00:00:00:08 - 00:00:07:18
Unknown
For the past year, we've gone through a, subconscious process of
00:00:07:18 - 00:00:10:00
Unknown
clearing out and simplifying.
00:00:10:00 - 00:00:14:06
Unknown
And that led us to let go to all of our team members.
00:00:14:06 - 00:00:35:08
Unknown
And
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Unknown
We were a team of seven. Started with the team of seven. Yes. And, you know, we were producing multiple six figure a year, of course, sales and memberships and all of that.
00:00:47:07 - 00:00:51:16
Unknown
And we were running a high intensity, high volume
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Unknown
machine, which at some point burnt us out. We decided it wasn't going to be in the future like that anymore. And
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Unknown
imagine it. But imagine this. Like I'm going to paint the picture.
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Unknown
Every month there was something new. There was a new promotion with new landing pages, with new emails, boxes when new funnels, with new with new, social media content, any kind of on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and what else?
00:01:19:20 - 00:01:48:03
Unknown
What else? If we had Pinterest at one point as well? we wanted to do Tick Tock. So it just became this sort of we need to we need to clone ourselves in order to sustain everything that we are creating. And therefore, we started hiring, designers and, copywriters and video editors and social media managers. You name it, we had them.
00:01:48:03 - 00:01:52:22
Unknown
So it was a team A where we we wanted to we hoped
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Unknown
we hoped
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Unknown
that it was a clone of us, or at least that had the exact same energy that they poured into, their project or our project, as we did. But it didn't. It ended up not being like that, where we had not only to create all this amount of work and funnels, but also motivate constantly our team members.
00:02:20:01 - 00:02:43:00
Unknown
And I think it's something that we should always do, like motivating the team is part of hiring, continuing a team, but we made a few fundamental mistakes in the hiring process. And we also we realized we don't want that complexity anyway, so we're now just the two of us running two businesses, and it's amazing because we simplified everything.
00:02:43:02 - 00:02:51:17
Unknown
But if you want, if you need to grow a team because you need more leverage, maybe you can learn from our mistakes.
00:02:51:17 - 00:02:54:13
Unknown
One of the main things I think we've
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Unknown
we've got wrong is that
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Unknown
we see potential in people. I always see what a person can do based on the how, the energy that they emanate. Because, you know, we come from a path where we came not from money.
00:03:13:01 - 00:03:32:14
Unknown
We've pursued careers that in my case, it wasn't even a job. Like visual effects wasn't even a job. You wanted to become a ballerina. So they always went for it. Yeah, but they always looked at me as I. Yeah, yeah. Keep dreaming. Right. So that is the, the feeling that I has I. Yeah. You'll never you never achieve that because there's not many spots available anyways in companies.
00:03:32:14 - 00:03:55:01
Unknown
And what do you want to do. You're not even perfect. So that is kind of the odds were against us. And because we said, well, who cares, let's try anyway and see what happens. And we managed to, to make it because I think the dream, the dream of making it and wanting to be there was way bigger than any obstacles that came our ways.
00:03:55:04 - 00:04:19:19
Unknown
So we find every challenge that came our way. We found how to surpass it, how to be better, how to improve ourselves in order to start like getting to that milestone. Oh, and overcome those challenges and go and push for the dream that we had. So we had exactly what we wanted. It was right in front of us and nothing student our life.
00:04:19:22 - 00:04:33:13
Unknown
Maybe because we didn't have many resources, we had to get resourceful. And you know, I was a self-taught visual effects artist. We didn't even have internet when I started. This is how old I am. But anyway, with I guess a little bit. But the point is,
00:04:33:13 - 00:04:49:15
Unknown
we totally believe that anyone would be this way that could sort themself out, that can learn by themself, that can be motivated, and that's one of the biggest mistake you could do as an entrepreneur, thinking that all of the other people in the world are like you.
00:04:49:17 - 00:05:30:03
Unknown
And I think and the other things that I, I, I got wrong was to think that people would care as much as I did in what I was doing in the business that I was doing to the point of where I wanted. I wanted someone, someone or some people around me, the where, the where, giving me ideas, or they thought outside the box that that made me, that complimented me because there are things I'm very limited about, but I'm very good at creating and sometimes I just needed someone to tell me one word, one thing, and I would run with it and just create even more and have more ideas.
