Do you struggle with delegating? Or maybe you don’t have someone you trust to delegate tasks to? In today’s episode, our guest, Lisa Zeeveld, shares her success with delegating and how to do it well.
Lisa Zeeveld is the COO, CFO, and original culture cultivator at BELAY, the leading virtual staffing solutions company. She is also the co-host for our new podcast, One Next Step.
- Learn more about BELAY’s services, https://belaysolutions.com/
- Listen to Lisa’s podcast, One Next Step.
Lisa ensures that the optimum people and processes are in place to allow BELAY to realize maximum profitability since the success of an organization begins and ends with its people.
With a Series-6 Limited Securities and Health and Life Insurance licenses, and prior experience in corporate finance and personal wealth management for several Fortune 500 companies, including Arthur Andersen and Weber Shandwick, she’s uniquely equipped to drive strategic initiative success by focusing on the company goals holistically.
Lisa is also a lifelong learner as an avid reader, history buff, and architecture geek.
If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:01):
You’ve worked hard to build your business and now it’s time to grow. Welcome to the Multiply Your Success Podcast, I’m your host Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team and a serial entrepreneur. And today, you’re in for another treat of an episode. We have a fantastic guest of a leading organization, and today’s question to get us started is to talk about this idea of delegation. And, do you know how to delegate? Truly. It’s actually a struggle I see entrepreneurs and small business owners struggle with. It’s something, I’ll turn the finger back at me and point at me as well, that I’ve struggled with as well. But, do you know how to delegate, and some things that you can do to do that effectively, and do that better.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:56):
Well, our guest today is Lisa Zeeveld, and she’s the COO and CFO, and original culture cultivator, at BELAY, the leading virtual staffing solutions company. She’s also the cohost of her podcast, One Next Step. Which, if you want to check out her podcast by the way, the link’s in the show notes here. Or, just look up One Next Step. She ensures that the optimum people and processes are in place to allow BELAY to realize maximum profitability, since the success of an organization begins and ends with its people. I think she’s spot on there. She has her Series Six limited securities and health and life insurance licenses, and her prior experience in corporate finance and personal wealth management for several Fortune 500 companies, including Arthur Anderson and Weber Shandwick. She’s uniquely equipped to drive strategic initiative success by focusing on company goals holistically. This interview with Lisa is fantastic, she’s absolutely wonderful. And, let’s go ahead and jump into my interview with Lisa Zeeveld.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (02:08):
I am honored to be with you, Tom. My name is Lisa Zeeveld, and I’m the COO and CFO, you can never just have one job, of BELAY. What we do is we provide remote staffing solutions in the form of virtual assistants, bookkeepers, website specialists, and newly social media strategists.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:30):
Wow. Well, you said a lot there. I’m excited to have you on as a guest. Our worlds have come together in so many different ways. My company and I have been a customer of BELAY now for almost three years, which is-
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (02:48):
Yeah, it’s crazy.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:48):
Hard to believe, I can’t believe it’s been that long with a VA and bookkeeper, and our experience has been fantastic. I promise our listeners, Lisa did not put me up to that but I am a glowing testimonial for your company. I love what you do.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (03:04):
And then, we connected at a local networking group. We just happened to walk in and be checking in a local networking group. Unknowingly, we’re basically neighbors.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (03:14):
I know, it was phenomenal. Again, just honored to be here. I’ve enjoyed watching your success as well. It’s really fun when you get to meet somebody and really celebrate them along the way.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (03:28):
Well thank you, I appreciate that. Lisa, I’d love for you to share a little bit about your journey on how you became the CFO and COO at BELAY, that really is the leader, I think globally and definitely in the US, but with this whole virtual workforce. I’d love for you to share a little bit about your journey.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (03:54):
Yeah. Yeah, I’d love to do that. Yeah, my background is in finance. I actually spent a good portion of my career in wealth management. The reason I bring that up is because, for your listeners out there who are business owners, or want to be business owners, are going to be like, “Why is somebody who was in personal wealth management, how is she now the CFO?” It’s important, because I work for a privately held business. So often, your personal wealth and the wealth that you are accumulating in your business, start to intertwine.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (04:28):
Yeah, I started my career in wealth management, and then really took some time to be home with my family. They got to the age where my kids were in school full-time, I was really good at spending money, not very good at making it. And, saw this opportunity from my neighbor who knew our owners, Bryan and Shannon Miles. And she said, “Hey, my boss is creating this company and we’re looking for people to provide the service of virtual assistants. Do you think you could give us a couple hours a week?” I looked around and I said, “Yeah, why not?” The whole idea was that I wasn’t sacrificing my family and what I really felt like I was called to do, which was be a mom and a wife, just to have a job.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (05:10):
