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Work Less, Earn More is the podcast that explores how to get the most out of every hour you work. Gillian Perkins brings more than a decade of experience as an entrepreneur and educator to help you design a business that's not only flexible and fulfilling, but highly profitable. She shares strategies that are working in her own business to save time and maximize profits. She also features interviews with successful business owners on how they’re achieving big things in their businesses with crazy-little time investment. Share Work Less, Earn More with an overworked entrepreneur you know who could use a change of pace!
Gillian:
[0:00] So today, we're going to talk about how to find good people and build a powerful team. Now, the first thing that I just want you to have in your mind as we're going through this is when you figure out how to do this right, it almost ends up being a reversal where you aren't having to go out there and find the people anymore, but you actually start just attracting the people. And not really through like the law of attraction or anything like that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just saying that people are looking for jobs and you're looking for people and it ends up that your paths will cross in just the right way and the right people will come into your business because of specific actions that you have taken. Now, your team is obviously such a powerful multiplier. And in today's talk, what you're going to learn is how to identify,
Gillian:
[0:43] how to attract and how to empower the right people to scale your online business. So let's get on into this.
Gillian:
[0:57] [intro bumper]
We became entrepreneurs because more than anything, we want freedom. We want to be in control of our own schedule, income, and life. But unfortunately, that isn't always the reality of being a business owner. I'm Gillian Perkins, and I'm on a mission to take back entrepreneurship for what it's supposed to be.
In every episode, I'll share with you how to get the most out of every hour you work so that you can work less and earn more. Let's get to it.
[/intro bumper]
Gillian:
[1:26] One of the biggest challenges that every online business owner faces is that as they try to grow, they need more help. But it can be really tough to find, quote, good people. Finding people who really get it is harder than it often looks. And you've probably experienced at least one of these disappointments if you've been in business for more than a couple years. Maybe you hired someone who seemed like a perfect fit, but it ended up not working out. They didn't really deliver what you needed from them. Maybe you trained a new team member only to have them disappear after a few weeks. That's happened to me a few times, especially in the earlier days of my online business and my offline businesses. There's a kind of famous story where the very first time I ever hired someone, I was running a music school locally. At that time, you know, just me. And then I hired the first person because I was going to have a baby and I wanted someone to take care of my students while I was on maternity leave. So I spent several weeks training this person. And then I have my baby. So they take over for me. And they were supposed to be teaching my students for the next three months. Well, a little less than two weeks later, they called me up and they said, I'm sorry, I quit. This is too hard.
Gillian:
[2:40] So I took another two weeks of maternity leave. And then I went back to work a month after having my baby because I was stressed out about my students may be leaving me. So that was a rough start into this world of hiring people. But it taught me something. And it's something that I hope that you can avoid with some of what I share with you today. Okay, I'm making sure that you find people who are really going to stick around and be a good fit for your company. You may have also struggled to communicate your vision effectively. You hired someone and maybe they're checking off the tasks and they're not quitting on you, but you don't really feel like they are driving forward the mission you have for your business. They're more just kind of going through the motions. Surely you have dealt with some unreliable contractors who have missed deadlines if you've hired much of anyone at all. So if you've struggled with any of these things, you are definitely not alone.
Gillian:
[3:33] Building a team is one of the most challenging parts of growing your business beyond you. But it can also be one of the most powerful because it is something one of those big levers that we were talking about yesterday with scaling 101.
Gillian:
[3:46] We've got those different levers we can pull to scale our businesses. And a team is one of the four levers. It can also be very rewarding, both because you see this greater success that you obtain with your business, but also because working with other people, you know, one of the main points of life is having relationships with these other humans that we share this planet with, right? Like that is part of what gives meaning to life. And so when we are too isolated in our businesses, it can be fun for a time, but it becomes so much more meaningful and rewarding when we get to do it with other people. And we get to really experience some teamwork. You can't scale alone. Ultimately, if you want to grow your business, you need to have some help. We've got, first of all, the solo ceiling. Okay, so working alone, it limits the growth based on the hours you have available. There's only so much that one person can accomplish. But the right people, they don't just add capacity. They actually can multiply your impact, bringing skills and perspectives you don't have.
Gillian:
[4:50] So in other words, if let's say you right now have, say, 40 hours a week to work on your business, if you hire another person, you don't just add 40 more hours and therefore be able to do twice as much work. Every additional person is actually a multiplier. Okay? You add one more person, that might only double, but I think that you will most likely see a more than double effect. You add another person, though, and now you're kind of multiplying times three, okay?
