• |

    When You Should Own the Platform vs. Paying for a Service

    Quick note! Subscribers to my newsletter, Build Something Weekly, got a sneak preview of this post earlier this week. I don’t always publish what I write there here though, so for my best thoughts you should totally subscribe.

    My favorite episode of Looney Toons is Baseball Bugs. Bugs Bunny is heckling the Gashouse Gorillas and when they hear him, they make him play every position against them. He makes the winning catch by taking a cab out of the ball part, all the way to the Statute of Liberty.

    While this is a funny cartoon, it’s no way to run a business. Playing every position (owner, accountant, sales, customer service, etc) can take a lot out of you, and prevent you from properly growing your business. One role that should require heavy consideration is tech support: when it comes to using your own tool vs. paying for a service, what should you do?

    Read More “When You Should Own the Platform vs. Paying for a Service”
  • |

    What Baby Clothes Can Teach You About Understanding Your Customers

    If you’re a parent, you’re probably familiar with something that’s been recently reintroduced into my life. It’s 2 am, and my 7-month-old son wakes up and is in need of a new diaper and bottle. So I get up and head into his room. I’m half asleep, I need to undo his PJs, change the diaper, and redo the PJs. And there is one type of PJs that are head and shoulders above the rest: the reverse zip PJs. So good in fact, that I’m certain they were designed by parents that had the same exact experience I’ve shared.

    Read More “What Baby Clothes Can Teach You About Understanding Your Customers”
  • |

    Why Not Wanting to Pay for Software is Holding Your Business Back

    Earlier this month, Elementor announced that they are increasing their prices. Most notably, 1000 sites (called the Agency Plan) is moving from $199/year to $999/year. This is only for new customers but, as is common when software pricing changes, people are outraged. Not only is this sort of outrage getting old, but I would argue that if you’re not willing to pay what software is worth, you will never grow as a business. And not for the reason you think.

    Read More “Why Not Wanting to Pay for Software is Holding Your Business Back”

  • The Year End Spend and Planning

    It’s been a banner year for me and content. I managed to blog and make a video pretty much weekly, I’ve put out more podcast episodes, and I live stream weekly too. Plus, I put out several LinkedIn Learning courses, launched Podcast Liftoff, and published a book. Keeping up with that amount of content has been an interesting challenge, but luckily it’s December. This time of year, I generally think and talk about the same topics: end of the year planning, spending, and reflection.

    Read More “The Year End Spend and Planning”
  • |

    I’ve Been Hiring A Lot

    My aspirations of being self-employed full time have always been about me running my own little business. I never figured I’d be hiring anyone to help me – employee or contractor. I like to say that when you’re a younger business owner (or person, I suppose), your surplus is time. I never wanted to buy premium software if I could make it work myself. I never wanted to hire anyone if I could figure it out.

    As you (or your business) grows, you have more responsibilities. More clients or oveerhead. Maybe you have a family or other obligations. Time becomes a premium, and hopefully money is the surplus. Even if it’s not money, it’s value. And lately I’ve been seeing the value in hiring people so I can be more effective with my time.

    It Started As an Experiment

    My first hire was someone off of Fiverr to edit my podcast for me. Yes it was a side gig but editing took way too much time for me. I had a day job, and only limited time for my side work. The value proposition made hiring an editor an easy win: for $15-25 he’d edit my episodes. This task took me over an hour, and would cost me over $100. Like I said – easy win.

    It Started to Grow

    While I’ve left that first editor, I’ve moved on to another I’m very happy with and things are pumping on all cylinders. Since then I also hired 2-3 transcribers, depending on the project and needs.

    This was another easy win for me because I was using Rev, and my transcribers were more affordable and integrate right into my process. It’s nice to be in contact with a single person who works with you long term.

    Now both editor and transcriber work together thanks to mypodcast process automation. New episode goes in Dropbox. Editor edits and re-uploads. Transcriber transcribes.

    Hiring a Video Editor

    The next contractor I hired was for something I’m fully capable of doing. In-fact, people hire me to do it. But when it comes to creating my own courses, the most time consuming part thatI don’t have to dois editing the videos.

    Editing was always a barrier to finishing the projects too. I’d be pretty spent after writing and recording hours of video content, just to need to spend more hours editing. Plus, if my tired eyes are the only ones watching, I was more prone to error.

    LinkedIn Learning Showed Me the Way

    When I started making courses for LinkedIn Learning, I got first-hand experience of just being able to focus on the content, and handing off the editing to someone else. It was liberating.

    So for my more recent course releases, I decided to hire a video editor who recommended. As a bonus, he has experience editing for Treehouse, so he’s used to working on similar content.

    This means great communication, and needing to explain fewer things. As soon as it makes sense, I’ll likely have him edit myYouTubevideos too.

    Up Next: A Virtual Assistant

    That brings us to today, and my next hire: a virtual assistant (VA). This is something I’ve been turning over in my mind for at least 2 years, but I’ve never been able to pull the trigger.

    When the pandemic hit and I was working fewer hours – my daughter’s daycare shut down – I made a list of all thing things I did that I didn’t need to do, but couldn’t automate. The list was long.

    But I was still able to get work done for at least 2 hours per day, during my daughter’s nap and various times when she had the iPad. That all changed when my son was born.

    My wife went back to work in October and we’re keeping the kids out of daycare for now, so I have virtual no time to get work down, save for 30-45 minutes when they are both napping at the same time. What pushed me to finally hire a VA was frantically trying to do data entry while both of my kids napped.

    I thought, “Why am I stressing to get work I don’t need to do, done?”

    The Process So Far

    The process so far has been:

    1. Make a list of all the things I’d want my VA to do
    2. Look for good places to hire a VA
    3. Sign up and look at candidates that fit the bill
    4. Send a list of questions
    5. Review applications

    I still have some applications out and will definitely go more into depth once I make a hire I’m happy with, but I’m thankful for friends who’ve been through the process before.

    Side Note: Documenting What I Do

    One side note I wanted to mention was I’m also going through and documenting what I do, mostly with quick explainer videos. This should ease the on-boarding process.

    However, I’ve also read that having a VA can help you define your processes, so I’m keeping an open mind.

    Any advice or pitfalls? Let me know in the comments!

  • Why You Should Start A Podcast Right Now

    In 2018, both Seth Godin and Pat Flynn stated they believe podcasting is the new blogging. It feels a lot like that too. Back around 2004, when blogging really exploded, we saw a number of tools come out to make publishing easier for those who aren’t tech-savvy. Blogger, Live Journal, WordPress, and Moveable Type all set out to do something that hadn’t been done before: allow people who know nothing about website development to set up their own websites.

    Now, we’re seeing the same thing with podcasting. But if you can, should you? Here’s why you should start a podcast.

    Read More “Why You Should Start A Podcast Right Now”
  • |

    What Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Taught Me About the Details

    Today is the day Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens at Walt Disney World. I was lucky enough to preview it 2 weeks ago and experience most of the attractions and workshops there. On top of being completely enamored by Batuu (I mean, I’m a pretty big Star Wars fan), there was a lot to take away from the experience – stuff that we can apply to our own work.

    Read More “What Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Taught Me About the Details”