428 | How He Grew His Business by 900 Percent in the First 2 Years! - Tyler Woodall

Jan 31

[00:00:36] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolf gathering the King's Podcast. Coming back to you today with another king on the stage. My brother, Tyler Woodall, my man. How we doing?
[00:00:47] Tyler Woodall : Howdy, howdy, everybody. I am doing well, man. You having a good morning so far?
[00:00:51] Chaz Wolfe: Dude, it's Monday. We're cranking, and, uh, I love that you use the word howdy, because you know, as we, as we talked about, you know, off the, off the air here, I was like, man, my man's, he's gotta be from somewhere. Oh, that's right. South Carolina. I can hear it in his voice. Tyler, tell us what kind of business that you got, man.
[00:01:07] Tyler Woodall : Yeah, so basically I've got a business agency aid slash C four solutions, and essentially what we do on the agency aid side of things is we help insurance agencies to scale and buy back their time. I. I'm a former agency owner, so I built out tons of standard operating procedures. We help people automate the back end of their business, hire virtual assistants to delegate those tasks to, and then allow them to focus forward facing with customers and so on.
[00:01:36] Tyler Woodall : The C four solutions side of things, same business, it's just, it's a more generic version where we're helping provide solutions to any business owner out there.
[00:01:45] Chaz Wolfe: Love it. Love it. Good. So anybody listening today could use your service is what I'm hearing.
[00:01:51] Tyler Woodall : Potentially. Yep, for sure.
[00:01:53] Chaz Wolfe: if, if they are an entrepreneur,
[00:01:55] Tyler Woodall : We, uh, we started helping a lot of people on the agency aid side of things and still, like 70% of who we work with are insurance agencies. Um, but we started finding the everyday entrepreneurs needed help with things like social media graphic design, and so we started making specific products for other businesses, um, just to help them offload tasks off of their calendar and try and.
[00:02:18] Tyler Woodall : Buy back their time so they can spend it with family or talking to more prospects.
[00:02:22] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love it, man. That's a big part of, uh, what gathering the kings, um, at least the mindset is, is like, hey, there's, there's a . There's a team here, there's a unit here. You can't be doing it yourself. And a lot of times in, in the agency world, that's what happens, right? Is like it's a one man band. But I also find the same thing in other industries.
[00:02:39] Chaz Wolfe: I love how you've crossed over into other spaces, uh, whether it's contractors, whether it's, service providers, it just, you name it really, when you remove the actual task or tasks. It's the game of business. Uh, so we're gonna talk a little game of business here, you and me. Um, before we do that though, practicality wise, I want to know Tyler, like, why is Tyler doing business?
[00:03:02] Chaz Wolfe: Why is he an entrepreneur? What gets your juices flowing in the morning? Like really deep down in there, what, what gets you up?
[00:03:08] Tyler Woodall : Yeah, for sure. So, um, I've always been super entrepreneurial. Like my dad owned a business while I was growing up and just watching dad do his thing, I mean, that was all I ever dreamt of. So when I was in middle school, started a candy business, um, went to Sam's, bought a 72 box of Snickers for 36 bucks, so 50 cents each.
[00:03:28] Tyler Woodall : Went to school, sold 'em all for a dollar. Went back to Sam's, bought Snickers and Reese's and just kept doing that thing. So I've always just had that itch. , and then ran a couple online businesses when I was in college, sold t-shirts and used the proceeds to feed kids in Central America. So it was a kind of philanthropic business, so made me feel good, but it gave me a really safe place to learn business and how to manage people and, uh, managing inventory and supply chain.
[00:03:57] Tyler Woodall : So, um. Really neat breadth of stuff I've gotten to experience through my life. And then eventually got into insurance. built an agency, the door to door grind, like I was dialing 150 businesses a day. And then I'd walk in 30 businesses just trying to sell them commercial insurance and eventually. Kind of February of this year.
[00:04:21] Tyler Woodall : So we're recording this thing in December. Um, kinda life flipped. I had to put down my dog. He was about to turn 15 years old. And through that process it made me just reassess life. What do I like? What do I not like? What do I want my life to look like? And so I decided, you know, this business that I have currently got, I don't love, let's get rid of it.
[00:04:43] Tyler Woodall : I'd had a relationship for a few years that had kind of been going back and forth. I decided, you know, like, this is definitely not it. Let's end this thing. I've got this long bucket list that I've not been checking anything off of. Let's start attacking it. And so six months down the line, my life just looked completely different.
[00:05:03] Tyler Woodall : And so that's my goal now, is just trying to help. Unlock that for other people because if you can start with some intentionality behind it, you can really build your dream life. It just takes sitting down and thinking about what that is, and that's a lot easier said than done. Yeah.
[00:05:21] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. The
[00:05:21] Chaz Wolfe: Intentionality.
[00:05:22] Chaz Wolfe: piece is. In essence what most people are missing, they're just drifting. That's what I'm hearing you say. Um, you know, there's a, there's a fun book, uh, called, um, outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. Have you, have you read this book?
[00:05:33] Tyler Woodall : I've got it. I've not read it. Actually, a mentor of mine recommended it about a month ago, and I just got it on Amazon.
[00:05:39] Chaz Wolfe: There you go. Well, there's your sign.
[00:05:40] Chaz Wolfe: But, uh, in, in the book, uh, we talks about pe Most people are drifting, and that's in essence what you were doing and what you are now helping people get away from is the drift, the unintentional, just wake up and go again. We don't know why. It's actually one of the biggest reasons why I ask the first question here as far as the why, like why do you do the what you do?
[00:06:01] Chaz Wolfe: And, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna press on your answer here a little bit because I think you went through a scenario there where you started asking yourself some really, really hard questions. But why did you make the changes? You saw that they weren't fulfilling you, but what does fulfill you? What are you made for?
