Owner Of Awesome Outsourcing: Michelle Thompson AKA The Awesome Boss – S2E52 (#80)

S2E52 Michelle Thompson – powered by Happy Scribe

This is rolling. Alright. Three, two, one. Welcome. Welcome back to Boston Cage podcast. So today’s episode is kind of like I think I found my kindred spirit person to interview, right. And there’s a lot of commonalities that you guys have been hearing me preach it for the longest about getting a PA, getting a VA. And guess what we have on the show is someone that can tell you more insight and more detail than I ever possibly can about that space. In addition to it, she’s also a fellow stroke survivor as well. So without further Ado, Michelle, the floor is yours. Tell our audience a little bit more about yourself.

Hey, thank you so much for having me on Boston Cage. This is amazing. I’m super stoked to be here. My name is Michelle Thompson. And as you alluded to five years ago, I had a stroke and I like to joke and say that that was the beginning of what started an accidental business. So we’ll kind of get into that. But previously I was a project controlled engineer. I went to school, got my MBA, all that good fun stuff. But I have always had that entrepreneurial bug, and I’m sure we’ll get into a little bit of that, but just super excited to be here.

Great. So, I mean, I think you definitely kind of brought it up. I didn’t start Boston Cage until literally, I was leaving out from the hospital post stroke, so let’s just dive into that a little bit. Let’s back it up and let’s just kind of tell what led you into having a stroke. Is it more like for me, a genetic like my parents, my dad is that all of them have strokes, so genetically I was inclined for it on your end. What was your determinant factor?

Yeah. So mine was genetic too. We had an underlying hereditary blood disorder in our family that we didn’t know anybody had. And I was lucky enough that I got it from both my mom and my dad. So it was kind of a double whammy. So it’s something called factor five. And I have what’s called homozygous factor five, which means I got it from both my mom and my dad. Most people, it’s actually pretty common for people to have heterozygous factor five, which means they only got it from one parent. That doesn’t usually cause any problems. It’s when you get it from both parents in the 50s. They used to call it sticky blood syndrome. So basically, what happens is inside of my veins. It thinks that there’s constantly a cut. And so it’s trying to put a scab on the cut. So it’s constantly making blood clots. And that particular day, blood clot went up into my brain stem. And that’s what happened. But you’re right. It took three years to recover. I didn’t just leave the hospital and boom business.

So yeah. I mean, I think that’s just for the well, obviously I always give whoever I’m interviewing the nickname. So I’m going to deem you the awesome boss, right? The clear records. So, you know, from now on, your awesome boss.

Yeah, I can own that.

Yeah, definitely. Right. So being that you’re awesome in the sense that you talk about it took three years to recover. My recovery was completely different than that. I was kind of like, headstrong and determining to come out, but you don’t always have that control. So what does those three years look like? And in those three years, what made you think it was okay to start a business?

