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Episode 12

E12: Case Study: Starting a Certification Program with Natalie Gingrich

Listen in on this enlightening conversation with Natalie Gingrich, the creator of The Ops Authority, a director of operations certification program.  In this episode, we will explore, step-by-step, the journey of developing a certification program, from ideation to implementation.

In this episode we will learn:

  • How Natalie transitioned from doing to teaching
  • The “scalable and saleable” aspects of certification programs
  • The difference between selling a course and offering a certification
  • The three critical steps to creating a certification program
  •  As a bonus, we learn how CEOs and DOOs can work together for organizational success

Natalie Gingrich is the founder of The Ops Authority, where she certifies and mentors women who leverage their natural skillset of operations and administration. She's driven to help women earn an income with ease while doing what comes most naturally to them. She spent 15 years in corporate operations and leadership. Her entire professional life has been built around human resources, project management, process development, and people leadership. Natalie ended her corporate career as the Chief of Staff for a Fortune 150 CEO. With legacy being her driver and her kids getting older, Natalie left corporate America in search of balance. She matched her drive, leadership, and operational skills to create her own business. In her first 3 years of business, Natalie scaled dozens of online and small businesses to 7 and 8 figures, worked alongside industry icons, and developed diverse teams. She merged her corporate career with her entrepreneurial learnings to create the Director of Operations Certification Program, the only strategic operations certification for leaders. She continuously pours into operations experts on her weekly podcast, The Ops Authority.

We would love you to consider supporting Natalie’s favorite charity: https://kinetickidstx.org/

Connect with Natalie:

directorofops.com -- Director of Operations Certification Program: The next step for female project managers, human resource professionals, and operations managers who want to build a career that leverages their gifts and brings them ease.

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-gingrich/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/opsinsiders

Connect with Erin and find the resources mentioned in this episode at hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/

Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos

Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music

A Podcast Launch Bestie production

Transcript
Erin Austin:

All right.

Erin Austin:

Welcome to the hourly to exit podcast.

Erin Austin:

I'm your host, Erin and I am so happy to have Natalie Gingrich with me today.

Erin Austin:

Hello, Natalie.

Erin Austin:

Thank you for joining me.

Natalie Gingrich:

Hi Erin.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's awesome to be here.

Erin Austin:

I am so happy to have you with the it's gonna be a great

Erin Austin:

episode talking about certification licensing programs, something we talk

Erin Austin:

about all the time here, and I'm really looking forward to digging into it.

Erin Austin:

But before we get started, can you please introduce yourself?

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah, absolutely.

Natalie Gingrich:

Well, of course, I'm Natalie and something that's always fun to

Natalie Gingrich:

know is where these people live.

Natalie Gingrich:

Right.

Natalie Gingrich:

Because we hear them, but we don't know all the background

Natalie Gingrich:

and all the dirt on them.

Natalie Gingrich:

So, um, a little bit about me.

Natalie Gingrich:

From San Antonio, Texas, and have spent the last seven years in my

Natalie Gingrich:

own entrepreneurial journey, really honing in and using the gifts

Natalie Gingrich:

that I innately have, but also

Natalie Gingrich:

on top of that, really coupled with the experience that I had in my 15

Natalie Gingrich:

year corporate experience as well.

Natalie Gingrich:

So, all that means that I got here by leveraging my operational skills, which

Natalie Gingrich:

sounds super nerdy and unattractive, but believe it or not, they're desirable.

Natalie Gingrich:

And there's a large contingency, specifically of females, who have

Natalie Gingrich:

the opportunity to use these as well.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I've taken all of those experiences and I've spent seven years in this

Natalie Gingrich:

phase of my, I call it Natalie 3.0.

Erin Austin:

Ooh, nice.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah.

Natalie Gingrich:

And in getting to the point where I was able to take that intellectual

Natalie Gingrich:

property, boil it down and create a certification program.

Natalie Gingrich:

We certify train and mentor directors of operations to really build a career and

Natalie Gingrich:

a business around those skill sets that they likely have taken for granted for a

Natalie Gingrich:

whole, maybe even many, many professions before this, so that brings us to today.

Erin Austin:

Yeah, I can sympathize with trying to make what we talk about sexy.

Erin Austin:

I have that licensing is sexy.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Erin Austin:

But it can be.

Erin Austin:

So tell me, you mentioned DOO, director of operations.

Erin Austin:

What is a director of operations?

Erin Austin:

Like what do they do?

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah.

Natalie Gingrich:

Awesome.

Natalie Gingrich:

Let's just start at what operations is.

Natalie Gingrich:

Sometimes that's a term that not a lot of people have heard.

Natalie Gingrich:

And even for myself, in my 15 years of corporate experience, operations was

Natalie Gingrich:

a little different than the way that we are seeing it being used today.

Natalie Gingrich:

Operations was very logistical in the corporate organization that I came from.

Natalie Gingrich:

And when you kind of zoom out and, and maybe you have a different understanding

Natalie Gingrich:

of it from what my corporate experience was, but when I came into small business

Natalie Gingrich:

operations, again, for small business, you're running leaner teams, you're

Natalie Gingrich:

running smaller operations, and sometimes even more meaningful and passionate

Natalie Gingrich:

filled operations and businesses,

Natalie Gingrich:

your operations are a lot wider than just logistics and some of those pieces

Natalie Gingrich:

that I had attached to them beforehand.

Natalie Gingrich:

But when we look at operations today, we're really looking at five disciplines

Natalie Gingrich:

specific to small and online businesses.

Natalie Gingrich:

And that's the operational strategy, you're looking at human resources,

Natalie Gingrich:

which is a huge discipline underneath, but we'll just summarize it there.

Natalie Gingrich:

Project management, data and financial.

Natalie Gingrich:

So those five disciplines fall underneath operations and all five of

Natalie Gingrich:

those are desperately and significantly needed in any size of business.

Natalie Gingrich:

If you are a solo entrepreneur, or if you are, you know, in corporate America,

Natalie Gingrich:

those are all disciplines that have to be a part of what you do and how you

Natalie Gingrich:

perform, how your business is stood up.

Natalie Gingrich:

When I came into the online space, I was really helping businesses in all of

Natalie Gingrich:

those and Erin, I didn't know that I had anything different than the next person.

Natalie Gingrich:

I have a background in my corporate experience, afforded me

Natalie Gingrich:

the opportunity to work in human resources and project management for

Natalie Gingrich:

that time period.

Natalie Gingrich:

But even those were very silo disciplines inside of corporate

Natalie Gingrich:

America, because frankly, you just have a lot more resources

Natalie Gingrich:

in large organizations like that.

Natalie Gingrich:

When I translated that into small businesses,

Natalie Gingrich:

I started to see how, we can't afford in businesses like mine and yours, we could

Natalie Gingrich:

not afford somebody to be a disciplined owner of those five disciplines, because

Natalie Gingrich:

you still have another whole side of your business, which is marketing, right.

Erin Austin:

Right.

Natalie Gingrich:

So, you know, I, I boiled all of that into one

Natalie Gingrich:

role, an incredibly impactful role,

Natalie Gingrich:

and I started out as a project manager managing one project and businesses

Natalie Gingrich:

would keep me on and I would give them value in their entire organization.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I just was doing what I always did, and I apprised that and really pulled

Natalie Gingrich:

that back into my corporate experience because, you know, even though I was

Natalie Gingrich:

working in one discipline, they were all very cross-functional and the skills of

Natalie Gingrich:

an operator are all very cross-functional.

Natalie Gingrich:

Getting to, to answer the question of what is a director of operations, they

Natalie Gingrich:

leverage those five skill sets and hard skill training areas and pull them

Natalie Gingrich:

into one person come and sit next to, from a strategic level and a strategic

Natalie Gingrich:

partnership, they sit next to the CEO and the visionary to help the visionary and

Natalie Gingrich:

the business to scale faster, to be more

Natalie Gingrich:

profitable, to optimize, to find efficiencies.

Natalie Gingrich:

That's what a director of operations does.

Natalie Gingrich:

There's many different levels of an operator and arguably

Natalie Gingrich:

they're all very, very important.

Natalie Gingrich:

You know, you can have an operations coordinator and operations manager.

Natalie Gingrich:

And honestly, there are so many different terms for what these people do.

Natalie Gingrich:

I have landed on a director of operations to show the significance at the strategic

Natalie Gingrich:

level, but also the breadth of not just being a project manager and not just

Natalie Gingrich:

being an HR manager, pulling all of that together at the strategic level.

Natalie Gingrich:

That's what makes a director of operations.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah.

Erin Austin:

Yeah.

Erin Austin:

I, I can, confirm to the audience.

Erin Austin:

I mean, I have a brilliant head of operations that Natalie brought

Erin Austin:

to me who is DOO trained and certified by The Ops Authority.

Erin Austin:

And I never imagined that all those aspects would come like in as a

Erin Austin:

solo entrepreneur that I would need, but it is absolutely true that all

Erin Austin:

these pieces are very important.

Erin Austin:

You, you really don't even think about how much more value and ease

Erin Austin:

you can get out of your business when you have all these pieces in place.

Erin Austin:

You know, I like venue lawyers.

Erin Austin:

we don't think in terms of systems, you know, we kind of think in terms of, you

Erin Austin:

know, what we know and, and our precedent, things like that, but systems are not

Erin Austin:

kind of at the forefront of what we do.

Erin Austin:

And so having someone to help put those pieces in place is

Erin Austin:

made, made a huge difference.

Erin Austin:

I can say in my business, and we are gonna talk a little bit later about the

Erin Austin:

value of DOOs in businesses, but I wanna start with talking about your business.

Erin Austin:

First from kind of a high level perspective about like

Erin Austin:

why you started your business.

Erin Austin:

There's a couple of things that I have noticed.

Erin Austin:

I mean, you did mention that you mostly work with women.

Erin Austin:

And so one, and that was my experience all the dos that come across are women.

Erin Austin:

Now, was that intentional?

Erin Austin:

Is there something inherently

Erin Austin:

feminine about DOOs, and do you see any shifts around that?

Natalie Gingrich:

Excellent question.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I cannot wait to go into this cuz no one's really ever asked me that.

Natalie Gingrich:

But when I left corporate, there was just a lot of internal work.

Natalie Gingrich:

I had the opportunity to restart work on my terms.

Natalie Gingrich:

And when I had that opportunity, I dug deep and I really looked to see like what

Natalie Gingrich:

would it look like for me to be fulfilled?

Natalie Gingrich:

And when I had the opportunity to restart, I did it purely from a place of legacy.

Natalie Gingrich:

I didn't have a big, you know, significant dollar amount that equated success to me.

Natalie Gingrich:

I really wanted to be able to be available for my children in a different

Natalie Gingrich:

way, and still at the same time contribute financially to our household.

Natalie Gingrich:

But I did not have crazy expectations of making 5 billion or six figures

Natalie Gingrich:

or any of the things that we are commonly equating to success.

Natalie Gingrich:

I wanted to do this in the way that was most authentic to me, and you

Natalie Gingrich:

don't have those opportunities when you work for a larger institution.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so I wanted to do it different.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I initially was attracted to working with women who were course

Natalie Gingrich:

creators in the online space.

Natalie Gingrich:

And that was completely foreign to me.

Natalie Gingrich:

I didn't even know that this was an opportunity or a

Natalie Gingrich:

business that was just booming.

Natalie Gingrich:

I had no idea when I was in corporate that this was happening.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so I fell into working alongside and being a partner to people.

Natalie Gingrich:

When I was doing this in a one to one capacity, the people who leveraged

Natalie Gingrich:

me best and most often were females.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so, you know, I think that's where it organically was created.

Natalie Gingrich:

You know, some people will say, oh, I bet you were just sick and tired of the

Natalie Gingrich:

male, energy that happens in corporate and

Natalie Gingrich:

to no surprise, it was actually the females that made it way

Natalie Gingrich:

harder than the males, but we'll save that for a different day.

Natalie Gingrich:

So that's who I was working with and, in the online space in general, I was finding

Natalie Gingrich:

that It was easier for me to talk to, and to educate and to partner with women.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so I work with people for a long time and I was not

Natalie Gingrich:

exclusive to working with females.

Natalie Gingrich:

I just found that there was better energy and, and ease about it when

Natalie Gingrich:

I was working with other females.

Natalie Gingrich:

And over time, when it came time for me to take my intellectual property

Natalie Gingrich:

and do something with it again, I got to redefine what, what looked good

Natalie Gingrich:

and felt good to me at that moment.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I continued down the path of working with females, and here is why.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's not because males cannot be operators.

Natalie Gingrich:

Actually, in my corporate experience, most of my peers were males.

Natalie Gingrich:

They weren't females.

Natalie Gingrich:

But I will say that when I started to stand this up myself, I loved the

Natalie Gingrich:

community aspect of what we were doing.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I don't wanna get super woo here, but there was energetically something

Natalie Gingrich:

about the way that I knew I was going to build this business around community,

Natalie Gingrich:

around support, around mentorship, and if I was gonna be let's call it

Natalie Gingrich:

the chief mentor, the head mentor, I knew who I mentored easiest and best.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so I put some parameters on myself, which, you know, I'm sure every coach

Natalie Gingrich:

I've ever had is like, why do you do that?

Natalie Gingrich:

You could make so much more money, blah, blah, blah.

Natalie Gingrich:

And maybe that's the case, and we've had so many men who apply,

Natalie Gingrich:

who want to join us and they would possibly be phenomenal fits.

Natalie Gingrich:

It

Natalie Gingrich:

just breaks the energy and the confidence and the leadership training that we're

Natalie Gingrich:

providing when we, you know, when we, when we distract ourselves with that.

Natalie Gingrich:

So anyway, that's, that's the long story as to why we have

Natalie Gingrich:

built this around females.

Natalie Gingrich:

I also know that from my own, really like heart to heart,

Natalie Gingrich:

it is the females and my peers

Natalie Gingrich:

in our gender that don't see the value that they can bring to other people.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Gingrich:

They also don't see their innate gifts as easily.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I'm not here to figure that whole psychological piece out.

Natalie Gingrich:

But I know that it's been a tremendous, I mean, the success that we have

Natalie Gingrich:

brought people and brought women who just didn't see themselves, um,

Natalie Gingrich:

or hold themselves in the same way has been just life changing for us

Erin Austin:

Yeah, that is fantastic.

Erin Austin:

I mean, we share that very much.

Erin Austin:

I mean, part of my purpose and my journey with working with female founders of

Erin Austin:

service based businesses is because so often, like they're not thinking about

Erin Austin:

building that value in their business.

Erin Austin:

I mean, we can make a very comfortable income just selling our time,

Erin Austin:

right.

Erin Austin:

But we're not building anything.

Erin Austin:

And so educating women, I mean, I don't, too many times, you know, I

Erin Austin:

am in groups of women who are like, I never even thought about that.

Erin Austin:

I never thought about, I could build a business to sell.

Erin Austin:

I never thought that there could be assets in my business.

Natalie Gingrich:

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin:

And so, yeah.

Erin Austin:

And there is an education around that, and empowerment around that, which is part

Erin Austin:

of why we do what we do, which is great.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Erin Austin:

All right.

Erin Austin:

So let us talk about your certification program.

Erin Austin:

So what was happening in your business when you decided to do this?

Erin Austin:

I hear you were doing the one on one work.

Erin Austin:

You had a framework, like how did you decide, this is

Erin Austin:

where the next level would be?

Natalie Gingrich:

I had, built a framework early.

Natalie Gingrich:

I mean, as soon as I left corporate and started kind of working with these

Natalie Gingrich:

businesses, I came in as a project manager working on one project.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I was really just utilizing the project management skills and, I had already

Natalie Gingrich:

mentioned businesses would be like, well, wait, you're doing this so well, like

Natalie Gingrich:

you're actually looking at a budget.

Natalie Gingrich:

We've never had a budget for anything in my business and you're

Natalie Gingrich:

managing the team so well, like, do you think that you could take on

Natalie Gingrich:

another project and another project?

Natalie Gingrich:

And so before you knew it, I was fully encompassed into the business

Natalie Gingrich:

and really at the driver's seat.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so there's a whole lot of lessons that went into this because

Natalie Gingrich:

I didn't initially position myself as a director of operations.

Natalie Gingrich:

I was really just like a bleeding heart showing up to serve clients,

Natalie Gingrich:

which I love about the core of me, but at the same time, it took some time

Natalie Gingrich:

to get to the place where I even saw that I had intellectual property, that

Natalie Gingrich:

would be valuable to somebody else.

Natalie Gingrich:

So, there's a lot of coaching that I'm sure you could look back on

Natalie Gingrich:

my journey and be like, yes, NAD

Natalie Gingrich:

But, so then I came in at this higher level and I got to work with, I

Natalie Gingrich:

mean, dozens and dozens of phenomenal businesses and those people, those leaders

Natalie Gingrich:

that I was working with, were having conferences and masterminds and whatnot.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so as organic networking traditionally happens, you know, I found myself

Natalie Gingrich:

having the opportunity to be able to speak to large groups, being on stages.

Natalie Gingrich:

This is pre pandemic.

Natalie Gingrich:

So travel was a totally different, you know, actually business was

Natalie Gingrich:

quite different at that point, too.

Natalie Gingrich:

Marketing was very different too.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I think in 2019 I spoke on 19 stages and that, yes, I mean,

Natalie Gingrich:

life was completely different.

Natalie Gingrich:

Now I think I've spoke on three in the last so many years,

Natalie Gingrich:

so...

Natalie Gingrich:

but when I had the opportunity to do that, it really opened up the

Natalie Gingrich:

floodgate of helping women or business owners to see that they could use this

Natalie Gingrich:

support and then where to find it.

Natalie Gingrich:

Well, that generated an, just a plethora of leads for me.

Natalie Gingrich:

However, there was a capacity thing and remember I was doing

Natalie Gingrich:

this from a legacy perspective.

Natalie Gingrich:

My very busy kid's sports life does not lend me to having just a ton of clients.

Natalie Gingrich:

So, I started to think, you know what?

Natalie Gingrich:

I'm gonna put this into a course because people are coming to me and they're

Natalie Gingrich:

asking me, Natalie, I need a Natalie.

Natalie Gingrich:

Where do I find a Natalie?

Natalie Gingrich:

And I hadn't run across a lot of people who had a super similar background to

Natalie Gingrich:

me or the same skill sets that I have,

Natalie Gingrich:

but I did find a lot of people who were eager to use parts and pieces of it.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I was like, you know what, I'm gonna solve the problem.

Natalie Gingrich:

I'm gonna create a course.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I'm an operator.

Natalie Gingrich:

I am not a marketer.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so when it came down to it, I did a lot of work into figuring out

Natalie Gingrich:

how I could put this into a course.

Natalie Gingrich:

And that's a fun experience that we could probably jam on for another hour.

Natalie Gingrich:

But I put that into a course and had an absolute beast of a time trying to sell

Natalie Gingrich:

the thing because I'm not a marketer.

Natalie Gingrich:

We had a couple people buy it and I received great feedback.

Natalie Gingrich:

The hard part was that I would then.

Natalie Gingrich:

Like connect people and say, oh, Erin, you're looking for somebody?

Natalie Gingrich:

Well, here's this person who has purchased this course.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I had, never interacted.

Natalie Gingrich:

It was truly a quote unquote passive product.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I didn't know the people that were coming in there was no

Natalie Gingrich:

qualifications for them to come in here.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so Erin, who is trusting me as a peer to say, Hey, Nat, who do you have?

Natalie Gingrich:

I wouldn't necessarily match y'all, but I would say, Hey,

Natalie Gingrich:

Erin's looking for somebody.

Natalie Gingrich:

Hey, here are these five people, Erin.

Natalie Gingrich:

Y'all go figure it out.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I wouldn't necessarily have massive ownership, but I was

Natalie Gingrich:

making a recommendation in jest and I have a very empathetic soul.

Natalie Gingrich:

So Erin as a peer would come back and say, you know what?

Natalie Gingrich:

You matched me with Sally.

Natalie Gingrich:

And at the end of the day, Sally didn't do this.

Natalie Gingrich:

She didn't know this.

Natalie Gingrich:

She was whatever.

Natalie Gingrich:

Well, I felt terrible for both Sally and Erin who are now in this partnership or

Natalie Gingrich:

trying to unwind outta this partnership.

Natalie Gingrich:

And, you know, money is spent,

Natalie Gingrich:

heart, time, you know, all that stuff is really valuable and even

Natalie Gingrich:

more so valuable in a small business when resources are very thin.

Natalie Gingrich:

So, I went to work with again, how to solve that problem because people

Natalie Gingrich:

are still coming to me at this point.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I'm thinking, how am I gonna do this?

Natalie Gingrich:

So the course model didn't feel good to me, both from an experience

Natalie Gingrich:

perspective, a sales mechanism, and also it didn't solve the problem of

Natalie Gingrich:

how can I recommend strong people to this contingency of women and people

Natalie Gingrich:

who want an operator in their business?

Natalie Gingrich:

So that's when a very wise friend of mine said, have you

Natalie Gingrich:

ever considered certification?

Natalie Gingrich:

We were at an event and I was sitting on a bus.

Natalie Gingrich:

We were going to dinner and I, my mind exploded.

Natalie Gingrich:

I could barely think for the next two days at the conference, because I

Natalie Gingrich:

knew that that was when I say ticket, I don't mean in a financial way.

Natalie Gingrich:

I knew that I was actually going to solve the problem that had been, just

Natalie Gingrich:

itching me for the last two years.

Natalie Gingrich:

And it allowed me to have qualifications up front

Natalie Gingrich:

to really present a curriculum that I could control and then provide an

Natalie Gingrich:

experience where people could really have a transformation so that they could stand

Natalie Gingrich:

up and utilize this information in a way that could be transformational and, and

Natalie Gingrich:

helpful for them and their legacies, which ultimately is, the biggest driver I have.

Erin Austin:

Wow.

Erin Austin:

That is amazing.

Erin Austin:

I did not realize you started with a course, although that doesn't surprise me.

Erin Austin:

So one of the problems that, you know, we hear about courses is

Erin Austin:

just, it's not only, you know, the ultimate client who has the problem,

Erin Austin:

but the person who buys the course.

Erin Austin:

Like, getting through it, really understanding it when it's

Erin Austin:

complicated and long, were you having troubles also just with people

Erin Austin:

being able to comprehend the material much less the issues that

Erin Austin:

the ultimate clients were having?

Natalie Gingrich:

This is a great interview because I don't

Natalie Gingrich:

get asked these questions very often, but I come from corporate.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so when you just said that, something that triggered me was people would

Natalie Gingrich:

come back to me and say, I loved it,

Natalie Gingrich:

however, I didn't understand a lot of it.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I really boil it down to having that corporate strategic

Natalie Gingrich:

think and brain and speak.

Natalie Gingrich:

And that wasn't common for the people that were joining me.

Natalie Gingrich:

And it really came down again to I wasn't looking at who was joining me.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I had, there was no qualification of this is gonna be right for

Natalie Gingrich:

you, or this is gonna be wrong for you, which, from a transaction

Natalie Gingrich:

perspective, felt really bad for me.

Natalie Gingrich:

I was like, Natalie, I'm taking people's money and they can't use it.

Natalie Gingrich:

But then on the other side, when they're coming back to me, it's like, well,

Natalie Gingrich:

now I almost needed like a mastermind or coaching sessions to actually

Natalie Gingrich:

help them to bring that to neutral.

Natalie Gingrich:

And honestly, I wasn't really a good course creator either.

Natalie Gingrich:

I didn't really know how to teach people.

Natalie Gingrich:

I didn't know how to break this material down.

Natalie Gingrich:

I was really downloading this, you know, 15 years of experience and

Natalie Gingrich:

four degrees into something that

Natalie Gingrich:

I just didn't have the instructional design to be able to deliver it in a

Natalie Gingrich:

way that was going to be best used.

Natalie Gingrich:

Just so everybody knows, that course has come off the market as soon as possible.

Natalie Gingrich:

I think we sold it 16 times and tied that baby up.

Erin Austin:

Well, no doubt it's informed your certification

Erin Austin:

program, so it wasn't, uh, for naut.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm

Erin Austin:

So I am going to ask you to kind of go step by step from,

Erin Austin:

you know, that two days.

Erin Austin:

Was it that you said you couldn't think about anything else?

Erin Austin:

To where you get to today, like kind of just, how did it happen?

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah, so the course itself was really

Natalie Gingrich:

just one very small piece.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's what we have licensed as our strategic mapping model.

Natalie Gingrich:

That's all I was teaching in the course.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so that, you know, through time, I was like, when we stood up the

Natalie Gingrich:

certification, that was not enough.

Natalie Gingrich:

That was not going to give my students or the end user, which is you, which is the

Natalie Gingrich:

employer, really exactly what I was doing.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so we built out that curriculum and we added on the strategic

Natalie Gingrich:

mapping model is the very first part.

Natalie Gingrich:

Which has now become eight other modules that support this.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so we start looking at those hard disciplines, the

Natalie Gingrich:

HR, the project management, data, financials, all of those.

Natalie Gingrich:

I went to building out the curriculum in, you know, a really in depth way

Natalie Gingrich:

and we've never stopped adding to it.

Natalie Gingrich:

We won't stop adding and refining to it.

Natalie Gingrich:

And we started with our first, with our beta round and that was in 2018.

Natalie Gingrich:

And you know, that informed a lot of what we would be doing moving forward

Natalie Gingrich:

that, from there, we do this in a cohort style, so it's not an evergreen product.

Natalie Gingrich:

That is something that doesn't authentically feel good to me.

Natalie Gingrich:

I love having controlled sizes of groups.

Natalie Gingrich:

I never anticipate being in business without having a one-to-one

Natalie Gingrich:

connection with the students, because I really value that.

Natalie Gingrich:

I know I would make a lot more money doing it in a different way, but it wouldn't

Natalie Gingrich:

feel good to me and that that's, what's

Natalie Gingrich:

most important to me.

