You’re the boss, but that doesn’t mean it’s all on you. Early on in your business journey you may find that you are assuming all the responsibilities in how your company operates. However, as you grow, it is important to learn how to delegate those responsibilities in order to ensure you can focus your efforts on what matters most. We speak to the influencer and creator of the app, Clara for Creators, Christen Nino de Guzman about how she learned to navigate work/life balance by using a combination of automated tools, contracted workers, and advice from other founders.
Learn more about how QuickBooks can help you run your business:
For more insights around mitigating founder dependence, visit: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/manage-employees/expert-advice-on-mastering-the-art-of-delegation/
For key takeaways from this week’s episode, visit:
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/running-a-business/mind-the-business-episode-5/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views, information, or opinions expressed during this podcast are
solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent
those of Into It QuickBooks or any of its cornerstone
brands or employees. This podcast does not constitute financial, legal,
or other professional advice or services. No assurance is given
that the info is comprehensive, accurate, or free of errors,
and the information presented is for general information purposes only.
Into What QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating
(00:22):
or revising any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before
relying on them. Hi, everyone, I'm Jinny's Torres.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And I'm Awson Hankwitz. Welcome to yet another episode of
Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, a podcast by
iHeartRadio in Into It QuickBooks. In each episode, Jennie and
I chat with small business owners as they share their
stories about the ups and downs of owning a small business.
Plus we'll learn from their experience about how you can
(00:53):
help fortify and strengthen your own business.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm so excited for our guests today, but Austin, I
have a question for you. First, how often are you
working with other people? I have a team, but it's
very small and my little sister actually works with me,
which is super cool. So I'm curious to know what
was your growth process like for building your own team.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, oh wow, you get to work with family. That's
actually pretty fun.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So I quickly realized that I was not very good
at being an operator.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Right. I am a creative.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I can make the videos, I can tell the stories,
but it's hard for me to sort of actually run
and operate the back end of the business, the contracting,
the invoicing, the day to days. Right, So I needed
to find an operator that could help me do that,
and so, weirdly enough, actually found him on TikTok. He
like DM me, we became friends. But his name's Christian Blackwell.
He's an absolute rock star. He was doing pricing and
(01:43):
profitability consulting at PwC and New York City before this. Like,
the guy is top notch, and together we mesh really
well in the sense that I can stay this creative
and he can be the guy behind the scenes doing
the invoicing, the emails, all the fun stuff that us
creatives don't like to do.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So that is how we got started working together. And then,
as it relates to scaling the business. In the beginning,
it was a lot of like TikTok videos. That's how
I really began to express myself, and I talked about
personal finance and investing and all that fun stuff. But
at the end of the day, TikTok became more and
more competitive as it relates to editing your videos and
having the cool sound effects and visual effects. And I'm
(02:23):
not that I do not know how to edit a
video to save my life. However, I began to find
people who did, and that's how I sort of began
to say, Okay, now we can grow a little bit.
We have the desire to get the video editors, we
have the need for the video editors. Let's hire them up.
Let's get going. And the second part of this whole
kind of equation is the social posting. So for me,
a lot of that was finding someone as I'm sure
(02:45):
you know, it's a full time job to even post
these assets on social media. If it's the tweets, the
Instagram story is everything in between, right. However, the only
thing that was important to me was that trust factor. Right,
they were going to log into my TikTok, my instagramtibe
to my Twitter, and so I had to be able
to trust them, and funny enough, it's my girlfriend and
I definitely foist her as well.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Learn that that's so cool. That trust factor is major,
and I think that's part of the reason why I
have my sister and also my mom working with me now,
which is really cool. It's like literally becoming a family business.
But my first contract hire was actually one of my
Instagram followers. So I was spending so much time creating
content posting content, and I just needed a VA or
(03:27):
a virtual assistant to help me with that part of
the business. That's the first thing that I decided to outsource.
And I literally just made an Instagram post, Hey guys,
I'm hiring for a VA. This is how much I
can pay, this is how many hours, and I mean
the amount of applications that came in were nuts. And
that's also another thing too. I didn't even really realize
how you're supposed to like do a whole job board
and job listing and so that was all a work
(03:47):
in progress. But it was really cool to find someone
from my audience because they already understood the brand, they
were already experiencing the brand, they already knew the aesthetic,
and so it was really easy to onboard her and
have her kind of be able to mimic my voice
without me having to create content from like a micromanagement perspective.
And then when I ended up hiring my little sister,
(04:08):
she was recently laid off. She was making a career
transition into social media management and marketing and she's actually
studying that in school. So I said, Bam, I've hit
the jackpot. My sister is super creative, She's a virgo.
