EPISODE 48 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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In today’s episode, we’re answering a question that hits home for every service provider, course creator, and membership site owner:
“How do you build personal relationships that make your clients feel seen while still maintaining the boundaries that protect your own privacy and time?“
To unpack this, I’m joined by Hamilton Schmid, founder of Your Virtual Cornerstone, a thriving agency that’s grown almost entirely through word-of-mouth over the past five years. Hamilton’s secret? A smart mix of intentional systems, respectful boundaries, and deeply personal customer experiences.
Whether you’re just starting out or scaling up, this episode will inspire you to rethink your capacity, tighten your processes, and still make your clients feel like VIPs.
What we cover:
Why building genuine client relationships doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your sanity
The difference between high-touch and overavailable (and why Hamilton doesn’t work Fridays)
The power of voice notes for client intimacy & brand voice
How to semi-systemise surprise-and-delight moments without making them robotic
Why “delivering what you promise” is the ultimate referral strategy
Soundbites:
Hamilton Schmid: “I would say start small, just do something. A handwritten card goes a really long way. So maybe that’s adding it to your onboarding process. Again, that’s not expensive to just get a postcard to them, but that personalization reflects that you took the time to sit down and think of it.”
Hamilton Schmid: “A lot of people in the service world have had negative experiences with service providers. And so when we don’t deliver what we said we would, it opens a wound for them. So we’re really careful to make sure that we deliver because they could be coming from that kind of experience.”
Hamilton Schmid: “We are in a unique position where we get to see how clients operate. It’s not just here’s what we need and we get it done and pass it off to you. We’re logged into your inbox. We’re looking at your calendar. Having all that inside scoop makes a big difference on how we can deliver that personalization and making sure that we really are building a personal relationship.”
More about my guest, Hamilton Schmid:
Hamilton is the CEO of Virtual Cornerstone, a business by women for women, providing online business support to busy entrepreneurs. Everything from project management and executive assistance to strategic marketing and copywriting, Virtual Cornerstone is a one-stop team for the entrepreneur who refuses to choose between business and bedtime.
Free 30 min Outsourcing Strategy Call: https://calendar.app.google/tWSf2hU9SYvGqMU26
Website: www.yourvirtualcornerstone.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virtualcornerstone/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@virtualcornerstone
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Episode Transcript:
Nadine Nethery (00:01)
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. We are officially back to regular programming after the previous three weeks of reflective episodes easing back into the year. So today, as I teased in last episode, I have a very special guest for you who can help you really set the foundations for a 2026 that feels good, really preserves the boundaries and
hopefully puts some processes in place for you to, yeah, look after yourself as much as your clients, customers, members, whoever you’re serving. So today’s question dives into, as I said, a topic that is really close to home for many of us. I can relate, I started out like this in business, boundaries weren’t a thing. So how do you build personal relationships that make your clients feel seen while…
maintaining boundaries that protect your own privacy, time, headspace, et cetera. Whether you’re a service provider, a coach, course creator, a membership site owner, or anyone really who works with human beings, this balance can absolutely be tough and a fine line to walk. But today’s guest, as I said, has nailed it. So we’re joined by Hamilton Schmid, the founder of Your Virtual Cornerstone.
And her business has grown, which is pretty impressive, almost entirely by word of mouth over the last five years, because Hamilton and her team deliver the kind of experience that we strive for on this podcast. That really has clients excited to share her brand with their connections as well.
As it happens, I was introduced to Hamilton by my guest expert of episode 35, Ash Macdonald. Thank you Ash for the introduction. really love the online space because it brings so many amazing people into my orbit. So welcome to the show Hamilton.
Hamilton Schmid (01:50)
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Nadine Nethery (01:53)
Thanks so much. And Hamilton, by the way, has a 10 week old baby. So I really appreciate her slotting things in between, breastfeeding, baby’s napping. So hopefully we could get the episode in. So I always feel like it’s much better when I introduce myself on podcasts. So I’m going to hand over to you Hamilton to just give people a little bit of an introduction around, who you are, how you got to where you are today and how you support online business owners.
