1557: [Part 1] Benefits of Outsourcing - Pros and Cons of Hiring Help & How a Virtual Assistant Will Improve Your Business

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. Benefits of Outsourcing – Pros and Cons of Hiring Help and How a Virtual Assistant Will Improve Your Business, Part 1, by Shaleen Johnson of ShaleenJohnson.com.

[00:00:14] This is, in my opinion, the number one reason why people procrastinate outsourcing. So, I know I've said it before, and I'm just going to keep hammering this message.

[00:00:23] The quicker you outsource, the sooner you adopt this mindset, the faster your business will grow, and really, the happier you're going to be about your business and the people that you work with.

[00:00:33] But for many people, it's like that first mile. You just dread doing it so you don't know where to start.

[00:00:38] So today I'd like to motivate you to take a look at the most basic things that you should be starting with.

[00:00:43] Social media is one of the easiest places for you to start outsourcing, because I don't care what kind of business you have.

[00:00:49] You can be someone who lays brick. You can be someone who sells an online academy.

[00:00:53] You still need customers, and your customers are online and they need to know about you.

[00:00:58] So you need to have more eyeballs looking at your business, and the best way to do that is to have a stronger presence online.

[00:01:04] So here are some of the things that you could begin outsourcing immediately.

[00:01:08] Creating a social media calendar.

[00:01:11] Researching cliff notes on recent changes in social media.

[00:01:14] Transcribing your videos.

[00:01:15] Creating a schedule for your Facebook.

[00:01:17] Creating a schedule for all of your social media.

[00:01:20] Editing photos that you might post in social media.

[00:01:23] Looking for great content.

[00:01:24] Categorizing and indexing all of the things that you have already posted over the years in social media.

[00:01:29] Liking photos.

[00:01:30] Transcribing any of your videos.

[00:01:32] Now we've talked about that in the lesson on how to really capture your voice,

[00:01:36] and this is a great way to help your virtual assistants or your virtual staff really start to understand your voice,

[00:01:42] so they can start transcribing your last videos, email templates, and commenting, but again, using your voice.

[00:01:49] So if that makes you nervous, then please watch the lesson on voice,

[00:01:53] but you can give them a series of comments that you would say and that you use in rotation anyways.

[00:01:58] Like when someone tells me,

[00:01:59] Oh, hey Shaleen, I love your podcast.

[00:02:01] I don't write them an email back.

[00:02:03] I say,

[00:02:04] Cool, thanks.

[00:02:05] Aw, thank you.

[00:02:05] And I say like the same 10 things over and over and over again,

[00:02:09] so I'm perfectly okay with outsourcing that to somebody while I'm sleeping.

[00:02:13] How about looking for specific hashtags?

[00:02:15] The less common ones.

[00:02:16] The ones that really relate to someone who's looking for your type of business.

[00:02:20] What about somebody who could actually go through all the links on your website

[00:02:23] and figure out if they are actually working?

[00:02:25] Just categorizing it and indexing all of your past social media posts,

[00:02:30] finding images, creating images on Canva,

[00:02:32] and then not creating their own phrases or comments, etc.,

[00:02:36] but taking motivational phrases or comments or tweets that you've used in the past

[00:02:40] and then creating images to go with those by using Canva.

[00:02:44] Organizing your Dropbox, creating a system,

[00:02:47] helping you create that system that makes it easier for all of the other virtual staff members to do work.

[00:02:53] So let me talk to you specifically about what this looks like.

[00:02:56] Start with one thing.

[00:02:58] One thing.

[00:02:59] When we hired our very first virtual assistant

[00:03:02] who would be dedicated and devoted to Team Johnson full-time, 40 hours a week,

[00:03:06] and I want to give you this advice too,

[00:03:08] she started at $3 an hour.

[00:03:10] And there were plenty of candidates who were asking for $1.50 an hour or $2 an hour.

[00:03:15] And then we've got to get over the fact that that's so mind-blowing

[00:03:18] to those of us who may live in the United States or in Europe

[00:03:21] to imagine that's their cost of living.

