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How To Use A Virtual Assistant To Avoid Overwhelm And Take Back Control Of Your Time

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Unknown Speaker  0:01   The purpose of wealth talk is to educate, inform, and hopefully entertain you on the subject of building your wealth. Wealth builders recommends you should always take independent financial tax or legal advice before making any decisions around your finances.

Christian Rodwell  0:19  
Welcome to Episode 79 of wealth talk. My name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director of wealth builders. And I'm joined today by our founder, Mr. Kevin Whalen. Hi, Kevin. Hello, Chris.

Unknown Speaker  0:28  
Good to be with you again on episode 79. Here we are. And we've made time

Christian Rodwell  0:33  
to record this episode. And that's the topic of our discussion today. Because one of the things that we hear most often, Kevin, in terms of what prevents people from building wealth is either overwhelm, or lack of time. And so today's guest is focusing on both of those things, and really looking forward to hearing that conversation. Hmm,

Unknown Speaker  0:54  
yeah, I mean, I think if you can address both of those things, and master the skill, of kind of even working out what's holding you back, because not 95% of the population still don't get to financial independence. And we're in Episode 79 tried to dispense the best wisdom we can. And we're still scratching the surface, Chris. So, you know, just hope that one of these messages get through to a few people. And they take the right steps in the right order. And these key points that Steve's gonna make today, critical.

Christian Rodwell  1:28  
And we've said before, Kevin, I know that we're often asked, you know, just how much time do I need to focus on building wealth? And I guess there's, there's no exact right answer, but what would be your recommendation as a minimum amount of time?

Unknown Speaker  1:41  
That's a great question. And I think in order to, to really make small steps, I would recommend two hours a week, you know, so if you can put two hours a week, and box it off and just say wealth time, then you can make great strides in creating you off. And then once you start making those strides, what happens is you clear a lot of rubbish out of the way. And then you start listening to Steve and you delegate things that are taking your time. And of course, right now, we're in a place where many people are working from home, so they have this time. So there's never really been a better opportunity to really make a complete, you know, change in behavior, and start to allocate some of that time you're finding and put it to work to help build your wealth. Because a few years doing that is better than a lifetime of just simply repeating one year after the next after the next and being in an uncertain position as you get older. It's just not fun. So our

Christian Rodwell  2:42  
guest today is Dr. Steve days, the founder of systems outsourcing, and we'll hear from Steve, what led him to start up his company, and now how he's working with business owners to help them leverage their time and reduce that overwhelm. So let's head on over and listen to Dr. Steve Dave. Steve, welcome to wealth talk.

Unknown Speaker  3:01  
Hi, Christine. Thanks for having me.

Christian Rodwell  3:02  
Yeah. So Steve, our members within our seven steps 12 program will be familiar with you already from one of the guest expert webinars that you held for us last year. But it felt definitely overdue to get you on to the podcast and hear more about your business, and how specifically you're working with business owners and property investors to leverage their time better. So would you mind introducing yourself in your business, please?

Unknown Speaker  3:28  
Yeah, so my name is Dr. Steve de. I live in Sweden, I have a proxy business in the UK, I run remotely. And I also run the systems and outsourcing coaching business, which we help small business owners to outsource their work to virtual assistants all around the world, to free them up to have more time to do whatever they want to do with their lives.

Christian Rodwell  3:49  
Yeah, fantastic. And we're talking today about how to use a virtual assistant to avoid overwhelm and take back control of your time. But perhaps a good place for us to begin is just to really demystify exactly what is a virtual assistant? And why would someone need to think about employing one