Hamilton Schmid (02:18)
Yeah, so like you said, I’m Hamilton. I am the founder of Virtual Cornerstone and we are a full service team supporting women in the online space. So we do everything from marketing to copywriting, admin, OBM, just about anything, what I would call a communications and marketing umbrella. We service women in this area. And over the last five years, I’ve grown a team with expertise in different areas. So we’re able to be a one-stop shop rather than having to go and source.
all these different people for all your different needs. You can just come to us and we have the expertise all in one place. Our clients are all women, many, almost all of them are moms who have just started a business and gotten to that point that I think we all get to where we feel like I don’t want to be doing all these other things. Like I started my business for one reason. And so we kind of take all those other things off your plate so that you can focus on what you love to do and why you started your business in the first place.
Like you said, many of our clients have been with us from the very beginning. started really as a virtual assistant and have sort of grown it into this full team, full service, one-stop shop. But lots of them have been with us for five years now, which is super fun and really a reflection of getting to have that personal relationship and building on that over time together.
Nadine Nethery (03:30)
Hmm. How amazing is that? Like I love personally working with clients for years and years and years on end. You get to know each other, ⁓ and really know the quirks as well. How you like to work, how they like to work. yeah, so clever.
Nadine Nethery (03:44)
Particularly as women, I feel we try to hold on to things and do it all ourselves. So such an important service you’re providing to really just take the load off those women and feel like they can focus on what their expertise is and hand off those things that really turn them into a bottleneck of their business.
Hamilton Schmid (04:03)
For sure. Yeah, yeah, we only have so much time to get things done, right? So you have to be prioritizing.
Nadine Nethery (04:04)
So yeah. I know, and yet, especially as moms, feel like, you know, how we work is quite different too. ⁓ You know, I don’t know, people without kids, it always feels a bit easier to juggle things and just get things done. So seeing that you have managed to hold on to a lot of your clients from day dot, I’m curious to start with your take on what it really means to create personal client experiences because, we always throw it out there. I really look after my clients. I’m awesome at those relationships, but you would have got a very unique perspective on this too, because you’re not only, supporting your clients, but you’re also often working behind the scenes in your clients’ businesses where, you’re seeing how they’re handling things as well.
Hamilton Schmid (04:53)
Right, yeah, we are in a unique position where we get to see how clients operate. It’s not just here’s what we need and we get it done and pass it off to you. We’re logged into your inbox. We’re looking at your calendar. We know your travels. So really having all that kind of inside scoop makes a big difference on how we can deliver that personalization.
and making sure that we really are building a personal relationship. And that is one of the things that we really pay attention to is what do you have going on? What seems important to you? And something I call communication mirroring, where we are trying to match your style of work, especially because we have such long-term relationships. It really matters to me that we are matching how you like to work. So one client might like multiple text messages in a row. You know how some people like to just blast off a bunch of text messages. And another client might prefer everything in a paragraph or no text at all, only email. And we’re really customizing based on what works for that client and what we know works for them and knowing them really individually and personally to customize that experience rather than just a blanket, here’s how we do things. And I’ve talked to a lot of clients who have been in situations where someone comes in and says, you know, I only use Slack to communicate or, you know, they have these structures. And yes, from our side of things, it’s nice to have that kind of structure. But a lot of times for the client experience, it just doesn’t work for them because they have their own way of working already. So rather than trying to set up some sort of system that I make clients come into, we do the opposite and we’re gonna come into your systems or we’re gonna help you set up the system that works best for you to make sure it’s personalized in that way and not expecting you to learn something new. The whole point is you already have too much going on, right? You don’t wanna have to learn someone else’s system. So really just matching what works well for each client. And part of that too requires not having too much at once. I’ve really had to kind of slow down and say, how many clients can werealistically serve at once to ensure that we’re still providing that really customized experience because it takes the time of getting to know people and paying attention to what’s going on in their life and taking notes of what they’re doing and really keeping track of all of that. So you really have to be aware of what is your capacity or your team’s capacity to make sure that that high standard is still set and delivered on.
