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95. "I Can Do It Better Myself" - What to Outsource + Do Yourself
Episode 9520th February 2023 • On Your Terms® • Sam Vander Wielen
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Do you need to be a jack of all trades to run an online business? This episode explores the dilemma of having to wear multiple hats as a business owner. I share my personal experience and how I balanced my passions with the demands of running a business. Listen to learn how you can grow your business without sacrificing your sanity — and still indulge in your favorite business activities.

In this episode, you’ll hear…

  • Why some business owners struggle to hand off tasks and delegate
  • The skills most business owners should take ownership of
  • The first things you can outsource or hire out for
  • Leaning into the things you enjoy most
  • When to start handing things off in your business

If you’d like a shoutout (and a chance to win a $20 gift card), just leave a review on Apple Podcasts and send a screenshot of it to me on Instagram via DMs!

Click here to find the full show notes and transcript for this episode.

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DISCLAIMER: Although Sam is an attorney she doesn’t practice law and can’t give you legal advice. All episodes of On Your Terms® are educational and informational only. The information discussed here isn’t legal advice and isn’t intended to be. The info you hear here isn’t a substitute for seeking legal advice from your own attorney.

Mentioned in this episode:

Legal Workshop

Do you feel lost thinking about how to legally protect your online business? Head to mylegalworkshop.com to sign-up for immediate access to my free 1-hour legal workshop, 5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow your Online Business.

Legal Workshop

Transcripts

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Hey there, and welcome back to On Your Terms.

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I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen, an attorney turned entrepreneur who helps online

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coaches and service providers legally protect and grow their online businesses using my

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DIY legal templates and my Ultimate Bundle training.

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this week we, are talking all about when you should do stuff in your business versus when

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you should outsource. Do you have to be good at everything in your business?

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Do you have to be a marketer?

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Do you have to be a copywriter?

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Do you really have to wear all of these hats when you own an online business?

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I think it's a really interesting question.

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as I talk about in this episode, I'm somebody who likes a lot of what we do and is also

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somebody who's inclined to be like, "I'll just do it.

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I'll just do it. I'll just do it." And that, well, you're going to have to listen.

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I shared how that went.

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And I shared what I did instead to actually grow my business, not drive myself crazy, but

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also how I still do some things I love in my business even though I don't have to.

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So, we're going to get into it.

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we do, I want to give a shoutout to Megan FS.

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She says, "I've been following Sam for a while.

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I joined the Ultimate Bundle and now I've been bingeing the podcast.

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It's like having a conversation with a friend while also learning a ton about the legal

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side, being an entrepreneur, and how to build an online business.

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I feel more confident knowing that I have the tools to build a legally legit business.

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But even more than that, like I'm connecting with a real person that I can relate to in so

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many ways. Sam and her podcast are fantastic." Thank you so much, Megan.

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I so appreciate that very kind review.

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And we are friends.

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you can also leave a review in Apple Podcasts of my show, On Your Terms, and you'll be

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entered to win a $20 Starbucks gift card.

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All you have to do is just leave a review on Apple.

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It's simple as that. All right.

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With that, let's hop in to this week's episode.

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the age old question, when should you do something versus when should you outsource it?

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How many things do you hold on to your business versus how many things do you try to hire

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out for? Plus, what do you do when, you know, budgets a little tight?

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You can't go around hiring everybody to do everything.

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It's a really tricky balance.

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what I often see is that on the one hand, people will hang on to things way too long and

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try to do everything themselves in the business and wear all of the hats.

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And I think we all know that there are many, many hats to be worn.

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And then, that ends up holding us back or it actually costs us a lot of money.

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Ryan always tells me - my husband, in case you don't know - that one thing he thinks I'm

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really good at is seeing time is money, even in our own life.

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Because I'll just be like, "No.

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It's not worth us doing that.

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We can get somebody else to do this and then we can go off and do this other thing."

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ourselves a lot of money by not hiring people to do certain things.

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And then, in fact, that's actually costing us a lot of money, for the reasons I'm going

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to break down in this episode.

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And so, we might maybe have a little bit of a mindset shift in that area today.

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also the idea that somebody else could be better at it.

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On the flip side, I think a lot of people think that somebody can't be better at it or

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that it won't be done to your liking.

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That was something that I held on to for a long time, not that I wouldn't be better or

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that anyone could be better at stuff, but that it wouldn't be done to my liking and it

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would end up costing me more time.

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So, it was not that I thought I'd be better at it, but I was like, "I'll just get it

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done." Because that way I don't have to go back and forth.

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was also a really easy out for me to not have to express preferences to people because I

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didn't like giving feedback and saying like, "Hey.

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I don't really love the design on this." So, if I just designed it myself, I didn't have

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to give any feedback, right?

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So, it was a little sneaky way around that too.

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on the flip side, I see people also outsource things a little bit too quickly sometimes

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or outsource things in their own business because they are really nervous, and they're

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not really owning it, and they're not trusting themselves, and listening to their

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instinct, especially as a marketer.

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And so, they'll outsource certain things to people that I'm like, "Ooh." That makes me a

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little nervous because, at the end of the day, I do think as marketers, we have to be the

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ones who are the experts in our businesses on our clients and what they want, and kind of

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have our finger on the pulse of the market in what's going on, and be kind of dictating

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that down to other people.

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And so, we want to hire experts and we want people who are going to be better at things

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than we are. But at the end of the day, you're signing the checks.

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Your name's on the digital door.

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Like, this shit is on you.

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So, that's the way that I always think about is that, at the end of the day, I'm

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responsible for all this.

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And so, I can hire other people.

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I can let other people do a lot of stuff.

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But I do also have to trust my instinct that, like, I've been here the longest, I've

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spoken to the most amount of people, I've really gotten to know what's going on around

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here. And if something doesn't feel right, I have to say something.

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So, that's kind of what we're going to talk about today.

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I have to tell you, I pride myself in being somebody who loves all parts of my business

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and online business and running one of these kinds of businesses.

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I mean, how much time do you have?

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I love writing.

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I love copywriting.

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I'll preface all of this by saying, I don't think I'm good at all of these things.

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Just I thoroughly enjoy it.

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But I love writing.

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I don't mind creating all the content.

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I love creating these podcast episodes for you.

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It's an absolute joy and a privilege.

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I love our team meetings.

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I love creating my products.

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I love digging in, answering people's questions.

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People have such good questions.

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I really love the strategy side of things.

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I'm obsessed with funnels.

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I love all the data.

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I'm just one of those annoying people who really, truly loves all of these things.

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Oh, I even love SEO.

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I know that was just probably the nail in the coffin.

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I love SEO.

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I love doing the website.

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I like all of those things.

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I had that attitude, first of all, I was like, "No.

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No. I just love it. I love it all.

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Don't worry, I love all of this stuff." But, also, it's just easier if I just do it

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myself. I would, like, dip my toes into the arena of hiring out a graphic designer or

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hiring somebody else to do something.

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And then, I would get some stuff back and it wouldn't totally sit right, and I would be

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like, "Oh. I'll just fix it myself."

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I mean, a lot of what we all do is very subjective.

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I mean, there can be spelling errors or something like that.

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But otherwise it's very subjective.

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And so, a lot of what we do is just up to our preferences.

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And so, I wouldn't see things that were up to my preferences, I wouldn't love it, and so

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I'd just be like, "Oh. I'll just fix this myself."

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that time. And what do you know, shocking, when the stuff would come back, it would be

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exactly the same.

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And I would just fix this stuff, again, myself.

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Never saying anything.

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Easy out, first of all, to not have to say, "Hey.

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Great job with this, but I would love it also from now on if you could do this like that

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or I like it better when this looks like that." It was a great way to avoid having to do

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that, which is stuff I have to do every day now.

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also, it just kept me really, really busy.

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I was just running around like a chicken with her head cut off.

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If we can imagine, an office building that ran Sam Vander Wielen LLC, it's like I'm

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running from the art department, to the copywriting department, to the finance

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department, to the legal, to the customer service center, back to social media strategy.

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And I was just like running between these doors all day long.

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you know, I built a nice little business doing that and it was fine.

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And I was really tired.

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I was working a lot.

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I really liked what I was doing.

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I enjoyed it.

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But I was like, "How am I going to actually grow this thing?

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I don't understand." Like, I just need to sell more and more and more, but I don't

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understand how to do that because I don't have another minute to spare.

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So, I thought at that time that I was actually saving money by not hiring anyone.

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I prided myself on not having any employees, any contractors.

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I was like, "I do it all myself." It's like a badge of honor.

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I thought I was saving money.

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I thought I was keeping my profits crazy high.

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Which, my profits were really high.

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My profits are still really high.