Unknown Speaker  4:05  
quite simply a virtual assistant and the way that I think about it is just anyone that's not you. So often people talk about v A's or virtual assistants as being someone based in the Philippines or maybe in India, and yet watch a lot of our stuff do come from the Philippines, but also have a PA in the UK, call that an assistant. It's really anybody that you can delegate any of your work to as a business owner, that is an indirect employment under the UK PPO a law that would that is what I would define as a as a virtual assistant. So there may be abroad but there may also be local to you or somewhere else in the UK. And I think the advantage of thinking about hiring virtual staff is there's a massive barrier for most people about taking on employees. That's a red tape, there's the National Insurance. There's Employment Law and a lot of barriers to overcome, especially if it's the first time you're taking somebody on. And by using a contractor or a virtual assistant, it just removes huge amounts of that red tape and those barriers because you're working with somebody on a more, not when say, casual level, but because they are contractor, then you're not bound by all of the that headache that comes in the admin that comes with having a real employee so to speak. And it makes it much easier than for you to get into actually starting trying out delegating your work and offloading it. And when you have people from places like the Philippines, because the living over there is such that for really what is very, very affordable for us in somewhere like the UK, you can get highly educated, articulates intelligent staff that you wouldn't simply be able to afford when you're starting out in business. So it can be a real win win for them. And for you as a new business owner.

Christian Rodwell  5:58  
Hmm. What were the circumstances that led to you obviously, getting into this field, and I guess there was a need in your own business for for looking at a va?

Unknown Speaker  6:07  
Yeah, by nature, I've always been a bit of a control freak and a micromanager and I speak to hundreds of business owners. And I think that resonates with a lot of us that you start a business, it's your baby, you know, you want it done exactly the way you want it done. And the idea of letting go and getting somebody else to help you do the stuff that you've always done. That can be quite a barrier to people taking that leap. For me, I was sort of forced into it because my wife and I had a son, and she's Swedish, and she decided to she wants to move back to Sweden to be near a family. So suddenly, I had to figure out how to run my businesses remotely. And that started me on the journey that then found me employing after a few different attempts at UK and India and South Africa and, and South America actually ends up in employ my first full time virtual assistant in the Philippines. And the ability to do so at a rate I could afford, would allow me to start outsourcing more and more of my work. And then my business started to grow. And then from there, that's how I ended up talking to you today. Really?

Christian Rodwell  7:16  
And I guess that is a big question for people is where where do they begin? You know, where do they go to look and try and find someone? So what do you suggest, Steve?

Unknown Speaker  7:24  
Yeah, if you're looking for somebody who's UK based, then there's a couple of good websites, I'd suggest. So Upwork, and people power. Both of those, you simply put a job posting on there, and people send their applications and you can have a look through and pick someone that might be suitable. And there's a lot of checks and security checks, they do ID checks for checks. And so you've got a bit of backup, if you like. So you're not just going out onto Craigslist, or some other unknown, solicited way of actually finding somebody. And so they've got a bit of backup there. And then the one that we use is a Filipino based website called online jobs.ph. And again, they've got those that Id checks and some other things in places to give that little extra level of security, or reassurance. And then you can just simply put your job posting on there and, and you'll get applicants for for your job. So that's how we simply find people.

Christian Rodwell  8:23  
And I mean, many, many of our listeners, I'm sure, as you mentioned, Steve, they, they have their own business, but perhaps they don't have any employees yet. So there's there's many admin tasks, I imagine there's kind of repeatable tasks that we find ourselves doing every week, or every month, and probably social media and things online. And, and all of these things, of course, require different skill sets. And we talk about wealth dynamics a lot within wealth builds community and understanding what you're naturally good at. And that's where you should be focusing your time. And then obviously, working with others, or outsourcing those jobs that you don't enjoy, and which other people, you know, that's their thing. So you know, who should be the first kind of what should be the first role that you should start to think about outsourcing and your business?

