Why Outsourcing Too Soon Can Hinder Your Coaching Business [Ep 35]

Welcome to the Thriving Therapeneur Podcast. The show for ambitious therapists who are ready to unapologetically make more money, scale their impact and build their dream coaching business. I'm Carly Hill, therapist turned coach turned CEO of a seven figure online business. I created the Thriving Therapeutic Podcast because I'm obsessed with helping big hearted therapists outgrow the office and build successful and sustainable online businesses. So if you are wondering how you can continue make an impact without sacrificing the life you love, welcome Therapreneur. This is exactly the place for you. Think of it like the business school we never had. I am so excited to dive in with you. Let's get started. Hello. Hello, Hello. If you are ready to grow your coaching business and you're thinking, well, maybe I'll just hire someone to handle my marketing or my operations for me, I think that would be a lot easier then this episode is for you. We're going to talk about why you shouldn't outsource too soon. The right way to lead your coaching business. How outsourcing too soon can actually slow you down and it can cost you more money in the long run. And I'm going to help you understand the right order of operations for hiring and why mentorship comes first in the hiring process process. So let's dive in. The first misconception about outsourcing is that it's going to make everything magically easier for you. I actually just got off a call with someone yesterday who was laying out their options and they were considering mentorship. They were considering hiring an obm, an online business manager. They were considering hiring a virtual assistant. And I said, well you should get a virtual assistant. That's a great first hire and they're cheap. In obm, you still need to know how to direct. So do you actually know the vision and mission of your business? Do you have your messaging completely dialed in? Do you have a marketing plan? Do you have a strategy in place where you're going to direct your online business manager and VA for that matter, of exactly what they need to do and when they need to do it by and or are we still in the process of figuring this piece out? This is where people go wrong in hiring and outsourcing these type of people too soon. Because you are the CEO and leader of your business, you are still running the show. Marketing teams, Online business managers, VAs, these are implementers. These are not business architects. So you can't really avoid learning the nitty gritty of running a business. It's just Part of being an entrepreneur, you need to know how to run your business. I firmly believe as the CEO of your business, you should know how to run all parts of your business. And usually we learn to run all parts of our business because we're wearing all of the hats at the beginning. And then we slowly start to outsource and we delegate. And I'm a big, big fan of delegating. I love having a big team that supports me. There's nothing I actually love more. I am so grateful for my team. And because my team is so big, there is roles that I do not know. The absolute nitty gritty. But if I was ever placed in that role, I would know how to execute it. Because one, I've probably done it myself before I outsource. But two, we have SOPs in place. So again, thinking that hiring and completely outsourcing. I get this all the time. Like, well, I'm in between just Hiring a marketing team or a Mentor Hiring a marketing team isn't going to magically help you poof a six figure business. You can't hope and pray and bypass the uncomfortable phase of figuring things out. You have to do that. You have to set the foundation of your business before you can hire implementers in your business. You have to build the walls of your house before you can hire a painter to come in and paint the walls. If you don't know your vision, your strategy, your goals, they're going to be guessing what, or worse, you might even be steering them in the wrong direction. So you need to be the CEO first. Hiring a team does not absolve you of leadership. It actually requires you to step into your CEO role even more. So. You have to know your ideal clients, you have to know your messaging, you need to know your brand voice, you need to know your goals, you have to know that. And oftentimes that clarity comes through mentorship first. Mentorship can bridge this gap for you. A mentor can help you clarify your business model. It can help you define your niche and your messaging, create a sustainable strategy for growth. Helping you create this firm foundation where then you can confidently lead a team and provide them with the direction that they need. I have seen a lot of people actually be taken advantage of when they outsource and hire too soon because they don't have their firm foundation in place. They've wasted time and money, they didn't have clear guidance and marketing teams. They can create campaigns that don't even resonate. Or business managers are focusing on systems that don't even align with your business needs, you're creating systems just to create them when it's not even a priority or a revenue driving task in your business at the time. And your brand voice can also get diluted and lost. I've seen this a lot when people try to hire too soon for social media because they feel like it's a chore for them. And they hire copywriters but they usually go with cheap ones because good copywriters are pricey. Or they hire a social media manager who's maybe in the Philippines, which is cheap, but they think that they're a copywriter and they let them write their captions and their brand voice gets diluted. This person is just using ChatGPT and they hand off the communication way too soon. They lose the authenticity in their business. And then they're also in this kind of like dependency trap where they're relying on others before even understanding their business. And they're creating this long term dependency where they feel like they're in a rut in their own business and they can't even grow because they're depending on other people who are actually depending on them for leadership. And it's just this dependency trap, if that makes sense. Hey there. Did you know we give away one of our incredible digital products every single week? All you have to do is leave a review for the show, then submit proof using the link in the show notes and you'll be entered to win. Prizes include amazing resources like our passive income course, the license protection bundle, top business trainings, my best selling book, and so much more. It's super simple and your review helps us reach more listeners just like you. So take a moment to share your thoughts, enter to win and maybe you'll be our next winner. So let's talk about the right order of operations. In my opinion, I think everyone should start with mentorship. I think investing and learning the fundamentals of your business is imperative. It's crucial. You have to develop a clear vision, a strategy and a system. And I love investing in mentorship, still to this day where I'm deep in the scaling phase of my business. So I always say there's three parts of your business. There's the foundational piece, there's the growing piece, and there's the scaling piece. So I'm saying right now the order of operations is to start with mentorship. But this doesn't mean that mentorship has to end, I think at all phases, whether you're in the foundational phase, I mean especially when you're in the foundational phase, the growing phase, and the scaling phase. Different levels of mentorship, different is going to be imperative for you. And you will get to the point where you will outgrow mentors and you will move on to very specific types of mentorship that you're looking for as you continue to move into the scaling phase of your business. But mentorship can be an awesome thing at all levels of your business. The next step is really mastering your marketing basics. You have to know how to create authentic content that resonates with your audience. You need to learn how to build an organic lead generation system before you step into paid advertising. Because even when you have paid advertising on organic marketing doesn't go away. It's a foundational piece that you need to learn. So this is where a lot of people will just skip to hiring a marketing team and they'll turn on ads, but they have no idea how to organically generate leads, which is a foundational principle you need to know in your business. So you need to have a marketing plan. You need to master your marketing basics. You need to understand the flow of how clients are going to come into your business, how you're going to get them to raise their hand, and how you're going to get them to say yes. Then you can outsource with intention. You can hire when you know exactly what you need help with. So a lot of my clients will ask me, well, what are some tasks that my VA can do for me? And I'm like, well, you're thinking about it the wrong way. It's more about what are the tasks that are on your list that you need to go and delegate to a virtual assistant. Because you're the CEO, you're the leader, they're not leading you. So you need to have your checklist, you need to properly delegate, you need to set deadlines, and this is going to help you decide who you're going to hire and when you're going to hire them. So you can guide your team instead of vice versa and focus on delegating tasks that maybe you've done yourself. Maybe you understand. It's not to say you can't delegate tasks that you've never done yourself, you absolutely can. But you need to know how to properly explain the task that you need to be completed so that the delegation can be done properly. So you get your systems and your strategies in place, you're clear on your goals, and then you can provide specific direction. And you really want to look for team members when you're hiring who align with your Vision and your values. We want to take our time hiring. You need to provide clear SOPs, standard operating procedures and expectations to the people you are hiring. A lot of turnover can happen in businesses because people don't feel clearly guided. They don't know their exact role, they don't know the company's mission and vision. So you need to make sure that you know that you articulate it, they align with it, and then they have clear Expectations and SOPs. Leadership is key. Even when you're delegating, you remain the leader. You remain the decision maker. You're regularly reviewing your team's work, not micromanaging. I mean, maybe at the beginning you are, but you have to ensure that it all aligns with your business goals. And you can't be afraid to let somebody go if they're no longer serving you or your business. I know that that can be a very difficult thing to do. I actually was just coaching a client through this the other day who needed to let go of somebody who was on her team. And I reminded her that this is not a personal decision. This is a business decision. We have goals for our team. If they're not hitting them, if they're not hitting their KPIs, if they're not up to our expectations, we need to search for different talent. Okay, so key takeaways here. Delegation is powerful only when it's done right and in the right way. You can absolutely outsource. You should outsource, but do it at the right time and know that your role is always being the leader. I want you to embrace mentorship at every single level in your business. I think I'll have a mentor to the day I die in some sort of capacity. And even if I'm not investing in a coaching program, because I just love to do that, I feel like I buy courses for literally everything in my life because it just speeds up the process, and I love learning. But if I'm not doing that, I'm reading a book, I'm listening to a podcast. So there's plenty of ways that you can receive mentorship as you continue to grow your business in a sustainable way. If you need help with mentorship, we are here to guide you and support you. So if you're ready to build your coaching business with clarity, with confidence, I'd love to invite you to chat with my team. We have a free strategy session. It's 45 minutes. It's no pressure, it's no cost. And we will help you create your personalized roadmap for stepping into the coaching world. Or maybe you already have a coaching business and you want to move into growing it or scaling it and you could be a fit for a higher level mentorship. Wherever you are on your journey, do not let money be the reason that you can't invest. Like I said, there's free options such as podcasts that you're listening to right now or books. I have tons of low ticket items. I have my own book. It's literally free. I just ask that you cover shipping. So there's many different options for you, different tiers of handholding. Whatever suits your learning style, whatever suits your budget, whatever suits your flexibility. I know you guys are all busy clinicians. What I'm trying to say is if you're ready to take the next step, there's options available for you and the decisions that you make in your business, such as completely outsourcing or hiring a mentor can make a very, very large difference in the timeliness of success in your business. And I say the timeliness because success is inevitable for you. And if you take the wrong order of operations and you completely outsource first, I've done this before, it can just deter you. So you take a little detour, right? But it's not going to make or break your success. But it sure could save you a lot of time if you are very clear on your messaging, your mission, your vision, your marketing strategy, first and foremost, being confident in your leadership role when you do hire and delegate. I hope this episode was clear, informative, actionable, simple for you as you maybe weigh the decision of delegating, hiring or getting a mentor. If you want more help with hiring, there is a previous episode. I don't have the number right off the top of my head, but is all around the first couple hires that you should make in your business. So if you are in the hiring phase of your business or you're just curious, go searching for that episode. All right therapeneurs, until next time, my love is with you and I will see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the thriving therapyneura podcast. I hope that this episode has inspired you to reduce burnout, work smarter and see the freedom potential you have as a therapist. We would love to have you inside the Therapist to Coach Accelerator Facebook group where we have live trainings and cheat sheets on all things marketing, sales and adding coaching, ethically and legally. I am here cheering you on and I'll see you around.