About The Client
Ericka D. James is passionate about equipping entrepreneurs with the tools they need to do the impossible. As a speaker, trainer, and consultant, she has found her purpose in supporting the dreams of women in business.
Ericka herself is the CEO of The Convergence Center LLC, a world-class training and consulting firm; the founder of The Alliance, a training and development organization for businesswomen; and the founder of The Kingdom Minister’s Association, a training and development organization for marketplace ministers.
The Challenge
Ericka had the vision, talent, and passion to reach her goals. She was just missing one thing — the time.
She needed the space and capacity to invest in the relational side of her organization. While she could handle her own marketing, she knew every moment spent on it was a moment that took away from the women she could be supporting.
“I can do a lot of stuff well, but it’s not my highest and best use,” Ericka said, “So, what happens is my team will say, ‘Hey Ericka, here’s the email sequence we talked about. Review it, let me know what you think, and then I'll get it back out.’
“But my schedule is too wild because I'm running three businesses and a ministry, and I never get to review it to send it out. So then I have all this stuff that bottlenecks.
“I should be recruiting women and setting up meetings, but instead, I'm automating the email marketing for the month that should have been out three weeks ago."
“I’m just ready,” Ericka said during her first call with BELAY. “I’m ready to have someone who can literally finish my sentences… who can look at what I have and say, ‘This is good. We can make it great.’”
That’s exactly what Ericka found in her BELAY Marketing Assistant Jaya Lord.
The Solution
After just one month, Ericka feels she’s found her match.
"She's learned my voice really well because I think it's her voice. When I read stuff, I'm like, Wait, did I write that? So she's learned my voice and the words I would use very well.
“Her writing skill — that’s just something I've never been able to have, so I always ended up being the bottleneck because I had to write it all, right? So, that’s also just been amazing, and she just probably thinks, Well, this is what you do.
“But because she has a journalism background, she's really good. There was stuff she put on the website framework that I couldn't have said better — she captured it better than I could."
When it came time to create the best content possible, Jaya stepped into that role with confidence and skill.
“I love the way she challenges me,” said Ericka. “She'll say, ‘OK, so I've been thinking about this, and I see where you're going with it — but I would like to suggest this or that.’ And it's just perfect. Then, I have to think about what I’m attached to — am I attached to these pillars on these days or am I attached to results?
“I'm attached to results.”
And Ericka did see these results — and fast:
“I already did my first-ever webinar. We actually have a real sales funnel, so we put the email out today because Jaya got everything set up on the backend. I’m just really excited because I’ve never had time to do the full sales funnel before. It feels really great.”
“I feel like I had created this amazing vehicle — and I have the key. It's stunningly beautiful, but I didn't have the gasoline to run it far enough for long enough. And Jaya coming in brought some of that gasoline.”
The Right Hire. Right Now.
"I'm blown away at her efficiency and capacity to create. That's something that's not trainable; you come with that.’"
And while the partnership between Ericka and Jaya is exceptional, it is not unusual.
Whether it’s a Marketing Assistant to get your message out into the world like Jaya or a Virtual Assistant to manage your administrative work, BELAY has the support you need to climb higher in your career.
Most importantly, we’re passionate about getting you the right support right away. That’s why we take the time to meet with every client to understand their unique needs. If you’re not sure if we have the talent to fit those needs on our bench, just take it from Ericka:
“Trusting BELAY to match me at the beginning really caused me to hyperventilate,” Ericka laughed, “So if there's anyone else out there that feels like that — I get it. But BELAY really exceeded my expectations. There are just things I didn't think could come in the package of one human being that BELAY managed to find."
Ready to meet your right hire? Schedule a free consultation to learn more.