- Thread starter
- #61
Well, the first thing is money. The first month last year when we exploded, I was handling 9 clients by myself in terms of management, while my partner did the copy. Things used to be different then though, because you could do a much bigger volume of outreach on LinkedIn. About 4x bigger than you can today. As a result, getting clients for our clients wasn't a big issue, due to just the volume. Even if they got 40% shitty leads in there they'd get good results. It took around 3 hours per week for me to "handle" my 9 clients.how does one go from a sole proprietor to having a team?
And yet, this was in the first month $7K/mo of recurring income. Then I think we got another 12 clients the next month, 1 client churned, so now we were doing a lot more. After we were growing for 4-5 months exponentially.
As I said to you, the first component is getting a HUGE INFLUX OF CASH! Can't do anything if you're broke, which is what I desperately try to communicate to people nowadays. Unless you have more money than you know what to do with... you're dead!
I kept handling all the clients myself, I ended up devoting like 1-2 days per week to it.
Then I started looking for a COO, someone with experience in building teams, managing people, and communications, because I suck at that. Basically handed them the reins, showed them how I handle clients, told them to handle the clients themselves and hire whoever they want to handle more clients. Told them I'm hands free, I just don't want clients to be a headache for me. And ideally, I don't want to know what they do, because then it becomes my problem. I just want fewer problems for myself.
Of course over time, LinkedIn changed how it worked. We adapted by developing a tech tool that brings together data from a lot of different lists, not just Sales Navigator. Because while doing the work at 4x lower volume, we noticed, shit, these guys can't get results anymore if 40% of their leads are crap! So we need to get 100% amazing leads, and Sales Navigator gives you good leads on like pages 1-5 for a search, and crappy ones after, completely different from what you're looking for. So we had our tool.
We then implemented quality scoring in it. Basically, different factors could be assigned different coefficients. For example location = London means a coefficient of 2, and location = UK outside London, equals coefficient 1. Then you calculate across all factors those coefficients and calculate a quality score for the lead. Now we got amazing lists built. But crap still filtered through. So we needed human verification.
(and btw to those people saying ChatGPT can't teach you – ChatGPT came up with the idea of quality scoring in the first place LOL!)
Then we started hiring people for that. They did crap at first, and our team had to fix most of their stuff. Then I got involved in hiring by sharing this Gary Halbert ad to our team: https://www.thegaryhalbertletter.co...bert_Personal_Ad/Gary_Halbert_Personal_Ad.pdf
Then I created a workflow diagram teaching them exactly how to verify a lead, like a BABY – literarily like a baby with a retarded brain (this is what I often get annoyed at managing people in our team, because I always tell them you need to explain like for a retard – otherwise people will blame you for giving wrong instructions, and you can't fire them)
Then I told them that our hiring letter needs to stop being nice, and it needs to start sounding like me when I'm pissed off, instead of like a company you want to work for. Tell them I'll fire them and kick their a$$ if they don't follow the exact process laid out, bla bla. (of course, they removed the swearing & threats, but kept the aggressive tone)
Then we suddenly started getting good people who followed directions and who we enjoyed working with, and who delivered good results. By being ruthless and cutting their heads off if they didn't perform, assuming, of course, that we had procedures in place. If they followed the procedure and got the wrong answer, that was our fault, so we changed the procedure.
I can go on, but all this knowledge @rpeck90 is most likely 95% useless and masturbatory to you, because you're not running my business. My biggest challenge is because I feel my team is too soft and nice, whereas I'm hardcore and I try to get them to be less professional, because professional = SLOW (snail). Professional is only good in front of clients, never for getting things done fast.
Now that's for "technical" staff. Of course, once you find good "technical" people, you are super nice with them. But not while hiring them!
For creative staff, you need to satisfy their whims and adapt to them. Don't try to change them, because then they leave. Don't try to get out of them what they can't give you. Let them create their own process, and hold them accountable.
So... ideally you hire people who can build systems, rather than build systems yourself. Of course you can dream something up, map a workflow for it, write some onboarding documents. But the best people, the ones who will help you expand, you need to follow their advice, otherwise their ego gets hurt, and they leave you.
Smart talent respects themselves. You can call me "piece of shit, retard, etc" I wouldn't mind – and that's why I'm the boss, because I'm willing to go into shit to make money if I have to and fix problems others won't touch. Now even my partner is busy traveling the world and doesn't care about the biz, but guess what, I need to accommodate him, because otherwise he leaves, and that's not good. So as the boss, you become sort of a prisoner of the people you have around you, to one extent or another. I'm sure even Putin can't do only what he pleases, or else they'd quickly get rid of him. To a certain extent or another, as the boss you are "forced" to empower your creative staff to live the lives that they want to live, otherwise... they leave!
If I had to pick one key advantage about me, it's to look at things exactly as they are, instead of frame them in these politically correct ways which cloud your judgement and plug you into the matrix. I understand, the matrix is useful. You can't have a society of people like me, that would be a disaster. So socially, people like me need to be "contained". But... if you want results, then you can't be held prisoner by an artificial matrix whose purpose is opposed to your own.
And then another virtue is to get out of people's way. But yeah, assuming you are (1) cunning (I wrote smart initially, but that's the wrong word), (2) ruthless, take no prisoners, (3) what you do satisfies a pressing, real NEED and (4) you have gained access to a lot of MONEY (by hook or by crook), it's not hard to be successful (I suppose the MONEY, can be exchanged for ENTRY. It's a barrier to entry that you have money and the other guy is broke, isn't it?).
Seriously, look at Iman Ghadzi. Do you think the guy is smart? Nah. Just cunning, ruthless, satisfies a need, AND very importantly had access to money so he could build out and push out amazing marketing.
(And never forget, as Spenny said, I speak freely because I don't care about my legacy – which is true. Almost everyone else wants you to think they're good people rather than say the truth. That's why most people remain stuck in the matrix – the mechanisms are there to enable you to self-delude.)
I have not made this transition completely, I still perform a LOT of work in sales & marketing for the business, but not much else (apart from group coaching + chat-based coaching when I'm absolutely needed). The business doesn't have the margin required for me to outsource sales & marketing completely. It's still a matter of MONEY (we keep going back to that, don't we?)What are the necessary steps required to make that transition and at what point do you become a system builder, rather than just a cog?
All the roadblocks you can imagine come down to one thing: money.
All the solutions you can imagine come down to one thing: creative ways to get more money or do more with less money.
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited: