The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

52 ⎸ Hiring for your firm with Meriah, my Integrator

June 08, 2022 Episode 52
The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast
52 ⎸ Hiring for your firm with Meriah, my Integrator
Show Notes Transcript

In this special interview episode I have my Integrator, Meriah on to take you behind the scenes of our culture, how we met, and how we continue to grow the team and maintain our culture.

If you’re ready to elevate your leadership skills and start growing your own rockstar team and culture, we’re ready to help you! Tap into Meriah’s genius to help you learn how to be an amazing leader.


In this episode you’ll hear:

  • How I found Meriah
  • How you can start attracting the team you want
  • How to build the culture you’ve always wanted
  • The steps and timeline to hire as you grow

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram Stories and tag me, @ambitiousbookkeeper

For more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:

Visit our website: ambitiousbookkeeper.com

Follow the Blog: ambitiousbookkeeper.com/blog

Connect on Instagram: instagram.com/ambitiousbookkeeper

Connect on LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/SerenaShoup

Connect on Facebook: Facebook.com/serenashoupcpa

Thank you for your support of our show. If you haven’t left a review yet it’s super simple. Please go to: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcast and leave your review.

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[00:00:00] In this special interview episode, I have my integrator Mariah on to take you behind the scenes of our culture, how we met and how we continue to grow the team and maintain this culture that we've built. If you're ready to elevate your leadership skills and start growing your own rock star team and culture, we are ready to help you. 

[00:00:20] Before we jump into today's episode. I'd love to introduce you to who Mariah is. She is. The integrator for the ambitious bookkeeper and together, she and I have strategically designed our company culture, aligning with our brand core values, vision, mission, and goals. Mariah attributes, her professional success to a growth mindset being driven, setting and striving to attain her goals, taking risks of failing forward, living in integrity. 

[00:00:51] And connecting with me. I'm literally reading her bio. Okay. In addition to her integrator role with the ambitious bookkeeper, Mariah combines her leadership team management, business ownership and operations experience, along with her master's degree in leadership, NLP, master practitioner, which is. 

[00:01:10] Neuro-linguistic programming. If you're not familiar business and entrepreneurship and life coaching certifications to provide leadership coaching within our ambitious bookkeeper brand. As you'll hear later in the episode. And her coaching style combines her vast experience and knowledge with a heart to serve and support others on their journey to making their dreams a reality. 

[00:01:33] In case you can't tell, I'm just going to insert my own, a little tidbit to this bio. In case you can't tell her values are extremely aligned with mine. And that's what makes our team so powerful. So you'll definitely hear us unpack this in this episode, but back to her bio during her off time, Mariah loves spending time with her two teen children. She enjoys doing volunteer work in exotic lands like Africa, Honduras, and other places. And in addition, she loves hiking, wakeboarding, snowboarding, skiing. 

[00:02:07] Horseback riding, scuba diving, reading, and soaking up the beautiful sunsets. God paints on a tropical beach. She gets really excited when she has the opportunity to see dolphins, sea turtles, , whales, giraffes, and elephants. All right. So let's tap into this conversation. Between myself and Mariah, who I. 

[00:02:31] Lovingly call my right hand. She's the integrator. If you're not familiar with what an integrator is, it's basically the person who executes my vision. So, like I said, in her bio, she has operations experience and leadership experience. And without her, I could not run. This company and my other one. So she actually helps in both, honestly. 

[00:02:55] We run both businesses side by side. We have all team meetings where both teams or everyone on our team gets on a call every week. And so it, among both businesses, everyone's aware of what's happening. As far as gaining new clients, onboarding new clients, helping our students, the new programs we're rolling out. So it's a very transparent culture. All right. So I'm just going to hit play on this amazing conversation. That I had with Mariah and I hope that you take lots of golden nuggets out of this one . So tap into Mariah's genius inside this episode to help you learn how to be an amazing leader. 

[00:03:36] Meriah: Hey, and welcome to the ambitious bookkeeper podcast. I am certain issue. I am a CPA and mom of three, and I'm running a virtual bookkeeping business. Mostly from my home. You're in the right place. If you're a bookkeeper accountant or an accounting student, and you know that your purpose is bigger than sitting in a cubicle.

[00:03:55] If you're ready to learn some actionable tips and strategies to help you start and grow a bookkeeping or accounting business, I hope you stick around.

[00:04:06] Serena: All right. Welcome back to the ambitious bookkeeper podcast. Today. I have a really special guest on, her name is Mariah. Some of you might know of her. If you are in any of our Facebook groups or our programs, she's definitely very active in our groups. And she is my integrator here at ambitious bookkeeper.

[00:04:29] And honestly, she just. My head on straight in both businesses. So without further ado, welcome Mariah. 

[00:04:36] Meriah: Thank you so much, serene. It's such an honor to be here with you and just an overall honor to work with you. I'm super thrilled and grateful. 

[00:04:45] Serena: Oh, thank you. So we've been talking for a long time about having you on the podcast and I've teased it a lot with our audience.

[00:04:53] But I know that for the people that are, that do currently work with us or have in the past, everyone is always like, very curious about. How I found you, how we met. And so I figured we should just start there at the beginning of the story. And however long this episode goes, maybe we'll have to break it into multiple episodes to cover everything you want to talk about, but let's start with like basically how we met.

[00:05:20] Do you want to, you want to tell your 

[00:05:24] Meriah: I'll tell my version? Sure. So. Just a quick background on me. I was raised in an entrepreneurial household, so both of my parents were entrepreneurs as well as grandparents. So it was really in my blood. And although over the years I had been cured in various other avenues for work.

[00:05:43] I always came back to those roots. So. Even after fulfilling my dream of working in corporate America, which was very discouraging kind of take that little tidbit and then fast forward to Serina. And I met when I was in the process of reinventing myself, again, and transitioning my career. So I had been teaching for a number of years at the same school where my kids were attending, which worked out well because we had similar schedules.

[00:06:11] We were on the same 40 minute one-way commute. So it really gave us a chance to grow and build our connection. However, once they graduated from the elementary school and moved on to high school, there were several occasions when they needed me and I just couldn't get the time off to be there for them, which really, really bothered me because always, ever since they were born, I always made sure that I had flexibility and whatever I was doing for work.

[00:06:43] I could work around them. So with that design in mind, I thought, okay, it's time to do something different, make a change. So I started searching for what to do next. That would afford me the flexibility, stability in the income that I desired. So I was listening to a podcast Shaleen Johnson's podcast, which I did regularly, but intermittently, and there was an episode with Jill.

[00:07:13] And Jill was promoting her and Josh's launch coming up. So I signed up for their course and during their course. So strategizing of all the various possibilities I could do for generating income. And I realized that all of these virtual entrepreneurs. They needed ads managers to run their Facebook ads.

[00:07:34] So I went through all the steps and training to start my own ad agency and my first client first and only, and last client was Serena. We met through Josh and Jill's course and after running ads for her, I started handling additional tasks for her beyond just the ads and I thoroughly enjoyed working with her so much. She was someone who shared my same core values. She was such a breath of fresh air. She was just incredibly genuine, authentic, talented, and this woman is crazy smart. I just, whenever I'm in a room with her or on a meeting with her, I just love sitting back and listening to her wisdom because she has so much of it and so much value.

[00:08:24] And I knew she was going places and making a difference. And I wanted to give you part of it. She was pretty much exactly my dream scenario and what I was looking for. So initially I came on a very part-time as her admin assistant and I moved. From there to her integrator full time. And she was able to retire me from teaching, come on, to work with her.

[00:08:51] And for those of you who don't know that term, Serina come would probably impact that a little bit more, but that comes from the book Rocket Fuel, and we very much compliment each other. Very well in our roles and our personalities, and we share the same values and we believe wholeheartedly in our mission statement. And we both are very passionate about personal development and growth and business development and growth. We are always growing personally and professionally, and we just both have our unique gifts that we bring immense value to the Ambitious Bookkeeper brand and the people we passionately serve. 

[00:09:34] Serena: I was starting to get teary-eyed 

[00:09:38] Meriah: Well, that's you, my dear.

[00:09:41] Serena: So that's how we met. It's pretty funny. Like I feel like most of, well, pretty much our whole team, it works almost like the quote unquote sales strategy that I use and that I teach is more of an attraction model than a go out and find model. If that makes sense. Like if you. wear your values on your sleeve and in your interactions across the board, I mean, obviously it takes some level of visibility to get to this point, because you're not going to attract people to you if you don't have a presence out there online, or wherever it is that you're looking, whether it's your community or whatever.

[00:10:22] You're going to have a hard time having people come to you, like you're going to have to go out and search them. So that's like, number one, if I wasn't already like building an online presence, I would not have the team that I have. So I'm highly grateful for that. And hopefully that Helps other people understand how important that is as scary as it is also.

[00:10:42] It was very scary for me too. I had to overcome a lot of mindset issues. And I still have days where I'm like, oh, what was I thinking?

[00:10:54] But yeah, because of that, I've been able to attract a team rather than go out and find the team to support me. I mean, obviously it took some effort as well, which we're probably going to get into of like our hiring process. But, when you when you're just out there and you're presenting yourself the way that you run your business and with your values, People will either gravitate towards you and work with you or run very far away.

[00:11:22] Meriah: Exactly 

[00:11:23] Serena: Or at least the right people, right? The people that want to be attached to a bigger purpose.

[00:11:28] Meriah: Indeed I am a hundred percent agree. 

[00:11:31] Serena: So, yeah, that's how we met. And when people ask, like how did you find Mariah and how do you find people? Those are, that's always my answer as well. They found me kind of but partly because I also have that willingness to see people's potential and willingness to give people a chance because nobody.

[00:11:53] Except our most recent hire, nobody has come into work for me with the experience that, that ending role ends up requiring if that makes sense. Right. 

[00:12:03] Meriah: And I think that's something that's so key is skilled. You can train skills, you can teach skills. You're not really going to teach somebody core values. They already have their core values and kind of the core of who they are and what they want, but you can train for other things. And so I think that's really key. 

[00:12:23] Serena: Yeah. There's obviously multiple ways of doing things. Like, especially in the corporate role, it's more about like filling the role for the skills and making sure the job gets done. But if you want to create a different culture than you experienced in corporate and you are looking to grow your team, you have to basically undo and decondition the way that you previously thought building a team was about. 

[00:12:50] And also hiring people does not necessarily mean that you're going to be working less. Right. You're just going to be doing different things. Like now I think I've talked about this on other podcasts with other guests of like my day is now more spent mentoring the team. Answering questions pouring into you guys, instead of just being the one to put my head down and do the work. And that's a big mindset shift and there, seriously, still are days where I'm like, it would just be easier if I just sat down and did the work myself than having to teach somebody to do it.

[00:13:23] So if you're not ready to make that shift, it's a lot of people end up one making bad hires. And regretting hiring and then feeling like I, it would just be easier to do it myself. And then they're just like, I'm just going to solo it. Like I'm just going to do everything myself. And that happens too.

[00:13:41] So like there's, it's a lot to lead a team for sure. And you have to. I have just like with running your business, like you have to have that bigger. Why? Like, if your reason for building a team, doesn't include creating a different work environment for people, then it's going to really suck. It's going to be hard. 

[00:14:02] Meriah: You're going to get lost in the muck and the mire. And I think that's a conversation that you and I have had in the stages and something that you need to take a look at is what drains. You know, when you look at your business and the things you're doing, what, what are you doing that drains you? And what are the things that energize you? And if you can focus on the things that energize you say, leading a team and mentoring, energizes you, then that's something you can work on it as you grow and develop your team. So kind of really speaking to your strengths and the things that keep you going and excited and energized. 

[00:14:46] Serena: Yeah. Even though like, that is definitely one of the things that energizes me, I'm like, I love being able to share the knowledge I have and see someone else grow and like be able to do the things. It's still hard work. Like. You know, but the other alternative is me doing everything alone and being responsible-- I mean, ultimately I'm responsible for it all anyways, because it's my business. But like, that's the alternative of just like being the technician and that like, I'm okay with, for some things. And I'm okay. Picking up the slack if I need to or whatever, but pretty much since the beginning of my business, I was like, I don't know if I really want to be doing bank reconciliations. And so I hired really early on for help, but yeah.

[00:15:30] So my biggest piece of advice for people who are like trying to build a team and looking for that complimentary person. I wish I could give more of a black and white answer and be like, this is the place that you look 

[00:15:43] Meriah: right. This is the spot to go. 

[00:15:46] Serena: Yeah. But I will say like, if you are trying to run a fully virtual business and you want to make sure you have someone that can do that. Honestly, looking in areas where there are people that are either trying to start their own thing or. Yeah. I don't know, like, cause you need someone with that entrepreneurial mindset. 

[00:16:08] Meriah: Absolutely. 

[00:16:08] Serena: So and not everybody goes out and starts their own thing and is happy with it. Some people are just like, this is a lot, it's a little overwhelming. They don't want to do the sales piece or the marketing piece, but they're still really good at what they do. There's a lot of those people out there. 

[00:16:22] Meriah: And I think definitely, like you said, attracting as you're out there, you're going to attract the people who have the similar values and that kind of goes back to, you know, get your mission statement, have your why of running your business. Have your vision in place, have your core values in place, know why you want to build a team. It's kind of all those things. And you've got to have your core goals and you've got to have those goals clearly outlined because if you have no idea where you're going. How do you know what you need and you can't really expect the team to come on board and just go around in circles all day on a merry-go-round. You've got to have a plan and a direction forward. And having all of that in place is really important before you start building and growing. Even if you just need a little bit of help where you need it, you know, a contractor for a few hours a week or something still have those pieces in place. 

[00:17:29] Serena: And another thing too is even though what I hired you on for, at the beginning was as a contractor for ads management, I still always had that idea in my mind that like, I still need help with other things. And so I think we talked about it or. Early on of like, are you willing to do random stuff? Are you willing to like schedule emails and do all these things? And, and it was just your willingness to learn it because I knew you didn't have experience in it, but I was like, I can teach you whatever. Right. The help documentation is very helpful. Like there's support with all the systems that we use. So when you're, when even if you think that you're not ready for. Have that conversation upfront with, with people that you're looking to bring on, to see what their growth mindset is and like what, you know, what they desire and, you know, their willingness to learn, I think is one of the biggest things, just willingness to roll up your sleeves and figure it, figure it all out. I was out together. 

[00:18:32] Meriah: Yes. And I think that's a really good point is you, if you need help now, you don't have to have every tiny little thing in place. You don't have to have a process for every little thing you do. A person can help you grow that and help you get all of that in place. As you continue to grow. For example, We have a roadblocks channel in slack and my assistant, you know, we don't have every single thing possibility, outlined as to what can happen. I mean, we're, we're getting there and working, but still you're gonna have things come up. And so she can put in the roadblocks channel: the issue, what a solution is that she thinks would be a good solution. And then I can respond and say, that's a great solution, but I also might add this. And here's why, and, and kind of be willing to coach and train that. And then she can, from there makeup process. And then someday, as she's moved up in the company, she's going to turn around and turn around behind her and help somebody come along. She'll already have all that in place and-- and she'll have to coach and mentor. 

[00:19:47] Serena: Yeah, exactly. I was just going to say, and now she's learning how to be that leader and coach and mentor for someone next, because that's the only way we learn as if we've had a good mentor or leader. Yes. Show us how to do it. 

[00:20:05] Meriah: Yes. And I think another key part to that too, is so much in corporate and then society people are so scared to coach and lead because, well, what if they're better than I am? What if they surpass them? And we don't have that culture, you know, it's great, let them surpass me, let them do better. They're going to reach a whole different avenue of people than I could reach or just let's put all of our skills and our assets together.

[00:20:34] It's none of this. Why should keep this secret from you? Because then maybe you'll take over my job one day. There isn't any of that. And I, I absolutely love that. And that is something Serena that you have really you've laid that foundation. So I think that's amazing and kudos to you because that's, what's going to get us the great, amazing places that we want to go is because we're all in there using our strengths and our gifts and we're working together and it's not a game of somebody being jealous or worried that somebody else is gonna go farther or do better. I have my gifts and I have my things that I'm not very good at, you know? And I just cheer everybody on, on our team. Yeah. And I know you do too. 

[00:21:28] Serena: I'm so grateful for having you, like by my side, because there's days when I'm just like either so busy or life is happening, but I know that between the two of us, we're keeping the culture the way that we want it. And we're checking in with the team. I feel like pretty much, I feel for the most part, everybody feels very supportive or supported and supportive, honestly, like we're all a team, but that is, I think I've voiced this before is like, and I even voiced it to the entire team. I was like, I don't want this to ever go away. Like, as we grow, we're very small right now where there's like five of us. And. Like, that's my biggest fear because I've worked in startups before, where when the team is small, like the culture is great, but then as you start adding more people, it sometimes starts to fade away or whatever.

[00:22:21] And so I'm like, that's my biggest fear. It sounds ridiculous but I asked everyone to just be like, just hold us all accountable to that. Like, as we grow, like, Well, it's just not lose that culture that we've built because that's the big why behind building the team. Honestly. 

[00:22:41] Meriah: Exactly. And our team loves the culture that we have. We all regularly comment on it and we, we kind of covet it and very much value it and treasure the culture because everyone does feel supported. And there are seasons when, you know, one of us maybe has to step up more for the other one and vice versa, but we all take turns and we don't take advantage of that. You know, it's not like we have somebody on our team who always has a week. Yes. Every 52 weeks a year has a week. That could potentially be a problem if we had somebody on the team that never took the turn in the support role, but we all take our turns when somebody needs support. And I think that is just so huge. And I think it's something that we're very protective of and we're going to continue to protect and guard because we all do check in with each other and I think everybody knows each other is there. We can reach out and say, Hey, I need help. Or, Hey, can you, take on this project or just anything like that, we're there. 

[00:23:50] Serena: Yeah. Yeah. That's another big, one of. If you are trying to build a team and a culture that's different than what's out there right now, because it's totally possible. It's hard because there's not very many companies modeling it. So it's like, I don't know how this is supposed to be done, but we're kind of just making it up as we go.