I started working for Bryan and Shannon, at that time we were Miles Advisory Group, just five hours a week. And then, it quickly grew and I got the opportunity to join their corporate staff. I started out as HR manager, and then moved into vice president of finance, moved into CFO. And then, as Bryan and Shannon slowly started to really take the mentality of owning and not running, had the opportunity to also become COO last year, as they’re really shareholders now. So Tricia and I, Tricia Sciortino is our CEO, and she was my neighbor. It’s really fun that her and I have been able to take this journey together, to build this phenomenal business that really helps elevate other business leaders, which is what I love about it. But then, it also helps families by providing income to those who wish to be a contractor with BELAY, so it’s a phenomenal fit. I feel good every day I get to come to work and do this.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (06:10):
Oh wow, I love that. I love that. I’d love for you to just share some of the facts and figures about BELAY. You have such a large network, you’re touching so many companies around the country, so I’d love for you to share some of that.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (06:28):
Yeah, absolutely. We primarily serve small to medium size businesses, there’s not a particular industry. We are here in the United States, there’s no offshoring. All the services that we provide are from independent contractors here in the United States, so that’s when I talk about really helping to employ your neighbor. That’s was exciting about what we get to do.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (06:51):
So depending upon the service you’re looking for, whether assistants, or bookkeeper, social media strategist or website specialist, it’s really a fractional type of service, subscription type service, where you can purchase a set number of hours for that contractor to serve you in that area of your business. You know this better than anybody, Tom, you can grow your business unless you’re willing to delegate. It’s really hard, depending upon where you are in our country, to find people who are professionals in that particular area.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (07:22):
That’s really the story that Bryan tells, how he got this idea, is he was meeting with a church leader out West, and they were in a small town. The church leader was like, “Oh, I wish I could find myself an assistant like you have,” and a big light bulb went off in Bryan’s head. He’s like, “Well, I bet you I could find somebody to serve as an assistant for you.” That’s where, really, the idea was born. 10 years before there was a pandemic and before everybody was sent to work home remotely, Bryan and Shannon had this idea. They knew that it could work because of his relationship with his executive assistant. Now, we really feel like God has brought us to this place of being the experts in remote workforce, that we’ve been able to speak to other business leaders and help them understand how just having somebody in your office does not guarantee success. And, that you have to be a good leader and know how to delegate. And really, delegate trust and delegate results.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (08:21):
Well, that’s a great point. I know I’m included in that, where I’ve been conditioned as having worked a traditional you go into the office, you put in your hours, and then you go home. Being conditioned, I guess, is the best way to describe it, that it has to work that way. And now, having been a customer of yours and experiencing that, and candidly, our company, we have a small office here in the Atlanta metro. But, outside of a few of us that work there, everyone else has always been remote.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (08:59):
Right.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:05):
It’s an interesting transition, but you quickly realize that just because someone is in the office next to you does not necessarily mean that they’re being more productive, or are performing at a better pace, or are more effective as a team member.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (09:22):
Right, exactly. We started this business in a down economy. So what really helped us hit that pace, hit that where we were just being successful right out of the gate, was because it fit into what people could afford. You had a down economy when businesses were struggling, but people knew they needed help. That business leader knew that he or she needed help, so the idea that they could bring somebody on staff that might only work 10 to 15 hours a week, kind of considered part time, but that they could increase or decrease that depending upon the business and what they needed. The workload, they could increase or decrease that. So what we’ve really seen over time is that matters to small to medium size businesses, they love the flexibility of that subscription model.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (10:12):
And the other great thing about it is, if you find somebody you love, you know that they’re just killing it in their specific role with BELAY, that you can purchase out their contract. So we also act as a permanent staffing option as well, that then that contractor can work directly with you.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (10:31):
Kind of like a lease-to-own thing.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (10:34):
Exactly! Yeah, I like that. I like that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (10:38):
Yeah, well it’s great. One of the things that I’ve really appreciated as someone that’s gone through it as being a customer, is that you’re bringing qualified people in for consideration, and you’re getting matched and paired with people. So for me, as the small business owner, for me to just interview the people, screen them out, and then hope, “hope” in quotes if you’re listening to this, that they work out, is really, really hard. Where you’ve done all of the hard work to get them there, and if for some reason, maybe there’s a personality, it just doesn’t click for whatever reason, there’s a bench with 100 deep that’s just as qualified as the next, to step in and fill the gap there.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (11:32):
Yeah. We like to say that it’s harder to become a contractor with BELAY than it is to get into Harvard, we’ve actually looked at the statistics there. Because you’re right, we are looking for true professionals that have experience serving leaders. It is a very tough job to become part of one of BELAY’s solutions here. Somebody also said it’s like getting the Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, when you finally get that phone call that we have chosen you to be the contractor.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (12:04):
Yeah, it’s a really cool thing that we get to do. Like you said, you for instance, are really great at building franchises, so that’s something that you’re good at. Perhaps, you’re working with an attorney and he’s a really great attorney. But the problem is, he’s probably not been taught in school, in business school, really how to interview people, how to train people, how to delegate to people. So that’s what we do, we’re experts in that. What you’re doing is really turning over that trust to BELAY and saying, “This is what I need, I need someone to do calendaring for me, travel arrangements when the world opens back up, light administrative work. Here’s what I do. Can you go find that person for us?” And, because of our network and because of how many resumes we are getting in each and every month, we find exactly who you are looking for and help you all along the way, make sure that that’s a great relationship.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:59):
Well, thank you for sharing that. Lisa, one of the things that we’ve touched on this a little bit but I’d like to circle back to this, is the idea of a virtual culture and being comfortable working in a virtual work setting. I bring it up because a lot of our audience are either currently franchising, or a small business that we’re talking to may be thinking about franchising their business, which in essence is kind of creating a virtual location or territory.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:31):
So, would you talk a little bit about maybe some best practices, or some things that you do at BELAY, for your company … Which by the way, to our listeners, is a virtual company.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (13:42):
Correct, yeah.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:44):
They practice what they preach. Would you mind sharing maybe some best practices or suggestions on creating that kind of a virtual culture? Or even, just getting familiar with it?
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (13:56):
Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, we could not sell a service that we didn’t believe in ourselves. Yes, I do have a virtual assistant that works with me, we are all virtual. I’m in my home office right now, and we have for the last 10 years. It was tempting, in the first couple of years, to have a brick-and-mortar and we said, “No, we’re just not going to do it.”
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (14:17):
Really, I think for an organization to be successful, you have to be intentional. This is not something that’s going to just happen, you’re not going to wake up and have a business that’s working virtual, remotely and go, “Oh look, I have a great culture!” Intentionality is the very first thing you have to do. You actually have to speak that you want a great culture. Then, with that comes communication. You have to talk about that you want a great culture, you have to communicate your mission, your vision, your values, your why. Your team members need to know why you’re in business, why it’s important to you, and why it should be important to them.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (14:55):
After that, you need to start keeping your team accountable. Like I said, you have to have a very heavy dose of trust, but with that is delegation. You’re not going to be able to walk by your employees’ office and see that they’re at their desk. Side note, it doesn’t always mean they’re working if they’re just sitting at their desk. But, you want to employee adults so at some point, if you actually don’t think that you can have somebody working remotely, I hate to break it to you, but you probably have the wrong person on your team. Because you never want to have to think about, “Is that person actually doing their job?”
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (15:29):
If you’ve got intentionality, if you’ve got great communication, if you’re talking about wanting to build a great culture with your mission, and your vision, and your values and all of those things, then it’s just the accountability with it. There’s a lot of things, like key performance indicators, it’s having regular meetings. It’s using video conferencing, just like we are today here, Tom. You can just depend on the phone to have conversations and pour into your employees. I does take relationship building, and that does mean that you need to see them. And ultimately, you are going to want to get together a few times a year if you can. At BELAY, we try to get our team together at least four times a year, get everybody in the same room, and that’s really when we are casting vision for our future, talking about our why, hearing great client stories and getting to the heart of what we do.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (16:25):
Great advice. Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. I just think it’s great, for so many of our listeners that are tuning in, where there may be that hesitancy, someone who maybe is not as familiar or even comfortable with technology as it stands, or maybe in today’s world on a Zoom or a video call burnout.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (16:52):
Right, yes.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (16:52):
But, what might be that first step for someone just to try it? If they said, “What can we do?” What might you suggest to them?
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (17:02):
Yeah. I think take a look at your business. If you are in a service type business where you need somebody to come into a storefront, then it’s probably not going to be possible. Working virtual is not for every business out there, but I can almost guarantee that there are portions of your business that can be. For example, bookkeeping. A lot of businesses have their CPA, have their accountant. They’re probably paying too much for somebody to do their bookkeeping transactions. Bookkeeping is a very easy thing to do, that can be delegated out and be done virtually. If you’re in a brick-and-mortar that you have a storefront, think about it first and foremost. But there are roles, and I will challenge you to think through that.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (17:45):
If you are a service based business where you don’t have your clients coming into your office all the time, then really think through how you typically work. Do you have a sales team that is continually going out there and making calls on people? Do they need to be on the road? Probably not all that possible right now. But, is that something that they could do from a home office? And, what do they need to do that? Do they typically use a cell phone or do you have a phone system? You’re right, technology is one of the first things that you want to consider with those roles.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (18:18):
But then, setting the expectation of how you expect people to work. Are there certain business hours that you want to have? At BELAY, we understand that we’ve got some team members who might really like to wake up early. Not me, I’m not that person. But, work a six to three. And then, we have our night owls, and perhaps they’re a 10 to six on the other end. But, we do have those core business hours where we just expect everybody to be there so if we need to call an all team meeting, we know that they’re going to show up.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (18:53):
Setting those hours, setting the expectation around when you’re going to do your one-on-ones, when you’re going to have your team meetings, the types of tools you’re going to use to communicate, those are really the first steps out of the gate. Because what you don’t want to do is send somebody home without guidelines, because that’s when they feel lost. Then, they open up a laptop and they’re like, “Okay, where do I start my day?” Really helping them understand, and that could be through KPIs again, and their job description, and setting up those meetings will really, really help.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (19:28):
But like I said, I can almost guarantee that, unless you are a true service based business, maybe restaurant business, or perhaps you are providing other types of goods and materials that somebody needs to be in-person, I think every business out there, at some point, can have a virtual staff.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:48):
Yeah. Wow, that’s really, really great advice. I really appreciate that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:54):
To your point, I’m a local franchisee. In addition to running this, I bought a franchise several years ago, and it is a local service business where it’s a home services company. You have to go to the person’s house.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (20:07):
Right.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:08):
But, but the bookkeeping is outsourced, actually through BELAY. A lot of the paper and administrative work, really it’s almost paperless in today’s world, but almost all administrative work is handled remotely from someone not even in the same state. It’s seamless, no one even knows the difference.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (20:30):
Right, yeah.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:32):
To your point, you could start with something else.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (20:35):
Right, exactly. If you’re worried about security, that’s usually a concern for people. “Oh, well what if there’s client confidential information?” And again, that goes back to setting the expectations. You might want to say, “Hey Jim, this is great. I can’t wait for you to go home and work for us. Please be mindful of where you are setting up in your home. Understand that you’ve got to log out of your computer every night, that you need to store it in a safe and secure location. Also, in addition to that, we don’t want you to print anything.”
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (21:09):
Prior to joining BELAY, I worked for another organization, also remotely because again, that’s what was important to me and my young family, the application to print, the print drivers, were not even installed on my laptop because they didn’t want me to print. It was a liability for me to be able to print things, because I had confidential information so that was taken off the table. There’s a lot of things that you can do if you’re worried about security, that you can layer in there, with the expectations as well.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (21:42):
Wow. Wow. Well, I had no idea you could even do that, that’s great.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (21:46):
Yeah!
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (21:47):
Wow. Well Lisa, let’s transition here. This gets into the formula for the show, with the misses, makes and multiplier, so you’re on the hot seat now.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (21:58):
Okay.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (21:58):
We’d love to hear from you, we start with a miss. Is there something maybe in your professional career, personal life, or anything that you’d feel comfortable sharing that maybe was a miss that happened along the way, and something you learned from it?
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (22:13):
Yeah. I think, in a generalized tone, I think that the misses are when we took too long to make a decision. I think that probably a lot of your listeners out there can appreciate that. It’s when you are a little afraid to make a jump, you’re a little slow to roll out that new service or roll out that new product, and what happens is you miss the momentum that was growing with it, and the excitement of it.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (22:41):
When we get too far in the weeds and we want to know how we’re doing it, and all the nuts and bolts of it, then we start to lose excitement. I can almost guarantee that every time that happens, there’s somebody else whose right behind you on your heels whose going to release that product or service before you do. I think that if there’s anything that I could go back, it is not being afraid to launch when you know you’re being called to launch something new.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:11):
Great advice, great advice. I needed to hear that. I’ve got two things I need to make a decision on, you just gave me the little nudge that I needed to do that. As soon as we wrap up-
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (23:22):
Jump, jump! Go for it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:25):
Thank you. Let’s talk about on the other side here, of a make or two that came along that you’d like to share with us.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (23:33):
Yeah. A make, I will say, is definitely the employees that we have hired over the years. We have had the opportunity to bring people on our staff that we weren’t quite ready for. Just like I said on the misses where you wait too long to make a decision, that can happen when you’re hiring employees as well. We’ve had the opportunity to bring somebody on staff that we weren’t quite ready for, and we knew that we needed to add them. So if you’re looking and you’re thinking, “Gosh, do I really need to add that marketing manager? Do I need somebody to help my social media,” and you’ve been introduced to somebody who is phenomenal, those people have been the ones who’ve made our business over time because they came with fresh ideas that we didn’t have.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (24:24):
As a business owner, if you’ve been in the business, or you’re an executive in the business, you’ve been in it way too long, you know it like the back of your hand. But when you bring in another leader, or even a partner to your business that’s got a fresh set of eyes, it can really turn you around and point you in a direction that can quickly multiple your success, that you might not have been able to do before. The people are definitely the makers within BELAY.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (24:53):
You are a true pro, I love that you’ve thrown that in there. That was great, thank you.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (25:01):
Well speaking of success and multiplying it, and the theme of the podcast here, is there a multiplier that you’ve used to help you grow and develop personally, professionally in managing all of the balls you’re juggling in the air at any given time?
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (25:17):
Yeah. I know it’s going to sound like I’m trying to sell something, and I promise I’m not, but truly delegation is really what is the multiplier. You can put me with any business and I can really quickly see about scalability in the business by how they are delegating. It’s the easiest multiplier there is. We also try to do everything ourselves, and what we do is we end up robbing our businesses of the ability to grow, but we’re also robbing that employee of the ability to grow as well.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (25:56):
So there’s two things to think about. I don’t know, hopefully some of your listeners out there are like me, and I really love to pour into people. I want people to be successful, just like I want my business to be successful. So when you delegate you’re really helping both sides of that, because we can’t do it all. We become the bottleneck. That’s when you know you need to delegate more, is when you’re the bottleneck. If you’re out, “I’ve just spent the last couple of days with my team, and everything stops.” If everything stops in your business when you’re gone, when you’re on vacation, when you’re in some long meetings, maybe when you just take some time away to strategize, if things stop then you’re the bottleneck and that’s when you know you need to start delegating.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (26:37):
It can be delegating to a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper, things of that nature. But, it can also be delegating your marketing, and your sales team, there’s lots of great resources out there, companies that do just what BELAY does but in a multitude of different areas of your business. That’s what I would say is stop trying to do everything yourself, delegate, empower your team if it’s somebody who you are actually employing. And then, look for contracted services like BELAY and others to help you.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (27:12):
Well, that’s really interesting. And, I think you’re spot on, I think every small business owner struggles with it, at some point at the very least. You start the business, you were the engine behind it for so long, and at some point it’s grown, the engine is bigger than you and you have to start delegating and figuring it out.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (27:37):
Yeah. And sometimes, that decision comes before you can actually afford it. Here me out. I’m a CFO, I am saying those words. But, that’s what happens is you know, because you’ve maximized your amount of time. And you’re like, “Okay, I’m already putting in 10 hours a day, I can’t do any more. But I know that if I had an extra few hours in my day, I could get more.” So sometimes, again, it’s that failure to launch I was talking about. The miss is not launching soon enough. It’s saying, “I’m going to go ahead, take a leap of faith here. I’m going to go ahead and put my trust in a fractional type service, or I’m going to bring on that additional employee, because I know that that’ll give me the opportunity to focus on maybe a new product, a new service, or just even networking to get more customers in the door.”
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (28:33):
I relate it a little bit like parenthood. Sometimes you’re not always ready, you just got to do it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:40):
Oh, that is so true. Yes. I can’t imagine ever being prepared to be a parent.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (28:48):
No.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:51):
Well great, Lisa. The last question we like to ask every guest is what does success mean to you?
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (28:57):
Yeah. Oh, I love that question! Success for me is having a healthy, happy family. So over the years, I have been privileged to stand with some phenomenal leaders, and some of them lost it all to be in the position they are in, and some of them were really able to figure out how to do both. For me, I want to be able to lead a great company like BELAY, and really touch the lives of thousands, hopefully millions of people, but it’s not going to be worth anything if I don’t have a healthy and happy family. That’s success.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:37):
Oh thank you. Wow, that’s great. Great. I appreciate that. Lisa, as we wrap things up, is there anything you’d like to leave with the audience that you maybe didn’t have a chance to share or communicate?
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (29:50):
Yeah, absolutely. We’ve talked a lot about delegation, and we did talk about subscription staffing services, so if any of your listeners have any additional questions about what BELAY does, I’d love for them to check us out. It’s belaysolutions.com. And if they’re just wanting additional information, we do also have our own podcast. Our CEO, Tricia Sciortino and myself are co-hosts of the One Next Step Podcast, which we like to say is the most practical business podcast in the world, so hopefully they’ll come and check us out.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:20):
Great. Well thank you for sharing that, and we’ll make sure we have links back to your show, to the podcast, to BELAY and make sure we get that. And, I’m happy to be a glowing testimonial for BELAY as well. So anyone whose listening in whose maybe ready to take that plunge on delegating or bringing a virtual assistant or somebody on board, I’d be happy to share my experience with BELAY or just doing it myself.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:45):
Lisa, I am so grateful and thankful for you to be here, it’s been a pleasure.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (30:51):
Oh, well thank you again for inviting me. Hopefully, you’ll come and be a guest on our podcast. How about that?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:57):
I’d love to. I would love to. Thank you.
Lisa Zeeveld, BELAY (31:00):
Thank you.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (31:01):
Well Lisa, thank you again for such a wonderful interview, it was absolutely fantastic. We’re going to go ahead and jump into our three key takeaways.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (31:10):
The first key takeaway that she mentioned on the podcast here, that really stood out, was she mentioned how she took too long to make a decision. How often do we all fall into that bucket or category, where you know something needs to happen and you just sit, and sit, and sit. That indecision is actually more costly than making, sometimes, a poor decision or the wrong decision, if you think of it in that regard. Sometimes, it’s just making that decision. I thought that was a great point.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (31:43):
Number two, she has hired people that she wasn’t quite ready to hire yet. So making that decision, making yourself, making your business a little uncomfortable on bringing that right person in maybe just a little bit sooner than you think you might need to. And, maybe that’s not an employee, maybe that’s, in this case like Lisa was mentioning, maybe it’s bringing in a virtual assistant, or maybe it’s bringing in a consultant to help you franchise your business, a small plug for Big Sky. But, maybe it’s something in that regard.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (32:20):
And number three, I thought this was really great, for bringing new people in, for bringing on assistants or delegating. And when you start delegating, she said you need to make sure you set expectations and have guidelines in place. So for example, she talked about sending people to work from home, especially during this pandemic time. If you did not have a work from home environment previously and you’ve created one now, did you set expectations and guidelines? Were those appropriately set or not? And if you haven’t, you should get those in place. You could probably knock that out in a 30 to 60 minute meeting. If you have set those in place, it might be a good time to just review and revisit them. And now, it’s time for today’s win-win.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (33:18):
Today’s win-win should come at no surprise. We’re talking about this idea of delegation, and delegation and really letting go. And remember, and I thought Lisa said this so well, that when you get going, you’re working, there are only so many hours in a day and there are only so many things that you can do during those hours. And, what you’re doing now as the owner, or as the leader of your company, there are things that you’re doing that you probably could delegate or offset to someone else, to effectively manage and do for you, whose very skilled in those tasks or duties and would thrive under that environment. And, release or clear out some time back to your schedule, to clear out two hours a day or three hours a day, to let you do the things that you need to do to clear your mind to be more effective at what your really great at.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (34:20):
When you do that, it’s going to make you more effective, you will be a better leader for your organization. You will be, because your mind will be freed and you will have greater clarity on what you’re doing. This team member that you’re delegating to will thrive, and will feel entrusted and empowered to be successful at what they’re doing as well. I think this idea of delegation is great, and whether that’s through a virtual assistant, through a company like BELAY, whether that’s delegating franchising your business through a company like Big Sky, or whether that’s just assigning duties off of you to current staff members who are talented and want to grow in your organization.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (35:05):
So that’s our show today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. Please make sure you subscribe, give us a review, share this with someone you think who could benefit, and we look forward to seeing you back here next week.
