EP 53: Scaling Your Business In High Heels Featuring Amanda Churchwell of Hello Leverage and Linzee Cirprani of Ciprani Consulting
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Welcome to The B Word, the podcast for women in real estate who want to unlock the clarity needed to put your big girl panties on and rock your career like the true boss you are. I'm Joanne Bolt, your host, and together we'll dive into the things your broker doesn't teach you in order to own your own path, disown the things getting in the way to finding your place, and stop apologizing for the obstacles you had to overcome along the way.

If you're ready to stop playing small and take action in your professional life, this is the place for you. I thought I'd start the month off with a bang by bringing in two of my new besties, really. They're ladies that I've known

For 10 and 15 and possibly even 20 years in the business, but as we've all evolved and grown our businesses, we've ebbed and flown through the years, but now we talk all the time. And so it's my privilege to introduce, if you haven't already met them, and I don't know how in the heck you haven't, Lindsay Soprani with Soprani Consulting and Amanda Churchwell.

from Hello Leverage. So ladies, go ahead and give everyone just a little bit of intro to yourself. So yes, I've known Joanne, I would say the longest between the two of us, Lindsay, no competition, Lindsay, but Joanne and I have known each other since early 2000s and here in Atlanta real estate industry. So I started as a licensed agent

In 2001, worked for a developer, then found residential resale and was an agent for 10 years here in Atlanta. Then I somehow got pregnant with my first baby, my husband and I. Somehow. I think we all know how that happens. I always said I never wanted kids and now I have three. But with the birth of the first one, once she was here, I just decided not to go back to work, if you will.

And it was about a year and a half later that I was on a team at that time when I went out to have Lauren. And it was a year and a half later that my team, who are friends even to this day, came and asked me if I'd help them with some admin. They were building and growing. And I was like, okay, let's talk about it. Never done that.

And what they needed was transaction management. And I was like, okay, let's figure this out. And we did. And then the team next door to them in our office found out I was doing it. The agent down the hall, it literally just snowballed around this office of about 350 agents. And then it kind of caught fire around the metro area. And long story short, we're 10 years in. We just celebrated 10 years.

last month. Thank you to Real Boss Women for being a part of our celebration. And we're in 24 states about to launch our 25th and doing, you know, several thousand transactions a year. So it's been a wild ride and it's incredible. And I have a lot of other amazing people that help me in my business. Thank you. Lindsay, do we have you back? Can you tell us a

I don't know. Can you guys actually hear me and see me? Yes, we can. Something is off. Okay, good. Well, I'm Lindsay Soprani, and I am the owner and founder of Soprani Consulting. And I feel like I'm still stuck here, but hopefully it's working. You'll have to let me know if it's not. But...

I, um, you know, I started out in the real estate industry as an operations professional, um, for a big team. And I had my first child and felt like, gosh, you know, maybe, maybe I can just sell real estate on my own. And when I did that, I had a bunch of people that came to me and asked me if I would consider running their team. Um,

instead of being out on my own. And so instead of doing that, I created Soprani Consulting. And so I started to train people in the beginning and then we kind of ventured into hiring. And I realized that there was a niche in our industry that wasn't being filled. And so I ended up creating Soprani Consulting. And for the last 12 years, we've been hiring and training all things real estate is what we say.

And then I just took my team and I rolled it last year into the Matt Fetick team. So I'm a partner there now. But that allowed me to kind of, you know, not have all of the real estate transactions and management on my plate anymore. I was able to partner with somebody else that could do some of that. And then I have Soprani Consulting that has continued to just grow and grow. And we've become the top,

recruiting firm in all of real estate. So happy to be here. Awesome. Okay. So here's some things that I kind of want to dive in today with all three of us really is that concept of when you decided to pivot out of being an agent into really running something else. And I

At what point do you decide, hey, we can do this outside of our tiny little market here and scalability? How do we go from having a business here to a business here? Amanda, you want to jump in with that one? Yeah. So, yeah.

I fell into this accidentally, if you will. Right. You heard me say how I got started. And once word got out, this was after the 2008, 2009 crash. Real estate was coming back. You know, here we are, 2012. A lot of agents are getting busier. And so there was a need that I didn't even know existed.

And because I had been in real estate for 10 years, of course, I built relationships there at that office and locally around Atlanta. And so I think I was well known just in my own little circle. And when people found out what I was doing, they just...

There was some built in trust there locally. Then it just happened organically through referral. People would tell people about what we were doing. And then, of course, I had to do the sales call right and share with them and really be able to prove.

what we were doing. And that's how it happens. And so I was smart enough because of the advice of some great people in my life, my dad included, when I got really busy and had all the business that I could do myself.

I had a decision to make. So it is, okay, do I say no and just do what I can do? Or do I want to really grow a business out of this? And so thankfully, truly, because I was like, I don't know. I decided to grow a business and I've been able to talk some incredible people along the way into working with me and helping me build. And so it was just an organic growth that is

Most of the time by referral that we grow or if I'm speaking, you know, at events and people here. So that's how it happened for us.

Hey, Lindsay, same question to you. How did your growth sort of occur? Yeah. So we were the same way, right? It was all word of mouth. And in the beginning, because I'm in the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia area, it was just a lot of agents that knew people that I had worked with. And they'd say, well, what's different? Like, what did you do in your business this year to double and triple your production? And they were saying, well, I, you know, I hired Lindsay and she put systems and processes in place and that's what happened. Right. And so, yeah,

very organically, I kept getting referred. But I was somebody who had been building businesses for years and that is my passion, right? And that's what the consulting was all about. And so

I immediately had assistance. I had a virtual assistant named Heather who was amazing. And I brought her in part time right away and said, okay, you're going to own these 10 things while I go do all this stuff. And I'm just constantly making lists of what are the things that I don't need to be doing. I call it my I hate to do list. And I tend to teach on that a lot. But

But I always tell everybody, yeah, I'm like, make that I hate to do list and everything that you hate goes off. Yeah. And so I started building a business right off the bat because I knew, and it's interesting, I didn't release from my real estate team, right? Joanne, you know that. So here I have these two businesses growing and I knew I had to just keep going, but I

I just continue to love on people and to really show value and provide value. And that is what brought the referrals in. So we were very similar to Amanda, just all word of mouth. OK, so at some point, though, and Amanda, you sort of touched on this at some point, it's a business owner. You had to make a conscious decision.

OK, this is not a side hustle piece to my real estate career. This is a another business. And I'm either going to let it keep trickling or I'm going to make it explode. Really, what was it for each of you that triggered that moment? If you could identify that particular moment in time?

Yeah. So I was, I had a toddler. She, when I first started, she wasn't quite two. And it was only a few months in that it, I was crying every night because I'm like, wait, this is only supposed to be like a

A couple hours a day. I can work from home while Lauren naps. Yeah, right. Here I am, like rushing off, leaving the baby with my mom who would leave her job to come and babysit for an hour where I could run up. We luckily were close, but where I could run up and do consults with potential new clients. So something I had to give. And one, I'm very competitive. And two, I like money.

If I add another person and I grow this, I can make more. And I don't have to do the things that I don't like. So Lindsay hit the nail on the head. Like, what do you not like to do? I was very good at transactions, but the people that I have doing it now are way better than me. And so it was out of pain and the desire that

It when I just kind of brought my family around, my husband, my dad, we were off the beach that year for vacation and I couldn't be down at the beach. I was up in the condo stuck working and I was like, well, this stinks. And so it was them that just showed me like you have a business like you could really do this. And they believed in me, which was amazing to have. And so once the decision was made, it was like, OK, now what? So then I just set about taking all the classes and all the coaching that I could find on

how to lead, how to hire, how to do all the things. And so mine was out of pain and out of the realization that I actually had something. I was listening to a podcast earlier this morning and Gary Vee was talking and he made a valid point to me that most people

high level owners of a really successful business realized early in, they'd rather have less income up front and hire better talent to take their pain points away and let it grow that way than try to do it all themselves and make more money. Would you guys agree, disagree? I mean, Amanda, I think you would definitely agree, it sounds like. Lindsay, what do you think about that?

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I, and I think if you write, if you hire the right person, right, you should double and triple your production very easily. Um,

whatever business you're in. But I, you know, my, I think we always hit a pain point and that's when we take the business to the next level. I think it always comes out of pain a lot of the time. And those are the times whenever I felt, you know, great pain of not being with family or mine was, you know, I'd had my second child and I was literally negotiating a contract on, like I had just had a C-section. I was negotiating a contract on,

for real estate and was like, I had all of these consulting clients that like, we're like, where are you? I was like, I'm having a C-section. Like, I'll be back soon. And I,

You know, it was that moment when I was like, I don't know that any money in the world is worth me sitting here on the phone in the hospital, like after every surgery doing that, like that's ridiculous. And it was that moment that, you know, I just sat there in tears and was like, it doesn't matter. Like, I just need to grow more.

and to offload things. And so a lot of my growth has come from when I'm in massive pain around, why am I missing out on that? Why am I not with my family? You know, whatever it is. And then I go and I leverage. That's awesome. I know for me, my pain point came. I mean, my pain point came and I just took a different direction completely and left running a production team and started Real Boss Women. Because really, honestly, if I'm

very vulnerable with everyone. My pain point was I didn't want to run a team anymore. I didn't enjoy running

I enjoyed the people on my team, don't get me wrong, but I didn't enjoy being responsible or feeling responsible for their success at that particular way. The agents on your team like to stand there with their hands out yelling at you when they don't have enough closings. And I can lead them to water, but I can't make them drink the water. And so my pain point was I want to consult and empower women to do this business because

but not necessarily be in the trenches of putting up the for sale signs with them. And so I had to make a completely different shift because of that. You know, what's really interesting too about this, you know, issue or point, right? Like when did you know and how and all of that? We laughed about this in my company, but I say it publicly too. Like I had a mentor tell me several years ago, like just maybe, you know,

two or three years into my business because I was just learning to hire. And it was just the agony over telling my clients, I'm not going to serve them anymore. Right, Joanne? Like you had to do that. And Lindsay, you had to do that, right? Everybody thinks that your customers want you. They actually don't, even if they say it. And so in my company, we just always teach like, you're just not that important. As a human, yes, you absolutely are. I love you. I adore you. And I'm going to treat you the best ever.

But when it comes to business and your clients, like you're just not. And so find somebody that can do it better than you and put them in there. And you lean into your strengths of actually building this and growing this and providing even better opportunities. So one, you're going to provide better service for your customers and clients. And two, if you get out of the way, you can give other people opportunity. So that's that was a big aha for me when she told me, you're just not that important. I'm like, OK, right.

I really love that. You get out of the way and you provide them the opportunity that they needed. Like how great...

Although it may have been painful at the moment to be like, oh, I'm really not that necessarily. But how great is it for you to then understand from their perspective that's what you provided them? It's been most rewarding. I mean, Lindsay, I know you have a huge heart, you know, in your business and people that you bring in and you've helped other people launch businesses, you know, that you get nothing from other than just, you know,

the altruistic, you know, benefits of that. Right. And for me, I I'll never forget sitting in church one Sunday morning and with little kids in the nursery, you do have your phone on because they text you that way if your kid's like freaking out. So it was sitting there and it lit up and I was like, Oh no. And I looked down and it was from one of my transaction coordinators that was on vacation and

at the beach, she sent me this gorgeous picture of like a sunset, I believe it was, or it was a sunrise. And with this note, she was like, I've never, I don't know if she said never or if it'd been so many years before they were able to take a vacation like this. And she was like, at the time we were the Churchwell group, we rebranded this year, but she was like, the Churchwell group made this possible. And I just was like, lost it. I was like, holy cow. And, you know, from then on out, I mean, I knew it before, but like,

Giving other people, you just don't, you just don't realize how impactful that is. Always look at it as I'm not doing enough, right? I'm not growing fast enough for them. The opportunity is not big enough for them. But compared to what, like, did you ask them what they wanted and what was important? So that was a huge. Do you not think the opportunity is not good enough for them because your vision is so much bigger? Yeah, it is.

Yeah. And I just think other people want what I want. They don't. Some people do. But some, you know, people aren't always motivated by the same things. I know Lindsay is like the expert in this, you know, when it comes to hiring and figuring out people's whys and what they're doing. Like, Lindsay, you're probably can speak to like putting in extremely talented people into positions where they're

Or maybe they're not there. The pay isn't what equals their talent, but they're not necessarily looking for that or looking for something else. Yeah. And, you know, it's funny. I think what's really cool is you told that story about how somebody gave you a gift, right? Of being like, gosh, it's because of you and because of this.

amazing company that, you know, they're working for now that you've created, that they were able to do that. I really think that that's a person that you want in your world, right? And a lot of times I will say that, you know, you don't get comments like that, right? As a boss, there are a lot of us that, you know, have a lot of people that we wish that that was the case or we wish we got, you

those messages. And there's a lot of times when we don't. And so I think, you know, that speaks to you a minute that you guys are hiring the right people and you've got the right people on the bus with you going in the same direction and you're all rowing in that direction. And that's an amazing thing because that's not always the case. Right. And I think that's important to remember is, you know, getting those right humans alongside of you. All right. So let's talk about the right humans alongside of you because you

I feel like you're talking to me because you probably are. Recently, to all of us, I put out there that I needed someone to help with X, Y, Z. And I had a salary that in my head was appropriate because in my head, it was great for the level of expertise for who I was looking for.

