sometimes when we're hiring we're kind
of like we have an opposite mentality
like Oh am I gonna find the right person
and it's kind of this is like like five
of desperation but really what you're
putting out there is this job
opportunity for someone which is awesome
and they were gonna get to step inside
your business and learn like you got to
make sure that you were just listening
to a lease dharma on hiring people for
her business in this episode I talked to
Elise about taking her side hustle as a
social media manager to a full-time gig
and she's in the multi six-figure range
hey what's going on welcome to the Doug
show my name is Doug Pennington this
episode is part of the digital Nomad
series and I think that's how I found a
lease back in the day I was like looking
on Instagram for location-independent
people maybe I was following a hashtag
or something or digital nomad something
or other and then ran across Elise's
stuff lisa is big on Instagram I think I
think people call them influencers I'm
not cool like that exactly so I'll just
assume that that is the case anyway
Elise is awesome on Instagram the last
time that I looked I think she had
something like 75 thousand followers or
somewhere in that range and to that
point I want to point out that you can
check out more of Elise's stuff over at
Elise Dharma calm I'll put a link in the
show notes additionally she has a free
course that you can grow a thousand
followers in 30 days on Instagram and is
called instant growth boss calm I'll put
a link for that as well
do check it out if you're looking to you
know grow on Instagram or you know just
get started over there so it's it's a 30
day program and it's free so go check it
out and let's go ahead and send it to
the interview now
I'm sitting with Elise Dharma welcome
how are you today I'm good thanks thanks
for having me Doug thank you for joining
us and this is part of the side hustle
series so I think we'll just jump right
you at least can you give us a little
bit of your background and kind of what
you're working on now sure well depends
how far back you want to go but I was a
nine-to-five employee once upon a time
it was four years ago that I last worked
in a day job and it was during my time
as an employee that I built my service
based business on the side so I took my
skills my interests my passions and I
turned that into a service that I could
offer to clients and within nine months
I had a pretty full roster of clients I
was able to quit my job which had been a
dream for a while but also is still very
scary anytime you're making a huge life
change and you're leaving behind
benefits and your friends and all that
stuff
but I quit and then with my new business
in tow I went traveling for a couple
months right after effectively it was
kind of an Eat Pray Love trip but that
was my first taste of being a full-time
digital nomad having a business with me
that I could do from wherever in the
world and that's basically what I've
been doing for the last few years I'd
say in the last two years I've moved
more into the education space of taking
everything that I've learned all the UPS
the Downs and the mistakes and sharing
them with people so that they can also
achieve this lifestyle based business
but a whole lot faster then then I did
and yeah I find myself mostly focused on
Instagram these days that's how I got my
very first client was growing their
Instagram for their e-commerce business
and that's what I teach quite a bit now
is Instagram marketing and how do you
Instagram to grow your business very
cool and what was your your full-time
job before you transitioned over to your
own gig I was working in social media so
I was working in social media pretty
early on this was 2010 when I started
working in this
realm and it wasn't what it is today
being a social media manager essentially
was managing a company's Facebook and
Twitter and I was lucky in that I was
working in a start-up space for I was
working in an incubator for start-up so
I known as kind of the social media
person amongst you know 30 to 50 small
businesses and that's essentially how I
was able to get my first client was by
being in that environment inevitably I
was asked one day to manage a company
social media very cool and that's like
the perfect transition where you were
exposed to a big network of people you
developed your skills like on someone
else's like dime was that like
intentional at all or you just like
we're at the right place at the right
time and like worked really hard yeah I
developed the skills on the side of the
job just because I wasn't focused on
Instagram for my actual job I just knew
that because I was already in the space
even though this was a new platform I
could figure it out so I just had the
the faith in myself that I'd be able to
figure it out and yeah it all it did end
up creating this ball of momentum that
you know just as word spread and as I
got more referrals I did have a
full-time business within nine months
and that was you know without a website
without personal brand though making any
launches happen it was solely through my
word warm network and and word of mouth
so yeah and I was also lucky in that I
jumped on Instagram back in 2013 before
it really was you know leveraged as much
as it is today by businesses gotcha and
has it so I didn't hop on Instagram for
