Episode 019
Andrea Jones
How do you triple your business growth in a single year? In this episode of Women’s Million Dollar Conversations, Alice Tang sits down with Andrea Jones, founder of Andrea Jones Consulting (AJC). Andrea shares the pivotal moment in 2020 when she hired an “Integrator” and saw her firm’s revenue grow by 300%, finally breaking the million-dollar mark.
Andrea discusses her passion for “the time value of life”—creating meaningful, high-impact project work for professionals who want to contribute their dignity and talent without working full-time plus. Whether you are a “Visionary” looking to scale or a professional seeking more balance, Andrea’s insights on servant leadership and the “trifecta of time” are essential viewing.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-Why money is the ultimate tool for buying the freedom to fulfill your purpose.
-The importance of the Entrepreneurs Operating System (E.O.S.) and hiring a partner with a complementary skillset.
-How to handle “imposter syndrome” by putting intimidation on the shelf and getting curious.
-Why we regret the things we don’t do far more than the things we try and fail at.
"When I start to feel defensive, I know I feel like I am not adequate. That awareness helps me become more curious about why."
[00:00:20] Alice Tang: Hello, Andrea Jones .
I know you’re in Florida, but thank you so much for granting us time. Being our guest of Women’s Million Dollar Conversation to be our guest.
She must, and you must made a million, earn a million, or save a million. Later on we’re gonna talk about that million dollars. But before that, our audience would like to learn a little bit about you. Would you tell us who you are, what you do, and when you do what you do?
[00:00:48] Andrea Jones: Yes. So thank you again for the opportunity, Alice.
I appreciate it. So I run a management consulting firm called Andrea Jones Consulting. We offer project [00:01:00] management, change management services, and also a new service called Execute Agility, where we help companies with system selection and implementation as project and change managers. We also help manufacturers, distributors, logistics providers with implementing, I would say incremental improvement work in their companies to get real results with their same team. Doing part-time efforts on these small projects. Those are the main two things that we do and how we deliver value.
Why we do it is because I believe that there are a lot of people in this world who have a wonderful experience and great education, and for whatever reason, those people can’t or aren’t willing or able to deliver work full-time or full-time plus. At ajc the work and the project work we do is geared towards part-time [00:02:00] hours, which is really a win-win for our clients and our team because we can offer very meaningful, high impact results with less than full-time billable consulting hours. So it saves the client overall and then our team gets to live what we call the time value of life.
So they’re often perhaps working moms. Perhaps they have aging parents, perhaps they have hobbies that take time, they volunteer or they’re on the tail end of their career where they have worked a huge career for many years and now they want to work less, but still have so much to offer. I have a strong passion that individual still has so much to offer to the workplace. It’s part of their human dignity and all of our human dignity to offer work in a meaningful way. Maybe why we do what we do as well as I hope the impact we give work to that, that human being and we’re very excited about it.
[00:02:51] Alice Tang: Awesome. Looks like it is really a meaningful journey. Having to be a business that you’re making money, that you’re creating a space for your team who would like to work and still
[00:03:00] keep up to their professional knowledge, utilized it, but not necessary at a full-time basis. But yet your clientele is being helped.
So, great. Here we are. We are talking about money. Let’s start with the first question. What’s the value of money for you?
[00:03:16] Andrea Jones: That is a terrific question and I think it’s a sole searching question that everyone should ask themselves at some point.
Really thought about the value of money because it’s not just, I wanna buy all these cool things. What money provides for me personally and our family. Honestly, Alice, it is freedom. Money buys freedom. You don’t have to worry so much about putting food on the table, paying your bills, paying your mortgage, making sure your kids go to good schools, all those things.
Once you’ve got those investments covered. You can be very free to think more clearly about what God has given you to do on this earth. I think, and I’m not saying that you can’t do [00:04:00] those things without having all of that covered because you can still deliver meaning in the way that God wants you to, even if you don’t feel like you have all of those things financially covered.
But once you do, there is this freedom that really gives you. Open mind and ability to step back and say, how can I really make an impact? What am I here to do? And you don’t feel as constrained. So money buys freedom.
[00:04:20] Alice Tang: Awesome. So money equals for freedom. Love it. We talked about which route we are going to, take as far as we talk about the million dollars we landed into the revenue.
