Podcast episode (Ep 50) in which host John Jonas uses a personal bike-riding anecdote—teaching his 10-year-old daughter to ride no-handed—to illustrate the fears and rewards of outsourcing tasks. He recommends starting by outsourcing tasks you already know how to do, explains that initial mistakes are normal, and concludes with a call-to-action for his 1vaoa.com program.
Chapters
Hello and welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing Podcast, the podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing your work. My name is John Jonas and this is episode 50, letting go of a Difficult Task. So a couple months back as I rode my bike with Lila, my 10 year old daughter, the wind was howling from the north and it was a crosswind because we were riding east and west, which is better than a headwind. But it just makes riding no handed really, really difficult. As soon as you take your hands off the bars, the wind grabs the front tire and just twists it and you. It's just really hard to do with a crosswind. I kept trying anyway because I'm riding with my daughter and she's really slow and so I'm trying. Lila then tries to take her hands off the bars too, and I'm like, no, no, you can't do that. You cannot do that. She hasn't ridden no handed on other rides before. So then we find a stretch of road where the road actually turns south and the wind blew at our backs, which is free speed and free stability. You don't really have to pedal to keep going. And so I said to Lila, now's a good time to ride no handed. So she's scared, but she takes her hands off the bars. Hopefully you can see this picture of her riding no handed for the first time, which was really amazing. And we came home and she said, mom, mom, guess what? I did it. I did it. I rode no hands. So this is kind of what it's like to hire an OFS and hand off a process to them. The very first time you do it so the wind blows sideways, it's scary. I mean, things don't go as you want them to. What if I crash? You know, what if, like, that's always the biggest fear. Like, what if something doesn't go how I want or they do it wrong or all of these things are going to happen and, and then you have like your personal fears of like, what if it's not done how I would do it? Or what if it doesn't actually work? Or what if something gets totally screwed up? Or there are all kinds of things that can go wrong when you hand off something to someone else. And sometimes things do go wrong. Projects don't get done right. Work isn't perfect as it gets published, it gets published and there's things that aren't right and you'll be embarrassed and then it gets fixed. But when it gets done right by your ofs, it's like writing no handed. It's one of the most liberating feelings. And once it gets done right the first time, after that, it's likely to get done right for a long time. And each time you do it, it gets easier and easier and easier. So if you start by outsourcing a task that you know how to do, the whole thing is easier. You know what skills to look for when you're hiring. You know how to fix mistakes. You know how to train them. You know how to give feedback. You know what success looks like. You know what to expect. You can help them get it right, and you get time back so that you're more effective at doing other things. And that's a really, really big deal. So. So when you hire someone to do something that you know how to do, it just works really, really well. And I see this all the time with people. You do it this way. You take this methodology. I'm gonna hire someone to get something off of my plate. You feel like your OFS is amazing, and then you get them doing other things, and then they start to do things that you don't know how to do or things that you're not doing, and stuff just snowballs from there. So it's a new year. The wind is blowing at your back right now. You have a task that you're scared of letting go of, but you know that you should not. Now's a really good time to try it. If you're interested. My one VAOA.com program will help you find the right person if you're interested in getting my help. So 1vaoa.com and whatever you do, just now's a good time to try and hire someone to get something off of your plate.