[00:06:18] Tyler Woodall : Yeah, so honestly, um, really great question. In depth question. So myself, definitely spiritual walk. I am a strong believer. I feel like I'm here on this earth for a purpose, and I felt like what I was doing in life was not pursuing anything other than just trying to survive. We're here for a lot more, Myself, I'm a Christian Bible talks about if God will take care of the daisies in the fields, how much more so will he take care of us? And so if I'm here on this earth, I'm not here for a sad life. , so I started thinking about what do I want? , and started pursuing that. And so I. The most fulfilled I ever felt in my life were some of these mission trips that I was leading during college when we had this, the SO project, the t-shirt brand I mentioned.
[00:07:06] Tyler Woodall : , and so I started backing in, well, how do I get to that full-time? And so obviously you gotta make money. I enjoy business. I feel like I'm talented in aspects, so let's use that talent. Let's scale teams so that they can manage the business and then free up my time on the other end. , so that's some of the stuff that we're working on now.
[00:07:26] Tyler Woodall : Now that I feel like business is kind of rolling, I have a team in place that manages everything. Now it's alright, let's get this endowment fund off the ground and kind of pursue long-term legacy play.
[00:07:37] Chaz Wolfe: I love that. I was just talking with a gentleman, um, just this past weekend actually, that, that, um, I felt like there were maybe three sets of people and I'm, I'm hearing you being one of them. The, the first group of these three people, one is the, I'm all in on ministry, right? Like they're probably, In another country or, or pastoring a church, whatever that looks like. And they're all in and that's good. And then you have the guy like you who's like, no, I wanna do both. I've got skill sets in both of these and I'm gonna, I wanna do business and, and build teams, but I also wanna go and, and be part of the hand, the extended hand.
[00:08:09] Chaz Wolfe: And then you've got guys that are like, you know what, I don't. I don't think like that. I would love to think like that, but I don't. So I'm just gonna build massive businesses and give tons of money so that guys like Tyler and other folks or the guy in the first uh, category can do the thing. And I think that it takes all three actually to, to make, to make it go round and, and really just comes down to how we're wired.
[00:08:29] Chaz Wolfe: So I appreciate you sharing like that. Um, what. What do you think that like if someone's listening to you right now going like, well, how am I wired and, and I wonder if I'm like, Tyler, how did you kind of stumble upon? Like, I've got these talents, but I also wanna do this. Yeah. Talk about that.
[00:08:44] Tyler Woodall : You just have to try stuff. There's no way to, just, in my mind, from my experience, there's no way to know what you're gonna like until you just try things. And so that's why I think for college students, internships are so important. Just 'cause you can find out what you like. You'll likely get paid doing it.
[00:09:02] Tyler Woodall : It's for three to six months, so you're not wasting that much time. I think that's important. I think travel is so huge. If you just get on Google flights, you can find cheap flights anywhere in the world, go somewhere out of the country and just experience what stuff is like not in America because it is so different.
[00:09:21] Tyler Woodall : You're gonna find how much people value life, how appreciative they are for what they have. It's just a completely different mindset shift that you'll find whenever you do get to travel and explore and see other cultures.
[00:10:25] Chaz Wolfe: I remember, um, in high school doing submission trips and, you know, seeing some, some pretty impoverished, um, I wouldn't even call 'em neighborhoods because we, we were, we were building , the neighborhood.
[00:10:36] Chaz Wolfe: Um, they, they previously had been living in boxes, you know, and so it's like, man, you come back as a 16, 17, 18, even 25-year-old, and you're like, . Whoa. Like I have running water. I could take a shower whenever I want. I can go drink the water from the faucet. This is, wow. Okay. Well I appreciate the heart there.
[00:10:53] Chaz Wolfe: How, how have you, I mean, obviously you've tied that to your business now where you guys are starting to like, you know, work those things in. But in the process of building systems, because that's really what you do, you build systems and you build teams so that either agency owners or entrepreneurs can kind of like, you know, systematize their business and be able to get their time back, but.
[00:11:14] Chaz Wolfe: There's a, there's a heart that you're talking about that goes into also the systems. How have you kind of mirrored, and we'll get into practically how you, how you build the systems, but systems can be robotic, but you're talking about like heart level caring for people across the world. How do these things go together, do you think?
[00:11:30] Tyler Woodall : So I think culture's really important when building a team, and I, I will not claim to say that I have the answers here. I honestly feel like I was blessed and lucked into hiring some really great people. Initially. It was kind of trial and error for a while. Eventually, I found the right person to help me.
[00:11:50] Tyler Woodall : He has grown into our COO and helped me recruit. The rest of the people that have built the organization. Um, but I think culture's super important in just casting that vision and finding people that agree with it. So now inside of my business, we get to do lots of mission opportunities, helping in other countries.
[00:12:09] Tyler Woodall : Getting to donate and helping fund needs is really awesome. But my team gets really excited about it too, and that makes it so much more fulfilling. I think there is a culture aspect and being intentional about taking care of those people too. That's one of the things we've done is, um, on my team, we obviously have KPIs where we're tracking the business and trying to grow, but we've initiated a program where we call it life goals, where we've got our HR manager, if anybody's open to it, they don't have to, but she will work with them on their life goals.
[00:12:45] Tyler Woodall : So, love, influence, finance, and energy. Just helping to show we care about you as a person outside of the business. How can we help you meet where you're trying to go in life?
[00:12:55] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's cool, man. What do you think the value for you, but really kind of, you know, through your story here for the listener and any business owner out there, why, why should they do the same thing? I mean, you're taking good care of people, but, but what's, what's why
[00:13:09] Tyler Woodall : So I, I'm trying to think of who said the quote. I feel like it was a Steve Jobs or somebody in that realm. They talked about, somebody asked them the question, Hey, you know, what if we, what if we train these people to work inside of our business? We put in all this time and money, and then they leave. His response well was, well, what if we don't train them and they stay?
