186: Scale Your Agency with Speaking (ft. Stephanie Skryzowski)
If you own an agency, you may be wondering what it actually looks like to add speaking to your business. In this episode, Stephanie Skryzowski shares her strategy that secures consistent clients. She has successfully grown and scaled her agency in such a way that she’s always ready for more clients and has used speaking as a method to do that.
If you loved this episode and it motivated you to work on more polished presentations, I’d love for you to leave a review on iTunes and tell me about your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag me @jessicarasdall.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
MEET STEPHANIE SKRYZOWSKI
Stephanie Skryzowski is the founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting, which is an agency that provides financial strategy and services to small businesses and nonprofits around the globe. Her agency provides done-for-you services, while also running The Purpose & Profit Collective, which is a membership program designed to empower entrepreneurs to master their own finances.
EXPANDING BEYOND HERSELF
When Stephanie first started her business, she had four clients. As her client base grew over time, she realized there was a big distinction in the work that she was doing. Some of that work was high-level and strategic, while some of the work was just simple bookkeeping.
The first person that she hired was a bookkeeper to help take some of that work off of her plate so she could focus on the higher-level work. After that, she hired a virtual assistant and a CFO/hybrid bookkeeper.
Eventually, they shifted their strategy so that one person focuses on the higher-level work while another focuses on just bookkeeping. They found that this approach allows each member of the team to focus on their area of expertise. It also makes it easier to find the right people for each of the roles.
KEEPING UP A HIGH LEVEL OF SERVICE
There have been times when Stephanie has felt like she’s underwater. Providing a high level of service to a number of clients requires strategy and planning.
She found that hiring ahead of the clients was important because it allowed her to be one step ahead and to have the right people ready to serve new clients. You don’t want to be scrambling to hire someone to handle the new clients, you want to be prepared.
Having structure and processes in place is essential. It is very clear when things are broken on the back end, and putting time and resources into establishing these back-end systems is worth the investment.
PRIORITIZING SPEAKING
In early 2020, Stephanie and I met in person right before the shutdown. We created a strategic plan to help Stephanie become more confident in her speaking engagements. She wanted to secure bigger stages with larger audiences. While the pandemic was responsible for canceling some engagements, she was still able to speak on non-traditional stages.
Stephanie knew her business was in a position where it could bring on more clients, she knew her message, and she knew who her clients were and what they needed from her business. She prioritized speaking, and the results were better than she could have imagined.
SPEAKING TO THOSE IN THE “BEFORE” STAGE
One thing that became clear is that her existing target customers were not who she would be speaking to. While her existing clients were ready to spend several hundred to thousands of dollars per month on done-for-you services, the people in the room were more junior and could not afford the done-for-you services.
In order to better serve this new audience, Stephanie created a lower ticket offer, a membership, where the members would get the framework of the done-for-you services without having to pay the done-for-you pricing. The goal is that these members would eventually graduate from membership to purchasing the done-for-you services.
Friend, there is magic in keeping the pipeline full and not just serving your ideal client. Speak to those in the “before” stage and meet them where they are. Think of it as teaching them to fish rather than giving them the fish.
RUNNING AN AGENCY BUSINESS
When you run an agency business, it’s important to understand that everything you are doing is a long game. Nothing is a quick win. It’s all about being patient and consistent in planting seeds now to keep the long game going and sustainable.
About 10% of Stephanie’s current clients have come as a result of speaking. She has realized how great of an investment speaking is. Some clients will stay on for years, which means hundreds of thousands of dollars can come from just one speaking engagement. How can you afford not to do speaking engagements?
Loved this episode? follow us on Pinterest and pin it for later!
Other related episodes you’ll love
Review the Transcript for this Episode
Transcript for Episode 186:
If you run an agency, you might be wondering, what does it look like to add speaking to your business? Do you show up on behalf of the company? Do you speak? You know, under your own name? What does that look like? In today's episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes with one of my good friends and clients to share with you the exact strategy she's using. That might not be what you think that securing her consistent clients from speaking.