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But at the time it was insane.

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And it was just like, "But look how profitable I am." It's just kind of funny for me to

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look back now.

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And I remember, and maybe you can relate to this, but I also worry that I wouldn't have

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enough for them to do or I had this very irrational fear that the moment that I hired

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somebody, all of a sudden, everything would stop.

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Like, there'd be no more money coming in and no growth.

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And all of a sudden, I was going to have hired all these people and then there would be

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nothing. I was so worried about it.

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I've talked about this many, many times on the podcast before and now I talk about this in

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my free legal workshop - which I will link to below - I really had this flip into this

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mindset of starting to prepare for the business I was becoming.

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So, I was running around thinking, "Great.

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This business is doing okay now, but what if it doesn't in the future?

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So, I'll just keep acting like, not only maybe even what it is like now, but what it used

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to be." Or, "Great, that it's growing now.

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But what if I don't see any change." Or, "I don't know if the business of this size

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technically needs a VA yet."

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I am becoming X type of business.

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It truly does not matter.

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I don't care whether or not your goal is to have a business that makes $10,000 a year or

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$100,000 a year, $1 million a year.

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It doesn't have to.

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Screw all the figures and all this crap that we see online.

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None of that matters.

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Whatever that matters is what's important to you.

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And so, you need to know what kind of business are you building here.

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I would love to see you have goals that are like, at least for the business to get

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better. I just also want you to be very kind to yourself, but that can be really

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different for a lot of people.

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Yours doesn't have to look like mine.

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Mine doesn't have to look like another person's.

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So, you really start thinking of this is where I'm going.

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And based on that, this is what I need to have in place to become that kind of business.

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So, we start acting today like the business we're already headed towards.

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We kind of just start assuming that that's where we're headed.

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It's kind of like if you were driving from New York to LA, you would have this road trip,

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and you would make decisions on what highways you take and where you stop and all that

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kind of stuff, what direction you go in based on the fact that you know you're ending up

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in LA, even though it's going to take you - I don't know - five days or something to

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drive there.

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that's kind of how I want you to think about it with your business, like I already know

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I'm headed there, so let me just start acting like that.

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And that doesn't mean spending irresponsibly and acting willy nilly.

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But there are some simple things.

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There's a very careful balance between that whole, like, jump in head first kind of

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mentality. I'm not one to tell everybody to, like, leave their jobs and just throw your

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life away and start a business.

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there's also not going to be this perfect planned point where everything becomes super

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easy and crystal clear.

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So, there is a little bit of start before you're ready, kind of.

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And it's a balance.

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And I think that people need to be more responsible with that advice that there's a way

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to do that in a very tempered way.

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And I think that that's what was key for me, is that I stopped acting like the business I

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was at that moment and I realized that I was never going to become the business that I

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had in my mind, when I really let myself dream, and I really worked on my mindset.

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And so, I started to drop some of these stories and these limiting beliefs that I had

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about myself, and my business, and my worth, and my ability to be seen.

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once I started working on that and I got clear on what that vision was for me to build

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the kind of business I'm building right now, I was like, "Oh, shoot.

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I will never get there if I keep doing this." That's never going to happen because I'm

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just going to keep running. Remember the image I gave you of this digital office

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building? I'm just going to keep running between all those doors, and there's no way that

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this can ever get any bigger.

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I have to get out of the way for some of this stuff, and I have to leverage.

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And there are people who can do this better.

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There's time that can be spent better.

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There's so many different things that could be done differently.

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I think that there are a couple of skills that all online business owners should

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strengthen, flex, sharpen.

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And that you're really never going to 100 percent outsource even if you hire people as

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experts.

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You're still going to be the CEO.

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You're still going to be the one calling the shots.

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You're still going to be the one that's responsible for strategy.

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And, also, you're always going to be the one who's here.

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Team members can change.

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And you're going to be the one that's here and you have to own this at the end of the day.

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And it's also going to be your responsibility at the end of the day.

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what are some of these skills that I think all business owners kind of have to own?

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Well, one of the biggest, I would say, is marketing.

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And so, kind of like if you have this voice that's coming up in you that's like, "I'm not

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good at marketing. I don't know about that.

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I'm not good at this. I'm not good at that." As my therapist says, if we could just ask

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that to step aside for a moment and just keep an open mind, I think that it's something

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that we can become better at, first of all.

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definitely think that some people, they have an innate sense for marketing and it's just

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very natural to them.

