Lessons

Lesson Info

Building Your Team

How you guys feeling coming into the last stretch covered the mu excite excited and energized yeah bring it on enthusiastic yeah I'm also getting the sense that this like feels more real and doable yeah it's like you can see it now and there's a path that's starting to form yeah cool well along that path you might need some help along the way, right? I mean, I think that's already surfaced a lot of like, oh, I know I see some partnerships or I see places where I need help so this next part we're going to be doing the corralling your creative cohorts section and it's really looking at your team and what you need help with, right? Because as sole entrepreneurs or people just starting a business, it can feel really lonely I'm trying to build the business, so this is a way to start thinking about how to expand, how to ask for help and some strategies to do that. So even if you're just starting out and you're like, I don't know where I need help or I can't you know I can't afford going back...

to limiting belief I can't afford to hire help it's great to be thinking about how you can plan for that so that you are ready to build that infrastructure to grow the business okay, so the first thing that I want you to d'oh is actually for the folks in studio in your kit there should be a little card that looks like this helping hands wish list and it's page number one twenty five in the book if that helps you find locate the cars if you use that, of course, for the folks at home, you can just write this on a piece of paper, basically think about where in your life. So this is both this is anywhere in your life, personally or professionally, you need help. So this is like the you know, magic genie in a bottle. Congrats all your wishes if you could get help with us, what would you want? So for me, for example, I, um I don't like cleaning. Well, actually, sometimes I do like cleanings. It's nice distraction, but I don't like cleaning the bathroom where the toilet or stuff like that. So this is the no while now, but I kind of resisted it at first of like, oh, you know, hiring a house cleaner to come into the house. I had, like, some weird thing about that several years ago like it was somebody is in my space, like I clean, I still clean up before the house cleaner comes, but they do like while I'm working line in my office, you know, meeting with clients or doing marketing or making mullahs there vacuuming they're doing all sorts of stuff so that was in a really great thing to help me so if you don't have a house cleaner yet and that's like food that really cool put that on your helping hands wish list okay, so folks online you could just make a list brain dump so this is anything that would make your life better so the sky you know, wide open sky here you could put anything you want help with and the more specific you khun b the better because that just helps identify, you know helps you identify who might be able to help you another one of mine that I I had actually did a little doodle about it in november of guess those two thousand eleven or I really hate cooking can't stand it, but obviously it's important to eat right and there's no cafeteria in my house like there was a land of corporate job, so I did a doodle that I said, you know, I really wish I had a personal chef and that seemed pretty outlandish and outrageous but hey, like when that cool and this year my husband started to work for a start up that helps connect food makers and likes elder food online locally, so we started subscribing to this local food maker cooker she makes organic food and she bottles it up in mason jars and she delivered it to my house like every monday afternoon I've been on several creative live calls from like sorry I have to go answer the door and get my food but it's a nice you know, in between of like having a personal chef but still having some really nutritious food cooked for me so I can focus on doing the creative work I love because I don't like cooking so so if that inspires you wanna write personal chef go ahead and do that are there some coming in online yet? Yes, yes you have something coming in online? Um let's see, we have someone who needs help with her solving said they'd all love to cook for you so that's good tio way have someone who's expressing they have a problem with working with emotionally heavy content uh, so maybe needs some help, she suggested by every day I find myself coming to tears uh that's a nature shows I had voiceover training so she's just kind of talking about all the things that she needs help with we have someone looking for a content editor mary mahd says she wants a professional de clutter yes indigo says she needs help remodeling her or his house I don't want to do it all myself I don't blame you sister afro ad hoc runner which is really good at it totally to have someone like do they think we're going to the mailbox like it's something I never dio and just someone to go to the post office? Yeah baby sitter a bookkeeper financial planner accountancy book keeping awesome yeah. So work and personal what would help you? Someone to bounce ideas off of business ideas off of great you guys here can steal them tio that sounds good. Write it down if you notice a lot of people are mentioning things, you give referrals for us because I have an accountant you and, you know, refer that to exactly or if you provide that service, you know, you can use this as an opportunity to connect and refer folks in studio wanted to share some of what's on your list. We don't have to go through the whole thing, so it might be quite long by now you want to share some kathy would like help us social media you help like help with social media. So can we get even more specific with that? Well, would you like help with my twitter right? My posts it's going to write, actually write the post so you know, I probably have to do that but scheduling them well, even an amateur I need an editor at our website I need writing's not my things so there yeah that's painful I could draw the pictures and they could put him together yeah ok cool taking on that great anyone sure kathy j my face was like wouldn't I wrote down the other day I was like I wouldn't be an idea bouncer oh my god but I put a gardener um a driver a car service person would be awesome um good grocery delivery service I haven't found it an awesome one yet um and housecleaner that would be great if you have business stuff on there to you. Yeah. Amazing contract therapist to work weekends um a pr person a stylist ok. Ana and I already have a good book keeper but kind of cultivating the relationship with her more like yeah floating more of the work done a great idea but over in this section yeah, I put an assistant would be nice for all those little things that you don't want to go do I'm like you said going to the mailbox are going to the post office a good designer for like not only graphics for like your web site but also for like books and like I love how like your graphics like somebody who couldn't really get too the heart of your issue so if there's any good graphic designers um let me know um yeah I like the cleaning idea maybe a personal trainer somebody who you know, that could be your time to get away and go off and write it could be yoga. It could be other types of training go back are francis um, I don't know a mentor someone just just knows my entire situation there on hand. Yeah, um, this I saw this on caitlyn's, but like a women entrepreneur support group nice that I can meet with locally and you're in polls are right just to have any connections. Um and what room gets a little disorganized e would just organized, cool, scattered, you know my materials and get up that's all I really cool. They're more online online, it's just going wild. Pretty much people say a professional picture. I'm assuming is that someone that can sell your product? Um sales reps? Yeah, there's there's so much entrepreneurs support group there's been a pattern maker and sample maker, perhaps in the material trails. Cool ranch, a personal interest pinar back to social media. It's so interesting to see all these because there's all these job opportunities I'm seeing opportunities needs that people have that need to be met that need to be met, right? Like a comment from kimberly, who says just writing a list of what I might like help with his hugely helpful for me right I'm a single mom and I have had that overloaded do it myself thing going for a long time I intend to change this good for you shout out to the single moms yes and that's like an underpinning of this particular exercise live so grateful that she mentioned this because oftentimes we so are much like we can just bear the brunt alone like I am superwoman superman and I'm going to get this done myself or no one can do it as good as I can or whatever thing we have going on that keeps us in our silo and keeps us carrying a really heavy load and feeling overwhelmed and then kind of stuck so that's why doing this brain dump even if you know it feels far fetched tio have a personal trainer or a driver isn't it great to dream about that and then who knows a year from now five years from now that's maybe something that you included in either your personal expenses right so then you know oh I want to be able to pay myself more so that I can have these things in my life to help support me to show it more fully in my life and my work so it's a nice way of helping to plan that out yeah anyone like feeling well yeah here about asking for help or it feels cool like yeah I want to lean into this health kathy jay several green was great one of the best like lessons of starting my own business yeah, learning how to ask for help total is impossible it is impossible to do it all by yourself where you can do it to a point and then everything breaks down I have a like a list of nine but I'll just isolate the top three awesome a business partner. So someone that comes from a strictly a business background an mba andi what would you want them to help you with something that I would like them to kind of crunch numbers and, you know, make some realistic projections, right? You know, this is realistically what you can charge this is realistic case you can expect to raise funds uh, kind of maybe prioritizing meat from a financial point of view, right? National standpoint, not my background. So rather than kind of try and fake it or try and do it myself, that's something that you know would be a good opportunity for an mba whose bright and enterprising and we'll let you get in on something that you know it's a really awesome idea with gigantic scaleable potential exactly number two would be a mentor like an older mentor was a startup mentor, you know, who's maybe been through the the jungle of start ups and, you know, succeeded and failed and wants to pass on some of that wisdom and aa number three you know, from a practical standpoint, is someone with it experience you could build the back end of this website and it's very different than any other websites that, uh, you know, I've been involved with there's a lot of back and work and there's going to be a lot of streaming, chat and mate a lot of needs. Okay, so to me, those are the top three business partner of mentor and technical lead person cool. The great thing about that first one is you did a lot of that thinking already, so you have good information to give them to then do the more fine tuning number crunching you're not just like starting from scratch, right? Which is awesome they're going to appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I feel like my strength is communicating the vision. Yeah, and, you know, hopefully inspiring people on my team and elsewhere, but, uh so I think that's a good start. Excellent quote, right anymore and chat that we want to share we could lots more connecting going on. Okay, awesome. So let's just talk about like, who is on your team so that's kind of the wish lists brain dump and it may not be things that actually happened this year they may continue to be fanciful dreams and that's ok, I want to start talking about you know, strategically who's on your team and kind of doing it in a fun way so we're going to dio a creative cohorts kind of map and some people who have done this work before kind of find fun ways to think about it so lauren mccullough is a voice over artists and so she's this theme are metaphor of like acting so like a playbill, right? Because she's a voice over actress so thinking about you know the cast the crew special thanks and so that was her metaphor it's kind of hard to read but and I worked with someone else like this where it was things like, you know, thie infrastructure people like helping to build the systems maybe that you know it was like the sound or the stage career kind of using a fun metaphor like that if it if it works for your business great if not I've got like a really cool map to use elisa is it created because I do the whole like, you know the diagram right ceo this's so much fun? Yeah, it just it brings it to life and it brings your personality into it and as you're attracting the people like you probably want folks who get this metaphor right and I have another one to share a little bit later but basically kind of thinking about your role you know what are the things that you I want to make sure you're maintaining just like nathan was saying he wants to be like the visionary the communicator but not necessarily do some of those financial operational things right? So being clear in your role and will actually go through an exercise on this we're just kind of giving an over b here you know? Are you hiring a team or not whether that be actual employees or contractors and that might be for folks just starting out might feel like that's way down the road but it's still something to be thinking about when I talk about outside services those air mohr things like hiring like a designer or the bookkeeper so those kind of services that aren't necessarily within your company but you're hiring experts to help you okay strategic alliances we've kind of seen some of that bubble up here already in terms of who might be great partners for you who maybe don't provide the same service or product but could help supplement what you're doing and help me to need that your clients can benefit from both of you ok board of advisers is really this idea of bringing together experts or thought leaders to kind of help you flush out ideas so in a way were kind of a border advisers here together of just bouncing ideas off of each other um sharing ideas right? So this could also be like a master mind something like that okay, questions on this? Anything else? I mean, this isn't exhaustive anything else you'd see in terms of the need to be on your team just categories. So for those of you in studio there is, um a word document so this is also in the purchase downloads eso anyone has purchased you can look at this I think it is called they don't have it with me functions and roles something like that keep going sorry don't have um what it looks like it kind of has a table there you go. He could maybe show that kathy j looks like that corralling your creative cohorts and it's got kind of table with a header. Um exactly so basically what I'd love to do is, you know, kind of talk through the different rules or functions that could be in your business and then kind of help you identify which parts of it that you want tio be in charge of and which parts you wantto delegate and it might be things that you are going to do now but know that eventually you want tio offload and have somebody help with okay, so their strategy, vision and planning and I would imagine that something that most business owners want to hold on to your right because that's really the heart of your business so for those of you have the worksheet, what you can do is I think it says me or someone else right in the columns so you can just kind of check off research and development that's really looking at you know what else is out there maybe for products looking at maybe technology that's needed to make something happen? I'm sure with nathan you've got some little bit of r and d about what systems to use that kind of thing you might need help there production is the time that you spend actually making if you're doing goods the time it takes to actually make the goods whether it be by hand or maybe you manufacturing for outsources content development that's for all of you you know service providers her wanting to maybe make products, getting your information and packaging it so writing things coming up of course is all that kind of stuff. I would imagine that um you as the idea person would want tio be in charge of like what the content is right and developing that but you may need help may be gathering the ideas and making them presentable to your consumer right providing services that would be like the one on one right if you like caitlin's image consulting and she meets with a client one on one that's her service um just like kathy jada's massage that's her service although she's actually also looking at outsourcing that peace in a way yeah so maybe you're you're the one providing the service now but you can see having other people help you with that sales and marketing you know, obviously the marketing piece helping to get the word out sales actually closing the deal and getting people sign up and say yes sometimes that part doesn't feel is comfortable for some of us write the sales part so that's where the sales rep like people in chat were saying getting help with that operations that's kind of the day to day that happens and some other things just administrative tasks like customer support or answering help on you know e mails that come in if people are having technical trouble it's really great to have maybe if you are focused on serving your clients or developing content that you have someone else helping with this administrative tasks obviously the finances, billing and collecting payment you know are you the one sending invoices? Do you have somebody else sending invoices but keeping taxes? And then, you know, if you're growing, you're team staffing and managing people and training your team so we know that for anything that's going to be a part of his role, so I know the folks in studio have been kind of making notes and I'm curious I'd love to hear what kinds of things you are keeping for yourself and what you're wanting to delegate just so we can get a sense of your rolande how you see yourself in your company so for for my business I see