Welcome back to another episode of The speak to scale podcast for we're helping business owners just like you grow and scale your company by speaking on stages, podcasts, webinars and more. I'm your host, Jessica Rasdall. And I'm so excited that you're here today. Because I'm getting to chat with one of my dear friends. And we're almost it's almost like we're getting a behind the scenes catch up. Like, when you watch the I don't watch reality shows really. But like I'm assuming this is what it feels like when you watch those housewives, reunions or batch.
I don't know, I'm going to stop because I don't want. But anyways, Stephanie and I got together in person. She was my very last in person, VIP intensive client. Little did you know maybe that prior to 2020. I used to work with my clients in person for two days on their speaking strategy. And Stephanie was my very last in person. We met together here in Florida. Just a week before the world shut down. We had no idea what was going to happen.
We spent two days going deep into her business and her offers and her speaking strategy and her signature presentation, only to find out a week later, all of her speaking engagements would be canceled. So today, we are meeting back up again.
Fast forwarding two years later and unpacking how she's been able to use that intensive over the last few years even though her speaking engagements have been canceled. We're learning about how she's been growing and scaling her agency with such success. And in a way that she's always ready for more clients. We're also going to talk about why and how she's able to say yes to almost every single speaking opportunity that comes across her door, and how each of those presentations are creating consistent new leads and clients for her business. Whether you run an agency, or you're just a business owner, who's looking to improve your client acquisition this year, you're going to want to listen to today's episode because Stephanie is dropping some golden nuggets. And if you my friend are thinking, well just I want to work with you on my speaking strategy. We'd love to have you join us inside of the speaking strategy Academy.
We're always accepting new applications for new members. And whether you're an agency owner or not, I'd love to have a conversation with you to see if this is going to be the best fit for you in your business. If Stephanie was able to see this kind of success, even when all of her speaking engagements got cancelled. Imagine what you could do as events start to come back today. So head on over to our show notes, click the link, send in your application or just head on over to the speaking strategy academy.com. Once you apply, I'll be in touch with you one on one to chat about your next steps and see if this is a good fit for you. Until then, let's dive into today's episode are so different for our friends who haven't met you yet.
Give us the quick little rundown of who you are and what you do.
Sure, Stephanie is Chris our ski and the founder and CEO of 100 degrees consulting, and we provide CFO strategy and bookkeeping services to small businesses and nonprofits.
And you are so good at what you do. No, numbers are scary. And I love the way that you not only make it feel not intimidating and approachable, but you make the numbers feel empowering. I feel like that's a really hard thing to do. So before we get into that, I'd love to hear a little behind the scenes. What is your like business structure look like?
Yeah, so we are we're in agency and we provide done for you services. So we are actually in QuickBooks doing the work for you for your business. And so, for every one of our clients, we assign a CFO and a bookkeeper. So you have your own little finance team and so within my business we have like, you know, seven of those little finance team so seven bookkeepers, seven CFOs, and they're all full time employees I have the business and then they all everybody has like their sort of portfolio of clients that they work on every single month.
That is incredible. Like, in credible. So when you I have questions, I have lots of questions. So when you first started, I can't imagine you envisioned, like you would know that how this incredibly this would all play out. But how did you start to go from it just being you? How did that expansion get to like these bajillion team members, right? And employees? How did you expand beyond yourself?
So I initially, I, when I first started the business, I initially got four clients kind of all around the same time. So that was kind of like, my, you know, my, my core set of clients and I, I was fine, then in terms of capacity, I could keep going. So I added clients added clients. And then I got to the point where I probably had like eight or 10 clients, something like that. And I realized there was like a pretty big distinction in the work that I was doing. Some of it was very, you know, high level strategic working on budgets and financial presentations and things like that. And then the other side of it was very much like straight up bookkeeping, like very simple data entry. bookkeeping, and I realized, I didn't really want to do that. And so the first, the first hire that I made, actually, even before a virtual assistant, I know everybody says, Get a VA first. The first thing I, the first person I actually hired was a bookkeeper, to just help take some of that bookkeeping work off of my plate. I did hire a virtual assistant after that. And then as I continued to just get more and more clients I hired, the next person I hired was a sort of CFO, bookkeeper hybrid. So basically, another one of myself that could do some of the bookkeeping work, the CFO work, and then they had, you know, they had that group of clients. And so that's kind of how, you know, we layered on person after person. And then in the last, probably year and a half or so we switched up our, really our model. And instead of having one person that was doing both CFO and bookkeeping work for one client, we broke those roles out into two. And so we have one person that's focused just on that higher level work. And then one person that's focused just on the bookkeeping, and then every client gets like a team of two people. So that's how Yeah, that's where we started. And that's how we've grown.