[00:03:23] But it's a great job and a great opportunity.

[00:03:25] And so when we first brought her on full-time,

[00:03:28] I was happy with just having her learn one thing at a time.

[00:03:31] Now here's how we did it.

[00:03:32] We wanted our virtual assistant to be in charge of hiring.

[00:03:35] We didn't expect her to be able to do all of these things.

[00:03:38] That person doesn't exist.

[00:03:39] Chris Ducker says that's a myth to think that there is what's known as a super GVA,

[00:03:44] someone who can do everything.

[00:03:45] Hello, that's you.

[00:03:47] Those people own businesses.

[00:03:48] If somebody could do all of these things, do you think they'd be working for you?

[00:03:52] No.

[00:03:52] But they can do a lot of things that you shouldn't be doing.

[00:03:55] People tend to get caught up in the idea that somebody is supposed to do everything,

[00:03:59] and that's not the case.

[00:04:00] So here's my suggestion to you.

[00:04:02] This is what we did with our virtual assistant to begin with.

[00:04:05] We had her begin trying to learn how to do many of these simple social media tasks,

[00:04:09] like liking comments,

[00:04:11] like creating blog posts from words in a transcript,

[00:04:14] like transcribing,

[00:04:15] creating tweets from the content that was in my podcast,

[00:04:18] and we had her do that not to give all that to her,

[00:04:21] but to see where she would excel.

[00:04:22] We never intended her to do all of these things.

[00:04:25] But there's two reasons why we would give her just one or two assignments per day.

[00:04:29] Don't overwhelm them.

[00:04:30] Like,

[00:04:31] Oh cool, it's day one.

[00:04:32] Guess what I'm going to have you do?

[00:04:33] You're going to be transcribing all of my videos.

[00:04:35] You're going to be listening to my podcast and creating tweets.

[00:04:38] Oh, and don't forget to like all my comments on Facebook.

[00:04:42] It's slow.

[00:04:42] If you really want this to work, you give them a little bit at a time.

[00:04:46] And the other reason why that's going to work for you is because

[00:04:49] then you don't have to step away and teach them the world in week one.

[00:04:53] They may only have five hours worth of work the first week.

[00:04:56] This is a marathon.

[00:04:57] And the next week, you'll have more time to outsource more to them.

[00:05:00] They'll feel comfortable with what they've learned,

[00:05:02] and you'll recognize what they're not great at.

[00:05:05] And then you add more.

[00:05:06] It's a slow process.

[00:05:08] To be continued.

[00:05:09] You just listened to part one of the post titled

[00:05:16] Benefits of Outsourcing, Pros and Cons of Hiring Help

[00:05:19] and How a Virtual Assistant Will Improve Your Business

[00:05:22] by Shaleen Johnson of ShaleenJohnson.com

[00:05:26] And big thanks to Shaleen.

[00:05:28] She is a world-renowned motivational speaker

[00:05:30] with more than 30 years as a health expert.

[00:05:33] On top of that, she's a New York Times bestselling author,

[00:05:36] health and lifestyle expert,

[00:05:37] and top health podcaster with over 20 million downloads of her show,

[00:05:41] The Shaleen Show.

[00:05:42] She and her husband have trained tens of thousands of fitness professionals

[00:05:46] and consulted with the world's largest health club chains.

[00:05:49] They work together, but she's the face of the company.

[00:05:51] She has sold millions of fitness videos

[00:05:53] and holds the Guinness Book of World Record

[00:05:55] for having starred in the most fitness videos.

[00:05:58] And on the business side of things,

[00:06:00] she's created a variety of personal and business development programs

[00:06:03] that are worth checking out.

[00:06:04] So come by ShaleenJohnson.com to see all of that and more,

[00:06:08] and you can find that linked in this episode's description.

[00:06:12] But that should do it for today.

[00:06:13] Hope you have a great weekend if you're listening in real time.

[00:06:16] Thank you so much for being a subscriber to this show,

[00:06:19] and I will see you back here tomorrow

[00:06:20] where we're going to finish up this post

[00:06:22] and where your optimal life awaits.