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Employees: Following Up or Nagging? Is There a Difference? · The Perfect RIA

0:20
Jamie Shilanski: Y'all plan for this.
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What is the difference between follow up and nagging? Marriage.
0:41
Welcome back TPR nation. This is Jamie Shilanski, an episode of
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worlds to conquer, and today I want to talk to both the leaders
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of the organization as well as their team members. So if your
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team members are not already actively listening to The
0:54
Perfect RIA, you're going to want to share this episode.
0:56
Because I bet if you have one or more employees, they struggle
1:01
with this topic habitually. So one of the very first thing
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Matthew Jarvis tells people when they say, Hey, I'm a
1:07
solopreneur, which is just one person. You don't really have
1:09
the revenue yet to support hiring another person. What
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should I do? What is the best way for me to the very first
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person? Advice that he gives you is, go hire somebody. Go hire
1:19
yourself a fractional a part time and executive however you
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want to structure it, however you can make it happen, but go
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hire somebody to do the tasks that are taking up a lot of your
1:30
time that aren't worth the revenue that you want to make.
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So you might be thinking to yourself, but I don't have an
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hourly rate. That's not how I'm paid. I'm paid on a quarterly
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basis. I'm making commission. Of course you are, of course, you
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are your financial advisor, all right, but we all have hourly
1:43
rates, and it's just math. We just back into it, right? So
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what you do is that you take the revenue that you're earning at
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the divide it by the number of appointments that you have, not
1:53
times that you're playing office, and then tack on a
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couple of extra times that you have to actually do the work
1:58
that you told clients that you were going to get done, and then
2:01
you'll come up with your hourly rate. So let's just say, for
2:04
conversation, your hourly rate is $100 an hour. And so right
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now, you're making, you know, everything that you do that is
2:10
client related is $100 an hour, and there are 2080 hour, King
2:16
hours out of the calendar year. And so you're looking at it, and
2:19
you're saying, All right, well, here's all these laundry lists
2:21
of tasks that I have to do. I have to, you know, update my
2:24
insurance licensing. I've got to get my Eno. I've got to file for
2:27
the state, you know, business license. Oh, gosh, you know, I
2:30
need the irrigation person to come out and work on my
2:32
sprinkler. I need to do all of these different tasks that pop
2:36
up for all of us, no matter where we are at in our careers.
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Well, you look at that and say, All right, is this task is
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following up with the irrigation person, $100 an hour task. And
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if the answer is yes, go do that task. But if the answer to that
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question is no, this is just a follow up phone call to make
2:55
sure the contractor is coming out, get it scheduled, make sure
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my spouse knows all of these things cool. Go hire somebody
3:02
for $25 an hour to do that task. Now, Jamie, how do I find
3:07
somebody? How do I hire them? Here's tip number one, do not
3:10
look in your gene pool to hire someone. Do not look at your
3:14
family and say, Hey, this cute niece of mine needs a job. I
3:18
have some of these tasks to do. They don't need a lot of time. I
3:20
only mean five or 10 hours out of the week. I'm gonna hire this
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person. Because when you hire that niece of yours and she's,
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let's just say, 1718, years old, and you're trying to give her a
3:30
fresh start, etc, what happens when the family has an outing
3:35
that they want to go on, but you have work that you need to get
3:38
done, or what happens when she wants to go to a concert or a
3:41
soccer game or all of these different activities that are
3:43
going to occupy her life. She is not going to treat your job as a
3:48
real job. She will not do it that takes a certain caliber
3:51
person and a certain caliber of a boss in order to make that
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person treat it that way. They're going to see you as the
3:57
aunt, as the uncle. They are not going to see it as real work you
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because you as the leader did not set up the expectation for
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it to be a real job. And by the way, by the way, I am one tough
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cookie, and when I parent, it is strict, it is firm, it I'm
4:15
encouraging, I'm supportive, but there is no gentle parenting in
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this household. I am going to make sure that I am setting you
4:22
up for success by being a better human being. My responsibility
4:27
as a parent is to make you a good and functioning adult. That
4:32
is my responsibility, and how you take those lessons is up to
4:35
you. That's my parenting philosophy. So when I tell you
4:39
that they will not see it as a real job. I am speaking from
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experience that as hard and as candor and as fierce as I could
4:47
be, I even tiptoed in with my own in different ventures that
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we have outside of our Ria, my own family members. I raised my
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niece as a daughter in this weird and maybe this is what all
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nieces are, daughter kind of sister relationship and my son,
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and they're about the same age, you know, a couple years apart,
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and yet both of them will come to me with questions that they
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should not be asking me. And I have to stop myself, and I have
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to say, are you asking the CEO of this company what you're
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doing as an employee, or are you asking me to listen to you as a
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mom or as an aunt, and then I have to check them from
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inappropriately entering into an area where they're asking me for
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permission to work from home, for driving in late, for being
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able to go on this family trip. Whatever the thing is, you have
5:37
to set yourself up for that. And if it happens to me, it will
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100% for sure happen to you. And here's the worst thing of all,
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you can't fire them, because then you have to face your
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spouse. You have to face your mom, your dad, whoever it is,
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and know that you are the jerk that fired the family member
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because they weren't doing the work that needed to get done. So
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when I tell you to look outside your gene pool, it is not just
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for your benefit. It's also for them, because you are robbing
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them of the resiliency it takes to hold a job. Getting a job
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super easy, holding a job little bit trickier, and when you allow
6:14
them to take all of these different privileges, you would
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not allow anyone else in that role to take. You have done them
6:22
an incredible injustice, and you have hurt them from becoming a
6:27
good and functioning adult. So if you're looking for people to
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hire, I say, Look outside your gene pool. You guys already know
6:34
we've partnered up with our friends at BELAY. BELAY is, you
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know, I think they're running probably, if I'm really Canada,
6:41
about it about an 80% success ratio on placing people with us,
6:46
and that's okay. I know that I hired a BELAY assistant to help
6:50
me as well. And one of my organizations, I found that my
6:53
executive assistant at the RA was getting overwhelmed with
6:56
just what he was doing in that organization. And so when I have
6:59
this other multi million dollar company, I needed somebody else
7:02
to help me start executing and following up on certain tasks. I
7:05
partnered up with delay and I hired at the time. I couldn't
7:09
conceive in my mind that I would need any more than, you know,
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maybe five hours of somebody's time. We get 90 days into this,
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and she comes back and says, Hey, is there any authorization
7:18
for more hours? Because I'm not getting everything done as quick
7:20
as you want me to, because I'm kind of constrained by this. Now
7:24
you can work with somebody or you can work with somebody
7:26
exclusive. And I said, You know what, you're smashing these
7:29
tasks. I've got a ton more that I'm starting to give you,
7:31
because I'm now engaging your competency level, and it was
7:34
super high. And so I said, Yeah, absolutely. Let's, let's bring
7:37
on some more hours. And so for that, I think I'm spending, you
7:41
know, between two or $3,000 a month for somebody so that I'm
7:46
spending between 24,040 8000 on an assistant in a part time
7:51
capacity that's working. And I'm saying part time, but I think
7:54
she probably does about, you know, 50 hours a week. And guys,
7:59
that's exceptional. I'm not doing any benefits. This is a
8:01
contractor. It's a business. Write off. I don't have to worry
8:04
about any of those type of HR things, if you will. With this
8:08
particular employee, I could just load them up with tasks and
8:11
watch them smash through the list. Now, the reason I say it's
8:13
an 80% 80% success ratio is I did have a really great virtual
8:18
assistant with BELAY, but then, you know, as we just picked up
8:21
our stride, probably four months into it, she was sitting for her
8:25
thesis and needed to take off because she was getting her
8:28
doctor in psychology, etc. She did a phenomenal job. It was
8:31
great. We had to transition to somebody else, so I found that
8:34
interruptive towards the work I was trying to get done. But
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that's gonna happen, right? This is an indentured servitude. If I
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hired somebody full time in that role, I'm still going to run
8:44
into that same problem. I have people leave, people move on to
8:47
their prospects. People have babies, people's husbands, PCs,
8:50
whatever the excuse is, we're still going to have that
8:53
turnover. But guess what? I didn't have to sit but in the
8:57
interviews until the very end, when BELAY had already sourced
9:01
the type of person. And the very first thing that they did was
9:03
they had an interview with me and see me just fly through what
9:07
I was looking for. And then those candidates got to watch me
9:10
and see if that was a good fit. Now that was really important,
9:12
because if you are watching a video of me, recording and
9:16
lining out all the work that you get done and what success like,
9:19
what my philosophies are, doesn't resonate with everyone.
9:22
I mean, if I had a badge monitor to wear, it's probably not play
9:26
well with others, because I'm not suitable for all audiences.
9:29
Not everyone finds this type of communication acceptable or
9:33
calming or productive. They're just not into it. Totally cool.
9:37
I get that myself. I There are other people I can't stand. I'd
9:40
rather bang my head against a wall, then work with an
9:42
individual just because I'm not connect with them on the way
9:46
that needs to needs to happen. And so these individuals got an
9:49
opportunity to watch me in action and then decide if that
9:52
was the kind of role that they wanted to step into. So they
9:54
were already a little bit familiar with got to smash
9:58
through these tasks. So if you don't know where to start or who
10:01
to hire, hit us up at lifestyle@theperfectria.com
10:04
We'll make it into BELAY. There are some other great programs
10:08
out there. I used to be a really big fan of the mom and the mom
10:14
program takes stay at home moms that are looking for part time
10:18
jobs and puts them to work if you genuinely have 10 or fewer
10:23
hours a week in which you just need help, that's a great
10:26
program. If you need somebody more robust. I don't like it
10:30
anymore, and here's why I am so freaking sick and tired of
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talking to employees who are in school pickup lines. I don't
10:37
know why we all thought that we had to hand deliver our children
10:41
to school every single day in this country, all of a sudden,
10:43
but it is ridiculous. Every single time you know they're
10:48
like, oh, it's only 15 minutes for my house. You are not taking
10:50
a 15 minute break. This is not a 15 minute break to go pick up
10:54
your kids. And you are lying to yourself if you think it is. Go
10:57
read. Go study deep focus. Go figure out different books for
11:01
you to learn how the brain works. Because if you know you
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have to know for something, then you are preparing for it an hour
11:08
or 30 minutes mentally ahead of time. And then, even if you're
11:11
running out the door because you decide to do some task, in
11:13
between that space, you're still driving to that place. You're
11:16
returning phone calls, you're picking up the kids, you're
11:18
waiting for the kids to come out like and I've never once seen a
11:22
kid book it out of school without hugging or high fiving
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or talking to everyone like it summer camp like you're never
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going to see these people again for another year. Get freaking
11:31
hard. Let's go. I've got stuff to do, and so I don't like
11:35
hiring moms that have those obligations right now. I find it
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really interruptive, and they're not really focused on getting
11:42
stuff done. Now, if I had somebody that was a great stay
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at home mom, and they just they knew that they could give me
11:49
three or four hours out of their day, and this is the time they
11:52
could focus. Fantastic, fantastic. There is a wealth of
11:57
knowledge and skill set out there for those individuals. But
12:00
do not deceive yourself. If you are stay at home mom, you cannot
12:03
have the full time job also, I just, I really don't think so,
12:07
because you're super distracted or sloppy, you're either not
12:09
paying attention to your kids or you're not paying attention to
12:11
work. You don't get to have both. You need to pick which one
12:14
it is. And I'm not saying you can't balance it with somebody.
12:18
I'm saying it's incredibly hard, and I think there's a lot of
12:21
pressure on women in particular to be able to do it all, and we
12:25
have to look at, what does it all mean? What are we actually
12:28
trying to accomplish? And I'm a go getter. I'm a beast, right in
12:33
that fashion, but I will tell you right now, if I was had
12:36
little ones at home and was focused on them and their
12:39
upbringing, their schooling, their education, all of those
12:41
things I cannot get done most of my day, no way, no how, not
12:45
without all the interruptions that are constantly coming. So
12:49
those are the things that you need to think about. So if we
12:51
looked at your hourly rate and we looked at hiring somebody for
12:53
an assistant, that's how we would do the math on it, and we
12:56
would have them go do all those tasks. Why have them go do all
12:59
those tasks? But Jamie, that's an expense, and I'm trying to
13:01
increase my revenue. Yeah, but you're not increasing your
13:04
revenue because you're focused on all those other little
13:07
trivial tasks. And you're not prioritizing who you need to be
13:12
in the next few years. You're not thinking about, how do I get
13:16
ahead and get where I need to be? When you get out of bed and
13:19
you finish up your morning success ritual. The very first
13:22
thing you should be thinking about is who I'm going to be
13:24
next year. What does my income look like? What does my clients
13:27
look like? What does my practice look like? What does my life
13:29
look like? And designing things and making decisions on how
13:33
you're going to be proactive about your day instead of
13:36
reactive about your day, that should be your prioritization.
13:40
And if you can take a bunch of those remedial tasks and hand
13:43
them over to somebody else and finish them so that way you can
13:47
make decisions when you have all the information gathered. You
13:50
guys total success. Move, total success. Move. The most
13:54
successful people know how to delegate their time. They know
13:58
how to delegate their time. It's not because they're lazy, it's
14:02
because they are simply evaluating what they need to do
14:05
and when they need to do it. So there are times that you want to
14:08
make decisions and do things for yourself. This isn't a matter
14:11
of, Oh, you just hire everything forever, you know, all this kind
14:14
of stuff. I mean, I was looking at you guys, know, garage
14:17
experts. So they come in and they epoxy or for Plus, they do
14:20
these, like, European style cabinets. I mean, it is mouth
14:23
dropping, gorgeous garage work. And so I had the guy come out
14:26
and gave me a quote. And the quote to our garage was, like,
14:29
$35,000 to install some storage shelving and to bring in a
14:34
couple wardrobe European style cabinets and epoxy my floor. And
14:38
I look at that, and I'm like, Dude, this is an afternoon for
14:41
me, not the epoxy part. I'm totally going to outsource that,
14:44
but this is an afternoon of having a Lowe's delivery drop
14:47
all the stuff on my house. I can drill the stuff into my wall.
14:49
I'm not spending $25,000 doing this task. And I kind of like
14:54
it. I like using the drill and doing that kind of stuff in my
14:57
garage sometimes. And so instead, I just went through his
15:01
list. I gave it over to my assistant. I said, Go price all
15:04
these things out with a comparable product that's
15:06
locally delivered, and then tell me what the final price was. I
15:09
found out that instead of $35,000 I could do it for $2,700
15:15
and I said, Great, have everything dropped off and
15:17
delivered at my house, and I'll get this done, and then we'll
15:20
schedule the epoxy part of it. That was a good resource of my
15:23
time. She went and did all the grunt work. She did all the
15:25
ordering, she did all that tracking down. And then when it
15:28
arrives, I'm just gonna have to unbox it and then drill the
15:30
stuff into the wall and set all everything up how I want it to
15:33
be. But then there are times that when I, like have to change
15:36
the battery on my grizzly Yamaha grizzly four wheeler that they
15:42
put in the most like, I have to seven things to get to this
15:47
battery, and I'm sitting down there and I know that I'm behind
15:50
on my content, and I'm looking at this battery, and I'm
15:53
unbolting stuff, I'm unclipping it, I'm trying to get the rack
15:56
off, because it has the front rack. And I was like, Wait, hold
15:58
on pause. What am I doing? And I had to step back and say, Okay,
16:02
I could spend the next three hours changing this battery,
16:06
because lord knows something's going to go wrong when it always
16:09
does, and figure out how to do this myself. Or I could stop
16:13
have my household manager, have somebody come out and change out
16:16
this battery, and then I'm going to go record X amount of content
16:19
or write X amount of articles that are going to bring in. You
16:21
know, I know, every time I publish an article, how many
16:24
prospects it's going to bring in. And so I'm like, nope, stop.
16:27
I'm now, I'm now wasting my time. This is not something that
16:29
I'm going to dedicate towards doing. So this delegation of
16:33
time needs to go through that filter. It needs to go through
16:37
that filter of where am I in my highest and best use it. When
16:42
does it make sense to hire somebody else to do work that
16:45
they can do, but nobody can do the work that I'm doing. I can't
16:48
hire somebody else to go do what I know needs to get done,
16:51
because it falls on me. I have a unique skill set, and so I know
16:55
it's not very easy for me to outsource that particular
16:59
activity. So that's the filter you have to use every single day
17:04
when you're looking at your tasks. And if you're in that
17:07
growth stage, if you're in that building stage, if there are
17:10
things, if you don't have an executive assistant, and you
17:13
want to double your income in the next year to two years or
17:16
three years, what are you doing? There's no way you're going to
17:20
make it happen. We all have the same amount of time. So now we
17:24
get into this role of hire this executive assistant, but they're
17:27
not getting things done the way that I want them to get it done,
17:30
or as fast, or they're totally allowing the ball to drop all
17:34
these kind of things. And so when I talk to assistants across
17:38
multiple fields, what they say is, you know, I put it on my
17:42
boss's calendar. I've done everything. I've got a protocol
17:45
in place. And before you hire someone, you need to flush out a
17:48
communication policy. And this communication policy tells
17:51
people how they can connect and how they can approach you on
17:54
different subjects and the appropriate things to bring to
17:56
your attention. And then this way you're not getting bogged
17:59
down, but don't need your attention or don't need to get
18:03
escalated, because team members don't know what needs to get
18:07
escalated and what doesn't. Here's a great, trivial example.
