How to Delegate Without a Team

How to Delegate Without a Team

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Podcast Transcription:

Speaker A [00:00:07]:

So being a solopreneur or starting a side hustle is extremely exciting, but can also be extremely overwhelming because you have a staff of 1. And I can speak to this, personally because I in starting my business, prince, I went from, running a team of marketers of about 10 to just myself. And man, does it change when you have a team to delegate to versus you’re the only one taking action. And so you think when you start your business that you can do everything. It’s alright. I’m gonna be cheap and cheery and scrappy and I can do it all. But you quickly realize that that’s a a recipe for extreme overwhelm and burnout, and we can’t do it all alone. So, we’re gonna talk today about ways that you don’t have to go it

Speaker B [00:00:58]:

alone. Welcome to Diary of a Worthy Pursuit, how to get what you truly want in life and business.

Speaker A [00:01:04]:

And like I mentioned, today, we’re gonna talk how to delegate without a team. This is so important for all of us who are just starting out our businesses or maybe thinking about and wondering, how are we gonna get all the things done that’s required? I mean, you wrote a book about all the things to do when you start a business. Right? So what did this does look like for you when you’ve started your various businesses?

Speaker B [00:01:27]:

The first so I started my 1st business in 2006, and I remember I took classes part Ahead of time, like the Small Business Development Center and SCORE and, well, there’s just tons of places around town that offer these little classes on learning Stuff, taxes and whatever. So I tried to learn the things that I thought I needed to know, But I didn’t realize, of course, what I didn’t know that I didn’t know, and so I didn’t take any classes on those. And so you get you start your business. Right? You hang your part go out. I’m really good at doing this job, whatever it is, and you start doing that. And then it there’s things like accounting pro But I took a little class on QuickBooks, but I didn’t learn things like, what does net thirty

Speaker A [00:02:10]:

mean Mhmm.

Speaker B [00:02:11]:

Or net sixty or whatever. Pro I didn’t learn that sometimes customers don’t pay. Going in deeper, I didn’t learn that potential employees sometimes don’t show up to interviews. Per I didn’t learn all these things. Even the whole the whole mileage deduction thing for taxes, I didn’t learn the correct way To do that, it was probably 5 years after I started my business, which cost me way more in taxes previously. Print I remember meeting with an accountant, and they told me, no. These are your options, whatever. And I’m like, wait.

Speaker B [00:02:43]:

I can deduct that? It’s one of those, like, how come nobody told me?

Speaker A [00:02:47]:

Preacher to the choir right now because I’m I’m working on finalizing my taxes and looking at this exact thing. Oh. But the thing is, how much time have I put in or trying to figure that out

Speaker B [00:02:56]:

Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:02:57]:

Right, when I know it’s not my strong suit, I I love what I do. I love coaching. I I love helping people become a better version of themselves. And not that I’m so glad that taxes and those laws are someone else’s strength, but I know it’s not mine. But, yeah, we try to when we’re a, you know, a staff of 1, figure out how to do it ourselves because we think we’re gonna save money, when you’ve mentioned this before, our money or our time is money. And so it is More valuable. Right. So what am I trading? What can I not do? What’s the opportunity cost of me doing my taxes and taking 5 times as long then sending it to someone who knows how.

Speaker A [00:03:38]:

And I can use that time to do something that will actually move my business

Speaker B [00:03:42]:

forward. Yeah. And just knowing what to look for. Pro right? I tried to sit down once to do my taxes, when I had my own business, the 10.40 e z. That was easy right here. 1 w two. Mhmm. No big thing.

Speaker B [00:03:54]:

Even 3 w twos. Not a part But I remember sitting down like, how hard can this be? And you start you fill out 1 blank, and you’re like, no. Pro No. No. No. Because aside from that form, there’s gonna be other things and other forms that you just don’t know.

Speaker A [00:04:09]:

Right.

Speaker B [00:04:10]:

I think what is the tax code? It’s long that if 1 person were to sit down and read it, it would take 90 years or something like that.

Speaker A [00:04:16]:

Oh my god.

Speaker B [00:04:17]:

Like, it’s just impossible for any 1 person. Daunting. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. So So now we expect 1 person. Right? Our accountant. You know? And even before that, we expect us to just be like, yeah.

Speaker B [00:04:27]:

I gotta go pay my taxes, whatever. But no one can even possibly humanly know all the rules, and that’s just one facet. Right. Then entrepreneur marketing and all all this other stuff.

