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Well, hello and welcome to the Super Connector Show. I'm
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delighted to be joined by Corey Blumenfeld, who is the
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founder and CEO of a company called Blue Mosso. Corey's
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based in Miami, I believe, but his team.
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No, I'm in Playa del Carmen, actually, these days.
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Oh, okay.
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Mexico.
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All right. Sorry. Well, we'll go into that. But yes,
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Blue Mosso is a team of virtual assistants that are
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based in the Philippines who are are there to help
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founders grow through a range of different services. So yeah, Corey, um,
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thanks for joining. Tell us a bit more about what
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it is that you're doing through Bloom also.
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Yeah, Paul, appreciate you having me here and everyone listening
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in across the different platforms.
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Grateful to be here.
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Um, yeah, you know, one of the biggest challenges for
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us founders and entrepreneurs is we like to, to do everything. Um,
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for probably like 10 years, I felt like I was
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the only one that could get things done the.
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Way that I wanted it done.
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And, you know, it was a real impediment, you know,
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but you don't realize that while you're doing it. So nowadays,
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something I've wanted to sell for for myself is, you know,
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how I can take back my time.
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And that's what we focus on at Blue Moon.
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So giving founders, entrepreneurs, leaders, their time back so they
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can focus on what matters, whether that's growing the business.
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A lot of folks want to grow their business or
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having a life outside of the business because that's also
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really important, right?
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You know, we talked about this before.
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If your life was just fully focused on the business,
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you wouldn't get to do the amazing things like taking
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your son to explore colleges or universities this weekend. So
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super important, you know, something to think about as a
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founder of business. If you were to get sick tomorrow,
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you had the flu tomorrow, Would the business survive without you?
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Would you be able to take a vacation for two
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weeks and nothing fall apart? That's what we're solving for.
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We really want to give folks their time back.
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It's been a lot of fun.
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Awesome.
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Well, that really resonates with me. You can probably see
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I'm nodding a lot because I've had my business for
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10 and a half years now. So I've been self-employed
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and it's mostly me doing everything like i've brought people
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in as and when i've needed them to deliver specific
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things particularly around events um but it's usually been me
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doing most of the work until until there's just too
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much to do and then i bring people in extra
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capacity to particularly help on the on the ground delivery
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of events um and i have got a business partner
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now who um is a very successful entrepreneur angel investor
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great at what he does um very good on the
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commercial side of things and business development and sales and
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growth but it's still me doing most of the day-to-day
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work and it's it's not that i'm a perfect moment
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i was gonna say it's not that i'm a perfectionist
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it is just over the years i've thought it's quicker
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and easier for me to just do it than to
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find someone else that can do it and take the
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time to show someone how to do it or train
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them up to do it or even the cost of
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paying someone else to do it But you do end
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up just doing too much. And you end up just
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constantly on the grind. So I do like the sound
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of what you're doing. And I need to have a
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longer chat with you after this about what you're doing.
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This is one of the biggest misconceptions, right? A lot
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of folks think, well, I'm the only one that can
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be doing this.
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It's a lot faster.
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And yeah, maybe at first it is. Maybe at first
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it is. But think about if you don't do it, right?
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Can the business grow past you, right? You can only
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handle a certain amount. And if you're looking for something
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to grow a little bigger, right, it can only grow
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as big as you can grow in that role. And so,
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you know, I know for a lot of folks, this
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is a challenge in a lot of areas, right? We
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tend to look at things as an expense, just human nature.
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You know, what does this cost to me versus what
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is the ROI? I don't want to train people. I
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hear that all the time. You know, our model solves
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for that because we're a managed service and we do
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a lot of the onboarding and training. But, you know,
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there is an upfront investment when it comes to delegating.
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And a lot of folks are kind of, you know,
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it feels like an expense. And, you know, one of
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the most amazing things when you can get past that, right,
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when everything's moving and you train that first person, right,
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then they become the trainer. then they become the ones
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bringing on more individuals, you know, and if you can
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find a way to continuously.
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Grow your business, right. It starts to add up. You
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start to scale this.
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And I think that's the beauty in, in really prioritizing
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and investing in delegation.
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So yeah, that used to be my mindset. It's like,
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I should just do this. I should just do this.
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Right.
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Rather than training folks because we'll get done faster. That's
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just usually, you know, in the beginning, right. You spend,
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maybe you want to give it, give it a timeframe.
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You want to say like in 30 days, I'm going
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to hand this off, but, but you build it to
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delegate and knowing that it's not going to be perfect
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to start. But yeah, I've been in your position many times.
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I still find myself doing certain work where I'm like,
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can't hand this off to anyone.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Well also, I suppose I'm in a quite an interesting
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position because I've obviously got my business, but I spend
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a lot of time advising other people on how to
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start and grow businesses as well. So I regularly get
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people saying, or do you know anyone that can help
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with this? Or, Have you got any recommendations on services
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we could use or technology we could use? This is
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good to know what you're offering because I can recommend
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it to people whether I use it or not. Even
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on Friday, I was at an event where a lady
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who's got a very good outsourced in-house recruitment company. Companies
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bring them in to represent them as they're like hr
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or recruitment function but they'll so they'll like act on
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their behalf at events or they'll they'll do the onboarding
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and whatever and she was saying um oh we've got
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so much work on at the moment we're struggling to
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keep up with it and can you recommend some ways
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so i did tell her about you guys and um
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and she was she was interested but she was also
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um thinking around the technology route. It's like, how do
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we use technology to just free up some time? But
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what I've found is I use a lot of technology
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and lots of software and apps and SaaS software, which
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is great. But by freeing up some of my time
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in automation and some areas, it just means I end
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up doing more work.
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Exactly.
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It's never ended.
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No, that's the great thing, right?
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We talk about this a lot internally.
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I write about this a lot. You implement these tools,
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it builds capacity or it gives more work. I always
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recommend automate what you can. That work that can be automated,
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humans don't enjoy this much. But a lot of times
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it creates more work or it gives you more capacity.
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It's AI, it's automations plus the right humans. It's exciting
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because it's just another tool to help us scale right
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help us grow our business and so you know it's
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a mix it's find the right tools for example i'm
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building out i built out this automated invoice collector tool
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it used to be human doing it you know it's
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built out now but we still need someone on top
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of it to make sure it's working to improve it
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to to work out all all the kinks like i
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think there's this mindset now where a lot of folks
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feel like you can automate all of your problems away
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And maybe some of it is true, but like you're saying,
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when we're able to do more, there's more work. If
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we add capacity and we're able to go from 10
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to 15 clients, that's more clients to support.
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And so.
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When I think of what humans want, humans want human experiences.
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So it's use the tools where you can and then
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figure out where to.
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We're humans necessary. Now, obviously in every case, maybe a
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human isn't required, but yeah, this is the fun part
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of living in today. We think that, you know, we
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can automate a hundred percent of things. There are certain
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businesses that can, but a lot of times it just
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adds more work because we're able to do more.
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Yeah. It's not like I bought a bed, loads of,
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loads of things and I'm just sat back doing nothing.
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If anything, I'm just, I'm enjoying it, so I'm doing
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more because I want to do more. But even so,
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I regularly have to sort of stop myself and say,
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am I actually producing or am I polishing? Like I'm
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spending a lot of time just sort of looking at
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things and like looking at analytics and sort of polishing
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it without actually creating anything new. So yeah, so that's,
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I think that's, when there's so much you could do,
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it's easy to fall into that trap. But if you
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had a team around you, you wouldn't do that so much.
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You would, because you would have other people doing things
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for you or you'd be doing things for them and
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you'd be working more collaboratively. It's easy to just, not
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waste your days, but you can spend a lot of
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time doing, you think yeah but you're not actually yeah.
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It all comes down having clear goals and priorities right
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and then the right team so if you have clear
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goals clear priorities it makes a lot easier to go
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back and and kind of check with yourself is this
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where my time needs to be spent if you have
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the right team in front of you you have individuals
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that are able to to check in with you, right?
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To provide you feedback. Hey, you know what, Corey, I
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have this covered. Hey, Paul, you know, this is something
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I own, right?
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You're fine.
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Focus on what you have listed down. And sometimes it's
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best to just write down these things. For me, you know,
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there are certain things that I'm not going to touch.
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My focus is on sales. It's on high-level operations, sales
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and marketing, and, you know, between those two things, right?
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Sales also includes speaking like this. You know, if it's
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something related to customer success, I'll think about it operationally,
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how it works, but we have someone on our team
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that owns customer success. And so if she comes to
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me with a question, I can provide feedback and guidance,
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but my response is you own this. I trust you
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to make the decision. Someone comes to me about hiring
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and recruiting. I built out the system with them. But
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now I want them to enhance it. I want them
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to get better. If they come to me, what are
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your thoughts? I'm like, well, what are your thoughts?
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You own this.
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I trust you to make the decision. But that's because
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it's not one of the things that I own. It's
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a priority of the business, but it's not one of
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my priorities. Obviously, I want it to get better. But
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I know that if someone can become an expert in it,
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I can't be an expert in everything. And so I
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think building a business, when you think about what people
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are really purchasing themselves, They're purchasing expertise, especially in the
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service space. And so when I think about it, this
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is not my area of expertise, not my area of
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my priority because I can't be an expert. I don't
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have the time to spend doing all of this right
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now to actually researching it, making it better every single day.
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I can think of the high-level structure because that's what
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I think a good founder does. We think of things,
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we're more generalist, high-level, but then I delegate the expertise
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to another individual person And then their one job, right,
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their one focus area becomes being an expert in that space.
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And that's kind of how I've shifted my mindset from
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going from task work, because a lot of the work
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we were doing is here's a task, here's a task
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handing off a task. That's what automations are great for,
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repetitive tasks, to thinking of, you know, a whole area.
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And improving it, owning an outcome.
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And so, you know, I have individuals that own customer success, recruiting,
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talent acquisition from start to finish. You know, I have
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someone helping me with operations. I have someone helping me
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with marketing, right? And then when they need me, they
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come to me, but I'm not owning that because I
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can't be the expert in all of those things.
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A business has so many moving pieces, as you know.
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Yeah, yeah. I think that is the shift, isn't it?
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The shift of mindset from being maybe a freelancer or
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a solo business owner to becoming a proper business.
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I mean, you can.
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I don't mean... even if you're a freelancer, it's still
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a business, but like a bit, a business is bigger
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than just the individual that's, that can grow, um, beyond
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the founder. And, um, you do see that, or I
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still see that a lot with businesses that have been
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around a long time and they're successful, but the business owner,
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the founder is still too involved in the day-to-day delivery
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of the work. And, um, they, they are the bottleneck.
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It can't grow beyond that. And I was actually at
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another event last week, which is, um, all about funding
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and investment. And one of the companies they've gone from
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being an agency, like a web development app development agency
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to being a product company. They've actually developed a product
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for one client, which has then become a big, big
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product that other people want. And the, and the founder,
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he said that when, when they got investment, he had
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to change his whole way of thinking and, He's still
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guilty of, he tries to get involved in too many things.
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He's a tinkerer. That's the way he described himself. He said,
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I sort of meddle and I get involved in things
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that I've been told that just keep away, like just
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leave us to get on with the business.
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That's the best thing.
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Yeah. Your job is to be out there doing the
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business development, the sales, the growth, the strategy of the company.
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And you've already got a team to focus on the delivery.
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So just get out of the way. And yeah, But
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he needed a chairman to come in or the investors
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come in and tell him to do that. So, yeah.
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So do you find that a lot? Is that the
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people that come to you who are at that point,
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would you say? Or do they come to you sooner?
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Well, I want to go back to something you were saying, right?
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I think, you know, consumers, businesses or, you know, potential customers,
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what do they expect now? we expect an enterprise service delivery.
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What do I mean by that? Well, the tools that
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large enterprises had used to be sort of reach for
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most businesses.
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Especially the solopreneurs.
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And now we all have access to the automations, the
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ability to build systems, right? These aren't out of reach anymore.
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These tools have been democratized. And so, you know, if
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you think about it, it's One of the feelings of
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someone who is an expert or a business that feels
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like they have their stuff together, it's an individual or
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a business that has the ability to implement systems. And
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I think that is super important. So this comes back
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to what you're saying. What does an enterprise look like?
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In most cases, you think you're talking to the CEO
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or working directly with the CEO. The company is way
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too big for that. A company with a poor... customer
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experience or customer service, that won't happen in an enterprise.
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And it does happen, right? And what happens to those businesses?
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They don't succeed, right? The market dictates that. And so
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I think, you know, nowadays, what do consumers, do businesses
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want when they're making a buying decision? They want to
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see that you have these systems in place, that you
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have this business in place, that you feel like you're
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providing this enterprise level service.
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But when do most folks come to us, right?
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It's, so the ones that feel forced, I'd be like,
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I actually don't know if those are the right individuals.
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It has the ones that are most successful are the
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ones that, um, are ready to delegate that are ready
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to implement these systems. Uh, if you're not ready, that's
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the hardest thing. You'll never hand off anything. You know,
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we work with a lot of small businesses, a lot
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of solopreneurs and the ones that are successful are the
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ones that are able to kind of like hand off that,
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you know, their mindset is I'm ready to delegate the
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ones who are feeling forced.
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Those are the ones that are usually not as successful, right?
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You know, they, they come to us and they're like,
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I need to, I know I need to be delegating,
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but the real question is, are you ready to delegate?
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And it, you know, you may not know you need
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to delegate, but you also, if you're not ready to
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hand things off, if you're not ready to, to train,
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or support someone, it can be challenging. Now, we take
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care of it, as I mentioned. We have a managed service,
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so we take care of the onboarding. We take care
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of the ongoing success of the virtual talent and the
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virtual assistants. But if you feel forced to do it,
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but you're still in the weeds, it's not going to
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work for you. You really have to be willing to
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give it time. And obviously, we can help you and
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can provide you with resources in it.
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To delegate better. But I would say it really is
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a mindset game.
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So, you know, we work with founders and business.
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Owners and leaders that, you know, where are they?
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Okay, so they've gone through like five virtual assistants and
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they haven't found the right match because that's super important.
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They just have never been able to match the right person.
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They've kind of like given up. Folks that have been
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ghosted by virtual assistants, folks that feel like You know,
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they have no time. They're doing everything themselves. You know,
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there's all these different use cases, but for the most part,
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they're ready. You know, they've either seen what bad looks
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like or they haven't given it a try, but they
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know they need to do something different and they're willing
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to hand stuff off. Yes, they have a particular thing
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in place, but they they're looking to build out their
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systems or they have the systems in place they just
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need support managing the person because a lot of times
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they don't have the time to manage the individual and
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so you know someone that's very like doing everything themselves
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and we sense that they might not be able to
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let go that's sometimes a challenge and sometimes we have
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to say no to that.
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Yeah yeah i do feel like i'm on the verge
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because i'm i'm still i suppose i'm I still enjoy
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most of what I do. I think that's the thing
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is I enjoy trying like most of what I do,
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but there's definitely aspects of what I do where I'm like,
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I would be, I do need other people around me now.
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I do need one or two people. to support me
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in this because sometimes I'm slow to respond to messages
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or in particular emails like that is something that I
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I'm not as fast at responding to messages sometimes as
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I as I could be or should be because because
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I'm so busy doing all the other things. I've got
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messages coming from too many channels, which is a good
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thing in that there's so much interest.
378
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Yeah.
379
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It's nice that I've got so many people interested in
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what I'm doing, but it means that I'm not providing it.
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I don't think I'm providing a great of, for some people,
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if I'm taking a couple of days or even long,
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like longer, uh, to, to respond to a message and
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things have, there's a risk of things being missed that, uh,
385
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So yeah, that's, I'm talking myself into being your client.
386
00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:43.720
But this is, this is a great, like for me,
387
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like I can tell you my process. Okay.
388
00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:49.579
So you've already seen it. Um, you know, I have
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a system in place for emails for myself.
390
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I use quad, right.
391
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We talked about AI building out animations every day. It goes,
392
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it tells me, helps me write the drafts, but then
393
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there's the project planning piece, right?
394
00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:04.220
You met Gia. She's amazing. She's watching on sub stack.
395
00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:04.799
So Hey Gia.
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Um, You know, and the human doesn't necessarily need, we have,
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and it depends on the system, right? But for me,
398
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I've built out a system through Claude that helps me
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draft and generate the email. And it always will introduce
400
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to Gia, right? The next step is, okay, sends out
401
00:21:24.430 --> 00:21:27.490
the draft, summarizes the call. Next, it sends to Gia,
402
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who's going to help me coordinate, help me plan with
403
00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:33.119
the individual, which you went through, right? And Gia was
404
00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:36.259
messaging you, staying on top of things. And that's kind
405
00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:38.880
of how I think about it, right? How do you
406
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:42.119
augment where humans are needed? So for my emails every day,
407
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at the end of the day, come on, there's graphs there.
408
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Depending on the person that needs to be introduced to,
409
00:21:48.009 --> 00:21:50.750
if it's a sales email, we introduce the executive team.
410
00:21:50.789 --> 00:21:53.549
I get them on because I have another person. And
411
00:21:53.589 --> 00:21:56.789
so usually in order for me to stay on top
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of things, there's always the right person that's always brought in.
413
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So the first draft.
414
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Of getting back to people, thanking them for their day, yeah,
415
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that's me.
416
00:22:06.869 --> 00:22:08.809
I usually spend my evenings doing that.
417
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And the next step is bringing the human to project
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managers to make sure it gets over the finish line,
419
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to show them what it's like to work. That's the
420
00:22:18.869 --> 00:22:20.750
most important thing, and maybe this is just for me,
421
00:22:20.829 --> 00:22:23.930
but I want them to see how much easier life
422
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is having someone like Jia. She just said hi, so
423
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Jia is joining in.
424
00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:29.880
Hi, Jia.
425
00:22:30.579 --> 00:22:30.799
Right?
426
00:22:32.140 --> 00:22:35.140
I want them to see how easy it is to
427
00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:37.980
work with a virtual assistant. Right? So as I told you,
428
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I use an automation. Completely automated, the first message. I
429
00:22:42.089 --> 00:22:43.549
get an update every day of who I need to
430
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be following up with. And then from there, I usually
431
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make the introduction. I hand it off because I want
432
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to keep that relationship going.
433
00:22:52.430 --> 00:22:53.109
Mm-hmm.
434
00:22:54.859 --> 00:22:58.619
Yeah. Yeah. So from, from my end, yeah, it was seamless.
435
00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:00.529
It was, you know, I had the, had the inquiry
436
00:23:00.589 --> 00:23:04.569
came in about the podcast. It did take me a
437
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little while to read it because I've actually got about
438
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20 emails at the moment, like the people wanting to
439
00:23:11.930 --> 00:23:14.630
be on the podcast, which is, so I'm guessing everyone,
440
00:23:14.750 --> 00:23:17.549
other people are using automations as well, which is, which
441
00:23:17.630 --> 00:23:20.880
is good. And that's in the last couple of months,
442
00:23:20.900 --> 00:23:23.960
I've probably about had 50, 60 people to be honest. So,
443
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which is a good sign that people are picking up
444
00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:29.480
on it and people are wanting to be on it.
445
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But it does take a bit of time for me
446
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to do it and make a decision about, is this
447
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a good fit for me and for them? And do
448
00:23:37.789 --> 00:23:39.269
I want to do this? And when am I going
449
00:23:39.289 --> 00:23:42.089
to do it sort of thing? But yeah, once I
450
00:23:42.150 --> 00:23:44.170
read it, I was like, yeah, this sounds really interesting
451
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to me and to people in my network. And when
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00:23:48.349 --> 00:23:51.269
I responded, yeah, like you say, got a response.
453
00:23:51.309 --> 00:23:54.359
From what you're doing, A lot of moving pieces, a
454
00:23:54.380 --> 00:23:55.880
lot of plannings. You need to pick the show date.
455
00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:01.569
You need to schedule between multiple parties. If you're doing
456
00:24:01.609 --> 00:24:03.710
it live, kind of like what we're doing, getting.
457
00:24:04.170 --> 00:24:07.170
The RTMP code.
458
00:24:07.190 --> 00:24:12.069
Then after, I'm sure, you're scheduling to get live, to
459
00:24:12.150 --> 00:24:15.339
send it to the... Yes, there's a lot of project
460
00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:18.519
management involved with that process. I do a lot of
461
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lives as well. I see then that's kind of how
462
00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:25.359
the process works for us. So I know how much
463
00:24:25.420 --> 00:24:27.920
work it is. It's not just about responding to an email.
464
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In your case, I get it because you can't just
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respond back and automate it. You need to actually kind
466
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of see how everything's moving and so needs to be
467
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in charge of your calendar. And, you know, you're going
468
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to get questions from an individual. Now, a lot of it,
469
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:44.359
some of it can be automated, right? Like I said,
470
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the drafts can be automated, but then it's like the planning,
471
00:24:46.680 --> 00:24:48.319
the human experience, right?
472
00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:51.329
People, especially for a podcast.
473
00:24:51.349 --> 00:24:53.539
Cause at least what I've seen, they want to feel
474
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like they're dealing with a real human because it means
475
00:24:57.579 --> 00:24:58.640
there is meaning behind that.
476
00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:03.539
So yeah, I can imagine, right. How many inquiries you get?
477
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:06.250
Cause I started a podcast for a bit and I
478
00:25:06.269 --> 00:25:08.170
was getting inquiries for it as well.
479
00:25:08.890 --> 00:25:11.630
Um, and just became too much for me. Yeah.
480
00:25:11.650 --> 00:25:13.470
It's definitely ramped up in the last couple of months
481
00:25:14.230 --> 00:25:16.960
and in the, the quality of the guests is, is
482
00:25:17.019 --> 00:25:20.980
really high. You know, it's like, When I'm looking, when
483
00:25:21.019 --> 00:25:23.440
I started doing it in 2019, it was mostly just
484
00:25:23.460 --> 00:25:25.920
people in my network in the northeast of England. And
485
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:31.420
then with some people from further afield, then I've started
486
00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:33.180
to have more guests from across the whole of the
487
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:38.289
UK and overseas. So a lot in the US, North America, Asia,
488
00:25:39.180 --> 00:25:43.990
some in the Middle East as well. But yeah, it's cool.
489
00:25:44.029 --> 00:25:47.069
It's definitely gone more. national international in in the last
490
00:25:47.089 --> 00:25:50.970
couple of months which which i'm enjoying getting different perspectives
491
00:25:51.089 --> 00:25:56.029
from from other people who are um but also common
492
00:25:56.390 --> 00:26:01.019
common like problems and challenges and thoughts all around the
493
00:26:01.059 --> 00:26:05.519
world which which is which is great um but yeah
494
00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:08.859
when you say the actual delivery of the podcast needs
495
00:26:08.900 --> 00:26:11.609
to be me doing this like yeah part of the
496
00:26:11.630 --> 00:26:14.349
appeal but a lot of the other stuff behind the
497
00:26:14.369 --> 00:26:15.490
scenes doesn't need to be me.
498
00:26:16.410 --> 00:26:20.869
Yeah, of course. Of course. For me, it's funny.
499
00:26:21.990 --> 00:26:25.460
My team knows that because it's one of my priorities,
500
00:26:25.660 --> 00:26:28.039
I have to be seen for the business, at least
501
00:26:28.059 --> 00:26:28.720
at this point.
502
00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:32.900
That's one of my roles. It's to market the business,
503
00:26:32.940 --> 00:26:33.740
to tell our story.
504
00:26:36.309 --> 00:26:42.190
They're constantly looking for opportunities for me to speak. They're
505
00:26:42.210 --> 00:26:46.309
constantly helping me plan live conversations. I'm doing a lot
506
00:26:46.329 --> 00:26:49.089
of lives these days just because I feel like humans
507
00:26:49.190 --> 00:26:52.670
crave real authentic human experiences.
508
00:26:52.710 --> 00:26:53.849
And I think live's the way to go.
509
00:26:53.910 --> 00:26:57.029
But if I was to manage all these things, it
510
00:26:57.089 --> 00:26:58.869
just would take me away from the other work that
511
00:26:58.910 --> 00:27:02.289
I have prioritized. So, you know, I'm willing to make
512
00:27:02.329 --> 00:27:06.029
myself available. And I've told this to the team, right?
513
00:27:06.170 --> 00:27:08.450
Like my priority is to grow this so we can
514
00:27:08.490 --> 00:27:10.710
support them. So they know that you know, they can
515
00:27:10.730 --> 00:27:13.430
look for opportunities, they can pencil and they know exactly,
516
00:27:13.509 --> 00:27:16.369
like I've made it very clear what kind of opportunities
517
00:27:16.410 --> 00:27:18.150
we're looking for. We're also learning on the go. So,
518
00:27:18.509 --> 00:27:19.829
you know, as I told you, I'm not an expert
519
00:27:19.869 --> 00:27:21.910
and I'm learning about this too. So it's like, who
520
00:27:21.930 --> 00:27:26.410
do we speak to? How do we build out the topics?
521
00:27:26.450 --> 00:27:27.990
How do we create the show notes? All of these
522
00:27:28.059 --> 00:27:31.400
different things. But I'm not responsible for any of that.
523
00:27:31.660 --> 00:27:33.700
I don't have the time to do that. There's other
524
00:27:33.740 --> 00:27:35.859
things that I need to focus on, but it's really
525
00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:39.420
important that I do speak. And so the speaking I own,
526
00:27:40.380 --> 00:27:43.660
everything else I've handed off. I even have my team
527
00:27:43.700 --> 00:27:46.599
now searching for opportunities and all that stuff. Cause yeah,
528
00:27:46.619 --> 00:27:50.119
there are automated tools that do this, but you know, people,
529
00:27:50.900 --> 00:27:54.599
they feel very fake and it's also just sending it
530
00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:59.710
out to everyone. So, you know, now, now my team
531
00:27:59.769 --> 00:28:02.150
owns that for me. I've completely handed it off except
532
00:28:02.190 --> 00:28:05.529
the speaking, speaking, you know, it's, it still takes time,
533
00:28:05.609 --> 00:28:08.529
but really what takes a lot of time is behind
534
00:28:08.569 --> 00:28:12.589
the scenes. It's like coordinating all this stuff, booking dates,
535
00:28:12.670 --> 00:28:14.529
making sure everything works for everyone. We're starting to do
536
00:28:14.589 --> 00:28:18.470
panels now as well. I find panel conversations work really well.
537
00:28:19.609 --> 00:28:23.339
Trying to coordinate multiple people's calendars, never easy, never easy.
538
00:28:23.390 --> 00:28:27.359
So yeah, it's a lot of fun, but I wouldn't
539
00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:30.380
be able to do this without the team, the support
540
00:28:31.099 --> 00:28:32.700
of my virtual assistants.
541
00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:37.940
Yeah, awesome. So just tell me a bit more, like if.
542
00:28:40.170 --> 00:28:44.460
If me or someone watching this or anyone is interested
543
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:46.980
in working with you, what would happen next? What would
544
00:28:47.019 --> 00:28:49.660
be the first step? What would the process be?
545
00:28:51.180 --> 00:28:54.619
This, I'd say, is the most important part of the process, right?
546
00:28:56.019 --> 00:28:57.079
Where a lot of us miss.
547
00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:00.740
It doesn't matter if you're hiring someone that's not virtual.
548
00:29:01.910 --> 00:29:05.650
It all comes down to the match, finding the right person.
549
00:29:06.329 --> 00:29:08.660
So that is the first part of our process. It's
550
00:29:08.700 --> 00:29:13.930
really understanding, Paul, you know, even for me, what does
551
00:29:13.990 --> 00:29:19.089
the right fit look like for you? Skill set's obviously important.
552
00:29:19.329 --> 00:29:21.269
A lot of folks in this space, a lot of
553
00:29:21.309 --> 00:29:24.650
businesses will focus on just skill set alone. There's an individual,
554
00:29:24.690 --> 00:29:27.009
they have the skill set. Therefore, this is the right
555
00:29:27.049 --> 00:29:29.829
person for you, Paul. And we want to do it quick, right?
556
00:29:29.930 --> 00:29:32.410
For us, we don't think about rushing it. We really
557
00:29:32.430 --> 00:29:34.690
think about what does the right fit look like for you?
558
00:29:35.579 --> 00:29:39.730
So what does that mean? Skill set's important, but that's not...
559
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:43.519
the only thing. We're looking at personality type. We're looking
560
00:29:43.539 --> 00:29:46.720
at communication style. We're looking at work style. These things
561
00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:49.289
need to be there for this individual to be the
562
00:29:49.329 --> 00:29:55.109
right fit. They need to be able to talk the
563
00:29:55.150 --> 00:29:57.670
way you want them to talk. If this person's very relaxed,
564
00:29:57.710 --> 00:29:59.250
and going back to what you were saying, that high
565
00:30:00.210 --> 00:30:04.910
Type A entrepreneur that likes to do everything themselves. How
566
00:30:04.930 --> 00:30:07.910
do you think they'd vibe with someone that's just very relaxed?
567
00:30:08.039 --> 00:30:09.859
They get the work done, but they're just very relaxed.
568
00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:11.640
It wouldn't work. It doesn't matter if they have the
569
00:30:11.660 --> 00:30:12.839
skill set. It just wouldn't work.
570
00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:15.279
This person needs to be like, I got it done.
571
00:30:15.559 --> 00:30:17.700
You know, ensuring them that they're on top of things,
572
00:30:17.779 --> 00:30:19.920
checking in with them, telling them how they're doing, like
573
00:30:20.039 --> 00:30:20.680
showing them the way.
574
00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:23.329
So first part, we start with a match. Okay.
575
00:30:23.369 --> 00:30:25.690
So we work with you to understand who's going to
576
00:30:25.730 --> 00:30:29.619
be the right fit. The second piece, okay, we found
577
00:30:29.660 --> 00:30:32.200
this individual. We've gone through the process. Now we need
578
00:30:32.220 --> 00:30:34.319
to think about setting this person up for success. This
579
00:30:34.359 --> 00:30:36.700
is where a lot of folks go wrong after, right?
580
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:42.500
So you found the virtual assistant, but, you know, a
581
00:30:42.529 --> 00:30:44.690
lot of, I don't have time to build out SOPs.
582
00:30:44.750 --> 00:30:46.529
I don't have time to onboard a person. I don't
583
00:30:46.549 --> 00:30:49.509
have time to manage them and ensure they're successful.
584
00:30:49.990 --> 00:30:51.809
This is another area where we see.
585
00:30:53.490 --> 00:30:57.210
A lot of failure when working with someone where folks
586
00:30:57.250 --> 00:31:00.700
are like, I could just do this myself faster, right? Yeah,
587
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.539
you're onboarding a person. It's not going to be perfect
588
00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:05.579
to start. But we come in and we help with that. Now,
589
00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:09.279
the third part. Okay, so we found someone who's the
590
00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:13.460
right fit. We set them up for success. This is
591
00:31:13.509 --> 00:31:19.430
especially for small business owners and solopreneurs and leaders. Now
592
00:31:19.450 --> 00:31:22.309
you actually have to dedicate time to managing them. Now
593
00:31:22.329 --> 00:31:25.049
we talked about the enterprise level experience. Enterprise, what is
594
00:31:25.089 --> 00:31:28.049
enterprise going to do? They have managers in place. whose
595
00:31:28.349 --> 00:31:31.069
sole job is to manage teams, to manage people, that
596
00:31:31.109 --> 00:31:34.029
doesn't just go away. Yes, you can bring on someone
597
00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:37.380
who there are outliers and there's individuals that need no
598
00:31:37.420 --> 00:31:40.480
management at all. But in the majority of cases, that's
599
00:31:40.740 --> 00:31:44.519
not true. And so we then provide ongoing support. We
600
00:31:44.539 --> 00:31:47.730
provide individuals to ensure this person is successful, to provide
601
00:31:47.750 --> 00:31:50.430
them feedback, to constantly provide them in the right direction.
602
00:31:50.470 --> 00:31:52.549
You need upskilling. There are new tools that are being
603
00:31:52.589 --> 00:31:55.569
developed every single day. tools that I don't have time
604
00:31:55.609 --> 00:31:57.470
to stay on top of, tools that you don't have
605
00:31:57.509 --> 00:31:59.609
time to stay on top of. If we're talking about automations,
606
00:31:59.670 --> 00:32:01.269
how do we improve this stuff? How do we build
607
00:32:01.289 --> 00:32:06.359
a better process? And this all comes with ongoing support,
608
00:32:06.740 --> 00:32:09.380
ongoing guidance. And as a founder, when you feel like
609
00:32:09.420 --> 00:32:12.779
you don't have time to do that, you kind of
610
00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:16.259
can fall behind as well. So we provide that ongoing
611
00:32:16.380 --> 00:32:19.059
support to ensure that this individual is important.
612
00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:21.000
So that's the entire process.
613
00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:24.980
Obviously there's step-by-step in terms of how that happens, but
614
00:32:25.660 --> 00:32:28.640
I don't want to bore you or your audience. It's
615
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.029
too nitty gritty, but a high level, those, I think
616
00:32:31.069 --> 00:32:33.109
those are the three most important things to think about
617
00:32:33.490 --> 00:32:36.309
right fit, how to actually set the person up for
618
00:32:36.329 --> 00:32:39.190
success and then how to continue that success and manage them.
619
00:32:40.230 --> 00:32:42.789
Okay. Very good. Well, I encourage people to take a
620
00:32:42.809 --> 00:32:46.380
look on your website. So it's blue Mosul.com where they
621
00:32:46.400 --> 00:32:50.380
can find out a bit more about it. Um, It's
622
00:32:50.420 --> 00:32:55.519
like the expression catch 22. Is that the right expression?
623
00:32:56.440 --> 00:32:58.420
You know you haven't got time, so you need to
624
00:32:58.460 --> 00:33:00.970
free up some time or you need to bring someone
625
00:33:01.009 --> 00:33:02.950
in to free up some time, but you haven't got
626
00:33:02.970 --> 00:33:06.769
the time to onboard them or train them up, but
627
00:33:06.809 --> 00:33:08.289
that's exactly what you need to do.
628
00:33:10.190 --> 00:33:12.140
That's where we come in, right?
629
00:33:12.579 --> 00:33:14.359
Look, everything takes a little work to do well.
630
00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:18.859
So I get it. But if you don't start, it
631
00:33:18.880 --> 00:33:19.519
just gets harder.
632
00:33:19.940 --> 00:33:27.970
If you're waiting to a point where you're super stressed,
633
00:33:29.210 --> 00:33:32.630
it's make or break, you might have waited too long. Now,
634
00:33:33.130 --> 00:33:35.369
I don't like to say that, but it's true. Usually,
635
00:33:36.910 --> 00:33:43.039
it's like everything, the best type, it's being preventative, health preventative.
636
00:33:43.359 --> 00:33:45.579
So it's like, how do you prevent? Obviously, you don't
637
00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:48.779
need to think about scaling if you don't have any clients.
638
00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:50.619
Right. So that might be too early.
639
00:33:50.700 --> 00:33:54.769
But, you know, as you're starting to grow, as you're
640
00:33:54.789 --> 00:33:57.589
starting to develop a reoccurring model or like it's very
641
00:33:57.650 --> 00:33:58.769
clear what your offer is.
642
00:33:58.789 --> 00:34:00.049
Yeah, it makes sense.
643
00:34:00.349 --> 00:34:02.769
It makes sense to start thinking about delegation if you
644
00:34:02.849 --> 00:34:03.890
are an ambitious person.
645
00:34:03.930 --> 00:34:04.049
Right.
646
00:34:04.089 --> 00:34:05.509
And I think a lot of the folks listening in
647
00:34:05.549 --> 00:34:08.230
are are super ambitious. That's why we get into entrepreneurship.
648
00:34:09.789 --> 00:34:12.809
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was looking on, I think it
649
00:34:12.829 --> 00:34:15.250
was on your LinkedIn page. I'm sure there's a lot
650
00:34:15.269 --> 00:34:17.510
more you can do, but just as like a summary,
651
00:34:17.650 --> 00:34:20.030
some of the things that your, your team can do,
652
00:34:20.090 --> 00:34:24.840
it's like social media supports, it's lead generation and outreach,
653
00:34:24.929 --> 00:34:29.900
it's general admin and delegation, it's ops and workflow management,
654
00:34:30.099 --> 00:34:40.920
content creation, repurposing, strategic engagement. It's finding other VAs as well. Yeah. That's, that's,
655
00:34:41.340 --> 00:34:42.860
I'm sure there's a lot more that you can do
656
00:34:42.940 --> 00:34:43.239
as well.
657
00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:46.610
Well, for us, you know, the way that we work
658
00:34:46.679 --> 00:34:49.670
is our specialty is setting the person up for finding
659
00:34:49.710 --> 00:34:52.469
the right person, setting the person up for success and
660
00:34:52.510 --> 00:34:56.070
managing them. They bring that person brings a skillset, right?
661
00:34:56.110 --> 00:34:58.610
As I told you, the skillset is very important and
662
00:34:58.650 --> 00:35:00.269
that's what we're looking for. Part of the match, but
663
00:35:00.829 --> 00:35:05.889
our specialty, what, what we're experts at is managing that individual,
664
00:35:05.949 --> 00:35:08.210
setting them up, finding them, setting them up for success
665
00:35:08.409 --> 00:35:09.670
and then keeping them successful.
666
00:35:10.150 --> 00:35:12.429
And so, we're not the.
667
00:35:12.469 --> 00:35:16.190
Ones doing the actual work, owning the product, the work.
668
00:35:16.309 --> 00:35:20.840
It's the individual that we're managing. So the reality is
669
00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:23.719
a business can come to us and say, hey, I
670
00:35:23.780 --> 00:35:24.800
need someone.
671
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:26.119
That can do X, Y, and Z.
672
00:35:26.900 --> 00:35:28.860
Our job is to go and then find that individual
673
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:33.679
and then support that individual. So the reality is, yes,
674
00:35:33.719 --> 00:35:36.429
there are many different things that we could do, but
675
00:35:36.449 --> 00:35:37.119
it's not us.
676
00:35:37.050 --> 00:35:39.769
Actually doing that. It's the right individual doing it for
677
00:35:39.829 --> 00:35:42.369
the company. the business.