That is incredible. And I'm assuming that in breaking those roles up a little bit, it's probably been a little easier to find the right people. For those roles. Oh, my
gosh, yes, 100%. Because what I was finding with those hybrid roles is that I was getting people who are either too Junior and couldn't like think at that strategic level, because they just weren't there in their career yet. Or I was getting, you know, CFOs with 30 years of experience that were like, Yeah, I'm not doing bookkeeping. And so it really has allowed people to better sit in their zone of genius, rather than trying to stretch outside of what they are really, really good at. And it also provides like dual coverage for our clients. So if somebody on our team goes on vacation, or is out, either expectedly or unexpectedly, there's always another person on the team that knows the client and can just jump right in. So yeah, it has been like such a game changer to switch up that model. And I think about that in other roles in your business as well. Like, trying to find somebody that could do all the things like, yes, it works ish, but like, it's never, you're never going to get somebody who's operating in that zone of genius. If they're doing like five different functions.
I think it's so easy for letdown, to write of like, oh, like, Oh, I could have done all of that. Why can't they know we're expecting way too much. It was like, we're just gonna find these magical unicorns. I appreciate that honesty, and behind the scenes insight so much. So I know that we've got a lot of listeners who are considering agency models or starting agency models. One thing that I'd love to hear a little bit about is like how, because I know you guys are like, forever full clients is not an issue. How are you keeping up that level of service that you provide? And in turn, like, what is that doing for you guys to provide such a high level?
Yeah, so to keep up that high level of service, I have definitely felt we've had like, exponential growth in the last several years. And honestly, there have been times where I felt like I'm underwater, like I am just barely treading water. And if I you know, take a breath for one second. Everything's gonna come crumbling down. That has never actually happened. Nothing has ever come come crumbling down. But again, in the past year and a half, what I've really landed on is hiring ahead of the clients basically. So we're going to keep the clients flowing in and I always need to be one step ahead of that. In terms of having enough people on the team to handle those clients, because the last thing you want, and I know this from experience, like lots of experience, the last thing you want is to bring a new client on board and have their, you know, entire first three months or their first impression really be kind of Rocky, because you're scrambling in the background to hire somebody in order to handle that client. So like, you know, you're just, you're not on top of things. And so I've really realized that we are ahead of hiring right now. So now, when a client signs with us, boom, they get a welcome email, they get assigned to their CFO, their bookkeeper, they can have a kickoff call within like the first week, and like we're rolling. So that has been huge. Just stay on top of the hiring, in fact, ahead of the hiring ahead of the clients, basically. And definitely, I've had to deal with some mindset stuff around that, like, what if I heard these because I'm hiring full time, people with full time salaries, I'm not hiring contractor, like, you know, for 10 hours a week, I'm hiring somebody, a W two employee, the full time salary. And so it's super scary, because I'm like, What if all the clients just stop calling me, I just have to call upon like previous experience that has literally never happened. And there has not been a week that I have not had a discovery call with a potential client in, I literally don't know how long so.
So I've had to kind of talk myself through that. And then the other thing to really stay on top of this growth is our back end systems, it's very clear, when you get to a certain point in growth, like it becomes very clear when things are broken on the backend when there aren't processes, when people on your team are all doing things differently, because there's no structure in place. And so to be honest with you, I hate operations, I hate systems. I don't like creating any of this stuff. I don't want to be a part of it. But I know how important it is.
So we've put like, a lot of time, a lot of resources, consultants, things like that into strengthening the backend systems of our business so that we have a clear process for everything. And things run a lot smoother. So I would say yeah, in terms of managing the growth, it's the people and the systems 100% in with that you guys provide such an exceptional level of service? What has that done for your like client pipeline?
I mean, the pipeline always has at least a dozen, like in a given point in time, we have at least a dozen proposals out there to potential clients. So we get I actually track this because I'm a numbers person. I mean, obviously, we get over almost 80% of our clients are coming from referrals. And so those referrals are actually probably more than that, if you count those that are just like, not only referrals from clients, but referrals of people just like in our orbit in our network. So we're probably getting about, yeah, probably about 80% through referrals. And so if we're getting a good, you know, giving good service people are going to anytime they talk to somebody that's like, oh yeah, man, our bookkeeper sucks, we really need a new bookkeeper. Well, they're gonna say, hey, guess what? 100 degrees, that team over there. They're awesome. You should call them. That's what happens literally every single week.
So yeah, so it all it's like, it's all connected. And then we get more clients. And then we have to add more people and build better systems. And then we get more clients like never a never ending cycle in a very, very good way into like, that's a great segue into speaking. And I'd love to hear that because I feel like you're talking about this as a great never ending cycle, right? It's like, leads and clients and growth and all of these things. But like even you had mentioned it, there's times when you feel underwater with this. So you before we knew what was going to happen in 2020, you you decided that speaking was going to be a priority for you. I'd love to hear a little bit of behind the scenes about how that came about for you. While you knew that was going to be something to focus on. Because I think when we are seasons of growth in business, or those uncomfortable, messy middles where we're trying to figure out the system, we're trying to get the things in place, it's it's easy to put something like that off and say like, well, I'll get to that when everything cools off. So why was that something that you were like, I know I need to be doing this?
Well, at that point in early 2020. And you and I had met I think we initially like engaged at the end of 2019 and then met in person, literally a week before the pandemic in March of 2020.
Literally days before the world shut down. Yes, yeah. Yeah, we got home from our trip to see you like literally days anyway. I had already done a little bit of speaking at that point. And I had, you know, was spoken in front of smaller audiences done little workshops, webinars here and there. And I knew that I needed to like refine what I had been doing, and I just didn't feel like I had a Very good, like sort of structure of the talks that I was giving. And I felt like I could, it was really like refining it because I wanted bigger stages with more people. And I knew we were at the point where you know, where the business could handle it if if we did bring in more clients. And so yeah, it was just really a matter of taking, you know, some of the stuff I had already been speaking about, but refining that adding stories, and kind of weaving all of the pieces of my own story into that as well.
Can you have such a great story, if such a great story. And I think that's such a great point, though, because I think, you know, like you're saying, like, we weren't figuring out what you should be talking about, uh, you know, your stuff like, this is what you do day in and day out, you're incredibly specialized. And you intimately know your clients and what they need from you, you know, this stuff, it was just a matter of putting it together in a way that no matter what the platform was a podcast stage, a huge conference, that you could feel confident walking in there and saying, like, this is the way I present that content, and it's going to be impactful. With that. I know, when we sat down together, and it's this way, for most done for you, service providers and agencies, I realized very quickly that your agency clients were probably not going to be the clients you'd be speaking in front of. And that was, specifically because you had a speaking engagement on the books like that's what like you had an engagement come? Did you get to do that one yet.
Girl, I still have not cancelled that year, and then moved virtual, but then like, that turned into something totally different. And then the following year, it got canceled again, and I did a virtual session for them. But it was like teeny, tiny, but it's happening. It is happening. And I'm doing it in April this year. So it is two years later. Yes.
But with this story, she had an a speaking engagement on the books, and that gave us the space to look at and say, Okay, who's going to be in this room? What do they need to hear from you. And I just were started to realize these are not going to be your done for your clients. And even if they are like this is could be potentially hundreds or 1000s of people you can't take on all at once. So I'd love to hear a little bit about like filler audience in on your other offer that was brought into the mix. And really how that is helped you when you're speaking one to many.