a while and I mean some would say that
I'm not really on there my dog has an
account she's doing really well like way
better than my own account but like how
has it changed over the last few years
yeah it's changed a lot when I first
started on Instagram it was like the
wild wild west there wasn't really much
in terms of tools for businesses to grow
it was really like a teenager's
playground this was before snapchat was
really that big to
you know tons of overly filtered
pictures borders that came with posts
even when I got on Instagram I wasn't
thinking about using it for business if
you go back to the very first few posts
of my feet it's a lot of party pictures
and food pictures you know random stuff
that we used to do and yeah fast forward
five years later
I mean Instagram is Facebook's new
Facebook as they're saying it's where
all the new features are being rolled
out and Facebook wants you to be using
Instagram as the platform to grow your
business
and for me and my business it is an
awesome advertising platform but beyond
that you can still use Instagram in so
many ways to grow organically and that's
huge too that's why Instagram is so
popular with businesses is because
engagement is the highest their people
scrolling through the app are most ready
to buy on Instagram than on any other
platform and that's why I cover in my
master class a thousand three ways to
get a thousand Instagram followers in 30
days because I truly believe that you
actually don't need you know ten
thousand followers a hundred thousand
followers to have an impact on your
business
you just need quality followers the
right followers following you that you
then lead to your business and like with
a thousand even less than a thousand
followers you can generate leads and
customers to your business no problem
I've seen it time and time again ok so
let's get into the nuts and bolts cuz I
think from the couple things that I just
mentioned I'm not very good at Instagram
I don't put a lot of effort in so it's
totally my own fault but for me I'm sort
of thinking like do I have to post all
the time and like really nurture and
spend time on Instagram like each and
every single day can you just kind of
explain it to me in layman's terms
consistency is definitely key on
Instagram you'll hear that a lot
probably if you start looking up
Instagram marketing materials but your
audience wants to know that you're going
to be there
for them you know it's kind of like if
you have a youtube channel what you do
and you let your foot your subscribers
know new video every Tuesday it's kind
of the same idea with Instagram if they
get used to seeing a new post a new
piece of content from you on let's say a
daily basis they're gonna want to see
that and when you do stop that
consistency you're gonna see a drop in
followers and the drop in engagement so
it is a commitment you know it doesn't
just happen overnight or without the
effort I tell business owners to focus
on Instagram if that is where your
perfect target ideal customers are if
that's where they're hanging out then
it's probably worth your commitment to
building that brand building that feed
on Instagram but more than that I mean
people want to get value from Instagram
they don't want to be sold to or
marketed to by following you on
Instagram so I define value in three
ways in terms of Instagram land you can
give value by inspiring people by
educating people and by entertaining
people and your feed can be one of those
things or mix of those things but that's
generally why someone will follow you
like a personal brand account or a
business brand account is they want to
be entertained educated or inspired and
if you can do that on a consistent daily
basis I say daily because it's usually
the best frequency that most people can
stick with that could it could even be
just weekdays like Monday to Friday post
everyday but if you can do that daily
then you are going to attract your your
target people and your tribe on
Instagram cool and I guess I mean I hear
the same sort of advice in YouTube like
you said or for podcast like as long as
your meetings the expectations of your
audience and your tribe and all that you
should be in good shape
so I guess that means you could probably
like take a vacation and say like hey
I'm out of pocket for a week and people
won't get too upset at you right yeah
people love transparency if you do want
to let them know hey I'm not a robot I'm
gonna take three weeks off or you can
just schedule posts ahead of time as
well cool got it so switching gears a
little bit let's kind of get into the
nuts and bolts of like when
you were first starting your freelancing
practice and like how did you structure
like the deals with your clients and how
did you even figure it out I know that's
a struggle for a service business when
you don't know exactly what they want or
what they'll pay and all that so how did
you approach it yeah it was definitely
trial by error this was 2013 so the
concept of a course or business coach
was nowhere near my my brain at that
time I just knew it was an experiment in
a way and I I trusted in myself that I'd
be able to figure it out I was also
lucky in that my first client was
someone who I was friends with too and
they were also running a fairly new
business so we kind of had this
