what I was *SO* afraid of?

As I write this, it's my first day ever working with contractors I hired to help me build systems for my clients.

this is terrifying for me 😮‍💨 DEEP BREATH BABES

The crew consists of two specialists helping me build out tools in their zone of genius and my incredible executive assistant handling some miscellaneous admin.

Three whole humans I now feel somewhat responsible for.

(An enneagram 7s worst nightmare. I don't even have plants anymore!)

I spent the past year and a half screaming and kicking about how I DID NOT want to manage ANY kind of team EVER and I can just stay solo-dolo!!!!

Yet, here I am. What the effff.

Turns out, I had a big fear of LEADERSHIP.

I take it seriously. Like, maybe too seriously and that's why I'm Hella Nervous 🙂‍↔️

The irony is this:

Most of my clients are creative agencies working with a dedicated team.

My entire goal for any team I build systems for is this:

Allow them to just show up, do their best work in their zone of genius, and not have to worry about much else.

Okay, so back to day one for me with my own team.

My contractors are already Slacking me with small questions - but honestly... they are FLYING!

The work is looking good and I just tweak with my own touch when they are done.

Can it be this easy?

And then, on that same day, one of superstar past clients, Jade from HelloSEO, sends me a voice note with some recent systems wins.

Jade sends me messages pretty regularly about the work we've done together (I love this woman) but the timing of this one is too on the nose.

🏆Win numero UNO:

She had to hire more people AGAIN since our work together because the systems we built allowed her to sell more.

So now she needed more hands to handle the work.

🏆Win numero DOS:

She said onboarding them felt FUN.

I could cry. 😭

She spent the day delegating to her new hires and said, AND I QUOTE:

"I feel like the best boss in the world!"

And I just sat there like... hello. What was I so afraid of? I HELPED HER DO THAT! I AM SASHA FIERCE!

Because THIS is what I do for my clients every day.

I know how to build a killer onboarding.

I know how to structure a project so it's CLEAR.

If anyone is positioned to be a good leader: IT! ME!

And I know that because I've been on the other side of a bad onboarding.

I thought back to every agency job I had when I was still working in actual offices.

Almost every time, onboarding was very nonexistent.

I'd show up with no idea what to do, and the owner couldn't quite explain it to me because it was all just... in their head.

They didn't know what I didn't know.

I didn't know what I didn't know.

And it always made me feel so incredibly incompetent

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At the time, I didn't realize that my floundering was not my fault.

But knowing what I know now, I realize I can create SYSTEMS that mean no one feels incompetent or unprepared while they were doing their job.

So back to today, to my contractors.

I set them up with tasks with due dates and SOPs.

I ask them for constant feedback.

I told them upfront - this is my first time doing this. And they have been so gracious and wonderful and communicative.

So far... so good!

Turns out the systems I've been building for my business has been building me into a leader all along 😘

Want to build systems to support your own team?