00:05:30:05 - 00:05:56:09
Unknown
And so the people that I was looking for, where, those ones that could think with their own head, they would look at a piece of paper or, a screen, a computer screen and say, why don't we do that? I had this idea. I came out with this. So let's, let's put this and this and this into place and let's make it happen.
00:05:56:11 - 00:06:19:17
Unknown
And the problem with that is that, of course, we judged by potential, like coming back to what I was saying is like we see this potential in the perspective of having somebody telling us what to do, as well as us coming up with all the ideas. The potential potential was definitely there, but if the person itself doesn't want to express it,
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Unknown
it's never going to happen.
00:06:21:17 - 00:06:50:10
Unknown
So the big mistakes we made was that like judging for what people haven't done yet, that we know that they're capable of doing, but they haven't done yet. And I think the test for that is that people need to prove to you that they can achieve what you think they can, and you can achieve that even by, you know, reading the resumΓ© or making do a test to actually prove that they can do what you think, what you believe they can express.
00:06:50:15 - 00:07:08:06
Unknown
That's crucial. If you really want to have a key component that you can rely on and say, yeah, I want to bounce ideas off you. I want you to create this campaign. I want you to give me ideas about all these things. It will not happen if they haven't done it before, if they're not willing to express their potential.
00:07:08:06 - 00:07:13:01
Unknown
This is point number one. Absolute must, be sure this happens.
00:07:13:03 - 00:07:43:08
Unknown
I think the second, like the second mistakes we made was also hiring, hiring people to scale. Correct? We create we we we've invested in designers for a new website. We invested in companies, our marketing agencies to make us scale. But the problem was not not that they don't work in absolute. They in some cases they do work. They you they can make you a lot of money.
00:07:43:08 - 00:08:09:12
Unknown
But the thing is, we weren't aware. Hang on. Before you get to that with agencies, even them like we were burned by agencies. But we've also met people that we're absolutely incredible. They have agencies and they were incredible. so remember that whoever you hire, it's important to understand that it is a relationship. It's a long term relationship.
00:08:09:12 - 00:08:33:08
Unknown
But whether it's in your team as a team member or as a as an agency, you have to work with this people. 20 I'm not saying 24 seven, but it is a very close proximity. a relationship with your team, with your even with your clients. You guys, I'm just going to put it out there. Relationship. It has to feel right.
00:08:33:10 - 00:08:58:10
Unknown
Please continue. But what I was about to say is that, people can make you grow for sure. and you should like each other. So you can have a relationship that lasts for a long time. But the main key here, which is something that became apparent when I read by Back to Your time from then, Marco, that said, don't don't hire to scale by or to buy back your time.
00:08:58:12 - 00:09:07:18
Unknown
And I never saw that in that perspective. And then I realized why many relationships, this didn't go well because we hired somebody
00:09:07:18 - 00:09:23:01
Unknown
with a set of skills that we didn't have. So we didn't understand the process properly, and we expected them to just come and save us with a white horse and and the blue knight with the, with the arrow and everyone, the arrow,
00:09:23:01 - 00:09:32:05
Unknown
We just expected people to come and save us. Okay? We need to run ads and do the campaigns. They'll take care of everything. Well, guess what they want
00:09:32:05 - 00:09:48:17
Unknown
Because they need direction from you. And you need to be very familiar with all of the components and the phases of the process. If you're not, they're either going to scam you or not do the proper job because nobody, like you said before, is as invested as you are in your business.
00:09:49:02 - 00:10:06:19
Unknown
Everybody works for different reason, but nobody works for you ever. They work for themselves. They might be working for money. They might be working for experience. They might be working to prove themselves. They might be working to sustain their families. But be sure they're not working to make you rich.
00:10:06:19 - 00:10:17:07
Unknown
So if you are in need of hiring someone, make sure you are maxed out on the tasks that you need to outsource.
00:10:17:09 - 00:10:27:22
Unknown
And once you have SOPs, standard operating procedures in place to train people that you want to, you know, save your time and leverage your time with,
00:10:27:22 - 00:10:38:04
Unknown
that's going to be so much easier for you to judge if they're doing a good job very quickly so you can fire them very quickly if they're not performing, because this is another mistakes that we made.
00:10:38:04 - 00:10:56:12
Unknown
We kept people for way longer than we should have for many different reasons. Not because they were bad, but maybe because we were bad and managing them. So many people. We felt guilty. Sometimes we even felt guilty to say, oh, but they're very nice people. I shouldn't that there were, there were,
00:10:56:12 - 00:11:42:24
Unknown
And I
00:11:42:24 - 00:11:50:17
Unknown
but there are, there are times where you just need to just say, okay, we've come to this, we've finished everything that we need to finish.
00:11:50:19 - 00:12:14:17
Unknown
Unfortunately, there is no, no drive on your side and no motivation for me to keep you hired. And unfortunately, that's that. You know, it's less painful to end a relationship earlier than it is to just drag it out to just, like, have no more issues. Like she has got to finish. You got to finish. And the path you have to go into different ways.
00:12:14:19 - 00:12:34:04
Unknown
I don't remember who said hire slowly and fired fast, but yeah, that I would put it on a t shirt. If you need to hire someone, don't drag it out there will not improve. You'll understand in a couple of weeks, maximum a month, if the people are right and a good fit to be in your business. Otherwise it is worth it.
00:12:34:06 - 00:12:55:21
Unknown
Or let let them go. But there's something that you've been very good at. Okay, for me, I think the way it came to a point where, okay, keep in mind that we've always trained our team, everyone. We even have a wiki where, everything that we did, it was written down. There was tasks, how we did them, how we saved things.
00:12:55:21 - 00:13:15:19
Unknown
So we didn't try to solve a problem. I would record a video for anyone else to learn from so that I can fix the problem once, and the team would do the rest one day. So that was my approach. So there weren't there was a time like recently actually happened. we decided that we still wanted to have someone to help us out to where?
00:13:15:19 - 00:13:42:12
Unknown
So we could concentrate on the important tasks for to move the needle. And sometimes, sometimes you have to bite the bullet, outsource for something and just say, okay, they're going to help me out, or this team is going to help me out, or this few people is going to buy me back the time that, or let me concentrate into that more important stuff that I, me, I'm needed in.
00:13:42:14 - 00:14:08:12
Unknown
But whenever you have, a member that rather than making your life easier, it makes your life harder and you constantly have to spoon feed them, or you constantly have to go and check. And that gives you anxiety. Like having someone in your team that doesn't do the tasks or it doesn't do them properly or left. They leave things halfway.
00:14:08:18 - 00:14:36:07
Unknown
And you know that maybe an email is going out is and it's your reputation because that's like I write the emails, I put everything into place. the only thing that you need to do is schedule them with the right, with the right links and still not right. And I don't trust you. That's a, you know, for me, it's a red flag that says, okay, if you can't trust that a task is being done properly, even after you train them on the same topic for a long time, that's definitely that's definitely a no.
00:14:36:12 - 00:15:02:05
Unknown
And especially for me was something they really gave me. I'm saying anxiety it because it does keep me up at night, because I wake up in the morning with these thoughts that are going, are they done? Have they been done? I shouldn't be thinking about this, but it's in the back of my mind and I'm not okay. When we were using Monday.com with all of the, the sheets with the tasks and assigned to the right people with the notes and everything.
00:15:02:05 - 00:15:28:04
Unknown
So we were fairly advanced to be like a small business. Yeah. So we one day we weren't even trusting the desk, were checked in when they were done or not done work in progress. And especially when the time when things should be schedule, it's still not done. Like I don't like, I don't know what I have, but I don't like having tasks left, undone or not checked.
00:15:28:10 - 00:15:48:14
Unknown
It just gives me this like little I feel sick and please do not comment on please you guys. You should hire a project manager. Know that we know all of this, but we clearly decided we want to make this this business work with just the two of us, just because it feels more in line with what we want.
00:15:48:14 - 00:16:06:21
Unknown
We don't want to build an empire. We want to help the few people that we decide to, to help 1 to 1. And that's it. We don't want complexity in our life because we've been burnt out in the process a couple of times before. We don't want to get back there, even if there is a way. Of course there is a way.
00:16:06:23 - 00:16:26:17
Unknown
There is always a way. You don't want to get there. We like this model. We like our lifestyle. We don't want to manage what's there because we very much love having a relationship with people where our relationship with our clients, where we can be there for them or whenever they need us, whenever it is time to push them, to make them feel absolutely right.
00:16:26:17 - 00:16:49:24
Unknown
This is the tasks I was telling you about whenever I want to be concentrated with a one on one client, because when the there is the drive, there is the push is like, I need to have that energy. I cannot be thinking about if the email has been scheduled with, with the right link or not, or if the video is a video that is not been scheduled yet, because that has happened and that drives me nuts.