understanding that we were figuring
things out together and it doesn't mean
that I didn't take my role seriously
I definitely ensured that I was getting
them results and making sure my
deliverables were there I never wanted a
client to check up on me so I did set
certain standards right from the
beginning even to give myself
flexibility and just figuring it out
so that was my strategy you know a lot
of it was using just what was common
sense for me at that time we had an
agreement for me to work on their the
the company was an e-commerce brand so I
already knew I was dealing with like a
visual physical product fashion fashion
brand and I wanted to build that
lifestyle into the feed of the target
person and the target customer at that
time was typically a teenager so the
feed was a ton of fun I knew I was able
to figure out the vibe the messaging I
had a background in screenwriting and
write and and copywriting so I was able
to tap into those skills to talk to
teenagers through the captions and then
when it came to the business side of
things I mean there was a lot of talking
to my network of people who had already
been there done that so I did reach out
to people who could advise me on where
to get a contracts template how to get
that contract figured out how to figure
out you know invoicing a client getting
paid what about accounting accounting
was a whole new topic dealing with
taxes oh and now I can write off
expenses like this was all new and
luckily for me I had two close friends
that were also in the business space
themselves they were running startups so
even with their perspective they were
able to help advise and I was able to
figure it out from there
cool actually that's just amazing that
all the pieces like fell into place so
you shaped it as best you could and then
you were able to like get advice as you
went along and then I guess after a few
clients you kind of have like the you
know productized service where you were
like here's what you get you get a
couple options that sort of thing yeah
in a way I mean at that time I didn't
really know about offering a package of
services or anything too streamlined
like that it was more so someone would
talk to me and they would tell me what
they were looking for and I would just
sort of say like yeah I can do that or
no I'm not really into doing that so
much so I just stuck with my realm I
knew social media marketing I was
comfortable with I knew I was
comfortable with writing so I was able
to then offer newsletter writing skills
and I also had experience with MailChimp
so I was also able able to design and
deploy those newsletters as well and
then of course with writing came log
creation as well writing blogs so I just
stuck with my strengths writing social
media and whenever they asked me for
certain services around those yes
whenever they asked me for something
like Facebook Ads I was like no I'm not
gonna promise you something and then
figure it out as I'm doing it you know
when you're new and you're just starting
your side hustle you don't want to set
yourself up for a big potential like
disaster like that you know you want to
be fairly comfortable in that skill even
even while you're still learning it you
know even with clients if you want to be
fairly confident in it before you start
charging people money for it thank you
for saying that so many like gurus or
whatever will say like just get the
client to agree and then pay and then
you can figure it out along the way
maybe hire other people to do it and
it's like oh that's the worst advice
yeah oh man outsourcing
like someone that you're just meeting
from from the internet and then it's all
going under your name that is like a
recipe for disaster for me yeah very
scary so interesting and now I guess do
you outsource anything now do you have
any V A's or anything like that
yes business has definitely changed I
would say for the first two years I did
mostly everything on my own
the very first contracted job I hired
someone out for was to help with the
writing aspect so I turned to people I
already knew
like in the flesh I knew these people as
friends as coworkers I wasn't hiring
overseas and and I was able to bring
them on as ghost writers and today I
have a team of about five contractors
and they helped me with all the agency
side of things so I've got a designer
I've got a social media marketer I've
got a writer and then for my Elise
Dharma business which is more of the
coaching in the education space I have a
marketing VA and an ads person and now
potentially a video person as well so
definitely definitely as you grow you
know you're gonna you're gonna need to
hire and add people to your team and are
you managing all of them yourself or do
you have a project manager or any other
folks in there I'm the go-to person
right now I have hired on a project
manager who's my marketing assistant and
I mean we're a couple months into
working together so we're just sort of
getting she's getting a feel for my
entire business and then eventually I'm
gonna be stepping back in that role and
then she's gonna move forward into that
role cool very cool
so from the freelancing perspective and
just side hustle do you have any like
other advice or things that you like
learned along the way as you were
transitioning from like side hustle to
the full-time gig well my some some
people recommend to go all-in like burn
the bridge and quit your job and go
all-in
I've never advised that because my story
was very different I am someone who
loves their security as much as I love
to travel I
myself a vagabonding homebody you know I
love having a home base I love having a
secure level of income and that was the
scariest part about quitting my
full-time job was leaving behind that
consistent paycheck and benefits so for
me my strategy was to hold on to both my
day job and my clients on the side for
as long as I possibly do both I did both
for nine months some people are ready to
ditch their day job after three months
or six months you know I purposely
wanted to hold on and save money and
just create a little nest egg because I
was pretty confident myself but it's
still just such a massive leap a massive
life change I just didn't really know
what was gonna happen so I wanted to set
myself up for success as much as
possible so I recommend that to anyone
else if they have the inkling to have
their own business you know keep your
current situation as is and yes you are
gonna have to work beyond your day job
when I had my day job I was working 15
to 20 ish hours on top of it so it meant
two nights a week and a weekend day you
have to make sacrifices if you want to
get to that level right so I do
recommend to people work on either
developing that skill on the side of
your day job that skill that you can use
in the online world or work on
developing your business on the side of
your day job and then once you have that
momentum then you can kind of make the
decision like Oh am I gonna quit or not
because it's a whole different picture
when you are your own boss you aren't
just doing services for your clients you
are doing the marketing of your business
you're doing the finances the vision
planning the accounting the nitty-gritty
text stuff like you do have to do a lot
you want to prepare yourself as much as
possible so I know that's not super sexy
advice and exciting but to me it's more
practical and you know I was advising
any friend to do something like that
that's exactly what I would tell them to
do me too 100% agree I mean I had a side
thing for like two years and I got laid
off so it was kind of like a little push
but yeah I mean I would have stayed with
it for even longer if I
like you said steady paycheck benefits
all the good things so yeah yeah now I
get a lot of questions about like how to
stay motivated when maybe things aren't
exactly going your way and you're you
have you know your full-time job you're
trying to put the time in on the side
like how did you stay motivated when you
know you were tired or just was
going wrong it was hard you know for
nine months I was sacrificing like I
said two nights a week or a beautiful
Saturday morning and afternoon so you
really have to be committed to the
grander vision and understanding that
you're not doing this for the rest of
your life you're it's a temporary phase
that you're in to prepare yourself and
give yourself the best shot at having
your own business full time so I
surrounded myself with people who
understood where I was at I was my
boyfriend at the time worked in a really
young fast-paced startup his best friend
was the CEO of that startup so they
became my go-to advisors in a non formal
sense and I actually ended up pulling
back and pulling away from my friends
who didn't get it and maybe they just
didn't have any experience with business
maybe they didn't understand why I was
working so much but I found that I had
to become really protective over my
energy and who I was spending it with
and you know that saying you are the
some of the five people you surround
yourself with the most that became
really apparent in the first summer of
juggling both day job and side business
I started getting having weird
experiences with friends which is
actually totally normal I've since
learned so if you have tension or a
fight or something with family or
friends it is normal like that's totally
fine but it made me retreat it made me
just get really protective because I was
already putting myself out there on a
limb doing stuff that was really new
even building any kind of public facing
brand
ever done that before I had to take care
of myself I had to watch my own back and
make sure that I've surrounded myself
with people who I didn't have to
question whether they supported me or
not they just did so I think that's
where I got my motivation from they kept
me on track they kept me when things got
tough they kept me you know alert to the
bigger vision the bigger picture and a
year later I mean I was working remotely
from you know Bali and Costa Rica then
Hawaii and it did start to happen but
yeah you have to be really strategic
about who you spend your time with very
good yeah I mean that's really good
advice it's very hard if like people are
like actively working against you or
don't believe in what you're trying to
do so it is emotionally because yeah you
can start you can keep turning the
cranks in your business you can you know
deliver the work for your clients but
emotionally if you're feeling beaten
down at all it can it can take forever
to do that work that shouldn't take so
long so you really got to protect
yourself for sure let's change gears to
like the travel aspect so you you quit