So I’m gonna take you back to when you hit your first million dollars of revenue and how does it make you feel? How long does it take for you to get there and did you pass and smell the roses or just, you know what I, cause I hit one, I wanna get 10. No time for rest.
[00:04:47] Andrea Jones: When we hit one. I definitely wanted to grow. The funny thing is the 1 million mark getting over the 1 million mark for AJC happened during the pandemic. So we couldn’t go out and maybe I went into my actual yard and actually smelled the [00:05:00] actual roses, but I wasn’t able to take a big trip or do something fun cuz it was 2020.
So AJC started in 2006. And truly it was just me and I started the business because I myself was in the position for what I described before I had four children. I was wanting to spend time with my family and I wanted to deliver meaningful work in the market, but I just didn’t want to or didn’t really have the time to do that full-time and really full-time plus, because often in big corporations, especially back in 2006, that was the expectation.
So it was just me for a long time. I did not break a million when it was just me. In 2020, I hired my first additional overhead person to help me stay accountable to running the business. So if anyone follows the Entrepreneurs Operating system or E.O.S. From the book Traction. If I’m the visionary in my business, I hired an integrator.
And just honestly having [00:06:00] that person, in the business with me, we grew 300% that year. It was insane. It was wonderful. We added lots of team members able to work in the way I described part-time. We do it remotely. Everyone was working remotely in 2020. It was not unusual. And so I believe that we had this trifecta of time where we had a team that was already remote, a team that was already part-time, so we’re used to working in this environment and then a market that was ripe for new systems because they were all working from home, they needed new systems. And so the type of work we provided. Also was needed. So that was a great year for AJC and I feel super blessed that we’ve been able to grow even from there. And we’re looking to grow further. So the year of breaking a million was 2020.
We Celebrated by kind of being shocked and having a Zoom call at the end of the year. I [00:07:00] dunno, there wasn’t anything we could really do that year, but we did have a fun get together in September of 2021 outside with our whole team for lunch.
[00:07:10] Alice Tang: Oh wonderful. Not only did figure it out that, you cannot do it alone. And many entrepreneur, business owner that we have interviewed say the same thing, right? It takes a whole village to get there. You can be as good as doing what you are gifted to do, but it takes more than that to scale a business. Thank you for sharing. From, Under a million to triple it to reach a million. Want to celebrate with you even now, two years later. Thank you for sharing.
All right on your journey to your success, still going, right? You have new goals, obviously you’re a successful business owner. What is the biggest bias that you have faced and how do you overcome it? Or are you still overcoming it? Share with us. [00:08:00]
[00:08:01] Andrea Jones: That is a wonderful question also, I thought about that a lot. To be 100% candid, I don’t feel as though I have a huge story on gender bias or racial bias. I have been privileged to live in other countries in my life. I’ve lived in Japan, I’ve lived in China. I’ve traveled, before. We had kids relatively extensively since then, not quite so much. And I’m sure people looked at me with bias. However, either I was too naive to get it or I didn’t want to see it, or I just refused to let them do it. I just don’t feel like that has been an issue for me.
The biggest bias, and I know everybody feels this way sometime in their lives is my own bias, right? My own imposter syndrome or my own, can I really do that or do I have that in me or is that gonna be good enough. I think that’s the hardest bias to come through and to overcome. And I [00:09:00] work on it all the time.
[00:09:01] Alice Tang: Yeah. I’ve known you for many years and I know that you are courageous, you are confident, and you are everything that a woman and entrepreneur wants to know about. So there are many people who’s looking up to you. But on the internal bias or limiting beliefs I love your candidate project. All of us are going through that.
You are not alone. I am too. As much as the world sees us, well in general as super confident woman, but there are times and situation and event that we felt that we intimidated. So for me, if I may, I think it is being aware of that situation. And know that I’m intimidated and give myself the strongest reason to move through.
Now, sometimes I couldn’t.
[00:09:48] Andrea Jones: Yeah.
[00:09:48] Alice Tang: Then I just do this. Right.
[00:09:50] Andrea Jones: Yeah, you’re right. That’s how I think a lot of people feel sometimes. I’ve certainly felt that way and to get through it. Often I, it’s [00:10:00] self-awareness and recognizing it, like you said, and the telltale sign for me is this internal feeling of my defenses going up.
I start to feel defensive and when I start to feel defensive, I know I feel like I am not adequate. There’s something missing. I’m not good enough, and that like understanding and awareness helps me to stop and put it on the side in my own mind. I think of it as putting it on the shelf, putting my intimidation on the shelf, putting you know, the feeling that I’m not adequate on the shelf and becoming curious.
To borrow from our mutual friend, Kirsten Meneghello, she talks about getting curious and I think to myself, what is it that I need to know to get through this? And that’s when I start asking question. And people love to give you the answers to questions, so it’s really helpful. I can’t say I’m perfect at it for sure, but I at least I feel like come a long way, just recognizing when it starts.
[00:10:55] Alice Tang: Beautiful. So there are many female audience, that’s why we do the women million [00:11:00] dollar conversation, was looking for a role model. When they relate to you, what are you going to tell them? That is, there is just one thing. That you have to consider doing or do in order to get to just like me or beyond me?
[00:11:18] Andrea Jones: What do other people need to do?
Keep going. I think Keep going. Have the courage to keep going. I read a Mark Twain quote the other day, it’s something to the effect of small people will belittle your ambitions, but great people will help you grow. I think if you can think to yourself, if other people are making me feel, this way, and I am recognizing this defensiveness, I’m asking the questions, and they’re still belittling my ideas and my ambitions, it’s okay.
They may not be the right person to surround myself with. I’m gonna get out of that situation, but I’m gonna keep going. And for me, I would pray about it too, because, this is a [00:12:00] huge part of my life. I feel like God has put me here for a reason. Put you Alice here for a reason. Put all of us here for a reason and this is a way to keep going.
This is the way I keep going, which is I don’t know what exactly it is, or hopefully many things that God has put me here to do, but I do believe that there is a reason that I’m here. I believe there’s a reason everyone is here and I don’t need to know all of it right now.
If I pull myself out of the situation or out of the world, I may not be able to do all of these things in the way that God has given me gifts and talents to do. So I have to keep going. It’s not about me, it’s about the purpose that I’m here to serve. That I don’t fully understand or appreciate now, but I believe and hope that someday I’ll have a better picture. I have to keep going.
People should keep going.
[00:12:50] Alice Tang: We’ll keep going. Keep going. Thank you for answering this. As you were talking about, the journey of keep going, right? Why we need to keep going when we don’t know. I have
00:13:00] a lot of goosebumps in my body, so thank saying that.
That leads to a great next question. I’m sure running a business is not easy. There are times that is, super tough, and you said, Gosh, I really want to quit. I’m hanging on my pinky finger off the cliff. So what kept you hanging there or going?
[00:13:22] Andrea Jones: Yeah, that’s a great.
[00:13:23] Alice Tang: Other than what we have just discussed.
[00:13:25] Andrea Jones: Right. When I started AJC, it was just me, as I mentioned earlier, it’s called Andrea Jones Consulting because I didn’t know I would ever grow beyond just me.
I actually regret that now to be honest. Don’t make business with your name. There’s a small piece of advice, , but at this point, I have the website. I have the email the, we’re using the acronym and we’ve got it registered and trademarks and all that stuff. Anyway, I digress. What keeps me going is my team. When it was just me it was a way for me to keep working while my kids were little. And honestly, as I was [00:14:00] having four kids, right? I was pregnant or nursing for nine years of my life. So when I joined Vistage in the 10th year, thanks to our mutual friend, Alyssa Gasca, credit where credit is due, she introduced me. The business started to grow, not because of anything I was actively doing, but by virtue of getting to know more people through that channel and just super blessed.
And I started to find the other people that I was able to provide work for. And that became very fulfilling. It was fulfilling in the sense that I wasn’t the only one who had this crazy notion that we could work part-time and still deliver meaningful value to the world. There are other people who wanted to do that too.
And so there was that sort of validation. And quite frankly, there’s a lot of people out there who have that belief that they would like to work in a part-time basis, in a meaningful, impactful way, but not have to take over everything. So there was validation there. That kept me going and then just hearing them talk like, if it wasn’t for AJC, I wouldn’t be working at [00:15:00] all.