18:11
I told you, I have two executive assistants for two different
18:14
organizations. One of them's here in Alaska. One of them is
18:16
in North Carolina. And I gave, I was kind of looking at my
18:20
workload. And I gave the North Carolina some of my July Alaska
18:24
plans, and I said, Hey, I want to go on this camping trip. I'm
18:27
going to have this experience with my girlfriends. We're going
18:29
to need the boats. We're going to need the kayaks. We're going
18:31
to check out the rivers. We're going to do all of these
18:34
different things. And then my family's going to come down and
18:36
join us. So I want to kind of tie this on to it, etc. And I
18:39
said, please go do it. And she said, Okay, no problem. Well,
18:41
she's going through her filter of prioritization. And July was
18:45
a long time away. And so she was like, Okay, well, I'll get that
18:49
done. Kind of the first part of July. You can't get it done. The
18:52
first part of July in Alaska, you absolutely cannot do you
18:55
know why? Because all the slots are going to be filled. July is,
19:00
if they're in earth, it is July in Alaska, and it is the most
19:05
extraordinary place to visit. But we don't have a ton of
19:08
resources. There's one campground one. It has 50, you
19:12
know, slots, 75 slots, whatever it is. And that's it for where
19:16
we were going. And if you don't have a spot, you're not there.
19:19
And so I looked at that task and she wasn't getting it done. I
19:22
said, Hold on, whoa. I delegated this wrong person I need to give
19:25
her in Alaska, because guess what? She knows. She knows she
19:29
knows where things are. She knows how that it's going to be
19:31
booked fast. She knows the different ferry schedules. She
19:33
knows when I say that, hey, we got to catch a boat to go across
19:36
to catch Mac, then she knows that we're going to need that
19:39
transportation to and from there's no cell service. There's
19:42
no phone, so there's no way to call if we get out to these
19:45
remote agents and we don't have a pickup for the return. And so
19:49
really looking at the prioritization of tasks and
19:52
making sure who is doing what understands the assignment. And
19:56
that's an oversight that I had made, and I needed to stop and
20:00
look at what was getting done. And this person does not
20:03
understand the logistics of how this works. I shouldn't have
20:06
given it to him, my bad. I'm gonna take that back from you,
20:09
and I'm gonna give it over to this other person. And here's
20:11
why I'm doing that, and the way that the executive assistant who
20:14
had the work taken away said, Oh, that's wonderful. I'm sure
20:17
there's a lot of nuances that I didn't know about. I totally
20:20
appreciate it. Here's what I've done so far. Please let me know,
20:23
and that's how it needs to be approached with team members.
20:27
They need to understand the how and the why. You're giving them
20:30
the work that they need to get done. But one of them says to
20:33
me, Okay, listen, I am doing everything I'm supposed to do.
20:37
I'm following the communication policy. I'm following our
20:40
process for putting tasks that only my financial advisor, only
20:44
my executive, only my leader, can get done, but they're still
20:48
not getting done. And then I've got vendors, centers of
20:52
influence, clients, whoever following up with me. And when a
20:57
client, and this is, this is really where you have to sit
21:00
down with your team as a leader about it. When a client calls
21:05
your office and they ask for financial planning advice that
21:09
only you as a financial advisor can give to them, your team
21:13
member is hearing that like a fire alarm, and it starts as an
21:18
annoying beeping in the house. It starts as a smoke detector
21:21
going off. And so they're like, oh, there's a noise. It's super
21:25
annoying. I need to change that battery. I've got to find out
21:27
where it's coming from. And then there you approach, and they
21:30
give you the ladder, they give you the batteries. They do
21:32
everything. They say, hey, it's this smoke detector right here.
21:35
It's going off because you just come up there and change the
21:37
battery, because I'm not allowed to, for whatever reason, and you
21:41
go, oh yeah, yeah. Super simple, easy fix, no problem. Oh, hold
21:45
on, I gotta go do X, Y and Z. And so when a client calls back
21:51
for the second time or emails back in for that second time,
21:54
that smoke detector has now become an entire alarm system in
22:00
a hotel. We've all been in a big commercial building. Our hotel,
22:02
the arm goes off, and all sudden, it's not a every minute,
22:06
it is a Evacuate now, and it becomes this great big burden
22:11
for them, where it never was for you, because you saw it as a
22:15
small task. You just needed to change the battery in the smoke
22:17
alarm. You'll get to it. But it's not super important, or
22:20
priority. And so when a client has to follow up with your
22:25
office, it becomes an emergency to your team members, because
22:30
now they feel that they are failing the client because you
22:34
set them up for failure, you set them up for failure. And so
22:38
they'll say, You know what, I'm doing, everything I'm supposed
22:40
to be doing, but they're the ones interfacing with the client
22:42
the most times, and they're the ones the clients are not going
22:46
to be nice to. Now, most of the time, we have a hard rule in our
22:49
office that we will fire a client who is very rude to our
22:51
staff. That's a hard rule. If you're not kind to our staff,
22:54
you got to go. We have the discernment of working with who
22:57
we want to but that's not all of you out there. Not all of you
23:00
apply that rule. A lot of you have first clients that when
23:06
their name comes across the caller ID, your employees like
23:11
freeze up. Their shoulders go up, they roll their eyes, they
23:14
clinch their jaw, they make some small gesture that they don't
23:18
want to answer that phone because they don't know what
23:20
version of the client is going to be on that phone on the other
23:24
receiving line. And if you don't have that policy, you need to
23:28
really evaluate their worth against against your employees.
