Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Courtney Sandora. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Courtney, appreciate you joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

I left Corporate America to start my business, Go Social, and my family. I wanted more flexibility and less business travel, especially while my children were young. For the first three years of my business I was a soloprenuer, splitting time between my household and my business, which I often dubbed my “third baby”. As my kids grew and my business grew, I became tired of being the only one who could work on the work. It was difficult to ever really take a vacation and to get a break from client requests in the “always on” world of social media. I decided to build out a team for support around year five. The first few employees felt like a huge responsibility. Not only did I have to make enough to support myself but also others’ livelihoods. I tapped a few resources from my past corporate world but relied heavily on online job sites like Indeed. My business has always been virtual as I really prioritized flexibility, but originally I wanted teammates who were based in my city. As I grew, that need for proximity became less. My focus shifted from finding talent near me to finding the best talent available whether that be Florida, Utah, Tennessee or Illinois. The right talent, grew the business in the right way and that was the most important factor at the end of the day.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve always enjoyed storytelling and my background is in PR. As social media came on the scene I found it so exciting to be able to tell a brand’s story online whenever we wanted versus having to go through a gatekeeper like a journalist. I helped global spirits brands like Southern Comfort and Woodford Reserve launch their first social presence and I was hooked from that moment on. I like to think I’ve passed that passion on to my team. My team does an amazing job at getting the word out about food and beverage brands because they have the right relationships with media and influencers. Collectively we have more than a decade of experience building social accounts.

It doesn’t hurt that we’re in a fun industry and we enjoy what we do. Everyone on my team is committed to working smarter so we can live better. From being a virtual company to working towards a four day work week we’re always looking for creative ways to gain better balance.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

After 12 years in business I can say with confidence that everything boils down to relationships and focusing on results. When I track my leads 99% come from clients, partners or friends. Having built those connections in one of the largest wine and spirits companies was key. I owe a lot of my success to the experience I learned on the client side and the relationships I built. Putting in my time in the corporate world has been so important to my business. It not only gave credibility it also taught me what my customers wanted as now I’m on the agency side.

I’ve also always been a big believer in letting the work speak for itself. When you show up as a true partner and do good work, people are more than happy to recommend you because you’ve built trust.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Some companies look for decades of experience when they hire, but in social media quite often a younger team member can offer more knowledge when it comes to trends and use cases. I used to think that my team was there to help me achieve my goals, because often I had more experience, but I now know that’s not the case. They aren’t there to help me, I’m there to help support them. My business truly is only as good as my people and that was a real shift in thinking. I had to to let go in a lot of ways, and when I did I could see how much talent and skills they brought that I never had. My team manager is amazing at organizing deadlines and our monthly flow. She’s has great client relations skills and thanks to her we retained 100 percent of our clients year-over-year while adding new clients. Our creatives have brought photography, graphic and design skill sets that I never had, and our influencer manager took us to a new level tripling that side of the business. Everyone has something different to bring to the party in a sense. By letting them shine we can grow so much more than we ever could with just my knowledge.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goforthbesocial.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/thegosocial
• Facebook: facebook.com/thegosocial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1489024/admin/
• Twitter: twitter.com/thegosocial

Image Credits
Joni Schrantz