myself mostly doing all of these the only thing I put someone else would do is the financial stuff because I have met with cps talk about working together um and then on the marketing and content development I'm working with someone to sort of come up with ideas for how to create these marketing pieces go that's sort of a collaboration cool but most of it I put for myself and house I feel teo on all those things get yeah, I mean, one of the cool things about being in business for yourself is you can where all these hats and I think when you're starting out to be helpful so where all the hats because then you know what exactly is going on in the different pieces of your business? And then as you grow then you can see what parts like oh, I can't stand doing this piece drains my energy what can I do give to someone else who loves doing that and then it's a win win? Yeah yeah kansas okay so I kept a little more than half so strategy and vision and growing your business or implanting to grow research and development for new products and services production content development, marketing providing the services and sales I see all of that is really critical for me to be involved in I do where most of the hats I'm learning to really outsource so leave you know, we actually have a small team helping us, and so we're learning how to develop the building the team part which has got its own little hey sort of checks and balances it's really an interesting process to learn how to do that, to learn what you are willing to give up and how controlling you might actually be yours are like how hard it can be to communicate what? Sure trying to get that, you know, tio giveaway. So so some of this stuff I really do you want to give away, but the communication or like identifying well, what is my system for doing this and how we're going to show that system with you? Because there's a right brain person, I don't necessarily have a great structured system, I just sort of do something right, and then it's done, right? Yeah, I know I can certainly relate, and I think that that is part of that investment of hiring someone is sometimes you kind of need to invest extra time outfront, educate and get like the ideas out of your head, and so I worked with different assistance, and I hired a new person that I'm working with some time and for that I think is a summer of last year and so we've had to you know, sit down and actually show her things where I walk her through and so you know, takes a little bit more time but I I would have done it myself anyway but now she's learning new things and so then I condell a gate you know certain things like sending certain e mails things like that but snowing yeah, it can take some time and sometimes just the shadowing of you and watching can be helpful rather than have to like codify it, write it all down and then give it to them it just depends on how the other person learns to you for her it's helpful to see it in action and be a part of it versus reading a document sure, yeah so yeah, they're folks online sharing online people are creating boards advisory boards together excellent I figured that would happen yeah, they are talking about where they should place their business ads on where they should find people to help them. Okay, great we were talking about virtual hiring virtual assist assistance, right? So extending that out even further so anyone else here want to just going to claim what they're taking on is their rule and what they're wanting to outsource, you know it's a great way to say what you need help with and possibly get someone to raise their hands saying I could help with that what's interesting because I kind of created my own column here sweet yeah, there was a lot there were there were quite a few entries where I felt like I'd like to have the responsibility I would also like feedback from others yes, so it may not be my area of expertise and I think I could benefit from collaboration nice, so I don't know how that falls in its between me and others great you're making you're making it your own which I love right just feel like you know, I could really benefit from the expertise of others, right? But I'd still like to have a say in it. Yes, what are some of those if you want to give some examples of research and development for new products and services production, so for example, production could be you know, maybe I'd like to do some of the interviews for a premium content, but we don't have a crew there helping me price, so I'd like to have a hand in the editing, but there would be an editor right even though you know how to do it? Yeah, happy to delegate it, but I'd still like to kind of manage it a little bit make sure he's gone away call it like content all the direction is kind of like directing it in the way staff in your company including hiring and firing workers I don't want to have to do everything but I'd like to have a say um training and educating your team on how work gets done so those kinds of things there you know I got a little column there yeah and then tons of stuff in the delegating great and then really the two are the one that you know pretty much I would say that I would you know like tio full responsibility is strategy and of course yes that makes perfect sense cathy did john I went out I would put a call out to the online community that might be watching I would consider perhaps cho hurting with design service design illustration illustration of that okay and russia ideas so kind of more masterminding kind of thing bouncing it does it would be great okay even maybe you know some freelance uh we're cool so referring each other yeah yeah yeah okay what is your twitter handle? Let's make a kathy's wraps dot com at kathy's so with a c c can I with a see no space at these wraps dot com she is looking for illustrators tio possible tio collaborate with and we have some questions on in the chat room we have a question how does one afford a team when there's little income now? Yeah um can I answer that a little bit later yeah, I definitely know that that's yeah that's a question or did you want me one more question yeah, we'll do one more question and see if you get okay great. So this was a really good question from oh yeah here it is from the rainy day store who said what questions can you ask yourself to see if you should hire someone to help you in certain areas nice yeah, what questions she ask yourself I would ask um what do I I hate doing right what drives me crazy and that could be a great thing to start delegating sooner rather than later justcause it drains your energy right? I remember when s o gosh, you know, when I first quit my corporate job and was doing this full time, I think I did the bookkeeping I had an accountant help me set up quick books, but I could have did the whole monthly reconciliation, right? And I kind of like doing that I kind of geeked out on like when you when it reconciles it like makes this catching noise and quickbooks so the person who won quickbooks hopefully you'll get is excited about that sound is gratifying but then when things don't work out its super frustrating and because I didn't have enough knowledge about where to look for information and as my business got more complicated with different offerings I got to a point where I messed up the book so bad and I was spending too much time trying to figure out how to reconcile and I got behind right like I think I was three months behind and they needed to send in something to the accountant and has, like, go hire someone so it's like I I liked it up to a point and then it got to a place where it became a big hair do and it was super frustrating and I knew that it was worth hiring somebody because I was spending more time dealing with us than being able to be with clients or make new content so drives me crazy I'd also ask you know, where are you able to be more profitable with your energy? Right? Like is spending time with your clients or developing content is probably more profit profitable right on dh you are the person with the ideas so focusing on that versus, you know, answering customer service emails, something like that. So do you hate it? Does it drive you crazy what's going to help you make more money trying to think what else? Those air kind of the basics and enough other people have guidelines that they used about hiring? Yeah, I totally is those guidelines and then there's one more that I've recently added from my mentor far beyond frederickson and she really advocates for people sticking to what is their unique brilliance? Yeah, which is, oh, it's like a whole new highway to travel than the one that I came from, which is you've got to just learn how to wear all the hats, and you need to hustle and just work hard. That's what entrepreneurs do right, really, the other school of thought is I really like it. You work on your unique, brilliant stone because he waste a lot of time trying to learn howto develop all these other skills to make things move forward and it's achievable. You can learn all these other things, but is it really the best use of your time and energy? And I've isolated? Yeah, it's not, yeah, yeah, sometimes it is like I said, it was helpful for me to kind of have my fingers and everything. Senate understood what all went into the business and running the business so it can be helpful. But then reaching a certain point, right? Exactly. Have a question building upon that is. At what point do you think in your career you should be looking for a mentor? And do you have tips on how to go about finding one, yeah, that's such a great question, um, I think when you're ready to look for a mentor it's like being willing to invest in one and finding one that really resonates with you because it's such an intimate process so I've used several coaches and, you know, different advisers throughout the years I hired my business mentor I think in two thousand ten but if somebody had been following so andrea lee, I've been following her work since I started my coaching training back in two thousand three so that somebody I've been following for a while but I knew that I was ready to take my business, you know, to the next level wanted to break six figures all that kind of stuff and knew that no making that investment would really open my eyes to something new, so it depends, you know, sometimes that investment was actually like, oh my god, I'm writing this check like, you know, holy bleep on dh yet my business completely changed when I was able to say, yes, I am worth this, and I'm gonna learn so much more than I could just on my own or from reading books or even just normal coaching that I've been doing mean that mentoring of getting someone to share kind of inside peeks into the business of the inside scoop that's been super helpful, so I think that in terms of when to hire a mentor to seek a mentor you're kind of feeling like you're at the cusp of something new, I think it can be overwhelming or kind of maybe a little bit far reaching if maybe you're just starting out right, unless the mentor is focusing on that type of thing, but a lot of the mentors that they're really helping you, like kind of quantum leap to that next stage, so you're looking at your your own finances, so looking at your mule in math, looking at the money coming in, is it something that you can actually afford to d'oh, I think is important, I know some people stretched themselves and they put it on their credit card for these really high end programs and that that's really stressful and that's playing out a good idea, so yeah, yeah, so I think those guidelines, I can't think of anything more to add one thing I know that you said francis that I wanted to point out is sometimes people are just really good at something, but they don't love it, but they're like, well, I'm good at it should not be doing this, but if you don't love it, it's okay, you can let it go. I'm just I'm not going to go through each of these, but outside services, you know, these air some things that eventually you might need maybe you're working with some of these already accountant bookkeeper administrative assistant sounds like a lot of people you know maybe I've worked with graphic designer before web developer if you have a website for me when I first started kind of hiring out I think the first person I hired was an accountant because that's like there's legal things around that right