Ep 186 - Growing a Business With Virtual Assistants and Its Challenges With Trenia Norford

“Problems happen, but it’s the solution that counts.”

Join me, as I dive into the story of the thriving matchmaking and coaching business of our guest, Trenia Norford, founder of Connectricity. In this episode, we explore the transformative effects of virtual assistants in scaling business ventures and uncover how strategic delegation can lead to profound personal fulfillment. 

Trenia's journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship is nothing short of inspiring. We delve into the synergy of teamwork and the delicate balance of professional and personal growth, showcasing the magic of embracing vulnerability in leadership.

But it's not just about the successes. We also peel back the layers to reveal the common yet seldom-spoken trials of solopreneurship. Together, we unpack the challenges of maintaining drive and discuss critical investments in self-development that can reignite a waning passion.

Join us as we embark on a journey of hidden strengths, and discover why nurturing a grateful heart is essential for entrepreneurs navigating the complexities of business and life.

Learn more about Trenia Norford here:
https://connectricitymatch.com/
https://www.instagram.com/connectricity/
https://www.facebook.com/connectricitymatch/
https://twitter.com/connectricitymm

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I know this sounds pretty cliche because I mean everyone says this all the time, but this is truly a lesson for me that it's okay to be vulnerable it really is and it's okay to be transparent. Growing up, I was just taught to don't be too emotional. Just take in the information, absorb it, process it and then react emotionally, react in private.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to Master Delegator Podcast, the podcast that unveils the secrets of effective delegation and productivity for business growth. My name is Kristi Yoder, ceo of SmartVAs and Meet5StarVAs, and your podcast host. Can I tell you a secret? I am obsessed with teamwork and delegation. I consider myself a lazy entrepreneur, not because I don't like working, but because I always find ways to do things in the most effective and easiest way. I was born and raised in Manila, philippines, moved to the States and grew my agency from one person to more than 70 plus team members. As of this recording, I was able to grow my business 10 times more after I hired my first virtual assistant within three months. Together with my team, we have helped more than 300 stress and overwhelmed business owners scale their businesses by delegating to virtual assistants, and that's why my goal in this podcast show is to help you grow your business by giving you fresh perspectives on delegation, outsourcing, hiring virtual assistants and up-to-date proven business strategies, and teaching you how to scale your business while living a freedom-filled lifestyle. Whether you're a business leader, entrepreneur or someone striving for peak efficiency, this podcast is your go-to resource. We bring you insights from industry experts, successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders who have mastered the skill of delegation. If you are ready to elevate your productivity and achieve more by doing less, you're in the right place. Subscribe to Master Delegator on your favorite podcast platform and join our community of proactive delegators. Now let's get started on the path to becoming a true master of delegation. Welcome to another episode of the Master Delegator podcast. Today we have a special guest. Her name is Trenya Norford. She is good at helping people find love. She's a professional matchmaker and coach. Trenya has always loved love. She started by working with talk shows during college and later became a matchmaker as her career. In 2009, she married her best friend, brad, who convinced her to move to a new city. In 2012, trenya started Connectorcity, a place where she helps awesome people find each other. She is serious about helping you find love if you are serious about it too. Trenya grew up in Brooklyn, new York, and started working in magazines in 1996. Later she worked in marketing and sales, climbing the ranks in the banking industry, even becoming a vice president with Chase in Columbus, ohio. Trenya is actually one of SmartPace clients and we've worked with her since December of 2020. So join us today as we talk about business growth, personal and professional life challenges and, of course, virtual assistance. Trenya, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Thank you for having me, Chrissy. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2: 3:53