I yeah, honestly, those three years were horrible. And if I’m honest, I was not the most willing patient. When we first found out what the underlying condition was, they basically sat me down into. Michelle, you need to create a power of attorney. You need to create a will. And basically, you need to create your funeral arrangements. What do you want done? Because it’s not a matter of if you have another stroke, it’s a matter of when you have another stroke and you were Super Super lucky the first time, the next time, you’re probably not going to be so lucky. And when I heard that, I decided, you know what? There is no way that I’m going to let myself have another stroke. And potentially, it doesn’t kill me. But I’m just going to sit there like a vegetable and have to suck carrots the straw for the rest of my life. And that is what scared me the most. And to be real honest, sorry, I decided I was just going to end it all. So I was driving home from my neurologist. And let’s be honest, I wasn’t brave enough to actually kill myself. But I figured there’s this really big cliff that’s coming up. And if I just drive my car over it, I’m not going to take anybody else out with me. But chances are I’m not going to survive that’s. That’s not a bad way to go. And I was literally 10 miles from this cliff, and the Bluetooth went off in my car, and so automatically, I just hit the thing. And Ironically, it was my doctor, and she was like, hey, Michelle, I know life’s been really, really crappy the last six months, so I just wanted to check in on you and see how you’re doing. And I literally just started laughing, right? Because she had no idea. And I was like, You’re kidding, right? And she’s like, no, I’m serious. And she’s like, Why do you ask it? Because I’m literally about to drive the car off a cliff. And her reaction was amazing. Like, any other reaction? I probably it probably wouldn’t have changed anything, but she was so nonchalant about it. She was like, Well, okay, that’s no problem. But you can always drive your cliff off a car to drive your car off a cliff tomorrow. So why don’t you just come in and see me and see if we can do something to help and if not drive recall off the cliff tomorrow. No big deal. And I was like, alright, well, that’s reasonable. I know. Right? And she was actually the one that found the factor five. Like, I had literally been to ten doctors before this. And they all told me I was lying. They all told me there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re making this up. You’re totally fine. And she was the one that actually listened and found it. And so I had a very, quite a bit of respect for her. So honestly, just out of respect for her, I went and showed up and and she sat me down and she’s like, you know, Michelle, she’s like, anybody who has gone through this would want to kill themselves. This is normal. It’s okay to want to kill yourself. She’s like, but I think we can make it better. So can we try? I thought, Well, okay. Now, at this point in time, I’m still dragging my right side. I’m still slurring my speech. I still am having seizures, probably three times a day. Very painful. Not fun. Right? So I was like, alright, well, out of respect for you, I will give you two weeks. And she did something incredibly brilliant. She didn’t send me the therapy. She didn’t try to lock me up. She got a hold of my best friend, and she’s like, hey, I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on. All I can tell you is Michelle needs some help. And so my buddy Michael called me and, you know, Michael, it’s like, It’s hilarious because we’re like, Mutt and Jeff, right? He’s like, 6ft, like, 200, like, He’s huge guy. And I’m like, five one, like, I won’t out myself on my weight. He’s like, hey, he’s like, can we go to Starbucks? And I’m like, no, we cannot go to Starbucks. I have seizures. I slur. I can’t walk. We’re not going to Starbucks, right? He’s like, no, no, it’ll be okay. Just come to Starbucks. I was like, okay, fine. We got there and he sat me down and he’s like, hey, he’s like, I know that things have been tough, and I know you’re thinking about leaving. I just want you to know that I’m going to miss you. And he’s like, I don’t blame you. He’s like, if I were in your situation, I’d probably do the same thing. But until then, do you think we could just hang out? Can we just go hiking and I’ll help you hike? I know you can’t walk, but let’s just go do it. And I went, okay, but as long as nobody else is around because I don’t want to be embarrassed. Right? And so we did. And it was so funny because he took me to Rei. And I don’t know if you guys have re where you are, but it’s basically like, this huge camping store and Michael is like, the most never wants to bring attention to himself at all type person. And he got down in Rei and he started putting a tent together in the middle of the store just so that I would get interested in something. And it worked. So I decided, alright, well, I want to stick around a little longer just to hang out with Michael. And then we’ll see what happens. And in that time, my doctor got me to start doing physical therapy and not just physical therapy, but also occupational therapy. So by the time I actually got into a neurologist who listened, it had been six months. So the brain damage that I had was permanent. They couldn’t fix it at that point. And so physical therapy was all about how learning how to live with your new reality. Like, we’re never going to get back what you had. Your MBA is gone. You’re never going to be able to do math above a second grade level, but we can make life livable. And so honestly, I like, bucked against it for, like, two months. And the one day I’ll never forget, I was sitting there and I was like, the grumpiest patient in the world. I totally was. I just didn’t want to be there. I was just miserable. And she just had it. And she sat me down and she’s like, Michelle, she’s like, we can keep doing this. She’s like, Well, you’re not going to get anywhere. She’s like, do you have any idea how freaking lucky you are? And I went, what? I just had a stroke, and you’re sitting here telling me I’m lucky. She’s like, look, she’s like, if you had been born just 40 years ago, I’d never be able to do any of the things that I can do with you today. But because of all the technology that we have, I can teach you how to have a relatively normal life. If you will just shut up and listen and stop feeling so freaking sorry for yourself. And I went, okay, and it was hilarious, because it’s exactly what I needed to hear. Like, I needed to stop the pity party. Oh, my gosh, life is over, blah, blah, blah. And be thankful for what I actually had. And that was kind of the turning point was when she basically had a come to Jesus meeting with me. Right? And that was what started to change at all. We started to learn how to automate my entire daily routine. And so in the house, I live in a very, very controlled environment because I still do crazy things. Like, I think I’m making coffee and the water goes in the toaster instead of the coffee pot, which is usually a bad thing. So I have a Google home in each one of my rooms, and it actually reminds me, Michelle, it’s time to brush your teeth. Michelle, you need to drink water. Michelle, you need to check and see if the dog needs to go to the bathroom. So literally, every single part of my life is structured by a machine. And we got to the point where I could actually live almost by myself. And I could function and create things on my own. And we learned, okay, hey, when you turn the stove on, set a timer. And in ten minutes, when the timer goes off, check to see if you turn the stove off. Type of a deal. And so having the business background from prior, I started rolling this all around in my brain, and I thought, wow, if we can do this for everyday life, why can’t we do it for business, too? And that was when it really started, really started clicking. And I started thinking, I was like, you know what? Now this is three years down the road, right? Fast forward. Three years. And I started thinking, you know what? I don’t know how much time I have left. What is the legacy that I want to leave? And what do I really want to transfer to the next generation when I’m not here? And I realized that I wanted to pair my business knowledge with how I learned how to automate an outsource. And so I started recording videos on how to delegate and delegate. Well, and the way that I did it was really funny. I would a lot of people think it has to be super complicated. I made it stupid, simple, like, okay, if you know that tomorrow you’re going to get hit with a Mac truck. What is the information that you can download into a video today? All those micro decisions that you’re making in your brain so that you could then pass that video off to somebody else so they would know how to do that task. And we just started slowly creating a video for every single thing in my business.

Okay.

And it got so good that I would wake up and in my inbox would be 40 hours worth of work that I hadn’t done at all. And my friends, who are my colleagues were like, what the heck, Michelle? You can’t even function in your house. How are you doing this? And so I started to tell them, and I started to show them, and they’re like, Holy crap, this is amazing. Let’s try it with my stuff. I said, okay, but if it blows up, it’s your fault, right? And so we did. And it worked like, really, really well. And so then what happened was from there just the kind of natural progression was everybody’s like, oh, my gosh, you need to teach this to the world. You need to create a course, right? Because everybody’s making a course. And so I did. I created this course, and we put a couple of people through the beta, and it worked really well. But the feedback that we got was, you know, Michelle, this is great that this is your like, you’re really fired up and excited about this, but I don’t want to learn how to find a VA in the Philippines and train them like, can you just do it for me? And at first, I was very hesitant because I only have about two to three good hours a day. Other than that, I have to sleep. I still have to sleep a lot. And so I was afraid that I was going to take on other business owners tasks, and I wouldn’t be able to deliver. And so I had a couple who I was very unwilling. Honestly, they’re like, Michelle, just try it. And if it doesn’t work, we’re not going to hold you responsible. I said, okay, let’s try it. And so I literally took them through the exact same process that I did myself. And it worked really well. And I realized the missing piece was all I needed was a project manager. And so we hired a project manager. And now the process is duplicatable. And then accidental business was born, which is pretty awesome.

First of all, in what you just said. And this is why I said, we’re like, kindred spirits. I mean, you talked about legacy, right? It’s funny after a stroke that’s, like, the first thing that I’ve learned about myself as well. It’s kind of thinking about, what am I going to leave behind for future people, future generations. You also kind of unraveled something that’s very difficult to deal with when you have a stroke is depression. And I think most people, they may hear us having this conversation right now. I’d probably be like, there’s no way in hell these two people who’ve had strokes, there’s no way in hell these two people’s faces were drooping. There’s no way in hell that their bodies were, like, number on one side. And they’re having this conversation right now. But the reality is that you have to work your ass off to get to the point to where we are currently right now. But on that journey, you get hit with that. I was this now on this. I can never be this again. How the hell am I gonna live for myself? And not to say everyone’s gonna be suicidal. But you go into very dark places and trying to figure out what the light is. So I commend you for not only figuring out the light, but you made the light into a system and you monetized it golden. Definitely. So let’s just time travel back a little bit, like, like, I think something else that we shared as well, too. I mean, you were an insurance as well. Are you still an active life insurance agent and all that as well?

No, actually, I let them lapse, but yeah, I did. I used to. I used to have my series 663 65, and then my life and health crazy because I had my six as well.

And I let that last because I was like, I don’t feel like dealing with Sunrun. I still have my insurance because I was like, okay, that’s kind of low maintenance. I could kind of maintain that. So how did you go from kind of being in that space transitioning into the MBA? Like, how did that happen?

Yeah. When I was a financial advisor and worked for the insurance firm, I was actually hired to run the insurance Department. The goal was for me to become a partner in the firm. And so in order to become a partner in the firm, I really needed to have better credentials. I needed to get my CFP or needed to get my MBA. And we already had a CFP on staff. And so I decided that MBA would be the better route. And so honestly, that’s how it happened.

Got it. So if you could define yourself in three to five words, what three to five words would you choose for yourself?

Determined, patient, visionary. I don’t know how to say this in one word, but never give up.

Yeah, definitely. So you have a business now that’s essentially pretty much self maintained to a certain extent. I mean, I’m sure your hands are still in the business, but you have it so systematized that you’re using your own soup, right? You’re outsourcing. It like, how is your business structure? Is it an LLC? An S Corp. C Corp. Yeah.

So it’s structured as an LLC, but it’s a there’s different types of LLC. So ours is actually an LLC. So it’s actually filed when we file taxes. It’s almost like a sole proprietor, but it is its own entity. And I just didn’t want to bring on more than one partner. So that’s why I had to be enough.

Got you. So you’re a partnership as well?

No, I didn’t want to have to get aboard. I didn’t want to have a dress with that. Yeah. So I set up the LLC, and then when we file taxes, it goes through the S got you.

So listening to this podcast, someone may listen and say, okay, in three years, it took you to kind of overcome and kind of become who you are right now. But obviously, the business that you’re in has just started. But essentially, you’ve been on this journey for a long period of time. So how long have you been on your business journey?

Yeah. I started like everybody did with their little side hustle dabbling in entrepreneurship and outsourcing 15 years ago.

Got you outsourcing. So I guess we just dive into this outsourcing. And obviously, I love this topic because I always tell people that you have to understand that if you could multiply what you’re doing in multiple different time codes, then you could be working while you’re awake, you’re sleeping and things are getting done for you around the clock. So you alluded to the Philippines earlier. Is there a particular reason why you use the Philippines versus other resources yes.

A couple of very specific ones. So first of all, the Filipino culture is amazing. They’re very teamwork driven. They’re very family driven. And so when I wanted to build a business, I wanted to make sure that I was building a team, not just a group of people who just wanted a job. I wanted somebody who was going to take ownership and want to build the company as much as I did. And so I found that culture there another really big reason is English is their primary language. So if you go inside of a hospital or a school or a lawyer’s office, they speak English. Obviously, that’s a huge help versus somebody who maybe that’s their second or third language. The third reason is they are very immersed in our culture. So they love Korean drama. And then they love pretty much everything else American. Right. So they’re watching the NBA. They’re watching March Madness, just like we are. They’re watching the Kardashians. It’s funny because they think we all live like the Kardashians, so they understand our flying. They understand everything like that. So that was hugely helpful. But probably the biggest reason that I went to the Philippines was the US dollar to Filipino peso conversion is very, very favorable in the United States. And when I built the business, I decided it wasn’t just going to be for money. There had to be a bigger why there had to be a reason. And so my goal when I built awesome outsourcing was to actually break the cycle of poverty in the Philippines. And so by doing that, what I do is I pay them the equivalent of about $50 an hour in the United States. I pay for their health insurance, I pay for their retirement, I pay for their they have, like, a loan program. You can’t buy a car or a house without a loan program there. I pay a 13 month bonus, two weeks vacation, and then I pay all the transfer fees. And so what that does is because they’re very family oriented. Not only does that help them, but they’re multi generational. So that’s usually helping their grandparents, their parents, them, their kids. And a lot of times their nieces and nephews and cousins. So what happens is they’ll pay for their kids to go to school, and then they’ll pay for all their nieces and nephews to go to University as well. And so I realized if I can pay them enough that they can provide education for the next generation, we can break the cycle of poverty, one employee at a time, and that’s what we’re doing.