678
00:35:44.159 --> 00:35:46.340
I think it's a well i do generally think it's
679
00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:49.079
a it's a great selling service that you're offering um
680
00:35:49.099 --> 00:35:52.940
i could totally see the appeal and uh well that's
681
00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:55.719
why i'm keen to do this so that so the
682
00:35:55.739 --> 00:35:58.960
more people know about it as well um because um
683
00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:03.760
yeah i mean going back to the fact that you've
684
00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:07.300
got a team that that you can tap into who
685
00:36:07.340 --> 00:36:10.840
can do this work that isn't just people in your
686
00:36:10.900 --> 00:36:15.269
immediate network. Because I see that as well. People say, oh,
687
00:36:15.329 --> 00:36:18.309
I need some support. Do you know anyone? Well, I
688
00:36:18.349 --> 00:36:22.130
might know someone, but I might know maybe three, four
689
00:36:22.789 --> 00:36:27.380
VAs or assistants, but they're already maxed out working with
690
00:36:27.409 --> 00:36:29.760
other people and they're just in the local area. Well,
691
00:36:29.980 --> 00:36:33.119
once they've gone, where are you going to go? And
692
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:36.900
where do you start? But the fact you're here offering
693
00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:40.739
this service that's, You've already got a large team to
694
00:36:40.780 --> 00:36:44.280
tap into, but you're always looking for new virtual assistants
695
00:36:44.340 --> 00:36:46.880
as well, aren't you? Yeah.
696
00:36:46.960 --> 00:36:48.480
This is one of the things that we see a
697
00:36:48.539 --> 00:36:53.570
lot of times, right? You know, especially in this space,
698
00:36:54.809 --> 00:36:56.789
when you go to someone, it's very hard to turn
699
00:36:56.829 --> 00:37:02.510
down work, even if someone's at capacity. You know, it's unfortunate,
700
00:37:02.690 --> 00:37:05.929
but it makes sense when you think about the work conditions, right?
701
00:37:06.050 --> 00:37:06.449
And so.
702
00:37:07.780 --> 00:37:11.639
For a lot of folks, I think referrals are the
703
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:15.340
best way to find someone. What I also like to
704
00:37:15.380 --> 00:37:17.280
teach folks, if they are going to look for a
705
00:37:17.340 --> 00:37:20.409
virtual assistant, it's asking the right questions first. What's your
706
00:37:20.449 --> 00:37:26.210
capacity look like? How many clients do you have? It happens.
707
00:37:26.349 --> 00:37:27.469
If you're thinking about.
708
00:37:27.489 --> 00:37:27.570
I.
709
00:37:29.750 --> 00:37:31.309
Like to also teach people how to find the right
710
00:37:31.329 --> 00:37:34.320
virtual assistant. I think it's really important to understand. If
711
00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:39.110
you're going and looking for someone and you're paying bare bones,
712
00:37:40.329 --> 00:37:42.389
they're gonna look for as many opportunities as they can.
713
00:37:42.699 --> 00:37:45.800
What we really focus on is how do we support individuals?
714
00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:48.619
How do we give them enough to live on? We
715
00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:50.280
also don't like to look at hourly work. So if
716
00:37:50.300 --> 00:37:52.199
you go in and you're looking for a virtual assistant
717
00:37:52.239 --> 00:37:54.699
and you say to them, okay, you got the referral,
718
00:37:54.719 --> 00:37:56.739
can you do an hour here or.
719
00:37:57.710 --> 00:37:58.429
Two hours here?
720
00:38:00.010 --> 00:38:04.010
There is, or ad hoc, the reality is most likely
721
00:38:04.050 --> 00:38:06.480
they're gonna take on other clients You're not going to
722
00:38:06.500 --> 00:38:08.239
be a priority. And so these are things you need
723
00:38:08.260 --> 00:38:12.019
to also look at when you are looking to find
724
00:38:12.059 --> 00:38:15.159
a virtual assistant, right? So if you're tapping into that
725
00:38:15.219 --> 00:38:18.679
network that your friend provided you, that's great. Just make
726
00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:21.219
sure you know what their capacity is, if they have
727
00:38:21.260 --> 00:38:26.019
other clients. If you're really looking for project-based work, that's okay.
728
00:38:26.519 --> 00:38:30.159
Hourly work can work in that case. But try not
729
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:33.769
to go to an individual and get into an argument
730
00:38:33.829 --> 00:38:36.840
based on time. that's why we moved away from that model.
731
00:38:37.300 --> 00:38:39.739
We don't like to think of things in terms of time.
732
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:44.380
Um, you know, we really want to.
733
00:38:43.860 --> 00:38:47.139
Think of things in terms of project costs or what
734
00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:49.400
is the monthly retainer? Uh, it just, it works better.
735
00:38:49.420 --> 00:38:50.610
It keeps people more motivated.
736
00:38:51.260 --> 00:38:54.369
Yeah, no, definitely. I think, I mean, I don't get
737
00:38:54.429 --> 00:38:57.030
it anymore, but definitely when I first started out in business,
738
00:38:57.190 --> 00:38:58.530
I used to hate it when people say, what's your
739
00:38:58.550 --> 00:39:02.849
hourly rate? It's like, well, I don't know. What's, what's
740
00:39:02.869 --> 00:39:06.599
your budget? You know, it's like, well, um, Because it
741
00:39:06.659 --> 00:39:10.480
never just takes the hour. It's always more to do
742
00:39:10.500 --> 00:39:10.780
it well.
743
00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:12.940
Yeah, and then people come to you and say, well,
744
00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:15.099
I could do this in less time. Or AI and
745
00:39:15.159 --> 00:39:17.090
all this stuff, it's like, it's not about the time.
746
00:39:17.449 --> 00:39:20.210
It's just we're trying to find a number to bill
747
00:39:20.309 --> 00:39:22.929
off of. So this has always been a struggle, I think,
748
00:39:22.949 --> 00:39:25.730
for a lot of businesses that that are in the
749
00:39:25.769 --> 00:39:29.570
service space um you know what else do we bill
750
00:39:29.610 --> 00:39:30.269
for our um.
751
00:39:32.030 --> 00:39:33.670
And it it it can.
752
00:39:34.889 --> 00:39:37.199
It can be a struggle and we've we've started to
753
00:39:37.280 --> 00:39:40.199
move away from it we haven't gone there fully just
754
00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:42.780
yet because we have our our older clients still on
755
00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:45.199
the model but you know we're moving to a place
756
00:39:45.340 --> 00:39:49.750
where we have a more consistent model in place. So,
757
00:39:49.760 --> 00:39:53.159
you know, if you are a service-based entrepreneur listening in,
758
00:39:53.840 --> 00:39:56.820
it's thinking about how to focus more on outcomes.
759
00:39:56.880 --> 00:39:58.050
That's really what we're focused on.
760
00:39:58.059 --> 00:40:02.119
It's like outcomes, not just a specific task, but these
761
00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:03.679
are the outcomes and you pay for outcomes.
762
00:40:05.610 --> 00:40:07.389
You're not paying for hourly.
763
00:40:07.989 --> 00:40:11.949
No. I don't know what it's like over, like, I
764
00:40:12.090 --> 00:40:13.949
know you grew up in Canada, didn't you?
765
00:40:14.150 --> 00:40:14.269
Yeah.
766
00:40:15.539 --> 00:40:18.360
I don't know what it's like over there, but definitely
767
00:40:18.860 --> 00:40:20.860
my dad's an accountant, right? So I know quite a
768
00:40:20.880 --> 00:40:23.739
lot about the accountancy profession, right? And I think even
769
00:40:23.780 --> 00:40:28.429
to this day, accountants record the work in 15 minutes
770
00:40:29.190 --> 00:40:31.949
time slots. So they'll do time sheets and they'll say,
771
00:40:31.989 --> 00:40:34.150
all right, I worked on this for 15 minutes of this.
772
00:40:34.789 --> 00:40:37.010
How do you, how can you do that? It's crazy.
773
00:40:37.030 --> 00:40:40.880
Then he would say, I mean, he's retired now. He'd
774
00:40:40.920 --> 00:40:45.420
say sometimes they were like, oh, we've been doing all
775
00:40:45.460 --> 00:40:47.480
this work, but we don't know who to bill it
776
00:40:47.500 --> 00:40:49.940
to or just bill it to that client because they've
777
00:40:49.960 --> 00:40:52.079
got loads of money in there and we'll be able
778
00:40:52.119 --> 00:40:55.489
to just sort of, they won't notice. So like even
779
00:40:55.510 --> 00:40:59.530
just going out for a network and a social event,
780
00:40:59.610 --> 00:41:03.289
who are you going to bill that to? It's crazy.
781
00:41:03.909 --> 00:41:06.110
Some people still work that way where it's like by
782
00:41:06.130 --> 00:41:11.480
the hour or 15 minute slots. And that's why most agencies...
783
00:41:11.780 --> 00:41:13.300
want to move away from that and they want to
784
00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:16.300
move more to productizing their services.
785
00:41:16.570 --> 00:41:19.610
I mean it's changing i just had a conversation on
786
00:41:19.650 --> 00:41:25.030
this right you know ai is changing the way the
787
00:41:25.050 --> 00:41:28.190
world works it is and i think one of the
788
00:41:28.230 --> 00:41:30.510
places where we'll see the biggest impact is with this
789
00:41:30.590 --> 00:41:35.250
model right because now everyone's just questioning what is an
790
00:41:35.269 --> 00:41:38.429
hour like how much time does it does it actually
791
00:41:38.500 --> 00:41:40.280
take to do something and you don't want to get
792
00:41:40.300 --> 00:41:40.780
into that.
793
00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:44.469
Argument it's it You can't win that argument. There's no
794
00:41:44.510 --> 00:41:45.429
way to win it, right?
795
00:41:45.590 --> 00:41:51.960
Like someone has a belief that something takes a lot shorter.
796
00:41:52.599 --> 00:41:56.880
So yeah, I think we're moving towards outcomes-based.
797
00:41:58.659 --> 00:42:01.940
You'll see this in different industries that the model, and
798
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:04.559
I was talking to a CPA about this as well.
799
00:42:07.030 --> 00:42:10.900
My theory is you're going to bring on people CPAs, lawyers,
800
00:42:11.340 --> 00:42:14.139
and they take on more of a customer service kind
801
00:42:14.179 --> 00:42:17.130
of space. They help explain things. They provide the human element.
802
00:42:17.909 --> 00:42:20.269
Maybe the work that they're doing doesn't take as long
803
00:42:20.309 --> 00:42:22.210
as they used to. And so the model may have
804
00:42:22.250 --> 00:42:26.329
to change to accommodate for that. But I completely agree
805
00:42:26.369 --> 00:42:27.949
with you. It's like you don't want to be in
806
00:42:27.969 --> 00:42:31.929
the time-based game anymore. We've started to move away from it.
807
00:42:34.630 --> 00:42:36.630
But we're not there just yet. I think a lot
808
00:42:36.650 --> 00:42:41.650
of businesses are realizing that you know, it makes sense
809
00:42:41.670 --> 00:42:44.289
to move away. It's not easy to do it overnight.
810
00:42:45.829 --> 00:42:49.250
Yeah. No, there's still, still a lot of people hourly rate,
811
00:42:49.449 --> 00:42:52.650
day rate, you know, definitely it's, it's difficult to, and
812
00:42:52.829 --> 00:42:56.010
it just comes down to their budget. A company has
813
00:42:56.050 --> 00:42:58.849
a budget set aside and what, you know, they try
814
00:42:58.869 --> 00:43:01.050
and squeeze out as much as it can on that.
815
00:43:01.789 --> 00:43:03.909
But it's definitely a better position to be in more
816
00:43:03.929 --> 00:43:10.300
of a solution selling outcomes based. It's like, like, this
817
00:43:10.360 --> 00:43:12.119
is how much it's going to cost. And we're going
818
00:43:12.139 --> 00:43:14.099
to give you, we're going to either make your money
819
00:43:14.139 --> 00:43:15.579
or we're going to save your money or we're going
820
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:18.420
to take stress away or we're going to make you
821
00:43:18.460 --> 00:43:22.800
look good or whatever, understanding what that client wants. Um,
822
00:43:23.559 --> 00:43:25.840
but it's usually those, those things that people are looking for,
823
00:43:25.900 --> 00:43:29.739
isn't it? It's usually saving money, sorry, saving time or
824
00:43:29.940 --> 00:43:33.119
saving money, making money or making themselves look better.
825
00:43:33.139 --> 00:43:38.480
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, But it's cool.
826
00:43:38.900 --> 00:43:42.340
You know, I'm excited for how business is changing. I
827
00:43:42.340 --> 00:43:44.559
know there's a lot of fear out there right now
828
00:43:44.679 --> 00:43:50.360
with AI, but I think it's never been easier to
829
00:43:50.429 --> 00:43:54.199
start a business these days. It's not easy, but easier.
830
00:43:54.219 --> 00:43:57.070
And we talked about this earlier on. The cost of
831
00:43:57.130 --> 00:44:01.889
starting a business has gone down, right? Your ability to
832
00:44:01.949 --> 00:44:04.610
outsource has been increased, right? Like you have the ability
833
00:44:04.670 --> 00:44:08.309
to outsource. You have the ability to use AI. uh
834
00:44:08.730 --> 00:44:12.489
now with that there comes more competition but it's also
835
00:44:12.769 --> 00:44:16.260
just a very exciting time that you can do this
836
00:44:16.920 --> 00:44:21.900
what was once unreachable by many folks is now reachable
837
00:44:21.960 --> 00:44:24.380
there's social media to market your business like there's all
838
00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:26.420
these different channels there that just make it so much
839
00:44:26.500 --> 00:44:29.659
easier to to start and i'm when i say easy
840
00:44:29.980 --> 00:44:32.800
in terms of the startup costs not easy in making
841
00:44:32.840 --> 00:44:35.820
a successful business so It is a fun time, I think,
842
00:44:35.860 --> 00:44:39.360
to be in business as the world changes. And these
843
00:44:39.400 --> 00:44:45.039
are usually the times where you see folks becoming successful.
844
00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:49.789
So business models are changing. The cost to entry is changing.
845
00:44:51.690 --> 00:44:54.630
There's a lot of opportunity. So I come from, you know,
846
00:44:54.909 --> 00:44:56.650
there's a lot of fear going on right now, but
847
00:44:56.690 --> 00:44:59.449
I come from a place of excitement because I think
848
00:44:59.489 --> 00:45:00.409
it is an exciting time.
849
00:45:01.070 --> 00:45:03.500
Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. Well, do you want
850
00:45:03.519 --> 00:45:05.090
to say a little bit about your background? Because I
851
00:45:05.110 --> 00:45:07.630
know this isn't your first business, is it, either? You've
852
00:45:07.650 --> 00:45:11.670
had a few other businesses beforehand, and you've been successful
853
00:45:11.710 --> 00:45:15.530
in raising money as well, raising investment for companies that
854
00:45:15.570 --> 00:45:18.579
you worked for or helped set up. So do you
855
00:45:18.599 --> 00:45:20.039
want to tell us a bit about your background?
856
00:45:21.440 --> 00:45:23.699
Yeah, I sometimes think about it. I feel like I
857
00:45:23.739 --> 00:45:26.280
was meant to be an entrepreneur, like I'm a lifelong entrepreneur.
858
00:45:26.599 --> 00:45:29.530
I thought I wanted to be a doctor in university,
859
00:45:29.820 --> 00:45:34.900
and before that, I think the two summers before that
860
00:45:34.960 --> 00:45:39.780
or like the end of university, I'd started a driveway
861
00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:42.579
repair company. But it wasn't a business at the time.
862
00:45:42.699 --> 00:45:44.320
Just make money to pay for school and have some
863
00:45:44.380 --> 00:45:50.139
cash in my pocket. And then I took a course.
864
00:45:50.219 --> 00:45:51.940
So I still at this point wanted to be a doctor.
865
00:45:52.300 --> 00:45:55.139
Took a course on entrepreneurship. And that just completely opened
866
00:45:55.159 --> 00:45:57.699
my eyes. I had a professor and a friend at
867
00:45:57.719 --> 00:46:00.489
the time. Friend was starting a business. Professor was like... Corey,
868
00:46:00.650 --> 00:46:02.349
do you really want to be a doctor? It seems
869
00:46:02.369 --> 00:46:05.849
like you're really passionate about this entrepreneurship stuff. And I
870
00:46:05.849 --> 00:46:08.150
was like, yeah, he's like, you know, you can help
871
00:46:08.190 --> 00:46:11.309
a lot of folks. You know, maybe you're not the doctor,
872
00:46:12.010 --> 00:46:14.489
but you can make a difference. And I was struggling
873
00:46:14.530 --> 00:46:17.010
in school at that time. Like a lot of folks,
874
00:46:17.320 --> 00:46:19.800
school came easy to them. Those were the ones that
875
00:46:19.820 --> 00:46:23.860
became doctors. And for me, it was just every day,
876
00:46:24.179 --> 00:46:27.239
just nonstop. Like I had this, I could work, I
877
00:46:27.239 --> 00:46:30.730
would work anyone. That was one of my skill sets.
878
00:46:30.809 --> 00:46:33.780
I could outwork anyone, but it was so hard.
879
00:46:34.820 --> 00:46:35.380
It wasn't easy.
880
00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:39.940
So I knew I wanted to start a business. Couldn't
881
00:46:39.960 --> 00:46:41.639
figure out what I wanted to start. Couldn't find the team.
882
00:46:42.099 --> 00:46:47.099
And then, you know, signed up for a master's. And
883
00:46:47.139 --> 00:46:48.960
within the first week, found a team to do a
884
00:46:48.960 --> 00:46:53.139
hackathon with. And that hackathon project that we won turned
885
00:46:53.179 --> 00:46:59.610
into my first tech business. CoHealth, we digitized. all of
886
00:46:59.739 --> 00:47:02.920
the information we left the hospital with. Uh, we wound
887
00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:05.380
up exiting that after, uh, I think like six or
888
00:47:05.400 --> 00:47:07.300
seven years. I called them my MBA because I was
889
00:47:07.340 --> 00:47:09.980
in sciences. I knew nothing about business before. It was
890
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:12.039
just fun for me. Uh, so I learned a lot,
891
00:47:12.099 --> 00:47:15.019
learned how to build teams. We raised some capital there. Um,
892
00:47:15.179 --> 00:47:17.460
and it was just cool to exit and go through
893
00:47:17.500 --> 00:47:19.820
that entire process from start to finish learning how to sell,
894
00:47:19.900 --> 00:47:23.980
learning how to present. Uh, but I was, I took
895
00:47:24.019 --> 00:47:27.769
a backseat there next business. Um, Learned a lot from
896
00:47:27.789 --> 00:47:29.309
that first business. I was like, oh, my God, this
897
00:47:29.329 --> 00:47:31.610
is what I would do again if I was to
898
00:47:31.650 --> 00:47:34.690
start all over. So we built Caribou. There's a whole
899
00:47:34.750 --> 00:47:37.449
story in this in terms of pivoting and everything. I'll
900
00:47:37.469 --> 00:47:40.909
save you the story because that can make things pretty long.
901
00:47:40.969 --> 00:47:44.900
But we wound up working with financial advisors. The number
902
00:47:45.019 --> 00:47:49.639
one cost in retirement in the U.S. is health care.
