This morning, I got a reply from a reader who wrote:
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Great insights, btw do you need more staff? Thanks
Have a good day!
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I guess it was a great pattern interrupt because it made me blank for a full five seconds.
“More staff? What… where… how much staff do I have now?”
In the past, I’ve hired people for one-off jobs, such as creating book covers or converting an email-based course into a website-based course.
But I’ve never had an employee and frankly I don’t ever want an employee.
In fact, at one point back in 2020, I wrote down 10 characteristics of the kind of business I would like to have. Number 2 on the list was:
“I don’t have to manage people. I can do it all myself or outsource parts of it that I don’t feel like doing.”
I’m telling you this while being fully aware it’s nothing to boast about, and is even rather stupid.
As every reasonable and successful person can tell you, hiring people takes the mushed peas off your plate, allows you to focus on the stuff you like to do and are good at, and makes you more money overall while leaving you more free time.
What’s not to like? I don’t know. I should have an employee. Maybe I should even have two.
But I don’t want one. I don’t want two or more either. And in the words of business coach Rich Schefren, in the end the only real option is to “put your business goals ahead of your personal development goals.”
Rich’s point is that it takes a long long while to change the person you are — like the rest of your life, and even then, you might not be all that different than you are today.
It doesn’t make sense to wait for that.
You might as well figure out how to live your life and run your business and make money with what you got, instead of telling yourself that you should have some other stuff in your pocket, or you should be a different person in your head, and then you will be ready.
What’s made it so that I’ve been able to survive in spite of refusing to hire or manage anybody is pretty simple. It’s daily emails.
In fact, my entire business now is really built on the back of writing an email to my list every day. I started writing daily emails as a way to get better at writing copy, back when I was working with clients. Then it became about potentially attracting clients. Then, after I stopped working with clients, it became about selling products.
At every step of the way, the common thing was simply writing an email each day about something that I found interesting and valuable, and (most of the time) tacking on some kind of an offer.
Not only does it pay the bills these days but it’s transformed my life — I’ve learned a ton of stuff about what I do that I would never have learned otherwise, I’ve become a better writer and marketer, and I’ve even developed a low level of star status in a very niche industry.
I don’t think I’m particularly unique in being able to do this. The main thing is to start, and to stick with it for the long term.
I’ve created something that can help you both get started, and stick with it, if that’s what you’d like to do. To find out more: