There comes a time in your business where doing it ALL isn’t going to work anymore. It’s time to hire “The Team”.  It’s both exciting and also comes with a dynamic change. But ultimately, your business growth, your ability to scale and have the capacity to take on more clients and make a bigger Impact, rely on it. This week Blair + Theresa riff on bringing in “The Team”.

About the Hosts:

Blair Kaplan Venables is an expert in social media marketing and the president of Blair Kaplan Communications, a British Columbia-based PR agency. She brings fifteen years of experience to her clients which include global wellness, entertainment and lifestyle brands. She is the creator of the Social Media Empowerment Pillars, has helped her customers grow their followers into the tens of thousands in just one month, win integrative marketing awards and more. 

Blair is listed in USA Today as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch in 2022 and Yahoo! listed Blair as a top ten social media expert to watch in 2021. She has spoken on national stages and her expertise has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur and Thrive Global. Blair is an international bestselling author and has recently published her second book, ‘The Global Resilience Project.’ She is the co-host of the Dissecting Success podcast and in her free time, you can find Blair growing The Global Resilience Project’s community where users share their stories of overcoming life’s most difficult moments.

www.blairkaplan.ca

You ever wonder what success actually means?

How do you get it?

And how do you keep it?

We all want it yet sometimes it feels only some of us get to have it.

Hi, Theresa and Blair here we are to badass entrepreneurs, best selling authors, coaches and business mentors who have had success, built success, questioned our own success and reclaimed it. Let's be real for a hot minute. 2020 has been a roller coaster ride, and many of us a start to wonder if the loser things that made them successful. So we got curious, Ron real about what success is truly about?

Can you put it in a box?

How can you get it?

Can people take it away? Or are you the one with the power?

Does it mean the same to all of us? Or are we the ones that create it?

From PGA golf pros to doctors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and spiritual mentors. We get together to meet with successful people from around the globe to dissect success for vibrant conversations and interviews. Make sure you click the subscribe button on the app store because each week we will drop a new episode to bust through the myths around success and dissect its true meaning.

Hello, hello and welcome back to another fabulous episode off dissecting success. I am your host Theresa Lambert and I am here with the fabulous wonderful bride brilliant Blair Kaplan Venables. And we haven't seen each other for a while it's so nice to see her lovely face. I know you can't see us, but it blesses me. We see each other and we see you. And we see what's happening in the entrepreneur world. And both blend I have had a while. It is September, so much has happened. And recently, both black and I actually have brought in people to help us. In our business, we have both brought in OBM slash DBAs. To help us out as we continue to grow and scale our businesses. And we thought it would be really fun to talk about, you know, how we can actually scale and become more successful as businesses by also embracing bringing team members into all businesses. And I think that's a really exciting time for anyone in their business. And it's also a really scary time, because all of a sudden, you are committing to, to bringing other people in, you're committing to giving them a certain amount of work. And it really changes the dynamic of how you run your business. And it has thrown me for a loop to have a team. Let me tell you, I mean, it's amazing. I love them. I just sent them a message two days ago, and I was in so much gratitude, I literally started crying because I don't know how I did it. For as long as I did it all by myself with everything that I do that is one. But other than the gratitude and feeling epic about the fact that I have all these wonderful people doing things for me, I have also found it changes the way I do think so much. And now right now it's training them and passing things on. And it's making me realize that I waited so long to implement some of the systems. So it's been madness to get it done. It's been feeling like a lot. And it's been yeah, like I have like, worked. Like I will say to you like the last couple of weeks. I have worked like every day I get to the end of the day. And I'm like, How is it 730 already, like I have had some really long days. And it's been really exciting. And I know it's going to free up time. This is the whole point. But yeah, bringing in this team is exciting. But it's changed the dynamic. And I'm getting used to the new dynamic. So that's where I'm at with teams plow, like, how has that been for you

like, Well, congratulations on doing that, because you're up leveling and like you have been pulling long days because I'll message you and now you're three hours ahead of me. And you're like I have more to do and it's already after dinner. Oh, oh, no, a first of all, I love that you're growing in this way and bringing in the right systems and team is important to growth. And you know this from your days of working at that hotel that we take hotel that you took from a seven figure business to an eight figure business and you know how to do this. You were a leader, huge team. I don't know how involved you are with anything in the past with recruiting and hiring but you know what it takes to build a team. So I don't know if you out there in the Listening world remember but high level. So when I left my job at Lululemon when I was 23 I started a PR company. Lululemon gives her staff for yoga, I no longer had free yoga I started Paying for yoga and I was like, Holy shit, this is expensive. I looked for a coupon book that gave me free or discounted yoga couldn't find one. So I started a coupon book and eventually morphed into a coupon community. It was an online health and wellness community, it was great no longer exists, just pay for the yoga class. But I hired people to help me with sales. I had them helped me sell physical coupon books. So I brought on a couple people, I trained I had job descriptions, I train them and I had so much pain and stress like product going missing and issues with like, misconduct and communication and like I was paying, I wouldn't obviously pay enough for one of them. And, anyways, that that was when I was 23. And that scared me and I was 14 years ago. And I was like, I got rid of them. I didn't get rid of them. Like we amicably parted, it was not the right opportunity for two of the people. And there was two of them. And I remember one of the guys names, I can't remember the girl's name, but I remember the guy's name. And it was a learning experience. And I decided, You know what, it is easier for me just to do everything myself, I got gun shy. And in my business in my PR, social media marketing business, I can't do everything alone. So I've been working with contractors or subcontractors. You know, like, I can build a website, but it's gonna take a very small fraction of the time when I work with my designer, I can use Canva, but it's gonna take a fraction of time, if I work with my designer, I can probably figure out how to upload my books that I write to KDP. But it'll take a fraction time for work or for professional, I don't really use to working with people kind of on as I need them basis and building systems. I can reuse and use and make my job easier. But it hits a point where you need to uplevel and so a couple years ago, I actually brought in my sister, I hired my sister to help me because I had too much work for my clients. And that was great. Her background was in social work, its affiliates and social work. And but it was really cool to train her and teach her and have her on board. And it was a good like experience. And now we work together more on the global Resilience Project more as she's not as an employee, but more as partners. But recently, I did bring on an OPM part time, the VA to help me and I have found like, it's like, you know, I started working with her and I'm like, I don't know what you can do. For me. She's like, I could do all sorts of things. But I need you to tell me, because I'm so intertwined in my business. So I had her, you know, basically we're working together on like offloading some of the things that I have done, that I started offloading some of the things I do that she can do, and one of the biggest things for me is and I'm looking at it right now, and I know this is like really exciting for her. But I'ma don't judge me, I hoard my emails, I'm scared to delete emails. And if I like want to go back to it, sometimes I put it back on unread. And right now I'm looking at there's 18,959 emails that are unread, and oh my god trees here, I just fell in their socket. So she's like, really excited to help me organize my inbox. So, for me, being able to declutter my inbox, and like build more systems and have someone helping me with the tasks that I can delegate out, is going to free up more time for me to do more business development. And I'm looking at maybe bringing in someone to help me with business development. And if I get a certain amount of clients, I'll bring on someone who's going to help me with social media. And I'm getting comfortable with the idea of growth and bringing in a team but I like remaining small, I'm not looking to build a company with 100 people. I like the boutique vibe. So so far, my experience bringing on my VA slash OPM has been brilliant. I'm can't believe I didn't do it sooner. But my experience in the past hasn't been good. But now I've matured in my business. Am I yeah, like I'm in a good, good place.

