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780. Embracing the Gig Economy: Opportunities, Challenges, and Best Practices (rerun) · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
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• 0:27
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• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, Brian Smith here with the iN team series and your daily influence.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And today we are going to tackle something that, well, quite frankly, we at iA have been doing almost the entire time we've been in existence.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: we're going to talk about the rise of the gig economy.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: The opportunities and challenges that everybody is faced with because of the gig economy.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm often asked when this term comes up, what exactly is the gig economy?
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is there something to do with technology?
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Does it have something to do with gigabytes?
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does it mean?
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, quite literally, if you think about bands and concerts, the gig economy is where individuals hold themselves out one gig at a time or one project at a time, one short-term job at a time.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what we're seeing is people are looking for balance, the mentality of working 40 years
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: getting your gold watch at the end of it.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's changed.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, those of us that have been in business for a long time, we've been in business 28 years at I.A.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'd like that stability, but more and more we are pivoting into an era where people can take on fractional or gig jobs, make a living, and have a balance of life that really suits what their expectations are for themselves.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: plays right into our belief in the Iron Team series.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as I said, I, A, has been doing this almost since our inception.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have been providing fractional leadership and tactical services to our clients for 28 years.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a gig.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: We get hundreds of not thousands of gigs a year.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We rely on it for our livelihood at I, A, but it's now changed.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have hundreds of thousands of people who are relying on the gig economy.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fractional professional environment out there is blowing up and the reason it is is that it's really expensive to hire a full time leader for an organization that's just growing.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you can get the same power out of hiring somebody part-time and that person can have a more interesting work life.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: That person might spend one to many days working on one client and one to many days on another and one to many days on another.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know a number of gig economy professionals who have seven eight nine clients and they pivot between them all.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Working somewhere between three to five to seven hours a week, they get their 40 hours in still, but it's fractional for each client.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes they lose a client and it gets down to where they have one, two or three clients, but the gig economy is creating opportunities for them to go out and add more.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: places like Fiverr and some of the other organizations online that take these people who live in the gig economy and bring them to market and the opportunities for us are just as great.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: We no longer have to if we don't want to.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: hire a full-time person as we grow.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: We can reach into these gig organizations, pull out a person that has the technical skill set, and meets our cultural requirements, and put them on a project for a short time.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as we grow, we can do that until we get to a point when we're ready to place that permanent person.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when we push back on those people that want to live in the
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: They understand that it was a gig, a short term engagement for them.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: The challenges are that as a gig practitioner, it's feast or famine sometimes.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: My advice for you if you want to be in the gig economy is establish some partnerships with organizations that are in the industry you want to have influence in.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Companies like us use contractors all the time, we use over 200, what I call dedicated contractors.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those dedicated contractors are people that we use over and over and over again for our clients around the world.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of them, I have been working with for over 20 years.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Another challenge is that sometimes the gig availability pool can get really shallow.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Evan flow of the economy challenges us.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right now, there is a plethora.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of people available.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: The gig economy or the the gig labor pool is fairly deep right now.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: However, it can get pretty shallow.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it seems to end in flow with the economy and that's part of the challenge that we have is that taking advantage of this gig economy can be more difficult for organizations if they have broader needs.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Meeting one or two is one thing, but if you're trying to gig out projects across your entire organization, that can get difficult.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: The other problem with it is cohesiveness.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: We find that sometimes when we bring somebody in for a short-term project, the onboarding of that person, the training of that person, getting that person integrated can be a little bit more difficult.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes the approach from the contractor isn't as committed because they know they're going to leave.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you are one of those people who are a contractor and you live off the gig economy,
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: take each client like you would if you were going to stay there forever.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Treat them like they are the most important aspect of your work life.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because in that area of influence, in that amount of time that you have a gig with them, they should be that important.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: you should be holding yourself out and being the best you can be.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You are best self at all times during your gig.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Challenge yourself to step up and integrate into the organizations that you're doing these gigs.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're having these people come into your organization, make part of the onboarding process, a process that allows you to understand them, establish communication, understanding, and make them a part of your team, make them feel welcome.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you know in one day, one week, one month, or even many months, they're going to be gone.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: For the time they're there, their responsibility, their influence in your influence are synergistic for whatever goal you have together.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So treat it that way.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do not treat people like their temporary, do not treat jobs and gigs like their temporary.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: treat them like they are the most important thing in your initial and immediate area of influence until they're done.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: This gig economy isn't going to go away.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's going to grow as organizations and the economies continue to grow in fragment.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are going to be more opportunities for people to pick up side hustles and side jobs and gig jobs.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Remote working is going to feed into this technology is going to feed into this.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And my biggest advice is, is treat every gig like it's your last, treat every gig, like it's the most important thing in your work influence at that moment.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as organizations hiring these people, treat them like they're yours.
• 8:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you will see a great cohesive team built.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: It can ebb and flow as you bring them on and let them go and get your projects done.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Growing your organization and fulfilling the mission of yourself and your team.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And theirs has the individuals doing the work.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope that you have a little bit better understanding and appreciation for what the gig economy is.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of the opportunities that you might have in challenges that we face, and that if you're involved in any gigs on the receiving end hiring people into your organization, or if you're going out and getting hired, that you will make that engagement, the best that you can be so that you all come out, reaching your goals, and finishing the missions that you've started.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you all have a great day.