[00:13:34] Tyler Woodall : And so it's just building something much longer term. So we're super intentional to try and build our employees, but then if they're not satisfied and fulfilled, they're not robots, they're not machines, they're people too. And so if they don't feel fulfilled. They're gonna be looking for the door. Um, and so making sure that they are happy and satisfied is going to keep them inside of our company.
[00:13:59] Tyler Woodall : So with our team, my goal is I have a customer success manager. I, I tell everybody, if we can nail the first six weeks with a client, we'll make it so they never leave. Then my HR manager, if we can nail it when we onboard a new team member, we'll make it so they never leave. And so we're just trying to make this thing more and more sustainable as we go.
[00:14:19] Chaz Wolfe: Love
[00:14:20] Chaz Wolfe: that. What would you say to, let's say the construction guy who's listening right now and he's like, ah, my guys are like, you know, men, and you're talking about being all fru and stuff. I don't understand the value of this. What would you tell that guy?
[00:14:34] Tyler Woodall : I get it. Honestly, guys have a lot of stuff that we try and carry on our own shoulders. Um, there's constantly stress, but there is a breaking point for anybody and you hear about it all the time. And guys, they do, they go to work, they put on this tough, uh, face, like the world is against them and they're gonna take it on.
[00:14:53] Tyler Woodall : Um. Fight hell with a water gun, but it is what it is. They're gonna go home and break down and their family life may or may not be great. And there's going to be so many things that you as the business owner don't know about, that this guy's going through, you don't know that his situation with his wife's rough or his kids struggling in school and it's causing him to stress out.
[00:15:16] Tyler Woodall : 'cause he doesn't know how to fix the problem. So the more that you can help him. Put the right blocks in the right holes, like match up the boxes correctly, the more he's going to feel in control of his life. 'cause as a man, that's all we want. Like as terrible as it is, we want control and we want to fix the world that we live in.
[00:15:35] Tyler Woodall : So help him do that and he's going to be incredibly loyal to you.
[00:15:39] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's super powerful, man. I think that if we could just hit the pause button or replay that a couple, three, four times, um, that was, that was really, really powerful. Okay Let's go, let's go into early stages here. I know you've . Like, you're in second business now, so pull from whichever one. 'cause you're kind of in early stages, although you've got a team and you're, you're grinding it, but you're in the midst of it.
[00:16:01] Chaz Wolfe: What's it just been a super practical decision that you've made that has, you would just repeat over and over and over that you would suggest any listener following along.
[00:16:09] Tyler Woodall : So with my team, we got for second business, we got very intentional about what we wanted our client journey to look like. So what exactly do we deliver for the client? I. How do we go about telling them about that solution, getting them to decide they want the solution, and then implementing the solution long term?
[00:16:31] Tyler Woodall : And what are all the steps along the way? And as you define that, make it as simple as possible for yourself to deliver those. So we've got folders that have all of our standard operating procedures, so we do the same thing every single time. It may get monotonous, but it's extremely efficient. So any new client that we get.
[00:16:51] Tyler Woodall : It's a smooth process to deliver the results that we promise, so
[00:16:56] Chaz Wolfe: it's good.
[00:16:57] Tyler Woodall : we try to overdeliver and then build with referrals from there.
[00:17:00] Chaz Wolfe: You, you, I was gonna say, yeah, you just, I just, you just dropped a couple extra big nuggets there. Um, but before we go there, going back to going back to this, you know, monotonous, repeated, you know, you had kind of mentioned, I think actually before we hit the record button, but you know that, that you started just thinking about the things that you were doing on a regular basis.
[00:17:17] Chaz Wolfe: You wrote them down, you recorded them, and then you hired somebody. To start doing them. That's like a super over over, you know, a simplification of it. But break that down a little bit so that way the listener's like, well, how do I go about doing this thing? What does that look like for them?
[00:17:34] Tyler Woodall : Yep. So there's two books I would recommend to anybody. One is called the E-Myth and one is buy Back your Time. Both of these books teach about how as entrepreneurs, a lot of times we have a great idea, we're working for a business and we think we can go do it better. So we leave to go do that thing, really actually make just a crappy job for ourselves.
[00:17:55] Tyler Woodall : We have to wear all the hats, all the stress for probably less money. And so what I did is I wrote out exactly what does my business do, kinda like that customer journey I mentioned. And then I typed out step-by-step how to do each of those tasks. And then I recorded a video in Loom. A lot of mine from my insurance agency was digital, so I could just record myself narrating what was going on in the screen, and I explained the whole process.
[00:18:22] Tyler Woodall : So I built 150 of these standard operating procedures, and then I hired somebody else, sent them all 150 documents and said, here's what I need you to do. Let's go get started, watch these videos, and then as I have tasks, I'm gonna send them to you, tell you which document to refer to. And as we grow, you'll just know and can kind of take it from there.
[00:18:47] Tyler Woodall : And that that's how we got started and I think is done is better than perfect. So start with what are my biggest headaches now? Where do I spend my time? And just kind of progress from there. You don't have to have the whole business automated today, but let's get like 10% better.
[00:19:07] Chaz Wolfe: the guy that's listening right now, oral, that is not in a digital environment, video still apply here. Uh, other tactics that, you know, give us the,
[00:19:17] Tyler Woodall : I, I think video is huge just because once you have a process down that you know works, when you record it, you remove the human element. You don't have to have a person teaching how to do it every single time. You don't know what that trainer's day is like. You don't know if they're stressed out thinking about something else, so nothing gets missed.
[00:19:39] Tyler Woodall : So if you have a checklist. That is a simple way for somebody to check off step-by-step, what to do, and then a video showing them how to do it. You never know if somebody's a visual or audio learner. So I think that's the smoothest way to do it, but I also think checklists are huge as well. Um, so if it's not a digital world, that'll help them just follow a simple framework.
