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Catalog > Money & Life > Business Basics > Start A Profitable Online Business > Outsourcing: Find The Right Team With James Wedmore
Start a Profitable Online Business
Outsourcing: Find the Right Team with James Wedmore
I look at life and business really, as a sports being an athlete that's pretty easy to see a guess, but I look at it as a sports and most people I feel like try to survive or try to play not to lose, but I play tto win and I want all the guys to continue on this this attitude of playing to win like you happen this weekend, so my quote of the day is from the great coach, nfl coach championship coach vince lombardi, he says winning is a is a habit unfortunately, so is losing and most people lose consistently over time because they haven't formed right habits. Hopefully we're creating some good habits for you guys this weekend, and you can keep it up and stay accountable with each other. So that's my goal today? Uh, what we've got going on today is some great information. This is probably the best day so far every day is the best day, but this is gonna be really good. We're to start out in just a few minutes with the man james whitmore is gonna talk about how to automate your business and...
build the right team for two dollars an hour, then he then we're to talk about facebook as and facebook marketing. With amy porterfield who's going to be skyping in she's amazing she's one of the top facebook marketing experts in the world then we're talking about my seven step webinar marketing system what we use with felicia the other day that's got twelve thousand dollars in sales so far and they're gonna wrap it up with affiliate marketing and how to get other people to promote you for free so it's gonna be a great day and I'm very excited is there anything we need to cover before I introduce bring james on yeah judy I want to go okay awesome so with that I want james to get out here and I want to talk about what james covering for quick seconds was getting for james real quick let's do a chest bump I got my microphone okay you're to go to the side to sides your job and in turn they look so valiantly knock against forced mass times acceleration but james is the man when it comes to outsourcing and building out good teams for your business and systems one he's actually got a course what's the course called six figure out source and cigarettes six figure outsourcing secrets dot com where he teaches all of this so he's gotta cover kind of what his courses in the next sixty minutes on go over lost up to the already teaches but it's gonna be really good and he's been he's had um teams of people who outsource a lot of this stuff for the last three years three investing our fears and would you say that you'd be able to build your business's biggest has been without outsourcing a lot of the stuff you do? No uh not at all it's not even a simon question and I think that's what we'll be sharing first this is kind of my story of how I got started out I when I got fired I moved back home with my parents everyone louis included knew me back then made fun because I lived in the parent's basement and it was me it was the whole first off it was a really nice basement it was on the ocean you should do that wasn't completely good of each way don't live in and I was still living with mom and dad on uh it was me and a laptop on a virtual assistant in the philippines so we were talking about how now today I have employed three people that are in the us and a whole team out in philippines so it's changed my whole business and and the lifestyle obviously it's all about the lifestyle yeah, no way. Okay, so hold on to this for a second um I know we've we've gone over a lot this weekend and I'm sure your guys minds are blown there's been kind of a theme that keeps popping up and this has always been a theme of louis it's, this idea of taking action and I think you guys have heard about one hundred ten times and now I'm about to take all that and flip it on its head and tell you how not to take action because the last thing I want you guys to do is to leave here you know, with with a longer to do less that's fine, but feel like you have to spend more hours of your day working harder, working longer to be successful and it's not really the case, it doesn't have to be so um so outsourcing that's really resolutely answer now let me let me ask this question before get into it if we have a title here and it says how to find people that owe outsource to another country and find people for just two dollars an hour, I want people and people on the on the internet as well be honest with me if that kind of gives you like a sick feeling like you feel like, oh great, we're going to abuse people like two dollars an hour and all we're taking jobs away from america and I'd love if they're people that are saying that because I get it a lot and for me the first course I created with lewis was how to use you to and people would take the course and say this is great information this is awesome, but I have the time for this I can't I can't do all this stuff and I was like, what you're doing it yourself? I have other people to do this this for me so I feel like outsourcing is such a necessity but there's so many blocks that people have like I can't afford it I don't I don't want to even if I can't afford to go is now I don't want to do that to somebody so when I started teaching outsourcing on ly out of necessity because my my students really needed it um I was getting a lot of pushback from people saying how could you do this? How can you how can you like just pay people only two dollars an hour? That's just you know, what's the word is just this cruel, you know, that's inhumane and this is a email I received because my first virtual assistant from the philippines his name is clint was on a webinar that I did where someone it kind of gave me some some feedback and he comes on all my webinars and supports me and he's been with me now for about two years and eight months and he writes me this e mail I didn't ask for id or anything like that and he says he goes james I love working for you because I know you're one of my answered prayers I was in a very desperate situation before you'd hired me I was jobless I couldn't sleep well at night I had nightmares and I didn't I didn't even have money to buy milk for my son I didn't have food to eat for a few days I wasted my time and energy on scams on the internet so I didn't have the money to pay my rent and bills and it goes on but I'm not going to because it makes me emotional every time I read this but I've been able to employ his entire family to this day and uh I just keep telling him you take care of me, I'm gonna keep taking care of you so I paid for his wedding I send them gifts, laptops, all kinds of stuff like that so I've been able to change their lives and it's amazing and now I've been able to reach more people and like I said today it started with me in my in my parents basement with just him, which is clinton I and now I have a the three full time people that live in the us that all live in southern california and work with me and there's no way in hell that would ever happened because when I started I couldn't support afford to pay rent so how can you pay for someone when you can't even pay your own rent? But I could afford someone at a low price so I am so excited to share this information with you because it is what made the difference we can sit here all weekend and tell you a million things to do and we could even encourage you and say take action but most of time it just doesn't get done because you don't want to do it and I'm going to tell you that you shouldn't be doing that because you should be finding other people that can do it for you to help you grow your business so it does start with telling you guys we're probably all experiencing this kind of paradox of the ill what the freedom so I'm going to start from I start my own business yet what I experienced very quickly was that just learning and it's in and of itself because the internet changes such a rapid space is a job on itself full time job really um and then of course you gotta implement that. So really the whole thing is, um if we're going to do it ourselves, we have to end up wearing several hats and so we have to learn several skills and we spread ourselves too thin and we start multitasking and we feel like a hamster in a wheel and we're not productive and that's how I felt when I got started and I like to brag and sam pretty talented like I learned I learned I read a nine hundred fifty page book on dream weaver twice so I could learn how to make my first website and then I read the four hour work week in there like you get websites made for a hundred bucks biggest idiot but then I'm like, oh, I know I need a logo and any book image, so I'm gonna learn adobe illustrator I learned everything myself so I'm done and then you know that's not how I run my business today so I know what you guys doing the same thing? Um, so I'd like to say that the solution is outsourcing that's the big word we all talk about but it's really bigger than that it's really about creating systems in your business it's about shifting your thinking say every action that needs to get done everything I need to do everything that's honest to do list whether it's a one time thing or like okay blawg twice a month or I'm going to put a video up once a week how do I systematize that? How do I automated? How do I how do I remove myself from the equation as much as possible and get either systems such as software or automated tools or people to help me and that's, how we need to look with everything that we're doing so here's a definition I found of a system because this is a word we use a lot. But I do. I think it's really sexy word business is in itself, just a set of systems, and you can still hear me. Uh, thank you. Uh, a system itself is a set of connected things or parts forming a complex hole in particular. I don't know what it said after, or, uh oh, I know. Okay, sorry. This's, what happens when you do slightly? So so that's the diff this first part is the dictionary definition. And I like to say, when we apply what a system is to our business, I like to say it's, a methodical process that provides a specific result or outcome in your business, creating the block post, doing a video saying up this doing that everything needs to be a system that removes you as much as possible. Um, so with that going back, a lot of people come to me and they say, how do y outsource? I need to know how to outsource and it's. I can teach you how to outsource, and I've done it and teach a lot of people, and it really makes a difference for him, but I don't there's no, outsourcing isn't really a skill that's hard to learn it's actually really easy and it's just like italian. To tell you the website right now, you go here, you can find someone what I really need to get through and what really needs to happen is we need to learn that it's all about letting go and that that's the big issue is that if you think about it, most of us, the reason we get started on our own is because we don't like other people telling us what to dio we're stubborn, we want that control, and that actually turns into one of our biggest downfalls if we let it so and actually slide, so I skipped it. But what I really want to teach you guys today is really about how to let go, how to delegate, how to be okay with the fact that they're actually are people that can do things better than you and they could do it quicker and they can do it for less money. So it's about identifying where you need to be, where you need to spend your time, that so you could make the most money, and when we go it's all about letting