We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Renee Hughes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Renee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Talk to us about building a team – did you hire quickly, how’d you recruit the first few team members? Any interesting lessons?
When I started my practice, it was just me. About two years in, I hired my first contractor, a virtual assistant. That was an amazing experience and the best thing I could have ever done. I doubled my productivity at least. She was a great hire. She loved the business, understood it, and was energetic and smart. She had lots of skills and was always ready and willing to take on assignments and do her very best at them. As the years went on and business got busier and more complex, I needed more team members and added on an office manager, another brilliant hire. She also was very invested in what I was doing with the business. She understood the mission, which I think is very important for any team member. To me, it’s one of the top things that I look for: someone who understands the mission of the company and is ready and willing to put their best into it, someone who really cares about what the company is doing, is in alignment with that, and is ready to support with every skill set they have. Also, someone who is willing to take on new skill sets.
That first hire eventually had to leave due to family illness. That was heartbreaking. But as the years progressed I continued to find and work with capable support. As was mentioned, one such support started as the office manager and has grown into being my marketing director. She’s amazing. We then brought in other virtual assistants and marketing assistants, and all of them have moved up the ladder in the business. I’ve kept the same pattern of hiring people who really understand and love the mission. Those who have not been in alignment, not excited about the work, or have not given their best effort, we have not kept those team members.
I’ve now merged my company with my husband, Randy which is an absolutle joy because I now get to work with two of my best friends. Randy and I do a lot of volunteer missionary-type work, and most of our team members do as well. Because we really are in alignment and in harmony with our life and business goals, it just makes for beautiful camaraderie and a great team culture. It gets results because everybody is going for the same thing. They are really focused on one set goal, and I think that’s the key to having a thriving team. They understand the mission of the company, their role in accomplishing that mission, and they are happy and eager to do it. A happy, smart team and a beautiful company culture are what move a team forward.
What’s unconventional about our company and our team is that we all work part-time, yet we’ve been able to reach the level of success we have. Our volunteer work really takes precedence, and that’s unusual. You don’t usually have a company achieve the type of success we have while working part-time, so we’re excited about that. Our onboarding process is also unique. We don’t ask for a CV at first. The first thing we do is look for referrals from our current team members or our communities and congregations. We ask around for who has the specific skill set we need and would like to work with our company. We then send information about the company and ask them to send us a video.
We look for people who are genuinely interested and connected. We don’t go into a lot of details about the company initially because we want to see if the person will do the homework to find out about us. We send them a little bit about the skills and culture we are looking for, a link to our company page, and we ask them to let us know what they think we do, what’s our company culture, why they want the position, and why they feel they would be phenomenal at it, all in a video.
The reason we ask for a video is to see if they are genuinely interested. We don’t want people who are just looking for a paycheck. We want people invested in the mission of the company. We do not ask or expect our team members to give their lives or even most of their time to us. We do however want go -getters who really enjoy their work. We pay attention to their energy, personality, and how excited they are. Even if a person is an introvert, you can still feel their enthusiasm. We also ask personal questions like, “What would be your ideal vacation?” or “What was your most favorite job in the past and why?” We want to know what they enjoy and what annoys them.
When we train, we help them understand the entire mission of the company and their role in it. We talk to them about the numbers we are seeking, data, their specific goals, and who their immediate supervisor is. We believe in the 80/20 rule, focusing on the 20% of work that’s important and that they are really good at. We spend the first couple of months figuring out what they really love and what they are excellent at, and we let them focus on that.