[00:24:12] Meriah: I think very successfully I will add. 

[00:24:14] Serena: But one of the big. I guess pillars of that like different cultures that we're all, like, we all see each other as humans. And there's such a like massive integration between our personal lives and our work lives it's really hard to keep that separate because we're the same human in our work life and our personal life and sometimes things bleed over and like just being sensitive and cognizant of there's going to be times where all of us have something in our personal life that is going to affect our work life. Right. And just being sensitive to that and supportive when the, like what you said when, if someone's having a week, like we just all chip in and pick up the slack or reprioritize things and help them feel more at ease, like, okay, well, this wasn't actually like that important to be done this week. So that can wait. And like, just having that extra support in that area is really important. 

[00:25:15] Meriah: And I think convene to something comes to mind on our team meetings, you know, that we do in, we all share our personal wins, but we also give a win away. And so really celebrating each other's success and celebrating our team in addition to celebrating our own. And I think that's also core to our culture. 

[00:25:38] Serena: Yeah. Because it can definitely feel like. Like if there's been a lot of times where I get on the meeting and I'm like, I don't even know if I have a win for myself because we all just are so critical of ourselves, but it forces you to stop and think about what you have accomplished or what you were able to do in your personal life. Because we have the culture that we do. Right? Like my win lately, I feel like it was a repetitive it's like I got to go paddle boarding! 

[00:26:05] Meriah: And we're all super excited for you! 

[00:26:10] Serena: Because like, I don't have to worry about doing everything myself, but yeah. So anyhoo, yeah, I think that's a big thing. Nobody knows how to actually create the culture that they want. Plus like you have to really figure out what kind of culture you do want, what is important to you, which again, ties back to your own personal core values. Like if what's important to you is to have time for your hobbies, then you need to create a culture where everybody has time for their hobbies. And whatever your values are like, that's probably what's going to dictate what kind of culture you might find important 

[00:26:47] Meriah: Absolutely. I agree completely. 

[00:26:52] So any more to say on that, Meriah?

[00:26:58] On that aspect and that, yeah, I just, I couldn't agree more and you have to. You have to have the foundation before you grow, before you develop, you've got to get that main foundation. That's what a house is built on. A house is built on a foundation. If you just go out and you try to throw up some boards. You're not really going to have a stable house. You've got to get the foundation and then you've got to frame it in. And so there is definitely a process and steps that you want to take, and that will alleviate. Maybe it's not the really fast, short term solver for your problem, but it's going to save you problems down the road in the long run. If you just take the five minutes and you do things right now. 

[00:27:44] Serena: Yeah I remember going through lots of, like, I don't know if they were trainings or things that I was seeing and reading of like figuring out your core values and your vision and your mission. And I just like, for some reason, I just had a really hard time with it. And then it was something that took time. Like it was over time, me making time to reflect on what was important to me as a person and how I wanted that to show up in the business. What was important as far as like the mission of the business and all that kind of stuff. But once that finally clicked in, I feel like that's when we made quantum leaps to be on. 

[00:28:27] Meriah: Exactly. It truly is. 

[00:28:30] Serena: Because then I had the core values in place, which affected the vision, which affected the mission. And then we have like a clear map of what we want out of this and we can filter decisions through it. And just, it's crazy the ripple effect that it had. And then it made it so much easier to say no to things that like, I feel like being able to say no is so important in everything you do, especially, I mean, like I am a people pleaser, so like I will say yes to things that seem like a good opportunity. And I really have to sit back and think like, is this. When time is limited. Is this worth it? Because 

[00:29:13] this aligned, because even though you don't like to say no, in saying yes to things, you're saying no to something else. So are you saying no to something that aligns with your core values by saying yes to something that really doesn't and you can really have a good framework in reference to measure that.

[00:29:34] Yeah, and it helps keep things more simple too. Like, I won't go into details, but recently I was like, I feel like we're, over-complicating a couple things and I don't know if it's worth it. So let's just scrap this for now. 

[00:29:47] Meriah: Well, that is huge to remember too, in, in business and then hiring and everything. You're looking. You're always going to like, take those opportunities to pivot. Don't be afraid to try things, but if you need to pivot or adjust or change, then do it. You know, that's part of growth. You may have the knowledge of something today and think, yeah, this'll work great. But then you gain more knowledge and maybe down the road.

[00:30:15] Okay. The knowledge I have now, it's not quite as great as I thought, or let's tweak it or adjust it and don't be afraid to pivot and change. 

[00:30:24] Serena: Yeah. That's a big one. And like allowing that of your team to, like, if we tie this back into building a team, letting them try different things and bring their ideas and everybody try them.