Yeah, so our you know, our done for you services are like several 100 to several $1,000 a month. And most of the time for on the small business side of the business, our small business clients, they're usually at several $100,000 in revenue and up to several million dollars in revenue. That's like, that's really where our ideal clients are, that's when they need our support, that's when they can afford us. And so we realized that the people that were going to be in the room were a little bit more junior than that in terms of their business journey and their revenue. And so we realize, Well, nobody's gonna pay you like $1,000 A month when maybe that's all they're making, they're not ready for that level of service. And so Jess had the idea of creating a lower ticket offer a membership, where, you know, they're getting the framework that I that I teach, and that I do with all of our done for you clients, and they're getting support. They're getting direct, you know, group but still intimate level of support in their business without having to pay the done for your prices. So they're still kind of doing their own bookkeeping, but we're over here overseeing and meeting with them every month and answering questions. And so we created this, this membership. And so I've actually been able to funnel, you know, a lot of different people in it, who have gotten on a discovery call with me, we've both realized during this discovery call that like you really can't afford us yet. I know you need help. I'm so glad we're having this call. Here's this other thing I have. So let's start here, and then you're going to graduate, we want you to graduate out of this membership into our services. And that has happened many times. So, you know, I've, I had had this vision where like, Oh, I'm gonna have like, 1000s of people in this membership. It's not there Like honestly, it's pretty small. But I what I didn't what I think I I don't know if I initially like thought this through when we first met together was the potential for those people to funnel into into one on one clients. And so when I think about the revenue and the impact that we've had through that alone, that like totally makes it worth it to keep going even though we don't necessarily have a ton of people active in the membership.
Yes. And that is I was doing an interview on someone's podcast today. And I was sharing about that of like, that's the secret I don't think I've ever talked about publicly, like magic of keeping your pipeline full with speaking, is not just speaking in serving your ideal client, but understanding the before stage and speaking to them as well. And so like knowing that if I have a speaking engagement, and if you have a speaking engagement, and these are people who are not ready for your high end service, you're done for you service, that being able to meet them where they are, give them a lower and lessen training offer, like help them get to that level of done for you. You are long game filling your pipeline for the future, and you're serving your audience so well, because you didn't just get up there and deliver a presentation and say, okay, but when you get X number of dollars in your business, then I can help you, you're like, No, this is something I want you to start working on right now. Here is like how you can be implement implementing this, like, we've, we're in your corner, we've got your back, this is not something you need to be shelling out the money on yet. You're not ready for that. And our goal is to get you ready for that. You've just done such a good job of meeting your audience where they are, and giving them what they need.
Yeah, I mean, we talk like one of the one of the big pieces of my framework that I teach that I do is like establishing your foundation, and basically making sure you have all your ducks in a row from day one. So if we were to speak to an audience of people who weren't necessarily our ideal clients, because they're not quite at that level yet, that doesn't even seem like that would be very, like authentic or kind, or I don't even know the word to use. If I were just like, okay, yeah, like, you need to start doing this from day one. But I can't help you. So good luck. You know, like, at least I can say, you need to start doing this from day one. And here's how I can help you do that.
And that's the part that I wish more people would think through not just how is this gonna benefit my business? Or how do I get this sale? But it really at the end of the day? Where is my audience right now this audience that I'm speaking in front of what is their reality? And how can I leave them better than I found them like, period? It's not that hard. But you do such a good job of that of really asking, who is going to be in this room? And based on that, how can I help them make this easier make this better? Like make better decisions? With their finances? Like you're showing them? Not make you're not giving them the fish? Right? Like you're teaching them to fish?
Yes. And I mean, that's all thanks to you showed me you show me the way girl
Oh, but none of that information is in my head. You are the numbers genius. I just took all of your magic and put it together in a thing. You said here, do this. But you do like you bring such great experience and compassion and understanding. And I've worked with tons of people in finance over the years. My fiancee is a financial analyst, right? Like I know numbers, I hate them. If you do such a good job, though, of helping, especially women in business, feel in control and empowered and just able to make good decisions with their numbers, and you're doing amazing work. Thank you. Okay, so to our friends who are agency owners are thinking of starting an agency. And maybe they're concerned that like, okay, like speaking, my, my show, like none of that stuff is the priority right now. It's getting more clients, it's building this team, what would you now being on the other side of this and confidently knowing what you would say anytime an opportunity comes up for you? What would you say to somebody like that?
I mean, I feel like an agency business with a high level offer, and you know, one on one client work, everything that you're doing is a long game, like everything that you're doing as long game there are not really any quick wins, right? You don't like turn on Facebook ads, and then have a million clients paying you all this money. Like that's just not how it works. Everything is a long game. So I feel like planting all of the seeds now to keep that long game going and sustainable. And you know, you know, sort of pushing out that, that pipeline even further, like everything you do is worth it. I just had I did a speaking engagement like a webinar. And I probably could think of like 20 examples this I did it probably a year ago. And while I was doing it, I was honestly like, oh my gosh, this doesn't really feel worth my time. Like, I'm kind of bummed I'm not getting paid for this. I you know, whatever. But But what I did was I presented the talk that you and I worked on together. And so at this point, I could do this thing in my three places.