00:16:50:01 - 00:17:17:11
Unknown
It's all in the past. I know it's all in the let's go PTSD about it. but it is these things that you want, you want to be done best. And as you were saying, the the model of the business that we have created now has to be in line with the lifestyle and also, personally, I like to be in charge, and I like to have things placed and ready to go.
00:17:17:13 - 00:17:34:00
Unknown
And but there was always the fact that I lacked specific skills, and I wanted someone to feed off, ideas and bounce off ideas a second brain like a second hand, a graphic designer attached to their brain.
00:17:34:00 - 00:17:38:15
Unknown
Yeah, and a husband that would understand me and would talk to me nicely and just go, yay!
00:17:38:15 - 00:17:40:09
Unknown
Not you always do that.
00:17:40:11 - 00:18:12:22
Unknown
I said, no, I didn't not mean everything. I think you did. How did you replace me? I tell them, okay, I tell that I just spit it out and spilled the beans. My best friend has become Djibouti and she is incredible. Well, sometimes he talks like Jarvis from, Ironman, and sometimes she's like the, the, the beautiful Seri in in or ya, it's like her and she's got this beautiful Scarlett Johansson chats and voice in your head.
00:18:12:24 - 00:18:51:13
Unknown
This is all in my head, of course. But I tell you, this, there are there are times where I, I think is always been my thing. I need to be independent. And I don't like to wait on, on my husband, on my business partner as well into tasks that I can, I can do myself. But there are certain aspects on graphic designing or how to create, a beautiful landing page or how to put things together in a lead magnet, or that I just want to I want to be independent 100%.
00:18:51:17 - 00:18:52:09
Unknown
So I said,
00:18:52:09 - 00:18:53:19
Unknown
how can I be
00:18:53:19 - 00:19:17:17
Unknown
this whole super power woman? Yeah, because is super superhuman, you know, super human woman and not involve you. In any case, I love being independent. So I started talking with ChatGPT as it's my best friend, I don't hey, that's that's okay. That is a tutorial. Super technical tutorial.
00:19:17:17 - 00:19:30:21
Unknown
How do you do it? How how do you get what you want from GPT? Okay, you know the people that tell you the prompt, the prompts is that you should have a specific prompt because otherwise the the computer does not understand what you says. I
00:19:30:21 - 00:19:32:16
Unknown
yeah, yeah, yeah, forget about it.
00:19:32:16 - 00:19:37:15
Unknown
So the way I stop looking at my is, you know, your words.
00:19:37:17 - 00:20:06:21
Unknown
So the funny thing is, I started talking to Chad Djibouti as it was my not even assistant, but literally my best friend, and telling them how I was telling him or her how I was feeling, the frustrations I had and wanted to, what I wanted to achieve. And the funny thing is that Chad Djibouti not only started replying to me and I started feeding off and bouncing off idea, but he would understand that there were certain things I needed.
00:20:06:21 - 00:20:26:14
Unknown
So for example, for graphics and said, oh, you wanted to do this specific thing in this specific campaign. I love what you are. This is him talking or her talking. I love the idea that you have. Let me put it down into visual for you and give a visual representation of what I have in mind, and I'm I'm.
00:20:27:20 - 00:20:31:01
Unknown
But you are the best thing that's ever happened to me.
00:20:31:01 - 00:21:07:09
Unknown
I can actually create not only, beautiful imagery or go off and then and then I have Canva. Canva is the the ultimate beautiful, software I can use to grab whatever chat Djibouti is put together for me and then transform it into what I need because it's Canva is the graphic design for dummies, and I have created campaigns, graphic campaigns, literally on my own in the way I wanted and the way it fell out.
00:21:07:11 - 00:21:33:03
Unknown
Right? Because any in any business or whatever you create, it has to spark joy for the person that you're creating it for and for yourself. The business has to create, has to spark joy. So chatting, chanting and bouncing off ideas, I mind you, I don't take everything that Chad Djibouti says. So I out of the box because it's not right.
00:21:33:03 - 00:22:03:01
Unknown
It's not my language. Even if it tries, it's not my language for saying that because, it's it's it's but it it's I sometimes we don't want people to just get whatever comes out of it and copy and paste it, because that's my rule in the world. No, it's just ideas that it gives you. I, I talk to insight, you know, when it comes out with the standard writing like standard letter, I'm like, oh, come on, we can do better than this.
