So many tasks... how to outsource/hire well? The EASE framework.

Yeah, for context, I think it's a topic that I've already kind of asked a few questions to you about, you know, tactically, how do you hire the situation? And then this is prompted by a post, one of your Instagram posts where you asked people to tell you what course they would like to see.

Yes, yes.

And right away from my heart, I'm like, oh, I would love to see a course about how you build them.

Yes.

A team? How do you start getting help, uh, more than you? And, um, my, my— I'm, I'm really trying to work in a, you know, continue to focus and protect my joy and my health. Totally. So sure, I, I could not worry about this and I could just work more, but that's not my choice.

Yeah.

Um, I still work a full solid 45 to 50 hours a week. Sure. Plus being a parent and business.

Yes. Yeah.

So, and I'm really, I think maxed out. I think I have some opportunities to probably automate things.

Yes.

Probably get rid of my processes. But I just hired a marketing assistant.

Oh, okay. You did it. Okay. All right. Congrats.

I did it and I'm very happy because I I was able to offer a package that includes money plus trading services. So yes, he also has a business and he's interested in my program.

So nice.

That's good. So I'm doing an experiment. We'll see how it goes.

Yes, good.

So that's the context. And, um, great. And I just, I, I'm just open and Pretty curious about, you know, tips, advice, where to go from there. Because right now I have, I've had a really good '23. I think that what I had, because my time is not unlimited, I had to, you know, slow down on a few things and I slowed down on marketing.

This year, yeah.

I protected the regular FTA, monthly FTA rhythm.

Free webinars. Yes. Yes.

Free webinars. So that's my flagship marketing activity.

Yes.

But I completely dropped on the email list compared to what I had before and the reposting. So now with the help of that person, I'm trying to bring this back.

Yes.

So that's it.

Okay, that's great. Yeah, appreciate the context. So, yeah, you mentioned automation. So I'm gonna just briefly recap the way I think about before we get to hiring. And I have this, the newly renamed framework, which you might like, Guillaume, which, you know, it used to be EADA, E-A-D-A. I don't know.

Yes. Oh, you have a new one now.

Eliminate, automate, delegate, and appreciate used to be that. And I renamed it thanks to AI's help. I'm like, okay, EDA is always weird, weird words. So then eventually it came out with EASE. Makes sense. E-A-S-E. Makes perfect sense.

It's a lot of sense.

Still eliminate. Yeah, still eliminate. Still, and then automate after that. And instead of delegate, we're now saying share, like share the work, which is also share the revenue, you know, share the work, share the revenue, right?

I like that better, George Kao.

Yeah. Yeah. And then instead of appreciate, enjoy, E-N-J-O-Y, which makes sense.

I really like, I really like it.

Feel free to take it, use it however you wish. Um, it's not trademarked, so, so So, okay, so I think before we get to hire, I would like to just briefly touch on, well, let's start from the beginning, eliminate items. And I mean, I feel like you already have some natural instinct for that. I mean, you said, oh, I pare down on this, you know, because I have a flagship method and I'm gonna be lighter on things and maybe that's the right move, you know, and, but I wonder if you have done? And I've seen your flowchart. You've shown me a flowchart before and things, but like, yeah, like when was the last time you like looked at your various activities and rated them based on impact, impact, income, however you wanna say it. So that we can say, hmm, well maybe we don't need to be doing.

Last time I did this was probably too long ago.

Probably.

Yeah.

All of us.

Yeah, probably earlier this year, around February or March.