Yeah, me too. I've heard so many good things about your business and how you have grown as a business owner. So kind of take me back From the beginning you hired us as your virtual assistant. Just kind of like tell us where your business was during that time, december 2020, and where you are at right now. So it can be a lot, but I know you can do it.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Sure, sure, sure. So what's interesting is, when I decided to hire you three years ago, hire your company three years ago, I had just started being a full-time matchmaker and coach, and so that was during I remember that, yeah, yeah, around the time and I had just decided to be a full-time matchmaker and coach. Prior to that, I worked in corporate and always did this as a side hustle. So when COVID happened and I had to stay home and home school, I'm like you know what? I need help, I can't do it all. And so I started doing some research and your company kept appearing on my feed and so I decided to reach out to you. I had a consultation with Ms Regine and she blew me away like the first time. We chatted and we just kept moving forward. So I hired you guys and initially I worked with you as just to kind of help me with like little administrative things, right, and it was. And I think the reason why I did that is because with any new relationship, it's all about building trust. So I had you guys just help with like little administrative things. But then, as I started getting more into the business, I wanted you to help with more things, right, and so I started to do administrative things, led into social media, helping with managing my database, outreach and it just kept growing and growing until even recently. There's special projects that you guys help with helping me manage my website. I'm launching a new digital course, so you guys helped build out a new website for that. I'm also started with my group coaching program, so you guys helped me from the beginning to the end with building out my site for that and promoting it and just everything. So you guys are really really instrumental Like you're just You're more than assistants, Like you're like partners almost with just helping me with everything that I have going on with Connectorcy. As I grow, you guys get more and more responsibility, so that excites me and yeah, I mean that's pretty much it, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:52

I think Was it late last year, I think maybe it's around November Regine she shared with me a presentation that she's going to propose to you. I think it's like a strategy or a plan for the new coaching business that you're going to launch, and I saw it and I was like just wow, Trangna is really growing and Regine has told me a lot of great things about you and the business and how you're excited about it. And I remember Regine telling me that you're going to do videos for Instagram and I remember I sent you a microphone, right. Like for your phone, yeah, and so that's how we're very supportive, and we didn't do that because we want to keep you as a client. It's not just that, it's because of the relationship we have built together already the partnership, just like you said, and Regine and I were talking about your business growth, I was like, oh well, I have another extra microphone here that I can send her, and so we're just super happy Just seeing a client go from a specific number and then now you have added a different side of the business or in the business. So seeing that it's very fulfilling and it makes us want to do even greater work for you, and not just for you but for our other clients. But I know along the way we have had challenges as well. Right, like I don't want this podcast to be like oh, smartvase is super good, blah, blah, blah. But you know, I mean we're good but we're human beings, we make mistakes. There were challenges along the way. So tell me about the challenges you had when it comes to like delegation and how you were able to overcome that with a team.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Yeah, for sure, and I want to thank you for mentioning that. Right, it's not. We've been together for three years and with any relationship there are going to be challenges, right, right, and it's not a matter of, you know, having challenges or not having challenges, but more of how you navigate through those challenges. And I want to say maybe a year ago was it a year ago? Yeah, it was about a year ago I had a team lead that I liked very much and he passed away. Oh, yeah, yeah, and so from that point I removed into another team lead and she was just good. She was good, but there was a communication issue with us, and so, and you know, when you're in growth mode, and by that time I have given you guys a lot of tasks to help with. So I'm in growth mode and I'm working with you guys to help with, you know, fulfilling these tasks. And they weren't. They were being done, but just not in a timely manner, and some things were just kind of, you know, falling through the cracks. And so I had a conversation with Regine and I said I really, really like working with you guys, but we got to get a little better because the communications is not there anymore. And so immediately, immediately, whatever she did, but she put things in place to say, okay, you know what, I'm going to step in and I'm going to make sure that all of your tasks are being taken care of. I'm going to make sure that your projects are completed on time. And it was done. We changed the, the, the team lead and we just, you know, we just started working perfectly again. And you know, and I appreciate that, because again it's not problems happen, but it's the way the, it's the solution that counts. So, and also the timing of everything, right it's. You know, we're not going to sit on it, we're not going to let a client of ours that we like and we like working with go. We're going to make, we're going to work and make sure that this there's, she's happy, and that the projects are done and the tasks are completed on time. So to me, that was a very critical point in our relationship because of how it was dealt, how it was handled, and I really, really appreciate that. I really do, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:29

I was aware of that, actually, because we have a weekly meeting and Regine and Lexi and Miguel, like they report to me all our red clients and we tagged our clients with different statuses. We have red, green, yellow. So green clients are those clients who are happy and we don't have any problems or challenges with them at the moment. Red clients, those are clients with escalations or problems with the VA's or the leaders or with the task. So we talk about those clients and you were one of them and so we kind of talk about your projects, like, okay, what happened? Blah, blah, blah. But 2023, for some reason and I feel like it's not just me or it's not just smart VA's I feel like for many businesses, 2023 was a struggle. Hey, are you sick and tired of being overwhelmed because you are doing everything alone in your business and can't scale because you don't have a team supporting you? Well, you don't have to worry anymore, because smart VA's can provide you with a team of experience virtual assistants that can do different tasks to support your growth, from admin to bookkeeping to social media, video and podcast editing to website graphics, seo and customer service. Smart VA's team can help you grow your business without any worries or stress from all the tasks weighing down on you. If you are a business entrepreneur who needs help with your day-to-day tasks so you can focus on growing your business, then you have to visit smartvirtualassistancecom. I started smart VA's in 2019, but last year 2023, we just dealt with a lot of challenges, but I couldn't complain. It made us stronger as a team and I was able to grow as a business leader as well. So was it the same with you? Did you experience any challenges in the business last year and how were you able to overcome them?

Speaker 1: 14:18

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, in 2023, before I even talk about 2023, in 2022, my business was doing great and I was excited. I had you know, it was a nice year for income and, as a business owner, you want to continue growing. You don't want, you know, you see the potential and you want to just keep moving the needle. So, in 2022, I had a fantastic year. In 2023, I wanted to mimic, or not even mimic, but grow right. And so, for me, 2023, instead of growing, I maintained the same. As far as revenue, I maintained the same as I did in 2022. But, looking at it, I realized that the reason why my revenue, my gross profit, increased, but my revenue remained the same, and the reason why is because I invested in myself a lot more in 2023. So, and the reason why I did that, is because I just felt very complacent. I didn't know what to do or what not to do. I needed some motivation, and so I think, for 2023, my issue was just motivation. As a solo partner, not having team members or people that you work with to help with the motivation, it's hard, it's really hard, it's very difficult, and so in 2023, I would say that I lacked the motivation to grow. I was pumped in the beginning of the year to grow, but somewhere along the year I just kind of went back down to like, ah, it is what it is. I just I didn't feel the excitement anymore, and so I started investing in learning in business classes so that I can learn more about how to expand, how to keep motivated, how to manage time effectively. Just all of that and what that did for me is it pumped me up again for 24. I'm sorry, what year are we in? We're in 24. 24, yeah, I'm 24. So now I feel like I'm back on track with all of the investment that I made in myself last year. I'm back on track to grow and to add more services and products to the company. Right, yeah, add more. I've already added some more tasks to you guys, but I'm possibly hire someone here in my state to help me full time as well. So that's the goal.

Speaker 2: 17:17

Yeah Well, thank you so much for sharing that. When you have a business and you're the solo owner, it can feel very lonely sometimes, right? And so my husband I wasn't sure if it's 2021 or 2022. My husband joined me part-time in the business in 2021. And then in 2022, he got laid off and so I told him that well, he can just join SmartVA. So he is now the culture ambassador of SmartVA, so he does the interview and he meets with our VA, is making sure that they're happy and satisfied with what we provide to them. And so now that I have my husband in business, I'm able to share with him my struggles. Before, when he wasn't in the business yet, like I couldn't. I mean, it's not that I don't want to share, I couldn't share to him because he doesn't have a full context of how SmartVA's work. I think there was one time when I was sharing to him and he wasn't part of the company yet. He was asking questions like who is this and what is this, and I was like I don't know. Well, if I have to explain what I'm doing, it's kind of difficult, right. It adds burden to what I'm already feeling, and so, but now that he's part of the company I was. I'm just so glad, you know, I mean, even just last night, you know, before going to bed, I shared something to him. You know I told him, you know what? There's something. There's something that's, you know, bothering me. You know, I mean maybe personal or professional, you know, but I'm glad that I, you know there's, there is someone that I can talk to about what I'm dealing with, because ever since I started my own business maybe you can also relate to this I have been overthinking a lot. I have been anxious a lot, and I don't know if it's because the weather or what, but when I was in the Philippines, I did not experience any of it. You know, I was a very, I was a thinker when I was still in the Philippines, but now that I'm here in the States, I feel like it became worse. You know, I overthink things and so, and I feel like, because I have more responsibilities now, I have people that I'm taking care of, you know, and so I learned that whenever you know I am losing, you know, motivation or even hope, you know, not just in business, even in life, you know, I learned that I need to share it, you know, with somebody. I need to get it out of my head and once I do that, like everything feels like it's normal again. It may not be perfect, you will still think it. You know that about that thing that you're thinking of from time to time, but the burden is now not so heavy. And so when it comes to like feeling, you know, demotivated in business, you know, I feel like for us business owners, this is something that we don't really talk about as much. You know, we don't want to talk about this on podcasts or even with our team members, because they want they don't. We don't want them to see us as weak. You know, we want to be tough and we want to be the leader who can take care of them, but at the same time, it helps when we share with them what we're going through. I mean not maybe the nitty gritty details, because we don't want to, we don't want to burden burden them as well, you know, to the point where they can't operate within their responsibilities already. So I'm glad that you invested in yourself, and that's actually something that I did last year as well. You know, I I invested in myself as well and yeah, that's that's just kind of like the lesson that I have learned in 2023. How about you? I know you invested in yourself and now you're super pumped. You know to grow your business. What's the biggest lesson you've learned?

Speaker 1: 21:30

The biggest lesson I learned is to I know this sounds pretty cliche because I mean, everyone says this all the time, but this is truly a lesson for me that it's okay to be vulnerable it really is and it's okay to be transparent. Growing up, you know, I was just taught to don't be too emotional, just it's. You know, just take in the information, absorb it, process it and then react emotionally, react in private. That's how I was raised. However, it's not okay, because what happens is you bottle all that in and then you explode when you're, you know, and during times that you're not supposed to be exploding, it could be, you know, and I talked to my son about this. You know, is it spilled milk or is it a car crash? You know, because you don't it's. If you're exploding over a small situation, you know, you compare that to spilled milk. Right, it's not really that bad, but when you have all these emotions inside and they're building, then maybe what seems to be spilled milk is really a car crash for you. It's, but it's because you're just everything, you're just holding everything in. So the biggest lesson I learned last year is that it is 100% to be transparent, to be vulnerable, because that shows the authentic side of you and that is so important. Right before this call with you, I had a call with a fellow business owner. She's a friend, but she's also a very successful business owner and she's fans at her. Superpower is coming up with fantastic ideas, like she's just so creative with her ideas, and so I asked her. I said, um will? She presented an idea from to me that I am going to start implementing effective like next month. So more to come on that. But one of the things we talked about is starting a business master like I'm like almost like a business mastermind monthly, where business owners get together and they can start a small group five, 10 people, whatever but business owners get together and they just talk, we learn about best practices, provide accountability to each other and just get together and just talk, because business owners are where some of the most creative people in the world. But then we have so many pressures, right, Like you said, you have a team, a beautiful team, right, a beautiful team of people that you're responsible for. That's a lot of pressure that for me, I'm nervous about hiring someone because, yes, I then become responsible for them and their family. So these are pressures that we're all holding on and internalizing, and so I think that it would be fantastic just to have that group of like business owners just to talk about just everything you know and so um, yeah, so these are the things that I'm constantly thinking of just to keep motivating, to keep me just going. You know, I like forums where we can just talk about things.

Speaker 2: 24:56

I love that. Yeah, yeah, I love that. You can't fight it. Yeah, thank you so much. Well, actually was it last year, I think, beginning last year. One of my business mentors he told me about because I was like asking about okay, what's the economy now? How's the virtual assistant world working now? You know what has changed in the past, blah, blah, blah. And he's like you know what, kristi? I can't answer that for you. What you need to do is look for virtual assistant agency owners and try to create like a mini cohort with them. And so I did that, like I found a virtual assistant agency owners on LinkedIn and Instagram and then I invited them to meet twice a month to share, you know, what's new in the industry and what are our challenges, and we've been doing that since first quarter of last year and, as a matter of fact, we're going to meet today, this afternoon, and I love that you mentioned about doing a mastermind, you know, with other business owners, because we understand each other, you know, and you know we need a community of people who knows what we are going through. And, true enough, you know, when I started this mini cohort with these VA agency owners, we are dealing with the same thing. We were dealing with the same thing. So somebody was sharing her struggles, like, oh, I'm struggling with this, and somebody was like you know what? That is what's happening to me. And we were like, oh my gosh, like you know, like you don't know what other people are going through If you don't have access to them, if you, if you don't create that community, you know we are never, ever alone in business and even in life. You know we have friends. You know we have our spouses that we can go to when we have problems. Hey, are you looking for a community to learn how you can be effective in delegation so you can focus on the things that matter the most in your business and grow to six to seven figures? If this is you, then today is your lucky day. Join our Facebook group today to get your questions answered on delegation, outsourcing, business growth, hiring members and many more. We offer so much value in the group, so join our growing community by going to Facebookcom. Slash groups slash master delegator. See you there. So what is your it's? I'm going to ask you this question, but this is a practice that I did with my leadership team at Smart VAs. We had kind of like an online mini retreat, and I asked them what is your word for 2024. So if I ask you, what is your word for 2024?

Speaker 1: 28:30

Gratitude, gratitude. I think last year my word was invest, that was my word for last year, and so I did accordingly. But this year it's gratitude because and it's funny can I just show you something? So this is my little date. I'm still a pen and paper person. So this is my, my, my planner, and the first page of the planner you can't really see it, but it says it asks for the word for your word for the year. So I know that off the top of my head, but it's gratitude. And the reason why it's gratitude is because it is so easy to get caught up in your day to day and not be thankful for very small things like waking up in the morning, breathing, having your health, having, you know, a family, you know, having a partner to share with my husband, you know, having children. Like those are little things that, as a mom and a wife, you take for granted, you know, and so I want to be, you know, thankful for those little things, just daily things being able to be in the sunshine state. You know you're I'm not trying to make you feel bad as far as your weather is concerned. I woke up to sunshine, I mean, and that and sudden water makes me happy. It puts me in a really good mood. So being able to wake up to, you know, good weather, those are little things that you can very well take for granted, and I no longer want to do that, so that's why I chose that.

Speaker 2: 30:15

Yeah, I love that gratitude. Last last night I was as I was browsing through Instagram. I saw a quote. It says over overthinking and then, I don't know, it says overthink instead of overthinking. You know, and you know, and gratitude means a lot. You know, having having that, you know it means that your content, you know, you're satisfied with what you have currently. So you know, at the beginning or even before we record this episode, we're talking about what are we going to talk about today? You know, like we're going to talk about your business, your growth, your life and professional challenges, and I didn't really plan it to be this way. You know, we were just spontaneous as to what we're going to talk about and I'm glad we didn't really. You know, we didn't plan for the kind of topic that we're going to talk about, because this kind of conversation is where you get the value the most. You know, just being authentic and transparent and vulnerable, and I think this is something that what other business owners or entrepreneurs need to hear. You know that we're not perfect. You know we go through challenges every day. You know, one minute you're happy, another, another second you're like Ah, why is this happening to me? You know, so it's a it are happiness on a daily basis. It ebbs and flows, you know, it's just. It's just a matter of having gratitude and knowing who you are, as well as a business owner. So, as we wrap up, what advice or do you want our listeners to kind of embrace this year?