Unknown Speaker  9:09  
Yeah, I think this is probably the one most common questions I get asked. And I think there's two ways to look at this, in that. The simple answer to this is you need to know where you're currently spending your time. And as you alluded to, what you're good at and what you love doing and what you hate doing. So simply recording a list of everything you're doing every single day, as tedious as that may sound is an incredibly valuable exercise to do. And then you can then at the end of a week or month, you can have a look and say okay, well, where am I spending 20% of my time? Is it with emails, is it with updating my website is it with general admin research or whatever it is, you'll see that that is the first thing that if I just knocked down that Domino, if I just get rid of that one task, it will free up a huge chunk of my time. And if you think about outsourcing an hour a day at six weeks If you work it out over a year, or more than six weeks, if you if you work out, if two hours a day, 12 weeks or three months by just getting rid of a couple of hours of your work a day. So knowing what you're doing is the first step. For most people, I would say you want to look at your admin, because that's the easiest stuff that outsources Parvez, how much time is it taking you but the second part is, how difficult would it be to actually get somebody to do it for you, if you're an expert in something, that's going to be easier for you to train somebody else to do it, if you're new to something like social media is one of the things that many people think say, oh, I'll just get a VA or virtual assistant, and I'll do my social media. For me, doing social media is not a single activity. It's a skill set. It takes experience and knowledge and various skills, copywriting, graphic design, scheduling is a lot of work involved in actually doing that. So if you're, if you knew that, if you're an expert at it, you'd know the things you needed to, to put in place to get somebody to help you. But if it's not, you're just saying, oh, everyone else is doing it, I need to do that. And what you'll do is open up a can of worms. And you'll bring and try and bring in someone to help you, I think that's going to grow my business, because you actually don't know the task yourself already, or you're not an expert, it can then lead you into thinking that we're using visual system doesn't work. Because you can't get this person to do what you want them to do. But you never really knew what it was in the first place. So we just to summarize that start with the stuff you already know you're already doing, because that's easier to outsource. And also, don't free up your time to focus on other stuff. And I'd say that, in the first instance, start with admin tasks, because they're the easiest to Typically they're more recurring. So therefore, getting someone to do something requires less input from you less training, because you can train them once and let them get on with it. And just touched on wealth dynamics before. So we actually in our recruitment process, we are fully systemize recruitment process. And but part of that is actually asking them what is their wealth dynamics profile. So we use the free version of the test. So the thing is the genius you come, then you're off the top of my head, there's the free version of the wealth dynamics just gives you the four energy levels, and other force energy times we go for steel for admin. And that's been actually pretty indicative of Will they be able to do the job, regardless of what they say, on any application form, if they ever Blaze, if they're a dynamo, and we bring them into an admin role. They don't work. They may work for a month, but they don't last, because it's not their flow. It'll drain them, and they'll never stick to it. Because it's not what they're actually good at.

Christian Rodwell  12:31  
Yeah, well, I know from obviously going through your programs, Steve, that it's very, very well laid out. And there's so many things actually, you wouldn't think about. So I know when I fell into the trap, probably four or five years ago, employing my first virtual assistant, and I didn't really know what to give them, and then it can become a bit stressful, because they're kind of asking you, okay, you know, what do you want me to do next. And if you haven't kind of got a system in place at the beginning, then it can get tricky. So I would definitely recommend anyone thinking about it to, you know, to, to follow some of the procedures that that you share on in your program and lots of free information online as well. But one of one of the very useful things you mentioned about time tracking, there was a tool, which you suggested called toggle to double g l. i think.com. And, yeah, it was fascinating when I actually spent a couple of weeks really tracking everything that I was doing, and just realized you had so much of that could easily be done by someone else, even though we do use virtual assistants at the moment, but just by tracking it. It's amazing what you can overlook. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. And the other aspects I think a lot of people have, Steve, is the trust element, as you say, it's your baby, your business, and you've got a lot of a lot of hard work and energy that's gone into building that up and and how do you deal with that? And how does someone you know, know that their information is safe in the hands of a virtual assistant?