Speaker A [00:04:39]:

Like, oh. Payroll, insurance, HR, all these different aspects of our person, so let’s, we have some steps for you today to talk about how you can delegate without a team. So our first step is to cut the to to do list. We talked about this here before, but we end up having 20 to 30 things on this to do list. And it’s really important, I think, to realize that maybe some of that stuff doesn’t need to be there at all. Mhmm. We need to use and and leverage what’s going to be the best use of part time, but also if we have that long of a list, does all of it need to be done by us? Right. And, something when you have a team, it’s a lot easier to say, nope.

Speaker A [00:05:20]:

I don’t need to do that. I can delegate that. That can go to this team member. That can go to this team member. Right? So much easier. When it’s you, it’s a lot harder. So we first say cut the to do list because it’s a lot easier to try to find solutions for something, you know, 5 things, then 30 things.

Speaker B [00:05:38]:

Right. And the 30 things on your to do list, there’s no way you’re gonna

Speaker A [00:05:41]:

No. You’ll never get through those. And it’s always so overwhelming. I preach on this all the time, but it’s so overwhelming to look at a to to do list of 30 things. If you get 3 things done, you still feel, I didn’t make any progress today.

Speaker B [00:05:51]:

Right. Have you written something down on your list that you already did? Just do you

Speaker A [00:05:54]:

cross out? Absolutely. Check

Speaker B [00:05:58]:

the box. Yeah. Right. 31. Here we go.

Speaker A [00:06:00]:

Print Right. Exactly.

Speaker B [00:06:01]:

It’s funny. The interesting thing that I have found is I’ll give you a really quick example. I was part of a b and

Speaker A [00:06:07]:

I print

Speaker B [00:06:08]:

thing. Right? Which is fine, great, wonderful, doing alright. But I figured I was doing well with that, so I should have an employee go to another one. But then I realized how much it was costing to pay that employee, hourly, mileage, the expense of the b and I, and then the employee wasn’t part necessarily as invested as I was in the success, so then they weren’t as successful. And I thought, wait a second. Per How much am I making off of that employee going there? And then I backed up another step and said, wait a second. How much am I making by going there? You know, you’re devoting Mhmm. Whatever 3, 4 hours, sometimes 5, 6 hours a week to that.

Speaker B [00:06:48]:

Yeah. So you’re talking that’s 10 to 20% of your work week part In this one thing, is it justified? So I’m like, okay. Clear that off the list.

Speaker A [00:06:57]:

Right. But but what you’re saying is absolutely friendly valuable for folks to hear is that you should look at your to do list and say, what is actually moving the needle forward? And as we start our businesses, revenue is our main goal. Right? We we gotta stay alive and and afloat. So even looking at your to do list and saying, what is going to drive revenue forward? And then prioritizing those things is important. Right? Like, my taxes are extremely important.

Speaker B [00:07:22]:

Yeah. You don’t get a choice.

Speaker A [00:07:23]:

But I’m not driving a ton of revenue by that unless I, you know, did a really good job of saving and paying and all the things. Yeah. Right? So I think it’s important that when you look at that to do list, you’re prioritizing it based on your highest leverage work that’s gonna make the biggest impact for your business.

Speaker B [00:07:38]:

Right. True story. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there’s common where we’ll come up with actions, and it doesn’t necessarily accomplish anything. Mhmm. So at the end of the day, we can say, like, I’m so busy or I was so busy, but I don’t know if I actually accomplished anything that moved the needle.

Speaker A [00:07:54]:

Yeah. We’re not getting the right things done. Mhmm. So the way that I teach this to my focus clients is say, you know, at the beginning of every week, you do a weekly preview and you look at your quarterly goals, and you make sure that you set 3 important things to get done this

Speaker B [00:08:07]:

week Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:08:08]:

That’ll move at least one of those goals forward. Interesting. Look at each per day and determine what I’m gonna do today, I pick out 3 things based on what I wanna get done this week. So I’m always making sure that my biggest goals, I’m at least taking the next little step and the next little step forward. So, one, it helps me understand that I’m I’m moving things, but, 2, it makes me make sure I’m getting the right things premon Alright. To make progress and not get stuck in busy

Speaker B [00:08:32]:

work. Gotcha. Interesting. So with your clients, have you found that they follow that?

Speaker A [00:08:37]:

It is a it’s part of shift for people. You know? I think the the biggest part that’s, a struggle for them is cutting it down to 3. They’re like, oh, I need to get more than 3 things done today. Like, yeah, I get it. Right. But all of us do. But if today was over and you only got 3 things done

Speaker B [00:08:54]:

Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:08:54]:

What’s gonna make you feel good about the day? Print that’s how you set those priorities. And so when we’re cutting our list, those 3 things should be the things that are moving is toward our our highest leverage work and

Speaker B [00:09:06]:

goals. Alright. I like that. Yeah. At the end of the day, so you’re putting them in the future, magic wand.

Speaker A [00:09:11]:

Right? Mhmm.

Speaker B [00:09:11]:

If you had accomplished these three

Speaker A [00:09:22]:

in the day, great. Go do all the other things that are the little things that you have to get done. Right? Like, we have to unload the dishwasher at home or we have to walk the dog. Right? Those sorts of things still happen Mhmm. But they’re not the high leverage work that you’re moving towards your goals.

Speaker B [00:09:35]:

Yeah. Interesting. I like it. Yeah. What do we have next year? Systematized part by leveraging technology. What? We’re in the name

Speaker A [00:09:42]:

of the age group. Right?

Speaker B [00:09:43]:

Cool. Can

Speaker A [00:09:43]:

do all this shit. There’s been so much talk of leveraging AI

Speaker B [00:09:47]:

Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:09:48]:

These days, it is very trendy. But at its core, this idea is that we can we don’t have to outsource to a person. We can outsource technology, so one of the ways that I’ve used this, and this is the big thing in marketing right now. So if you’re not in marketing, maybe you haven’t heard this. Expert, there’s a tool called chat gbt, copy AI. It’s this whole idea of writing some of your content, by just putting in a few inputs and then having the machine try the output something, and then you can edit it or give it feedback. But this is one way that I have started creating some of my content, some of my blogs because it’s, it just speeds up the process. Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:10:25]:

And I find that I am a better editor than creator.

Speaker B [00:10:28]:

Oh, absolutely. It’s much easier to fix something to do.

Speaker A [00:10:30]:

If I sit down and look at blank page, it’ll take me an hour to fill it. But if someone gives me something, then I can edit it. So I really like this tool because it gets my brain working. You know? And I can say, well, this doesn’t look right. I’ll change this. Or this isn’t my tone of voice. I’ll go through and change the voice. But that has really helped me in my business.

Speaker A [00:10:47]:

And it was one of the hurdles that I felt like content moves me forward because it helps people trust me and people do business. Right. And it help and people do business with, you know, people that they know, like, and trust. So this is important leverage, but I was never getting to it because it was so just it

Speaker B [00:11:03]:

It’s on the back burner.

Speaker A [00:11:04]:

Right? But this is a tool that has helped me move that forward.

Speaker B [00:11:07]:

Oh, yeah. I liked it. How about you? Interesting because I have part Some employees. So with call answering service Mhmm. There’s times that are busy, and there’s times that are less than busy. Right? Sunny day, people are calling all the time because they see their lawn, all that jazz. Pro snowy win wintery day. People are hibernating.

Speaker B [00:11:23]:

Phone’s not ringing. So I’m like, hey. For these clients, including our website, I I want you guys to write blogs in your downtime. 1, because it is content, so that’s good. Mhmm. And 2, because I don’t want them getting used to being yeah. So I had this, one of their employees is a writer. Okay.

Speaker B [00:11:42]:

And I’m always bugging her to actually publish her book. But, anyways, per she’s like, I didn’t get to the blogs this week. And I’m like, no worries. Just use this software, AI software pro Tell her write it. This is how you do it,

Speaker A [00:11:55]:

keywords

Speaker B [00:11:55]:

and stuff like that. Yeah. And she was like, I’ll look into that. And then she circled back and said, I don’t feel like that’s right per Because it’s not the human voice and all this kind of stuff. And I said, interesting thing, though. The human didn’t get it done. So the software, print will do it good

Speaker A [00:12:12]:

enough Right.

Speaker B [00:12:14]:

Versus your perfect, but not even started.

Speaker A [00:12:17]:

Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely. And that’s another piece of this. Right, so you have 20 things on your to do list and you’re not moving them forward. Which one can the software at least get halfway there? Right. Then you’re 50% closer than you were Mhmm. Before you started it.