And sometimes, ladies, you just need that other girl in your corner to virtually across a zoom, slap you across the face like Lindsay did for me and say, you are looking for someone a step below you at a pay grade at that level. And the only way you're going to get where you need is someone who thinks up here and knows way more than you do.

And that I will tell you, girl, that took me a second. Like I thought that I was hiring that person. And then I really had to reevaluate within my own self. No, I had that. I had that salary at where it was because I never really considered that who I was hiring needed to be better than me in their lane.

And it's made all the world a difference. I mean, you're right. Like I've got that right person in that right role. And she knows more than I do about what she's doing for, for the company. And sometimes I talk to her and I'm like, Oh, you know what you're talking about? Cause you're using terms that I don't understand, but that's the only way you're going to move forward is to be seeking out that kind of talent.

Yeah. And I think a lot of times, you know, we well, it is small business owners. Right. Because that's that's who we're talking to today. Most likely small business owners have a budget and they have to live within their budget. And so I always try to, you know, explain to people like.

You're either adjusting your expectations when your budget's lower, right? We can't have crazy expectations for somebody to work crazy hours like we do or to know more than we do when they're out of college and in a smaller salary range.

Or we have to, you know, we have to change our expectation around salary and go and, you know, believe that if we bring in that experienced person that costs a lot more, they should be able to be

held to different accountability standards, right? And they should be able to provide us with, hey, this is how I'm going to show my worth, right? And they should double or triple our production. Like they should allow us to free up and go find more business. And so I think a lot of times it's hard for us to think about that though, as business owners, because we're like, oh my gosh, but this is what my budget allows, but this is what I want, you know? And the expectation isn't correct.

I am. That is it's so true. I recently had this exchange with a mentor of mine. I have done both. So I've hired for what I could afford. Right. And what sort of the base level would be for a particular role.

And then I've also made an investment, you know, in a scary investment in a higher level hire. Right. And so regardless of which end of the spectrum you're on and you'll probably be in both, you have to make both accountable first.

to the role, to the expectation, but then you also have to do a really good job of setting the vision and the vision for growth. If you want someone, let's say you can't afford, you don't have the money to go after that high talent. But again, remember not everyone,

want just the payday today. They might want to be a part of something bigger or something that we're growing. And so I didn't have any money when I started and I got scrappy with it. Right. And I just, I said, look, I'm asking you to invest in this as much as I'm going to invest in you. And so any of those choices is fine. They're there. All of them are good. Right. So whether you have to start out, you know, with, with,

base pay talent to all the way up to investing in c-suite talent right um and one of my mentors what i was trying to get at is that we're having i was like well how do i you know i'm not a a hundred million dollar company yet right so i'm like okay well how do i hire a hundred million dollar talent and they were like well you don't know what somebody wants so it's your job to create the role

You pay it what you can, but you have a path for growth and you are able to paint a picture and you're able to share that vision and you just start interviewing way above you, right? I'm looking for people who are way above me. And so...

You know, it's just finding people who want to come along with you and help you build something. And, you know, I have that in my leadership team, which is pretty amazing. And let's just, you know, hope I can keep them, right? And then I can build it to what I promised. But yeah, I mean, it's just, anyway, it's a tricky thing when you try to start filling roles and you only have this much, but you know they're worth this much. I know Lindsay sees that all the time. Yeah. All right. So as you...

as we, you know, as we begin as women or entrepreneurs, we've got our, our company, we've maybe hired one or two people and we really do look around and realize we need to scale this thing out because both of y'all are in multiple States, you know? So you're, I mean, I know we touched earlier on how do you kind of know how to grow, but I'm talking like, how do we go throughout the, the U S and beyond you know, with,

Without going to Harvard Business School and without maybe having some of those people around you, you know, what's those first steps that you would recommend taking? What did you take? And did we have any failures along the way that we want to admit to? That's the fun stuff. I don't know. What do you mean? What is that? Would you want to take it first?