your job and then you had clients and
then you were like I'm gonna hit the
road so you went to you said Bali Costa
Rica Hawaii like how was it traveling
and working at the same time yeah and
one extra side note to that story was
there was a major catalyst in my life to
make travel happen so as much as I'd
love travel I started travelling as a
kid and family all over the world when I
was 18 I finished high school and I went
on a 30-day trip to Europe with Contiki
that was like oh well the world is so
big on my bubble you know I spent my
whole twenties chasing that feeling of
freedom through travel I worked on a
cruise ship I moved across Canada and it
was interesting timing when I quit my
day job was just getting into the new
rhythm of working from home I didn't
have an office I worked for my dining
table wouldn't recommend that get a
proper desk and chair and just feeling a
little sad about
not being around my co-workers who were
my good friends who you saw you know you
see them every day
but some a month and a half two months
after quitting I went through a horrible
breakup totally blindsided and that's
what actually put me into a tailspin of
feeling extremely scared and alone for
the situation I just created right like
I just lost my my coworker Network I
just lost what I thought to be true with
my relationship it was a really
interesting time because it really made
me think about my family the most and
just think like you know what they are
the study people there for me and of
course I had a few friends too but in my
haze of breakup depression and the
wildermann it was a friend of mine who
really pushed me to book a trip to get
out of my environment and I already knew
that I was going to go to Australia for
a family wedding and it was because of
this friend who encouraged me to stay
stay travelling for a while that's when
I booked the three-month trip to do
Australia Bali Hawaii my own Eat Pray
Love and then you know that effectively
was the first trip I took as a digital
nomad that was the first time I took my
new business on the road and that was
not my intention my intention I just
realized this like a year ago like hmm
that breakup didn't happen I don't know
if I would have traveled it like I did
but it's so funny how you know you get
that hindsight and that that perspective
on life after you're out of it
but that's what was the catalyst for
that trip away leave Toronto winter go
to the warmth have some time in space to
heal and just be by myself and meet new
people and that was the catalyst for the
you know digital Nomad travel preneur
brand and business that I have today
interesting and did like I guess you're
big on Instagram right so like did it
grow a lot during that period like
because you were traveling and had more
interesting things too or am i
connecting dots that don't connect yeah
I wasn't even think
keen about it at that point this was a
year before I actually looked at my own
personal Instagram I was very very shy
and private and personal at that time so
I was sharing pictures of Australia and
Bali with you know captions that weren't
really I wasn't being literal or super
clear about what was going on I was just
leading random quotes and stuff like
that because I was in a place personally
where I wasn't ready to publicly post
about and talk about the breakup and
everything I just purely I believe that
there are seasons in your life and that
was a season where I thought it was
gonna be business focused but life
happened and it was actually a season of
focusing on myself personally and that
was okay the business stuff came around
after I got out of that fog and I had I
need at that time I it was a catalyst
for me to come back home you know I
ended up meeting with therapists for the
first time ever and loved it and talked
to this person for eight months later he
really helped me unpack a lot about my
life that again has helped me get super
clear on who I am and way more confident
in having the the public brand and
persona that I have today so it was all
necessary yeah at that time the
Instagram idea of building my own
personal brand which that came along so
that I could get more clients for my
agency I needed more clients for my
agency I wanted to grow that business I
thought I'll just grow my personal
account with all my travel pictures that
I have but that didn't happen until a
year and a half later so hmm interesting
so like have you done other like long
trips and travel a lot like since then
yeah I when I look at my travel days
every year it always works out to be
just over a hundred days of each year I
spend working remotely since then I've
done pretty much one month spurts in
different areas I'm really a fan of
traveling to a place and not moving
around for a bit like stay there for a
minimum a week
and I've also learned that if I am gonna
switch cities I need to save my travel
for the weekend because it's too
annoying to have a whole workday like
written off because you're on the plane
or on a train so Nicaragua for a month
with a company called Nomad life that
was really cool I've done Costa Rica a
few times and my most recent longer trip
was Bali last November and I tend to
partner now with other digital nomads
co-working based companies and work with
them and stay with them for a month and