Wow. I’m just trying to listen to what you just said and just breaking it down and just kind of like to be honest, you didn’t have to do that. You chose to do that. So it also kind of gives, like, not only commendable for you, but you’re actually making a difference, which is great, in a sense, so let’s just talk about that a little bit. So you’re not essentially giving away money, but you’re having them work for for a living. You’re paying them a higher premium than just say majority. I mean, I think the Philippines, I could probably get a PA for $3 an hour, $4 an hour. So you’re going essentially 15 F ten fold above that. And you’re doing that to change an entire. So what is your long term plan for that? I mean, what do you see that structure look like 20 years from now?

So the cool part is we’re actually seeing it now. A couple of stories. I had one of my guys who’s still in College, and he was one of my video Editors, and he did such a good job that I gave him a ton of work. And for video editing, I happened to pay per minute of editing. So I paid him $8 per minute video editing. Well, we paid him so well that he was actually able to go into his class and pay for his entire class to have the Adobe suite. And so what that did was they could all then become freelancers, and each and every one of them were able to get a job. And so we get stories like that all the time when they recently just were hit with a pretty nasty typhoon, and they all bonded together and put tons of money into the community to rebuild the community. And so my goal is I hope that five years from now, we have 300 employees and we’re able to do that for 300 families because I’m able to touch each and every part of that. But in addition to that, we’re also going in and we’re putting in Wells, which sounds crazy because it’s the Philippines, and there’s water everywhere. But there’s not clean water. And there are a lot of homeless people in the Philippines. And so what we’re doing is we’re picking the outskirts of not the major but the outskirts where there are these camps of homeless people. And we’re putting in well, so that they’re able to just get clean water and be able to do simple hygiene things. And so as we build and grow, we just keep adding on more and more benefits like that.

Yeah, this is definitely beautiful. So just think about this from a science fiction point of view, if you could time travel back to, say, 1020 years, what’s one thing that you would choose to do differently if you could do it all over again? Oh.

Great question. I. Probably would have kicked myself out of the nest faster. And what I mean by that is I was so afraid to take the leap and so afraid to completely outsource because nobody could do the job as well as I could. And I didn’t really want to give it to anybody because they weren’t going to do it the way I wanted it. And then it was just going to create a bunch of rework and blah, blah, blah. Right. I had all my reasons by having a stroke. I literally couldn’t do the task myself anymore. And what I realized was if I can get somebody else to do that task of what I would have done. So it’s not big freaking deal. Who cares? I freed up my time. I don’t have to do it anymore. I freed up my brain power, and I use this example of social media posting, right? Business owners, especially entrepreneurs. We spend a ton of time learning all the things. Right. So we’re creating social media graphics and we want it to be perfect, right? Because we want our image to be perfect. And yes, that’s all important. But to a certain extent, like if I say somebody else makes the graphic and I would have maybe move the person two degrees to the right and I would have maybe done something slightly different, change the color font or whatever. Does that really matter in the grand, huge scheme of things? Not really, because it’s getting done on social media, which it probably wouldn’t have gotten done as fast anyway, because I would have still been perfecting it. Secondly, is my branding and my message still prevalent where somebody is going to look at that and be able to book an appointment and I’m able to help them then. Yeah. So what I found was the interesting part is by me doing all those tasks myself. I was actually doing a disservice to my clients because I was spending so much time doing all those little things that I should have never had my hands in in the first place that I wasn’t able to help enough people. And so in essence, I was actually doing them a disservice because I was using all my time and brain power on the stuff that I should have been getting rid of. And so if I could do it all over again, would kick myself out of the nest earlier and make myself delegate sooner is definitely very.

Very powerful, because I had to come with terms with that myself as well. Kind of building agencies and building brands and have a graphic design background. So for me to your point about design, you want it perpendicular to the square, you want it down to the Pico and you want everything exact. But the reality is how much time and effort am I going to put into that to deliver something that’s going to go across someone’s feed for 20 seconds or less. And it’s like was my 3 hours of doing that really worth the 20 seconds of time for somebody to possibly convert. So we’re going to a year like your background a little bit, right. So, I mean, obviously you have an MBA, but you say you don’t have it, but I think you’re still an NBA quality person. People that have MBAs that don’t have your tenacity or have your skill set currently. So you come from an entrepreneurial background because it seems like it’s ingraining your DNA.