Go ahead. Sure. I am. Oh, God. Failures. I mean, I could probably speak to that forever. Right. There are so many failures.

but scaling wise, I mean, I'm a, so this is what we do, right? We, we put systems and processes in place and I'm a huge believer in that. And one of the things that I chose to do, well, first I hired a coach. I do think, you know, having a business coach and having somebody to bounce things off of and to push you to your next level or to help you see something different is, is,

you know, probably one of the main reasons why all of us are successful, right? Because we've always had somebody kind of pushing us to the next level that believed in us and allowed us to see a different perspective. And so that was one of the first things I did. And I've had a coach my entire life in business. So one thing, you know, investing in myself in education and really, you know, getting around other entrepreneurs going to things like Tony Robbins, or I love M1 is a great organization run by Rock Thomas and

go abundance and things where other entrepreneurs are coming together and learning. That is so valuable. And being able to sit down and just ask questions of other people that are like doing this at the same level is, is huge. And so that was a big piece, but I think then, you know, after that really, really sitting down and I mean, if we're really going to talk about scaling and, you know, going into different States and things of that nature, it's,

Just actually sitting down and putting that down on paper and writing it out and making some videos around training for your next person when you're so busy and you can't do anything else. If you just sit down and start to make videos and do things like that, you will all of a sudden have a franchisable business. Right. And that allows you to then push into that next level. Right. That's when you go from E to P entrepreneurial to purposeful.

And we want to get to that purposeful because we want to break through that glass ceiling that we just keep hitting up against. The only way to do that is to change. Right. And to actually build the systems. And I think what we do is we get so nuts with like sales and we go to the sale and we never sit down and just do it. And so like, even if you just take a day away,

where it's like, let me just put some of these systems down on paper. It matters, right? But I'm even somebody who like for me to take a day away is insane, but like I should be doing that regularly, right? And we should have white space in our calendar for that. And so those are all big things. And I would just tell you, you know, the failing, every time I failed, right? I've had to

Like one of my worst days in business ever was when I realized that I didn't really create the model. Well, it wasn't a scalable model. I couldn't pay myself. I was paying everybody but me and I was working my butt off, which is like what all of us do at some point. Right. Like,

I'm sitting here not taking a paycheck and my husband's working with me now, not taking a paycheck and I'm paying everybody else and I'm working my tail off and I'm doing sales and paying a salesperson to like, who wasn't doing the sales and like all of the things that are bad. Right. And, and I, I,

got to a point where I was like I have to lay people off like I've made the wrong hires and I'm a hiring company which was like every time that happens to me I'm like what's wrong with me um because I can't be perfect none of us can be and um and then I had to lay multiple people off and it was literally it was probably the worst day of my adult life and I've had tons of things happen to me

But having to admit that I didn't have a scalable business, admit that I didn't run my finances the way that I needed to and I wasn't on top of it the way I needed to be. And to admit that I was failing four people that then I had to part ways with because I didn't inspect what I expected from them and I didn't hold them accountable. And then I wasn't willing to have the hard conversations I needed to have before it was too late. And then I stopped paying myself all those things.

came to me having to let them go. And just, you know, that was probably my biggest failure so far. But I've had lots of little ones that led up to it, right? Yeah. Amanda? Yeah. I have experienced just about everything that Lindsay has just said. So except that my husband didn't work with me, I tried to train him on how to do a contract one time. And I think after about 10 minutes, he's like, nope, I'm out.

I really like him. I was like, if we could work together, I'd be around you all the time. Instead, we just retired him. Now he's here with the kids. I would say in scaling, we're still figuring it out. We're in all these states. Yes, we do thousands of contracts and listings a year like it is. Scaling

Scaling is, in my definition, it is duplication and multiplication, right? So if you have something that's duplicatable and it can be easily multiplied, then great. I look at that. I'm very simple, so I don't have a lot of flowery words, but that is what scaling means to us. And so that's

Based on my experience, if I had advice for someone, whether you're just starting out or whether you're sitting there tearing your hair out or whatever, is get help sooner. I am not somebody who is going to sit down and write things out other than my vision. I've got that. And I know the pieces that I'm not good at.

I started being self-aware very quickly because I knew if I figured out what I was bad at, then I could...

Fix that, not fix it within me, but fix it in my business sooner than if I just ignored that. And that looks like always having coaching, just like Lindsay from day one. It was first my dad for free. Then I paid a coach and I had multiple coaches since then. Classes and education. So if you're going to run a business and especially if you're going to scale it beyond yourself, besides an owner operator, you need to understand how to

hire, train, retain, and love on your people. And there's some amazing companies that teach you how to do that. Tony Robbins Business Mastery was awesome. I know Lindsay went to that as well. I'll tell you the most impactful for me, real world operations, was Dave Ramsey's Entree Leadership course a week long in Nashville. I've gone...