yeah work and live from somewhere cool
cool and I like that like one month
period in a place to you get to go to
the grocery store and like live like a
local a little bit versus like feeling
rushed to see everything so I'll have
that too yeah yeah all right are you in
any mastermind groups or have you been
over the years to you know help you grow
your business and that sort of thing
I am so for the first couple years my
agency business I just was a lone
soldier figured things out asked my
advisers and then that summer of you
know of realizing I wanted to grow a
business that's when I started focusing
on my personal account as a portfolio
piece essentially and then when my
personal account really had momentum I
think around 25,000 30,000 followers
that's when I realized oh I could hire
someone who who could help me figure out
how to grow this as a business that was
the first time I realized a business
coach was a thing so that was the first
time that I hired a coach we worked
together for five months to work on
really at that time I was creating a new
second business and I didn't realize it
so I needed that help to figure out who
this new audience was why were they
following me what do they want to learn
turns out they wanted to learn Instagram
marketing and how to have your own
business so this was 2016 so since then
it's really just been tapping into that
Network learning who those people are
and serving them as much as I possibly
can
then just last year was when I joined a
mastermind for the first time so that
was when my business had grown so you
know my revenue hit over six figures for
the first time because for the first
couple years of running my own business
my revenue was pretty steady you know I
was one person doing services and I
didn't know how to scale it so it was
typically making the same amount every
year and with the lifestyle business I
was fine with that I just wanted to work
remotely and then when I realized I
wanted to grow a business and start to
work towards financial freedom that's
when my goal shifted that's when I hired
a coach that's when I hit six figures
after I hit six figures new benchmark
new goal to hit and then I joined a
mastermind which has also helped
increase my revenue - gotcha
and is the I think mastermind is there's
multiple definitions so is this like a
group that you joined and paid or it's
like a group of you know few people you
guys chat every couple weeks or a
combination or what's your definition
that's a better question this particular
mastermind is a group that I've joined
with other entrepreneurs and we all pay
a monthly fee essentially but it's a
year-long commitment so yeah when I made
that commitment to join it was fairly
serious because it's not a membership
site where you can try it for a couple
months and then cancel it this was a
signing a contract 12-month commitment
and which is very scary when you're
committing to a big chunk of your
revenue every month with the hopes of
growing your business but luckily for me
it was a good decision and it's helped
me grow my revenue but if that's not a
possibility for you I definitely
recommend forming a little coalition
mastermind with people who just get it
like they're working on the same thing
as you before I ever had a paid
mastermind I connected with a friend of
mine in the city that I lived in Toronto
and we were both working on two totally
different businesses hers was a software
based business creating a meal planning
software for nutritionists and mine was
service based but because we were both
doing it kind of a low
we agreed to meet up with each other
once a month at a coffee shop we kind of
had a loose agenda of what to talk about
like our wins our losses our lessons
learned our goals for the next month but
it just turned out to be kind of
business therapy and it was perfect like
it was a reason to get out of the house
it was a reason to feel like I'm not the
only one feeling like this so yeah I
definitely recommend connecting with
someone in your city in person once a
month if you're not gonna do the paid
route just yet cool and the groups that
I've been in were more like the latter
and totally like the business their
therapy stuff like that's kind of what
it ends up being but what would be like
the advantages or pros and cons for
either of them right so I'm curious like
with that paid mastermind like what
extra stuff do you get yeah it's totally
different because the way to do it with
a friend or just through community
you're generally exchanging ideas and
thoughts and giving each other your time
yeah it's therapy whereas the mastermind
that's paid depends how the mastermind
structured but typically you'll get a
chunk of like assets with your
membership so you'll get you know
software trainings that you need to know
to grow your business you'll get
templates with this mastermind that I'm
in it's not just the main business
leader who we're looking to for strategy
and advice but there's also a tech
person who knows all the tools that we
use in our business inside and out so if
we ever have a tech problem I just
messaged this person and they help me
right away there's also someone from
mindset too and this was interesting
because I really never thought I had any
you know dramas going on in my business
life or personal life that I needed to
