From Health Crisis to Niche Success: How Dr. Tiffany Built a Virtual HR Department

Written By cindy wagman

"A closed mouth does not get fed. If I don't ask, I won't get it"— Dr. Tiffany Slater, HR Tailormade

From Health Crisis to Niche Success: How Dr. Tiffany Built a Virtual HR Department 

"I was miserable. I did not enjoy what I was doing anymore. I did not feel that I was competent at what I had been doing for almost 25 years." After back-to-back health crises forced Dr. Tiffany Slater to reevaluate her career, she made a bold decision that changed everything - starting an HR consulting business at the exact moment she was questioning her expertise.

In this episode, Dr. Tiffany shares how her "faith walk" led her from feeling defeated in her corporate role to building HR Tailormade, a thriving consultancy serving as the virtual HR department for nonprofit organizations. She pulls back the curtain on her seven-year journey to clarity, how health challenges became the catalyst for entrepreneurship, and why it took finding the right marketing partner to finally get her messaging right.

From structuring retainer relationships that make HR expertise accessible to small nonprofits to building strategic partnerships through intentional LinkedIn outreach, Dr. Tiffany offers a masterclass in building a consulting business that aligns with both your strengths and preferences (hello, fellow introverts!) while delivering exceptional value to clients.

Highlights:

  • Define clear service boundaries in your virtual practice. Tiffany is so beautifully clear about what her virtual HR department doesn't do (recruiting and payroll) and instead builds partnerships with others who excel at those services. What a relief to know you don't have to do it all!

  • Simplify your marketing as a virtual consultant. After trying ALL the platforms, Tiffany realized her nonprofit clients were primarily finding her through LinkedIn and word-of-mouth. Sometimes less really is more when it comes to marketing your virtual services!

  • Ask for what you need, always. As Tiffany wisely says, "a closed mouth doesn't get fed." She shows us how to request testimonials and website mentions in ways that feel comfortable and authentic - essential skills for growing a virtual practice.

  • Be patient with your niche journey. It took Tiffany seven years to get completely clear on serving nonprofits as a virtual HR consultant. Business clarity emerges through experience, not perfect planning from day one.

  • Build a virtual support community. I love how Tiffany intentionally reaches out to 10 LinkedIn contacts weekly, resulting in quarterly meetings with trusted peers. This business journey is too hard to do alone, especially when you're working virtually!

Timestamp summary: 

  • [00:01:00] Jess and Cindy discuss batching podcast episodes and meeting scheduling strategies.

  • [00:03:00] Introduction of Dr. Tiffany Slater from HR Tailormade.

  • [00:04:00] Dr. Tiffany introduces herself as a human resources consultant serving nonprofits.

  • [00:05:00] Dr. Tiffany shares her 30-year HR journey from intern to assistant superintendent.

  • [00:07:00] Health challenges (thyroid surgery and hysterectomy) led to her business transition.

  • [00:09:00] Her first client came before she even had a business name.

  • [00:11:00] Overview of HR Tailormade's flagship retainer service as a virtual HR department.

  • [00:12:00] Dr. Tiffany explains why she doesn't handle payroll or recruiting.

  • [00:13:00] Rapid-fire questions: favorite season, spa treatment, and life motto.

  • [00:15:00] Discussion of client size (typically under 50 employees) and project-based work options.

  • [00:17:00] Dr. Tiffany describes her partnerships with recruiting firms and accounting companies.

  • [00:18:00] Overview of her small team structure: herself, an HR manager, and an administrative assistant.

  • [00:19:00] Marketing strategies with 90% of clients coming from word-of-mouth referrals.

  • [00:21:00] Dr. Tiffany's perspective on nonprofit funding in 2025 and waiting for "the shoe to drop."

  • [00:22:00] Personal challenges of losing her brother and father in the previous year.

  • [00:24:00] Discussion about the importance of asking for what you need in business.

  • [00:27:00] Dr. Tiffany's approach to pricing and understanding your value as a consultant.

  • [00:30:00] The logical approach to fractional HR pricing compared to full-time staff costs.

  • [00:31:00] Marketing challenges and the difficulty of showing HR metrics to potential clients.

  • [00:35:00] Dr. Tiffany's strategic networking approach of messaging 10 LinkedIn connections weekly.

