Renee Hastings on Leveraging Virtual Assistance as a Smart Growth Strategy

Freddy D: 00:02:43

Hey Superfans superstar Freddie D. Here in this episode 140, we're joined by Renee Hastings, President and CEO of Executive Help.

Now Renee leads a dynamic team of account executives, managers, producers and executive assistants who specialize in giving busy leaders their time back through administrative support, social media engagement, podcast production and business consulting.

neurial journey began back in: 1996

Over 15 years of hands on experience and training as a Dale Carnegie Leadership coach, Renee has also shared her expertise on NBC's KCRA news, helping business owners navigate the challenges of the pandemic.

Today, she continues to empower executives, creators and entrepreneurs to step out of the weeds of daily tasks so they can focus on what truly matters. Get ready for an inspiring conversation with someone who blends leadership, authenticity and faith driven purpose into everything she does.

Freddy D: 00:04:08

Welcome Renee to the Business Superfans podcast. Super excited to have you on the show.

You and I had a great little conversation before we started recording, so let's continue that conversation and go from there.

Renee Hastings: 00:04:20

Thank you so much, Freddie, for having me on your show. It is truly an honor and a pleasure to make your acquaintance and I'm just thrilled to be here today.

Freddy D: 00:04:29

Well, thank you, thank you very much. As we do on all the shows, it's kind of like, what's the beginning? What's the backstory?

You've got an interesting background share with our listeners of where you came from, the organizations you worked with, and now you've got your own agency providing virtual assistant services to executives all over the place.

Renee Hastings: 00:04:51

So my story starts way back. I am actually the granddaughter of a sharecropper. And as the granddaughter of a sharecropper, some people may not know what that is.

But a sharecropper back in the day was someone who worked land for someone else who actually owned the land. One of the men that my grandfather worked for bought some land in Wisconsin.

And so my grandfather moved the family from the south to an Amish community in Wisconsin. As you can imagine, for those that are just listening on the podcast only and not on video, I'm a black woman and our whole family is black.

And so if you move us to an Amish community, there are not going to be many others that look like us unless they are family. And that was indeed our situation. So because that was the case and my grandfather wanted everyone in our family to know.

It was ingrained in us, instilled in us from the time we could Walk and talk. That we are a representation of this family. We're representatives of this family. And we must be excellent in everything we are doing.

We must be honest. We must be dependable, reliable, trustworthy, and of good reputation in the community. Because everything we did was a reflection on the family.

And so we took it very seriously, because in that community, people made a deal with a handshake. And they trusted you when you said that you were going to do something.

They trusted you that you were going to do exactly what you said you were going to do. And so that's how I was raised. Having that ingrained in me and that work ethic, to work hard and to be very good at what we do, be very thorough.

That was ingrained in me from a very young age.

And when my mother, who was a single mom, left the farm that we were farming with our grandfather, she ended up settling in Madison, Wisconsin, a college town, much larger and progressive city.

And they had a program there for youth called the Summer Youth Employment Program, which was an opportunity for children to learn their natural gifts and skills and talents and interests that they had that just kind of came naturally to them and expose them to work opportunities. And my mother signed me up for these programs. And my first experience working outside of a field was actually at the Madison Urban League.

And at the Madison Urban League, they took me to this room that was filled high and deep with books of all sorts and sizes, all categories, all just mashed together.

By the end of summer, my job was to organize all those books, put them in categories, label them, organize them, put them in subcategories if necessary, and sub subcategories if necessary, and then log them, create a log so people could find out where to find them. By the end of summer, this room was so nicely organized and labeled. It was beautiful. And I discovered my love for organizing. I was 12.

Freddy D: 00:08:12

Wow.

Renee Hastings: 00:08:13

And I couldn't wait for the next year because they paid us to do this. And as the daughter of a single mom, I was all about getting paid. I couldn't wait for the next year to come.

And they assigned me to Norell Temporary Services, which I'm not even sure still exists today. It was a temporary employment agency, and the owner of the franchise was a black woman.