She is the organization to my chaos, and we just
compliment each other so well. So she helps me look
good while I am out here, like you know, splattering
paint on the walls, she's kind of gathering it together
(04:29):
and putting it into a nice cohesive package. So I
think this is the theme that we're going to dive into,
plus so much more of just like finding the people
who are going to help you grow and who are
going to compliment your skill sets. That's how you, you know,
find success as a founder who is looking to.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Outsource right one hundred percent, But.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Enough about us, Let's go ahead and introduce our guest.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Kristin Nino de Guzman has worked for social media giants
like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok liaising with constant creators since
twenty fifteen. Her career in tech and social media has
offered her some keen insights into the challenges content creators
face when it comes to pay, particularly LATINX content creators
and other content creators of color. As a creator herself,
the thirty one year old from Los Angeles quit her
(05:13):
job to focus on her new app, Clara for Creators,
which is designed to help content creators address pay disparities
and access the information they need to get fair pay.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
From the brands they choose to work with.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Kristin describes the app as glassdoor or LinkedIn for creators,
allowing creators to post about how much they've gotten paid
and review brands anonymously. Others can then use this information
to help decide if they should work with a particular
brand or leverage it to request higher compensation. The app
is specifically intended to help establish pay equity for content
creators on all platforms. With Clara for Creators, Kristin hopes
(05:48):
to change the world a professional content creation by putting
creators first, compiling data that ultimately explores the disparity of race, gender,
and ethnic demographics in an emerging market. Her app, Clara
now has twenty two thousand active users and surveys over
one thousand unique brands. Kristin, thanks so much for hanging
(06:09):
out with us.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
So now I think before we jump into your company
and your founder journey, our audience would appreciate learning more
about your experience working with creators from Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.
So how did all of that start and how did
this really form and come to formation.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, so originally, when I first got my first role
working with creators, I was working with more like traditional
mommy bloggers, women like in the Midwest, fashion food. And
then I got a role at Pinterest and it was
very same type of profile of creators. And then one
day I discovered TikTok and I was just completely obsessed
(06:50):
and I was just really excited about the way that
TikTok was transforming discoverability and allowing anyone with talent that
was entertaining to be discovered, didn't matter if they had
fancy camera equipment or if they just were using their
iPhone And in their car. I ended up getting a
role there and was there during the height of the
pandemic over two years, and I also in that time
(07:12):
became a content creator myself, So I firsthand was just
seeing like how transformative TikTok was for people's careers, for
people's lives to allow them to be able to start
businesses during that time. In my time working with creators,
I just realized that there was a lot of issues
around pay transparency and the ways that brands were working
with creators. There's not really a platform out there that
(07:35):
was allowing creators access to pay information like traditional salaried
professionals had, And so I was super inspired and just
like by a pain point that I was seeing in
my day to day work to launch my own company.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So, like many folks who start a small business, you
were doing this on the side while working full time,
and I'd love for you to give us some insight
into what that actually looked like when you're like burning
the midnight oil.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
It was kind of like a really interesting time for
me personally because I had moved from San Francisco to
La to get this role at TikTok, and I kind
of envisioned my life being super fun. I would be
going to events, and then the reality is that COVID
happened and I had moved to a new city and
I was like alone in my apartment and no one
was going out, and it gave me a lot of time.
(08:22):
And this is also when I really tried to pursue
this idea of building an app. So I would do
my nine to five and then at night I would
work with my developer team to build the app. It
was a really intense, like six months. I saw it
as an opportunity to really pursue something that I normally
probably wouldn't have made time for.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Okay, so you are running a business, You're creating content
that is difficult to do just one of those aspects,
but you're doing it at the same time. How do
you juggle those responsibilities?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
For me, the biggest thing that has really helped me
prioritize my time and be more efficient in my day
to day is outsourcing like things that I'm not good at.
So initially when I started my entrepreneurial journey and became
a founder, I was trying to just do everything myself,
(09:15):
even things I didn't understand how to do and what
I realized is I can outsource, pay someone to help
me and it will save me like eight hours of
my week. So I started doing that in small ways.
I hired someone to help me with the TikTok presence
of the account. I actually like use quick books to
help me with managing my invoices, tracking my expenses as
(09:37):
a business owner. And like anything I can do, whether
it's paying for an app, outsourcing like an intern or
a coordinator, it really really helps me focus on the
things I really need to prioritize within my business that
will make me a better founder and leader.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Can we unpack that a little bit more, because I
think there's a lot of people listening right now who
might be tackling with the idea of should I bring
on help doing to hire somebody? Do you have any
key insights there as to where you made the decision? Wait,
I take a step back and I began delegating work elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
It can be really time consuming to be creative, come
up with new ideas, new content ideas for your business,
even spending time on apps like TikTok and trying to
keep up with trends. And I think for me as
a founder, like I just didn't feel like that was
something I wanted to do. I was feeling like I'm
on my phone all day, and to be honest, I
(10:28):
also felt like I wanted someone who was just living
and breathing that world. And I had a few creators
reach out to me like offering to help big creators
like you know, eight hundred thousand, a million followers, And
so I hired an intern named Joseph to help me
with my TikTok content and he brought so many innovative
ideas and was really able to be my eyes and
(10:49):
ears on social and help me understand what's trending, what
creators are talking about, what pain points are happening. It
was so valuable to bring him on to our team,
and it really took so much of that like pressure
of me constantly being on off of my plate.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I think what happens for a lot of small business
owners who were in this point where they know they
need to outsource, they know they need to start optimizing
in order to scale. They think automatically like I got
to hire people. But it's also important to think about
systems right and what software and tools exist. So how
did you identify what areas of your business you could
implement software tools in order to make your life easier.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
One of those tools was Canva. I think prior to Canval,
I would have never been able to, like run my
own Instagram account for my business. There's so many different
apps that help streamline like very tedious processes that you
might have. There's apps for you know, legal help. There's
websites where you can download like templated contracts. My first
mistake was I went out and hired a legal team
(11:48):
and it was extremely expensive. I spent like ten thousand
dollars on contracts. And then another founder told me about
a website you paid like forty dollars a month and
you had access to like all these different amazing contracts
and templates like NDA. So sometimes as a new business owner,
you don't really understand where to go for these resources.
It's been incredibly important to have community and network with
(12:11):
other founders because everyone is in the same boat and
they're really willing to help.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Can you tell us a little bit about the thought
process that you go through in order to decide what
things you should outsource versus what things you should maintain
control over.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah, I think time management for me. That's like probably
one of the biggest factors. If I feel like something
is taking up my time or I'm not the best
at it, then it's something that I want to try
to outsource. For example, I would say areas of my
business that I know nothing about, things like legal, things
like accounting. I'm not going to pretend that I need
(12:45):
to be that expert when I have so many other
areas that I need to focus on, and I don't
need to feel like I need to understand the basics
of xyz to be a successful founder.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
And as a follow up. So when you're hiring somebody,
obviously one of the things you got to start thinking
about is how you're going to pay them. I know
I made the mistake of not thinking about that when
I hired my first contractor and I was like, oh
wait a minute, how do I actually give them money?
And I was like, do I do Zell? Do I
do Venmo or something like that. So how did you
start and implement your payroll process?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yep, I was exactly like you. I started with Venmo
and Zell and it just didn't feel right. I'm like,
something about this just didn't feel like I was keeping
track of my expenses properly. But then I quickly realized, like, look,
as a business owner, you really do have to keep
track of everything, you know, for tax breaks, and there
(13:40):
are repercussions if you don't keep track of things. So
discovering QuickBooks was super helpful because it really allowed me
to like sleep at night understanding that I'm keeping track
of everything.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Coming up on Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
There's a big difference as a creator if you know,
you just can't manage your inbox and you're having trouble
responding to emails, and in that case you might just
need like an intern or an assistant. You might not
need a management company.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
We'll be right back after the break.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Welcome back to Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories
brought to you by iHeartRadio and into a quick Books.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So, you know, thinking more about this idea of hiring
contractors and kind of doing that part for the business.
What was like the first part of your business that
you began to outsource or hire contractors for. You mentioned
the intern, you mentioned the legal stuff. Can you kind
of walk us through as you begin to scale your business,
you started realizing, wait, I need to do this, I
need this next, and this after that.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
So even starting back in the early days, I outsourced
and worked with like an agency to help build my apps.
I think that was the very beginning like stages of
hiring help. And then once I launched the business, I
quickly realized that I needed help. I needed help with
social I needed help with content, I needed legal help.
(15:12):
And so I have kind of gone through and hired
a bunch of different types of contractors as things are needed,
like I've hired copywriters.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So having an agent or a talent manager, that's another
form of outsourcing, right, because now you're not having to
be the one to negotiate these deals and review contracts.
That was a decision that I made as a creator,
maybe like two years into my journey, just because I
felt like I wasn't no longer qualified to be reading
all of these legal documents and understanding like what is exclusivity,
what is whitelisting? All of these things? So how do
(15:43):
you determine as a creator, like when it makes sense
or if it makes sense to hire a talent manager
or an agent.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, this is seen as sort of a north star,
like I am successful because now I have a management
company and I think in reality, like you really have
to protect yourself as a creator. There's a big difference
as a creator if you know you just can't manage
your inbox and you're having trouble responding to emails, and
in that case you might just need like an intern
(16:11):
or an assistant. You might not need a management company.
There are so many different ways to approach, Like having
a management company, you know, you don't have to be
exclusive with them, you don't have to let them have
full control of your inbox. For me, when I did
sign with the management company, I made sure a lawyer
looked over my contract so I was able to protect
myself my business separate the two. It's really important as
(16:34):
creators and as like freelancers that we really make sure
that we're protecting ourselves and we don't just kind of
get excited by the idea of having a manager because
it doesn't necessarily mean we'll get more brand deals or
make more money.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I totally agree, and as a content creator, I agree
with everything you just said, right, But I kind of
want to backtrack here to the idea of your company
in the beginning, and when you were finding that product
market fit right, when you were observing the paid disparities
between different content creators. I'm curious around the research process.
Were you interviewing creators, talking to agencies perhaps, how are
(17:08):
you sort of doing your research and conducting research for
your company.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
In the early.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Stages, I had had positions at Instagram, at Pictures and TikTok,
and I was like the internal point of contact for
creators and as a result, I would be seed on
deals with the biggest brands and creators, and having different
creators that I represented, I would see like firsthand the
disparities on email. It was never like malicious intent by
(17:32):
the brands to pay creators different amounts. The issue was
always just that, like a lot of the creators didn't
have access to resources, so the brands met the creator
at their desired rate, and as a result, I was like, Wow,
I really wish this creator knew that this creator was
getting paid ten times as much. And I just felt like,
you know, both the brands and the creators really needed
(17:54):
access to that information to make it a more fruitful relationship.
I was also seeing a lot of brands being canceled
online because they were paying creators less, and I just
felt like it's such a new industry, and so I
wanted to really help with that transparency on both the
creator and the brand side to really help with the
pay disparities.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So, Chris, did we all know that entrepreneurship can feel
like you're juggling a million different things at the same time.
So how do you manage your work life balance? Is
there even such a thing in terms of work life balance?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
What I do think is great about being a business
owner and like owning your own business is there is
usually some sort of flexibility in terms of you're able
to set your own schedule in a lot of ways.
So for me, the typical day is I tend to
take all my meetings before like eleven am Pacific, and
then I literally the whole day will do errands, I'll
(18:47):
go on a hike, I'll be away from my computer,
and then around five pm, six pm, I'll come back
and do all my work. I'm kind of a night owl.
I'm awake at night. I feel more creative, and I
feel like for me that's been really really helpful for
like my mental health and for work life balance. I'm
able to see my family, I'm able to like exercise
and do fun things, go to the Trader Joe's when
(19:08):
it's not super crowded, and also able to like maintain
and feel good about me running my business.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I think that's the beauty of having your own business right.
It's the ability to build a career that also aligns
with the lifestyle that you're looking for. And you're not
set to a specific schedule. You know, the work date
will never look the same twice, and that's both the
beauty and the curse. But you got to figure out
how to make your work right exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
So we know the history of your company, but what's
next right, what's next for Clara? And where can the
people find you?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
When I started off, it was like a lot of
brands just wanted to work with creators based on their
following and their reach. It was all about how many
followers does this creators have. I think, of course a
lot of that still range true today and that's always
going to be something that brands care about, is overall
reach and engagement impressions and things like that. But what
I have noticed, you know, in the past couple of years,
(20:01):
it's more about hiring creators based off of skill set.
And I think even like think you two are a
great example of this, brands want to hire creators as
like voiceover actors, as podcast hosts, as you know, creative directors.
There's not really a platform that allows creators to be
seen for all these different skills aside from being like
(20:22):
a fashion creator, someone might also be a photographer or
a model, and like, is there a platform that's capturing that?
And so a lot of what I'm working on for
Clara in the next year is really helping creators be
seen for their skill set aside from just like audience
and following. And then Clara for creators is on TikTok
and Instagram. My personal Instagram is just Kristen Hri I
(20:45):
s t e N Kristin. This has been an amazing conversation.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
I just want to thank you for all of the
knowledge that you've been able to share with us about
how to start outsourcing and thinking about delegating different tasks
in your business, because it's something that I think most
of us are going to have to confront at some point,
and just knowing that it's a work in progress. You're
going to get things right sometimes and you're not going
to get them right all the time. It's just part
of the journey. So thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Thanks so much, Christen, this was a blast.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
That was such an incredible conversation with Kristin Denis. What's
stuck out to you the most in this conversation.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Well, it's hard to pick just one, but absolutely I
love how real she was about how we have to
work our way towards putting in actual systems when we're
thinking about outsourcing and scaling. I love the fact that
we both related on the fact that we use Venmo
and Zel to pay our first contractors, so I don't
feel so bad about it, because unless you come from
(21:43):
a family of small business owners, you're not necessarily going
to know what you should be doing and how to
structure this stuff. So I just love how it's an
evolutionary process for a lot of us and we kind
of figure out what not to do by doing that thing, and.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Some of us still fall victim to that, which is
totally fine. It's totally fine. Build up those processes. You're
going to get there eventually. I think for me, Janise,
it was how self aware she was by what she knew,
what she was good at and not good at. Right,
she talked about how she outsourced for the legal paperwork
and the legal help. There she outsourced with building the
app and the coding and the design.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I think every small business owner listening right now needs
to have that self awareness to know, wait a second,
I'm really good at marketing, I'm really good at accounting,
I'm really good at sales, but I'm not good at
insert thing here, Right, and having that self awareness really
allows you to say it, now, it'side for me to delegate. Now,
it's time for me to find those processes and put
those processes in place for my business so I can
(22:38):
begin to take it to the next level.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Which is clearly what she's doing right.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
One of the first things I realized I needed to
delegate was my accounting before hiring an accountant. QuickBooks definitely
was a lifesaver for me in terms of keeping record
in my cash blow and being ready for tax season.
Especially with QuickBooks live experts, I was able to ask
more questions and get specific insights into things I wouldn't
have normally.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Thought of for my own business.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Really excited to hear about the future of Clara and
how she's sort of building this marketplace of sports between
companies looking for creators.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, I love the idea that folks are finally taking
content creators seriously and actually realizing that this is a
viable career and creating tools to help us make it
sustainable too. You know, Kristen talked a lot about how
her company helps creators, but I also see a lot
of opportunities for small business owners as well. Thinking back
to our marketing episode, we learned about the importance of
social media marketing, but as a small business, I know
(23:28):
and you know that it's hard to create this kind
of content in house. Having a platform like the Claara
app makes it so much easier for small businesses to
identify which creators best aligned with their brands so that
they can actually go back to focusing on their day
to day operations. I also appreciate that Kristen's business is
built around content creators finding community with one another and
(23:49):
not simply just trying to manage everything alone. Some of
the best advice I've received has come from other business owners,
and I think a big part of being a founder
is learning how to learn from others in order to
improve your own business.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Well that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social Media at Austin Hanklets.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And you can find me at Jochiato within netto podcast.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
And you can follow Into It QuickBooks on all social
media at QuickBooks.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
To get the tools you need to.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Start, run and grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot
com today.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Catch the next episode of Mind the Business Small Business
Success Stories on Thursday, June eighth, where we speak to
Kevin Wong, co founder of lunarhart Seltzer, on how to
build a quality team of employees.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You won't want to miss this one, so don't forget
to follow, rate, and review this show wherever you listening
to podcasts so you can stay up to date on
our future episodes and.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Check out our show notes for more information from this
episode and founder dependence and a huge thank you to
our guest Kristen Nino Degouzman.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Our executive producer is Molly Soosha, our supervising producer is
Nikiah Swinton, and our writer is Tyree Rush.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Our head of post production is James Foster, and we
will see you next Stick
The views, information, or opinions expressed during this podcast are
solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent
those of Into It QuickBooks or any of its cornerstone
brands or employees. This podcast does not constitute financial, legal,
or other professional advice or services. No assurance is given
that the info is comprehensive, accurate, or free of errors,
and the information presented is for general information purposes only.
Into What QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating
(00:22):
or revising any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before
relying on them. Hi, everyone, I'm Jinny's Torres.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And I'm Awson Hankwitz. Welcome to yet another episode of
Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, a podcast by
iHeartRadio in Into It QuickBooks. In each episode, Jennie and
I chat with small business owners as they share their
stories about the ups and downs of owning a small business.
Plus we'll learn from their experience about how you can
(00:53):
help fortify and strengthen your own business.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm so excited for our guests today, but Austin, I
have a question for you. First, how often are you
working with other people? I have a team, but it's
very small and my little sister actually works with me,
which is super cool. So I'm curious to know what
was your growth process like for building your own team.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, oh wow, you get to work with family. That's
actually pretty fun.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So I quickly realized that I was not very good
at being an operator.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Right. I am a creative.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I can make the videos, I can tell the stories,
but it's hard for me to sort of actually run
and operate the back end of the business, the contracting,
the invoicing, the day to days. Right, So I needed
to find an operator that could help me do that,
and so, weirdly enough, actually found him on TikTok. He
like DM me, we became friends. But his name's Christian Blackwell.
He's an absolute rock star. He was doing pricing and
(01:43):
profitability consulting at PwC and New York City before this. Like,
the guy is top notch, and together we mesh really
well in the sense that I can stay this creative
and he can be the guy behind the scenes doing
the invoicing, the emails, all the fun stuff that us
creatives don't like to do.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So that is how we got started working together. And then,
as it relates to scaling the business. In the beginning,
it was a lot of like TikTok videos. That's how
I really began to express myself, and I talked about
personal finance and investing and all that fun stuff. But
at the end of the day, TikTok became more and
more competitive as it relates to editing your videos and
having the cool sound effects and visual effects. And I'm
(02:23):
not that I do not know how to edit a
video to save my life. However, I began to find
people who did, and that's how I sort of began
to say, Okay, now we can grow a little bit.
We have the desire to get the video editors, we
have the need for the video editors. Let's hire them up.
Let's get going. And the second part of this whole
kind of equation is the social posting. So for me,
a lot of that was finding someone as I'm sure
(02:45):
you know, it's a full time job to even post
these assets on social media. If it's the tweets, the
Instagram story is everything in between, right. However, the only
thing that was important to me was that trust factor. Right,
they were going to log into my TikTok, my instagramtibe
to my Twitter, and so I had to be able
to trust them, and funny enough, it's my girlfriend and
I definitely foist her as well.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Learn that that's so cool. That trust factor is major,
and I think that's part of the reason why I
have my sister and also my mom working with me now,
which is really cool. It's like literally becoming a family business.
But my first contract hire was actually one of my
Instagram followers. So I was spending so much time creating
content posting content, and I just needed a VA or
(03:27):
a virtual assistant to help me with that part of
the business. That's the first thing that I decided to outsource.
And I literally just made an Instagram post, Hey guys,
I'm hiring for a VA. This is how much I
can pay, this is how many hours, and I mean
the amount of applications that came in were nuts. And
that's also another thing too. I didn't even really realize
how you're supposed to like do a whole job board
and job listing and so that was all a work
(03:47):
in progress. But it was really cool to find someone
from my audience because they already understood the brand, they
were already experiencing the brand, they already knew the aesthetic,
and so it was really easy to onboard her and
have her kind of be able to mimic my voice
without me having to create content from like a micromanagement perspective.
And then when I ended up hiring my little sister,
(04:08):
she was recently laid off. She was making a career
transition into social media management and marketing and she's actually
studying that in school. So I said, Bam, I've hit
the jackpot. My sister is super creative, She's a virgo.
She is the organization to my chaos, and we just
compliment each other so well. So she helps me look
good while I am out here, like you know, splattering
paint on the walls, she's kind of gathering it together
(04:29):
and putting it into a nice cohesive package. So I
think this is the theme that we're going to dive into,
plus so much more of just like finding the people
who are going to help you grow and who are
going to compliment your skill sets. That's how you, you know,
find success as a founder who is looking to.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Outsource right one hundred percent, But.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Enough about us, Let's go ahead and introduce our guest.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Kristin Nino de Guzman has worked for social media giants
like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok liaising with constant creators since
twenty fifteen. Her career in tech and social media has
offered her some keen insights into the challenges content creators
face when it comes to pay, particularly LATINX content creators
and other content creators of color. As a creator herself,
the thirty one year old from Los Angeles quit her
(05:13):
job to focus on her new app, Clara for Creators,
which is designed to help content creators address pay disparities
and access the information they need to get fair pay.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
From the brands they choose to work with.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Kristin describes the app as glassdoor or LinkedIn for creators,
allowing creators to post about how much they've gotten paid
and review brands anonymously. Others can then use this information
to help decide if they should work with a particular
brand or leverage it to request higher compensation. The app
is specifically intended to help establish pay equity for content
creators on all platforms. With Clara for Creators, Kristin hopes
(05:48):
to change the world a professional content creation by putting
creators first, compiling data that ultimately explores the disparity of race, gender,
and ethnic demographics in an emerging market. Her app, Clara
now has twenty two thousand active users and surveys over
one thousand unique brands. Kristin, thanks so much for hanging
(06:09):
out with us.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
So now I think before we jump into your company
and your founder journey, our audience would appreciate learning more
about your experience working with creators from Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.
So how did all of that start and how did
this really form and come to formation.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, so originally, when I first got my first role
working with creators, I was working with more like traditional
mommy bloggers, women like in the Midwest, fashion food. And
then I got a role at Pinterest and it was
very same type of profile of creators. And then one
day I discovered TikTok and I was just completely obsessed
(06:50):
and I was just really excited about the way that
TikTok was transforming discoverability and allowing anyone with talent that
was entertaining to be discovered, didn't matter if they had
fancy camera equipment or if they just were using their
iPhone And in their car. I ended up getting a
role there and was there during the height of the
pandemic over two years, and I also in that time
(07:12):
became a content creator myself, So I firsthand was just
seeing like how transformative TikTok was for people's careers, for
people's lives to allow them to be able to start
businesses during that time. In my time working with creators,
I just realized that there was a lot of issues
around pay transparency and the ways that brands were working
with creators. There's not really a platform out there that
(07:35):
was allowing creators access to pay information like traditional salaried
professionals had, And so I was super inspired and just
like by a pain point that I was seeing in
my day to day work to launch my own company.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So, like many folks who start a small business, you
were doing this on the side while working full time,
and I'd love for you to give us some insight
into what that actually looked like when you're like burning
the midnight oil.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
It was kind of like a really interesting time for
me personally because I had moved from San Francisco to
La to get this role at TikTok, and I kind
of envisioned my life being super fun. I would be
going to events, and then the reality is that COVID
happened and I had moved to a new city and
I was like alone in my apartment and no one
was going out, and it gave me a lot of time.
(08:22):
And this is also when I really tried to pursue
this idea of building an app. So I would do
my nine to five and then at night I would
work with my developer team to build the app. It
was a really intense, like six months. I saw it
as an opportunity to really pursue something that I normally
probably wouldn't have made time for.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Okay, so you are running a business, You're creating content
that is difficult to do just one of those aspects,
but you're doing it at the same time. How do
you juggle those responsibilities?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
For me, the biggest thing that has really helped me
prioritize my time and be more efficient in my day
to day is outsourcing like things that I'm not good at.
So initially when I started my entrepreneurial journey and became
a founder, I was trying to just do everything myself,
(09:15):
even things I didn't understand how to do and what
I realized is I can outsource, pay someone to help
me and it will save me like eight hours of
my week. So I started doing that in small ways.
I hired someone to help me with the TikTok presence
of the account. I actually like use quick books to
help me with managing my invoices, tracking my expenses as
(09:37):
a business owner. And like anything I can do, whether
it's paying for an app, outsourcing like an intern or
a coordinator, it really really helps me focus on the
things I really need to prioritize within my business that
will make me a better founder and leader.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Can we unpack that a little bit more, because I
think there's a lot of people listening right now who
might be tackling with the idea of should I bring
on help doing to hire somebody? Do you have any
key insights there as to where you made the decision? Wait,
I take a step back and I began delegating work elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
It can be really time consuming to be creative, come
up with new ideas, new content ideas for your business,
even spending time on apps like TikTok and trying to
keep up with trends. And I think for me as
a founder, like I just didn't feel like that was
something I wanted to do. I was feeling like I'm
on my phone all day, and to be honest, I
(10:28):
also felt like I wanted someone who was just living
and breathing that world. And I had a few creators
reach out to me like offering to help big creators
like you know, eight hundred thousand, a million followers, And
so I hired an intern named Joseph to help me
with my TikTok content and he brought so many innovative
ideas and was really able to be my eyes and
(10:49):
ears on social and help me understand what's trending, what
creators are talking about, what pain points are happening. It
was so valuable to bring him on to our team,
and it really took so much of that like pressure
of me constantly being on off of my plate.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I think what happens for a lot of small business
owners who were in this point where they know they
need to outsource, they know they need to start optimizing
in order to scale. They think automatically like I got
to hire people. But it's also important to think about
systems right and what software and tools exist. So how
did you identify what areas of your business you could
implement software tools in order to make your life easier.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
One of those tools was Canva. I think prior to Canval,
I would have never been able to, like run my
own Instagram account for my business. There's so many different
apps that help streamline like very tedious processes that you
might have. There's apps for you know, legal help. There's
websites where you can download like templated contracts. My first
mistake was I went out and hired a legal team
(11:48):
and it was extremely expensive. I spent like ten thousand
dollars on contracts. And then another founder told me about
a website you paid like forty dollars a month and
you had access to like all these different amazing contracts
and templates like NDA. So sometimes as a new business owner,
you don't really understand where to go for these resources.
It's been incredibly important to have community and network with
(12:11):
other founders because everyone is in the same boat and
they're really willing to help.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Can you tell us a little bit about the thought
process that you go through in order to decide what
things you should outsource versus what things you should maintain
control over.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah, I think time management for me. That's like probably
one of the biggest factors. If I feel like something
is taking up my time or I'm not the best
at it, then it's something that I want to try
to outsource. For example, I would say areas of my
business that I know nothing about, things like legal, things
like accounting. I'm not going to pretend that I need
(12:45):
to be that expert when I have so many other
areas that I need to focus on, and I don't
need to feel like I need to understand the basics
of xyz to be a successful founder.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
And as a follow up. So when you're hiring somebody,
obviously one of the things you got to start thinking
about is how you're going to pay them. I know
I made the mistake of not thinking about that when
I hired my first contractor and I was like, oh
wait a minute, how do I actually give them money?
And I was like, do I do Zell? Do I
do Venmo or something like that. So how did you
start and implement your payroll process?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yep, I was exactly like you. I started with Venmo
and Zell and it just didn't feel right. I'm like,
something about this just didn't feel like I was keeping
track of my expenses properly. But then I quickly realized, like, look,
as a business owner, you really do have to keep
track of everything, you know, for tax breaks, and there
(13:40):
are repercussions if you don't keep track of things. So
discovering QuickBooks was super helpful because it really allowed me
to like sleep at night understanding that I'm keeping track
of everything.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Coming up on Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
There's a big difference as a creator if you know,
you just can't manage your inbox and you're having trouble
responding to emails, and in that case you might just
need like an intern or an assistant. You might not
need a management company.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
We'll be right back after the break.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Welcome back to Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories
brought to you by iHeartRadio and into a quick Books.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So, you know, thinking more about this idea of hiring
contractors and kind of doing that part for the business.
What was like the first part of your business that
you began to outsource or hire contractors for. You mentioned
the intern, you mentioned the legal stuff. Can you kind
of walk us through as you begin to scale your business,
you started realizing, wait, I need to do this, I
need this next, and this after that.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
So even starting back in the early days, I outsourced
and worked with like an agency to help build my apps.
I think that was the very beginning like stages of
hiring help. And then once I launched the business, I
quickly realized that I needed help. I needed help with
social I needed help with content, I needed legal help.
(15:12):
And so I have kind of gone through and hired
a bunch of different types of contractors as things are needed,
like I've hired copywriters.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So having an agent or a talent manager, that's another
form of outsourcing, right, because now you're not having to
be the one to negotiate these deals and review contracts.
That was a decision that I made as a creator,
maybe like two years into my journey, just because I
felt like I wasn't no longer qualified to be reading
all of these legal documents and understanding like what is exclusivity,
what is whitelisting? All of these things? So how do
(15:43):
you determine as a creator, like when it makes sense
or if it makes sense to hire a talent manager
or an agent.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, this is seen as sort of a north star,
like I am successful because now I have a management
company and I think in reality, like you really have
to protect yourself as a creator. There's a big difference
as a creator if you know you just can't manage
your inbox and you're having trouble responding to emails, and
in that case you might just need like an intern
(16:11):
or an assistant. You might not need a management company.
There are so many different ways to approach, Like having
a management company, you know, you don't have to be
exclusive with them, you don't have to let them have
full control of your inbox. For me, when I did
sign with the management company, I made sure a lawyer
looked over my contract so I was able to protect
myself my business separate the two. It's really important as
(16:34):
creators and as like freelancers that we really make sure
that we're protecting ourselves and we don't just kind of
get excited by the idea of having a manager because
it doesn't necessarily mean we'll get more brand deals or
make more money.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I totally agree, and as a content creator, I agree
with everything you just said, right, But I kind of
want to backtrack here to the idea of your company
in the beginning, and when you were finding that product
market fit right, when you were observing the paid disparities
between different content creators. I'm curious around the research process.
Were you interviewing creators, talking to agencies perhaps, how are
(17:08):
you sort of doing your research and conducting research for
your company.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
In the early.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Stages, I had had positions at Instagram, at Pictures and TikTok,
and I was like the internal point of contact for
creators and as a result, I would be seed on
deals with the biggest brands and creators, and having different
creators that I represented, I would see like firsthand the
disparities on email. It was never like malicious intent by
(17:32):
the brands to pay creators different amounts. The issue was
always just that, like a lot of the creators didn't
have access to resources, so the brands met the creator
at their desired rate, and as a result, I was like, Wow,
I really wish this creator knew that this creator was
getting paid ten times as much. And I just felt like,
you know, both the brands and the creators really needed
(17:54):
access to that information to make it a more fruitful relationship.
I was also seeing a lot of brands being canceled
online because they were paying creators less, and I just
felt like it's such a new industry, and so I
wanted to really help with that transparency on both the
creator and the brand side to really help with the
pay disparities.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So, Chris, did we all know that entrepreneurship can feel
like you're juggling a million different things at the same time.
So how do you manage your work life balance? Is
there even such a thing in terms of work life balance?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
What I do think is great about being a business
owner and like owning your own business is there is
usually some sort of flexibility in terms of you're able
to set your own schedule in a lot of ways.
So for me, the typical day is I tend to
take all my meetings before like eleven am Pacific, and
then I literally the whole day will do errands, I'll
(18:47):
go on a hike, I'll be away from my computer,
and then around five pm, six pm, I'll come back
and do all my work. I'm kind of a night owl.
I'm awake at night. I feel more creative, and I
feel like for me that's been really really helpful for
like my mental health and for work life balance. I'm
able to see my family, I'm able to like exercise
and do fun things, go to the Trader Joe's when
(19:08):
it's not super crowded, and also able to like maintain
and feel good about me running my business.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I think that's the beauty of having your own business right.
It's the ability to build a career that also aligns
with the lifestyle that you're looking for. And you're not
set to a specific schedule. You know, the work date
will never look the same twice, and that's both the
beauty and the curse. But you got to figure out
how to make your work right exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
So we know the history of your company, but what's
next right, what's next for Clara? And where can the
people find you?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
When I started off, it was like a lot of
brands just wanted to work with creators based on their
following and their reach. It was all about how many
followers does this creators have. I think, of course a
lot of that still range true today and that's always
going to be something that brands care about, is overall
reach and engagement impressions and things like that. But what
I have noticed, you know, in the past couple of years,
(20:01):
it's more about hiring creators based off of skill set.
And I think even like think you two are a
great example of this, brands want to hire creators as
like voiceover actors, as podcast hosts, as you know, creative directors.
There's not really a platform that allows creators to be
seen for all these different skills aside from being like
(20:22):
a fashion creator, someone might also be a photographer or
a model, and like, is there a platform that's capturing that?
And so a lot of what I'm working on for
Clara in the next year is really helping creators be
seen for their skill set aside from just like audience
and following. And then Clara for creators is on TikTok
and Instagram. My personal Instagram is just Kristen Hri I
(20:45):
s t e N Kristin. This has been an amazing conversation.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
I just want to thank you for all of the
knowledge that you've been able to share with us about
how to start outsourcing and thinking about delegating different tasks
in your business, because it's something that I think most
of us are going to have to confront at some point,
and just knowing that it's a work in progress. You're
going to get things right sometimes and you're not going
to get them right all the time. It's just part
of the journey. So thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Thanks so much, Christen, this was a blast.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
That was such an incredible conversation with Kristin Denis. What's
stuck out to you the most in this conversation.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Well, it's hard to pick just one, but absolutely I
love how real she was about how we have to
work our way towards putting in actual systems when we're
thinking about outsourcing and scaling. I love the fact that
we both related on the fact that we use Venmo
and Zel to pay our first contractors, so I don't
feel so bad about it, because unless you come from
(21:43):
a family of small business owners, you're not necessarily going
to know what you should be doing and how to
structure this stuff. So I just love how it's an
evolutionary process for a lot of us and we kind
of figure out what not to do by doing that thing, and.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Some of us still fall victim to that, which is
totally fine. It's totally fine. Build up those processes. You're
going to get there eventually. I think for me, Janise,
it was how self aware she was by what she knew,
what she was good at and not good at. Right,
she talked about how she outsourced for the legal paperwork
and the legal help. There she outsourced with building the
app and the coding and the design.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I think every small business owner listening right now needs
to have that self awareness to know, wait a second,
I'm really good at marketing, I'm really good at accounting,
I'm really good at sales, but I'm not good at
insert thing here, Right, and having that self awareness really
allows you to say it, now, it'side for me to delegate. Now,
it's time for me to find those processes and put
those processes in place for my business so I can
(22:38):
begin to take it to the next level.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Which is clearly what she's doing right.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
One of the first things I realized I needed to
delegate was my accounting before hiring an accountant. QuickBooks definitely
was a lifesaver for me in terms of keeping record
in my cash blow and being ready for tax season.
Especially with QuickBooks live experts, I was able to ask
more questions and get specific insights into things I wouldn't
have normally.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Thought of for my own business.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Really excited to hear about the future of Clara and
how she's sort of building this marketplace of sports between
companies looking for creators.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, I love the idea that folks are finally taking
content creators seriously and actually realizing that this is a
viable career and creating tools to help us make it
sustainable too. You know, Kristen talked a lot about how
her company helps creators, but I also see a lot
of opportunities for small business owners as well. Thinking back
to our marketing episode, we learned about the importance of
social media marketing, but as a small business, I know
(23:28):
and you know that it's hard to create this kind
of content in house. Having a platform like the Claara
app makes it so much easier for small businesses to
identify which creators best aligned with their brands so that
they can actually go back to focusing on their day
to day operations. I also appreciate that Kristen's business is
built around content creators finding community with one another and
(23:49):
not simply just trying to manage everything alone. Some of
the best advice I've received has come from other business owners,
and I think a big part of being a founder
is learning how to learn from others in order to
improve your own business.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Well that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social Media at Austin Hanklets.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And you can find me at Jochiato within netto podcast.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
And you can follow Into It QuickBooks on all social
media at QuickBooks.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
To get the tools you need to.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Start, run and grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot
com today.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Catch the next episode of Mind the Business Small Business
Success Stories on Thursday, June eighth, where we speak to
Kevin Wong, co founder of lunarhart Seltzer, on how to
build a quality team of employees.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You won't want to miss this one, so don't forget
to follow, rate, and review this show wherever you listening
to podcasts so you can stay up to date on
our future episodes and.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Check out our show notes for more information from this
episode and founder dependence and a huge thank you to
our guest Kristen Nino Degouzman.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Our executive producer is Molly Soosha, our supervising producer is
Nikiah Swinton, and our writer is Tyree Rush.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Our head of post production is James Foster, and we
will see you next Stick
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Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.