Natalie Gingrich:

So we have delivered this, we've built out a full team around it, Erin.

Natalie Gingrich:

There's a delivery team and an operations team that does a lot of the program

Natalie Gingrich:

coordination, but our delivery team, we have coaches in addition to myself

Natalie Gingrich:

that are discipline experts in all of the areas that we've talked about today.

Natalie Gingrich:

We also have a support team, accountability advisors, and

Natalie Gingrich:

that's been an evolution.

Natalie Gingrich:

Like we didn't pop out with all of that.

Natalie Gingrich:

I didn't have the financial means to do that either.

Natalie Gingrich:

So,

Erin Austin:

So what was your first step?

Erin Austin:

What was step number 1?

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah, I built the curriculum and I delivered everything.

Natalie Gingrich:

I supported every student individually.

Natalie Gingrich:

It was very organic.

Natalie Gingrich:

I mean, we actually taught some of this live for the first time.

Natalie Gingrich:

It wasn't in a beautiful studio and all of that.

Natalie Gingrich:

We went to curriculum and I, I did everything myself, like, like you

Natalie Gingrich:

do when you're first starting out.

Erin Austin:

Did you already have an audience who's ready for this?

Erin Austin:

Waiting for this maybe?

Natalie Gingrich:

Mm, I still don't really have a very big audience to be honest.

Natalie Gingrich:

Definitely smaller than most people would anticipate, but, you know,

Natalie Gingrich:

it's, it's a hard audience to get a hold of because the, you know,

Natalie Gingrich:

the VA market, the BM market is, is very big, much bigger than mine.

Natalie Gingrich:

But I'm really looking for the tip top of those audiences.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so, you know, we have lots of connections with them, but no, I did

Natalie Gingrich:

not have a very big audience at all.

Natalie Gingrich:

I think my email list was like 700 people at that time, which I had

Natalie Gingrich:

already poured five years into.

Natalie Gingrich:

But you know, my audience had changed several times because I went from being

Natalie Gingrich:

a one-to-one service provider, right,

Natalie Gingrich:

to looking for my peers of service providers.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so that shift was interesting and something we

Natalie Gingrich:

still put a lot of effort into.

Erin Austin:

And well, you mentioned control.

Erin Austin:

So how much control do you have regarding, I mean, obviously you have requirements in

Erin Austin:

order to qualify for certification at all.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm plus, some standards that they must meet, I assume to continue

Erin Austin:

to be certified after they finish.

Erin Austin:

Like how much control do you have over them?

Natalie Gingrich:

Legally, through my legal journey of getting to certification,

Natalie Gingrich:

getting some of the trademarks, getting the license set up, for us,

Natalie Gingrich:

there had to be some pieces that were set in place.

Natalie Gingrich:

And we look at graduation requirements, and that really didn't come along, Erin,

Natalie Gingrich:

until probably the third or fourth round.

Natalie Gingrich:

We're now at round 15, so it feels like a long time ago, but it isn't.

Natalie Gingrich:

But it took us some time.

Natalie Gingrich:

It took us a few iterations to kind of get a grasp of what success looked like.

Natalie Gingrich:

We know some of the stats of, you know, percentage of completion in

Natalie Gingrich:

courses and stuff, but this was a whole different experience because

Natalie Gingrich:

we were walking students through.

Natalie Gingrich:

We continue to walk students through every single step.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so we put some graduation requirements in place.

Natalie Gingrich:

We have actually expanded those

Natalie Gingrich:

with more cohorts that have gone through.

Natalie Gingrich:

We continue to look back and to see what that looks like.

Natalie Gingrich:

The other piece that I have spent a significant amount of time and passion

Natalie Gingrich:

around is the acceptance requirements, the application requirements, because

Natalie Gingrich:

there's actually a lot of metrics that go into who is right for this.

Natalie Gingrich:

I wanna make sure the people who are joining me are going to be qualified DOOs.

Natalie Gingrich:

I don't want them giving me money and me feeling bad about them not having success.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so the way for me to protect myself is, and this is the emotional

Natalie Gingrich:

part, not legally, but was to put some requirements in place up

Natalie Gingrich:

front from the application so that I could do as good of a job as I know, to attract

Natalie Gingrich:

the right people, and to when I say repel, to guide them on a different path, anyone

Natalie Gingrich:

who doesn't qualify, we have some partner programs that we can refer them to.

Natalie Gingrich:

But we continue to do a lot of work to see who is the best person and seeing

Natalie Gingrich:

what kind of data we can get from them, to get them to qualify to come in.

Natalie Gingrich:

And then we have graduation requirements.

Natalie Gingrich:

Over time, looking at those graduation requirements, we have looked at milestones

Natalie Gingrich:

and so we have put some milestones in place to help us as a coaching team to

Natalie Gingrich:

direct and coach them to the path which we see as the greatest success for them.

Natalie Gingrich:

And, all of that has been really valuable, and I believe helps us to

Natalie Gingrich:

have really high success rates, too.

Erin Austin:

And that's super important.

Erin Austin:

I mean, whether it is, you know, uh, application requirements or

Erin Austin:

the way that we vet our clients, if we're, you know, a service provider,

Erin Austin:

making sure it's a good fit.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm like, if it's not a good fit, no one's gonna be happy.

Erin Austin:

The client's not gonna be happy.

Erin Austin:

Student's not gonna be happy.

Erin Austin:

It will just be, a poor result all around, so that makes a lot of sense.

Erin Austin:

And so does community make a big part of it?

Erin Austin:

Like after they graduate, are they continue to be part of a community?

Erin Austin:

And, and I know Annie who who's working for me, like she always has

Erin Austin:

a resources that she can pull on.

Erin Austin:

Uh, when we have questions.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Natalie Gingrich:

That's, I mean, community is such a big piece going through

Natalie Gingrich:

it and they're with their cohort.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's about a six month program.

Natalie Gingrich:

So when they graduate, we move them into their alumni group, which kind

Natalie Gingrich:

of re sparks the energy for community again, because now they're, you know,

Natalie Gingrich:

going from, you know, 20 to 40 into a group of, you know, 2, 3, 400 people,

Natalie Gingrich:

which is awesome because now they have that many more eyes and resources

Natalie Gingrich:

and, you know, experiences to lean on.

Natalie Gingrich:

So mm-hmm yeah, that's a, that's a huge piece.

Erin Austin:

So if someone is looking at starting their own certification

Erin Austin:

program, what are some tips like what would be a sign that they're ready?

Natalie Gingrich:

You know, I.

Natalie Gingrich:

I get this question so much.

Natalie Gingrich:

So again, thank you for asking because number one, it's not

Natalie Gingrich:

as easy as people think it is.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Gingrich:

Number two, my first thing is, do you

Natalie Gingrich:

have intellectual property?

