[00:00:00] Peta: Welcome to the Business Fondle, the Bold Business Podcast for entrepreneurs and business owners hosted by Peta Serras the Professional Babe. So why don't you pour yourself a drink and slip into something a little more comfortable and I'll get your business going.

[00:00:17] Okay, so I bet that we have Fair Work tuning in to this podcast episode. Hello. Make yourself comfortable and for everyone else, grab your pen, grab some paper, and get ready to take notes as I teach you. Everything I know about how to ethically hire and underpay. Now, what I want you to do just before we start, we're gonna kind of like set a scene, you know, when you'll be like in the shower and you'll be dreaming up these like little fake scenarios that just don't happen.

[00:00:50] This is like where all of that comes into play for what we're going to do now. So I want you to think about, you know, where your [00:01:00] business would be. How your business would benefit if you could hire someone? Hardly pay them anything. They never needed to sleep. They had an unbeatable work ethic. They did the job perfectly every single time.

[00:01:16] You know it. It sounds like, again, you would be getting a call from work ethic or you'd be like, what? What is this person on? Like, can I have some too? It kind of sounds like what Bradley Cooper had in Limitless, like that kind of deal, but, you know, where could your business be if you had the perfect hire that could do all of that?

[00:01:36] You know, they, they could sell, they could onboard your customers. They could show up all the time. Again, you could just train them once. They would just then work autonomously and they would also give you a report. Of how they did and their findings right now, you're probably like, my business would be exactly where I thought that it would be.

[00:01:59] Like we [00:02:00] would be hitting every goal. I feel like that I wouldn't be struggling with, you know, every month, like reaching our profit plans. Things would be feeling easy. You would be feeling so much spaciousness. You would feel supported. You would be able to go and do all of the things because you knew that someone had your back.

[00:02:18] Well, this person exists and it's called email marketing, and I know that some people are like, surely not. Surely. Yes, absolutely. Yes. And I think this comes back to. Um, you know, email needs like a good, it needs a good rebrand, which obviously that's what I'm here to do because I think that some people still have this idea that an email is just this beige broadcast that your list gets, that people don't really open, and it always feels like an inconvenience for the business to send and the person to receive.

[00:02:54] And what I want today is for us to rewrite that story and really [00:03:00] discover how we can use email as the first hire in your business that does everything that I just spoke about and so much more. Alright? So you know, lucky for you, we haven't a whole module in Give good email on this. Just f y i . So this is called automation.

[00:03:20] and you know, we have all experienced this before, if you've ever opted into someone's list or you've downloaded a freebie and you get an email that's sent automatically and then you know, you could get one like the next day or in a couple of days, if you have purchased something and you get an email related to what you've purchased.

[00:03:39] Uh, if you've got a course and you get your login details, that is all email marketing automation, and it is the process of basically setting up systems ahead of time, mapping things out ahead of time, setting them up to a desired either like, Schedule or based on what the subscriber does, it's pressing [00:04:00] publish.

[00:04:00] And then it's just letting that tick over in the background for you to then come in and monitor if it is delivering the outcome, which you hope that it would. And that is basically what it is. So, of course, and give good email, we cover this, um, whole module. You are gonna be obsessed, but what I wanna look at today is, you know how we actually can start to.

[00:04:25] Create a job description for our email marketing software. See, this is gonna be awesome for people that are listening that feel like that you've got your email marketing software and you are just putting the tip in, like you are not going any deeper than just the tip you're sending out your sporadic newsletters or whatever it may be.

[00:04:45] Maybe you've just got like a one freebie that gets people in, but it doesn't really sell the thing. Okay, so this is where we are going to provide a little bit more clarity on your situation. Now, I [00:05:00] think what we often wanna do is like, okay, cool, automation. Let me sell this course that I wanna sell or this thing in the future.

[00:05:08] Before we do that, What I wanna actually look at is your whole business, because remember, if email is the dream hire, this is where it gets to come in and it gets to make shit a whole lot easier for you. So, you know, with all my clients, before we kind of get deep in, into just creating one thing, I really love to look at the whole business.

[00:05:30] What's happening? Where's your time going? What's happening with your energy? And then looking at, okay, cool. What is the most standout system? And sometimes we could be focusing on one thing, but there's a part of our business where that really needs attention. And when that's addressed, we are just gonna have so much more energy.

