Scaling your Service Based Business with Vadrine Boulle

Jillian

Welcome back to the mindset of podcasting. If you are a service-based provider, then this episode is definitely for you. My guest today, Vadz Boulle.. We connected on Instagram. She helps service based providers scale their business and she does this through a human first sales approach and intuitive marketing. That's the marketing strategist and business coach. She helps service providers, consultants and freelancers start and scale sustainable and profitable businesses using highperforming systems, innovative strategies, and simple marketing solutions so they can achieve their version of success. Her story is one of an island girl who graduated from law school in London but escaped a career in the law by building and scaling her own online service business. Her superpowers and what she loves to talk about include intuitive strategizing, empathy-based, sales, simple business development, and the mindset of going against the status quo to embrace entrepreneurship. Her mission is to continue to impact a generation of empowered, fulfilled, and inspired business owners who not only dare to chase their dreams, but have access to the knowledge and support to do so. So listen in to this episode.

Jillian

Hi Vadz. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

Vadz

Thank you so much for having me. Really excited for this chat.

Jillian

Yes, me too. So to get started, can you tell.

Vadz

The listeners who you are and what.

Jillian

Do you bring into this world?

Vadz

Yeah, amazing. Oh my God, I love the way you raise that. Yes. My name is Vadz. I'm a marketing strategist and business coach. I've been running a business online for the past four years. I've had an online presence since 2014, so it's been a little while that I've been navigating this space. What I do specifically at the moment is I support virtual assistant and done for you to service providers build businesses according to their vision of success. So my vision is to empower and educate more women to chase their passions and their dreams by starting online businesses and seeing the opportunities that are available for them here on the online space.

Jillian

I love that. As a service provider, I am very passionate about helping women get into this space and create their own life and passion that they love. And you started in law school, is that where you yeah, I went to.

Vadz

Law school and that was when I kind of rebranded myself as Jillian Fads and that's when my current career, I guess, started took off. Yeah, that's a kind of big jump.

Jillian

Of being a lawyer to know yes. So when we connected, we talked a little bit about this human first sales approach, which I love that you have. Can you explain to the listeners what that is?

Vadz

Absolutely. I love talking about this. Obviously there's so many layers to this and it can be very nuanced. But the idea of Human First Sales, or some people call it empathy based sales, is the idea of really seeking to connect with the human being, the person, the pulse behind, in our case, the screen behind the phone or the laptop in order to be of service to them. So I think we see so much in the online space, there's a big taboo around sales, people feeling icky and sneezy around selling because we never want to feel like we're pushing something onto someone or like we're annoying. But with Human First Sales and empathy based sales, we're coming from a place of I have something really cool that is going to change your life and I want to talk about the opportunity for that, if you're open to it.

Jillian

I love that. Yes. That's awesome. And I know you also talk a lot about using your intuition, especially with marketing and sales. So how can we tap into our intuition to do that?

Vadz

For me, that sort of started when I was in law school and I was living in London, corporate London, which as maybe you can imagine, if you live in a city, it's very follow the status quo, very material. I wouldn't say materialistic, very sort of career driven. And when I was there, I felt we were lacking that creative energy, that intuitive, just human desire for playfulness. And when I started my business, I wanted to lead with my ideas. I wanted to think, okay, what am I wanting to do right now? What am I wanting to create? What is that? We think of intuition, we think of that little voice inside of you, which we all have, that tells us some people call it their gut. What is your gut telling you to do? So when you lead in business with intuition, to me, at a basic level, it means in this moment right now, what is it that I want to do? What is it that I want to create? And then, okay, how can I do that? What are the tools I can use to do that? And this is where we connected with marketing. So following what it is that you desire to do and then pairing that with proven marketing strategies yes, because it's.

Jillian

Not a one size fits all. What works for one person might not feel aligned to you, and that's not going to work for you if it doesn't feel aligned to how you want to run a business. How can we land more clients without hustling and working long hours?

Vadz

Yes. Love this question. I think there's a big difference between hustling and working hard, but people sometimes tend to get confused between the two. So we tend to think we have to hustle. But hustling, you know, it suggests leading to burnout. We kind of had that imagery of if we hustle, we know we're going to lead to burnout. It's like this go go mentality. I don't know if you're familiar with Gary Vee, but people often get obsessed with Gary Vee. He's a hustler and he does use that language sometimes. But when we avoid sort of when we separate ourselves from the hustle culture, we more embrace working hard. The idea of working hard, we also implement balance. So how do we get clients by not hustling? First of all, we have to have balance, right? And also what it really is about, it's about working smarter, not harder. But it's the idea of, okay, you could be working eight to 10 hours a day, but what are you actually doing in those eight to 10 hours? Working eight to 10 hours. Some people might call it hustling, but if I worked 4 hours today and I got the absolute max out of my capacity and I did the best that I could, that to me, working hard versus hustling. So I don't know if I'm answering your question, because this is more of a complex person, but having that balance, working efficiently, versus working just for the sake of being in the busy work, I think people just want to be. And I used to be at that as well. I used to work twelve hour days because I was doing stuff I liked saying I'm busy in my business. Busy versus just focusing on the top, I guess, the important things I need to work on. And I actually found, to answer your question, that when I worked less and I stopped hustling and instead focused on working harder in the most productive amount of time, I got more clients because the things I was doing was more focused on serving people, being of service, offering solutions, and that is what ultimately brought people in.

Jillian

Yes. That's something I asked myself when I'm working, I'm like, is this going to grow my business and help me, or am I just doing this just to do it?

Vadz

Exactly. Yeah.So are we talking about like, from the start or at what point? Because there's a starting point where you're like, okay, I'm just getting started when I get a couple of clients. Are you talking more about being one year in business and wanting to extend?

Jillian

Yes, more like that. You have a few clients, but you don't know where to go because if you take on more work, you're not going to be able to keep up.

Vadz

Cool. Got you. Yeah. My first step is always to figure out where would you eventually like to end up. What does your dream life look like? And I know that can be kind of cheesy, kind of fluffy. What does your dream life look like? No, but really, in your perfect world, how many hours do you want to be working? How much money do you want to be making? Because everybody's version of success is different. So from that goal, I then like to reverse engineer. So when we think of scaling, we think of becoming more efficient so that we can work less and make more. So after we figured out the long term goal, we want to reverse engineer. Come back to where I'm at right now. What is the easiest way for me to be more efficient right now? For some people, this could be automating. So this could be getting investing in some tools, automation, project management, client relation tools. It could be increasing your prices. So scaling in the idea of, okay, I want to make more money, this could be increasing your prices. Scaling in the sense of I want to have more time. This is a very pivotal moment where you decide and you have to tell a client, hey, I'm not offering this status anymore, or hey, I'm actually changing this around anymore. I'm going to decrease the amount of time I work, but I'm upping the value, so I'm increasing my rates. So it depends on obviously what the ultimate goal is. Because if you're happy with how much you're making but you want to decrease the amount of time you work, then it's a question of changing up your packages. If it's a question of wanting more time, but you know, you're doing everything manually, it could be bringing automations. If you're wanting to learn something new and scale with that, it could be investing in another course or a program or a mentor. So there's different definitely different ways you could approach scaling.

Jillian

Yes. How do you have those difficult conversations with clients about raising your prices or not offering a service anymore?

Vadz

Love this question. Again, this can get really tricky. When I think, especially after you've been with a client for like six months to a year, you tend to form this very close attachment to them, especially if it's been a good relationship. And I hear a lot of people say, oh, I don't want to increase my rates with this person, or I don't want to part ways with this client because I really care for them in their business. But there comes a point where we have to realize, I love my clients, I adore my clients, but my business has to grow. And in growing my business, I'm also offering a different type of service, probably a better type of service, a higher level of service. So it's realizing that there comes a point where it's not personal anymore. And if you do want to make more money, if you do want to offer a different type of service, you just have to have that conversation. And you do it in a way that is professional but also friendly. Realizing you don't need to explain everything. Sometimes it's a message as easy as, hey, I've loved working with you, but I wanted to let you know I'm increasing my rates. Let's talk about it. It can be as simple as that. Without needing to go into too much explanation. It can be professional but friendly with us having to realize that our businesses have to grow at some point.

Jillian

Yes. And hopefully our clients understand that. And if they've been with you for that long, hopefully they'll continue to want to be with you instead of having to train somebody new.

Vadz

Exactly. And there's no reason they shouldn't if you have built that rapport with them. I have seen so many situations where people are so nervous to talk to a client, ends up being like, yeah, okay, send me the invoice. It's fine. Okay.

Jillian

The first time I raised my rates, oh, my gosh, I haven't been talking for like, a month. I was so nervous, I sent it.

Vadz

Out, and then she just sent me, okay, send me the invoice.

Jillian

That was it.

Vadz

Exactly. Those are the truly aligned clients. Those are the algorithm clients who know your value and hopefully to pay for it. Yeah.

Jillian

I could save myself weeks of worry, though.

Vadz

Exactly.

Jillian

But just doing it.

Vadz

Exactly. That's the motto. Just do it. Just get out of the way so you can get the answer and can move on either way.

Jillian

So do you work with people who are just starting their business or people who are scaling or both?

Vadz

Both at the moment, yeah. So I've got two programs right now. One focuses more on newer virtual assistants and service providers. This is both people who are starting from scratch, as in don't even have a contract yet, who are starting from literally the beginning, as well as people who maybe have been toying around with it for a while, who are now wanting to take it full time. And then I also work with people who are already in the space two years in making five K months, really wanting to steal those six figures.

Jillian

Awesome.

Vadz

Yeah.

Jillian

Do you suggest people start out as a VA for service based businesses and then try to find what they like and niche down, or are you trying to niche down from the beginning?

Vadz

It depends. It depends on you and your interests and your experience in that moment whenever you're getting started. For a lot of people who haven't explored the virtual space, they don't really have an awareness of what their options are. That's why a lot of people start as VA is because they're like, okay, I can answer emails, I can manage a calendar, I can do XY and Z that VA does. And I think that's awesome because that's how it was for me. I started as a VA and that gave me the opportunity to do so many things. Personally, I never picked a niche. At one point I was doing social media management, I've done copywriting, I've done launching, I've done web design. And in doing all of that, I learned so much until I found my ideal spot. However, if let's say you've worked at a corporate company, you've been doing social media management for twelve years, and you're now starting your own business, you can go ahead and niche in social media management if that's what, you know, you love. It really depends on the situation, but I think the VA space opens so many doors of opportunity after the wild exploring.

Jillian

Yes, that's where I started and my client asked me if I would work on our podcast, which I've never done before in my life, and I said sure, and then learned it all.

Vadz

Yeah.

Jillian

And just fell in love with it. But those skills I got from being a VA I still unable to use in my business now that I've niche down.

Vadz

Yeah.

Jillian

Well, thank you so much for being on today. These have been such helpful tips. Where can anybody connect with you?

Vadz

Yes, of course. So I'm on Instagram. You can find me at Jillian. Jillian, V-A-N-I-V-A DZ. You can find me on Facebook, on Pinterest, on LinkedIn, and my website is www.Jillianbads.com.

Jillian

I make sure that all all in the show notes. I love following you on Instagram. You get so many great tips and fun things in your stories. So thank you again so much for being on.

Vadz

Thanks so much for having been great.

Jillian

That is amazing. We connected on Instagram. She reached out to me and we just got to chatting and networking. Like I said, no sales pitch or anything, just chatting and networking and connecting and I'm so glad I've connected with her. This episode is so great. I love her human first sales approach because sales can be icky. Like, I don't like selling, so I like connecting and yeah, let's just connect with each other and put the person first before the sale. That is so important. So I also love how she markets with intention and how we can tap into our intention and I'm definitely against Hustling and working super long hours too. So I love what Bats is doing to help service based businesses in this area. So if you are a service based business and you are ready to get out of the Hustle grind, then definitely go check her out. 

Your Podcast Tip of the Week so how can we serve the people who are listening to your podcast every week better? So if they're listening every single week, these are the people who are going to share your podcast and get it out there. So we want to make sure that we're serving them. So make sure that you are engaging with them. Ask them what they want to hear on the podcast. You can talk about it on your podcast, you can talk about it on social media, but ask them what they want to hear and then do episodes around that. Make sure you're actually empathizing with them too. Start off with like, I know you're struggling with this, and then talk more about it. Let people know that you understand where they are in their journey and make deeper connections. And lastly, entertain, have fun with it. Share a story and let them know that, hey, I shared something on my podcast that you're not going to hear anywhere else, so go listen to it. Those are some great ways to engage more with your listeners. 

So my update so this episode is all about scaling your business. And I want to say that the best way I have been able to grow my business is networking. Actually talking to people and letting them know what you do is the best way. So get out there, get to know people. Then they can refer people to you who are looking for your service or course or anything that you have. So if you're just starting out with networking, the best way to do it is to find a networking group. I'm part of the next generation network. It has been amazing and I have connected with so many amazing other women entrepreneurs, gotten to know them. I've used their services, I've got clients from them. People are referring me, I'm referring them. And it doesn't feel salesy like. We get on networking calls and we don't sell to each other. We truly just get to know each other as people, as business owners. And it's fantastic. You can check out more about the next generation network if you go over on Instagram. Connect with Gabby She's at no Plan B consulting on Instagram. Amazing group. You can also do a post on your Instagram or your Facebook and say that you're opening up five coffee chats for the month. Put your link out there and open up five slots. And when those five slots are filled, that's it. And then you connect with those people. And if they're actually taking the time to click your link and schedule a call, they really want to talk to you then and make sure you're getting on these coffee chats with no intention of selling, none at all, with just intention of making a connection. That is the most important thing when you are networking. So thank you so much for listening and please go rate and review the podcast and I'll talk to you next week.