How to Outsource to a Virtual Assistant
A complete guide to hiring and training a virtual assistant to free up your time for higher-level work and get more done
Modern-day productivity is more than just getting a lot done. You also want to create more time to do what you love.
Yet many of us find ourselves trapped doing tasks and activities that leave us drained of energy. The worst is when you’re so overwhelmed and so drained that you can’t even work up enthusiasm for the parts of your job that you do love.
I fell into this trap when I was first doing my podcast show. I’d line up the amazing guests and have them spill their secrets on the recording. This is the part I loved doing the most.
After that, I had to go through cleaning the audio file, adding the intro and outro, writing the show notes, creating the album art cover, uploading to iTunes, and sharing the show on social media and email.
The post-production was overwhelming. The post-production sucked up all my time. And, because I didn’t love doing that work, it also sucked up my energy and morale.
Eventually, I got fed up and hit on the idea that I only wanted to work in what I considered my “Genius Zone” and that I wanted to outsource everything else. That’s how I ended up getting started with—and then getting really efficient at—managing virtual assistants.
Your Genius Zone
The ‘Genius Zone’ comes from the book by Gary Keller called ‘The One Thing’, which talks about focusing on the one thing you’re great at (or a genius at). It doesn’t mean no one else is better than you at that one thing. Rather, it means that you’re better at your one thing than a majority of the population.
Take the podcast example: I figured I could get someone else to run the entire show for me. Yet I found that my favorite part of the whole process was doing the interviews. Even my guests were telling me I was a great interviewer. (And nobody ever told me I was great at adding intros and outros.)
So I wanted to find out what would happen if I focused on what I might be a ‘genius’ at (interviewing) rather than working on improving my weaknesses…