If I were starting out today, I would bring in team members sooner and follow my instincts about people who might not be the best fit. I would not hire people who didn’t care about the work or keep those who demonstrated a lack of interest in the company and our clients. I would also spend more time training people to ensure they enjoyed and understood their roles from the very beginning.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Renèe Hughes, and I am the Founder of The Aromaspecialists and co-founder of Seven Figure Profits. My background is in business. I worked on Wall Street as an assistant for many years, from the 90s to the early 2000s, and I learned a lot about business from the people I worked for. I then started my own company in 2009, initially working in marketing, helping small businesses with marketing and virtual assistant duties. I ran a virtual assistant firm, helping other small businesses grow. In my heart, I always wanted to do something in natural health and wellness, so I decided to go back to school. I got my first certification as a natural health consultant. I then specialized in aromatherapy and became a certified professional aromatherapist and later an aroma psychologist.
I love that world because I believe in the healing effects and properties of what comes to us from nature. From my childhood on, I’ve experienced the benefits of natural, plant-based medicine. I really don’t know that I would be alive today if I didn’t have those things. So, I continue to rely heavily on them and just love the industry. I started my own practice and developed a program called the Mood Makeover Method, an emotional support program primarily for other small business owners. It had a dramatic effect on the clients. It was our first service that really took off. We made our first six figures within six months, and it was just a wonderful experience. It’s still a program that I include in some of my offerings.
I then opened a school called Holistic Champions. In that school, we certify those who want to become aromatherapists and those who are already certified, It becomes their business school. We combine certification with business, and a person can take either business or aromatherapy classes. Since opening the school, I have taught over 400 professionals in the wellness industry how to master messaging and marketing. I really focused on that because I feel like messaging is the most important part of growing your business. If a person doesn’t understand your message or the position you hold in the world or the industry, you’re not likely to draw the type of clients you’re looking for. I enjoy helping people with messaging.
In my role as the founder of The Aromaspecialists and as the co-founder of Seven Figure Profits, I bring the skill set of profit psychology into this new company and brand. I use my background with the Mood Makeover Method and the profound effects we got with professionals who were feeling stuck and unable to live a satisfying life due to poor relationships with themselves, others, and money. As a profit psychology coach within Seven Figure Profits, I help professionals develop great relationships with themselves, money, life, their business, and their clients. These changes affect how they show up in their business and life, resulting in even more profit in the bank.
The primary problem I solve for our clients is helping them feel understood and become clear within themselves about what they offer and what their best gifts are. I also help them develop a healthy relationship with money, which sometimes means getting rid of guilt for being successful and overcoming self-imposed limitations. I help them balance life and develop their version of success. We don’t believe that happiness comes from monetary riches. We believe that happiness comes from being healthy spiritually, emotionally, and physically. We help them balance these aspects so they can thrive in their business and beyond.
My partners in the company handle the actual numbers, ensuring clients see the results of proper business planning, tax planning, and full CFO services. My focus is on the emotional piece, solving money problems from the inside out. We address both the inner and outer aspects of money issues.
What sets Seven Figure Profits apart from other companies is our dual focus. Not many companies have trained professionals who can help with both the CPA financial side and the emotional well-being side. We offer CPA, CFO services, and emotional well-being support, helping avoid burnout and promoting harmony within the team. This combination is rare, and we love providing both types of problem-solving within one company. People can come to us and feel safe as we help them achieve financial safety and security.
Another unique aspect is that we typically work with high earners. Our clients are often at their first few million, at seven figures, or nearing that point, but they don’t feel the security and happiness they expected. More than 40% of high earners live paycheck to paycheck, a secret we confront head-on. We call it “7 Figure Poor” and have the remedy for it. It’s time for people in this situation to get relief and shed the shame of being high earners who still struggle financially.
I’m most proud of our holistic approach to solving business and money problems. We cover everything from financial issues to operational and emotional issues within our office. The results our clients get make all the work worthwhile. I’m proud of our comprehensive approach and the impact it has on our clients’ lives and businesses.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
There was a time when the business got really quiet. We had clients coming from everywhere, and then all of a sudden, there was silence. That lasted for about six months. It was enough time that I really struggled with payroll, and being the type of founder I am, I believe in full transparency. So, I had a team meeting and let the team know that we were struggling financially.
When you’re in business, you can’t just look at what’s in the bank account currently. You have to look at projections. The projections were telling us that within short order, we’d be in serious trouble if we kept the current pace. So, we let the team know that there was a good possibility we would have to make some changes. We wanted to give them plenty of time to not only find another job but to find something they really loved. We said, “We’re giving you notice that if things don’t turn around drastically, we’re probably going to make some cuts,” and we wanted to give them at least a month.
To my great surprise, and I will never forget this moment, after letting the team know what was going on, I received private messages separately from three key team members who said almost verbatim the same thing. They loved me, they loved our company, and they weren’t going anywhere. They offered to take a pay cut or even work for free, even if they had to find other work, and still support the company until we were back in a position to resume their full pay.
I cried so many tears of joy and pride. Love just oozed through me. I still have two of those team members. One of them we did end up saying goodbye to, just because we didn’t want to drag it on, and she found a beautiful position. But having those types of people in your life and in your business makes all the difference. They have gone through the tough times. When you’re an entrepreneur, it is feast or famine. You are going to have those times when you’re bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then you’re going to have those times when you’re not bringing in anything at all.
It’s so important to have a plan to deal with those quiet times, and we have done that now. But it’s a very scary thing when you look at the projections and they tell you that you may not be able to make payroll or keep your team members. It is a sickening feeling. I literally was sick. My adrenal system took a hit just knowing that these beautiful team members, who worked so hard for us, might have to leave us.
It was definitely a lesson learned. I brought my husband in, and as a CPA, I knew he would be able to help me do a better job with the numbers. I had not involved him at all in the financial side of the company, which was a big mistake. This was prior to us merging. I sought his counsel to change how I was running the company when it came to the numbers. I’m a creative, and creatives don’t always deal in numbers. We don’t always look at the data, and because of that, it can really get you in trouble. It’s really important to look at the numbers. I’m so grateful that I brought him in to help with that issue.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
That period of time when things were really quiet in the business, although expected in business, made us go back to the drawing board. We stepped back to evaluate whether we were working with the right clients. We realized that a big portion of the people we were targeting were not our ideal clients. We were spending too much time trying to convince people that they needed our services, that they needed to care more about their businesses, messaging, and profitability. Instead, we realized there is a population of business owners already looking for these solutions.
What showed our resiliency is that we didn’t give up. It wasn’t a matter of saying, “Okay, you’ve tried this entrepreneur thing. It didn’t work out. It’s time to go back to the real world now.” Since 2009, we have been determined to keep our businesses afloat in some form or fashion. What I’ve learned, and what shows my resiliency, is that I’ve kept reinventing myself and the company. I have become what I needed to be while staying in alignment with who I am and what I want to provide. The company has become what it needed to survive and grow to its next levels.
Resiliency to me means opening the door for what’s next, welcoming change, and not closing the door on opportunities or what needs to happen or change. I’m always looking for what else I can do and what more I can provide. Another part of resiliency is being very observant and really listening to the problems of your community and audience. What are their true problems? What do they think the solution is? What do I know the solution is? And what can I actually do to provide that solution?
I avoid trying to be everything to everyone and focus on my skill sets and how I can really help. That resiliency has gotten me through some really tough, confusing, and heartbreaking times. I never give up. I always know there’s something else I can do, something else I can offer, and other ways I can express that.
Resiliency is always taking a look at your messaging, your community, making sure you’re talking to the right people, saying the right things, and staying in alignment with yourself and what you really want to be doing. It’s about honing your unique skill set and your own zone of genius, recreating, leveling up, and making it better and more exclusive. In my case, it’s making it something that is sought after. It’s about working with people who already want what you have and already understand the benefit of what you offer. A big part of our story is letting go of communities and people who need to be convinced of the value of what we have and focusing on those who have already placed a high value on our work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sevenfigureprofits.com/profitpsychology/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneehughescoach/
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