And these people are so good at what they do. Just thinking about the potential that’s not being used in the world if we didn’t exist. That keeps me going and that’s why I wanna grow the business, because there are so many people who can deliver this potential amazing work in a way that makes them more confident, helps the people around them. We do it in a way that is very servant leadership forward. We’re trying to help others, and it’s that ripple effect. You go in there and you start. And the way that you behave and the service that you provide and the smile that you give someone, even over a teams or Zoom call, will carry them through the rest of that day, might carry them to their family at home. Their kids and their spouses and their friends are carrying it to their, and it’s that whole way of impacting the world.
I have to make it about that really, but that sounds very lofty. I’m trying to impact the world with all these ripples, but why not ? Why not, right? What’s the worst? We could do have ripples in several ponds. If we could get ripples and more ponds, that would be great, but that’s what keeps me [00:16:00] going is that it’s more than just me. It’s about a lot of people doing this and growing in their confidence and delivering valuable service to the world, and that is what keeps me going and makes me want to keep growing AJC.
[00:16:12] Alice Tang: Really good. You just reminded me of another guest who is also a Vistage member, small business, Jenna Bayer who said the same thing cuz she has a help people to design their yard business. She said the minute when she thought about how difficult it is she counted all her team member, which is like 20 or 40, I cannot remember exactly. And then the contractors that she use. So she counted 200 households. She just couldn’t close the door because, she’s giving the huge impact what happened to these people, especially in the pandemic years.
[00:16:45] Andrea Jones: Yeah.
[00:16:46] Alice Tang: So that kept her going. And thank you for saying the same thing, but in the A J C perspective,
[00:16:52] Andrea Jones: As much as I would love to have everybody work for me, I realize that’s not realistic. So it’s nice to know there are other businesses out there [00:17:00] that use people’s skills and interests as well.
[00:17:03] Alice Tang: That’s good. When you’re making a big decision, When the stake are very high how do you make that decision? How do you process or how do you make it?
[00:17:12] Andrea Jones: Have you heard of the working genius yet? Alice? I will give a plug to Patrick Lencioni in the table group because that model came from them and I have to use it in answering this question. How do I make big decisions? I’m an invention and galvanizing person, so if you haven’t heard of Working Genius, go to working genius.com and read about it. So I like to come up with new things, and I like to get people moving on them. I get very excited. I’m ready to go. I rally the troops and I get people motivated. I’m that cheerleader. I can’t help it. I’ve always been that way. I skip the discernment step. So really, if you go through the way that work should happen, it’s, come up with the big ideas and then figure out, discern the [00:18:00] right ones because you can’t do everything.
Of course, ironically, this is what my business helps other companies figure out too. But the idea is if I come up with an idea and I immediately go to just do it, I will probably make a mistake. So the way I make decisions now that I have this self-awareness, again, it’s all a journey. I have people on my team, the integrator person, I hired another woman now, a general manager, director of client services, and they both are very good at discernment. That’s part of their working genius. And so I mindfully stop myself from between invention and galvanizing, and I talk with them, and that’s the way I make decisions now. I make sure I talk it out with someone who is a good partner, who has a complimentary skillset from my own. Very fortunate in my business to have two such partners. In my marriage, my husband has discernment, so I’m super grateful for that as well. I can’t say I’m perfect because sometimes I still go from idea to immediately putting it into [00:19:00] action. I try, however, especially when it’s a very big decision to talk about it with few people, get that perspective, I might process it at Vistage because I just don’t have all of the knowledge and my perspective is limited.
So it’s very important to stop and take a few more days. Doesn’t have to be forever. I’m not into analysis paralysis, but a few more days to sleep on it, to discuss it, to really weigh the pros and cons in the ramifications of one outcome or another, depending on the course we decide to take and then move forward. That’s how I make decisions.
[00:19:35] Alice Tang: Very good. So you know, your strength. You know, also, your weakness. You surround your yourself with the people you can trust, picking a certain idea apart or giving you a green light. Then you make that decision.
[00:19:49] Andrea Jones: Yeah.
[00:19:50] Alice Tang: Great. We are winding down last, but one question.
What is the best advice or the worst advice you’ve ever received from someone that make a huge impact to you?
