Praxent Founder & CEO, Tim Hamilton: Trusty Oak Client Case Study
Tim Hamilton is the CEO and founder of Praxent, a rapidly growing software development firm in Austin, Texas. A high-achieving firm, Praxent pushes the boundaries of innovation and customization with ground-breaking work and solid thought leadership. The company even publishes its own podcast–Commanding Business, where Tim interviews authors, experts and real world leaders on topics in leadership and innovation.
Guided by a passion for perfecting the process of software development and building a world-class company culture, Tim is actively involved in the strategy and operation of the firm.
In April, 2016, he came to Trusty Oak for help with making sure his i’s stay dotted and his t’s stay crossed as his schedule continued to fill up with speaking engagements, business travel, and client meetings.
Challenges
Calendar
Tim needed someone who could schedule calls and meetings for him without letting anything slip through the cracks.
Inbox
50+ emails a day? Help! Tim knew he wanted someone who could get his inbox organized and keep it that way. He also wanted someone he could trust to respond to emails on his behalf.
Travel
As EO Austin Chapter President, Tim had a lot of travel plans for 2016. Who could help him find travel deals, book trips, juggle airlines points, coordinate ground travel, and make sure he had all trip information at his fingertips? He knew this would be a task requiring someone competent and detail-oriented. Other VAs had been flaky and careless, could he find someone reliable?
Podcast
Tim’s podcast, Commanding Business, was showing signs of serious success. But he hardly had time to keep up with it. He wanted an assistant who could secure interviews and coordinate the podcast schedule, and who had the technological know-how to publish the podcast online and via social media.
CRM Management
In the process of testing different tools, looking for the most effective and functional capabilities, Praxent had distributed its contact database across three different CRM platforms. They made a decision about which one to keep, but now they needed help with the data entry.
Solutions & Impact
In April, 2016, Tim hired Trusty Oak VA, Elisabeth Kelso. Elisabeth is a business-savvy professional with a solid clerical skillset and additional experience in editing, public relations, marketing, and graphic design. She serves CEOs and business leaders who require a reliable self-starter. Extremely organized, assertive, and friendly, Elisabeth communicates with a solutions-oriented attitude.
Calendar
Elisabeth quickly took over scheduling calls and meetings, working with Tim to find a format and process that addressed his needs and fit seamlessly with his daily workflow. Now, calendar events are scheduled in full detail with all necessary instructions and information to ensure the meeting goes smoothly for all parties involved.
Inbox
After testing different tools and systems, Tim and Elisabeth finally settled on a process that allows Tim to easily prioritize his email communication, hand off conversations, steer clear of spam and clutter, and make threads easily searchable. What’s in place now is a completely customized solution to Tim’s inbox woes, and it requires almost zero maintenance on his part.
Travel
Elisabeth successfully booked five cross-country trips for Tim to take place in just two months. These trips included air travel, ground travel, and hotel stays. Elisabeth requested Tim’s travel preferences and booked all of his travel based on the way he prioritizes budget, time-spent traveling, and other preferences. All trips were pulled off successfully without a glitch. And as a plus, Elisabeth was able to secure a refund at one of the hotels when Tim decided to end his stay a day early.
Podcast
With a background in public relations and previous experience as a social media strategist, Elisabeth was the perfect fit for staying on top of securing interviews and publishing the podcast. She even leveraged social media as a natural “in” to securing an interview with one of today’s most influential business leaders. Now, podcasts are published on a weekly basis, and ideal interviews are being targeted and secured.
CRM Management
With very little investment from Tim, Elisabeth quickly learned Salesforce and now is responsible for entering leads and opportunities as they come. Her previous experience with Zoho CRM management helped ensure a quick and painless transition to this new tool.
Above & Beyond
Tim found that he could rely on Elisabeth for quality work, so he asked her for help in putting together a press kit and organizing his speaker materials. Though Elisabeth has established a daily rhythm in her work for Tim, she is always happy to take on new tasks such as these.
Are you facing challenges like these? Post a question below or talk to client success to see how Trusty Oak can help bring harmony to your day.
Before founding Trusty Oak, Amber spent five years at a rapidly growing digital agency based in Austin, TX. Four of those years, she was responsible for hiring and leading both local and virtual teams while working closely with clients ranging from CEOs to bestselling authors to build their brand online. As VP of Operations, Amber helped lead the company’s growth to #15 on Austin Business Journal’s Fast50 List in 2014.
As a female founder and leader of a company that has quickly established a recognizably special culture within a non-traditional workforce, Amber has energized and empowered women from diverse professional and personal backgrounds to go against the grain of historically standard female roles in business, technology, and leadership. Trusty Oak provides an opportunity for experienced admin and marketing professionals to work independently as freelancers, but with a supportive internal network consisting of other ambitious and resourceful remote workers.