The Art of Succession

we were really focused on uh a very

quick growth and so we put a lot of time

into it and our skill sets were very

different and we both put all of what we

had into those pieces we came at it at

every angle uh you know sometimes it was

a percentage of Revenue sometimes it was

just a flat sum it really some you know

sometimes it was like a royalty there

was every option explored and really we

just came to what does it take to build

systems that scale quickly while Al

remaining

adaptable how do Partners find the

balance between aligned vision and

complimentary roles and how do we

continue to grow from past experiences

and repurpose them for a better present

day my name is Barrett young and this is

the art of succession podcast my guest

today is Alana Thomas the founder behind

aligned Recruitment and Thomas media

agency today we're going to hear how

Alana quickly grew a company to

profitability brought in a partner and

then sold her remaining shares to that

partner partner to exit the business

Alana welcome to the artist Su session

thank you happy to be

here so uh the company that you sold is

aligned recruitment correct you got it

okay so walk me through just what led up

to the founding of that um and then

we'll get into like the exit and all

that kind of stuff of course so I

actually started my early career in

recruitment uh I did it for about four

or five years at a couple different

agencies mostly some inhouse recruiting

my career took a slightly different turn

into project management and uh

entrepreneurship in the operational

space but um I really always kept my

ties in recruitment when I was doing

entrepreneurial or Operational Support

for my clients they always had a need to

hire so I kept my toes in that industry

um even when I wasn't doing it in

corporate um so I had my first business

my coaching and you know fractional coo

business business you could call it for

about 3 years when I really decided I

wanted to start something new something

at a larger scale where I wasn't the

sole owner operator and I could have a

team that was doing the delivery side of

the business and recruitment just truly

seemed profitable it seemed easy because

I knew it so well um and there really is

just such a bad rap recruiters get in

the industry and I just really wanted to

be a nice recruiter like someone who

wouldn't take advantage of you know a

company that was just a pleasure to work

with so um I really wanted to to change

it in that way and so we started um or I

should say I started the company in

April of

2023 um fast forward a few months into

August of that year is when I brought on

my business partner um she's actually

someone I worked with previously in the

recruiting industry when I was doing

that my full-time yeah and is this

recruiting for other Coos or or is this

like the the SE Suite rolls or what was

this what was the recruiting there

around great question when we first

started the business we didn't have a

niche um we really just kept it open

however my business partner was coming

from her background which was largely

focused in the tech space um and so

because her role was going to be

primarily focused in sales and revenue

it just made sense to focus in on the

network that she had largely built

already so when she came in we then had

a niche of of tech Recruitment and

really leaned into that um pretty

specifically but you know even in doing

that I would say half of our clients

weren't in the tech space at all you

know once you're good at what you do you

can specialize but just people really

want the service so okay I gotcha uh and

this is permanent placement recruiting

that you were working in yeah absolutely

so um there's a few different models of

you know working with a recruitment

partner but when we would hire they

would just hire internally their person

yeah so it wasn't Staffing or temporary

in any way I got you okay and was this

like Regional or was this remote uh and

and what time frame was the you said

2023 so this was last year yeah so it it

was built and sold within 13 months so

we um uh we were a an entirely remote

company and we really believe in that as

a business model again thinking back to

profitability that's a huge part of of

our values system is not going into debt

or just being really intentional with

how we spend um so we often would align

with clients who also had a remote

either piece to their hiring component

or they were also a fully remote company

it was never an exclusion there are

definitely moments where it makes sense

right to hire people in person but a lot

of people aligned with that value as

well okay gotcha so when you started

this a little bit over a year ago last

spring did you plan on the quick uh

profitability in the acquisition or did

you plan on running a recruitment agency

yeah I never planned to leave um there

were a lot of reasons why it was the

best decision for her and I to part ways

at that point and it actually wasn't

thankfully um a bad split you know I

yeah I think in most Partnerships if

it's a 50/50 when you hear about it you

usually hear about it because it ended

poorly but um for the same reasons that

we were drawn to each other we were both

Dynamic leaders we both loved basically

the idea of being a CEO it didn't make

sense for there to be two CEOs and

neither of us you know could could come

to that so I envisioned having that

business for the rest of my life or the

majority of my professional career but

um it really ended up being a blessing

for her and for I that it parted when it

did okay gotcha um did you plan on

bringing her in once you hit

profitability cuz you had about 4 months

there where it was just you uh I wasn't

she actually had reached out to me and

said hey Lana I'm thinking of starting a

recruiting company she had known I was

doing operational work but she didn't

yet know that I had started my own

business and she said could I pick your

brain or you know do you have any

thoughts about that I was like you know

I actually have that uh business model

right now would you want to be a part of

that um she and I both are moms of she

has four kids I have two they're little

and so um to be able to do all the

things myself wasn't really fun and I

was sacrificing in places I didn't want

to so she was able to share the load of

that and we both were able to kind of do

the things that we were both really

great at gotcha okay um how did you come

I mean how did you grow profitability

from a brand new company so quickly uh

you said you had done this in corporate

do those contacts stick around or how

how did that work yeah you know we um we