Unknown Speaker  13:59  
Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  14:00  
again, really common question and, and got a lot of empathy for this. Because, as I said before, I definitely been a micromanager and a control freak for many years. And, and for me, I think the hardest thing is two elements. One you touched on as the data protection security aspects. But another one, I think, for bigger for me, actually, my bigger worry was, will they do the work to a good enough standard? Or will I just end up having to do all myself anyway, and repeat it all again, or it'll go out to the public or to a client and it just won't be a high enough standard. And so, the first of those are the quality level, the way that I found to get around that and this is how what we teach now is a systemized approach to doing this is rather than trying to just get someone to do something and just asking them or can you go away and and do me some research or can you go away and do this task for me? record yourself doing the task and it goes by So again, what is it, you're doing right now that you're going to outsource? Because that way the next time you do that task, you stick record it, use it, we recommend screencast o Matic. It's the cheapest and best screen recorder and editor out there for small businesses in my opinion. And I've tested and tried a lot, definitely better than cheaper than loom and a lot of people like loom but they go, and I'm not affiliated with them, by the way. And, and so you record your screen. And doing the task any way takes no more time that would have taken you to do in the first place. Because it's just work you're doing, we do recommend you add a bit of detail in there and narrate yourself over it to give them a bit more depth into what you're doing, send that to them. And that is there in a simple form that operation manual. So they now are doing or just copying what you were doing when you did the task. So suddenly, their work is as good as yours. And actually often better. Because when you were rushed and doing three feet three or 10 different things at once, and the phone goes and you've got a crisis in your business that is focused on that one thing you've asked them to do. And it's their job to get that done perfectly. So actually the quality aspect, that fear for me was totally missed plays once I figured out how to how to effectively outsource my work. So that's probably one of the biggest golden nuggets I figured out along the way.

Unknown Speaker  16:22  
And the second part was about the trust from a security point of view. And you've got to be conscious with anyone you employing about security, it shouldn't really matter where they are in the world from some respects. So if somebody is gonna run off and steal some information from your data, doesn't matter if they're based in in the UK or abroad, it could still happen. So we've got to be savvy anyway. But if you are working abroad, there's that extra fear that you've not got that protection of, say, the UK legal system behind you. And they've got the recourse of going going down that route, if something was to happen. And if somebody is a professional personal assistant, for example, in the UK company, it's unlikely they're going to steal 20 quid from you because it's going to potentially ruin their business. So when you're working with sell from abroad, those fears can can come back because it's hard to know. So you've got to put things in place to make sure that you're not sharing your data, for example, in a way that could be abused easily. So I have a UK pa that deals my banking for me. So she basically makes all my payments. For me we have prepaid cards to limit lag my liability, she's a user on my business account, so she can't make payments or steal money for me. But she can set up payments, she can access my bank records, so she can do my bookkeeping. But then it's I've got she gets enough access to do her job. But then putting things in place to make sure she no can't, I don't think she ever would she but the security is so she couldn't even if she wanted to do anything really bad. And then with GDPR, people often asked me about that and data protection. So you've got to put sensible steps in place to protect other people's data as well. But those can be just doing an audit. So GDPR is all about really have you actually thought about the security of your data? Do you have simple things in place like password, good strong passwords? Do you use virtual private networks for examples, that's when you, you encrypt all the data that you're sending from your computer. So you can get your staff to use those as well. So when they're logging into anything with client emails, for example, they could use a virtual private network or VPN, to then add that level of security. And then be very sensible about who you give access to what don't blanket give everyone access to everything, no who has access to sensitive information. And then make sure you just keeping an eye on who is doing what with it. Another simple way for protecting yourself, switch on two step authentication on to anything that has any significance to your business. And that way you'll know when someone tries to log into it, they can always, you can always give them access because you can just get on a call and just give them the number or they can ping a message saying I'm about to log into your x accounts I need to do why can you just give me the code when it comes to your phone. But then that gives you that security, you know, when people are accessing those specific sites, those are some of the techniques I've used to real allay my fears of, of who's getting what's in my business. So yeah,

Christian Rodwell  19:22  
that's that's very helpful. Thank you, Steve. So we've talked about, you know, where to find someone. We've talked about, obviously, some of the privacy challenges or worries there that people might have. We've covered some of the tech, you've already given us some really good tips on on some of the tech and software that you use as well to make the whole process easier. Is there anything else that holds people back from just taking that first step and, and actually giving it a go, Steve?