Speaker A [00:12:31]:

Some of the other things that I’ve heard, people do I mean, you guys are, certainly outsourcing to a partner answering the phone, that’s a a great outsource. Other technology though that I’ve seen people use is, they’re marketing. You know? So rather than having to take a phone call and do a discovery call or do some kind of estimate you know, if I’m a roofing company, I could have an, an estimate right on my website and talk about, like, this is the kind of shingles I want. This is about the square footage, you know, blah blah blah blah blah, and I could get a rough estimate. Right? We could create software to do that so you could save someone’s time of having to go out to every house and create that. Per another one that I’ve seen a lot of coaches do is they use a webinar. It’s a sales tool. Yeah.

Speaker A [00:13:17]:

And then they don’t have to talk to every prospect, not that they don’t want to, but it’s a better way to leverage their time. So they use the webinar. They market and push everything in their funnel toward that webinar and then when folks see that, then they can either sign up or they can contact you with more questions, but it cuts down on the amount of discovery calls, prospect calls that they need to take. Yeah. And it frees up that time to do other things.

Speaker B [00:13:39]:

I remember the first couple webinars that pro I was going to when I got into the coaching game, and I realized after the fact, like, that wasn’t live at all. Mhmm. It seemed like it was, person And they had questions and all this kind of stuff. And I went back to the recording, and I’m like, those weren’t even real people asking questions. They made it look like the heads for that. It looked real.

Speaker A [00:14:01]:

But isn’t that amazing? The technology came to the

Speaker B [00:14:03]:

top for you.

Speaker A [00:14:04]:

Train. I feel

Speaker B [00:14:04]:

like I can do.

Speaker A [00:14:06]:

Well, maybe maybe it’s not worth then making it feel like it’s live. But

Speaker B [00:14:10]:

They had I mean, there were hundreds of people in that thing, and I’m sure their funnel, their game is get hundreds of people signed up, whatever free webinar. Yeah. Per And then get dozens of people to go to the next step. Right. And out of those dozens, you’ll get a handful that actually pay the $5,000. Mhmm. Per And once they had that webinar and the whole funnel set up, it was automatic. Right.

Speaker B [00:14:30]:

They just money just came in the bank.

Speaker A [00:14:32]:

Well

Speaker B [00:14:33]:

and then

Speaker A [00:14:34]:

one of the things that can be the most time consuming of trying to develop new leads and get new opportunities into your funnel is just taking care of. I mean, what could you do with that time Mhmm. If that didn’t soak it up? You know? Let’s say you spend 70% of your time trying to get new revenue in the door. That’s really useful and a great way to grow

Speaker B [00:14:51]:

Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:14:52]:

Other systems that I’ve seen people use and leverage include things just like using your email rules. We’ve about inbox 0 in the past, but using email rules to make sure that you’re not spending a ton of time, you know, checking email. If you get a bunch of speaking requests, are there ways that you can create some templates so you can respond to those kinds of things? So thinking through in advance, what do you spend most of your time on and how can you try to automate and leverage that?

Speaker B [00:15:19]:

Yeah. I love it. You know, it’s interesting even with the other podcasts that I have. I get reached out to by a lot of people that wanna be And it’s still somewhat of a or not somewhat. It’s totally a manual process for me to go through them. And I keep thinking, like, pro I need to create rules and have someone else make the yes or no on these. Because right now, I’m looking and you dig up and You’re like, not so much. Mhmm.

Speaker B [00:15:42]:

Or, hey. This is super awesome. Incredible. I’m like, I feel like I need that just written down and then delegated. Per because even though it’s not a lot of time, when you look at those little tasks, they

Speaker A [00:15:54]:

add up. Right.

Speaker B [00:15:55]:

And soon you’re spending 2 hours on just like, oh, I said no to some people for guess. I said, yes. Part Some people forget, but I never had it on my to do list. It was just as email came, so therefore, I gotta react to it. Mhmm. So it’s a weird, like, oh, part They’re kinda stealing time. I mean, that’s the business, but it’s one of those like, oh, I’m letting them. So that

Speaker A [00:16:16]:

is that’s that’s your challenge. How can we systemize that? Leverage some technology on that. Well, I think going hand in hand with that is this idea that we can enlist support. So after you try look for all your technology solutions. What other support can you find? Right. And this doesn’t have to be employees. You know, especially when you’re starting out your business, it’s really scary to hire a full full time

Speaker B [00:16:37]:

employee Oh my gosh.

Speaker A [00:16:39]:

Especially your very first one.

Speaker B [00:16:40]:

Scary, expensive, annoying.

Speaker A [00:16:41]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well and there’s so much on the line too. There’s that, weight of, like, what if we don’t make enough money that I can’t pay their salary and all all of those sorts of things. So but there’s other ways to enlist support, and and your business is one of those.