23:33
And we do this every couple of years. We'll sit down and we'll
23:36
go over the client list and say, Hey, any of these names, if we
23:38
saw on the calendar, are they giving anyone anxiety? Are we
23:41
getting anyone dread? Is there any reason that we shouldn't be
23:44
working with this person because they don't fit our values? And
23:48
we go through that as a team. We make financial decisions like
23:52
that as a team. Now the financial advisor gets the final
23:55
call, but we do it collaboratively so that we all
23:59
have the buy in. And guess what? Financial Advisors, for the most
24:02
part, your team members, are going to help everyone. They
24:06
don't want you to fire clients. They don't want to necessarily
24:08
get rid of clients. And if they have the courage to tell you
24:11
that this client no longer fits our values and they are awful to
24:15
work with, I don't want to communicate with them anymore,
24:17
then you need to have the courage to have that
24:19
conversation with the client and tell the client to knock their
24:23
off, or they can go find somebody else to work with. You
24:26
are building an enterprise. You should not hang your hat on one
24:30
client relationship, regardless of account size. Think about
24:35
your values, lean into them and make sure you're practicing what
24:39
you preach. So when a team member comes to me and says,
24:42
Jamie, I'm just following up, then I know that somehow, some
24:47
way, I've let them down, because they've already given me a task,
24:51
and they're now thinking that they have to follow up with me.
24:55
And this puts a poise in a really uncomfortable position,
24:58
and I have to push on people like, Hey, listen, I have a lot
25:02
going on in my day, and I have a lot of thoughts in my head. So
25:05
if I'm saying I'm counting on you not to let me fall all the
25:09
way. You need to be my safety net. You need to follow up with
25:12
me if I'm not getting things done. And that can be
25:15
uncomfortable for a lot of employees, because it really
25:19
kind of resets the hierarchy, the dynamics in the
25:21
relationship, but if it's done in a polite and respectful way,
25:25
I'm so appreciative of it, because they just put it on my
25:28
radar. And so here's what that looks like. That looks like
25:32
something being scheduled on my calendar. And then I have an
25:35
emergency call with a client come through. I have attorney
25:38
caller office. I'm going through legal forms. I'm doing something
25:42
else that has taken away my attention from getting the task
25:45
than every day. Something has hijacked my day that was more
25:49
important than the task that I had in front of me. And this is
25:52
where my team fails me, and this is something that I'm constantly
25:54
talking to them about. So if they put it on my calendar and
25:58
they know it's not done, then they just stop. They stop right
26:03
there in their tracks, and they don't want to follow up again.
26:07
Don't want to nag me. And so they say, I really feel like I'm
26:12
nagging you. And I said, Great, what's the difference between
26:15
nagging and follow up? It's marriage. That's the difference.
26:18
The person that nags nags you is normally your spouse, because
26:22
they're telling you to do something over and over again.
26:24
You're like, oh my gosh, stop. I don't need you to do this, but
26:27
if I'm paying you to keep me on track, if I'm paying you to make
26:31
sure that I'm always fierce and at my best, then follow up
26:35
habitually with me, but give me enough information to make a
26:39
decision. And so this is where it goes wrong. This is where
26:42
employees get it wrong. And they'll say, Hey, I'm following
26:45
up with you. Let's take this one, for example. This in my I
26:49
don't understand. I beat my head against the wall every single
26:51
year. I am trying so hard to relinquish control over doing
26:57
the Christmas presents for our office. I'm a really intentional
27:00
gift giver, and so I'm really deliberate about what we send
27:04
our clients for Christmas, and I'm trying so hand that over to
27:08
two people in my office, and they they just, they don't see
27:12
the whole picture, and they don't think how I think that's
27:15
okay. And so you think it's really easy, oh, it's just a
27:18
Christmas gift. Well, no, it's not so easy. It's a Christmas
27:21
gift that I want you to think from the end and back into.
27:25
How's it being delivered? What's the budget for it? Does it
27:27
exceed what we're allowed to give clients? What is the client
27:30
going to do with this item? How's it being packaged? How's
27:32
it what's the sentiment that goes along with it? My Christmas
27:35
letter always matches the Christmas gift that we sent to
27:38
you. I am looking for high value impact down to the date I want
27:44
it sent to. I want it sent the second Saturday, so they've got
27:49
I want it to arrive on a Friday or Saturday of December, and so
27:54
that means that by the eighth, ninth or 10th that's in the
27:58
mail. We're getting in the mail, so that they have it. Why do
28:01
when do most people go through their mail in their packages?
28:03
It's kind of like an end of week activity for a lot of people.
28:07
And so I'm never sure it's being delivered at a time. They have
28:10
reflection that it's coming to the end of the work week, and
28:13
they are really looking at that. And this is most often when I
28:17
get the greatest comments from clients like, oh my gosh, I
28:20
can't believe this. And then so much of me, thank you so much.
28:22
And so for whatever reason, my team cannot see that concept as
28:26
well as I can. They're they're trying to, they're really,
28:29
really trying to. And so we're backing into this whole process.
28:33
But where they fail is they said, Okay, you know, they
28:36
recorded a loom video, and this blew my mind. This is the
28:39
freaking drove me nuts. So they recorded loom video, and they're
28:43
like, Hey, we thought it through. Here's the end
28:45
experience. And they did a great job, kind of they said, This is
28:48
what we're recommending. Here's all these links, here's all of
28:51
these different things. This is what it's going to look like. So
28:53
they had corrected every mistake they made in the past. They
28:56
still weren't thinking it through, but they corrected the
28:59
mistakes they had made in the past, but the loom video didn't
29:02
catch any sound, and when they watched it, there was no audio.
29:06
So what they did was they went into at minute two, I'm going to
29:10
show you this, and at minute three, I'm going to give you an
29:12
example of that. Oh my gosh. Rerecord the video you wasted
29:16
all of my time watching, and I'm not going to go read like loom
29:20
already gives me a transcript. If I wanted to read what you had
29:22
to say, you wouldn't have recorded Lou. You would have
29:24
sent me an email. And so I said, Guys, are you freaking kidding
29:27
me? This is sloppy. Go do it again. And so they do it again,
29:31
and I still don't have all of the information to make a
29:34
decision. So when you're following up with your boss,
29:38
with your leader, are you giving them enough information to make
29:42
a decision. Here's another, just super easy example. Hey, we have
29:48
fall surge coming up. Do these dates work for you? And you're
29:52
looking at the calendar, you're like, oh, yeah, okay. And now
29:55
here's what the what the assistant should have said, Hey,
29:58
we've allocated seven weeks to fall. Surge, you're going to see
30:02
five appointments today a day. You want Fridays off. You have x
30:06
amount of clients. That means we have X we're going to not be
30:11
able to see 10 of your clients this fall. Is that okay with
30:14
you? Oh, no, it's not okay. I need to see all of my clients.
30:18
Great. Is there one or two Fridays you want me to allocate
30:21
doing more appointments? And I'm like, actually, yeah, you know
30:24
what? I've got something planned date night that night. So let's
30:26
do this one. This one, you are not giving me enough information
30:30
to make decisions with. If you come to me and say, Hey, there's
30:34
not enough Appointment Slots this fall, is there not enough
30:37
because we're short by one, or is there not enough because
30:39
we're short by 100 I have no information to make a decision,
30:43
so you're bringing it to my attention, but you're asking me
30:46
now to go do all the work to figure out the answer. If you go
30:50
through you're an intelligent person, tell me what the things
30:54
are so I can make a decision and tell you. And once you get to
30:57
the area that you don't know how to make a decision, that's when
31:00
it gets elevated to me. So you coming to me and saying, I need
31:04
five more appointment slots, which Friday might work for you
31:08
to be able to work half a day, whatever. Now I know what
31:12
decision I have to make, but you didn't give me originally all of
31:15
the information. So look at all of your tasks and your
31:18
activities that you're going up and you're following through
31:20
with your advisor on here's another great one. Your
31:24
insurance is due for renewal. Would you like to renew it? What
31:27
insurance can I have a copy of the declaration policy? Can I
31:30
see the specifications? How much is the insurance? What are the
31:33
terms that I could pay it on? You know, give me all of the
31:37
information that I get to make a decision on okay? And think of
31:42
it like this, as a team member. If somebody takes you to a
31:45
restaurant and there's no menu, and the waiter comes up and
31:49
says, What would you like to have for dinner?
31:53
How are you going to make a decision? How are you don't know
31:56
what they serve. You don't want ingredients they have, and
31:59
you're going to start rattling off, hey, I'd love to have
32:02
around it too. Actually, we don't do that here. Okay, great.
32:06
Well, what do you do? Well, we do other things, other things.