Unknown Speaker  19:48  
Probably, again, I'd say the Tech Challenge. So we ask everybody that comes in our Facebook group systems and outsourcing Facebook group if you're interested. We asked them what their biggest challenge Are with systems outsourcing. And tech comes up a lot. So I've given you a couple of examples of a few apps for screen recording and things. But there's there's How do you share your files and folders with somebody? How do you collaborate online? How do you manage someone on the other side of the planet. So you need effective tools to do all that. And so we recommend whittle rooms, we recommend Asana for task management, it's because the free version is so good. And it also can scale. There are others out there that are probably equally good, but they're free versions aren't as good. So the people just getting started, it means you can really get set up and going before you need to dip your hand in your pocket. We use Google again, it's free to get started gives you full suite of apps, much, much easier to manage than Microsoft. And it's got brilliant business level grade solutions when you're ready again, to mentor screencast o Matic as well. Another one is LastPass. So LastPass allows you to share logins with people really conveniently. And I always say this, when I'm whenever I'm doing any interviews that about LastPass is not secure. If you share a password, the LastPass anyone on the receiving end can view that password. If you don't believe me, just next time you log into Google, and you put your password in, there's a little button on the right hand side that says show password. So if you've shared that password via LastPass, or any other password showing up, and they hit that button, they'll be able to read your password. So it's convenient, it's not a secure thing to do. But it's so really, really powerful and really useful for reducing the headaches. So having the knowledge of which apps work and which integrate together well, is really important. But then actually knowing how to use them is one of the biggest barriers to getting started with these with these apps is often a minefield for people, you open up Asana for the first time, and you'll be like, I've no idea where to where to turn. So having a structure to actually how you use them. So come on to our Facebook group. And there's loads of information on how you do this. So for example, using task boards to manage your staff. So delegating work out on a task board gives you full visibility, but what someone's working on now in the future, and what they're going to work on next, allows you to communicate with your team without relying on email and getting caught up in threads. And gives you a really clear way to actually to work effectively with a remote team. So having that knowledge as well as probably what holds a lot of people back because they just get a bit sort of like a rabbit in the headlights and too many choices and too many possibilities and not enough knowledge and overcoming that once they get that then often they go and get going with it and just crack on. Yeah,

Christian Rodwell  22:42  
yeah, Asana is absolutely a game changer. And I'll give Atlanta shoutout who's a wealth builders member who absolutely loves Asana as well. So yeah, and again, going through your program, Steve, you know, I changed the way that I use Asana now, because I was not using the task boards in the way that the you had shown me to do so and it's it's really, really made such a big impact. So thank you for that.

Unknown Speaker  23:08  
Yeah. Cool.

Christian Rodwell  23:09  
So it's been so useful and helpful listening to everything that you've mentioned, Steve, I guess the final question is, you know, when should someone start thinking about this? You know, when is the right time?

Unknown Speaker  23:21  
Yeah. And again, funnily enough, this is, again, one of the questions that comes up. Most often when I'm speaking to people, there's this problem with us business people is that we normally only look for solutions when the pain gets so bad that we can't bear it any longer. With this is a great example of when the worst thing to do is wait until you desperately need to start outsourcing to actually start outsourcing. Because when you learn any new task, any new skill, when you try to adopt a new process, or procedures, or learn new apps, all of that takes up time. And unfortunately, when you're trying to build a business, and you're trying to grow a team of people, you even if it's just one part time staff, you need to understand how to work effectively with them. Otherwise, it just won't work. So getting all of these basic things set up. So some basic apps, it can pretty simple, but basic stuff and get it done. start finding somebody looking looking forward gauging how that's going to work, how long it might take to find the right person for you. And then actually just trailing somebody out start an hour a week, it doesn't matter. The fact is, you've then gone through the process once you're then learning by actually implementing and doing and therefore that when you do get to that point, when you need it, you've not got to figure all that stuff out and put it all in place at a time when you're desperate. I mean, that's the reason you're going out looking for this new superstar VA is going to cure all your your problems, which unfortunately, I would say that that is also the wrong approach. But just when you get to that point and you you desperately need it. You don't want to be them staying, figuring this all out. So my advice always is, start as early as you possibly can, in just learning the basics. You don't need to take on somebody and hire them for a full time basis if you're just getting started, and you've got hardly any money coming in, or just not enough work to justify that, so do it sensibly. But it's about getting everything or you're in for a cliche phrase, getting your ducks in a row before you actually need that is a huge, huge benefit. And I can't emphasize that enough. This stuff isn't rocket science, but it also requires some work to get done. Right. And I just say one other thing, which I think that I experienced this myself, but I've seen it so often with my clients that maybe they've resistance to just getting, getting that first engagement with a virtual system. And this is even with my help giving them all the systems all the setup, you know, they're there, it's ready, literally, all I have to do is switch a button, and they'll have that person there. And they just they push back for some reason, there's some fear inside them that I can't quite get over. And then finally they do it. And a different says that once you've got somebody on the other end of a task management app or, or an email or whatever, is that then there so the next time you come up with an idea for a task, or you hit a problem, maybe it's a tiny spreadsheet, maybe you've got 50 updates to work to your website, you need to do really repetitive, maybe do some property research, some sourcing and looking at Rightmove finding 50 properties in a local area to find out if the property is going to stack up for the deal. Suddenly you go all the way this is going to take about four hours to do. Why don't I just shift this task over to somebody else. That's good, because I've got somebody in the wings waiting for me to give them work. And once you've done that, once you get that feeling of knowing, for example, the first thing I ever outsource was sort was looking for properties on Rightmove and going through finding 10 properties 10, one to one bedroom flats, 10, two bedroom flats for like three or four different postcodes, doing that day in, day out and looking for properties. And I got rid of that as my first ever proper test, I outsource, when that came back, don't as good if not better than I would have done it. It was like a light bulb went off in my brain like It Will I will never ever do that again. And now I can focus all my efforts on the next step in that buying deal analysis process. And then the snowball happens because suddenly you start thinking, Okay, well, which part can outsource next, and it's addictive, and you just basically frees you up entirely to focus on the stuff that you love to do each day. Rather than doing all that admin and boring stuff that drags most of this down.