go, one of the problems and people have is they don't value their own time. And so this whole relationship with how you value your time, how you look at time is huge. And we were sharing a story last night at the bar, so I bring this up. But I was not going to talk about this, but there is is that there's? A huge aspect of this is how you value your time and your energy. So louis invites me out to columbus, ohio this's, about two years ago. And one thing you guys don't know about luis's is huge suite and we finished dinner and everyone after dinner is like let's. Go do this cool bar let's hide let's, go out let's have a great time. Lewis goes it's going he was it was like well, what's the name of the place don't listen. It was like julie's their science let's go to julie's jenny's jenny's, let's go to jenny's like all right, let's, go houses the coverage like no, no, no that's an ice cream shop on dso and sure enough, like a like a club waiting outside a line that's like down the block for jenny's ice cream and one of the friends was with us is actually guy look up to is a mentor brilliant man on louis looks up to you as well as names kevin nations and he gets what we're waiting in line for ice cream you like and it's going to sound a little egotistical and what to say, because I don't wait in lines and he walks away like, all right, diva way, go back to our conversation, come forget half thirty seconds, forty five seconds later, I I'm not even joking, comes back and he's looking this ice cream what's up, and I'm like, how the heck did you do that? We're still waiting in this line all the way down the street, and he's got his delicious jenny's ice cream, and he wouldn't tell me for about three months. I had to keep buckingham and bugging him and the story of how he did it. The answer is so stupidly simple, yet we don't think like this and that's the whole point here, so he tells me he goes all right, here's, what I did because he sees this line, he walks into the restaurant patter, the ice cream shop passed the people he makes it look like he's going for the bathroom. He does a u turn and he walks right up to the people who would just said I'll get the chocolate and the vanilla and that is a cute young couple and they get their ice cream just like hey, how you guys doing tonight that looks good do you mind if I buy your ice cream for you? Like what? Okay, let me let me just get that for you like yeah, well, of course it was great and can you get a double chocolate shiva's well, like twelve dollars, you know? And he walked out he had his ice cream in two minutes and the reason that story was so profound for me was because this is a person that values his time and obviously he wouldn't back the ironic part is he went back in line and hung out with us but he got his eye on a lot of times we we sacrifice ourselves and our time when they're really simpler solution specially for willing to pay a little bit of money for it and we can yield what far greater results. So so kevin is he's a great story? Yeah, I love him he's great. So um I have all this training on announcers and because we can make this a simple is possible or his biggest possible I want to keep it as simple as possible, so I decided to do the whole five w's that we remember from who what? Why when and where and sometimes how I do have a how on dh so make it a simple is possible so this is what we're going to go over why we should be outsourcing I think we know went to outsource what to outsource where'd outsource who to outsource to and then of course obviously most importantly how to do it but remember what I say don't do me favor today guys don't get caught up with the details with the with the very specifics because the big thing we want to get across to you is if we are taking action it's about letting go of the things that you shouldn't be doing yourself so that you can focus on the things that do bring in the money um so why to outsource? I think we kind of already know but it really comes down to a simple idea that you can't you can't do it all yourself you really can't even if because that's what I thought I was like when I first got started and I was looking at the louis houses of the time I was like, I can work harder than this guy can I will I will sacrifice more I'll stay up later and it's a great attitude and great mentality tohave but there are other things that it takes and that really put a toll on me physically emotionally, I mean, I told you guys they wanna spend three, four months and locked in a bedroom in the parent's basement got dumped over it, so I don't recommend it now I love saying this line because a lot of people then go okay, yeah, james, you're selling me on it, but I still I'm on a budget and I can't afford outsourcing like say, you think you can afford outsource it's because you haven't already been outsourcing something magical happens on day one when you decide to hand money over to someone else who's gonna work for you, even if you're only paying them ten dollars, to do one thing for you. Something happens where you kind of step up to the plate and realize I am a business owner, and every every purchase I make every dollar that goes out is an investment to grow my business, and it is a mindset change if you think you can afford to outsource its ally, limiting mindset and it's because you haven't already started outsourcing and the reason I called my program on websites six figure out sourcing was because the first year I made six figures in my business was the first year started outsourcing, and I think it's a direct correlation so that's r y and like I said, it's not about outsourcing it's about letting go so, uh that's all the awesome pump you up get you excited about it now we've got to get into the details of it so wind outsource second w there are three types of tasks that I've identified when it comes to you doing all things miss I'm weird like this but I everything is it to do list I use things like base camp which we're talking about today so everything's a to do list and when we put everything on it to do list they identified three types of task three types of things that we're doing to stay busy or productive in our business what you love doing there are things that we did get in to the business that we're in right now because we love doing it and we have the things that we actually see a direct result of income alecia saying go to alicia dunham's dot com for such boot camp brings in the real money on a webinar and then there are the things that we despise doing we all have things that we love doing on business we all things that we despise doing and we all things that will bring in the real money so question for you guys what do we outsource? Yeah yeah we do want to outsource things we don't like doing I'm even going to go ahead and say we want out source what we love doing because if it's not making you money why are you doing it and and it's hard because yeah, if it's not making it and I'm all about doing things that you enjoy but trust me they're everyone who find sees the things that bring them more money I mean, we all loved doing this, so just keep doing more of that and you love that, but let me give you an example most people don't know this, but I'm in love I'm very artistic I love drawing so so when I learned adobe illustrator was like, this is great, I can do graphic design and I was doing my own e book covers and I would take me a week or two just to design an e book. Now I have ah graphic designer on staff who literally telling the name of the book the title on the colors I want and three hours later spoon he pops back and he's like twenty five bucks I'm like I was spending a week for something that's costing me now twenty five bucks, which if you do the math on that I mean, I should've been building myself a dollar an hour that's the rate I was working at, so even though we loved doing it this forest things in our business and not talking about the rest of our lives but if we for spending a week or two doing creating an e book cover there people that could do that for much cheaper much much cheaper so on and that's the hardest thing for people to let go but I love doing it but you're not spending the area more time in area number two um and obviously number three that's good that's going to drain your energy more than anything that's what's going on that's what's going to put out that that passion that fire that's inside you the more you keep doing this it has to be done so as quickly as possible to find how house somebody else going to do this for me or how can I automate this how can I set up a software to do this for me so I don't have to do it um and we'll keep you from growing as well let's go into the next w what to outsource um and actually no well I got more side till I forgot this was going down on the one so I'd actually like to go around with you guys and ask that question is there something right now in your business that you're doing the drains and I'll start what are things that drain you and your business anything technical we had some hosting issues where are our server was slowing down and they were like we're get on the phone with our hosting company and they're telling me that I need to clean these caches and change these plug ins on like I gave it to clint who you guys all met and I just said take care of it and he's like done on an ad for me it was like one of the most like freeing things so do we have the mike I'd love to go around and you just just kind of vents um frustration is something that you had to do that you just don't like doing no I just ah brought on a customer service slash project manager that's probably two jobs to put into one on dh because I like publishing stuff like dealing with amazon and uploading books and uploading your books and all of that yes like formatting the covers and making sure the pdf is set properly that a year ago I was doing and so now I have people that I know and I'll say for you alicia that let her know that she's going to be good at either being the project manager or the customer service rep and as you go forward and your business grows you need to let her know well when you identify oh she's probably a better project manager you need to let her alone hey f y I and a few months I'm going to bring on someone to replace the customer service side tio keep notes create a process that's what we did so my customer service rep leaves I could bring someone in the next day and they have documents of training so they know they can just be plugged right into the system so just get her prepared to let her know you're not going to do this forever there will be someone to replace part of your job, so I'm going yeah for stacy and I we were really trying to dominate the video, the video area and that's something that you teach her in well and for us something that's during our business video editing, video editing taking it up lillian it tight in italy and it feels like it just takes so long but into today you're like, screw, so we'll talk a little bit today and if I and if I forget make sure to ask me for the and we'll talk a little bit from the tricks I do to outsource editing because I do it and I can show you exactly how to do it. Um well, you said drain me the most was making changes to my website and because you're going and doing yourself, yeah, wass actually, which I didn't really know yeah, I get all the stuff all the to do list in actions that derek gave yesterday I just sit there and and create and I'm gonna show you the software creat a little gin being at this change this boom sent it off to him next day done awesome. Yeah, yeah. So and then I just I just went to my, uh my developer and I was like, ah, I don't know how to do this and that's a good thing in the beginning, I was like, all right, I was like, can you show me and he's like, well, you just let me get the judges I was like, that sounds like a ma much, much better. Well, I would say all of those things, but then all that something unique, we're membership based and we didn't go the next step and create a system within our website, we have our own server, but we didn't create a system that would actually do the automated billings for us. So every month I have to go on and take people off if they can go on. And every month I'm like, what else I could be doing at the moment on dh and we've thought about taking the next step and spending more to automate that off the site, but it's very costly, that money that you're bringing every month is actually the size of a bonfire. It sounds like crazy. I love that so that's that's awesome, yeah, so, um probably to design websites this wall, um, I used to make word precise is full but the biggest hinders I came across was when I purchased a specific theme you have to learn that theme like that there's different ways he had to do it so it's downloaded a tutorial on all that crap and I'm just like I don't have time for this so I just hire somebody fairly recently is like handled my blogged handle done every studio sides well that that's being built right now in the back and and it's refreshing I just have to say anything else write it iss and I just sat there for programming I am not a program I know I'm a web developer um producer but you you're the idea guy was over and I just outsource everything else and it's just funny because like that would explain it to you all this programmer I'm like I want this guy to run around and do this and I want this to pop up and you're like, okay, so joy for me and what do you want me? Oh, and it's like I say it's always refreshing to have somebody do that guess what you're talking about it's like I'll take care of this will be done and two days and I can do everything else and there were about promoting and steve before you go do we have people on the internet you can type in and ambassador freshman exam? We've got we've got him ready to go you're angry time not to get frustrated yeah really rang true for me what you were saying about you know learning adobe illustrator because you needed a nikon or whatever right? Because that's that's what's been draining me is like, you know, I like doing the front and stuff on the web site but the back end is not my my my talent so because last week it was like day two I was into it when I was learning my sql and I was like, what the hello my doing like I need teo I just need somebody else to take care of this because I'm in over my head so you know it's really draining to try to learn something that you don't need to absolutely for me anything design related like it like just eats me up like I'm ill it takes forever I'm not you know a ce faras the wedding photography been I'm a photographer I'm not a designer so anything where you know they asked for design so album designed so I do outsource album designed whenever I can because if I have to sit down and do it like I just want to cry like it I just hate it like I don't like it at all so I'm here so the good news is everything you guys have all mentioned is because somebody was already doing it is outsource a bull and I know everyone else is has similar frustrations. I'm just about design all that technical stuff. I've had the same stuff. So what? We got some way have we have phone calls being something collections from unorganized clients, accounting project management, calling an editing and accounting and billing pretty much everything other than shooting and that's from ashley coming tonight? Who is a photographer? So a lot of photographer of and yes, a lot of the financial side, for sure we're seeing right filing sales, tax trains, uh, it's interesting, one of the one of the comments here from venus designs I'm not crazy about the suggestion of pain rock bottom rates for creative work from a site that does creative training, and I don't think that's what we're suggesting here, I think what we're what you're suggesting is focus on the stuff that makes you the money and outsource the stuff you hate. We have a bunch of people here from a variety of businesses and walks of life, and the creative stuff is precisely the thing that they don't want to do, and they're not good at and so outsourcing it, you know, you do, you know, you pay what you get for, but you know, rates are different, yeah, and let me tell you, just because I say graphic design. We're not even talking about something that's creative we're talking about like I need a download button on my side bar it's his click here to download that's not necessarily something creative is just what I need and you need someone to make it for you otherwise I got to sit there and do it myself and even if you are a graphic designer a very creative person like that's not that's not what you're getting paid for, you know, for creative people and I am very creative myself I totally get that is if you know stay with your passion and feel that creative energy but everything else you can totally let go so if it drains you we can let it go ah and all these things that we've talked about our possible out all sourcing somethings that came up about the financial stuff and taxes stuff it's not going to apply to a two dollar virtual assistant in the philippines but I've been able to outsource all that stuff with having a bookkeeper in the epa and so you can get to that level but it starts with things that can even just give you ten to fifteen minutes of your day back I think that's where you start to see the real magic and then then you get addicted to it you know what else can I like go off and then when you're outsourcing to a virtual system to have them buy flowers for your girlfriend it's a little too far so uh so the next question really get clear on is what are the things that make you money? I won't go around the room again because I want to get deeper into this content but using alicia is our wonderful case study for the weekend because she made some money this weekend we can get we can start to get very clear and identify what were the things that made you money and you cannot outsource I mean, you you can on some level but you needed to be on that weapon are and that needed to be you and that needed to be your voice and your message and you're branding now you can outsource your slides, you khun outsources system for promoting the weapon are setting about setting up right in the replays, having the recording's done for every other element but I want you on those calls because you're the superstar and you gotta shine and that's where the money is so we don't start getting yeah, go ahead. The interesting thing was you can leverage other relationships you have and make money even not I mean to do anything and I've got a great story um I was I did a webinar with a guide in car white brilliant marketer we've been around for fifty thousand dollars in sales in the weapon arm and the next week I'll super pumped for this. The next week, I was on a flight to see my girlfriend at the time, who lived in san francisco from columbus in san francisco, and I got off the flight. I was like taking a nap or watching a movie or something. I get the flight and I open up my phone and I thought that someone like hacked into our system because I saw forty five one thousand dollars sales in my iphone. I was just like, how is this possible was, like, excited? I was like someone had to hack in and like, not in a scam to money to me or something, and then I called my business partner, sean was like, yeah, I just saw this I realized that carl did a replay to his audience for the same webinar, and we pretty much almost doubled the amount of sales would even know he was doing it, and I was on a flight to san francisco and I made it additional forty five thousand dollars, so you can really start to leverage your time, even you don't even have to do a lot of this stuff. Yeah, that's what some points and some of the tools and soft we gave you yesterday are great places of starters for is for saying up software systems, they're like systems that need people or we could get some virtual assistance and then there's systems uh that that just need a piece of software and it's great it's great to have both so what's possible with outsourcing oh, wait you're talking about sales and making money and one thing I don't hear about a lot in the internet marketing space is ah salespeople commission sales people to fill life events and etcetera so I would love your insight or not yeah, well well, heaven has a sales team and I want everyone talking about that for his life events oh, you know, you talk about that anyone we haven't seen kevin combinations he was talking about, he hosts these high end events and he has people on the phone and I need your eight thousand dollar events and every sale they get one in two thousand dollars but he's trained them to do the calls for him. He said all the sales himself get a team of people, so it was definitely something you can train other people not to sell it for you and those air I mean obviously as well talk about where we're going to look for our outsources depends on what their job is. You know, I like to get people excited about starting with the very simple things that that they're draining their day right now with that they can also for a little bit of money a sales team is like that's like that's a big step which is incredible which might be something for you for two thousand thirteen um so we can talk more about it definitely but here's some things here is the stuff that that I outsource for my guys they're just a couple dollars an hour obviously we said anything technical from hosting wordpress custom designed themes and plug ins even stuff like them uploading a plug it like I wanted do it all all find the plug like I need a plug in the canoe x y z all to search for it find him like that's the plug and I'll just e mail on my team the lincoln be like install this configure it set it up and let me know when it's done and then it's done graphic design now if your business is graphic design and you're talking about branding in creating logos is this necessarily different story but anything that we need like I said like buttons or a navigational arrow like we have sometimes we just need like a graphical text like click here to order now our bonus or discount it's it's amazing to be able to get that stuff a discount rates um or you know prices you can afford uh in the philippines and we'll share some other cool resources I do graphic design video editing which will talk about for second cause you guys brought it up uh it is absolutely possible to outsource your your editing obviously you guys want to be the superstars on camera so we can outsource you guys so you need to continue to be on camera um we're not going to get dummies to police stand ins but what's really cool and I wish I had stats on this yes yet I just started this is kind of a fun secret case study I'm doing for two thousand thirteen where I have a completely outsourced to youtube channel that I've created from scratch and the goal is to hit a million views in less than six months without me touching it have it put it up in entire system and I have to do a thing we just uploaded our first video and the way I did it the first video which it's only been um I think like three days for I did it the day before we left so uh for this event um I think I was about five hundred views and um it was really cool what I did so I figured out the topic that was my job what I wanted to create a video on and that's something you guys always have to do right the keyword research we're talking about but then I hired a writer on a website I'll show