I’ve gone through seasons where I’ve said yes to too many things and I can’t maintain it in the way that I want to. So that’s really important to pay attention to as well.
Nadine Nethery (07:23)
Hmm. That’s such a, such a smart approach to business rather than, looking at the immediate wins and the immediate positive impact on your bottom line by taking on more clients. It really then takes a hit when it comes to customer retention, right? Because if you’re not looking after your customers while you’re landing new customers, those don’t stick around because you’re simply not providing the service. So, so clever. I’m curious from a selfish perspective here,
Hamilton Schmid (07:36)
Right, exactly.
Nadine Nethery (07:48)
what your processes are when it comes to taking note of those intricacies of every client because as you said, it takes time to get to know them and then to embed their way of working into that project. Do you have any framework, any processes? How do you go about formalizing that for every client?
Hamilton Schmid (08:06)
Yeah, there’s some formal pieces and there’s a lot of informal pieces, right? Where we’re just kind of catching on to things. But one of the big things that I do is use Voxer for communication. And part of this is a boundary for myself. When I started, I was in text message and it just got mucky with my personal life and my business life and people could text at any time and it just fell out of control, right? So I moved everybody to Voxer. So it’s in a separate space than my personal text messages. And that is a really important boundary to me because I can turn off the notifications and still see if my mom texted me, but not have to respond to clients at the same time. So that’s one piece of why I love using something like that. That’s the boundary. But the personalization of that is the voice and being able to hear how someone’s talking and then being able to hear me back. That has proven to be really, really important in our business and that personalization piece especially because we do a lot of writing and creating for clients, I want to be able to hear how do they talk and how would they say this? What’s their tone, their inflection? It just comes across differently than an email or a texted message. And so that is a huge thing that I can highly, highly recommend is being able to hear what a client is saying. And so that’s a big focus is Voxer. We also communicate through email and we just kind of keep it to those two things to keep it really simple. Like I said, like not having some structure system that they have to come into. the other thing is I send out client forms. So when they sign on as a client, I have them fill out a form that just shares a little bit about them. And some of it’s the practical stuff, like your email and your address. But I also ask them, like, do you have any hobbies? What’s your favorite local coffee shop just some like get to know you type of things. So that way, if I’m ever like, hey, we should send a gift card to this person, I can look at, well, what’s the coffee shop around the corner from them that they want a gift card to, not just another Starbucks, you know? So some of that customization can come through more of a formal like intake form. And then the other pieces, like I said, because we have access to their email, their calendars, their moms, we’re paying attention to what’s going on. And so it can be really simple little things like their kid had a school show and we just ask how it was the next day. paying attention to what are those little things that you can just kind of follow up on and show that you’re paying attention to their personal life. And that’s where it’s not as formalized. You know, I don’t have a calendar of like, make sure you ask so and so what happened, but I’m just always kind of paying attention. What’s happening in their personal life or even in their business, you know, hey, they had an important sales call. How did that go? Showing that interest in their business goes a really long way, you know.
People love to share about how things are going for them. If they’re a mom, they have kids, they love to talk about their kids. I’m learning that as a new mom myself. I’m like, I’ll talk about my baby all day long. So just any little thing that you know you can kind of chat about just helps them feel that safe personal space with you.
Nadine Nethery (10:46)
Yeah, it’s that intentionality ⁓ in every interaction and paying attention. It goes such a long way, actually, you know, writing down, taking little notes, what’s coming up in their business. So boundaries, I know you mentioned you had to work on, moving things out of text message into Voxer. I’m sure that’s just part of it, but, what are some other.
Hamilton Schmid (10:58)
Yeah, exactly.
