the bossbabe podcast - 476: Hiring Smarter, Not Bigger: How to Find the One Hire That Moves the Needle Most

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

EPISODE SUMMARY Feeling overwhelmed by everything on your plate? From client work to admin to endless content creation, it can feel like there’s never enough time in the day. The logical next step seems to be hiring help, but without a strategy, you can end up with more chaos, more payroll, and not necessarily more freedom. In this episode, Natalie breaks down how to hire like a founder - strategically, intentionally, and for ROI. You’ll learn how to identify the real bottleneck in your business (whether it’s admin, delivery, or sales), when to choose a person versus an AI tool, and how to design roles around outcomes instead of to-do lists. If you’ve been stuck in panic hiring or paralyzed by the fear of building a big team, this conversation will show you how one smart hire (or system) can unlock the next level of growth without adding unnecessary overhead. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Why you don’t need a big team to scale, you just need the right hire 01:13 - The danger of panic hiring and how it keeps you stuck 02:36 - The real question to ask before you ever post a job description 03:27 - Bottleneck #1: Admin and operations (why AI might be your best first hire) 04:49 - Bottleneck #2: Delivery and fulfillment + how to systematize or bring in specialists 06:16 - Bottleneck #3: Sales and traffic: why this requires a different kind of support 07:51 - The simple audit that reveals your true bottleneck 09:14 - How to define roles around results, not tasks 10:36 - Why ownership (not just assistance) creates real ROI 11:47 - Teaching every hire to connect their work to revenue 12:16 - The clarity test before you hire anyone 13:36 - The real goal: leverage, freedom, and growth RESOURCES + LINKS Want to know if your next move should be hiring a person or implementing AI? Download the FREE One Smart Hire AI prompt here and get instant clarity on your biggest business bottleneck. Join The Société: Build Your Freedom-Based Business™ With Systems, Templates, Coaching + Community. Just $97/Month. Imagine Having Natalie As Your CMO, On Call 24/7 To Help You Make The Right Moves In Your Business. That’s Exactly What You Get With Bossbabe AI The Freedom Engine™: AI-Powered Strategy And Systems That Show You What To Sell, How To Sell It, And How To Scale - Without All The Guesswork. Learn More And Unlock It Here. Sign Up For Our Free Weekly Newsletter & Get Insights From Natalie Every Single Week On All Things Strategy, Motherhood, Business Growth + More. Drop Us A Review On The Podcast + Send Us A Screenshot & We’ll Send You Natalie’s 7-Figure Operating System Completely FREE (value $1,997).

Let me guess. You're drowning in tasks. There is not enough time in the day. You're doing everything. The client work, the admin, the content, the back end, you know you need help. But the idea of hiring a full team feels really heavy, expensive, risky. And honestly, you're worried it might create more work instead of less. If that is where you're at, then this episode is probably ideal for you. Because you do not need a big team to scale. You just need the right hire. And today we're going to talk about how to figure out exactly who or what, that is, so you can stop spinning your wheels and finally get some space. to breathe, to create and to grow. Let's dive in. So let's talk about why so many entrepreneurs overhire and end up feeling really frustrated, overwhelmed and wondering why they are still doing so much in their business. So here's what happens. You get to a point in your business where you're maxed out. There is too much on your plate and the logical next step is I need help. But most people don't get strategic about what kind of help they actually need. So they might hire a bunch of people all at once, bringing on a VA, a social media manager, maybe someone for customer service, and then suddenly they go from doing everything themselves to managing everyone else

doing everything, which still feels like just as much of a full-time job. It's just a different kind of chaos. And that's what I call panic hiring. You're hiring really reactively instead of strategically. What you're probably doing is plugging holes in the boat instead of redesigning the engine. By the way, I know nothing about boats, but let's just pretend that makes sense. The truth that most people don't say out loud is that hiring the wrong person too early can cost you so much more than money. It can cost you time, momentum and confidence because now what you're doing is training, managing and double checking work, fixing mistakes, and if it doesn't end up working out, you are fully back at square one. So let me save you a little bit of trial and

error. I don't want you just to hire to get things off your plate. I really want you to hire to move the needle. Your next hire should solve a specific problem, create capacity in a very specific area, and give you leverage to grow, not just stay afloat. Because before you even post a job description, the question should be shifting from who do I need to hire to where is my business bottlenecked right now and what kind of support would actually remove that bottleneck. That's how founders think. And you might not even need a person. You might need AI or a software, right? That's how you stop adding more hands to the business and start hiring like a strategist. So let's say you're ready to hire, but you don't want to do blindly. You don't want to do it reactively. You want to make one really, really smart hire that

actually changes how your business can operate. So that's first going to start with identifying your bottlenecks. Because in every single business, no matter the niche or the size, there's normally one core area that slows everything else down. And if you don't know what that is, you'll hire the wrong person or put in place the wrong software to solve the wrong platform, which can lead to wasted time, wasted money, and frustration that hiring or delegating this out just isn't going to work. So figuring out your bottleneck is pretty easy. There are generally three areas that become the bottleneck in businesses first. The first is admin and operations. So this is where you're spending most of your time doing things that don't directly move the needle. So you might be

buried in emails, you might be the one still scheduling all the calls, managing files, contracts, tech platforms, links, calendars, follow-ups, all the things. And you end the day feeling really exhausted, but you didn't actually create anything that builds momentum. So if this sounds like you, your bottleneck probably isn't sales or delivery. It's capacity. And you're in the weeds doing what might be AI level or $10 hour tasks when your time is worth maybe $300, $500 an hour. And so what you likely need here is tech or a VA. I noticed I said tech first, not team, because in 2025, there is a solid chance that what you think you need a human for can actually be solved with a smart tool or an AI workflow. Email filtering, calendar management, inbox zero rules, client onboarding sequences, FAQ responses, SOP creation.

A lot of this can now be done better, faster and cheaper with AI tools. So, before necessarily hiring a person, ask, could AI handle this better? and more affordably. This alone might save you thousands of dollars. But if you've already implemented tools and you still feel really bottlenecked, that's where a virtual assistant might become powerful. Because then what you're doing is pairing smart automation with human judgment. And I think that is a real game changer in your business. The second area I see getting bottlenecked quite early is delivery and client fulfillment. So let's say your schedule is full, but it is full of paid client work. You're delivering coaching sessions, running group programs, managing fulfillment,

tweaking content, responding to client messages, you're probably booked solid back to back, but you're hitting a ceiling. So you literally can't take on more without breaking. So that means your bottleneck is in delivery. And in this case, hiring more admin help will not move the needle. Because you're still the one doing the thing that your business sells. And so if that is the case, you might need to ask, how can I remove myself a little bit more for delivery? How could I reduce my role in delivery. And you've got two main options here. Systematize and productize what you offer. That might look like turning one-to-one into a group, creating assets to reduce lifetime, automating, onboarding and check-in, or you could bring in specialists. This could be a co-coach, a program facilitator, or delivery

partner who supports in part of the client experience. And again, AI can help here way more than ever. So I really want to make sure you're checking out that first. Client-facing chatbots, feedback analysis tools, video walkthroughs, smart CRM automations. You'd be very really shocked how much of the repetitive delivery work can be offloaded without needing a full-time hire. So your hire in this case might not be a person. It might be a tool that automates half of your workflow. And then lastly, maybe your bottleneck is an admin or delivery. It could be sales and revenue generation. Maybe your business is well run and clients love your offer but your leads are really inconsistent. So you might be posting content but it is just not converting. Your email list is not

growing anymore. You're relying on referrals or one-off promos to bring in cash. This probably means your bottleneck is in sales or traffic. In that case, hiring another assistant will not help you. Neither will another funnel tool if you really don't have any traffic in the first place. So you might actually need a specialist, someone who was hired not to support you, but to create results. So this could be an ad strategist to run really targeted campaigns for you on meta or Pinterest. It could be an affiliate manager to build out a partner program so you can work with borrowed traffic. It could be a UGC content creator to boost reach on social and take some of the load off of you when it comes to content creation. There are tons of different strategists.

And this is where I think a lot of entrepreneurs hesitate because these hires can be a bit more expensive. But here is what you need to remember. Hiring, a specialist should make you money. Otherwise, you've done it wrong or they are not the right person for you. If it's done right, this hire does pay for itself and then some. Founders don't just hire for support. They hire for ROI. And that's really, really important. Now, one last piece of nuance. You might think that you have a sales problem. A lot of founders do. But actually, your bottlenecked in admin, because you have no time or capacity to even sell effectively. Maybe you even think it's delivery issue, but in reality, your offer just isn't priced for scale. So actually no amount of support that you bring in is going to

end up solving that. That's why I really always recommend doing an actual time and energy audit before hiring. We offer this inside the society. We have so many trainings and templates and tools to help you do this, but literally track where your hours are going for a week. Break it into three categories. So you've got revenue generating activities, which is sales calls, launches, content that converts. You've got operational tasks. So email, calendar, invoicing, backend, client delivery, so calls, fulfillment, post-sale communication. And then once you see the breakdown, your bottleneck will be a bit more obvious. Where are you spending time that gives you the least return? And that's where your next hire or your next automation should actually focus. So let me say it again. Hiring is not about more hands.