I don’t at all, actually. Which is hilarious. My family, still to this day, does not understand why I do what I do. But came when I read a book. The very first book somebody handed me was Rich Dad Port At by Robert Kiyosaki. And that changed the way that I looked at the world. And I went, you mean, I don’t have to do the nine to five thing every day for the rest of my life. Somebody handed me that book when I was 22, and I was working retail hours, like, 50 hours a week dealing with customers spitting on me. And I’m like, dude, I could handle getting out of this. Right? So that kind of started a fire in me. And the very next book that I picked up was a four hour work week by Timothy Paris, and that really lit the fire. So I was like, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. I have found the secret. And of course, it didn’t quite work like that. But I did what everybody did. I’m like, oh, great. Let’s outsource something to Brickworks Indy, and then I’m going to turn in a blog and it’s going to make all this. And it’s gonna be awesome. Right. Well, I’m a little older than everybody else probably listening to this. So that’s what we did in the nineties and two thousands. But anyway, so those two books really lit the fire in me. And I started a habit of every month I wanted to read one book that was going to get me better. And I’ve kept that even through it. Now I can’t read anymore. But I refuse to use that as an excuse. So what I do is I buy the book and then I also buy the audible. And so I listen to the book while I’m looking at the words and then I can comprehend. And I think that that’s been like, the difference was the education of myself.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, I’m just listening to you. And it’s like, you’re just preaching that acquire to so many similarities in our stories. And to your point, I mean, about reading books versus audio books. And because of that, I decided to kind of create a book club. And, like, right now in the book club, the goal is to read one book per week. And I’ve kind of created some videos on how is it possible to read one book per week? Which goes back to your statement that you said earlier about using devices like my house. I have Alexa glasses, Alexa to brush Alexa, everything Alexa in the car, so I can seamlessly listen to an audio book no matter where I’m going in my house, it can just transition from device device and 20 minutes here, 40 minutes there. It adds up to where you’re able to read a book per week pretty easily. So just to dive into your family life, I mean, obviously, it seems like you’re completely engaged. And even though everything is outsourced and systematized, I think that the overview arching of the management side of that maybe a little bit difficult. So how do you juggle your work life with your family life?

I am super lucky and that I have a very supportive partner, and she is because a lot of times, even still, I’ll be like, yeah, I don’t want to do this anymore. And she’s like, no, Michelle s like, you have to do this. You are so good at this. And so I have a cheerleader in the background. And so that’s a huge, huge part of it. But I’ve set up a lot of boundaries with my business. And honestly, my business coach made me do that. So I have I work four to 6 hours a day Monday through Friday. I don’t do anything on the weekends, and once a quarter, I go away for a week and a half where I never touch anything. And so the reason for that is when we go away for a week and a half, what we’re really doing is by not doing anything. Not only am I unplugging, but we’re trying to figure out what’s still broken. And so when something breaks, then I know, okay, that’s what I have to pay attention to. And systematize when I get back. What I’ve done is just one piece at a time. I’ve slowly systematized everything. So it literally runs very much without me there. So I really don’t have to do do anything in my business. It really literally runs on its own, which is amazing. And a lot of people are jealous. So I feel kind of bad saying that.

I think it’s commendable, in a sense, that to your point of recovering from a stroke, rebranding rebuilding everything essentially from scratch. It gives everybody else the opportunity to not only admire you, but to follow in your footsteps and understand if you can do it, then why the hell can anyone else do exactly what you were able to achieve? And like you say, you’re running on autopilot. At this point in time, there’s huge companies that would die to be in your shoes. And they’re still trying to figure out how to even process orders.

And I think that was because I made myself grow slow on purpose because I wanted to build the system and then let it break with three clients versus 300 clients. And so I put processes and systems above everything else. And that was more important than the dollar amount coming in, which is really nice to say, some people can’t do that. But at the same time, when you fix that, then you’re no longer fighting fires, the time that you would have been spending fighting fires. Now you can go build something else, right. And there were a couple of super important books that helped me do that. One was Work with System by Sam Carpenter. The other one was actually Profit First by Mike McCalla. Have you ever heard of that book? Okay. And so that forced me to create a business that ran lean and was profitable. And so by implementing Profit first before I did anything else, then I was able to really build the system around it and grow slowly because from day one, we were profitable. It didn’t matter because the numbers worked.

That’s so beautiful. I’m just sitting here in odds. It’s commendable to the extent of anyone that’s listening to this podcast right now, and you’re hearing what she’s saying, and you have an opportunity to stop what you’re doing and to reevaluate what you’re doing while you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Obviously, the results would be more fruitful if you were to stop long enough to realize that there are issues in your current system and there’s opportunities to make them run a lot smoother than they’re currently running right now. So diving into your morning routine, since you’re so systematized and like you said earlier, you was making coffee, but you may have put that in the toaster. What is your morning routine look like?

Yeah. When I wake up, which is 750 every morning, I have a system set up where Google turns on. And it tells me what the weather is going to be like for the day. So I know what to wear. It tells me what the first three appointments are on my schedule, and then it automatically starts a morning meditation for me. Right. And so I actually lay in bed for the first 30 minutes just listening to that to get my brain rate, because when I first wake up, my brain doesn’t automatically just jump out of bed. So I do that 30 minutes meditation to get my brain right for the day, get up, take a shower, and then I have a checklist on my mirror that says, hey, did you floss? Did you brush your teeth? Did you take your medicine? All the things? Right. So then from there, I go into the kitchen and it tells me, okay, feed the dog. So I then feed the dog and open the door where we have a little doggy door so he can go in and out whenever he wants. And then we actually moved everything in our home so that I can’t accidentally put water in the toaster because the toaster used to be right next to the coffee machine. And so now the toaster is on this side of the kitchen and the coffee pot on that side of the kitchen. So just little things like that keep me from making mistakes, because now when I put the water in and I go over, I can’t accidentally put it in the wrong machine. And what’s cool is like when you sit and you think about that, then you think about it for business. What happens if we just move the pot over there? How does that fix things? So anyway, so then make my coffee, come in, I check my email, and then usually I’m on my first appointment by 930 or ten.

Wow. So it almost seems like I’m gonna be Frank. And it’s actually the question. Do you think if it wasn’t for the stroke, you would be as effective and as efficient as you are currently because you have to be right now because of the stroke?

Absolutely not. That’s why I call the stroke my blessing in disguise. It literally is the silver lining on the cloud because I was so distracted by, you know, pushing harder to get to the next level to get the corner office to get whatever it was more clients. I just need that one more perfect client. Right. And so I was so distracted that I didn’t take the time to sit down and really tear it apart. And so had that not happened, I would probably still be spinning my wheels, to be very honest.

Yeah. I mean, it’s not every day that I have a I guess like you to where I’m kind of, like, not stop, but it’s just listening to you and just recapping and just re visualizing exactly what you just said and thinking about how would everyone’s life be uniquely different if they had to go through such a life changing event? What would they come out with at the end? And you’re like the formula for that? You took broken eggs and everything, and you baked a cake. That’s not only a cake for you, but a cake for family generations in the Philippines and for your local family as well, is definitely an amazing story. So I think earlier we kind of drove into books a little bit, right. So before we were talking, you were saying that you also wrote your first book. So I mean, this is the time, usually when I Act for recommendations. But I think you’ve made, like, six recommendations for books. So let’s dive into your book a little bit.

Okay. Sure. Yeah. I am super excited about this. And this will show you the power of outsourcing. So I wrote my first book. It’s called Running On A. It’s called Running On Autopilot, how to Find Higher Train and Remotely Manage a Virtual Assistant. And here’s the cool part about this book. It is literally the A to Z manual. Everything that I know is in this book. But I didn’t write this book. What happened was I took my course that I created, and I hired a writer, and I said, Noriel, I need you to go through all of these videos, and I need you to break them into chapters. And so he went through and he created all the chapters. And then I hired a graphic designer, and I said, okay, Lois, I need you to take the words from the chapter, and I need you to bring them life. I need pictures, I need graphics, I need examples. I need you to put it in design to create the book and all that good fun stuff. And so literally, because I am physically not able to write a book, it’s not possible. But I can talk. And so what I did was I just talked the book out into a video and then I outsourced the book. But I am Super Super proud of this book. You can find it on Amazon, and it literally will teach you from the very beginning infancy stages where to find a VA, all the cultural stuff that you need to know and then how to hire them without having to micromanage. So super proud of it.

And it’s under. I mean, do you have a pen name or it’s under your actual Michelle?

Yeah. It’s under my actual name. Wow.

Great. So I don’t think anyone out there that’s looking for opportunity to even comprehend or understand how these systems could really work for you. I haven’t even picked up the book yet, but obviously, if I wasn’t on this call right now, I’ll be downloading the book right now. Is it audio format as well?

I’m working on it. I’m interviewing somebody to read it for me at this point because I tend to stutter a lot, so it’s coming. So hopefully in the next two or three months, that part will be done. But right now it’s an e book and paper practice.

Great. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I’m giving you a copy, but I wanted to get a signed copy eventually, sooner or later in the near future, at some time or the other. So going into your journey, right. So obviously, I think you talked about legacy. Where do you see yourself and your business? 20 years from now? And I think you alluded to it a little bit, but just go into that a little bit more.

Yeah. Honestly, I hope in 20 years nobody sees me. I hope they just see the legacy that’s left. I hope that this has again. I’ll refer to another book, but Mike Malkit created a book called The Pumpkin Plan, and he talks about being the biggest pumpkin in the patch and how you are just so awesome to your clients that you are making a world of difference in their lives and your employees lives. And so I really hope that we are the biggest Punkin in the virtual assistant space so that we’re able to change that many lives because every single person that we’re freeing up their time and giving them their time back as a business owner means that somebody else has a job. And I’m now breaking the cycle of poverty in the Philippines, and that is what I hope. I hope nobody sees me. I hope everybody just sees that.

Got it. I think to my point that I made earlier, it was comical in statement, but the reality is your MBA is working live and well, you definitely understand business structures and the point of wealth management as well. Like, the further away you are from your clients is the more money and the more of an Empire you would essentially have. So you’re definitely on the right track for that.

And it’s back to that profit first. Right. Once we systematize everything, it’s just numbers. We know we’re profitable, right. The systems are already there. The more people you put into is more money than it makes. It’s a very beautiful equation.

Like I said, your MBA is live and well. Okay. Are you talking about these systems? Right. So I think for some people, they’re like, what kind of systems is she using? I understand there’s people and that’s somewhat of an organic system. But what software technologies are you using that you would not be able to do what you do on a day to day basis without.