Gillian:
[5:16] I don't know how to explain this in math terms, which is funny for me because normally I've got a math analogy for everything. But it's an exponential scaling. It's almost like you're adding an exponent to the amount that you're able to accomplish rather than just a simple multiplying factor. And that's because each of these different people, they bring a unique perspective to the business. They will give you ideas that you wouldn't have had otherwise. They will bring expertise that will enable you to do things better. So you're not just doing more, but you're actually doing better. Building a team gives you back your time to focus on your vision, your strategy, and the work that only you can do. So not only are they bringing these new perspectives, this new expertise to the business, but it also frees you up from doing things that someone else could do to doing the things that only you can do. Having your own unique inspirations and ideas and being that CEO that you need to be to grow your business further. And that's one of the most valuable things that hiring a team can really give to you.
Gillian:
[6:14] So as Gabe was saying, as she was kind of queuing up this talk, you might think that you want to be a solopreneur forever. Maybe that's your plan. Maybe it feels nice and simple to you and you don't feel like you ever need anything more than that. But you might get to a point where either you want some of your time back or you do want to grow further or you just want some friends in the business, right? Whatever the reason is, there are so many reasons why you might want to hire
Gillian:
[6:43] someone to make your business be more fulfilling and more successful. Now, what makes someone a good person for your team? If you do decide that you want to hire, how do you decide who is the right sort of person to hire? Well, a lot of people think that hiring good people simply means hiring skilled people, people who know what they're doing, people who've got the talents. But technical ability is just one piece of the puzzle. The real magic happens when you find people who check all the right boxes, And as you will see here, skill is often one of the least important ones that they need to check.
Gillian:
[7:17] There are four essential qualities that make a great team member. First one is that they are aligned with your values and mission. You want people who believe in what you are building and why it matters. This creates intrinsic motivation that no paycheck can buy. And don't worry if you're wondering, I don't know what my values are. I'm not clear on my mission. How do I find people who are aligned with my values? We are going to talk more about this in a few minutes here. Second, people who are capable of doing the work. They have the skills you need, or they demonstrate the ability to learn quickly and independently. And I would actually say that somebody who is a fast study is going to be more valuable to you, especially long term, than somebody who already has the skills. Third thing, this is a non-negotiable. Sarah and I were talking about this yesterday, Sarah Nocad, at her kind of mini speaker panel. We were talking about how some of the most important characteristics that people can have is things like attention to detail and that they are reliable and that they are consistent, that they show up when they say they will, they meet the deadlines, they communicate proactively when issues arise.
Gillian:
[8:23] Those things are far more important than their expertise when it comes to marketing or video editing or even something like graphic design, really. You need people who will talk to you and who will show up when they say they are going to show up. And then finally, people who are collaborative team of players. You want people who make the other people around them better. Okay? We don't want that person who's trying to be the one-man team, right? We want people who work with others. People who share their knowledge, support their teammates, and contribute to a positive team culture. Without that, you're not going to see that exponential growth factor that I was talking about nearly as much.
Gillian:
[9:02] So what about these team values? Okay, how do you decide what your values are
Gillian:
[9:07] when it comes to your team, right? Because you might have a value in your life where maybe you really value time with your family, okay? But do you need to hire a team member who values time with their family? Like, how does this work, right? Maybe you really value honesty. So obviously you want a team member that's honest. That's a given, right? Everybody wants that. So how do you decide like what specific values are important to you when it comes to hiring somebody. Well, I have this exercise that I've been using for years that I love, and I really want to share it with you today. And in fact, this, I think, might be the biggest takeaway that you have from today's workshop. So what I want you to do is think back to people who you have absolutely loved working with in the past. And you can do this right now. I want you to try to think of at least one person who you've loved working with in the past.
Gillian:
[9:57] Maybe it was a co-worker. Maybe it was a boss. Maybe it was someone you hired. Maybe it was a team member in some other capacity, right? It doesn't matter. I'm just looking for someone who you loved working with, okay? It could even have been a teacher. Who was it you loved working with? Now, I do find that this will be the most helpful if it's a more similar relationship to whatever you're hiring for. So what I mean by that is a teacher is going to be less helpful than thinking about a co-worker or thinking about someone who was under you. But really, this does work. Even if you are thinking about a boss who is easy to work with or a co-worker who is easy to work with. Now, what I want you to do, and I hope that you spend more time on this later, maybe even an hour or two doing kind of a deep dive, thinking of several people who you loved working with, but think about what specific qualities, made those people so helpful or so enjoyable to work with, okay? Think about them one at a time. And you might think about, man, you know, Mr. Smith, he was always so nice to work with because he always did what he said he was going to do.
Gillian:
[11:05] Or Sarah Jane, she was always so nice to work with because she always told me the truth. Whenever I asked her what she thought of my work, she always told me what she really thought. She told me in a constructive way, but she always told me what she really thought. And that helped me do so much better. Or maybe you think, Joey, he was so nice to work with because he always showed up on time. If he said he was going to be there at eight o'clock to open the store, he was always there. I always know I count on Joey. So that's what I want you to think about. What are these specific characteristics? It might have to do with something about how they communicated, how they did their work, more of an intrinsic character quality, like honesty or punctuality, right? You can come up with a list and it does not matter how short or how long this list is. But I would say shorter is actually better for each of these different character qualities that you are listing for these different people. And the reason for that is because it can be easy to start making a laundry list of a million things that was nice about each of these people. Okay, but I want you to hone in on the top two, three, four things for each person that made them so nice to work with. And if there really was actually just one, that is totally fine. Like I said, shorter is better here for each person. Then what you're going to do is you're going to look for a word that you wrote down multiple times, okay? There might be a word that for several people you wrote down like that they were punctual or that they had a good attention to detail, right? Or that they were good at understanding what you were saying to them.
Gillian:
[12:29] So that's something to look for, words you wrote down multiple times. But also, there might be some words that stand out. Some words that maybe you only wrote down one time, but they were really important, really valuable when it came to that person. There was like one thing that made this person so nice to work with, or a character quality that that person had that no one else had that made you love working with that person.
Gillian:
[12:51] Okay, so that's the exercise. And you're gonna take and analyze basically. And again, you're doing this fairly intuitively. You're not just looking for the words that were repeated the most or the words that stand out were only repeated once, but you are going to analyze this in an organic, intuitive sort of way. And you're going to create a separate list. This one will only have any particular character quality written down on it once. You're not going to be repeating things here. But these are the character qualities that you would love to find in somebody else who you are hiring.
Gillian:
[13:22] And generally, these do not need to be different for different positions you might hire for. These are values, they are character qualities that you would want to see in a customer service person you are hiring, in a virtual assistant you are hiring, in a video editor, in a graphic designer, in a project manager, doesn't matter. These are things that you would want anybody who you hire to have these character qualities. Now, when you are then looking for, say, a video editor or a project manager, there will be certain ones that you will think about you will know are extra important for that specific person for example maybe you feel like it is really important for your project manager to be a problem solver but you feel like it's less important for your video editor to be a problem solver maybe but like i said most of these things are going to apply to most of these people.
Gillian:
[14:14] So I hope that you got a start on this exercise right now, that you were able to think of at least one person who you liked working with and maybe start to think about a couple of the characteristics that made them so enjoyable to work with. But I do hope that you take the time to do this on paper later on. Spend at least, I would say, 30 minutes, but maybe an hour or two on this exercise.
Gillian:
[14:33] Especially if you are planning to hire anytime in the next year, because this really is the foundation of choosing the right people to hire.
Gillian:
[14:42] You've probably heard this before, but you really do want to hire for character and train for skill. This is my guiding philosophy when it comes to choosing who to hire. I am not looking for the person who checks the boxes in terms of they know the different skills that they need to do the job. I am looking for people who have the right character, who have those values that I talked about before, and who will be trainable. I actually have found so much more success hiring people who are younger because they are so far unskilled. They haven't been trained yet. They don't have habits or patterns yet. And that way I can shape them into the employee or the contractor who I really want them to be. Also, shout out for my cute baby. This is Verdi. She is my third. She's older now. She's seven years old now, but this is when she was, I think, one. So nice to see this cute little old picture of her.
Gillian:
[15:37] When you prioritize that alignment and the reliability over an impressive resume, you will create a foundation that lasts. Find that not only does this ultimately result in people who are more helpful to you, but it also tends to result in people who stick around on your team longer. And less turnover means that you will have lower HR costs. Because every time you hire a new person, every time you train a new person, there are definite costs associated with that. It can cost you both money. can also definitely cost you a lot of time to train those new people.
Gillian:
[16:09] So you really want to minimize that turnover inside your team. Now, where do you find the right people? Finding a great team member is not about posting a generic job ad and hoping for the best. It is about strategically positioning yourself where aligned people already gather. So we're going to look at four of the most effective sourcing strategies for small online businesses. Now, I will say that it can work to post a job ad out there. I have hired some people that way by posting an ad. And sometimes it's worked out great. But most of the people who I've hired over the years have ended up coming from communities that I was a part of in one way or another. So the first way you can do this is to tap into your networks.