Christian Rodwell  27:41  
I imagine most of our listeners right now Steve have at least got two or three hours per week of something that they could begin outsourcing. So that's great advice. And remind us once again, Steve of the Facebook group if people want to go and check out and connect with you.

Unknown Speaker  27:57  
Yeah, so it's just systems and outsourcing.

Christian Rodwell  28:01  
Thanks for sharing today. Steve, good to have you on wealth talk.

Unknown Speaker  28:04  
My pleasure, just

Christian Rodwell  28:06  
now one of the things we touched on there in the conversation, Kevin was the use of wealth dynamics. And I want to want to start by elaborating on this a little bit, because it's also one of the first steps that all of our new members who joined the seven steps to wealth program go through is, is understanding your wealth profile. And that means really getting clear on where you have your natural strengths and where your weaknesses are. Because when we talk about the wealth dynamics square, the value is created either at the top with the innovation, and that's the Dynamo energy, or it's created at the bottom with the blade, sorry, the tempo energy, which is all about the timing. But when it comes to leverage, Kevin, that comes from the left and the right, which is either the steel which is the systems or the blades, which is the people

Unknown Speaker  28:51  
yeah, I mean, it's a magnification of the opportunity, isn't it really so if you've got a business you know, I'm fundamentally a business creator. So that's the innovation part that's sort of the the kind of the green shoots you know, you can imagine everything starts there. And like nature, really everything starts with the germination of an idea. And then you magnify that by having people engaged to help you provide the service and that's where your leverage comes from. And of course what Steve does great at very understated but a very successful guy in him a retired medical guy so and focuses so much on wealth and properties very much on the left hand side of the grid, which is the grayish color if anybody cares to look at wealth dynamics and see your green is the Dynamo the green shoots the red is the blaze which is the people energy and the connected energy yellow is the tempo energy on the bottom part of the square. And on the left side of the square is the steel energy and, and you know Steve's a very smart man and he comes at it though in certainly The objective of getting across today was the leverage of systems wasn't it really. But of course, the system's leverage starts often with finding just one person who you can delegate one thing to, where perhaps it's not your favorite thing. It's not your strength. It's not your, you know, deepest desire, you know, wake up, thinking, you know, I'm going to do a spreadsheet today. I mean, that's my worst thing, isn't it? Chris, you know, and so, so getting other people to do spreadsheets, you know, for me to assess, analyze, and then see what that means back to the creation stage, is really where I come in. And so similarly with Steve, you know, he's obviously he's got a reason why, and most people, it goes back all the less all the wealth lessons, Chris are locked in every interview we ever do. I mean, listen to us talk about the reason why you can't have a bigger reason why the new wife says, I'm going to Sweden, but where are you going? You're gonna have to react to that. Right? So any reaction to exactly the right way, which is, I'm coming with you, darling. And now need to systemize my property portfolio building business in the UK. And that gave him great leverage of the reason why, because that's a leverage in itself, isn't it? So most of you come above the square, and act like a pyramid. The reason why is at the top of all of that gluing everything together. So the other reason I think, Chris, people don't make it to financial independence and genuinely just simply don't do it is because they don't connect with a reason why. And Steve had a powerful reason why I had a powerful reason why. And most people who make it, you know, that's the reason why is the sort of, you know, the turbo that puts, you know, in that around every activity they do, and that's why, you know, we keep referring back to it, if you can't find a good reason why is going to be more of a struggle than it should be?