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But I also think this is something you can strengthen.

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And so, I don't want you to count yourself out if you don't feel like you're coming into

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this at an Olympic level marketing person.

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It's okay.

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think when we break down what parts of marketing you really need to own, there are at

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least three that I can think of, which is the voice of customer.

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I would say, really being very, very clear about what your customer is struggling with,

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what they would like to see instead, what kind of stuff that they've tried, what they're

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really, really worried about.

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At the end of the day, when we break it down, what are they actually worried about

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happening? What do they actually wish would be different?

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What do they actually wish would be the best case scenario?

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Really knowing the voice of customer.

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also includes how your customer actually talks about you, what you do, and your topics,

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and stuff like that. Just to give you an example, when I'm talking about legal stuff, I

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can't use lawyer language.

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I try my hardest every day when I'm writing something or I'm creating titles or I'm

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writing captions or something like that, I'm like, "How would they say this?" Because

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it's not about how we would say it.

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So, that is one of the biggest things because it's such a starting block, because if you

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don't speak their language, then no one is ever going to talk back.

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So, it's a really, really important part.

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when you go to hire a really good copywriter, for example, to do sales copy for you for

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the first time or nurture sequence for the first time or write a sales page for you, you

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need to tell them like, "This is what my customers do.

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This is what they're worried about.

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These are the kinds of words they use.

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These are phrases I hear over and over and over again.

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This is really at the core of what my customer is worried about and what they want and

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what they hope for.

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And here's little snippets of their day." It's so much of that.

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you start to hire more and more experienced copywriters or funnel strategists over time,

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they'll actually ask to speak to your customers and they'll do customer interviews.

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That's why they're doing it is to get voice of customer research, and that's super

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helpful.

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resources to do that yet.

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And so, it was really important that I knew that.

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And then, when I was reviewing copy, I'd be like, "They would never say that" or "We

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don't use that kind of language in this community." So, it's really important that you

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own that.

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second part of marketing that I think you have to develop and strengthen is social

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strategy and social media - I would call it - awareness.

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Let's say, whatever platform it is, I think one or two platforms like Instagram and

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YouTube or Instagram and Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, whatever, you would have to really

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understand those platforms and truly how they work.

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Kind of get a flavor for who hangs out on them, how they're used, how people are

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consuming content there.

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think staying a little bit on top, this is where you have to be very careful.

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I'm not talking about black and white where either you don't know anything or you spend

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your whole day scrolling TikTok.

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It's somewhere in the middle about just knowing generally speaking what's going on.

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Like, what's going on on these platforms?

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How are people using it?

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What are some of the trends?

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as simple as on Instagram, what are the different surfaces that are available?

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What are the main types of content in my industry that are being shared?

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How are people engaging?

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What kind of patterns do I see?

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That kind of stuff.

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again, when you go to hire someone, if you hire someone to create social graphics for you

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or write captions for you or create social media post for you, you need to be able to

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analyze those and say, "That's not it.

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I want to take this strategy.

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I want to try that." Or going back to voice of customer, like, "This doesn't match up

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with my customer." So, we really do need to know a little bit about that and that's

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something that we develop over time.

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It's also the benefit to only picking - which I think you should anyway - one or two of

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these platforms anyway because you can go deeper and not wider.

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Okay.

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development. For you, this might be like program development, offer development,

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depending on what you do.

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I think that's where it becomes really important for you to be the one to know what is

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the demand in the market.

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Like, is there a demand for what I want to offer?

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Who's looking for it?

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What are they looking for?

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Obviously, doing pricing research and all this kind of stuff, you have to really own the

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development of your product to even make sure that there is a demand, a want, a need for

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what you're trying to offer.

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otherwise, what you're going to do is you're going to go to a person, you're going to

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outsource the creation of something, or hire an ops person to set up your product or

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something like this and be like, "I want to offer this product.

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Go set it up here." But you have to be the one who knows that that's even a successful

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idea in the first place as much as we can ahead of time, but we have to know that.

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right. So, those were the three parts of marketing that I broke down, the voice of

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customer, the social strategy, and the product development.

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But outside of marketing, there are three other things, I think, we have to own.

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One is copywriting.

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And I don't mean that we have to own this entirely because this is definitely a great

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area to outsource over time.

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But what I mean by this is that, I think that as online business people, people who

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market their online businesses for a living, we have to be good at copywriting.