[00:19:59] Andrea Jones: I am fortunate [00:20:00] to have a lot of good advisors in my lifetime. I can’t tell you for sure who gave me this advice, but it’s possible. It was my mom, which is, and she wouldn’t have said it this way, but I’ll tell you the story behind it. The advice is people regret more what they do not do, than what they actually do. You will look back on your life, and if you felt like I should have done blah, I should have tried this, I should have given that a go when I had the chance and I didn’t. You regret that more than I did go out there and gosh, I was embarrassed, but it turned out to be okay. I really feel that way. And the reason I think it might have been my mom is when I lived in Japan, when I was a senior in undergraduate school as a an international student living with a family. I was so blessed. I did not have a million dollars, Alice, at that time. I didn’t have a million dollars. What I had though was a desire and some time to travel. And I remember she told me when I had the opportunity that I got to go to [00:21:00] Taiwan, I got to go to Singapore, I got to go to Malaysia, I got to go to Burma, and I got to go to Thailand. And Thailand was the last place and I really couldn’t afford. , but I could scrape it together and she told me I should go. She said I should go because I might never get the chance again. Which is basically that advice. Go and do it. When you’ve got the chance, you probably won’t regret it. And honestly, Alice, that’s also why I have four children and not just three, because we had two girls, then we had a boy, and we were like then we should be done. And I’m like, I don’t feel done. If we have a fourth child, I’ll never regret that human being here in my life. But if we don’t, it’s very possible, I’ll look back on my life and regret it. So I say go for it.
[00:21:41] Alice Tang: Do the things that is on your heart that give you joy. Don’t worry so much about what’s the constraints of it.
What if, right? What if I can. I have to walk. What if I can’t afford the airplane?
So I go back to my college days, we were [00:22:00] very poor student, but we decided to go to Paris by the boat, by the ferry, not by the plane. Looks like it’s more expensive, I didn’t remember. And we took the option of cold shower.
[00:22:11] Andrea Jones: Wow.
[00:22:12] Alice Tang: Than a hot shower, guess what? It’s really short shower. One minute, right? But we still talk about it. We still talk about, that was a great, crazy good experience. Not so good at the time.
[00:22:24] Andrea Jones: Right. When you do have that million, you can afford to go in a little more luxury.
However it makes for a great experience. Like you said, that is something I’m sure you’ll treasure forever.
[00:22:33] Alice Tang: Yeah, of course. I wouldn’t do it again here. So last question. What are you grateful for?
[00:22:40] Andrea Jones: Oh my gosh. I’m grateful that I’m even here.
I’m grateful that other people are here. How can I not be grateful for everything in my life? I’m so grateful. I’m grateful for opportunities that I come across. I’m grateful for my family. That’s actually another great way to keep going. You start counting all the things you’re grateful for, and then you [00:23:00] realize how much you have independent of that million, and then how much you can keep going when you go for that potential and how many people you can serve. I’m grateful for that.
[00:23:09] Alice Tang: Reaching for the potential and grateful to be here. Thank you so much. Andrea Jones, my good friend in Florida.
[00:23:16] Andrea Jones: Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk with you, Alice. I appreciate it.
[00:23:19] Alice Tang: Yes. Awesome. Thank you.
Andrea Jones has focused on efficient and effective Project Management and Change Implementation for over 20 years. She has successfully managed projects of all sizes, from greenfield construction to SaaS cloud-based ERP systems. Andrea also loves process improvements and has a natural instinct to always seek a better way to execute work. In all her consulting projects, Andrea seeks to facilitate adoption among stakeholders in true change management fashion and loves leading collaborative teams.
Andrea began her career at Intel Corporation as a Process Engineer and grew to love the use and analysis of data to make actionable recommendations. She has consulted for Honeywell, Inc, Genentech Inc., McKinstry, Vetsource®, Power Systems West, Precision Analytical, and Acumed, among others. Andrea has an MBA from MIT Sloan, an Engineer Masters from MIT, a Master’s in Chemistry from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelor’s in Chemistry and Japanese from the University of Oregon and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Andrea is also a Certified Facilitator in the Working Genius model by Patrick Lencioni and the Table Group, and her Working Geniuses are Invention and Galvanizing.
Andrea is a Speaker on the topic of Executagility – learn how to Insource project execution, rather than Outsourcing in a crisis.