you have to pay your taxes and I didn't want to have to like be the expert on that so that was something I knew definitely want to hire an accountant accountant and I think the next was perhaps a bookkeeper just because those are not my strengths not something I want to learn and great to delegate on I think graphic design too because I had like marketing my friend kate who's done all the illustrations here did my brochure that was important to help build the brand so just be selective about what things you're hiring when obviously if you had all of these that would be a lot of red stickies, right? Yeah. So for the folks here what do you guys use currently do you have? Are you hiring any of these kind of services or not so much? Yes hmm um a web developer a photographer um kind of a graphic designer I've you know, contracting death out yeah that's about it that those air the mainland's yeah are there ones that you're thinking of I'm thinking a bookkeeper would be nice on dh then also a copywriter. Just, um, in the future on then and then a mentor or business coach, I think would be valuable, you know, I'll see using these kind of services. Yeah, I do want to kind of share your file of it. Yeah, um, so kind of like what you said I hired an accountant. First thing. Yeah, the c p a that I mentioned just because yeah, I like it. It has legal e I could go to jail for a heavy fine. So that's that's really? The only thing I mean, I'm working with someone to kind of redo my website and some of my marketing materials so that's about it, about books online, anyone sharing their the greg de tu said, adding seo to that list so somebody to help. Oh, yeah, I think that's. Great. Yes. And we have a question going back to content development and production. Okay, we just someone wanted toe clarify what those with those are exactly content, development and production. So back here. Previously, right. So production would be the making of a product. So if you make handmade goods or there's like physical, tangible goods products, it's, the time that spent putting those together so if you're a jewelry maker it's the time that you spend bending the wire that goes in the hearing hook you know to make the airing sticking here that kind of thing okay? Content development so that's kind of like production is for the tangible goods products content development would be like if your service provider wanting tio product ties your services doing information getting all the thoughts in your head about the things that you teach the stuff that you share with their clients, messages, information and packaging that into a course into e book into a book so also is like the writing block posts if you do you block post so it could be a lot of writing and information hopefully that makes sense okay so how to find help right and then we'll get into the question about how do you afford it when you're just starting so one of the great things that I think is helpful and I think if you have time to do this for the folks online if you want to do it here you can is picking one of those that you know that you need help with and writing a job description right like including desired qualities skills, background but also like personality what is it that you really want to I love working with this person know what about them is going to be exciting to be partnering with them um that could be helpful to help make it really for you to know that this is here looking for to be clear about that and then as you talk to people about it, when you're describing them, it'll be easier for them to think of, oh, I know the perfect person for you, okay? So writing out job description, including desired qualities, skills, background and to that I'd also add, you know, personality, energy, you know, do they like dogs? Tio something, you know, random things like that? Because especially for some of these rules are, you know, like an assistant, you're working with them pretty intimately or regularly, so you want to have a really great relationship with them, you know, the accountant, maybe only talk to twice a year, but I have think on through too, and the one that I'm working with, I've been working for several years, I love that he appreciates that I'm a right brain and he's certainly left brain, but he gets that I'm creative and respects that, so that was something that was important to me reach out to your trusted network, so you guys are kind of doing that right now online asking for help were kind of doing that here, this one is so important ask for referrals before you need the help um remember, I was telling you the story about the whole book keeping fiasco sounds like at least they'll get to you in a sec, but it was sharing with you my whole bookkeeping fiasco of how I was trying to reconcile the files myself and I think I was at a networking event at yeah, one of those where it was like not quite my thing, but I just went to because I thought had to be networking whatever, and the person I sat next to you is like, I'm a bookkeeper like great because I'm in this real bind right now like I need help and, like kind of hired the first person that I met and so wasn't the right fit, and it turned out to kind of be a disaster, and I think, you know, this is the other lesson I kept her on almost for a whole year after that because I was afraid of, like, hurting her feelings or I don't know like saying no and that's just those lessons that you learn and hopefully you'll learn them faster than me. But I was so frustrated with that, and finally I'd say like too many mistakes were happening, I was having to spend time fixing things they're saying this is not what we talked about, this isn't working, so make sure that you can say no it's not working sooner rather than later leased it sounds like it bubbled up a past experience for you it is it's funny when your business starts going really fast and you are kind of like sitting up at night you're like throw out and you know throughout a craigslist thing and then I have all these craigslist coming in and sometimes you know the first piece of person that can meet me yeah I've hired that way so uh fortunately I've been I've been pretty good in terms of the people I brought on but yeah great it's definitely something that you should ask for referrals beforehand before hands that you've built up the relationships you can get to know them really find out if it's an energy match and you can't really tell that just from a quick phone call like can you come over now now please it's a bad situation to find yourself in one place that I found helpful to ask for referrals locally is on lincoln you just like tap into the local resource for whatever area and I've asked for resource is for legal help and so and I have that compiled so then won a ready to reach out for legal assistant right I know who's the top in the top rankings according to the referrals that's great you know what I would say have you talked to them yet? No no ok so I would actually say part of this is actually starting to interview them and reach out to them and connect with them before even are ready to hire and I'm curious about that because I it was a little bit of a similar situation is you which the c p a I was in a desperate and I just need to find somebody right ended up hiring the first person and I was like, well I don't really have anything to compare teo and I was always disappointed that she was going to charge me for my first visit which is the getting a conscience tuition each other, huh? But I guess that's just her business model and I just wondered like how did you just ask somebody to say you know, can I just get to know you for a little bit before you start charging me me? What do you have some ten or fifteen minute getting acquainted session that you do? I would just ask him next I think it just depends on how they provide their service but normally for stuff like that to you some kind of consultation and if they don't that might be an indicator that that they're not the right fit for you because it can be really expensive otherwise to just go out and have todo thing that you're paying them teo teo things that are right so yeah, I was just saying make sure interviewing them and interview them sooner rather than later and then like I was saying, be willing to say this isn't working and move on if you've hired someone and it's not working out um going back to that question about how to know do you have the question on hand again or do you remember it? I remember it about how to know when tio invest in like how to hire if you're just starting out yes it was how do you hire if you don't have any income? Yeah so one of the ways and we talked about this morning was you could barter right? That could be one way um another is to hire interns like I know folks who have, you know needed help with something I think you know like for marketing or something like that I think I knew someone who had some a film student come and film them and do like a promo and that was for like a student project so they didn't have to pay the student and the student got to have content for their project so that could be a creative way is reaching out to local schools you know, art schools or you know what? Maybe even business school you know nathan there could be an mba in turn opportunity there right or even have you know, sometimes classes will need a case study like a project and they could all like work for your thing for free and consult you know yeah, yeah, like you see berkeley stanford exactly right. So it's interesting alison's eyes photography had asked this a little kid ago if you know of any online communities where right brainers can offer their services to help each other on a barter basis. So do you know if if you're not even local, do you know of any or just anyone here? Yeah, and if not maybe something, maybe there's an opportunity and there's a need. Yeah, I've heard I've heard of bartering, you know, if a site that's not online site where people can barter cool, do you remember is a research? Oh god, yeah, I feel like there is one, but I don't know off hand. Yeah, cool, thank you. So the other thing, if it's helpful like doing the mullahs map to say like, oh, I'm going to need this graphic designer I really need to have this promo piece done. Maybe you don't have the money yet, but you know, this graphic designer is gonna cost whatever a sixty dollars an hour and they've quoted me that it's going to be, you know, x amount, maybe it's I can't do the math when multiple of sixty, so whatever two hundred forty dollars, but you say you don't have that yet well, what can you do in your green mullah in column that could bring you two hundred forty dollars so it starts to give you a financial goal to strive toward rather than saying like, oh, I don't have that money what's it going to take to go and make that amount and it might even be just going into your house and like finding things that you could sell right? Like we're cleaning out our garage and my husband has all these dvds and we, like sold them on amazon and like I forget it made like a hundred bucks but it was like, cool I have an extra hundred dollars you know so that's a bit mixing the personal like that was in our personal but if you still are, you know, starting from scratch that could be a great way to have some money coming in it's like asking yourself how can I make one hundred dollars this week and make it happen? Jacki lynn I thought of what we were just talking about with bartering great and trade bank trade is a trade bank dot com cool yeah it's a good one and you just put up your services and then you can trade with anybody so few sell a service for, say, two hundred dollars then you have two hundred dollars of trade big money to then sell with anybody else nice. Yeah. So, it's a good one and I like that it puts the monetary value to great were talking about earlier. Yeah, for no it's for anybody it's for anybody and yeah, worldwide. Yeah, and it's, you can do it in your in your area to see if you're looking for somebody to trade with. And, you know, in oakland, it would have all the people there locally the eighties. Great, you think? Great. So there is a free place sheet that everyone should have a cure and ruled in the course, and it looks like this. So it's a creative cohorts map. We've talked a little bit about this already in terms of board of advisers, outside services, higher