Why Delegation Matters: A Conversation on Administrative Support with Erika Pherson

In this episode of the Two Piers Podcast, host Erica D’Eramo sits down with Erika Pherson, Founder and CEO of The Collective Concierge, to explore why administrative support is essential for professional success.

Erika shares her journey from “doing it all” to building a company that helps entrepreneurs and executives streamline their workloads through high-level administrative support, process optimization, and project management. Together, Erica and Erika unpack the challenges of asking for help, the value of delegation, and the systems that make it work.

Listeners will learn practical strategies for identifying which tasks to delegate, building trust with support professionals, and finding the right match to maximize productivity. Erika also explains how effective support goes beyond task execution to provide thought partnership and fresh perspectives.

Key Takeaways:

• Why leaders struggle with delegation—and how to overcome it
• A simple framework for evaluating which tasks to delegate
• How systems and regular communication create trust and efficiency
• The importance of chemistry in professional support relationships
• How thought partnership can elevate decision-making and strategy

Resources & Links:

• Learn more about The Collective Concierge: www.thecollectiveconcierge.com  
• Instagram: the_collective_concierge

🎧 Listen now and discover how delegating well can free your time, energy, and focus for the work that matters most.

Transcript

Erica D'Eramo: 0:05

Hello and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo, and today's guest is Erika Pherson. She's here to talk to us about the role of administrative work in our professional lives, and when and how to ask for help. So Erika is the Founder and CEO of The Collective Concierge a premier administrative support and business operations firm. With nearly two decades of experience in sales, client management and operations, Erika has built a company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, executives and small business owners streamline their workload so that they can focus on what truly matters, growing their business. Throughout her unique hybrid approach that blends in person and remote assistance, Erika specializes in high level administrative support, process optimization and project management. Her mission is simple but powerful, to give business leaders the time and freedom to scale their success without getting bogged down in the day to day grind. We'll be exploring her insights on what leads to success when doing it all yourself becomes a roadblock. Erika, welcome to the podcast.

Erika Pherson: 1:16

Thank you, Erica, thank you for having me. Uh, okay, so just quick check, how do you spell your name? I spell it E R I K A

Erica D'Eramo: 1:28

Right, the incorrect way. No, I'm just kidding. I know we have Erica's that, listen, that use a, k, we love all Erica's. But I, I swear I did not know that Erika's name was Erika like was Erika, I just knew The Collective Concierge when I reached out, I don't offer preferential treatment to Erica's. So you're, I think you're the first Erika on the podcast, actually.

Erika Pherson: 1:50

Oh, I feel special. Thank you.

Erica D'Eramo: 1:52

Yeah. So I really wanted to talk to you about this, because, well, I've been focused on the concept of, like, asking for help, relying on others, how and when to delegate. What does that look like? What's up for success? It's a big part of coaching, and it's a big part of working with leaders, whether they're entrepreneurs, or they are, you know, running a multi million dollar business, or they're a founder, a tech founder, so this is just like a consistent, perennial topic for us. And I thought, who better to talk to us than the person who helps alleviate that pain point, because you have such a unique perspective on this as the person helping others to actually ask for help. So yeah, thanks for coming on and sharing your insights.

Erika Pherson: 2:41

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this conversation and hopefully educate the listeners on when to delegate and how to ask for help.

Erica D'Eramo: 2:52

Yeah, because it's not that simple, and I think we all say like, just ask for help. You need. Just ask for help. There are a whole slew of reasons that people struggle to ask for help, whether it's emotional reasons or practical reasons or logistical reasons. So we'll get into all that. But first, let me ask, who is Erika? What brought you to this part of your journey? What was your What was your the story of Erika?

Unknown: 3:19

So I throughout my couple decades of professional experience, I always had in the back of my head that I thought I could do this on my own. But, you know, as life happens, you need to have some stability, and going off my own was probably not the best idea while raising my family and taking care of the household, basically. But time after time in position after position, I didn't feel appreciated or that I was using myself to the fullest capabilities. I had come to a point in my life where I had decided that I'm going to try to go off on my own, where I had all of those years of professional experience inside of me that I wanted to bring out as a service to clients, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs. I heard that there was a need, I felt that there was a need, and I decided to start The Collective Concierge, concierge, word meaning being all things to to my clients. I wanted to make this white glove service for clients.

