We are wrapping up our theme this month of Finding Your Zone of Genius: Your Key to a Low-Stress, Highly-Profitable Business That You Love!
By now I hope you have a good idea of what your zone of genius is. If you need to catch up, you can click on previous episodes in the resources area below. Now it’s time to start bringing more of it into your business.
How do you start integrating your Zone of Genius into your current work? Start by looking at what you can SWITCH UP. How can you SWITCH UP the tasks you have to do so that you get to use your Zone of Genius more often? Find out how in today’s episode: Creating a Life by Design (plus delegating like a diva).
Welcome to Systems Sunday! We are wrapping up our theme this month of Finding Your Zone of Genius: Your Key to a Low-Stress, Highly-Profitable Business That You Love!
I am Lisa Wells, your Virtual Assistant Trainer.
By now I hope you have a good idea of what your zone of genius is. If you need to catch up, you can click on previous episodes in the resources area. Now it’s time to start bringing more of it into your business.
Today’s topic is Creating a Life by Design (plus delegating like a diva).
How do you start integrating your Zone of Genius into your current work? Start by looking at what you can SWITCH UP. How can you SWITCH UP the tasks you have to do so that you get to use your Zone of Genius more often?
For example:
- Your Zone of Genius is speaking. You have to market your business and usually do it via Facebook and Instagram posts. To SWITCH, change up your marketing plan so you spend less time writing social posts and more time creating Facebook or Instagram Lives or even YouTube.
- Your Zone of Genius is working with numbers. How can you switch up your current offers so you spend more time crunching numbers? Can you offer to develop budgets for your clients? Help them map out their income for the next quarter? Project their next quarter’s earnings?
If SWITCHING isn’t possible, another way to go about this is to simply start by ADDING more of your Zone of Genius into your day. Gay Hendricks suggests building just 10 minutes of “Zone of Genius” time into your day. Take this time to “cultivate your genius.” All you have to do is focus on your Zone of Genius for 10 solid, uninterrupted minutes a day. Even if you’re totally strapped for time, ANYONE can find 10 extra minutes a day.
We’ve already discussed how tricky it can be to float back and forth between your Genius and your Excellence, so take stock at the end of each week. Use a planner or time tracker to remember the tasks you did all week and ask yourself the following questions as you wrap up each week:
- How much time did I spend on work I enjoy this week?
- How confident did I feel doing my work this week? Were there any tasks I didn’t feel confident about?
- What can I eliminate or delegate next week to make my work week more enjoyable and spend more time in my Zone of Genius?
Answering these questions every week will help you think more strategically about how to use your Zone of Genius at work and help increase your long-term satisfaction–and ultimately, your success.
The final and perhaps best way to operate in your Zone of Genius more often is outsourcing.
If you have the budget, start eliminating or outsourcing the parts of your business that aren’t the best use of your time. Begin with your Zone of Incompetence. Remember that “DO NOT DO” List? Pull it out. Look it over.
Hiring people for these tasks means they’ll get done faster, better, and more efficiently than if you tried to do them yourself. And you’ll have more free time to focus on your Zone of Genius tasks while they do this other work for you.
Ultimately, the goal is to hire people whose own Zone of Genius is your Zone of Incompetence. When you hire others to do work in THEIR Zones of Genius, they’ll be happier, more productive, and excited about the work they’re doing, which will lead to better results in your business, for your clients, and for the way the team operates as a whole. Talk about a DREAM TEAM!
And you might not think that there are people out there who like to do what you don’t like to do, this is what I hear all the time from clients – “I just don’t like to do the tech work” or “I don’t like setting up a system.” It’s not in their zone of genius so they hire out for that.
Outsourcing isn’t necessarily easy but once you start, you can see a payoff pretty quickly. To get started, first take a look at that list of tasks from your Zones of Incompetence and Competence. These are the tasks that you either eliminate if they’re not necessary for your business to run or you delegate.
Now, group these tasks together into separate categories. For instance, all your money tasks can be put into a Bookkeeping category. Your writing tasks can go under the Marketing or Content Creation categories, etc. Now when you look at each category, you’ll have a better understanding of whether you need a virtual assistant or a different type of specialist, such as a bookkeeper or a content writer.
Create a list of interview questions, including background and experience questions for your candidates. If you want to choose the best person for the job – someone who will treat YOUR business like their own – take part in a formal interview process. You want an experienced contractor with years of experience. If you try to nickel and dime your contractors to stay under budget, you’ll attract people with little experience who are prone to ask more questions or make more mistakes, trust me on this, simply because they don’t know any better.
To find candidates, start by asking your business peers. They will let you know about their experiences, especially those that weren’t so great. But don’t get discouraged; a few poor outsourcing experiences does NOT mean it’s not worth the effort to find contractors. Find the right contractor and you’ll know very quickly if it’s a match made in heaven…or not.
During the interview process, also trust your gut instinct. Someone can give all the right answers but if something doesn’t feel quite right, acknowledge it, and move on. You remember your interviewing days; not everyone is suitable for every job so you should never feel guilty about not hiring someone…even if it’s someone you know, is a relative, or a friend of a friend.
Ask for references and/or portfolios and then take the time to make those calls or look at their samples. Again, someone may sound perfect until you hear about a past situation or see a sample of their work. No shame; move on to the next candidate.
Over time, you’ll get better at outsourcing. Once you’ve gotten into a groove with the people who help you out in your Zone of Incompetence, you can start looking to hire people in your Zone of Competence and eventually even your Zone of Excellence, so that you’re spending more and more time in your Zone of Genius.
This means everybody is getting things done faster, better, and easier–and there’s really no better path to profitability than that!
I have a couple of resources for you. The first is my Let Go and Delegate free training course where I show you how to effectively outsource and delegate, even if you have trouble letting go. It includes my 5 steps to effective delegation: how to delegate, what you should NOT delegate, and how to delegate when you have no one to delegate to. You can go to the Free Training tab on the navbar or click the link in the resources area below.
And second, I have a complete bundle of outsourcing templates to help you find and hire that perfect partner with project listing and spec templates, checklists, templates, hiring sites, and suggested interview questions. You can find this in my shop or click the link in the resources area below.
If you enjoyed this episode and want more tips and strategies, check out my Discover Your Zone of Genius training system. You’ll learn how to figure out what naturally fills you up so you can tap into more flow and fun and how to create a life by design for more income and less overwhelm. You’ll get a training guide and accompanying workbook complete with worksheets, 4-week done-for-you calendar, and a handy checklist.
You can find the product below or head over to my VA Business Builder Boutique by clicking on Shop in the menu bar.
I will see you soon with another Systems Sunday, have a great week!
Catch up on other “Finding Your Zone of Genius” episodes + resources mentioned in the video:
Did you enjoy this episode and want to put it into action? Check out this training system!
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