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In this episode of the Service-Based Business Society podcast, host Tiffany-Ann Bottcher dives deep into the art and importance of delegation for business growth. Tiffany-Ann shares her personal experiences and insights on how mastering the skill of delegation can be a game-changer for entrepreneurs looking to scale their service-based businesses. She discusses the pros and cons of hiring support, the challenges of letting go of control, and actionable tips on how to build a team that complements your strengths. If you're aiming to delegate effectively and free up time to focus on scaling, this episode is packed with valuable insights you won't want to miss.
Episode Summary
In this episode, we explore the crucial role of delegation in business growth, the common pitfalls of hiring support, and the strategies entrepreneurs can use to leverage their teams more effectively for long-term success.
Key Insights
- Delegating is a learned skill that is essential for scaling any business.
- Complementary skills in your support team can significantly enhance productivity and business efficiency.
- Effective delegation allows business owners to focus on growth-oriented tasks rather than getting bogged down in daily minutiae.
- Hiring the right support requires trust, clear communication, and patience.
- A vague job description can evolve over time as the role of support personnel is better defined.
- Understanding that mistakes and growing pains are part of building a successful team is critical for long-term growth.
- Technology and tools like task management software can greatly enhance the effectiveness of delegation.
Creators & Guests
What is Service Based Business Society Podcast?
Attention entrepreneurs! Are you looking for ways to scale your service-based business without sacrificing your sleep? Look no further than The Service Based Business Society Podcast, hosted by Tiffany-Ann Bottcher.
Each week, Tiffany-Ann shares valuable insights on productivity, business strategies, marketing trends, and tech secrets that you need to know in order to take your business to the next level. She firmly believes that a successful service-based business must prioritize an amazing client experience and sustainable, predictable, repeatable profit, and she'll teach you how to do just that.
But that's not all - Tiffany-Ann also invites expert guests to share their knowledge and experience with you, providing even more valuable insights on service-based business growth and sustainability. You won't want to miss a single episode!
If you're looking to create, grow, and optimize your service-based business, The Service Based Business Society Podcast is the perfect resource for you.
And don't forget to join the community on Instagram by searching for Service Based Business Society Podcast
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Focused on helping entrepreneurs cultivate the right mindset for success in their businesses. Hosted by experts in the field, the podcast covers a range of topics related to mindset and business, including self-improvement, goal setting, visualization, and meditation. The podcast provides practical tools and strategies to help listeners develop a growth mindset, overcome limiting beliefs, and build confidence. Through inspiring interviews with successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, the podcast shows that a positive and resilient mindset is key to achieving business success.
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A great resource for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to learn from the experiences of successful business owners. Through relatable and engaging entrepreneurship stories, the podcast provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities that come with starting and running a business. Hosted by experienced entrepreneurs, the podcast covers a range of topics related to entrepreneurship, including idea generation, product development, marketing, and fundraising. Each episode features inspiring interviews with successful entrepreneurs, who share their personal stories and provide practical advice and tips for those looking to start and grow their own businesses.
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Brought to you by Bottcher Group of Companies
Hello and welcome to the Service Based Business Society podcast. I am your host, Tiffany Ann Botcher. On our weekly episodes, we will dig into everything you need to know about scaling your service based business without losing sleep. With my experience in creating over 7 figures per month and a passion for marketing, finance, and automation, this show will provide tangible tips and techniques for scaling your business. Let's get started.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Hello and welcome back to another episode. We're often talking here on the podcast about scaling success. And one of the key pieces to scaling success, one of the pieces that you as a business owner, leader, owner, founder, manager must master, not just try, but master, is the ability to delegate. And so often, it's it's it's the solution to every problem. Why you just gotta delegate it?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Just out source it, delegate it. Like all of these kind of buzzwords around basically get someone else to do some of your work. The ability to effectively do that is a learned skill. Just because someone was good at doing x doesn't mean they're good at managing x. Just because someone can hire some support in some capacity doesn't mean they're great at utilizing that support.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so often we see people hire support, struggle with exactly how that works. Then they say, ah, that person, I just don't have enough work to keep that person busy. I'm still so busy. I don't have enough time to organize work for that person. And then it it just kind of fizzles away.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Either that person gets let go because you think I'm spending all this money and I don't really feel any reprieve. When we start out in the business growth journey, now this, whether your business is very small or very large, when we start by adding that first support person, it's very hard to frame what that person's role is because really that person's role is to support you. So whether that's a virtual assistant, an executive assistant, whether that person is an office manager, whatever the title is going to be, if you are hiring someone to support you, that first time it's going to be very hard to frame that in a job description because until you really even know that person's skill set, until you know how you work together, you really can't frame that in a very precise job description. Now you can you can frame that in kind of a loose job description, but so often I see people limit the potential of this type of relationship by saying, hey. We're gonna do a, b, c.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And, ultimately, that person who's supporting you is best utilized by doing a variety of things, learning, immersing themselves in your business, in your life so that they can really understand how to best support you. As I was saying, when you when you bring this person on, utilizing them to the maximum impact is a learned skill. Now, I felt very lucky that during my business journey, career journey, I have been through many roles. I have been in a supporting role. I to a person newer to business.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I have been a support person to someone at the top of their career, very talented, very impactful, making big decisions, very efficient. I have been a person for many years that has in in the corporate world an executive assistant and then started my own business and that was one of the first roles that I filled. And the reason for that is because to really why it was one of the first roles I filled was because in order for that person to really be able to create impact, it takes time. So often when we think I need support, you know, you're you're growing your business, you wanna scale your success, and you realize, hey, I I need to delegate. I need to support.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And we often think, I need someone who can think like me. And that person is going to be expensive. It really comes down to not always trying to find someone that can think like you. Because in actual fact, someone who doesn't think just like you when paired with you creates a much stronger pair. So if you are not great at managing the calendar, if you are not great at keeping your inbox tidy, Hiring someone that can manage the calendar or keep your inbox tidy isn't very effective.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Instead, you want to choose someone with complementary skill set. Now the the other piece to that, because there's always kind of two sides to every coin, is that if you go for someone that is too opposite in mindset, you won't enjoy working together. So there has to be a compatibility on the way you work, but there needs to be complementary pieces on how you actually execute the task. So you decide that you need to hire this person. So we've established that maybe a looser job description is better.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:If you've never had someone in a role, oftentimes it takes a little bit of time to sort it out. When I hire in any spot in our company, we have multiple different roles that we hire have hired multiple people for. So, for instance, on, you know, the marketing side, we have multiple people that, you know, do web design, SEO, those types of things. On the bookkeeping side, we have multiple bookkeepers. So that has a very specific job description.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Did it the very first time? It was less specific for sure. It was definitely more vague. But we recently hired a more senior person and I can say that that job description is a little more vague. And oftentimes we start that way and around the 3 month review time, we can frame it with a little more certainty.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But I still keep it somewhat open ended because I don't wanna limit the potential of the relationship. I want to be able to really explore and understand this person's best attributes, the things they enjoy. Just because you would like someone, you know, to do these 20 things doesn't mean that one person is gonna be great at those 20 things. And so it's really, you know, choosing someone that is the right person for the job and then deciding and knowing and understanding that that person is not going to be amazing overnight, that it's going to take a while to build that relationship. It's going to take a while for that person to be able to even start to understand what they should take, what they shouldn't take, what they should get involved with, what maybe doesn't need to be involved with.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So today, we're gonna talk a little bit about the pros and cons of delegation, bringing people in, support. And I I kind of group it under delegation, but it it really is, you know, the decision to add a supporting role to your position. So we're gonna talk talk about those pros and cons, and then we're gonna talk about some of the ways that I utilize support for my role that I think are amazing real difference makers that you may or may not have thought of. So these are the kinds of things that really make it possible. Now when I say that I need to optimize, I go back to, episode 1 of this season and we talked a little bit about optimizing your life and business in order to be able to fit it all in.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So I thought that this episode was a great, point of discussion to really kind of share and say, I take on way too much. I know I take on way too much. My husband often says, why do you keep doing this to yourself? And I just, I, I can't imagine not doing it. But it means that I have to run at maximum optimization.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So I have 3 kids all in elementary school. I we've got the word to yell. Then I also have 3 different businesses. Then I do things like decide I'm gonna be the team mom or the team manager or or whatever and take on these different things for the kids and family and, you know, different associations and all of that to say, I keep taking stuff on and and ultimately, I can't do it alone. They often say it takes a village to raise your kids, but it also takes a village to run the behind the scenes of what I have going on.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so it doesn't you know, it's a different village. This is the village that you go you go and find. You decide, you know, what kind of village that you want and then you start building it up. And so we're gonna talk a little bit a little bit about, you know, how I utilize that. How it's possible for me to take on all of this craziness.