Hi Shannon! Grab a cup of coffee, we're going IN.

Last week, we got the opportunity to podcast with our friend James. 

I met James back at my last corporate job when his wife + biz partner Amanda emailed the marketing department to chat about sponsorship opps for their podcast. 

Fast forward 6 years, past - businesses starting, babies being born, lots of supporting one another, and great dinner dates - and there we were as guests on that very podcast! 

And in the past 6 years, James & Amanda have grown the pod to the top 1% ratings for personal development / advice for high performers. I'm so happy for them. 

It was a really fun full-circle moment for everyone. 

All that backstory to say: James has enjoyed a front row seat as we built the Bungalodeon. 😁 AND Amanda was the connection to my very first client in this online space (shoutout Tana if you're reading this!)

So we begin the podcast recording and James's first question rolls out, 

"Shannon, you've had rapid growth, especially in your first two years. Why do you think that is?" 

*Equations start swirling around my head as I try to narrow down every little move from late 2018-2020

Side bar: Since you know me WELL by now Shannon, you know I love a detail. So trying to give a high level categorical answer is actually very hard for me. 😂 

I collect my thoughts and land on two things,  

1. I had a head start because I came from a career of sales, marketing and biz dev. I never want someone, who doesn't come from a similar background (or in general), to compare themselves to my timeline due to that leg-up.
   
   

2. But most importantly: Team

I know a silver bullet strategy is sexier, but really so much of the growth we've experienced has been due to wonderful humans helping us do so. 

In this issue of The Goods, I want to share our hiring history so you can see what a difference bringing on even one P/T Virtual Assistant can make. 

*There were other hires throughout the years - in P/T, F/T and fractional leadership roles - but really what's truly allowed us to scale has been these mainstays. 

2019: 

• Paid intern going for their marketing degree from local college

  • Main tasks: Social & blog posting, follower growth, community nurture, making graphics for social, email and sales

2020: 

• Executive Assistant

  • Took the intern's tasks and added on more misc. pieces that arose from our expanding offer suite & client roster i.e. client photoshoots & attending VIP days

• Admin/Ops Coordinator 

  • Took on all customer service in hello@ inbox and onboarding/offboarding of premium clients

2021: 

• {Promotion of EA to} Marketing Manager 

  • Finding that this team member's strengths & joy lived in marketing we leaned into that fully and added on: Supporting with The Goods, blog sketching, ALL slide decks + Canva graphics, owning photoshoots, SMM in tandem with Shannon

• {Promotion} Admin/Ops Manager

  • Added on: Handling failed payments and systems creation + maintenance

2022: 

• Marketing Manager 

  • Same as 2021

• {Promotion of Admin/Ops to} Project Manager (in Oct of '22)

  • Performed a smaller live launch as a "training grounds" over Q4

• Virtual Assistant (to support Admin/Ops)

  • Took the customer service, failed payments, and misc. admin tasks

• Client Success Manager 

  • Support in client packages: Communication + engagement in their private community, project management of client's custom timelines, support in deliverable execution

2023: Same as 2022

• Virtual Assistant 

• Project & Launch Manager {Official Promotion}

• Client Success Manager 
  
  

• Outsourced Contractors: 

  • Copywriter

  • Designer

  • Funnel Integrations & Paid Ads Manager 

^^ We've worked with these outsourced contractor roles throughout the years, but in more of a pop-up capacity per launch or big project. However in 2023 we've been keeping them BUSY with workloads per-week. Which is my sign that I need to bring some of this in-house in a more official capacity. Stay tuned for "Now Hiring" postings listed in The Goods soon. 😂 

👉 I'm so thankful I hired that intern out of the gate. 

Honestly at the time it was driven by my fear of going it alone.

