Ready to delegate & build your team as your business grows? Not quite sure where to begin & navigate these waters? We’ve got you covered.
Tatiana O’Hara, Team & Operations Coach and the founder of Grindaholics Anonymous joins me in a conversation about:
⚡️ Why hiring & growing your business can’t be ‘one-size-fits-all’
⚡️ How to figure out who your first (or next hire) should be
⚡️ Tatiana’s top tips & preferred job sites to post to when you’re hiring
⚡️ Designing a business that can run without you so you can go on vacation or take a real maternity leave
⚡️ The benefits of moving from solopreneur to supported-preneur (yes, we’re making that a thing.)
🎧 Listen to this interview on Apple Podcasts: Coaches & Company Radio
DM us @coachesandcompany or leave a comment below with your thoughts, how you enjoyed the interview, & any follow up questions you have! We wanna hear from you!
You can learn more about Tatiana below:
@_tatianaohara on Instagram
Watch the full interview below 👇🏽
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Read the transcript below:
Disclaimer: This transcript has been auto-generated – please excuse any typos or grammatical errors.
00:12
Hello, everyone and welcome back to another episode of 21 days of business. If this is the first time you’re catching this video series, welcome. My name is Yasmine Salem Hamden. I’m the founder of coaching company comm. We are your go to digital destination for all things legal in your entrepreneurial journey. And all during the month of November, we are going to be sharing incredible interviews with guest experts each day sharing your excuse me answering your questions as they relate to your business. And today we’re talking about team building. And team building truly is one of the building blocks and clear indicators of a successful business, one that operates efficiently and effectively and in a collaborative way that achieves the objectives set. Which I think I can speak for most of us and say that that’s the goal in a few words, right? And so how do we get on this path of team or to me to team development and operational excellence and joining us today to discuss is Tatiana O’Hara team operations coach and educator and founder of primal Holly synonymous. Thank you so much for joining me, Tatiana.
1:18
Thank you for having me. I’m so excited, can’t wait to talk to you.
1:24
The same, it’s always it’s always a great time when we’re chatting. And I’m so excited to share your expertise and share your experience and, and all the tips you got Russ on building our team of rockstars as we go about our entrepreneurial journey, as we begin our businesses, developer businesses grow our businesses, and I’m just I’m just pumped. And so if you would please, for those not familiar with you yet, share a little bit about yourself,
1:53
of course. So my name is Tatyana O’Hara. And like she said, I’m an agency and team operations coach. Basically what that means is I work with entrepreneurs who are past the point of wanting to do all the work by themselves. And they realize that they need a team to really take them to the next level. And so I work with entrepreneurs to help them strategically map out what their team needs to look like in order to scale in order to really be in alignment with their personal vision, because we don’t all have the same goals, right? How to actually hire, train onboard these people and manage them day to day. And I think, you know, there’s so much education out there on so many things in business. But unfortunately, like our team, and our internal operations really gets like left behind sometimes. So it’s really just my mission to put more focus on the internal side of your business. Because when the internal side is looking really good, it allows you to really show up externally fully. Right. So
2:51
that’s a little bit about me. I love it. Yes. All right. So let’s talk about Let’s kick things off by discussing this concept. And we hear it often in in the online industry, as well as startup, the startup world altogether is like when you are starting a new business from scratch, having this lean team and the concept of maintaining a lean team. And what does that mean? And what are your thoughts? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, so
3:18
I think there’s a lot out there right now about having a lean team. And basically what that means is just operating your business with the smallest amount of people possible. I feel very, very familiar with the I guess, philosophy of having a lean team, my corporate experience was with a German company that runs very, very lean, very small amount of employees. And it made it actually really challenging to do the work. So when it comes to, you know, having a lean team, I think that that works perfectly fine, right. But I do think it’s really important to understand your specific business model. Because having a lean team may not work for you in your business model. It also may not work in certain seasons of business, or during, you know, certain times where maybe we’re having big launches, or promotions or that kind of thing. So I would really just say don’t take any one size fits all advice, because pretty much everything about building your team is very dependent on a lot of different factors within your individual business. So I think my advice would be instead of thinking, how can I build my team as lean as possible, I would really map out what is all of the support that I need? And then maybe how can I work to consolidate you know, and not have to have 789 people on my team because I don’t think that’s necessary for everyone. But I just really think it’s important to look at your specific business and the details of your business before making a blanket decision like that.