My job was to assist her by handing out the applications to the people to fill out and then explain to them what to do and then get it back and type it into the computer. And Freddie, with the clickety clack of the keys, hearing my fingers clickety clacking on the keyboard, it did something in my spirit.

And I just felt like, I'm going to own a business one day, I'm going to run an office one day. Because what I'm doing here is important work. Because the more I clickety clack on these keys, the closer somebody is getting to getting a job.

And when they get a job, they're going to be able to take care of their families. That's going to make them a good dad or husband and that's going to be great for the community. And so I'm thinking all of this.

And so by the time I was 13, I made this inner vow. I'm going to run an office one day. I'm going to own my own business one day. And so that's what I did.

So I took all the classes that I could in school on what it means to be in business and marketing and DECA and typing and shorthand and dictation.

Freddy D: 00:09:42

We're dating ourselves, clearly.

Renee Hastings: 00:09:44

But I loved it. It just came so naturally for me and I absolutely loved it. So I graduated from high school because I had all these credits.

I graduated from high school at 16 years old. I also graduated with a one month old son. I had to pivot on my plans to go to college and had to go immediately to work.

But because I now had three or four years of experience working, I knew what it was like to work in an office. So I got a very well paying job at the state of Wisconsin with benefits and everything.

So long story short, that is how my natural gifts and skills and talents were formed and how the desire to be excellent and perform and work with excellence with a very high level was formed and created. And when the time came for me to start my own business, it was after my kids had graduated from school and the house was empty.

And I still had all this passion for supporting executives because I had been working with some of the best over the years and eventually supporting the C suite of Fortune 100 companies and Fortune 500 companies.

And when you're supporting an executive on that level, you become privy to things well before other people because you're the confidant of this person who doesn't always have someone else to talk to about certain things. And because they trust you and because this relationship has developed, they know that whatever they tell you is like being in Fort Knox.

No one's going to get that information. Their secrets are safe with us as their assistants.

And I just really loved and appreciated that position and that role that I was able to play for those executives when the time came and I still had all this passion. Kids were gone, I had all this time. Someone said to me, if you're going to own a business, do what you know how to do.

So I started a business doing what I knew how to do. But I also did it as a side hustle. I put that in air quotes for those just listening.

It was a side hustle because I still had my full time day job with the comforts of the paid time off and the health insurance and paid days and the holidays and all the things that come with corporate America. But I still had my clients that I would take care of on the nights and weekends.

And so eventually being because my clients became raving fans or super fans, they kept telling their friends about the support that they were receiving. Eventually I was working just as many hours at night and on the weekends as I was doing my day job.

As you can imagine, if you're working all day for eight hours, you come home, try to be halfway decent wife and prepare a meal or something for your husband and then start trying to work on your own business at 6 in the evening and not getting to bed till 2 or 3 in the morning. Then you have to get up and be back at work again at 8. And you do this day after day, week after week, month after month.

It takes a toll on you mentally, emotionally, physically. I was burning the candle at both ends with little to no sleep. And the quality of my work started to suffer.

Freddy D: 00:13:11

Freddie totally would. Because you can't keep going full blast taking a break to recharge, number one.

Number two, I kind of went through a similar thing when years ago, I was married to my first wife and I had scaled the company products globally. And a bunch of software companies were coming at me and they wanted me to represent their product.

Cause they saw what I did with this company they were throwing money at, in a sense to set up a company. And so I did. I became the exclusive distributor for these software products in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and et cetera.

And I quit my job and I started doing this business, becoming a husband. I was busy working, burning the clock, just like you're talking about.

I'd be up at 4 o' clock in the morning because I was dealing with people in Europe, I was dealing with people in the Middle East. I was dealing with people all over the place and around the world. And I'd work till 9 o' clock at night because I had to get it going.

Our relationship deteriorated because I was basically being a business guy and I stopped Being a husband, and we ended up getting divorced. So I can completely understand where you went through, because I've gone down that road.

