We recently connected with Amber L. Gray and have shared our conversation below.

Amber, appreciate you joining us today. Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?

I don’t know if I would have ever started my business without first working for Rusty Shelton.

I never went to college, and I was a pharmacy technician for 11 years before I had the opportunity to work for Rusty, who had just launched a startup marketing and PR agency. I had zero experience in digital marketing or small business. This sounds crazy now, but in 2010, I had limited experience using a computer and email for professional communication! That said, I have always loved technology and self-help and training books, and I have been a quick learner all my life, so I was able to get up to speed fast enough to bring value early on.

Rusty must have seen potential in me because he hired me and gave me more and more responsibility in a short period of time. I worked for him for five years before starting my company, and my last position at his agency was a leadership role as VP of Operations. Over those five years, Rusty mentored and coached me, but even more importantly, he continuously extended trust to me, allowing me to stretch well beyond my comfort zone and experience level.

Rusty still has some of the same employees I worked alongside more than 10 years ago, and it’s because of how much he cares for, extends smart trust, and supports his team.

So much of my current leadership style was learned from Rusty’s example, and I have so much love and respect for him for believing in me, encouraging me on my journey, and supporting me in my decision to leave and start my own business. To this day, he’s one of my biggest cheerleaders and mentors.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the proud founder and CEO of Trusty Oak, a US-based virtual assistant firm offering administrative and marketing support to busy leaders who know they can accomplish more and increase their purposeful impact by delegating lower-level tasks. Trusty Oak supports freelance virtual assistants by providing them with a collaborative community, training opportunities, and fractional work opportunities to fit their flexible lifestyles. Freelancers who are tired of chasing down their next client partner with us and spend more time on billable hours, leaving the business development work to us. It’s very rewarding to facilitate symbiotic connections between VAs and business owners.

I started my company in 2015, and over the last eight years, we’ve helped freelance VAs earn more than $2.2 million, and we’ve given hundreds of leaders an average of five hours per week back to do more of the work they love. I’ve taken my own medicine and utilized VAs to scale my business – I didn’t hire my first full-time employee until six years in, and now we serve more than 150 clients in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Germany, and 60+ VAs across the US.

In addition to matching leaders with VAs, I am passionate about educating leaders on how to delegate effectively and optimize their experience working with virtual assistants. Delegation is not something people are innately great at, but it is a leadership skill we all can develop. I’m launching a course on this topic in the Fall of 2023 and a book on delegation in early 2024. For leaders interested in learning how to delegate, I also share delegation tips on my social media. (@ambergrayatx on TikTok and Instagram!)

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

One of the most impactful business books I have read multiple times and quote regularly is The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M. R. Covey.

The main concept in the book is that when trust is high, so is the speed of growth and success. (And I’ve seen it play out in my business repeatedly!) Many people think of trust as something that is either there or not, but Covey shares ways to increase trust within teams.

Without trust, delegation falls apart. This book inspired my core values and is foundational to my teaching principles regarding effective delegation. This book also inspired the name of my business!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

For Trusty Oak, the biggest contributor to growing our client base has been delivering a high-quality experience for the business owners we serve and incentivizing them through our referral program. More than 80% of our new business comes from referrals from our clients. We offer discounts to the person referred as well as the person referring.

Another great book on this topic is Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth. We want to grow faster, so we are also exploring other marketing tactics and channels to test within the next few months.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://trustyoak.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ambergrayatx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amberlgray/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberlgray/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/trustyoak
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ambergrayatx

Image Credits
Felicia Reed Photography