From Midwest to Africa: Unlocking Untapped Talent with Valerie Bowden

0:00 This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better podcast network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow, and the podcast to get you there. You can find out. More at teefbetter dot com slash podcast. For business leaders out there, follow your guts and then when it gets scary, it's a good sign that you're going to grow. There's no great timing to do anything in business. There's there's always a hang up somewhere. But again, like that's the benefit of making sure you have like great team members who are affordable and offshore. Because I was able to do my business while having two small kids because I had the support that I needed. Do you want to be a leader in a constantly changing world? Our emerging leaders look different, come from various backgrounds and from all different age groups.

0:43 Leadership is changing and it's hard to keep up. What the good news? You can be a leader too. You can be an emerging leader. Welcome to the Limitless Leadership Lounch, a try generational conversation for emerging leaders. Come spend some time with us to discuss LEADLeadership from three angles. The coach Jim Johnson, the professor, doctor Renuma Kareem, the host John Gering. A monthly guest, and you get in on the conversation on Facebook and Instagram and be sure to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Speaker. So come on in and make yourself comfortable. Another try generational conversation for you the emerging leader.

1:24 This is the Limitless Leadership Lounge. And Today, as Coach likes to say, two out of three and bad Doctor Kareem is traveling back to. Banglades, so we'll have her back next week. I'm John Garing, founder of Story Trust Media and excited to bring along Valerie today and Coach is connected with Valerie. Coach, go ahead and introduce Valerie and let's dive into a really fun conversation. Yeah, a unique opportunity to talk to Valerie. Varie was introduced by one of our former guests, Marcus Hagnen. So I just want to read a little bit about Arrye. She has quite a journey here. So Very Bowden helps businesses finding top tier remote talent and optimize their sale operation by tapping in the talent market across many African countries, an area that is underrepresented and vastly underestimated and talent pricing and revaliability. It all started when she left home in the Midwest to solo backpack across Africa by God bless you. During her time, she stumbled into outsourcing and it became a famous, fabulous win win that could be done correctly. She has now spent years working with businesses across all industries to level up their sales and rise above the competition with one simple action choose. Africa is possibly the most underestimated continent in our world. Numerous countries in Africa are home to some of the best remote talent with prices that can't be beaten anywhere else on the planet. Through her company Cradle, although she doesn't have an A in it, so it's CRDLL, she helps matched

2:56 companies with type of talent they need to hire onboard, trained them all the fraction of the cost of outsourcing to any other country without further ado. Let's welcome Valrie Bowden to the Limitless Leadership Lounge. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here today. Great to have you in Veillerie. We don't do this too often, but I've got to ask you because I did get a chance to talk to you before we came on in another talk and we you shared somebody, You've got to tell us about your journey through Africa. So I'd love to. Yeah. So, back when I was twenty five, I had just finished grad school and I was thinking I really want to travel before I settled down with my career, and Africa was always on my bucket list to visit. And that was before I knew how big the continent was and how different the countries were. So I was a little bit naive, and I was also very broke. So hence I decided to backpack. And I just had a backpack and a tent, and I went to Cape Town, South Africa, and I spent the next seven months and nine days backpacking by myself across the entire length of the continent until I reached Egypt, which is at the very top, and I went through thirteen African countries and I had an amazing time.

4:11 I have no scary stories. I only have like positive stories of how fun and amazing that trip was. I get to ask you, though, is so, how did you as far as the back paddy? You know people and tell us a little bit about that. Yes, yeah, it was. It's a hard trip to plan because there's not as much information online, and so I would just show up in one bus stop and I would say I'm trying to get here, and they would just tell me how to get to the next city. And it was literally just like taking everything day by day. But I had so many fun like adventures along the way. I grilla trecked, I did shark water like diving, I fed a hyena raw meat out of my mouth like a wild hyena.

