Let me tell you a little secret.
I don't do this alone.
One of the biggest questions I'm asked is, "How did you build your team?
Who did you hire?
And, where did you find them?
Well, there's a whole team operating this business, basically behind me.
These videos are just one small, but very, very important, piece of the whole puzzle.
Listen, I know that you may be in the solopreneur phase and starting all by yourself.
If you are, comment below.
Let me know what stage of your business you're in right now.
I know you might be in a different phase than I'm in right now.
You might not have a team at all.
But, I have been in your shoes.
I have been in your situation.
For anyone that wants to actually build an online business I know the hard lesson that
I learned is that you just can't do it by yourself past a certain point.
The solopreneur phase is glorious for a lot of reasons, but if you really want to grow.
You ultimately are going to hit a ceiling as a solopreneur.
Bringing on a team is the way to crush and crash through that ceiling and really build
the kind of business that you want and also create the freedom to be able to walk away
from your business from time-to-time if you need to.
So, I'm going to be sharing never before seen tips and tools that I've been using for years,
like PayPal, and how they have played a vital role in building and managing my global team.
So, when team setting started it really wasn't a team it was really just this girl by herself.
So, I think the biggest question when you are running your business by yourself is,
"How do you know when is the right time to actually bring on a team member?"
I remember struggling with this so hard because, if you haven't noticed, I'm a little bit stubborn
and I also am a little impatient.
So, sometimes that is a blessing and sometimes it's a curse.
In this situation kind of waited till the last minute.
If I could go back in time I probably would tell myself to do this earlier.
But, how I really knew that I needed somebody was that I got hired for my first speaking
engagement.
I had just started my YouTube channel.
The company that hired me to speak was actually looking for a Social Media expert.
They found me on YouTube which is, again, why I love YouTube.
All my speaking engagements have come from there.
But, the speaking engagement was in Europe.
It was my first time going there.
My family is from Italy so I wanted to go explore and actually take some time to do
that, but I knew I couldn't if I didn't have someone at home able to kind of man the fort,
answer emails, deal with clients, all that stuff.
So, basically, out of pure desperation I started reaching out to my network.
So, this is really how we started finding the right person was I reached out to my network,
which I'm going to talk about in a second.
Before I get there, if you are in a place where you feel like you could use the support
and you want to do it better than I did, and not do it reactively, my best suggestion for
you is to do a task audit.
A task audit, basically, is looking at everything you're doing in your business.
So, basically, what I do is we have a spreadsheet, and now we do this with every person on the
team just to make sure that if they need support we can give it to them, or they're doing things
that aren't necessarily in their genius zone we can get someone in to help them do those
tasks so they can focus on the things that are actually going to push the needle on the
business.
So, I did a task audit and I wrote down everything I was doing on a daily basis, weekly basis,
monthly basis in the spreadsheet.
Then, I gave it a rating of, basically, one through four.
One was, I am really good at it and I like doing it.
Two was, I'm good at it and I don't mind doing it.
Three was, I'm good at it but I don't want to be doing it.
Four was, I'm not good at it and I shouldn't be doing it.
So, I just started basically rating my tasks and realizing all the things that should be
taken off my plate.
Things like bookkeeping, a lot of like filing my receipts and my taxes on a monthly basis.
I needed help with that stuff.
That's not in my genius zone, it's painful for me.
Things like scheduling my meetings and my calendar and answering customer service and
dealing with client emails.
All of that I didn't have to be doing myself.
Also, a lot of like Social Media posting was another thing right away that I needed to
get help with.
That's the best suggestion I have for starting to do a task audit and figuring out what you're
doing that is not actually moving your business forward.
That's the best way to figure out how to start moving your business.
It's like, Are you actually hindering your business growth because you're doing too many
things that aren't actually bringing in revenue and money and making you a profit?
Because, if you are then you can't possibly grow.
So, that really was the moment that I realized, and it was terrifying for me, the moment I
realized I needed some help.
I needed to bring somebody on so I could actually continue to grow this business.
Otherwise it was going to hit a ceiling and I was just, basically, going to have to deal
with being burnt out for the rest of my life, which I didn't want to have to do.
My biggest mindset shift when it came to hiring people is that once I brought on [Alla 00:05:18],
who was my first hire, I realized that hiring people is actually the best investment you
can make in your growth as a company, because the moment you give the task and the items
away on your To Do List that you're not the best at to someone who actually is the best
at them, that's when things really start to flourish.
I have always gone to my network.
I have always gone to Social Media.
I have never done a job posting that's been official on the website or anything like that.
My methodology for how we found everybody has been through asking.
Now, the final piece of really finding the right people and hiring the team is, How do
you know you have the right people?
Because, obviously, the fear is you put this time and energy into people, bring them on
board and then they're just not the right fit.
So, how we do it, and this has been so effective for us, is we basically do a test with every
person who comes on board.
So, we will do the initial kind of blast and get applications sent in.
We're very specific with our applications.
We'll use things like, "You have to put this in the subject line," and it could be something
as weird as like an exclamation point has to be in the subject line.
Because that shows us the person is detail oriented.
If they don't do it we actually won't look at their application.
So, having little things and triggers for people when they are applying is a great way
to sort of like siphon through the people who aren't a great fit.
That's one thing, and then when we get the applications we take a look at what they sent
over to us and we also just get a vibe of kind of how they would fit in with our company
and our team and how quick their turnaround time was to apply.
That makes a big difference.
Then, we give them a test.
We will kind of narrow it down to our top three to five applicants and we will send
them over a mini test when it comes to their expertise.
Say, we're hiring a copywriter, we actually just went through this, and we said, "Okay,
great, we'd love for you to write an email that goes with this YouTube video that Sunny's
created, and then also create social posts for that and then also, "Can you write sales
copy for this program that we sell that would go on a sales page?"
So, we give them several different things to kind of test things out.
It works super well for a lot of reasons.
One, similar to what I was talking about with Alla.
It shows your work ethic.
It shows your desire to actually work with us, because anybody can write a resume.
Anybody can apply for a job, but it takes dedication and it takes work ethic to actually
put together something that's going to impress the person that you want to work with.
I'm not saying that to sound like a A-hole; I'm saying that because we do get a lot of
applicants and so we need to siphon through the people who just think it would be a cute
job to work at for like a little while, but they are not going to be there for the long
haul.
So, I think that knowing the person is willing to do that is a really important part of how
we found really great people on our team and, also, just like having a face-to-face.
I don't think we've ever hired anybody that we haven't actually met with, whether that's
on Zoom if they live in a different part of the world, or we meet with them in real life
in Vancouver, both Alla and I because we're the people that are going to be working with
them the most, to make sure that it's a good personality fit, culture fit, et cetera.
Those are really the steps that we take to make sure that we're finding the right person
for each role.
So, speaking of finding the right people and, obviously, culture is a big thing for us and
making sure that we're all aligned with values, and making sure that we all kind of gel well
and have a good synchronicity as a team, we need to find ways to manage our culture, because
our team is all over the place.
We have someone working for us in Russia.
We have someone working for us in Utah.
We have someone working for us in Northern California.
We have people working for us in Vancouver.
Our team's everywhere and that's awesome but it can be challenging to actually feel like
a team.
I think what I'm really grateful is that we actually do feel like a team.
I feel like my team is family.
One of the things that we really happen to focus on is creating tools, or using tools,
leveraging tools to create a sense of intimacy.
We use Slack to communicate with our team.
We don't use email, basically, at all.
All of our internal communication with our team is done through Slack, and it is a game
changer.
We have a channel in Slack just called Appreciations, and it's where we show appreciation for the
amazing people on our team and the wins and the things that are going super well.
That's a great way to create that culture and show your gratitude for the people that
are working with you.
We also use Google Drive to manage all of our processes, and our files, and our clients,
and we have that streamlined.
We also use Asana to make sure that we're on track with all of our To Dos, so everything
that we talk about in Slack we can create To Dos in Asana.
Those are really the three main pieces of technology that we use to create a company
culture and to keep things well oiled and organized.
Now, the fact that my team is also allover the map and all over the place comes with
certain challenges.
One of those is, obviously, payment.
So, figuring out how to make sure that we were able to pay everyone at the beginning
was a little bit of a tricky situation, but that's where PayPal came in and has been a
tool that I used in my business from day one and such an incredible tool for our business.
It's really where we do our customer transactions, we do our invoicing, everything.
It's a vital tool for us.
I'm super excited because PayPal actually reached out to me and they wanted to sponsor
this video.
I was like, "I would actually talk about this, and talk about you, for free.
I don't really need a sponsor."
They are, which is very nice.
But, they are, like I said, such a critical tool for us every single day.
They played a big part in how we actually are able to manage our team and keep things
moving along in a way where everyone feels like they're getting paid on time, and they're
feeling valued, and supported, and all those things.
So, the thing about PayPal that I absolutely love and why it works so well for our global
team is that you can actually send invoices in 25 different currencies, and we work with,
obviously, a lot of different currencies, and over 200 countries.
So, that makes a big difference when you're managing people in all of these different
places.
Then, the other thing about PayPal that we really love is that, obviously, we do have
a bigger team than we started with, and the ease of this tool is what is super important,
because we do want to make sure that people get paid on time and they get paid fast.
Basically, when we get invoices or we're sending invoices we know if we're doing it through
PayPal the turnaround time is super, super fast on it, and it's actually, I think it's
78% of invoices are paid within one day.
Once you're actually paid you receive your money in minutes, which is a game changer,
as well, when, again, you're dealing with people say in Russia to make sure the payment
is actually going through.
You don't need to worry about it, and there's never been an issue.
I think the other thing that we love about PayPal invoicing, particularly, with our business
is that you can track and manage all the history.
So, if you have to go back and review something, or if you need to print off an invoice for
tax purposes, or whatever it may be you are able to do that through PayPal itself, plus
you're able to send reminders on PayPal for anything that's unpaid, which also helps us
just stay streamlined and organized.
It helps us track like manual payments versus automatic payments and all of that nitty-gritty
detail stuff.
I'm not the financial whiz in the business but that's fine.
Actually, my mom handles all of this, so thanks, DeeDee.
She is an avid advocate of PayPal because it has made her job a lot easier when it comes
to managing team payments, invoicing clients, all of that stuff.
PayPal has just been a godsend.
I legit would say all of this without this being a sponsored video, but I'm grateful
to PayPal that they reached out to me and they wanted to work with me and that they're
so invested in the entrepreneurs, and small businesses, that are using their tool.
They are helping people grow empires.
Without PayPal we really wouldn't be able to grow at the rate that we've grown.
So, I'm super, super grateful.
The other amazing thing about having an online business that I never even really took into
account when I started it is that I have the freedom to hire a global team.
So, what's been so amazing about hiring people from all different cultures, and places, and
walks of life is that it's given us insight into how different places in the world operate.
And, we've been able to hire truly the best in the world, because we weren't just having
to stick in our local region.
So, having a global team is so amazing for so many reasons.
You get a diversity of talent.
You get the best of the best.
You get culture insight and you get people who are really truly passionate and all-in
for your business, which I'm just so grateful for.
I highly recommend it.
So, if you're starting to feel like maybe you're hitting that breaking point I hope
that you get there and make that decision before I did, because that's my only real
thing that I would go back and fix.
I don't like saying the word regret so I'm not going to say that.
But, that's the only thing that I would probably go back and fix is start to bring on people
a little earlier, or a lot earlier, so I could really start building my business and get
that support so I could just stay in my genius zone.
So, with that said.
Yes, we have this amazing global team, but everything would not be running like a well-oiled
machine as it is if we didn't have these tools, as well.
So, things like Google Drive, Slack, Asana and, obviously, PayPal to make the payment
process and the organization of all the finances way easier for us, which is very, very important
because, again, it's what keeps the business going.
I really honestly go back to the old days when I used to do my DIY invoicing and just
store them on the computer, and it was just a disaster.
So, I'm super grateful that I've been able to move beyond that.
So, I hope this video is helpful for you.
It was such a hot topic that you guys had wanted to hear about for so long for me.
So, are there any other questions about building a team?
If there are I'm happy to make more videos on this topic.
So, just comment below.
Let me know what you want me to talk about in future videos when it comes to team building
or hiring people, et cetera.
And, if you liked this video hit that like button below.
Share it with someone who may need help growing a team or is just confused on all the logistics,
or just share it with your network.
I'm sure it's going to help someone out there.
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