903
00:47:50.860 --> 00:47:55.139
It drives people to bankruptcy. And so I'm Canadian, by
904
00:47:55.179 --> 00:47:57.719
the way. But we wound up building a U.S. health
905
00:47:57.780 --> 00:48:02.039
insurance tool for financial planners that help folks understand the
906
00:48:02.059 --> 00:48:02.699
cost of their care.
907
00:48:02.900 --> 00:48:04.320
I was teaching people.
908
00:48:04.260 --> 00:48:07.909
About Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, which are foreign
909
00:48:07.929 --> 00:48:10.789
terms in Canada. But we became experts in this because
910
00:48:10.849 --> 00:48:13.610
information was readily available. And we learned how to do
911
00:48:13.650 --> 00:48:16.650
this quickly. So we built this software, raised capital from
912
00:48:17.210 --> 00:48:20.869
some really large investors in the U.S. And I wound
913
00:48:20.909 --> 00:48:28.630
up exiting that after three years. Now, you know, again,
914
00:48:28.690 --> 00:48:32.789
I took a backseat as a founder on both cases.
915
00:48:32.809 --> 00:48:38.099
You know, I let my my business partner steer the ship,
916
00:48:38.820 --> 00:48:42.039
even though I wanted to do that. So at that point,
917
00:48:42.760 --> 00:48:44.699
you know, when I exited the second one, I was like,
918
00:48:45.019 --> 00:48:46.320
I just I need to put myself out there. I
919
00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:48.199
was so nervous for so long to put myself out
920
00:48:48.239 --> 00:48:51.150
there to create content. but I knew it was something
921
00:48:51.170 --> 00:48:52.849
that I needed to do because when you do take
922
00:48:52.889 --> 00:48:55.929
a backseat, what happens when you try to lead, you're steering,
923
00:48:56.409 --> 00:48:59.989
steering from the backseat and actually drivers drive the car
924
00:49:00.010 --> 00:49:03.840
off the road. Um, no fun for anyone. And so
925
00:49:04.699 --> 00:49:06.739
at that point I was like, okay, this is my time.
926
00:49:06.760 --> 00:49:08.360
I don't know what I'm going to work on next.
927
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:10.539
I'm going to put myself out there. I'm going to
928
00:49:10.579 --> 00:49:13.110
start creating content. I'm just going to be sharing. It's
929
00:49:13.119 --> 00:49:14.889
going to be scary, but I need to work on this.
930
00:49:14.929 --> 00:49:17.429
I need to work on my ability to speak and, and,
931
00:49:18.469 --> 00:49:20.440
I need to work on being a leader and so
932
00:49:20.480 --> 00:49:23.619
I started creating content on LinkedIn and it was a
933
00:49:23.679 --> 00:49:25.440
lot of fun I didn't realize how much I'd like
934
00:49:25.500 --> 00:49:28.800
it but I started to love it and when you're
935
00:49:28.820 --> 00:49:31.739
growing a personal brand which I think is super important
936
00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:33.880
in today's world because people buy from people they see
937
00:49:33.920 --> 00:49:38.829
as experts um you know, it becomes a full-time job.
938
00:49:38.869 --> 00:49:41.389
So I brought on my first virtual assistant. This is
939
00:49:41.409 --> 00:49:46.010
actually where the business, the Blue Moso formed. It was
940
00:49:46.070 --> 00:49:48.309
becoming so much work. We started bringing on more folks.
941
00:49:49.030 --> 00:49:51.719
And at the same time, part of growing a brand
942
00:49:51.780 --> 00:49:54.800
is connecting with other creators and other folks and other
943
00:49:54.860 --> 00:49:59.900
business owners. So I started having conversations with them again.
944
00:49:59.980 --> 00:50:01.420
And at that point, I thought I was getting back
945
00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:03.059
into tech. I thought it was going to be in
946
00:50:03.079 --> 00:50:04.989
a tech business. I thought the business would find me.
947
00:50:05.010 --> 00:50:07.610
It was trying all these different things. But I was
948
00:50:07.630 --> 00:50:11.050
having conversations with folks and I kept hearing, I can't
949
00:50:11.090 --> 00:50:14.219
find a VA. They keep ghosting me. I've gone through
950
00:50:14.300 --> 00:50:17.550
five VAs. I don't have the time to do it.
951
00:50:17.920 --> 00:50:19.719
I know I need to delegate, but I suck at it.
952
00:50:19.760 --> 00:50:21.260
I don't want to build out SOPs. I don't have
953
00:50:21.340 --> 00:50:25.880
time to manage someone. At that time, you're like, wow, okay.
954
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:28.559
Everything I've learned over the last, I think, 10 years
955
00:50:28.599 --> 00:50:29.480
at that point was.
956
00:50:33.750 --> 00:50:34.210
Pain points.
957
00:50:34.269 --> 00:50:36.449
It's like, listen for pain points. when a problem is
958
00:50:36.469 --> 00:50:38.949
so big, people will pay for it. So, you know,
959
00:50:38.969 --> 00:50:41.010
I started hearing that and I went to Cha, who's
960
00:50:41.050 --> 00:50:43.789
my virtual assistant. She's actually now my business partner. And
961
00:50:43.809 --> 00:50:46.769
I was like, I think there's a business here. I
962
00:50:47.269 --> 00:50:49.929
think we, and I knew she needed some, she was
963
00:50:49.969 --> 00:50:52.690
looking for extra work. Um, you know, she was, it
964
00:50:53.610 --> 00:50:57.150
was struggling. Um, but you would never have known that.
965
00:50:58.130 --> 00:50:59.949
So I asked her like, would you take on, do
966
00:50:59.969 --> 00:51:01.269
you want to take on some extra work? I can
967
00:51:01.309 --> 00:51:03.869
manage all this. This is kind of like bread and butter,
968
00:51:04.110 --> 00:51:07.559
my bread and butter. Um, And I went to the
969
00:51:07.599 --> 00:51:10.059
folks on, I think there was two folks at first.
970
00:51:10.099 --> 00:51:12.230
It's like, okay, would you pay for this? Because they
971
00:51:12.250 --> 00:51:13.809
kept saying to me, there's all these problems. I have
972
00:51:14.190 --> 00:51:15.710
a bunch of VAs. I can manage it. It won't
973
00:51:15.750 --> 00:51:17.230
be any additional work for you. We'll build out the
974
00:51:17.349 --> 00:51:19.889
SOPs and everything. And yeah, the rest is history. That
975
00:51:19.929 --> 00:51:25.659
was two years ago. And, you know, we've gone all
976
00:51:25.699 --> 00:51:28.920
in for the last year and it's been, been pretty,
977
00:51:29.079 --> 00:51:29.699
pretty exciting.
978
00:51:30.139 --> 00:51:30.940
The growth that we've seen.
979
00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:35.630
And this time around, we're not, We're not raising capital
980
00:51:35.690 --> 00:51:36.230
to start.
981
00:51:38.309 --> 00:51:40.610
We'll think about it. We're bootstrapping. We don't need to.
982
00:51:42.190 --> 00:51:44.530
My priority is to invest back in the business, back
983
00:51:44.570 --> 00:51:46.679
into the team, make sure we get this to a
984
00:51:46.719 --> 00:51:51.579
sustainable place where we can actually change lives. Shah's life
985
00:51:51.619 --> 00:51:55.639
has been changed. I see a bunch of the team
986
00:51:55.679 --> 00:51:58.739
listening in on Substack. I'm hoping their lives are changed,
987
00:51:58.780 --> 00:52:00.639
but I hope they know that I'm working towards that.
988
00:52:01.639 --> 00:52:06.219
It's a really awesome business because you know, you bring
989
00:52:06.260 --> 00:52:12.630
on the right individual, um, it, you know, bring it
990
00:52:12.690 --> 00:52:15.750
on a VA, bring on a virtual assistant. It's not,
991
00:52:16.510 --> 00:52:19.530
you know, it's life changing. And so, um, it's just
992
00:52:19.550 --> 00:52:22.000
been a really fun business to build and hopefully we
993
00:52:22.019 --> 00:52:24.719
can change many lives right now. We have 90 folks
994
00:52:24.760 --> 00:52:30.019
in the talent pool. Um, and yeah, or around 90.
995
00:52:30.019 --> 00:52:33.969
Well done. No, I love that. I think that's, that's
996
00:52:34.030 --> 00:52:35.809
one of the things that definitely stood out and what,
997
00:52:35.849 --> 00:52:37.510
what appealed to me when, when you guys got in
998
00:52:37.550 --> 00:52:40.610
touch about doing the podcast, because I've spent a lot
999
00:52:40.639 --> 00:52:44.039
of time working in, in and around tech and digital and, but,
1000
00:52:44.139 --> 00:52:48.199
but I like, I love tech, but I don't just
1001
00:52:48.280 --> 00:52:50.960
want to create tech businesses. I love it that it's,
1002
00:52:51.360 --> 00:52:53.309
I'm a tech guy. Yeah.
1003
00:52:53.510 --> 00:52:53.730
Yeah.
1004
00:52:54.050 --> 00:52:56.280
But, but you're an entrepreneur really. You're a, you're a,
1005
00:52:56.550 --> 00:52:59.769
you've spotted, you've spotted some problems and you've come up
1006
00:52:59.809 --> 00:53:05.119
with solutions for that. And, um, and it's involving building
1007
00:53:05.679 --> 00:53:09.219
teams of real humans who can use technology and can
1008
00:53:09.300 --> 00:53:11.699
use AI, I'm sure. And, you know, you're using all
1009
00:53:11.739 --> 00:53:16.030
the best available, but, um, but yeah, I think that's a,
1010
00:53:16.730 --> 00:53:20.429
that's my type of business that I, that yeah, I've,
1011
00:53:20.449 --> 00:53:23.690
I've avoided hiring people cause I didn't feel like I
1012
00:53:24.289 --> 00:53:26.150
wanted to, I was ready to, but I liked the
1013
00:53:26.190 --> 00:53:30.000
idea of bringing other people in and, supporting other people
1014
00:53:30.079 --> 00:53:33.039
and creating money and work for others, which I do
1015
00:53:33.079 --> 00:53:35.739
through the business at the moment. But it must be
1016
00:53:36.059 --> 00:53:38.960
satisfying doing what you're doing as well for helping that
1017
00:53:38.980 --> 00:53:43.400
many people find additional work. But in turn is also
1018
00:53:43.440 --> 00:53:46.480
helping your clients grow their business and have a more
1019
00:53:46.519 --> 00:53:47.909
sustainable livelihood as well.
1020
00:53:48.719 --> 00:53:52.369
It's what gets me up every morning now. You know,
1021
00:53:52.429 --> 00:53:54.670
the clients initially wanted to help business owners. That's what
1022
00:53:54.690 --> 00:53:55.909
I was looking for when I was looking on my
1023
00:53:55.929 --> 00:53:57.690
next business. I really wanted to help.
1024
00:53:58.039 --> 00:54:03.590
Folks scale and just the individuals, right?
1025
00:54:03.750 --> 00:54:06.309
Like we have countless stories now of how lives have
1026
00:54:06.329 --> 00:54:08.269
been changed, but you know, it's just all around when
1027
00:54:08.289 --> 00:54:11.150
you can build a business that, that can make a difference.
1028
00:54:12.849 --> 00:54:15.900
And there's a real business there because that's important. Like
1029
00:54:15.920 --> 00:54:17.500
you need to be able to sustain it and grow
1030
00:54:17.539 --> 00:54:19.719
a business. Otherwise you can't keep doing what you're doing.
1031
00:54:19.739 --> 00:54:22.860
It feels good. So yeah, I feel good doing this.
1032
00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:26.340
I'm not going to lie. It feels really good. But,
1033
00:54:28.090 --> 00:54:31.849
I love, like you were saying, I'm an entrepreneur. It's
1034
00:54:31.869 --> 00:54:34.130
a good catch. Am I a tech guy? I'm an
1035
00:54:34.150 --> 00:54:37.449
entrepreneur first. I see that there might be a tech
1036
00:54:37.469 --> 00:54:39.090
that we can build here to help with kind of
1037
00:54:39.110 --> 00:54:46.710
the entire process. But future investment from bootstrapping. But the
1038
00:54:46.750 --> 00:54:49.409
most amazing thing is we're building a business and making
1039
00:54:49.449 --> 00:54:54.869
sure and working towards providing business owners a viable solution.
1040
00:54:55.219 --> 00:54:57.119
and changing the lives of the VAs that we work with,
1041
00:54:57.360 --> 00:54:59.900
and really improving the conditions that they work with.
1042
00:55:01.460 --> 00:55:02.219
We're working on this.
1043
00:55:02.699 --> 00:55:05.110
It's not perfect now, and I know that, but we're
1044
00:55:05.119 --> 00:55:06.710
working to make it a better model.
1045
00:55:06.989 --> 00:55:08.590
And we try to get better every single day.
1046
00:55:08.929 --> 00:55:11.750
We've grown a lot in the last two years, not
1047
00:55:11.789 --> 00:55:13.929
just in terms of team size, but what we've learned.
1048
00:55:14.730 --> 00:55:18.610
And our goal is to make this model better and
1049
00:55:18.659 --> 00:55:19.440
better every single day.
1050
00:55:21.969 --> 00:55:23.989
I'm impressed with what you've done so far, and you've
1051
00:55:24.050 --> 00:55:28.090
come across really well on this, obviously. And I love
1052
00:55:28.130 --> 00:55:31.119
your LinkedIn content as well. I think that really stands out.
1053
00:55:31.559 --> 00:55:34.820
The style of it is different to what most people
1054
00:55:34.840 --> 00:55:39.320
put out. So, yeah, I like not just the way
1055
00:55:39.360 --> 00:55:42.420
it looks, but the actual words and the messages in
1056
00:55:42.460 --> 00:55:43.420
there as well. It was great.
1057
00:55:45.030 --> 00:55:47.969
Yeah, no, I appreciate you. And I have a great team.
1058
00:55:48.150 --> 00:55:50.510
It all comes back to that. It's never just me.
1059
00:55:50.989 --> 00:55:53.690
I have an amazing team supporting me, helping me come
1060
00:55:53.730 --> 00:56:00.309
up with ideas. And I wouldn't be the same person
1061
00:56:00.349 --> 00:56:02.150
without them. So I'm grateful. I know a lot of
1062
00:56:02.170 --> 00:56:04.320
them are listening in, so it's just me thanking them.
1063
00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:07.820
Well, if you are watching in the end, the team,
1064
00:56:07.840 --> 00:56:09.880
well done. You're doing a great job. Keep it up.
1065
00:56:10.400 --> 00:56:13.320
So conscious of time, if people want to find out
1066
00:56:13.360 --> 00:56:16.139
more again, is the best place to just go to
1067
00:56:16.159 --> 00:56:17.699
your website, bluemoso.com?
1068
00:56:17.719 --> 00:56:17.789
Yep.
1069
00:56:19.400 --> 00:56:23.059
B L U E M O S O.com. Um, you
1070
00:56:23.079 --> 00:56:26.719
can find me on Substack taking my time back. I'm
1071
00:56:26.739 --> 00:56:30.889
also on LinkedIn, um, Instagram as well. But if you
1072
00:56:30.909 --> 00:56:34.849
have any questions, you can, uh, email me at hello
1073
00:56:35.170 --> 00:56:36.550
at bloomoso.com as well.
1074
00:56:38.389 --> 00:56:41.690
Amazing. Right. Corey, love it. Thank you very much for
1075
00:56:41.710 --> 00:56:46.130
doing this today. I really enjoyed the conversation and, uh, Yeah,
1076
00:56:46.550 --> 00:56:48.550
I think there might be a longer conversation for us
1077
00:56:48.570 --> 00:56:52.559
to have. All right. Okay. Thank you very much for
1078
00:56:52.579 --> 00:56:53.880
doing that. Okay, we'll leave it there.
1079
00:56:53.900 --> 00:56:56.760
Thanks for having me. Thanks. Cheers, Corey. Bye. Cheers.
1
00:00:00.930 --> 00:00:03.930
Well, hello and welcome to the Super Connector Show. I'm
2
00:00:03.990 --> 00:00:07.889
delighted to be joined by Corey Blumenfeld, who is the
3
00:00:07.969 --> 00:00:13.039
founder and CEO of a company called Blue Mosso. Corey's
4
00:00:13.099 --> 00:00:15.519
based in Miami, I believe, but his team.
5
00:00:15.619 --> 00:00:17.780
No, I'm in Playa del Carmen, actually, these days.
6
00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:18.480
Oh, okay.
7
00:00:18.500 --> 00:00:18.940
Mexico.
8
00:00:19.579 --> 00:00:22.800
All right. Sorry. Well, we'll go into that. But yes,
9
00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:27.219
Blue Mosso is a team of virtual assistants that are
10
00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.030
based in the Philippines who are are there to help
11
00:00:30.149 --> 00:00:34.810
founders grow through a range of different services. So yeah, Corey, um,
12
00:00:35.049 --> 00:00:37.229
thanks for joining. Tell us a bit more about what
13
00:00:37.270 --> 00:00:38.789
it is that you're doing through Bloom also.
14
00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:42.630
Yeah, Paul, appreciate you having me here and everyone listening
15
00:00:42.770 --> 00:00:44.170
in across the different platforms.
16
00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:45.700
Grateful to be here.
17
00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:50.140
Um, yeah, you know, one of the biggest challenges for
18
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:54.939
us founders and entrepreneurs is we like to, to do everything. Um,
19
00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:59.189
for probably like 10 years, I felt like I was
20
00:00:59.210 --> 00:01:02.570
the only one that could get things done the.
21
00:01:02.229 --> 00:01:03.289
Way that I wanted it done.
22
00:01:03.369 --> 00:01:06.569
And, you know, it was a real impediment, you know,
23
00:01:06.629 --> 00:01:12.040
but you don't realize that while you're doing it. So nowadays,
24
00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:16.239
something I've wanted to sell for for myself is, you know,
25
00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:17.540
how I can take back my time.
26
00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:19.859
And that's what we focus on at Blue Moon.
27
00:01:19.909 --> 00:01:24.269
So giving founders, entrepreneurs, leaders, their time back so they
28
00:01:24.290 --> 00:01:26.650
can focus on what matters, whether that's growing the business.
29
00:01:26.689 --> 00:01:28.489
A lot of folks want to grow their business or
30
00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:30.730
having a life outside of the business because that's also
31
00:01:30.769 --> 00:01:32.109
really important, right?
32
00:01:32.129 --> 00:01:33.629
You know, we talked about this before.
33
00:01:33.650 --> 00:01:36.650
If your life was just fully focused on the business,
34
00:01:36.670 --> 00:01:38.329
you wouldn't get to do the amazing things like taking
35
00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:42.269
your son to explore colleges or universities this weekend. So
36
00:01:43.790 --> 00:01:47.120
super important, you know, something to think about as a
37
00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:49.680
founder of business. If you were to get sick tomorrow,
38
00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:53.459
you had the flu tomorrow, Would the business survive without you?
39
00:01:53.780 --> 00:01:56.519
Would you be able to take a vacation for two
40
00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:02.079
weeks and nothing fall apart? That's what we're solving for.