4:53 Just visiting like the markets and different islands and different cultures. And every time I got lost, which was like daily really to somebody local would help me. And it was just like an amazing time. If you ask you one more question, I know Jazz got a lot, but I'm curious soon because I actually had a former player that was originally from Nigeria. I don't really have any bearings on air for college. Is there much challenge as far as a language barrier? Great question. There are tons of different languages spoken on the continent, but I would say I always found someone who spoke English along the way, like there was always, especially in the capital cities. English is really prevalent, and even though every country was really different, English English is everywhere these days, so that made it easier.

5:35 Okay, Cape Town to Cairo. That's an unbelievable journey, and Valerie, I know I can assume tell me if I'm wrong. But there were probably some people maybe back at home, maybe along your journey, who were a little bit hesitant about you going to Africa, saying is this really a good idea of Valerie? Are you sure you got your head screwed on? And this is such an important leadership lesson because how valuable it's been for you and for the journeys that you've inspired through your journey, tell us a little bit about what you say to those people who may not quite understand why you're doing what you're doing exactly. So no one was supportive of my trip. I would say everybody was like quite afraid. The movie Taken was like really popular at that time, so everybody was that's gonna happen to you. But it was one of those things like, deep down, I really just felt like something was calling me to travel there.

6:25 And it's a really good lesson for business leaders, So just follow that kind of inner guidance on what you feel prompted to do. And then, of course I was so. Excited planning the trip, but then right before I left, I got really scared, Like I remember thinking, like what am I doing? Everybody's right, but just that belief that life begins outside your comfort zone and so pushing through that fear. And then the first few weeks I was traveling, it was really scary. I didn't know how to do public transportation, I didn't know how to get around. And then eventually I figured it out and I had an amazing trip. And now all of the people who were so against it are saying, oh, I wish I would have done something like that as well in my twenties. And so it's really just like for business leaders out there, follow your guts and then when it gets scary, it's a good sign that you're going to grow.

7:10 That's powerful right there, Well in your twenties. That's because I'm in my twenties right now, and I wish I haven't backpacked across Africa. I am fortunate that I've been able to do some pretty cool things, just not that cool, but pretty cool. Tell us a little bit about why it's so important. Like your twenties, a lot of people play it's safe, a lot of people settle down to what they're supposed to do. Get the degree, get the education, go to work. Tell us why it was so fulfilling to you to not follow that conventional path. I tell everybody in their twenties, but this is the best time for you to travel. Travel is by far one of the most responsible things you can do because it really shows you a different side of the world. It changed my political views, It influenced many beliefs. I have.

7:50 Anybody who can learn to go to a different country and navigate public transport in a different language, that gives you skills that will serve you for life, and if anything else, it makes see more I think empathetic towards maybe immigrants or people who are different than you, because you've been in the same spot they have been in for at least a moment in time. And now that I'm in. My thirties, I have a mortgage, I have two kids. Traveling is a lot harder these days. So definitely, when you're in your twenties, before you have those bigger commitments, travel as much as you can. Let's zero down just one more about your journey, your tripp Can you zero down to two or three leadership lessons that you can share with our audience about the seven months that you were in Africa.

8:34 Yes, exactly. I think it's cheesy, but I would say it's really about the journey. I remember when I the whole time, I'm saying, I'm doing the Cape to Cairo, and as soon as I got to Cairo, I didn't feel any sense of accomplishment or really gratitude. I wanted to go back and do it all again, because it was the journey that was really the fun and rewarding part. And I think a lot of business leaders we create a business and we're like, I can't wait to sell this business and make money, But really it's like the journey of building it that is the most fulfilling part, and so just enjoy I think the journey along the way that's probably one leadership lesson, and I think the second one is really just the ability to take things day by day. When when I was traveling, I never knew how I was going to get to the next country until the day before. I really had to take it step by step. And now as a business leader, I find myself also thinking I have this big goal, I don't know how to get there, and I try to map it out and I kind of get overwhelmed, and sometimes it's you know what the next right step is this, and I'm just going to focus on doing this next right step correctly with full presence and awareness, and then that always leads me to the next step. You can't always see the whole journey, so take it little by little and just focus on where you are and do a good job there, and then the next step will will show itself to you.