I was coming from a corporate structure where we had 7 people in the marketing department. I knew this "starting a business from scratch" thing was going to be a humdinger without someone there to help. 😆 

Being able to spend more time in the needle-moving tasks out of the gate, made a big difference. Then keeping that momentum going with another hire that allowed me to get out of as much "doing". Then another hire that allowed me to get out of as much "doing". (you get the picture)

Two years in and I'm: Creating curriculum, nurturing the core community, facilitating high level clients, being the "face" of the business, expanding our brand persona

Five years in and I'm: Doing the same, but sitting in more of a leadership role for the Project Manager & Client Success Manager

🔥 In our 2022 annual performance reviews, the team said something that made my soul sing,

"I feel like we're the CEOs of our own departments. We're given autonomy, creativity, and ownership." 

^^ These key players feeling a sense of triumph in their work VS just "executing on my to-do list of assigned items" has been key for our growth, but also...

Having these leaders on the team gives me people to mastermind with.

They're my most trusted inner circle of experts who believe in the vision, who know every stitch of what we provide, and can weigh in with more nuanced insight than any third party could. That is invaluable to me, and to the business. 

(Now I'm not saying this should be in place of external collaboration, connection or consultancy, but as it stands - to have this internally is a big blessing to me.)

Ok, Shannon...

You can jump down to the "Exclusive for The Goods" section for more hiring takeaways, but first I want to make sure you have your seat to the Upgrade Your Income Bootcamp. 

It's happening NEXT WEEK!

This is where you turn 1 sale into 3 and get some of that consistent cash in the bank to make these strategic hires and stop being the "main doer" in your business. 👇

Save yourself some time & a whole lotta energy on your journey to 6 figures with a secret menu of upsells & downsells that… 👇

We're Doing This Together LIVE! 🤝
Here's the Schedule of Daily Trainings:

🤤 Now Let's Talk About The Goodies 🥵 

With your $37 ticket you receive a... Private Pop Up Community, Daily Workbooks, and BONUS my $150k Proven Upsell/Downsell Emails (included with your ticket, totally swipe'able!) 

THIS Might Be What's Holding You Back from Hiring...

Hello! 👋 Welcome back to our convo, Shannon. Let's resume:

When an entrepreneur who's been in business for 1-3 years comes to me to help identify their structural breakdown so we can deliver the strategic breakthrough, here's what I see the most: 

• They have not hired yet, and... 
  
  They're making $15-50k per month, and they're paying out $15-50k per month in contractor fees & misc. expenses to make it happen.
  
  If you're wondering if you can pay for a P/T or F/T team member, and you've already been paying for copywriters, designers, developers, tech, ads, coaches, etc. This may just be your sign to take a look at these numbers and change the way you've been playing the game. 
  
  New actions = new results
  
  

• They have hired, and...
  
  They're working harder than ever + their payroll is higher than ever.

So what gives? 👇

1. The Anxiety of Being Responsible for Others' Livelihoods
   
   Oof this one is a doozy. One that I've had to do a lot of self work around. 
   
   Here's the honest truth: YOU are not responsible for paying them, your business is. 
   
   If your business isn't running as a revenue generating machine - one where you point a qualified prospect at your sales copy and they have enough info + interest to not only purchase your core offer, but to add on your upsells (increasing average order value and overall business profit) - then start there first.
   
   A common tendency is to think,
   
   "I just need more leads... And leads come from my main social platforms... So I just need more followers... To get followers I need to produce more quality content. Time to make another viral reel + 3 educational-yet-thought-provoking carousels a week!" 
   
   Fast forward 6 weeks later and we're in the same spot. 
   
   >> TL;DR: All of that time you're spending on marketing should be spent on optimizing your core offer + maximizing the back end of your business so that all the traffic you point towards your platforms has a higher likelihood of converting. 
   
   When you create a business machine like this, you'll be able to accurately forecast revenue and feel comfortable with the responsibility & commitment to your team. 
   
   Shameless plug for the Upgrade Your Income Bootcamp that's going to help you do all of this. It's going to be awesome. 
   