32:09
What are the things? Let me make a decision and tell items. All
32:13
right, second of all, be consistent. If you do not have a
32:16
weekly meeting with either your team lead, your integrator, your
32:19
CEO or your executive assistant. Put it on the gosh darn
32:23
calendar, because there are things you're thinking that you
32:26
need to articulate to someone, or questions they have their
32:29
best solved, not going ping ponging back and forth in text
32:32
or slack or email, but rather ask an answer. So put it on your
32:36
calendar. Make sure you're giving them all the information
32:39
that they have to be successful. And then as a team member, you
32:43
must be consistent, you must follow up habitually, not every
32:46
day, give somebody time to do it. And so the way I like to
32:49
look at this is, if it's deadline sensitive, they better
32:52
be on me to get it done. And if it's not deadline sensitive, it
32:56
goes on our weekly meeting. Hey, I'm just following up, making
32:59
sure so and so got X, Y and Z, I don't see that's completed. Do
33:03
you want me to put this on your calendar for a future date or
33:06
time? Just had a meeting this morning where I was super
33:09
frustrated with our marketing squad because we've got a July
33:12
Guess what? They they need everything by July 2, and the
33:16
person who's responsible to giving it to them is traveling,
33:19
so they have one day to get this information back to the
33:22
marketing team in order for a successful launch. That's not
33:25
enough time. That's not enough time. And so they're like, Well,
33:29
we did have it on his calendar. And I'm like, okay, great. And
33:32
when he missed that deadline because he had another fire he
33:35
had to put out, who followed up and who made sure it got brought
33:39
back to his attention? Nobody. Nobody did it. Nobody had done
33:42
it. They were telling me right then and there. Nobody followed
33:46
up. And I'm like, a failure. You need to put it back on the
33:49
calendar. You need to follow up habitually, consistently and
33:53
respectfully. And then here's how I like to do it. Hey, this
33:56
is my third time I'm following up on this matter. I want to
33:59
make sure we're not approaching the area where you're getting
34:03
frustrated by it. Is this task still a priority to you? Ask the
34:06
question is still a priority me? Because sometimes I'll give my
34:10
assistant something that's like an 8pm Oh my gosh. I really like
34:13
to do X, and I'll and I'll write it down. I'll fire it off so it
34:17
gets out of my mental head. And then they'll come back and say,
34:20
Hey, listen, this is my third follow up. And I'm like, Oh,
34:23
that wasn't important. That was not important, sorry, scratch
34:27
it, you know. And so we need a space for that to be and a space
34:30
for our employees to respectfully come back and ask
34:33
us to make decisions and when it crosses a line, when they should
34:37
stop, when they should stop, following up when it's no longer
34:40
important, because they don't know everything you give them is
34:44
supposed to be important, and they need you to help set the
34:47
priority of the task, high, medium, low, one through 10.
34:50
Where are you at with the tasks and the things that they need to
34:53
accomplish? Increasing your productivity, increasing your
34:57
revenue, being hyper efficient, being able to delegate your time
35:00
and discern what's worth your attention and what isn't worth
35:04
your attention. Those are all unique skill sets that you have
35:07
to develop, and you gotta align yourself with the right type of
35:10
people to get those tasks done and then set them up for
35:14
success. They want to succeed. They don't want to stop they
35:17
want to be absolute rock stars. But the biggest problem honey,
35:20
it's probably you. You are probably the biggest problem in
35:23
your office, you just don't know it. So go talk to your team
35:27
members. Have these candid conversations, give it space and
35:30
dialog. Be the problem solver, present the problem. Great.
35:33
Here's the solution. And if you're the team member and
35:36
you're trying desperately do you your job, but guess what, honey,
35:40
you might not be doing it efficiently, either you might be
35:43
asking questions that somebody cannot answer because you did
35:47
not give them all of the decision making material. If you
35:50
don't know what information they need to make a decision, ask the
35:53
question. Just say, Hey, I'm gonna go gather this information
35:57
in order for you to make a decision. When I present it to
36:00
you, what do you need? What do you need? And then you know
36:03
what? We'll stop and we'll rattle off and tell you exactly
36:06
what we need to go and do those things. You are capable of
36:10
greatness, but you got to communicate. Use your words, use
36:13
your words, and everyone, stop everyone's feelings. Let's go be
36:16
extraordinary. Let's go be our best. Let's have these type of
36:20
frank conversations that allow and empower us towards greatness
36:23
and our future selves. TPR nation, this is Jamie Shilanski,
36:26
an episode of Worlds to Conquer. Go find people who share your
36:30
values and change the world.