[00:05:50] So we've got a couple of questions for you to either ponder or if you wanna obviously pause this and write along, that'd be cute. So the [00:06:00] first question is, where does all of your time go and what is filling your week? Alright. This is gonna be easy if you time track. This is gonna be easy if you have like a really structured week for people that are like, oh shit.

[00:06:13] I don't know. I just like, I like go where the day takes me. You may need to just be a little bit more aware for this task to work. So what that could look like is just keeping some, um, like some paper handy and at the end of the day, just writing things down and just reflecting on where your like time went for the whole day.

[00:06:34] And what you may find with this is that your time has actually gone to. Putting out little spot fires in your business or answering the same question, or really being like quite hands-on with some clients that you've got, or if you've got like an e-commerce store. You know, constantly being in the dms, answering like a bucket load of questions [00:07:00] and you feel like that you are always answering the same stuff.

[00:07:02] So, you know, write that down. Now, I wanna say that normally when I have a client that starts working with me, the first thing that they'll say is, I wanna hire a va. You know that is another person just like you, that is gonna have sick days, they're gonna have bad days and they're gonna get over it as well.

[00:07:18] Even if they're paying, even if they're being paid to do a job. Like, think about it. This is your baby and you are sick of it, . So what we wanna do is create as many automated processes as we can so we're not relying on another human to do this. So that's the first question. The second question is, what is the shit that you love to do and what needs to go to keep you in your element for that to happen?

[00:07:44] So this could be you being like, oh my gosh, I love to create content. I love sitting down to write. I love my podcast. I love doing videos. It could be that you really wanna create courses or you wanna spend more time with your clients. Nothing [00:08:00] is wrong here. Okay? What I would encourage you to think about is like untether from, oh, I'm good at this, so I should love this.

[00:08:07] You know it. It's not about that , you can suck at something but still love it. So I want you to really think about like, what do you love? And that may be quite sobering when you actually look at where all of your time is going in your week. Now the third question is, what do you hate to do? What do you hate to do?

[00:08:28] And from this list, can it be outsourced to your new email assistant? So this could be something like you absolutely hate when you get a new client and all of the onboarding fuckery that happens. So, you know, sending them the contract, getting them to fill something in checking, like checking their answers, then sending them a link.

[00:08:48] Yuck, yawn. I don't do any of that. I know as soon as I send someone a payment link that they are going to fill everything in, they're gonna onboard themselves and they're gonna book all of their damn sessions [00:09:00] without any prompting from me. That feels. Really good. If I had to do that manually, I would not do it.

[00:09:07] So I hand that over to my email assistant and it does it for me. So, Now what we can do for our fourth question, and this might take a little bit more time, is to look back on your last, like 5 to 10 interactions that you've had. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean sales. This can just be, you know, someone that you've had in the dms.

[00:09:29] It can be something that's happened, uh, like with f a sale that hasn't eventuated, it can be a sale. And we wanna look back to all of these interactions that we've had, or you know, even stuff that's just standing out for you and what do you actually wish happened? Now it could be something where you wish that they had actually purchased this other thing, or you wish that they had added in an order bump.

[00:09:54] Or you wish that they just had less questions and they probably went to the website and they read this [00:10:00] instead of coming into the dms with like a whole screen of voice memos to you. All right, it can be anything, but look back and be like, what do you actually wish happened? And start to see if there's any patterns that come up here.

[00:10:18] Alright? Now it could be something where if these are your clients, you're like, oh, I'm really happy to answer. But you know, that time adds up. And even if it's just 10 minutes a day and you have an excuse of why you can't do something, you know the time. Where like your desired project lies. So if you wanna write a book, is probably in these 10 to five minute pockets of time that you keep writing off.

[00:10:47] Alright? So the more that we can automate this, the more time you're gonna have and you might be like, Whatever, Peta. Super fun fact, because you know that I love my statistics that [00:11:00] automation can save a business on average six hours per week. So the more that we actually pay attention to this and we really look at email as a hire, I want you to see that as someone coming in, you've now got your wonderful assistant coming in for six hours a week.

[00:11:16] They're taking that off your plate. So now you have six more hours to do whatever you want in your business. And now the last question is, what happened that was out of the blue that felt like it could ruin your day? Now, this doesn't need to be something so dramatic like that. You walked out of your house and you broke your stiletto and a bird just shat on your freshly washed hair.

[00:11:40] Like it doesn't need to be something like that. What this will probably look like is you getting asked the same question three times. It could be you opening your inbox to emails of people who are angry. And you are being like, oh my gosh, I told you this. Like [00:12:00] you, you already know the answer. You know where this lives because you know, the customer feels like that they're not supported.

[00:12:05] It's these tiny little things like that that usually will add up to this big pile that will have you at the end of the day feeling like that. You just want to like, down a bottle of wine, binge Netflix, whatever it may be. So this is where going through the rest of your day, the rest of your week, and just really having some self-awareness about how you're feeling and where your time is going is just going to be so valuable for future year.

[00:12:35] And this is the perfect time for us to do it. You know, we have end of financial year that is just around the corner, so it is the most beautiful time for us to audit all of this now. and then. Create some change in our business and create all of these wonderful email based automations that we are gonna have.

[00:12:57] So when you've done that, you've, you've answered these questions. [00:13:00] This is where we're gonna create a job description for your email software. Now I've got mine in Notion. Um, I really kind of took this like next level. So I've written your company name, professional babe, uh, job description, tech assistant who always shows up and never needs sleep.

[00:13:16] It's very specific, Peta. Qualifications, email marketing software. I told you I've gone next level with this. You don't have to do that. But what I would recommend doing is the next bit, which is a table. Now I have done four columns, and in the first column at the top, what do you desire them to do in the second column?

[00:13:36] How do they do this? In the third column, indications of success. And then in the fourth column, we have notes now in the rows directly underneath. This will relate to one particular part of what we found above. So you may find that you have a lot of DM questions and that your whole, like, you've got a good solid hour a day that is going [00:14:00] to something that you're like, I feel like I'm answering the same questions for five people at once.

[00:14:06] So the first thing that you want them to do task is to answer all your questions in the DMs. This. Now, how do they do this? This is where something like a welcome sequence would be amazing. So, they're gonna do a welcome sequence that answers every question. Now, of course you are gonna have to create this, but remember that you have enough data.

[00:14:26] So anytime that you go down, you're like, I don't know what to do. You fucking do know what to do. You know what to do. You know what to do because you hate answering these questions. So of course, anything that you don't particularly love, that is where email comes and it does that for you. Alright, now what is the indication of success?

[00:14:43] You're gonna get less DM questions, and then we write any notes. So this could be something if I were to look at. My business as an example. Let's pretend that it is in relation to my course. Give Good Email, [00:15:00] and I could have heaps of DM questions of people asking stuff about the program that's on the sales page.

[00:15:07] But we all know sometimes people just wear like we're scanners. Who reads these days? . So this could be something where I have. A little sequence that delivers a curriculum that explains everything. And then in that it's like a three part sequence that also covers the most popular frequently asked questions that we get asked about Give Good Email.

[00:15:32] So it could be something as simple as that. Now, sitting down to write this. Could take me maybe an hour to write it, pop it together, pop it in Flodesk, and get some really sexy graphics for me to promote this. Now, what often puts people off is the fact that they're looking at the chunk of time that it's gonna take, and they keep thinking that it's only five minutes.

[00:15:55] What I would encourage you to think about is nothing is ever just five minutes, [00:16:00] because there is the mental space around the task. We are not robots, and I want you to think about the amount of times that you will look at something that pops up and you'll be like, Ugh. Or you feel your energy change and then maybe you procrastinate on it.

[00:16:17] And then all of a sudden it's been half an hour and this is all you're thinking about. And then you go and do it and then you're still thinking about it. So with every task that we have in our business, there is gonna be this like energetic space around it. So what we don't realize is we have spent probably an hour on this, but it would be really simple for us to create something in our business and.

[00:16:40] Have that just running in the background that we've had to do once and it's gonna be perfect, and of course we can change it. Now, another example of this on your job description could be, you know, sell that high ticket offer that I have. How are they gonna do this? We need an awesome sales sequence.

[00:16:58] Indications of success. [00:17:00] You know, it could be something where you are like, I have sales come through like we bust through our conversion rates. But it could also be something like, okay, you actually now have a list of hot leads for you to personally contact, where in the past you are finding that you were kind of just pinning the tail on the donkey when it came to shit on your social media and just kind of like.