Erica D'Eramo: 4:36

Yeah, that's, I think that that question of kind of, what could I be doing? What skills am I leaving on the table right now? Like, how could I be better utilizing my calling my the skills I've collected over the years, I that I've honed that that played a big part for me, too, and I think that that's a commonality for a lot of folks that finally decide that they are going to brave the solopreneur path, it's that draw towards really utilizing what they have and bringing it to bear. So I empathize a lot with that, with that motivator.

Erika Pherson: 5:13

I find a lot of folks in my networking groups and other entrepreneurs that I speak with feel the same way.

Erica D'Eramo: 5:21

Yeah, yeah. So I know when we when we introduced you, that we talked a lot about, like entrepreneurs and leaders, but I think that what we are going to be talking about today is often very applicable, regardless of the organization like you tend to work with people in smaller or kind of bespoke organizations, simply because they don't have this type of support in house. But I think that these learnings are still quite valuable, even if you do have administrative support in house, because I think oftentimes people still don't understand how to utilize that support in a way that is most impactful, most efficient kind of uses everyone's time wisely.

Erika Pherson: 6:05

Yes, I, The great part about what I offer is a chunk of hours. You know, you don't have to hire me full time, you don't have to hire me part time, but you might have a full staff, but you are growing, and you don't need to hire a person to do what's left, but you have these projects that are taking up your time or even overworking your current staff, because you're loading on project after project. Well, I can come in with all my years of experience and most likely, sort of jump right in and lockstep get that project finished, maybe even another project after that, where I'm taking that time and giving you it, giving you the time back.

Erica D'Eramo: 6:47

Yeah, yeah. So the big question, how and when is it time to enlist support? Let's start with when. When when is it time to enlist support? When? What are some of the commonalities that you see about when is the time to ask for help? Whether that's like, bring in someone like yourself, who can, you know, do something scalable, or if you're in an organization like either hiring somebody or leveraging the support that you have on hand?

Erika Pherson: 7:23

If you ask me this question, I would answer with, I don't think anybody in the entrepreneur, solopreneur sphere should do any admin work, because that's just taking away their time to build their their business. However, I know that there is a cost associated with it, and not everybody right out of the gate can afford to bring somebody on to help. I think, when you are sitting at your desk and you're doing your work and you're working on something that doesn't require expertise, but it is taking up a chunk of your time that you just don't have, that's when you need to start thinking about reaching out. And when that task is on your plate and you're working on it, I tell everybody this, write it down. Write down every task that you are working on that does not require your expertise, and then take a look at it and say, Do I really need to be doing this? What am I? What is my value per hour? Break it down as granular as you can. And if I'm spending an hour working on this, and my, you know, my per hour rate is, who knows, $100,$150 $200 an hour, that's money you're wasting by working on administrative work that you could be delegating out. And I think that that should start sooner rather than later.

Erica D'Eramo: 8:45

I think, like in large organizations too, where people have you can do the same math, right? You can take your salary and divide it by the number of hours that you work in a year, and understand how much you're spending, I don't know, collecting your receipts and inputting them, or, you know, managing calendar invites. And that's not to say that sometimes we have to do some of the the tedium, right? Like I this is not about work that is below us or is not, you know, that it's, it's busy work that's never and I think that that maybe is a barrier to delegation by people seeing this as like, oh, it's less valuable work, and so therefore I don't want to, I don't want anybody to feel like I'm sloughing this off on them, you know, like I get to do the fancy, exciting work, and they do the The boring tedium. The irony is, like, Y'all, you're not as good at that stuff as somebody else is right. Like, how often do I actually ask you for help on something? And it takes you a fraction of the time that it takes me, because that's how your brain is oriented. Like you are much more quick and efficient with knocking some of this stuff out that. I am, and so it's about like finding the right people to do the right task.

Erika Pherson: 10:07

Quite honestly, my personality, I I derive joy from knocking off a task. My family calls me the Task Master. You give me a list. I have lists all the time, and I literally check it off when I'm done with it and it feels good. So it's, it's part of my genetic makeup to want to do things for myself, for other people, and check it off. And said, that's done. We've completed that.