  • [00:39:00] Dr. Tiffany's journey to finding the right marketing company and messaging after 7 years.

  • [00:43:00] Dr. Tiffany's confession

Resources Mentioned:

  1. Women's Business Center (St. Louis area) https://www.wbdc.org/en/event/getting-to-know-the-womens-business-center-st-louis/

Find Us Online:  https://www.confessionswithjessandcindy.com

Connect with Dr. Tiffany:

Connect with Cindy:

Connect with Jess: 


TRANSCRIPT:

[00:01:31] Hey, Jess. We're back. We're back. Another exciting episode for everyone I know on a roll today. We are. I love batching. I mean, we should have a whole conversation about batching. I. Okay. Before we dive in today's episode, 'cause kind of relevant, you recently posted on LinkedIn about how you only do meetings on one day a week and I just wrote a blog or an email that's going out next week about my CEO week.

[00:01:59] So every other [00:02:00] week I don't take meetings, which is insane. So yeah. Yeah. We're gonna go there one day. Yeah. We should have a whole conversation. Yeah. Because honestly, what I think it is it. Less about like when you do what you do and more about just like taking back control for what works for you. And I find like especially business owners who are women are, in so many cases, people pleasing or recovering, people pleasers and they just want to do what like the other person wants and.

[00:02:34] It's just like for me too, you know how A-D-D-A-D-H-D, I don't know, undiagnosed, whatever I am like a squirrel and so it's so disruptive for me. I can't even articulate even today, like we're doing these back to back calls. I'm gonna have to like legitimately go lay down afterwards. They're just like.

[00:02:55] So great in the moment. And then also they require so much of my energy and so I can't just be [00:03:00] like yes to everything all the time when it's gonna di like mess up my totally product productivity. So anyways, I think it's actually more about that and less about the schedule is like the point.

[00:03:13] Exactly. I'm glad you found something that works for you. How nice to start every other Monday being like, ah, I've got nothing but time. exactly. The other weeks are. Yeah, probably pretty brutal. I know. Yeah. Wednesdays for me are also like that, but yeah. Anyways, we're experimenting, trying different things.

[00:03:32] All right. Let's, on that, let's get into today's conversation. I know Dr. Tiffany is like, what I, what is the conversation? So our guest today is Dr. Tiffany from HR Taylor made, Dr. Tiffany, welcome to the podcast. Welcome to Confessions. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. We're going to dive in. Let's start with just introducing yourself.

[00:03:53] Who are you and what do you do? I'm Dr. Tiffany Slater. I am a human resources [00:04:00] consultant and, HR Taylor, which is my company. We serve as the HR department, the virtual HR department for nonprofit organizations. okay. Jess and I are both like, no, I'm just like, were you in hr? did you, were you in house and you were like, this can be done differently.

[00:04:22] walk us through. Because I would say that this is like niche with a niche in a great way. so yeah, walk us through the origin story of like how this was even born. So I've been in HR for 30 years. Wait, you are 30 years. what is happening? I love that is not possible. No, you guys, when this podcast goes live, I'm going to post a picture of Dr.

[00:04:49] Tiffany. You are 30 years old. that's insane. Yeah. Wow. Thank you. She started in infancy, Oh my [00:05:00] gosh. College, right outta college. hr. It's all I've done professionally. so I literally have worked as an HR intern and HR assistant, HR coordinator, HR manager, director, then an assistant superintendent.

[00:05:16] So literally I have gone from. The lowest position that you can go as an intern all the way up to the highest position that you can go into. And so my last 13 years of, working for other people was in public education. And then before that I was in a casino and then I was, I worked at a property management company, then I worked at a steel plant.

[00:05:42] So look. I have had fun all over the HR streets, right? And working in so many different industries. But the way that HR Taylor made became a thing was because I was miserable. I. I did not [00:06:00] enjoy what I was doing anymore. I did not feel that I was competent at what I was, had been doing for almost, at that point, 25 years.

[00:06:09] and I was like, something's gotta change. you don't just continue to ascend in your career only to get to a point where someone tells you that you're not good at what you do. Like that just doesn't make sense. I had a real God moment and I call this entrepreneurial journey, a faith walk, and I just knew that I needed to be doing something else.

