The Secrets to Outsourcing to Give You Time Back – With Rodney Allen

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

00.00 Nyrie Roos: Hi there, I’m Nyrie Roos from Leads Explosion and a very warm welcome today. Today we are joined by the amazing Rodney Allen with over 35 years of business ownership experience, it is Rodney’s mission to enable small and medium-sized businesses to be able to compete and prosper in today’s very competitive marketplace. Residing in the Philippines since 2010. raising a family and running a business has brought Rodney a wealth of cultural knowledge which he is happy to share with you to enhance the working relationship with your Filipino staff. My question today for you Rodney, or one of the questions to start with is what is the single best thing about outsourcing tasks that coaches, consultants and entrprenuers wanting to grow their business in 2024?

01:05 Rodney Allen: The single best thing is delgation leai=ding to more freedom. Personal freedom.

01:18 Nyrie Roos: Love it, Love it. That is so true.

01:19 Rodney Allen:  That’s what it tis all about. We didn’t get into business to have a job. 

01: 33 Nyrie Roos. So let’s just launch in as I have 7 questions for you today and the first question I have got for you is who is your ideal client?

01:41 Rodney Allen:  We serve small to medium size businesses that need cost effective administrative customer support and marketing support  that enables them to compete with the big companies and not have to do it themselves.

01:26 Nyrie Roos. And you’re equally at home strategizing for C Suite execs or business owners. So, do you work with small business as well as C suite Geoff?

01:3 5 Rodney Allen: In fact most of my work is done with small to medium businesses.

01:26 Nyrie Roos: Ok great. Do you enjoy doing that?

01:41 Rodney Allen:  Yeh love it.

02:00 Nyrie Roos: And that’s jus so, it’s like a burden has been lifted to take that step and actually do that isn’t it?

02:08 Rodney Allen:  Absolutely. 

02:12 Nyrie Roos:  So from that what is the problem that you would really solve for people who engage with your services? 

02:17 Rodney Allen:  We relieve business owners of the day to day tasks that they are quite buried in and they are either doing the tasks or they are thinking about these small tasks that are needed to run the business but whent he business owners can get rid of those taska and give them to skilled competent virtual assistants it really helps them to be able to move towards working on their business instead of in the business.

02:49 Nyrie Roos: Absolutely. And I know just personally. like I’m quite creative at times and if I’ve got all that other stuff going on or it’s in the back of my mind. like I have to get that done and this done it just takes away from actually getting to what actually grows my business. Instead of the operational side of things. But you also supply for the growth side of things in the services that you provide as well.  

03:16 Rodney Allen: Yeh sure.  In marketing and business development, LinkedIn outreach and following up on the leads we are part of the funnel, we are not the entire funnel. You know on the very top end, I like to say the very point of the funnel is still on the business owner but there are so many lower levels of that funnel that you can’t get to the end without doing all the other stuff and it’s just not the best use of your time. 

03:45 Nyrie Roos: Yes I couldn’t agree more. So, question number 3, what are the typical symptoms people experience with the problems you’ve described? 

03:53 Rodney Allen: You know most business owners and everything I have to say I have been guilty of and it’s how I got to where I am, analysing my mistakes but a real big one is nobody can do it as good as me so I’ll just do it myself. Or by the time I train somebody to do it I might as well just do it myself. Which is true if it’s a one-off task but if it’s a repetitive task, after the second or third go around you’re still doing it unless you have trained somebody else. But I find personally once I’ve trained someone it’s amazing, not only can they not do it as good as me, but they do it better than me. 

04:43 Nyrie Roos: They certainly do. So what are the common mistakes that people make when they are trying to solve that problem?

04:50 Rodney Allen: Not letting go. Just let it go, do it slowly. Do little tests and tweak the little things that aren’t broken, but give it up. You know you mentioned creativity, and if you’re buried in the day to day not only is your time used up but your brain waves are and it just crushes your creativity and at the end of your day you’ve done all the tasks and you don’t have anything left to spend growing your business and how to do that. So let go. 

