy John’s helping us run that company. 

WAYNE BROWN: Where can people connect with you if they’re interested in learning more about the services and following what you do?

JANA FRANKLIN: Yeah. So, of course, on all social medias, my email is jana@ceoconcierge.com or just ping us on ceoconcierge.com and all of our information is out there and I do all the discovery calls with clients. I love talking with entrepreneurs and I love just all the business ideas that are out there and just everything that makes the world go around. So that’s the best way to contact me and usually I respond, so. 

WAYNE BROWN: Jana, a really interesting conversation, thanks. I learned a lot myself, lots of insights, lots of tips. So, I really appreciate that and great to have you on the ET project.

JANA FRANKLIN: Thank you, Wayne. I appreciate it.

OUTRO: Thank you for joining us on the ET project, a show for executive talent development, until next time, check out our site for free videos, eBooks, webinars, and blogs at ‘coaching4companies.com.’

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