GWBC Radio: Kenzie Biggins with Worxbee

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio, conversations to grow your business. Now, here’s your host, Roz Lewis.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Hey, everybody. This is Lee Kantor in for Roz Lewis today. And this is going to be a fantastic GWBC Radio episode. We have with us today Kenzie Biggins with Worxbee. Welcome, Kenzie.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:00:38] Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:40] Before we get too far into things, tell us about Worxbee. How are you serving folks?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:00:45] Yes. So, we are a virtual executive assistant solutions company, and we have traditionally serviced people by providing ongoing one-on-one executive assistant support. But as most people are right now, we’re doing a slight pivot to expand their offerings to different needs.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] So, now, are you seeing people having some trouble adjusting to this kind of virtual world that you’ve probably been doing for the whole history of Worxbee?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:01:13] We’re seeing lots of trouble for people adjusting to this new world. It’s interesting to us because we have done a lot around building our culture and community online and maintaining, creating relationships online. And there’s a lot of people who never had to think about building or supporting their team in that way. So, we’re getting lots of questions everyday about best ways to interact and maintain that sense of community.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:36] So, do you have any tips for some of these businesses that are kind of making this adjustment?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:01:42] Yes, we have tons of tips. But my top three are [1], looking at core hours. So, a lot of times, when you’re in an office from 9:00 to 5:00 every day, you’re not working straight through that entire time. You’re having breaks to talk with people at the watercooler, celebrate birthdays, grab coffee. So, we find with people at home, they don’t know what to do to fill their time. And especially for younger folks, our millennials are getting very overwhelmed by the idea of how do I look busy and keep busy from 9:00 to 5:00 every day.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:02:13] So, to take that pressure off of everyone, especially for folks with children at home, we say core hours are a great idea, and it’s really about the idea of people being available to each other during a set amount of time each day, and knowing where your team is, knowing what times you can schedule calls. So, we’re saying 10:00 to noon, and then 1:00 to 3:00 would be a great time to have core hours.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:02:34] Also, don’t lose sight of your culture. Just because you’re not in the office together doesn’t mean that you can’t still have fun culture activities. So, when you’re doing conference calls, instead of just starting a conference call, think about an icebreaker that you can do with your team. Think about ways for people to share good news or what they’re excited about.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:02:53] And then, of course, we’re doing more check-ins than we did before. We’ve always done a large amount of check-ins, but now work very purposeful about each week, making sure that someone makes direct contact with every single one of our team members to make sure that they’re okay, especially our team members who live alone.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:09] So, how do you balance kind of using technology that is an always-on kind of tool for a lot of people to, like you mentioned, kind of delegating certain times? But how do you protect, like, the worker from going, “I really got to get this done. And, now, it’s 11:00 at night. I’m still working on things like that”? Like because there’s one side of the management side, being respectful of boundaries and time. But then, there’s also the worker that might not take enough self-care, maybe, and then just keep working and working and working?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:03:49] Right. So, a couple of things. One, obviously, everybody is on video together, right? But you’ve got dog running around, you got kids running around. Make it very comfortable for your team members as far as calm as you are. Like we, basically, children are welcome on our calls. We have one team member, her daughter, who is 4, shows up to every single call. I think she thinks our calls are really about her and what she has going on that day, which is hilariously adorable. But make it very comfortable for your team.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:04:18] But, also, a big piece of it is reduce the number of meetings that you’re having every day. So, as a team, we have two management calls per week. And then, there’s like two one-on-one calls that fall in there. Everybody, as a group per the week, has no more than four hours’ worth of call for the entire week. And part of that being an office environment, I feel like there’s this obligation to have meetings but that does not work when you’re virtual. And that’s how you get people working until 11:00 p.m. at night because they spend their entire day on Zoom calls. And we really have to break that up in a virtual environment because, [1], it just doesn’t make sense; [2], it’s overwhelming; and [3], people still have work to get done. Like the Zoom chat, the other video platforms that people are using, they’re fun, they’re great, they’re a great way to keep your team engaged and interactive, but you can’t do it all day, every day. Then, nothing gets done.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:13] Now, there’s a phrase that I hear bandied about called the new economy. What does that mean to you? And can you share a little bit about your thoughts about this new economy that we’re seeing?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:05:26] Yeah. I have some business owners talking about the idea, things getting back to the way that they were. But we are at Worxbee have been talking a lot about the new economy and the fact that things are going to be changed forever. And the prime example I use for this is thinking about people going to school to get a degree in education. Getting a degree in education used to mean going into a classroom, observing the classes, putting together lesson plans, be taught in person. So, we can all bet that going forward, that won’t be what education degree looks like anymore. There’s been a lot of conversations around virtual learning and how to make it work.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:05:59] You even wonder what snow days will look like going forward for school children if they know that they can continue school work online, and they don’t have to have that disruption going on in the school year. So, just in thinking about it, just in a simple context of something that’s been going on for decades of going to school every day and how that’s going to change in the future, we have to look at our businesses to say, how are we meeting the new economy? Because people, at least, for the next—even getting past the point of having therapeutics and a vaccine, it’s going to take a while for people to return to any type of old habits if they return to them.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:06:38] So, how do you offer more delivery services? How do you offer easier points of access to your service? I think, it’s going to be extremely important for all business owners, especially the women-business enterprises out there, to start thinking about how are they changing to meet the needs of the new economy and the habits of the new economy.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:58] And for some of these folks, it might be something pretty dramatic. But for others, it just might be adding different services, right?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:07:07] Yes, definitely. So, we’re actually in the process of adding different services, as I mentioned earlier. So, now, we’re going to be offering project-based work. So, still access to high level executive assistant support versus having to have a long-term relationship and engagement, you may say, “I need help with a research project,” or “I need help taking in a bit that’s normally an in-person meeting to a virtual meeting.” We’re going to be providing those short term services, which is going to be a great need, especially considering half of our clients are small businesses. So, we need to be able to meet them where they are as far as them dealing with the new economy and helping them overcome some of the challenges that they’re having.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:07:48] And then, the other part that we are building it as a company is community. So, the same way we have built out a community for our executive offices, we have started offering that for all companies that want to get their executive assistants an additional way to receive training and engagement that doesn’t fall on their plate because leaders have a lot on their plate right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:10] Now, do you have any thoughts about the people maybe in the health care or wellness industry? I had a call interview recently with somebody in health care that they’ve had to pivot to more telemedicine and do kind of online services. And I’ve had fitness people that have had to adjust where people used to go into their gym or their fitness center, and now they’re doing online classes. Do you have any thoughts about those folks about how they can leverage some of this technology or maybe some of your services to help them?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:08:42] Yeah. So, I think it’s an interesting place to be. And as far as something that’s so dependent on someone being in person, and that’s what you’ve been selling the whole time, I think it’s how you continue to connect with people in that space. So, versus before, you were depending on them walking in the door, I think it’s going to require a lot more outreach, especially for folks who have gyms, people who are training. How do you create enough outreach, so people feel like they can continue to connect with you? And then also, how do you remind people about self-care and how to take care of themselves?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:09:17] One of the challenges you mentioned, the idea of people working until 11:00 p.m. one are the challenges of working from home is that there’s nothing to cut it off. You’re not leaving an office and going to a gym to cut it off. You’re not walking into a doctor to take care of your health. So, I think it’s how does a conversation continue around how that changes. So, you blog, it could be video, it can be a call to your clients to say, “Are you working out? And what does it look like?” But challenging people on how they’re taking care of themselves will be extremely important.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:52] Now, to change gears a little bit but not necessarily, a lot of work nowadays is being done via maybe video call. And for some people who have never done a video call before, do you have any tips when it comes to how to best present yourself? Like you talked about, right now, it’s kind of acceptable to have kids running around or dogs barking. People are kind of giving a lot of grace to that; whereas maybe before that was not businesslike enough, but everybody kind of understands. But are there any tips like from a lighting or background standpoint or where’s the best place to do the call that you can share?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:10:30] So, my mom and I had this conversation a couple of weeks ago because she, of course, like everybody else, has transferred from doing lots of things in person to online. So, my number one tip is a black T-shirt and a necklace will get you a really long way. It looks really professional and polished, but you’re not up trying to think for hours of what to put on for the video. It’s very simple. It’s very clean.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:10:53] Also, I keep a light on my desk that I shine towards me. So, one of the challenges of being on video is if you have a lot of lighting going on behind you from a window, it can cause your light to go in and out as you’re talking to people. So, just desk light will work. Shine it toward you, so you’re always lit and people can see you. And then, I’m a big believer in that you do need to see the people you’re talking to. So, always having video on and encouraging your team to keep video on, which part of encouraging them to keep video on is part of making it okay for a kid to pop up in the background or to run by.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:11:34] But there’s a lot to be said for when think about when you’re in office with somebody, the social cue that you take from someone, that you’re not going to get if you’re just talking to them via Zoom but without a video. So, keeping those videos on is extremely helpful. But just lighting and keep it super simple. You don’t need to come with some brand new fancy outfit every day. People are very forgiving right now. Like I said, a black T-shirt and a necklace are always the way to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:04] Now, you mentioned earlier the importance of communication and staying connected. How important is a group like GWBC for you in order to stay connected with the members there and the leadership there? And any advice for women business owners out there that aren’t familiar with GWBC that maybe that they could be leveraging that?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:12:27] Yeah. So, it’s important to have someone that you can talk to that understand what you’re going through. And I mean, I love my team dearly, but in the same breath, I don’t want to startle them with some of the things going on as far as trying to navigate the TPP, or some of the other loans and grants going on out there, or thinking about next steps. You need people who are in your shoes that you can talk to.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:12:51] And GWBC gives me that. I have a community of other female entrepreneurs within GWBC that I know that I can reach out to. I also love the different newsletters and emails they’re coming out. I mean, I feel like it’s a moving target right now as far as the information going on and the updates out there. But to have a trusted resource that I know that I can go to and that they’re going to put out information that’s meaningful to me as a woman business owner right now to help me make it to the other side is extremely important. So, those would be my two big things I’m very thankful for GWBC for.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:26] So, now, talk about your business specifically. Who your exact target market is and what it’s like? Like how do you onboard a new client?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:13:36] Yeah. So, our focus are really— I say we serve two clients. We serve the executive assistant and we serve the executive they support because we want to help them thrive together. And more importantly, right now, we want to help them really thrive in a virtual environment. So, one, for the executive assistant, we help connect them to clients. But like I said, we also have that community piece that we’re rolling out. So, for companies, for the independent executive assistant, trying to figure out how to stay connected and engage, a place where they can get training, a place where they can connect with their peers if they have a question, and they’re trying to navigate this virtual phase themselves, we provide that.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:14:18] And then, on the executive side, it’s really about connecting them to the resources of support that they need. So, through those two access points, when you look at project-based work, it’s really about knowing what they need, and then connecting them to the right EA who could take care of it for them immediately. So, there is a very short term relationship there. But then, for that ongoing support, that full-service, virtual executive support where you are paired with someone for years, I mean, we have clients who’ve been with us for multiple years, it’s about finding the right pairing for you. So, we actually start those relationships by presenting candidates to the client for them to interview and select the best EA to support their needs. And a lot of ways, we kind of function like an executive search firm to find them the best support that they need and help them build that long-term relationship.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:12] And so, you’re kind of being a matchmaker to try and make sure that the fit is good.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:15:18] Yes, yes. And I mean, a lot of it goes in to how does the client like to communicate, what is expectations around work be done for them, what are their top administrative needs. That all makes it impact on the final selection of who we’re helping pair them with. And then, it’s also the idea of we want to make sure that we’re truly offering the best talent. So, we have executive assistants who had 10+ years experience, which is key to really getting that high-level support that executives and leaders need to succeed.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:51] And then, do you have assistants that are good in certain industries, like maybe they come from a medical background or maybe they had worked previously for manufacturing, so they bring some specialized knowledge also to the table?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:16:07] Yes, we say every EA kind of has a secret sauce of something they have experience in the past or they bring that special skill set with them. We have EAs that have worked in hospitals. We have EAs that have worked specifically at tech startups. So, it really runs the full gamut. The great thing about a really good, true executive assistant that you can drop them into almost any situation because they’re an executive, right? So, I would say to an executive assistant is an executive who is chosen to be a servant leader. So, from that perspective and the skill set, like a great COO can drop into almost any organization because there is a basic skill set of being a great COO. That’s how we look at our executive assistants. They are great executives who are coming in from a servant perspective, which means that they’re also willing to research your industry if they haven’t directly worked there.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:01] Now, what do you need more of right now? Are you looking for a more virtual assistants? Are you looking for more clients?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:17:08] I mean, I am a small business in a pandemic, we’re always looking for more clients. So, as we prepare to launch our new website, which we’ll have additional information about our project-based work, we would love to see more clients there, and we would love to be able to support more executive assistants to our community. So, always looking for more access because as we bring in more clients, especially through our project-based work, we’re able to support more EAs across the country. And that’s really what it’s all about. Part of the reason I started this company is, how could we connect EAs who were impacted by the Great Recession to connect them to more work and a sustainable income to support their families and their households. So, that’s always going to be one of our top goals. How do we continue to connect our EAs to the resources to sustain their household?

Lee Kantor: [00:18:03] Now, what is the pain that a client might be having right now where Worxbee is the right solution?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:18:09] Yeah. The top pain that we’re seeing right now are people trying to take traditional business services where it’s always been in person and move it to virtual. So, I mean, luckily, for some reason, I had the vision to say back in February that we need to start helping all of our clients move their in-person meetings to virtual meetings and start thinking about what that looks like and help them start that process. So, it’s what we’ve been working on since then, but it’s what we’re getting the most questions about from people who are not clients, how do they move those items virtual?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:18:45] And then, we’re also getting lots of questions about how they engage their team virtually, which an EA can also help with as far as that outreach and making sure that team members know what’s going on. I mean, part of the benefit of our executive assistants is that they are all virtual, and they’re very used to working in a virtual environment. So, they just have a lot of knowledge to offer. I’ve been telling our team since February, “You guys are the experts in this area, and you have a lot to share to help businesses through this time.”

Lee Kantor: [00:19:14] Now, if somebody wanted to learn more, what’s the website?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:19:17] Yes. Our website is worxbee.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:22] Good stuff. Well, thank you, Kenzie, for sharing your story. You’re doing important work, and you shared some great tips and wisdom for our listeners.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:19:31] Thank you, Lee. Have a great day.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:33] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on GWBC Radio.