When is it Time to Hire?
Hello, everybody. This is Audria Richmond®. Welcome to Transitioning Solopreneur. I'm very excited to welcome you to the very official, first episode. We are going to be covering a lot.
Audria Richmond®:I'm very excited about this particular podcast because I feel like it's gonna be a place for me to come and be honest, be transparent, really give you a platform to really kinda listen to all the things that's going on when you're a transitioning solo solopreneur. Because I feel like oftentimes as solopreneurs, we really are kinda working in silo. We don't really have a lot of people to talk to. That's why it's, you know, it's very important that you get inside of, you know, some type of entrepreneurial community. That way you're not going through things alone.
Audria Richmond®:But before we dive into this particular episode, I first want to introduce myself for those who may not know who I am. My name is Arjuria Richmond, and I am a marketing and launch strategist. I consult, coach, and advise CEOs and their marketing teams on how to launch game changing marketing campaigns and build uncloned brands. If you're not familiar with our brand, uncloned, uncloned means to challenge your norms and be the 1st to do it first. And so we all are all about individuality and standing out and become an obvious choice in your industry.
Audria Richmond®:So that's who I am in a nutshell, and I will be your host for this podcast for the, you know, for the rest of these episodes. So the first episode is called, when is it time to hire? And the reason I wanted to start with this episode, because trust me, I'm I'm kind of further along in the process, but I think it's important to kinda know when is it time to hire. When you know, what are some things that will come up to let you know, like, oh, snap. Like, it's actually time to hire.
Audria Richmond®:Like, I need to bring somebody in for this. You know, I need to bring somebody in for that. And so, the first thing that that come to mind is, like, when you talk about hiring, it is not an easy decision. Right? Sometimes they just sneak up on you.
Audria Richmond®:You know it's time to hire. Like, okay. I can't handle these gigs. But sometimes you can kinda be complacent if your business is not growing fast. And then you have a spurt of growth where you're forced to hire.
Audria Richmond®:And that's pretty much what happened with me. As a solopreneur with our particular business, you know, we're creating courses, publishing books, and things like that. And, you know, we're running masterminds in programs, and they've always been fairly manageable, whereas just me or an executive assistant. So I really have a need had a need to have, like, a huge big team. But in 2020, outside of the pandemic, there were some other things that happened, and we're gonna get into that.
Audria Richmond®:But I think it's important to talk about, like, when is it time to hire? Because, you know, if you don't really know how to identify those things, you could prematurely be hiring too fast. You could be overpaying way too soon. And it's important to kind of know, when to do it. And another thing I want to talk about, and I probably need to make a note of this real quick because I'm making some notes here.
Audria Richmond®:I want to talk about, like, your front end and Maggie and help. Right? And I don't hear a lot of people, talking about that. I kind of started with back end as opposed to front end. And I'm a tell you the importance of having both.
Audria Richmond®:So let's get into when is it time to hire first, and then we'll get into the difference in the in the type of people you need. I'm telling you, like, you wanna pull out your notebooks. You wanna get your pen and paper. Just a little quick plug, we do sell uncloned notebooks at unclonedot shops. You can go to our shop, grab a branded notebook if you wanna be able to take some notes, inside of our our notebooks.
Audria Richmond®:But let's get into, when is it time to hire? In 2020, I published my 3rd book, which is called Unclown Marketing, How to Challenge the Norms with Profitable Marketing Campaigns. And with that book, is is you know, this is my 3rd time. Right? And is this being my 3rd book that I'm publishing?
Audria Richmond®:Really, it's my 4th book, but I call it my 3rd book because my 3rd book was like a workbook called Yes Experience. But I'm what I'm saying is, like, my 3rd book book. Right? Where chapters and segments and things like that. So this is my 3rd book.
Audria Richmond®:I published it in 2020. And when I published the book, I like, I know the book was good, but I ain't know it was gonna be like like this. Like, I'm thinking because I had to cancel my, book launch, and I'm like, how am I gonna do a book launch? This is the first time I wanna do a book signing. My first two books didn't have a book signing.
Audria Richmond®:So I'm like, oh, I really wanna, like, you know, put the book out there in a big way. We had began to rent space and all the things. And then come to find out, it was like, oh, the pandemic. So we had to pretty much figure out, like, how do I still have a major marketing campaign with and still be able to sell books in the middle of a pandemic. And I have to say, by far, it's my best book launch.
Audria Richmond®:Right? Like, today. And it has a lot to do with the fact that it was a pandemic because it forced us to innovate with our marketing campaigns. So when we put the book out there, you know, my initial goal was to sell, like, you know, a couple hundred copies of the book, and then we got to a 1,000, and then we got to 2,000 copies. And before you knew it, like, we were just selling the book nonstop.
Audria Richmond®:And since that book came the book came out in 2020, we're still selling that book every single day like clockwork into all the way here in 2023. So this is one of those books I like to say that put me on the map. Right? And during that time when people was reading the book, they were able to see, like, oh, this girl is actually pretty smart when it comes to marketing. Like, she cold blooded with it.
Audria Richmond®:And, you know, as a person who hasn't went to school, to learn marketing, I'm self taught. I was really, like, changing the game for marketing books because, 1, as a black woman, people were reading the book and was like, wow. This is crazy. Number 2, people loved how digestible the book was, how relatable the book was, and how easy I made marketing. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Because, you know, somebody who's self taught, you're not gonna be super technical. Even though I am a technical person, I was able to make marketing very, you know, very accessible to everybody. And so when the book came out, I'm getting opportunities out the wazoo. Like, people like, hey, I want you to be on this podcast. Can you come and get on this Instagram live?
Audria Richmond®:Can we book you for this? Can we hire you for that? Can we join this program? Can you join this? And let me say this.
Audria Richmond®:Right? My first book is called, are you ready for the yes? And that book is all about preparing yourself for opportunity. Luckily for me, I had already been preparing a lot of these systems and processes, when the book came out. So I had already had my programs.
Audria Richmond®:I already had, sales processes and systems for all the products that we sold. But but there was a side of the business that I hadn't really thought about capacity, and I talk about capacity a lot. And during this time, a lot of people wanted to work with me 1 on 1. Right? We didn't really have a lot of problem with our group programs, but particularly 1 on 1.
Audria Richmond®:People were coming to me and was like, hey, I want you to put together my marketing campaign. And this was also when I was, like, heavily on Clubhouse. Right? So I'm on Clubhouse. Clubhouse is popping.
Audria Richmond®:I'm kinda one of the top people on Clubhouse. Then, you know, the book is out. Everybody is buying the book. The book launch is doing great. And so all of these things are happening all at once.
Audria Richmond®:Right? And this was the first time that I would like to say I saw the max capacity with my business. I was maxed out because I had a mastermind. I still have a mastermind, but at the time, this is the 1st year us of us operating the mastermind. So I'm doing all the 1 on 1 clients with my clients.
Audria Richmond®:They all had 1 on 1 access to me. We also had at the time, we we also had, like, in addition to the 1 on 1, people were booking me for VIP days. My calendar was booked, like, every other weekend, I was doing a VIP day. In addition to that, with the book launch, we were doing, like, marketing campaigns and releases and video content and webinars and virtual conference. And all of this is really on the back of me, you know, our graphic designer at the time and an executive assistant and my husband.
Audria Richmond®:So and, we also had a brand ambassador manager, which he was part time at the time as a community manager. So even though we had some contractors, because these weren't employees, these were contractors helping us, it still wasn't enough. It it wasn't enough help that I needed. Right? Which brings me to this idea of front end versus back end.
Audria Richmond®:Typically, when you are, you know, when you first hear people say hire a team, build a team, hire a team, the first thing that most people say, especially in the small business world, get you a VA. Right? Get you a EA or a VA. A VA stands for virtual assistant. EA stands for an executive assistant.
Audria Richmond®:And, typically, when people are like, hey. Get you a VA or EA, they don't really you I I know they mean well. Right? But I think that one of the things that we don't get the opportunity to really understand is, like, what do I need to actually grow my business? Like, I had so many back end people that I was working with.
Audria Richmond®:I had an I had 3 agencies that I had worked with. I had an executive assistant. I had, a graphic designer. I had, you know, the community managers, but all everybody that I'm saying were back end people. I needed front end people, meaning client facing, helping me do do client delivery and, deliver the work.
Audria Richmond®:Right? I needed to replicate my intellectual property to other people to be able to deliver to my clients because, you know, our brand is all about becoming the obvious choice in your industry. And so that's that's a pretty in demand, thing that people want mainly because if everybody is telling you to be a clone or be like everybody else, and I'm over here like, hey. Become the obvious choice. That becomes enticing, but I've won't I only have so many hours.
