3 Ways to Simplify Your Business Before 2024

Want to simplify your business in 3 easy steps instead of being overwhelmed managing countless tasks? 

And I hear you, you don't want to manage of team of people by outsourcing. That's exactly what I talk about in this episode:

• Why outsourcing isn't a magic bullet for every problem - no matter what everyone has been telling you. 
• My own journey, including my experiences outsourcing to the Philippines. My attempts at mastering tech and graphics, and how these decisions have shaped my business.
• How to find the right tools for your business without maxing out your monthly budget. 
• How to approach new software without feeling overwhelmed and how to leverage what tools you're already using in your business
• Why I decided to stick with using Descript, despite talking myself into cancelling my subscription. 

Tune in as I share how you can take some of the friction out of running your online business.

Whether you're a beginner entrepreneur or an experienced business owner, there's something in this episode for you.

Full transparency, I talk about the FREE ELEMENT of my membership in this episode but due to a number of reasons, I've abandoned the free subscription.

For just $7 per month however, you can join my Funnel Fix & Flow membership where I teach you how to build simple, scalable funnels without using expensive software.

And if you're a podcaster looking to start and monetise your podcast, you also get access to The Podcasters' Corner where you'll learn about the best equipment for you and your budget. You'll also be able to collaborate with other podcasters and get access to my Start 2 Finish Podcast course.

Click here to find out more. And yes, no catch, $7 per month!

Transcript

Trish: 0:00

Why is it that we complicate our business so much? We actually got into business most of us anyway because we wanted to leave the rat race. We wanted a simpler life, and yet, for some reason, we over complicate our businesses and then we find that we're bogged down with stuff that we don't even need to get involved in. So in this episode of the Influential Woman podcast, I'm going to talk to you about some of the ways that I'm simplifying my business and taking the stress off and just like, oh yeah, it feels so much better. Welcome to the Influential Woman podcast, where I talk about the lessons I've learned, building my business and the tools and strategies you can use to make your mission of getting your message seen, heard and out there possible. Don't have a big team or consider yourself a solopreneur. I got you covered. Listen in as I show you how to simplify your business and your life. So I hope that these tips will actually help you, because you know one of the things and this isn't a point, this is just something that I have observed a lot of people tell you go and build a team. You know, if you want to do really well online, you've got to have a team and somebody's going to do this, and somebody's going to do that, somebody's going to do something else, and then the problem is you have all of these people that you have to interact with and it's nothing but stress, right? So take it from me it is not true that if you build a team, if you outsource a lot, that you're actually going to have less stress.

Trish: 1:39

I used to outsource to people in the Philippines and I'm not telling you not to outsource, by the way, so I am going to elaborate on that comment shortly but I used to outsource to the Philippines and, honestly, the stress with having to tell them what to do. You know a video. I would have to send it to them in order for them to edit the video and, honestly, I could have done it in a shorter period of time without actually exporting and then sending it off and finding you know a piece of software like WeTransfer in order to send a big file, etc. Etc. And and I'm being honest with you I have cried to God so many times and said I need help. I need help. Recently, god is like no, you don't need help, you have this software, this system. Go and use what you have. So I'm going to talk about that shortly, but anyway, quick story.

Trish: 2:36

I was actually on threads the other day and somebody who uses the Instagram platform quite a lot actually made a comment and actually I'm going to read it, kind of because I don't want to mess it up she fired or should I say stop delegating to her team and she said instead, what she did was she simplified her business and she said as a result, she is far less stressed and she's making the same revenue. The same revenue. What did I say earlier? You will be told that you need a team in order to be successful online. You've got to make a team, you know, because you're going to make more money if you outsource everything and then you can just live the dot com lifestyle and, you know, after breakfast, go and sit down on the beach would be fantastic.

Trish: 3:22

But you know, even back in 2004, when I went to my first big seminar with Armand Morin and there was people there like Armand Morin, alex Mendoche and oh, marlon Sanders that's the guy's name that I'm trying to think of and all of these guys didn't have a team. There may have been one thing that they outsourced somebody, but in the main they did it themselves. And before you switch off and say, hey, trish, I'm not tech, I need to outsource certain things, just to hear me out, okay, right. So what I'm saying is these guys were making a lot of money and they were not outsourcing. But I think, with the invent of fiverr, get a freelancer, et cetera and again, I'm not saying not to use these people.

Trish: 4:09

What I am saying is, I think that there has been a kind of over reliance and you've moved from big corporation to then try and create a big corporation and, with it, a big headache, and what I'm trying to do is give you a pill or two that's actually going to reduce your headache, right? So the first thing that I'm going to say is you've got to decide what you need to outsource and do the rest. So years ago, I was watching a video by Dan Kennedy and he was saying that the one thing that he will not outsource is his copywriting, is marketing and his copywriting. There are bits and pieces that he will outsource that he'll say, yep, I need to do that so that I have more time for me, but the marketing and the copywriting, he will not outsource that. And so you have to decide what is the thing that I'm particularly good at, that I can do myself and I don't need to outsource for me. I don't want to outsource my website. I can build my own website. In fact, actually, all the tech I can do myself. And yes, I have cried about it on many occasions and, yes, I've had to go back and say, god, I am so sorry, I'm so sorry I can actually do that myself. And I'm grateful that I can because, again, you know, even with the graphics, when I used to do a lot of graphics on my website, I'd have to outsource it in the backwards and forwards was crazy. Now don't get me wrong. If I need a particular graphic done, if I need a logo or any graphic right that I can't do easily on Canva, I am going to outsource it still, because I am no good at graphics and I have no intentions of learning Photoshop. So, beyond what I can give my daughter to do, or whatever I can outsource, then I'm going to have to do it myself. So that's the first point that I want to make. Right, decide what you need to outsource and then you do the rest. But if you find that you're outsourcing everything, you're going to have to then manage all of these people and then, if they don't do the project right, then you've got to go back to them and say, could you do this properly, could you do that? And that is going to create more friction, and then you're going to get frustrated. So that's the first point. This is number two and I'm telling you I'm talking to mwah Right now, right, I'm talking to me right now on this point and that is to use just one platform.

Trish: 6:36

Honestly, so many people get so hung up on this. They want to learn LinkedIn, they want to learn Facebook, they want to learn Instagram, they want to learn Twitter, you know, they want to learn YouTube, and all of these things require learning on the platform. And then people say, well, I'm not very techie. Well, if you're not very techie, you don't go and take on six platforms to learn and then start complaining that you don't understand Instagram or you don't understand YouTube or you don't understand Facebook. It's crazy. That would be like giving a kid an ice cream and they drop the ice cream and you say, okay, nevermind, johnny, I'm going to go and get you a bigger ice cream. Johnny can't even manage the ice cream that you gave him and yet you're going to go and buy him another ice cream, a bigger one. It just doesn't make sense.

Trish: 7:23

So the best thing to do is just to focus on one platform, and the reason I say I'm having a bit of a problem with this right now is literally because I am not a fan of Facebook. I'm just saying I am not a fan of Facebook and my daughter keeps telling me I got to get on LinkedIn because that's where the action is and I don't really like LinkedIn. I just personally find it just too corporate. I think that's what it is. I find LinkedIn just a little bit too corporate for me. Ain't going to use Twitter, I have started using threads.

Trish: 8:01

So maybe I had to qualify what I said earlier and say one platform plus threads. And I know someone's going to say you know what? All the politics? I'm not even going to mention it because I'm not going to get involved in the politics. I don't care. Musk and Zuckerberg could have the biggest argument of fight whatever. I won't even buy popcorn, I'm not even going to buy tickets.

Trish: 8:22

I'm just saying that very often we jump on a platform when it's older and then people start telling you this is how you use the platform. I've literally gone on there. I'm not saying I'm a big user of it, but before people start telling me, do this, don't do that, do whatever. I am just, I just jumped on it. In fact, I jumped on it the very first day. I still can't believe that I had the app before my daughter did Feels so good. So I started using threads and I like it. I can't say I love it, but I like it.