Yeah. So there are a couple of things that I do. I automate as much as humanly possible. And so I decided to use almost like a business in a box type deal where all of my landing pages, my email, any tracking, my CRM billing. It’s all in one house. And I actually use entreport for that. And I actually hired somebody who is an automation specialist. And so the cool part is that literally, from the time that somebody clicks on a Facebook ad, it brings them into the system, they have the appointment, it sends them a thank you card. It sends them directly, like, literally the entire process from start to finish goes without me touching anything, which is amazing. And I probably did a really bad job of explaining that, but it’s like, super cool. But then on the other side, the social media side, I don’t want to spend any of my time doing that either. And my VAS are honestly too valuable to be spending their time doing that when a piece of software can do it really well. So what I do is I try to create a hybrid. I figure out what kind of software is going to get us 80% of the way. And then how can my VA come in and use their expertise to get it the last 20% of the way? So what I use is a program called Social B, and it’s just a social media scheduler. There’s nothing special about it. It’s like buffer sweet. And some people argue because they’re like, oh, it throttles your traffic. Well, yes, that’s true. It does throw out your traffic a little bit, but 70% of people seeing my stuff is a whole lot better than 0% of people seeing my stuff. So I’m okay with it. Schedule once is a tool that I use all the time, because inside of there not only does that give them access to my calendar and my sales reps calendars, but also there are forms in there, and there are lots of different ways that you can do this. But the cool part is when somebody schedules it and schedule once, I never have to prep for an appointment, because inside of there is my Zoom link, and they’ve already filled out all those questions. So all the information that I need is right there. I just click on the button, it pops the thing and I’m ready to go.

Nice. Nice. I think Social B is one of those platforms, and I found Social Be through. What was that? It was one of the not affiliate programs, but it was like when they first started out actually was a Sumo.

Sumo. Sumo Sumo.

I could sit here and talk about a Sumo day in and day out because it gives us an opportunity not only to get in on the ground level, but to actually talk to the developers and manipulate their applications for our needs and our requirements because they’re so brand new in the market space. So with social media, it’s kind of dive in that a little bit more. I mean, obviously anybody that’s familiar with, like, Hootsuite and all the other platforms. I like Social Be because it’s simple to use, and it makes it very transparent to use versus all these other, like, for example, you kind of have to drill down and you kind of have to figure out like, okay, how do I install this? How do I set this up? But social media is so kind of, like, clean and simple that you could just drop a CSV file in there and have a year’s worth of content ready to go automatically done for you. Are you using it for that same premise, or are you using any other hidden bells and whistles of social being?

Yeah, I have mine segmented by, so I don’t necessarily just drop a year’s worth of general content. I have each bucket have a specific reason, and I keep all my stuff evergreen in there so it can just keep cycling through. And so what I try to do is I try to do three value posts and two sales posts. Right. So one is just dropping value. One is a call to action, and I shouldn’t say call to action. Every post that you have should have a call to action if you’re being a smart business owner, but one is actually just delivering value. And, hey, we could help you out. The other one is, hey, I’ve got this thing. You need it here’s where you click. And then I have in addition to that, every time I use case studies and testimonials like, crazy, I’m constantly filtering those through, too. So the nice part is each bucket is I am so sorry. I thought I closed all these and it’s like, okay, I don’t know if you could hear all the dinging that’s one of the super cool parts is because as you build the system, Social Be is flexible enough that it can move with your marketing goals, and you can then set it up where it’s like evergreen. It’s literally set it and forget it. And so that’s the part that I love about it is the really simple, simple graphic user interface. It’s just drag and drop. And here you go. Have a nice day. And it’s less expensive than, like, hot, sweet, and buffer. So I don’t know if I answered your question. I feel like a time.

You definitely did. You definitely did. I mean, it’s point blank, period is a great, great, great application. And obviously, again, I’ve said it many times before. Are you not familiar with AppSumo? Just put AppSumo on your list to do before the night out, and it’ll probably change things for you drastically really quickly. So this dive into final words of wisdom. Let’s say someone 2030 years old. I had some kind of crisis in my life. Maybe I had a stroke, maybe I have cancer, but now I have an opportunity. I’m at the fork in the road. I can subside to the depression side and kind of give up and quit. Or you’re my voice of reason. What are you going to say to me to make me lean more towards the voice of reason and achieve something for my life?

Yeah. Going back and thinking at that point in my life, I was in so much pain and I was literally laying in bed all day just in so much pain. You literally just want to escape the pain. And I think if I had to tell myself, it would be, it’s okay. It’s not going to be like this forever. Just keep going. If you can just get better, all you have to do is just just brush your teeth today. That’s all you have to do. And as we slowly build on those blocks, you’ll realize that life can become better. And it doesn’t. Is it going to be the same way that it was? No, no, it never will. I’m a shell of what I used to be, to be very honest, but that doesn’t have to stop you. That if you can find the courage to dig inside of you and pick yourself up and keep going, you will find a way to make it work and just don’t give up. There’s going to be crappy days, and it’s okay to have crappy days, but just don’t give yourself the excuse every single day that today is a crappy day. I’m just not going to do it.

Definitely powerful stuff. So how could our audience find you now? I know eventually you’re planning on disappearing and letting the system run. Right? But how can they find you on social media? Like, what’s your handle website?

Yeah. So I primarily hang out on LinkedIn and Facebook so you can find me on Facebook under Diakonos 23. So that’s D-I-A-K-O-N-O-S 23. And then on LinkedIn. It’s just Michelle Thompson. Also, I think if you just type in awesome outsourcing, our business pages will come up from there. And obviously, awesome outsourcing. Com, you can send me an email there.

It doesn’t dive into your services a little bit. Who is the part question, right. Who is your ideal target audience? And what kind of price point buying from my range? Can they come in?