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And and if how can I build a life that I can do all of the things? Because I actually wanna be the mom that drives on the field trip and I wanna drop my kids off at school, but I also want to make 1,000,000 of dollars and I want to go on and do successful amazing things that really fuel my passion. And I also want to be, you know, taking care of my health and being able to hike up the mountain. And I wanna be at the practices taking on that team manager role and organizing this and making sure that all the kids have, you know, the proper jerseys and and that the games are organized. I wanna do all of those things.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The funny thing is the very first thing that I did when I left corporate and I, you know, I I've often shared I had no idea what I was gonna do. The very first domain that I bought and, you know, as business owner, entrepreneur, we we we buy domains. That's like you have an idea, you buy a domain. And then the domain sits there and then it comes around for renewal and you're like, am I renewing this? Is this idea still going anywhere?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The very first domain that I purchased was the mom who wants it all.com. I later decided I didn't really want to leave in so much on the mom. It was kinda that was really in the mompreneur phase. And I I felt like I I was a mom and I was an entrepreneur, but I didn't I didn't always like it limp, like, joined together. And so I I kind of abandoned that and didn't renew the domain, but that was this piece of I want to do it all.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:How can I get away from this boardroom table? How can I make it work? Now you may or may not have kids. You may or may not have some kind of hobby. You may or may not have something that you want to add in.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But if you want to, you need to find a way to make it work. They have always taken on way too much. I'm the mom that, you know, wants to take on the extra crafty projects or the, oh, no. We're gonna bake the it And I my husband laughs every time because it'll be 4 AM the night before, and I'm working to get something done and all of these things. It's just who I am.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so I have built my business around that being who I am. I stopped trying to not be that person and instead I have figured out ways. One of the ways that we do that is by adding support to the team. Now, I can't get support on certain things. And when I was in corporate, I got support with the kids.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We had a full time nanny, and that person did a lot of stuff with the kids and around the house and that type of thing. And I I decided when I started my business because what would be easy was either to keep number 1 was we could either keep the nanny, which when I left corporate, I decided I didn't want to do, or we could get part time care or whatever. And I said from the very beginning, I would rather have 3 employees in the business and no childcare than I would to have childcare and less employees in the business because you have to decide what is your part that is most important to you. I would rather hire extra people to support in something else because I wanted to do the most amount of parenting as possible. I had already done many, many years where I felt like I missed out.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so I didn't wanna do that anymore. When my business started, I knew because I I had an executive assistant in corporate. I was accustomed to that relationship. I knew that when my business could afford it that was going to be one of the first positions I was going to fill. And, you know, adding additional people, whether that is a direct support person like an executive assistant or just growing your team, it comes with pros and cons.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And one of the the the real pieces that takes trust in 2 ways, trust is such a big thing in in any kind of hiring. Number 1, you have to trust that you hired the right person and you are going to give them enough freedom that they can do the job successfully. So many business owners are micromanagers. I'm anti micromanagement almost too far the other way. I, I, I would say that I really want people to be accountable, and I care less about, you know, did it happen between 8:30 and 850 than I do did it get done and did it get done well.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I think at the very beginning when I started building my business, that I let that be a little too loose. I was very it was very flexible. And I realized very quickly that that wasn't gonna be the way that I was going to be successful because we go back to, I didn't hire people like me. I hired people with complimentary skills. And so because I've managed to fit things in and and prioritize very effectively and that kind of doesn't necessarily mean that everyone can do that.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So number 1, we have to trust that we have chosen the right person and we trust them to do the job well, and we trust ourselves to allow them to do the job well. And we remember while we're doing that that that person is not us. So often we expect those that we hire to be us, to speak like us, to answer a question like us, to finish a deadline like us, to, you know, work at the same pace as us. That's not going to happen. Now, it it may happen at one point, but it probably isn't gonna happen right off the bat.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I'll be honest, it usually takes about 6 weeks for any kind of role to really gain traction. Unless that person is extremely experienced in a very similar role. It's unlikely even if they are directly, you know, experienced in exactly what you're doing, they won't be experienced in the way that you do it. Your policies, your procedure, the the parts that make you unique. It takes 6 weeks in almost every role to really gain traction.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So we're talking about that trust. We're talking about getting the right person in the role and we're we're we're realizing that we need to be able to allow things to happen. The other piece is we have to have trust that that person is going to represent us. That person is going to speak on our behalf, the business' behalf. And that's in any role, in any business, with any employee.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That person, good, bad, or indifferent, is a extension of you. It's gonna happen. There's no way around it. There anyone you hire as a human will make human mistakes and it will be your job to try and figure out how you can prevent that mistake, how you contributed to it, because you did. How you're gonna contribute to the solution, and how you're gonna save face.