Okay. Yeah. So it seems like maybe it was a good exercise for you now that you have some help to, to, to just spend, you know, a couple hours perhaps, or just, you know, an hour here, an hour there over a few weeks to like, to, to come up with your map again or flowchart again of like, these are the activities And, you know, and for example, you could, if you use a visual way, you could put a heavier border around the items that have the most impact and income and the lighter border or invisible border around the things that you're like, I'm not sure if this has impact or income, maybe long-term, but I'm not sure kind of thing. And it would be interesting to see something like that. If you instead use a spreadsheet, of course you can score every item or something. But yeah, it might be worth, 'cause I, And like, like that's, that's something I'm really focusing on in the coming, you know, year is like the elimination part of it. Because I feel like, I feel like, um, sometimes it's like, well, it's no big deal. I'm just, it takes another couple minutes to also post this here. No big deal. I just take another couple minutes just to do this other thing, you know? And then it's not, it adds up. Of course it does add up, but I feel like it also, Like, for example, let's say we, you know, we were posting in 5 different places. If we eliminate 1 or 2 of those things, suddenly the other 2 or 3 platforms just become more highlighted for us. And we, we, we allow more of our genius, I think, to come through and like focus on these 1, 2, or 3 places. So for example, like, I'm seriously thinking about dropping certain platforms and certain things as well. So I think in the coming few months, I'm gonna make that decision. I mean, we're now towards the end of the year. I think this is a great reflection time. So eliminate. So just, you know, wanted to encourage you to revisit that, right?

Yeah, I think there's still some things. I mean, I like high quality content and I'm also a recovering perfectionist, like a lot of people in your group.

Yeah.

And so I'm sure there is room to continue to make some space.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

What resonated when you described it? I just want to say, yes, when you said impact and income, you have the 1-1-1 formula.

Yes. Yes. Right.

So maybe is that something different or because I see a lot of overlap between the marketing activities and the 1-1-1 formula.

Yeah, I think the The 1-1 formula, I think is still good. I think that the question of platforms is a good question. Like, do we need to do content on all the possible platforms? I mean, it, it, I've done it because I feel like I needed to test everything.

Yes.

Yeah. You're— and I've certainly tested them for long enough. Mm-hmm. You know, I've tested them for long enough and, and, and, you know, I think partly I'm biased cuz I teach classes on these various platforms, so I kind of feel like I have to keep them up. But that's not, you know, that's not true for all of you. So, so I feel like, yeah, if I could just encourage you and everyone else watching this to like drop one platform, like that's probably going to be healthier in the long term. So that you can go more all in on one particular one or two particular ones and you're, anyway, so yeah, and then automate, right? Automate, you're already doing some of that and chances are you probably can do more of it. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yes, I do have thoughts. So on automate, I use Simplerall.

Yes.

I'm finally doing more automations.

Okay, cool. So yeah, that's huge.

It is huge. It's very powerful in Simplerall.

Yes.

You have to really put your heads down.

Yes. It takes planning.

Yeah, a couple weeks or so. And then it's like a language you start learning.

Yes. Yes.

So I have a couple of really important backbone automation.

Great.

So I think there is an avenue there to do way more of that. I don't know. Well, to generate content, I jumped on the AI movement that you created towards the end of '22, I think. And so ChatGPT is just really like second nature now for me. So that's good.

So great. Yeah.

I wonder, so, uh, you, you sometimes talk about other, other tools like Claude and so on. And in my, in, in me, there's like, oh my gosh, I have so many things already.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm happy with ChatGPT.

Good. Stay with it.

I mean, I could, I could probably use another better.

No, I, I feel like, I feel like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama, um, Mistral, they're all similar enough where I don't feel like, oh, you're— it's like, no, it's about the same.

Okay.

So if you like ChatGPT, stay with it.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I've gotten really exciting results lately. I noticed like the way that it stores the memory.

Oh, it's so great. That is a game changer. Yes.

Like, like once a week I'll have just a memory update session with ChatGPT. I'm like, okay, I'm like, okay, what do you remember about my preferences? And yes, this and this and that. And then I'm like, it's not exactly like I want you to be very specific about this. And then I noticed in new chats now it applies.

It's smarter. Yeah, it gets smarter.

It's like training. It's like training.

Yeah.

An intern.