[00:30:36] You know, brief about it to see is this working? Is it something everyone's still enjoys or whatever, it's just really important to allow people the autonomy and empower them to bring things to the table too.

[00:30:51] Meriah: And you are fantastic at that. You're, you're fantastic at empowering your team and just allowing the freedom for growth and for progress.

[00:31:04] Serena: Awesome. 

[00:31:06] Meriah: Thank you.

[00:31:06] We're going to take a quick break to introduce to you something we've been working on behind the scenes. 

[00:31:16] Meriah: Are you ready to elevate your leadership skills, create an amazing culture and start growing your very own rockstar team. If your answer was, yes, we're ready to help you out. 

[00:31:27] Hi, this is marae with the ambitious bookkeeper team, and I am incredibly thrilled to let you know that we are opening up leadership coaching. What does that look like? Let me unpack that a bit for you together. We will design your custom blueprint so you can thrive. I will walk you through drafting your outline for creating a fabulous company culture, designing a framework, tailored to you and your business so you can attract and higher quality team members enhancing and leveraging your leadership skills, working through your limiting beliefs so you can lead at your best maximizing performance from your team, strategizing ways to help your team thrive and reach their potential while supporting the goals and values of your company. And those are just to name a few. If this resonates with you and you're ready to jump on this opportunity, I have more good news for you. There are a few options for group and hybrid one-on-one leadership coaching. Just head over. Too ambitious bookkeeper.com forward slash leadership coaching for more information, and you can also book a 15 minute complimentary call with me, Mariah to make sure it's a good fit for you. I'll see you inside.

[00:32:46] Serena: So do you want to talk about, should we go into kind of like what our hiring process is like? So people can walk away, like something a little more tangible. With the caveat that like, before you start this hiring process and building this out, like you really do have to have your core values and your vision in place.

[00:33:07] Meriah: So everybody's clear on that. You got to get that step first. 

[00:33:13] Serena: Yeah. And we'll link in the show notes, some resources that have been really helpful for us, like the books that we're talking about and all that kind of stuff that will help you, but you do have to do. There's a time commitment. Like you have to set aside what I call CEO time to think about what you value and to think about these things. It doesn't feel like work, but it is going to help you really drive the business forward if you're taking things seriously. 

[00:33:40] Meriah: Absolutely. And you can even do that in chunks of time. If you don't have. Massive quantities of time. You can just spend even, you know, a few minutes, each day, schedule in and go through some of the exercises because there's exercises you can do to help you hone in on what those are. 

[00:33:59] Serena: One of the things that I was doing too, when I was trying to like narrow down my core values is I just kept like a notes and notes page on my iPhone with a running list of. Things as I would get ideas that pop into my head of things that were important to me, I would just drop them in the notes. And then later on, I sat down and kind of narrowed them down. Some of them were really like the same thing, so they could be combined and then I figured out some words that like encapsulated that feeling or whatever. So that's something to just like, just start now, like create a notes page and just start jotting down, either core values. You see other companies having that you're like, oh, that really resonates with me. Or just thoughts throughout the day of like, you know, I don't know. That's where I started though. And it was a process. It was like several months of me gathering those thoughts and ideas. And then distilling them down. 

[00:34:57] Meriah: And look at all the goodness that's come from it. 

[00:35:00] Serena: I know, like I said, quantum leaps at that point. So let's talk about cause when I hired you, this hiring process did not exist. It was very much, started as a contractor and then started to give you more stuff. And it just, as we met here's the other thing is like, you need to meet with your people and talk about things and be open about your thoughts and like where you're headed, because. It's really, and this is something I talk about with my clients too, cause they'll come and there'll be like, well, I have this part-time person. Like I want to give her, you know, more hours because I need her help. But I just don't know if she's willing. And I'm like, well, have you asked? 

[00:35:42] Meriah: It's the first place to start. 

[00:35:44] Serena: Just because you asked if they're willing to take on more hours, doesn't mean you have to give them to them right away. Like you just have to be open and honest about the discussion of like, I just want to like start having this discussion now. Think about it, like, think about what you want to do. Do you want to grow with the company? What are your thoughts? And then just being like, honestly, like receptive to If they come back and they're like, yeah, actually I don't really like want to grow. I'm okay where I'm at. Like to be okay with that too.

[00:36:13] Meriah: Yes. 

[00:36:14] Serena: So the hiring process we have now, do you want to talk through what we do?