Christian Rodwell  31:56  
Yeah, actually, it just reminds me of our last interview in Episode 78, with Frank Flagg, because he had that strong reason why that real purpose to help, you know, the homeless, and also left us on a quote, which was, you know, when's the best time to plant a tree 20 years ago, second best time is today. And that kind of is the same lesson that Steve was saying about, you know, taking on your first hire, because even if you don't think you've got that much, you probably have got a couple of hours, at least a week. And so the best time to start that routine is now and Same goes for wealth is net compounding, obviously, it's such an important part when it comes to wealth building. And so the sooner you begin, the better.

Unknown Speaker  32:33  
Yeah, and those, it's, you know, that what I found with wealth building courses, when you, you've got to have a first step, okay. And it's the first step, that's the critical step. Because once you take the first step, you've now got movement, you've now got momentum. And you're now experiencing things because you're like a journey, the landscape changes, because you're moving. And then you interact with that. And it's the same here, really, so you need to get to a place, I would encourage everyone to take a first step. Now, Steve's idea of the first step is don't wait until you're drowning, to take the first step, you know, start to maybe video, some of the things that you're doing. So at least you've got a catalogue of the things you're doing so that when you're ready, you can share that with a VA or virtual assistant or assistant. in any language, you want to use that, to delegate a task that gives you more time, then you can use that time that best reflects your wealth dynamic, which is all about creating value. And the delegated tasks generally don't create the value. They're there to support you in that process. So if somebody is doing like he said, doing the research, okay, and property, doing research and teaching somebody else how to do it, they don't need to be in the country to understand the maths. And once he can teach that, and that's what he did. He taught that to somebody else. And then they were doing the work. And what he was doing was bringing his his ability to see the quality of the finances in any particular project, and then take action on it, rather than doing the, you know, the sort of preparatory work. It's the same as if you're a master chef, you know, you, you've got people doing preparation. And what you do is you bring your skill and your uniqueness to it. And that's what wealth dynamics is all about. And that's what leverage is all about is getting you to shine through on what you do best. And that way, actually, you know, the time becomes free, doesn't it because you start enjoying more things rather than drowning and things that you don't enjoy as much.

Christian Rodwell  34:45  
We talked about wealth dynamics a lot this episode. So for anyone listening who perhaps wants to take the test, then you can head over to wealth builders co.uk forward slash wealth dynamics or one word and take her take a token and find out exactly what you're on. entrepreneurial profile is as well. And, yes, certainly very revealing, and definitely points you in the right direction and helps you connect with others that are like minded and can just make the journey more enjoyable. And that at the end of the day is what wealth building is about is, is enjoying the journey.