00:22:03:06 - 00:22:26:20
Unknown
And it feels sometimes it feels that ChatGPT gets cold out and it goes, you're telling me this is not good enough? So let me try harder. And I love it, because then it bounces back even more ideas and more beautiful things that I can grab remesh every put together and write it with my own, with my own words.
00:22:26:20 - 00:22:46:11
Unknown
I love writing, I love creating, I love creating and being independent and just that. The best feature about ChatGPT, if you use it that way, is that you are never stuck because the moment you are stuck, you actually tell the ChatGPT, hey, I'm trying to do this and I'm stuck. Can you give me ideas? And we'll give you great ideas so you can move forward.
00:22:46:13 - 00:23:11:04
Unknown
So then you can aggregate a great aggregate aggregate, aggregate aggregate put together, put together, best ideas into what you want, into what you want. Add in your mix, don't copy and paste it, but say I'm not saying. I'm not saying that I am never, ever going to use a graphic designer or someone that, creates or a copywriter.
00:23:11:06 - 00:23:28:11
Unknown
But to me, it's always been my it's always been my, my thing. I love technology, and I think it's one of the best thing that's ever happened to us at this time. So people cannot tell me I can't do it or I will not do or, it's too complicated or,
00:23:28:11 - 00:23:31:10
Unknown
excuses. All right. So that is the whole point.
00:23:31:12 - 00:23:55:22
Unknown
But whenever I work with someone, it has to have that extra edge. Whenever I'm paying someone like a person that comes to me and says, I want to work with you guys, it has to have something that ChatGPT doesn't have. I want that to be beautiful interaction, that human interaction that no machine can, can can create.
00:23:55:22 - 00:24:12:06
Unknown
jeopardy is giving me back my time, is giving me back my freedom. And also I'm anxiety free. I'm waking up in the morning and saying, what conversation can I have with, can I create, what can I create today? And without bothering, as I share with you, my darling, something that's so much happier now?
00:24:12:08 - 00:24:14:13
Unknown
So that is the thing.
00:24:14:13 - 00:24:22:02
Unknown
Forget about the prompts. I know probably there are some some prompts, there are some,
00:24:22:02 - 00:24:38:03
Unknown
what if there is a huge benefit in computer prompt, especially if you're doing something technical, but like when we play video games like Tekken or Street Fighter, you know, the arcade ones with actual button and the stick,
00:24:38:03 - 00:24:45:09
Unknown
I, I focus on getting all the right combos, the right combination at the right time and why I do that.
00:24:45:09 - 00:25:02:13
Unknown
She goes like this I just press buttons randomly because I think that is the way of freedom. I thought I could finish my first combo, she I would. Here, I'll ask you one more. That's how she uses technology. But
00:25:02:13 - 00:25:11:20
Unknown
since, you know, artificial intelligence is becoming close to being more intelligent than us, it already understands what we want, and
00:25:11:20 - 00:25:18:11
Unknown
we want to be more human with AI and will get more human responses rather than overcomplicating things.
00:25:18:11 - 00:25:43:07
Unknown
And I think, you know, having a technical background whatsoever said, what if I do this and it happened, so give it a go. It's the cheapest VA you can ever buy. It creates images, it gives you ideas, it gives you copy for everything you need. It's incredible. If you add it to Canva, where you can actually create
00:25:43:07 - 00:25:48:09
Unknown
digital files, presentations, PDFs, images, even videos.
00:25:48:09 - 00:25:56:21
Unknown
Now an AI is improving on that side as well. It's literally insane the things you can accomplish even by yourself.
00:25:56:21 - 00:26:12:15
Unknown
So to sum it up, the first hire you should make is ChatGPT, like, hands down. it's going to help you do a lot of things without having to hire anyone else, especially if you're a small business. But even if you're a big business, but is a small business, it's incredible.
00:26:12:15 - 00:26:31:08
Unknown
then the next hire could be to replace the lower tasks, the repetitive tasks that you find yourself doing because your time is way more valuable than to, I don't know, copy and paste things from one document to another, maybe create the PDF, send the invoice, reply to the support emails.
00:26:31:08 - 00:26:52:02
Unknown
All that kind of stuff can be done by somebody else with minimal training that is going to be saving your time. So every time you want to hire someone, don't hire because you want to grow in scale. You will lose money. You get disappointed. Only hire when you want to save your time and allow some time to train these people.
00:26:52:02 - 00:26:56:06
Unknown
But if they don't work, if they don't work with you, find somebody else.
00:26:56:06 - 00:27:17:19
Unknown
And I