Renee Hastings: 00:14:27

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. I mean, I'm glad you can empathize with me in my situation, But I'm so sorry that it took its toll on your marriage.

It came pretty close to doing the same with me. But my uncle fortunately said to me, renee, this is not sustainable. Right? You cannot keep doing this.

You have to get some help or your health is going to suffer and you're going to be sat down whether you like it or not. And I said, yes, you are absolutely right. The answer to my situation was to hire an assistant.

Fortunately, I came across a path of a young lady named Ashley who was introduced to me by my cousin.

And when I interviewed Ashley, and wasn't even an interview, I was just trying to get to know her, what she was doing, what she had been doing in her life, her work experience, that sort of thing. And her answers to the questions were the exact same things that I would answer to the question. And I was like, wow, we are like two peas in a pod.

And she would even do some things that I didn't even think about doing. And I was like, oh, she's a winner. We must have her on the team. And so she was my very first virtual assistant.

And when she came into my life and I was able to delegate all of my work for my clients to her to handle during the day, it was an absolute game changer for me and my work life balance. The quality of my life, the quality of my health, the quality of my work on both my day job and my night job just completely changed for the better.

Goes absolutely back up. And so it got to the point where I would get a message from my client, my personal client, and I would forward it to Ashley with three words.

Please assist. Period. Thanks, exclamation point. That's what I did all day long, was I forwarded emails for Ashley to handle.

And since then, that was quite some time ago.

Since then, Ashley is now our business operations manager, and she oversees our team of success coaches who oversee the rest of the team members who actually get assigned to clients. So it's been an amazing journey and a total game changer. The moment I added a virtual assistant.

Freddy D: 00:16:50

To my team, you bought back your time. And Martell, basically what you ended up doing, we go back to your days at that one facility where you were organizing books and everything else.

You found your niche right there at a very young age. And to organize it in that fashion. I mean that was a challenge for a 12 year old individual that really kind of found your way.

Ironically, that positioned you for where you are today. I was in middle school, my dad was into engineering and so I started into engineering and doing drafting and things like that.

I won a bunch of awards, but that positioned me to get into the computer industry early on. And my goal was to be in charge of global sales. That was my vision is I wanted to be a guy traveling the world.

That was my thing because I'm originally from France and I was born there. And as a kid, once I was 5, 6, 7, we started going back to Europe and I would spend my summers in Europe at my grandfather's place.

I got a bug for traveling and I really enjoyed doing some of that stuff. And that was my vision and I fulfilled that vision.

You had a vision when you were young and that parlayed into what you're doing today because you're still helping people get stuff done, get things organized and everything else. So it began at 12 and here it is today.

Renee Hastings: 00:18:15

Yes, absolutely. And it's been quite a journey. And I love how when you talk about super fans, our business grew organically.

This year will be 11 years that we've been in business.

And it was all word of mouth that we grew from just me to now being a team of almost 30 assistants on the team who are account executives and project managers, high level assistants. And it was because our clients were happy with the service we were providing.

They were seeing the value that we were adding to their lives so that they were able to make a difference in their own families and their communities and their businesses and their exploded exponentially because of they're not able to scale because they're not trying to do all the things themselves. They are not trying to wear all the hats.

It really is true that when your clients are your super fans, your business will absolutely take off because that is exactly what happened to us. I never had to go out and actually market the business until like this year or like in the last couple years. It has all come to us.

We've never had to go and actually look for it.

Freddy D: 00:19:34

You're not only just helping these people with offloading a bunch of tasks and things like that.

You're really helping them get to the next level because you take some of the clutter out of the way, but more importantly, you're building those relationships.

You're recognizing them for some of the different things in turn recognizing you and expressing gratitude for some of the things that you're doing, and that creates an energy. And once you got that energy flowing, it's contagious because it's a positive energy that's flowing around and that attracts more people.

And that's how you get that superfan momentum going, is everybody's charged up.