Gillian:
[16:51] Okay, and get referrals. So referrals from trusted connections often bring the best cultural fits. People who already understand your world are more likely to recommend others who will thrive in it. So when I'm talking about tapping into your networks, I'm not right now talking about networking with people yourself to find the right person to hire. I'm not talking about like going to a networking group or looking in your mastermind that you're a part of online. I'm talking about like, you know, people who know people. And most likely, the person who you need to hire is one of those second or potentially third degree connection. So if you start telling people that you're looking to hire, let's say, a customer service person, and you just get the word out, there's a good chance that you will get a referral. And that person is likely going to be a good fit for you in terms of your values and your worldview.
Gillian:
[17:42] Now, when you are putting the word out, don't say something generic like, I need help. Instead, say exactly what you're looking for. I'm looking for someone who's great at project management and who loves helping online course creators stay organized. You have, I'd say, more opportunity to use specific language like this, perhaps if you are sharing it in a group you're a part of online or something like that. If you're talking to a friend, you're probably not going to say words exactly like this, but you can describe to them exactly what the problem is that you're facing and how you want to hire someone to help you with that problem. And that can be a great way to make those connections. Now, secondly, we can hire from those aligned communities. So this is where you are going out there and doing the networking yourself. So maybe you're a part of an industry-specific Slack group or Discord group or possibly a Reddit group. Maybe you're in a group on LinkedIn that's focused on your niche, or maybe you're part of a membership community like Startup Society. If you guys are Startup Society members, definitely make use of that. I'd say that that is one of the top perks of being a member is that it's so easy to find people to hire. And people often get customers from inside Startup Society as well, especially if they are service providers, because there are always people in there looking to make their next hire.
Gillian:
[18:58] You also might be a part of a community that's associated with an online course or a program that you are a part of in your industry. And those can be a great place to make those connections as well. These spaces just naturally attract people who already care about the same things you care about. There's automatically something you have in common with these people, right? And so they are pre-qualified by their choice to be there. Now, obviously this does not mean that every person who is in that group is going to be the right fit for the person you need to hire, okay? You are looking for someone with some very specific values and character traits and possibly some specific skills as well. Somebody who will share your mission and have the same like or similar desires as you have. And that's not going to be everyone in these groups. But they have been pre-qualified by having a common interest, having something in common with you, being in the same industry as you potentially, or understanding online business already if they're inside startup society. And that is a great first filter compared to just all the people who are out there in the world, most of whom are not even going to pass that first test of qualification.
Gillian:
[20:08] [mid-roll ad] Are you ready to finally take the leap in your business to making six figures? I would love to work with you to turn your inconsistent income into consistent 10k plus months. And we've created an entire program to guide you to do exactly that. It's called 100k Mastermind. And it's an intense four month coaching program that will guide you to set up a strategic automated sales funnel system and fuel it with ready to buy leads. Because I know you don't just need a funnel. You need a strategically designed funnel based on sales psychology. And you need a system that consistently sends leads into it. Because a funnel without leads flowing through it isn't going to make you any money. If you're interested in working together to get your six-figure system set up, then head to gillianperkins.com/100k. That's gillianperkins.com/100k, spelled out like that. On that page, you'll find all the details about 100K Mastermind, including what we cover, exactly what you'll learn and accomplish, the dates for our next cohort, and the link to apply. Again, just visit gillianperkins.com/100k. I can promise you this, your business and your life will never be the same.
[/mid-roll ad]
Gillian:
[21:24] Now, a third strategy that you can look at, and this is something that Sarah was talking about yesterday, and I love this principle too, is starting with limited contract work. So when you do find someone who you think that you might want to hire, I would recommend that you start with a test project. So in month one, that's what you're going to do. You're going to give them a test project. And to be clear, this is a paid test project, okay? You are fully compensating them for the work that they are doing, but you want to find out how they communicate, if they meet deadlines, and how they handle feedback, and of course, the quality of the work that they produce as well. Now, as you move into the second month of potentially working with them, you can expand to some contract work. You can assess reliability, quality, and cultural fit over time. So for this, you might hire them for a more extensive project, or you might bring them on in a limited capacity as a contract worker. Now, if this goes well, then in month three and beyond, you can move them on
Gillian:
[22:24] to either being a full-time contractor or an employee or expanding their work significantly. And I would recommend pretty much always doing this with whoever you are hiring in your business so that you don't end up putting too much time into training them too soon only to find out that they're not a good fit or giving them too much responsibility and having them potentially not do things how they need to be done. I'll just leave it at that.
Gillian:
[22:52] This approach really reduces your hiring risk and you get to learn who someone is before making a major commitment.
Gillian:
[23:00] And well, I'm just going to say the same thing again. It really reduces your risk. And that's important. Liz Kitty asked, can you hire someone of 33 years? Yes, for sure. Like I said, I have found more success personally just with hiring younger people. But I don't mean like a teenager. I just mean younger compared to older. A lot of the time, these people are less set in their ways, right? As old folks, we get very set in our ways. And we have certain ways that we want to do things. Whereas when somebody is new to an industry, they're new to a project, a task, whatever it is, then you are going to be able to shape how they learn to do it, right? You're going to be able to train them exactly how you want. So I'd mostly just mean someone who is new to the project at hand. But that's not an absolute. I'm not saying don't hire people who already have these skills. I'm just saying it can be its own challenge.
Gillian:
[23:53] One other question, I guess, is how much does one pay to be trained? So typically, I am paying the people. I mean, pretty much always, I am paying the people as I'm training them because they are able to do some basic things that only require soft skills right out of the gate. But then as I am working with them, then I'm training them to do the more advanced skills or the things that require, you know, just more training to be able to do. So they get to learn on the job. So it's a win-win.
Gillian:
[24:20] Laura asked, what average hourly wage are you paying? Ooh, okay. So tough question, Laura, because, you know, I'm working with a variety of different people, video editors, project managers, virtual assistants, And, you know, these different jobs require different skill sets and different amounts of, I'll say, education. I mean that in a very loose sense, but different amounts of training, different amounts of experience. And so I would say anywhere between $25 an hour up to about $100 an hour, depending on what the position is.
Gillian:
[24:56] Okay, so let's move on now and talk about this whole idea of attracting, not just recruiting. Okay, this is really the power of having a public mission. When you share your mission and your values publicly, meaning on your website, on your social media, in your content, the right people naturally find you. They reach out because they are already aligned. They've been following your work and they want to be a part of what you are building. This is called inbound recruiting. and it means that you are letting your authentic voice do the filtering work for you. Now, there are a few things that I want to just kind of clarify about this. First of all, this is one of the amazing things about content marketing.
Gillian:
[25:35] Not only is content marketing just a great way to market your business to attract customers, it also is going to naturally attract the right team members far more than some other marketing strategies can do. For example, paid advertising or any sort of what I would call outbound marketing, where you are like cold calling people, for example, you know, or doing the paid ads. But instead, when you are doing what's called inbound marketing, which is mostly content marketing, but you're doing things to attract customers to your business, you get this added benefit of attracting great team members as well. Another thing I want to point out is it says here on this slide, they reach out to you because they're already aligned. And that does happen. But I want you to know that it takes two to tango to hire people. I don't just sit around and make my content and then people call me up and say, hey, are you hiring? That's not how it normally works. Because it's somewhat unlikely that the right person, like the person who has the right availability and the right maybe skill set and the right values happens to call me up when I am in need. And I say call in a theoretical sort of sense, you know, send me an email or something.
Gillian:
[26:48] When I happen to be needing to hire that specific person. So normally how this works is I make this content, I build my audience, and that gets people interested in my brand, people who understand my brand, people who share these similar values. And then at some point, I want to hire a customer service person, for example. Okay. And so I do put out some sort of ad, but I'm not putting it on like public job board. I'm putting it on my website or I'm sending out an email to my email list or I'm posting on my social media, hey, we're looking to hire a customer service person. And then that prompts, you know, a certain segment of my audience who is maybe looking for a job right now and maybe they have some experience with customer service or at least they think, that sounds like fun. That sounds like something I may be good at to respond. So both parties are kind of reaching out at the same time. I'm raising my hand and saying, hey, anybody interested in this? And because of the work that I've done in the past with the content marketing, a lot of people raise their hand and say, pick me, basically. And they are going to be much more likely to be the right people because of how we got connected.
Gillian:
[27:59] Now, when you are making this job post, whether you are putting it on a public job board, or you are sending it out to your email list, you want to make sure that you have a mission-driven approach, okay? So you want to avoid just telling them what the work is. For example, saying something like, virtual assistant needed for admin work, must know Google Workspace, 10 hours per week, $20 an hour. Okay, this will just attract anybody who maybe has those skills or who needs a job. It just says nothing about why the work actually matters. So it's much less likely to attract the right people who will share your mission and really drive that mission forward. So instead, you want to communicate what the business does.
Gillian:
[28:38] And why the work matters. So saying something like, we help ambitious moms build online businesses they love without sacrificing family time. We are looking for an organized, proactive team member who believes in this mission and wants to help us serve more mothers. Now, you also want to include that generic information, right? That you are looking to hire a virtual assistant, what the work would include, how many hours per week, how many dollars per hour, those sorts of things. But make sure that you communicate the why behind the work and not just how much money, because you want to make sure that you are attracting those right people who are going to really be kind of your team member or your partner in this mission
Gillian:
[29:16] that you are trying to drive forward. So now let's talk about how to actually build a team culture. Finding the right people is just the first step. The real magic happens when you create an environment where great people can do their best work. So here are four pillars that transform good hires into a powerful team.
Gillian:
[29:36] The first one is to delegate roles, not tasks. So avoid the task-based trap. Don't tell them to just edit this blog post or book these three podcast guests or update this email sequence. We don't just want to be handing over one task at a time. Few reasons. First of all, it's going to keep you in the weeds. These people won't be able to do the next piece of work unless you are interacting with them, communicating with them, giving them specific instructions. You will have to micromanage every little thing. It's exhausting. It will not help you to scale. Also, you're not going to get the best results with this. They are just going to be doing each of these things in isolation. They won't understand the bigger picture. So they won't be able to make good decisions, good judgment calls, and they won't be as motivated either.
Gillian:
[30:24] So instead, we want to make sure that we are delegating entire roles. So giving them the role of managing the blog content or really owning the podcast guest booking process at the Tongue Twister or completely managing the email marketing. So as much as you can give them ownership over a project or a role in your business, you will see much better results. Now, that does not mean that you just hand the thing over with no instructions. Just like, hey, manage the blog. You're in charge of the blog now. No, it still is good to give very specific instructions and to tell them what your goals are, your benchmarks are for this project. How many blog posts do you want published each week or each month? What are the quality standards for those blog posts? How do we decide on the topics?
Gillian:
[31:09] Lots of training is still important, but you need to make sure that they understand that they are the person who is ultimately responsible for this piece of the business, whether it's a bigger thing like marketing or a tiny thing like just the podcast guest booking, for example. It's okay if it's a small specific role, but you need to make sure that they have ownership over it so that they are empowered to make those decisions and to solve the problems. You may have heard about the difference in how owners do work in the business versus how employees tend to do work in businesses. Okay, employees are just there to collect the paycheck a lot of the time. They're just checking out the tasks when their time's up, they clock out and they forget about the business. Okay, but owners, they really care about the outcomes, because obviously, it's their baby, right? And so they're showing up early, they're staying late, they are figuring out how to solve that problem, no matter what, they're looking for ways to improve.
Gillian:
[32:04] Well, how you can bridge this gap and get your employees or your contractors to work a whole lot more like owners is to give them this ownership over at least small roles in the business. When you delegate a role instead of tasks, something shifts. Your team members start thinking like owners, not order takers. They are able to anticipate problems. They see the issues coming and they solve them before you even know about them. They're able to suggest improvements. They bring ideas for making processes better and more efficient. and they take pride in the results. Their name is on the outcome, so they care deeply about quality. This makes not only them work at a much higher quality standard and have much better attention to detail, but they also tend to stick around for a lot longer because they are getting that emotional satisfaction from the work employees just can't get.
Gillian:
[32:55] Now, the second pillar is to set those crystal clear expectations. They need to know what success looks like. Again, don't just hand over, manage the blog or manage the podcast guest booking or edit the videos or something like that. You need to tell them what the goals are, what the standards are, what the process looks like, and what they're able to decide without asking. Are there some things that you still want them to defer to you about? Are there things that you want to check for quality or something like that? Well, they need to know.
Gillian:
[33:26] Real example, managing a podcast guest booking. So as far as a goal goes, you might tell them how many podcast guests you want them to book every single month. Once you tell them how many guests, then they know kind of what the objective is here for this. You also want to tell them what the process looks like, okay? In this case, you need to research these guests. You need to make sure that they're a good fit for the show. What is the show about? What makes the podcast guests a good fit for it? What is the audience interested in? They need the information. And I think that really is a key point here. It's not just that you should tell them how to do the job. In fact, you should try to avoid telling them how to do the job. But they need information about what the goal is and what is important here, what makes a good guest. Give them the information so that they can figure out the best way to get the work done. Now, of course, if you've already figured out a process in the past, then they would probably appreciate knowing this process you already refined.