41
00:02:03.340 --> 00:02:06.549
We really want to give folks their time back.
42
00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:07.890
It's been a lot of fun.
43
00:02:07.909 --> 00:02:09.250
Awesome.
44
00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:12.110
Well, that really resonates with me. You can probably see
45
00:02:12.210 --> 00:02:15.830
I'm nodding a lot because I've had my business for
46
00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:19.009
10 and a half years now. So I've been self-employed
47
00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:24.250
and it's mostly me doing everything like i've brought people
48
00:02:24.310 --> 00:02:26.550
in as and when i've needed them to deliver specific
49
00:02:26.610 --> 00:02:31.069
things particularly around events um but it's usually been me
50
00:02:31.110 --> 00:02:34.449
doing most of the work until until there's just too
51
00:02:34.509 --> 00:02:36.590
much to do and then i bring people in extra
52
00:02:36.629 --> 00:02:40.259
capacity to particularly help on the on the ground delivery
53
00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:44.080
of events um and i have got a business partner
54
00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:48.680
now who um is a very successful entrepreneur angel investor
55
00:02:49.300 --> 00:02:51.840
great at what he does um very good on the
56
00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:55.090
commercial side of things and business development and sales and
57
00:02:55.150 --> 00:02:58.530
growth but it's still me doing most of the day-to-day
58
00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:04.090
work and it's it's not that i'm a perfect moment
59
00:03:04.110 --> 00:03:06.449
i was gonna say it's not that i'm a perfectionist
60
00:03:06.530 --> 00:03:09.240
it is just over the years i've thought it's quicker
61
00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:11.780
and easier for me to just do it than to
62
00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:14.460
find someone else that can do it and take the
63
00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:17.120
time to show someone how to do it or train
64
00:03:17.139 --> 00:03:18.659
them up to do it or even the cost of
65
00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:21.259
paying someone else to do it But you do end
66
00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:26.379
up just doing too much. And you end up just
67
00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:31.870
constantly on the grind. So I do like the sound
68
00:03:31.889 --> 00:03:34.370
of what you're doing. And I need to have a
69
00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:37.550
longer chat with you after this about what you're doing.
70
00:03:38.250 --> 00:03:41.030
This is one of the biggest misconceptions, right? A lot
71
00:03:41.050 --> 00:03:43.500
of folks think, well, I'm the only one that can
72
00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:44.240
be doing this.
73
00:03:44.289 --> 00:03:45.120
It's a lot faster.
74
00:03:45.139 --> 00:03:48.580
And yeah, maybe at first it is. Maybe at first
75
00:03:48.620 --> 00:03:51.280
it is. But think about if you don't do it, right?
76
00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:55.740
Can the business grow past you, right? You can only
77
00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:58.680
handle a certain amount. And if you're looking for something
78
00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:02.039
to grow a little bigger, right, it can only grow
79
00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.930
as big as you can grow in that role. And so,
80
00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:09.169
you know, I know for a lot of folks, this
81
00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:11.849
is a challenge in a lot of areas, right? We
82
00:04:12.090 --> 00:04:15.789
tend to look at things as an expense, just human nature.
83
00:04:16.329 --> 00:04:17.990
You know, what does this cost to me versus what
84
00:04:18.050 --> 00:04:21.160
is the ROI? I don't want to train people. I
85
00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:23.480
hear that all the time. You know, our model solves
86
00:04:23.500 --> 00:04:24.980
for that because we're a managed service and we do
87
00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:28.480
a lot of the onboarding and training. But, you know,
88
00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:31.339
there is an upfront investment when it comes to delegating.
89
00:04:31.540 --> 00:04:35.110
And a lot of folks are kind of, you know,
90
00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:39.350
it feels like an expense. And, you know, one of
91
00:04:39.370 --> 00:04:41.550
the most amazing things when you can get past that, right,
92
00:04:41.810 --> 00:04:46.730
when everything's moving and you train that first person, right,
93
00:04:46.769 --> 00:04:49.189
then they become the trainer. then they become the ones
94
00:04:49.269 --> 00:04:51.509
bringing on more individuals, you know, and if you can
95
00:04:51.550 --> 00:04:52.910
find a way to continuously.
96
00:04:52.509 --> 00:04:54.810
Grow your business, right. It starts to add up. You
97
00:04:54.829 --> 00:04:55.750
start to scale this.
98
00:04:56.189 --> 00:04:59.750
And I think that's the beauty in, in really prioritizing
99
00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:01.360
and investing in delegation.
100
00:05:01.379 --> 00:05:03.199
So yeah, that used to be my mindset. It's like,
101
00:05:03.259 --> 00:05:05.220
I should just do this. I should just do this.
102
00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:05.939
Right.
103
00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:09.019
Rather than training folks because we'll get done faster. That's
104
00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:12.079
just usually, you know, in the beginning, right. You spend,
105
00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:15.199
maybe you want to give it, give it a timeframe.
106
00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:16.600
You want to say like in 30 days, I'm going
107
00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:18.839
to hand this off, but, but you build it to
108
00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:21.240
delegate and knowing that it's not going to be perfect
109
00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.579
to start. But yeah, I've been in your position many times.
110
00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:27.899
I still find myself doing certain work where I'm like,
111
00:05:28.620 --> 00:05:29.779
can't hand this off to anyone.
112
00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:30.579
Yeah.
113
00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:31.079
Yeah.
114
00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:34.439
Well also, I suppose I'm in a quite an interesting
115
00:05:34.459 --> 00:05:37.860
position because I've obviously got my business, but I spend
116
00:05:37.899 --> 00:05:39.980
a lot of time advising other people on how to
117
00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:43.259
start and grow businesses as well. So I regularly get
118
00:05:43.310 --> 00:05:45.970
people saying, or do you know anyone that can help
119
00:05:45.990 --> 00:05:49.319
with this? Or, Have you got any recommendations on services
120
00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:54.259
we could use or technology we could use? This is
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good to know what you're offering because I can recommend
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it to people whether I use it or not. Even
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on Friday, I was at an event where a lady
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who's got a very good outsourced in-house recruitment company. Companies
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bring them in to represent them as they're like hr
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or recruitment function but they'll so they'll like act on
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their behalf at events or they'll they'll do the onboarding
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and whatever and she was saying um oh we've got
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so much work on at the moment we're struggling to
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keep up with it and can you recommend some ways
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so i did tell her about you guys and um
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and she was she was interested but she was also
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um thinking around the technology route. It's like, how do
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we use technology to just free up some time? But
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what I've found is I use a lot of technology
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and lots of software and apps and SaaS software, which
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is great. But by freeing up some of my time
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in automation and some areas, it just means I end
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up doing more work.
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Exactly.
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It's never ended.
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No, that's the great thing, right?
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We talk about this a lot internally.
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I write about this a lot. You implement these tools,
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it builds capacity or it gives more work. I always
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recommend automate what you can. That work that can be automated,
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humans don't enjoy this much. But a lot of times
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it creates more work or it gives you more capacity.
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It's AI, it's automations plus the right humans. It's exciting
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because it's just another tool to help us scale right
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help us grow our business and so you know it's
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a mix it's find the right tools for example i'm
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building out i built out this automated invoice collector tool
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it used to be human doing it you know it's
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built out now but we still need someone on top
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of it to make sure it's working to improve it
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to to work out all all the kinks like i
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think there's this mindset now where a lot of folks
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feel like you can automate all of your problems away
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And maybe some of it is true, but like you're saying,
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when we're able to do more, there's more work. If
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we add capacity and we're able to go from 10
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to 15 clients, that's more clients to support.
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And so.
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When I think of what humans want, humans want human experiences.
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So it's use the tools where you can and then
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figure out where to.
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We're humans necessary. Now, obviously in every case, maybe a
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human isn't required, but yeah, this is the fun part
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of living in today. We think that, you know, we
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can automate a hundred percent of things. There are certain
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businesses that can, but a lot of times it just
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adds more work because we're able to do more.
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Yeah. It's not like I bought a bed, loads of,
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loads of things and I'm just sat back doing nothing.
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If anything, I'm just, I'm enjoying it, so I'm doing
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more because I want to do more. But even so,
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I regularly have to sort of stop myself and say,
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am I actually producing or am I polishing? Like I'm
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spending a lot of time just sort of looking at
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things and like looking at analytics and sort of polishing
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it without actually creating anything new. So yeah, so that's,
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I think that's, when there's so much you could do,
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it's easy to fall into that trap. But if you
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had a team around you, you wouldn't do that so much.
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You would, because you would have other people doing things
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for you or you'd be doing things for them and
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you'd be working more collaboratively. It's easy to just, not
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waste your days, but you can spend a lot of
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time doing, you think yeah but you're not actually yeah.
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It all comes down having clear goals and priorities right
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and then the right team so if you have clear
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goals clear priorities it makes a lot easier to go
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back and and kind of check with yourself is this
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where my time needs to be spent if you have
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the right team in front of you you have individuals
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that are able to to check in with you, right?
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To provide you feedback. Hey, you know what, Corey, I
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have this covered. Hey, Paul, you know, this is something
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I own, right?
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You're fine.
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Focus on what you have listed down. And sometimes it's
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best to just write down these things. For me, you know,
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there are certain things that I'm not going to touch.
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My focus is on sales. It's on high-level operations, sales
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and marketing, and, you know, between those two things, right?
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Sales also includes speaking like this. You know, if it's
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something related to customer success, I'll think about it operationally,
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how it works, but we have someone on our team
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that owns customer success. And so if she comes to
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me with a question, I can provide feedback and guidance,
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but my response is you own this. I trust you
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to make the decision. Someone comes to me about hiring
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and recruiting. I built out the system with them. But
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now I want them to enhance it. I want them
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to get better. If they come to me, what are
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your thoughts? I'm like, well, what are your thoughts?
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You own this.
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I trust you to make the decision. But that's because
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it's not one of the things that I own. It's
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a priority of the business, but it's not one of
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my priorities. Obviously, I want it to get better. But
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I know that if someone can become an expert in it,
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I can't be an expert in everything. And so I
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think building a business, when you think about what people
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are really purchasing themselves, They're purchasing expertise, especially in the
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service space. And so when I think about it, this
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is not my area of expertise, not my area of
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my priority because I can't be an expert. I don't
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have the time to spend doing all of this right
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now to actually researching it, making it better every single day.
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I can think of the high-level structure because that's what
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I think a good founder does. We think of things,
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we're more generalist, high-level, but then I delegate the expertise
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to another individual person And then their one job, right,
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their one focus area becomes being an expert in that space.
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And that's kind of how I've shifted my mindset from
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going from task work, because a lot of the work
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we were doing is here's a task, here's a task
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handing off a task. That's what automations are great for,
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repetitive tasks, to thinking of, you know, a whole area.
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And improving it, owning an outcome.
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And so, you know, I have individuals that own customer success, recruiting,
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talent acquisition from start to finish. You know, I have
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someone helping me with operations. I have someone helping me
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with marketing, right? And then when they need me, they
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come to me, but I'm not owning that because I
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can't be the expert in all of those things.
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A business has so many moving pieces, as you know.
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Yeah, yeah. I think that is the shift, isn't it?
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The shift of mindset from being maybe a freelancer or
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a solo business owner to becoming a proper business.
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I mean, you can.
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I don't mean... even if you're a freelancer, it's still
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a business, but like a bit, a business is bigger
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than just the individual that's, that can grow, um, beyond
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the founder. And, um, you do see that, or I
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still see that a lot with businesses that have been
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around a long time and they're successful, but the business owner,
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the founder is still too involved in the day-to-day delivery
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of the work. And, um, they, they are the bottleneck.
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It can't grow beyond that. And I was actually at
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another event last week, which is, um, all about funding
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and investment. And one of the companies they've gone from
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being an agency, like a web development app development agency
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to being a product company. They've actually developed a product
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for one client, which has then become a big, big
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product that other people want. And the, and the founder,
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he said that when, when they got investment, he had
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to change his whole way of thinking and, He's still
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guilty of, he tries to get involved in too many things.
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He's a tinkerer. That's the way he described himself. He said,
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I sort of meddle and I get involved in things
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that I've been told that just keep away, like just
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leave us to get on with the business.
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That's the best thing.
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Yeah. Your job is to be out there doing the
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business development, the sales, the growth, the strategy of the company.
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And you've already got a team to focus on the delivery.
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So just get out of the way. And yeah, But
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he needed a chairman to come in or the investors
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come in and tell him to do that. So, yeah.
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So do you find that a lot? Is that the
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people that come to you who are at that point,
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would you say? Or do they come to you sooner?
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Well, I want to go back to something you were saying, right?
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I think, you know, consumers, businesses or, you know, potential customers,
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what do they expect now? we expect an enterprise service delivery.
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What do I mean by that? Well, the tools that
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large enterprises had used to be sort of reach for
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most businesses.
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Especially the solopreneurs.
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And now we all have access to the automations, the
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ability to build systems, right? These aren't out of reach anymore.
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These tools have been democratized. And so, you know, if
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you think about it, it's One of the feelings of
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someone who is an expert or a business that feels
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like they have their stuff together, it's an individual or
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a business that has the ability to implement systems. And
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I think that is super important. So this comes back
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to what you're saying. What does an enterprise look like?
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In most cases, you think you're talking to the CEO
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or working directly with the CEO. The company is way
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too big for that. A company with a poor... customer
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experience or customer service, that won't happen in an enterprise.
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And it does happen, right? And what happens to those businesses?
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They don't succeed, right? The market dictates that. And so
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I think, you know, nowadays, what do consumers, do businesses
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want when they're making a buying decision? They want to
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see that you have these systems in place, that you
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have this business in place, that you feel like you're
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providing this enterprise level service.
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But when do most folks come to us, right?
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It's, so the ones that feel forced, I'd be like,
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I actually don't know if those are the right individuals.
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It has the ones that are most successful are the
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ones that, um, are ready to delegate that are ready
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to implement these systems. Uh, if you're not ready, that's
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the hardest thing. You'll never hand off anything. You know,
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we work with a lot of small businesses, a lot
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of solopreneurs and the ones that are successful are the
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ones that are able to kind of like hand off that,
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you know, their mindset is I'm ready to delegate the
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ones who are feeling forced.
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Those are the ones that are usually not as successful, right?
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You know, they, they come to us and they're like,
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I need to, I know I need to be delegating,
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but the real question is, are you ready to delegate?
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And it, you know, you may not know you need
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to delegate, but you also, if you're not ready to
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hand things off, if you're not ready to, to train,
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or support someone, it can be challenging. Now, we take
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care of it, as I mentioned. We have a managed service,
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so we take care of the onboarding. We take care
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of the ongoing success of the virtual talent and the
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virtual assistants. But if you feel forced to do it,
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but you're still in the weeds, it's not going to
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work for you. You really have to be willing to
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give it time. And obviously, we can help you and
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can provide you with resources in it.
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To delegate better. But I would say it really is
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a mindset game.
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So, you know, we work with founders and business.
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Owners and leaders that, you know, where are they?
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Okay, so they've gone through like five virtual assistants and
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they haven't found the right match because that's super important.
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They just have never been able to match the right person.
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They've kind of like given up. Folks that have been
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ghosted by virtual assistants, folks that feel like You know,
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they have no time. They're doing everything themselves. You know,
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there's all these different use cases, but for the most part,
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they're ready. You know, they've either seen what bad looks
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like or they haven't given it a try, but they
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know they need to do something different and they're willing
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to hand stuff off. Yes, they have a particular thing
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in place, but they they're looking to build out their
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systems or they have the systems in place they just
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need support managing the person because a lot of times
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they don't have the time to manage the individual and
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so you know someone that's very like doing everything themselves
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and we sense that they might not be able to
362
00:19:18.910 --> 00:19:22.640
let go that's sometimes a challenge and sometimes we have
363
00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:23.460
to say no to that.
364
00:19:24.660 --> 00:19:28.500
Yeah yeah i do feel like i'm on the verge
365
00:19:28.519 --> 00:19:34.339
because i'm i'm still i suppose i'm I still enjoy
366
00:19:34.819 --> 00:19:36.559
most of what I do. I think that's the thing
367
00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:40.769
is I enjoy trying like most of what I do,
368
00:19:40.829 --> 00:19:43.309
but there's definitely aspects of what I do where I'm like,
369
00:19:44.829 --> 00:19:47.569
I would be, I do need other people around me now.
370
00:19:47.750 --> 00:19:50.890
I do need one or two people. to support me
371
00:19:50.950 --> 00:19:55.519
in this because sometimes I'm slow to respond to messages
372
00:19:55.779 --> 00:19:59.200
or in particular emails like that is something that I
373
00:19:59.859 --> 00:20:03.279
I'm not as fast at responding to messages sometimes as
374
00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:06.039
I as I could be or should be because because
375
00:20:06.099 --> 00:20:09.039
I'm so busy doing all the other things. I've got
376
00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:12.559
messages coming from too many channels, which is a good
377
00:20:12.619 --> 00:20:15.339
thing in that there's so much interest.
378
00:20:15.859 --> 00:20:15.980
Yeah.
379
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:18.299
It's nice that I've got so many people interested in
380
00:20:18.339 --> 00:20:22.359
what I'm doing, but it means that I'm not providing it.
381
00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:24.819
I don't think I'm providing a great of, for some people,
382
00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:28.019
if I'm taking a couple of days or even long,
383
00:20:28.119 --> 00:20:32.079
like longer, uh, to, to respond to a message and
384
00:20:32.339 --> 00:20:35.960
things have, there's a risk of things being missed that, uh,
385
00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:40.339
So yeah, that's, I'm talking myself into being your client.
386
00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:43.720
But this is, this is a great, like for me,
387
00:20:43.779 --> 00:20:45.420
like I can tell you my process. Okay.
388
00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:49.579
So you've already seen it. Um, you know, I have
389
00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:51.339
a system in place for emails for myself.
390
00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:52.400
I use quad, right.
391
00:20:52.460 --> 00:20:56.759
We talked about AI building out animations every day. It goes,
392
00:20:56.839 --> 00:20:59.579
it tells me, helps me write the drafts, but then
393
00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:01.539
there's the project planning piece, right?
394
00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:04.220
You met Gia. She's amazing. She's watching on sub stack.
395
00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:04.799
So Hey Gia.
396
00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:10.910
Um, You know, and the human doesn't necessarily need, we have,
397
00:21:11.289 --> 00:21:14.430
and it depends on the system, right? But for me,
398
00:21:15.410 --> 00:21:17.410
I've built out a system through Claude that helps me
399
00:21:17.430 --> 00:21:21.410
draft and generate the email. And it always will introduce
400
00:21:21.450 --> 00:21:24.410
to Gia, right? The next step is, okay, sends out
401
00:21:24.430 --> 00:21:27.490
the draft, summarizes the call. Next, it sends to Gia,
402
00:21:27.539 --> 00:21:30.299
who's going to help me coordinate, help me plan with
403
00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:33.119
the individual, which you went through, right? And Gia was
404
00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:36.259
messaging you, staying on top of things. And that's kind
405
00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:38.880
of how I think about it, right? How do you
406
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:42.119
augment where humans are needed? So for my emails every day,
407
00:21:42.859 --> 00:21:44.740
at the end of the day, come on, there's graphs there.
408
00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:47.740
Depending on the person that needs to be introduced to,
409
00:21:48.009 --> 00:21:50.750
if it's a sales email, we introduce the executive team.
410
00:21:50.789 --> 00:21:53.549
I get them on because I have another person. And
411
00:21:53.589 --> 00:21:56.789
so usually in order for me to stay on top
412
00:21:56.829 --> 00:22:00.650
of things, there's always the right person that's always brought in.
413
00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:03.430
So the first draft.
414
00:22:03.170 --> 00:22:06.390
Of getting back to people, thanking them for their day, yeah,
415
00:22:06.490 --> 00:22:06.829
that's me.
416
00:22:06.869 --> 00:22:08.809
I usually spend my evenings doing that.
417
00:22:10.950 --> 00:22:14.769
And the next step is bringing the human to project
418
00:22:14.829 --> 00:22:16.869
managers to make sure it gets over the finish line,
419
00:22:16.910 --> 00:22:18.829
to show them what it's like to work. That's the
420
00:22:18.869 --> 00:22:20.750
most important thing, and maybe this is just for me,
421
00:22:20.829 --> 00:22:23.930
but I want them to see how much easier life
422
00:22:24.099 --> 00:22:27.519
is having someone like Jia. She just said hi, so
423
00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:29.359
Jia is joining in.
424
00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:29.880
Hi, Jia.
425
00:22:30.579 --> 00:22:30.799
Right?
426
00:22:32.140 --> 00:22:35.140
I want them to see how easy it is to
427
00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:37.980
work with a virtual assistant. Right? So as I told you,
428
00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:42.049
I use an automation. Completely automated, the first message. I
429
00:22:42.089 --> 00:22:43.549
get an update every day of who I need to
430
00:22:43.589 --> 00:22:47.109
be following up with. And then from there, I usually
431
00:22:47.130 --> 00:22:50.829
make the introduction. I hand it off because I want
432
00:22:50.849 --> 00:22:52.410
to keep that relationship going.
433
00:22:52.430 --> 00:22:53.109
Mm-hmm.
434
00:22:54.859 --> 00:22:58.619
Yeah. Yeah. So from, from my end, yeah, it was seamless.
435
00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:00.529
It was, you know, I had the, had the inquiry
436
00:23:00.589 --> 00:23:04.569
came in about the podcast. It did take me a
437
00:23:04.589 --> 00:23:08.970
little while to read it because I've actually got about
438
00:23:08.970 --> 00:23:11.910
20 emails at the moment, like the people wanting to
439
00:23:11.930 --> 00:23:14.630
be on the podcast, which is, so I'm guessing everyone,
440
00:23:14.750 --> 00:23:17.549
other people are using automations as well, which is, which
441
00:23:17.630 --> 00:23:20.880
is good. And that's in the last couple of months,
442
00:23:20.900 --> 00:23:23.960
I've probably about had 50, 60 people to be honest. So,
443
00:23:25.740 --> 00:23:28.079
which is a good sign that people are picking up
444
00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:29.480
on it and people are wanting to be on it.
445
00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:33.079
But it does take a bit of time for me
446
00:23:33.099 --> 00:23:35.519
to do it and make a decision about, is this
447
00:23:35.539 --> 00:23:37.740
a good fit for me and for them? And do
448
00:23:37.789 --> 00:23:39.269
I want to do this? And when am I going
449
00:23:39.289 --> 00:23:42.089
to do it sort of thing? But yeah, once I
450
00:23:42.150 --> 00:23:44.170
read it, I was like, yeah, this sounds really interesting
451
00:23:44.230 --> 00:23:48.309
to me and to people in my network. And when
452
00:23:48.349 --> 00:23:51.269
I responded, yeah, like you say, got a response.
453
00:23:51.309 --> 00:23:54.359
From what you're doing, A lot of moving pieces, a
454
00:23:54.380 --> 00:23:55.880
lot of plannings. You need to pick the show date.
455
00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:01.569
You need to schedule between multiple parties. If you're doing
456
00:24:01.609 --> 00:24:03.710
it live, kind of like what we're doing, getting.
457
00:24:04.170 --> 00:24:07.170
The RTMP code.
458
00:24:07.190 --> 00:24:12.069
Then after, I'm sure, you're scheduling to get live, to
459
00:24:12.150 --> 00:24:15.339
send it to the... Yes, there's a lot of project
460
00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:18.519
management involved with that process. I do a lot of
461
00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:21.799
lives as well. I see then that's kind of how
462
00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:25.359
the process works for us. So I know how much
463
00:24:25.420 --> 00:24:27.920
work it is. It's not just about responding to an email.
464
00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:29.990
In your case, I get it because you can't just
465
00:24:30.049 --> 00:24:32.230
respond back and automate it. You need to actually kind
466
00:24:32.250 --> 00:24:35.589
of see how everything's moving and so needs to be
467
00:24:35.609 --> 00:24:40.009
in charge of your calendar. And, you know, you're going
468
00:24:40.029 --> 00:24:42.309
to get questions from an individual. Now, a lot of it,
469
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:44.359
some of it can be automated, right? Like I said,
470
00:24:44.380 --> 00:24:46.660
the drafts can be automated, but then it's like the planning,
471
00:24:46.680 --> 00:24:48.319
the human experience, right?
472
00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:51.329
People, especially for a podcast.
473
00:24:51.349 --> 00:24:53.539
Cause at least what I've seen, they want to feel
474
00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:57.019
like they're dealing with a real human because it means
475
00:24:57.579 --> 00:24:58.640
there is meaning behind that.
476
00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:03.539
So yeah, I can imagine, right. How many inquiries you get?
477
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:06.250
Cause I started a podcast for a bit and I
478
00:25:06.269 --> 00:25:08.170
was getting inquiries for it as well.
479
00:25:08.890 --> 00:25:11.630
Um, and just became too much for me. Yeah.
480
00:25:11.650 --> 00:25:13.470
It's definitely ramped up in the last couple of months
481
00:25:14.230 --> 00:25:16.960
and in the, the quality of the guests is, is
482
00:25:17.019 --> 00:25:20.980
really high. You know, it's like, When I'm looking, when
483
00:25:21.019 --> 00:25:23.440
I started doing it in 2019, it was mostly just
484
00:25:23.460 --> 00:25:25.920
people in my network in the northeast of England. And
485
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:31.420
then with some people from further afield, then I've started
486
00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:33.180
to have more guests from across the whole of the
487
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:38.289
UK and overseas. So a lot in the US, North America, Asia,
488
00:25:39.180 --> 00:25:43.990
some in the Middle East as well. But yeah, it's cool.
489
00:25:44.029 --> 00:25:47.069
It's definitely gone more. national international in in the last
490
00:25:47.089 --> 00:25:50.970
couple of months which which i'm enjoying getting different perspectives
491
00:25:51.089 --> 00:25:56.029
from from other people who are um but also common
492
00:25:56.390 --> 00:26:01.019
common like problems and challenges and thoughts all around the
493
00:26:01.059 --> 00:26:05.519
world which which is which is great um but yeah
494
00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:08.859
when you say the actual delivery of the podcast needs
495
00:26:08.900 --> 00:26:11.609
to be me doing this like yeah part of the
496
00:26:11.630 --> 00:26:14.349
appeal but a lot of the other stuff behind the
497
00:26:14.369 --> 00:26:15.490
scenes doesn't need to be me.
498
00:26:16.410 --> 00:26:20.869
Yeah, of course. Of course. For me, it's funny.
499
00:26:21.990 --> 00:26:25.460
My team knows that because it's one of my priorities,
500
00:26:25.660 --> 00:26:28.039
I have to be seen for the business, at least
501
00:26:28.059 --> 00:26:28.720
at this point.
502
00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:32.900
That's one of my roles. It's to market the business,
503
00:26:32.940 --> 00:26:33.740
to tell our story.
504
00:26:36.309 --> 00:26:42.190
They're constantly looking for opportunities for me to speak. They're
505
00:26:42.210 --> 00:26:46.309
constantly helping me plan live conversations. I'm doing a lot
506
00:26:46.329 --> 00:26:49.089
of lives these days just because I feel like humans
507
00:26:49.190 --> 00:26:52.670
crave real authentic human experiences.
508
00:26:52.710 --> 00:26:53.849
And I think live's the way to go.
509
00:26:53.910 --> 00:26:57.029
But if I was to manage all these things, it
510
00:26:57.089 --> 00:26:58.869
just would take me away from the other work that
511
00:26:58.910 --> 00:27:02.289
I have prioritized. So, you know, I'm willing to make
512
00:27:02.329 --> 00:27:06.029
myself available. And I've told this to the team, right?
513
00:27:06.170 --> 00:27:08.450
Like my priority is to grow this so we can
514
00:27:08.490 --> 00:27:10.710
support them. So they know that you know, they can
515
00:27:10.730 --> 00:27:13.430
look for opportunities, they can pencil and they know exactly,
516
00:27:13.509 --> 00:27:16.369
like I've made it very clear what kind of opportunities
517
00:27:16.410 --> 00:27:18.150
we're looking for. We're also learning on the go. So,
518
00:27:18.509 --> 00:27:19.829
you know, as I told you, I'm not an expert
519
00:27:19.869 --> 00:27:21.910
and I'm learning about this too. So it's like, who
520
00:27:21.930 --> 00:27:26.410
do we speak to? How do we build out the topics?
521
00:27:26.450 --> 00:27:27.990
How do we create the show notes? All of these
522
00:27:28.059 --> 00:27:31.400
different things. But I'm not responsible for any of that.
523
00:27:31.660 --> 00:27:33.700
I don't have the time to do that. There's other
524
00:27:33.740 --> 00:27:35.859
things that I need to focus on, but it's really
525
00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:39.420
important that I do speak. And so the speaking I own,
526
00:27:40.380 --> 00:27:43.660
everything else I've handed off. I even have my team
527
00:27:43.700 --> 00:27:46.599
now searching for opportunities and all that stuff. Cause yeah,
528
00:27:46.619 --> 00:27:50.119
there are automated tools that do this, but you know, people,
529
00:27:50.900 --> 00:27:54.599
they feel very fake and it's also just sending it
530
00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:59.710
out to everyone. So, you know, now, now my team
531
00:27:59.769 --> 00:28:02.150
owns that for me. I've completely handed it off except
532
00:28:02.190 --> 00:28:05.529
the speaking, speaking, you know, it's, it still takes time,
533
00:28:05.609 --> 00:28:08.529
but really what takes a lot of time is behind
534
00:28:08.569 --> 00:28:12.589
the scenes. It's like coordinating all this stuff, booking dates,
535
00:28:12.670 --> 00:28:14.529
making sure everything works for everyone. We're starting to do
536
00:28:14.589 --> 00:28:18.470
panels now as well. I find panel conversations work really well.
537
00:28:19.609 --> 00:28:23.339
Trying to coordinate multiple people's calendars, never easy, never easy.
538
00:28:23.390 --> 00:28:27.359
So yeah, it's a lot of fun, but I wouldn't
539
00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:30.380
be able to do this without the team, the support
540
00:28:31.099 --> 00:28:32.700
of my virtual assistants.
541
00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:37.940
Yeah, awesome. So just tell me a bit more, like if.
542
00:28:40.170 --> 00:28:44.460
If me or someone watching this or anyone is interested
543
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:46.980
in working with you, what would happen next? What would
544
00:28:47.019 --> 00:28:49.660
be the first step? What would the process be?
545
00:28:51.180 --> 00:28:54.619
This, I'd say, is the most important part of the process, right?
546
00:28:56.019 --> 00:28:57.079
Where a lot of us miss.
547
00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:00.740
It doesn't matter if you're hiring someone that's not virtual.
548
00:29:01.910 --> 00:29:05.650
It all comes down to the match, finding the right person.
549
00:29:06.329 --> 00:29:08.660
So that is the first part of our process. It's
550
00:29:08.700 --> 00:29:13.930
really understanding, Paul, you know, even for me, what does
551
00:29:13.990 --> 00:29:19.089
the right fit look like for you? Skill set's obviously important.
552
00:29:19.329 --> 00:29:21.269
A lot of folks in this space, a lot of
553
00:29:21.309 --> 00:29:24.650
businesses will focus on just skill set alone. There's an individual,
554
00:29:24.690 --> 00:29:27.009
they have the skill set. Therefore, this is the right
555
00:29:27.049 --> 00:29:29.829
person for you, Paul. And we want to do it quick, right?
556
00:29:29.930 --> 00:29:32.410
For us, we don't think about rushing it. We really
557
00:29:32.430 --> 00:29:34.690
think about what does the right fit look like for you?
558
00:29:35.579 --> 00:29:39.730
So what does that mean? Skill set's important, but that's not...
559
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:43.519
the only thing. We're looking at personality type. We're looking
560
00:29:43.539 --> 00:29:46.720
at communication style. We're looking at work style. These things
561
00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:49.289
need to be there for this individual to be the
562
00:29:49.329 --> 00:29:55.109
right fit. They need to be able to talk the
563
00:29:55.150 --> 00:29:57.670
way you want them to talk. If this person's very relaxed,
564
00:29:57.710 --> 00:29:59.250
and going back to what you were saying, that high
565
00:30:00.210 --> 00:30:04.910
Type A entrepreneur that likes to do everything themselves. How
566
00:30:04.930 --> 00:30:07.910
do you think they'd vibe with someone that's just very relaxed?
567
00:30:08.039 --> 00:30:09.859
They get the work done, but they're just very relaxed.
568
00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:11.640
It wouldn't work. It doesn't matter if they have the
569
00:30:11.660 --> 00:30:12.839
skill set. It just wouldn't work.
570
00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:15.279
This person needs to be like, I got it done.
571
00:30:15.559 --> 00:30:17.700
You know, ensuring them that they're on top of things,
572
00:30:17.779 --> 00:30:19.920
checking in with them, telling them how they're doing, like
573
00:30:20.039 --> 00:30:20.680
showing them the way.
574
00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:23.329
So first part, we start with a match. Okay.
575
00:30:23.369 --> 00:30:25.690
So we work with you to understand who's going to
576
00:30:25.730 --> 00:30:29.619
be the right fit. The second piece, okay, we found
577
00:30:29.660 --> 00:30:32.200
this individual. We've gone through the process. Now we need
578
00:30:32.220 --> 00:30:34.319
to think about setting this person up for success. This
579
00:30:34.359 --> 00:30:36.700
is where a lot of folks go wrong after, right?
580
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:42.500
So you found the virtual assistant, but, you know, a
581
00:30:42.529 --> 00:30:44.690
lot of, I don't have time to build out SOPs.
582
00:30:44.750 --> 00:30:46.529
I don't have time to onboard a person. I don't
583
00:30:46.549 --> 00:30:49.509
have time to manage them and ensure they're successful.
584
00:30:49.990 --> 00:30:51.809
This is another area where we see.
585
00:30:53.490 --> 00:30:57.210
A lot of failure when working with someone where folks
586
00:30:57.250 --> 00:31:00.700
are like, I could just do this myself faster, right? Yeah,
587
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.539
you're onboarding a person. It's not going to be perfect
588
00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:05.579
to start. But we come in and we help with that. Now,
589
00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:09.279
the third part. Okay, so we found someone who's the
590
00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:13.460
right fit. We set them up for success. This is
591
00:31:13.509 --> 00:31:19.430
especially for small business owners and solopreneurs and leaders. Now
592
00:31:19.450 --> 00:31:22.309
you actually have to dedicate time to managing them. Now
593
00:31:22.329 --> 00:31:25.049
we talked about the enterprise level experience. Enterprise, what is
594
00:31:25.089 --> 00:31:28.049
enterprise going to do? They have managers in place. whose
595
00:31:28.349 --> 00:31:31.069
sole job is to manage teams, to manage people, that
596
00:31:31.109 --> 00:31:34.029
doesn't just go away. Yes, you can bring on someone
597
00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:37.380
who there are outliers and there's individuals that need no
598
00:31:37.420 --> 00:31:40.480
management at all. But in the majority of cases, that's
599
00:31:40.740 --> 00:31:44.519
not true. And so we then provide ongoing support. We
600
00:31:44.539 --> 00:31:47.730
provide individuals to ensure this person is successful, to provide
601
00:31:47.750 --> 00:31:50.430
them feedback, to constantly provide them in the right direction.
602
00:31:50.470 --> 00:31:52.549
You need upskilling. There are new tools that are being
603
00:31:52.589 --> 00:31:55.569
developed every single day. tools that I don't have time
604
00:31:55.609 --> 00:31:57.470
to stay on top of, tools that you don't have
605
00:31:57.509 --> 00:31:59.609
time to stay on top of. If we're talking about automations,
606
00:31:59.670 --> 00:32:01.269
how do we improve this stuff? How do we build
607
00:32:01.289 --> 00:32:06.359
a better process? And this all comes with ongoing support,
608
00:32:06.740 --> 00:32:09.380
ongoing guidance. And as a founder, when you feel like
609
00:32:09.420 --> 00:32:12.779
you don't have time to do that, you kind of
610
00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:16.259
can fall behind as well. So we provide that ongoing
611
00:32:16.380 --> 00:32:19.059
support to ensure that this individual is important.
612
00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:21.000
So that's the entire process.
613
00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:24.980
Obviously there's step-by-step in terms of how that happens, but
614
00:32:25.660 --> 00:32:28.640
I don't want to bore you or your audience. It's
615
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.029
too nitty gritty, but a high level, those, I think
616
00:32:31.069 --> 00:32:33.109
those are the three most important things to think about
617
00:32:33.490 --> 00:32:36.309
right fit, how to actually set the person up for
618
00:32:36.329 --> 00:32:39.190
success and then how to continue that success and manage them.
619
00:32:40.230 --> 00:32:42.789
Okay. Very good. Well, I encourage people to take a
620
00:32:42.809 --> 00:32:46.380
look on your website. So it's blue Mosul.com where they
621
00:32:46.400 --> 00:32:50.380
can find out a bit more about it. Um, It's
622
00:32:50.420 --> 00:32:55.519
like the expression catch 22. Is that the right expression?
623
00:32:56.440 --> 00:32:58.420
You know you haven't got time, so you need to
624
00:32:58.460 --> 00:33:00.970
free up some time or you need to bring someone
625
00:33:01.009 --> 00:33:02.950
in to free up some time, but you haven't got
626
00:33:02.970 --> 00:33:06.769
the time to onboard them or train them up, but
627
00:33:06.809 --> 00:33:08.289
that's exactly what you need to do.
628
00:33:10.190 --> 00:33:12.140
That's where we come in, right?
629
00:33:12.579 --> 00:33:14.359
Look, everything takes a little work to do well.
630
00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:18.859
So I get it. But if you don't start, it
631
00:33:18.880 --> 00:33:19.519
just gets harder.
632
00:33:19.940 --> 00:33:27.970
If you're waiting to a point where you're super stressed,
633
00:33:29.210 --> 00:33:32.630
it's make or break, you might have waited too long. Now,
634
00:33:33.130 --> 00:33:35.369
I don't like to say that, but it's true. Usually,
635
00:33:36.910 --> 00:33:43.039
it's like everything, the best type, it's being preventative, health preventative.
636
00:33:43.359 --> 00:33:45.579
So it's like, how do you prevent? Obviously, you don't
637
00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:48.779
need to think about scaling if you don't have any clients.