Speaker 1: 32:06

That's a big question. What would I like your listeners to embrace this year? I guess, just to kind of go off of what my word for the year is being thankful for the little things. I think that that's, you know, just showing gratitude for all things you mentioned about social media, and everyone, everyone, I think should have like a social media cleanse, like maybe you know, for a month or whatever, because social media, while it has its pros, it definitely has its cons, and one of the cons is, you know, living up to the Jones, living what is it living up, or what is it living up to the Joneses, or I? forget to join us is keeping up with the Joneses. That's what it is keeping up with the Joneses, meaning that you know you can have a very nice home and beautiful family, just all that. But then you turn, you go onto Instagram and you see someone with a bigger home and you know a happy family and that's social media, right. That's not real life and so that can add to the ebb and flow of your day. So it's very important to you know just be grateful for what you have, because what you have is what's meant for you to have, and if you want more, then you create a plan to get more. So you know, but don't compare yourself to others. You know, even as a business owner, don't compare yourself to other business owners. As a mom, don't compare yourself to other moms. As a wife, don't compare yourself to other wives, other spouses, wives. It's not fear to you and you will never live to your fullest potential if you do that. So my I would say that my advice for your listeners is to be content with yourself and show gratitude, be thankful for the things that you have.

Speaker 2: 34:14

Amen to that. I love that. Okay, where can people find you online and then feel free to promote your services or any products that you have?

Speaker 1: 34:26

Yeah, for sure. So I'm on all social media feeds. I'm on Instagram it's Connectorcity. I'm on LinkedIn Trinia Norford my full name, trinia Johnson Norford on LinkedIn, and or you can go to my website, trinianorfordcom or ConnectorcityMatchcom. I am very excited to be promoting my group coaching courses. I also offer 101 coaching, but I'm super excited to be offering my group coaching sessions. I currently have one in progress, but the next one will begin March 5th. So, yeah, you go to trinianorfordcom and you can read all about that.

Speaker 2: 35:06

Yeah, who is your target audience for this group coaching?

Speaker 1: 35:10

Women between the ages of 35 and 55, professional women, yeah, between the ages of 35 and 55.

Speaker 2: 35:17

Okay, I see. One last question what are they going to get out of that group coaching?

Speaker 1: 35:22

For sure. So it's four weeks and it will be a different topic each week where we'll talk about self-awareness, setting goals, relationship patterns, self-sabotaging habits, key life values, and it's just, it's really jam-packed. You come prepared to work. It's more of a workshop than coaching, but it is amazing. There are so many aha moments, so many and this is the feedback that I'm receiving where they're like oh, I walked into this thinking that I already know myself and what I want in a relationship, but then I walk away saying, oh my God, I've been acting a certain way to get the person that I want, but I'm not being myself, I'm not really going, I'm not really being my true self. I'm changing based on who I want. So it's just yeah, so it's just there are a lot of aha moments during the four weeks that we will work together. And I will say one more thing with the group coaching sessions you get a chance to as a matchmaker, I make sure that I curate the coaching sessions so that everyone kind of around the same age and, you know, experiencing around at the same thing, so that we can learn from each other. So that has been very beneficial as well. People are learning from each other, people are sharing their stories and people are actually becoming friends. So it's awesome and even though I care to women 35 to 55, my sessions I've like. In this session I have two men, so which is awesome because you're getting a man's point of view.

Speaker 2: 37:12

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 37:13

I love that. It's awesome. It really is. It is as you can see. It lights me up.

Speaker 2: 37:19

Yes, it does. Yeah, I can tell. Yeah, I'll include all your links in the show notes so that people can find you and go to your website. Thank you so much for your time today, trenya. No problem, thank you. Thank you so much again for listening and I'll see you again on the next episode.