you guys in a minute they wrote out a script based on the topic then I went to five or dot com you mentioned yesterday and I found the most amazing voice over guy, right? And then I had to take the voice, and I had to put something visual to it. And he was able to take, um, uh, images and little animations and put him together. Um, and this and then boom video don and then have another guy who often lies is it? But if you guys are doing live footage here's the number one recommend recommendation we can we can find you guys a video editor for just a few dollars on our, um, the way to work, because at it adding itself, I love editing myself cause it it can be a very creative outlet for me, but I try not to do it as much as possible. That's not where the money is, but when you look at your videos in a template for matt, like in the first five seconds and every tv show and movies like this, they have acts they have, you know, you know, places in the scripts like by page five. We need to get to the conflict, you know, stuff like that. So you need to look at the videos that way the first five seconds, we have to tell people what this is about. The first thirty seconds we have to give the benefit that we have to give the content that we gotta close it and when you create a template id script for all your videos and then you just film that raw footage you have an editor in place who knows what to cut on what shots to use and how to put it together this type of music to use all that type of stuff and you can package them together so just like henry ford looked at the automobile assembly line you look at your videos is an assembly line as well it's a different way of looking at your content but if you're going to doing weekly videos so you have to do it it's the only way you can keep up with it when did you have a yeah just one more question actually for regime so we heard the advice earlier create five or ten videos in one session we can use that format send it off and then throughout sporadically throughout the month or a week or whatever then we could have delivered back to us and we're ready I mean that would be the ideal ring and then you have someone else on your team who when the videos come back we're going teo piece software most years should be familiar with dropbox box dot com there's other stuff like it um that people use I still use dropbox I love it where when those videos get put back in you have someone else on your team who knows exactly what to do with it oh, the video for next week's up great! I'm goingto take it I'm gonna upload it to youtube I'm going to use this title this description I'm going to do these things to optimize it and I'm gonna do it all for you so you guys like all look our videos out look at that it's a thankyou thankyou james do we want to give everyone video trav academy for free so that they could give it to their virtual assistant you wanted e thank you guys all right, so we will get him all copy afterwards but and there's some specific training on how I outsource my videos in there that goes really deep uh, ok things like managing your block? I don't I love writing as I said yesterday and they loved blogging loved doing what we're trying to do with derek does I don't know doing nearly as well as he does, but I hate wordpress. So what I do is I write an email and I write my block post in my e mail and I sent it off to someone on my team and I say do the rest put up a month long formatted put the right pictures, set it all up, make sure it's all good to go and I'll have to wear and it may be saves me fifteen twenty minutes but those are fifteen, twenty minutes and get back in my day um we talked about this yesterday transcriptions managing membership sites managing your social media I don't recommend outsourcing you like having someone say yes you know send a tweet for me and tell him you know I'm at lunch today and stuff like that no I just managing your social media I have a lot of customer support questions that come in through my personal facebook and I'm not in facebook every day so I need those to be filtered to me I need to make sure that I stay on top of that and I don't have all the time in the day so I have people on my team who do it for me uh research obviously anything from keyword research to competitors research finding which blog's and forums and publications you go after here's an example of what I do for research to examples number one I'm the youtube guy so I have to stay up on youtube stuff and youtube has changed speed of light so I need to make sure I'm on top of it so I have a virtual system whose job every day is to scour the internet looking for the latest updates changes news what's working what's not on youtube and then he sends me a nice little e mail in the morning as I'm having my tea I getto learn right there is my first email in the in the morning what's what's going on what's what's new in the world for me another thing which I love if I give you video traffic academy it's a couple hours of more training you go through if you get any of other of lewis's products that's more training it's more time when I get products I give in to my team and I say you go through it you give me cliff notes and if I like what I see will implement it or they'll implement it but they learn it they get the whole process I just kind of have to know what's the strategy what's the big picture but they they can do the details they could do the little tweaks they know how to upload a transcript I want to make a point in that and uh it's important cause there's a lot of people that go to so many events uh internet marketing events or business building events or by all these products but then they never take action. I think someone at the meeting last night was like I've got your product to get this product this product and I start to go through the first part had bought six months ago information overload information overload and I think I think what's worked for me is that once I realized how to make money I literally have just repeated that process for the last few years, and that's all I focus on now, I listen to other people, what they're doing, but a lot of people are so scatter brained and have so many ideas that they don't get anything done, and I just keep making more money, and they keep staying at the same pace. And I think when you allow yourself to be ignorant in some sense and not say, I have to know everything, but just have a general idea of what's working for people on what's not working and not think you have to learn it all, there's no way you're gonna learn it all and implemented just figure out what works best for you and then just take matt s of action and kind of put blinders on, in a sense, because there's some people that I know who are just, like, so excited about what's happening like the new shiny thing that's coming in like this new tactic, this new strategy to do this in this way implement with this thing now, and they burn out or that's, just like it doesn't work, and so they find a new strategy. They find a new product by our new software, it's, always a new thing that they think is going to like now this is the ah ha moment everything's an ah ha moment but just find one thing we're showing you what works this is what worse release you in a day this one works for j once james started doing webinars how much bigger than your business grow? No, it started to really grow right and you were doing a lot of different stuff before that too and I know you're still doing a lot because that's who you are but but uh but he does a lot of webinars now and that webinars you gotta find a way to sell your products. We're talking about the well in our model because it's a channel to sell your products that works on the internet effectively well, it's a way to connect with your audience we'll talk more about this a couple of sessions but you got to figure out what works best for you and just repeated over and over and eliminate all the other crap that's taking up your time and your energy from making sales I love it. Okay this's probably the big question people are asking where do I go to find the best people to attract the best people for my team um I discovered the philippines and filipinos a couple years ago a zealous about three, four years ago and an absolutely phenomenal culture of hard working, honest, loyal and dedicated people that really puts like kind of embarrasses us is a culture you know, the lazy seventeen year old kid working at starbucks I mean these are the most hardworking human beings ever on dh when when when the internet goes down when their their kid is sick I mean they're like they send these long emails like how guilty they are that they can't work for you for a couple hours and it's like it's okay it's no big deal and you can get started with someone for as low as sixty, eighty dollars a week the biggest saying the biggest piece of advice I could say is too no matter what even if you don't think you khun phil forty hours of work for them even if you think I only got like probably like three hours of stuff to do is to hire someone full time from the philippines because it's a scary commitment for the sixty eighty dollar price point a week our rate because what that dies is it allows you to go holy crap my team of one just went to two there's someone else I just cloned myself. I just added one more person to my arsenal, which means you'll be in the middle of working on so one time this happened my typing away and like an email will come and I got to take care of this right now you know, reactionary mode and I'm like, you know, you stopped what am I doing? You send it off to your assistant and so there's right now and, you know, there's, no way I could get someone to do forty hours of work, I don't have that much stuff to do, and then once you get him, you realize you need a second assistant because they've got a full week load and that's what happens? Because when that frees you up, when you're freed up, you start doing bigger and bigger things, which mohr things come in and you need more systems and more things in place and that's, why today? I have, like, six guys in the philippines as well as other people across the country. Yeah know what happens because I think some people masses question our experiences, you go here, you find someone and within the first months of disaster, or you can communicate with them effectively or they're not understanding or they're not doing what you want them to do the right way or it's, not the work that's good enough? Do you get discouraged and stop or do what's that? So you the further than the next step is saying, awesome, I just paid my dues because you will all experience a I don't even want pitfall um, a mistake, a downfall of this because it's part of paying your dues of it. Do you really think you're gonna find the perfect person on the first day? You know what? Lunch? Something today, it's not gonna happen. You gotta look and you've got to be. And we're going to have to show you how to do that. I'm gonna show you how to avoid some of those pitfalls, but it's part of the process and I say awesome welcome, welcome online jobs, not ph is the site I recommend to get started looking for filipino virtual assistants, and at this rate, this is to have someone who could do the day to day stuff that anything that you could train anyone had to do install a theme er, manageable our post managed social media, do some basic data entry, do some research things that you could teach anybody who really doesn't have any experience, you can do that. We're gonna talk more about how to find the right people, how to interview him and stuff like that a minute. But I want you guys to know this resource. Walk away with one thing, you know that at lunch today, at the end of the day, you guys could go toe online jobs, dock, ph, sign up there and find someone really quickly really easy is that a free site it's not I think it's fifty bucks of months, he paid the fifty box, and then you can you can cancel that it's the greatest place to go to find these people. Um, now, most guys, hopefully, if you've heard of all these other outsourcing places you've heard about, ask I love, oh, desk. Um, when you have task specific or job specific things that you don't want to do like, for example, designed something have something built. Have this one time where, you know there's a finite end, period. It's a great place to go. Video editing, getting a video done. Finding someone to do a voice over here is, well, that's, where I recommend. So these are these are the two main sites I used all the time. There are other sites as well for more specific tasks. And if we have time, we can go to them. But these are the two, uh, game changers for me. Uh, worse online jobs, not p h and o desk dot com uh, let's talk about who we're looking for, how we attract the right players to our team. If we're doing for filipino virtual assistance and we're on online jobs, not ph people come to me say how much experience should they have? How many you know, how many years it should they have been doing this? I like to say as little as possible as little experience as possible what I'm looking for is the energy the enthusiasm, eagerness alert because when they have that passion and and then you can share your passion with them, they're willing to do whatever it takes to help you succeed because what they really want is they want security and the longevity of ah of a job of an income uh that they know they're going to get week after week, so I look for people who are passionate mohr passionate than I am mohr excited than I am to get to work second areas how much they know because you can everything that we're doing all these little tasks can be taught to them really easily you just tell him go google it right go google it um now if we're going to go to odessa, we're looking for these task specific people let's say I wanted I did a video recently that was completely outsourced and it was like I used after effects, which is this like crazy animations text flying on the screen, all these cool things that I would never want to do myself because I can't um so I went toe desk and I looked for someone who I was very clear on my description will show how to write a drop post description in second, but I was very clear on making sure that I wasn't gonna hire someone unless I'd seen a previous video that they had done that looked similar to mine so I needed to see their past work I needed to see their portfolio and I had to go through a few people until I found the one that's that's it and I just said it was like a that video that you have on your side on your portfolio of third one down I want you to make one just like that for me and it kind of becomes really easy that way so um you know, you take a little bit time to do your due diligence and look for their skills experience, etcetera that's pretty easy it's pretty it's pretty self explanatory stuff um so I think I've got a few steps for you on how to outsource, which is also really basic. Like I said, outsourcing is easy what's not easy is actually letting go is actually realizing that you don't have to do it and I'm gonna give a specific example really quick like I told you guys the first thing I told you day one is that I love teaching and so the way I teach most often is through webinars and boot camps myself and so one of the things I prided myself on so much where my slides no I didn't actually could be creative live team created these lights for me I just give him the bullet points and six months ago that would've been the hardest thing to dio I would've said no I got to create the slide because I need to have the text certain way the images and on stuff and it's like here's this guy outsourcing insane outsourcing I can't let go of how to create these slides and so I was creating a program and we created the entire outlined all the bullet points of everything and I'm like great now I got to take this outline I'll put it on his sleights and after about three hours of doing this and realising I had about three slides done I added up the time and so this is gonna take me about two months to do it just to create slides and that's one like kicks in like I said, you kind of stopping what am I doing? Why am I doing this myself? So I went to otis dot com and I actually found two people whose specialized justin creating keynote slides forty eight hours later I had one hundred and twenty two slides in my dropbox done exactly how I wanted it no changes needed it was perfect is this why all your slides like really cool so the first steps you people go oh, I need outsource awesome and I'll jump on this website will go here because james says the first step is always figure out what it is you need to let go, what is it that you need out? So I always get clear on what you're doing and the other side notice there's a difference between saying I need to find someone who could do back linking form a like and can do these different like specific tactics versus saying, I need someone who can I wantto outsourced getting traffic? If you want to do that, you have to pay a very expensive marketing agency to do that for you. What these people do is say you give me the steps, you give me the system and we'll do it for you, it's a lot harder to say, um, you're going to pay a couple bucks now you just get me traffic, we just get the sales things I'll check in with you in a month, so you need to be clear on what it is you're letting go right the specific action steps this is why we stay educated, we have our teams go through courses and products, the next thing we do is submit the job post based on what it is that you're outsourcing, so when I needed to outsource my slides I went toe ods dot com I created a job host the title said keynote magician needed and then the description I mean this is no brainer stuff I got a lot of people who get hung up what what how do I write the perfect post the description the title how'd I do it's don't even worry about it just say what you need I need someone who can I need a keynote magician I said I said I need a plus one hundred slides made that you have to be using keynote and you have to follow the template that I've already started and I need to end them my requirement I need to see he notes slides that you've done in the past I need to see proof that you know what you're doing I had like in an hour and ten twelve people ready to do this for me and the only person I picked was the first person who's willing to get on a skype call with me which is the next step interview your applicant so I actually what I do is I sit on skype soon on tv and I said emailing back and I said any kind of way around I'll be in front of computer I get an email from so I just saw your job post let's do this and I say great I'm on skype here's my skype I d hit me up say hello and then it just turns into this impromptu interview and I just ask him a few questions for that was let me see past examples I said you know, can you do it the way I want it? How long do you think it's going to take you and you get a good vibe good feel for them that's a great do it and then you hire now if we're doing this is a really important step if we're doing online jobs if you're getting someone who's going to be this full time person because that might still be a scary for people here's a really cool trick that I do is I hire people on a probationary period if I'm looking for a new virtual system to put on my team full time I say great I interview him by asking questions I get the good vibe I see the energy, the enthusiasm that willingness to learn I say great I'm going to hire you for seven days probationary period I'm going to give you a couple of tests assignments, a few jobs and I'm gonna be watching you like a hawk and if you fit my my company well for you fit well with me, we're gonna go on from there if not that's ok? We're going separate ways I'm still going to pay you and I'm gonna we're gonna go back to the drawing board and there is a way to actually outsource this process friend of ours. Chris tucker has got a company that helps find you the perfect virtual assistant for you what's his west say again, it's a virtual staff finder, virtual staff finder, virtual stuff finder dot com if rick, if you have one, make sure that's the right link. Uh, but they'll you tell them what you want and then they do the out. They have a team there in the philippines and they have a team, people that sources and finds it's like you were recruiting coming basically. So I don't think I can make it any easier than this. So if you find yourself struggling with these four steps, what you need to do is take a step back and say, this is me like it's something's going on with me, it's a block it's ah it's a limiting belief, it's an issue I have with letting go or it's fear or something, and I and you just need to be okay with it, it's you could take a deep breath and sam, we'll take care of tomorrow. We're going back. We're going to do it again because when I created my program, I put people in a facebook group and some people started going nuts. Like they're like oh my gosh, I don't know how to write a description where I put it but now I have fifty applicants I'm not supposed to go through all of these how how do you expect me to go through fifty applicants by tomorrow who said you had to just close your eyes and take one and start interviewing them? You only need to go through three before you find the most amazing person so these are people that are like it's new it's scary but it could be really fun it is it's really fun on the reverse of that don't think it's so fun that by tomorrow I get someone messaging me saying I just hired seven virtual assistance that people actually do they're like I decided to get four and I'm like no one at a time do one thing at a time for now because it's a new it's this is something new for people than take your time there's no rush s very simple steps um uh step five he's training them right? Um letting them know like, you know that's why we give them courses were like, well, you know, we don't exactly know how to do this ourselves here some youtube videos on how to do it or here's here's a great program that you could go through and educate themselves I'm always educating my team that's what happened willingness and an eagerness to learn so we can teach them and they can continue to grow with us so we'll talk about some tools I used to train him um right here so I actually this is embarrassing. I just got on base camp like, twenty five days ago and this thing has changed my life the most. I mean, I feel like an idiot that I haven't been on it because blowing my mind and I liketo blow my mind um it is organized my life and my business so much more so that I can visualize everything at once because now we have a big team so I can see everyone but now they're held extremely occur campbell and they're more organized and what I've seen is a huge bump in their productivity and I love it so base camp gives you forty five day free trial I highly recommend you jump on that as soon as possible even if it's still just you for to do lists and your own projects. It's great to stay organized I mentioned dropbox earlier. I'm sure there are plenty of other similar things driving using drop box for years I have a philosophy if it ain't broke, why fix it? And it works fantastic so what it is is it's a folder that sits on your desk top that has this magical wormhole to your virtual assistants computer so I put something in there and it pops up on lewis's desk top and it's a fantastic way to share things so when you guys were doing your videos you put him in that dropbox folder your video editor khun get them and then when the video finished video comes in you can get those as well it's a really cool way to transfer larger ship files um we do a lot of stuff with google docks as well or google dr um just creating live documents and so so and it's free it's it's just great to have everyone on a on a same system so we we all use gmail on the team were well message each other and g chat will will have google calendars were scheduling things and we create documents one of the great tips all sharing a second is that when we have a virtual assistant doing new things let's say for the first time ever I'm gonna have a someone on my team install a uh new theme they will actually created a google doc sharing the steps of how they install that thing. So if they leave tomorrow and I get a new person and I'm gonna install a theme I go great going to google docks and find the document on how to install theme to plug him right back into the system no time is lost layers finally jing there are plenty of other resources like this too don't want tonto why use x y z? Is that ok? Yes it's okay uh what jing allows you to do is capture your screen in video or image format so you can have notes you know when you have your website you need someone to change something on your banner your sidebar and stuff you know, arrows and text or you can make videos we do videos all the time like I'll be like just record my screaming like a clay I need you to do this and this and this is this makes sense let me know boom and send it off to him so I'm not even typing emails at this point which is fantastic uh those therefore tools was their fifth one yes gotta pay him. We're using pay paulo lot to send most o desk all the payments is taken care of internally with odessa they have a third party payment set up which is fantastic that's why I love oh desk for virtual assistance in the philippines payments that ph obviously ph means philippines eyes it is a great resource I recommend for sending money to your virtual assistants in the philippines but I like to ask him I say, how would you like to be paid just paperwork for you great let's do it, yes so I have for the last year, I've had a va in the philippines and it's so cute because she she doesn't want me to pay her for she only wants me to pay her every four months because I'm like four months yeah, because she wants to save the money. Wow, so I guess I don't know exactly she's just so wonderful, but so I pair every four months, so she gets a big bulk payment. So she's, like I'll spend the money if you give it tio, okay, I don't know, but it she's, like, changed my life. It's, it's, wonderful that's awesome! Yeah, and if we could take one question from the internet about payment to sort of dovetail on that, the virtual wizard asked, but many people have a swell do ten, ninety nine these folks, how do you handle the tex issues? Paying someone overseas? It's a great question, and I hate addressing it, because I'm I have to say, I can I'm not a c p a or anything, um, that's really what I want to answer it, as is, go consult with the c p a or someone knows. I mean, the fact the matter is, though, is that they're in another country, so they're not reporting income in the united states, so go ask a cps james back and yell me yes I just got a text from someone who's watching and said that I don't use this but ever notes I know derek yeah yeah I don't I don't use ever known either but I everyone says such so many amazing things about ever now so yeah they're like you can't live without everyone that's what derek says yeah yeah it's funny I keep being old school I guess like like base came took him forever to get on base camp we'll just use a google doc and write it really that's cool eso listen we're going to finish up with some quick tips he's like laser focused like bone things thatyou khun you khun dio and then I'd love to take a cz many questions as we can before time runs out people who have outsourced to the philippines and have said I'm going to hire you full time and we're gonna pay you seventy five dollars a week and you're gonna work for me every week forty hours a week have experienced this phenomenon called the missing the syndrome where all of a sudden after three weeks of phenomenal work from this person st james's person is amazing change my life, my business I'm growing I'm enjoying my life again but they just disappeared and they haven't responded to a single e mail and I can't get a hold of them and it happens now we can have a conversation with chris drucker of doctor doctor that's right about two weeks ago and he explained to me uh ninety nine percent of time why this happens so if it ever happens to you you'll know um something well say like this um they weren't they weren't you weren't taking care of um something better in their life came along they are very dedicated and loyal but they're so dedicated and loyal but they won't even ask for race they won't ask for more money in fact, if you sit there and start haggling with them they're like I'll start you out at thirty five a week they'll say yes because they don't know how to say no and so I've always had this philosophy from day one with my team and I say it to them like weekly you take care of me and I will take care of you so if you want to avoid this missing syndrome you make sure you check in you say how is everything are you and my taking care of enough? Are you happy? Is there something I could do to be a better employer? What can we do these air real people and that's a problem it's virtual and you don't see him and it's just like email back and forth like sometimes we just disconnect like we're driving in a car and we get road rage is a real people there's also a thirteenth month in the philippines where they get paid so there's holidays and bonuses and stuff and you know what? I pay it take care of them because they will see how quickly this investment comebacks comes back for you. One of things we do is I wouldn't say start off with this. This is a big hesitation for people like what about my passwords? If I give him something like my log in to facebook, are they going to go and take it and post and locked me out? They have to earn your trust first, but what we do is we keep a google doc or a page on the internet where we have passwords to all that stuff and the team can access it might trust my team. They've been with me long enough don't give any precious information out during that seven day probation probationary period, but as time goes on and they earn your trust, then you definitely can you definitely can't trust them. Actually, clint has access to my credit card in my one of my credit cards and my paypal account, and because we do things like we'll buy gifts for for j v partners and customers, and so he needs to go in there and do that, and I trust him with my life so you can get to that level, not overnight. Daily reports this one most amazing things, so you know that they're working to do what they say you requirements absolutely essential they have to send you a daily report every day when they finish working five days a week then on friday they send you another daily report with a payday reminder so that you don't seem like they don't they're not perceived as a jerk because you don't pay him because I'd forget tell him like I'm not going to pay if you don't if you don't tell me to pay, you just bug me and say painting and it's done that's an interesting point in ever I thought about that, but I like that yeah lost tell me when I need to assess fantastic so you know they're working and you know that they're getting take care of I said this one already document new assignments new things they're doing make you have them write out the system what is it that you're doing to install that theme? So if you disappear you have someone you can plug right into the system. I said this one is well have assistants go through training programs uh and then the big thing there's really a dance and a balance between not micromanaging but also not just saying go do my traffic go build my business right there is a balance in between that micromanage means for these people like I'm just going to give him one little cog of the wheel like one little step I like to say like a client so we got a new membership site and I'm working on some strategies for retention here's some things can you oh, yeah, you know, I think they see it, they can connect, they're just because they're they're they're not paid these expensive wages in our terms doesn't mean these aren't really smart people so, uh, share that big vision of yours so they can jump onboard and help you with it? I think that was that the last one might be eight let's. See? Yes, I love this one. Um I have, like, a little orientation video in a document. So when we bring someone on but like here the tools you need, you need to be on gmail, you need to do this, you need to send me a daily report and you see me that's all done in one thing. So when we bring someone on the team, I just give him that. Cephus eight you've known me back when you finished watching the video and you finished the report are reading the document and I like done and they know exactly what to expect is they're part of my company, so those are some quick tips and we went through a lot really fast and we could go for way more but I think you guys have got your feet wet you can that on idea you've had outsource we have questions this is like so liberating like to take that pressure off because where you know like oh, we got to do this we got to do that like no you got to do what is bringing you money and if it's not bringing your money you have to stop doing it even if it's something you love all right but it's just you know, outsources a big big you know, word or debate in the photography industry and you know, I've learned about it and I've done it but never anything like this with a lot of new tips and you tool so this right here's where you find the course for ninety nine dollars folks at home do we have questions from the internet? We certainly dio um we'll start with an easy one. Elizabeth handan asks any thoughts on outsourcing to india? Um yeah uh I think that I think was like before I work week came out and outsourcing got really popular india was the answer um I've had some people to just say be wary of india um I don't really you know, I had someone who actually uh managed an outsourcing firm in india and he told me not to outsourced india so I just don't want anything other than that, but that's what he told me, and so, um, I kind of found something that worked, I found filipinos, uh, we're just so loyal and dedicated that's what? I need it that's what I loved because it in sleep at night, you know what you like? Is this person even working? Are they doing what? I just came from money or they're going to do it that's kind of a scary feeling, I get that, and I don't want people to experience that question from terry is during that trial period, do you test them? Um, with going for training programs to see how good there I'll give him, like, test assignments like I'll say, you know, research top five blog's on talk about youtube video marketing and come back with us synopsis science like little things that don't aren't going to be a detriment to my business, like I'm not gonna say, like, log for me for a week like, no, don't do that, you know, like little stuff that are just fun side stuff, and you know, what you're looking for is, do they understand what I'm asking? Are they? If I have a due day, are they meeting the do the due dates and deadlines and how's our interaction house a report for me that's a huge thing for all of us that's a huge thing being able to connect with these people and have him get you as you get them. So several people have ask you to address the concerns about copyright ownership when you upload something to drop box apparently is some concern that you lose your copyright by uploading to drop box I had no I had no idea that's that's brand new to me but what was that you lose your copyright issue when you need apolo drop box I didn't know that because there private folders that you get to choose who share I would think that that's crazy if that's really true that's uh that's good I don't know they were this true or not but there is there some concern in the chat rooms that it's similar to facebook whereas you you know the copyright gets a little murky once you upload a drop box it according to the chat rooms like you know we're loyal we aren't lawyers we can neither confirm it yeah I mean I talked your company lawyer I mean weaves like like when we create our program it's like we will put the contents that people are paying foreign a dropbox to share it with our team that can manage and upload it for us, you know that's kind of and we've done this for years so it hasn't even experienced a problem but this is brand new news to me then um I think we need to shed some more light on but I appreciate what brought that to our attention yeah, so a question from jennifer I'm not sure to pronounce name very alliance we'll just go with jennifer be and also marry artie can you talk more about outsourcing learning this is an intriguing concept, she says, and and the other person said, how do you outsource things that you don't understand such as outsourcing virtual stuff where commercial stuff find it could be a good resource how you outsource your you're outsourcing is the resource like virtual staff finer where they pretty much find a team for you that are a little bit more qualified um it's a premium service you're gonna pay more you know but you get what you pay for your there's a next ra value there but let's say you decided to choose this kind of raw unmold id virtual systems person has no work experience they're fresh out of high school college we're going to be young they're going to be in their early twenties but they're eager to to make some money and live out on their own I think the internet is abundance with with all the information that we need and so what I always start them with is um is great training programs that I know like if I wanted them to do some things and linked in I'd say here's linked influence go ahead and go through two modules of it a day keep me posted and uh hear the things I want you to do x y z with you know um so I use these products programs tio to teach them but but I think great assignments to start people off on our things that you do know how to do yourself that's why we spend a few minutes today saying what are the things that you are doing right now that drain you because you know how to do those things because you're doing them and you take a little jing video and say here's what I have to do every every time someone wants to cancel my membership I have to go in and I do this and have to cancel here and after removing here and have to do this and I sent him that thing now you're going to do it so here's the video on how to do it make sure you do it every day semi daily report making sure who's been added and removed and then you can start to give them products and programs to train about it do it all right well I think it's it's about time to break but I do have one more thing I want to ask you about because this is a common objection that I hear and see all the time and I would love to hear your thoughts on that and this was from concrete who said but it's so draining to tell somebody else what to do and follow up on designs making sure tonto right there's a lot there's right now the reason you're one of the reasons on outsourcing is just too much pain associated with it you said you know why my it's less pantages do it myself to keep going in there every day something tell you story I needed I needed a piece of software installed into one of my websites that would allow these cool little things to happen and I hired this virtual system guy to do it or I had my current virtual system it's going to do this we went back and forth for three days straight he couldn't figure out he couldn't do it it was the most frustrating thing in the world and I was like I could have done this myself why am I doing this finally got it yes took three days of my life wasted time why my outsourcing two months later I had another website and I needed to install that same software cinema nemo I said hey, do you remember that fun three days we spent installing that software is like yeah and you should do it again three hours later okay done when you look at the big picture, I realized that when you're setting up systems and you're doing that training, you do it all in the front end in the first few months, six months, maybe even a year. It's going to be more work, you have to do work a few years of your life to do things. What is it that you started the whole thing with this quote, state again? It's. Ah, entrepreneurs work. A few years for ownership is living a few years of your life, like most people won't, so you can live the rest of your life, like most people can't look at the big picture, because that's, what you're trying to go, it is break through to the other side is a good song.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


You may think that having the same kind of beverages is boring like eating the same old foods while in phase 2. But there are ways to make your drinks taste amazing. You can use 1 tbsp of milk per day, a splash of lemon in your water and natural sweeteners like Stevia and Splenda. You can also use some suggested recipes for blended drinks for your meal replacements. Making a wrong choice by choosing drinks not allowed on HCG diet can cause a stall in your weight loss.
Coffee is allowed provided that it's black and sweetened with stevia. If you desire, you can put 1 tbsp of milk. A cup of black coffee only contains 2 calories. It contains calcium and potassium. It has a high level of antioxidant higher than tea, wine, fruits and vegetables. There is no specific type of coffee specified in the original manuscript.
Tea has been used for centuries not only to help encourage weight loss but as well as to help relieve some ailments. Tea's like green tea contains natural antioxidants that protect cells and prevents heart diseases. All types of tea are allowed in HCG diet.
You can have just one full lemon per day. Add this to your water or as a flavor enhancer to your foods. You can also use lemon as an alternative to the high-calorie dressings of your salad.
Drink at least 1 gallon of water a day. Water is important to keep your body hydrated, for a proper bowel movement, proper functioning of liver and kidney and of course to suppress your hunger. It is also necessary to flush out toxins and fats from your body.
Diet soda and all other forms of sugar-free drinks are not allowed during HCG diet. Why? Sugar- free drinks may not actually contain the sugar "sucrose" but it does contain other forms of sugar and sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose that may cause gains and stalls during your hcg diet.


text:
Postojna – queen of caves
3rd November 2020 25th January 2022 by Erratic Engineeress
Baby dragons, crazy dripstones and magnificent halls – what more could you possibly want in a cave?
When it comes to Postojna cave, it's hard not to talk in superlatives. Often called the queen of the underground, the large Karst cave system in southwestern Slovenia has had a very early tourism start because of its easily accessible beauty and soon became the first cave in the world with an underground railway. As it is home to the the very strange endemic human fish, it is also known as the cradle of speleobiology, the biology of cave creatures, but let's start at the beginning.
Postojna cave gets its name from the nearby city of Postojna and is part of one of the longest cave systems in Slovenia and also one of our main tourist attractions. It was first opened to the public in 1819 and soon became world famous after the visit of the Austro-hungarian emperor, who was very impressed by the wondrous underground world he saw. Back then they used giant chandeliers and torches to light up the cave for visitors, who came from allover the world. In fact, the cave became so popular, that the first cave railway in the world was installed in it in 1872, as well as electric lights in 1884, which was earlier than in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, or in certain parts of London. You can still see the soot from the candles and torches in the main part of the cave and the tourist railway remains a major part of Postojna cave's attraction to this day.
Postojna cave at the dawn of tourism.
Today the railway cars are no longer pushed by tourist guides, but rather by electric locomotives and you can visit 5.3 kilometres of the cave as part of the regular tour. As you can imagine, Postojna cave is extremely popular and often overcrowded, so we Slovenians tend to forget how amazing it is. However, we really shouldn't and although Slovenia has many other gorgeous, less popular Karst caves, I would recommend a visit to Postojna cave to anyone, no matter how touristy it is, because it is so popular for a reason.
Due to its shape and size, Postojna cave was uniquely suited to the construction of an underground railway and the cave train ride is the first experience when visiting, no matter which tour package you select. The ride is about 4 kilometres and is a special experience in itself, as the train takes you to the main part of the cave through winding tunnels and large halls, all of them strategically lit to highlight the beautiful rock formations Postojna cave is famous for.
Since the whole cave system is so large and diverse, you pass through narrow tunnels, frighteningly close to limestone overhangs, and magnificent halls with bizarrely tall ceilings lit by fancy glass chandeliers, which will almost feel like they shouldn't exist underground at all. There's even a Concert hall inside Postojna cave, which can hold up to 10.000 people and is often used for events, which you will see at the end of the cave tour, along with a souvenir shop (of course) before you board the train back to the surface again.
Entering Postojna cave
The trains are quite fast, so I felt a bit frozen by the end of the ride. The temperature inside the cave stays at around 10°C during the whole year and the ground is always wet, so you should definitely dress warmly and wear proper shoes. Don't go prancing in wearing sandals, because exploring the main parts of the cave is done on foot for about an hour and a half. The path is extremely easy, paved and accessible to everyone, although it can be a bit slippery.
Obviously the cave can only be visited on a guided tour and they are available in different languages, along with audio guides for additional languages. The first stop after the train ride is the main and the oldest known part of the cave, consisting of high halls full of crazy rock formations called dripstones or flowstones. This area is usually crowded with all the many tourist groups, which can make it hard to admire the cave at your own pace, but it does get better later on when the trail is narrower.
The main part of the cave and the Russian bridge
At the end of the main part is the Russian bridge, a rather Khazad-dum-ish bridge spanning the chasm between the main part of Postojna cave and the so called Beautiful caves. It was built by the Russian prisoners during World War 1 and allows easy access to the prettiest part of Postojna cave.