team, the one thing we haven't talked about is nurtured huddle on, I'll just speak to that really briefly. But as I'm describing that if you actually want to fill in people's names here, go ahead and do that. If you don't know a specific person, you can just write like qualities of the kind of person that you want to hire for these nurture huddle is a term that my friend melba came up with several years ago, and it was basically a bunch of us a creative bloggers got together informed. Kind of like a mastermind but she called it a nurture huddle cause it was there's a lot more emotional support and I can remember when we started it I think it's been like three or four years now going it started off with I think eight or nine creative bloggers so we're from all over the country and something canada and we got on the phone every other week for like ninety minutes and basically shared you know what? We're up tio in our life in our business used it for accountability like okay, I know I need to send out these five email request by the next time we talk like you gotta ask me about it and I know I think when I joined I said I wanted to write a book and that was like the thing that I focused on so I guess that was in two thousand nine that we formed and then I ended up getting the book deal with end of the year so yeah, I'm very cool and there were, you know, other goals that people had set and having that kind of regular check in accountability has been so helpful and actually four of us still connect um, you know, roughly every other week for ninety minutes, so this is kind of that more emotional support a little bit of accountability mastermind sounds like some people might already have that for themselves but if you don't, I highly recommend it and so the great thing about something like a nurture huddle you know, for the folks feel like like I don't have any money to spend to invest in, you know, hiring help or getting a coach or investing in a mentor for an accountability group or mastermind nurture huddles are free it's just, you know, even using a free conference call line and it doesn't cost anything is just committing to the group that you're going to show up and each get to take turns and share where you're at um so if you don't have one, I highly recommend creating that and maybe if you're thinking of certain people you'd love to have on there, write their names on and maybe reach out to them this week and see if you can create that um yes strategic alliances we sort of talked about already so in fact this what I'm doing here with creative live is like a street strategic alliance for myself, right? Finding a partner who there's a great fit you know, I have content that relates to their audience and they have a platform that I wouldn't be able to get all of these cameramen here and lights and all that stuff that makes something like this happen so what a great partnership to find so things like that okay, we'll go so we'll go back here so you can continue to feel that in I just wanted to share one more example of a metaphor in case that works for you those of you at home if you've got a business that fits really great with the metaphor tracy a size a wedding flip flop designers not just shoes but what flops like on the beach and so because she does wedding stuff she did her creative cohorts math as a wedding party I thought was really fun so she's got, you know, the bride and the groom s oh she's the bride the designer of the owner maid of honor her public relations and she's got her bridesmaids as seamstresses carpenter, craftsman assistant host and technical support best man who's doing the die making contractor coordination ushers helping with online wedding marketing trim sewing contractor fabric fabric fusing contractor computer technician so these are very specific to her business, right? I have no idea what it fabric fusing contractors obviously that's important for her business. So if there's a metaphor that inspires you to help you think about all the pieces, the places that you need help in your business you can use something like that great well, we're getting ready to wrap up, I don't know, I imagine that you guys were just filling those out don't know if there's anything much share from them unless you would like tio I want to check in with the audience is there any more questions? Are people wanting to share a question from wings five, three five six can you go over what strategic alliances are? Yeah, so strategic alliances here and it might be a bit advance, so if you're just starting your business, this might be something for you down the road, strategic alliances are when two different companies or people come together and they each have something to offer that they wouldn't be ableto each offer alone, so it's kind of that you create value together, um, and you might have complementary skills or services that help me a need for the same customer. Um so like, I was saying, my work here with creative live is an example of a strategic alliance, nathan bringing on experts like caitlyn talking about imaging for people getting ready to go out back into the dating world that's a form of a street strategic alliance francis and working with dietitians for people want activity going back into the dating world so it's finding those ways where you can see that synergy and then creating, you know, making sure that you're clear on what that it's not necessarily a partnership like you're not form a company together, right? But there's some kind of exchange, a service on dh money that would happen incidents perhaps that's. The next business, exactly. So that's. What? It's, you know, strategic alliance, because you are coming together to create something new, but you're not necessarily forming a new company together. So it's, kind of like project based that makes sense. Um, trying to think of other examples, maybe another, you know, I'm making up, but strategic alliance might be, if you're if you have, like, a massage space and you have room and you want other people to come help you pay the rent on it, maybe there's, an acupuncturist, right, who can share the space, something like that, so those could be kind of strategic alliances to