talk to a mindset coach but a few months
ago I'm like you know what let's just
book a call and see what happens and of
course it was like opening up a can of
worms of all this stuff that sure I
wasn't like crying and you know super
emotional about it but it made me
realize I
some blocks going on in my business with
my clarity my vision you know I was
procrastinating a lot that's why I
booked to the call I was procrastinating
and I wanted to talk to her about how do
I figure out why I'm procrastinating and
it turns out it was because I wasn't
clear on my vision so huge value in that
sense so that's that's the main
difference with the paid mastermind is
you get so many extra layers of service
and value in addition to being in that
that community got it totally makes
sense and I you know what I didn't even
realize that I'm sort of in something
like that it's the I will teach you to
be rich accelerator which is kind of the
same sort of deal there's like experts
in certain areas no no tech people that
sounds really cool cuz that's right so
I've made a ton of mistakes growing my
business and I make you know more
mistakes now just bigger ones so just
curious can you share any mistakes
stories that you made through the
transition or in your current business
now mmhmm yeah I'm thinking back to the
earlier days of my business some of the
bigger mistakes and I think the mistakes
started to happen when there's a sane
new level new Devils so you hit a new
level in your business but it doesn't
mean that it's just rainbows of cherries
and lollipops you have new problems that
you're dealing with so I really felt
this when my business hit a point where
it was time to hire contractors and I
was not very careful with my hiring at
all and in the first year of my business
I went through a lot of contractors I
just could not find the right fit and it
was for various reasons you know someone
would refer me a name and because their
referral I wouldn't do any homework any
vetting on this person you know I'd had
a quick chat with them and everything
sounded great but I wouldn't do any like
trial work together there was just very
little testing and then after a month or
two going through the training process
which is a big you know output on your
part
I would then come to realize like their
skill is actually not where I need it to
be or oh they actually want to work with
me so that they can
replicate and do the same thing for
their business which is dangerous if not
not what you want to do if you just hire
someone and share all your business
secrets right so it's taken me years to
properly hire I'm not gonna lie and it
was only a few months ago when I got
really serious about hiring a marketing
assistant because for so long I held on
to everything like oh I just can't let
someone else into my business no one's
gonna be able to do this the same way I
can do it but then what I realised I was
like a chicken with its head cut off
like like so a dee dee almost cuz I had
so many tasks and I really wasn't
getting any one of them done well that's
when I hit my you know my wall and I was
so meticulous about hiring I it took a
little bit longer I created so many
hoops for this person for all the
candidates and that is it actually
worked out really really well knock on
wood
but yeah learning from those mistakes so
I'll just give you a quick little recap
of what I did because your your viewers
may or may not be ready to hire but when
you arm make sure you write out a super
detailed job description a lot of people
miss this first step you can which
actually shows that they're not super
clear on what they want and what they
need so really take the time to think oh
and just say like very literally what
tasks you want this person to do so once
you have that down I just used a simple
application form through Google what is
it not sheets forms yes super simple
within that application form
I had a personality test I'm not really
into myers-briggs so much but I used the
disc assessment which I found super
helpful so I actually took the
assessment myself to see where my
strengths were and I was looking
specifically for someone to have
strengths in the other areas to balance
to balance me out so I had all
applicants like fill in this test which
was a hoop that I wanted people to jump
through I had a lot of questions on the
application form I had room for them to
fill in essays if they wanted to and
that was intentional because I wanted to
see who was gonna go through the effort
to really sell themselves in the
application form and then once I
narrowed down the candidates I think I
got on a call with maybe five to seven
of them and that was really just to meet
them asked more personality based
questions because at that point it was
less about finding the right skill
person it was more about we're gonna be
working closely together are we gonna
get along and are you on the page that I
need you to be for my business and after
the phone call if I wanted to still see
more from them I actually gave them an
assignment and I didn't tell them about
it on the call I just gave them a
somewhat tricky assignment with not a
whole lot of instruction on what I
wanted the end result to be and I asked
them to do it based on the tools we'd be
using anyway so I kind of wanted to see
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