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Nearly every business owner reaches the point in their business where it’s time to hire some help. Whether that’s a part time virtual assistant or a full-time manager, it’s essential to know when and how to get the help you need… that will actually reduce your stress and overwhelm and achieve more.

Rachel Pereyra brings corporate strategies to the entrepreneur world to show you how you can find the exact right fit for your team – including what you need to know before you start searching, what to search for in every hire, and exactly what to do to make sure they’re the best person not only for the job… but for you.

Click Here To Visit Rachel's Website (and while you're there, make sure you grab her free gift that will determine your strategic priorities and who you work with and why!)

Alyson Lex
Lately, I've been thinking about my business and growing my business and scaling my business and all of those things. And the one thing that happens when I think about all this is I get completely overwhelmed. I know I'm not alone. I know that there's help out there. But I get overwhelmed when I even think about finding someone to hire. I've outsourced a couple of things here and there gotten one or two tasks off my plate, but not to an extent, where I feel like I get the support I need, when I need it, and how I need it. And that's why today we have asked Rachel Pereira and I've anglicized her name, because I don't have the rolling our ability, but she's going to tell us how to say it the right way. She's going to talk to us about really growing and scaling your business with the help you need, how you need it, based on your personality. It's such a cool way to look at things. So Rachel, thank you for being here with us today.

Rachel Pereyra
Thank you for having me. And you did a pretty good job. It's Rachel bed Ada with the rolling of the RS.

Alyson Lex
Yeah, I just do not have that language ability. So I apologize.

Rachel Pereyra
No worries, it's being from in the Central Texas area. I've heard I've heard it pronounced all sorts of ways. You did pretty good.

Alyson Lex
So we talked about the fact that you can really grow your business and hire help based on your personality and who you are. And so what should we be looking at with like the different personality types.

Rachel Pereyra
So you need to be looking at where your personality fits in with the layers of business that you have. So in business, there are four key layers, you have your implementation layer at the base, they're the ones they're the doers. Then you have your management layer, they're the overseers you have your strategic layer, they're the planners, and you have your vision layer. These are the people who are forward thinking, and this is you, the business owner, the innovator, and so you're there at that level. But if you're the only one in your business, you are all four layers. So right now your personality is overwhelmed. So you need to think about how you work best, and who, what elements you can delegate out east most easily. So typically, the easiest layer to start out with is the implementation layer, the doers, getting that hands on help you feel that immediate relief in your daily grind in your schedule, that's also can be the easiest to delegate to, because it's less of a partnership role and more of an implementation role, depending on what exactly it is that you're delegating out, of course, but when you're hiring someone based on your personality, you really want to know, what is important to you what you're good at, and what you're not good at. And also the things that upset you or triggers like I have some friends who really hate the sound of chewing gum. And so like their team meetings, like you can't be chewing gum in a team meeting. And like, that's something that's so little. But it's important to think about when you're hiring someone who you're going to be working with on a close basis. Because even though we're, you know, mostly online businesses, and this is we're gonna be zoom meeting, and you're still going to hear those little things, there's gonna be those little things like if it bugs you, like, my pet peeve from corporate is people who type in all caps. Like, why are you yelling at me, like, that just drives me bananas. And so I've always like, have like little business, email etiquette classes with people when I hired them. If it was their first corporate job, like that's, you're screaming at me when you're typing all caps. But I know that about myself. And so that's something that little pieces can be really integral when you're building your team is knowing that about yourself and having that real clarity on yourself and your business. Because it's important when you build your team that you take personality into account, like, obviously, skill set is very important. You want someone who can get the job done and get it done right the first time. But if you guys hate each other, it won't matter.

Jennie Wright
Okay, that I use, having a corporate background and having experienced some of those little foibles that people have, especially in close teams, makes a difference. I worked with somebody once who would scratch their head to release the dandruff on their desk and look at it and then wipe it away. On meetings. It was like, Oh my gosh, worked very closely. This was with this person. At one point. It was a very, yeah, it was really hard anyways. In the online space, this is a little bit different. And you know, it's online. And yeah, there's absolutely things that we need to be wary of when it comes to working with people. But I think I want to ask the question of how does this play into scaling? What is it when we're trying to scale and you said the first layer that we're going after, probably is the Implementation layer? How is this going to help in our scaling? Can you maybe just give me a little bit more understanding there?

Rachel Pereyra
Yeah, so when you're scaling, it means you're growing your human capital. It's really what scaling meant before the online business world took it to mean a bunch of different things. And so when you're scaling, you're expanding your team, and you want to be conscious that you're doing it right. So you want to make sure that you're bringing in someone who will fit in with you. And if you already have existing team members, that that personality, it fits. So when you're building on each layer, you can't hire a management layer, if you don't have an implementation layer, it wouldn't make any sense to bring in, for example, to bring in like someone like myself as a strategic partner, to manage your team, if you don't have a team yet, unless we're hiring your team. And that's our first project together. So being conscious of making those decisions as the business leader and business owner, and you know, and making sure that the person you're bringing in really meshes with you, and the rest of your team and your business brand. I mean, I know we just kind of touched on a little bit, but have either of you ever been on a team with one person that just didn't fit or was really difficult to work with?

Unknown Speaker
Yes, Major, huge,

Alyson Lex
huge bajillion times?

Rachel Pereyra
Yeah, yeah. And it really stinks when that happens. Because one bad apple can turn a whole bunch sour. And it really affects your team morale overall. And it I've seen it happen in the online space, too. It's not just exclusive to in person, businesses. And so making sure that as you scale, you don't get caught up in putting warm bodies in offices, like sometimes we did in corporate. But now that it's your business, making sure that every decision you make is strategically aligned with your values and the vision you have for your business and the future. So you want to make sure that you're clear on those things. First, you have that clarity. And then you go into every decision you make, knowing that each thing you're doing is building upon the last. So you know, when you're really overwhelmed and you have 15,000 things to do, the last thing you want to do is start hiring a VA because now you have to interview 25 va s and what you're going to wind up doing is becoming overwhelmed, all the interviews are going to melt together, you're just going to close your eyes and point and choose or you put off other work to do this or put off hiring, you know, and so you want to make sure that you're very clear and that you try to plan obviously, there are situations that I did it myself like I I did the overwhelmed VA hire like we've we've all had those moments when you're a business owner, where you wait till that last minute, because you're like, No, I'm not sure if I'm ready. I'm not sure if I'm ready. But you need to try as best as you can to plan strategically for these things to make sure that you're going into your business, knowing you want to scale. So when you sit down and plan out your quarters and your year, if scaling your team is something that is important to you figuring out what those roles look like. So for example, if you know if you're a course creator, are you going to need a graphic designer? Are you going to need like a kajabi? or kartra or podia? expert? Are you going to need someone on your marketing team to run ads? Are you going to need a VA to manage the inbox pieces and figuring out what each of those job descriptions would look like? And when you will need them and then trying to hire for them before you need them? Ideally?

Alyson Lex
Well, and I know that in a minute, we're going to talk about that because it really is. and Jenny has talked about this the chicken or the egg situation just in our private conversations. But you said something that was really like perked my ears up as somebody who's in this situation right now, of knowing that I need the help beginning to identify where that help can happen. And not having any clue how to do it, knowing that I'm not the kind of personality that is able to manage it. And you said that you're that kind of person that comes in and manages a team and helps. Hi, is that right?

Rachel Pereyra
Yes. So part of what I do and all of what I love his team management. And that's what I love doing in corporate and so something that I've really found that I love doing in the online space is coming in and hiring for someone, even if we're not working together in a long term capacity. I genuinely love hiring. little known secret about me, I actually before finding my passion in the online space, I was looking to become a recruiter, I'd actually done some interviews to go into that space. But I wanted to do more than just recruit I like being a part of making sure that the infrastructure is in place. And I and so I found my home as the Director of Operations because it lets me have my, my hands in all the corners, so to speak of the operations piece. And so building a team is so critical and I feel like it's more than just hiring someone. You have to make sure that you're clear on what you expect. They're clear on what you expect. But then you're also going to be clear on what they need and what they expect. And if you're building a real team, not just you know, bringing in contractors for projects, then you need to be investing in that team. And so you need to have that infrastructure that if you want your business to scale and grow, that you're bringing in team members who want to scale and grow with it.

Alyson Lex
That is, yes. So you and I are going to talk off of this need to help. You've talked about your time in corporate, you've mentioned some things that you've kind of learned in corporate and recruit, you know, if you are going to be a recruiter, there's a lot there. So what are some of the elements that we can look at? from large corporate businesses? Even if we're a solopreneur? Or a small team? or what have you? What can we bring into our business and learn from?

Rachel Pereyra
Yeah, so this is gonna sound a little harsh, but you need to treat your business more like a fortune 500 company than a hobby, you need to make strategic plans, you need to set KPIs or key performance indicators for yourself or your team, and actually track them and don't run from the scary parts. And if that is hard for you, if that is something that you find difficult, that's okay. It's okay that, you know, maybe the numbers scare you, or maybe figuring out the analytics, your Google Analytics of your website, that is not my strong suit, I brought someone in to do my marketing, maybe that's not your strong suit, you know, that's okay, acknowledge it, and then look at evaluate bringing someone in to do it, but don't run from it. Because all you're doing is hurting yourself, because now you're the business. So you know, when you're in the corporate world, if something's big, bad and scary, there's usually you know, Bob, or Sally or Jill or you know, someone you can just turn to and be like, hey, like, I know, you're better at this, or I know you're in this capacity, like, I don't know what I'm doing, can you help me, when you're a solopreneur, you don't necessarily have that community. And so figuring out where your strengths and weaknesses are, and then building that community around it, because that's something that they do in a corporate, they have, like a board of directors, they have strategic advisors, they have several executives, it's everything's broken up into parts. And that's for reasons so that it's easier to manage when you're a solopreneur. And you're doing all the things, it's easy to get overwhelmed and miss those little things that add up to the big story. And so really treat your business like a fortune 500 company, go in, and run it and set yourself time, your CEO time to review those numbers and review those metrics and make sure that you're being clear. Clarity is my big thing today, make sure you're being clear with yourself on where you're going and what you're doing and how you're getting there. And if something is really scary to you hire it out, if your finances are scary, get an A CPA advisor or an accountant or bookkeeper, you know, if it's the marketing, get a strategist or brand coach, or whatever you need. But find someone who can come in as an expert and help you. So that's not so scary. Because you need to know how to do it. Because at the end of the day, it's your business and there shouldn't be any function in your business that you have absolutely no clue how to do.

Alyson Lex
You are preaching on that one. I always say, if you're going to hire someone to write, copy, or to build a font, you should know what good copy looks like or what good funnels look like. Because you're in charge of it. Ultimately, it's your business. It ends with you. But and hashtag transparency, I struggle with this. You mentioned it getting overwhelmed and missing all the little things. I call that being the bottleneck. I am a huge bottleneck in my business. I just because I've got 85 things going on. And this I just don't have time to deal with that right now. And it just doesn't get done and then bottleneck. So how do I stop myself from doing that other than just hiring people to take care of it? Because obviously that's the ultimate answer. Right?

Rachel Pereyra
Yeah, no. So luckily, the first step is acknowledging that you that you're the problem, you know, realizing that and having that internal moment with yourself, because it is difficult, it is really hard to go in especially, you know, for all my high performing high achieving women, you know, all of us Taipei's self proclaimed raising my hand right here, like, I'm a perfectionist, and I hate admitting that I'm doing anything that's not amazing. And so to realize that, like, you know, I I've had issues delegating and being a bottleneck. And I think we all do, especially when you're transitioning from being a solopreneur, I find that there's a few key spots. So when you go from being a solopreneur, to bringing in your first few team members, and then when you go to really scaling your team, so when your business is getting into the mid upper six figures, and you're really growing your team, so you're bringing in people mourn that management strategy layer. So those are pieces that are harder to let go of to. And so those are key times when I see it a lot where business owners have a very hard time letting go of being the boss neck. But once you realize it, something that I've done with some of my clients is I sit them down. And we do a little exercise where we look at their ideal schedule, what is your ideal schedule and make a visual map of it in Excel with color blocks, what does your ideal day look like throughout your week, and then I make another tab and we put what is actually happening. And then we go through, and I'm like, look at this difference. So in your ideal schedule, you have X amount of time a week, you can spend on this, this set of tasks of its admin or client tasks. But look how much you're doing now, like, this is why you feel the way you feel internally, I find that for me, and a lot of the women I've worked with, we're visual creatures, and having that visual reminder. And that's a very good exercise, I really recommend people doing time blocking, I've been going back and forth a lot on just like as a personal thing on whether or not it's functional. But I do think sitting down and actually tracking your time for a week really tracking it, seeing where it's all going. And then seeing how much time you're spending on writing those emails, writing out that copy, you know, or all these little tasks that you need to be delegating can be very eye opening. And then from there, I recommend if you're delegating to a team, having a project management tool, like a click up, or an Asana or something like that in place, so that you can have your to do list, have a status that's to be delegated. Put all of those tasks that you are ready to let go of put them in your to be delegated, and then assign them out from there. Or have if you have a DLL or an OBM on your team, have it in their routine to come in and check that list and assign that out to the team for you. That way those tasks are moving off your list. And it's easier for your team to know what they're doing doing or not doing to help you.

Jennie Wright
Okay, I have about 60 follow up questions to that. Because I'm, I'm really keen on what you're talking about, Alison and I both find ourselves in the same situation where 2021 is really about scaling for us. And the idea with scaling is we've got we've added all this extra work. So we run this podcast together, we have three episodes that come out a week. Can I just like, Can we have up

Rachel Pereyra
to 10,

Jennie Wright
but holy crap moment about that. So there's three episodes a week, Alison and I are jointly working on a list build that comes out in July of 2021. Allison's working privately on her own online summit for June 2021. I'm working on my own summit that's going to come out in April 2021, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. And so we've multiplied these tasks that didn't exist previously, like I've done tons of summits, I've done like 300 of them. But now it's compounding, right. So there's all this work that's compounding and compounding. And if I was to do the spreadsheet that you just described, I think I would give myself a stroke. Full on. And what I need to know from you is when is the right time to hire help? Because if you're a solopreneur, and you're listening to this, and you're doing all this stuff yourself, and the money is not yet where you want it to be? Right? Or you're not yet feeling you're in that situation? How do you know when it's time to hire the help? Is it? Is it before you need the help? Or is it when you're in that exasperation moment, you know, do you? Is it a? Is it an investment and go this is going to free up my time? And I'm going to do better? How do we get there? What's the right thing?

Rachel Pereyra
Yeah, I love that. That's a that's a great question. So ideally, you're hiring before you're overwhelmed. So we talked about bringing, you know that corporate mindset into the online space, it doesn't always translate. But in a corporate setting, they're always hiring. And they're beginning the process before they need someone in anticipation. Now they're working with larger budgets and a solopreneur would be that's a given. And your first your very first hire, it's going to be messy, don't expect it to be perfect. But you should hire when you've evaluated your plan and your financial situation. And you've determined that you can afford to hire someone, you need to make sure you're generating enough income to you know, pay your personal bills, pay your business bills and have enough left over to afford this person. And if you're transitioning into a solopreneur depending on the capacity, you really need someone I usually recommend starting out with a contractor over an employee. There's a lot of legality if you're in the United States on between contractor and employee. But if you're unless you're needing someone in a more full time capacity, which most people aren't, having a contractor is really great because you can go in and do a month to month, you could do a 90 day commitment. And you can bring someone in and see how the fit is and see how it feels to have that person. And when you're working with someone, like first summit or preparations for that you don't need necessarily a long term team member because this is going to be you know, obviously going to multiple summits, you probably go back to this person, but it's not going to be something that they're going to be doing every day. So you want there's not really a magic magic pill. Unfortunately, there's not a magic stage when you should bring someone in. But it's when you reach that mindset where you're ready to delegate things, and you're ready to spend some of your hard earned dollars on a team member. For some people, that's a subcontractor to do the client work in their business for a portion of what the clients paying, instead of working on their own business. And for some people, it's doing the tasks within their own business, whether it's the financials or the admin, or the marketing. For me, myself, I hired pretty quickly in because I really like having a team. And I know, I've done a lot of internal soul searching work on knowing where my strengths and weaknesses lie. And so I've built up a good network of contractors that I can call on at any point. And so when I am working with people, and they need me to have a team versus them having a team, sometimes that makes it easier to so like if you're in a situation where you need to hire someone, at a higher level, there are people who have their own team. So you don't need to bring in a VA, a graphic designer, a funnel strategist, a copywriter, they have access to those people, and they'll build that cost into their proposal when working with you. So it's something to keep in mind as well, depending on what you're hiring for. There might be alternate options, and just know we're in a very wild, wild west space right now in the online world. And so if you can dream it, there's probably someone out there willing to do it for some kind of money.

Alyson Lex
You answered, actually, the next question that I had, but I want to just touch on it for a minute is should I hire like an all in one kind of person? Or look for somebody task specific. So I've always gotten tasks specific, excuse me. But it feels that adds to the overwhelm, because now it's I'm managing these tasks plus these people plus the right, what you're saying is, it is possible to have a guest that's that management layer being added in, either through somebody you hire directly to be a manager, or a company who built that layer in themselves. That's what you're saying?

Rachel Pereyra
Yes. So there are OBM, or online business managers and deals or directors or operation like myself, who have teams who can come in with our team, and versus hiring a team for you. And that can be very helpful, especially on a project basis. Like, you know, if you're doing I've seen people who specifically do like launches, and so their team has everything you need to launch a course or a special event. And you just you hired them and you pay their agency. And, you know, having an agency has pros and cons. And so just keeping that in mind that when you're bringing someone in, what your goals for that role Are you if you're looking for someone on a shorter term basis, bringing in an agency can be great. Even when I work with clients on a longer term basis, I generally prefer to hire team members to their business versus billing them for my own, just because it's, it's an asset for your business that you should, for lack of a better term, own, you know, you're these people are training and they're getting invested in your business. And so you want to have that team. But on a project basis, it can be very helpful and sometimes even more cost effective, particularly when you factor in interviewing a bunch of different people for several different task roles, to have someone to come in and just handle it.

Jennie Wright
That makes sense to me. And you said something earlier that I've been dying to ask you and you were mentioning some project management tools like clickup and Asana. I know there's base camp, I know, you know, there's a myriad of different types out there. My question for you is, how the heck are we supposed to stick with those? Right? So if we're starting, like, if we're a solopreneur, and we haven't hired our team yet, we should probably be using one to organize our tasks, a lot of us write on paper, or we make lists and stuff like that. Right? So how do we, you know, how do we start getting into the practice of using Asana or clickup? or any of those types of things? And then how are we supposed to make it? Like, how are we supposed to move it forward with our teams? How are we supposed to use that? What if that's not our strength or ability, the organizational side? Not that that's my problem? But what if it's somebody else's?

Rachel Pereyra
Yes. So that's a great question. So it can be hard, especially if you are a pen and paper person to transition to using a digital tool. And it takes a habit change. So me personally, obviously, you guys are listening can't see this, but I have a planner that I still use because I love pen and paper. There's something so satisfying about crossing something off. My mom taught me that like a long time ago, all my grocery lists are pen and paper. I just love that feeling. It's like it's a little little endorphin high. So I can relate. But when you're switching into using an online project management tool for me being very analytical, the reasons why made so much sense. I have access to it anywhere I am. So I don't want to carry my big old planner with me. Everywhere. But let's say I'm out to dinner and I realize, Oh, no, I need to send this proposal or email to someone, and I need their information, I can just pull up on my phone, my project management app, or login via their website, and get the information that I need and take care of that task. So when you're selecting a project management tool, don't fall victim to shiny object syndrome. I've tried so many of them. And if you saw how many accounts I have, with all these different online tools, you would be like, Rachel, what are you doing, I have so many accounts, I've tried so many. And it's so easy to get sucked in, especially if you really like features. But I recommend looking at what is important to you. So I know some people who are very visual. And that makes Trello. A very good tool. Because the board feature, you can just drag and slide things. It's a very visual tool. And if you're more you prefer the writing of the list, and you want to segment everything Asana is great for that. I like clickup personally, just because I do like all of the automations. And it's great for managing a larger team. But I think if you're a very visual person, which a lot of pen and paper people are Trello might be a good place to start. And if you're not sure, start with Asana, because it has the Trello board feature and the list feature. And you can use both, I mean, and I haven't used Basecamp. And I know that there's teamwork, and there's some others out there that I'm sure are amazing. And if you like it, use it just fine. Whatever keeps your interest, and is easy for you to use. Just make sure that has those key features. Like for me, it's important that I'm able to access it from my cell phone. So make sure that anything that is really important to you functionality wise is accessible, and then understand how to use the basic functionality. So I've learned a lot, there's a lot of YouTube videos, the actual platforms themselves do a really good job of having trainings accessible for you on YouTube. So you can kind of walk that walk them, watch them walk through setting it all up, and see how they're doing it and see the best ways to use it. And then you have, you know, the quote, unquote, influencers in the space who can show you some like tips and tricks and some nuances to the software. But when you're really getting down to it, it's a habit change. It's a commitment to yourself and to the future of your business, to use this digital project management tool, because when you're bringing in team members, they can't see your paper planner. And so it's useless. It really is like it's good for you, but it's useless for them. A good segue could be something like a rocket book, which you can set up to send your notes to a tool like Asana or clickup. And have that automatically going into a to do list. So if you need to, you know, break off that habit slowly, you can do something like that. And that might be a good hybrid situation to help you in that scenario.

Alyson Lex
So Jenny's talking about me, when it comes to sticking with these systems, I I've discovered I love to set them up. And I suck at sticking with them. So I'll set them up use them for two, three weeks, maybe a month, two months. And then it's back to the hand drawn to do list. Because it's quicker and easier. So I really like what you said about looking at the functions that I need for me, I need to be able to add tasks to it without taking my hands off my keyboard. I hate using the mouth, like I've got a keyboard shortcut stuff. Right. So I really I really like what you said there. And it also leads into being a good leader instead of having your people like Hey, Alyson What's going on? Right? So how do you how do you become a good leader, especially if you've never led a team before? And not just with assigning tasks, but not being too nice or too lenient? Or too tough? Or how do you build that up before you hire so you're not subjecting someone else to your hot mess?