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I hate to phrase it like that, but ultimately, it's your business. And there will be mistakes. And it's not you know? I always say and I say this often on sales calls and I say this to the team and everyone makes mistakes. It's how you solve them that really matters.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I'm sure in life you can reflect on a situation where something did not go right. Maybe you were at a restaurant and your food was super late or it was arrive cold or are you know, it's very simple, but most this happened to most people at one time or another. Sometimes the manager comes over and says, oh my goodness. Let, you know, let me get this fixed. Let me take your I gotta get you a new one and, like, comp the bill and and you might leave and think, oh, that was great.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I'll be back. Or you can complain to the server who might not show up until everyone at the table has already eaten and you now are not really interested in getting the new meal and the the server is, you know, not giving you any kind of customer service. And you might think that was absolutely terrible and I'm not coming back. The exact same situation can be handled in 2 very different ways. And so one of the negative sides to delegation is that trust slash fear.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And it really is paired together because you have to trust with the knowledge that you will at one point be frustrated and disappointed, but you're gonna trust anyway. You're gonna train and you're gonna trust. And very much, you know, I I often say it's not until you battle test that you really know what the team is made of. Whether it is high crazy volume, whether it's crazy situation, maybe it's you decided to go on a vacation and turn your phone off and you're hoping that your business is standing when you get back. Whatever it is, there's a certain level of trust there.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so it's a pro and a con. Ultimately, you have to be able to trust yourself that you've made the right choices. You have to be able to trust the people that you've hired. And you also need to know, eyes wide open, that you will be disappointed that it's not gonna go according to plan and you're gonna fix it. And you have to trust that you will be able to fix it.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So, you know, when we look at adding support in any capacity, whether that's virtual support, whether that's in person support, whether it's, you know, at the at the management level, whether it's at the, you know, entry level, they're adding these people will is is a different element to running and growing a business. Managing a team that allows you to continue to scale, continue to grow your business, continue to do big things, but it was that piece that they were, oh, no. Nope. Nope. But the stress the stress of it.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So adding and growing your team allows you to continue to grow. It allows you to do big things. It allows you to be at that event. It allows me to be at a practice. It allows me to drive to the field trip.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And the work still gets done. Things are still going on. So the decision to hire means that you can continue to scale. It's it's the upside when it comes to that immediate, you know, why do we need to hire support? So we can do more.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I shared all these different pieces that, you know, that delegation allows me to do. Does it you know, it's not all bubble gum and rainbows. It there isn't an amazing impact from day 1. People will let you down. People will respond to do things that you wish that they hadn't done.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:People will say, you know, oh, I yeah. I got it, and they don't have it. But these are small things. And they're you know, it's one salad does not change a lifetime of cheeseburgers. Nothing against cheeseburgers.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But it's it's the it's the the the feeling of, you know, one mistake, a million great things. You know? That's that's why we continue to push, why we keep doing it, why we go and and and hiring that support person, I think, really see it through. But it comes down to being able to utilize that support person, and that's really important. So a few more pros to hiring and, you know, adding the ability to delegate.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Number 1, you're creating more time. Ultimately, more, you know, many hands think light work. As I said, it's not going to be immediate, but adding support in any capacity will allow you to do more. The ability to scale, the ability to grow, the ability to hire effectively all comes from hiring. You won't get a rate every time, but you definitely won't get it right if you don't ever try.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So, you know, you miss all the shots you don't take. You have to be willing to try. Stick your neck out there and give it a go. We talked about, you know, the the ability to trust, the ability to really have people out there speaking on your behalf. Pro, con?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Could go either way. So, you know, if we break the the negatives down, there's a bit of a loss of control. We talked a little bit about that. People are now representing your business. The potential for time mistakes.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You know, along with that, you have the potential for mistakes. We talked a little bit about it in more detail, but that's a big one. There is also the initial time investment. You know, I said about 6 weeks. It it is 6 weeks.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:There will be training. It you will have to take the time to train the person. They can't there's no crystal ball. They can't suck the information out of your head. And we'll talk a little bit about how we can efficiently do those things, but at the end of the day, there will be an investment of time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:There's no way around it. And there may be communication gaps is a real downside in you know? You each thought that someone else had something and they did. It happens. You learn and and it always comes down to what could you have done better to make that more effective.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Question I asked a team member today is who had made a mistake, missed something that we definitely talked about. I said, what was your understanding of this task? Did they not understand the task? Is that why they missed it or did they just miss it? Did they write it down?