From Unhappy Client to Entrepreneur with Amanda Daering
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Photo Credit: Michael Maarten
Amanda Daering is a speaker, business strategist, and entrepreneur. Through her work as CEO and cofounder of Newance, she connects brilliant people to teams and opportunities across the US. When not nerding about the world of work, she’s spending time with her family and taking too many pictures of her miniature schnauzer, Ruth.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I’ve spent the last seventeen years thinking about the world of work and talent. Whether from a recruiting seat or as a head of people operations, I love the systems and human quirks of teams trying to get things done together.
Building a recruitment & HR company, Newance, while AI changes the world of work is quite an adventure at the moment!
What inspired you to start your business?
Before launching Newance, I was the client. And not a very happy one. Every agency or consultant I would work with couldn’t quite hit the mark. They spent so much more time spamming people than thinking about the context of our team. Or they would propose solutions that had more to do with trends than our actual business. Along the way, I worked with some brilliant engineers and finance professionals. They were kind enough to be candid with me about what mattered to them. In 2018, I was ready to take that combined experience, good and bad, to the market.
Where is your business based?
I’m based in the Midwest but work coast to coast! Will be in Milwaukee, WI this Summer and headed to Mexico City in the Fall.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
I started with a single consulting project that I used to save up the seed money for Newance. It was a 2 hour each way commute once a week for months on top of my day job. It was worth every second in that car.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
The vast majority of our growth has come through referrals and network development. We are also lucky to chat with many talented leaders as candidates who have then become clients for us down the line. Clients don’t buy services like ours from something like an ad. They’re hiring us for our discernment and our connections. We want our sales process and outreach to reflect the high touch and more personal nature of our work.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
In a services business, balancing the sales pipeline with the size of the delivery team is always a challenge. It’s typical to have either not enough work and too much capacity or too much work and not enough capacity. And it can shift between the two quickly. Finding that balance takes ongoing effort. We're always refining how we plan and working to make both sales and delivery run with precision.
How do you stay focused?
I try to rely on my memory as little as possible. On a tactical level, that means utilizing automations and reporting wherever possible.
On a more emotional level, we set a word of the year each year as a personal theme and goal. My business partner, Angela Damiani, and I check in every single week on whether we’re bringing that word to life. Last year, my word was texture and I spent more time with art, food and travel. This year my word is spaciousness. I’ve worked to build out my leadership team and create more open creative space in my own days.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
Recruitment and talent consulting is a crowded and competitive space. We go quite deep into the context and technical details of every search. To do that effectively, we have our own experts in residence. These are engineers and finance leaders who pair with our recruiters. This pair creates a superpower mix of talent and role specific expertise.
It’s also very common for firms to make big promises. One of the ways we stand out is by our candor. If a candidate says they want something specific, we will tell them if the client can’t offer that. This is different from a typical more “selling” approach. Ultimately, we’re not selling a widget that will go in a drawer someday. We’re knitting teams who will spend day after day together.
On the consulting end, we come with the mindset of what can we uncomplicate? What can we streamline towards the goals of the business? This is different from taking a heavy handed approach that looks fancy and yet no one uses.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Our competitors have been leaning in on mail automation and digital strategies. We’ve put our efforts into our strengths in relationships. That includes sponsorship of community groups like Midwest Founders Community. We're always talking about other ways to provide value outside of selling our service.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Most of us are better at tactical execution or big vision thinking. Depending on which comes naturally to you, you'll need to make an effort to balance out. For me that means not just executing quickly on tasks but making sure I'm also taking bigger more strategic risks.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
My favorite app is boring and has to be Apple Notes. I have it on every device and keep one master to do list with my word of the year at the top. Yes, for one entire year I work from one list with headers by day. The ability to add something to it from my computer, phone or tablet is so useful.
As far as blogs go, I recently started with Good Ideas by Emily Chenoweth to work on my writing.
It’s impossible for me to select a favorite book. Reading is one of my true loves in life. If I had to give a business book for someone to start with, it would be The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. In any business, it’s so important to get real info to work from not platitudes. This book helps you to do that.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
Have loved working with a coach over the years when I’ve felt stuck or plateaued. Podcasts with other entrepreneurs make the day to day challenges feel more surmountable.
Who is your business role model? Why?
Esther Perel. She thinks contextually rather than dogmatically. That approach resonates so deeply with how I see the world and my work. I'm inspired by the way that she’s taken strong interpersonal intuition and figured out how to scale it.
How do you balance work and life?
There are seasons that take more in one area and seasons that take more in another. The one thing I’ve found to be most helpful is to leave my phone at the end of the day. Having a true evening break from email and notifications helps me bring more energy to the next day.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
It’s either quiet reading or seeing a concert. Both of those are immersive and restorative in their own ways for me.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
How can our readers connect with you?