I know twice. I'm trying to think if I've been three times, but I'm just so I follow all their stuff. It feels like I've been three times. It's phenomenal. It literally teaches you, um, just the day-to-day operations, how to hire, how to really, um, you know, retain your people, which is awesome. And failures, um,

not hiring right. It's like the worst. If you looked at our track record, until I got my current leadership team in place, like we struggled with that all the time. I would find some really talented ones and then I would hire out of pain and they wouldn't be so great. So to me, scaling is about

Fixing yourself, growing yourself, personal development, and then whatever those areas in business that you're not familiar with. If you're a really good salesperson, you probably don't know all the rest. So then go to classes and as quickly as you can hire operational help because I didn't document anything for years. Like six years, we were like manual checklists and everything.

and Outlook email and paper day timer. It was terrible. But we did it. I mean, we were killing it. And so really, really good operations help people who can document, who can really make sure the systems are working and audit those all the time for efficiencies. That is huge in scaling a business. Because again, it's got to be duplicatable and it needs to be able to be multiplied for me to scale it.

My operation teams hate me like every time because I have a very visionary brain and I'm also very, I'm an operator at the end of the day, which I know that those are probably, I don't know, not the right mesh, but they managed to work their way into my body. And so I will come in with a vision and I will sit down and I will like start digging into the operations and I screw everything up.

Because I want to know how it works. I want to break it. I break things all the time. And, you know, in my operations team, they'll be like, Joanne, that was working and now it's not. So can you please, can we change your password to stuff? And I'm like, oh, okay, sorry about that. So yeah, when you get a good operations team, you do want to inspect what you expect, but sometimes you have to get out of the way and let them drive the bus. Yeah.

That's such a, I mean, that is key right there, Joanne. Like you can be like that and you can also control yourself. Like you have to get out of it because you need to empower them right to do it. I mean, I still have full authority in my business. I can change anything I want daily, but if you're actually considering the other person and their role and what you've hired, you're paying money for them to do, then you'll, you'll kind of get out of their way much faster. And I mean,

I don't like being embarrassed. And so if I go in and like screw it up when I didn't have to, like that's embarrassing and they lose confidence in me. Right. And so for you to recognize that in yourself, I think is huge. Some of us, it takes a little bit longer to do. I'm all about like, yeah, I have full control of my business. But if y'all need to change my passwords just to just to take away that temptation for me.

Some of us, our temptation is ice cream. Some of our temptations are other. Mine is to sit down at nine o'clock at night and start digging into things. It just doesn't always work. And sometimes it's good, though. You do need to dig in a little bit because I will say that I've also seen the opposite of that. The people that totally release to somebody else and somebody else is doing everything and then they wake up.

days later and they don't know how to get into systems. They don't know how to work things and that person's gone, right. Or stealing from them. And it's a problem, right? So we do have to have our hands in it and we do need to feel it and see it and still manage it. And I think, you know, that's the hard line that all of us have to walk through.

That is such a good point. I just want to just mention this because she's so right. So I am not at all like...

probably either one of you, because I know Lindsay is like got a really detailed, you know, brain too, but I don't want to do any of it. Like I don't, I don't, I barely know how to do like Google sheets and things like that. I don't know for it. Like none of that do I want to do, but my mistake was I found amazing people. I was like, go do it. And I set them up. I was like, here's the role. Here's what I want you to do. It wasn't that I just told them to go figure it out. I was like, this is what I want. But then I did not, I just went off. Right. And I just kept selling. I

I went to the next state. I went to the next thing. And I didn't know how to do things. And so luckily, as far as I know, no one's stolen directly from me, right? We may have had people leave and take clients and that kind of thing. But that's huge because...

even though I want to be hands off as much as possible, I had to bring myself back into it and say, okay, but how do I know that they're doing the job? Or even worse, like I woke up, you know, several months later and realized that I had taken the eye off

of the ball in a certain area and it really affected our business. And so we had to like grab that ball back and, and fix that. So it happens though. Like, and if I hadn't have done that, like I wouldn't know, you know, my blind spots or weak spots. And so now I know, and hopefully able to catch it much quicker. Okay. So hello leverage. You guys just had a hello 10 year. Lindsay, tell everyone how long the consulting organization has been going. Yeah.