Nadine Nethery (11:17)
early boundaries that you have set for yourself along the way, or even had to reset as you went along in business and grew your agency to make the way you work with clients sustainable.
Hamilton Schmid (11:29)
Yeah, so a big one is working hours. And that was something I really did struggle with early on because I had this feeling of like, I have to respond right away. That’s part of the value of what I’m giving them. And what I learned was if I’m responding all the time, one, obviously that’s not sustainable and my personal life is struggling. But I also realized that I’m not giving as high of quality if it’s not during my set focused time. And I’m the kind of person that likes to have no unread messages and I want to just respond. So for me, it’s a boundary of like, don’t look at your email if you’re not ready to respond to something well. And then also communicating those hours with clients. So when someone on boards with us, we have a PDF that we send them the outlines. Here’s our working hours. We have a two day turnaround on tasks and really sticking to that. and just making sure that it’s very clearly communicated. really found that clients don’t really mind if you’re not on all the time, you know, they, understand they have a life too, but, making sure that you are delivering in the times that you are on. That’s what really matters. And so even just sending check-ins, like I said, we have a two day turnaround, but I will send a check in like, Hey, here’s where we’re at on that thing. Just extra little drops that we can have where we kind of pop in and let them know what’s going on, even though it’s not done yet, helps them to feel taken care of because they know they’re on our mind. And I kind of start my morning looking at the client list. Okay, where are we at? How, when’s the last time we talked to them? Make sure they’ve heard from us recently. Then the other thing I do is I don’t work on Fridays and that is really clearly communicated as well. And that PDF, you know, our office hours are Monday through Thursday at specific times and we don’t work on Fridays. And if someone sends something, you know, Friday through the weekend, we’ll respond on Monday and just reiterate that boundary. Hey, we saw you message on Friday, just a reminder. We aren’t back till Mondays, but here you go, you know, and kind of just gently sprinkling in those reminders when we need to. But at the same time, allowing clients to message anytime, you know, someone can email me on a Saturday, that’s fine. But they know I’m not going to get back to them yet. And I really
believe that boundaries are our own responsibility. And when we set the boundary and then cross it, clients think, well, they weren’t legit about that boundary, right? Because they just went right over it. So it’s really been a practice for me to be responsible for my own boundaries and reminding myself, if I want clients to respect this, I can’t send an email on Friday afternoon if I said I wasn’t working. know, maybe I am working, but I always schedule it for Monday so they don’t know, right? Because we’re setting a precedent of maintaining those boundaries we told them.
Nadine Nethery (13:47)
Yeah, so clever. and it’s so true, once you drop that ball and people get used to receiving responses on Fridays, they, come back for seconds and thirds. yeah, transparency, I feel is like the key here. Just being open and honest from the beginning, transparently communicating, expectations, what’s going to happen. And then as you said, communicating, but you’re working on something, giving progress updates, even unprompted.
Hamilton Schmid (14:16)
Right. Mm-hmm.
Totally.
Nadine Nethery (14:37)
to keep people informed. I’m curious how you’ve built a referral based business, particularly because you have very firm boundaries and some people think it’s about going above and beyond all the time. So
what are some tangible things that you have built into your business to encourage that customer loyalty, but also word of mouth where people do the word spreading for you.
Hamilton Schmid (14:59)
Yeah, well, I think you really hit it with transparency and building that personal relationship has gone so far. Clients, they feel like friends, but not in an unprofessional way. So we’ve really managed to allow it to be personal and that goes two ways, but I’m very aware of how much do I want to share and letting it be enough that we can have that personal connection, but not more than I’m comfortable with. I also find that just being open to feedback has made a big difference in asking for the feedback. So I fairly regularly send out, you know, survey requests and email clients just asking, how are things going? What could we do better? And implementing those things. I feel like a lot of times people, you might think to send out a survey and ask what’s going on, but then you don’t really do anything with it or address it head on. And that is definitely something that I think we’ve benefited from is that I’m willing to have those tough conversations. It’s hard, but it’s so important for that long-term relationship. You know, for clients to want to stay on with us, we have to be able to talk about what’s not working and improve it. A lot of, a lot of people, think, you know, if you’re not having those conversations, then the client doesn’t want to continue and you’re left wondering why or what happened when if we just go ahead and open that conversation early on and show that we’re open and implementing feedback then the relationship just continues to build and clients have been more open to continuing to work together when we admit, know, oops, we totally messed that up. We fixed it. You know, here’s the fix. Let’s move forward and just addressing things like that. Really just straightforwardly so that there’s no blurred lines and we’re not leaving clients, you know, wishing we had done something differently. And I think in terms of the referrals, honestly, I have not like ask for referrals. I know a lot of people have like referral systems where there’s like, you know, an affiliate or whatever. We haven’t really done that. I really think that it comes down to delivering a really high standard. And that truly has been enough that people want to talk about us. And when a friend comes and says, I need to hire some help or I’m drowning, whatever, they’re like, my gosh, we know who you need. And that word of mouth has kind of happened naturally just based on our delivery in the client container. And so that’s where I really like to focus on the experience of the client. I don’t necessarily find that all these other programs are necessary. know, clients, sometimes I offer like a $5 Starbucks gift card if you fill out the form or tell a friend and they don’t really jump on it. Like those, they don’t really need the incentive. It’s naturally there when they’ve had the experience they want to share about.
I don’t, you we don’t have to bribe them to want to talk about us. It’s more about just do something so well that they naturally want to talk about it.
Nadine Nethery (17:43)
Yeah. Such a testament to the business you’ve built and the processes. And, obviously your customers, your clients feel comfortable sharing you with others, which is such a show of trust.
I’m very much on the same page when it comes to actually inviting honest feedback, as much as sometimes as you said, it can be confronting because you obviously believe that you’re delivering amazing service. So I am huge on my onboarding processes. A client recently gave me a score. I always ask,
how happy were you with the, how this project flowed? And she gave me an eight out of 10 and I went, let me double check here. I always love it when people don’t give you 10 out of 10 because it doesn’t really tell you anything. So, um, eight out of 10 and I reached out and the interesting thing is a lot of my clients love having reminders being prompted to do things. This client, um, just got confused by the Reminder so she said I sort of make me doubt that I’ve given you everything and so it just has opened up an opportunity for me to go. Okay, so how do I treat people who want less reminders differently to people who love all the reminders That’s an opportunity in my business to potentially even give them an option to answer at the beginning of our project. Do you prefer all the reminders or are you going to be on top of it and want minimal check-ins just when it’s needed? It feels a bit confronting but the opportunity is absolutely there to then improve your processes for everyone across the board. So yeah.
Hamilton Schmid (19:00)
And so much of being a business owner is that learning experience, right? Like we’re always learning and growing and it could always be better. And, and maybe it’s better for one client, like you’re saying it’s better this way for one person and better a different way for another person. And just being open to how to make those tweaks that each individual is getting the best experience.
Nadine Nethery (19:15)
Exactly. And you know, I’ve been in business over eight years and you just get into the flow sometimes, right? You just go with the motion. And so it’s good when someone is open and honest and just gives you fresh ideas. So yeah, so it’s on my to-do list. I know you’ve touched on celebrating milestones before via coffee cards or, those things you’ve paid attention to before.
Hamilton Schmid (19:35)
Right.
Yeah, a little disruption.
Nadine Nethery (19:51)
But do you have any tips, to make it low lift so it doesn’t feel like you constantly have to think about it? Do you have any processes to make it ⁓ achievable without doing everything manually?
Hamilton Schmid (20:06)
Yeah, I mean, I think I think the big thing is having some set milestones that you know you’re going to do something for us so you don’t have to be constantly thinking about it. So we always have onboarding, right? That’s a really great starting place to do something. I tend to send out some sort of like little onboarding gift and it can be the same for every client. But, you know, have a little stash of the thing that you’re going to send. And I’ve done just a postcard. I’ve done a postcard and a candle like simple things that I just already have in my office ready to go when someone signed their contract. And then we do also always do Christmas gifts. So that’s another thing that I can kind of count on. Like, I know this is going to happen. And then just throughout the year, kind of setting for ourselves once a quarter, we’re going to do X, Y, Z check-in, you know, and kind of having a calendar. I will say though, I don’t like for that to be too systemized because I want it to be really personal. So even though I know we’re gonna do Christmas gifts, which I’m working on right now, I actually pick a custom thing for every client. Now, it could be different depending on your business because we have about 10 to 15 clients at a time. So it’s manageable for me to kind of choose something per person. But I really think that that customization makes a big difference. It shows I’m paying attention to who they are and what they like and what their family’s like. And I’ve got one client who’s a minimalist and I know she doesn’t really want more stuff. Maybe she wants more activity-based.
someone else has four kids and might want something, you know, for herself, like just kind of customizing and personalizing it in those ways. So while there are sort of a timeline and a flow to how we do things, I do keep the actual touch points pretty personal. One of the other things I always pay attention to is if someone says they’re sick, that’s a really easy one. It could be, you know, I’ve sent tea, I’ve sent a coffee gift card, or I’ve just sent a message like, Hey, just checking in, are you feeling better? How are you feeling? It doesn’t have to be monetary. You don’t have to spend a bunch of money and time on these things. But those little check-ins showing that you’re paying attention can make a really big difference. And what I will say is the way to kind of systematize that is just to put it on your calendar. If someone says they’re sick on Thursday, put it on my calendar for five minutes on Monday. that person a message and ask how they’re feeling, just so that I don’t forget and I don’t feel like I have to keep all those things in my head. But I do think those little touch points that are really customized actually are where the difference happens rather than like this great system that I’m constantly following, which kind of loses a little bit of the personal touch.
Nadine Nethery (22:22)
it’s so clever how you semi-formalize it by having those milestones in the project or in your calendar. but then how that takes shape is fluid and unique to the customer. And yeah, I am with you on the gifting front. I don’t think you need expensive gifts. I have a stash like you in my, in my office and, they’re all sort of handmade or boutique Aussie brands.
Hamilton Schmid (22:46)
Right.
Nadine Nethery (22:58)
my daughter actually is my gifting manager. So she’s 14 and she loves to wrap it all and like the confetti goes in. ⁓ but yeah, you don’t need a huge budget to have impact. It’s more about that personalization, really knowing your customer. So I’m totally, ⁓ with you on that.
Hamilton Schmid (23:06)
I love it.
Right.
Nadine Nethery (23:15)
I know we’ve talked about, know, when things go amazing in client relationships, which hopefully most of the time is the case, but we’ve all worked with a client or had a member, a student where something just didn’t go to plan. You had to course correct that relationship somehow. How have you personally handled those things in the past or do you have any tips for how you would handle tricky situations and potentially at risk relationships?
Hamilton Schmid (23:42)
Sure. Yeah, I mean, I’ve definitely had clients where I felt like I communicated the boundaries and then they weren’t necessarily respected. And I will say, a part of that is the self-recognition of, have I held that boundary as an example for them? And sometimes I haven’t, and that’s where I need to correct. Other times I have and it comes to kind of that tough conversation of letting them know, hey, it feels like we’re really not holding this boundary. And what I would recommend is just the candid conversation of, this going to work for you or is my structure not fitting for you? And I kind of hold the relationships loosely. You know, I love my clients and if it’s not the right structure for them or my boundaries don’t work for them, I have to be willing to let it go early on, I would adjust my boundaries, right? Well, so-and-so really needs me on a Friday morning, so I’m going to work for them. And that’s not sustainable for me. I had to come to a realization of, I choose my boundaries and I have to hold to them and be open to if this isn’t working for someone else, I want to help them find someone great who can support them within what works for them. So I have had those situations where, you know, I had a client who by 5 a.m. every morning was just so I mean, it was like two hours worth of voice memos by the time I would wake up. And it was just like, okay, this, is not going to work for me, but why don’t I help you find someone who’s got the availability and like wants to work at this pace with you? It’s just not for me. And being open to those conversations. I’ve also had clients where we’ve needed to have that conversation and we can kind of course correct and figure out what works best for both of us. One in particular, as I was getting ready to take a maternity leave earlier this year, she had kind of gotten used to this sort of all day back and forth. was always in Voxer right there with her. And as I was getting ready to take a leave, my business manager was taking over and her capacity was different, right? So she wasn’t able to always respond all day long, kind of the way I had been. So we had to set new expectations. And so we had to have that conversation. And the first thing was setting the expectation, right? Very clear. Here’s what we can do. Does that work for you? And once she was on board, really holding to delivering on those expectations.