Right. It is. You're right. You're right. That's such a powerful, powerful tool. And one of the, one of the fun things you should try is, I'm gonna be posting about this at some point, but there, if you use ChatGPT a lot and it has the memory, you can ask it questions that like, tell me one thing you know about me that I might not know about myself. Huh? Yeah. And it pulls from the memory and a very, it's very cool. It's very creative. And, or like, Please draw a picture of what you understand about me, you know, given all the memory anyway. So it's so, okay. So ChatGPT is great. Simpler automations, game changer, like so the whole world is there. I also encourage you to consider, I don't know, you already use Zapier probably, right? In some ways.

No. So it's funny. I was just gonna go there. I don't use it. I looked at it a long time ago. And yeah, there's probably something to do there because I find myself spending a lot of time like downloading videos, uploading video videos.

Yeah. Okay.

Probably things like when I onboard new clients. Yeah. There's a lot of manual tasks.

When there are things that are outside Simpleero, you have to play with outside Simpleero things. Zapier will make it. And Simpleero has has been very generous with working with Zapier. Okay. So that there's a lot of things you can do with Simplero and Zapier anyway. So, so automation, I feel like, you know what, I don't know if your, your, your new assistant can help you think through that a little bit too.

So one of the, one of the best tips you gave me a couple months ago when I asked you about hiring was hire someone who's excited about helping you automate.

Yes, yes. Oh, yes, yes.

And that was one of my key criteria. So I do, I did hire, and this person looks at Simpler.io and his name is José. And he's like, oh yeah, can you let me play with those automations? So he was like, and in one day.

Yeah.

So I think that might be an area where we could collaborate, him and I.

Yes. I wanna ask you, and plus it, as he learns more about this, his skills get more valuable. I mean, automation is just becoming increasingly valuable. It's like people who know how to do that. Yeah.

Now for, for Zapier, do you rec— is there like, cause I know nothing about Zapier. Do you recommend like a, a free account or the paid account or something?

Oh, that's interesting. I have been on Zapier's paid account. For quite a while. I mean, I, the thing about Zapier is I didn't know they had a free account, but if it is a free account, you max out on it pretty quickly. Like even as a solopreneur, like, because they charge you based on the number of instances you see. So when you set up an automation, they keep checking every day, not every day, they keep checking every 15 to 30 minutes and those add up and, you know, soon you have to start paying, but it's worth it. Like you think about it, if you use Zapier for even one or two tasks, regular tasks, and you, you pay it $30, $40 a month. Like think about the time saved versus hiring an assistant to, to do even do it, do it even once.

Okay. Yeah. That's great.

Yeah, I think it's worth it. Yeah, totally.

So right now I've got two, two big items. Number one, do a review of my marketing activities. Yes. And, and, and, and review by impact and, and income.

And not just marketing activities, but also even client delivery activities.

Yes. Right?

Like, it's like all the stuff I do, all the stuff takes my time. You might even just look, go through your calendar and go income impact.

Well, there is a lot of follow-up. Today I was doing a lot of follow-up, like sending recaps, uploading videos, sharing links. I'm gonna look into that, Pierre. So second item is automation.

Okay. Automation. Well, you're already working with José. That's great. You know, let him play, let him dream. And then Zapier, you know, maybe Jose knows something. Otherwise you might have to start looking into it. I mean, as you start doing whatever you're doing by hand, you should go like, someone, some robot can probably do this. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Hire more robots.

Hire more robots. Hire more robots for sure. There's another one that looks interesting. I've heard good things. It seems like a more modern version of Zapier. It's called Lindy.ai, L-I-N-D-Y. Lindy.ai. It kind of built one from AI from the ground up, and it's also for automations and it seems more intuitive. But of course I'm so used to Zapier, I just use Zapier.

But yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay. So thank you, George. Yeah.

Yeah. And then finally we get to the share part of it. Share, delegate, share your work. So I feel like once you do the eliminate and then the automate, I'm really curious what is left. And I feel like, you know, the best advice I've seen recently about delegation or hiring is delegate your hands, not your brains. Like, meaning a lot of people hire team members and go, well, go ahead and figure out this or figure out that and go ahead, And it's like, you know, and, and people, people, I mean, it's your business. You, you, you have a deeper level of thinking about it and it's a certain magic that you bring to it and feel like it's like whenever we start doing something more than once or more than 3 times, let's say.

Yeah.

So that's a, that's a good question. Like, like as you audit your calendar, ask yourself, what do I do? Like, you know, more than twice a month. Let's say, you know, anything you do more than twice a month, even more than once a month, gosh, you know, you should think, why is, why am I still doing it? Why am I still doing it? Two is, why have I not automated it? And three is, well, if I can't, but I have to do it, if it's impactful and incomeful and I can't automate it, Can José do it? I mean, it sounds like— I don't know if José is already full with what you're giving him.

No, no, we're just starting. We're just—

oh, okay. Well, there you go.

And we have— we've identified like already 3 or 4 major projects, but we're just— we started with the first one, which was the automation of all the workflow around my free to attend webinars. So yes, yes, I plan them all the way through the end of '25.

Wow.

We build the automation to after and before signups. There's still some work to do, but it's sure. I've never— it's never been better than this.

So, well, there you go. So it sounds like Jose is working out well thus far and probably can take on more. And especially if If you can have one team member take on more things rather than hiring multiple team members, that's generally a good thing, right? Okay. Yeah, because obviously less management and more centralized coordination. But there, I mean, otherwise, you know, Fiverr, I'm sure you've worked with Fiverr before.

I've never, no, I know—

You've done a Fiverr?

No, I've never done a Fiverr.

Oh, okay. Well, gosh, that's a whole beautiful world of resources for you because it's like, whatever, whatever. Again, it's be careful to, to outsource your hands, not your head. But it's like, there are things, I mean, design, I mean, you're such a good designer that you probably like to design most of your things, but if there are more things, I mean, Fiverr is common for like design or for research or for tech troubleshooting or for admin, anything that of course now cannot be automated, you should think first thing is, well, is Jose, will Jose do this one quickly? Like, do I wanna train Jose to keep doing this ongoingly or do I just want to hire a specialist, you know, and Fiverr's our specialists, you know, I feel like José is super smart. Yeah.

Um, overqualified for what we're doing right now. Very creative.

Yeah.

So I, um, I need to have a conversation about how much of the repetitive, tedious things he wants to do versus the, the, the kind of larger or—

Yes. More like right-hand man type of stuff.

Yeah, because like, you know, creating a really solid automation on Insta may take a month.

Yes.

But, and then, but it's a kind of a, it's an interesting challenge and puzzle, but then you just let it run and you move to the next project.

So, sure. Yes, exactly. No, no, I think automations is probably the highest value thing that Jose, one of the, anyway, so yeah, I feel the Fiverr typically is for one-time jobs, but if you find someone one, you test them out on, on a project, they do well, you test them out on the second one, they do. And I, I do Fiverr, of course, for my book publishing. Okay. And for designs, I, I typically design an AI first and then I send it to a Fiverr and say, I like these 3 designs, please go ahead and make one that's similar to this or something like that. Or, or I like this one the best. Can you make one that's like an enhanced version of this? Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

That's excellent. I think the, the, I really like your framework and Yeah, they're really all helpful to feel like you're growing your capacity.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Like, yeah, totally. Yeah, exactly. Like, we— like, don't start with hiring, right? I think that's the key. Like, start with eliminating. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So thank you, George.

Yeah, thanks, man.

That's a lot. That's so much.

That's a lot already.

Many valuable piece of advice that I can implement. I'll be back in a month.

For sure. Yeah. To be continued. Yeah. Good. Okay. Thanks. Thank you.