However, before we get to that, here's a bit of theory first: as a Karst cave, Postojna cave owes its beauty and existence to the erosion of soluble limestone, which dissolves in water and is a geological phenomenon in my part of the world. I've already written a bit about Karst here, and there are two great spots where you can learn about the formation of the cave and its history: the Expo Cave Karst interactive exhibition centre next to the cave entrance and the Notranjska museum in Postojna, which also houses the shiny treasures from the nearby Predjama castle, another spectacular attraction in the vicinity of Postojna cave.
The dripstones inside Postojna can be divided into two groups depending on their formation: stalagmites are the dripstones growing from the floor up, while stalagtites are the dripstones hanging from the ceiling. Both are formed through deposition of limestone, when the water full of dissolved limestone drips down from the ceiling to the ground. It can either drip to the floor where the limstone builds up, or it can flow along an existing dripstone hanging from the ceiling and deposit the limestone at its tip.
The process takes thousands of years as the average rate of dripstone growth is about 1 milimetre per 10 years. The oldest stalagmite you can see in Postojna is 16 metres high, which makes it about 150.000 years old. You can see a cross section of a dripstone below and I can also tell you that if I were a dripstone, I would be about 16.500 years old.
About Karst caves
Hopefully this gives you a better idea of the magnificence of Postojna cave, as its size and the complexity of its shapes and passages truly defy belief. It's hard to convey the awe-inspiring, terrifying feeling of age and permanence inside the cave in writing, because it's impossible to really comprehend the number of years it took for the cave to form – patiently, one drop at a time. The good news is, that it never feels claustrophobic, as it is easy to forget about the crushing weight of the tons of rocks above you in the high halls.
You really ought to experience it for yourself, and this brings us to the most beautiful part of Postojna cave: the Beautiful caves. This part was discovered a bit later and consists of 3 halls with what are rightfully called the most amazing formations in the cave. The first is Spaghetti chamber, which is full of tiny, thin stalagtites hanging from the ceiling that really look like spaghetti, followed by the White and the Red chamber. Both are known for their distinct limestone colours: the white represents the purest limestone, while red is the result of iron deposits.
Beautiful caves
The basic tour of Postojna cave takes you through the Beautiful caves to the Concert hall, where you'll pass the two signature dripstone pillars on the cover photo of this post. The fancy white one is called Brilliant and is hailed as the most beautiful dripstone in Postojna cave, along with the ornamented pillar next to it.
The Concert hall is where the tour usually ends, but the last time I visited in 2020, my boyfriend and I took advantage of a promotional offer and choose the option of trekking through 3 caves instead of just one. Our tour group was smaller than the regular tours and we visited Postojna cave, the Black cave and Pivka cave. The whole thing lasted about 3 hours and was a relatively easy trek on a well-maintained path through the caves. You can see a map of the whole cave system formed by the river Pivka below – we actually went through most of it, as parts of the caves are underwater or only accessible to trained spelunkers.
A map of the entire cave system.
The tour took us through a manmade tunnel between Postojna cave and the Black cave, which was built as part of a military endevaor to connect the Postojna cave with a cave close to the Italian border, which apparently never happened. As it turns out, the Black cave is actually a part of Postojna cave, but was discovered separately and it took them a while to realise the two caves were connected.
The Black cave is, as the name says, black. All of it is covered in ancient soot, which was most likely the result of an extensive forest fire years ago. The soot was probably blown into the cave by the wind and it will take thousands of years more for the dripstones to clean themselves. In the meantime, it's beautiful, somewhat dystopian and very cold. The temperature inside the Black cave stays at about 6°C the whole year round and let me tell you, it's a temperature shock when you have to climb out to the surface during the summer.
What struck me the most about the Black cave though, is how fragile the cave ecosystems really are. The idea that something as simple as a forest fire, no matter how massive, can affect a cave for so many years in such a way, got me thinking about human pollution and industrial waste, which is an everpressing problem for rivers. Since Karst is a sensitive type of terrain and caves strongly depend on their underground rivers, the Black cave is a visible reminder of the potential consequences our continued dismissive attitude towards the environment could have on the underworld – as above, so below.
Black cave
But, back to the trekking tour: after a short walk up on the surface following the road to Pivka camp, we entered our final cave of the day, Pivka cave. Now, Pivka cave may not be quite as beautiful as Postojna cave, but it is wilder and there's a river in it. The Pivka river runs right through Pivka cave, which gives it a special vibe and the reflections in the water are absolutely gorgeous. Although it is a bit rougher around the edges, or perhaps because of it, Pivka cave is also well worth a visit.
In fact, if you can afford it, I would heartily recommend the trekking tour through the 3 caves, as it is really more of a walk than a trek and you'll get a more authentic cave experience. Although Postojna cave is so beautiful, it is also so very touristy and civilised, that walking through it feels more like walking through a museum than a cave at times. While it's certainly worth visiting because of its unique beauty, I would also recommend a visit to the Škocjanske caves, another Slovenian Karst cave system on the UNESCO Heritage list, which is a lot less popular and feels more like a cave should.
Pivka cave
After our visit to the Pivka cave, we retraced our steps through the Black cave back to the Postojna cave, where we got to meet the best kept secret of Postojna cave – the baby dragons. The human fish or olms are a fascinating species of cave critters that have boggled the minds of locals and scientists alike for years. Back in the days of yore, when the Pivka river flooded through the undergrond sinkholes, it would wash out bizarre tiny white creatures that the locals assumed were baby dragon larvae or something. Legends claimed that a dragon lived in Postojna cave and these were its spawn.
The olms look like pale, translucent snakes with no eyes, tiny feet and red tufts and are endemic to the Dinaric Karst caves, so Postojna cave is one of the few spots around the world where they can be found. Due to their skin they were nicknamed the human fish and were so weird, that scientists from allover the world came to study them. Even Charles Darwin wrote about them in his On the Origin of Species and Postojna cave is known as one of the cradles of speleobiology, because lots of cave organisms were discovered there due to the olms' fame.
As it turns out, the olms are not only very strange, but also superanimals. They are extremely sensitive to light and have incredibly sensitive skin receptors, which allow them to sense the world around them and even electromagnetic fields. They are the ultimate cave predators, live for up to 100 years, can regrow their limbs and survive without food for up to 12 years (apparently some scientists forgot about them during the war and found them alive in a closed lab), but they are pretty bad at procreation. Since they only live in specific conditions, they are inherently endangered and biologists had been trying to figure out how they breed for years (they only breed every 6 or 7 years).
Well, eventually one of the olms conceived in an exhibtion aquarium in Postojna cave in 2016 and the 21 surviving baby dragons became a global sensation. These days they are no longer quite babies, but it is possible to see them in small groups on exclusive tours with infrared lights in a special cave lab aquarium. My boyfriend and I got to see them and I must say that I was impressed by all the careful arrangements to ensure the animals were disturbed as little as possible during the visit.
You can of course see the adult human fish during the regular tour of Postojna cave in special dark aquariums, and in the Vivarium, an underground cave zoo (the above human fish video is from there, obviously taken with no flash). The Vivarium is located in one of the side passages of Postojna cave, where the walls are covered with visitor signatures from back when that wasn't frowned upon. It's partly a research biology lab and an exhibiton of various weird, icky cave critters. They're fascinating in their own right, like this beetle that was the first officially confirmed cave dwelling animal, but I would prefer not to meet them in person. 🙂
Vivarium (underground cave zoo)
Phew! Guess what? We've made it to the end of this gigantic blog post. If you've read until here, you probably deserve a free ticket to Postojna cave. Unfortunately I can't arrange that, but I do hope you enjoyed reading it and are now considering a visit to the Slovenian queen of the underworld.
Now, are there any cool caves in your part of the world? I am always looking for cave recommendations, because there's just something about caves. 🙂 Let me know in the comments below.
P.S.: My boyfriend and I stayed at the fancy hotel Jama while visiting Postojna cave and you can check out my review of our stay here.
Animals Cave Fun facts History Nature Review Slovenia Tour Travel Travel tips Trekking
Review: A taste of luxury in hotel Jama
7 thoughts on "Postojna – queen of caves"
4th November 2020 at 09:13
That does look incredible.
It's so popular for a reason! I'm a bit sad we tend to forget that as locals.
I can certainly see why it's popular.
I think we all tend to overlook what is close to us when looking for places to go. It's something that has really been brought home to me in the wake of the Covid restrictions — there is so much nearby that we've largely ignored as we rush off elsewhere.
Exactly! I hope one of the positive consequences of coronavirus will be a shift towards more mindful travel, with less overtourism and an appreciation for the local.
Okay. That looks like something to see!