Yeah, so it is it's 12 years old, but it's really 10 years where it like it had other employees and was like an actual LLC. And so we're getting ready to celebrate our tenure, actually. OK, so and the reason I want to really loop back around and point that out is if you are watching this or listening to the podcast episode and you're thinking, my God, these women have it all together, but you're in year two or three.

I know you've seen and I know you've heard us talk about you can't compare your year three to their year 10, but what you don't see is all the hills they had to climb along the way and you didn't know them 10 years ago. And you may be able to go on YouTube somewhere and find some of their first videos, but good luck trying because they're now buried because there's other stuff out there that tout where they are today. So between year one and year 10,

How big are your organizations? Tell me, you know, what is your leadership stack look like? And then what does it look below it? Rough numbers, rough outline. Like, what are we looking at? You want to take that, Amanda? Okay, sure. Year one, it was just me accidentally, you know, fell into this, right? Got asked by my former team. Year 10, I don't know exactly. We're at like 28, 28.

Or so, 29. And my leadership stack. So I'm the only one in the C-suite because somebody's got to be CEO. I have C-level people that just don't get a C because they can't afford a C-pay yet. But I have...

One, two, three, five. That first level. OK, so they are between me and the we have a TC team listing team. We have virtual partners that assist the TCs. And then we do have outsourced help. We have an attorney. We have CPA. Those are not on staff yet. So that is our stack. Director of Ops. We have.

Director of Sales and Client Relations. She also does hiring. She has so many jobs. We have Director of Expansion. We have our Director of Talent Development, which is our TC manager. And we have Director of Quality Assurance, which does make sure we do the service we say we'll do. So that's our leadership level. And then we have transaction coordinators, system coordinators, and virtual partners. So what? I don't know if I did this count anywhere right. Like 12-ish? 12-ish, yeah.

Like between the like 28 people in my company, people. OK. And then you've got the outsourcers that you you pull in for stuff like our CPA and attorney, our marketing director. She is looks like she's in house, but she's not. So, yeah, we we we work with 30 plus people on every day. OK. All right. Lindsay, what does yours look like?

Yeah. So we are now at 22 in Soprani Consulting, and I think we're around 38 in the real estate team. But I mean, we started with just me and then, you know, one part-time assistant and then just kept going. And I would say, you know, if you looked at this same company,

A year ago, you would have seen a director of sales. Now I'm director of sales again. I just offloaded for the first time ever in my history, offloaded the what I'm going to call the COO spot to somebody who's owning that because I am one of those weird people that can do both and will if you give me the opportunity. Yeah.

And so, you know, we're in the director level. We've got, you know, my husband who I made come and work with me about five years ago because I just needed somebody else that could recruit at the same level as me.

And then I've got, you know, now I've got the COO and we've got a we call her the fig, which is our financial guru person. But she's essentially a CFO. And we have lots of hiring consultants and then hiring consultant assistants to the hiring consultants.

And then we also have consultants for business. So we've got about six people now that are coming alongside of new hires and helping them put systems and processes in place. And it's awesome. Awesome. All right. So as we begin to wrap this up, this has been great, by the way.

You've given me new goals to achieve and reach. Any advice you want to throw out there for our audience, the woman entrepreneur out there who's thinking, I could grow a business or I'm in the process of growing a business. I hate to say if they can do it, I can do it. But any advice you want to give them to put in their brains?

I think I can go first. The advice that I've been giving to a lot of people that really think that they might grow a business is to learn about leadership. So I love that Amanda said entre leadership. I mean, John Maxwell, like there's so many great books to read on leadership, but that I really think we start out as amazing business, you know, or amazing salespeople, right. Or something, right. We're really good at baking cakes.

Then we become a business owner the moment that we hire our first person and we become a leader. And I think most of us don't know how to do that. And we continue to fail forward, whereas I think that you can learn what that looks like and eliminate all some of the issues that you're going to encounter by becoming that, because that is probably...

the hardest part of building a business is leading people and, you know, knowing when to hold them accountable versus loving them. And how do you do both? And what does that look like? Love it. Amanda? Absolutely. I mean,

If you are going to grow a business, it is all about people and it's people are your customers and people are your employees. And so I did not know how to lead people. I didn't know anything about the dis profile. I'm a high D. I want things the way I want them. I think I should be able to tell you once and you got it. What do I got to tell you again? It's just not true. And so I would say,

self-awareness. You need to know thyself. Be honest with yourself. This is not about negative self-talk. This is not about downing yourself. You are not good at everything. No one is. And so the quicker you find out what it is that you're really good at and where it is that you want to go, then you can start putting the pieces in place to help you get there. Now, in the beginning, it was just me. I had to do the work

And hire the people and train the people and keep the books and all of that. So it would behoove you to take some classes. Right. I mentioned Entree Leadership because it was real practical at my brokerage. They had classes about learning how to hire. Anyone can take them. There's a course called Career Visioning anyone can take.