[00:20:02] Tyler Woodall : And it gives accountability. Um, if somebody does the, the frame, list the correct way, the checklist is all done, checked off, they signed it at the bottom, and you don't get the result. You know, Hey, this employee, they did what I told them to do. It's not necessarily their fault. Let's fix the framework but not terminate the employee or discipline them because they've done what I asked.
[00:20:27] Tyler Woodall : So it's a, it's a me problem this time.
[00:20:29] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, you said something interesting in there that, that they would sign it at the bottom. what's, what's the mentality here? And then I'll share a little bit of, uh, story from my perspective,
[00:20:39] Tyler Woodall : So Jocko talks all about extreme ownership, and I'm big on that as well. So everybody in my team, when you have your SOPs that you do, you're in charge of them. And so you are accountable for that task and ultimately it works its way up to the owner. In anything my business do, it does. It's my fault. So if something goes wrong, it's on me, but I think having people sign their name next to it, showing that I'm proud of what I've done, just makes them work that much harder throughout the process.
[00:21:13] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I found that it actually ensures that they do every single piece, um, with some of my first companies, . Or, uh, you know, edible arrangements, franchises, and when there's a cleaning checklist at the end of the night. And so when I was very much still in the stores and, you know, operating at different locations, I'd come in in the morning and, you know, you look at the checklist and it's all checked, but you can clearly see a couple things around the store that weren't done.
[00:21:34] Chaz Wolfe: And you're like, wait a second, how did you not do it? But then you checked it like, this doesn't make sense. And so what I found is that implementing that signature at the bottom, they, they go through it line by line. It doesn't like . What was happening was this, I'll do it by memory and then on the way out I go check, check, check, check, check, check, check, turn the page, and then I'm out the door.
[00:21:51] Chaz Wolfe: It's like, but as soon as you put that name next to it, you're like, wait a second. Did I do that? Yeah. Did I do that? Yeah, check, check, like you're actually looking at it, making sure that you did it and then you sign that name. 'cause it, it just, in essence, you're keeping honest people, honest, know? And if you have somebody that's not honest, then it's probably not a good fit anyway.
[00:22:07] Tyler Woodall : Yep, that's true. Try and filter those out in the hiring process.
[00:22:11] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Or, or pretty quickly. Uh, 'cause every now and then we make a mistake. But, um, what, let's flip the coin here. You've, you've given quite a bit of, uh, uh, value here already, but something that, uh, that you've done that didn't work, something that maybe you've tried to help other agency owners stay away from, or other entrepreneurs.
[00:22:28] Tyler Woodall : Yeah, 100%. So there's a lot. So, um, myself and my team, we are constantly every week trying to implement something new. Nine outta 10 times, it doesn't work. So there's been so many marketing campaigns that I have thought this is gonna be the ticket. Everybody's gonna love this sunk so much money into ads and it just absolutely flops for one reason or the other.
[00:22:55] Tyler Woodall : It doesn't connect with the audience. It doesn't fill a big enough pain point that I thought. Um. One of the things we've tried to do is we tried to launch some giveaway ads to help local insurance agents. So we ran a giveaway, get people to sign up, tons of people sign up, and then all the insurance agent has to do is just cold call these leads, say, follow our script.
[00:23:22] Tyler Woodall : Say, Hey, you entered the giveaway. If you want 25 additional points, we can get you a quote on your insurance, yada, yada, yada. And I thought it was great 'cause I could just. Fill their calendar with leads, but they didn't want a cold call, so I fixed the problem, but I didn't fix the right problem, and so spent tons of time and money trying to do that, and then progressed to fixing the next thing.
[00:23:47] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's interesting because you would think that, I mean, obviously there is there a certain breed of insurance person that would have no problem with those leads, um, which is fine, but to your point, you were solving the wrong problem. And so how did you go about fixing that? Was it, was it a like, I'm now knees deep into this, I sell it to somebody else?
[00:24:03] Chaz Wolfe: Or did you stick with your current then audience and go, all right, out with this problem, what is the real problem? How did you do that?
[00:24:10] Tyler Woodall : Yeah, so. Honestly, it was just a lot of reflection with my team in analyzing how sales calls went. Um, so I try to take copious notes or we record our calls, but just the willingness to fail fast, I think figuring out that sometimes things aren't going to go how you want it and constantly. Using metrics to measure success and clearly defining what is success, what is not success when you're in that not success bucket, when do you know to just cut it and move on to the next thing?
[00:24:45] Tyler Woodall : And so it was kind of a gut feeling there. We had went for a few weeks, weren't having the success that we had hoped for, um, and just decided as a team. Okay, this is what's going on. This may not be the correct solution there.
[00:25:52] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, it's interesting 'cause you're talking about perspective or you know, sometimes whether we're in a situation or where we're around other people, or we read a book, like you said, um, E-Myth and, and the other suggestion earlier. But we have these moments where our, you know, our mind changes. And so I guess for you, I, my, my question's gonna be through you, into your clients.
[00:26:14] Chaz Wolfe: what do you see as that maybe that most often perspective change for them? Or maybe what's the easiest one in that first six weeks that you're trying to land for them that really helps them, you know, project out into into their business future?
[00:26:26] Tyler Woodall : For insurance agents specifically, 'cause that's where, where I really feel like we've got a great mousetrap. A lot of times they feel that they have to be involved in all the stages of the process. They feel like I gather the information, so I have to be the one that quotes it in the carrier and then presents it to the client.
[00:26:45] Tyler Woodall : Well, if you have a standard procedure that gathers information into the agency. Then it's gonna make sure that it's entered correctly the same way every time into carriers. So that's what we do, is we teach insurance agents, Hey, you use this standardized quoting form. It may be boring, it may be a pain to fill out all the questions each time, but by doing it this way, it makes sure that it's done correctly every time it gives the information to your team member that handles it.
[00:27:14] Tyler Woodall : Or in this case, when you work with us, a virtual assistant, the VA takes those things. It enters the same information to quote a home quote car, quote, a rental property, whatever it is, and then they pull the finished quotes and present it to the insurance agent. The agent takes that and presents it to the client.
[00:27:32] Tyler Woodall : So it's just showing them that you don't have to be involved in all steps and somebody can do this. So we've got. Almost an insurance licensing training for our virtual assistants. So we teach them what our coverage is, what do they mean, how to determine the types of roofs on a house, et cetera, so they know pretty much everything they're gonna know close to what the agent knows.
[00:27:57] Tyler Woodall : They don't have to know everything, and they don't have to be perfect. If they're 80% of what the agent knows, it's probably gonna get the job done right. Um, so that's what we try and teach. It's just you don't have to be involved in everything in order to grow and in order to live the life you're hoping to live, you can't possibly do everything.
[00:28:16] Tyler Woodall : So.
[00:28:17] Chaz Wolfe: I wanna, I wanna throw a scenario and see what your thoughts are on this because you're, you're a hundred percent right. It's not even just agency owners, it's, most entrepreneurs think they have to be involved in everything. And so oftentimes too, when we think as entrepreneurs about creating a system, like you said, it, it feels, you know, mundane or like just 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
[00:28:37] Chaz Wolfe: And that's just as entrepreneurs is not how we think. We would much rather just be like. Lemme get into the scenario and I'll like figure it out as I go. That like gives us life, you know? So for us to, to think how valuable it could be to create a 1, 2, 3, 4 system seems, it's almost unimaginable because that wouldn't work for us because we're not employable
[00:28:56] Chaz Wolfe: But actually what I've found is that the typical person on the other side of it who. Who wants to be part of a team, who wants to be part of your crazy machine that's moving in all sorts of different, different directions. They actually want structure. They want the 1, 2, 3, 4. It actually gives them life.
[00:29:11] Chaz Wolfe: So what would you say to the entrepreneur who's like, I'm sorry, what? A 1, 2, 3, 4 gives somebody life? What are you talking about?
[00:29:17] Tyler Woodall : Yep. A lot of times when the world is their oyster and there's so many different opportunities, it's really stressful to people to pick what should I do? And so when you make it very clear to them, here's my expectations for you as a part of our company. This is exactly what I need done every single time.
[00:29:38] Tyler Woodall : And here's the instructions on how to do it so you don't have to ask me every time. It just makes it a lot smoother. And so by having those 1, 2, 3, 4 steps for the employee, it frees up more time for the entrepreneur to get to go be crazy and think about all the different solutions they can keep adding to the world, um, and all the new ways they can improve their business.
[00:30:01] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, and I think that the caveat there is that they're not providing something that's boring to the other person. The other person actually wants it. love it, they need it, they crave it, right? It's like, just like the entrepreneur craves the kind of little bit of chaos. The other person's like, no, I don't want chaos at all.
[00:30:16] Chaz Wolfe: I want order
[00:30:18] Tyler Woodall : right.
[00:30:18] Chaz Wolfe: Therefore steps in the, uh, you know, SOP and they're like, Hey, I'll crush this SOP all day, every day. Um, because that's how they're wired. That's how they're made. Anything else to add here on team building, especially the VAs? Like, there's probably some people right now who, a, don't even know what a VA is.
[00:30:31] Chaz Wolfe: So give us a little explanation and then two further, like, is it really possible that I could hire somebody that is like, I've never met before and I never see them and they're, they're able to do things for me, it'll help me understand.
[00:30:43] Tyler Woodall : Right. So we run into a lot of misconceptions here with virtual assistants. So all it is a VA virtual assistant is just an employee that works virtually for your business. So obviously times have changed. We are remote, not in the same room right now, but we're getting to have a conversation. It's the same way with an employee.
[00:31:05] Tyler Woodall : So it's not just some magical person on the other side of the world. Like my VAs, we get on Zoom calls almost every day and discuss what are we trying to work on. We send messages back and forth in Slack, like we are a cohesive team all operating together. We just work in different places. And so the internet has allowed us to separate quite a bit and Zoom and platforms like that have been extremely beneficial.
[00:31:32] Tyler Woodall : As far as for having, um, a VA work inside of your business, the biggest thing I always get asked is just kind of that control factor. Like, how do I know that they're working? Okay, well, there's a few things you can do if you don't trust this person, and if they're brand new, you can use a time tracker or a screen tracker, something like that to track what they're doing.
[00:31:54] Tyler Woodall : My team does that just so that we can prove, prove to a business owner. Hey. We have your person working, here's what they're working on. Here's the checks and balances, et cetera. Uh, but if a business owner's just hiring them on their own, that's step one. Step two is as you start growing, there's gonna be enough volume of work being done that you're gonna see that, okay, this person is actually working because all the stuff I hate doing is getting finished for me.
[00:32:22] Tyler Woodall : So with myself and my core team, that's how we do it. I don't use time trackers and stuff like that. If my people are knocking out the tasks that I gave them and that they're supposed to be doing, I do not care how long it takes them. If you wanna knock out a couple hours early and go hang out with your family, great.
[00:32:41] Tyler Woodall : You got the job done that I asked for you to do. I want you to be happy and fulfilled as well. So.
[00:32:47] Chaz Wolfe: You're talking about, uh, managing from deliverables. So talk about a little, just a little further on this. How does one separate hourly wage. Which is maybe old school. And kind of in order to be in person, I gotta control you and we're gonna work for eight hours here in the office. And you know, I can look over there in that office over there and I can see that you're quoting things versus now it's, it's remote and I can't see you.
[00:33:09] Chaz Wolfe: I can still manage from an hourly perspective on the screen. I think those things are great, but really what you're talking about is getting to a place where you can manage the deliverables.
[00:33:16] Tyler Woodall : Right. So again, it goes back to that whole client journey path. You've gotta decide what exactly do I have to deliver to my clients in order to be successful. And so when you know exactly what that thing is. It's easy to know the deliverables that, hey, in order to first do this, like a marketing agency, for example, first we have to define who our client is that we're marketing to, and then we have to work on the ad creative, and then we have to write the copy, and then we have to launch the ad.
[00:33:49] Tyler Woodall : Then we build the follow-ups and keep rolling. So if somebody's in charge of each one of those steps, when they finish that step, they're done until you can move on to the next phase. And so. I don't just want them riding the clock. If they finish whatever it is, that task that they have to do, fine, you did your job for me.
[00:34:09] Tyler Woodall : You did what I'm paying you to do. Get to enjoy a little bit. And some business owners are gonna be different, and that's why we provide a lot of the other stuff as well, some of the tracking, and we try to do some cross training like once your virtual assistant's done with Quotings, if they don't have any more quotes to do for the day.
[00:34:27] Tyler Woodall : And the business owner's cool with it. We teach them a little bit about social media so they can help you build content for your Facebook page or networking Facebook groups or whatever it is. If you're worried about the time aspect, just plan for it and have an SOP for when you finish your task. Here's where you spend your last little bit.
[00:34:47] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. I think that there's a lot of, um, either just unknown. Then even people who have just started to like, you know, tickle the idea. It's just, I don't know how to do it or I don't know how I would keep them accountable. I think you've given us some really, really practical things. Um, obviously the listener could reach out to you and I'm sure you could help them with that, um, as well.
[00:35:05] Chaz Wolfe: But inside of the business, how does a VA slash maybe an in-person, like so now we've got a mixture of employees. Talk about that for a second. 'cause that's obviously another key factor here.
[00:35:17] Tyler Woodall : Right, for sure. So how the two kind of mesh together? Yeah. Again, it's just making sure you've got your communication dialed in. So with my team, we know that everything ideally goes through Slack. A lot of times communication's done through email if we're chatting back and forth with a client as well, but.
[00:35:36] Tyler Woodall : We have our core team chats inside of Slack. So my leadership team has a chat together. My marketing and sales team has a chat together. And so we just know to communicate based on who needs to know what. Um, and it's just clearly defining job roles and knowing who is in charge of getting what thing done and how do we measure success for that person.
[00:35:59] Tyler Woodall : And so people in the office, it's gonna be easier 'cause you can go and just have a conversation in a room. But the accountability aspects removed because you're not documenting that conversation. A lot of times you're not going in your CRM writing down, I spoke with Susie about doing this for next week, if it's in Slack or via email.
[00:36:21] Tyler Woodall : You've got a paper trail so you can track what's going on. Um, but it's the same type of aspect, just making sure that solid communication is happening inside of your company.
[00:36:31] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love that. Any, uh.
[00:36:33] Chaz Wolfe: any book recommendations or leadership recommendations around communication? I think you're spot on. There's a whole, I mean, that's a whole nother podcast,
[00:36:40] Tyler Woodall : Right. So the kind of tried and true that everybody goes through is how to win friends and influence people. My team reviews that pretty consistently. It's not gonna talk, I. Specifically about strong communication inside of a team, but it's gonna allow the team to communicate well. So in, in a leadership role, like one of my, my COO, I had him read this book just to make sure, hey, if you're ever needing to correct somebody, lead it with a positive sandwich in whatever the problem is and what you need to fix, and then end it with a positive again.
[00:37:14] Tyler Woodall : That way that person doesn't feel like they're being attacked. And so when they feel like, Hey, this person loves me and caress about me. They want me to get better, they're going to be a lot more receptive to the communication and continue moving forward.
[00:37:27] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. What would you say? 'cause this, this has come up recently and this is, I think it's funny that when, when the, when the strategy becomes a little bit more obvious, right? Um, I. When? When someone knows they're being sandwiched, let's say. Right. Is there, is there a nuance here to where when that other person, it is like, I know what you're doing to me, but do they like it because that's like, no, actually I'm doing the right things?
[00:37:49] Chaz Wolfe: Or is it more of a like, I don't know, I'm being sandwiched right now.
[00:37:53] Tyler Woodall : I get that because a lot of times in um, like if you're in business, you're in sales and a salesman starts using some of those tactics, I think you can feel when it's genuine or not. When somebody's using a closing tactic on me and I. I feel like they're just trying to get a sale rather than doing something that's gonna be beneficial to me.
[00:38:18] Tyler Woodall : It's rather frustrating, but if I know that they're doing something where it's just consistent follow up and they're using certain trigger words that I've learned myself, a lot of times I'll respect it because I know this person is just putting in the extra work to make sure the right thing gets done.
[00:38:34] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's good. I appreciate that. In fact, I had a guy, I had a call with the, with a guy just a couple days ago and, um, I, I, I don't always get on sales calls, um, but I have just a huge history in sales and I love just the conversation. And, and this guy was, I mean, you know, pretty small business, four or 500,000 in, in revenue, and he was like, man, I can tell you're good at sales.
[00:38:55] Chaz Wolfe: I, I already want whatever you got, I wanna sign up for it. 'cause man, this is, this conversation is really good . He's like, I thought I was good, but you're good. I'm like, bro, I'm just having a, I really haven't even offered you anything yet. This is, this is, this is good
[00:39:08] Tyler Woodall : It's awesome. Yeah, that's a good sign. Those are buying signals.
[00:39:12] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. I think that, but to your point though, it was. I'm Look, especially when the founder gets on the phone, it's like, yes, I want the deal. And I was, and I was, you know, doing it in front of a team member. And so it was good training and stuff like that. But the reality is, is that, you know, I could go without this sale.
[00:39:29] Chaz Wolfe: That's fine. And that's actually when the genuine approach comes that in sales. But then for all the other moments that you're talking about, when you can just be genuine, just be you, people can totally see that. How, how have you been able to implement that with. Again, kinda going back to this like virtual or maybe even we've got VAs from other countries like there now we've got culture differences, potential language differences, you know, second English is a second language for some of our folks.
[00:39:56] Chaz Wolfe: Like how do you expressing how genuineness, uh, as an employer, as a team member, uh, to, to win the added difference like that.
[00:40:04] Tyler Woodall : Yeah, I think team calls are important, so we try to regularly get on Zoom calls where we talk about not business and build a relationship there because so much does get lost in translation when you're just typing on the keyboard and Slack a lot of times. I may just be being blunt because I'm busy. I'm on a sales call and I'm answering the team quickly, but that may be received as, oh no, he's frustrated, something's wrong, and you never know where that's going to go.
[00:40:38] Tyler Woodall : So I think trying to get on Zoom calls regularly and building a relationship, hearing about. Life outside of work, what do these people care about? What do they do for fun? What's their family life like? I think it just helps to kind of drill into their mind that, Hey, let's lean on the good first, rather than automatically assuming the negative.
[00:41:00] Tyler Woodall : I thought. I think starting with the end in mind is important.
[00:41:03] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. Just being a human
[00:41:06] Tyler Woodall : Yep.
[00:41:07] Tyler Woodall : A human that caress and, and when you care, um, it draws us or, or moves us to curiosity. That's what I'm hearing you say. I'm being curious about, uh, you know, it, it's funny, we're coming up on the holiday seasons, you know, we're recording here in December, like you said, and, you know, Christmas and stuff are here in a few weeks and I, I can't tell you how frustrating it is when you go to a family or even a friend's giving of sorts and, you're the only curious person, you know, it's obvious when you become really, really curious how
[00:41:38] Tyler Woodall : Not most people are. And so it, it's, it's a little bit of a, of a, of a, of a downer really. But it's it in business. It's amazing because if you can hone this skillset of being curious, like genuinely, like I actually want to know more about your life and how you do this thing. And maybe it's an impact of me positively or not, I don't know, but like, I'm just curious when you can get to that place, like conversations and life go to a whole nother level, would you, would you
[00:42:03] Tyler Woodall : Yep.
[00:42:03] Tyler Woodall : Oh yeah, for sure. I think when you start asking questions about somebody else, they're their most favorite topic to talk about, and they're going to spill their beans just talking about everything they can because they're proud of what they've done and so they're really excited to get to tell you about it.
[00:42:21] Tyler Woodall : Um, and then like you're talking about from a business perspective, the law of reciprocity does come into play. So when they feel like you have given them. In audience, they're gonna feel like they owe you something else. And so they're much more excited whenever you do come with that. Ask to try and give back, and that's not the reason we do it.
[00:42:42] Tyler Woodall : It's just when you become a human that does care about other people. It's just a byproduct that you start to get those things back.
[00:42:49] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I'll give the listener just a quick example here, because you actually did this. I've recorded 400 and I dunno, 50, 60 episodes. I've talked with a lot of business owners. I can, I could pretty confidently say for sure less than 10, it might even be less than five people have gotten on this podcast.
[00:43:07] Chaz Wolfe: Now, they've, you've you, before this call, you had already gone through a question and answer session with someone on my team, so maybe you, most people get their questions answered and whatnot, but when they pop on with me. less than, let's say 10 for sure, maybe less than five. Ask me any questions. And I had to actually redirect you because you were asking so many questions at the beginning of this, which was great.
[00:43:27] Chaz Wolfe: I loved it. I felt like you were genuinely curious about my history, about what I was doing, about what I was building. Whether that's something that makes sense for us to, to, you know, strategically partnership. We don't know, we'll, we'll talk about it, but. You just don't know unless you ask. And it's like, man, you start to, you start to really hone this skillset.
[00:43:45] Chaz Wolfe: So I, I'm, I'm hitting hard on this because, you know, looking back at my sales career, looking back at all the teams that I've built, hearing your story now, I think that the audience can walk away with going . Look, ask, ask a better question. Get in, get into a situation where you see the other human on the other side.
[00:43:59] Chaz Wolfe: And maybe it's, for us, it's, it's faith related. 'cause I see, I wanna see people more than just another, like, uh, human on the other side. I wanna see 'em as, as a cre, as a creation, as a, as a, as a beloved one. You know, like something's really, really special about them that I haven't been able to see yet, maybe.
[00:44:14] Chaz Wolfe: But I wanna see it, you know, therefore it draws me to curiosity. So I just really appreciate that about you. Give us some, give us a little tactic here. You kinda mentioned a couple of books, but any sort of resources that, you've talked a lot about SOPs, you've talked about, you know, you know, just keeping things in order, really bringing like organization to the organization in order to be able to scale Any other resources here that you can drop for the listener.
[00:44:34] Tyler Woodall : I do think so, kind of given a, a little plug to you and what you've got going on, but I think that coaches and mentors in my life have massively just exponentially changed things because I'm able to borrow decades of experience that they have to shortcut. Myself having to make mistakes,
[00:44:53] Tyler Woodall : and so I think getting in some type of mentorship or coaching is important.
[00:44:58] Tyler Woodall : Getting in a Mastermind I think is incredible. If you can get in a room of like-minded people, because entrepreneurship so often gets lonely, nobody understands the struggles that you're having to go through. They don't understand the. The headaches that you're having to deal with to try and make sure you can cover payroll and rent and your personal expenses all in one.
[00:45:19] Tyler Woodall : Um, I think that it just helps provide a lot of clarity and mental peace of mind if you can get in those rooms. So I think finding something I, where you can get around people that will coach you and mentor you to make you better, um, would be the biggest hack that I could recommend.
[00:45:37] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, it's, it's interesting, you know, that's, it's not a secret any longer that, that's a major hack. Um, but still, there's people probably listening to the show right now that are like, nah, it's okay. I'll do it myself. And the only reason I know that is because . I did that, you know, for like probably six, seven years.
[00:45:52] Chaz Wolfe: You know, I'm doing millions of dollars in business and I'm like, ah, I got this. But yet, you know, fast forward that later that night, it's, you know, 11 o pm and I'm by myself in my office, like trying to figure it all out going, I didn't know this then, but now I look back, it's like all I needed was a couple of folks around me just to say, Hey, I've done that before.
