Hit Your Next Level: Build Team Structures
Getting Away from “Doing It All”
I’ve been working on building team structures and getting clear on the processes which we’ve created all year. I feel like I haven’t been engaged enough with my followers or as active online like I used to be even though we’re continually marketing and marketing more than ever before. I feel that we aren’t marketing as much because I’m not the one leading and creating the marketing plan anymore because this year, I’ve been shedding many work layers. Unfortunately, I have the “do it all” syndrome. Now, however, I realize that although I thought I was pretty reformed in this department, I still have a little bit of this syndrome. Even though I’ve been outsourcing for years with virtual assistants and contractors for quite a long time, I still feel I must have a hand in every activity which happens at Make Money Your Honey.
When Contractors Don’t Make Sense Anymore
I started having issues when my business doubled in 2018. At this point, having a bunch of contractors was no longer enough support for my business. Financially, having so many contractors didn’t make sense anymore from a business finances standpoint. I needed a full-time person, and I needed to get organized with systems, processes, and people.
Get Your Leadership On!
First thing’s first: let’s talk about my adventures in scaling in relationship to leadership. Leadership has been a vast topic for me since the summer, and two books, in particular, have helped me with this whole idea. The first book is called Scaling Up, aka Rockefeller habits 2.0. The second book is Multipliers. These two books have helped me see where I was holding on too much to different parts of my business and not being strong enough in other areas of my company.
I’ve been pushed into this new level of consciousness where I am resisting certain practices when it comes to leadership. Why am I resisting them, and how can I lean into leadership instead of trying to run away from leadership? I’m not comfortable with leadership; therefore, this is a big challenge for me personally. I have gained more insight and more self-confidence in the last few months. I’ve learned I’m quite an excellent trainer and manager.
Next, Lean into Your Leadership Role
I’m leaning into my new leadership role, and I like my new leadership responsibility. In addition to leadership, I’ve been much more clear on my position in the company. Sometimes I didn’t even know I had an option I wasn’t trying to prove I can do it all, this is what I’ve always done, and I don’t know a different way. I’ve had to get clear on other people and their roles and responsibilities.
I didn’t realize how much I was doing even in my own company, even with a fleet of contractors until I hired a full-time employee. Eventually, if you want to scale your business, you need to hand the mindless stuff and move into your role as the CEO. Besides, you have to allow people on your team to step into their zones of genius. Give them the tools to step up and take ownership, so you’re not handling every transaction. Since I’ve been more organized on this front and I’m having a better understanding of the leadership concept, I’ve gotten way more clear about my specific role as visionary – I’m a big idea person.
Stepping into My Role – and – Letting Others Support Me
I’m good at marketing, and I’m a good storyteller. I can see events play out in my head. I understand exactly where my company is going. At this point, to move forward, I need to bring in people to support my vision.
I’ve had to get good at letting other people support me, so I recently decided to hire a part-time financial officer to manage the business finance side. This was pretty easy to hire because I’ve never had a problem hiring out financial responsibilities.
My zone of genius is podcasting, coaching, storytelling. My new hire’s zone of genius is organizing people and execution. I recently hired a podcast producer because I’ve been doing production for way too long. Now I do what I love, which is the show, then send off the audio to my podcast production team, and they take care of post-production. Also, I decided to hire back end sales admin support. Hiring people who can handle this work feels fantastic and liberating and freeing!
I have to admit that this is all very weird for me because I’m a doer – I like to get my hands dirty, and I like to be involved. When you start a business from nothing, it’s your baby, and you take your business very seriously because you want to succeed. Because you are dedicated, there’s a part of you that wants every transaction, event, and action to be done your way. Here is where there’s a limiting belief that I’m the only person I can do it right.
The Best Way to NOT Grow: Have Limiting Beliefs
The limiting belief that I have is that I wasn’t letting people step into their zone of genius. Additionally, I’ve been so involved in every aspect of my business for so long that I had a hard time letting go of what I was doing inside my company. At the same time, it became clear that I was starting to go crazy with so much on my plate. This was beginning to affect my company and me negatively. To get out of this mindset, I started thinking bigger. I didn’t create a business to create another job for myself; I created a business to be a leader, to grow my idea into something bigger than a job or myself. Next, I asked myself, what structures do I need to put in place to make this happen? What support do I need to put in place? I want to live a certain way, and for me to live in the lifestyle I prefer, I’m going to have to let people help me.
On the one hand, it feels bizarre and strange because I’m not used to having a team to support my business. On the other hand, there’s a part of me that loves that other people are working on things that I would have to do otherwise. While I’m here recording this podcast, interviews, sales, administration, and follow-ups are getting done. This is all happening without me having to be involved so that I can do what I do best.
My current assignment is really to step into this idea of leadership of CEO, the queen, and allow people to help me and to trust that things are going to get done. Sometimes growth and change, even when they are right, are still really hard. Not because there’s anything wrong, but because growth requires change and change is hard. When you’re used to doing something a certain way for so long, it can be challenging to let go of your habits and to create new patterns.
Growth Creates Possibility
I want to show you what’s possible. I never thought I would have employees and a CFO. I didn’t know I would have a team of seven or eight people. Partly because I never imagined this scenario because I didn’t even know I would be able to pull a group this big off! There’s a part of me that thinks if I would have known I could do this if I would have known this was available, if I was thinking bigger, and if I had figured that out sooner than I would be much further along. This is the reason I wanted to share my new growth mindset with you because I want to show you what’s possible. You don’t have to build your company alone. You don’t have to have all your business responsibility on your shoulders.
There is a vision to create, and behind your vision is something more significant. It would be best if you had people to support that vision. Now, if you’re starting on your business, your level of support probably looks like hiring a coach attending a marketing and sales program to even get off the ground. Once you’re beyond that, and once you’re getting into the six-figure range, it’s time to start thinking about what types of people you need to bring onto your team. I want to show you that progression, so you don’t make the mistake I did, which was thinking too small.