A lot of people in the service world have had negative experiences with service providers. And so when we don’t deliver what we said we would, kind of opens a wound for them. And it’s like, uh-oh, you know, especially with what we do, because we’ve got access to so much personal information and your passwords and all those things. A lot of clients come to us having had a previous experience of, know, someone logged into everything and then they ghosted me or whatever. So we’re really careful to make sure that we deliver because they could be coming from that kind of experience. So setting the expectation and delivering on it and then practicing it slowly. So with this particular client, as I was getting ready to take a leave, we said, okay, instead of kind of communication all day, there’s gonna be a morning check-in, an afternoon check-in and an evening check-in. And then we’re gonna kind of practice and get to it slowly. So what we did is over the course of a month or two, we started just slowly pulling back the amount of communication and transitioning into that set structure of three check-ins a day, rather than just this stark contrast like, well, we’re not doing that anymore. It was, let’s have the conversation about it. Let’s kind of slowly transition to it. And then also just checking in regularly about how that’s working. So as we were making this transition, I would check in and say, how’s this feeling? Is this enough? Are you feeling okay about this? And just, again, having that open dialogue about how we can be supporting them within the boundary that we’ve discussed and agreed upon. ⁓ you know, not, not stepping outside the boundary just because it’s not working for them, but, but being open to the feedback and working together. And that’s where that honesty has really made a big impact on our relationships that I am honest about, here’s what my capacity is. And I can’t guarantee I can get back to you within two hours, but I can guarantee, you know, within a day and, and that back and forth and, and both parties really.
feeling safe and comfortable to be honest about what can work. And we’ve almost always been able to find a groove with that kind of conversation to get into it.
Nadine Nethery (27:47)
But again, it just shows your customers feel confident that, you’re being honest and they can be honest with you. As I said, I’ve struggled with boundaries early on in my business where I didn’t pay attention to red flags. But it’s experience as well, isn’t it? Like over time you need to go through a few of those situations, reflect on what you could have done better.
Hamilton Schmid (28:09)
Totally.
Nadine Nethery (28:15)
reflect on what potentially you could have picked up at the beginning and then making that part of your project. And, rather than running from those conversations that have to be had, um, it’s a matter of stepping up and just putting it out there. Let’s chat about it. Like grownups.
Hamilton Schmid (28:30)
Yeah. Especially as you go through different seasons. I mean, for me, being a new mom, it’s like, okay, my capacity has shifted now and my boundaries are shifting. just having grace for yourself that just because this is how you started in your business doesn’t mean that’s how you need to deliver forever and ever. But when those shifts happen, again, communicating it really clearly and openly with the client so they know the shifts that are happening. You know, I’ve really seen that big time becoming a mom and having to communicate how things are shifting and I have sort of used my baby a little bit in the sense of like, I’ll say, okay, here’s how things need to shift. And also here’s a really cute picture of her and don’t you wanna be okay with these changes? Because she’s so cute, you know, so, right. So, you know, but it’s that personal touch, right? I’m willing to share a little bit so that you can kind of understand where I’m coming from. And there’s just so much of a relationship there because we’re having that honesty with each other.
Nadine Nethery (29:05)
It’s fair game.
Hamilton Schmid (29:23)
And yeah, yeah, just things shift and change. And I think we probably all started our business with no boundaries and had to learn this is not gonna work forever.
Nadine Nethery (29:28)
Yeah, absolutely. But you know, that’s the beauty. you can create your own boundaries. They can evolve and because you’re the business owner, it’s up to you how you want to work and how you want to serve those clients. But yeah, if listeners are now going, oh my God, that sounds amazing. I really need to implement some of those personalized touches into my processes, What is one actionable bit of advice that you have for those listeners that they can start with to make progress?
Hamilton Schmid (30:01)
I would say start small, just do something. A handwritten card goes a really long way. So maybe that’s adding it to your onboarding process. Maybe it’s just sending a check-in in the mail. Again, that’s not expensive to just get a postcard to them, but that personalization of it being your handwriting, it reflects that you took the time to sit down and think of it. If they’re clients that you already have, that you’re trying to kind of mix these personal touches into.
just send a check-in, you know, or just, Hey, I’m so grateful that you’re working with us. I like to tell clients a lot how grateful we are for them. and remind them they’re making an impact in our lives just as much as we’re making an impact in theirs and letting that be kind of that personal relationship that this is a two way street and, it does impact me and my family and my team and their families. and so I would say a handwritten note is a great place to start. a simple, you know, Starbucks gift card can be a good place to start and just starting to pay attention to what those little things are. You might hear someone say that they’re sick and just kind of brush it off, okay, talk to you next week. What if you just gave yourself a little reminder on your calendar to ask them how they’re feeling? If you know that they were taking the afternoon off early to go to a kid’s school play, make a quick note on your calendar for tomorrow morning to ask how the show was those little things really do make all the difference. And so just kind of slowing down enough to pay a little bit more attention and then just, you know, if it’s a sticky note on your computer or on your calendar, whatever small thing you need to help actually implement it, just start there and start with those little things. I think you’ll be surprised how far just the little things go.
Nadine Nethery (31:26)
They can have so much impact. Isn’t it that little personal touch out of nowhere, totally unexpected. So good. One question I ask all my guests before we wrap up is what are you wondering when it comes to customer experience in 2026 and Who would you love to answer this question for you?
Hamilton Schmid (31:40)
Okay, so there is a copywriter I really look up to, Corey Myers, ⁓ someone I know personally in my area, and she does a lot of deep research. So when she works with someone to do copyright for them, she’ll talk to their clients and ask about their experience. And I’m curious, knowing so much about her clients and that deep research phase.
How does she use that information, not just for the copy that she’s writing, but the customer experience that she then brings to that client that she’s gotten to really, really know?
Nadine Nethery (32:27)
That is such a clever question Let me reach out to her and see whether we can get her on the show ⁓ to answer. Where can people find you, Hamilton, and connect with you, learn more about your work, and yeah, get into your orbit?
Hamilton Schmid (32:39)
Yeah, please do. Yeah, I would love to love to hear it.
Yeah, so our website is your why you are virtual cornerstone.com. I’m on Instagram at virtual cornerstone. I’m also on threads that has been sort of the easy lift I’ve been able to do as a new mom is just posting on threads has been super fun. So building a community over there. And then, yeah, our website has all the information. And if you email hello at your virtual cornerstone.com, you’ll get to me and I’d love to chat with anyone who’s looking to connect.
Nadine Nethery (33:17)
Thanks so much for coming on the show Hamilton, such a good chat and so much to think about and listeners make sure you give Hamilton a follow and check out her website and connect with her online. If you also have a question, a listener question that you would love me to answer on a future episode of the podcast, you can submit your questions via the form on the
podcast page, which is all linked up in the show notes. And if you’ve enjoyed listening, please make sure you follow, and share the podcast with your business besties. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you next time.