Trish: 8:56

And so the reason I'm saying to you a platform plus threads is because threads is new. Is it going to be shut down in three months time? I don't know. Is it going to be operational in six years time? I don't know. But guess what, if you don't try, you are not going to know. And then, if it really does take off like they think, it is going to be interesting actually to see what's happening. What is it? Is it the third week now or second week? It'll be interesting to see what's happening over there now, whether the growth is still steady or whether it's tell off. But hey, I don't know. So please, if you're going to master videos, master videos and then get on YouTube, or you can use Facebook if you prefer, but master videos, know what equipment you're going to use and get used to the platform. What works, what doesn't work. Work it basically until it works, is what I'm saying.

Trish: 9:54

Okay, and I may have even talked about this over and over again, because it really is one of the things that I have to keep telling people all the time stop trying to make your first chapter be like somebody else's 20th chapter, because you're always going to be on the back foot because there's all the background elements that you don't know what they're doing and how they're doing it and you're trying to copy them and be a master like them and you're missing out on all the basics. So what I'm saying is master the basics first and then you can move on. So if you think of it in this term, russell Brunson has his one funnel away and he talks about having one funnel and one offer until you make it. So if you think on those terms and you have one funnel, one offer, one platform, then you are more likely to succeed than if you have a million and one offers. You know you've got two funnels going. You can't even build one funnel, but you've got, you know, three funnels on the go. Hey, have I labored this point enough? I think I have. Yeah, let's move on. So the third thing oh, and this is a biggie get rid of friction. Anything that's going to take up more of your time and make you doubt yourself or not do what you're supposed to do is going to create a problem. It's going to create friction. Right now I'm going to tell you this.

Trish: 11:19

I decided that I'm going to put this on to record and I went downstairs and my husband said to me I thought you said you were recording, you were getting dressed this morning to record. And I said, yeah, I'm about to record now. And he looked at me and he was like and I said, listen, this is me and this is how I'm going on camera today. I'm putting on some lipstick and they're lucky, they're getting some lippy. I said I'm sorry, people who want me to dress up to the nines and they've got an issue with the fact that I have you guys call it in America sweater, jumper on polar neck, we call it, you call it turtleneck. I think in America, people who got a problem seriously need to go find another video because I will not be not me, just so that I can make somebody else feel good, because I talk a lot about being yourself. So if the friction is that I don't want to put on all the makeup before I do my video, don't put on all the makeup, I don't wear makeup anyway, right? So if somebody says, well, trish, why don't you put on this, you know what? Okay, I'll stop. You're lucky you got lippy, that's all I'm saying. You're lucky, you got lippy. So that's one friction, but that's only friction about the clothing.

Trish: 12:37

This is the other big friction, and I see this all the time, where people will do a video or record a podcast or put something up on social media and it's like, oh, what software are you using to do so? And so they already have a piece of software. But it's like, wow, your video looks really, really good. What camera are you using? And then you tell them it's the Canon, whatever. And they go, oh, wow, I can't afford that. Oh, I need to afford to go buy this camera. No, you don't.

Trish: 13:09

My daughter and if you've watched my other videos you've probably heard me say this until you've fed up with it, my daughter has a creme de la creme Canon camera in her room that I would have to just walk across the hallway and go grab the camera. I cannot be bothered. I am using a Logitech webcam right now. I could also use my iPhone. I've tried using my iPhone and, to be quite honest, the video on the iPhone is actually much better than the video on here.

Trish: 13:37

But unless you're a videographer or unless my video is blurry, nobody's going to notice. Honestly, most people will not notice. It tends to be the audio snobs who go, oh, your audio is not very good. It tends to be the videographers who say, oh, you can improve on your video. Everybody else does not care. And so I'm not saying don't ask, but I'm saying don't ask to the extent that you allow that thing to become a stumbling block because you won't move and do something unless you have the creme de la creme camera, the, the Canon, the Nikon. Did I just say Nikon? I don't know, are you pronounced? Actually we say Nikon here. Yeah, until you have that fancy piece of equipment or that piece of software that cost X amount of money, just Use what you have in your hand. Be a Moses Girl version of Moses. Use what's in your hand.