[00:06:33] Okay. I am so curious because. The last thing I think people do when they do not feel competent is to start a business doing that which they don't feel competent in. So I would love for you to deep dive into that a little bit because I think we already suffer from imposter syndrome. We already struggle with am I good enough to charge?

[00:06:56] Am I good enough to get to. Create a [00:07:00] business and bet on myself, like even without feeling like, oh, maybe am I actually like good at what I. What I think I'm good at. So how did you get from A to B? take us through that journey a little bit more deeply. Yeah,and let me say first that I am a Christian and me and God we are like this.

[00:07:20] We are thick as thieves. it's been a faith walk. I, God really shook it up for me to a point where there was no other choice for me. So I had, I think it was June or so I was supposed to have thyroid surgery and I was still working. For my previous employer and, I was like, okay,let me go get this surgery.

[00:07:43] At that point, that was the second thyroid surgery, so they needed to just remove it, right? Went out. I was healing from that. Got a call from our favorite doctor and they were like, you need a hysterectomy now. He probably thought that was bad news for me, but that was the best [00:08:00] day of my life. So I was super excited about that and I knew though.

[00:08:07] After I had both of those surgeries, I was like, okay, that is nothing but stress. Because they found a growth in both areas and they were both benign. And I was like, this is stress. It has to be, it can't be anything else. I'm a very healthy person. There was no reason for this to happen. So while I was on leave of absence from my hysterectomy, which I'm very happy to share, I got a call from my very first boss and she's Hey, I've got a client. She owns a childcare facility and she really wants support with her, employee handbook, but she wants an HR person who has school experience. I was like, okay, I can do that from my bed, and I did it and I loved it. At that point, I knew that God was doing something in my life.

[00:08:55] I just didn't know what it was, and I knew I didn't need to be there, but every time I [00:09:00] thought about applying for a job somewhere else, my stomach turned and I just couldn't. Do it. And so the only other thing for me to do was to start a business and I didn't know what it was gonna be called. I didn't know what I was gonna do, I didn't think at that point.

[00:09:19] I was like, I don't even know if I'm really good at what I do anymore.. Because we work at places that beat us up and just make us think horrible things about our abilities and our skills and all the things that we have come to know about ourselves and about the work that we do every day. And I was just in a place where I needed to be, doing something different.

[00:09:44] And I did all the research. I went to the Women's business center that we had here. I'm in the St. Louis area, St. Louis, Missouri. And, I learned a lot about business. I came up with the name, I wanted to make sure that it was [00:10:00] very clear what we did. And I just started, I, so I had my first client before I even had a name for my business.

[00:10:12] That is nothing but God. I Oh love. Bet it on yourself. All right. I love that. Like you just, you bet on yourself and you trusted and things worked out. So tell us a little bit about what your business, you mentioned like basically your virtual HR team for organizations. How does that work? Is it like.

[00:10:38] Everyone pays the same thing. Do you have different services, or programs, products? Walk us through a little bit of what the business looks like now. So all of what you said, but our flagship offer is the retainer and where we are truly your HR department. We are in your payroll system, just like a HR person would [00:11:00] be.

[00:11:00] We have a relationship with your broker. we know the team. The team can call us if they have questions or if they need help with their benefits. if they're onboarding someone new, the team will reach out to us and send us all of the information so that we can take the onboarding process from offer to first day of employment.

[00:11:23] Performance evaluation processes, we create those. We help clients understand what their HRIS system can do for them most times. They're underutilized. They're paying for all of this stuff, and they don't even know what they have and or just don't have the time to set it up and understand how to use it.

[00:11:44] So we are their HR team. The two things that we don't do for clients, we don't run payroll and we don't recruit. Because those are two things. One, I'm not a payroll person, but two, I really don't like recruiting. That just [00:12:00] doesn't, I don't know, it doesn't feel like HR to me, it feels like sales. Oh yeah.

[00:12:06] That's an interesting take on it.

[00:12:08]

[00:12:12] Dr. Tiffany, we are back with another round of rapid fire questions. You ready? I'm ready. Alright, cool. If you were a season, what would you be and why? I would be spring, because spring brings me so much joy and I love the colors. Oh, you're in it right now. Yay. Okay, next question. Motivated by your confession.

[00:12:38] what is your favorite spa treatment? Oh, a massage Easy. Okay. Follow up question. Is it like a deep tissue massage? Is it like a light massage? Is it like a time massage where they're bending and flipping you all over the place? No, it's a medium pressure massage because I just get it for [00:13:00] relaxation.

[00:13:01] Yeah, totally. Okay, cool. And then last question, what is one motto you live by? Oh one.

[00:13:15] Let your faith be bigger than your fear. totally. It's a good one. And matched so well with, all you shared with us on the podcast. All right, Dr. Tiffany, thank you for playing. Thank you.

[00:13:28]

[00:13:33] Okay. I wanna ask you in terms of this, if this is your signature service, do you work with specific size organizations or do you, do you have. Do you price differently for different size of organizations? What, how do you not scale that, but how do you make that work?

[00:13:52] It op, let's say, how do you operationalize that? Yes, so our clients are, have typically less than 50 [00:14:00] employees, and that's our sweet spot. We do have clients that have more employees, but they typically only need us for project based work because they have their own HR people and they just reach out to us because they need support with something that they just can't find the time to get to most.

[00:14:18] Of the times, it's because they need a performance evaluation process, or their employee handbook is seriously outdated. those are the two areas that people reach out to us for when they have an HR department already. but. For clients that have less than 50 or they just need a project and they don't need a retainer, we do have what I call a bundle so they can buy a bundle of 20 hours or a bundle of 10 hours, and we honestly don't really care how they use that time.

[00:14:53] There are a few things that we just know we can't do inside of that time. Like we cannot [00:15:00] do an employee handbook on a bundle. They're time consuming. Okay, great. That's helpful. Like overview and context and all the things. I wanna go back to what you said about, and you were like. Firm and you're like, we don't do recruiting, we don't do payroll.

[00:15:17] And I guess I'm curious for organizations that are looking for a one size fits all style HR support, who are like, I want you to do the employee handbook and various things, but I really need to hire my next person since you, We're so sure with we don't do that. I don't like doing that.

[00:15:40] Do you have a Rolodex of people you refer out to where you have like a partnership agreement? Do you have a subcontractor? Like how does that. Work because I imagine people need both. They do. I do have a recruiting partner that I work with quite often, and they're phenomenal. our clients are very happy [00:16:00] with them, so that's really important for me.

[00:16:02] and then we do have also payroll partners that we work with also, we have partnerships with accounting firms too, that work specifically with nonprofit organizations and they do payroll or they have. Companies that they work with for that purpose as well. So yes, we do. Awesome. So tell us about your team.

[00:16:27] I'm curious, and yeah, tell us. 'cause there's a lot of little, I would assume yes, that there's lots that go on behind the business. Lots that go into delivering. The work for clients and yeah. is it just you, do you have a team? Tell us what that looks like. Yeah, so right now there are three of us.

[00:16:48] there's me and I have a young lady who is more, her skill level is more of HR manager level, and then we have an administrative assistant who can help us with some of the. [00:17:00] Employees need information about certain basic things that just requires a person to look up. she can help us with those things as well.

[00:17:07] She also manages me and tells me, okay, you're supposed to be here on this podcast. Are you supposed to be over at the dentist?

[00:17:17] Okay, now I wanna switch gears. Okay. How do you find new clients? Like how do you. Especially nonprofit clients. Yeah. So you, you all know the nonprofit world is small, so word of mouth is gold. 90% of our clients come from word of mouth. other clients that we've had. We'll tell people about us. We are on the website for some of our clients, as their HR person or HR team, so that's pretty cool.

[00:17:53] and I do ask that every time. I'm like, can we be on. So I think that's really [00:18:00] cool because, and it's cool for the nonprofit also to say, Hey, we're small, but we still have a team of people that support the work that we do. So I think it's good both ways. and so I. that's one way. I also do a lot of podcasts.

[00:18:16] I think that is important. Getting our name out there. We have a heavy LinkedIn presence, and we also, talk to people all the time and tell them what we do and ask them, what can we do for you? How can we support you? Is there something that we can share that's really cool that you're doing?

[00:18:33] We wanna tell other people about. So it's more than just HR Taylor made or Dr. Tiffany get, asking for things from people. I like to, I'm a pretty good connector as well, so I really like to share, resources too. Okay. Oh, just my go. You go first. Okay. one thing I'm just curious about, because this whole podcast interview, it's I'm [00:19:00] aligned and like I have clients and they refer me and it's oh my gosh, how do I have Dr. Tiffany's like business. It sounds perfect. And then I'm wondering, just how and if you've needed to navigate, a shift in 2025, with organizations who are having to be just. Very, specific with how they spend their resources given funding cuts and just administrative changes and just the whole thing.

[00:19:25] have you had to navigate that and if so, what have you done or do you kind of find that, like your niche working in HR is something that kind of rides the test of time? Like it doesn't really matter, like what's going on. Like people need, like hr, Like how have, yeah, I guess I'm just curious like how you've navigated so far in 2025.

[00:19:46] actually 2025 has been really good to hr. Taylor made,what I believe is that. Organizations are holding their breath, and they're waiting to see what's going to happen. The things that [00:20:00] they need to do, they're still doing because they have the money to do it right, but they don't know what's gonna happen next year.

[00:20:07] They do. They're, it's like we're all waiting for this shoe to drop because we just don't, no, it's crazy. It changes every five minutes. So the. There at this point, there really hasn't been anything to navigate. I can tell you though, in general, experiencing the tests of entrepreneurship last year was the most challenging year for me personally, and therefore for my business.

[00:20:40] no, they were actually very separate. They were hard for two separate reasons. So last year,one of the things that we have to do as entrepreneurs is we have to navigate life just like every other human being. And so at the beginning of last year, I lost my older brother. And then in May of last year, I lost my [00:21:00] daddy.

[00:21:00] so last year was the year that just kept on punching me in the face. That's what it felt like, right? So along with that, there were months where I didn't even have a sales call. And that was really difficult, although the work kept going. We were, we were still, I was still able to make payroll, which is probably the scariest thing for every entrepreneur.

[00:21:26] so God continued to sustain me and I'm, I. I am trusting and believing that I didn't have any new clients because I emotionally could not handle it. Even though I have a team, I still initially work with all of our new clients because I wanna understand that business so that I understand.

[00:21:48] What they need so that I can support my team in providing what the clients need. So that is what I believe, about last year. And I know that [00:22:00] every entrepreneur goes through the valley, multiple valleys inside of one year, right? So I am praying to ride the top of the rollercoaster for all of 2025.

[00:22:12] I'm right there with you and so sorry about your losses. That's, thank you. Incredibly hard. And I wanna talk a little bit about asking for what we need, because I do think there's, you mentioned it in a couple ways. One is like when you do have these tragedies so close to you, like you, you need to communicate your, with your clients that like you're not gonna be.

[00:22:38] As available or however you ma navigated that, but I'm assuming you took some time for yourself. but you also do things like ask, can we be listed as your HR people on your website, which I think is brilliant. but all of these things are kind of, we gotta ask right? So often. We don't get if [00:23:00] we don't ask, and people are just really uncomfortable making the ask.

[00:23:03] So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about having those conversations, whether it's asking for some grace around, grieving or putting us on your website or even asking for referrals. How do you, how do you navigate that in a sector that's really bad for at asking for anything? Yeah.

[00:23:26] I don't even look at it, I don't look at it from a perspective of what the receiver of my message needs, right? I look, and that may sound selfish, but I look at it from, okay, what am I, what are we needing? What are we trying to get? What is the purpose? And I just go for it. And I know that sounds like I'm making it really simple.

[00:23:51] The other thing that you should know about me is I'm an introvert, so I don't like having conversations if I don't need [00:24:00] to, but what I've learned is that a closed mouth does not get fed. So if I don't ask, I won't get it. I was reading, and I think I said already that I'm a Christian and I read the Bible, all the things right.

[00:24:16] I am. So I was reading a 40 day prayer challenge, and one of the things that I read was, a hundred percent of the prayers that don't get prayed will never get answered. And I was, I had to read that again. I was like, and the easiest person to ask something of is God, because it's that, it's not a, a person in the flesh.

[00:24:39] So I'm saying that to say that. We have to ask for what we want in a way that makes us feel comfortable. And so if I know that I need to raise my prices, I have to think about it from the perspective of, okay. I need to raise my prices [00:25:00] because if I don't, one, we're not gonna make a profit off of this particular thing that I'm selling.

[00:25:05] But two, we have to increase our prices because of the cost of living. We are working to live, right? So we have to figure out why we're asking for what we're asking for. And. If it makes us feel better, we should also say, and here's what I'll give you in return. What I've found is when we do great work for people or when people value us, they don't mind us asking them for something.

[00:25:36] Now, I don't go to them on the first day of the engagement and say, Hey, can you put us on your website? I make sure that we are doing great work for them and that they're happy with the service that they're receiving. Then I make the ask. That totally makes sense. so right before we were on this call, I can't see Cindy, oh my god, Cindy, and I were talking to, this amazing, woman named [00:26:00] Shannon, who essentially teaches people about building wealth and, One of the things we were talking about is just like how specifically, so often women struggle with, asking for more and increasing prices, and you seem so comfortable with that and I'm just curious if that is just something that comes a little bit more naturally to you, or maybe you're just.

[00:26:23] Like super logical. You're like, my life costs this and so I need to charge that. And you just take the emotion out of it. if so, teach us your ways. or is there like a program you read went through? Is there like a book? Because so many people that listen to this podcast, I think are like. Wanting to increase prices, and they're either feeling guilt around where they started with a client and now things have adjusted and changed, so it's time to increase.

[00:26:50] Or they're, operating from a place of like fear or scarcity around if I charge more, like no one's gonna hire me. so how do [00:27:00] you approach that and execute on that? Because it's not Those are easy conversations to have, especially with clients that you've established a relationship with.

[00:27:09] So yeah, how do you navigate? first of all of those things that you said that people experience, I've experienced it as well, but I've been in business for seven years, so I think it just takes time. It takes time for us, one, to realize that we're actually worth that higher price, that we actually have something worth the cost that we are charging.

[00:27:37] That we know what we're talking about. So it comes with, it's about the confidence that comes with it as well. And then when you hear that other people are charging $500 an hour and they don't have half of the experience or expertise or knowledge that we have, that will make you look at people with a side eye and start to [00:28:00] question, okay, why did I ask for that higher price?

[00:28:03] So all of those things have happened to me. I had to realize, Tiffany, you, you all are offering something that is very valuable to organizations now. Should we, charge people $500 an hour? No, that's, that, that's not reasonable. We still need to have a rate that makes sense. For example, we are fractional HR people.

[00:28:28] Our goal is to make sure that we are cheaper than the cost of you hiring a full-time HR person. So if I start charging $80,000 a year for our retainer services, then I've, I'll price myself. So it, I, there's a logical way that you have to think about it, and then we also have to remember we are worth it.

[00:28:53] Absolutely a hundred percent. okay, I wanna just go like a little bit deeper. so I'm a marketer, that's what [00:29:00] I do. And you mentioned that you, show up on LinkedIn quite a bit, and I'm just curious if you have any advice for folks, on I call it show not tell marketing, right? Like it's one thing to say like my client says I'm the bee's knees and everyone loves me.

[00:29:16] And then it's a different thing to show it and show the results. And I'm just curious if like you're able to show that your clients are. Getting their money's worth that they're getting a lot of value. They're having success. Is it through and the reason why I'm interested specifically in like your niche is because I work in marketing and fundraising where there's like concrete numbers, like more people on an email list, more followers, more money raised, where like your metrics are probably a bit different.

[00:29:49] so how do you show people that your work is working? It is very difficult. and you are right. We don't have those same [00:30:00] types of metrics. What. If I worked in an HR department inside of an organization, we would have metrics, but it's very different when you are an outside HR team helping, because we don't have the same level of access and we don't have the same ability to pull levers as we would if we were actually native to an actual organization.

[00:30:25] However, what we do is I always ask our clients, okay. on a monthly basis, I'll send an email, Hey, just checking on you. On a scale of one to five, how would you rate, the support that we provided to you, this month. And they will tell us, oh, you guys are five. Or they'll write a really nice, response to us.

[00:30:44] Now, are you okay with me posting this on LinkedIn? Are us putting it on our website? And we will do that. so that's one of the ways that we do it. We also get. A ton of feedback from team members, and to me those are the best [00:31:00] because a really good employer, they want their team members to be happy and they want their team members to feel supported, which is why most of our clients come to us because they know that team members can.

[00:31:17] Feel uncomfortable going to leadership about concerns that they may have, but may feel really comfortable coming to a third party. And a lot of times it does that, that, helps with the culture of the organization because we can say, okay, five people came to us about this one thing. Let's figure out how we're going to navigate this.

[00:31:37] And then those five people get to remain anonymous, but over here, the employer gets to be, the hero because they're fixing that thing. So it's a win-win. Okay. So helpful. And now I'm wondering. What else besides LinkedIn and word of mouth do you do to talk about your business? [00:32:00] do you have a newsletter?

[00:32:01] You mentioned you go on podcasts. Do you attend conferences? Do you run ads like I. or do you not need to play in all of those spaces because you're kind of at like your comfort or not even comfort, like your max level as far as capacity and you're comfortable with that? yeah, I guess I'm just kind of curious how you think about all that.

[00:32:22] Yeah. I thought about all of that and one reminder, introvert over here, but two, we've learned that. HR is a personal thing, and we have to build relationships with people on some level before they will even en engage in a conversation with us about their hr, which is why word of mouth is the best way for us to get clients because they can talk to that person that they already trust about what we did for them.

[00:32:59] So that [00:33:00] has been, a huge success for us. The other thing that I did last year. I took the entire year and I emailed 10 people a week and said who I was connected to, not emailed, I'm sorry. I messaged 10 people that I was connected to on LinkedIn. I'm like, Hey, we've been connected for a while. I really wanna be intentional about all the people that I'm connected with.

[00:33:23] Here's my virtual coffee link if you're interested in getting to know me too. And every week I had about four people on my calendar. And so I just developed strategic partnerships. I now have a couple ladies that I would call friends. We meet every quarter as a, just because we wanna continue to follow each other's, success.

[00:33:44] So that's another thing that I did. I did TikTok a little bit, my people are not there and I'm okay with that. So I've just resolved that those personal connections and strategic partnerships, that's the way [00:34:00] that we should continue to get our clients. I just know like Cindy's little soul is like smiling so bright because it's so aligned with what she teaches fractional, her fractional clients and basically any consultant she ever comes across.

[00:34:17] What I just love is that you're so like self-assured, you're so tuned into what works for you and what I'm hearing you say is sometimes you might get distracted, all like TikTok, but then you come right back to center and you like know what works. one thing just before we go into our confessions question, I'd love to ask just a little bit more because people ask Cindy and I all the time, we too have like a.

[00:34:40] Core crew of folks that we, meet with twice a year in person we, are interacting with regularly and they're like our biz besties that we can complain to or ask advice from. And you mentioned having something similar and I think both Cindy and I would agree it's been some of the most, Worthwhile investment we've made as far [00:35:00] as time and resources, and people ask us all the time, like, how did you get that started? Where did you find your people? So it sounds like what from, I heard what I heard you were, you had a list of people and every week you challenged yourself to message. 10 of them and out of that experiment, a few people rose to the top.

[00:35:18] And so were you like the quarterback that like roped, everyone was like, Hey, we should all get on a call, or are these just people you meet with individually and what has that turned into and what has resulted from that? Yeah, so definitely I was the quarterback and it was just a connection that, you get when you're on a call with someone, you're like, okay, this is my person, this.

[00:35:44] We are aligned in the way that we think we're aligned in terms of. Of what it is we want for our businesses and perhaps our lives. that's how I selected them and I just said, what, can we meet on a quarterly basis? I think that, we can help each other, we can share [00:36:00] resources and we can just, be there to support each other.

[00:36:08] Oh, good. Awesome. So good. Yeah, we. It's all about community. Yeah. It really is. And can I, I wanna A little bit more about the marketing. Sure. because I don't want it, I don't want any of the listeners to assume that I just have it right. And that it, I just, started my business and my marketing was right.

[00:36:29] It was not literally, this year is the year where I feel like it's right. I've Al Marketing was the first thing that I outsourced because I love Canva too much, and I would've had a marketing business not knowing a thing about it because I love to play in Canva, so I knew that was not something that I needed to have my hands on.

[00:36:54] So I've always had a marketing company to do my stuff I am on my [00:37:00] third marketing company and I finally, last year, the whole year we focused on getting the message right, and that's why I feel like now I can just focus on LinkedIn because before we had Twitter, we had LinkedIn, Facebook. Instagram TikTok, that's too much.

[00:37:23] My people are only on LinkedIn for the most part when they're thinking about business. That is, and then now we have a newsletter. Now we have a welcome sequence. I didn't have any of that stuff before. I had a website, but the messaging wasn't right on the website. I feel great about our website messaging, but it took me seven years to get here.

[00:37:44] It took me seven years to get clear. On who I wanted to serve. It wasn't until August of last year where I said, we're gonna focus on nonprofits, so things take time. Yes. I look at other people and I'm like, oh my [00:38:00] God, how did they get there? I wish I could be there. But at the same time, I don't know how long it took them to get to where they are.

[00:38:08] I don't know how long they've been in business. I don't know the backstory. I don't know how many. How much money they've lost trying different things. But what I do know is that I have been in business for seven years and I am going to stay the course because I feel like this is working. So I think it's important to say that.

[00:38:30] But the other thing about marketing and this is for you Jess, everybody believes that they can be a marketer, right? Everybody. Because they know Canva. But that's not true. And the same is true about hr. Everybody thinks, I can hire people. I know how to be nice to people, but that's not hr, that's management.

[00:38:49] So I think it's important for all of us, and I think your listeners will be, will love to hear me say. People need to pay for services so that they can get out [00:39:00] of my business. And they can get out of your business, Jess, and go do what they are great at. Yeah, totally. I said this story a couple times.

[00:39:11] I recently hired someone to do some, things in my business and in this call she was like trying to teach me. And I was like,no. I have paid you to do the thing so that I don't have to learn how to do the thing because I don't wanna be good at everything. And I think, again, just, I think it's so admirable how just, and I don't know if this is, like you said, your relationship with God or you've done a lot of work on yourself, but you just seem so self-assured.

[00:39:40] You just like, and that is. Sometimes trickier for people to figure out as business owners. And what's the saying, Cindy, you might be able to help me out. comparison is the thief of joy or something. I suck at these things too. You and I both have the same deficit here of we always get the sayings wrong, but I think that's [00:40:00] what it's, I think you got it.

[00:40:00] I think you got it. and you just seem you've got your blinders on in a good way. and I think that's amazing. thank you for sharing all of that. Cindy, you wanna ask our famous question? Yeah. Dr. Tiffany, before we wrap up, we're gonna ask, what is your confession?

[00:40:18] My confession is that I want to retire to be a spa vlogger. Oh yes. That is amazing. Yes, please. And also, are you like psychic? I'm literally writing what questions we'll ask you and I have what did you wanna be when you were a kid? But like the fact that you just said that, that's weird. Okay. Wait, we need so much more information.

[00:40:47] Wow, that is so cool. Have you done this before? Oh that. I mean, I, that sounds fantastic. Count me in. So I love going to the spa. I wanna travel the world. I want them to call me and say, [00:41:00] Tiffany, we've got your spot ready. We're gonna send you a ticket and we've got your hotel room booked. Just come and enjoy the spa for two days, three days, five, whatever.

[00:41:11] Whatever country, I don't care, but I'm gonna record where I am. Talk about my experience. that's my retirement job. I've already, I'm claiming it. Oh my gosh. Okay. just quickly to follow up, do you have a timeline or a sequence of events that will help get you there? or is it just right now, that's the thing I wanna do, which is like half the.

[00:41:33] Work. Just deciding. I don't have a timeline. I really do enjoy being an entrepreneur and business. Owner. And so now I just go to spas as I can, as the budget will allow, because it is not cheap. That's, I love it. I need someone else to pay for it. Yeah, a hundred percent. Oh, that's so good, Tiffany.

[00:41:53] Thank you, Dr. Tiffany. Excuse me. I said at the beginning like, she worked hard for those letters. We need to [00:42:00] shout them proudly. Dr. Tiffany, thanks for sharing all about your business. For folks who want more information on your HR services, we just wanna get in touch. What's the best way for people to connect with you?

[00:42:12] Just go to our website, hr taylor made.com. We have a contact form. Our email address is on there. It's super easy to find us. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us.

cindy wagman
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