Speaker 1: 0:00

This neglected column in these four quadrants is probably one of the most important, because usually there's some low hanging fruit in there. For example a lot of people entrepreneurs probably aren't spending the time they probably should on their social media, hitting their email list with marketing messages things like that. Maybe just creating content like this. Maybe they've always wanted to start a podcast, but damn, I don't have time.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Welcome to the Buzzworthy Marketing Show.

Speaker 1: 0:36

So I totally we got lost track, because I think that's such an important part, like those are all repetitive things, right, yeah, but see there's three other boxes here, number two. Number two is what are the challenging things that you're facing right now? That either take too much of your time, or you're just not an expert, or you're not interested in doing it. And how can you delegate that to someone who's better than you?

Speaker 1: 1:00

So, for example, I have. I have a graphic designer, va, his name's JR. Love the guy. He's working on a book cover for a new book I'm releasing and I know I'm not going to make a good book cover. I can use all the AI tools in the world. They can't do as good as JR. I love this guy, right, right. So that's a challenging thing. And same with building out funnels and things like that. Like, can I do it? Yeah, am I the most qualified? No, I have Samuel. I have a guy in Canada who builds all my funnels, right. And so, with challenging, this is where I want to also bring out a term For an executive assistant. This is and I hate the word outsourcing because it's so broad.

Speaker 2: 1:42

So what I've?

Speaker 1: 1:43

done is. I've actually kind of separated it into two different terms. We have downsourcing and we have upsourcing, so things that are not, you know, like they're important, but they're not important. That I do it. Right, that's downsourcing. All the things I have my executive assistant do. I could do it, but it's not the best use of my time. Okay, right, upsourcing is. Hey, I am challenged doing this. Um, I'm definitely not going to do as good as someone else. I need someone who's skilled, who knows how to do this stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:17

I'm upsourcing to someone who knows how to do it better. I love it Okay.

Speaker 2: 2:22

I love it. And, to interject there, there is a formula for both. The first one, on downsourcing, is the easiest one. So most entrepreneurs do not think that they or they underestimate what their actual value is per hour. But if we break our value down, so if you were to spend an hour doing what you do best for your company, how much revenue can that create? Right, and if you can't create revenue for your company in a matter of an hour to two hours, then you're in the wrong spot in your business. So let's just start there.

Speaker 2: 2:57

But number two let it go go back is that, whatever that is, so let's just say it's $100 an hour, because it's an easy number. Most of us are more worth $250 plus. We just don't know it because we haven't been efficient with our time right. But let's call it $100 an hour. So if checking your email, would you pay somebody $100 an hour to check your email? If the answer is no, why the hell are you paying yourself a hundred dollars an hour to check your email? That's when you know you have to downsource. Your upsource has to do with the amount of time it takes for you to get as good as good at best somebody else is doing, which is what Jeff was talking about. So, pete, go on. I just wanted people to know when to do that.

Speaker 1: 3:43

That's a great. That's a great analogy and absolutely Like like my graphic designer and stuff. Like man, I'm not going to be as good as him, yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:53

So why try? I mean, it's a waste of your time. Yeah, I mean, uh, it's Stephen Covey. If you really want to dive into this, this specific topic, go to read seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey. It specific topic go to read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It is a old book, but it has been in. I want to say I can't remember how many prints it's in, but it's still there. His son is now teaching it. Yeah, yeah, you know, I think so. It's really good.

Speaker 2: 4:18

And they talk about the four quadrants of like. I'm good at it, but what is it? I'm good at it, but not efficient. I am'm good at it, but not efficient. I am not good at it. I don't know, I like it, but I'm not good at it. I love it and I'm really good at it. Um, I am, I like it, I love doing it, but I'm not good at it. And there's I can't remember the fourth one, but anyway, you're always trying to get like into the things where it's like you like it and you're the most efficient at it. It's usually there, but then you have to take the monetary piece, and is that the best use of your time monetarily?