Natalie Gingrich:

Is this yours or is this somebody else's?

Natalie Gingrich:

And it's hard.

Natalie Gingrich:

That's a hard thing to ask because, I've learned bits and

Natalie Gingrich:

pieces of this along my journey.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I, I can't go back in my mind and figure out who was the first person.

Natalie Gingrich:

Like, that was a really hard exercise for me, was getting clear on is this Natalie's

Natalie Gingrich:

intellectual property, knowing that many pieces of this are learned along the way.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so, first of all, do you have intellectual property?

Natalie Gingrich:

Secondly, have you protected the intellectual property

Natalie Gingrich:

and third now start thinking

Natalie Gingrich:

about what that looks like for you.

Natalie Gingrich:

And, you know, there's a lot of different certification models out there, and it's,

Natalie Gingrich:

it's a really small subset of the course kind of market, but figuring out what

Natalie Gingrich:

works best for you and how you and the curriculum that you're teaching and the

Natalie Gingrich:

market that you're teaching to, how you set and design that up it's step three.

Natalie Gingrich:

And most people come to me.

Natalie Gingrich:

With that in mind and I'm thinking, no, no, no, no, no, it's not about that.

Natalie Gingrich:

You have to go back to step one, which is my advice has been the IP

Natalie Gingrich:

and making sure that you've got it.

Natalie Gingrich:

Number two, that you protect it and then start looking at the way that

Natalie Gingrich:

you're gonna set this up and design it.

Natalie Gingrich:

Because the design and the program coordination is the fun part.

Natalie Gingrich:

Like, that's the fun creative part and I get that.

Natalie Gingrich:

None of it will matter if you don't have the first two.

Natalie Gingrich:

I found a lot of resistance in really getting very, very niche

Natalie Gingrich:

in my marketing until I had done all the IP work that I did.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm right.

Erin Austin:

Yeah.

Erin Austin:

You're you're talking my language.

Erin Austin:

Uh, I will, uh, actually link in the show notes.

Erin Austin:

I did a LinkedIn.

Erin Austin:

Last month called do you own what you think you own,

Erin Austin:

which is basically step one.

Erin Austin:

Which is doing that legal due diligence to make sure you own your,

Erin Austin:

your intellectual property rights.

Natalie Gingrich:

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin:

Cause there's, it's tricky and into not intuitive, and,

Natalie Gingrich:

I think that's so important because like, for me, the

Natalie Gingrich:

responsibility of having a certification company or an educational company in

Natalie Gingrich:

general was people are trusting me For this, we'll call it a diploma or this

Natalie Gingrich:

certification or the designation, whatever that looks like for you and your company.

Natalie Gingrich:

Like they're trusting me and my brand.

Natalie Gingrich:

I wanna make sure that this truly is backed and sound.

Natalie Gingrich:

The last thing I wanna do is give somebody like a false,

Natalie Gingrich:

that's not what this is about.

Natalie Gingrich:

I'm not about volume.

Natalie Gingrich:

I'm definitely about impact.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so these were just critical steps to helping me stay in alignment

Natalie Gingrich:

with who I am and what I want.

Erin Austin:

Yeah, I wanna revisit something you said.

Erin Austin:

One, about when you wanna start your own, it's not easy.

Erin Austin:

And also what I've, uh, emphasized is that it's not a passive revenue stream.

Erin Austin:

It's not set it and forget it.

Erin Austin:

And you mention like that you are always adding and refining.

Erin Austin:

It's not a little thing.

Erin Austin:

So, so to speak to like the fact that it's not a passive revenue stream.

Erin Austin:

You have to stay on top of your game.

Erin Austin:

Keep, keep moving forward.

Natalie Gingrich:

Especially for those visionaries that are out there.

Natalie Gingrich:

And trust me, I've worked with them and I've supported them, actually,

Natalie Gingrich:

my entire professional journey, whether it was in corporate or now,

Natalie Gingrich:

they can move very, very quickly.

Natalie Gingrich:

So they can have an idea for a course on Wednesday,

Natalie Gingrich:

and by next Wednesday, they could have it recorded and it could actually be done.

Natalie Gingrich:

The majority of the people that I hang out with can't really work in that kind of a

Natalie Gingrich:

quick start mentality, but it can be done.

Natalie Gingrich:

A certification is, is way more thoughtful to me.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's super deep, and I don't think that that's unique to me.

Natalie Gingrich:

I think that that's the way that it should be because when they're buying

Natalie Gingrich:

that certificate, the hope of that certificate, it just has to be a lot

Natalie Gingrich:

deeper that, you know, I, I think that there's just a lot more mental energy that

Natalie Gingrich:

goes into a certification than it does

Natalie Gingrich:

a course.

Natalie Gingrich:

Also the one to one or the one to many interaction in a certification

Natalie Gingrich:

is just so different than a course.

Natalie Gingrich:

I mean, even if people sell that support as a part of a course, there's a different

Natalie Gingrich:

level of transformation and responsibility that take place in a certification.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I hope that that's the way for every other, you know,

Natalie Gingrich:

certification company out there.

Erin Austin:

Yeah.

Erin Austin:

And to keep the value attached that certification, you have to make

Erin Austin:

sure that it is keeping up with the changes in the marketplace.

Erin Austin:

Oh.

Erin Austin:

Um, otherwise it loses, it loses its value, like yep.

Erin Austin:

You know, that was a good thing to have five years ago,

Erin Austin:

but you know, hasn't yeah.

Erin Austin:

Hasn't progressed.

Erin Austin:

So yeah.

Erin Austin:

Yeah.

Erin Austin:

A lot of work there.

Natalie Gingrich:

We have taken down every single question that has ever

Natalie Gingrich:

come into us since the very beginning.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's just something that we have done.

Natalie Gingrich:

We are actually now rerecording everything.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's huge project, over 120 lessons, but

Natalie Gingrich:

it's through all of those questions that all of these 300 plus

Natalie Gingrich:

students have asked that are really informing where our gaps are.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so, in essence, it's never really done.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm, right.

Natalie Gingrich:

And we've had some really thoughtful questions

Natalie Gingrich:

that have come up in the meantime.

Natalie Gingrich:

And because I didn't have time or resources to rerecord and pull all of

Natalie Gingrich:

this together, we would add trainings.

Natalie Gingrich:

You know, it'd almost be like a mini podcast episode.

Natalie Gingrich:

If they had a question that really fit or there was a theme that was coming up, we

Natalie Gingrich:

would answer it and give access to all of our past students and current students.

Natalie Gingrich:

Because the market is going to change.