Because if you didn't have and take care of your team the way you are, with Ashley coming on board and really helping transform your business, her personalities mimics yours, I can tell. And you empower your team. When somebody calls up, your team is excited to take on that phone call.

And so people are saying, wow, something's going on with this company versus someone that's there for just doing a job. That tonality comes across, you can't hide it, and people are going to go, well, geez, I'm not sure about that company.

And what your grandfather taught you at a very early age has propelled you to where you are today.

Renee Hastings: 00:20:56

Yes, absolutely, 100%. And I often tell our team when we meet, I said, I want your time working with executive help now to be the best time of your life.

Like, literally the best time of your life. And so there's no stress allowed.

Because we have such a collaborative culture, people don't have to feel like they're on an island by themselves trying to figure things out. When we have all the resources available to us in each other, we are here for each other.

And it truly is an environment of collaboration and care and concern and fun. And we really love engaging with one another.

Even though we are all remote and may have only seen each other in person once, if that, we still are like family. We're like our own little online family. And it's an environment that is very conducive to growth and professional development and support.

And one of the team members said, renee, you just make it fun to work for you. People want to do stuff for you. That is the highest honor.

Freddy D: 00:22:08

Sure.

Freddy D: 00:22:08

But that comes back.

Freddy D: 00:22:09

You and I talked before we started recording. We both have gone through Dale Carnegie. You were an instructor for a little bit.

So we look at things a little bit differently, and we deal with people a little bit differently than other people because we've learned some of those things.

Freddy D: 00:22:25

You know, you bring back a point.

Freddy D: 00:22:26

That I want to share is that when I got in the computer industry back in the early 80s, I remember the first day I started and where I was at, and there was a guy there, his first name is Dwayne. And we're like, okay, hi. We're both new here, and it was an event. Who do you know? I don't know anybody. So let's hang out together.

And we're still friends years later. And he actually was a roommate of mine.

I owned the townhouse, and I had several people in that company rent from me in the days because they were going through stuff, whatever. We used to go camping together and do all kinds of stuff.

So what you're saying you're doing it in a virtual world, but back then, that's how we did it. And we used to go every Fridays to the happy hour and hang out together and build those relationships. Relationships is what fuels business growth.

And it can be where it fuels growth, or it can be completely the opposite and deflates the growth because of the fact that it's a negative environment. And then businesses wonder why they're not going anyplace, because really, it's a toxic situation.

And so people are there to collect a check and they don't care about the business.

Renee Hastings: 00:23:40

Right.

And just like the things that people say about you, whether it's good or it's bad, I can't remember how exactly this goes, but if someone goes out to a restaurant and they have an amazing meal, they're going to tell 10 of their friends that they had an amazing meal. And those 10 are going to tell 10 others and so on and so on.

Well, if they go to a restaurant and they have a terrible meal, they're still gonna tell 10 of their friends.

Freddy D: 00:24:05

And now it's gonna actually travel faster.

Renee Hastings: 00:24:08

Yes, exactly. And so I really value our reputation and we take so seriously our clients and our clients clients and how we represent our clients to their clients.

We don't want any negativity coming. And so we just don't even tolerate that in our culture, in our environment, or on our team. It's just not even acceptable.

And it's one of those things because they're contractors, if they don't follow these particular set of guidelines of how we operate in our values and our standards, we actually interview about values. What's important to you? Does it line up with what's important to us? If it doesn't, they're not a fit. They just don't get to join our team.

Freddy D: 00:24:52

So as far as that prospective customer or existing customer or whatever, distributor, supplier of that business that they're working for, they're the face of that business, period.

Renee Hastings: 00:25:04

That's right.

Freddy D: 00:25:04

Whatever their mental status is going to reflect to whoever they're dealing with on behalf of that business, it'll eventually reflect back to your organization from your customer, but it's affecting their business.

If you have somebody that does not have the right mindset and is not energized and feeling excited and has the same values that you do, that's gonna cost that customer potential business.

Renee Hastings: 00:25:31

That's right. And if it costs them business, it costs us, potentially business. Because they may end up leaving us because of how they represent it.