Unknown Speaker  35:16  
And just going back a step as well, you know, he was saying, this idea about trying to do something before you get to a place of emergency, you know, when you, you simply have to do something. This in truth is a natural law. You know, when you think about the natural law, if you just decided, you know, you work on a farm, and, um, I'm desperately hungry, I'll go and plant something was too late, isn't it, do the planting, the nurturing, you know, the watering, and all of the hard work, you do that before you need it. It's the same when I work with developers, you know, we talked about getting property developers getting access to funding from private funders, you know, that you can't just wake up and say, I need money next Tuesday. And I go talk to people, you know, you have to build and nurture relationships, and create a story so people can understand what you do and how you do it. So that this time to build trust. So this time factor of the nurture of the building of the resonance is true. And it's true of well, fundamentally, you can't just suddenly wake up and say, time to be wealthy, you know, you can't, you've got to put in all the foundation. And that's really what wealth build is all about by teaching the foundation, and sharing those foundational elements. And we find in our program, because, you know, people don't always enjoy the early parts of the foundation, right, because you're not making so much progress, because you're planting, you know, you're not pulling the roots up to have a look and see how it's going. You put so you're just putting the seeds in, which is getting you out dynamic done, doing some of the basic things, you know, making sure you've you've looked at all of your, you've done a stocktake of your current assets to see where you could make some immediate quick wins, and improvements, and also doing, you know, looking at all of the places where you might need education and start to get a flavor for where you might go with your wealth. And, of course, protecting yourself and making sure you've got wills and trusts and powers of attorney and the things that keep your family safe. While you're trying to build that wealth. All of these things at the beginning, don't really make too much progress on the journey of wealth. But what they do is build that foundation. So you can prepare yourself from that. And, you know, we find that that's an interesting stage for people in their early part of their wealth building plan, isn't it, Chris? They kind of they just want to get on and get on fast. And you can't always do that you have to go at the pace that nature allows. And same is true in welcome.

Christian Rodwell  37:51  
Yeah, that's very right, indeed. So there we go. Hope you enjoyed listening to today's episode. And if you did, then do share with a friend, I hit the share button on your podcasting app. And whilst you there, if you haven't left us a review, we would really, really appreciate that. And we'll even read you out in a coming episode as well.

Unknown Speaker  38:11  
Mm hmm. And you keep using technology, you just talked about a number of things there, you know, your podcast, your app. And Steve did some great jobs there didn't he of explaining some of the technologically useful things that give you leverage, and that's a great source of leverage. But the important point about that is sometimes when you see a whole bunch of tools, and I think he talked about it, didn't you, Chris, about overwhelmed? How do you get all the tools all at the same time? You know, all working? Well, you don't really you do one small thing. And then you build on that. And sometimes it's good to ask for help. You know, so if, if you enjoyed listening to Steve, and you think that somebody helping you would be useful, then just reach out and help and ask for that help. Because my experience is, if you have the humility to ask for help. And you also have the willingness to share the help once you've had it, then it makes the whole wealth building process more enjoyable as well. So I think I've given the analogy before crispy, crossing a bridge from where you are now to where you want to be handout outstretched reaching forward to ask for help and hand outstretched reaching behind you to help somebody who's a little further back on the journey than you. So enjoy the journey. It's a fun one. But make a decision today to get started fine. Two hours, put those two hours in your diary. block it out, you know, you know you can use your calendar you can block out those two hours and put wealth building time and wherever you get your knowledge from wherever you choose to get your education from whoever you resonate with. Stop with those two hours with someone if it's us, we'd love to help you. join our Facebook group and reach out to us and we'll be happy to send you lots of free resources. But the ones directed to where you are now on your journey. So, and I've said Chris, I look forward to seeing you on another podcast soon. Until then see ya.

Unknown Speaker  40:12  
We hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget that we are constantly updating our resources inside the wealth builders membership site to help you create, build and protect your wealth. Head over to wealth builders.co.uk slash membership right now for free access. That's wealth builders.co.uk slash membership

Episode summary

In today's episode we are joined by our guest, Dr Steve Day, Co-Founder of Systems for Outsourcing. Steve shares with us how you can leverage systems by outsourcing to result in a business that demands less time from you and runs even better than before.

Episode notes

It’s almost impossible to build wealth without using leverage. It’s also almost impossible to build wealth if you don’t dedicate time to it. Today’s guest is Dr Steve Day, Co-Founder of Systems for Outsourcing.

Steve was forced to look at how he could leverage systems to manage his property business when he and his wife moved away from the UK to live in Sweden. The result was a business that demanded less time and ran even better than before. Steve then refined his processes to be able to help others, and this has now led to a business that teaches business owners how to leverage their time by implementing systems and working with virtual assistants to manage those systems.

Resources mentioned in this episode