Natalie Gingrich:

I mean, what the pandemic has done to us has opened up a lot of HR

Natalie Gingrich:

questions that never were even thought.

Natalie Gingrich:

I mean, we didn't even think about these my 15 years in corporate,

Erin Austin:

mm-hmm.

Natalie Gingrich:

Much less now.

Erin Austin:

Right, right.

Erin Austin:

So many of the listeners may be thinking, you know, they may.

Erin Austin:

Wanna be a DOO, but they're thinking I need one.

Natalie Gingrich:

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin:

So what would a sign be in a business that they are ready for a DOO?

Erin Austin:

Cause I know you do actually provide DOOs to clients.

Erin Austin:

So what kinds of issues do they come to you with?

Erin Austin:

Like what are their pain points that they're like, oh my goodness, Natalie.

Erin Austin:

Help me out.

Natalie Gingrich:

Right.

Natalie Gingrich:

So if your business is scaling at a place, I mean, I think that we as independent,

Natalie Gingrich:

like solo entrepreneur businesses, we can only do so much for so long.

Natalie Gingrich:

And you know that the greatest pain point for a solo entrepreneur is overwhelmed.

Natalie Gingrich:

There are what we have defined as seven different, you know, pockets of

Natalie Gingrich:

your business, and as one person or even three people, it's very, very,

Natalie Gingrich:

very difficult to own all seven.

Natalie Gingrich:

I mean, it's like being seven CEOs to one business and I've done it.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's a really hard place to be.

Natalie Gingrich:

Um, and so eventually you reach kind of that tipping point.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I, I refrain from saying a breaking point because, while that happens, an

Natalie Gingrich:

operator can come into your business and it may not be a doo, but an operator at

Natalie Gingrich:

some level can come into your business and offload the back end of your business.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so, um, being able to partner with you in those areas that are

Natalie Gingrich:

likely either being avoided, which is what happens when you're trying

Natalie Gingrich:

to be seven CEOs at one time.

Natalie Gingrich:

There are some of those that just don't

Natalie Gingrich:

get any attention and you just kind of cross your fingers and your toes and

Natalie Gingrich:

you hope nothing pops up or bubbles up.

Natalie Gingrich:

Those areas are likely in the area of financial or project

Natalie Gingrich:

management, you know, those things.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Natalie Gingrich:

Finding efficiencies is not important because the main driver, the place

Natalie Gingrich:

that we put the majority of our emphasis is on the marketing side,

Natalie Gingrich:

generating sales, finding clients, you know, looking for your audience.

Natalie Gingrich:

That's what a business owner does naturally.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so I tell people that when you feel like you're reaching the point of

Natalie Gingrich:

just capacity, we'll call it capacity more so than stress, which is likely

Natalie Gingrich:

a capacity issue, you know, that's a good time to look for an operator.

Natalie Gingrich:

And the second really good indicator is if your passion is on the sales

Natalie Gingrich:

part or in the brand identity part.

Natalie Gingrich:

Just be honest with yourself from the very beginning that when you have

Natalie Gingrich:

resources, time, you know, energy investment to place somewhere, you are

Natalie Gingrich:

always, and you should always place it on the opposite side of your strength.

Natalie Gingrich:

So if marketing and attracting people is the number one place,

Natalie Gingrich:

then start looking for an operator.

Natalie Gingrich:

Now, if doing client work, you know, I've worked with plenty of attorneys too.

Natalie Gingrich:

If client work is your passionate area, then you need to do the opposite.

Natalie Gingrich:

You need to start looking for people to help generate leads for you

Natalie Gingrich:

mm-hmm and in the marketing space.

Natalie Gingrich:

So knowing where your strength is and hiring for the opposite is where we

Natalie Gingrich:

see the, the biggest value for us as operators entering into businesses.

Erin Austin:

Oh, that's great advice.

Erin Austin:

I not heard it put that way, but it makes a ton of sense to me.

Erin Austin:

Absolutely.

Erin Austin:

I, I just know generally, you know, I'm, I'm known as the anti DIYer.

Erin Austin:

Like, I don't wanna know how to do anything, like I know what I know.

Erin Austin:

I don't wanna learn else.

Erin Austin:

And if there's so other skill that needs to be, uh, I need, then that's when

Erin Austin:

it's time for someone who knows how to do that stuff to, to come forward.

Erin Austin:

So, yeah, so this is the hourly to exit podcast, you know, where we

Erin Austin:

talk about building a scalable and saleable expertise based business.

Erin Austin:

And so part of that is, uh, two pieces building exclusivity into your business.

Erin Austin:

Intellectual property, which we've talked about.

Erin Austin:

Proprietary, processes, things that you own exclusively, as well as

Erin Austin:

having a unique marketing position.

Erin Austin:

And then also having predictability in your business, independence from

Erin Austin:

the owner, which means having systems.

Erin Austin:

So where in the hourly to exit journey does having a DOO fit in?

Natalie Gingrich:

You know, when we're scaling like that whole

Natalie Gingrich:

scaling piece is that's what really stands out to me, you know.

Natalie Gingrich:

And every business has a different vision and a different mission,

Natalie Gingrich:

which is, is what they should have.

Natalie Gingrich:

You can't see this, but I'm like drawing this continuum.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah.

Natalie Gingrich:

That, you know, kind of goes up over time and people scale differently.

Natalie Gingrich:

They scale with different vigor.

Natalie Gingrich:

Some people have resources to scale faster.

Natalie Gingrich:

Some people have investors, some people are doing this themselves.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so that timeline is very different from business to business.

Natalie Gingrich:

But as soon as you start to experience scale, I believe that someone can stand

Natalie Gingrich:

up a business and operate it independently of any labor for as long as they want to.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Gingrich:

Something catches, whether their fire gets ignited

Natalie Gingrich:

a little bit more, whether their marketplace opens up and, you

Natalie Gingrich:

know, they start finding conversion easier, whatever it is for them.

Natalie Gingrich:

But as soon as you start that uphill ramp, you have to ask yourself, is this the

Natalie Gingrich:

kind of business that I want for myself?

Natalie Gingrich:

And if so, you're on the path to continuing to scale, knowing that team has

Natalie Gingrich:

to be a part of it, whether you'll like leading people or whether you don't right,

Natalie Gingrich:

that's just going to be a part of it.

Natalie Gingrich:

So when you start to feel like you're on that uphill, uh, momentum.

Natalie Gingrich:

Giving yourself the grace and space to time out and looking for support, that's

Natalie Gingrich:

gonna be way better timed than making yourself crazy, stressed out, when you

Natalie Gingrich:

get to the top of that hill and you look backwards and you say, you know what,

Natalie Gingrich:

I'm just ready to burn it all down.

