We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Armstrong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.

Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

My vision for my business from the beginning was to create career opportunities for women who needed flexibility in their day, financial stability and the ability to work remotely. In order to do this I wanted to build the foundation and grow to a point where I had enough business to go around, so it was just me for about a year and a half. This was the hardest part about starting my own business from scratch. Working for myself has been and is unbelievably rewarding, however doing the job alone can be extremely challenging. I am in charge of everything and have to be able to focus on the operations, accounting, daily services I am providing my clients and building systems to be scalable.
After a short time I began receiving new clients based on referrals and getting many inquiries a week for my services. I was reaching my goal of growth faster than expected and I knew it was time to make the transition I had been working towards and begin to hire.
Before I go into my hiring process, I want to be clear that although I was running my business alone, I had many people in my life that I reached out to for help, advice and to bounce ideas off of. I am a big believer in finding others doing what you do or what you want to do and ask questions,
Now I was ready to hire and reached out to my tribe to build that foundation as I did when I was ready to start my business. I talked with my business coach on strategies to bringing on team members and training, I talked to my life coach about making a list of everything I would love to have in a team member, and my therapist helped me gain the confidence to take the leap into this next journey I would embark on.
There are many things that went through just the process of knowing I am going to be posting the job, reviewing applications, choosing who to interview, what to ask during interviews and how to decide who will be my next team member.
During this self talk, I had to remind myself of all of the progress I have made to get here and my why for taking this step. If I hadn’t gone through that internal inventory, the fear that people would see me in a venerable way would and exposing potential faults in my business that I have created may have stopped my momentum then and there. A lot of those old feelings of not being good enough or not making the right decisions that were ingrained in me at a early age would flow over me. This is why I made sure I had found a great support system prior as well as during the creation and growth of my business. Surrounding myself with the right people was absolutely critical to my success. Which I have found to be true in business and in life. It takes a lot of courage to build those connections so use intention, practice and awareness for these goals.
I began by thinking a lot about who I needed on my team and how I would find them. At first I certainly thought about hiring overseas as there are people all over the world that need help and opportunities. It was also a less costly option and was something many of my peers were doing. My concern there was the interview process and finding the fit for the culture I was personally looking to create. With this came some procrastination in actually posting the job position.
One day, as I was looking at the job posting site my friend suggested, I received an email from a woman who worked in the Colorado real estate industry. She was reaching out to see if I was hiring! I love how the universe provides just what you need when you need it most and I am not one to turn down a gift from the universe.
I let her know I was looking to bring on some team members and we met for coffee. Our conversation took all kinds of paths about where we’ve been, where we are now and where we want to go. She had experience, knowledge and passion. What really stood out to me was she expressed that she really needed something for herself, a career she could call her own and I felt that in a big way and we moved forward.
The training process was a challenge because I was learning to train in a way I had never trained before, the way I wanted to. There were challenges in becoming a leader that found solutions instead of allowing her to not reach her potential or the goals she had expressed to me that she wanted to achieve. Through open communication, giving her the space to be vulnerable with me, and coming up with solutions as well as providing support and encouragement she has become a fantastic contribution to my business and is enjoying learning and growing in her position everyday which brings amazing energy into the workday.
Next up was to add two full time transaction coordinators to focus solely on our agent’s transactions to provide an even better service. As a business owner especially in an industry that is fast paced and requires a lot of time and effort can be difficult when you are also in charge of everything else that comes with a business. Since providing an exceptional service to agents is just as important to me as proving better opportunities for my team members, I am always finding ways to deliver a seamless experience for agents as well as their buyers and sellers and to separate us from other transaction management services.
I knew bringing on full time, experienced transaction coordinators was going to look a little different then my first employee and I wanted to do it with intention. The first step was to make a list of what was really important to me when looking for these new additions by looking at what I had learned from the work I had done on my own, training my first team member and what was important to my clients; I was able to create a list of the skills, personality and experience of the ideal candidate. This list was going to help me manifest the applicants I was looking for and create the questions to narrow it down.
It was important to me to find out as much as I could about the applicants prior to the interviewing process so I would only have a few interviews. Over my life and as I get older I have recognized that I have a strong intuition and typically feel pretty comfortable with my decisions even before they are final. This meant that a long interview process would not have been the best way for me to hire and I would need to narrow it down to only a few prior to the interviews.
In order to do this I created a Jotform with open ended questions that gave applicants the opportunity to really open up about who they are, what motivates them, what that are looking to get out of a remote position, etc. as well as what they are looking for in a leader, team members and work environment/community. Then I posted the position on Facebook (my personal account, my business page and real estate TC groups I am a part of), my Instagram business page, and my LinkedIn company page with the link to the Jotform. I also created a separate email address to receive applications and to respond from.
Clicking to post and then walking away to just allow whatever to happen was a crazy step. I was worried I wouldn’t get any good candidates, that no one would want to fill out my form or that it would take a long time to get enough interviewees to make it worth it. Thankfully, this was not the case. After two days I had received an overwhelming amount of applicants as well as support and celebrations from my community. I had to close the job position as I would not be able to respond to everyone.
My first elimination process was those who were out of state. I had expressed I was looking for Colorado residents or at least needing Colorado real estate experience. Next was those who did not want to take the time to complete the Jotform. Then I read through the submitted forms. The beauty about the form and the questions I asked is I could really feel their passions, communication skills and how they would fit in and grow with my company. I chose six women to invite for an interview with the goal to hire two.
One of the women I interviewed was someone I had known since the beginning of my business and had always imagined working with her in more capacity as she had an amazing work ethic, care and compassion for those around her and the ability to communicate in a fun yet professional way. I was so happy when she applied and I knew I was going to hire her.
The one who would end up being my other hire, I knew a little bit just from being in the same industry and she had the absolute best application. Her first sentence was wanting to leave the world a better place and I was hooked. I knew after her interview that I really wanted her to be my other TC. Although I was confident these are my two new TCs I really wanted to be sure I weighed all of my options by finishing my interviews with the same energy and attention, I also trusted the universe would guide me as well. One person ended up not showing to the interview and another ended up canceling so I only had two more interviews (universe). They were both great and had a lot of experience. It ultimately came down to culture and who I wanted, not only work with me, but each other and who would be the best fit as the first ones to take on this position for my business. I have to keep in mind that although I am dedicated and as prepared as I could be, I am learning as well and need people who get that.
My approach I wanted to take in hiring is finding women who would be as excited to work with me as I am to work with them and would treat my clients with a celebratory attitude to desire to be as much of their team as I am.
As a leader, my goal is to provide support, empowerment and a safe environment that makes living their life easier. This is my intention everyday and being able to see how it helps not only my business but my team in an impactful way is a huge personal achievement for me.
I have always believed through and through that managing people can be done with more empathy, compassion, patience and creativity so they are happy and enjoying life which in turn only improves the ability of the business.
Looking back I don’t know that I would necessarily change anything, I may update the process next time I am hiring, it really just depends.
We have an amazing opportunity to learn when developing and growing a business. If you are open to adapting, keeping your creativity healthy and continuing to find passion in what you are doing there is really not cap to your potential.
I will say it takes a village. Having other people in my life that are successful, passionate and contributing to the common good help to inspire me and give me confidence in my own abilities. Working with professionals like coaches, therapists and other business women to see other ways to do things and see how they overcome challenges makes you feel less alone and part of something bigger.
Connection is key to a strong foundation, finding your purpose and creating the life you and others want to be a part of. When building your team, know what works for you and your abilities. We should always be looking to improve our community through service and leadership. That is why it is important to be sure you have the capacity to lead others in a productive, honest and impactful way.

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

My business is TCCREATED which is a Transaction Management service provider for Real Estate Agents. I’m a creator at heart and have always had plans to be an entrepreneur and build businesses that contribute to the community and provide careers that are empowering to women. The idea for TCCREATED came during a time when I had been working as a Transaction Coordinator (TC) for a real estate brokerage. I had met other TCs that worked independently and directly with the agents, this sounded like a great opportunity to create an in depth TC service where the agents would be my clients and we would be able to work together as a team. This would be my opportunity to create remote jobs for women who needed a better work/life balance, a core value of TCCREATED. As a homeowner I know the process of buyer or selling real estate can be intense and there are a lot of moving parts. This is why we believe it is crucial to have an agent with the time to focus on your needs, questions and concerns. What we do at TCCREATED is work on the tasks involved in the transaction process from when an agent’s client has a signed contract to sell or buy a real estate property through to closing and the transaction is complete. This involves being an extension of the agent as additional support, along with professional communication with the title company, lender, co-op agent, etc. to keep everyone on track, meeting deadlines, scheduling, filing documents and more.
My goal for our services is to give agents a peace of mind that their transactions and compliance are being taken care of on the back end and they can focus on what they do best, helping people transition.
I would say what sets us apart from others is the quality of service and communication, detailed systems that keep us consistent and on track as well as allow us to grow with the agents by being scalable. My team and I have the education and initiative so the onboarding process for the agent is quick and easy. The most distinct difference is the genuine care for the agents we work with. their business and the buyers and sellers they represent.
We want to see everyone succeed!
Developing an exceptional transaction management business takes intention and keeping the needs of real estate agents in mind. I am most proud of keeping the integrity of my company by providing a business that allows agents to focus on what they enjoy so they are able to contribute their talent and know how to people moving in. out and around the community which leaves buyers and sellers feeling more confident and comfortable. A big part of this is finding people to be on my team who have the passion for what we do and building a culture that is supportive, educational and empowering.
We strive to strengthen the community and the success of those who live here.

How did you build your audience on social media?

There are many ways to market and connect now a days which can be really exciting for business owners to get creative! My degree is in Marketing and although social media was not a big source of marketing while I was in school, what I have been able to incorporate is the idea of finding and attracting your people, those who you know you can provide support to and solve a problem. When I started my business I talked with many people in the industry to see how they were marketing. I quickly learned there were all kinds of options and everyone was doing it differently so I would end up creating a strategy that I know I could implement well. One option I kept hearing about was cold calling and mailers (both I was familiar with). For me just starting out, the idea of cold calling felt nerve racking and dated. I wasn’t ready to spend money on mailers as I really desired to build a reputation as a quality transaction management service in the real estate community first.
My goal for bringing on clients was to make trustworthy connections by reaching out and meeting those you really want to work with. Making a safe space for agents to ask questions, I would also be able to find agents that have a deep passion for providing an amazing experience to their clients like I do.
I knew social media would be a great place to start. It was a place I could showcase my communication skills, real estate knowledge, excitement for others’ success and attention to details.
When you are starting with social media marketing, create a Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn page for your business. Pinterest and TikTok are also great options, it just depends on what works best for you and what you are doing. Once I had these created, I began searching for agents in my area and then expanded into other towns and cities.
My focus was to connect with agents who were active on social media, which meant most likely they would be more open and available I could see which agents had real estate as their primary career and that they also have a love for their community. These are the people I wanted to work with; they have a goal oriented mindset and I knew they would benefit the most from my services to grow their business and have time for other interests and events.
Once I started communicating by commenting on their posts and stories, I started realizing that Instagram worked best for me. I say this because marketing actively on social media to receive the results you need can feel like a full time job so finding one platform that fits your personality and ability may just be the best direction. I did continue to market on Facebook and LinkedIn as well, I was just more active on Instagram. This strategy was successful for me to get going.
After communicating with agents and developing that relationship prior to ever asking them if they needed TC services was critical. This gave us the foundation to lead to a trusting working relationship. We already felt like a team; they knew my name and the name of my company before I asked them for a meeting.
My next step was to set up a meeting with as many agents as I could to see if they could benefit from hiring me to manage their transactions. To do this I got very organized. I created a spreadsheet with a scale of who I have had little to a lot of communication with and on which platform; then I sent out invites to a virtual coffee meeting. I wanted to have a conversation to learn more about them, their business and their needs to meet their goals and I would explain what it was that I do and how I would implement a flow of task management to give them the space they need to meet those goals.
My first round, I had many agents schedule a virtual coffee. I was surprised to see such positive results and excited to see the marketing strategy I created was working. The excitement was followed by fear because now I had meetings and had to sell my services to these potential clients, yikes!
What I kept in mind was that I truly wanted to help, that was my ultimate goal. When I would hear about their pains, such as trying to grow their real estate business, needing more time for family and travel, wanting peace of mind their tasks, deadlines and compliance are being managed because that work is not in their wheel house and provides no joy to their day to day. I knew I could help with all of these!
Although I was nervous at first, being able to go into the calls with the intention to listen and the confidence I can help, then allowing the conversation to progress organically from there presented a 95% success in signing on a new client and I still work with all of them! Now they provide me with referrals and have been supportive to me and my business as well.
The take away would be that social media is a great place to market, if you are willing to put in the time. My suggestions would be to find what platforms make the most sense for you and the service/product you are providing, have a list of what your ideal customer/client would look like, find them and spend time getting to know them.
Always keep your “why” handy to remind yourself of the reasons you are doing all of this and what you hope to contribute through your product/service. Let your “why” be you motivation and inspiration.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

This really ties into the ideas behind the previous topics. The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been the same as creating the foundation for my business, hiring the right team members and bringing on my first clients. Having a genuine interest in what people need to be successful in life and in business, building a safe environment for clients and team members to be themselves and keeping the integrity of our mission to provide a reliable service that gives agents the space to be who they need to be for their clients and their community. By following through with my vision, values and promise in the day to day tasks, it is visible and valuable to those I work with. My agents can see that we care about them and strive to represent them in the best way, celebrate their wins, be there when they just need someone to listen, etc. They in turn have referred other agents to TCCREATED and speak very highly of the benefits we provide.
Other parties involved in transactions we work on, have also seen the work ethic, communication and professionalism my team and I provide which leads to referrals from title companies, lenders, other TCs as well as agents on the other side of the transaction reaching out to see if we can help their business too.
Lastly, the marketing that I have put in place through social media, my website and networking bring in new calls as well.
Take pride in what you do, keep it real and show up for yourself, your team and your clients as often as you can, Put the work and passion in and the rest will follow,

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TCCREATED.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tccreated/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tccreated/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tccreated/

Image Credits
Kelly Weaver Photography