[00:17:24] I guessing who is interested because we all have people on Instagram and you know what? God bless these people who kind of act like your mother where you can do anything and they are just gonna be clapping like you are on the stage for like your little year seven recital and they're in the audience and they're clapping cuz they're just so proud of you.

[00:17:43] But it doesn't really give us an indicator if they are actually keen on this program that we have. So, you know. One thing, what I love to do is check the clicks of the emails. So I strategically will leave things out of emails. I'll get them to kind of click through to that next [00:18:00] step. I then can see who is keen.

[00:18:01] That's when I'll either send 'em an email or I'll slide into their dms. So I see that as I'm gonna be really strategic with how I've set this up. Email is gonna go and do that. And then email gives me this really wonderful report of all of these hot leads that I have that I may have not even noticed because they are the people that are just so quietly consuming in the background.

[00:18:23] And guess what? Email did that. So what I would encourage you to do is just really pay attention. Look at everything that's happening in your day and in your week with curiosity. See what is coming up and just remember that you have. This completely underutilized staff member that is basically you. So for the people that are feeling like that, you're a little bit control freaky.

[00:18:48] Trust me, I get it. I'm a Virgo. But if you are a bit control freaky and you're like, I don't want anyone to fuck my business. Well, you know what, if, if email's fucked up, technically that's, that's a you problem [00:19:00] lol but because we're the ones that train it. But you know, there is so much less risk for human error when we are doing this and we are the ones setting up because of course it's going to be done perfectly every single time.

[00:19:16] So if you have loved this, You are gonna love my program, Give Good Email. It is a course that is all about email marketing and automation and is going to change your business game. So I think sometimes people think that it's like a crusty newsletter course, which I fucking hate. Ew, because email does obviously so much more than that.

[00:19:39] I use it as a scaling tool in my business, and I actually didn't hire my first virtual assistant. Until I was about like two years into my business because you know, something for me that was so important being I. Like a single person. I support myself. My business supports me. I don't have a partner. Got a beautiful little place in South Yarra [00:20:00] and I need to make sure that I'm getting paid.

[00:20:04] And I had a choice of, okay, I can take a dramatic pay cut, which could then impact my life and I could pay a virtual assistant. I. Or I could be really strategic with how I use email. And you know, for me, I'm on a really good plan of this software. I pay like $27 a month and email does all of this for me.

[00:20:25] And if I had to pay someone to do that, that would probably cost me like minimum. 1500 a month. So this is where, especially if you're like, I don't really have a lot of surplus cash that I would use email marketing. And if you got a little bit more surplus cash, I would love for you to join. Give Good Email.

[00:20:45] We have some amazing payment plans. The price does go up on July 1st, so I will pop all of the details below, including. All of the questions that I asked you today, so, oh, [00:21:00] I've loved this. I've loved this so much. I'm actually like looking at myself on camera. I'm having a really, I think a good hair day. I don't know if this is like a dark hair thing.

[00:21:10] I feel sometimes like my hair just isn't dark enough. I'll get it dyed and I'll be like, it could be dark. I'll be happy for like a week, and then I'll be like, it could be darker, but I'm actually feeling like. It's looking like a really, it's, it's a good level of darkness, so I love you more than that, I love you more than the cheery people at the coffee shop near my house.

[00:21:32] They are just so lovely. They are beautiful people, beautiful energy. I also love the fact that I said once that a table had bad vibes and two of the staff agreed with me, they were like, the table does have bad vibes and I love when you kind of think about this completely left of center thing. And then you have people agree with you on this left of center thing and you are like, okay.

[00:21:56] I, I thought that I was not normal, but maybe I'm actually the normal one. My [00:22:00] suggestion was that they had a, like a rectangle table. They needed a round table. We had this conversation, it was like 20 minutes about this bloody table and the vibes. So I love you more than when random shit like that happens and you just have these just weird conversations.

[00:22:16] They make my day, and of course they give me some great content. So I've loved this, I've loved you, and until next time, just stay a babe and implement these tips and oh my gosh, your business will benefit. Trust me.

[00:22:32] If you're craving more, make sure to subscribe to my email list, which you can find at professionalbabe.com. And word on the street I give good email. Now go and take everything you've learned, get your hands dirty with it, and go and make some serious money.

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