Ed Gandia breaks down a four-phase framework for bringing on a writer or virtual assistant. The system covers how to structure the onboarding process so tasks actually get done right and your business scales without you doing everything yourself.
Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.
Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. The number one podcast for business writers.
And copywriters who want to earn more.
And less time doing work they love. Find for better clients. With over 1 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries, this episode is much shorter than usual. Rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you. This is part of the audio insights I publish for my private coaching clients every weekday and I thought you'd find it helpful.
So here we go. Hope you enjoy it. How do you feel about outsourcing some of your work? Most writers I talk with, they're either completely against this idea or they tell me that they've tried it and it didn't work out, or that they like the concept in theory, but it just wouldn't work for them in practice. And look, I get it. I used to feel the same way. But there is a big problem with that kind of thinking. It's one dimensional. It's a yes or no thing. Purely binary. I've seen enough successful outsourcing examples in the world of freelancing to know that there are many different ways of solving this problem. You just have to think differently. First off, you don't have to outsource your writing. There are many other things you can outsource, both in your business and in your personal life. Now, having said that, I would argue that there are possibilities for outsourcing some of your writing. And if you do it right, it it can be a fantastic way to earn more and less time. You have to keep an open mind, and it may not work perfectly the first time you try it. In fact, it rarely does. But assuming that you're the only person who can do everything in your business is a dangerous, self limiting belief, because it's not true. Second, you don't have to take a big bang approach to outsourcing a function in your own business. So in other words, you don't have to go from you being the one doing the task today to someone else doing the task literally tomorrow. That approach is unrealistic, it's stressful, it's just doomed to fail. The key to making any outsourcing work is to take a faced approach for it to be effective, for it to actually work for you, you have to think of it in phases rather than trying to train someone overnight. On a given task, you instead could break it up into four phases. Phase one is called backstage. Phase two is called side stage. Phase three is called dress rehearsal. And phase four is on stage. And this is a process or a framework that I learned from my old business coach, Taki Moore. So let's talk about these phases. Phase one, or backstage is where you give them context. By them, I mean the person or the people you bring on board. You give them context, you give them instructions, you give them background information to read and watch, then use this time to consume and process that information. They ask questions, they get clarification, maybe do some of their own research as needed. So that's phase one. Phase two, again, that's side stage. This is where they get to see you doing the thing or the things for which you've hired them. This could be via phone conversations, in person, meetings, or even a series of screencast videos of you performing that task using a tool like Loom. They in turn take their own notes, they document what they learn, they ask questions, and they start practicing on their own. So that's phase two again, side stage. In phase three, which we call the dress rehearsal, they start performing the task with your guidance and your feedback. You oversee what they're doing and you do that closely and you provide good feedback to them, frequent feedback, you answer questions, you help them course correct. And finally, in phase four, onstage, they get to perform the task or function on their own, with only some supervision or random quality checks. Eventually, they may be able to do it entirely on their own with no oversight, depending on the task or function. But it starts out with just a little bit of oversight. Now, this entire process, as you can imagine, could take weeks, in fact, many times takes months, depending on what exactly you are outsourcing. It requires patience, it requires commitment on your part as well as someone who truly wants to do great work and is committed to a long term relationship. It's not easy. You'll hit bumps in the road. I would even say that you'll go through two or three people in many cases before you find the right long term resource. That's just realistic. It's based on my experience, the experience of others. And that's something a lot of people don't want to go through.
They don't want to have to find.
Two or three people and go through months of this process until they find the right person. But it's reality. The important thing here is if you think of this as a phased process or transition rather than something that must bear fruit quickly, you're going to increase your chances of outsourcing success and you're going to be happier, get better work from the people you hire, and just be overall much more successful in your business. Well, that's it for today.
I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book, Earn More in Less Time the Proven Mindset, Strategies and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance writer. You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com or you will also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.
