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An hour with Shelby
5 Plays1 month ago
A look into the blue collar world from the female point of view.
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Transcript
The Permanence of Online Speech
00:00:00
Baker Plbg
All right. It's actually legit now. Everything you say is, is now on the internet forever.
00:00:06
Shelby Joines
can be used against me in the court of law
00:00:09
Baker Plbg
It can be, I think that's the line. Isn't it Everything you're about to say is can be used against you.
Meet Shelby: From Corporate to Self-Employment
00:00:14
Shelby Joines
it's true
00:00:14
Baker Plbg
All right, Shelby. Like I said at the beginning, you're like our very first, uh, outsider. You're like, I think I, I, I said it as tangential to the, um,
00:00:28
Baker Plbg
blue collar world. So why don't you take a couple of minutes and tell everybody who you are and and why why you're here. are you talking to a meathead like me?
00:00:36
Shelby Joines
why I'm here. It's a big question, right? No, I'm so excited to be here.
00:00:39
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:00:40
Shelby Joines
Like I said before, it's great to be that first kind of outsider guest that you've got that's outside of your little niche community and everything that I'm slowly working my way into.
00:00:53
Shelby Joines
But I own a virtual remote administration company called Join Us Administration, where we help members of the construction and trade world from individual trade journeyman to big renovation companies and keeping their backend together and clean and well-organized because probably 98, if not a hundred percent of the time trades guys, construction workers, paperwork is like the last thing on their mind. Last thing that they've got skills in last thing they ever want to deal with.
00:01:27
Shelby Joines
Something that may take me five minutes takes them five hours. So I'm here just to kind of, you know, connect with the community, get to know you a little bit better, share my little bits and pieces of the stuff and the things that I've seen and all that crazy stuff that happens in this world.
00:01:44
Baker Plbg
Awesome.
00:01:47
Baker Plbg
It is a crazy world. How long you been doing your... what's your
00:01:53
Shelby Joines
So I've been in kind of the construction trade oil and gas world for about 18 years doing administration now kind of working up from executive assistant project coordinator, things like that.
00:02:07
Shelby Joines
And then I've run join us administration since July of 2022. So just celebrated three years going solo in business.
00:02:15
Baker Plbg
Oh.
00:02:17
Shelby Joines
So relatively new to it but like hitting a really nice sweet spot and kind of niche area that i feel like this is my calling
00:02:23
Baker Plbg
Nice. his Is that a...
00:02:29
Baker Plbg
night is this like Is this like a COVID baby? Is that what sort of got this thing going?
00:02:35
Shelby Joines
kind of yeah i never really discuss it like that but it totally is i worked um for quite a few oil and gas companies during COVID. And then of course things shifted, they changed, cut down on their workload and the people that they had. So I ended up working for Alberta health services, doing the really crazy time of COVID.
00:02:59
Shelby Joines
And then once that had all settled down, I was like, you know what?
00:03:00
Baker Plbg
Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:03
Shelby Joines
Yeah, let's, uh, go out on our own.
Why Shelby Chose Entrepreneurship
00:03:06
Shelby Joines
i was kind of dealing with a bunch of corporate trauma and just like the bullshit and bureaucracy and red tape and just being a woman in a very male dominated industry in a very executive role too that comes with its, you know, not so great parts.
00:03:19
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:03:26
Shelby Joines
So I was kind of burnt out from working like that nine to five job where I was salary and really working 24 seven, because a lot of these major projects I was working on at the time were
00:03:35
Baker Plbg
Right.
00:03:38
Shelby Joines
investors from Japan and Mitsubishi and like other companies that were trying to get involved into the Canadian oil and gas fields and stuff like that. So emails and meetings were happening at like 2am Alberta Mountain Standard Time.
00:03:54
Shelby Joines
And so it was just getting to be too much.
00:03:55
Baker Plbg
right
00:03:57
Shelby Joines
And after that, my Health was kind of taking a downturn from just stress and like cortisol spikes and not enough cortisol, too much cortisol.
00:04:09
Shelby Joines
So my kidney started to kind of shut down slightly.
00:04:12
Baker Plbg
Oh no.
00:04:13
Shelby Joines
And this was a time where I was like, yeah, I had to take a minute and be like, hey, what am I doing? Is it I hate the industry I'm working in? Is it I hate the administrative side to it? Like, where are my likes? And it was just the whole thing.
00:04:29
Shelby Joines
answering to somebody else. I was a young mom too at the time. So it was just kind of that decision where it's like, okay, i need that freedom. I need to utilize the skills that I already have that are in demand.
00:04:43
Shelby Joines
I can take this to the next level. So that's little bit of my backstory there.
00:04:50
Baker Plbg
that's That's awesome. So, I mean, obviously being in Alberta tied to the oil field, we don't, me specifically don't work in the oil field, but we certainly are are working around those sort of projects and whatever.
00:05:03
Shelby Joines
yeah
00:05:05
Baker Plbg
And that's sort of the, it's ever since, are you native Alberta? Like, did you, were you born here?
00:05:12
Shelby Joines
Yeah, I'm actually born and raised in Calgary.
00:05:12
Baker Plbg
Are you an import?
00:05:14
Shelby Joines
I'm one of the very, very, very few of
00:05:17
Baker Plbg
i
Opportunities in the Oil Field
00:05:18
Shelby Joines
us there left standing.
00:05:19
Shelby Joines
So...
00:05:19
Baker Plbg
There's not many. like
00:05:22
Shelby Joines
No, that's like you ask people and it's like, are you?
00:05:24
Baker Plbg
That's true.
00:05:26
Shelby Joines
They're like, oh no, well, I was actually born in Regina. And like, I came here when I was five and I'm like, not the same thing.
00:05:29
Baker Plbg
Yeah. Saskatchewan or something.
00:05:33
Shelby Joines
No,
00:05:34
Baker Plbg
No, no, that's awesome. So then like that's where I was going is it's sort of the bust and boom of the oil field. Like lots of people say, if you're not in it, you're crazy. And yet when it goes down, everybody's like, dude, you got to find something else or you're going to starve to death.
00:05:50
Shelby Joines
no and it's so true.
00:05:50
Baker Plbg
And so, I mean, you said you're, it is true. And, you know, certainly federal governments and governments in general, if you've watched any of my stuff, you know, I hate them all, but um they certainly don't, they don't make things any easier for us as business.
00:06:05
Shelby Joines
Don't make it easy.
00:06:07
Baker Plbg
um No.
The Appeal of Working with Trade Workers
00:06:09
Baker Plbg
And so you were saying you're trying to find your, you know, your little niche, your little spot, and whether you hated you know, ah the field that you're in or the people that you're working with.
00:06:20
Baker Plbg
It sounds like you're still in the same field and probably working with lots of the similar people. Is it just the fact that you are now steering the ship or get to do what you want?
00:06:31
Baker Plbg
Is that, is and but my followup to that is, is there really freedom attached to that? Or is it just, you're the, you're now the boss, but it's not anymore free.
00:06:39
Shelby Joines
Is it just unicorn farts?
00:06:41
Baker Plbg
This is the illusion.
00:06:42
Shelby Joines
um
00:06:42
Baker Plbg
ah you them Are you in the matrix?
00:06:45
Shelby Joines
Yeah, right? So yeah, I did like a little bit of time of reflecting and stuff. Like before, i just kind of recently, within the last year and a half, dove back into more the construction trade-based area. When I first started my company, I was like, okay, I'm going to kind of dip my toes in some other industries, some other areas, working directly with like business coaches and physiotherapy clinics and individual massage therapists and stuff like that.
00:07:14
Baker Plbg
Yep.
00:07:16
Shelby Joines
So it was a time of like growth and rediscovery, I guess I took for the first little bit there too. um And then from that, I was like, okay, it was the personalities of the people that I was working with and just the intensely structured corporate bureaucracy of it all just you know being expected as me it's like you're expected to be in heels you know formal fancy business attire dress at all times you'll be customer facing all these things which yeah I know I'm like I'm more casual now I'm like I can wear my toque that says pay me this is my end of the month toque I've got my jeans on it's like
00:07:40
Baker Plbg
yep
00:07:49
Baker Plbg
it I see you're doing that right now, by the way.
00:08:01
Baker Plbg
Just let's be clear. Shelby is not being paid right now. Just so you know, she's here of her own free will and choice.
00:08:04
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:08:06
Baker Plbg
So I don't know what pay me means, but anyway, no, I'm kidding.
00:08:09
Shelby Joines
Oh, it's invoicing time.
00:08:10
Baker Plbg
Sorry.
00:08:13
Shelby Joines
but yeah, so it came down to just the people, the bureaucracy, stuff like that. I always loved the individual trade people that I worked with, not so much the upper management and like the more corporate management. They were the ones that were kind of a little bit hard and bumping heads with, but like The trades guys were always the ones that I enjoyed being around.
00:08:38
Shelby Joines
I could swear as much as I want. I could feel free and open. Like if I said fuck out in the field, nobody bats an eyelash. But if I say that downtown in the bow tower, then, oh my God, all eyes are on me.
00:08:51
Baker Plbg
Yeah, yeah. Right.
00:08:53
Shelby Joines
so and Came down to the fact that, yeah, I just love the people I work with. i didn't like the big corporate size of people that I was working with at the time being in major projects.
00:09:06
Shelby Joines
It was like teams of 500 to 1200 people that were kind of falling to me for administrative needs and stuff like that.
00:09:10
Baker Plbg
right
00:09:14
Shelby Joines
So now being within like the 10 to 15 or 10 and under range is kind of my ideal size of company, including like the actual owner type people, main people and any subcontractors that they may have working underneath them.
Entrepreneurship Realities: Freedom vs. Illusion
00:09:30
Shelby Joines
But for your follow up question, the first couple of years weren't so much freedom and everything, you know, it was long hours and stuff, but having the ability to
00:09:31
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:09:37
Baker Plbg
Okay, good.
00:09:42
Shelby Joines
take an hour and a half and do a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day instead of waiting for those coveted evening or weekend spots. That made life a lot easier. i could take my son to school. I had the ability to block out and do volunteer work with his school and classroom. Like that freedom I didn't realize was what I was looking for. I was looking for more of the financial, but then this kind of was like, this is worth so much more than any dollar value can ever be put on anything. Being able to not have to request time off and have like a pit in my stomach of knowing it's going to be rejected because we're on a timeline or schedule is going completely into left field and we got to pull our pants up and all this.
00:10:29
Shelby Joines
So there's pros and cons to the freedom, I guess. It's an, a total illusion that you're going to have the free time in the world and that you're going to work three hours a day and be making three grand every hour, whatever it may be, you know, like the outrageous stuff that you see all over social media, where it's like quit your nine to five job and be making 10 K in a month.
00:10:45
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:10:51
Shelby Joines
And it's like that at what cost though, I'm sure it's possible, but at what physical, mental, spiritual self cost, are you kind of
00:11:00
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:11:01
Shelby Joines
putting on the line to get
Client Customization and Setting Boundaries
00:11:03
Shelby Joines
to that point. And then in the end, who do you have to spend that money on? Cause everybody's kind of leaving. So
00:11:12
Baker Plbg
You've made enemies of everybody, right? But you got lots of money.
00:11:15
Shelby Joines
always. Yeah.
00:11:16
Baker Plbg
right yeah that yeah ah true well that i mean i think that's the real answer is like you say is it's not just um it's not all fairies and rainbows right like you gotta and and the fact that you're solo a solo practitioner it means it's i mean there's a lot of weight on your shoulders to make all that happen and and find the work and make sure that
00:11:19
Shelby Joines
It's like Scrooge McDuck.
00:11:38
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:11:45
Baker Plbg
your client base is is satisfied with your work and it's repeatable and you don't sort of make you, and but but I mean, here's here's ah the next question, I guess, is how do you make sure, and maybe you don't want to answer that, this is how do you make sure that your work is repeatable and you don't make your system so succinct that they're like, listen, I appreciate that and I don't need you or i don't need you anymore.
00:11:49
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:12:13
Baker Plbg
that Is that is that a concern?
00:12:13
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:12:13
Shelby Joines
So that's a great question. um It's always a concern kind of in my line of work is just the constant who the clients are always wanting more customizable aspects, I guess. Like it's very hard to say, okay, these are the three top things I can help you with.
00:12:33
Shelby Joines
And they'll say, yay, yay But can you tack on x y and Z? And it's like, I could, but you're going to be paying more for the work because this is basically a change order now.
00:12:47
Shelby Joines
um
00:12:47
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:12:49
Shelby Joines
And yeah, you're going to pay for the work. And this is kind of outside of the original scope and what I do. So if you're willing to pay for it, and I'm one of those people that sometimes gives out astronomical, unrealistic numbers for things like that, just for that, like,
00:13:06
Shelby Joines
not rude way of pushing them away to say, i really don't fucking want to do this.
00:13:10
Baker Plbg
We all do it. and
00:13:12
Shelby Joines
Exactly. So it's like one of those things where I'm like, I try to stick to those kind of,
00:13:18
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:13:18
Shelby Joines
three to four main things that I am extremely good at so that it is easily repeatable for every client. You know, every business is different. They're going to have different ways they want things done, how they want it displayed, who they are, what their voice is all those things.
00:13:33
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:13:35
Shelby Joines
So that's where it gets customizable in the sense of my kind of solidified services, but just keeping solid standard operating procedures for myself has been a huge saving grace when it comes to these things. If it is one different tweak that I'm doing with one client versus another, making sure that I'm documenting and tracking that so that if that same situation comes up later on down the line, I'm not going back and trying to struggle through my files to find something going on YouTube to try and find quick tutorials on jogging by memory and stuff like that. so
00:14:14
Baker Plbg
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:14:15
Shelby Joines
But it's always a work in progress. And kind of like I said, it comes down to every business being different. But me having those kind of main service offerings and stuff really helps solidify. And then just having boundaries and actually sticking to those personal business boundaries and not wavering just for the sake of needing another client on the roster right now or filling a gap zone or something like that.
00:14:44
Baker Plbg
Right. And that's fair. um What,
Time Management for Trade Workers
00:14:49
Baker Plbg
what it would be your biggest frustration dealing with us? Us people? Can I say you people?
00:14:53
Shelby Joines
Us people.
00:14:53
Baker Plbg
I have to cant say, can't say you people.
00:14:55
Shelby Joines
i Us people. I love it.
00:14:56
Baker Plbg
Time.
00:14:57
Shelby Joines
Damn. um i guess so time. Like I work like the businesses.
00:15:03
Baker Plbg
time
00:15:04
Shelby Joines
It's just time. They don't have the time to sit down for a quick hour to be like, okay, this is, I need X, Y, and Z from you. And then I can accomplish half the alphabet from that little bit of information. So it's really the pulling them in to be like, okay, let's have a coffee.
00:15:24
Shelby Joines
Let's have ah quick zoom meeting, quick text, voice messages.
00:15:29
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:15:30
Shelby Joines
Like I'm super flexible and the best communication for what suits you guys the best, but yeah, just the time management. And it's like, this is what I am here to help you accomplish is better time management through getting you better structures and systems put in place so that you don't have to be working from your truck or feeling like a chicken with your head cut off because every single subcontractor you work with for every job you've got is calling you at the exact same time asking the same question you've told them six times.
00:16:04
Baker Plbg
Right, right. And so guess you don't do bookkeeping. it's more It's like you're literally doing administration. that Is that picking up there?
00:16:15
Shelby Joines
Yeah, so I do do a bit of bookkeeping as well, like coming in helping. I've got a couple of clients where I do like the quarterly bookkeeping for them for like their GST running or anything like that, or kind of getting all their the receipts.
00:16:27
Baker Plbg
Oh, yeah.
00:16:30
Shelby Joines
Because I have a little nervous twitch there, their shoebox of receipts all put into their QuickBooks or whatever it may be.
00:16:40
Baker Plbg
It's all digital these days, right? that's what we um Everything we do is digital.
00:16:42
Shelby Joines
It is. there's There's a couple um old school guys that I work with that are still not tech savvy enough to understand the concept of how to take a picture of a receipt inside an app that is on their phone.
00:16:48
Baker Plbg
Yeah, yeah.
00:16:56
Baker Plbg
Take a picture with your phone.
00:17:00
Shelby Joines
It's like this huge conundrum, the
00:17:01
Baker Plbg
That's linked to QuickBooks that literally just do it all at once, right?
00:17:04
Shelby Joines
Right? They're like, where do I have to go with the internets for this? And I'm like, oh, there's no S in the internet. There's no S.
00:17:13
Baker Plbg
You know you're in for a long meeting when they say internets. My internets aren't working.
00:17:16
Shelby Joines
It is.
00:17:17
Baker Plbg
Can you help me with that?
00:17:18
Shelby Joines
I'm like, give me a second. I got to block out my calendar now.
00:17:26
Baker Plbg
That's awesome. um Okay, so like I say, what what do you think we need or what do you think we could do as a... as a ah a trade, I guess, blue collar people to sort of connect with people like you more.
00:17:47
Baker Plbg
And, you know, most of my stuff is in house, all my stuff's in house, like we've sort of, because we've been doing it for whatever it is now, 30 years. um
00:17:57
Shelby Joines
For sure.
00:17:58
Baker Plbg
but But if you're a new guy, and that's the biggest failure that I see is you get, you know, new guys, like I'm gonna run my own business, I'm ready to go. going to take off and and they start pounding out the work and then like you said at the beginning there's a whole different skill set of administration and so how would you connect or what would be your conversation with somebody that's like okay i'm three months into my running my own business and i've done fifty thousand dollars worth of work i'm getting more clients what's the conversation that you bring to it to say how do i help you
00:18:16
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:18:33
Baker Plbg
Or what do you, I'm the new guy.
00:18:34
Shelby Joines
Oh, and
00:18:35
Baker Plbg
How how are you going help me, Shelby?
The Cost Benefits of Remote Administration
00:18:38
Shelby Joines
I love this question.
00:18:38
Baker Plbg
And how much is it going to cost me?
00:18:40
Shelby Joines
Right? I was going to say it's all going to come down to the cost because that's always the biggest question.
00:18:44
Baker Plbg
Right?
00:18:45
Shelby Joines
So ah the best thing about like the remote administration is not to bash your in house or anything, but we do end up being a hell of a lot cheaper.
00:18:54
Baker Plbg
No.
00:18:57
Shelby Joines
on like the quote unquote payroll side than if you were to hire in house now yours may be set up completely different, but some of those extra costs that when you do hire in house or things such as like your health benefits, any type of additional insurance, if you've got an actual physical office space or like a storefront type thing, any
00:19:11
Baker Plbg
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:20
Shelby Joines
extra rent that you have to consider for maybe bumping out a wall, and making a new office, the technology such as like a laptop, a desktop computer, work phone, work truck, even if it gets to be that far, depending, you know, that's just...
00:19:35
Baker Plbg
yeah yeah yeah
00:19:35
Shelby Joines
wild and crazy. I don't know any admin that has ever gotten a work truck except myself because I pay for it now. But so the cost effectiveness of everything just ends up being a lot cheaper, plus the flexibility that comes with remote work too.
00:19:52
Shelby Joines
Maybe one month you only need 10 hours, but then you start getting extra busy and you want to tack on and make it 35 hours. So you've got a little bit more mobility rather than doing a straight 40 hour work week on somebody when maybe that week is only 10 hours worth of work, but you're still paying them for the full 40.
00:20:10
Baker Plbg
right
00:20:12
Shelby Joines
So things like that start adding up into the tens of thousands of dollars annually if you want to go salary wise. But usually, you know, rates for virtual administration depending on the projects or work that needs to be done can vary from like $399 to $25, $3,000.
00:20:31
Shelby Joines
If you're looking to get somebody that's like more specialized and zoned into like a really niche topic area, such as like setting up SOPs and standard operating procedures or building a complete CRM from scratch and doing all of the backend stuff to get the workflows and funnels and all that fun stuff set up.
00:20:44
Baker Plbg
Right.
00:20:53
Shelby Joines
So, Being new and like your example, about three months in, you're starting to feel the squeeze of like, okay, I've got more jobs than me as a single person can handle.
00:21:05
Shelby Joines
That's a little bit of the time to be like, where can i budget friendly for the time being? Because nobody is making copious amounts of money to be able to hire a team of like 10 right out the gate at that point.
00:21:18
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:21:19
Shelby Joines
And if you are, then there was some extra funding that's coming in from the back door from maybe the
00:21:24
Baker Plbg
You got some venture capitalists that looking or maybe bank of mom and dad.
00:21:25
Shelby Joines
The bank of mom and dad.
00:21:29
Baker Plbg
Yeah, that's true.
00:21:30
Shelby Joines
Yeah. So having this flexibility with getting like subcontractor admins are out there. It's no different than you're working as a project manager and you've got to get subcontractor, the framers, the concrete, the electricians, plumbers, HVAC, you name it.
00:21:48
Shelby Joines
It's such a unique concept and it's not very well known about. So connecting with people like virtual assistants, a lot of the time people will go to things like, oh, what is it? Fiverr.
00:22:02
Shelby Joines
um There's another one out there that starts with the W and I can't think of the name right now, but, you know, international virtual assistants to put it nicely because there's, you know, a cost difference where,
00:22:04
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:22:17
Shelby Joines
you're paying maybe a little bit lower for them than you would be for somebody that's local working within Canada and just wanting to make, you know, living wage. But again, with that comes, how well do you want your spelling and grammar to be in some cases, if you're doing like typing document formatting or how well do you want the communication to be when, if they're going to be somebody who's going to be client facing in the sense of making phone calls or doing lead generation for you.
00:22:46
Shelby Joines
things like that.
00:22:46
Baker Plbg
Right. No.
00:22:47
Shelby Joines
So there's pros and cons to both, but honestly, getting that remote support to just like set you up in those areas where trade workers aren't that expertised in.
00:22:58
Shelby Joines
I'm sure you weren't that well-versed in customer relation management programs when you first started or having anything to do with tracking outside of like maybe an Excel spreadsheet or notebook or a pad of paper that you keep in your truck.
00:23:03
Baker Plbg
now
00:23:11
Baker Plbg
no
00:23:14
Shelby Joines
So
00:23:16
Baker Plbg
It is true. There's a massive learning curve. And for me, in my own, it was probably a decade or more of you know, frankly, ran in my head against the wall and saying, oh, that didn't work.
00:23:22
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:23:26
Baker Plbg
Oh, that's stupid or whatever. Until finally you hire ah professional. And we did it. I mean, that was back in whatever, early 2000s. So you you hire you hire in-house staff to do that.
00:23:39
Baker Plbg
And like, to your point, like you're going to spend, I mean, back then it was you're spending between $30,000 and $50,000 a year to bring somebody in full time to do that in today's day and age, it's 60 to $80,000 to have somebody do that same work.
00:23:53
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:23:56
Baker Plbg
And, and, and like you say that I do think there's lots of value in sort of that subcontractor
00:24:05
Baker Plbg
ecosystem, whatever you want to call it.
00:24:05
Shelby Joines
Modality almost. Yeah.
00:24:07
Baker Plbg
Yeah, where you're like, okay, I don't need you full time, but I need you when I need you, which is kind of my whole model in in our plumbing businesses. We don't have contracts with people, with any of our big clientele.
00:24:19
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:24:21
Baker Plbg
It's like, if you need me, you need me. and If you don't want me anymore, then i'm not it's not going to be some legal you know jargon to get me out of this contract either.
00:24:27
Shelby Joines
Yeah, I'm not gonna bill you every single month if you're not using my services type thing.
00:24:32
Baker Plbg
Yeah, exactly right. So I think that's got some value to it. um And so just to give somebody and an idea of sort of your, maybe your competition or your own, like what ah if I'm going to run, you said your first number was like $3.99. What $3.99 me?
00:24:51
Baker Plbg
but does three ninety nine get me
00:24:54
Shelby Joines
Oh, so those ones I was kind of just throwing out there for the sake of like number instances. There are people out there that do charge that.
00:25:01
Baker Plbg
you can't You can't do that here, Shelby. Sure.
00:25:03
Shelby Joines
I know. i didn't even think about that. This is me being blonde and being like, oh, I got to think I got to do math, which isn't my like specialty. Thank God for calculators.
00:25:14
Shelby Joines
Um, But so with my one of my low ticket offerings, I guess, as we call it nowadays is $6.99.
00:25:22
Baker Plbg
sure yeah
00:25:23
Shelby Joines
And that's a power project day where I come in for a full 24 to 48 hours to work on two to three of your most pressing to-do list tasks that you've got.
00:25:35
Shelby Joines
So whether that's updating your CRM with a list of new contacts, that's, you know, responding to your emails for inquiries that have come in that you just haven't had a chance to get to in a while.
00:25:48
Shelby Joines
If that's kind re templating and designing your documents and templates and stuff like that, cause you just got a new rebrand done.
00:25:57
Baker Plbg
OK.
00:25:58
Shelby Joines
So things like that, that can have like that quicker turnaround. And then the clients see more of like that instant relief aspect. And that's kind of like my lead into my,
00:26:10
Shelby Joines
monthly remote assistance package. And then my online business management package, which are about 40 hours a month, they can kind of vary, but yeah, my VA at work is about 1200 a month.
00:26:19
Baker Plbg
OK.
00:26:25
Shelby Joines
And then for online business management, that's 2500 a month. So got my little staircase of little services.
00:26:31
Baker Plbg
Now I'm going to make a comment.
00:26:35
Baker Plbg
I'm going to make a comment on your nails. How many words a minute can you type?
00:26:41
Shelby Joines
I can type 56 words a minute with ease.
00:26:46
Shelby Joines
I've gotten really good at like really bending that first pad where it's like, di to do, do,
00:26:47
Baker Plbg
Okay, that's good. Listen, I have no idea how you ladies do that. That is a whole different skill set, how you can and make it.
00:26:55
Shelby Joines
It, it really is. I've got like carpal tunnel and stuff from like the extra stretching that I've had to do for typing all these years.
00:26:57
Baker Plbg
It is.
00:27:04
Baker Plbg
Is it worth it?
00:27:04
Shelby Joines
So workplace injuries. Well, you know, yeah, it's covered by Alberta health. So
00:27:11
Baker Plbg
there
00:27:11
Shelby Joines
hell, I'm taking it. Thanks for paying for my surgery there, Bob.
00:27:14
Baker Plbg
Take it.
00:27:15
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:27:16
Baker Plbg
Yeah, you're welcome. Fuck. Anyway, uh, that's so lots of your stuff. Um, And you can think about this question for a minute. Like voucher your stuff is, like you say, i don't know the word is, maybe rudimentary tasks that I don't have time for that I think is...
AI in Business: Balancing Tech with Human Touch
00:27:36
Baker Plbg
is uh mundane or or whatever the case may be what is your what is your take or or your perspective of ai i mean i get an email every day telling me that ai is going to take over the world and i need to i need to hire 80 month it'll
00:27:48
Shelby Joines
Oh, I love this.
00:27:55
Baker Plbg
you ai robot and it'll revolutionized my life. Now, I don't believe that for one second. And I know they're lying to me, but you must come up against that as a real person when somebody, if you come to me that, and you're selling me your stuff, I'm going to be like, okay, well, why don't I just for 200 bucks a month, I get AI to do it, respond to my emails, rebrand my shit, do an Excel spreadsheet.
00:28:02
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:28:13
Shelby Joines
Get AI to do it.
00:28:17
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:28:23
Baker Plbg
What's your, what's your pitch?
00:28:26
Shelby Joines
So just, it is it is scary to see how much AI has kind of advanced in like the last three to five, even last year. um i personally am not worried about it.
00:28:37
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:28:40
Shelby Joines
Just like trades workers aren't worried about AI coming in to take your jobs. It's just not going to happen because there will always need to be human intervention, no matter how far they think they can stretch this AI, there will always need to be human intervention. And like, for example, chat GPT can, has been updated like 30,000 times in the last six months and whatever it's on right now, system wise can do basically anything that you need done in your business. However,
00:29:15
Shelby Joines
It still needs that human intervention to give it the brand voice, to give it the ideal client. It can't just whip stuff up and have somebody play off of what a computer has done.
00:29:23
Baker Plbg
Yep.
00:29:27
Shelby Joines
You have to have that emotional connection to what you're talking about, to what you're educating people on, what your values are. And will never get to be that far, even if they're doing like a,
00:29:44
Shelby Joines
brain transplant type crazy sci-fi things in the future on like, oh, we're going take Einstein's brain out of hiding and we're going to put it on a robot and we're just going to give her.
00:29:57
Shelby Joines
Like it's it's not going to happen. And yes, AI can do probably 90% of what I do on a regular basis, but it still requires the time and the effort of a human to input the direction have it pump it out and then continue tweaking what's been popped out.
00:30:19
Shelby Joines
That never is like a one kickback and oh my God, this is perfect. It's a, can you do this?
00:30:25
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:30:25
Shelby Joines
Can you rewrite it to be more like this? Blah, blah, blah. So whereas working with a human, you get that once brain dump thing out and it's like, okay, I can take that and I can run with it. And you don't need to be intervening for the next 15, 20 minutes every 30 seconds. So.
00:30:45
Baker Plbg
No, I agree with that 100%. response has been the people the reason that people... hire me and use me and the reason that where I am successful is because of the relationships that I have with people.
00:30:57
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:30:57
Baker Plbg
And, and my responses to that, and that is not, you're not able to simulate that on a meaningful level with anybody. Like the people phone me about their toilet and then I'll talk to them about their kids or, you know, their, you know what i mean?
00:31:13
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:31:15
Baker Plbg
That's the type of relationships that we have or about their, but you know, case in point, you know, their wife, they just got, found out they had cancer. Hey, how's the things going? let's you know let's put the project aside for half a second and talk about real life.
00:31:26
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:31:30
Baker Plbg
And there's no way that AI will ever repeat that. And i but I think that it's going to get to the point where people are like, listen, I don't want to i don't want to talk to a robot anymore. I want to talk to a real person and have those that type of connection.
00:31:41
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:31:46
Baker Plbg
I think if we've learned anything from social media that the more connections doesn't necessarily mean a bigger impact.
00:31:46
Shelby Joines
the
00:31:55
Baker Plbg
right You still want to you know go out for dinner or you know go to a ah conference or whatever the case may be to actually look somebody in the eyeballs.
00:31:55
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:32:04
Shelby Joines
The social aspect, the physical social aspect of it is what's
00:32:07
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:32:10
Shelby Joines
like the most important part to it.
00:32:13
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:32:14
Shelby Joines
And AI will never be able to replace that.
00:32:15
Baker Plbg
And you won't replace that with some crazy,
00:32:18
Shelby Joines
No.
00:32:18
Baker Plbg
no No, I i agree 100%. And so, you're I mean, I don't have any fear of that. I don't think my boys have any fear of that. um And if you're able to provide those sort of innate and personal solutions that you're talking about, then I don't think you have anything really to worry about either as far as the AI monster that...
00:32:29
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:32:39
Shelby Joines
Exactly. Like, don't get me wrong. it Like it's a great tool and that's what it should always be and always stay as, as a tool.
00:32:51
Shelby Joines
It can't be something that we continuously use as a crutch and our schooling, in our business, in just general life.
00:32:51
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:33:00
Shelby Joines
Like I know people that respond to their personal emails through just like copy and pasting into chat GPT and just copying, pasting and hit and send. And like, it's so obvious when AI becomes used, you can see it.
00:33:11
Baker Plbg
I know you can see it, right?
00:33:14
Shelby Joines
Like when I was having my Instagram problems with you and my AI just kept sending you automatic messages and I was just like, no, this is not the person.
00:33:19
Baker Plbg
I know that that it did...
00:33:23
Shelby Joines
This is not the person. Cause I knew you'd comment on that.
00:33:26
Baker Plbg
I know we had like three or four.
00:33:28
Shelby Joines
And I'm like, this is gonna blow my shot.
00:33:29
Baker Plbg
and
00:33:33
Baker Plbg
We had two or three like back and forth. And then the, then the, you know, encapsulized message came. I'm like, Oh shit. that's This is a robot.
00:33:43
Shelby Joines
It was horrible.
00:33:43
Baker Plbg
Damn it. Yeah.
00:33:46
Shelby Joines
It was horrible. And I can't delete them fast enough. And I think I'm deleting it on both sides and I'm not.
00:33:49
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:33:53
Shelby Joines
And, it was just absolutely insanity.
00:33:55
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:33:57
Shelby Joines
That took like three hours to find that setting. Like Meta's got that in there deep.
00:34:02
Baker Plbg
yeah it's baked in right don't worry we'll handle it all for you i'm like no no i i'm a fully capable and grown-ass adult yeah
00:34:05
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:34:09
Shelby Joines
It's like, please don't. This is why i don't like AI. It just, ah it assumes, it assumes way too much. And you know what they say about assumptions. It makes an ass out of you and me.
00:34:20
Baker Plbg
yep yeah yeah no it was a very quick recovery that was a nice job but
00:34:21
Shelby Joines
So, which it did. was obvious.
00:34:31
Baker Plbg
Cause I was like, oh man, I got suckered in the first two were good.
00:34:31
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:34:34
Baker Plbg
And then whatever, i don't even know remember what it said, but I was like, oh shit.
00:34:36
Shelby Joines
then it was obvious yeah I don't either. I deleted it and I wish I took a screenshot of it.
00:34:41
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:34:42
Shelby Joines
So I'm
Challenges as a Woman in Trade Industries
00:34:43
Shelby Joines
like, what the hell? oh
00:34:47
Baker Plbg
All right. So what, uh, what advice do you have for, for, uh,
00:34:54
Baker Plbg
someone that's starting out or someone that's been in for 10 years um from, and you have a unique perspective that I think we should tap into a little bit as you aren't blue collar.
00:35:07
Baker Plbg
ah You are certainly tangential to that, but you are, um I'm assuming, I'll make a couple of assumptions after what you just said. I'm assuming you're college or university chained and you're a woman.
00:35:15
Shelby Joines
Go ahead.
00:35:19
Baker Plbg
And, you know, both of those things are,
00:35:19
Shelby Joines
Oh,
00:35:23
Baker Plbg
yeah know if we're being honest, are are looked at differently. and don't want to say look down on or whatever, but there's certainly different perception when a woman shows up and maybe a woman that's not particularly in the trade. So what are some of the challenges that you've seen? Has it gotten better? Is it worse?
00:35:43
Baker Plbg
but I won't ask you like six questions in a row.
00:35:44
Shelby Joines
um
00:35:45
Baker Plbg
So maybe what's what are some of the challenges
00:35:46
Shelby Joines
No, that's all good. Ask away. We'll write them down and we'll go in order.
00:35:49
Baker Plbg
but
00:35:51
Shelby Joines
um Yeah, it is challenging, you know, kind of from going from that corporate part to now being able to steer my own ship and kind of take things in my own hands a bit more.
00:36:04
Shelby Joines
It was... a big shift. It's gotten a lot better now. But like, from my personal experience, being in that corporate world, it was that, like I'd mentioned before, very sexist in a way, if I want to go that far, very nineteen fifty s vibes, you know, like, I'm an admin.
00:36:19
Baker Plbg
Yeah, know. It's your, I mean, it's your vision of how you felt about it.
00:36:24
Shelby Joines
Yeah, like, I'm an admin.
00:36:24
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:36:26
Shelby Joines
It's like that madman kind of sitting at the desk in a tight polka dress and you know i'm sitting there filing my nails all day with a headset on waiting for the boss to come in so i can grab him his cappuccino and ask if he needs his porsche washed and all this fun stuff So, and I just put on my blinders to it for such a long time and just went with it. because I'm like, this is just what you expect.
00:36:54
Shelby Joines
Like, this is what I expected the workforce to be coming in and an administrative role, being a woman, being blonde, that had a big thing.
00:37:04
Shelby Joines
And then again, working in oil and gas and multimillion dollar buildings downtown and kind of
00:37:12
Baker Plbg
Yeah, ye
00:37:13
Shelby Joines
being in that atmosphere in that environment for so long that just you absorb the personality of who you're expected to be. Whereas now I've got that freedom and ability to set those boundaries where if I feel like who I thought would have been a potential client ends up getting a bit too not business related with conversations and things like that, we'll put it that way, because that does still happen quite
00:37:39
Baker Plbg
yeah yeah
00:37:41
Shelby Joines
Frequently my line of work is trying to show authority and not the sex sells type.
00:37:42
Baker Plbg
Yep.
00:37:47
Shelby Joines
I'm in a role that, you know, is looked at in a different way sometimes.
00:37:48
Baker Plbg
yep
00:37:51
Shelby Joines
So respecting those boundaries with myself now and having that freedom to say, you know what? No, if you're not going to be respectful of this business working relationship, then i am more than happy to watch your money go back out the door that you tried to come in. So.
00:38:11
Baker Plbg
Nice. And as have you think you've, have you lost anything or has that been, has that been an advantage or disip disadvantage in the last couple of years, maybe?
00:38:21
Shelby Joines
Uh, you know, I've lost a couple of big deals, but you know, just from like self-reflecting post-corporate and kind of getting to where I am now, lots of therapy, lots of therapy.
00:38:33
Shelby Joines
Um, I've been able to realize that, you know what, the, the money part of it, isn't why I'm here. kind of like I mentioned before, it's about the connections that I'm making with my clients, where it almost feels like we're more family than a business relationship.
00:38:49
Shelby Joines
where I can have those like business conversations, but then be able to flip it to, like you said, be more personal and checking in.
00:38:49
Baker Plbg
Yep. Yep.
00:38:57
Shelby Joines
How's the family? How is your like other side thing going? How's your garden? When was the last time you baked a pie type thing?
00:39:02
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:39:04
Shelby Joines
So it's been a lot of, yeah, self-reflecting self work, you know, to get to the point where I can comfortably let those moments go without feeling that dread a week later being like, okay, that would have been really nice to have right about now if, you know, things end up going sideways or a project falls through and things like that. So.
00:39:31
Baker Plbg
Yeah. Okay. Well, and like you say, those are, I mean, that's a real reaction. What else can you, what else can you say if, if you've got to, I mean, that's the the joy of steering your own ship, right?
00:39:43
Baker Plbg
Is, is either you run it into the rocks or you avoid them, whatever.
00:39:45
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
00:39:49
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:39:49
Shelby Joines
Yeah. And like, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't done both so far in my business. You know, there's all these constant lessons learned that you're going through. And I'm sure everybody who listens, you yourself included, have had moments where you're just like, so headstrong on doing it this way.
00:40:08
Shelby Joines
and you do it that way. And it completely goes sideways. And you just like beat yourself up for a while.
00:40:13
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:40:15
Shelby Joines
And why was I so stupid to go that way? But then you're like, Well, I'm obviously not doing that again, so.
00:40:23
Baker Plbg
There's a lot there's a lot of that. i will absolutely em admit there's a lot of, ah maybe not daily anymore, but there was a time where I'm like, well, that's not happening again. right just
00:40:33
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:40:33
Baker Plbg
The lessons that you learn, hoping for the best, Um, yeah, expecting the worst.
00:40:39
Shelby Joines
Expecting the worst.
00:40:42
Baker Plbg
That's what you, that's what business is hoping for the best and expecting the worst. Um, so where do you, like, what's your goal?
00:40:46
Shelby Joines
It is.
00:40:51
Baker Plbg
Where do you want to take this thing? Like what, if you, if you were queen of the world for a day or a a year, where would you be? What would, what
Future Business Goals and Networking
00:41:01
Baker Plbg
would, uh, am I saying this right?
00:41:01
Shelby Joines
A year.
00:41:03
Baker Plbg
Join us.
00:41:05
Shelby Joines
Yes. I love it.
00:41:06
Baker Plbg
Your last name, join us.
00:41:07
Shelby Joines
Very rarely people go Jones and things like that.
00:41:07
Baker Plbg
There
00:41:10
Shelby Joines
So proud of you for that one.
00:41:12
Baker Plbg
now we go. Where Jonas administration going to be in five years from now if you could have whatever you wanted?
00:41:22
Shelby Joines
Oh man. These are such good questions you're throwing at me. I'm really hoping that by that time I've expanded to have like subcontractors of my own and be more of like the forward facing part of join us administration, where I'm like going out to those networking events. I'm going on doing interviews. I'm actually being the person that's kind of pitching the company as a whole.
00:41:51
Shelby Joines
And then I've got like a little team working behind me kind of remotely as well that does all the labor intensive stuff.
00:41:51
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:41:58
Shelby Joines
And I'm more of like the check How's it going? Keeping that personal connection and nurturing those relationships kind of throughout their journey with us. So that's That's my big goal. And I've got my big planning session coming up that I take a couple of days off work and just like hunker down in my office.
00:42:17
Shelby Joines
And I'm like, okay, what are my goals for the next three, six, nine, 12 months down the road? And then my three to five year plan and just get it all done and start putting sticky notes and like all of the reminders all over my office to keep me up to date and
00:42:35
Baker Plbg
That's such a girl thing to do, isn't it?
00:42:37
Baker Plbg
It's the sticky note.
00:42:37
Shelby Joines
It is.
00:42:37
Shelby Joines
i know I've got my glitter pens and my gel pens. I go to Michael's twice a week. That's where my expenses go.
00:42:47
Baker Plbg
Listen, e he listen I'm just kidding.
00:42:47
Shelby Joines
Like my overhead is very low.
00:42:49
Baker Plbg
I'm going to tell you.
00:42:49
Shelby Joines
You're right.
00:42:50
Baker Plbg
if you want to If you want to make more money, quit going to Michael's twice a week and tie it down to one and you'll be...
00:42:55
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:43:00
Shelby Joines
la
00:43:00
Baker Plbg
I'll change your life for the better, I promise.
00:43:04
Shelby Joines
100%. I'm going take that advice. I'm sure my husband would appreciate that advice coming from you as well.
00:43:06
Baker Plbg
ah
00:43:10
Baker Plbg
uh yeah no i there's there's there's a few women in my life that i'm like listen you got to calm down there lady like it's out of control like slow it down
00:43:20
Shelby Joines
The seasonal stuff, yeah. It's like, oh, we need seasonal decor. I need new throw pillows.
00:43:24
Baker Plbg
little season listen that that the the corporate machine is in full effect the when you know every whatever it is now two months there's a new so i thought there was only four seasons but apparently there's like eight at least where the whole house everything has to change yeah and so somebody's doing a doing their corporate trauma what's that
00:43:38
Shelby Joines
There's a hundred percent. There's so many. Yeah. Corporate trauma, man.
00:43:51
Baker Plbg
i won't recall me that That's fair.
00:43:55
Shelby Joines
corporate trauma.
00:43:58
Baker Plbg
Okay, so that's your, I mean, you're you're you're the you're the captain of industry. You're running your show five years from now. everything Everything is, ah you got your little minions doing your labor intensive stuff.
00:44:12
Baker Plbg
what's What do you think your biggest obstacle of of that happening is?
00:44:19
Shelby Joines
Oh, that is a good question. I say that for every question you've asked, but it really is.
00:44:26
Baker Plbg
I'm really good at what I do.
00:44:28
Shelby Joines
i know you really are. And I'm so glad I get to be a part of this goodness that's going on. because this is great.
00:44:36
Baker Plbg
ah yeah
00:44:37
Shelby Joines
Oh, but my biggest obstacle, i think it would be kind of with everybody. It's like keeping the turnaround since I've been such a solopreneur for so long. It's,
00:44:48
Shelby Joines
ironically getting myself to pass off work, which is what I get my clients to do to me. They pass their work off to me. So it's that self delegating where it's like, I can rock stuff for other people and like do all the things for them.
00:44:56
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:45:04
Shelby Joines
But when it comes to doing that in my own business, like I suffer with that too, just like everybody else does.
00:45:12
Baker Plbg
Can you practice what you preach, right?
00:45:15
Shelby Joines
Yeah. And that's like, the biggest balancing act to try and level out for me is like, I can do these things, but being able to take the time to actually look in and focus on my business without the thought of, but I've got client work that needs to get done. The client work is what pays the bills and that's what keeps the machine oiled and running and going.
00:45:42
Baker Plbg
rolling. Yeah.
00:45:43
Shelby Joines
So it's like, can I justify losing X amount of dollars for so many hours to do stuff for my business, which then in the long run will really benefit me.
00:45:55
Shelby Joines
But it's the seeing past that right now conundrum of being stuck in the void of, do I take the red pill or do I take the blue pill?
00:46:08
Baker Plbg
It's always the blue pill. Always.
00:46:11
Shelby Joines
Always the blue pill.
00:46:11
Baker Plbg
Isn't it? Is it the blue pill?
00:46:13
Shelby Joines
I think now I'm second guessing myself about what pill I'll just take both and make a purple.
00:46:14
Baker Plbg
I will fully, think, I'm second guessing myself. No, I think it's the blue. That has been my biggest challenge, to be perfectly honest, and probably why the biggest factor of me going from, you know, having basically 20 guys down to just myself was i was It was really difficult for me to delegate those tasks.
00:46:37
Baker Plbg
And, ah you know full disclosure, i probably wasn't super good at outlining what I wanted to be done. I was super good at being mad about what didn't happen. I'm not sure i was super good at being, you know, here's the step by step by step by step.
00:46:48
Shelby Joines
Yeah. Oh, wow.
00:46:55
Baker Plbg
of what I expect, i if things went sideways and I was you know more than vocal about why it went sideways and you know how you need to do better. And it it's only really been since I've had the boys and like i Isaiah's into year eight and Pete's into year six of boys.
00:47:15
Shelby Joines
oh wow
00:47:16
Baker Plbg
doing this stuff and it's finally, I'm at the point where they run it, mostly. i say, this is what I want done, you know what my expectations are and off they go.
00:47:25
Shelby Joines
Go do it.
00:47:26
Baker Plbg
And usually if something goes, yeah, if usually goes something goes sideways, they know it before I do and say, listen, you're gonna get a phone call because we did this, this or this.
00:47:27
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:47:35
Baker Plbg
And so I don't, I mean, it's not a super good business model to to create your own employees and and do the 30 year plan and
00:47:36
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:47:46
Baker Plbg
to get there, but it's been awesome.
00:47:46
Shelby Joines
It happens though. That's like the beauty part about being your own business owner. You just roll with the punches is literally what you do every single day because you may know so much, like especially in trades.
00:47:52
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:48:01
Shelby Joines
So my husband, he's a journeyman electrician and we have this conversation all the time.
00:48:06
Baker Plbg
We hate the sparkles, just so you know.
00:48:07
Shelby Joines
And I know you've talked about it. I know everybody hates the sparkles and I'm kind of hating it too
00:48:11
Baker Plbg
The sparkles, fricking sparkles, man. Anyway.
00:48:15
Shelby Joines
but he can hook up like new office lights and do stuff like that. So I'm like, all right, you've got like a little bit, cause I don't touch electricity.
00:48:21
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:48:24
Shelby Joines
That's like the one thing that I don't fuck with, but we have this conversation all the time about, um, and you've talked about it a couple of times, like the education versus real life experience and stuff like that.
00:48:28
Baker Plbg
yeah that was
00:48:39
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:48:40
Shelby Joines
And a lot of the times when people are going into business, they know, the very bare minimum of what needs to get done, how to do it. I can Google it, YouTube it or whatever. I've got to go to the registry and I've got to get my insurance and my registration, all that technical business stuff.
00:48:59
Shelby Joines
And I need to do some type of tracking of my invoices and money coming in and money going out. not saying it needs to be a massive year end report style sheet, but the basic stuff and coming into it, people just don't realize how much extra stuff is it entwined and how far out the web of business actually will take you.
00:49:12
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:49:24
Shelby Joines
Like, and you're talking about managing like a big team and now you're back down to a really small one that's more family based and stuff that When I was in corporate, I was helping to manage teams of 500 people I'd talk to throughout the course of like two or three days and tell them this is what's expected of you here at this site. This is what we're doing here. I need your safety reports. Get them here.
00:49:47
Shelby Joines
And feel like I can manage a team and whatnot. Like I've got it in me. And then you get into your own realm of doing your own business. And it's like, oh, fuck.
00:49:55
Baker Plbg
yep Yeah, you're the pastor and the pulpit, right?
00:49:56
Shelby Joines
I don't have h r to fall back on. i don't have upper management to ask for support questions. I don't have a supervisor or somebody parallel in a different department even.
00:50:10
Shelby Joines
So it just can spiral so easy. Yeah, a hundred percent.
00:50:15
Baker Plbg
where and
00:50:15
Shelby Joines
You're all the things.
00:50:16
Baker Plbg
ah ah The whole thing. Not pulpit, parishioner.
00:50:19
Shelby Joines
You're the whole day church.
00:50:20
Baker Plbg
you're like You're the one that you're running the show and listening and cleaning the whatever needs to be done. and
00:50:26
Shelby Joines
Yeah. And it's a lot.
00:50:27
Baker Plbg
It's a lot on your plate.
00:50:27
Shelby Joines
So kind of like you were mentioning when you're about that, that three month mark or even earlier if possible is the ideal time to really just work on the systems of your business, like solidify a CRM program and actually get into the habit of inputting your new clients and your contacts and making stuff get smooth because you almost get so far down the rabbit hole of being in business.
00:50:56
Shelby Joines
that you're so far gone that you need a month of your own time to really hash out what you could have done at the beginning and not have to worry about it now. So like that, putting it off until it's so big that it's like, Kate, this is now Everest when it was a tiny little ant hill three months ago.
00:51:09
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:51:16
Baker Plbg
That was the biggest lesson is, and continues to be, is lots of my administrative stuff is, ah was like trauma-based, right? Like the government's calling you, where's your, you haven't filed your GST or your taxi or your taxes is or, you
00:51:29
Shelby Joines
your GST or your taxes or where's your updated address and where's your license?
Importance of Early Administrative Systems
00:51:35
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:51:35
Shelby Joines
And yeah.
00:51:36
Baker Plbg
Your ah corporate returns and all that stuff. I'm like, what is that? And you're like, ah dude, like get there they're about to make your life hell.
00:51:41
Shelby Joines
Yeah. It's like, oh fuck.
00:51:44
Baker Plbg
You better figure that the F out before, you know, the barbarians are at the door.
00:51:45
Shelby Joines
Yeah. Yeah. Cause when they want your money, they want it right now.
00:51:51
Baker Plbg
Yeah. There's no, there's no no negotiat negotiating with those guys. Right. Like it's, they want it and they want it now.
00:51:56
Shelby Joines
no
00:51:59
Baker Plbg
And, you know, uh, Being nice or cordial doesn't really get you much and in that in that space.
00:52:06
Shelby Joines
No.
00:52:08
Shelby Joines
Cause you're talking to a robot.
00:52:08
Baker Plbg
So I do think...
00:52:10
Shelby Joines
It's AI now.
00:52:11
Baker Plbg
You are talking. Yes. Well, they certainly... so I mean, they certainly... punch them out of the factory like that. There's no doubt about that.
00:52:20
Shelby Joines
Oh, do they ever.
00:52:21
Baker Plbg
Right.
00:52:24
Baker Plbg
Do you do much with, with CRA or any of those guys? Like, are you, are are is that part of your service package or yes, no, maybe so.
00:52:34
Shelby Joines
So I don't directly, but I do work with like a small group of accountants that I've kind of do a referral business between back and forth.
00:52:42
Baker Plbg
Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:43
Shelby Joines
And it's, I'll do the bookkeeping, like I'll enter the invoices, I'll make sure that the ARAP is all in line, but that's about as far as I take it.
00:52:54
Shelby Joines
And then I say, these are my guys, if you want to give them a call and chat with them, I'd be more than happy to connect to you and Like I pay somebody who has gone to education and stuff like that to deal with the government and numbers and so stuff like that's money, money well spent.
00:53:10
Baker Plbg
as as you As you should.
00:53:14
Shelby Joines
Cause that's not my specialty specialty. and you know, i'd be saying I made way more than I did. And then I'd get mad because my taxes are so high, you know, the vicious cycle of the government.
00:53:25
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
00:53:27
Baker Plbg
it is It is a vicious cycle. So you, I mean, you, I guess that's part of it. Well, you bring the ah the, your own network with you when you're, when somebody hires Shelby, it's the whole, I've got my contacts.
00:53:38
Shelby Joines
Yeah. So when I mentioned before that I've, yeah, I've got those kind of three, four main areas of my expertise and stuff that I deal with. And, you know, if stuff kind of ends up overflowing or looking like it's going to overflow, I've got my black book of contacts that I can call up and say, Hey, I'm not willing to do this, but it's so-and-so I'm happy to make your acquaintance and you're a fit, go for it or feel free to look for somebody else and I'll continue doing what I do.
00:54:03
Baker Plbg
Yeah, and off we go.
00:54:10
Baker Plbg
Now, does does your husband hire you?
00:54:13
Shelby Joines
He does actually, but is it like hiring or is it just me being in charge of the home finances?
00:54:15
Baker Plbg
Does he? and don't know.
00:54:22
Baker Plbg
yeah i don't know
00:54:25
Shelby Joines
But he does. Yeah. We've, we've got some fun finance games that we play to mess around a bit with our numbers and whatnot to make it good.
00:54:33
Baker Plbg
And he is he is he self employed? Is he running his own show?
00:54:37
Shelby Joines
So he's not self-employed right now He was self-employed up until about three years ago, had kind of the same as you, 50, 30 people, and it would kind of fluctuate up and down.
00:54:49
Baker Plbg
ah
00:54:52
Shelby Joines
Then it got down to him and two guys. Um, Then he got offered a job with a company that he was like, well, I can't say no to this.
00:55:02
Shelby Joines
And so he does salary stuff, but I do his time sheets so that he says he does his time sheets for the job, but I just do them.
00:55:08
Baker Plbg
Nice.
00:55:10
Shelby Joines
And then he throws me the hourly wage, of whatever he'd make for that two hours of time sheeting and we call it a day. So it's kind of nice.
00:55:19
Baker Plbg
Nice. And that, well, then I guess that speaks to, um, it's specifically about him, ah the opportunities, like the opportunities in the trades, like never go away. Like you'll be, you'll be offered all sorts of, um, you can, you can grow it big and go at small.
00:55:31
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
00:55:37
Baker Plbg
I mean, somebody is going to offer you a job sooner or later.
00:55:39
Shelby Joines
There's such versatility.
00:55:39
Baker Plbg
I've been offered a few of, Yeah, yeah, that's the beauty of this whole thing, including, you know, sort of your sideline to to the blue-collar world is offering those services to those guys that just want to get out in the truck and pound out the job, right?
00:55:57
Baker Plbg
Like work with their hands and and do their thing.
00:55:58
Shelby Joines
Yeah, exactly.
00:56:02
Baker Plbg
Well, I promised that we'd try and keep it under an hour and we're into like minute 56 already. Is there a, what, what, what would you, what advice would you offer sort of maybe, maybe, um, let me think about this for a second.
Advice for Women Entering the Trade Industry
00:56:24
Baker Plbg
What would you, what advice would you offer sort of the women of the world? that are thinking about getting into ah this the blue collar world a bit. um and And yeah, let's start with that one.
00:56:43
Shelby Joines
Oh, definitely. Like, it's possible to get into. And I feel it really comes down to personality type and work ethic, too. You also have to have, like you've mentioned multiple times, you got to have thick skin to be in this industry. And I think it needs to be even thicker if you're a woman, because...
00:57:03
Shelby Joines
It's not just the little bantering back and forth. It can get to be a little bit more sexualized and kind of have lot underlying undertones, not saying all conversations and all people in the trades are like that, but they're, from my experience, a good majority end up going down that route with conversations. So it's totally possible. You can totally do it. It's just having that really strong back to be able to take stuff on and not be breaking every moment when you feel like your feelings might have been hurt or that you took something a little bit more personal than what was intended and just kind of let it be water off a duck's back in a sense.
00:57:45
Shelby Joines
But it's doable and, you know, as Not as many women are in the trades, but we are seeing a steady progression of women that at least attempt to go in the trades, take a little bit of time in the trades, whether they make their entire career in the trades or not, they're at least taking that step to go into something that may be providing them of interest or piquing their interest, or they've got a real passion to doing.
00:58:01
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:58:10
Shelby Joines
Like before administration, my actual goal was to go to SAIT to get my welding, journeyman welding tickets. So We can see how things can take a turn.
00:58:20
Baker Plbg
Oh.
00:58:24
Shelby Joines
But yeah.
00:58:25
Baker Plbg
Listen, if you're go to hang out with the welders, you're tougher than most trades, man. Those guys are animals.
00:58:31
Shelby Joines
I know my kind of whole goal was to go into like deep sea welding. That was like the main goal that I had stuck in my head.
00:58:37
Baker Plbg
Holy hell bells.
00:58:40
Shelby Joines
i was going to go balls deep into welding and do it at the bottom of the ocean. And then my parents were very...
00:58:47
Baker Plbg
That is. Yeah,
00:58:49
Shelby Joines
let's, why don't you do administration and kind of push me into more of like the, you're a girl, let's go into the female side of things.
00:58:51
Baker Plbg
yeah.
00:58:55
Baker Plbg
ah the
00:58:57
Shelby Joines
And I'm like, okay, but, so this is my like, I'm close, but not in it. I'm just using my skills to be a nice like sideline position, so.
00:59:04
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:59:10
Baker Plbg
No, I think that's i think that's fantastic. and And I, if you know, whatever, if I was your parent, I would have said the same thing. Listen, those are fantastic ambitions, but let's, you know, let's let's stay down the middle of the blue collar road for a minute.
00:59:23
Shelby Joines
Yeah, I think it was like a moment of, yeah, right?
00:59:29
Shelby Joines
But I remember once my mom was like, well, what about being a flag girl at a construction site?
00:59:30
Baker Plbg
Before we go four wheel drive and
00:59:35
Baker Plbg
yeah
00:59:35
Shelby Joines
And I'm like, oh my God, mom, no.
00:59:37
Baker Plbg
okay
00:59:37
Shelby Joines
I'm like, that is one step down from like stripper.
00:59:43
Baker Plbg
Listen, you nailed it. Like you say, she you're going for deep-sea welding, and she's like flag girl. Like, there is a massive gulf in between those two.
00:59:51
Shelby Joines
I know, it was just so wild.
00:59:54
Baker Plbg
by yeah
00:59:54
Shelby Joines
The complete polar of polar opposites going on on my career journey at the age of 14 or something.
01:00:01
Baker Plbg
Not wrong. Not wrong. Not wrong. is that What would you change about your journey? Is there anything? Are you, like... ah You know, without without, I mean, whatever, that may be a bit of a personal question.
01:00:15
Baker Plbg
it's ah Is there anything that you like regret or if you could go back and say, man, this is what I would change this?
01:00:16
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
01:00:19
Shelby Joines
I regret not doing this sooner.
Shelby's Reflections and Regrets
01:00:23
Shelby Joines
i regret not doing this sooner and starting this maybe five years ago. Honestly, as much pain and struggle and like late nights and tears of frustration and like excitement and wins for myself and wins for my clients that I have.
01:00:42
Baker Plbg
ye
01:00:42
Shelby Joines
I wouldn't change this experience for the world. And if there was a change, it would just be, I wish I started doing this sooner because it's just words can't describe the feeling you get from being in your own area of expertise and being your own boss to be cliche and everything with that topic, but just you're the person who's in charge and responsible and
01:01:04
Baker Plbg
No, it's not cliche.
01:01:11
Shelby Joines
logistically doing things to keep stuff moving and food on the table. So yeah, that's where, that's where I'm at on that.
01:01:20
Baker Plbg
that i would I would echo that. Anybody that I've ever talked to and asked that question of, um that's generally the answer. I wish I had started this sooner.
01:01:31
Baker Plbg
like that Once you sort of get into that rhythm and you get onto that road, not that it's problem or stress-free, but my terms of that are I know what my stresses are and I know what my problems are and I know how to solve them both.
01:01:32
Shelby Joines
Mm-hmm.
01:01:47
Baker Plbg
And there's not a whole lot of the unexpected in my little in my world. um And I suspect that might be the same for you. ah but you don't know that until you're actually in it and driving it and dealing with it every day.
01:02:04
Baker Plbg
Is that a fair thing to say?
01:02:06
Shelby Joines
Yeah.
01:02:08
Shelby Joines
100%. Oh, 100%.
01:02:09
Baker Plbg
Yeah.
01:02:10
Shelby Joines
You don't know what you don't know until you're in the situation of needing to know.
01:02:15
Baker Plbg
Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's great. I think that's awesome. And so how why don't you how do people get in contact with you? there's There's probably, well, at least there's one maybe there's a Maybe there's dozens.
01:02:28
Baker Plbg
You'll have to let me know how it goes.
01:02:29
Shelby Joines
There is here.
01:02:29
Baker Plbg
How do people get in contact with you and hire you and make your dreams come true instead of in five years and two?
01:02:37
Shelby Joines
oh perfect. So people can connect with me on social media. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn. Instagram, all join us administration.
01:02:50
Shelby Joines
and then people can also check out my website on the contact us page. That's www.joinusadmin.ca. And feel free to shoot me ah message to the website or DM me on social media. i am always an open book and look to start conversations with people and get them started.
01:03:11
Baker Plbg
That's awesome. I'll make sure that when we post this stuff that I have your at least your um ah Instagram handle on there.
01:03:18
Shelby Joines
Yeah, I'll shoot you a message with Binto.
01:03:19
Baker Plbg
And so they can, and yeah, we can do all that sort of stuff. And i think it's I think that's awesome. I appreciate you taking the time. i am here in the next couple of like 30 seconds, going to press stop and then we can have an offline conversation about how everything went.
01:03:37
Baker Plbg
You can tell me what I have. You can tell me what I have to take out.
01:03:41
Shelby Joines
but I don't think there was anything, to be quite honest with you.
01:03:42
Baker Plbg
I don't think I have to think of anything, but no, it was pretty good. Any, any final words there, Shelby for the, for the audience in general?
01:03:50
Shelby Joines
No, I'm just super grateful to have had this opportunity to speak with you. I feel like this was like a really riveting conversation and I hope that it'll bring a little bit more awareness that like admins can be subcontractors too. You don't have to go ahead and hire straight in house and pay yeah astronomical payroll fees to have the support that you need for your business to succeed.
01:04:17
Baker Plbg
i I absolutely can concur. I think that's a great i think that's a great model. I think there's lots of value in that. And there's lots of people that are starting out on their little journey that don't know what you know, certainly know the trade side of things, but don't know the paperwork side of things that you can be an absolute advantage to. So if my recommendation is worth anything, i you should phone, contact Shelby and get her looking after your stuff.
01:04:43
Baker Plbg
Sound good?
01:04:45
Shelby Joines
Sounds amazing. I think they should too.
01:04:47
Baker Plbg
that that Now that's a plug if I've ever and i've ever if i have ever heard of one. All right.
01:04:53
Shelby Joines
The best plugin.
01:04:53
Baker Plbg
Thanks for joining us. Best plug ever. All right.