9:49 Yeah, and then those you mentioned those first few weeks being really hard, and that's probably what you're talking about there, thatking that next step. Did you know that you were in for a seven month plus journey and what do you do early on in a journey to keep your mindset focused on just the next step. When you got an entil your continent to traverse. No, I thought my trip would be four weeks long. I because I took a one way flight, really because I was actually afraid if I got into a bad situation. I wanted to be able to fly out wherever I was. It was more of a practical thing. And then as I was traveling, I was meeting other travelers who were doing the Cairo to Cape Town. It's the same route, but opposite and they're like, oh, no, you got to go the whole way, and I was like okay. So it wasn't really until a month one or two that I was like, oh, I'm going I'm going to do this route and so it was never part of the original trip at all. And one other I think takeaway is that those that first month I made so many mistakes.

10:47 Everything I had packed was wrong. I lost out on like hundreds of dollars unpacking all this fancy gear that I did not need. I sold it or gave it away halfway through. I took the wrong bus, I stayed at the wrong places, I overspent money, I messed up the atm. It was mistake after mistake, and it was expensive. But that's also how you learn. And by month two or three I was a pro at backpacking and I started going to much more rural places like I went to Sudan, which I think they got at least at the Pyramids. In Sudan they get one visitor a good day, Like it's very it's not very populated with tours, and so I would never have been able to do that at the beginning of the trip. So I started in easier countries learn the hard way and figured it out and that's like being an entrepreneur.

11:29 Yeah, very cool. You got to tell us now, So how the transition to what you're doing now, because I know you do a lot of work with people in Africa. Yeah. So after I finished my trip, I was like, I can't go back to a normal nine to five if you just spent seven months having a wild adventure every single day, Like, you can't go back to Indiana and start and do that. So I told my parents I'm just going to stay in Ethiopia for six more months because that was my favorite country. I got a job offer when I was traveling, and I was like, mom, I promise. Six months and then I will finally come home. And then it was eight years later that I finally came home with a husband and a baby. But I just fell in love with Ethiopia especially, and my background was in social work, and the more I was around nonprofits, especially the American ones that are famous, I realized that many of them weren't doing the good that they said that they were doing on the ground. Not all of them, but many of them, And so I wanted nothing to do with the charity world anymore, and I decided to focus on job creation and that led me to working at an outsourcing company and it was there that I was like, wow, outsourcing is a win win. So now for the past six seven years I've been part of the outsourcing world in Africa and it's that's what influenced me to start what I'm doing now.

12:43 And tell us a little bit about why that's so much of a win win. Yep, it's a win win because you know, you're creating jobs in Africa for the youth and that's ultimately how people get out of poverty. But at the same time, it's super sustainable because there are so many small and medium businesses in the US who need access to affordable talent and they don't have the money or resources to hire someone. Locally to do it. And so it becomes this win win where you're creating a great job that's well paid for someone who's in an emerging country. And at the same time, the American business is getting some much deserved support with sales marketing VA work and so same concept as hiring a VA from the Philippines, you can do the same thing out of an African country or hiring an offshore cold caller, and so it just becomes like the sustainable win win where everybody is thriving by partnering together.

13:29 Got it because the idea being that the currencies are different, So in Africa might be a very lucrative opportunity in the US, it still is affordable despite being lucrative over there. Yes. Yeah, when I moved from Ethiopia back to the US, like all of my costs it is like ten times more because of the US is a higher cost of living. So that's the benefit. You're still paying someone like. A fair competitive rate, but it is less than like what minimum wage is in the US. And so that's why it just becomes like a positive thing on both sides. Got it. Its very because in being an entrepreneur, in bringing in people, especially from a foreign continent. Tell us about your methods of being able to bring the famous Jim Jim Collins getting the right people on the bus. So how do you tell us your process of how you bring on your team members to be able to work with people from all over the world.

