Dan Martell - June 05, 2017


How To Delegate To a Virtual Assistant

Hosted by
Dan Martell
Mentioned
Ethan
SaaS Sales： How to Shorten Your SaaS Sales Cycle and Avoid Wasting Time SaaS Sales Funnel in 3 Basic Steps (Especially In The Early Days)

Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

209.79

Word count

1,647

Sentence count

68

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

If you ve ever felt overwhelmed, staying up late at night, doing paperwork, managing your financials, dealing with onboarding new employees, new customers, and dealing with receivables, and really just processing your inbox, you know that there s an opportunity to have other people support you. But maybe you feel like you can t trust them because it's going to take me more time to do the work than to ask them to do it. Or maybe it's even a sense of value, like why would I pay somebody else to do something I could do myself? Well, I wanna share with you in this video, not only what can you get them to work on, but how do you do it in a efficient way that gets you the result you re looking for? And it s a beautiful nirvana where you can literally have just a list, you drop things and it gets done.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.260 I actually want you to come in frame, Jared.
00:00:04.300 Get over here. 0.99
00:00:12.540 What and how to delegate to a virtual assistant
00:00:15.980 in a way that doesn't cause you a lot of rework.
00:00:18.120 If you've ever felt overwhelmed,
00:00:19.680 staying up late at night, doing paperwork,
00:00:22.280 managing your financials,
00:00:24.020 dealing with onboarding new employees, new customers,
00:00:27.220 following up receivables,
00:00:28.660 and really just processing your inbox
00:00:30.460 and you know that there's an opportunity
00:00:31.800 to have other people support you,
00:00:33.140 but maybe you feel like you can't trust them
00:00:35.360 because it's like, well, it's gonna take me more time
00:00:37.260 to do the work than to ask them to do it,
00:00:39.180 or maybe it's even a sense of value,
00:00:42.240 like why would I pay somebody else
00:00:43.540 to do something I could do myself?
00:00:45.120 Well, I wanna share with you in this video
00:00:46.820 not only what can you get them to work on,
00:00:48.980 but how do you do it in an efficient way
00:00:50.940 that gets you the result that you're looking for?
00:00:53.680 And it's a beautiful nirvana
00:00:55.180 where you can literally have just a list
00:00:57.860 you drop things and it gets done.
00:00:59.620 You drop ideas, you drop projects, you drop tasks,
00:01:02.200 and these get done and it just magically happens.
00:01:05.660 It's crazy.
00:01:06.900 I mean, when I started my company Flowtown,
00:01:09.000 I had a co-founder, Ethan, and we got so busy.
00:01:12.040 We were a venture-backed technology company,
00:01:13.880 raised almost a million dollars in funding,
00:01:16.120 and we started getting really busy with administrative tasks.
00:01:19.480 And we thought, you know, like social media publishing
00:01:22.380 and HR type stuff and just scheduling.
00:01:24.980 We thought, you know, we could really use somebody
00:01:26.880 to support us and we went through the process of hiring
00:01:30.280 and managing and trying to have somebody else
00:01:32.380 that we could delegate to and the first few goes
00:01:34.720 were really tough, it didn't work.
00:01:36.460 We had some major projects that we outsourced
00:01:38.820 that came back not even done correctly.
00:01:41.220 We had things that just got dropped
00:01:42.700 and it was through that process that I realized
00:01:44.940 that there's a way to do it where it's gonna give you
00:01:47.760 the confidence and the courage to really just start
00:01:50.340 because I think most people need to start
00:01:51.940 and ensure that the work gets done properly.
00:01:53.940 So a few things that are gonna help the strategies
00:01:57.140 improve the process.
00:01:58.480 Number one is you need a password management tool
00:02:01.880 or I like to call it access control
00:02:03.680 because you probably have several if not dozens
00:02:06.520 of online SaaS cloud tools like Dropbox, like Slack,
00:02:11.060 like your email tools, like your bank accounts.
00:02:13.600 All these online tools and you might wanna give somebody
00:02:15.900 else access so they can follow through
00:02:18.060 and get something done for you
00:02:19.560 but you don't wanna give them your password.
00:02:21.600 There's literally several and I'm gonna link them below
00:02:23.940 in the description, tools that you can use to manage all of
00:02:27.380 your passwords in one place and select and delegate so you can
00:02:31.080 create a marketing group and delegate all of the marketing
00:02:33.920 tools over to this group, give somebody access and they never
00:02:37.360 see your password.
00:02:38.920 So if you have a spreadsheet or you have a bunch of sticky
00:02:41.400 notes or you've literally emailed people your password,
00:02:44.400 stop doing that and go sign up for an online tool.
00:02:46.900 Again, linked below but I call that access control.
00:02:49.600 It's step one in the strategies to really do this the right way.
00:02:52.660 Two is, what do I even delegate to other people?
00:02:55.900 You know, it's like, I get it, I wanna do it,
00:02:57.840 I found somebody, but I can't seem to keepin' busy.
00:03:00.700 I'm gonna suggest the gateway drug to getting into that.
00:03:04.080 And then finally, the right mindset to get in.
00:03:07.240 So number one is just think about purchasing.
00:03:09.440 Everything that you wanna buy, and it sounds trivial
00:03:11.980 because you're like, I could totally do this stuff myself,
00:03:14.240 but I literally start off if you wanna buy books.
00:03:17.080 Have somebody buy your books, have somebody buy clothes,
00:03:19.280 have somebody buy birthday gifts,
00:03:20.420 have somebody buy gifts for friends, whatever it is.
00:03:23.680 Maybe it's coworkers or recognition,
00:03:25.900 but just having somebody that you set up
00:03:27.600 that you can delegate with a credit card.
00:03:29.100 Again, they don't see the numbers
00:03:30.160 if you use the access control or the online tool,
00:03:32.940 and just getting those types of things done.
00:03:35.540 They don't add any value to your customer.
00:03:38.140 They're important, they need to get done,
00:03:39.640 and it's just a very clear and simple execution
00:03:42.600 that you can start with.
00:03:43.680 The second area I always recommend is research, right?
00:03:46.440 Think about all the things that you'd love to know
00:03:48.220 about your market, your customer,
00:03:49.920 the events that you could go to,
00:03:52.560 the people you should be talking to.
00:03:54.320 Maybe you've heard my concept of a Dream 100 list
00:03:58.300 of all the peers and mentors and advisors you need
00:04:02.540 in your business to really scale.
00:04:03.860 And you don't even have time to do the research
00:04:05.740 to find out who those people would be.
00:04:07.340 You can give the criteria to somebody else.
00:04:09.000 They can do the research and pull you back a list
00:04:11.440 to finally do the final processing.
00:04:13.420 I really think that even BPM, Business Process Management,
00:04:16.780 all the back office, okay, from the accounting,
00:04:19.320 the financials, things that don't touch the customer
00:04:21.820 could easily be outsourced to a virtual assistant.
00:04:24.560 So that is the what in step two.
00:04:26.520 One is access control, two is the things
00:04:29.120 you can get them to do.
00:04:29.860 Now three is how do you do it?
00:04:31.300 You gotta use an online project management tool.
00:04:33.560 And again, I'm gonna provide you the tools
00:04:35.000 that I've used or used today because they would
00:04:37.440 probably change, so I'll just update them there.
00:04:39.900 But you need to have something online that provides
00:04:42.340 the ability to see a list of all the things
00:04:44.380 have outsourced or out-tasked other people to accomplish so
00:04:49.020 that you can monitor it, so that they can leave status updates,
00:04:51.560 so that you can see if something needs your review or that
00:04:54.120 a move to done because if you don't have it in one place then
00:04:57.220 it's just your inbox and your inbox becomes overwhelming and
