Hiring Team Members (and Clients) Who Are the Right Fit
How can you be sure you’re hiring the right person? Or that you really want to work with a particular client, for that matter?
Val Geisler has learned the hard way, by giving contractors a chance when they didn’t honor her time and taking on clients who raised a red flag early on. And while there is no magic formula for identifying who is the right fit and who isn’t, Val can tell you what to look out for—and when to listen to your gut.
Val has a wealth of experience, having worked in corporate America, the startup world, and as an entrepreneur with her own VA and project management businesses. Today, she shares how all of these endeavors have culminated in her current venture, a co-working space for parents with onsite childcare. She offers insight around hiring and training a team, explaining how her first pregnancy facilitated her transition from freelance VA to online business manager. Val walks us through her experience with the startup ConvertKit, discussing how maternity leave looks different as an employee versus entrepreneur. Listen in for Val’s take on why new moms need to know that their work matters and how motherhood and entrepreneurship have changed her for the better.
The Startup Pregnant Podcast Episode #039
Some quotes from the episode
- “Starting a business, being a freelancer, having those experiences—and then alongside of that, becoming a mother and learning what it’s like to be a working parent—all of those things exist because I’m meant to open this coworking space with onsite childcare.”
- “The people I hired knew that if they saved me time by not asking lots of questions, they would have more work—and they did.”
- “I always saw taking on a new client as … I was hiring them as much as they were hiring me.”
- “Everything in business is parenting and vice versa… We’re all just oversized kids.”
- “A title is a title, but a skill set is a whole different thing.”
- “[My first daughter’s birth] was just a total shock, both physically and emotionally. I had postpartum depression right away and then again at eight months.”
- “When my daughter left the house and was somewhere else being cared for by people I trusted, that was when I could really show up and get work done. Having that separate time is really important for me.”
- “The biggest different between entrepreneurship and employment is that in entrepreneurship, I … took two months leave because I couldn’t afford to take any longer. I needed to get back to work so that I could bring the revenue of the business back up to a place where I was bringing in revenue for myself. I really took a pay cut during my maternity leave as an entrepreneur, and then as an employed person, it was a fully paid leave. I didn’t have to worry about any of that.”
- “When you have a baby and you leave that baby to go to work, whether it’s your own company or someone else’s, you want that work to matter because you’re leaving behind this little person that matters so much to you.”
- “How can the work that the women in your life—who are pregnant or are taking maternity leave—how can it matter enough that they want to return to doing it?”
- “The traditional childcare system is broken and only accommodates traditional working parents, and 35% of the economy is freelancers. We need a solution for people who work flexible schedules.”
- “Being able to say no when I mean no—that’s been a real gift. Every time I do it, it encourages me to do it more.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT VAL GEISLER
Val is a digital strategist who specializes in email copywriting and email marketing strategy. She uses email to generate leads and close more monthly recurring revenue for her clients. Val is also the author of The Dinner Party Strategy, a guide to designing a superior customer service experience, and her work has been featured on Meet Edgar, Teachable, ConvertKit, Fast Company and The Huffington Post. Currently, Val is developing The Hive, a coworking space with onsite childcare for freelancers and entrepreneurs.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
THE STARTUP PREGNANT PODCAST & HOST
- Startup Pregnant
- Startup Pregnant Newsletter
- Email hello@startuppregnant.com
- Startup Pregnant on Facebook
- Startup Pregnant on Twitter
- Sponsor the Podcast
- Sponsor the Podcast
EPISODE SPONSOR & SPECIAL OFFER
Thank you to the sponsor of this episode: Acuity Scheduling. Acuity functions as an online assistant, helping to organize your schedule and collect client information. Take advantage of Acuity’s 45-day free trial for Startup Pregnant listeners at https://acuityscheduling.com/startuppregnant.
All of our sponsor offers are available on our website for you to grab the perks and discounts offered to podcast listeners: https://startupparent.com/sponsors.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks