Creating Balance: Entrepreneurship, Self-care, And Coaching with Suman Cherry

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

I’m excited for today’s guest. She is the founder of Cherry Talent Group. And what she does is she helps connect to the right employees with the right jobs and the right jobs with the right employees. So vice versa. She’s a matchmaker. Super excited. We rock it out today with Suman Cherry. Hey, Suman, you ready to rock?

Ready. Awesome. So we always start off here at a good note. Tell me a story of success in your business that we could be inspired by.

Suman Cherry: I think just the business that I’m doing right now. I mean, I started this business. Um, I’ve been recruiting for a long time and I took a chance and started a different type of model and recruiting.

And it’s just been so successful in the sense that it’s just created so much value. Connecting the right people with the right in companies and creating a lot of value there. So I’m honestly, I’m like kind of living my greatest success right now. Cause it’s, I’m, I’m actually, I’m almost at year one of it and it’s just been so fun and so.

Awesome. Honestly, I [00:01:00] mean, you know, it’s challenging, you know, being an entrepreneur, but also like how much so much, um, feels so good to do it as well from that space.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. You’re like feeling a personal sense of accomplishment or something. Right.

Suman Cherry: Uh, and just, I think it’s just when you approach business from a human place.

It’s just has such a different feel than when you’ve done it, because I’ve been in business for a long time. And so doing it from this space is different from doing it from more of a, um, kind of a traditional business setting. You know what I mean? The way that it’s usually done and more transactional based, if that makes sense.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well. So now along with the good notes, sometimes there’s some bad notes that can hit along the way. So I’m wondering, can you share with us that part?

Suman Cherry: Yeah. I mean, like we said, like I said before we got the call, like, so my good is like my bad. You’re like, yeah, that’s kind of how it goes.

So, yeah. So I had a very successful business about, um, a little over 10 years ago and it was set up a very more traditional way of recruiting and it was very successful, but. It [00:02:00] wasn’t something that was creating a lot of value in my life in the sense that it caused much stress in my family. My family and I, my husband and I were like not doing well.

And then it kind of snowballed that whole piece because I think, you know, whenever you’re kind of stuck there, it’s hard to expand, right? Cause you kind of get used to this sort of place and you’re kind of afraid of risk. And so I didn’t take the risk. And as a result of that, my business kind of overnight just sort of was like, okay, bye.

And so that was pretty humbling. You know, it took me some time to sort of recover. I mean, I did recruiting after that, but, but I think this, the new business I’m in now is born from kind of the mistakes or the, the kind of, I don’t want to say failures, but the lessons that were learned at that business, you know, if even from a personal level and also in my My work life as well.

Tim Melanson: Okay. What, what, what are some of those big, those big lessons that you learned then that you’re doing different now?

Suman Cherry: Um, I think one of the things is, is [00:03:00] that you really need to ask for support and trust that support. And if the support isn’t right, then you need to find that support. Because as a, you know, an owner of a business.

You cannot do everything and you need to understand what your weaknesses are as a leader and be able to find people that can plug into those and give them the ability to grow into those roles, you know, and it’s support you. Um, number two, I would say, I would say like the risk piece, like, you know, when you’re growing and expanding a company, there’s, and every expansion is going to have some risk.

So if you don’t take that risk and you stay back in that comfortable zone, I know it feels really comfortable, but it’s also contracting and suffocating and the business will eventually just poof. So that’s the thing. Another thing is I would never work the way I was working before. I would never put my business, my work above my family or my connection to myself.

Like it’s always the other way around [00:04:00] now. So my family, my connection to God or source, whatever, you know, yourself is me. That’s my number one space and everything is born through that. So that’s my priority in my life. And that’s how I’ve structured a business. If that makes sense.

Tim Melanson: So those are big. It does make sense.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there’s a lot to unpack there like, first of all, the connection to yourself and like taking care of yourself and all that stuff that keeps coming up over and over again in these interviews and it’s not necessarily something that would be common in I think An employee like side, right?

You know, the, you don’t, you don’t talk to employees about how to be good employees and they talk about their meditation routines, right? And their self care routines. It just doesn’t, you know what I mean? So why do you think this keeps coming up in, in entrepreneurship?

Suman Cherry: Because I think that when you are an entrepreneur, when you, so I think when you work for someone.

Um, I think that there’s a lot of rules, [00:05:00] right? And so you just kind of plug into those rules and you stay within that box. And when you do feel like maybe this isn’t the right space, you might leave and go to another place where the next growth might be for you. Right? And then it kind of stays there. But I think with an entrepreneur, it’s like.

It’s you, right? And you’re facing you, it’s like, there is nobody else. So when there’s a mistake, it’s like, okay, do I stay as a victim? And I say victim, not from a negative standpoint. We all have that space because who do you blame? You know, it’s the person in the mirror. So it’s like, okay, well, I take responsibility.

I have to learn from this. I have to grow from this. So. And, and then as an, as for myself, I realized like, what are these limitations that I have on myself? Are these really real beliefs? Why am I afraid to do this? Or what is sabotaging that? Or why am I chasing that? So for me, it was like, I always was looking for something outside of me until I reflected back and I started doing however you want to say it, the self improvement work.

Yeah. And I realized that everything is built through me and just pushed out from me. So that’s, and I think as an [00:06:00] entrepreneur you have no choice. Like you have to face that. Yep. That’s what it’s,

Tim Melanson: well, and, and I think another part of it too is that, uh, you know, a company like a, like a big company or a big business, you know, they sort of have the turnover built into the plan.

Right? Right. I mean, right. You know, we always, you know, you see sort of like the movies and whatever the memes talking about, you know, if you were to, were to leave or were to die or what does that, whatever they’d have your. Physician filled in no time. Right. It is just, it is what it is. Right. But that’s right.

But that’s the nature of the game. So if you burn yourself out in as an employee, the business doesn’t disappear. No, this is going to keep going.

Suman Cherry: Right. And, and, and that’s the thing. Um, it would be wonderful companies would understand that and bring that to employees. But again, we, as individual humans, people, it’s our responsibility to take care of ourselves.

And I always think to myself, like this statement, [00:07:00] like. It’s my standards, right? It’s my standards. I have to set my own standards and that, and I have to be in that standard place all the time in my life. So if you’re working for an organization and I hear all the time, people I talk to, why did you stay there so long?

Why did you accept as much money? Why did you deal with that until they didn’t have a job anymore until they’re in this really not good place? And it’s like they just feel, um, you know, they’re not doing that other piece, right? So, but if you do the other piece, then you’re going to know what your standards are as well, you know, reflected back to you.

It’s just how it works.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And, and by the way, we can create a business that does that for our employees in a way, you know, we, we do have the power to do that. Um, but then on the other hand, that’s. You know, I, I started thinking about that and I’m like, well, then again, you do have to make your own business resilient to that kind of stuff because employees come and go, right?

[00:08:00] So, so really when it comes down to it, there, there is, you can do as much as you can to help your employees grow personally, you know, to make sure that they are doing their own self care. But when it comes down to it, you have to have a business that will survive if they do happen to leave.

Suman Cherry: It’s just a natural piece as well.

I mean, as you, everything is growing. As you grow as a company, the employees that you have might have worked in that space then, and they just don’t work now, or maybe it was a person. I mean, I think it’s a natural thing. I think it’s just important for, I think, companies and individual companies, employees.

Need to have a better understanding of making decisions quicker on like, is this the right fit match or not? You know what I mean? Yeah. I’m not keeping that wrong space there. And this goes on both sides of the equation, right? Cause companies keep people that are obviously not good matches for their organization for a very long time.

And it creates a lot of disengagement and the rest of the teams as well. [00:09:00] Yeah.

Tim Melanson: And I think that, uh, like, I mean, that, that particular topic has come up. Quite a few times on the podcast as well about, you know, firing quickly. I hate, I mean, if something’s not working, you know, they’re going to be a drag on your organization if you don’t figure out how to get rid of them, you know, quicker than, than that.

And that’s, you know, but, but I mean, a lot of this stuff. Does come back to if you’re the top of the organization, if you are like, you could be a solopreneur, but you also could have a team really, if you disappear, the whole thing disappears. So, you know, you, you do like, it’s not the same thing. It’s the same things work for somebody else.

If you disappear, the company still goes, right? You would disappear as the owner of the company, the whole company goes. So you better make sure that doesn’t happen,

Suman Cherry: right? Right, right. And it’s just really important. I think as an entrepreneur, it is. Even more important to take care of yourself, like in every aspect of your life.

I mean, I’m not just talking about, you know, I, I do the other types of, but I, but exercise is so, [00:10:00] I mean, to me, exercise, physical activity, whatever that means to you, it’s so important. Like you need to take care of yourself, like what foods you’re putting in your body and What you’re polluting your mind with and all those things.

Like, who are you taking advice from? Who are you complaining to? Who are you, you know, like, who are your men, these mentors piece as well? Like all of these kind of flow into it. Right.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about that. So who do you have as the, do you have mentors? Do you hire coaches? Like what, what’s your plan on

Suman Cherry: that stuff?

So I’ve worked a lot of different coaches over the years. I’ve worked with more in a business. Um, kind of business coaches. I, I tend to like to work. I’m, I’m someone who is very much about understanding kind of moving through, like I’m an energy person. So I really like working with coaches that work with energy and, um, but it all kind of correlates cause it’s, we still talk about business.

We still talk about our personals and it kind of all moves through. So I’ve used work with them quite a bit. So I really like that. Um, obviously I’ve also [00:11:00] worked with. Coaches that specialize in, um, you know, creating more value as far as on a business setting and those types of pieces. And, but I tend to like the more, the personal coaching as well.

Um, that’s just who I am.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. So you’re more or less, not necessarily hiring coaches for specific strategies. You’re hiring for overall kind of like

Suman Cherry: accountability. Yeah, because it all accountability also balance, you know, I want to this time around, I need that, like I’m talking about the support piece. I need support.

I need to have a safe space where I can go and be in whatever’s going on and someone can kind of help me kind of move through that, whatever’s going on.

Marc Mawhinney: Hi, it’s Mark Mwini from Natural Born Coaches, and I want to give two very big thumbs up to Tim Melanson and his Creative Crew Agency. I have been using them for a long time and I am 100 percent happy.

They get the [00:12:00] job done right. They are fast, and they let me focus on my business. I don’t have to worry about anything. So again, I want to give them two very big thumbs up. I have no problem recommending them. I don’t give testimonials for everyone, because my name is attached to it. But I gladly do so for Tim and the Creative Crew Agency.

So use them. You won’t regret it.

Tim Melanson: I find that when you’re looking at mentorship and coaches, it is kind of one or the other, either you need some specific skills that you want to learn, or it’s just this overall kind of like I need to keep myself accountable to something because, you know, like When you’re working for somebody else, I mean, if you don’t show up to the office, eventually you’re going to get fired, right?

You know, if you have your business and your business is moving along, you know, it can take time. Like I, you know, I’ve heard this before and it seems to be true in my life is that it takes about three months to grow some memento. To see the results of growing momentum, [00:13:00] but it also takes three months for it to dissipate too.

So you might be like flying high and everything’s great. And then you just stop showing up. It doesn’t just immediately disappear. Your business doesn’t just fall away like that. It takes some time for that to happen. And then once it starts happening, you can’t stop it.

Suman Cherry: And I think, and just to be completely honest with you, I think it happens to all of us, no matter what, like I work with coaches, I do all the things, but there are times where I’m like, Yeah, I step away and then I do see it, right?

But the difference is now I can catch it faster, right? When I go into that place, like, okay, well, there, because I’ve not been done all of these other things that I need to do for myself. Like I haven’t kept my cup full. So this is empty. So this feels this way. So it’s just, but before when I had the business before.

I had no idea even how to recognize it. So it was just like, it kept mementoing the other way, right? Yeah. The other direction. [00:14:00]

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s, and it’s interesting cause I like just being on this show, I’ve had so many times when I’ll be, I’ll be talking to a guest and they’ll be mentioning something that I definitely don’t.

I know, but I’m not doing any more. Right. It’s just one of those things where you, you sort of like fall off the track of doing things that you’re normally doing. Yeah. Yeah. Like you say, it is totally normal to do that. And you know, it’s just one of those things where if you have somebody in your corner that can kind of, you know, keep checking in and go like, are you still doing this thing that you know how to do?

Suman Cherry: Yes. And that’s the other thing. And they, and like the coach I work with, she, she keeps like, it’s a mastermind of women. Right. Right. So it’s all these women who are all entrepreneurs, we’re all in the same age group. We all have, you know, and so it’s really nice to collaborate and listen to what everyone’s going through.

It’s a lot of the similar things, but most of the time when she’s telling us to do is stop overthinking it, stop being a perfectionist, you know, stop doubting yourself, just put it out there. Like, just do it. Make the call. Have [00:15:00] the conversation. Quit the social media. Whatever needs to be done. You know, whatever.

Just do it. And that’s usually what it is. Just do it. So

Tim Melanson: let’s talk a little bit about the home office. So sometimes that could be a little bit challenging to get spots, you know, to actually do your work. Yeah. Yeah. You know, what do you think is important, you know, in a home office?

Suman Cherry: Locks on your doors. If you have children, lots of threats to your children of stealing their iPads away now,

Tim Melanson: anyway, wifi passwords,

Suman Cherry: library of Roblox to them.

Well, I think you need to have your, a quiet space, right? And you need to make a space your own. I think that’s very important. Like, I don’t let anyone in this room. Like any of my family members, I’m like, this is my space. You’re not allowed in here. That one is allowed in here. You guys have your own space.

So I, um, I’m very like this and I always work from the same space. I’m very consistent about [00:16:00] that as well. So I think that’s very important. Um, I don’t in my space doesn’t have anything in it. There’s nothing to distract me. I don’t have a TV in here. I don’t have anything to distract me because if I go and work from somewhere else, I’ll get distracted because then my dogs are there or this is going on or whatever.

So I’ve learned that if I really need to get something done, I’m not saying I don’t always work for other places, but if I really need to dedicate myself, I have to be in my space and I have to like hone in on it and, and not, and like give myself a break after a certain point. I’ve had to really be consistent with that myself working

Tim Melanson: from home.

Yeah. Yeah. Me too. It’s super important. So let’s talk a little bit about practices and practicing. So you know, this comes up quite often. Like what are the things that you do to not only stay sharp and stay, you know, stay up on your business, but also even personally, like do you have routines, rituals, things that you do?

Suman Cherry: I mean, I. I. I. [00:17:00] Go to bed really early. I mean, I’m usually asleep before 1030. So I’m pretty set on that schedule and I wake up at the same, almost at same time every morning. So we’re doing 6 to 6, 15, even on the weekends. I try to, you know, a little bit later, but I stay consistent with mine. I have a barrier, you know, I work out a certain days of the week every single time at the same time.

And I do it the same way, you know, our different types of workouts. And I, I set my day with that. You know, I do simple things like, I don’t know, my husband and I, like in the mornings, I like, we really like to sit before our day starts while our daughter’s getting ready just to have a cup of coffee and we put our phones away and have a 15 minute conversation about our day.

I don’t know. Something like that’s really simple. Cause then we’re just connecting on that place. Um, what are some other things I do? I do some meditation. I don’t do it as much as I used to or as consistent, but I try to do some type of space where I go outside. I’m in the grass or I’m, you know, look in nature at least or walk [00:18:00] for at least 30 minutes a day if the weather permissible.

