SHOWNOTES
What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?
I recorded this episode with you in mind. After working in the entrepreneurial and online marketing space for several years I recognized a pattern. First in my own business, and then with clients. No matter what type of business, or what field of expertise I saw the same struggles.
Do any of these feel familiar to you?
You are the queen of doing it all. You aren’t afraid to learn new things and put yourself out there. This was me until I got a wake-up call.
You are successful but swamped. You can’t take on one more thing. Growing the business means more of you and there’s nothing left to give.
Maybe your business is a series of on again/off again cycles. How do you find the way to a regular sustained income? It doesn’t have to be all or nothing anymore.
Are you a solopreneur or a CEO?
What’s the difference? I’m breaking that down and explaining how you really can stop the cycle of overwhelm. No more doing it all. What would it feel like to have a true partner who has your back?
My team (I love saying I have a team!) and I figured out how you can find the exact right person (or people) that will help you get back to the work only you can do.
Find out why I know this will work for you. Not in theory, not in the hazy some day future. Right now.
RESOURCES
How to Know When It’s Time to Hire
TRANSCRIPT
Gary Vee:
(00:00) Hey guys, it's Gary Vaynerchuck and you're listening to the front row entrepreneur podcast with our girl, Jen.
(00:14): So today I really just kind of want to chat generally about what kind of entrepreneur you are. Are you an entree, are you a solopreneur type of entrepreneur or are you a CEO type of entrepreneur? I've been working in this space for a long time and by this space I mean the entrepreneur space for a long time now and I've been really lucky to meet and work with some very incredible people. But there are a few things I've noticed that we all have in common. We're on a mission, we have an idea or a product or a service that we know will help other people. And when we're in the zone things are amazing. We are smart and motivated and we are not afraid to do the work. There's a good chance that you fit into this group as well. So why is it that some people do good work, see success and have a profitable business?
Read more...
(01:12): Why other people just don't? It's really seldomly the willingness to work. Being an entrepreneur is not for everybody, that's for sure. But most entrepreneurs I meet are more than willing to grind like crazy to get where they want to go. We don't mind working, if anything, we have to force ourselves not to work so hard. Right? And it's not even that we don't know what to do. If you're an entrepreneur who's been in business for awhile, by now you have taken enough courses, worked with enough coaches, read enough books to understand what you need to do. You've got strategy coming out of your eyeballs. But I keep seeing a few key things where people get stuck. Even with different business models and different personalities. I see a few things happening over and over. So you might be like me, I could figure out most things and I don't mind learning new things.
(02:05): In fact, I kinda love it. So after a few years I was the queen of doing it all myself. I was making money and growing a great community and I loved that part. The problem was it was taking all of me, and you may have heard me tell this story before, but it was a pivotal moment for me when my son Jake, he was 13 at the time. He told me one day that I was not fun anymore, that he missed me. He missed me. How could he miss me? I work from home, but the truth is I wasn't really there. I was lost in the webinars, the emails, the social media campaigns, and that's when I knew things had to change or you might be like April. She is a natural connector. She shows up and people just want to be around her and hear what she has to say.
(02:49): She's not afraid to put herself out there and she's really good at it. She understands business fundamentals. She knows what she's worth and her clients do as, and then she got to the point where she literally couldn't add any more to her day, which meant her income couldn't grow either. She didn't want to settle, so she decided to take action or maybe you're aware. Lots of other people are. You work hard. You get some great clients and you enjoy every minute of the work, but you're either off or on money is either coming in or it stopped because while you were working with your clients, you couldn't do anything else like marketing or networking or anything really because you were too busy and the cycle becomes self repeating and you know you can't continue and that something has to change. So the solution for me and for April and for most likely you also is hiring a virtual assistant and not some college kid, although there's nothing wrong with college kids.
(03:48): I have one of my own and he's really great, but a professional who can become a partner. If you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time or if you're in one of my communities, you know that I've been working with Neeca for four years and she is in valuable to me. She knows my business and she knows me inside and out. And it was a process to be sure. But the day that I assigned my newsletters to her and all of my social media tasks and knew it would get done and I didn't have to do it. That was a really good day. Unfortunately, I've had lots of good days since then. My kids and I can have fun and I don't have to work all the time. Last week I published a whole series of episodes with entrepreneurs who have recently hired VA's and we looked really closely at their workflows and how they are working with their VA's specifically.
(04:44): If you haven't heard the podcast interviews, I hope you'll listen. I know you're going to hear some things that are very familiar, like I don't have any time to train someone. Yup. No one can do it like I do it. Heard that too. I'm a control freak. Cross that off the list as well. I'm bad at delegating. Yup. We tackle that too. Years ago after I hired Neeca, I wanted to share what I learned about the hiring and onboarding process because it was such a game changer in my business and my life. So I put together a mini course about how to hire and it was helpful to a lot of people, but it just brushed the surface. And of course since then I've learned so much more and I've grown my team. But it bugged me that some people tried to hire and when things didn't work out, they decided that there wasn't anyone who'd be able to help them.
(05:36): People told me, Neeca must be a unicorn, VA special and one of a kind. And she is both of those things, but I know that your Neeca is out there and I want to help you find her or him. And I decided that this one thing, hiring a VA and maybe even hiring a small team of VA's had my business and my life and I knew it had done the same for others. It wasn't okay that it was hit or miss or felt like some got lucky and others just didn't. So my team and I did our homework. We figured out where people got stuck, we checked and double checked our processes, how to interview, how to qualify or disqualify, how to set things up from day one, how to train, what resources to use, how to work together every single day, and that's the front row CEO program.
(06:27): Our first group that launched in October was super successful. I kind of hoped it would be, but was really thrilled with the results and based on our exit interviews with our students who completed the course, 85% were able to hire at least one virtual assistant to their team and some had already hired two. Those who had not hired yet reported that they were still in the process and had very good prospects. We're starting the next round next week and doors officially open on Thursday, February the 13th just go to front rowceo.com to get on the waiting list if you're listening to this earlier than that. Also, we're in the middle of a free four part video series called solo preneur to CEO secrets, and you can catch that at ceosecretstraining.com and if you have any questions at all, just send an email to support@jenlehner.com or you could give me a call or send me a text at (216) 438-0580 again, that was (216) 438-0580 see you next time.