Speaker 1: 4:46

so keep going yeah and yeah on that. You know. Another book that reinforces that, if we're on books, is dan martell's buy back your time another one, really good, it's a great, great book that helps break down how much time that we waste and, oh gosh, not, not, not to mention how much easier life is Like. That's one of the things that I think you know, I actually feel bad. I have pity for people who just never had the luxury of waking up and with you know, and like an executive assistant is like a lifeline man, like I wake up carefree. Carefree, I don't ever have to look at my calendar the night before.

Speaker 2: 5:23

No, I don't even like you were talking about having your notifications. I don't even have it on my phone anymore, like it's not there, like the only reason I have it's not. Like a lot of people will put their email at the bottom of their, their, their home screen. Mine's in a buried in a folder. I don't even check my email on my on my phone at all, unless I'm on the road and I need access to it. Right and that's it. I don't, I don't even. I don't even check my email email like my.

Speaker 2: 5:53

The way that we work it is that I have her put anything I need to see in my Google task list, and so my Google task list is now my inbox. So even if there's a hundred emails in there from the last hour I got blown up, I don't even have to look at it. When I log into my Gmail, I just go to my task list and click on the task and it shows me the email that's there. She's already done every season. These are the ones you have to look at and she brings it from probably 75 to 125 emails a day down to about eight Done.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Wow, you know. Yes, you can go to the gym in the morning and not worry about anything. This morning, you know what I did my parents were in town and I'm like, I'm not and I've been out of. I've been out of town for out of country for 17 days Right, I went and cleaned my pool so my mom can be at the pool today. That's what I did in the morning, not wearing a damn thing, and normally, if I didn't have that, I would have been up at five o'clock in the morning, skipped the gym and been at my desk trying to catch up with damn emails for the last 17 days.

Speaker 1: 6:58

I think that's pretty much what most people deal with. So, yeah, yeah, which, by the way, is a perfect lead into the third quadrant, which is the things that you know you should be doing, but you're neglecting them. That's it. Thank you very much. I knew I couldn't think of it. Yes, yes, that's the one. This neglected column in these four quadrants is probably one of the most important, because usually there's some low hanging fruit in there.

Speaker 1: 7:22

For example a lot of people entrepreneurs probably aren't spending the time they probably should on their social media, hitting their email list with marketing messages, things like that, maybe just creating content like this.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Maybe they've always wanted to start a podcast, but damn, I don't have time. There's so many different things that you are neglecting because you are doing those repetitive tasks. You're working on this challenging task, right? And, by the way, some of these scenes can be in multiple columns. Maybe you are neglecting your emails. Maybe the social media is a repetitive task that you're doing and you should be delegating that out. Maybe you are spending too much time on social media, right. Maybe you're scrolling on TikTok, I don't know. There's just so many different scenarios, right, and think about.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Think about the things that you are not doing because you don't have the time. That's what that neglected column is. And here's the most valuable column, which is literally the most valuable column. That's what it is. So, the quadrant this is the value quadrant and like what is the most valuable use of your time? Like what? And it doesn't just have to be revenue generating activities, which I believe obviously is important for a professional aspect, but, like I was able to take off to my son's game, you were able to take 13 days off in Ireland and go golf, right, like, like a lot of business owners today. Another reason why an executive assistant is such an important first. Hire A lot of people who own a business. If they just left for a week, and turn their phone off, their business would crumble.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Oh, completely Completely, yes, yes, so and I was just going to say, like you just have to figure out, like what's the most viable use of your time. It could be. It could be going to masterminds and networking. It could be creating content.

Speaker 1: 9:26

It could be spending time with your existing clients, so you don't have the turn rate Right Exactly. There's so many things that you could be doing with your time that maybe it's launching that course you've been putting off Right so you want to think about. Or maybe it's just not working on Fridays and becoming a three-day weekend enthusiast so you can spend time with your family, because entrepreneurship is tough.