4:45
So that to highlight one part all that was on point one part I really want to highlight is it’s not a cookie cutter situation when it comes to building your team and and hiring support within your company. And so can we Talk about what that process looks like, or what your recommendations are for people that are like, Alright, so I’m tired of doing this all by myself. I’m in a true solopreneur. And trust me, I know the light. And I probably knew that light for too long. Eventually, you get to wonder like, I, I can’t continue to do it all. And I don’t want to continue to do it, right. It’s one or the other. Maybe it’s both either way, you’re like, I need help. And so where do you start in, in mapping out this organizational chart? or figuring out what all who all do we need to have in place? And I think that might be the first the first starting point, because obviously, a lot comes after that. Yeah.
5:40
I was gonna say that’s a loaded question. Yeah. So I would say the very first part, especially if you’re solo right now, the very first part is to really do like a full audit of your day to day, and what are the things that you personally are doing within the business? Because I would say 10 times out of 10, your first hire is like, oh, my gosh, I just need someone to relieve like me a little bit. Like, I feel like I’m doing everything by myself, right? So you have to figure out what is it that you’re actually doing that you’re actually spending your time on, so that you can then take that information begin to identify? Well, what hire do I need to make and who should that person be, you know, doing something like this, and really putting some strategy behind it will help you avoid making a really general hire just because, you know, you’ve seen all of your friends hire this one type of role. So you think that’s what you need, when really your needs could look completely different. So I would say that’s really like the step for your very first hire, and I have my task matrix, it’s, it’s a free resource. And it basically allows you to take a brain dump of everything you do during the day, and categorize it based on whether it’s, you know, something that you’re good at, not good at enjoy doing, don’t enjoy doing, makes money for the company doesn’t make money for the company. And then you can kind of take a look from a bird’s eye view and see, okay, here’s a big chunk of stuff that would be really beneficial for me to get off of my plate. Looking at this list, it looks like, you know, these types of tasks would be in line with like a project manager. So now I’m going to go out, and I’m going to find myself a project manager. Now speaking for the the org chart as a whole, that’s a little bit more of a cumbersome process. But really, when you’re building out your full organizational chart, you want to look at a couple things, the overall vision for the business, long term, revenue goals for the business, long term, price points of your offering, and how many clients we would need to serve within each offer. And then you know, all of that information together will begin to kind of give you the framework of, you know, let’s say you’re running an agency, and you do podcast management, okay, how many podcasts editors do I need to have on my team in order to be able to do 100 podcasts a month, which would generate us this much revenue per year. So it can be really calculated. And then of course, you, you leave some room for error and just room for change? Because you will make a motion, right? You’ll you’ll make your perfect word chart, and then it’ll change. And that’s just the way business works. But yeah, I would say those be like some of the first couple of steps.
8:05
Nice. Alright, so task matrix, I’ll have to go down. After a call, actually, I’ve done this, I will link to it, you have a link available, we’ll be sure to link to it in the show notes or the description of this video or audio wherever you’re listening to this. I’ve done I kind of do a version of that almost every day is like figuring out what all do I need to do today. And then what of that? Can I delegate to those that support me and whatever it is. And what I want to say and add to what you shared Tatyana is, I do this in my personal life, too. And I imagine you have thoughts on this. Is that that? Yes, that is this actually, for me as a businesswoman, as a business owner, whenever I sat down was like, I can’t wait to have that moment where I’m like, I can’t keep doing this for myself. Why am I still doing this by myself? Like, why am I trying to make everything happen when it’s not humanly possible for one person to make all of these things happen, and I want to make some really great big, audacious things happen, you know, and it’s just unrealistic for me to continue to believe that I’m doing it. So that was my moment. Right? And then I sat down and I brain dumped everything, all the things I’ve got to do, I did my time audit. You know, it sounds similar to what you have in the task matrix. And one of the first hires I made actually was not even within my business, it was within my own and just being able to receive support and outsource the different tasks and different things like you know, cleaning and maintaining our home, laundry, miscellaneous errands and so receiving support in that I was so delighted by how much time and energy it freed up for me and that way I could focus more on my business and those revenue generating activities, and just doing what I needed to do on that front, right because I release control, which maybe we I don’t know if we’ll have time to talk about that today, we will even talk about that opened myself up to receive that support. Yeah,
10:11
I, you know, we build a team in our business. But we also have a home team as well, you know, like you have people that support you. Everywhere you have your significant other, your spouse, maybe you have close friends that are nearby. And then of course, we sometimes have support inside of our homes, like you mentioned, cleaning support, maybe some of us have meal prep or a chef, we have a laundry service, whatever. And so it’s like, staying in your zone of genius is really not just limited to the business that you run, right? When you’re at home, your zone of genius, as you know, for me right? Being at home with my fiancee, my zone of genius is being with my fiance, right and being like the best significant. But being the best significant other than I can be. And so sometimes, if I’ve worked a long day, and then I have to come out and then do laundry, and then go girl, no.