I think it's fantastic. I use a hybrid of that and what I learned from Entree Leadership. There's a book called Entree Leadership. It's really good. Also knowing that challenges and problems and hills to climb never go away. I also think that like cliches are cliches because they're true. So listen to all the cliches and just understand that that's true. So the bigger you get, your problems just get bigger.

So they're not, you're, but you're also ready to face them. So don't be scared of that. You've already faced it, you know, at one stage, when you get to the next stage, if you, if you're going up a staircase and you're climbing levels, when you get to the next level, guess what? You're at the bottom of the next level. There are people like you're not equal to the next level. You're just starting out at the next level. So now you got to grow again. Right. That was a big aha for me. Yeah.

is they don't go away. You don't ever figure it out. I also don't think that a business has a destination. I think that it is a journey forever until you quit. And you just...

Being aware of all those things, I think will help you actually enjoy the journey even more. I'd like to give another resource real quick. Go for it. My mentor, Adam Hergenrother, has a podcast called Business Meets Spirituality. That is fantastic. This will help with that inner growth and actually being OK with who you are and showing up every day already happy and joyful.

Not Pollyanna, not all rainbows and sunshine, but it's making sure that you know that I don't need this sell to make me okay. I don't need this hire to make me okay. I'm already okay. So now let's go play and have fun with our business. If you could learn that before you get in business and you're just judging yourself all the time and you're thinking you're a failure, you're not. You just tried something that didn't work. So go try something else. Go hire a different person.

personality or different, you know, style of person. But, but yeah, so those things, self-awareness, I wrote down some notes while Lindsay was talking. So I'm looking right there, but just knowing that challenges never go away. Like it's fricking hard. And I think my business is awesome, but it's hard. And we have some hard things that we're learning right now. And I'm just enjoying the lessons to be honest, because that's really all they are. What am I going to learn today? You know what I love about that is,

One thing that, I mean, stuck out to me and what you just said, aside from, you know, it is hard and the challenges don't ever end because they don't. But if you're not in a business that you want to go play in every day, then you're in the wrong business. I told my team when we started Real Boss Women, I was going to give myself 12 months to

to do a lot of different things in this organization to see what I like to play at the most before we really settle into what we're going to niche down into. Because quite frankly, if you don't want to play in it every day, even when it's hard, even when it's rough, even when it's crap, you don't even know how to handle. If you don't want to get up the next day and go do it again, then you're going to burn out so much faster.

That's right. And I think, you know, just to tag along on that, that's why my team is no longer my team anymore, right? There's no Lindsay Soprani team because I gave it to somebody else. And every person said, why would you do that? That's an income producing asset, you know, and I looked at it as, but if everybody were to leave me today in that real estate business, I do not want to go do all those jobs.

Right. Whereas in the other one, I want to do all the jobs. I'm fine with all the things. And so I knew I needed to go where my passion was. And I think that's really important. There's no one that can tell you either. It is you. You don't have to be like anybody else. You don't have to grow it to anything. Anybody else wants you to grow it to grow to what you want, make it what you want and be okay. It took me forever to like be okay with what I wanted. Right. And, and,

I don't, I doesn't have to look like anything else. And when I mentioned all these other people and resources, it was purely selfish. I needed something and I went to them because they already did it and knew how to teach me. You pay a lot for it, but that's investing in yourself and doesn't have to look like anybody else's. And you can be happy right now and grow your business and it's still be hard. I think that's,

That's a big thing too, that I'm on this kick and my love bracelet. Enjoy the journey. I agree with you. And I tell people all the time, if you are wanting to do something and the people you're around aren't supportive and are not helping you get there or giving you the resources or cheering you on, don't not do the thing. Go change rooms, go get in different people, go find the people who will help you get where you need to go. Absolutely. Yeah.

All right. This has been great. Thank you, ladies. We've got one more. Enjoy the journey. We've got our listeners are like, yes, preach it sisters. All right, guys, we'll see you same time, same place next week.

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