Yeah, no prep, no work. I literally showed up, pop my slides open and went through the thing. Boom, I was done. And at the time, I was just like, I don't feel like having this meeting today. Anyway, months later a year later, we're probably like a year later, I just had somebody randomly join my membership. And she was on that talk. And so there's, you know, $2,000, or whatever it is in revenue from something that I did 12 months ago. And if I hadn't done that, I never would have connected with this woman, and she would not have joined the membership. And so there are no like, quick wins in in what we do in the sort of agency business. I feel like every speaking thing, every webinar, every talk you do is a seed planted that's going to grow maybe six months from now, maybe 12, maybe 24. So you have to be, you know, patient and consistent and persistent. But I mean, I think of like, I actually, because I tracked this do, we have about 10% of our clients, our current clients have come directly from speaking, like, as a result of speaking, they found me through some thing that I did in terms of, you know, in terms of speaking and so when I think about that, in terms of a number of Rev, like amount of revenue, I mean, some of our clients stay with us for years, they could be with us for next 10 years, that misses like 10s, maybe hundreds of 1000s of dollars, from one little speaking thing that's not going to you know, it's not going to play out maybe right away, but it will and so, I say honestly, I maybe I need to not say yes to everything I say yes to everything still, because I've seen it work time and time again. And if you have a talk like you and I put together if you've got your like, one hour core talk down, like I said, I can do this to my sleep, there's literally no work for you.
So an hour of your time to then reap, you know, new clients 10s, hundreds of $1,000 of revenue over the years, like how is that not worth it? Like, how can you afford? How can you afford to not do that, right? Like, we hit the nail on the head there? Like it's so important to have that stuff, like have your stuff set up? Because it does, it makes it so easy to say, yep, here's my topic, woods, put it on the calendar and just got to open up the slides. do my thing. I did it this week. On Tuesday, like two weeks ago, somebody reached out and said, Hey, can you talk to our group on the 15th of February and it was like, literally less than two weeks ago, I was like, Sure I'm down. I'm free at that time, I'll do it. And yeah, I mean, it was easy. I showed up and I did my slides, and they loved it. And
it's you left them better than they were, you probably gave them some incredible strategies that they can implement right away. And who knows how many of them are going to make their way into your business. And like, that's incredible that you already know that 10% of them come from that. But I can promise you, it's more that we don't know about because what's so cool is when we present in front of these groups, not only are we planting the seed with everybody in that room, but we have planted that seed for them to go and tell their friends. And just we have no idea of our impact. We don't know how far that message is reaching, we never will. And knowing that you're showing up, you're delivering something that you're proud of. And it's paying off in your business. And I'm so proud of you. Yeah. Okay, so for our listeners who want to know more who want to follow along with you who want to get maybe their finances in order, where do they find you?
So yeah, we're at 100 degrees consulting.com. That's the numbers like 100 degrees consulting.com. And our membership, if you're listening in, you're like, oh, wait, I would love this, but not. Yeah, I don't think I'm quite ready for having CFO in my business. If you go to 100 degrees consulting.com/pp Collective, that is our purpose and profit collective until you'll find all the information on that membership there. And that is what just was what you helped me develop two years ago. And I call sudents in there who rave about it, they love your program. And I'll link all of that in the show notes.
So you guys can easily just click and head on over there and binge all the 100 degrees things. So thank you so much for joining me.
This was wonderful. Yay. Thank you for having me.
Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of The speak to scale podcast. It would mean the world to us if you would take a minute to hop on over to iTunes and leave us a review. Your support allows us to continue creating this content for you. And we appreciate it more than you know. If you want to dive in even further with speaking, make sure you head on over to the public speaking strategist.com for free downloads, hands on trainings and so much more. As always, I'll be over here cheering you on friend. See you next time.
*Affiliate links may be included above. However, we only share resources with you that we personally use and love!