Because we value these relationships. And we work so hard not only to nurture them before they become clients, but once they become clients, continuing to nurture those relationships.

I actually meet monthly with each of our clients to check in on them. How are they doing? How's everything going? What's coming down the pike for them? How are things going with their assistant? How is their family?

All the different things. Those relationships continue to be nurtured even after the contract decide, because it's all about the relationship, like you said.

And that's why our clients keep telling their friends about us. Because it's not just about the high quality of work that they're getting, but it's the high quality of the relationships that they're getting.

Freddy D: 00:26:24

I want to emphasize that because you brought up contract, I look at the paperwork as just the paperwork. That's not the sale. That's just you got. That's a transaction. Okay.

The sale is everything you just said after the transaction, the relationship, how are you helping them grow their business? That's the sale. That's how you create the superfans. Is that whole experience and that whole engagement. The front part, getting the deal.

For me, that's the easy part. I can do that with my eyes closed. The harder part is really the onboarding and that ongoing relationship.

I used to have a digital marketing company, and I still dabble in it a little bit. But those customers, the last one who just semi retired and basically parted ways, he was my customer for 15 years.

Renee Hastings: 00:27:10

Wow.

Freddy D: 00:27:11

Most of them were for 10 years on average. But it's all about the relationships. Exactly what you're talking about.

It's recognizing them on their birthdays, it's recognizing them on business achievements. And those are. One of my quotes, is the little things are really the big things.

And when you recognize somebody for something that you look at as something little that you say, hey, congratulations, it's not a big thing for you, but to them, it becomes a big thing.

Renee Hastings: 00:27:42

Yeah, absolutely. It means the world. And so, yes. But I know each of their birthdays, our own anniversary dates for when we did sign the paperwork.

That's a big deal to me, and I recognize that With a card every year and of course the holidays. And actually just today I just was made aware that one of our clients was in an accident.

So of course, after our show today, I'm going to be calling and checking on him to make sure he's okay and see if he needs anything, just because I care. It's important that goes back to the weekend.

Freddy D: 00:28:11

The little things are the big things and that's what you're doing. Renee, tell us a little bit about all the services that you guys offer.

Renee Hastings: 00:28:18

Oh, I'm happy to. So we started out the business just strictly providing administrative support.

So that was 11 years ago, which we still do today, which typically looks like everything that the executive assistant in the office does. That's what we do remotely.

So it primarily includes email management, calendar management, getting busy people together with other busy people, meeting, planning, travel arrangements, expense reports, projects, doing presentations, that sort of thing. But we've since evolved over time and we now also do social media management and engagement as well as remote video, podcast production services.

So we have our own crew of podcast producers as well that are amazing.

And coming in the fourth quarter of this year, we have some more fun things we are going to be sharing and we're getting ready for all of those in Q3.

Freddy D: 00:29:11

Wow, excellent.

And share a story of how your team helps somebody that was in a situation and because of your services, you really helped transform them to where they were. Basically, one of your biggest superfans told everybody that they knew.

Renee Hastings: 00:29:28

There are so many to choose from and I have to pick one. Pick Katie. So Katie was a solopreneur who is the owner of an information technology company and she'd been running the business herself for years.

And one of the things that she was just so overwhelmed because when you start a business, you don't typically start a business with as an expert in finance or accounting or marketing or sales. You just do what you do and that's what you're good at. But you end up putting on all these other hats.

So Katie had put on all these other hats and one of the hats that really was causing her some lack of sleep and just because of the time consuming nature of it all was payroll.

And so she was on a very manual system with her contractors where they had to log their hours in a spreadsheet and then she had to take the hours against the contract to make sure that they weren't over budget, that sort of thing. She had to get these spreadsheets from the people, they wouldn't turn them in on time.

The Way that they were supposed to for cut off for getting payroll run. So she had to chase them all down and then make sure that the numbers were all right in the spreadsheet.