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Period.

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And if you completely outsource your writing stuff, it's never going to sound like you.

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Or if you don't know basics about copywriting, then when you get copy from a copywriter

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and it doesn't feel right, you're not going to know.

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Or worst case scenario, you're just going to get copy from a copywriter, assume that they

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know the best for for you and your business and go with it.

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And then, when it doesn't land with people, you're going to be like, "I wonder why that

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didn't work?"

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copywriting is even so helpful for your day-to-day running in this business.

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So, I think about it every single time that I go to write an email.

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I write all my weekly emails to the list.

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I write so much that I feel like it's so important that I have a basic working

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understanding.

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I'm not as remotely skilled as a copywriter.

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But it means I have to have some skills as a copywriter or a person who writes copy for a

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living, because I essentially do.

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I write it for my business.

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Not for someone else's.

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And it's also an area where I can learn a little and then have a lot of practice.

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I write a lot.

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I write things that flop.

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I write things that go really well.

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And I just learn over time with reps, more and more and more reps.

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So, I think copywriting is a great place to invest some of your time and energy and money

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because I think that it's great to learn about and it'll help you overall.

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also think you have to own customer service because I think that you have to decide

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pretty early on what kind of business do you want to be, what kind of experience do you

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want your clients to have.

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And you have to set the tone for how do you want everybody to be treated, and is this a

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premium level, Nordstrom level experience, or is this a Walmart where we have smiley

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face, but we're more about getting as many people in here and as many people out as we

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can.

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you're going to set the tone for when you do hire somebody to interact with your

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customers, to say like, "Hey, here's how we do things around here.

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We go above and beyond.

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We're super helpful. We're super responsive.

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We're known for being responsive.

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We have sarcastic wit and we include jokes in all of our stuff." Whatever it is, we have

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to own customer service.

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but not least, we have to own our craft.

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I mean, we have to be really good at what we actually sell for a living.

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You know, I feel like so many times in online business, we hear all these people talking

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about selling you courses about here's how to create a course or whatever, here's how to

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make this many figures and this many months, and yada, yada.

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we don't often hear about people really encouraging you to do a really good job and try

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to be really skilled, and taking a lot of pride in what you do, and taking ownership over

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the fact that you're putting yourself out there, you're taking people's money for your

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skill. And that doesn't mean being perfect and it doesn't mean knowing everything, but it

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means continuing to invest in ourselves, in our craft, and in our actual programs and

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offers and products themselves, and making them the best that they can be right now given

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the information and the tools that we have.

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And I think that that's a really, really important thing for us to own.

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Now, all of the things I've just talked about, marketing, copywriting, customer service,

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and our craft, one of the reasons I think that we have to be so good at them is that,

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well, first of all, we do them every day.

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But two is that they are things that we can eventually outsource.

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They're probably some of the last things as you make more and more money in your

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business. But when you do, they are the things that I think you still have to have a good

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grasp of in order for you to outsource them.

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with other things, let's say you want to get a new website, you can hire a website

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designer and a web developer or their team.

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You don't need to learn how to do your own website and then hire a website person.

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In fact, it would actually be more helpful if you knew something about copywriting and if

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you knew something about marketing and strategy so that you could tell the website person

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what kind of layout you want, or what calls to action you want to highlight, or what

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kinds of marketing things you want to drive and write some of the copy.

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That would be cool.

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But you don't need to learn certain things like that.

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You don't need to learn about web development.

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You don't need to learn about branding, like creating logos and color schemes.

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If you had a good idea of the voice of customer and you had a good idea of the vibe and

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the kind of environment you're really trying to create, then you can communicate that to

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an expert and they can easily turn that around for you.

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I also think that legal and accounting are another two areas where I just don't think you

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need to waste your time. You don't need to learn how to become a lawyer to run your own

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business. You don't need to learn how to be a CPA to run your own business.

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Those are areas where I wouldn't invest much of your time to really learn all about them,

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other than the basics with legal of, like, learning how to talk about what you do,

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learning how to answer client's questions, and just learning how to set things up pretty

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easy to form a business or to send off contracts or protect your content.

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Having that kind of information is really empowering, but you don't need to be your own

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lawyer. That's why I've created what I have.

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That's why I have templates for you.

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I have the Ultimate Bundle for you.

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But the point is, you don't have to become your own CPA.

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You can outsource that kind of stuff.

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And you don't need to beat yourself up that that's not something you know how to do.