Speaker B [00:16:53]:

Person Yeah. Yeah. Yay. Yeah. We’re people outsource calls to us. They do outsource some administrative stuff to us. Mhmm. We have a lot of clients that have us take care of their main per Email inbox? Mhmm.

Speaker B [00:17:05]:

So I’m like, I gotta use

Speaker A [00:17:06]:

that. Yeah.

Speaker B [00:17:08]:

Gotta use my own service kind

Speaker A [00:17:09]:

of thing.

Speaker B [00:17:10]:

So it’s, per Yeah. Interesting. The scheduling and all that jazz.

Speaker A [00:17:12]:

Yeah. We have

Speaker B [00:17:13]:

a lot of clients where we’re taking inbound calls, scheduling, and they, the client, looks at their phone in the morning, per Goes does what they’re good at and then hangs it up at night Yeah. Until the next day, same thing.

Speaker A [00:17:26]:

Well and one less thing for them to worry about. Right? If I went into the business to be an arborist and I really like caring for trees, I don’t wanna take all these phone calls. Right. So seeing my schedule full today is probably, like, the most exciting thing in the world. I get to go do what I love, which is taking care of trees. Mhmm. Not, you know

Speaker B [00:17:43]:

Super easy.

Speaker A [00:17:44]:

Yeah. Client calls.

Speaker B [00:17:45]:

One to deal with the angry clients, the upset clients, even the clients that just don’t even know what they want. Mhmm. Who wants to deal with any of that? Just show up, bring your ladder. Saw whatever.

Speaker A [00:17:55]:

Or whatever it is that you’re passionate about.

Speaker B [00:17:57]:

Right? Yeah.

Speaker A [00:17:57]:

Yeah. Another way to leverage this, especially in the past five, maybe 10 years is the gig economy. Oh my god. And this really existed before we called it the gig economy. Right? You hire a tax consultant or you tie hire a CPA to do your taxes for you. But this has been so interesting. For me, I just recently hired a virtual assistant. I I only pay her by the hour.

Speaker A [00:18:17]:

Nice. And she’s taking content that I’ve already created, chopping it up into social media posts, and putting it out there. Alright. Because I like creating big content, I don’t like scheduling it. And I’m a perfectionist, so I take too much time.

Speaker B [00:18:30]:

For them to

Speaker A [00:18:31]:

post that they’ll be seen in a few seconds. Right. So it’s it’s not my highest leverage work. So I have hired someone, and I hire her specifically for this gig of creating my social media content. She takes however many hours it is, I only pay her for those hours used. And now that task is off my list. And I don’t have this feeling of like, per oh, I have to make sure I have enough work for her or whatever. I know exactly what she does.

Speaker A [00:18:56]:

I I only pay her for the time that she uses. Yeah. And it’s this huge weight off my shoulders of, like, thank God I don’t have to figure out what I’m posting today.

Speaker B [00:19:03]:

Right. So it’s a to do list essentially for her. Right. So you created that listing, you know it’ll get done because that’s what you’re paying her for. Or Or you can figure it’s gonna get done. Right? Yeah. That’s cool. I like

Speaker A [00:19:14]:

it. So what are some other ways that you’ve enlisted support or outsourced things in your business?

Speaker B [00:19:20]:

Pro spent well, software has been a huge one. Mhmm. But software finding software has been a challenge. I think it’s a challenge for everyone. Because if you get Bigger software, you go through a salesperson who I assume is real. We chat with them. Right? And they make the promises, and then you get the software and you print or the things that you can automate, even just, calendar stuff. I remember we had a a client.

Speaker B [00:19:55]:

She didn’t understand, pro Google Calendar. Okay. So I was at her office, and we had created a Google Calendar for her. Because otherwise, she party It was a flooring woodworking flooring. Oh. It was all up here. Oh, wow. Schedule was all up here.

Speaker B [00:20:10]:

And I’m like, what happens if you get in a car accident? Part Right. She said employees, successful business, doing very

Speaker A [00:20:16]:

well.

Speaker B [00:20:17]:

Yeah. And I’m like, what? You’re gonna have a bad day. Right? They’re gonna have a bad day because they won’t know where pro Mhmm. Because she’s like, every morning, I tell them where they have to go and what they have to bring, but it’s all up here. And I’m like, no. We’re not gonna do that per Because, like, we can’t take a call and then tell you and then expect you to remember. Right. And she’s like, why not? And I’m like, no.

