Transcript:

Welcome back to my first hire. In this lesson, we're going to be talking about developing the work plan for the person that you are going to higher. By this point, it would be great if you have your list of tasks from the first lesson, because that is what we are going to use to create the work plan. So if you haven't done that yet, I would push pause on this and finish that part first.

Okay, so what are we going to cover, we are going to talk about aligning your own actions and the actions of your team.

Letting go of the things that are not in alignment, listing the skills that will help save time and energy, and increase the value and impact for your clients and for your business and the worlds. And then we're going to take all of that and create a job at this is going to be the first draft of the job ad, we're going to keep revisiting this piece of it

as we go along through the hiring process.

Okay, so what is aligned action look like in a business.

And

it's really beneficial to think about aligned action, every time you come around to hiring a person, or a maybe eventually hiring multiple people. Because it is a useful filter to kind of think about what makes sense for my business to be doing, and what doesn't make sense for my business to do.

There is a lot of advice out there, especially in different kinds of industries about what makes sense for a business owner to hire at a particular time. Right, like as you grow your business, this is the first hire you should make this is the second hire you should make, and so on. And that works for some people, but it doesn't work for all people.

And so when we use this lens of aligned action, to filter through all the information that's coming at us, and then what we think we need, it'll help us to hire, make the hire, that is going to be the best support for the business and ourselves. And we'll get down the line of talking about so who do I hire first and why. But this is being an aligned action yourself with your own work, helps you to be able to understand what work other people can do for you, that is also in alignment.

And so you're looking for things that are going to save time, save energy, and create value for your clients and the impact that you want to see in the world.

So

you have this list of tasks right now. And we're going to go through that list with this filter. Okay.

And we're going to do that by asking ourselves three different questions. So when you look at all of the things you do, what are the things that take a lot of time, you're gonna mark those. So you could put maybe a little T next to them. So what are these things that are taking up a lot of your time. And things that take up a lot of time tend to fall into two categories.

One of those categories are things that you have to do. So for example, if you are, you know, creating a product, it's likely that you're going to need to do the product development and research and all of that. If you're providing a service, it's likely that you're going to need to meet with your clients one on one, at least some part of your work right.

You're going to need to be the one that

is researching what offers you're going to be creating, creating those and getting those out into the world figuring out how to get the message out there, right? Those are activities that take a lot of time product is basically all product development, product and service development. There are other tasks that take a lot of time that don't require you, right. So

an example of this could be

writing, like writing your contract, you know, that maybe it's something that you're not ready to hand off to someone else right now, but

a lot of administrative kinds of tasks, potentially bookkeeping, or things that take a lot of time, that and potentially a lot of energy, but they don't necessarily need to be you who does it. So that's the first filter, does it take a lot of time. Second filter is,

does it fill my cup, and if it does not fill your cup, then you're gonna put a C next to it.

So these are things like, you know, for example, in my business,

I'm going to use the bookkeeping example, because it's a really good one for for a few of these different things.

So I don't love looking at my QuickBooks. And the reason for that is because I will go into QuickBooks, which is my bookkeeping system, like a rabbit hole every time I get in there, because I will look at all the reports, I'll look at everything that's happening with every single bank account, like review, every transaction that's been processed, like, I want to get I want to go like really met up with it, when maybe all I need to do is just send an invoice. So for me, it doesn't fill my cup to do that. And it takes a lot of my energy to do that in a way that isn't really truly aligned with the vision that I have for the world and how I'm trying to serve my clients best, I also will just avoid sending invoices, which is not great, because my clients expect them to comment a regular kind of basis, right. So that's a filter. If it doesn't fill your cup, then put a little c next to

that task.

So then we'll look at the value creation and impact creation here.

And we're, we're looking at value creation and impact creation as something that we want, right. So we don't want things to take up a lot of your time, we don't want things to be taking up a lot of your energy, you know, if they don't need to be you. And we also don't want anyone to be spending time on things that don't create value or impact, right? In some way. Everything that you do in your business should be tied to the value you're creating for your clients, and, or the impact that you're trying to have in the world. And so these are ones you can use a V or an eye for these, these are the kinds of things that you're going to totally, you're gonna want to totally weed out

or do as little of as possible if they're not really in alignment. And something that may seem like it's not in alignment, but actually is you know, are there are things that need to happen in the background in order, for example for your client to get the service or the product that you are creating, or you're providing. And so those do create value and impact. But they

they may not seem like they do so as you're going through this really have a good filter on it.

The other end of the spectrum is If something creates a lot of value or impact, it is good to also be able to note what those things are. Because if something is creating a lot of value for your client or a lot of impact in the world, the way that you want to be impacting the world. These are things that also kind of like how we were talking about time. They're either things that you need to do all of it, or there's some way that you can piece out parts of it to other people.

Um, so things that create a lot of value and impact could be a, you know,

you know, maybe you decide to record some videos of yourself talking about this impact and, and that you're creating in the world.

Or maybe you are creating materials for clients that are going to bring them a lot of value. And

so there may be ways for you to piece out part of that work to someone else, so that you're not doing all of it. But you have the piece that creates that most value impact part. Okay, so now you have your list, and you kind of have this filter on the list of things that you're gonna drop off of it, because they're not creating value or impact, things that don't fill your cup and things that take a lot of time. And the things that are falling into taking a lot of time, not filling your cup, but still creating value and impact are the ones that you're going to want to look at transferring to another person.

So what kinds of things will come up on your list, and there are lots lots of kinds of things that can come up. This is by no means an extensive list of categories of the skills that might be coming up on your list, but it's a starting point. And each business is unique. And especially if you're in a particular niche or profession, you may have other types of skills that are coming up in your list. But basically, the idea here is that you want to group similar type skills together into buckets. So you want to filter through this list. And you want to find which skills are on there that match with each other of the ones that you're trying to have someone else do. So within the world of business, you may have find that there are some, you know, marketing pieces. And this is like getting the word out there about your brand or your company, your product or service. There could be sales pieces, maybe sales calls, there could be communication pieces, like email, phone.

Maybe you're getting inquiries from your website, these kinds of communication things, there are administration pieces. So those also kind of are aligned with communication. But it's like everything that happens on the back end, for you to for example, setup a new client. So in my company, that means there's a welcome email that goes out, there's a contract that goes out, there's an invoice that goes out, there's oftentimes a questionnaire that goes out, and then there's a kickoff meeting that's scheduled. And so those are things that my team helps me do, instead of me doing them. So that's an that's an example of administration, like all the things that have to happen on the back end. There's bookkeeping, so that is reconciling your accounts, sending invoices, paying bills, and preparing all of your books and making sure that they're correct. So that when tax time comes around, you have everything you need on taxes is another piece of this, that might be coming up for you. Which is you may be doing your own taxes at this time. If you're thinking about bringing on an independent contractor or an employee, especially, I would recommend trying to find a CPA.

And there are CPAs that are, you know, experienced in different types of businesses and it's good to find a CPA that knows

your specific

situation.

Other things that can come up are graphic design or videography, web design, and podcasting. There's all kinds of different you know, business skills. If you're in you know, if you're a carpenter, then you'll have carpentry skills, right?

And project management may be something that comes up in this side as well.

But then also it's important to view looking at your personal life and not just what's happening in your business because the

it can be more

Effective runway in some cases, to take care of personal needs.

And then to move into the business needs. And so personal needs can include childcare. And they can include cleaning, running errands, cooking, laundry, gardening,

stylist, hairdresser, this kind of these kinds of things. And so you may actually already have some people working for you that you didn't even realize.

But when I

took my more successful journey into hiring, it started with hiring on the personal side. And then as I kind of expanded my capacity to be able to receive support through those through that, I was then able to start to look for support on the business side. So my journey

was first finding someone to help clean our house once a month, then it was finding someone to do bookkeeping, because that was something that I didn't want to do anymore. Then when my son was born, it was finding a nanny to take care of him. And then I hired a virtual assistant to help

with the business side of things, a lot of communication administration, social media, podcasting stuff, and then it kind of kept going from there. So just to say that your skills, the skills that you're looking at, can also include things that are in your personal life that are taking up your time and your energy, that aren't actually aligned with your vision, and your and the impact that your business is trying to create. And so those are also places where you can consider bringing on help.

Okay, so we're gonna look at an example of a bucket. So as you go through your list, and you're kind of looking at all the things that you do, you may find that there are a bunch of things that that fall under the bookkeeping category. So things like that could be maintaining the accounting system, whatever it is, mine happens to be QuickBooks, but there are other systems as well. Paying for expenses, invoicing for accounts receivable, that means you're sending an invoice out to receive a payment. Reconciling bank accounts monthly. Oh, categorizing expenses is another big one that's not on this list, generating reports and then preparing the books for tax season. And so as you look at this list, you may decide, okay, I would like to find a bookkeeper who can take care of most of these things, while maybe I keep generating reports.

So that's an example of a bookkeeping bucket. Here's another example of a marketing bucket. So it could be content planning, that's like long term, what are we doing graphic design, writing, copy, publishing, engagement, research, pitch writing, emailing the pitches, writing applications, and doing speaking engagements. So you can look within this bucket and say, okay, maybe I want to keep some of these things like the planning piece, maybe writing the copy and the research and the speaking engagements. But the rest of this I want help with from either a virtual assistant or a marketing coordinator type of a person.

So I would recommend going through your list and creating buckets for the, like categories of tasks that are similar to one another. And so you're gonna find that

you'll probably have a few of them. Some buckets may fit with each other, right? Like you may be able to put a couple of buckets together, for example, like marketing, communication administration tend to go well together, right? Graphic design, web design, you know, potentially videography, podcasting, those might go well together. But bookkeeping is kind of its own thing. Sales, usually kind of its own thing.

But, but when you're trying to group different buckets together, you're trying to

Think about, okay, if someone is really trying to develop their skills in this area,

what other skills is it likely that they will have.

So that when you go out to try to hire someone, you're trying to find someone that actually exists, right? Because I could say I need help with marketing, sales, communication, administration, bookkeeping, graphic design, videography, web design, and podcasting, and try to go out and hire for that position. But it is unlikely that I'm going to be able to find a person that will be able to do all of that and do all of that well. So when you're grouping together, I would say maybe two or three buckets together, and no more than that. I think when you're also on the personal side, it's the same, it's similar, you know, someone who's really great at taking care of children may not also be so great at you know, doing your cooking and cleaning in the house, you know, trying also to bridge the personal side, and the business side can be very tricky. Trying to find someone who's great at childcare, and also great at administration, or great at bookkeeping, that might be really hard to find. So we're trying to create,

first, the buckets, and then we're trying to match like buckets together.

Bringing us back to the SATs.

And then what you're gonna do with these buckets, is go back to your filter, right? So have all of these different kinds of

all of these different time kinds of tasks that you've grouped together, which one is taking the most of my time, draining the most of my energy, but also contributing the most to my value and my, the value I'm creating for my clients, and the impact that I want to see in the world. And that is the one that I would recommend that you start with. And because it's the one that's going to help you with time the most help you with energy and the most, and impact your clients and your your messaging your impact the most.

So

when you are creating a job ad, out of this list of tasks that is in these maybe two to three buckets of things,

the way that we create a job ad is by starting with your y. And if you didn't listen to the orientation video, I recommend you go back and listen to that because I talk about defining your y defining your how and defining your vision for the world and for your company. And those are really essential to have as a guiding light, especially as you go through the process of hiring. So we start with your why

these like universal values that your company has, that it's living out in the work that it's doing, then we move on to describing your house. So this is the products that you have the services that you're providing, kind of the way that your business is tackling the why, right? Because my why? Let's just look at sustainability, for example, you know, different kinds of companies will be tackling that why in different ways. It could be through.

It could be through architecture and design. It could be through conservation, it could be through, you know business practices. So the how is really important of how you are tackling the why. And then you get into their skills. And the skills that you're looking for are those skills in those buckets, right. And so you can list out every single one in detail like you have, or you can kind of summarize what you're looking for. And in a job ad, I recommend doing a summary. Because what you're trying to do with a job ad is call out to your ideal person. And I see this mistake in job ads all the time where it's like, a list of duties.

And then people wonder why no one's applying for their job or why they're getting all these unqualified people or you know all this. And it's because, you know, in the same way that an ad for a product or an ad for a service is enticing someone to

say

to participate with it right to like, click on it or check it out. It's the same thing with a job ad, right? You're trying to show what it is that's about your company working with you, that is unique and awesome. And giving them the opportunity to see if their skill set matches what you're looking for. And that's the basic of a job ad. And so I recommend that you give this a shot, check it out. And if you look in the bonus materials, you will find a job ad that I created. It's not one that I've actually ever hired for for fortress and flourish. But it's in there as an example. So you can see how I talk about why, how and the skill set and how to create sort of an enticing job ad.

Yeah, so

if you are getting stuck at all in this, I you know, recommend giving yourself a pause, let yourself integrate some of the information that you're learning and then come back to it in a day or so. You can also just let me know if you have any questions that are coming up for you. I am so happy to help and I will see you in the next lesson.