we just both were really specific in our

career to be intentional in the way that

we worked and to have lasting

relationships um you know separately in

individually we had um good Partnerships

with people in our career just in

general and so when we were coming into

this business there were a lot of um

relationships that we could tap into and

we did we knocked on the door of all of

them and said hey do you want to work

with us um most of which as it typically

goes says hey we're not hiring right now

but those that said No at beginning some

of them said yes later some of them

instantly said yes so at the very

beginning that was absolutely our

Revenue strategy was to say who do we

know that wants to work with us that

only gets you so far you only know so

many people but it absolutely was a

focus at the beginning and then Word of

Mouth took it from there yeah it was a

lot of LinkedIn truthfully like a lot of

hey I want to know you do you want to

know me let's talk about what we do um

but yeah it was a very intentional

refined everchanging sales process that

she really truthfully LED it was not the

thing that I wanted to do at that time

so that was like her um biggest focus in

the day-to-day okay because you said she

was she her Focus was Tech but I also

heard sales in there so she also had a

little bit of Chief marketing experience

or sales sales experience there too oh

great question so when I say she was in

tech she was in uh Tech recruitment her

her context right so um she was mostly

in her exper erence a leader in the

recruitment industry um and so she just

had those contacts that came with her

but most of her experience was delivery

and Recruitment and strategy and so

stepping into sales was new for her but

um you know largely there's so much

similarity between Recruitment and sales

and Leadership that you know tapping

into those relationships was kind of the

organic next piece of that okay gotcha

now I mean you said it yourself

recruiters can be uh irritating yeah and

and it sounds like the two of you

managed to avoid getting that label

early on I mean LinkedIn is just full of

people in my inbox telling me all these

people they have that want to work for

me how did you guys so quickly get that

going and not come off as spamming not

come off as like this this is just

automated messaging sent to a billion

CPAs at once yeah yeah well we did have

h a model of recruitment called RPO or

that's the Shand for it which is

recruitment process Outsourcing so the

value of our partnership was found in

our partnership it wasn't found in our

results or in our candidates that were

hired so we were as much a strategic

partner in your entire holistic hiring

approach as much as we were filling

those roles that you had available at

the time so um a lot of recruiters will

come to you like you said with

candidates or they're just trying to be

the first to fill the job and that was

not a partnership that we were really

excited about it was an option for

companies who just really felt that

that's the way that they wanted to work

with us but um primarily our signature

service was this partnership model where

we just would kind of come in and take

over the entire process of hiring and so

um that value is just you know that much

more attractive to the right kind of

partner you obviously have to be at some

sort of level from a revenue perspective

to have that need and to have an ongoing

hiring need but um for the most part it

saved you a lot of money the the cost

was much lower than it would be if we

were just fighting to fill that position

first for you um plus you got our our

brain and our strategy on a daily basis

so it worked for everyone I gotta I I've

seen a little bit of this model so

you're saying you're not you're not

working with a one-off placement you're

working with a company that's looking to

hire a person a month two people month

on an ongoing basis and and probably you

guys come into the company and say okay

what positions you looking to fill and

you're helping write those job postings

you're helping to say we're going to

post it here here here and here is that

am I Gathering that correctly yeah it's

full cycle recruiting so exactly what

you said where you will write the job

descriptions you'll do the intake with a

hiring manager we'll help guide the best

practices of what to be looking for

because we'll have such a feel for the

talent in the market so we can really

help advise what's attainable right if

someone says I want to hire someone

who's worth $100,000 for $5,000 right we

can just say what's realistic or not um

and yeah just advis in that entire

process and then also execute and and

actually finding you that person you're

looking for I gotta okay so uh I mean uh

what's your partner's name or your

former partner's name so that I'm not

just saying your partner yeah Julia

Julia okay so you and Julia are both

you know you said similar roles or

similar personalities and everything

like that um at the time that you

brought her in it was just the two of

you did you guys ever grow beyond that

with other subs or employees or anything

yeah so my husband ironically is an IT

recruiter so he he was always kind of in

the background ready to help us if we

needed it and then as she was bringing

in people from her network she also had

people in her network that were

recruiters as well so as soon as she

came on and the client load came in with

her support and the revenue we also

added recruiters to the team so um we

did do a bit of the delivery at the

beginning but the more that we grew Yeah

the more it made sense to just have a

team do that I gotta so it started with

you and then she was employee number two

and then how how big did it get to by

the time you uh exited by the time we

left or I left uh I think we had six

people

total gotcha yeah cuz that's what I'm

wondering is if if it was just you and

her and uh eight months into partnership

you're like I I want to go launch

something else what would cause somebody

to say well I owe you you know I want to

buy out your portion of the value of

what we've built here in such a short

time um you either have to have systems

in place so that it's not just her labor

doing the job of both of you um but it

sounds like you guys were building that

pretty rapidly then yeah we were really

focused on uh a very quick growth and so

we put a lot of time into it and our

skill sets were very different and we

both put all of what we had into those

pieces my skill set really was focused

on the operations of the business

obviously being a fractional coo for

other businesses you know I I really

just cared about how we do what we do

and we do it the best and the most

efficiently and so um you know I for all

intents and purposes I set up the

business so that she could drive it and

continue to grow it and I would you know

change that model to grow with

it so operations is not my favorite um I

am uh I am more on the Visionary side I

like the vision and here's where we're

going and then my partner in this

business she's much more the

operations um you specifically it sounds

like set up operations that could run

without you yes that's always the goal

as much automation as possible and I

will say that uh there can be too much

automation if if you don't have your

hand in the business uh closely and you

don't see how you're doing what you're

doing and care about it deeply as an

owner or an executive I think there's a

huge gap there that will be very obvious

over time in in terms of your client

satisfaction and retention so I I know

that my job is always done best when I

have a a client retention rate of 100%

so that is always kind of the driving

force of of what we do gotcha okay so I

mean from day one that was your purpose

is to set this company up to run as much

as possible without me in the day-to-day

making it run exactly yeah how can I

remove myself make other people uh you

know just really shine in their role and

do what they're so great at while also

having clients that never want to leave

us gotcha okay and when your partner or

when when you got bought out did did

they already have your replacement on

the operation side or was it just ready

to go without Alana in there yeah we did

have one girl in our team

who I was mentoring a bit um to take

over because she just had a general

interest in operations and she just was

an amazing human and talented in a lot

of different ways and so we tapped into

that um and so the natural replacement

you know I don't think she does exactly

what I do currently but um a lot of it

like we talked about with setup so that

it was much more maintaining what was

already set up versus starting it from

the beginning yeah before we get into

the acquisition

piece you said that you had known your

partner uh from previous companies that

you guys have both worked in in

corporate and then she was ready and you

guys talked how long did that process

take for you guys to decide we don't

just want to be peers Consulting with

each other we want to do this

partnership uh it took a matter of weeks

because uh the similarities between us

were that we both were very Mission

focused and so once we decided we wanted

to do do something we wanted to do it

and she and I just both love to make

decisions and make them quickly so um I

was like hey do you want to be a partner

and she said yes basically I she had a

lot of offers at the time she was in

between her last job and was kind of

looking for the next thing um and and

again it was a total surprise because

she didn't know I had this company so it

definitely was soul searching it it was

tapping into all options and really

ultimately it just was a pretty simple

Choice when you know we saw everything

sort of come together and we saw what it

could be um it was just not looking back

from there okay at that point this is

four months in you said when you started

it you planed to work there forever at

that point four months in when you

brought her in was there any indication

or inclination in the back of your mind

that you might not want to be here

forever or was it still we're going to

run this thing to get together forever

at that point yeah it wasn't until uh

weeks before I parted that I really

thought that I wouldn't be there for the

Long Haul gotcha okay so together the

two of you August a year ago at this

point recording um said we're going to

run any we're going to set up this

agency this recruitment agency and we're

going to run it yep exactly okay did she

buy in having you've been in this for

four months or did it was it Sweat

Equity how did how did she come in as

half owner yeah I I assume half owner so

yeah yep we are we were a 50-50

partnership Okay I uh did not ask her to

buy in mostly because the client base

that we had at the time was small and

you know I was doing everything I could

from a sales perspective but um I knew

that she would largely increase her our

client base pretty quickly and that in

and of itself was kind of like a Buy in

so yeah it didn't feel worth it to me I

gotta okay so Sweat Equity there and so

you guys worked together for

about uh nine months or so and then you

said something cropped up and you're

like I want to go do something else um

talk to me about the success of you got

what you were able to multiply I mean

obviously you brought in you had a team

of six there but it wasn't you times her

equals two times a growth um yeah talk

to me about I guess the complimenting

roles before we start getting into kind

of the conflicting roles there yeah so

the complimenting roles you know I

mentioned briefly was that we both were

really ambitious in how big we wanted

the company to be and so every time we

had some sort of Milestone achieved we

were focused on the next we had a small

little moment of yay we did it and

mostly our brain was okay yep what what

can we do now um and and how can we get

better and I think also similarly we we

really just were committed to Excellence

and everything that we did so she was

committed to Excellence in her Revenue

process and the leadership overseeing

the delivery piece and um I was just

committed to Excellence in in every way

right and so our reputation was good

like people liked working with us our

retention rate was excellent the only

reason that people parted with us with

us was because they had no more roles to

hire they literally had everything

filled and they weren't going to hire

for the foreseeable future and so um by

the time I left that was the only reason

is that they just didn't hire anymore

and so on all fronts we were succeeding

um I'm not sure what their revenue was

from from the time that she came in to

what it is about now a you know being

one year from when she came in but we

definitely were on um on the path of a

seven figure business in the first year

so um you know I'm not I'm not sure what

it is at the moment but I if nothing

changed you know from what she was able

to do I'm sure that they're there at

this point I gotta yeah so a lot of

people will say don't hire a partner who

duplicates you and we're going to get to

that in a second but in this case you

are saying you need to hire a partner

who's on the same page in some things as

you and and for you guys there was

nobody hesitating or saying maybe now's

the time to take our foot off the gas it

was very much both of you were aligned

in the vision of where you saw this

company go yeah you know we both have

just the same values in general um and

my the company's name that I had decided

was aligned Recruitment and she and I

just like you know at the core really

care about alignment for our clients but

also just in general and so she and I

are so um focused on that value that we

would have never started if we didn't

feel like this would be a lifetime thing

it was kind of a surprise to both of us

that it was wasn't I should say yeah

gotcha okay uh so what caused you to

your heart to start heading somewhere

else well in her sales process she

really you know felt the power of having

that CEO title and so so um you that was

something that I didn't really care

about from a hey you have this and I

don't have that um but what I did care

about is that I whatever title I did

have whatever we came up with it

wouldn't be lesser than a CEO and there

really is no equivalent there really is

no a see yeah yeah so we called

ourselves co-founders which was true um

and we she called herself the CEO and I

basically just kept my title co-founder

and we were really searching in that for

months and that ultimately was the the

the push and pull there at the end it

was we both want this title because we

both feel like we're gifted and have

earned that so to speak like her from a

revenue standpoint me from a a formation

of the company standpoint and in that we

there just really was no resolution and

it really wasn't about the title at the

end of the day it was more about um hey

our

our the fun that we have here is the

same fun like we both want to do the

same thing and lead and make decisions

and it's stepping on each other

unintentionally you know at the end okay

so you both were aligned in the vision

but there would be some things where it

would be just slightly diverging just a

little bit and it would come down to

okay well we're going to go your

direction this time and then we're going

to take this tack the next time is that

is that what I'm hearing just

gradually that alignment started to look

a little bit more and more different

yeah it did yeah you know I think there

were just um moments of hey I don't want

to get on a call with you and ask you

your opinion I just want to like make a

decision and run with that and we both

felt that in our own right um we both

just like loved loved to lead and loved

to have vision and to be able to sort of

get approval is ultimately what it

started to feel like from the other

person and the approval was kind of what

we didn't want you know it's it's the

reason you started a business where you

don't have to get somebody's permission

for something and so it just organically

became uh the opposite of what we were

looking to do in be a

CEO okay so I'd I'd like to do this but

I'm gonna run this by my partner quickly

rather than just yes we're gonna do this

yeah and then there were moments right

where we weren't on the same page even

though for the most part we were and

then it's like what do you do with that

and how often who breaks that tie 5050

exactly yeah stand still yep okay I

gotta so was it you that first started

thinking about the split or I I know

there's there's a lot of conversations

around that but did you have another

idea that you're like I think I could

exit and you could run with this because

I'm I'm starting to get interested in

this other idea yeah no I um she was she

had approached me about buying me out of

the business she said like like hey I

really like to be a CEO and so do you

and so maybe this doesn't make sense

anymore what are your thoughts like

maybe I buy you out of this and uh like

I said I thought I was going to work

there forever obviously I had first

started the company but it was really

attractive that that conversation

because of those just little moments of

I don't know how this can continue to

work if we're going to do this for 20

years and we're a year into it and

already Fe feeling this it's probably

wise to split now instead of going

further on and maybe having a

relationship that does become

contentious so I was so protective of

wanting to have peace and Harmony and

and not you know make things

unnecessarily hard that it felt like

okay if we're feeling this now we we

should probably lean into that how did

you see the bright side how did you

start to say maybe maybe Julia's right

on this maybe it is time for me to go

and how long did that take and what was

that process for you yeah well I'm um

you know I have a faith and I'm a pretty

prayerful person and so that was

something that I was already sifting

through and seeking in my personal life

like how do we reconcile and so it felt

like divine intervention at this moment

that it was brought up to me and so just

from the beginning it was just peace

really just feeling like okay this

is this is a sign right that uh this

chapter is coming to a close and this

you know was my second business and I

felt really confident at this point that

running a business wasn't something that

I couldn't do again um obviously you

don't want to start all over the the

money coming in is great and the client

base is great but you know it's not like

recruitment was my passion and that I

wanted to do it for the rest of my life

it's that I loved the business model and

so I knew that there was another

business model that I could love just as

much moving on I got you so you already

had enough just frustration and feeling

that tension in your soul

that it was like it hurt but then it was

like no this is this is right somebody

somebody has to get out or not not get

out that way but but but this does need

this is the resolution that you had

already been praying for and and trying

to figure out so yeah okay all right uh

so had you already had this next so

what's your next business after getting

acquired out of the the recruitment

agency yeah so I had always wanted to

start a social media uh management

business and so that is what we founded

or I should say I founded I say we

because we have a team of seven people

right now so it feels very much like we

founded the business together since June

that's when you were reiring since June

yeah wow um it's been so fun so

absolutely so fun and uh it absolutely

is the place that I was meant to be in

um and so that you know we're a

full-fledged Media company so we do

podcast editing and you know kind of

anything you think of videos and

websites but really our bread and butter

the signature service people come to for

us is social media management I gotcha

and so that had been in the back of your

head for a long time so I your partner

comes to you with this idea and you

immediately jump to that or were there

any questions you had to answer figure

out if now is the right time yeah I mean

my

yeah my spouse Greg he would very much

prefer that I just had a job like I he

is not an entrepreneur he's like hey can

you just make a normal amount of money

and just be stable for a second um but

work a normal number of hours yeah see

you on nights and weekend stuff like

that exactly yeah so uh that's just not

who I am and so my polite answer was no

thank you and he got on board eventually

and I'm so I'm so grateful that he did

because for me to just go back to

corporate would just be the opposite of

who I am okay was there ever any thought

uh when your when your partner

approached you to buy you out that you

would become an employee there and she

would continue on a CEO or you knew if

she's going to be 100% owner I need to

go be an owner somewhere else oh yeah I

would have never wanted that and she

wouldn't have either I I don't think

that you make the original founder of a

company beneath you I think for the rest

of the team the Optics feel weird from

moving forward yeah yeah it is it is

hard to step back from that role I do

know like you know huge companies the

founder doesn't end up being the CEO by

the time they you know get to a certain

level yeah but small companies it is

very well who has the final say I know

they're the owner but you're the founder

so okay weird yeah gotcha all right so

you jump into social media how did you

build how did you build that team so

fast did you again contacts from prior

corporate yeah this was actually from my

first business so when I did the

fractional coo work as intensely as I

did I also taught people how to do what

I did and so I had many people interning

for me or that I mentored or just a

following on social media where I shared

what I knew and I just had people that

were eager to work with me moving

forward so I would have hired those

people at aligned recruitment they just

didn't have the recruiting skills at

theirs was much more operationally

focused um and like I said you know in

operations you tend to do a lot of

things like hiring while these people

tend to do a lot of things like social

media for a lot of their clients so they

had a lot of extensive experience

already things that uh would just

quickly be refined by our internal

processes and I was just lucky enough

that they wanted to come on board okay

gotcha how long did the process of

buying you out of align recruitment take

you know there definitely was a

negotiation period over a couple months

um and then the contract piece just

lawyers you know talking back and forth

lawyer talk um that probably added

another month so maybe three months in

total I gotcha okay and how did you guys

come up with a value for that business

for your 50% share that's a great

question um we came at it at every angle

uh you know sometimes it was a

percentage of Revenue sometimes it was

just a flat sum really some you know

sometimes it was like a royalty there

was every option explored and really we

just came to a sum that we knew the

business could afford really is what um

it came down to um obviously the

business doesn't buy me out Julia buys

me out but um it was just the reality of

you know if you're leaving at this point

you contributed to this much money

essentially right your talents

contributed to where it is at this point

um so it really just was okay what

what's the profit right now and what can

That Swing gotcha okay so it was more

based off of the existing cash flow of

the business what it would be able to do

over a set number of years or because

you guys were was Julia also anti-b uh

like you started the company yeah we

both are very anti-b yeah just uh for

our families and in business and so um

we really wanted a clean break and

that's why we decided to do a lump sum

um just for each other to feel freedom

and uh yeah we just we just did did that

by the time that the contract process

was over gotcha okay all right so

there's not a three-year buyout or

anything like that it was it was agreed

this is the date this is the amount I'm

bringing to the table and best of luck

to you yeah good luck yeah okay uh that

took three months of that process had

you already started the groundwork for

the next business then at that point or

were you waiting for that seed money or

yeah well because I'm so anti-b you know

in business there's very little money I

put into Thomas media agency at the very

beginning I just you know waited for the

revenue so no I did the free trials of

all the systems and I just worked it for

as long as I could until we needed to um

increase you know those systems and just

went with it as we increased with our

clients so um no I I did start the

working in the backend it was mostly you

know branding and admission and figuring

out the niche and those the backend

decisions and then um recently is when

we went to Market gotcha so you didn't

have any customers that you brought on

that you were working with during that

time no all of our customers are new um

and we specialize in this business in

health and wellness it's not like we

specialize in Tech as well so um

especially tapping into aligned

recruitment wouldn't make any

sense I gota okay how did you how did

you plan that

launch oh man I am a messy action sort

of person so I just sort of went for it

I was like hey we have we're here do you

want to hire us and and truly it was

that that messy and I do think that that

has worked historically in my favor that

people very much see a human element and

it's not so methodical and tailored and

perfect in the way that you come to

Market just like hey like we really want

to do a good job for you and so um as

soon as I had made the decisions of what

we're doing you know I got the website

up as quickly as I could and it's very

much beginner website I have my in-house

person website designer fixing it all

the things that I probably did wrong um

but I don't think you have to be perfect

to start and so I just went for it I

mean this will change but this is the

company you want to run for the rest of

your life at this point you know this is

my third company and I'm 29 so I'm

betting that something else will pop up

at some point gotcha okay but but I love

what we do a and based off of the prior

experience your goal do you have plans

of future partner or is it going to be

100% you what are your thoughts on that

right now you know I am not against

having a partner in the

future uh at this point I don't want one

like in this moment um but you're not

turned off to the idea completely you're

like the right partner comes along it

could work out yeah I've seen it work

for bigger businesses and I've seen it

work for small ones too and so I don't

think it's impossible it's just a lot of

it has to be again I think divine

intervention for it to make sense okay

um any I mean would you be looking

for yeah I mean you would be looking for

something different obviously to avoid

some of those same issues but I I guess

what have you learned about yourself and

what

your what your musthaves and your would

be nice to haves kind of are uh when

you're when you're talking about scaling

with a with a partner like that now at

this point yeah you know

with aligned recruitment I just so

didn't want to do sales and the reason I

didn't want to do it I think is because

I had just so much misperception of what

that meant and in this agency that I own

now it's obviously all on me and so I

had no choice but to lean into it and

the skill set that I have now is vastly

different than it is a year ago and what

I could offer to aligned Recruitment and

so I no longer feel the need to have

people who have that skill set around me

because I've just you know worked to

develop that myself myself um you know I

I I never want to sacrifice my time at

work uh impa to impact the time that I

have with my children so if it gets to a

point where I'm just putting too much on

me I'll either have a co-founder or you

know a fractional Co like stuff that I

used to do uh for the business or just

really Elevate the people that are

already around me to take on some things

and and to train them but you know those

things that I feel like I was lacking

before now I just think it's a matter of

learning not a matter of I need to find

someone else I got you so you I mean you

just alluded to it there a lot of people

would look at that and if there hadn't

been a payout at the end they would have

said well that was a year waste of time

you started a company and you only

worked there for you know 14 months and

then you you moved on but you would you

would say no I learned so much so it

sounds like you developed that sales

skill there um how else did you see

yourself grow from that experience of

founding a company and exiting a company

yeah you know I just started to take

myself so much more seriously and the

first company that I had I was I was

everything the owner operator and I had

some virtual assistant but it really was

you know I had to do all the things and

I just wanted the control over

everything too and then with aligned

recruitment it was me and then a team

and really the difference there I could

have scaled my first business into an

agency similarly but it was having the

number of clients really I capped out

about 10 in my first at one time at

least and if I could keep bringing in

more clients you know there was there's

no reason to keep growing the business

and so I just am not afraid of going

bigger this time around and thinking

bigger than I used to I gotta okay how

did you scale so fast because everybody

I talked to says you can't hire anybody

right now I mean you you had

subcontractor con contacts from the

previous company but I mean bring

onboarding seven employees in two months

while also onboarding brand new clients

all at the same time and then you're

saying you actually have time for your

children and your husband and uh so how

I mean you're a systems person so give

me give me the secret of those systems

you know it's so funny because once you

do it for one business I'm not saying

that everyone doesn't have different

goals but it really is the same like I I

come into every business that I work

with from a CEO perspective and I have

the same same process same everything

and you just tweak it a little bit

depending on what they want the end goal

to be and so when I started um Thomas

media agency my internal systems for

employee onboarding um I had it in my

brain from my first business from my

second business and I probably did the

entire everything in a week everything

to set up the business um and I was just

like ready to go here we go and so I

mean I you know I've done it for a

hundred businesses now for coo work so

you just learn the pattern but I think

really that's the value of an operations

person because someone who doesn't think

that way operationally probably could

take a year doing the same thing so yeah

yeah okay and did it help that you were

bringing in different roles those seven

people weren't duplication I assume or

what were that was there there

definitely is some overlap um you know

all of them have their knowledge and

their own experience with social media

and so they can help others are really

expert in that area others are like our

signature website designer another is an

amazing podcast editor so they all have

their unique strengths and actually that

does make it more complicated because I

have to have specific processes built

out and specific training built out for

different roles right so if everyone was

a social media manager it would be

vastly easier to set up the systems it

needs uh for the company but uh we just

want to do more than that okay I

gotcha um I mean I'm fascinated by this

scaling because you know we bring in an

employee and it seems to wreck

everything for you know most companies

that I see they bring in an employee and

it takes a year sometimes for those

employees to get up to profitability and

you know everything you're hiring for

positions that you haven't defined yet

really I mean you have an idea but how

much of that is you as the CEO acting as

operations defining these roles and how

much of that were you relying on their

expertise to define those new processes

within this new company yeah so for

everyone that came in with me as the

first person so our first girl who did

social media management um I relied on

her probably 5050 of of my brain and her

brain to come together and then the next

social media training we did for our

next person I got her input I said where

are we missing and and you can only do

that so many times I think eventually

it's just going to get complicated and

unnecessary because it's going to work

itself out but the nature of every

business is that you always have to be

changing what you do and so it's just a

matter of like a weekly or a monthly

audit and say are we missing anything is

there anything that could be better in

what we're doing like this free resource

we have in our website is that the best

that we really could give someone right

now and so it's just um a general enal

principle and a value that we are

growing in every way and so it's just

one of those things that comes naturally

to everything else okay

awesome

um if you could talk a little bit about

revenue or number of clients or

something how quickly did that scale too

with Thomas media agency yeah so in our

first two weeks of putting it out there

that we have a business and we offer

services we had about 10 sales calls of

people that knew me or that I had

started to connect with um and our

packages at the minimum are 3500 a month

every month for our partnership for

social media um more than half of those

closed I'm trying to give a I honestly

don't know our Revenue right now because

I have sales calls every day and so I'm

trying it's changing on a daily basis

and you're only two months in there's

not not much to compare it to not much

to compare it to but you know uh I would

say we're we're doing as well as aligned

recruitment did which is a great feeling

wow okay so 60% close rate on your first

initial sales calls what uh what is that

how did you decide on those prices um

having not really been in this business

for a number of years and even back then

it wasn't this exact business you didn't

undersell yourself that's great yeah

yeah I very much care about high quality

content and I think there's no point of

social media if you're going to do it

any other way so just throwing a reel or

an image up there is the opposite of

what our values are and so in order to

do what we need to do it takes time so I

really was so intentional to break down

every single step that someone would

have to go through to make one real on

our team for our client said how much

effort really does that take and how

much time you how many clients could

they manage and the answer is very few

because because we're so such a white

glove service so um we had the the

prices to match that gotcha okay so you

started with capacity what do we want

that to look like and then divide it by

something to get your to get your rate

and said we we can only handle 20

clients right now so it has to be this

in order to pay for all the costs gotcha

okay uh what who is your target client

for that how did you come up with that

decision yeah um truth I I want to sit

here and say oh it's because I love this

industry so much but it really was a

business decision

um we support health and wellness

specifically online Professionals in the

space uh the first reason for that was

they need content almost more than any

other industry for their their

businesses especially if they're online

it's just so necessary for them to stay

relevant especially because Trends

change and there there's just so much

support they need in that perspective so

first it was that second it was um ease

of creating the content it's just that

much easier to create content than for

them than it would be for I don't know

restaurants right and just like going on

site and filming like what who does that

I don't know how you would do that right

as a CPA in charge of marketing I'm like

man I wish I had a visual

profession if I could have just leaned

into strength coaching it's easy to come

up with videos for that so yeah exactly

ex I totally understand yeah yeah and

then of course they just need to be able

to afford US so it really came down to

those three things I Goa okay um

and and what does that package look like

I mean how white glove is a service very

white glove you know there really is a

strategic approach for any reel that you

want to put out there to make it go

viral and I'm not going to say that

every piece of content we make for our

clients goes viral but there are so many

very very little things that you can do

to increase that chance um to go from

like hey there's no chance to hey maybe

this actually is going to get a million

views because we did every little thing

so well um and even the difference

between one word to two words is is that

Difference Maker of um going viral and

so you really want to be very

intentional and we just we have a reals

package specifically for that you know

you can make images and carousels um

which is you know those swipe images for

for those who aren't sure what that is

um and you should have maybe one or two

of those a month but largely 95% of your

content should be videos and so um

that's specifically Instagram uh Tik Tac

and Instagram yeah if you're not afraid

of Tik toac okay uh do your client I

mean do you guys do long form or do you

guys have that as part of your strategy

too or we do yes so we also do podcast

editing um video editing up to 90

minutes um just you know if you need

videos like training videos or anything

else created for you yeah it's just not

the thing that people usually come to us

for but it's the thing that they realize

they need to complete their marketing

package

eventually I I think we're going to wrap

start to wrap up here but you said

you're a mom of two and you're a founder

of a two-month-old business with seven

employees and you

know quick profitability sales calls

every day and you're an operations

person how do you get to the end of the

day and decide I mean is it just a

matter of I'm not going to work more

than x number of hours today how does

how do you how do you balance all that I

work about 30 hours a week and I I don't

feel okay like truly truly um and I

don't feel like I need more than that I

I don't know if it's just be I do know I

know it's because we set up everything

so intentionally like we everything we

looked at we said is it profitable does

it make sense is it worth our time and

and there's just nothing that we do that

doesn't have a reason for it so

Fridays I uh I either hang out with my

kids or I have a day for myself and I

recharge and I'm ready for the weekend

to be a family weekend and groceries are

done and and everything's ready so um

Fridays are my me days Monday through

Thursdays are my give it everything for

eight hours and and feel really good

about what you put on the table for

those days that's awesome I'm sorry I

didn't mean to laugh I'm no I'm glad I'm

glad I was expecting like I only work 45

hours or I only work you know I only

work five days a week I stop on the

weekends kind of thing you're like 30

hours from the game

so so funny that's awesome so I mean

that forces that has to force you to

hire when it's uncomfortable though

right I mean you're at seven employees

two months in some of those hires had to

be like I'm going to trust that there's

going to be Revenue here yeah yeah I

don't hire unless we already have the

contracts to speak for that and so

because I'm so anti- debt I'm like okay

I want to get paid this much I want you

to get paid this much how many clients