Audria Richmond®:I only have so much bandwidth. Right? And so it it caused a problem, a good problem, but this was the first time I was able to see that I needed an that I had like, I needed help. Right? And so as I'm doing all of this and I'm going through all of this, I'm like, you know what?
Audria Richmond®:I need to hire. And so the first thing I thought to do was hire 2 marketing managers. And I can say at the time when I hired those 2 marketing managers, that still wasn't gonna help because I still needed to put systems in place, And I was transitioning out of a lot of different services and moving into a different type of service. And so oftentimes, they were just on the calls watching me work because I was unclear. I didn't at the time, I didn't have a a vivid vision.
Audria Richmond®:We'll talk about that here in a moment. But, like, at the time, I wasn't really clear on where I was taking people, and this was the first time that I had to manage people outside of myself. See, I'm used to having an idea for a project, have people go and work on the project, and then, you know, work with the client and be done. But now it was time for me to train other people on how I get my client a result. I'm having to train people on how to conduct a VIP day or or train people on how to coach, train people on how to advise our clients.
Audria Richmond®:And that was very difficult even with a book. Right? I thought, like and this is another thing. Like, you can give your people a book, but that's not enough. Right?
Audria Richmond®:You think, like, oh, read this book or go through this course or watch this training. There's nuances that that are not picked up when they're reading book. There are nuances that take place when you're not necessarily going through the you know, when you're, you know, when you're going through the courts. So when they're actually implementing what you're saying, the way that they interpret the course may be totally different than your intentions. And you're having to, like, correct course correct a lot of different things, AKA management.
Audria Richmond®:Right? And so this idea of, okay. I wanna grow this business. I wanna get out of not only me being doing the VIP days, but how do I certify other people to be able to do that? And I kinda hit a wall in my business.
Audria Richmond®:So at the end of 2020, going into 2021, I'm like, okay. I'm about to take this hiring thing seriously. I had hired the the marketing managers, and they were on for a few months. It did not work out. And, honestly, I didn't know how to lead.
Audria Richmond®:That was really the main issue. Like, it wasn't that I was, like, a bad boss, but, literally, they would just come to the they would literally meet with me every day. We would sit on Zoom, and they didn't really have any clear direction on what I wanted to do. And I was figuring this thing out. A part of me was also ashamed because I'm like, oh, how do I lead people?
Audria Richmond®:Okay. I will, I need to get this tool in. Okay. Well, baby, I think we need a centralized tool other than Voxer, because I was so used to using Voxer for my Mastermind clients. I'm like, alright.
Audria Richmond®:We need to get on Slack, but then I ain't really know how to use Slack. And then, like, all of this stuff was, like, so new. Right? And as someone who's thinking about working for an organization, regardless of the price, they want to see structure. Right?
Audria Richmond®:They wanna see that you are clear. They wanna see that you have a vision for the business. Right? And and at the time, I was very clear in my head what I wanted to do, but I needed to put that thing on paper. Right?
Audria Richmond®:And at the time, I was just like, I don't know what I'm doing. I know they're frustrated. This is not working. I'm still trying to understand legally what I can and can't do with them as my employees. You know, what are the laws in Georgia?
Audria Richmond®:I remember one time, they were supposed to be off, I think, around, like, Easter or something, and I didn't know that it was in the handbook that that was the day they were they was off. Like, it was just so much. Right? And I'm just keeping it 100 with y'all because I know that as a transitioning solopreneur, a lot of people are not gonna be transparent. A lot of people are not gonna tell you the the grimy truth.
Audria Richmond®:A lot of people are not gonna take accountability for being wrong and not knowing that they didn't know what they was what they was doing. And I feel like that's what this podcast is going to be about. It's gonna be about me coming on here and telling you, like, man, the raw authentic truth. Right? And so after that, you know, I transitioned out of working with them, and I kind of went into a rut.
Audria Richmond®:Right? I went into a rut, and there were 2 books that I read that, like, changed everything for me. And I'll link those 2 books in the show notes. But the first book was, traction. I actually read traction before.
Audria Richmond®:No. It was Vivid Vision then traction. Right? Vivid Vision was all about how do you create a a vision for your organization. It's kinda like a vision board document for your business, but in a written way where your team can understand what the plan is.