Speaker B [00:20:37]:

Nope. Nope. Per Nope. Because I didn’t want us to get blamed for making a mistake where it was just her

Speaker A [00:20:42]:

Valid point.

Speaker B [00:20:43]:

So, anyways, we set up this Google Calendar. Great. And, per she’s like, how does this work? And I’m in front of her computer, and I call up us, right, the company. And I’m like, hey. Just make a test appointment. Per And they do, and lo and behold, it just pops up on her screen. And she was like, what did you do? How did you get in the computer? Producer And I’m like, no. It’s easy.

Speaker B [00:21:04]:

Right? And so I open up that same appointment, and I changed it to, like, test number 2 or something like that. And I’m like, what do you see? Right? She’s like, I see test number 2. Pro And the woman is like, what in the world? Like, I just showed her a flying car or something like that. Mhmm. Fire for the first time. I’m like, no. You can do this too. So now we’ll put our appointments on there.

Speaker B [00:21:23]:

If you get an appointment, you can put it on there. We’ll be able to see. Right. She’s like, how can nobody ever told me about this?

Speaker A [00:21:29]:

Well, but game pro changing

Speaker B [00:21:30]:

Oh my god.

Speaker A [00:21:30]:

For her. Right? And that’s a a simple example. I mean, for her, it was completely game changing. Right? But that’s just Google Calendar. Mhmm. Think of all the other things that

Speaker B [00:21:39]:

we do.

Speaker A [00:21:39]:

So one of the things that, I like to look at when I’m trying to help clients work through what’s worth your time versus what are you gonna try to find something else for, tech or Mhmm. Outsource in some way is thinking about how you align with your passion and your proficiency. Right? So if you think about it as like a matrix.

Speaker B [00:21:57]:

Person Yeah.

Speaker A [00:21:58]:

The things that you are, really passionate about but you’re not very per proficient in, those are, that’s your discomfort zone. Those are things that you wanna get better at. Maybe you wanna spend a little time. Like, for me, that would probably be writing. I really wanna write more. I don’t think I’m extremely proficient. I will tell myself that. I need a positive self talk.

Speaker A [00:22:19]:

Right? But I need more practice. Zone, that’s like taxes for

Speaker B [00:22:32]:

me. Right.

Speaker A [00:22:33]:

Right? Like, I don’t wanna understand the tax law. It’s gonna take me 5 hours to do this. And so those that’s prime area for if that stuff really needs to get done, that should be outsourced.

Speaker B [00:22:42]:

So you’re passionate about taxes. I’m not

Speaker A [00:22:44]:

passionate. I mean, if I was gonna get a huge refund, great. That’s usually not how being an entrepreneur goes. So that’s my drudgery zone. Right? So then you have the other 2 ends, which are things that I’m, I am not passionate about, but I’m proficient

Speaker B [00:23:00]:

in.

Speaker A [00:23:01]:

Oh. That’s more of your, disinterest zone. Alright. Right? So those are the things where someone’s like, hey. I need this thing done. I know you can do it really quickly, and you’re like, print fine. But you do it Alright. Because you can do it in 10 minutes, and it would take them, whatever, 2 hours Sure.

Speaker A [00:23:20]:

To do it.

Speaker B [00:23:21]:

Good at it, but you don’t like doing it.

Speaker A [00:23:22]:

Right. Alright. Yeah. So that’s your disinterest zone. And then the the highest leverage point is where you are proficient and you’re

Speaker B [00:23:29]:

passionate.

Speaker A [00:23:30]:

Alright. And that is this area that we call the desire

Speaker B [00:23:33]:

zone.

Speaker A [00:23:34]:

Oh. So that’s where you wanna try to spend most of your per time but, you know, as you’re starting a business, there’s a lot of things that you need to get done Mhmm. That you aren’t extremely passionate about. Right? Like, payroll payroll maybe still needs you still need to pay your bills. You still need to make sure that, you know, if you’re you don’t like prospecting or you don’t like sales, that stuff still needs to get per dan Mhmm. But the more that you can try to move towards your desire zone, the happier you’re gonna be in work. And then everything that kinda falls out of your desire pro is a good opportunity or a candidate for trying to find support.

Speaker B [00:24:07]:

Right. I love it. That’s cool. I never thought about it that Yeah. Stuff’s just gotta get done. You can figure out what you’re good at and what you enjoy. Do you find that, pro let’s just say purpose Mhmm. Or I’m sorry.