Rachel Pereyra
That's a great question. And I I really believe in honesty and open communication. We are all adults. And if you did your work in the hiring process, you've hired someone who knows who you are, and is aligned with your values. And so if for me, my values are one of my number one value is communication. So I am a communicator, I like to send messages. I like to get clarity if I feel like you know, if we've there's like a weird energy or a vibe between us like, we're gonna chat about it. It's not but I'm also going to act like I'm going to be that boss who's going to ask you, you know, you said your baby's sick, like how are they doing? You know, your husband has a job interview like How'd that go or you know, you got a new puppy like I want to see pictures and having those those personal things with someone So there's, it's a very fine line. And it is something that corporate kind of drills into you that like fine line, I think it's a little more gray, when you are the business owner in the online space, you know, because you're not like going to the bar with your team members, like you might in a corporate world have that problem come up. But at the same time, you know, you want to have that personal feeling. So I like to have questionnaires when you bring team members in, ask them things like personal things, like, you know, record the, their anniversary date of their hire, like know, their birthday, know, their favorite color, know what their favorite TV show is, send them like little things, it doesn't always have to cost money. But when you can, like, you know, have a team meeting and ask everybody like, what is your favorite drink, like what gets you out of bed in the morning, like, a lot of people love coffee, I actually don't drink coffee, because I'm weird. But I love tea. And so like, you know, knowing, knowing that about me, like I'd be impressed with one of my clients sending me a tea related thing versus coffee, you know, and so those those little things mean a lot when you're on someone's team, because it means you get to know them. And it doesn't mean you have to always remember it all. That's what spreadsheets are for. But at the same time, something that I learned in corporate through all my sales training, that translated really well with team building, is I call it the three things, I always learned three things about each of my clients. So if you can learn three things about your team members, and remember them, so that you can bring them up in conversation, it creates a bond and I don't mean it to be like, not genuine, I don't mean, you know, just recite it. But at the same time, you know, having that can connect you and build that relationship. And then from there, it will grow naturally, you guys will naturally find other things to talk about. And you'll naturally build that rapport. And if you're worried about being too lenient, that's where having those metrics in place before you hire them, or as you're hiring them can be important, because if you know, you're gonna have trouble enforcing deadlines, but like you have a summit coming up, and you need the copy for the landing pages done by the 14th. And it's the 13th. And, you know, Sarah still hasn't turned it in? Well, you have to have a conversation and be like, hey, Sarah, like, you know, I told you this deadline, this, you know, this isn't done. And this impacts the entire business, and the entire operation like what's going on, like, let's have a conversation about it, it helps guide you. So you don't have to feel like the bad guy. I'm also a big fan of agendas for conversations, meetings with your team, with your clients, just in general, having an agenda, whether it's facing to them or not, and being able to document those things. And another. Another important thing to know too, is the sandwich method. So good, bad, good. So you know, if you struggle with being the bad guy, which I think a lot of people do is lead with something good, then there's the criticism, and then end with something good. So that way, the whole conversation starts good and ends good and it feels more positive. And when my biggest piece of advice from my years in managing is never deliver criticism when you're angry, it's like they say, Don't discipline your child when you're angry. Don't talk to your team member when you're furious. If they did something and absolutely royally screwed up, walk away, go get your coffee or your tea, you know, watch a TV show, whatever you need to do to unwind before you come back and talk to them. Because you're going to bring emotions into it. You need to pull your emotions out of your performance management, because it shouldn't be an emotional thing. It should be separate from your personal relationship with your team members.

Jennie Wright
I'm feeling all of that. Like, you know, Allison and I are both like we've had a couple moments when you've been talking just now we're just like, Oh, yeah, Uh huh. Uh huh. Yep, got that, me all the way. All the feels like that's how it felt while you were talking. And I've been on the other side, I've had actually I had a really good manager at one point who did the sandwich method. And I realize it now that they did that when you set it. And I was like, Oh, that's really nice. They sandwich the anger because it actually wasn't them being angry. And they were really good at walking away because I I made mistakes, everybody makes mistakes. But I remember distinctly making a mistake that was very forward facing in the company, I worked in a fortune 500 in Investor Relations and communications, not the place to make forward facing errors.

Jennie Wright
And I had the manager who said, Jenny, you know, little, little dmws in the internal company thing. Jenny, would you mind coming to my office in approximately 15 minutes? That would be great things. Go into the office. Wow, blah, blah, blah. Good thing. Wow, that's really really awesome. Really bad thing. Very, very bad. must fix now. Holy crap forward facing. Awesome. Well, here's another wonderful thing and I left the office not feeling like I was about to get fired. But in the moment, I was like, oh my god. So I totally respect the fact that that person had the leadership to do that. Because when I was in corporate at that time, I don't deal with at the time I do, I do deal with it better now. But I didn't deal with criticism, well, like I would start to shake, and just couldn't handle it. Like it felt very personal versus the fact that it was business. And there is a whole history behind that we won't go down that road. That's for therapists. But I got a lot better with it later. But I understand now that that person understood my need for that sandwich method. And I love that. The other thing that I think is fantastic. And Allison was right, we are talking about ourselves in this because we are I mean, this podcast is awesome for other people to listen to. We hope you're getting lots from it. But let's just be very clear. Allison and I are getting a lot from this.

Alyson Lex
Oh, yeah, we're totally taking notes on all these questions. Allison has

Jennie Wright
already we've already got a page and a half of notes. Love it. Yeah. So we're learning a lot from you, Rachel, which is great, you're phenomenal. And you were really, really getting a lot out of this. And we're also seeing the mirror that you're putting up because there is a lot here that pertains to not only us, but other people, Allison and I co literally co manage this podcast, and also the business that we run the, you know, the System to THRIVE in the work that we do with our clients. We have ticked each other off. But we're co leading it. Right. And there's a way to like Alison knows how to approach me, she sent me for my birthday. Six months of tea. Right? She

Unknown Speaker
knows that.

Alyson Lex
I know, right? Why doesn't drink coffee.

Jennie Wright
I don't drink coffee. I love tea. Right? So and then, you know, there's things that we do. Like she's great that way. She's phenomenal. That way, she understands that. And she knows me like if I go quiet, you know, something's up. And if she goes quiet, I know something's up. And she knows if I don't like if I'm very short with my answers, I'm probably not happy about something, but I'm not doing the anger thing. I want to take a moment. And then I'll come back and be like, Dude, what, or, or the other way around. We've had some really honest conversations, all of this to say that we're learning so much from you. And we want to make sure that everybody who is listening to this gets resources that they need. We're very lucky to have this one on one conversation, but they need something. So do you have a process or a checklist that you use when you hire? How do we how do we do this? What's the step?

Rachel Pereyra
Yes, so I am going to include for your audience, but I there is a workbook that will help you to have a genuine hiring process. And I call it that because you want it to be genuine, you want it to be yourself, you want to be honest, because no one wants, no one started their business to not be themselves within it. And I that was really important to me, when I started my business, I always want to feel like I can be myself with anyone I'm working with. And I found that that's really important to pretty much anyone I've ever met in the online space. Like we didn't start we started our businesses because we were tired of having to deal with that kind of external pressure. And so you want it to be genuine, and really who you are. And so as part of that, you know, you step one is really to assess your situation, really need to review what you're currently doing in your business, what you need and want to be doing and to achieve this vision that you have for yourself. So you know, do you envision yourself still doing the day to day tasks, you know, a year from now? Or do you envision yourself being more of the face of the brand and having someone else doing all the day to day pieces? Or maybe you envision yourself stepping away altogether and just overseeing and letting the money train keep going like no, no shade. I love it all. So So step two would be to ensure that you have the processes in place to make training and managing this new team member easier. Are their documented things. Are they easy to find a quick trick I like to do because I think everyone I've worked with in the online space only one person has ever had slps in place when I've come into the team. And so something that I like to tell people, especially a solopreneur is loom or Vimeo, a screen share tool is so important. Don't get bogged down by typing it all out and trying to figure out just screen record yourself doing it. So I'm I love to talk if nobody can tell. I love to hear myself talk. And so I will scream record and I have a Google Drive library of just all these little looms of me doing random things like updating my dubsado proposals or sending an email to a client and my and I talk through my thought process or the why or the how those little nuances behind why I'm doing it. So even if I haven't had time to write out the SRP yet or have a team member write up SRP. What I need to delegate that task. I can refer them to that loom video, and then they can reference that before coming to me with questions. That way it helps empower the team member to make that decision. And also take it off your plate actually, because if you bring someone in to help you, but you have nothing in place to show them what to do, you're not really going to feel any less overwhelmed, you're actually going to feel 10 times more overwhelmed, because now you have to do the task and show them how to do it.

Jennie Wright
Allison's know with us, Opie is just gonna say, she's phenomenal. She's got loom videos up the wazoo, it's great.

Rachel Pereyra
I love it. I love it. I love I love I actually prefer like, personally prefer loom videos to written slps just because I think I'm more of a visual hands on learner. And so I just really love that in my own business. And with my clients, I was like, let's limit let's record a limb for like, I'm big, I'm big on it. So now step three, you need to find your match. So you need to figure out what hard and soft skills they need. So the hard skills would be those those techie pieces, the things that you feel like you're hiring them for, and then the soft skills would be, do you need them to be able to carry on a conversation with someone who is a fortune 500 client? Or do you need them to be able to deal with people who are super stressed out because you are a life coach or things, things of that nature, those little soft skills that come in handy that you might not always think about? This is the stage where we're gonna think about them. And this is also where we're gonna think about the personality types, who is going to work best for you, I like to use tests like Myers Briggs. I also have clouds, we use Human Design, astrology enneagram. Another favorite is the Colby test. That's more of a cognitive test than a personality test. But those these are all great things to use to know yourself and then to use when hiring your team members. So you know what your gaps you're looking to fill within your own team. And then step four is what I'd like to call the first date. So this is your initial project. It's their either their initial project as your contractor or their first 30 days as your new team member, you are clear with them on what the expectations are, you are checking in with them, you're communicating regularly, and you're open to their feedback. A lot of times when we hire, we always think of it as being a one way street of I'm going to tell them what they're doing wrong. But know, when you're bringing someone in, you're already overwhelmed. You're bringing them in, because you're trusting their expertise. And so hopefully this person is going to come in and be like, actually, why are we doing it this way? Let's What if we tried it this way? This might make you feel less overwhelmed? Or why don't we block off a day in your calendar for this or how you know, and have those suggestions and be open to that conversation? Whether you wind up implementing it or not, it will make your new team member feel valued. And then step five, is investing. You need to invest and I don't just mean financially invest in learning about your new team member invest in their growth, you know, where do they see themselves? So you probably talked about this when you were hiring them. But you know, what is our vision? I always hated that question like where do you see yourself in five years that you get asked in corporate? But where do they see themselves a year from now? Are they looking to build their own brand? Are they looking for a team to make a home? Are they looking to leave their nine to five? Or you know, what are their goals, really get to know them so you guys can work together to accomplish both of your goals, especially because if we've gone through the hiring process that we've talked about your visions align.

Alyson Lex
I love that. And yes, I'm good at creating the assets for slps. I'm not great at putting them all together. But I gotta start somewhere. I really like what you said about figuring out the hard and the soft skills, because usually you think, Oh, I need a funnel builder, or Oh, I need a VA or Oh, I need an appointment setter. And then you hire someone who has great technical skills, but they don't have those pieces of personality, that make up those soft skills. Because I think personality and soft skills go very well together. They don't have that and it just feels wrong. Get for your business and it doesn't work. You don't get along or something happens. And so for me, a soft skill that is a non negotiable for me is deadlines. And I know that that's that soft skill meeting deadlines consistently. And you know what I mean? So I really liked the way that you laid all that out. And you mentioned that you have this kind of an a download format too. Is that correct? The checklist?

Rachel Pereyra
Yes, I do. So it is a workbook for the steps to building an intentional team and through it will go through the process. And then I will take you through listing out like what you love doing what's been on your shooting list more than three days, figuring out who's currently on your team, and it can be very eye opening. One of the first things that I do when I come on to someone's team, especially in a retainer capacity. And I tell them to pull up the to do list all 16 pages, and we're going to go through and I will I record it the zoom and I pull up my pen and paper and I manually write down everything on their to do list and I show them how many times I have the same thing written down five times. You'd be maybe you wouldn't be surprised. But it does. It happens a lot. And it can be very overwhelming. And I find that when you're hiring sometimes do you see it like you, because you've written it down five times. So it's really important to you. So you feel like you need to hire for that first. But that's not always the case. And so really looking at what's on your actual to do list what you're actually needing to do in your business. And writing those down first,

Alyson Lex
I, one of the things that I started doing just last week is a to done list. So I have my to do list on a legal pad. And then on a separate legal pad, I just jot down, I don't do the time study or anything, but I just jot down the tasks that I've done. And I see where things are. And so that's, that's my little trick, but I'm gonna go grab this workbook, because that sounds amazing. We have the link, we will put it on our show notes page at System to thrive.com. But if you're listening, you can go to mastermind business services.com slash genuine dash hiring. And that is the link that you gave us. And I know that while we're there, we can also check out all of the stuff that you do and how you serve. And that's something I'm going to check out too, because I need you in my world.

Jennie Wright
Yeah, Rachel, we need more Rachel. I mean, we've really, we've really had a really great time talking to you. And we've been, you know, this is a longer obviously a longer episode. And it's longer for a reason. This topic is huge. A lot of people need it. A lot of people, you know, I was I started in this business as a VA. And then I went to an OPM, right. And then from OPM, then I started doing this strategy and the project management and the funnels and all that kind of stuff. But I came through that process. Right. And so I know from the other side, what this entails and how many people actually need the support and the help of having a truly valued team member and somebody who can really support their business. To that end, I think what you talked about today was really, really eye opening. It's really eye opening for Alison and I in a very, totally, what do you call it? self serving way. But it is. But it's also been incredibly valuable, because I think this is a lot of the problems that a lot of people are struggling with in their solopreneur in their entrepreneurial careers. So we just want to say a huge thanks for your time on doing this was a bit of a longer episode, and we know, but we really, really appreciate it. And if you haven't, please go check out Rachel, she's at mastermind business services.com. Grab that free workbook that Alison mentioned, that's mastermind services, sorry, mastermind business services.com genuine dash hiring. So it's forward slash genuine hiring, because those are great tools that she's got there. And then if you're listening to the podcast, and you're enjoying episodes like this, please do take a second to subscribe. If you don't, you're missing three episodes a week. Right? Which is why Alison and I need to be able to build a team. This is what we have for you. So come and check it out. And we'd love your feedback. please do leave us an honest review and let you let us know what you think. We will back and I'm struggling over my words that for some reason here but we will be back very soon answering another big question and thank you again, Rachel.

Alyson Lex
We appreciate you.

Rachel Pereyra
Thank you for having me.