Erica D'Eramo: 10:34

Yeah, yeah. So I think that the framing of like, high value work, low value work, is just a really flawed mindset or framework for things, because it's it's really about like these are things that need to get done. Doing some of these things, not doing some of these tasks will lead to absolute nightmares. Ironically, ironically, like not taking care of some of the administrative work would probably throw a wrench in my business much faster than you know, not taking on a new coaching client or not taking on a new consulting gig. So if I want this to run smoothly, those are quite important tasks that need to happen. Yeah, they are like, make or break it.

Unknown: 11:19

It's true. And if you want to talk about value, although the administrative tasks do have a lower value, literally monetary value, they might have an equal value in in need to get done. So it's it's a the administrative tasks are a dichotomy in and of themselves.

Erica D'Eramo: 11:40

Yeah, yeah. I know we always talk about like, overhead. Are you a revenue source? Are you overhead? And I think administrative work is often seen as overhead, but we so in an offshore world, you have what we call utilities, right? It's like the air system. Nobody thinks that the air system is very exciting, right? It's not where the hydrocarbons are in offshore energy. It's like, not where the revenue is coming from. It's just in the background. Nothing will take you down faster than your utility system, 100% right? It'll and it'll shut everything down. You lose the pneumatic system, you lose the air system. You lose like process error, the whole thing is shut down. So they often don't get the love. Those systems don't get the love that they deserve. And they're sort of seen as, like, background or, you know, not the not the sexy stuff, but, man, they are a huge vulnerability to systems if you don't get it right, or if they're not working efficiently,

Erika Pherson: 12:42

And parlaying that into the business world, part of my service is following up on warm sales leads or warm calls or client calls, or even client follow up that can make or break too if you have poor communication with your clients or customers, they're not going to turn back to you, but I can jump in and make that call so that you can continue growing your business. So...

Erica D'Eramo: 13:06

Yeah, yeah. Truly, I think it's interesting, because when I initially reached out to look for some administrative support, you know, I did not really think in terms of revenue generation. This was more just to make sure that we could keep everything on the rails and that I wasn't becoming a bottleneck for the organization. And we'll get into a little bit more about like our our meet cute story a little later, but, but I think that ironic, not ironically, probably Expectedly, our revenue has gone up significantly because of some of what you mentioned, right? Like we can, even if I'm the one sending the email like it's on our collective radar. So all of those revenue generating activities are much more likely to happen, or the the lead activities are much more likely to happen when we've got two sets of eyes on it, and we've got accountability partnership. And whether you do it or I do it, it's much more likely to happen quickly, in a timely manner if there's two of us looking at it. So yes, you're right. It's not just overhead. It is revenue generation, even if you can't see it directly. But maybe, you know, folks should right. This is another piece, is the systems and processes that come along with asking for support.

Erika Pherson: 14:26

Absolutely 100% agree on that.

Erica D'Eramo: 14:30

So then what you know, the systems and processes, I think, can be a bit of a chicken and an egg with asking for support. I would love to talk about common challenges, but the immediate one that comes to mind is like, I don't my my stuff is not organized enough to even ask for help, right? I think, like, that is something that maybe gets in the way of people saying, you know, I'm too there's the joke, right? I'm too busy to write or, like, I was too busy to write you a short email, so I wrote a long one instead, like being or. Organized and concise takes effort, and people maybe feel like I wouldn't even know where to start. How do you what's your response to that?

Unknown: 15:11

It probably is my number one challenge. When I meet with people, they'll say, Well, how can you help me? And although I love this question, because I can just start giving them all the ways I can help them. What I find is especially with entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, their company is their baby, and nobody can do it as well as they can do it. So I use that analogy that I spoke about earlier, about writing down a list of things that you're working on that don't require expertise, because it really is an eye opener of where you're spending your time. So I do offer that to people who are potentially thinking of using me but don't know how to or, you know, we just talk about what they need, and I can start talking about what is in my wheelhouse, and when they start hearing like, oh, you can do that, oh, you can do that, oh, you can take care of that for me. Oh, my goodness, that would save me so much time, it sort of evolves that way. Yeah, it's just, it's just a matter of letting go a little bit, and just just having that ability to say, okay, and I even say, why don't you just give me one project that you're working on, see how it works, see how you feel about it, see how you feel about letting go a little bit, and then we can go from there. And inevitably, my plate fills up with that client.

Erica D'Eramo: 16:36

Yeah, I think that the the like time inventory is such a valuable tool no matter what, whether you're going to ask for help or not. I think the first time I encountered like, a 15 increment time interval inventory was in college. I think my freshman year of college, they were like, You should be there was probably some time management class or something that we had to take, but they sort of gave us these sheets to fill out day after day. And it's shocking to know where your time is going, because we, I think we have these heuristics or these biases about how where we think our time went, on both sides of things, we'll think that something took way less time if we enjoyed doing it, we might be like, Whoa, I spent two hours writing that blog post, or I spent two hours playing the crossword or whatever it is, right, the Einstein's relativity principle, but or vice versa. It might be like this big project that felt so onerous, and then when you knock it out, you realize, oh, it only took me 15 minutes to go in and handle that registration or that bill or whatever. So that visibility, I think, is so crucial in asking for help in any sort of way, because you can't really see where your time is going just from getting to the end of the day and really know what was value add? What did I What could I have handed off to somebody else? What was super critical, what was just like shiny and I got distracted?

Unknown: 18:09

Right? And making that list will help clarify that for sure.

Erica D'Eramo: 18:13

Yeah, yeah. Like, really bringing clarity to it. I see this a lot too, as my neurodivergent clients as well, where they build up shame around what they think, where they think they spent their time, or they'll get to the end of a day or end of a week and be like, I feel like I had this list of five things to get done this week, and I didn't do any of them. Where did my time even go? Right? And so that clarity really helps to negate some of the shame, because you're like, Oh, well, I dealt with this huge, onerous registration process that I didn't expect to have to deal with. That's where my time went right, and having that extra set of eyes sort of forces it, in a way, right with you and I, when we divvy up work for the week, we have to be pretty clear about like, how long we think things are gonna take, whether it's best for you or me to do it, and be way more intentional about where the time goes.

Erika Pherson: 19:03

Absolutely, yes, yeah. It's just a it's just a matter of reframing how you do your day and thinking about it like I said, like you said, and I said, intentionally. What sort of like the Eat the Frog? Isn't there a Eat the Frog? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, you have to just focus on, on what is going to move the needle forward in your company, in your business, and in whatever you're working on and what isn't, although the what isn't is still necessary, it doesn't mean it needs to be your necessary.

Erica D'Eramo: 19:37

Right? So what are some of the other challenges you see that either stop people from enlisting help, or, you know, get in the way if they, even if they've decided, Okay, I'm gonna get help, like, with doing some stuff, or I'm gonna delegate more, like, what? What typical challenges do you see folks encounter?

Erika Pherson: 19:58

Because I work with several different, not several, multiple industries. One of the common issues is systems. They're systems. They all use different systems. And because they're different industries, I have attorneys, I have financial planners, I have a manufacturing company, and their first concern is, well, how will you get into my system? How you know what to do? And for me, the good thing is, is part of my professional career, prior to The Collective Concierge, I sold software, a SAS product, for 20 years, so I'm very comfortable working on people's systems and figuring them out. And that's another part of me is I will, I will figure it out. I will figure out how to use it, and most likely not by asking you the client, because that's that's deters from what I'm trying to do is give back time. I don't want to take more time up, so I try to learn it the best that I can, and explain to them that, yes, you can give me a username and password to your system, and I can get on and I can work in your system. It's okay. So that's, that's one concern. Another big concern is, how do we work together? How does it work? They have questions on, you know, do you come into the office? Do we do it online? How do I how do I know what you're working on? So I need to work through these problems or these issues or these questions and concerns and let them know that it's very easy to work together. I like to set up a like a weekly call so that we are in lockstep with each other on what we're working on, and I really tackle their challenges by easing their mind with how I can help.

Erica D'Eramo: 21:44

Yeah

Erika Pherson: 21:45

It's just, it's just a dialog. It's a it's a dialog of their concern, and you know my response and my solution.

Erica D'Eramo: 21:57

Which is really best practice, whether you're a manager or, you know, whether you're managing someone who works for you, or you're managing upward, like that, mindset of, hey, share your concerns with me, share your idea of success with me, and we will co create the solution. But like that, open, open ended questions, that open mindset, that is really like best practice, regardless of position, right?

Unknown: 22:24

Yes, yes. And interestingly enough, I'd say 90% of my clients turn to me for advice on how to do things. What do you think of this? How should I do this? And again, because of my background, I'm able to pull in all these ideas from other positions I've worked in and other managers and people that I've worked with to help answer those questions and help them be that thought partner for them of what they need to get done, or how they need to get it done, or what they should do next, whether it's growing their business selling I have a client that's considering selling her business, and we were talking about what that means for her. So there are many different what's the word? There are many different solutions I bring to the table, not just administrative.

Erica D'Eramo: 23:14

Yeah, I think that the thought partnership has been really helpful for me. And it's an it's another, it's another demonstration of the value of having different viewpoints and perspectives and different backgrounds in the room. Because I will say that being an entrepreneur can be very isolating, very lonely, very daunting, because you don't have a team of people to look to and say, like, Well, what do you think? Where am I wrong on this? Like, what am I not thinking about? Where is my blind spot? And being a senior leader, I hear the same thing. It can be very lonely. It can be very isolating, very daunting. And so I think it's pretty common actually, that in these types of relationships where a lot of work is being delegated and there has to be good communication back and forth. You know, feedback, without people taking things personally, just like that type of relationship can create such a powerful thought partnership. And you see it all the time in like corporate entities, where the administrative assistant on the team is often the source of all of the institutional wisdom and the source of insight. And you could say, like, even as far as, like, how does this look? What do you think? Can I walk into that boardroom wearing this right now? Or should I, like, change something, and you'll get an honest answer, right? Because, like, you've established that those lines of communication and that trust, or, Hey, I'm about to go into a meeting with this person. What do you think are the pitfalls I should be worried about? Like they are another set of eyes and ears and a sounding board in many cases. And I love that you work with so many different industries. Because for me, I could say, Hey, I haven't encountered this before. Like, what if other clients don't. On that you've worked with, or what, what systems have other people tried, that you've seen work, and it's a great way to tap into so much more knowledge than what I would have just in my in my home.

Erika Pherson: 25:11

Yes, and you had mentioned earlier about clients potentially being embarrassed by how their folders and their files are being stored and that they're all over the place. And interestingly enough, I just received a call last week for someone who just wanted an hour of my time to walk her through how she should organize her files. She's a social media manager, and she had her clients files all over the place, and photos here, videos there, and she just didn't know how to capture it all in one place, so she wasn't running around looking for everything. And I took a idea from working with another client of how to organize her files, and she just emailed me the other day saying how much she absolutely loves it, and it's working so well for her. So it is very helpful, regardless of what your desk looks like.

Erica D'Eramo: 26:06

Yeah. I mean, you're like, you're, in a way, you're a bit of a pollinator, right? You're like, cross pollinating, just Yes, is different best practices and insights and ideas, and I think that's hugely valuable, yeah. So, I mean, one challenge that comes up to for me, just probably unbiased because of coaching, but, um, I feel like people struggle to delegate a lot, like it's just it's constant that this comes up in coaching conversations. Like I'm overwhelmed. I have a team of people, but I feel like I can't give them work. And so what are your thoughts there? Like, when have you seen delegation work? What has helped people get over that resistance to delegation or or overcome that? That resistance or challenge? What are your thoughts?

Erika Pherson: 26:52

It really comes down to the type of personality that we're working with, type a people it takes a little bit of time for them to actually move forward and work with me. It takes me a long, not a long time, but it takes me a few calls to be like, this is what you need, this is going to work. So it's personality, it's how long they've been in business, if they came from a corporate world and they went off on their own and they understand what it's about to have support like that, they might be easier to work with. And there are some people who are just, they just, they're not intentional about what they need. They're just all over the place. And quite honestly, that's my least favorite person to work with, just because I can't be successful, if they can't let me know what they need, why they need it, you know, I need some sort of scope of work. So it's there are some cases where it just doesn't work because they can't delegate, because they don't know what to delegate, regardless of their lists next to their computer, or the amount of conversations that we have, and that's okay, because, you know, nine times out of 10 they'll figure that out and come back.