So those are my main things. I really focus on things and I try to make sure I drink enough water. They’re very simple things and I’m very consistent about like the exercise thing. I don’t cancel. It doesn’t matter how I feel that morning. Even if my mind is like, Oh, you know, I’m like, no, I show up.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

And that’s the thing, eh, you might not feel like it, but have you ever regretted doing a workout?

Suman Cherry: I know. And every time I’m in the work and I’m like, I can’t believe I want enough to show up, what’s wrong. I love it. That after the next time and I’m like, Oh, I don’t want to work.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. It’s just to remind yourself, you know, the after workout, me is going to be super happy.

Suman Cherry: So I think it’s just. I think for me, the biggest shift again is consistency. I’m very consistent with things, you know, and I’m also very, um, open to flexibility, to things, to change if something pops up or stuff I try [00:19:00] to have. At least lunch with like a girlfriend during the week, you know, I try to put some play in my like day I don’t want it to be all work.

I I try to have some enjoyment balance. It’s important, you know

Tim Melanson: Does your husband work from home too? Yeah Interesting. So how does that work out?

Suman Cherry: No, it’s interesting because he kind of goes into his cave. I go to my cave we sort of meet up for like little junctions where we might like He might make me something for lunch or something, bring me lunch.

Um, or we might discuss like who’s going to pick up our daughter or whatever, or what’s going on, but we’re pretty good about having our space during the day. I might pop into his office and say hi or something like that, but we’ve been working together from home. Um, our entire relationship, we’ve been together for years.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Okay. So it wasn’t one person who worked from home, one from the office and then I think

Suman Cherry: first now, I think when we originally met when we first dated, we both had jobs outside the house. But I think then when [00:20:00] we, um, we’ve been married for 13 years, I’m going to be like, 13 years. And yeah, we both have worked from home.

And, and this house is much bigger. We still live in Austin. We have this little small house. So that was different. We had a baby, but you know, so like during COVID, all these couples were like, Oh, I’m like, I don’t know. I’m just always been used to it.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Yeah. Mike’s both. And I also, we work from home together as well.

We have even during COVID or before COVID. So yeah, it’s one of those things where for us, there was no change, which was great.

Suman Cherry: Yeah. Yeah. I mean. For us, it was really easy. I mean, I, I like it. I’ve gotten used to it. You know, I mean, our privacy right in space, like we’re not, we, we respect each other with what they’re doing in our day.

You know what I mean?

Tim Melanson: Okay. And, but you, and you’re not working in the same business. You have different businesses. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that’s probably easier because my, my spouse and I work in the same business. So it’s a little bit more complicated because things, things get like. [00:21:00] Like when you end up talking, you end up talking about business, whereas you guys

Suman Cherry: probably don’t.

So we, so my husband, I did work together and the previous business, but we have realized. So we are better as a relationship and we don’t work on business. We do better when he has his business, we talk about his stuff. I have my business, you know, it’s like we have our own things.

Tim Melanson: So it’s better. Yeah. Yeah.

It makes it easier to separate too, because that’s the thing when, when you get together for supper, if you’re working the same business, sometimes you end up talking about this business. Cool. Well, it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business.

Suman Cherry: I mean, we are super excited. We had such an incredible 2023 was our first year.

And we’re going to have some, like some social media out, kind of look at really seeing what we really saved our clients this year, because our models, like I, I don’t, I really didn’t go into the model, but for most people that have used recruiters before external recruiters, they’re familiar with the kind of contingent model, which is the model where [00:22:00] you don’t pay anything upfront and you pay a percentage of the first year salary to 20, 25%.

Which can be cost prohibited for a lot of smaller businesses, right? It’s also some risks. So I, our model is different. It’s hourly based. It’s very consultative based. Like we help you with the job description. We help you, um, where are you going to market it? We understand like do mark analysis and because salary is important.

What are other people asking? Like, what is, what’s competitive in your area? And then we really go out and really source those, that position for you. And it’s, it’s hourly based. We’ve saved a lot of clients, a lot of kind of money and time, but it’s also It’s a deeper relationship that you build with the candidates and the clients, because there’s no attachment to the candidates.

So it really connects this connection. And we’ve, we’ve had a lot of success. We’ve 5 place. I haven’t added up the numbers, but I think we’ve placed 30 plus people this year, um, state and it’s just been super fun to do as well. And it’s great for smaller businesses because. You know, you, you can get the fraction of a cost.

You can, [00:23:00] you know, get a really good search for an external recruiter because it is hiring is hard and it’s really important and it’s also time consuming and companies really hate doing it. Like every, nobody wants to be responsible for it. They’re like, well, it’s yours, but the truth is it’s like so important to your business, to your vision, to your purpose, like what, who you are as an organization.

It is so important to take your time to find that right person. Like you said, I mean, they always say what higher, slow fire bath and having someone else handle that for you. Like we talked about the support piece. That’s exactly what it is. Cause I mostly come in and talk to a lot of the companies that October, less than 25 people and city I work with and the CEOs are doing, they’re like at night going through resumes and they’re like, I don’t want to do this.

I don’t have time for this. So they being able to hand that off to someone else and be like, handle this for me. It’s just a game changer for them. I’ve just been so much [00:24:00] success. I mean, I’m having my clients are like, I can, finally, like, I had a client last week, um, an owner of a company. He’s like. His wife reached out to me and she’s like, thank you so much for finding this PM for us.

Like, he’s like, finally gets to have some time, you know, like it’s like, it’s changing their life because when you’re an entrepreneur and you don’t have people to help you, the right people, that is.

Tim Melanson: And so you work on both sides, you work for the employees and you also work for the companies, right?

Suman Cherry: I only work for the companies.

So I, but. When I’m working with the employees, there’s no attachment to the candidates, right? So I’m really there to like, facilitate, like, is it a good match for them as well? Right? I mean, if someone says to me, I’m looking for a slower pace, I’m looking at, and my client’s like, I want, you know, high energy, high match.

So. And then it’s a salary range or they’re, you know, I’m not going to put someone in a situation like they’re making more money than like, well, I would settle for like, it’s like, it’s [00:25:00] never a good situation. Right. I mean, they’re not wants to stay in that situation. Right. So we do a lot of behavioral questions too, because we’re trying to understand if someone does someone take responsibility for their mistakes?

Is it someone who take, you know, has the questions you ask that the failures piece, like. Because that is important. We learn, we learn our lessons. I’m taking responsibility. We don’t stay as victims and then that’s how we get free to change. So that’s what I’m wanting to see those candidates. Is it someone growth oriented?

And that kind of thing. So it’s, it’s, it’s a different dive, a different approach. It’s very human based. And like some of the candidates are like always like, wow, it’s like nice talking to recruiters, a human, not a robot.

Tim Melanson: Love it. So what would be the like companies that would be the best fit for working with you?

Suman Cherry: I think like, you know, companies that are, um, either don’t have an HR internal, like recruiting team. I mean, if you have a big team, I get that it’s a different type [00:26:00] of animal. Um, but if you’re a company that has maybe just HR and hasn’t have any internal recruiters or it’s just you, or if you have worked with external recruiters in the past and it’s worked, but the costs are a little bit more or it hasn’t worked and you want to try something different.

I think those would be great companies to work with, um, companies that really want to attract great talent. But don’t have the time and the energy don’t look for them. Right on.

Tim Melanson: So how do we find out more?

Suman Cherry: So you can go on our website, cherry talent group. com. I’m all over LinkedIn. It’s super cherry. So you can, you could see, um, I mean, you can contact me through there.

My website, there’s a submission form. You can reach out to me through there. love

Tim Melanson: it right on. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today. So Linda’s been a lot of fun. Thank you so much. Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, comment, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Suman Cherry: Thanks for listening. To learn how you can become a Work at Home Rockstar [00:27:00] or become a better one, head on over to WorkAtHomeRockstar. com today.