14:24 That's a great question. Yeah, because people, especially in this business, people are everything. When I first started, it was very much like I'm connecting family, friends, neighbors, like people I knew personally to businesses in the US that I also knew personally, And then it just went so well that we expanded. So today we have over one hundred and twenty team members, and so it's gotten a little bit more sophisticated. We're actually now have like recruitment department. We put people through training and assessments, and we know them really well before we ever match them with a client. And I think the cool thing is that so many of our current team members recommend their family members to work for us. So today we have three sisters who work together, we have three cousins who work together. We have a lot of spouses, cousins, roommates, and so even though we're one hundred and twenty people, everybody knows everybody or is related to somebody else. We even did an interview once and two cousins popped up on the same interview. The client was hiring multiple people and they were like, Oh, hey, it's that's my cousin.

15:19 You didn't even know. They didn't even know. So it's very we're very familiar with the people we place. Yeah, and as a leader, it's so important to have that familiarity and have that trust too. So building trust with your team and also trust with those clients. Tell us a little bit about how important it is and what you learned while in Africa about trust building, because I can imagine that you don't. You can't just backpack across Africa and immediately trust everybody. Yeah, trust is everything, especially in business, you have to trust. I think business owners have a lot of trust in me and in our team, and so that's what kind of gives them the ability to trust the people that we trust. But yeah, at the end of the day, we look for people with character. That's what matters most. Like skill you can always build upon or train, but you have to be a person of integrity and that's something that we really look for. And thankfully, especially when I was traveling, there was also like this. People were so kind to me as a foreigner, like as a tourist.

16:11 They were just like extra kind and supportive and so grateful to see like a traveler in their country promoting kind of their country. And so yeah, the right people just were always there to support me. And now I feel like I'm giving back for all I was given to during my trip and time there. I got to ask you this because I'm a pretty positive and optimistic person, but I got to turn the table a little bit. How about when you manage someone that ends up being not a good fit for the client, how do you handle that? That's a great question, and that can happen, I think with a business hiring in America or hiring anywhere overseas. Right, So some of it's like having a great sop, like a standard operating procedure. So if you have your job already written out, and you already have this is exactly what you do, and you're recording those training sessions even if the person again American are offshore, Even if they don't work out and you have to replace them, when you bring that next person in, it's not as much of a training hassle to place them because you already have the guidebook to get them up to speed as fast as possible.

17:12 Got it. And when it comes to this remote world, because here we are, this was already a thing back when your business started, but now it's just become even more of a thing. Has that actually been blessing in disguise this transition. From now we're more open to this remote work. Yes, I think that is definitely one of the blessings that came out of the pandemic is that the technology is there, the awareness and just. The acceptance of remote work. So many of our clients are also they have remote workers in the US, and so I'm like, you treat your offshore team members the same as your US remote people and they will do just as good. Of a job. And I see. I think that's yeah, one of the best things that's come out in a post COVID world.

17:52 Very cool. One of the things you see a lot as an entrepreneur as their journey continues and they start to build a business is the fame is how do they scale it? And I know that's something that you know with your business, you help to share your ideas and helping entrepreneurs scale their business. Yeah. That's what I love about what we do is that even when I brought on my first team member, I tripled our revenue in three months after I brought in one person. And it was because she had the opposite skill set as me. She could do all the things I didn't want to do. She did the admins and the ops, some of the payroll, the things that I didn't like to do, and I got to do more of the sales and marketing, which is where I really thrive, and so we tripled our business.