Trish: 14:37

Now one of the things that I did do recently To. Actually it was friction at first, but I had already had it and I decided it was time to use it. So I purchased d-script last year and I must admit I struggled with it. But everybody just kept saying how fantastic this piece of software was and I used it to do a video and I didn't really like the video quality. And I found out after that I could actually improve the video quality. So that's what I did.

Trish: 15:04

But I was looking to outsource my videos at the end of the subscription for d-script and I decided about two months ago You're gonna have to learn this thing, at least try and learn it, and if you find that you cannot use it, then you can go and outsource your podcasts and your videos, etc. Anyway, I used d-script, I struggled with it, I wanted to tear my hair out, I was Just getting so annoyed, but anyway, I persevered. And now, honestly, once I finish this video, it's probably going to take me Maybe 40 minutes or so to edit the video, and that includes editing the video For the video and then to turn it into a podcast. But I have had to use that over and over to do short videos for YouTube. Some videos I've not even uploaded. But I have just decided that I'm just going to keep working this thing until it's working for me and that's exactly what I did, and so by doing that, I now don't have to feel that I've got an outsource, because I Actually had a conversation with a company the other day and they were really good.

Trish: 16:20

They were gonna take my videos, podcasts, they could basically do everything look at my website, create landing pages, do all of these things. And I must admit when I came off the call I Thought exhausted you, it was a great company. If anybody asked me and said they wanted somebody to outsource a load of stuff to, I would recommend them. But I felt exhausted because I remember outsourcing years ago and how much work is involved with actually having to send information to these people and then it come back and then it's not right and then you're backwards and forwards in and I'm like, nah, do you know what? I think the best thing to do is to find a way to simplify my business more and use things like Descript and get on with that software, rather than outsourcing and then getting frustrated because it's not done the way that I want it to be done. Again, I am going to say it doesn't mean that you should not outsource. You've got to decide what it is that you are going to outsource, but for me, I just felt that that was just going to add another layer of friction.

Trish: 17:30

Now, going back a little bit is I've already mentioned that sometimes we want to have two courses going, a membership, we want to have everything right, six offers, however many lead magnets, and then we wonder why we're stressed out and frustrated. Do you know one of the things that I have done that has really, really simplified my business? I do have a number of lead magnets, but, remember, I've been doing this a very long time, but what I have done is I decided that, rather than using all of those lead magnets, I'm working with mission-minded, entrepreneurial women and what I'm finding is that these women want connection, they want community, they don't want to work alone. They're all coursed out. They're fed up of jumping from course to course, book to book, coach to coach. They don't want to have to read another book or take another course just for one item that they need to know. They just want one thing. They only want to know one thing, and they want somewhere where they're not consulting with self all the time. Yeah, you know what I mean when I say consulting with self. It's like right, you're the one that's got to do the thinking, you've got to do the writing, you've got to do the videoing, and you haven't got anybody else to ask, because if you go and get yourself another coach, it's going to cost you X amount of money to get another coach.

Trish: 18:51

So what I decided was I didn't want to build a group on Facebook. Forgive me, I'm just not a Facebook fan, right? So I just thought I'm just not going to do it. So I use Circle, circleso, and I have been with them for a couple of years now, so I do get more spaces. So if you're familiar with Circle, you might say this won't work for you. But by using Circle, I can invite people into the free element of my membership so they can join the community, and again, I'm doing it three ways. So they can join IW community and this sounds complicated, right, but you would have to be inside to really see just how streamlined this is so they can join the overall influential woman community, and that's free. They can then come and join the influential woman after party, and so I'm inviting you, by the way. So come on over. Oops, I keep hitting this microphone. Come on over to the after party where we talk about these discussions in more depth. And then I have my Kingdom Switch podcast, which is also over there, and they can join in that conversation as well If they want deeper conversations based on the things that I talk about inside Kingdom Switch. That is the free element of what I am doing, so effectively it's like having a Facebook group, but it's just not inside Facebook.

Trish: 20:17

And then the premium subscription, iw Unleashed, is for those women who are entrepreneurs, who have a business, who don't want to do this on their own any longer. They want to be able to collaborate and there's a number of different elements inside the software. So there's IW Unleashed, which is the premium membership, and inside IW Unleashed, this is for the female entrepreneur who, as I said, want to be able to collaborate. They want to work in a community. Inside the membership they can actually co-work, so they can work with other people. Inside we have tech clinics and there's some kind of mini courses inside as well. So for right now, at $29 per month, they get more access to me, they get the workshops, they get some of the mini courses. All of this stuff is inside the membership, but it's all in one place. That's the thing that I really want to get at. My free element and my premium elements are all in one place, so they don't have to consume the course and then come off the platform in order to be a part of the community. They don't have to be a part of the community and then they decide that they want to buy a particular course and they've got to come off the platform. It's all in one place.

Trish: 21:41

And for me, oh my gosh, this has just simplified my business so very much that it's allowed me to be able to do more of the one-to-one that I want to do, because I was thinking, my gosh, if I do this group coaching program which is what I was going to do the influential woman academy it would mean, would I have time to be able to do my one-to-one coaching as well? And I really want to keep doing my one-to-one. Right, I might not do as much of it, but that's an element that I really want to keep. So this enables me to do that. So that's one other way that I'm simplifying my business.

Trish: 22:18

And again, I'm not saying that you've got to do this exactly the same way that I've done it, because one of the things that I have is an overarching framework that I use and within that framework, you can decide you want to launch, for example, you like launching, and so therefore you can launch. You don't have to use ads, for example. Or you might say I don't want to use ads, I want to go organic, and so, rather than me saying you have to do it like this and do it like me, I have a framework and within that framework, it allows you to be you, and if you don't like video, you don't have to do video. If you don't want to do a podcast, you don't have to do a podcast. You've got to like something, though, right? So if you prefer Instagram, you can go use Instagram, but I am not restricting you to the way that I have built my business. Will I give you advice and maybe say that might not work? Because of course, I'm going to do that, and if I don't do that, I'm not really a business coach, but when it comes down to it, it has to be what you're comfortable with.

Trish: 23:23

So that's the way that I have simplified my business got rid of a lot of the friction and just narrowed what I'm offering because it suits me. Right now it feels good, and so you have to find out how can you create less friction in your business and, at the same time, simplify your business so that you have more time to do what you want to do. And yes, it might mean that you've got to learn some more tech. I was absolutely fed up with Descript until everybody just kept saying, oh my gosh, this piece of software is really good. I decided then I'm going to have to go and find out what is so great about this piece of software, and by doing that I'm so glad I did so. I will not be canceling my membership come September. I will be subscribing again for another year because I love the software.

Trish: 24:18

So decide what you want to outsource, decide what you're happy to learn, decide what you're going to keep yourself, and decide how you can eliminate that friction and actually simplify your business so that you're less stressed. The lady I was referring to, who basically said that she stopped delegating to her team and started doing it herself and simplified her business, she's created a million dollar company, right, so it can be done. It can be done. I was going to tell you another story then, but I'm not. I'll save it for another time. That's a cliffhanger, isn't it? Yeah, I'm going to talk about that in the next video and the reason I'm going to do that.

Trish: 25:03

I am going to talk about in the next video how you want to make yourself available, but how, if you make yourself too available, it's going to cause a problem. And I'm going to give you a real example of how this has happened not to me, to somebody else and why it is good to be visible, but it's not always good to be the total face of everything you're doing, because then in your absence, everybody is going to be shouting where is Trish, where is Trish, where is Trish? I used to say when I was in my corporate job. I used to say to people you'll know how good a team is when the manager is absent and the team still runs smoothly. So, on that note, that's it. I will see you in the next episode of the influential woman podcast. Bye for now.