I love that. And you know, I think it's so interesting, this mindset, right like that, it's easier to do it all ourselves. I don't only get that and like I'm good at so many things. I'm like a bit of a jack of all trades. And like, I can do so many different things. But it doesn't mean we always have to do them. And you know, something that you said I think is so important. When you want to continue to grow your business, there comes a time where you have to really start saying to yourself like at this point in time, I can either be doing $1,000 task, which means like maybe having a conversation that leads to $1,000 sale or a $5,000 sale so that I was very well well worth taking. Or you can do an hour of admin work. Cleaning up your email or prospecting or like prospect will be a lead generation that wasn't what I was gonna say, trying to find an example like making graphics, or yeah, you're getting something that's tied to build a setting up email sequences, all these things, like there's things that are that are there to do. But even sometimes following follow up messages, email follow ups and things like that are things that can be sent by your team. Whereas you can be out either serving clients and or building new connections to make new clients. And these are like tasks that are revenue generating, right. And so at one point, we just get to the stage where if you keep working in your business, and not constantly, like not consistently work on your business, while also serving clients, and we're service based entrepreneurs will always be doing client work. And both plan I've recently, reignited our passions were done for you work, well, we actually doing pieces, which means there's work to do for clients, outside of coaching and mentorship. And so you literally get to a point where you can't grow any larger. And I think the scary part on that is that as you bring in people, there is a short amount of time where your costs are going up, while your revenue still catching up with your new capacity. And so it means you start to see a lot of money going out, while money isn't just always coming in, because really you want to bring your team in to be able to increase your sales to be able to make more money, more profits, ultimately. But that said, scary points. Right. And I appreciate you not wanting to have a large team, I managed to 180 employees at the at the most at one point. And I had, I believe, towards the end, we had 16 senior managers who were managing leaders who were managing the teams, right? Like, eventually, when you grow a team, you start having people manage people. So you you hire people to manage the people to manage the people. And so it's really complex, right? Yeah, I mean, that's a whole other story. And I've done it, I've

done it on your job is managing people, and you're not getting to do all the other things.

Well, and I think that's the thing, like one thing that really like stuck for me these last couple of weeks and why I have been like really like focused and being like, okay, like work, do this now is because training people take so much work, do it because the biggest you don't just bring somebody in, and then they just do the things for you. But like, I think this is the idea that we have, but you have to actually bring them up to speed in your business. But the benefits once you have them, even if you keep your team small, you know, I think it's also really getting clear on what do you need, right? Like you just said, you know, you had asked is Patricia, I'm assuming, you know, who's also happens to be one of our clients, our momentum clients, which we now you know, she actually now works for us as our OBM, which is amazing, right? So I think I love that I think this is just such a testament to the standard of people that we coach, but also, you know, really seeing each other on that same level, why wouldn't we be using the services of people that we have mentored, who we know do amazing work. So anyways, sidenote, just was thinking about that, because new court of momentum is coming up soon. And I was thinking about Patricia, I'm not I'm off my site tension. You have to get clear on what it is that you want help with? What are the things that take away a lot of your time, right? Like for me, I knew Okay, there was a couple of things like my Kajabi website, the email sequences to automations. All the stuff that I do for my master classes, like building the Facebook groups, letting people into the group like there were there was a lot going on in my world, I have a lot of automation setups, I do a lot of things that helped me scale. And now I'm setting up following up with people. That's a big one do for me, graphics. We need some simple graphics in Canva, updating presentations, updating, branding, stuff, like these little things client spotlights getting following up with kinds to get testimonials, turning them into graphics like and then there was the system of the back end, creating standard operating procedures for all of this stuff, having launch sequences, having campaigns like all these things that I'm like, oh my god, it's going to be so helpful. And I see it right. So I had an idea and I was like, okay, like, I really need to make a difference yet and I need another brain. In my business. I don't just need task doers that I delegate to but I need somebody who can help manage some of the pieces of the business and bring in some processes and systems to to simplify things, but to free up time, so that I can actually take on more clients. So what is it that you need? What could you give up that maybe you are good at doing but He didn't have to do any more. And this is what I would start to invite you to think about. And on top of that, how big do you want to grow your business? Like, I know, and I've said this for a long time, like, I want a big business, I could see myself having a company that has 100 employees. Like this is the thing, like I see really vague things in the future.

