Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that when you outsource, you're still a resource.
Speaker 1: You can't check something entirely off your list. Even if
Speaker 1: you hire someone else to do it, you still have
Speaker 1: to do a little management and supervision. So it's best
Speaker 1: to focus on how you are saving ninety percent of
Speaker 1: the time you would have spent on a task, rather
Speaker 1: than get frustrated about the ten percent that likely won't
Speaker 1: go away. Longtime listeners know that I advocate outsourcing lots
Speaker 1: of things. Often a manageable amount of money can free
Speaker 1: up a good bit of time. Than spending your weekends
Speaker 1: cleaning or running errands, you can spend them hanging out
Speaker 1: with your family at work rather than handling every detail.
Speaker 1: You hire a team to specialize, and you provide direction.
Speaker 1: Even for folks who work for themselves, having an in
Speaker 1: person or virtual assistant can be quite helpful. Here's the thing, though,
Speaker 1: When you outsource a task that would otherwise fall to
Speaker 1: you and that actually needs to get done, you won't
Speaker 1: be able to let it go completely. You will need
Speaker 1: to have some level of involvement it will just be
Speaker 1: way less involvement than when you are handling the task directly.
Speaker 1: People are much happier when they focus on the reduction
Speaker 1: rather than the small amount of lingering mental load. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, you might like to imagine that having house
Speaker 1: cleaners come every week means that you won't ever have
Speaker 1: to spend time cleaning your house again, but that is
Speaker 1: not entirely true. At the beginning, you will need to
Speaker 1: show the cleaners around the house and let them know
Speaker 1: how you like things. Some weeks, you might need to
Speaker 1: ask for some area to get extra attention, really spiffing
Speaker 1: up the guest room, for instance, because company is coming,
Speaker 1: you'll probably wind up picking up things before the cleaners come,
Speaker 1: so anything small and important does an inadvertently get put
Speaker 1: in the wrong spot. You will need to tell the
Speaker 1: cleaners when you are canceling a week because you are
Speaker 1: on vacation or moving the time because you're having a
Speaker 1: party at the exact moment the cleaners usually come. If
Speaker 1: you get the same team every week, my guess is
Speaker 1: you will want to build a relationship with these people
Speaker 1: to the extent that it is possible, so they will
Speaker 1: tell you if they see anything out of the ordinary.
Speaker 1: Now you know about that's leak in the bathroom a
Speaker 1: week earlier than you would have. And of course, if
Speaker 1: the cleaners are cleaning your kitchen on Wednesday, that really
Speaker 1: just doesn't do your dishes on Saturday. So even if
Speaker 1: your house cleaners do almost everything, you can't check house
Speaker 1: cleaning off your list completely. You will be a lot
Speaker 1: less annoyed by the little things you have to do
Speaker 1: when you remember that fact. Likewise, as convenient as grocery
Speaker 1: delivery can be, someone still has to order and put
Speaker 1: away the groceries. You might also want to check your
Speaker 1: bags to ensure you received what you ordered. That means
Speaker 1: fewer unpleasant surprises when it's time to cook dinner. And
Speaker 1: if you're hiring a full time staff member at work,
Speaker 1: you probably can't just hand this person a job description
Speaker 1: and assume everything listed will get done exactly as you
Speaker 1: want without you lifting a finger. If you hire a
Speaker 1: direct report to support your work work and take on
Speaker 1: some things you've done yourself, you still need to be
Speaker 1: a resource. You may not have to perform the work
Speaker 1: yourself anymore, but supervising and supporting your direct reports does
Speaker 1: require time and attention. Nothing else you want to keep
Speaker 1: these people happy. This concept of still needing to do
Speaker 1: some work, even if you have offloaded a lot even
Speaker 1: comes into play with the idea of passive income. You
Speaker 1: probably can't get any category of work in your life
Speaker 1: down to absolute zero. I maintain that there aren't a
Speaker 1: whole lot of truly passive forms of income out there.
Speaker 1: I get royalty checks from books I wrote fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: but that is because I am still out here in
Speaker 1: the world talking about time management all the time. Even
Speaker 1: dividends and interest require bookkeeping and making sure your accountant
Speaker 1: has the right forms. Most forms of so called passive
Speaker 1: income require way more work than that. If you have
Speaker 1: a rental property, even if you use a property management company,
Speaker 1: you will need to make sure that they get paid,
Speaker 1: and you'll need to check in occasionally to see that
Speaker 1: they are doing a good job. If you've got a
Speaker 1: website where people can pay for virtual courses, even if
Speaker 1: you've already made the courses, you'll need to check that
Speaker 1: the webs diet is still working as it's supposed to,
Speaker 1: And if the search engines change their algorithms, you will
Speaker 1: need to update things too. So it goes If you
Speaker 1: are hoping to spend one hundred percent of your hours
Speaker 1: on leisure. This would all be really annoying, but when
Speaker 1: you recognize that the reduction in time is large, you
Speaker 1: can choose to focus on that. There is no free lunch.
Speaker 1: There are very few instances in life where you can
Speaker 1: get something done and have nothing required of you. So
Speaker 1: when a little bit is required of you and a
Speaker 1: lot is done by someone else, best not to resent
Speaker 1: the little you have to do. If you have made
Speaker 1: wise choices and train people well, it probably will be
Speaker 1: just a little after a while, which is a lovely thing. Indeed,
Speaker 1: what have you outsourced successfully? You can let me know
Speaker 1: at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
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