638
00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:50.619
Right. So that might be too early.
639
00:33:50.700 --> 00:33:54.769
But, you know, as you're starting to grow, as you're
640
00:33:54.789 --> 00:33:57.589
starting to develop a reoccurring model or like it's very
641
00:33:57.650 --> 00:33:58.769
clear what your offer is.
642
00:33:58.789 --> 00:34:00.049
Yeah, it makes sense.
643
00:34:00.349 --> 00:34:02.769
It makes sense to start thinking about delegation if you
644
00:34:02.849 --> 00:34:03.890
are an ambitious person.
645
00:34:03.930 --> 00:34:04.049
Right.
646
00:34:04.089 --> 00:34:05.509
And I think a lot of the folks listening in
647
00:34:05.549 --> 00:34:08.230
are are super ambitious. That's why we get into entrepreneurship.
648
00:34:09.789 --> 00:34:12.809
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was looking on, I think it
649
00:34:12.829 --> 00:34:15.250
was on your LinkedIn page. I'm sure there's a lot
650
00:34:15.269 --> 00:34:17.510
more you can do, but just as like a summary,
651
00:34:17.650 --> 00:34:20.030
some of the things that your, your team can do,
652
00:34:20.090 --> 00:34:24.840
it's like social media supports, it's lead generation and outreach,
653
00:34:24.929 --> 00:34:29.900
it's general admin and delegation, it's ops and workflow management,
654
00:34:30.099 --> 00:34:40.920
content creation, repurposing, strategic engagement. It's finding other VAs as well. Yeah. That's, that's,
655
00:34:41.340 --> 00:34:42.860
I'm sure there's a lot more that you can do
656
00:34:42.940 --> 00:34:43.239
as well.
657
00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:46.610
Well, for us, you know, the way that we work
658
00:34:46.679 --> 00:34:49.670
is our specialty is setting the person up for finding
659
00:34:49.710 --> 00:34:52.469
the right person, setting the person up for success and
660
00:34:52.510 --> 00:34:56.070
managing them. They bring that person brings a skillset, right?
661
00:34:56.110 --> 00:34:58.610
As I told you, the skillset is very important and
662
00:34:58.650 --> 00:35:00.269
that's what we're looking for. Part of the match, but
663
00:35:00.829 --> 00:35:05.889
our specialty, what, what we're experts at is managing that individual,
664
00:35:05.949 --> 00:35:08.210
setting them up, finding them, setting them up for success
665
00:35:08.409 --> 00:35:09.670
and then keeping them successful.
666
00:35:10.150 --> 00:35:12.429
And so, we're not the.
667
00:35:12.469 --> 00:35:16.190
Ones doing the actual work, owning the product, the work.
668
00:35:16.309 --> 00:35:20.840
It's the individual that we're managing. So the reality is
669
00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:23.719
a business can come to us and say, hey, I
670
00:35:23.780 --> 00:35:24.800
need someone.
671
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:26.119
That can do X, Y, and Z.
672
00:35:26.900 --> 00:35:28.860
Our job is to go and then find that individual
673
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:33.679
and then support that individual. So the reality is, yes,
674
00:35:33.719 --> 00:35:36.429
there are many different things that we could do, but
675
00:35:36.449 --> 00:35:37.119
it's not us.
676
00:35:37.050 --> 00:35:39.769
Actually doing that. It's the right individual doing it for
677
00:35:39.829 --> 00:35:42.369
the company. the business.
678
00:35:44.159 --> 00:35:46.340
I think it's a well i do generally think it's
679
00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:49.079
a it's a great selling service that you're offering um
680
00:35:49.099 --> 00:35:52.940
i could totally see the appeal and uh well that's
681
00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:55.719
why i'm keen to do this so that so the
682
00:35:55.739 --> 00:35:58.960
more people know about it as well um because um
683
00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:03.760
yeah i mean going back to the fact that you've
684
00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:07.300
got a team that that you can tap into who
685
00:36:07.340 --> 00:36:10.840
can do this work that isn't just people in your
686
00:36:10.900 --> 00:36:15.269
immediate network. Because I see that as well. People say, oh,
687
00:36:15.329 --> 00:36:18.309
I need some support. Do you know anyone? Well, I
688
00:36:18.349 --> 00:36:22.130
might know someone, but I might know maybe three, four
689
00:36:22.789 --> 00:36:27.380
VAs or assistants, but they're already maxed out working with
690
00:36:27.409 --> 00:36:29.760
other people and they're just in the local area. Well,
691
00:36:29.980 --> 00:36:33.119
once they've gone, where are you going to go? And
692
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:36.900
where do you start? But the fact you're here offering
693
00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:40.739
this service that's, You've already got a large team to
694
00:36:40.780 --> 00:36:44.280
tap into, but you're always looking for new virtual assistants
695
00:36:44.340 --> 00:36:46.880
as well, aren't you? Yeah.
696
00:36:46.960 --> 00:36:48.480
This is one of the things that we see a
697
00:36:48.539 --> 00:36:53.570
lot of times, right? You know, especially in this space,
698
00:36:54.809 --> 00:36:56.789
when you go to someone, it's very hard to turn
699
00:36:56.829 --> 00:37:02.510
down work, even if someone's at capacity. You know, it's unfortunate,
700
00:37:02.690 --> 00:37:05.929
but it makes sense when you think about the work conditions, right?
701
00:37:06.050 --> 00:37:06.449
And so.
702
00:37:07.780 --> 00:37:11.639
For a lot of folks, I think referrals are the
703
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:15.340
best way to find someone. What I also like to
704
00:37:15.380 --> 00:37:17.280
teach folks, if they are going to look for a
705
00:37:17.340 --> 00:37:20.409
virtual assistant, it's asking the right questions first. What's your
706
00:37:20.449 --> 00:37:26.210
capacity look like? How many clients do you have? It happens.
707
00:37:26.349 --> 00:37:27.469
If you're thinking about.
708
00:37:27.489 --> 00:37:27.570
I.
709
00:37:29.750 --> 00:37:31.309
Like to also teach people how to find the right
710
00:37:31.329 --> 00:37:34.320
virtual assistant. I think it's really important to understand. If
711
00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:39.110
you're going and looking for someone and you're paying bare bones,
712
00:37:40.329 --> 00:37:42.389
they're gonna look for as many opportunities as they can.
713
00:37:42.699 --> 00:37:45.800
What we really focus on is how do we support individuals?
714
00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:48.619
How do we give them enough to live on? We
715
00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:50.280
also don't like to look at hourly work. So if
716
00:37:50.300 --> 00:37:52.199
you go in and you're looking for a virtual assistant
717
00:37:52.239 --> 00:37:54.699
and you say to them, okay, you got the referral,
718
00:37:54.719 --> 00:37:56.739
can you do an hour here or.
719
00:37:57.710 --> 00:37:58.429
Two hours here?
720
00:38:00.010 --> 00:38:04.010
There is, or ad hoc, the reality is most likely
721
00:38:04.050 --> 00:38:06.480
they're gonna take on other clients You're not going to
722
00:38:06.500 --> 00:38:08.239
be a priority. And so these are things you need
723
00:38:08.260 --> 00:38:12.019
to also look at when you are looking to find
724
00:38:12.059 --> 00:38:15.159
a virtual assistant, right? So if you're tapping into that
725
00:38:15.219 --> 00:38:18.679
network that your friend provided you, that's great. Just make
726
00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:21.219
sure you know what their capacity is, if they have
727
00:38:21.260 --> 00:38:26.019
other clients. If you're really looking for project-based work, that's okay.
728
00:38:26.519 --> 00:38:30.159
Hourly work can work in that case. But try not
729
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:33.769
to go to an individual and get into an argument
730
00:38:33.829 --> 00:38:36.840
based on time. that's why we moved away from that model.
731
00:38:37.300 --> 00:38:39.739
We don't like to think of things in terms of time.
732
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:44.380
Um, you know, we really want to.
733
00:38:43.860 --> 00:38:47.139
Think of things in terms of project costs or what
734
00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:49.400
is the monthly retainer? Uh, it just, it works better.
735
00:38:49.420 --> 00:38:50.610
It keeps people more motivated.
736
00:38:51.260 --> 00:38:54.369
Yeah, no, definitely. I think, I mean, I don't get
737
00:38:54.429 --> 00:38:57.030
it anymore, but definitely when I first started out in business,
738
00:38:57.190 --> 00:38:58.530
I used to hate it when people say, what's your
739
00:38:58.550 --> 00:39:02.849
hourly rate? It's like, well, I don't know. What's, what's
740
00:39:02.869 --> 00:39:06.599
your budget? You know, it's like, well, um, Because it
741
00:39:06.659 --> 00:39:10.480
never just takes the hour. It's always more to do
742
00:39:10.500 --> 00:39:10.780
it well.
743
00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:12.940
Yeah, and then people come to you and say, well,
744
00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:15.099
I could do this in less time. Or AI and
745
00:39:15.159 --> 00:39:17.090
all this stuff, it's like, it's not about the time.
746
00:39:17.449 --> 00:39:20.210
It's just we're trying to find a number to bill
747
00:39:20.309 --> 00:39:22.929
off of. So this has always been a struggle, I think,
748
00:39:22.949 --> 00:39:25.730
for a lot of businesses that that are in the
749
00:39:25.769 --> 00:39:29.570
service space um you know what else do we bill
750
00:39:29.610 --> 00:39:30.269
for our um.
751
00:39:32.030 --> 00:39:33.670
And it it it can.
752
00:39:34.889 --> 00:39:37.199
It can be a struggle and we've we've started to
753
00:39:37.280 --> 00:39:40.199
move away from it we haven't gone there fully just
754
00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:42.780
yet because we have our our older clients still on
755
00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:45.199
the model but you know we're moving to a place
756
00:39:45.340 --> 00:39:49.750
where we have a more consistent model in place. So,
757
00:39:49.760 --> 00:39:53.159
you know, if you are a service-based entrepreneur listening in,
758
00:39:53.840 --> 00:39:56.820
it's thinking about how to focus more on outcomes.
759
00:39:56.880 --> 00:39:58.050
That's really what we're focused on.
760
00:39:58.059 --> 00:40:02.119
It's like outcomes, not just a specific task, but these
761
00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:03.679
are the outcomes and you pay for outcomes.
762
00:40:05.610 --> 00:40:07.389
You're not paying for hourly.
763
00:40:07.989 --> 00:40:11.949
No. I don't know what it's like over, like, I
764
00:40:12.090 --> 00:40:13.949
know you grew up in Canada, didn't you?
765
00:40:14.150 --> 00:40:14.269
Yeah.
766
00:40:15.539 --> 00:40:18.360
I don't know what it's like over there, but definitely
767
00:40:18.860 --> 00:40:20.860
my dad's an accountant, right? So I know quite a
768
00:40:20.880 --> 00:40:23.739
lot about the accountancy profession, right? And I think even
769
00:40:23.780 --> 00:40:28.429
to this day, accountants record the work in 15 minutes
770
00:40:29.190 --> 00:40:31.949
time slots. So they'll do time sheets and they'll say,
771
00:40:31.989 --> 00:40:34.150
all right, I worked on this for 15 minutes of this.
772
00:40:34.789 --> 00:40:37.010
How do you, how can you do that? It's crazy.
773
00:40:37.030 --> 00:40:40.880
Then he would say, I mean, he's retired now. He'd
774
00:40:40.920 --> 00:40:45.420
say sometimes they were like, oh, we've been doing all
775
00:40:45.460 --> 00:40:47.480
this work, but we don't know who to bill it
776
00:40:47.500 --> 00:40:49.940
to or just bill it to that client because they've
777
00:40:49.960 --> 00:40:52.079
got loads of money in there and we'll be able
778
00:40:52.119 --> 00:40:55.489
to just sort of, they won't notice. So like even
779
00:40:55.510 --> 00:40:59.530
just going out for a network and a social event,
780
00:40:59.610 --> 00:41:03.289
who are you going to bill that to? It's crazy.
781
00:41:03.909 --> 00:41:06.110
Some people still work that way where it's like by
782
00:41:06.130 --> 00:41:11.480
the hour or 15 minute slots. And that's why most agencies...
783
00:41:11.780 --> 00:41:13.300
want to move away from that and they want to
784
00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:16.300
move more to productizing their services.
785
00:41:16.570 --> 00:41:19.610
I mean it's changing i just had a conversation on
786
00:41:19.650 --> 00:41:25.030
this right you know ai is changing the way the
787
00:41:25.050 --> 00:41:28.190
world works it is and i think one of the
788
00:41:28.230 --> 00:41:30.510
places where we'll see the biggest impact is with this
789
00:41:30.590 --> 00:41:35.250
model right because now everyone's just questioning what is an
790
00:41:35.269 --> 00:41:38.429
hour like how much time does it does it actually
791
00:41:38.500 --> 00:41:40.280
take to do something and you don't want to get
792
00:41:40.300 --> 00:41:40.780
into that.
793
00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:44.469
Argument it's it You can't win that argument. There's no
794
00:41:44.510 --> 00:41:45.429
way to win it, right?
795
00:41:45.590 --> 00:41:51.960
Like someone has a belief that something takes a lot shorter.
796
00:41:52.599 --> 00:41:56.880
So yeah, I think we're moving towards outcomes-based.
797
00:41:58.659 --> 00:42:01.940
You'll see this in different industries that the model, and
798
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:04.559
I was talking to a CPA about this as well.
799
00:42:07.030 --> 00:42:10.900
My theory is you're going to bring on people CPAs, lawyers,
800
00:42:11.340 --> 00:42:14.139
and they take on more of a customer service kind
801
00:42:14.179 --> 00:42:17.130
of space. They help explain things. They provide the human element.
802
00:42:17.909 --> 00:42:20.269
Maybe the work that they're doing doesn't take as long
803
00:42:20.309 --> 00:42:22.210
as they used to. And so the model may have
804
00:42:22.250 --> 00:42:26.329
to change to accommodate for that. But I completely agree
805
00:42:26.369 --> 00:42:27.949
with you. It's like you don't want to be in
806
00:42:27.969 --> 00:42:31.929
the time-based game anymore. We've started to move away from it.
807
00:42:34.630 --> 00:42:36.630
But we're not there just yet. I think a lot
808
00:42:36.650 --> 00:42:41.650
of businesses are realizing that you know, it makes sense
809
00:42:41.670 --> 00:42:44.289
to move away. It's not easy to do it overnight.
810
00:42:45.829 --> 00:42:49.250
Yeah. No, there's still, still a lot of people hourly rate,
811
00:42:49.449 --> 00:42:52.650
day rate, you know, definitely it's, it's difficult to, and
812
00:42:52.829 --> 00:42:56.010
it just comes down to their budget. A company has
813
00:42:56.050 --> 00:42:58.849
a budget set aside and what, you know, they try
814
00:42:58.869 --> 00:43:01.050
and squeeze out as much as it can on that.
815
00:43:01.789 --> 00:43:03.909
But it's definitely a better position to be in more
816
00:43:03.929 --> 00:43:10.300
of a solution selling outcomes based. It's like, like, this
817
00:43:10.360 --> 00:43:12.119
is how much it's going to cost. And we're going
818
00:43:12.139 --> 00:43:14.099
to give you, we're going to either make your money
819
00:43:14.139 --> 00:43:15.579
or we're going to save your money or we're going
820
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:18.420
to take stress away or we're going to make you
821
00:43:18.460 --> 00:43:22.800
look good or whatever, understanding what that client wants. Um,
822
00:43:23.559 --> 00:43:25.840
but it's usually those, those things that people are looking for,
823
00:43:25.900 --> 00:43:29.739
isn't it? It's usually saving money, sorry, saving time or
824
00:43:29.940 --> 00:43:33.119
saving money, making money or making themselves look better.
825
00:43:33.139 --> 00:43:38.480
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, But it's cool.
826
00:43:38.900 --> 00:43:42.340
You know, I'm excited for how business is changing. I
827
00:43:42.340 --> 00:43:44.559
know there's a lot of fear out there right now
828
00:43:44.679 --> 00:43:50.360
with AI, but I think it's never been easier to
829
00:43:50.429 --> 00:43:54.199
start a business these days. It's not easy, but easier.
830
00:43:54.219 --> 00:43:57.070
And we talked about this earlier on. The cost of
831
00:43:57.130 --> 00:44:01.889
starting a business has gone down, right? Your ability to
832
00:44:01.949 --> 00:44:04.610
outsource has been increased, right? Like you have the ability
833
00:44:04.670 --> 00:44:08.309
to outsource. You have the ability to use AI. uh
834
00:44:08.730 --> 00:44:12.489
now with that there comes more competition but it's also
835
00:44:12.769 --> 00:44:16.260
just a very exciting time that you can do this
836
00:44:16.920 --> 00:44:21.900
what was once unreachable by many folks is now reachable
837
00:44:21.960 --> 00:44:24.380
there's social media to market your business like there's all
838
00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:26.420
these different channels there that just make it so much
839
00:44:26.500 --> 00:44:29.659
easier to to start and i'm when i say easy
840
00:44:29.980 --> 00:44:32.800
in terms of the startup costs not easy in making
841
00:44:32.840 --> 00:44:35.820
a successful business so It is a fun time, I think,
842
00:44:35.860 --> 00:44:39.360
to be in business as the world changes. And these
843
00:44:39.400 --> 00:44:45.039
are usually the times where you see folks becoming successful.
844
00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:49.789
So business models are changing. The cost to entry is changing.
845
00:44:51.690 --> 00:44:54.630
There's a lot of opportunity. So I come from, you know,
846
00:44:54.909 --> 00:44:56.650
there's a lot of fear going on right now, but
847
00:44:56.690 --> 00:44:59.449
I come from a place of excitement because I think
848
00:44:59.489 --> 00:45:00.409
it is an exciting time.
849
00:45:01.070 --> 00:45:03.500
Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. Well, do you want
850
00:45:03.519 --> 00:45:05.090
to say a little bit about your background? Because I
851
00:45:05.110 --> 00:45:07.630
know this isn't your first business, is it, either? You've
852
00:45:07.650 --> 00:45:11.670
had a few other businesses beforehand, and you've been successful
853
00:45:11.710 --> 00:45:15.530
in raising money as well, raising investment for companies that
854
00:45:15.570 --> 00:45:18.579
you worked for or helped set up. So do you
855
00:45:18.599 --> 00:45:20.039
want to tell us a bit about your background?
856
00:45:21.440 --> 00:45:23.699
Yeah, I sometimes think about it. I feel like I
857
00:45:23.739 --> 00:45:26.280
was meant to be an entrepreneur, like I'm a lifelong entrepreneur.
858
00:45:26.599 --> 00:45:29.530
I thought I wanted to be a doctor in university,
859
00:45:29.820 --> 00:45:34.900
and before that, I think the two summers before that
860
00:45:34.960 --> 00:45:39.780
or like the end of university, I'd started a driveway
861
00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:42.579
repair company. But it wasn't a business at the time.
862
00:45:42.699 --> 00:45:44.320
Just make money to pay for school and have some
863
00:45:44.380 --> 00:45:50.139
cash in my pocket. And then I took a course.
864
00:45:50.219 --> 00:45:51.940
So I still at this point wanted to be a doctor.
865
00:45:52.300 --> 00:45:55.139
Took a course on entrepreneurship. And that just completely opened
866
00:45:55.159 --> 00:45:57.699
my eyes. I had a professor and a friend at
867
00:45:57.719 --> 00:46:00.489
the time. Friend was starting a business. Professor was like... Corey,
868
00:46:00.650 --> 00:46:02.349
do you really want to be a doctor? It seems
869
00:46:02.369 --> 00:46:05.849
like you're really passionate about this entrepreneurship stuff. And I
870
00:46:05.849 --> 00:46:08.150
was like, yeah, he's like, you know, you can help
871
00:46:08.190 --> 00:46:11.309
a lot of folks. You know, maybe you're not the doctor,
872
00:46:12.010 --> 00:46:14.489
but you can make a difference. And I was struggling
873
00:46:14.530 --> 00:46:17.010
in school at that time. Like a lot of folks,
874
00:46:17.320 --> 00:46:19.800
school came easy to them. Those were the ones that
875
00:46:19.820 --> 00:46:23.860
became doctors. And for me, it was just every day,
876
00:46:24.179 --> 00:46:27.239
just nonstop. Like I had this, I could work, I
877
00:46:27.239 --> 00:46:30.730
would work anyone. That was one of my skill sets.
878
00:46:30.809 --> 00:46:33.780
I could outwork anyone, but it was so hard.
879
00:46:34.820 --> 00:46:35.380
It wasn't easy.
880
00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:39.940
So I knew I wanted to start a business. Couldn't
881
00:46:39.960 --> 00:46:41.639
figure out what I wanted to start. Couldn't find the team.
882
00:46:42.099 --> 00:46:47.099
And then, you know, signed up for a master's. And
883
00:46:47.139 --> 00:46:48.960
within the first week, found a team to do a
884
00:46:48.960 --> 00:46:53.139
hackathon with. And that hackathon project that we won turned
885
00:46:53.179 --> 00:46:59.610
into my first tech business. CoHealth, we digitized. all of
886
00:46:59.739 --> 00:47:02.920
the information we left the hospital with. Uh, we wound
887
00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:05.380
up exiting that after, uh, I think like six or
888
00:47:05.400 --> 00:47:07.300
seven years. I called them my MBA because I was
889
00:47:07.340 --> 00:47:09.980
in sciences. I knew nothing about business before. It was
890
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:12.039
just fun for me. Uh, so I learned a lot,
891
00:47:12.099 --> 00:47:15.019
learned how to build teams. We raised some capital there. Um,
892
00:47:15.179 --> 00:47:17.460
and it was just cool to exit and go through
893
00:47:17.500 --> 00:47:19.820
that entire process from start to finish learning how to sell,
894
00:47:19.900 --> 00:47:23.980
learning how to present. Uh, but I was, I took
895
00:47:24.019 --> 00:47:27.769
a backseat there next business. Um, Learned a lot from
896
00:47:27.789 --> 00:47:29.309
that first business. I was like, oh, my God, this
897
00:47:29.329 --> 00:47:31.610
is what I would do again if I was to
898
00:47:31.650 --> 00:47:34.690
start all over. So we built Caribou. There's a whole
899
00:47:34.750 --> 00:47:37.449
story in this in terms of pivoting and everything. I'll
900
00:47:37.469 --> 00:47:40.909
save you the story because that can make things pretty long.
901
00:47:40.969 --> 00:47:44.900
But we wound up working with financial advisors. The number
902
00:47:45.019 --> 00:47:49.639
one cost in retirement in the U.S. is health care.
903
00:47:50.860 --> 00:47:55.139
It drives people to bankruptcy. And so I'm Canadian, by
904
00:47:55.179 --> 00:47:57.719
the way. But we wound up building a U.S. health
905
00:47:57.780 --> 00:48:02.039
insurance tool for financial planners that help folks understand the
906
00:48:02.059 --> 00:48:02.699
cost of their care.
907
00:48:02.900 --> 00:48:04.320
I was teaching people.
908
00:48:04.260 --> 00:48:07.909
About Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, which are foreign
909
00:48:07.929 --> 00:48:10.789
terms in Canada. But we became experts in this because
910
00:48:10.849 --> 00:48:13.610
information was readily available. And we learned how to do
911
00:48:13.650 --> 00:48:16.650
this quickly. So we built this software, raised capital from
912
00:48:17.210 --> 00:48:20.869
some really large investors in the U.S. And I wound
913
00:48:20.909 --> 00:48:28.630
up exiting that after three years. Now, you know, again,
914
00:48:28.690 --> 00:48:32.789
I took a backseat as a founder on both cases.
915
00:48:32.809 --> 00:48:38.099
You know, I let my my business partner steer the ship,
916
00:48:38.820 --> 00:48:42.039
even though I wanted to do that. So at that point,
917
00:48:42.760 --> 00:48:44.699
you know, when I exited the second one, I was like,
918
00:48:45.019 --> 00:48:46.320
I just I need to put myself out there. I
919
00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:48.199
was so nervous for so long to put myself out
920
00:48:48.239 --> 00:48:51.150
there to create content. but I knew it was something
921
00:48:51.170 --> 00:48:52.849
that I needed to do because when you do take
922
00:48:52.889 --> 00:48:55.929
a backseat, what happens when you try to lead, you're steering,
923
00:48:56.409 --> 00:48:59.989
steering from the backseat and actually drivers drive the car
924
00:49:00.010 --> 00:49:03.840
off the road. Um, no fun for anyone. And so
925
00:49:04.699 --> 00:49:06.739
at that point I was like, okay, this is my time.
926
00:49:06.760 --> 00:49:08.360
I don't know what I'm going to work on next.
927
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:10.539
I'm going to put myself out there. I'm going to
928
00:49:10.579 --> 00:49:13.110
start creating content. I'm just going to be sharing. It's
929
00:49:13.119 --> 00:49:14.889
going to be scary, but I need to work on this.
930
00:49:14.929 --> 00:49:17.429
I need to work on my ability to speak and, and,
931
00:49:18.469 --> 00:49:20.440
I need to work on being a leader and so
932
00:49:20.480 --> 00:49:23.619
I started creating content on LinkedIn and it was a
933
00:49:23.679 --> 00:49:25.440
lot of fun I didn't realize how much I'd like
934
00:49:25.500 --> 00:49:28.800
it but I started to love it and when you're
935
00:49:28.820 --> 00:49:31.739
growing a personal brand which I think is super important
936
00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:33.880
in today's world because people buy from people they see
937
00:49:33.920 --> 00:49:38.829
as experts um you know, it becomes a full-time job.
938
00:49:38.869 --> 00:49:41.389
So I brought on my first virtual assistant. This is
939
00:49:41.409 --> 00:49:46.010
actually where the business, the Blue Moso formed. It was
940
00:49:46.070 --> 00:49:48.309
becoming so much work. We started bringing on more folks.
941
00:49:49.030 --> 00:49:51.719
And at the same time, part of growing a brand
942
00:49:51.780 --> 00:49:54.800
is connecting with other creators and other folks and other
943
00:49:54.860 --> 00:49:59.900
business owners. So I started having conversations with them again.
944
00:49:59.980 --> 00:50:01.420
And at that point, I thought I was getting back
945
00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:03.059
into tech. I thought it was going to be in
946
00:50:03.079 --> 00:50:04.989
a tech business. I thought the business would find me.
947
00:50:05.010 --> 00:50:07.610
It was trying all these different things. But I was
948
00:50:07.630 --> 00:50:11.050
having conversations with folks and I kept hearing, I can't
949
00:50:11.090 --> 00:50:14.219
find a VA. They keep ghosting me. I've gone through
950
00:50:14.300 --> 00:50:17.550
five VAs. I don't have the time to do it.
951
00:50:17.920 --> 00:50:19.719
I know I need to delegate, but I suck at it.
952
00:50:19.760 --> 00:50:21.260
I don't want to build out SOPs. I don't have
953
00:50:21.340 --> 00:50:25.880
time to manage someone. At that time, you're like, wow, okay.
954
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:28.559
Everything I've learned over the last, I think, 10 years
955
00:50:28.599 --> 00:50:29.480
at that point was.
956
00:50:33.750 --> 00:50:34.210
Pain points.
957
00:50:34.269 --> 00:50:36.449
It's like, listen for pain points. when a problem is
958
00:50:36.469 --> 00:50:38.949
so big, people will pay for it. So, you know,
959
00:50:38.969 --> 00:50:41.010
I started hearing that and I went to Cha, who's
960
00:50:41.050 --> 00:50:43.789
my virtual assistant. She's actually now my business partner. And
961
00:50:43.809 --> 00:50:46.769
I was like, I think there's a business here. I
962
00:50:47.269 --> 00:50:49.929
think we, and I knew she needed some, she was
963
00:50:49.969 --> 00:50:52.690
looking for extra work. Um, you know, she was, it
964
00:50:53.610 --> 00:50:57.150
was struggling. Um, but you would never have known that.
965
00:50:58.130 --> 00:50:59.949
So I asked her like, would you take on, do
966
00:50:59.969 --> 00:51:01.269
you want to take on some extra work? I can
967
00:51:01.309 --> 00:51:03.869
manage all this. This is kind of like bread and butter,
968
00:51:04.110 --> 00:51:07.559
my bread and butter. Um, And I went to the
969
00:51:07.599 --> 00:51:10.059
folks on, I think there was two folks at first.
970
00:51:10.099 --> 00:51:12.230
It's like, okay, would you pay for this? Because they
971
00:51:12.250 --> 00:51:13.809
kept saying to me, there's all these problems. I have
972
00:51:14.190 --> 00:51:15.710
a bunch of VAs. I can manage it. It won't
973
00:51:15.750 --> 00:51:17.230
be any additional work for you. We'll build out the
974
00:51:17.349 --> 00:51:19.889
SOPs and everything. And yeah, the rest is history. That
975
00:51:19.929 --> 00:51:25.659
was two years ago. And, you know, we've gone all
976
00:51:25.699 --> 00:51:28.920
in for the last year and it's been, been pretty,
977
00:51:29.079 --> 00:51:29.699
pretty exciting.
978
00:51:30.139 --> 00:51:30.940
The growth that we've seen.
979
00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:35.630
And this time around, we're not, We're not raising capital
980
00:51:35.690 --> 00:51:36.230
to start.
981
00:51:38.309 --> 00:51:40.610
We'll think about it. We're bootstrapping. We don't need to.
982
00:51:42.190 --> 00:51:44.530
My priority is to invest back in the business, back
983
00:51:44.570 --> 00:51:46.679
into the team, make sure we get this to a
984
00:51:46.719 --> 00:51:51.579
sustainable place where we can actually change lives. Shah's life
985
00:51:51.619 --> 00:51:55.639
has been changed. I see a bunch of the team
986
00:51:55.679 --> 00:51:58.739
listening in on Substack. I'm hoping their lives are changed,
987
00:51:58.780 --> 00:52:00.639
but I hope they know that I'm working towards that.
988
00:52:01.639 --> 00:52:06.219
It's a really awesome business because you know, you bring
989
00:52:06.260 --> 00:52:12.630
on the right individual, um, it, you know, bring it
990
00:52:12.690 --> 00:52:15.750
on a VA, bring on a virtual assistant. It's not,
991
00:52:16.510 --> 00:52:19.530
you know, it's life changing. And so, um, it's just
992
00:52:19.550 --> 00:52:22.000
been a really fun business to build and hopefully we
993
00:52:22.019 --> 00:52:24.719
can change many lives right now. We have 90 folks
994
00:52:24.760 --> 00:52:30.019
in the talent pool. Um, and yeah, or around 90.
995
00:52:30.019 --> 00:52:33.969
Well done. No, I love that. I think that's, that's
996
00:52:34.030 --> 00:52:35.809
one of the things that definitely stood out and what,
997
00:52:35.849 --> 00:52:37.510
what appealed to me when, when you guys got in
998
00:52:37.550 --> 00:52:40.610
touch about doing the podcast, because I've spent a lot
999
00:52:40.639 --> 00:52:44.039
of time working in, in and around tech and digital and, but,
1000
00:52:44.139 --> 00:52:48.199
but I like, I love tech, but I don't just
1001
00:52:48.280 --> 00:52:50.960
want to create tech businesses. I love it that it's,
1002
00:52:51.360 --> 00:52:53.309
I'm a tech guy. Yeah.
1003
00:52:53.510 --> 00:52:53.730
Yeah.
1004
00:52:54.050 --> 00:52:56.280
But, but you're an entrepreneur really. You're a, you're a,
1005
00:52:56.550 --> 00:52:59.769
you've spotted, you've spotted some problems and you've come up
1006
00:52:59.809 --> 00:53:05.119
with solutions for that. And, um, and it's involving building
1007
00:53:05.679 --> 00:53:09.219
teams of real humans who can use technology and can
1008
00:53:09.300 --> 00:53:11.699
use AI, I'm sure. And, you know, you're using all
1009
00:53:11.739 --> 00:53:16.030
the best available, but, um, but yeah, I think that's a,
1010
00:53:16.730 --> 00:53:20.429
that's my type of business that I, that yeah, I've,
1011
00:53:20.449 --> 00:53:23.690
I've avoided hiring people cause I didn't feel like I
1012
00:53:24.289 --> 00:53:26.150
wanted to, I was ready to, but I liked the
1013
00:53:26.190 --> 00:53:30.000
idea of bringing other people in and, supporting other people
1014
00:53:30.079 --> 00:53:33.039
and creating money and work for others, which I do
1015
00:53:33.079 --> 00:53:35.739
through the business at the moment. But it must be
1016
00:53:36.059 --> 00:53:38.960
satisfying doing what you're doing as well for helping that
1017
00:53:38.980 --> 00:53:43.400
many people find additional work. But in turn is also
1018
00:53:43.440 --> 00:53:46.480
helping your clients grow their business and have a more
1019
00:53:46.519 --> 00:53:47.909
sustainable livelihood as well.
1020
00:53:48.719 --> 00:53:52.369
It's what gets me up every morning now. You know,
1021
00:53:52.429 --> 00:53:54.670
the clients initially wanted to help business owners. That's what
1022
00:53:54.690 --> 00:53:55.909
I was looking for when I was looking on my
1023
00:53:55.929 --> 00:53:57.690
next business. I really wanted to help.
1024
00:53:58.039 --> 00:54:03.590
Folks scale and just the individuals, right?
1025
00:54:03.750 --> 00:54:06.309
Like we have countless stories now of how lives have
1026
00:54:06.329 --> 00:54:08.269
been changed, but you know, it's just all around when
1027
00:54:08.289 --> 00:54:11.150
you can build a business that, that can make a difference.
1028
00:54:12.849 --> 00:54:15.900
And there's a real business there because that's important. Like
1029
00:54:15.920 --> 00:54:17.500
you need to be able to sustain it and grow
1030
00:54:17.539 --> 00:54:19.719
a business. Otherwise you can't keep doing what you're doing.
1031
00:54:19.739 --> 00:54:22.860
It feels good. So yeah, I feel good doing this.
1032
00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:26.340
I'm not going to lie. It feels really good. But,
1033
00:54:28.090 --> 00:54:31.849
I love, like you were saying, I'm an entrepreneur. It's
1034
00:54:31.869 --> 00:54:34.130
a good catch. Am I a tech guy? I'm an
1035
00:54:34.150 --> 00:54:37.449
entrepreneur first. I see that there might be a tech
1036
00:54:37.469 --> 00:54:39.090
that we can build here to help with kind of
1037
00:54:39.110 --> 00:54:46.710
the entire process. But future investment from bootstrapping. But the
1038
00:54:46.750 --> 00:54:49.409
most amazing thing is we're building a business and making
1039
00:54:49.449 --> 00:54:54.869
sure and working towards providing business owners a viable solution.
1040
00:54:55.219 --> 00:54:57.119
and changing the lives of the VAs that we work with,
1041
00:54:57.360 --> 00:54:59.900
and really improving the conditions that they work with.
1042
00:55:01.460 --> 00:55:02.219
We're working on this.
1043
00:55:02.699 --> 00:55:05.110
It's not perfect now, and I know that, but we're
1044
00:55:05.119 --> 00:55:06.710
working to make it a better model.
1045
00:55:06.989 --> 00:55:08.590
And we try to get better every single day.
1046
00:55:08.929 --> 00:55:11.750
We've grown a lot in the last two years, not
1047
00:55:11.789 --> 00:55:13.929
just in terms of team size, but what we've learned.
1048
00:55:14.730 --> 00:55:18.610
And our goal is to make this model better and
1049
00:55:18.659 --> 00:55:19.440
better every single day.
1050
00:55:21.969 --> 00:55:23.989
I'm impressed with what you've done so far, and you've
1051
00:55:24.050 --> 00:55:28.090
come across really well on this, obviously. And I love
1052
00:55:28.130 --> 00:55:31.119
your LinkedIn content as well. I think that really stands out.
1053
00:55:31.559 --> 00:55:34.820
The style of it is different to what most people
1054
00:55:34.840 --> 00:55:39.320
put out. So, yeah, I like not just the way
1055
00:55:39.360 --> 00:55:42.420
it looks, but the actual words and the messages in
1056
00:55:42.460 --> 00:55:43.420
there as well. It was great.
1057
00:55:45.030 --> 00:55:47.969
Yeah, no, I appreciate you. And I have a great team.
1058
00:55:48.150 --> 00:55:50.510
It all comes back to that. It's never just me.
1059
00:55:50.989 --> 00:55:53.690
I have an amazing team supporting me, helping me come
1060
00:55:53.730 --> 00:56:00.309
up with ideas. And I wouldn't be the same person
1061
00:56:00.349 --> 00:56:02.150
without them. So I'm grateful. I know a lot of
1062
00:56:02.170 --> 00:56:04.320
them are listening in, so it's just me thanking them.
1063
00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:07.820
Well, if you are watching in the end, the team,
1064
00:56:07.840 --> 00:56:09.880
well done. You're doing a great job. Keep it up.
1065
00:56:10.400 --> 00:56:13.320
So conscious of time, if people want to find out
1066
00:56:13.360 --> 00:56:16.139
more again, is the best place to just go to
1067
00:56:16.159 --> 00:56:17.699
your website, bluemoso.com?
1068
00:56:17.719 --> 00:56:17.789
Yep.
1069
00:56:19.400 --> 00:56:23.059
B L U E M O S O.com. Um, you
1070
00:56:23.079 --> 00:56:26.719
can find me on Substack taking my time back. I'm
1071
00:56:26.739 --> 00:56:30.889
also on LinkedIn, um, Instagram as well. But if you
1072
00:56:30.909 --> 00:56:34.849
have any questions, you can, uh, email me at hello
1073
00:56:35.170 --> 00:56:36.550
at bloomoso.com as well.
1074
00:56:38.389 --> 00:56:41.690
Amazing. Right. Corey, love it. Thank you very much for
1075
00:56:41.710 --> 00:56:46.130
doing this today. I really enjoyed the conversation and, uh, Yeah,
1076
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I think there might be a longer conversation for us
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to have. All right. Okay. Thank you very much for
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doing that. Okay, we'll leave it there.
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Thanks for having me. Thanks. Cheers, Corey. Bye. Cheers.