Audria Richmond®:So definitely check out Vivid Vision by Cameron. I don't know what Cameron Hurrell. Yeah. Cameron Hurrell. That's his last name.
Audria Richmond®:And that was the book that helped me get vision. So now I'm like, okay. I got vision. Okay? I kinda know what I what I wanted to do, but still, you can have a vision all day, but vision don't treat don't teach you management.
Audria Richmond®:Right? You know, vision doesn't tell you how to operate your business. Vision doesn't tell you how many people you need. Vision doesn't tell you how to hold the people you hire accountable. And that's where the book Traction come into place.
Audria Richmond®:And Traction is about, is by Geno Wichtman. It's based on the EOS system, the entrepreneurial operating system, very similar to, like, you know, a software document or software or whatever. And that book, when I say change the game, change the game. I'm gonna grab the book really quick so I can talk about, like, the different chapters in the book that really helped me. So, like, in the book, he talked about like, in this book, he talked about having a vision.
Audria Richmond®:He also talk about people, the right people, the right butts in the right seat. He talk about data data component, like how to hold your people accountable, how to set benchmarks. He talk about how to handle issues. And he also go over how to have meetings, how many meetings you should have, who you should have on your operations team not your operation team, but your leadership team, how frequently, you all should be making decisions, how do you handle change. When I tell you this book, honestly, it was better than any business coach that I had hired mainly because had I known some of these things as a solopreneur transitioning into, you know, a CEO that's, like, have a team, I think I would have avoided a lot of mistakes.
Audria Richmond®:And that's my also my hope with this podcast is that you listen to the podcast and you're like, okay. Bet. Like, I am going to read these 2 books. I'm going to create my ViviVision. I'm gonna read traction.
Audria Richmond®:I'm gonna think through what does it look like, and who do I need? And this is what I will say. If you like, hey, Audreea. You know, I'm not at a place now where I can hire and all the things. Look.
Audria Richmond®:You cannot also afford to be small. Right? And if I can tell you anything, one of the things that's been helping me drastically drastically hand over fist is these books. I got so many books I'm gonna recommend to you, but I feel like these 2 books were pivotal in my thought process, and it really given me some momentum. We're gonna be talking about hiring tools.
Audria Richmond®:We're gonna be talking about people issues. We're gonna be talking about hiring and firing. Again, I'm not an attorney. I'm not a HR person, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm just more so speaking from a CEO who is transitioning into well, I'm speaking more so as a transitioning solopreneur, who's bossing up to be a CEO, who's finally having to manage people, and all the woes and and things that come with it.
Audria Richmond®:So I'm gonna conclude, this particular episode with that. Like, you going to go get those 2 books, Vivid Vision and Traction. And this the name of the book is called Traction Get a Grip on Your Business by Gena Wichtman. And before we also conclude, I do wanna tell you 2 more things that you will know when it's time to hire. Number 1, you don't have any space for business development.
Audria Richmond®:You don't have any time for your personal life. You're you're burnt out if you you like you need the clients, but you also is mentally burnt out. And you're like, okay. I really need the clients, but you can't even break away because you don't have no help. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Or in my case, where when it really became very evident, we will talk about this later on in another episode. But my mother passed away in 2022. Right? Right after a big shipment that we got in, and that was very hard on me. And it was the first time I had to shut my business down, and I had no one.
Audria Richmond®:And I mean no one on my team that could take over our mastermind calls, our client calls. And this one, it became real that, like, hiring is not optional. You never know when someone is gonna pass away. You never know when you need a mental break. You never know when you are just needing time for yourself.
Audria Richmond®:So hiring is not just about, quote, unquote, wasting money or spending money. It's about you being able to have the freedom to think, having the freedom to grow, having the freedom to live. That's what hiring is about. And I feel like as small business owners, it's not pressed upon us the benefits of hiring. I think a lot of times when we think about hiring, we think about the money aspect.
Audria Richmond®:So I just wanna leave this with you. You are in good hands. I'm gonna tell you everything that I know. I am not gonna see her and act like I know every single thing because I don't. I'm just gonna share with you what I know was benefiting was benefiting me, was working, was not working.
Audria Richmond®:And my hope is is that you walk away having a better understanding of how you want to approach and do things with your with yourself. So that's going to be it. Just wanna thank you all so, so much for tuning in to this podcast. And until next time, let's go live an UnCloned® life and build an UnCloned® brand. Bye
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