Speaker B [00:24:19]:

Passion. Yeah. Word passion. When you have that passion for some things, you’re just like, yay. I like to go to movies or whatever. Mhmm. Per Or I’m good at this thing, but there’s some things that you realize how valuable that is to actually get done. Do you find that you can consciously move your passion up for

Speaker A [00:24:37]:

participant oh, I think that that’s a really it’s a trying question. So when you know the benefit Mhmm. I think sometimes you just push your way through, not because you you really enjoy it. Alright. At least it’s that way for me. I think that over time, if you see the fruit of that labor Yeah. It’s more it’s easier to get passionate about it because you see it growing your business.

Speaker B [00:24:58]:

Alright. Right? Because you know okay. So, like, weeding your garden or something like that.

Speaker A [00:25:01]:

Right. You don’t love doing that. Not

Speaker B [00:25:03]:

right. But it’s love enjoying your garden.

Speaker A [00:25:05]:

Right. You love the food that comes out.

Speaker B [00:25:07]:

So in order for that to happen, you you gotta weed it. Right. So you find joy or figure out a way to find joy or make it as enjoyable as

Speaker A [00:25:13]:

possible. Like brushing my teeth. I don’t love brushing my teeth. I don’t know anyone that really does. Today’s the day. But it’s something that you have to do, right, for your general helps. So it’s just I think it fits in that realm. So for me, what falls in my, desire zone is actually being on coaching calls with client, I love helping people move forward.

Speaker A [00:25:33]:

I love helping them try to uncover things that maybe they wouldn’t have uncovered by themselves. But, you know, that’s not always the, the thing that I can spend most of my time doing. Mhmm. So I have to set up my sales calls. I have to do some of these other things that take more time, but I’m doing it all so I can do the work that I

Speaker B [00:25:53]:

love. Interesting. Okay. I like that. I get that with the coaching stuff. I love meeting with clients. Prince yes. The hardest part I had was that email that I would send afterwards that summarized what we talked

Speaker A [00:26:03]:

about. Oh, yeah.

Speaker B [00:26:04]:

Just in the back of my head, I was like, who’s gonna read this? Part Right. Even though I’m summarizing all the things, give them the action steps and all that jazz from the notes that I took, that was pro Painful for me to just have to force myself, and it was not something that I could

Speaker A [00:26:19]:

delegate.

Speaker B [00:26:20]:

Right. Because my notes were so messy. Protagonist So it’s interesting how I would have to just force myself or try to find some reward. Like, if you do this, James Right. You know, we’ll get you person ice cream.

Speaker A [00:26:35]:

Job. So though, now there’s technology that could do some of that for you. Right? So you could have recorded your meeting, sent it off to, like, Otter dotai or some other transcription service, which you could have written out all of your notes, and then you could have given it to a virtual assistant or something entrepreneur, you know, summarize what we talked about and write out next steps. Mhmm. So it would still take some time. Yeah. But, again, I think that that’s your, what am I looking for? That’s your not your discomfort, but your, I’m missing my word. It’s the zone where you’re proficient.

Speaker A [00:27:07]:

You can do it in 10 minutes.

Speaker B [00:27:08]:

Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:27:09]:

It’s gonna take someone else 2 hours to do it. Mhmm. So what what’s the value of your time.

Speaker B [00:27:14]:

I would hate it for that 1st hour, though, where I delayed it. And then there’s 2 minutes. We’re actually doing it that hour of just like, maybe I’ll just sort out stuff here before I actually send that email. Mhmm. Yeah. It was tough.

Speaker A [00:27:28]:

So our our last piece of advice here is just say no. You know, there are certain things that we leave on our list or think we have to do that really aren’t valuable. They really aren’t moving us forward that we’ve talked about. So this idea that it’s okay to say no. Sometimes really hard for people because we’re, you know, we’re built in people pleasers.

Speaker B [00:27:47]:

Mhmm.

Speaker A [00:27:49]:

So one of the I heard this great advice about if you you’ve probably heard if you’re a manager, you give, a feedback sandwich. You tell them something good they’re doing. You criticize them, and then you follow it up with something good. So they hear it, but they don’t leave with just the negative thing. So I read something recently that said that saying no is a is a positive thing if you do it the right way. You can say, you know, see, if you if I ask to be a guest on your show Mhmm. And you just think, oh, you know, that’s really not a good fit for me. You could say something like, hey.