Gillian:
[34:23] But again, that's information you're giving them. Look, here's the process we've used for this in the past rather than here's exactly what you need to do. Right? You hear the difference there? Right. Third thing here is outreach standards, okay? So telling them what we need to do to get those four quality guests. We need to pitch six guests every month. We need to follow up with the lead three times using these email templates, okay? Here we're giving them resources so that they know what needs to happen to get to that end outcome. And then finally, booking management. Once a guest says yes, guide them through scheduling, send prep materials, and remind them 24 hours before recording, okay? So once you give them this information, this person who's now managing the podcast is going to know exactly what success looks like, but also have the resources
Gillian:
[35:11] and the tools that they need to be able to achieve it. To pillar number three, where we're going to talk about how to build strong communication habits or rhythms. Okay, great teams don't just communicate more. If you just communicate more, it will actually be less effective and it will certainly take more time. We want to make sure that we are communicating effectively. We need systems and rhythms that keep everyone aligned so that we don't have to have that constant back and forth.
Gillian:
[35:40] This means, first of all, that we have regular check-ins, okay? A weekly team meeting or a weekly asynchronous video update, meaning like I send a loom to each person on the team, they send a loom back to me or vice versa, really helps to keep everybody on the same page. So make sure that you've got standing meetings on your calendar. This could be on a monthly or on a weekly basis with every single person on your team. It could be you meeting with everyone on your team, or it's possible you have a project manager or a team leader who is checking in with each person. But you wanna make sure you're on the same page with these people. Now, one little tip here is that I do find that the more frequently you meet.
Gillian:
[36:20] Typically, the more work everyone gets done. So if you wanna increase the tempo of your business, if you wanna speed up the pace, then meet more often. When I'm in a season where I want to like coast with business, then I intentionally cut back on the meeting frequency. We go from our weekly meetings to monthly meetings for a few months because I want to be working less. And I know that if we meet every week, then I have, I'd say at least twice as much work on my plate because we are all generating ideas. We are all bouncing them off of each other. We are creating more work, which does create more outcomes. So I'm not saying it's busy work. I'm just saying that the more you meet with the people in your business, the more things you come up with to do and the bigger the results are, which that has to do with how I was saying when you hire people in your business, when you bring people into your team.
Gillian:
[37:12] It tends to exponentially grow the business, which is really cool. But just know that you do have a control. You have a little dial you can turn to either turn up the tempo or turn it down depending on what season of business you are in.
Gillian:
[37:25] With these meetings, definitely try to keep them short and focused. So put a specific amount of time on the calendar and try to stick to that. You can use these meetings to celebrate wins, to address challenges, and of course, to align on priorities and figure out next steps.
Gillian:
[37:43] Now, second, you want to make sure that you have some simple, effective tools for communicating. So beyond those weekly meetings, you will want a way to communicate in the meantime. We like to use Slack for this. You can also keep your communications in Asana or ClickUp if you like. How we do it in our team is if it's a communication that has something to do with a specific task or project, and the person who I'm sending this communication to doesn't need to hear these words until they're working on that project, then I'll put my comment into the Asana task. But if I want them to know it sooner, if I want them to know it now, then we put it in Slack. And that works really well for us. What I would really recommend you do though is not use email. Email is not organized in a way that creates efficient teamwork. So the difference between Slack, say, and email, two main things. One is Slack is organized and it doesn't have to be Slack. There are other platforms you can use as well. Slack is one we use to use. But you want something that's organized by topic. So you have these different channels. You have these different topics of conversation. So you can have a marketing channel. You can have a customer service channel. You can have a channel that's for a specific product or program that you sell. You also, of course, have direct messages. But those channels enable you to keep your conversation very organized and streamlined.
Gillian:
[39:05] And the other thing that's different is with an email, there's a lot more fluff around the messages. There's like a header to the message. You might feel the need to say, Hi, Sarah. As you start your message, you might have a signature. And again, there's a lot more clutter. Whereas in a space like Slack, it's more like a direct message. It's more like a text where it's just the content itself. So I find that it's much more efficient and streamlined.
Gillian:
[39:29] Just throwing this out there. I know we were talking about this yesterday a bit. You probably want to use something for screencasting. So something like Loom or you can do this with Zoom so that you can record your screen and talk at the same time because if you're working online most likely there will be things that it's just much easier to show someone what you're talking about than to try to type it out in an email or even a Slack message so if you haven't already started using Loom or something like that highly recommend you can use Loom for free you can also use Zoom for free but when you use Loom what happens is you can install it as like a browser extension so you just click a button it'll start recording your screen for you you finish up the recording it immediately takes you to the page where the video has been uploaded for you you can one click grab the link to send to whoever you are sending this message to whether that is via Slack or putting it in an Asana task maybe you're creating an SOP you know there's so many options there but I find that it really cuts down on the meetings and it is a much more effective way to communicate a lot of the time than just text or then a voice note or something like that. And of course, you want to create a culture where feedback flows both ways.
Gillian:
[40:38] Your team members will be asking you questions, right? And you will be giving them answers. You also want to ask them, how can I support you better? And do that as often as you give direction. So don't just be telling them to do things or asking them questions, but also be offering to help and be figuring out ways that you can help them to do their work more effectively.
Gillian:
[40:59] Now, the fourth pillar we're going to look at today is creating a culture of growth, okay, which is what I guess I was segwaying into with that last point there.
Gillian:
[41:07] People stay where they're growing, okay? People don't stay just for the paycheck. Ultimately, as humans, we want fulfillment in life and we are not going to do something for 40 hours a week or even 20 hours a week if it is not fulfilling. We'll be looking for other options, okay? We'll be at least looking for a bigger paycheck and we'll probably be looking for something that's more fun, more enjoyable, more fulfilling. On the other hand, if your team members feel like they are growing, people find that very fulfilling. And they will stick around even if they could get better pay somewhere else. So make sure that you are helping your team members to develop new skills, to take on bigger challenges and to advance their careers as well. A few different ways you can invest in their growth in this way are training opportunities. So this could be you teaching the people in your business things, but it also could be you bankrolling them, taking an online course, a workshop or going to a conference. Also mentorship. So this is you regularly coaching them on their development within the business. You don't need to be their life coach. You don't need to be their guru, but helping them to figure out how to navigate getting better at their job, at least can be a great way to invest in them.
Gillian:
[42:20] Giving them assignments that stretch them, okay? Projects that push them beyond their comfort zone. You don't want to overdo this, of course, because that can be overwhelming. It can make people feel overworked, but giving them some positive challenges, at least occasionally, can really help them to keep growing. And then a clear advancement path, okay? When people feel stagnant in a job, when they feel like there's no room for them to advance their career, then they will not stick around long-term unless they have a lot of fulfillment in some other aspect of the job. But most of the time as humans, we are always looking for that way to grow and both like grow with our skills, but also grow with our financial success and
Gillian:
[43:01] all the different aspects of, you know, the things that the job has to do with. So here are some steps you can take to start making some great progress with building your team. The first one is to define what good people mean for your business. So do that exercise that I talked you through earlier where you think about people who you have enjoyed working with and you write down what made them enjoyable to work with so that you can create a list of character traits and values that you are looking for. Second is to figure out where you can find these people, tapping into your networks, finding aligned communities.
Gillian:
[43:36] Starting with contractors and making sure that you are sharing your mission publicly so you can attract the right people so you can do what is called inbound hiring, not just outbound hiring. Make sure that when you bring these people into your business, that you delegate entire roles and that you give clear expectations.
Gillian:
[43:52] And finally, that you have strong communication methods in the business and
Gillian:
[43:57] habits and that you are encouraging and helping your team members to grow. The right people don't just work for you. They actually multiply what your business is capable of. As I said at the start of this talk, building a powerful team is one of the most leveraging things you can do as a business owner. Every great hire multiplies your impact, frees up your time, and accelerates your growth. And in case you missed the memo, you do not need a huge team. You just need a few of the right people. People who are aligned with your mission, capable of the work, reliable in their delivery, and collaborative in their approach. Now, by the way, if you do not already have a network to hire from, I would love to invite you to join us inside Startup Society. Startup Society is a thriving community of online business owners who support each other's growth. It's the perfect place to find aligned team members who already understand online business, get referrals from other online business owners who have worked with great people, learn team building strategies from successful founders, as well as we have several action plans and courses inside Startup Society about hiring the right people.
Gillian:
[45:02] You can also access ongoing training and resources to help you scale your business. So if you are ready to build your dream business, then make sure that you check out Startup Society because it is a community that really understands your journey and will be there to help you succeed.
Gillian:
[45:18] [outro bumper] Are you ready to finally take the leap in your business to make it in six figures every year? I would love to work with you to turn your inconsistent income into consistent 10k plus months. And we've created an entire program to guide you to do exactly that. It's called 100k Mastermind. And it's a six month mentorship that will guide you to set up your strategic automated sales funnel system and fuel it with ready to buy leads. Because I know that you don't just need a funnel, you need a strategically designed funnel that's based in sales psychology. And you need a system that's going to send leads into it. Because a funnel without any leads flowing into it isn't going to make you any money. If you're interested in working together to get your six-figure system set up, then head to gillianperkins.com/100k. That's gillianperkins.com/100k. On that page, you're going to find all the details about the program, what we cover in it, exactly what you'll learn and what you'll accomplish, as well as the dates for our next cohort and the link to apply. Again, just visit gillianperkins.com/100k. I can promise you this, your business and life will never be the same.
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