   

2. The Vision Needs Renewed
   
   You know that expression "It starts from the top down"...? I like to pin that FIRST on the vision (versus just on myself). 
   
   What does the vision need? Who do you need to become to operate in service of the vision? 
   
   Taking a wild guess here - But I'd say you need to transition from being "main doer with a massive to-do list who's working really hard" to "core leader". 
   
   >> Start by renewing your vision using Business Expansion Blueprint's process: Identify the core vision, values, AND focus for the company, CEO, AND clients. 
   
   

3. The Need for More Trust and Less Control 
   
   Dare I say an oxymoron for business owners? 😂👇
   
   "But every time I hire someone to write on my behalf it's just not there. I'm the face of this brand so I feel every word published by us has to come from my creative ethos that way I know.... 
   
   - I can stand by it
   
   - It works with my frameworks so I'm not convoluting my curriculum / process 
   
   - And I have a reputation for producing quality content... what if I lose my audience due to the content not being game changing for them...?"
   
   Hear me on this: If you think you're the magic ingredient and it'll all crumble without you... Then you're right. 
   
   This is another "oof" one for me that I've had to do a lot of work around (and continue to do). There are pieces of content that I own, and there are pieces of content that I don't. And that just has to be ok if I want to operate in service of the vision. 
   
   Here's the pro-tip: You need to master your skill to a degree that you can teach it to someone else. That is how you increase output and maintain quality. 
   
   If sharing your je nais se quois feels hard because, "I don't know what I do or how I do it... I just do it" I want to challenge that thinking by proposing this...
   
   You "teach" your audience & clients every day. You walk them through your processes and frameworks, and they have a breakthrough with only a fraction of the recipe.
   
   Why can't you do that with a team member? 
   
   Consider this deeper reason: Is there a piece of you that's resisting allowing someone else to come in and do what you do because you're measuring your value by that work... and that work has been building your identity in recent years? 
   
   Again I say "oof!" 
   
   

4. The Subconscious Linking of "More Money" = "More Burnout" 
   
   This is only natural considering you may not have had a solid support team historically.
   
   So when you do welcome in more clients or more sales, you have more work, and your adrenals get fatigued & your nervous system goes fight-flight-freez, and you're met on the other side of that mountain with burnout.
   
   Which creates an inability to produce, which creates a dip in sales, which creates reactionary mode selling, which fatigues your adrenals, andddd burnout again... Hello old friend.  
   
   So yes, you have some validation of that fear --> based on your journey thus far. 
   
   But it doesn't have to stay true. 
   
   If you desire a team of A players who show up strong for your business & clients, who spend white-space-time thinking up ways to make your processes better, who come with proactive solutions to problems... 
   
   It requires you to be an A player too. But not an A player doer, an A player leader. 
   
   You can only attract & maintain to the level of leadership that you're willing to bring yourself. 
   
   Just like kids are behavior-sponges, so are your team members. How you show up each day is an invitation & permission slip to your team to show up in that way too. (Same goes with your clients.)
   
   We can't expect others to show up in a way that we're unwilling to put forth ourselves. 
   
   

5. The Chicken or the Egg Conundrum 
   
   What comes first? The financial growth or the hire? 
   
   In Business Expansion Blueprint we go through and do/dump/delegate your business's tasks + create a smart annual sales plan + hit up the revenue roadmap spreadsheet to map every dollar + create your org chart and identify your most valuable next hire. 
   
   This gives you the person, the tasks, and the timeline to do so. And the answer can be quite different per business, so I can't give you a black or white response here. 
   
   But I can remind you of two things: 
   
   1. This post

2. If you're stuck in the catch 22 of waiting for your business to grow in order to hire, but your business can't grow without support - then maybe it's time to hire your first VA or intern to get you out of the day-to-day small stuff. See how that feels and create some momentum around that traction. 

The end. 🤎 

Reply back with any thoughts or Qs - I'm here!