11:05
It does right phase, it does say to your best self.
11:13
And I think over time, you start to build up frustration and animosity towards the life that you’re building, when in reality, you have the power to change it. And if you find that there are certain moments in your day where you experience joy, and in certain moments when you don’t experience joy, it’s really about auditing those and figuring out what currently is the root of my stress, my frustration, what is causing me to feel this way? And what experts can I put in place to support me, also, I didn’t mention this, but a therapist, I think is another person that we should all have on our team, because there are going to be things that you just need to talk through and work through. So I’m not trying to, you know, change the direction of the conversation, but I just think that’s a part of it. Yeah, it’s so multi dimensional. It’s not just about the people that support you within your business.
12:01
It’s more than hiring an assistant in your business and thinking you can offload everything to that person. That’s also unrealistic. Yeah, you know, because our lives are multi dimensional, we as individuals are multi dimensional. So I appreciate that. And on that note, I’m hiring. So when I know that when we identify, you know, what, and before, before we begin this interview, we were talking about, you know, identifying with your clients. So if you provide that service, you sell a service to clients, or when you sell product to clients, whatever it might be, what is that ultimate ending? What is the end goal that you want to happen? What is that ultimate transformation that you want to support others in achieving, and what all needs to happen between in between the beginning and that ultimate transformation, and identifying who those people are that need to be in place in order to provide support to rendering the service operating the business, making sure that everything is running smoothly, and at the same time removing yourself from the equation or at least being in a position to remove yourself from the equation so that if you are having to, you know, step away from your business, it doesn’t screech to right. So there’s just so many things that we can talk about in this, but I want to hear from you on maybe a few tips, one or two tips on hiring and going and beginning that process. Whether it’s you have a favorite place you like to share job postings, or maybe you have a great strategy like to go out and crafting a job description.
13:39
Absolutely. So 90% of your work is done before you even hire this person. When it comes to having the best possible fit 90% of your work is done before you even get them in the door. Right. And so a lot of what that looks like is being so so crystal clear on what it is that this person was responsible for, and their overall outcomes or objectives in this role. So yeah, you do the task matrix. And you’re like, Okay, I want this person to manage client communication. You know, organized client testimonials, order, client gifts, and so on and so forth. But it’s even bigger than that. What is the day to day look like with this person? Do they manage every step of the process? Are you kind of involved in that process? What does communication look like? How do you measure the success of this role? So these are all things that I want you to think about and write out, you know, before you even create the job description. Then when you create your job description, it’s going to be so thorough, because you’re able to paint the full picture. A lot of times our job descriptions are only painting a very small part of the picture, right? Our job description is literally just a list, a random list of a bunch of tasks that we need that person to do, and then we wonder why they don’t take ownership and responsibility but it’s like, you haven’t really given them something to buy in. too. So really creating this full comprehensive role is going to allow people to come in understanding. Okay, this is what I’m doing now, this is what I’ll be doing in 90 days. This is what success looks like in the role. This is how I’m going to be evaluated all of the things, right. So that would be my that I can have two tips. But that’s my number one is just ultimate clarity on what you need them to do and what success looks like. And then I think the second part of that is really in the application process. Like when you get all your applications in, I don’t think anyone should interview more than five people. And if you’re having trouble narrowing it down, then we probably need to be a little bit more specific about exactly who we’re looking for. I’m interviewing more than five people, I think sometimes your thoughts just kind of get cloudy a little bit, because I’ve literally had someone tell me that they interviewed 12 people once and it’s like, at that point, how do you even remember, you know, a lot of people, right, so really narrowing it down. And from there, you’ll have the ability to really pick the best candidates and test projects and that kind of thing. But I like LinkedIn, indeed, and Glassdoor, those are the top three that I hire through that my clients hire through, and we’ve had like the most success on those sites.