Speaker A [00:28:21]:

I checked out your website, and I really love what you are doing it seems like you’re really making a difference for blah blah blah. But then you say you’re no, and you say it very clearly. It’s not a maybe. Don’t come back later and chain I will change my mind. It’s a we don’t have room, for this at this time or this this kind of content, while valuable, doesn’t serve our audience. But please, you know, keep up the good work. Or if I see anyone who might benefit from your service, I’ll make sure to pass them your way.

Speaker B [00:28:46]:

Oh my gosh. You are so much nicer than I am. So I’m just like, nope. Print

Speaker A [00:28:53]:

done. Well, that’s fair. But then there’s other things in life where, you know, someone asks you to be on a committee or, hey. Can you, tackle this project for me, right, the things that are in your drudgery zone, you’re good at, but you, you know, you’re, not

Speaker B [00:29:07]:

passionate for.

Speaker A [00:29:08]:

Mhmm. It’s like, how do how can you say no to those things so they don’t zap your time and energy for the stuff you care about? Right. And this tool is extremely useful in that. Like, you know, hey. I respect that the PTO does really cool things for our school, but my schedule doesn’t allow that based on other commitments I’ve made for me and my family, I will make a donation

Speaker B [00:29:28]:

Well, there you go.

Speaker A [00:29:29]:

Or whatever it is. There

Speaker B [00:29:30]:

you go.

Speaker A [00:29:30]:

Right? Yeah.

Speaker B [00:29:31]:

You know,

Speaker A [00:29:31]:

just you

Speaker B [00:29:32]:

said no. One of the things I found was saying, though, I learned probably the 1st year and a half into my business. I had I was originally filing, print This is a printer repair company. Mhmm. So I would file the invoice stapled with the test

Speaker A [00:29:49]:

pages.

Speaker B [00:29:49]:

Okay. And then I would file those by customer. So every time some new customer came along, I had a whole new file folder for these test pages and all that kind of stuff. Mhmm. As you can imagine, that part Became a very large pile Yeah. On my desk and on the floor. And my wife comes in. This is when I was working from home, per And she’s like, what is all this? I’ll just help you clean it up.

Speaker B [00:30:09]:

What do you need me to do? And I told her the system. This is a system. Right? You get this invoice, per New client folder in the filing cabinet they go. And then she starts doing that, and she’s like, do you ever look at this stuff? Print I’m like, no. But it’s early. The goal is if a customer reaches out, they can say, hey. I got stripes on my page or something like that. We’re missing print, per Whatever.

Speaker B [00:30:33]:

I can go back to their little folder. I can open up and see what the problem was before. I can see the test pages and, like, oh, I’m set to go to fix this thing. Print And then she countered with, have you ever done that? And I thought about it, and I was like, once. And she’s like, you want me to file 100 per For the one time that you might look at this? And I’m like, yeah. And then she said she’s She’s like, do we have to file them by client? What if we just put all of September in the September folder? So you know that that client’s somewhere in September because you can look in your computer, print Figure out what month. So instead of having an individual folder taking up all the space, because that client may call you one time.

Speaker A [00:31:11]:

Right.

Speaker B [00:31:12]:

You fix your machine, they don’t call you again for 7 years. Per I’m like, oh, that yeah. That’ll work. Because in that one time that I do have to look it up, I could just look in that month and then go through that small pile.

Speaker A [00:31:24]:

But she challenged you.

Speaker B [00:31:26]:

She did. It was too totally cool. And it was one of those things, like, we’ve always done it this way Uh-huh. Which is the worst argument in the world. Right. Right? Like, that doesn’t justify anything. Right. So, anyways, we did it her way, and then eventually, I just stopped doing it altogether.

Speaker A [00:31:40]:

That’s great, though. And now that that’s something that you you don’t put your energy into.

Speaker B [00:31:44]:

Right. So it would have been, like, file stuff on my to do list. And it would have been, like, yes. I accomplished that. But what did that move towards the

Speaker A [00:31:51]:

goal? Print. Right?

Speaker B [00:31:52]:

Of being a successful business owner. So it was interesting having outsider coming to look in, thinking like, dude.

Speaker A [00:31:58]:

No. That’s what we need sometimes.

Speaker B [00:32:00]:

We need

Speaker A [00:32:01]:

an side perspective to help us through

Speaker B [00:32:03]:

it.

Speaker A [00:32:03]:

So alright. Today, we’ve talked about how you can delegate without a team.

Speaker B [00:32:08]:

So thank you for watching Diary of a Worthy Pursuit.

Speaker A [00:32:12]:

Where we help you get what you truly want in life and business.