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Was it on task list? Did it have a deadline? Like, let's break down. What was your understanding? Where's the breakdown?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:How can we solve that? So super important. Oftentimes when there's a mistake, people just wanna say, I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Talk is cheap.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That's great. It won't happen again. How? What are we changing so that it doesn't happen again? Because chances are if someone just says I'm sorry it won't happen again but changes nothing, it will happen again.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So how can you utilize that person effectively? What is the best way to get started? Number 1, that person needs access to your email inbox. Oftentimes people say, I don't want to give them access to my inbox. Here's the thing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Your inbox is a collection of tasks and important item. And I almost guarantee that if you went to your inbox right now that there's something in there, if you looked for long enough that was like, oh, I should have done that. And I I almost guarantee that there's another one that was like, oh, that would have taken actually like less than a minute had I just done it and gotten on with it. So that person needs access to your inbox. You need to have a way to communicate with that person when you are thinking of things.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:One of the areas, one of the times that I come up with the most things is when I'm driving. I drive a fair bit. I drive the kids to school then I drive back to the office, pick the kids up from school, drive sports, all these types of things. And I drive and I think. Problem is when you're driving, now I can't write anything down.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I can't be like, oh, yeah. I just need to I need to not forget about that. So now you can use voice memo. You can use what all we use Marco Polo for car talk, we'll call it. I can click the button.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's my phone is hands free. It's in the holder. I don't have to touch anything and I I can just talk very candidly and it could be something super super short. Hey, random thought. Did we get back to that person from, you know, last week?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Blah blah blah. That's it. Or it might be, hey. I have a whole bunch of things that I just want to, you know, that that brain dump, if you will, of, k. So, you know, I'm remembering this.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We need to do this. That is a great way that I can just get that information out of my head and not worry about it. It's all written down. So the person needs access to your emails. You need to find have a way to communicate with them effectively.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So, yes, we use Marco Polo. There's other apps very similar. I enjoy using Marco Polo, so that's the one that we use. I believe I we use Google Chat, for both companies, not Slack. And I know Slack is kind of the industry standard.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I don't love Slack, but I think that Slack does have voice memo built in. So you could explore that as an alternative. But I also think you need a way to chat with that person on the computer, if you work on the computer. I spend a lot of time on the computer and so I need to be able to, like, chat, screenshot, do those kinds of things. The other thing that makes super helpful for efficient training, we were talking about, you know, getting that person up to speed right away, we use Loom.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So Loom is a Chrome extension. It records your screen as you go. The amount of time that I do not spend in meetings because I use Loom is immense. So I can do a task that I would have to do anyway, but I can record it. Then it's just saved in that link and now anytime that I need someone to do that task, whether it's someone who's never done the task before, whether it's a new hire, whether, you know, someone needs a refresher, there's that link.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:When I started using Loom, I would think of them as kind of one time links. And over my time with Loom, I've decided now I actually retitle all of my Loom videos so that we can find them again because so often it's it's a, you know, similar thing or it's already been recorded. For client specific looms, we record those in our client files. So, you know, if there's a specific way something needs to be done or there's something that clients preference, we record that and now any person who works on that file has access to that link and it walks them through. I also use it for team training videos.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So we usually do, like, a weekly kind of tip training type session. It's usually about 10 minutes, whether it's a new feature in a software we're using, whether it's something to do with, the way that we're managing the clients, something like that. It it takes the place of a team meeting. And so what I do is I record the Loom. I share it in our team chat.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I ask everyone to watch it and comment on the video. And so in Loom, there's a little comments piece on the side, so I know every person who has watched that video. So if I now someone new starts, they can come in and they can watch that video too. There's there's an accountability of did was it watched? And there's there's a place that people can come back to to reference it later.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The using Loom means it saves me time. I don't have to do, you know, walk people through things multiple times. I can just share that. And and the other piece is it's great help for those people. Instead of being, like, you know, go to that top menu.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's, like, the third one on the left. And and, I think the button says this. And it now it's just, you know, I I I'm doing it on the screen, so it's very easy for someone to follow along later. So when it comes to the calendar, I would say this is the area that requires the most training on an ongoing basis and the most train when it comes to the calendar it really needs the most training. The inbox and the calendar very similar.