Yes. So we are looking for entrepreneurs who are at six figures looking to scale the seven, but they’re wearing too many hats, and they just can’t seem to grow because they can’t figure out how to get those hats off. That is where our superpower really comes in, because we can sit down and we can tear apart all those hats and figure out. Okay, this one, you have to keep this one. We can delete this one, we can get off your plate. And so we work in bucket of hours. So it’s either 20 hours a week or 40 hours a week. And we make it pretty simple. It’s 1675 an hour for the work. We also do lead generation. So if that’s where your point is, you’ve got the system set up, but you need to turn the pipeline on. We can do lead generation on LinkedIn or Facebook, and that’s 1200 a month. And if you go to awesome Outsourcing. Com services, all the pricing and all the details is is right there for you. I’m not too worried about anybody stealing my stuff and duplicating it.

Yeah, but I think you have it so honed in. It’s kind of like someone is chasing behind you and you’re well ahead of them. It may take them a longer period of time to figure out your nuts and bolts versus just hiring you to get the job done. So only makes sense. Let’s go to some bonus questions. Right. Bonus question, bonus pression. So if you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive uninterrupted for those 24 hours, who would it be? And why.

Henry Ford? And the reason I picked him was he was the master at hiring people who were smarter than he was and then building a system around it. And I would love to pick his brain on how he was able to take people who were so much smarter than him and fit them in the system and turn it into what he did.

And I mean, you got to think about that, too, when he did it, it was well over 100 years ago, and it was just kind of kind of I guess it was like the Industrial Revolution timeframe, but how he created a system in that time frame and knew that that system was going to last as long as I mean, we still have parts of that system now. It’s kind of ingenious in itself for him to even have that much foresight. Crazy. Yeah. Definitely crazy. Last bonus question. What’s your most significant achievement to date?

Not giving up. I know that’s kind of a cop out answer, but like, if you could have seen the three years of struggle to get to hear, it would have been really easy to just give up. And I’m sure you have the exact same story. There were days when I like, like, how I want to go to physical therapy again. And honestly, I think that being able to take such a horrible thing, like a stroke and turn it into something positive that’s actually giving back to people. I would have to say that’s probably my greatest achievement to this point.

Definitely. I mean, I think obviously in life, there’s many achievements that you could come across, but just hearing your story and being inspired by your story, I could definitely commend you and tell you that I 100% agree with you. I think that is not just an achievement, but it’s your scale, your achievement. It’s not just about you. It’s about so many other people. It’s remarkable that you have enough insight to not only do it, but you’re doing it and you’re doing it well. So I definitely appreciate that going into closing, right. As we had this conversation. I mean, maybe you’ve had some questions that came up that you may want to ask me. So this is the time that the microphone, the floor is yours. Are any questions that you’d like to ask me?

What was the first thing that you delegated that you didn’t feel like you had to micromanage first thing that I delegated it.

I didn’t feel like I had to micromanage. I think it’s three things off top my head. One was editing this podcast. I found someone that was just a great editor, and I had opportunity to kind of give him some piece mail. And, you know, at that point, it was a system. At that point, he could do the job without me having anything twice about it. In addition to that, it was another VA that I hired, and originally, he was just a regular VA. And I’m really big on accident the questions of, like, okay, you’re a VA. But what is your background? What is it that you really want to do? And in that conversation, I found out that he was more of, like, a developer, more software, more web. So I was like, okay, dude, I don’t want to waste your time giving you PA work when you are like a developer and you want to code, and that’s what you love to do. So it gave me an opportunity to pull them from that space and bring him into the development space. So, like, now he’s kind of running that behind the scenes for me.

Nice. That’s awesome. So did you feel like it was sorry. I know I’m not interviewing you, but I feel like it was easier to hand off tasks that you didn’t know anything about for stroke.

Hell, no more stroke. Everything was mine. I was walking around with these barrels of jugs, and I’m holding on to all this weight, lugging it around. Probably one of the reasons why I had a damn stroke to begin with, right. And then after that, it was just kind of like, well, how can I scale if I’m do anyone doing anything? How could I multiply if I’m doing everything kind of like where you were? I’m kind of in that space now to where I’ve opened up, to where I got an outsource. Everything I possibly can. I have to create a system for everything I possibly can. If someone sends me an email, I wanted to automatically respond back with this. I want to automatically send them this before I even had a time to even open my email to even think about giving them a response. Yup.

That’s funny. We both have the exact same story, which is kind of why I think sometimes people have such a hard time delegating, right? Because we were forced to and they’re not forced to yet. So it’s harder for them a lot of times.

Yeah. And it’s kind of like what we was talking about earlier. I think everything happens for a reason. Even you and I crossing our path. If I didn’t have a stroke, I wouldn’t be doing this podcast. Potentially, if you didn’t have a stroke, you probably wouldn’t be doing what you’re doing, and our lives probably wouldn’t have overlapped down the road. So everything happens for a reason. And it’s kind of like I said, I feel like we’re Kendra spirits because we have so many similarities in our stories. And the return of that investment is we’re helping other people, and that’s the best thing you can do to create a legend. It’s like, how can I give people something that would help them? Because I can do it. And then I could teach someone else to do it. And again, I’m teaching them how to fish. I’m not just delivering fish to them for quote of all times.

Yes, I love it.

Well, I come to clothes, and she I definitely appreciate your time. I definitely commend you for what you’re doing. You’re definitely inspiration to people that have strokes of people that don’t have strokes. You’re just inspiration in general. And I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me on. This has been a blast. I really appreciate it.

Definitely. As a grant over and out.