[00:36:18] Meriah: So I would just caveat into there also, that your mindset is also a crucial piece in hiring, and that's going to help you be successful in your leading and your growing a team. So in our process. Well, think about if you ultimately want to have somebody that's kind of your right hand in your company. I would encourage you to start how Serena started, start with somebody part-time as an admin or something like that. Not necessarily full time, if you're able to do that and you want that. Okay. But I start smaller and then you can always hand over more tasks. You can always hand over more time and hours as you continue to see if they're a good fit for you. And you are a good fit for them as well. And then they can kind of move up the ladder in your firm or your company.

[00:37:16] And we go through kind of the next piece that you really need to have in place. In addition to what we've already talked about is you need to have your job description, and the job description really sets the expectations for the roles you are hiring for as well as the objectives and the competencies you are looking for. So, you're hiring for someone to serve a purpose in your company, and you need to be clear to them what that purpose is. And the more clear you are about that, the more you're going to kind of already filter out people that aren't a good fit. So that's another piece that can be a little bit daunting is the job description, but it is, it's another really big piece.

[00:38:06] So you get your job description and you can place it on the various avenues. And you want to also have very specific details and criteria that they need to follow. For example, if you put the application on LinkedIn, I would very much encourage you to not just have it to where they can just click a button and apply on LinkedIn and have an auto-generated resume sent to you. I highly encourage you to have specific guidelines of what they need to follow specific steps that they need to follow in order to apply. That also helps you weed out people who really aren't serious because you're looking for the people that are serious, they've taken the time and they really want to work for you.

[00:38:55] So you can have, for example, an email where they can send their application and within the job description and the description of how they apply, put a tagline that you want them to have. For example, one of ours was "rockstar accountant". And have them also, in addition to a resume, have them. Send a video along and have outlined what they need to say in the video, what they need to cover and where to send all that information. That's going to weed out quite a few people right there in that process. 

[00:39:33] Serena: Yeah, that's what I like people have asked me. In our like last hire, they're like, well, how many applications did you do yet? And I'm like, if you count all of the auto submit applications from Indeed and all that hundreds, we got hundreds, but we didn't even look at. Any of them unless they came in with the right subject line. From there, there was criteria, like if they didn't submit a video into the trash, because that was part of the actions. So yeah, that was like, I would say like 99% of the applications, we didn't even look at. 

[00:40:06] Meriah: Agreed agreed because, and even if they did make it to my in mailbox, if they didn't have that tag, you know, if they didn't have the title, subject titles, I wasn't going to bother. I wasn't going to waste my time. 

[00:40:19] Serena: Cause it takes a lot of time to read through resumes and So that brings up the other process. Like if you have someone else in your firm that can help with this, make that person be the first line of defense, because your time and your energy is very important to protect and you will get distracted, especially if you're feeling a little bit desperate to hire somebody and you will find things about their resume that you like. Even though they didn't follow the instructions. 

[00:40:49] Meriah: Exactly. And you don't want to go there because they've already showed you. Do you really want somebody on your team that can't follow directions? That's not really a good start, especially if you've got a SOP's is in place. Yeah. 

[00:41:03] Serena: Even if you don't like the attention to detail is really important in what we do. 

[00:41:10] Meriah: It absolutely is. Absolutely. And to back up for a minute, too, that's something else that you can start doing now is you can start documenting your processes for the things in the tasks that you do and get prepped for somebody coming on board so that you can have those in place for them to look at and follow.

[00:41:33] So once they submit the application, there's a process of. Going through the application, watching the video that they send, and those are all so crucial pieces, you know, did they have on their application, have they jumped around a lot in their positions? Are they. Presentable on video? Did they put the effort into the video or did they just slap something together and they don't really care?

[00:42:01] You're really looking for someone who is trying to sell you on hiring them. And they're putting their very best foot forward, because if they're not already putting their very best foot forward in the interview and hiring process, that's really not a good sign because they're going to put less than their best foot forward. If you go ahead and hire them so you're really looking for their absolute best to shine through in their video and their resume. 

[00:42:29] So next step, really from there, if they pass the resume test and the video test, then some strategies that we used is send them a text and see if they can hop on a call within a short period of time and see if they get back to you or if they kind of cleared their schedule or if they can't meet with you. And we did have someone that we went ahead and proceeded with to actually interview that wasn't able to drop everything at the time. And so you kind of can decide on that. And then there was another one where they were able to drop everything at the time, but they just, as the process went on, they were not a good fit.

[00:43:14] So you can kind of gauge that and see what works out best for you on that. But after that whole process, then I had an initial interview with them and then, if they've passed my interview, then they got an interview with Serena and if they didn't pass my interview, then we thanked them for their time and then moved on.