16:16
Nice. Love. That’s me. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Alright, so. So, um, another topic that relates to hiring is hiring contractors versus employees. And so I’m going to be doing a live session on that during this 21 days of business event. Yeah, series. And so if you’re listening to this, and you want to learn more about that, you’re like, I don’t know, my hiring employees, my hiring contractors go find that video. I can’t remember off the top of my head, which interview which one is going to be first. So it might be on DMS and ask and we’ll let you know if it is. But we’ll be talking about that too, during this during this series. And I’m so grateful to you, Tatiana, joining us and for sharing and just dropping all these jam. Thank you. And I would love to hear from you as to what your big messages that you’d like to leave us with please?
17:11
Well, that’s that’s a good question. So I think for anyone listening to this, like, the biggest thing that I could say is, as you grow in your business that can be growing financially, just evolving, as a person really worked to become increasingly more open and willing to accept support. So many of us are unable to access the highest level of our business, because we’re still very closed off to the idea of support. And that even goes for people who currently have people on their team, right. Um, we may have team members that we’re not utilizing to their fullest, you know, capacity, or we’re not allowing our team members to reach their fullest potential out of that fear of letting go. So I know it’s hard, and I feel it too, I’m not perfect. You’re gonna feel resistance, because you’re consistently going to new levels in places that you’ve never been before. But yeah, my big message would be to just really lean into that and try your hardest to open yourself up. Because when you do, it will unlock possibilities that you never even knew could happen. And sometimes it looks like hitting your highest month in business. Sometimes it looks like I had to take an unexpected week off because I had a death in the family. And I came back and my team crushed it, I came back to no additional work. Sometimes it looks looks like I was able to take a 12 week maternity leave or longer because my team was so great. I was able to start a second business, whatever, right? So the possibilities are endless. And it really just starts with with you opening up and being willing to go there with someone.
18:52
Oh my god, that is more than I ever got to ask for in a big message. That was Oh, thank you. Yeah, it’s and I think that that really just resonates so strongly with me is like allowing yourself to be so what a beautiful thing it is to be supportive. Truly, what a beautiful thing it is and how Blessed are we to be able to experience that in our businesses and our families. And if we’re not experiencing that, that’s something we need to look into why Why am I not need support it? Am I not asking for the support? Am I not allowing myself to be supported or not have the right people in my life that are capable of supporting me like we need to look into that and and it really is just such such a blessing and I’m constantly working on that letting it that was one of the biggest things that I had to wrap my mind around and accept and come to terms with when I was pregnant actually was like, I can’t I’ve got to because I was physically not able to do all and nicely Oh, that was really when I realized like wow, I cannot and before that in my business. I mean, I was very quote unquote lean right? Like I kept it very minimal. And I was it was in the early ish days of my life. it wasn’t it wasn’t years and years and years into it, but I was I really had to face that, like, I physically cannot do anything. So I have to begin accepting help and asking for help. And that was the beginning of it for me. And after that, and once I got a taste of what’s true support really felt.
20:15
It’s addicting. And it’s,
20:17
it’s, it’s incredible. It’s and I wish it for everyone to have that same experience. And so, like I mentioned, Tatyana is founder of grind holics on this deal to share a little bit with us about
20:30
GS. Absolutely. So, grind hawks Anonymous is my signature group coaching program where over the course of six months, we help you get really clear on the vision that you have for your life and for your business. We help you refine your offers and make them as scalable as possible scalable, by your own definition, right, whatever success long term looks like for you. That also includes your finding your processes, your prices, all of that, then we help you strategically create your organizational structure and help you navigate through beginning to make some of those hires, refining the team that you already have potentially, and really just learning how to manage and lead them day to day so that you can have access to vacations and time off and starting new ventures and all of that. So yeah, that’s my that’s my program. It’s my only offer. It’s the most impactful way that I’m able to serve my clients right now. So yeah, and it’s awesome for really any business model. We have coaches, agency owners, service providers, therapists, trainers, product based businesses, brick and mortar businesses, all of the things so
21:39
no idea product based as well. That’s awesome.
21:42
Yeah, because you know, at the end of the day, like, we have to refine your processes, and we have to figure out who you need to hire. And so it’s generally universal. So we have some curriculum that’s geared towards product, some that’s geared towards like service. But yeah, it’s really cool to kind of watch it all come together on our coaching calls.
22:02
That makes sense. That’s awesome. Well, if you’re interested in learning more about Grindhouse anonymous, the link to that will be in the description of this video and connect with Tatyana on Instagram, they hang out a lot there, her handle will be yes. Or Emily in the notes, or the description caption section. And thank you again for joining.
22:23
It’s always a great pleasure to chat with you. So thank you.
22:27
Likewise, we’ll talk
22:28
Alright,
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