00:05:00.200 you don't feel like you're getting a lot of value.
00:05:01.900 So definitely use your online project management tool to
00:05:05.500 manage everything you ask somebody else to do.
00:05:08.140 But I know you're thinking, why would I do that?
00:05:10.240 The email comes in and then I gotta forward it to somebody
00:05:13.000 Then I gotta go to my project management.
00:05:14.300 It's gonna allow you to scale.
00:05:16.200 I'm all about process, repeatable, scalable.
00:05:18.840 This is a big one, so online project management tool.
00:05:21.440 And then finally, the way you outsource big projects,
00:05:24.840 where I got in a lot of trouble where, you know,
00:05:26.640 we were updating our website and there was literally
00:05:28.640 150 pages to be updated and instead of doing a small batch
00:05:34.020 to big batch, that's the fourth step,
00:05:36.020 I just had them do the whole thing.
00:05:37.360 And they literally, like, done, after four days.
00:05:39.500 It's like, done what?
00:05:40.400 You did everything, okay?
00:05:41.160 I checked it, it was wrong.
00:05:43.260 That was my fault because I should have started
00:05:45.540 with a small batch, say look, go do 10 pages,
00:05:48.100 follow these instructions and let me know how that looks
00:05:50.800 and I would have discovered, oh, we need to tweak,
00:05:53.080 we need to iterate, okay, tweak this, do another 10.
00:05:55.540 Then tweak it and do another 10, good,
00:05:57.080 let's process the 120 left over.
00:05:59.480 So the fourth step is small batch to big batch.
00:06:02.680 Now, most entrepreneurs get in trouble
00:06:05.520 because they don't use this one tip and strategy
00:06:07.760 to get everybody to understand the goal,
00:06:10.920 the end point, the result that you're looking for,
00:06:13.620 and it's called the DOD, the definition of done.
00:06:17.800 So as you're asking anybody, and this could be internal,
00:06:20.760 this could be external people, define what that looks like
00:06:24.700 when this project or task is done.
00:06:26.860 Being clear about who's notified, where the documents live,
00:06:29.580 how you're gonna name it, how you're gonna feel,
00:06:31.700 how your customers are gonna feel in the definition of done.
00:06:34.080 It could be one or two sentences.
00:06:35.480 We'll just give so much more context and clarity
00:06:38.340 to the people executing those tasks to hit that mark for you.
00:06:42.940 So again, starting off with number one,
00:06:44.780 make sure that you have an online password management tool.
00:06:47.920 But it's not more on password because it's information
00:06:49.780 that's locked up like your credit cards.
00:06:51.520 So I call that access control so you can delegate
00:06:53.680 and give different groups of people in your company
00:06:56.060 access to those tools online.
00:06:57.760 Two, make sure that you delegate the right types of work.
00:07:01.600 Things like the business process management
00:07:03.660 of the back office of your company doing online research.
00:07:06.900 and the gateway drug is purchasing.
00:07:08.940 Three is make sure that you use an online tool
00:07:11.400 to list all the different tasks that they need to work on
00:07:14.480 so that you have a place to review and move things forward
00:07:17.420 if they're stuck and they can communicate and collaborate
00:07:19.220 that's not your inbox, put it on there.
00:07:21.620 And then four, make sure you always start with a small batch
00:07:24.160 before expanding it to a big batch.
00:07:26.960 You're gonna save yourself a lot of rework.
00:07:29.060 As per usual, I wanna challenge you to live a bigger life
00:07:31.700 and a bigger business and I'll see you next Monday.
00:07:34.020 If you like this video, be sure to subscribe to my channel
00:07:36.360 to get other tips and strategies
00:07:37.600 on how to start and grow your business,
00:07:39.220 I'd also invite you to join my newsletter
00:07:41.300 where I send out exclusive invites to events,
00:07:43.900 free entrepreneurial training and other community contests
00:07:46.540 and if you're ready to keep going,
00:07:47.880 I've got a couple videos queued up.
00:07:49.800 I'll see you next week.