Speaker 2: 9:51

Well, the burnout. I think that there was one thing that people don't realize when they talk about the freedom. I remember my first 13 years in business and I would feel guilty for taking vacations, even though the vacations were probably not enough. Oh, I know, they were not enough because I didn't take them very often and when I I was guilt, I felt guilty for even saying something on social media that I was on a vacation, because I thought I was. I was either flood, I had the, whatever it is. It's called Catholic guilt is what I call it but it's just like, if you're, if you're showing off, it's like you're you're showing off, but you're not. You're enjoying your life like everybody else, right, but if you don't give yourself the down time and as you get older, you need more of it, by the way, folks.

Speaker 2: 10:35

so when you're 21 and you and we used to do those all-nighters to get things through, that's great, but as you get in your 30s and your 40s, that doesn't happen as often, because you're going to worry yourself out and if taking time for you, your, your family, you specifically like family is awesome, and I and a hundred percent anybody who's got that high on their list they the only thing higher than that besides God, it would be you, because if you're not in good enough shape to be present with your family, the time with your family is wasted. So make sure that, yes, make time for your family, like Jeff was talking about, but you got to make time for yourself, even if it's just. I get up at quarter to five in the morning and I go to the gym. I run a mile to the gym, work out for 45 minutes, run back. That time is me time.

Speaker 2: 11:22

There's nobody else's there, nobody's making me do it, but I know that it makes me a better, a smarter during the day because my brain is clear. It makes my my, my health better, so that my wife can count on me. It makes my business better because my business can take a can on me when I'm here, right. It also makes me more efficient, right. All of these things, it's all there and that's. And it might be just going for a walk for you. It might be reading a book, it might be playing video games could be your thing, like that's the thing that clears your brain.

Speaker 2: 11:52

That's great. That's awesome For me. I'd I'd probably go hit golf balls more often, but I know I have to go to the gym. That's just one of the things I know I have to do and I feel I feel bad when I don't do it, as far as, like, physically and mentally, I don't feel as energetic. I mean mentally I don't feel as energetic. I mean people are like, how do you have all this energy? It's like you go work out, you get more energy. I don't don't ask you why, how they're going, but before we we wrap this up when we talk about an executive assistant, can executive assistant do more than just check, like you were saying, like they do your proposals and stuff like that? When you get like somebody that's as good as yours and, um, I'm not gonna to, I'm going to say how long I've had mine, but how long does it take to get an executive assistant at to that level?

Speaker 1: 12:38

Because a lot of people. My executive assistant will be three years this month, so that's incredible. I would say that to really start getting to where they're 100% sufficient. They understand your business, they understand you. I always have them do research on me and my business and the brands and all that. I would say 60 to 90 days, so two or three months really in the trenches with you, day to day. And let me give you guys a delegation tip A lot of people come to me with three big lies. My guy Okay.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Number one is I don't know how to delegate. I suck at delegation, right. Let me give you a really quick tip to overcome that limiting belief, which is you're doing the work already. All you have to do is turn on your Zoom, ask them to join, share your screen and explain what the hell you're doing yes, right.

Speaker 1: 13:39

And then what I teach my clients is what we call the reverse shadowing method. So first they're shadowing you, you're explaining it, you turn the recorder on. That gets turned into an SOP, like, hey here, hey, I don't like these emails, these are spam. Look out for things like this. This is important. I'm just using email because we all do that as an example. That should be one of the first things, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 14:08

And then you do what we call reverse shadowing, whereas now the VA is sharing their screen and you're watching them do the task from the SOP Right, and make sure they get it and they won't need the SOP after a while. But you know they're going to. They're always going to feel like, oh, my gosh, the pressure. You know like, oh, they're watching me. That's how it always is in the beginning, right. And then the cool part about that is because we're always worried as leaders that someone might mess up and make us look bad. It's true, this is a true thing. So what this does it subsides that inner control freak, because you're watching someone do what you just taught them to do. So you actually get the final say they're doing it.

Speaker 1: 14:57

And then, if they do something that's messed up like oh hey, you forgot to use the flag thing. Flag this and mark it as. Mark it as unread, or you forgot. You know I would reply to it this way, right, whatever, yeah, so like that, after a while, you know, like taking the good what's funny is is that you would be spending the time anyway doing the work. It might take a little bit extra of your time to watch them do it and struggle for the first couple, you know, days or whatever, but eventually they're just gonna get it, and then the cool part about that is that that time is gone. You never have to worry about doing that again, like you're making an investment, and never happen to check your email again.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Right, exactly, it's so important, right? So, to answer your question, to get someone to really and this is another thing I really want to work on, you know leadership development internally for my own clients, because what I've learned is like I'm getting good results because I've learned how to become the leader that she needs me to be, right, and I'm empowering her. I'm letting her fail. Sometimes I give her a task like can you make this presentation? In the beginning I was like, dude, come on, this really sounds like chat GBT, you know, like nice you got to do.

Speaker 1: 16:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then what we did was, you know I, I worked with her and, by the way, we're using Claude now is, which is way better for that Um and yeah. And so now, like we kind of dialed that in together and she knows like what she like in the beginning, when she was making presentations for me, she would have like four sentences on a slide. I'm like I just need one sentence, maybe two, or never more than five or six words a sentence.

Speaker 1: 16:47

The whole idea of the slide is to just reinforce the point, and I'm going to tell a story with that slide. Right, you know, so that you know. So it's something that over time and see, this is what's beautiful. This is actually. This is a great way for us to end this. Okay, the the beautiful thing about hiring an executive assistant a they're dedicated to you. Do not hire a freelancer. You're going to get heartbroken.

Speaker 2: 17:12

My guy. It's going to be sad there.

Speaker 1: 17:13

You're going to get heartbroken, my guy. It's going to be so sad. You're going to spend all this time and they're going to juggle different clients and then they're going to leave to someone who pays more or a better opportunity because, you hired an entrepreneur and you need someone with an employee mindset. Sorry, right, we don't even hire people that have VA experience. We hire people from call centers in the Philippines that are used to working American hours. And then we teach them how to become executive assistants. I love it Okay.

Speaker 1: 17:34

That's our secret, by the way. Now we're going to be competing with you at the call centers, right. But here's the thing unlike a computer or a car, or your camera, unlike these inanimate objects that lose value and depreciate over time, when you hire an executive assistant. Human unlike AI and things. It's going to grow in value over time. And humans still have one massive advantage over AI, because there might be people thinking you know what AI can do, a lot of this stuff why would I need to hire a human?

Speaker 1: 18:15

Let me tell you something AI is never going to care about you. Nope, it's never going to give a damn about your business. It might pretend, right, but man, having someone who wakes up every day at that nine o'clock we had our nine o'clock call just an hour or so ago and we ran over the to-do list and she cares right. She sent me a message 10 minutes before this podcast and told me hey, you got a podcast coming up and she's like you got to know about this.

Speaker 1: 18:42

She did a little background from buzzworthy you guys met it in austin at this thing and I was like, oh, thanks for catching me up on that, because I was like who is this guy?

Speaker 2: 18:54

I feel so important all of a sudden. I don't know why.

Speaker 1: 18:59

And that's what's cool, man your assistant really does make you look good. I go to a call and I'm always prepared. She knows I will not just have she knows. Before I go into a call, I want to know background. What did we talk about last time? Where did this come about? Do some research on the person? Like I'm prepared, man, and that just makes you look so good it does. If you've been listening to this and you're like nodding your head like yes, I need an executive assistant like that, I would love to help you out. We're going to put a link here in this, and I really do. You should just schedule a strategy call with my team, completely free, and just learn and see if it's actually something that you're ready for right now. I would love to be able to help you, if I can.