Natalie Gingrich:

This is way too much for me.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Natalie Gingrich:

We've all been there.

Natalie Gingrich:

Oh, I think that a lot of us have been there and that's

Natalie Gingrich:

not a comfortable place to be.

Erin Austin:

That is awesome.

Erin Austin:

Yes.

Erin Austin:

So at continuing on our meta podcast here, you know, I'm a female founder

Erin Austin:

of an expertise based business that I'm growing to hopefully sell some day.

Erin Austin:

You are the female founder of a service based business.

Erin Austin:

So are you building your business to sell some day?

Natalie Gingrich:

I never even considered that when I started.

Natalie Gingrich:

And, you know, I, I actually have old podcast episodes of me talking about the

Natalie Gingrich:

benefits of a lifestyle business, and we are currently building this business

Natalie Gingrich:

to move from a lifestyle business, which remember I started under the

Natalie Gingrich:

guise of legacy and with the drive of being able to have a flexible business.

Natalie Gingrich:

Well, seven years later, my kids aren't babies anymore.

Natalie Gingrich:

If they don't need me to drive them anywhere and I start to see, you know,

Natalie Gingrich:

at least the age of retirement coming a lot faster than I did seven years ago.

Natalie Gingrich:

And so through my we'll call it aging journey or experience, I have looked at

Natalie Gingrich:

this and have been affirmed and confirmed that this actually is a sellable asset.

Natalie Gingrich:

There are actually several sellable assets inside of this business.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I think that that's just the maturity of myself, the maturity of me growing

Natalie Gingrich:

as a business owner and having wise people like you to, to learn from.

Natalie Gingrich:

We're absolutely in the process of taking this from a lifestyle

Natalie Gingrich:

business, to selling either the whole thing or different pieces of it.

Natalie Gingrich:

And I am avidly learning about the different ways of being able

Natalie Gingrich:

to do that and different assets that are available to sell.

Natalie Gingrich:

And, um, I, I believe that, you know, I was talking to my team recently in

Natalie Gingrich:

the next, you know, 10 to 12 years.

Natalie Gingrich:

I.

Natalie Gingrich:

Probably be hopefully at that exit point.

Natalie Gingrich:

Right.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm that's fantastic.

Erin Austin:

I love to hear that.

Erin Austin:

Mm-hmm well, yeah.

Erin Austin:

Keep listening.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Erin Austin:

So while we wrap up a couple things, one, you know, we believe in

Erin Austin:

creating a more equitable economy here.

Erin Austin:

And in particular, we believe that wealth in the hands of

Erin Austin:

women can change the world.

Erin Austin:

And so I am wondering if there is a personal organization that

Erin Austin:

you admire, who is helping us build a more equitable world.

Natalie Gingrich:

Yes.

Natalie Gingrich:

So I have been involved with lots and lots of nonprofits, both from,

Natalie Gingrich:

a volunteer capacity, as well as financially supporting them.

Natalie Gingrich:

But here locally in our area, we choose to partner most frequently with

Natalie Gingrich:

an organization called kinetic kids.

Natalie Gingrich:

And that is not necessarily financially giving to the next

Natalie Gingrich:

generation, but we partner with

Natalie Gingrich:

kids of all abilities, so mostly kids with disabilities, and we help

Natalie Gingrich:

to give them an opportunity in the space of sports and recreation.

Natalie Gingrich:

So, I almost get choked up every single time.

Natalie Gingrich:

I talk about them.

Natalie Gingrich:

It's such a dear community that is available everywhere, right?

Natalie Gingrich:

I mean, there are kids that have these challenges and who never get the

Natalie Gingrich:

opportunities that our kids have had to grow up in sport and recreation.

Natalie Gingrich:

And it's, you know, mostly for the kids, but secondarily,

Natalie Gingrich:

those parents who actually find a community of people as well.

Natalie Gingrich:

So that's our nonprofit of choice and where we spend a lot of time as a family.

Erin Austin:

That's beautiful.

Erin Austin:

Thank you for sharing that, that will absolutely be in the show notes.

Erin Austin:

So, I'm sure.

Erin Austin:

Lots of exciting things happening at the ops authority.

Erin Austin:

Is there something that you'd like to share with the audience

Erin Austin:

about how they can work with you?

Natalie Gingrich:

Yeah.

Natalie Gingrich:

So

Natalie Gingrich:

I would say mostly right now, our capacity is spent on rerecording this content,

Natalie Gingrich:

but at the same time upholding the standard that we have of, of excellence

Natalie Gingrich:

and, um, delivery to our students that are continuing to come to us.

Natalie Gingrich:

But about four times a year.

Natalie Gingrich:

We host an opportunity for people to learn more about us and we.

Natalie Gingrich:

Are always doing that.

Natalie Gingrich:

You can learn more at the directorofops.com.

Natalie Gingrich:

That's where you can see a little bit more about the certification process.

Natalie Gingrich:

And then on the other side, we have another company called the

Natalie Gingrich:

hiring authority, which is actually how you and I had come into

Natalie Gingrich:

contact, which is where we help

Natalie Gingrich:

businesses who are growing their talent.

Natalie Gingrich:

We help them to resource and staff on from a full service perspective.

Natalie Gingrich:

But that's, that's an area of our business that is really, really growing.

Natalie Gingrich:

And, you know, another place that, that your listeners may be interested in.

Erin Austin:

Fantastic.

Erin Austin:

Thank you for that.

Erin Austin:

And so, in addition to the director of ops and the hiring

Erin Austin:

authority, there are any place else online where people can find you.

Erin Austin:

Yeah,

Natalie Gingrich:

so we are on most social platforms.

Natalie Gingrich:

You can find us on LinkedIn.

Natalie Gingrich:

You can find us on Facebook, all at the ops authority.

Erin Austin:

Fantastic.

Erin Austin:

Thank you so much for joining me today.

Erin Austin:

It has been a pleasure.

Erin Austin:

Lots of great information, shared.

Natalie Gingrich:

Love it.

Natalie Gingrich:

Thanks Erin.

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Erin Austin

Meet Erin Austin, a Harvard Law alum with over 25 years of copyright and contracts experience. As the go-to advisor for professionals with corporate clients, Erin empowers entrepreneurs to be their own advocates, standing out for her commitment to transforming expertise into empires through the creation, protection and leveraging of intellectual property assets. Explore her blend of legal expertise and entrepreneurial insight on ThinkBeyondIP.com and the "Hourly to Exit" podcast. Off the clock, you'll find Erin in the great outdoors or connecting with business coaches to elevate 6-figure consultants into 7-figure powerhouses.