18:38 And so that's why I love helping clients because I know that the more team members that they have that are used correctly, like, that's how they're going to scale out a way that they're still profitable. Because that's how I've grown my own company to be profitable is all of my team members are remote and they're all originally from Ethiopia, and so I really try and walk the walk as well and show my clients like what's possible for their own business too. Yeah, it's definitely transformed your business life, but then also your personal life as well. You recently said you came back to the United States with a husband and a child. Tell us a little bit about how that happened, because that's quite the change. Yeah. Yeah, I met my husband, who's originally from Ethiopia when I was living there. We had our first baby, and then during COVID it just made sense actually to move back to the US and then I launched Cradle a month before giving birth to my second baby. So timing wise, again, there's no great timing to do anything in business, there's ah, there's always a hang up somewhere. But again, like that's the benefit of making sure you have like great team members who are affordable and offshore. Because I was able to do my business while having two small kids because I had the support that I needed. And we work with so many clients and they're like, Okay, now I have a virtual assistant. You know, Now my daughter's graduating from high school and I can take her on that trip to Europe before she goes to college because I have someone who's going to like man that inbox while I'm gone. And so so it is like you can balance your work and your life when you have the right support.

20:04 I got to ask you this because I know virtual workers is becoming bigger and bigger in all businesses around the world. But one of the questions, because I do a lot of presentations, I'm building great team culture. Okay, so give advice to business owners like yourself of how do you build that culture as far as because you're doing pretty much all remote, there are ways to do it. I'm looking for your advice to help these entrepreneurs. That's such a great question. Yeah, I've seen the best and the worst. With our clients and how they onboard our team members. You do have to. I always just say, fit them like any other team member, and they're going to do a great job. So know their name, know when their birthday is, do a daily stand up, bring them to your team meetings. We had a client and he spent one hour every day for six weeks training.

20:52 His three sales reps. Within those six. Weeks, they generated one hundred thousand dollars of new revenue for him, and now they're doing triple that. Now that's seven months in, but that's because he had really invested and got to know them and supported them. We have other clients and they'll bring in a sales rep and on day two they're like, here's your list, start dialing, and the reps are like, wait, how do I pronounce your company's name again? And what do you really do? And they're really not equipped to do a great job. And I think for some reason, when we have American team members, we know we need to train and invest in them, but we forget to do that with our offshore team members, and that's when it can be really hard. To get them to be part of your team. Culture. And how about you as far as personally because you have one hundred and twenty, Yeah, how do you build your team culture?

21:38 Yeah? So I have seven internal team members part of the Cradle team, and we do daily stand ups together Friday, we do longer brainstorming as a company, and then I also try and do one on ones at least every week or every other week with each of my team members. And then out of that, our account management team is meeting with those one hundred and twenty every single day before they even clock in with the clients to make sure are you there, are you set up? Are you ready for a great day? Like how can I support you? Just to make sure that everything's okay, And then we do an end of day report with them also to see especially for cold callers, like did you get your appointments scheduled? Did you do your call volume? If not, what happened? If so, what's working well that we can help other team members do as well. So, yeah, some of you have to invest the time, like you have to meet with them daily and have that face to face time and you can do that on Zoom.

22:22 Yeah. Yeah, And this is where I'm gonna just play the devil's advocate, right. The pushback, which I'm sure you've heard, is remote teams. There may be concerns with monitoring productivity, all these kinds of questions that come up. You give them a task and you just let them go, but you don't really know what they're doing while they're at home. But if they came back into the office, and if we had a physical office, then we would get to lead so much more effectively. What do you say to those kinds of arguments, because it certainly sounds like you have found a way to be a very effective leader without having that in person, face to face interaction. Yeah, I go back to like when I was in the office, and I would say that I know so many people were not effective in the office. So it's there's something else, Like that's not the only thing that makes people effective or not. And do you really want the kind of team members where you have to micro manage them to the point to know if they're impactful? No, Like you need a better setup if that's what you're relying on. And so some of it is like clear KPIs.

23:21 So let's say you're hiring a cold person cold caller, you need to know like how many people are they supposed to call per day, and how many appointments are they setting? What is their talk time? Was the pickup rate? So really having insight and transparency helps again doing the daily stand ups. And then some of it also goes to how much are you paying them? To be honest, In the outsourcing world, there's a lot of gray things that happen, and there's a lot of middleman and so sometimes outsourcing companies, you're they're outsourcing to another outsourcing company, so by the time that person is actually doing the job, they're not getting very much and so obviously their performance isn't going to be as good. So it's really important to pick a company that is working with them directly so that you know that they're getting the pay that they deserve.

24:03 And also doing commissions. I think it's a big thing like salespeople or salespeople are everywhere, and like why not pay your coal callers who are offshore like a small bonus for every lead that converts. You would do that for your in house members, So why aren't you doing it for them as well? So I think like little things like that make people more productive. I got to ask you the famous crystal ball question. So Bil right, so five years from now, you said you have about practimately one hundred and twenty team member If I heard you correctly, they're all from Ethiopia. Where is it going to be? Do you envision going bigger and do you go Do you have vision using people from other countries in airfric besides Ethiopia. Yeah, we do, so that's a that's an amazing question.

24:45 So we are hiring outside ethpy As. We do have a few others, but I would love to do more. Just because of my experience backpacking, I know that again, talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. So we'd love to scale more outside of Ethpia as well. And our vision is to create over ten thousand jobs in Africa and to do a few more verticals. So we're testing launching developers as well. My husband's a developer who also used to work for an outsourcing company, so we start providing developers. There's just millions of talented professionals in Africa who don't have the opportunity for a great job, and that's what I love about outsourcing and I love being up support American businesses at the same time, So Yeah, I really liked me up. So more people, more worlds, more impact is what we're going for. Yeah, and athletes is another we talked briefly because if that's how we got in touch through Marcus Ogden another great previous guests here on the Limitless Leadership Lounge. Athletes another area. It's some of these people you don't realize that these industries require or could benefit from outsourcing.

25:40 How shocking has that been to you as well? Oh, it's been so amazing to see who reaches out to us, even like we have Harvard professors who hire from us, we have tech companies, startups, established companies, we have a very famous musician, we have public figures that we're not even allowed to release their name. So it's really cool to see who is interested in hiring overseas because I think some people have this misconception that the quality is not as good or the talent's not as good. And it's really your setup, and so if you look at all these famous people and successful companies doing it, you can do it right if you set it up correctly. How will tell us your strategy? How are you finding your clients? So you're marketing your sales I'm very curious.

26:24 Yeah, we do a lot, a lot of it's word of mouth. We have an amazing referral program so people can make affiliate commissions. LinkedIn has been great for us, guests, podcasting, just even cold outreach, and so it again, like I love walking the walk, and so clients will come to us wanting support and we can give them someone who follows my same LinkedIn approach gets them on guests podcasts, does the same kind of cold emails that we do, and like, we know it works because it's working for us, and that's how we're growing so fast while like completely bootstrapping without outside investment money. And yeah, it's really fun to see like us grow and then be able to share those strategies with our clients as well. Hellos is a success story of a client you worked with It's maybe just hurted one person and then they ended up hiring multiple in how that really enhanced their business.

27:11 Yeah. I think a lot of people start with just a couple people and then they build entire teams around us. But we had, for example, like one one company started with three reps and now I think we're going to get up to ten to twenty in the next couple months, and. It's just because they had such great results. So then they started whitelybelling us, and so their clients are now hiring through him to get to us. And it's just like our team members are doing a great job, and the initial coal caller he hired is now like the team manager, and so even for the client, it's like less of an overhead to get the next reps started because he's invested so much in these initial three that those three are now helping manage the new ones. Very cool. Leadership in life is sometimes a misconception because we look at you and you're the leader because you have this huge team that works for you and with you. Yes, so many of our audience members are still leaders in their own way. Maybe leaders in their family, leaders in their community. Tell us a little bit about how your roles as a leader, because you have more than one role as a leader, right, how they intersect and support each other.

28:15 Oh yeah, definitely, Like in our I'm a mom, so I'm a leader in the family, leader in work, leader in community, leader. On different continents. I think it all comes back to being like a person of integrity. If you have integrity in one area, and you're going to have it in the other area. And so at the end of the day, I always say, just be a good person, no matter what that looks like, just doing the right thing. It always comes back for you. So yeah, just do the right thing is my motto in life and it's served me well. And just one more example of leadership since we're talking about it, is I think sometimes we don't realize that like these offshore vas can grow to become leaders inside our company. So we had a. Client who owns his own accounting firm and he hired a virtual assistant actually through US in Uganda, and within three years she became came the operations manager over some of the in house employees because she was doing such a great job, so much so that he actually gave her shares in the company. Like it was just it's like an ultimate successful our story for us. But it's again like a virtual assistant. They might come in at that tier one, that entry level place, but again if you train and invest in them, they will grow within your company and they can be your next leaders of your company. Doesn't matter where they're located anymore.

29:24 That's great. The famous life work balance or life work integration, whatever word. I'm just really fascinated. Can you tell us some of the things you do consistently on a daily basis to balance all the things you're doing running a pretty good sized business, having a family of two young children. You know, people I know are looking up to you, So give them some of your magic of what you do to a balance in how you work each day. Yeah. I am a big believer, especially with two small kids like I, I do want a balance. I have a firm rule that I'm off by three point thirty or four every single a day. I don't work nights. I don't work. Weekends because when my kids come home from daycare, like I want to see them right. And when it gets to the point where I'm like, whoa, I have more work than I can get done, I just hired. I just hired someone to help me with my Instagram. I just hired like a new business development rep again all based on Ethiopia. Very affordable. But that allows me to take off at four pm as well. And I think one other thing I've done that's been magical is Friday afternoons, I take off and it's just for me, So I don't work and it's before my kids get home from daycare and I have three or four hours where I am hiking or kayaking or doing something that really helps prevent me from burning out. And that has been the biggest thing for me as a leader, is that I don't burn out anymore because I have that time for myself every single week.

30:42 Yeah. Yeah, And that's so important in leadership. We think we have to be everything to everyone and to be there all the time on twenty four to seven, but the potential burnout is so huge there and I'm definitely guilty of that. I'm envious of being done at three thirty or four. But that's a choice that we make. That's not a privilege necessarily that you have. It's a choice that you've made, But it takes a lot of courage to make that choice because of the pressures in business. Tell us where you found that courage to make that choice to prioritize your own well being as well. I think it's because there's nothing worse than like you're especially as a parent, there's nothing worse than like your two year old coming home and saying mom, and you're in a meeting and you can't get out like that kind of broke my heart and I was like, it doesn't matter to me if this is so successful if my kids don't see their mom every single day. And I think in this day and age, especially if you do work from home, you always like the laundry list of things you should do is massive, right, and so you're never going to get all done in a day.

31:42 And so it's just this is these are my priorities, and this is what I'm going to get done every day, and I will stop at three thirty every single day. And despite that, we continue to grow. And so it's just like putting your boundaries in I think it's really important. That's a great point. So very in rapping up, I have one final question. I know John will ask you how people can reach out, and I'm sure he has maybe one final question, but I'm curious since we're on a podcast. I know you do a podcast, can you tell us a little bit about yours? Yeah, we we have a podcast called Choose Africa. We also have a YouTube channel and I just love putting information out there. Again, I'm so passionate about hiring from Africa that I always said, you don't have to do it for me. Do it. If you know somebody else is doing it, do it. We just want you to create great jobs on the continent and get the support you need.

32:25 So yeah, for anybody who I'm still not so sure, like even go to our YouTube channel, you'll see the podcast episode, You'll see shorts on just like little tidbits on how do you onboard someone, how do you set up those KPIs, how do you do anything related to making your offshore team members as success? So we love sharing like free information. Yeah, so why don't you make that your next listen here after the limitless leadership worth it and interesting niched topic. That's so cool too, That's what we love about that. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of our clients because I think when you think about outsourcing, you think of like huge call centers, and you're like, that's not me, that's that's not my company. And then you listen to our clients and you're like, oh, this is a bookkeeping business, or this is a medtech company, or this is like a keynote speaker, and you can start to see how so many different industries are using offshore team members in their own way and making it work.

33:15 Valerie, as we wrap up here, I'd love to take it full circle because we've talked so much about your journey, and now we've talked a lot about your business, which really comes from your journey. And this is why this is so important to do things like travel in your twenty because it isn't just an experience that's one and done for you. It's been a whole lifestyles that you've created and the impact that you've left. You also mentioned that Africa and traveling in general changed some things from somebody who grew up in the Midwest to now you have different political beliefs, maybe you have different beliefs and different views of the world as a whole. Tell us a little bit about how that has transformed your life and why you think that's so valuable for anyone to get out of their own shell that they've been growing up in.

34:04 Right. Yeah, no, you And for me, the medium was travel. That's literally what got me out of the Midwest. I know other people who pursue different hobbies. I know someone who pursues like aquaponics, right, Like he's grown aquaponics like farms in his basement. Right. So it doesn't have to be travel. If you cannot travel, if you have kids and this is not the time. But do something that really gets you outside of your comfort zone. Maybe it's even volunteering, Like, it doesn't matter what it is. You will only grow as big as like your environment is. And for me, coming from small town Indiana, I. Had to put myself into bigger cities in different countries to really see what was out there. And I think as an American, we don't always hear like the best about other countries around the world. You only hear the bad things, especially when it comes to Africa or emerging markets, and so you almost really have to travel there and then you discover all the good things along the way. Yeah, for whoever's listening that, I would say, whatever step you feel, you're being led to do it, and you won't regret it and push through any fear that comes up along the way.

35:00 Valerie about and over on LinkedIn, I know you can connect. You also have it Instagram. Tell us a little bit about the best ways to get in touch and to learn more about what you do. Yeah, for anybody who is like I own a business and I need some extra support, you can always hop on a discovery call with someone on my team. We can go to our website Cradle dot com and there's Discovery book links there. But if you're like, okay, I'm not quite ready, but I'd love to see more information, you can just follow me on LinkedIn. Every day I post something that this is how you hire offshore, and this is why you do it, and this is the rules that you can do it. So you can follow me on LinkedIn just to get free tips or a get heead to our YouTube channel and you get more tips there as well. Valeriebout and on LinkedIn. Also see our dl e We got that down in the show notes for you and the YouTube down there as well, so you can check out more of Valerie and then finally Valerie, if somebody wants any tips and tricks backpacking across Africa, doing Cape Town to Cairo or the opposite, can they also reach out to you for that?

35:55 Yes, I tell everybody I will plan anybody a free trip at Africa, like I will give you Tenuary. We have vas in multiple countries like we haven't set up and nobody has ever taken advantage of it. So if you want travel advice, if you have or maybe I have a kid who's going whatever it is reach out to me. We will have a va meet them at the airport. We have all guys of support and re sources, so I would love to help more people travel to Africa if possible. Now that is a bargain. Come on, that is an irresistible opportunity. I'm going to get you guys there. First, we'll do we'll do a trip you guys need to record there, and then I'll find a way to get you guys there. Former players, I told you grew up or moved the US when he was in sixth grade. He's actually has a big job for Google and actually he's moving back to Africa. So maybe I may take you off on that.

36:42 You're sign sign Valerie. We can't thank you enough for all the insights that you shared here on developing your business and stepping outside of your comfort zone. We look up to what you do and we're excited to stay in touch with you. So thank you so much for your time today. Thank you guys, it was wonderful. Thank you for joining us this week at the Limitless Leadership Lounge. To listen to this episode again and to find previous episodes, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Spreaker. You can also get in on the conversation. Find us on Facebook and Instagram, then tell three of your friends to join in as well. Coach Numa and John. We'll be back again next week for another try generational leadership discussion. We'll talk to you then on the Limitless Leadership Lounge