Erica D'Eramo: 28:12

Yeah. I mean, that's well, and they should come talk to a coach. Because oftentimes I think like this is like, this is the key with delegation, right? It's like, usually when there's a barrier to delegation, it's because people are not clear about what a good outcome looks like, and can't then communicate that to somebody else. That I think that that is, like the number one barrier to delegation, followed closely by, what if somebody doesn't do it exactly the way I want, which is also about being clear about Okay, is it the preference thing? Is this a stylistic thing, right? If you use it, if you send an email and a font that I don't like like, I can let it go. I can be okay with that, but that's like a learned thing, I think for some people, especially if they haven't been in a leadership role before. So that transition point right of either going from a corporate entity where they were working individually or they had a lot, you know, and to shifting into entrepreneur mode, where they are going to have to get some stuff off their plate if they want to focus on their quote, unquote zone of genius. There's that transition point, and then there's also the transition point of going from an individual contributor role to a leadership role, where we have to get clear about, how does it actually impact the bottom line? Does it actually matter? Why does and if so, why does it matter to you? Can you let it go? Um, where? How have you how have you seen people kind of overcome that, or do they not? Do they need to talk to a coach first?

Unknown: 29:48

Yes, they should speak with a coach first. And in some cases, they don't overcome it. And again, part of my role is to be in lockstep with that person. So if they want Arial, 10 font. Well then Arial 10 font, it is, it's, it's, it's not about what I want them. I'm trying to be there for that person to again, it's the lockstep that I like to keep using the term, because that is really where it's going to feel impactful for the client, where they are confident that when they pass something off, it's going to be in their style and represent their company the way they want.

Erica D'Eramo: 30:24

Yeah, you know, you bring up a really interesting point, which is like, and I think that there's a gender element to this, to be honest, I think that oftentimes women are maybe they face negative consequences for being really specific or particular about their preferences. And so rather than face that consequence, they're like, I'll just do it myself. And they build that into a habit of, I'll just do it myself, because I don't want to be difficult. I don't want to ask for what I really need. But I do love that, you know, in our working relationship, I can be super specific about my punctuation preferences and my font preferences and my color and all these little things that I learned that because I had senior executives be really specific and really picky with that with me. And I was never like, Wow, he's so difficult, right? But I know I hesitate before even mentioning that stuff, because I'm like, oh, Erica, just let it go, like it doesn't matter. But with you, I know I can say that, because you understand that's like my brand, and I'm just clarifying my preferences, right? And you pick it up, and you're never like, oh, Erica, god, you're so difficult, right? That's just you're like, cool. Thanks for letting me know. Now that's the new SOP.

Unknown: 31:43

Exactly. Again, it's both being successful. My work and your work needs to be synergistic, so that it's working together, or otherwise I'm not helping you.

Erica D'Eramo: 31:57

Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's Yeah

Unknown: 32:02

And as an entrepreneur myself, I understand the brand. I understand the the look and the feel and what you you want to portray 100% of the time. And why not be that person to help deliver it for my client? I get it, I if anybody gets it, it's me. Yeah, I do think that that plays into kind of finding the right balance and the right match as well. Because I think that was one of my first questions at the gate was, you know, I tend to be very detail oriented. How do you feel about that? Like, are you in, you know, in terms of a slide deck? Are you going to be looking for, like, you know, if there's a full stop at the end of every bullet point or whatever? And you were like, yes, 100% I'm on board with that. And if you, if you're looking for administrative support, and somebody is like, oh, that sounds awful to me. Okay, that's probably just not a match, right? They might be really good at other things, but finding that right balance, like I can be very intellectualized about things and non linear about things, and I love that you and I are a good balance in that, and that you can be really focused and, you know, just like you said, check things off, right, like, keep moving forward and not do The swirling thing that I tend to do so it might be in the reverse for somebody else, right? Like they might be that really linear person. Maybe they do need somebody that's like, more up in the clouds or whatever. I think you, you personally can flex a lot, but I think there's an element of, like, finding that right match. You're complimenting your strengths and weaknesses by bringing in support. It's really a chameleon type position in a good way. You know, I am I can. I have different clients who, like you described, some who just roll with it. They just want the communication sent out. They don't care how it looks. And I have others that are very, very specific, and sure I will just do what is necessary and and there might be some times where I might say, does that really matter?