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last thing I wanted to chat with you about was that - I thought this was interesting when

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I was preparing for today's episode - I want you to think about are there things that

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naturally interest you in your business that are investments in your business or that can

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bring you a return.

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Like, you could ask yourself, This thing that I like to do in my own business, does it

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bring in leads or does it generate sales?

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That's kind of how I would think of it.

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So, for example, when I started my business, I liked SEO.

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I thought it was really interesting.

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I also thought it was a genius way of building up a lot of momentum in traffic by way of

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leads in my business because I was capturing people's attention who were already

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searching for something.

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I didn't have any kind of social media presence.

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And so, I felt like I was really starting from the bottom back then.

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And I was like, is there another way where I can do this?

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so, I just genuinely thought SEO was interesting and it was a huge place to spend my time

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in the beginning where I would be like, "Okay.

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I'm going to write ten blog posts that are super SEO targeted." So, I would do some SEO

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research and phrases and questions and words that people were searching for in my

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industry. I would then write a little outline using keyword-rich headings, subheadings.

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And then, I would write the post and I would kind of use SEO plug-in on my site to further

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optimize the post once it was done being written, and then I would post it.

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That was something I was spending a lot of my time on and it was an investment in my

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business, something that, to be honest, brought in a lot of the initial sales and really

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got things off the ground.

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And some of those blog posts that I wrote six years ago are still pulling in doing that

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too. But if I was obsessed with bookkeeping, for example, that wouldn't have paid off.

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If I was just in a bookkeeping, all that that would be doing is saving me the amount of

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money I had spent on a bookkeeper.

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when I really liked to do SEO and I only did it for probably a year or so, probably two

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years, actually two years in my own business, I thought that that was one area that I

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could be like, "Okay. I understand that I could hire someone." I didn't really have the

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funds to hire somebody at the time, but at least this is something I enjoy doing and it's

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an investment in my business because it's actually leading to leads, and then those leads

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are bringing in sales.

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So, it was then making the business more profitable, which then allowed me over time to be

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like, "Okay. Now, I can afford to pay somebody else to do this." And they have all these

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examples now to learn how I like things done and how I like things written.

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was another area that I wanted to strengthen my skill in because I knew that if I was a

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better writer, it would be a big driver of both leads and sales.

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So, I just wanted to put that out there just to think about there might be some part of

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your business you're like, "But I like doing it." If you like doing it, just ask

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yourself, is this an investment in the business or is this something that's literally

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just a trade off for I'm just saving myself the 100 bucks to pay a bookkeeper a month to

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do this.

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could spend that time investing in marketing or investing in something else that's going

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to drive leads or sales, then let's get to that.

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So, that's why I think the sooner you can get some of these non-revenue generating

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activities, especially repetitive tasks that can be optimized and SOP'd, then that way,

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again, you do it so you run through something.

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not ever having anybody come into the business where you've not done something yourself

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before, but you do it, and then you're like, "Here are the steps that we take when we

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find a copycat online, we have an SOP for that." And then, you can hand that SOP off to a

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very talented and capable person who can go and execute that every single time that it

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happens, and then you don't have to do it.

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So, I'm a big believer in choosing a couple of things you really love to do.

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I know that you can also outsource everything and you can outsource everything all at

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once. It's a lot.

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It's expensive.

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But over time, the goal is generally to remove you from those tasks and start finding

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people who are specialized in it.

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And because you've done things yourself before, because you've walked the walk, you're

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going to be such a better leader and you're going to be able to give better feedback and

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advice.

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me know, like, what is the one thing that you're really interested in now that we've had

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this chat that also was an investment in your business?

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And what's one thing that now you've listened to this you think you could let go because

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you realized it's really just a trade, like a time, money trade?

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I'd be so curious from you.

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Just send me a DM, @samvanderwielen, on Instagram.

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hope that you liked this episode.

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It was a lot fun on my part.

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If you're ready to start legally protecting your business, make sure you click below to

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watch my free legal training, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online

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Business. And with that, I will see you next week.

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Thanks so much for listening.

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so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast.

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Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to

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podcast. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more

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at samvanderwielen.com/podcast.

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You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal

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workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, at

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samvanderwielen.com. And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram,

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@samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say

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hi.

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remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney and I am not offering you

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legal advice in today's episode.

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This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only.

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It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer.

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And please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice.

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I don't ever offer any legal services.

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