05:30 Nyrie Roos: Absolutely. And I think one of the key things you just said then, it really was a highlight for me was just start with the small things and start letting go. 

05:43 Rodney Allen: Correct, yes. And you’ll figure it out. I’m not saying let go of everything, you’ll figure out as you go which to let go of and which to not.  And it enables you to mostly, you end up keeping the things you like doing and the things that grow your business. Everything else let go.

06:02 Nyrie Roos: Yeh for sure. So question number 5, what is one valuable free action that the listeners and audience can implement that will help them solve the problems you have touched on today? 

06:17 Rodney Allen: Again, it’s one step at a time. What can I delegate, what can I let go of? So make a list of everything you do and that will become really obvious what are the repetitive tasks and which of those repetitive tasks can I let go of and follow up by just making a screen recording of you actually doing those tasks and narrating on that screen recording, what you are doing and why you are doing it and how it fits into the big picture.  And then it’s ready to delegate from the video. 

06:50 Nyrie Roos: That’s an awesome thing to think about, I never would have thought about doing that. That’s a brilliant value add. 

06:58 Rodney Allen: And once you’ve done that put it on a mind map. A mind map is the best thing you can do to sleep at night. When it’s all out of your head, and all on paper you don’t have to lie in bed at night thinking about it. 

07:20 Nyrie Roos: That’s so true it’s gone then. So question number 6 what’s one valuable free resource can you direct people to that is going to help even more?

07:51 Rodney Allen: If you go to https://globalofficeworks.com/thecompletevatasklist/ there are a couple of hundred tasks in there that will really get you thinking ‘oh yeh, I could give my VA that.’ So whether you have a VA now and you’re not sure they are being fully utilised or you think about getting them that will be a great resource for you to take a look at and work through. 

08:22 Nyrie Roos: Awesome thank you very much. And question number 7 what is the one question I should have asked you but I didn’t? 

08:32 Rodney Allen: Culture. One of the reasons why people fail with Philippino virtual assistants, there’s a couple of  reasons. One is the actual business owner is not prepared with the things I’ve just mentioned. But a big reason is understanding the culture and how the communication waves into that culture. So, I can share with you some YouTube videos that will really help you, but  few key tips are just remember  Philippino virtual assistants treat family first.  Now typically us westerners treat work first and that comes above everything else. Philippino’s are very family first, you just have to acknowledge that and work around that, they are very shy, polite, non-confrontational, they are going to answer Sir/Maam even if you say, I;ve lived here now for 13 years and when I first was here I was really uncomfortable with being called Sir and it was like ‘Can you please not call me Sir’ and it was like ‘Okay Sir.’ So you’ve just got to live with it, it’s part of the culture and it’s a boss/respect or an age/respect thing and they do it with everybody not just you. The very one thing. if I had to give one tip about working with a Philippino virtual assistant, and I would say this is how to combat, their answer is Yes all the time. No matter what the question is their answer is Yes. So instead of saying something that enables them to say Yes like ‘did you understand?’ Of course, they will say Yes because they don’t want to lose face and be shy by saying No I didn’t understand that. It puts a bit of sha]me on them if they didn’t understand. So, a really good question is ‘did I explain that well enough to you?’ And what that does is it puts the burden of shame on yourself.  And it gives them the opportunity to say ‘ no, you didn’t explain that well.’ And then you can have another go at it.  That’s probably the hottest tip of the day.

11:07 Nyrie Roos: Okay, cool thank you very much for that. Look I must say my experience with the Phillipino’s has been absolutely wonderful. They are all that you say and they are all about community and they make you feel like you’re part of that community.  

11:22 Rodney Allen: Most definitely.  I’ve got a million stories. I was waiting to catch a bus yesterday and the gut from the store and gave me a chair. Just went into his house and pulled out a chair, and said while you are waiting for the bus you need a chair. It’s beautiful.

11:44 Nyrie Roos: Well Rodney thank you very much for your time today, really appreciate it and thank you for carving this time out of your day to talk with us.