do we need for that and there's always

that like that next step right so um if

if our cap is a social media manager

with five clients they might have six or

seven up until you know I close a couple

more and then we hire another full-time

person so there's always some

flexibility there and I appreciate my

team for doing that um but but yeah you

just have to trust that what you're

doing is working and if you show up

every day with integrity and putting

your absolute best foot forward with as

I do with these sales calls I'm not

worried that we won't have the money to

support that

okay uh do your your managers get paid

then as a percentage of the number of

clients that they work with um so

everyone's different we actually have a

our website designers in Croatia so her

um you know compensation with us is

vastly different than the girl who lives

in my city that you know is a full-time

employee so it's all different but um

usually I'll hire someone either

part-time for a certain number of

clients or full-time for a certain

number and and there's not a lot of of

in between for the part-time at least

because I'm really protective of of you

know honoring that time limit gotcha

okay but I mean you have you have

somebody that has to manage six or seven

clients how do you keep them from saying

no I can handle seven give me eight I

could take nine rather than say no you

told me

five you're at seven now that means I

have to hire somebody and take that

revenue of two of those people away from

you how do you how do you balance that

with the capacity and the honesty of

employees yeah um so yeah that's a good

clarifying question so they don't get

paid more for more clients that they're

working with so they're either part-time

or full-time um and it hasn't really

been an issue yet truthfully like

everyone just says okay like okay I'm

either part-time or I'm full-time and I

have this number of employees you know I

I first hire people for character and I

then hire for skill so I don't think

I'll hopefully if I continue to do that

well then we'll be in a position where

people are vindictive or like that

specific about what they're contributing

and what that looks like for them okay

so it's not at the point yet and you

hope that you would have open

conversations with them where they're

like why is she hiring again why can't

we get paid more yeah it's not gotten to

that point yet they're honest with you

about what they need and what they can

handle and everything so yeah okay great

awesome oh well Alana I really

appreciate this uh perspective you know

my podcast is typically more focused on

the buyer but it is always interesting

to hear the seller side and what would

cause somebody to to you know be ready

to walk away and in your case not walk

away to retirement but walk away to

what's next um so that it's been a great

conversation I appreciate that um so I

do a a rapid fire uh list of questions

at the end of my episodes uh are you are

you ready for this I'm ready okay all

right so lightning round just a sentence

sentence and a half go through a number

of questions get to know you a little

bit better so uh coffee or tea and how

do you like it coffee with as much uh

sugar as

possible any preferred flavor anything

at Starbucks that's that's not actually

coffee gotta I gotta sugar drink with a

shot of coffee

yep all right uh pie or cake and do you

have a preferred type apple pie every

day okay apple pie with ice cream or

without oh all the ice cream yeah as

much sugar as I can get that's a theme

Here gotcha

okay um what is a common belief among

entrepreneurs that you would want to

challenge oh I would want to challenge

the idea that you have to

sacrifice um every day to build

something great sometimes you can just

have a balance for

everything okay great uh what is your

favorite holiday and

why uh Christmas without a doubt I My

love language is gifts I like to give

and to get and so it's just a day that I

feel real loved okay great uh how old

are your two kids uh 5 months and 20

months we're feeling it we're feeling oh

man this next Christmas is going to be

awesome Yep crazy so you don't

sleep awesome uh are you a morning

person or a night person and do you have

a routine other than diapers and feeding

and stuff like that when you get a

moment to yourself get a second um I'm

like a 10: a.m. person so I don't know

I'm neither I'm a forced morning person

because you know that's the only time

where I get a second to myself so I'll

wake up at five but not because I'm

happy about it gotcha it's because

that's when you can squeeze it in yep

yep okay um what is one thing that you

would want your

successor uh just somebody you Mentor

somebody in your company now something

that they would look at you and say this

is what I learned from Alana what would

that thing be you know I'll probably

sound like a broken record here uh but I

hope that they think that everything I

did was done with a purpose and a reason

and whatever that reason is it's fine

but it was done with something in mind

gotcha okay uh where where are you

finding creativity right

now uh I went to school for interior

design it was my first degree and I

don't get to use that ever except in my

own home so as much as I can shift

things around and spend money that I

don't that my husband doesn't want me to

spend you know I'll I'll do it yeah

that's my wife I'm like do we really

need another lampshade she's like yes

always how many pillows we have more

pillows we're getting rid of than we

have so yeah gotcha uh I mean this is an

obvious question but what do you have

coming up in the next year at Thomas

media that's that's got you excited man

hopefully besides your oneye anniversary

besides that right uh man hopefully the

million dooll mark That's the goal

that's the dream but

truly it money is only money the million

dollars would only represent that

there's a lot of people that see

excellence in what we do so that's

that's the dream really wow okay uh well

thank you so much for being a guest on

here Alana I've really appreciated this

conversation it's uh it's opened my eyes

on a couple things uh it's remarkable

what you've done and I just appreciate

you being on here thank you so much

thank you Barett I really appreciate it

it's been great yeah where can uh where

can people find you well because I've

got so much going on you can obviously

check out Thomas media agency uh.com is

our website and it's also our Instagram

Tik Tok handle um and then that girl

Alana Thomas is my podcast and my my

coaching stuff so you'll find me there

great all right thank you have a good

day thanks you too