It is about the right hands focused on the right problem at the right time. And in 2025, that might not be a human. It might be an AI tool. It actually might be a hybrid of both. But the smartest founders, they aren't guessing, right? They're getting really, really. clear. So now you've identified the bottleneck. You know where you need support. You've probably ruled out what you can automate and you're ready to bring on an actual human. So how do you hire in a way that actually creates ROI? Let's start here. Most entrepreneurs hire for convenience. They want someone to lighten the load. They want someone to take stuff off their plate. And that's not wrong, but it's incomplete because convenience isn't the same as leverage. You can hire someone who helps

you feel less overwhelmed, but still doesn't create actual growth in your business. That can lead honestly to a lot of resentment. So you're paying out more, but nothing's actually changing. So instead, what I want you to do is shift the question. I want you to go from what can I get off my plate and shift that to what is the one thing this hire will own that will create more revenue, more time or more long-term value for the business. That is how you hire for ROI. And it's very, very different than just delegating out a to-do list. So let me walk you through what that might look like practically. One, you would create a role around an outcome, not just a list of tasks. Instead of the job description being a laundry list like must know Canva, must know Asana,

must be organized, must be proactive. Cool, none of that tells me what success looks like. So define the roll around a result. An example for this might be, this person will be responsible for reducing the time I spend on admin from 10 hours a week to two hours a week. Or this person will implement one automated email funnel that brings in consistent sales from our lead magnet. Or this person will manage client onboarding from start to finish so no one is ever waiting on me. See the difference? This is going to make expectations so much more clearer and performance easier to measure. The second thing is prioritize ownership over assistance. You're not just looking for someone to help you do things. You're looking for someone really to own a part of the business. And so think about

asking this in your interview. What is something in your past role you completely took off your CEO's plate and run with? And look for people who light up when they talk about taking initiative or solving problems or improving systems. Those are your people. Because the goal is to free up your decision-making power, not just your hands. And if you're still making every single call, checking every task and guiding every move, they are assisting. They are not owning. And that is totally fine for some roles, but it's not going to create that long-term ROI that you're probably looking for at this point. And then number three, this one is so incredibly important. I want you to make revenue awareness part of their onboarding. Even if someone's not in a sales role, they need to

understand. This business exists to make money. And their role supports. to that goal, directly or indirectly. So show them how their work connects the bottom line. So, for example, a VA who keeps your inbox clean allows you to close more leads without delay. A project manager who keeps timelines tight helps your launches run on schedule and a lot more profitably. A community manager who engages your audience, reduces churn and boosts lifetime value.

So when they're able to see the connection between their output and then your revenue, I promise you that will show up differently. And that's when team becomes more of an asset and not an expense. The fourth, again, really, really important is the big one. Do not outs clarity. A big reason that a lot of hires underperform, it's not because they're not capable, it's because the founder wasn't clear. So if you don't know exactly what success looks like in the role,

if you cannot define the outcome, the deliverables, the benchmarks, then no hire is going to be able to fix that. So they can support your clarity. They cannot create that clarity for you. So before you bring someone on, really ask yourself, can I very clearly articulate what success looks like in this role in one sentence? If not, don't hire yet. Take a day, map it out, get clear because the best hires don't just show up and start doing things. You don't want that. They show up with direction, accountability, and a purpose that really aligns with your vision.

The whole point of hiring isn't just to feel less busy. It is to create leverage. leverage means you do less of what drains you. You earn more without more effort. You build something that runs smoother and grows faster because of the people you've brought in. That's how you hire like a founder, not to ease the moment, but to build the future. So here's the big takeaway. It's not about hiring more people. It is about hiring smarter. More team doesn't automatically mean more freedom. More help doesn't guarantee more momentum. And more payroll definitely doesn't equal more profit. The question is, what is the one hire or the one system that unlocks the next level of growth for me? Because that's what we're really after here. Leverage, focus, clarity, space, the kind of

space where you're not reacting all day, every day, where your business starts working with you, not just because of you. So whether your next move is bringing in a VA, hiring specialist, or implementing an AI system that replaces 10 hours a week of manual work, let it be really intentional. let it be strategic. Let it actually solve a problem that's been slowing you down. And let it be successful. By doing all of these things now, you are setting yourself up for success then. And I really think that's what hiring like a founder looks like. So if this episode hit home for you, do me a favor. Drop me a comment and tell me, what is the biggest bottleneck in your business right now? Where do you know that you need support, but you have not made the move yet? And if you want help mapping out your first

or next or smart hire, then I really want to make sure that you are coming back here every single week, because that is the exact kind of strategy that I'm sharing. You do not need a huge team to build a big business. You just need one great hire in the right place at the right time. And if you want to take this a step further and you really want to get my eyes on your business and get my coaching in your business or plug into the boss baby vault of templates, playbooks, systems and curriculum, that I really think you should consider becoming a member of the society. You can head to bosser.com forward slash membership or there's links below and join the membership for $97 a month. It is an absolute no-brainer and really, really has the ability to change your

business and save you so much time. We are giving you all of the templates, all of the swipe files and weekly coaching so we can really unblock you and keep you accountable. So go check it out, bosser.com forward slash membership if you're interested. It's $97 a month and it can really change your business. Okay, with that, please make sure you're subscribed. this episode with anyone you think would really benefit from it and I'll see you in the next episode. Wait, wait, wait, before you go, I would love to send you my seven-figure CEO operating system completely free as a gift. All you've got to do is leave us a review on this podcast because it really supports the growth of this show. This is my digital masterclass where

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