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The calendar though because in your mind oftentimes you know how long you need in between things. You know for instance if you have an appointment the travel time isn't always on the calendar so you know, often it's something that'll get booked in the travel time. That takes time. That is something that that person your support person needs to be doing with oversight and a lot of questions. The reason why having, you know, quick message channels is because even if someone has to say, hey, you know, Bob wants to meet Thursday at 9.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You have such and such at 10:30. Is that okay? You can yep. That person can then get that booked on the calendar, get the links out, you know, get all of the relevant pieces, all of that. You're quick.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Does it work? Yes. Still way faster. And over time because just like the emails the person will see how you do it and will ask those questions. It's the same thing with the inbox.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You know, you know something is or isn't important. Someone new to your inbox may or may not know But over time they will see how do you prioritize things. What do you think is important? What do you think is not important? And so it it takes that length of time to really do it effectively, but it it's something that it just builds over time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:One of the other things that I do that I think is super helpful, way that I utilize my support person, is all of our Zoom videos, our our Zoom meetings are recorded. And they run through a AI software, note taking software, and so all of the one that we use does a beautiful job of creating action items out of the meeting. You know Tiffany Ann said this, she would do this, so and so is going to do this. And so my assistant can then take that and go through and take any of the action items and put them on my task list with the dates. So I've said, yeah I'll get that over to you by Thursday.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The note taker make sure that that's all recorded. The assistant then puts that all in the tasks. Super helpful. Now you might say, okay well now we've you know, talked a little bit about email management. That person's gonna need access to your email.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We've talked a little bit about the calendar. We talked about how we chat with that person. How do we tie that all together to be more effective? You have to find what way works for you, and I'm gonna share what way works for me. I have a task list in our system, but there's also a lot of little tasks.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I don't want, you know, email, Sam, you know, reply to this, send to that that quick things on a giant task because they'll just sit there for too long. So I keep a short concise, basically what can we do today, the today list in our chat and their number. So maybe I sent it while I was driving and said I need to talk to so and so, then there were some things in the email, then there were some tasks from a meeting, and my assistant will take all of those and put them in a little numbered list in chat. So it might be, you know, number 1, you need to get back to so and so. Number 2, you need to send that customer proposal.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Number 3. And so now can very quickly in between meetings do just go through the list. And I'll just reply back. 1 is done. 3 is on hold till Tuesday.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:4 is done. And she will keep adjusting the list. I might say, you know, oh, that's on hold till next week and she will take it off of today's list and put it on the next week's list. That's really the what do I need to do today. It's how little things don't just get forgotten because I forget things.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:My brain is full. It's running all the time. And so when I do it that way I don't have to worry and stress. I'm a person that if it's on a list somewhere then I stress less. And so by doing it that way by keeping that super concise list I can make sure that I get through all of those items by the end of the day or I will as I'm kind of signing off at the end of the day, I will say, okay.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:This you know, I'll go through whatever's left on the list and I'll say, okay. That's tomorrow. Oh, I need to do that today. I'll find some time later to fit it in. And and just a quick summary.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Those pieces together. Now, I'll be honest, my assistant does a huge amount of other things. But those are the real core root pieces where things originate from. Because from there, you know, I may say, hey. Can you take this?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Can you, you know, can you can you follow-up with that? Can you phone so and so and book this appointment or but you can't effectively delegate until you have that list of exactly what's going on, and that person can help you build it. You have to build a system though, whatever works for you. That system works really well for me because I spend a lot of time on the computer and I'm back and forth in we use Google Chat. But if you are, you know, out and you're using text message, that may or may not work the best for you.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Maybe a shared Apple note where you can, you know, both mutually be updating is another way of doing it. So it's figuring out where you can meet that person electronically in a way that works best for you. All of those little pieces work together to solve just saving time, saving time, saving time. And if you really start to add that up, it can create such an impact. Delegation through a support person that you build that relationship with is a key piece to growing your business.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It is the only way to effectively scale. Because otherwise, if you decide to say, I'm not going to hire that person, I'm going to jellies and things. You will always keep doing things where your time could have been spent better. You must, as a business owner, protect your time. Now, whatever you want to fill your time with, that's up to you, but you must protect it.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Your time is your biggest resource. Well, we are all out of time for today. If you can head on over to the Spotify or Apple Podcast app, click the 5th star and leave a written review. It really does help the show. Until next time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Have a great week.