[00:43:39] Serena: Yeah, I think having. That layer in again was really about protecting my time, but also like that person is going to be working with you too. So you have to get good vibes. Yes. You and I are very aligned on where we're headed with the business, what the needs were of the role. So that's, if you're going to involve a second person in the process, you guys have to be aligned on that, and and really understand like who you're looking for. And there was a couple where like, I'm, I'm huge on like, let's just listen to our gut instinct and intuition on people. And there was a couple where neither of us could really pinpoint it, but something was weird.

[00:44:25] Meriah: And so we were like, let's just scrap that one. 

[00:44:28] Serena: Absolutely. And that's okay to do that because. There the alternative is you hire them and that's something weird rears its ugly head. 

[00:44:38] Meriah: Exactly. You're thinking I should have listened. 

[00:44:45] Serena: Yeah, exactly. So yeah, that was a process. And then, and then I would interview them and have the final decision, and of course we went back and forth and talked about each of them and, and all that. But it was a long process. So that's the other thing if you know that you want to be, or you're trying to be at a point in your business in three to six months where you have enough clients to support having someone, even if it's part-time. Start the search right now. 

[00:45:13] Meriah: Absolutely. The sooner, the better.

[00:45:15] Serena: Because it's going to take two to three months to find the person, and then it's going to take another three months to fully onboard them. And so then you're looking at, like, if you need them to take on a certain client load, you've got to kind of like backtrack from there. How long it's going to take them to get to the point where they can manage all those clients on their own and all that. So like, Begin with the end in mind. 

[00:45:41] Meriah: It's right. Go be in it for the long haul. And also that reminds me, I forgot a step after their interview with me. If they passed that, before their interview with you, they had homework and they had to pass the homework. In order to get an interview with you. So we had, we had quite a few steps, which I feel are really valuable steps to have in place. And in some of those steps, And kind of the questions and the asking an interview is, is seeing what their core values are and talking to them about their values and their goals. And that's also a good way to see if they align with yours. And then part of their homework is also seeing if they truly do align.

[00:46:28] Serena: Yeah, and that's where you can also test their skills. So if you're hiring for a position that it is important for them to have some sort of skills, then that homework can be the skills test. So this whole interview process is more about core values. The feeling we get with them, the way they're able to communicate all the soft skills. If you want to make sure that their resume isn't a lie and you want to make sure they actually have the experience that you're trying to hire for, then that's where the test comes in. So we had a soft skills type assessment and like hard skills, like reviewing financial statements because we were hiring for someone that needed to have a certain level of understanding of accounting. 

[00:47:11] Meriah: Yes. And that had a deadline to their homework, had a deadline. You can check a lot of things there. See if they're timely, see how bad they want to work for you, once again. All of these, all these little nuances are very strategic in, in revealing to you. A lot of things about this person. 

[00:47:30] Serena: Yeah. I think we got through like the main points that we want to talk about. Yeah. I almost forgot about the skills assessment. And like, you can create your own, you can get some online, but I would honestly suggest creating one that fits whatever role you're hiring for like take some actual piece of work that that role is going to be responsible for that. You don't want to have to necessarily train them on. Or maybe you are willing to train them on, but you just need to gauge how much you're going to have to train them. So that's another thing it's not necessarily a pass or fail. It's more of like, okay, where are they at on the spectrum of the knowledge that we need them to have for this role? And are we willing to mentor them up to this point, if they can demonstrate a certain level? So, some things to some things to chew on there. But we are getting at the end of our hour so we're going to wrap up. Was there anything else, Mariah, that you wanted to mention and some nuggets that you want to provide the audience?

[00:48:33] Meriah: Just a couple brief things I would say. In regards to this whole process, as things come up, the secret to your success is action and taking actions and. Action compounds and builds. So think of just the tiny little things you can do to move towards hiring and your process there. Just take action. Don't get overwhelmed. Don't choose overwhelm and get stuck because it's all scary and overwhelming. If you have to, re-listen to this podcast over and over and just take the little pieces and take intermittent action. And then it will all compound and also don't let fear stop you because your greatness happens outside your comfort zone. So get outside your comfort zone, move forward and amazing things are on the other side. 

[00:49:26] Serena: Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much for doing this interview and we're definitely going to have more episodes with Mariah. So if you have questions for her, feel free to shoot me a DM on Instagram or email our support inbox, and she will see those it's support@ambitiousbookkeeper.com. If you have a burning questions that you want us to talk about on the podcast, I think that would be really cool. So without further ado, if you want to connect with Mariah, just shoot us a message. And thank you so much for helping me build this company and this team. I definitely could not do it without you. 

[00:50:08] Meriah: Thank you for the opportunity. I love it. 

[00:50:12] Serena: Awesome. All right, well, I'll talk to you later. 

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