Then she had to transfer the numbers from this spreadsheet into the payroll system that she was using and finally be able to press the button to run payroll. Easy enough? Yes. Time consuming? Yes. After running your business all day long, it's the last thing you want to have to do is chase down paperwork.

So when we met, which was quite some years ago, when I was still in corporate America and we got to know each other when I was starting the business, sent out a message to all of my friends, associates, and said, hey, I'm starting this business. Let me know if you need anything. And she's like, I think I might need something.

So she told us about this payroll situation, and we took it under our wings. We did that for her. And all she had to do to run payroll was press a button and payroll was run. She didn't have to go chasing the papers.

She didn't have to go tallying all the numbers and all of the things. All she had to do was press a button because we had done all that work for her.

And when I got back together with her after that initial payroll run, she literally had tears in her eyes, Freddie.

Freddy D: 00:31:49

Oh.

Renee Hastings: 00:31:50

And she said, I can't believe I've been doing this all by myself for so long. And you were here the whole time. I didn't have to do this. You're here. And it still just gets to me the impact that we had on her life.

So over time, since then, we have automated her systems. We've actually changed some of the programs and processes that she had, standardized them, streamlined them, and so now it's just super easy.

But since then, she's been able to scale and grow her business and now not only has one assistant, but three assistants who each have a different focus in her business. So we are now truly an extension of of her company, operating in these different areas of expertise for her.

And so her business has just taken off like wildfire. Just like. Because she was now able to scale because she was not so burdened with all of the daily things that needed to be done.

But she didn't have to be the one to do that.

Freddy D: 00:32:54

Right. Because she's now no longer working in the business in the weeds.

You helped her get out of the weeds so she could work on the business and be the focal point of the business and be the ambassador to business versus trying to do that. But really, you get buried into doing all the work. I've experienced this myself, where it's a feast and famine situation.

You're doing a solopreneur, you go out, you land a couple projects, you're super excited, you got a bunch of bucks, and then all of a sudden you go, oh, wait a minute, I got to do all the work. And so now you're doing all the work, and you're not getting out any new projects.

And so when all the work is done and you're done paid, you all of a sudden you go, I got nothing in a hopper. I've got to go back out and sell really fast because they got no cash coming.

So what you're doing is you really helped her and others get out of that hamster wheel, where it's a feast and famine kind of a situation, and you're helping them scale, thrive, and have the life that they envisioned when they started the business, which usually goes the opposite way because then the whole business consumes them.

Renee Hastings: 00:34:01

Right, Exactly.

And that was the case for one of our other clients, where he was so busy putting out fires from all the business that he had that he couldn't see beyond today's fires to even think clearly about what the future could look like or strategize for the future.

And since we partnered with him over four years ago, he's since been able to strategize and execute on his vision of coming out of his business daily operations. He's been able to hire his own president and CEO to run his whole business. He's written a book. He's starting a holding company.

He is doing all of these things he didn't have the capacity to even think about before we came on.

Freddy D: 00:34:48

Yeah. So completely, you've transformed his life completely to where he's fulfilling his potential that he couldn't even see beforehand.

Renee Hastings: 00:34:58

That's right. 100%.

Freddy D: 00:35:00

You guys are doing some amazing things.

Renee Hastings: 00:35:02

Thank you. We love it. It gets us up every morning. We look forward to getting to do what we get to do.

Freddy D: 00:35:07

I think you guys are having fun doing what you're doing. And so basically, it's not work. It's really.

And that's something Sir Richard Branson talks a lot about, is you want to create an environment to where there is no difference between work and home life. Because he calls it. It's called life. And it's all intertwined. But if you really do it correctly.

And I look at him a lot because he's not out there making sure that got the air in the tires, and it's all tanked up and fueled up and everybody's ready. He's playing flight attendant on the airplane. If anything, he's on his cruise ship. He's hanging out with the people.

He's not making sure that the captain knows where he's going. And so you're helping those people have that kind of a life and do other things because you're taking away the things that would hold them back.

Anybody back, really?

Renee Hastings: 00:35:59

Yes, absolutely. The things that we are able to do.

Some people have this connotation of a virtual assistant as someone who just does what they're told to do, or someone who is offshore, who you tell them to do one thing and they do exactly that one thing and no more and no less. Or they think of a virtual assistant as an AI, someone, a robot who's automated or something like that.

But I am challenged to think differently about virtual assistants when people think about executive help now, because our assistants aren't just the doers of a thing. We are true strategic partners that add value to your company and your life.

And so we are more account executives and project managers and more, like I said, strategic partners that are an extension of your team to help you get from where you are today to where you envision going and where you envision being tomorrow.

Freddy D: 00:37:00

Yeah, as you mentioned earlier, executives would brainstorm with you on stuff and share different things. So what you're also providing is that aspect.

Because sometimes talking to yourself is one thing and talking to your family is the same thing, in a sense, because they're all going to say, oh, it's a great idea. Go for it. And you have someone else that says, well, that idea is okie dokie, but it could use some work.

And here's some suggestions and how you can tweak it, improve it, or, nah, don't go down that road. But here's an opportunity that you're missing completely because you're a different set of eyes. You're working with a multitude of different people.

So you see things differently.

Renee Hastings: 00:37:41

That's right. And that's one of the things that we love bringing to our clients because we have so many different clients that we work with.

We may have been dealing with a particular situation with client A, and client B is now in a similar situation. We can now come to client B and say, hey, I see you're dealing with this. We have experience dealing with this with client A.

We don't tell them who client A is, but we share the wealth and benefit of the knowledge.

We've gained from going through this thing with client A to help client B, to not have to sit make the same mistake and to provide some viable resource and options to them so that they more quickly get resolution to whatever this thing.

Freddy D: 00:38:23

You're shortcutting the whole process because hey, we've already gone down that road. This is what's going to happen. Let's avoid that and save you a bunch of time and heartache and cash and everything else. And you've just added value.

And now that person's going to go, wow, they're right. When they stop and look at it go, man, that would have been a mess.

You're also providing transformative services in a sense because you're helping people avoid the potholes in the road of business.

Renee Hastings: 00:38:49

Absolutely, 100%.

Freddy D: 00:38:51

Renee, as we kind of get close to the end here, it's been a great conversation. You and I could talk for days on this stuff. I can tell. How can people find your organization and you?

Renee Hastings: 00:39:00

We are on the web@executivehelpnow.org I'm on email renexecutivehelpnow.org I'm ON all the socials, of course at executive help now LinkedIn Renee Hastings and I also have a podcast on YouTube called Renee Speaks. People are feel free to watch any of those episodes like share and subscribe and excellent. Thank you so much Freddie.

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They can get a little freebie to kind of help guide them along that path.

Freddy D: 00:39:44

That's nice of you. We'll include that in the show notes and we want to thank our listeners for listening and we'll catch everybody on another show.

Freddy D: 00:39:54

What an inspiring conversation with Renee. This episode is all about the first pillar in the Superfans framework. Strategize aligning purpose with profitability. That means clarifying direction.

So every decision points back to growth and impact. Rene's insights remind us that when you stay rooted in your deeper why, it becomes the compass for smarter choices and and sustainable success.

Here's my challenge to you. Take 10 minutes this week to revisit your purpose statement and ask does does my next big move directly connect to it?

When you do, you'll see clarity sharpen, confidence rise and profits follow with greater ease. And remember, one action, one stakeholder, one superfan closer. Until next time, keep building your business. Superfans thank you for listening.

And know this, when you do, freedom follows.

Outro: 00:41:08

We hope you took away some useful knowledge from today's episode of the Business Superfans Podcast. The path to success relies on taking action. So go over to businesssuperfans.com and get your hands on the book.

If you haven't already, join the accelerator community and take that first step in generating a team of passionate supporters for your business. Join us on the next episode as we continue guiding you on your journey to achieve flourishing success in business.