Erica D'Eramo: 34:14

I get the opportunity to say yes or no, yes, it does because, or no, it doesn't because.

Erika Pherson: 34:23

Yeah, right, and I'm just here to execute. That's it, Yeah, yeah. So Erika, when people listen to this and they're like, all right, all right, I need, I need to actually either rely on my the existing support in my organization, or or go find support. How do people find their match like, what? What is? What does that process look like?

Unknown: 34:46

I think it's important prior to looking for help. Again, I might sound like a broken record, but make that list so that you know what you're talking to this person about, and you know whether or not it falls in their wheelhouse and they can handle it in their comfortable with it. Some people will just say, Yes, I can do that, and maybe they can't. So I would start with knowing what you're calling about, and then discovery calls, they're the best way to find out if that's the right match for you, and I do recommend a video call if it's possible, because that that chemistry is more easily found when you can face somebody on a camera and have a conversation with them, versus on the phone or through email.

Erica D'Eramo: 35:28

Yeah, yeah, 100% I mean, it's the same in coaching, right? Like, coaching has a chemistry element to it, and I much prefer sometimes I can't do a video call and we, we go with the audio, and that's fine if the if my client is, like, offshore or whatever, but yes, I 100% agree there's chemistry that is a piece, because you will need to, there will need to be iterations, right? You will need to give feedback, which stay tuned, because we will two piers is going to talk a lot about giving and receiving feedback soon. So if you think like, oh, I want to work with somebody, but I don't know how to give them feedback, we will talk through that in the future, the near future. Okay, so chemistry calls inventory of what you're working on. And if people have listened to this and they're like, Oh, but I want to work with Erika, I would say, No, she's all mine. No, I'm just kidding. Um, not at all. I would love, I would love, for people to be able to reach out to you. So how do they find you?

Erika Pherson: 36:27

I would say, obvious choice. That would be my first thing. I would say, um, you can find me at www.thecollectiveconcierge.com

Erica D'Eramo: 36:41

which will have in the show notes,

Erika Pherson: 36:42

Yes. Or I am on Instagram, the_collective_concierge. Or you can give me a call, 351-220-1999.

Erica D'Eramo: 36:58

There you go. Yeah, I think I did give you a call maybe, um, and you're on LinkedIn as well. So

Erika Pherson: 37:05

I am on LinkedIn. Yeah, I could be found just about anywhere you can, even just Google concierge services, and I should be the first one to pop up.

Erica D'Eramo: 37:13

Oh, look at that. Seo. She knows SEO too. All things, all things, yeah, I do want to give, like, just a final shout out here, because I gave my business sort of, I I realized, you know, I took, I took a huge pay cut to start two piers consulting, and that was because I wanted to live up to my life's potential, right? Like, I really wanted to do impactful work that I felt was tied to my values and have agency over how I spent my time and do fulfilling work. What I found was I was getting so caught up in, like, the busyness loop that I wasn't actually fulfilling that promise to myself. And so it was like, Well, if you're just gonna run in the mouse wheel. Just go back into corporate Erica, and you can just take home a big pay cut or a big paycheck. And instead, I said, No, let's see if we can. Let's put let's put this on probation. Go see what it would take to actually be able to focus on the work that you are exceptionally good at and have the business still run. And so when I met up with you, I was very transparent about like, we're I'm the business is on probation, because I need to love what I'm doing. I need to love running a business all the things, the administrative piece, keeping up with it, getting back in touch with clients, landing contracts, all of it. So yeah, this was a this was an experiment, and we're doing great. Everything's growing. We're doing great. Clients are happy. So thank you, Erika.

Erika Pherson: 38:50

Thank you for calling me. It's been a wonderful adventure with you. I've learned so much about your business, which I love. Another thing I love with all my clients is I learn a little bit, sometimes a lot about all these industries. Fantastic, and I love working with you. It's been great.

Erica D'Eramo: 39:07

Oh, thank you. Well, I encourage you to go check out Erica's site and reach out and stay tuned to the Two Piers podcast and our blog if you want to know more about asking for and receiving feedback, giving and receiving feedback, and if you want to know more about delegating, we also have a blog post series on that, which, yeah, Erika helped me get published. So lots of resources. And thanks again, Erika for being on the podcast.

Unknown: 39:40

Thank you for having me.