[00:46:09] Chaz Wolfe: Or, Hey, like, don't worry about it. You got it. Or, Hey, dude, we've talked about this like three times now. Why are you still doing the same thing over and over and over? That doesn't work. All that's super valuable. Okay, Tyler, I got one last question here for you. I want you to pick the age. Uh, I, I've started doing this here recently.
[00:46:28] Chaz Wolfe: You get to talk to the younger Tyler. Okay? You tap him on the shoulder and you whisper in his ear. What do you say? How old is he and what do you say?
[00:46:38] Tyler Woodall : That's a really good question. Um, I think that I. 21-year-old Tyler would be a really good one to talk with just because I was so, I was in college starting to figure out, or trying to figure out what do I wanna do in life? It's stressful trying to decide where am I gonna go? What am I gonna do? Um, and kind of like we talked about earlier, just.
[00:47:08] Tyler Woodall : Encouraging young Tyler try things. You feel like you're different. You feel like you kind of know stuff, but you're not gonna know your thing until you try lots of things. So don't feel like you're any less valuable or any less good of a person because you've not went out and just crushed the world yet.
[00:47:30] Tyler Woodall : It's just a timing thing, and a lot of times that person may have lucked into their thing sooner than you have. And so that achievement doesn't change your value. It just determines where you're at right now. And so you're no less of a person. Um, so trying to encourage that young version of myself not to belittle my own self-worth in my mind, because I've not figured it all out yet.
[00:47:56] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I think that that message is even super pure and right. For some of the listeners here today that have maybe been in a business for 2, 3, 4 years, similar to your story, where . And maybe they're successful, but they don't have joy and, and maybe there's some things inside of that business that they can fix and then, and it brings in joy and that's fine.
[00:48:14] Chaz Wolfe: But were you, the extreme circumstance was, look man, you, that just wasn't your thing. It just, I did the first thing and it wasn't my thing. And I think we all have that, especially serial entrepreneurs. We, we started in a business and it helped us grow a little bit, but it wasn't like the thing that we loved.
[00:48:27] Chaz Wolfe: It was just the, the stepping stone. Um, so there's encouragement even in that, that like, Hey, look like if you haven't found your thing yet. No big deal.
[00:48:34] Tyler Woodall : And
[00:48:34] Chaz Wolfe: next thing, or maybe
[00:48:35] Tyler Woodall : loss. I, I tell people a lot, something can be a stop and not a stay, and so you may be stopping in this season to learn something from it. It doesn't necessarily, it's mean, mean, it's a loss. If you decide this isn't my thing and you wanna move on, that's part of the reason I stayed in insurance so long is I felt like, you know, I'm not gonna let this thing beat me.
[00:48:59] Tyler Woodall : I'm gonna figure it out before I move to the next stage. And I think that's just the totally wrong way to look at it. I understand not wanting to give up, not sacrificing your dreams, and there's an element of truth to that, but also pursuing your happiness and taking lessons so that you can be more successful in something else, I think is really important.
[00:49:20] Chaz Wolfe: There's a permanency there. Um, you know, there's a, there's a couple of books in just Psychology that talks about just permanency or, um, pervasiveness, uh, or taking things personally. Those three things kind of really determine a lot of entrepreneur success. And so in essence, what you were just talking about is I.
[00:49:37] Chaz Wolfe: You don't, you don't just look back and go, well, this is who I am completely. And it was like, no, no. I just was there for a little while. I learned a couple things and then what can I do now with it? So it's good. How can the listener find you? Number one, remind them who they should be if they want help from you.
[00:49:52] Chaz Wolfe: 'cause uh, you obviously help people in a pretty specific way, but then also if they're just an entrepreneur and they wanna network with you, how can they find you?
[00:49:58] Tyler Woodall : Yeah, so LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. I'm pretty easy to find If you search Tyler Woodall, um, I think it's linkedin.com/tyler l Woodall. Um, pretty easy to find. Send me a message. I'd love to be able to connect. If you're an insurance agency owner and you're stressed out in your day today, it's agency aid.com.
[00:50:20] Tyler Woodall : If you're a business owner struggling to grow, we've got tons of free guides. Time analysis, worksheets, building your ideal life, worksheets, anything to help you kind of move along that path. That is win with C four letter C, the number four.com. Tagline, the missing piece to make your company blow up. Um, so reach out to me on either one of those websites.
[00:50:44] Tyler Woodall : You're likely gonna be chatting with a member of my team, but if you say, Hey, I'm looking to chat with Tyler, they'll send you a link to my calendar and I'd love to be able to chat and help in any way I can.
[00:50:55] Chaz Wolfe: You have a system it sounds like for that, maybe a couple of SOPs, maybe a couple team members that are
[00:51:00] Tyler Woodall : Yep. Quite a few actually. So
[00:51:03] Chaz Wolfe: good stuff. .It's very important you're doing the things that you just got done teaching us. Uh, Tyler, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here on the show. Thanks for sharing blessings to you and all of the agency owners and business owners that you're helping out there, uh, in this coming year, 2024.
[00:51:17] Chaz Wolfe: Uh, blessings to you man. Talk soon.
[00:51:19] Tyler Woodall : Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

Join us on Gathering The King's Podcast as host Chaz Wolfe engages in a riveting conversation with Tyler Woodall, a dynamic entrepreneur who skyrocketed his business by 900% in just two years. Dive deep into Tyler's secrets to mastering business efficiency through automation, virtual assistants, and stellar communication. Discover how Tyler transformed his life and business after personal upheavals, and how books like "The E-Myth" revolutionized his approach.

Tyler Woodall:

Website: https://agency-aid.com/

Website: https://winwithc4.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-l-woodall/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcBS86j8j_84wQtr7YRVKJQ

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