Because you and I are so different see? So I like the support I bringing on is a bit different. So I'm looking at where do I want to see myself and I've been doing this for 14 years. And obviously bringing in support when I do the done for you with other social media or publicity experts, content creators, yes. But I want to grow my reputation as a professional thought leader in resilience. And that's going to involve writing more books, and more speaking. So I'm looking at bringing on a manager, like a booking manager, a company or person, like so maybe it's a company, but like, you know, when we talk about bringing people on board, we don't mean always in house, but I'm looking to grow my team. And I'm looking to bring someone on who's going to help me book opportunities, negotiate rates, and flights and hotel, I need help doing that, because that is something that I'm doing myself. And it's, I love it, but it's takes a lot of time. It's a lot of pitching. And I need to use my time to do other things. And, you know, not everyone has, I don't know if anyone's going to actually bring me on, and I'm pretty sure they will eventually I gotta keep pounding the pavement and doing it myself. But bringing on that type of support. So I see myself being that professional thought leader than having other people around me supporting me, but I want to keep it small and intimate. I, you know, I look at some other like Canadian influencers or that I know, like the birds papaya, or like Jillian Harris, or her cousin Tory frustration, nutrition. And like they all have very intimate teams. And I see myself growing in that way. And I feel like Gabby Bernstein and maybe Brene, brown, probably very small teams as well. And so I the My vision is like have a very small team that's like close and intimate that you know, we'll all do anything for each other, and keep that turnover really low and keep the buy in really high. And so how do I get there? What is that strategy? Well, step one is figuring out what I can take off my plate right now. And Patricia was definitely helping me do that. And it's exciting because we're making SOPs and you know, it's funny, because it's like, oh, God, I don't want to do all this paperwork with her. It doesn't have to be super complicated with her, I literally do a screen recording of the task, I send it to her and that she writes it out as an SOP while she's learning it. And so it's a brilliant way to, you know, get things done. And I think it's so fascinating to you. What's your vision, Theresa? Like, you want to have a big team like, like, what's your vision? Where are you in 10 years? Where are you in? What you're, we're in 2022? So where are you in 2020 32 Tell me about your life.

2032

I'll be in my beach house,

with my bedroom that is glass enclosed overlooking the ocean and the stars at night. Now I'll be in my beach house, but I will be like you I would like to be speaking on stages. But I see myself having a team, a team of coaches that are supporting me alongside me and my clients, I see myself having big programs that I'm running like my launch signature program, I see 2000 people in it. Like I actually feel like substantial impact really helping a lot of entrepreneurs I'll have at that point of foundation, because I want to have a foundation that is part of my business. That's my bigger business vision that actually supports entrepreneurs that will be a like the funding model that I want to use is like Oh, ultimately, what I want to do is be able to give new entrepreneurs, new coaches, people that generally have a difficult time getting access to funding the funding to run their business. So it would be $100,000 loan that they will repay. But with that $100,000 loan, we also give them the mentorship and the support and help them with the system. So as part of that money they would reinvest in the team. And then when they are done and they're starting to repay it will fund the next person's business. So it becomes just like funding to funding model and we all grow together. So there was that there is the coaching business that's growing and I see an eight figure business I see myself having a company that makes $30 million a year in gross sales with with a team and people working around the globe. And it being this really cool, fun community that is really all impact driven and we we support each other move entrepreneurship forward. really create some really cool, like a really cool community to where it's really about elevating each other, helping each other's messages be heard and ultimately For all this incredible work that is being done, and all the entrepreneurs that we support, and everybody that's in that world, they're out there making an impact out there making a difference. So conscious collective, I believe, is really important. And I really believe that together, we can change the way we approach work, the way we approach success, the way we approach entrepreneurship, like I really see myself have a company that makes a huge impact in in building, and scaling, sustainable businesses that are also really creating a new era of leadership that's inclusive, that's leads with compassion, and empathy that allows people to walk across the globe, the whole nomadic entrepreneur lifestyle, we've been talking about this, right like that hustle culture is dead, but it's still very much thriving. Like there's a bit of both happening. And I think that work has to be rethought so much. And I believe in helping entrepreneurs that I believe will build teams and companies that will change the landscape of what work looks like forever.

I love that. And you can't do that. You can't build a $30 million business, on your own, on your own. And I think like that vision is so beautiful. And having 2000 people doing Launch Your Signature Program and bringing in a team of coaches, like you can't do it all alone, we're not meant to do it all alone, right, and we'll get someone building a house, they're not doing that alone, right? Look at teachers, like there's a school of teachers, teaching students. And, you know, we're not meant to do things alone. Like I think about, you know, like, in my head, like I'm thinking about just, you know, us as a human species, like, we're not meant to do things alone, we're here to be there for each other. And we all have our expertise, right. And we're not supposed to be at what's called Jill, of all trades, master of none, or jack of all trades, if you identify with that. And I think that's so beautiful. So we don't, I don't really want, we don't need to talk about my vision, I just want to talk about yours. Because your vision to build a business that you want to build is something that you cannot do alone. And we're not meant to do it all alone. And in the meantime, you can hire part time contractors, or BAS or whatever you need to support you, you don't need to all of a sudden hire a full time employee, and like dip your toe in, maybe you start off by working with a coach. Maybe you start off by working with someone like me or Theresa, because we are those experts that can help you elevate your business. Because in business we you know, we grow we have ebbs, we have flows, we plateau. And I know like I feel like I'm in the state of shift right now I know what I can feel. And I put all the plants have a bunch of seeds in the spring. And I feel like I'm just on this cusp of something and I can't put my finger on it. And it's scary and like it's exciting, like lots of emotions. And I reached out to my support network about that. And I reached out to my peers. And when I need support I call it in and when other people who know they can support me see that I need support, and I'm doing something about it. They come into my life, and they offer me the support that they need. So growing your team, I think is imperative to grow. Growing Your team's imperative to grow. Before we wrap up this episode tea. Do you have any final parting words?

Yeah, I feel like you know, something that you just said about, you know, who do you bring in on your team. And I want everyone to just rethink when you think of the word team, we often think of hiring employees, I've had contractors, they're part of my team. My coaches are part of my team. Right? Like we're all part of your team. And I think this is the thing to like, if you consider bringing somebody in like play, I'll bring somebody in like me, right? Like we have both have different services that we offer. My high level program, now I become your CEO, I would my CEO hat on for your business. And I create a scalable model for you. I'm literally doing what I've done the last decade and what I'm really good at, which is figuring out where things aren't going well figuring out where things are going well and then creating the foundations to really build an eight figure business I've already done that right so for me saying I'm going to build a $30 million company I've done it with one company already I've already built one eight figure business so for me I have the vision of how I'm going to do that and it's still you know, you heard me say my vision like it's not super clear it's not all stepping stone I'm not like perfectly like the last to share it with you but rethink the way you think about your team because you could bring plan on your team and she becomes your social media strategist and helps you clear up how to do your social media in a way that's effective or position yourself as a thought leader where you could have me come in, and voc or for you, and help you become a CEO or better CEO, so that you can actually scale your business because sometimes we're so in it, especially I think, as solo entrepreneurs, you know, we're so in it was, so in the business, it's really hard to take yourself out of it. And so, think of the people that you're bringing in whether the coaches mentors, or whether the other contractors like virtual assistants or VMs, whatever it is, we're all part of the team. We're all one team. Right? So that's what I would say. And, you know, I mean, obviously, you can also bring blood and I on your team. Welcome. But that's what I want to say is like, really rethink your team? And and think about who would you like to have on your team, who are the people that would really be supporting you that would be helpful for your growth. And that is the thing you said. That is growth, bringing in people to help you reaching out to your network, these are always we grow. So we all have a team, whether we pay them or not pay them, whether they're coaches, or whether there's somebody doing something for us. They're all part of a team. So who do you want a new team? Are you ready to take it up a notch and grow, really grow as a person as a business and your potential? Gain that momentum? I think these are things that you want to think about. And you know, I'm just grateful for you and I doing work together because I see what we can do for people. So with that being said, that was all I wanted to add. You're gonna wrap it

you just wrapped it yourself. So that's great. Words from Theresa. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of dissecting success story treat then I think you are welcoming them up in welcoming us into your brain.

That's a wrap for another episode of dissecting success. enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to Blair Kaplan, Venables and Teresa Lambert's podcast dissecting success on the App Store. And follow