The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 97. How Do You Know When to Hire Someone with Allie Stewart

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Is it time to hire someone in your blogging business? We have Allie Stewart, a certified Director of Operations and Online Business Manager on to share the benefits of hiring help for your blogging business. As a blogger, you don’t have to handle all of the tasks alone. Hiring a team member may help with increased productivity and mental freedom when you delegate those tasks. We discussed the signs that it might be time to start hiring, such as feeling overwhelmed or approaching burnout. We talked about the role of a virtual assistant (VA) in the blogging space and suggested some roles that they could help with in your business. If you want to learn more about hiring for your business, tune in to this episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out Tailwind, the Pinterest scheduling tool we recommend.Check out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode97

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Today, we are kind of talking about a taboo topic or one that we don't want to be taboo is what I really should say. And that is the idea of hiring someone in your blogging business to help it run more efficiently. And so you can find more productivity in your business. To do this, we brought on Allie Stewart, who is a Certified Director of Operations and Certified Online Business Manager, helping dynamic entrepreneurs create profitable teams through hiring and team support. She helps the right people get into the right roles. And that is a passion that we are really excited to share with you today. So welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast, Allie.

Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. So this is an idea that I don't think a lot of people think about when they start their blog is someday I might want to hire someone to help me with my blog. And I think it's this idea of, aren't I supposed to do it all? Like, I'm a blogger. This is my blog. This is my passion. This is my yada, yada, yada. Shouldn't I be doing it all? And today, I want to flip the script on that. I want to flip that idea on its head and say, what if, as you're growing your blogging business, you get help along that process to where you're not burning the candle at both ends. You're not feeling very overwhelmed. You're not doing things that are not in your zone of genius, but you're doing things that

really, really light you up and make you excited to share with the world. So I'm really excited to dive into this with you today. Me too. Yeah. So how do you know... Let's say a blogger has been blogging for a little while, and they are asking themselves that question, how do I know? When is a good time to start hiring somebody? How can a business owner or a blogger know when that right time is? So there's a lot of answers to that question. And the first thing I would say in a perfect world is that you're ready to hire before you're ready to hire. Because we don't want to get to that point where everything's falling apart because you've been carrying this load likely by yourself, which we can all do all the things, but at some point,

we're not going to be able to do them all well, and we are going to burn out. And that is a huge indicator if you're approaching that point, or maybe you've approached that point and you're way past it, then that is the best time to hire. And I think that when we're desperate, sometimes that can cloud our judgment as to who we're hiring. And if we're able to get to that before point and reach out before it's the breaking point, then we might have a clear judgment when it comes to some of the candidates who we're interviewing and connecting with. So that would be the first indicator.

If you've gone past that point, that's okay. That doesn't mean you're going to make a terrible hire. It's just, it's better to preemptively do it if you can. And another indicator is, can you afford it? And I know some of us feel like we can't ever afford it. And it's really hard to part with that money. I totally understand. I am a solopreneur. And when I have to bring someone on to help with a project, it hurts a little bit. So even though we feel, maybe we feel like we can't afford it, or we don't want to part with that money, we have to look at what will freeing up my time do for the business? What profitable activities

could I do with that time that's now freed up? And can I afford to pay the person well and ethically in order to have them on my team? So what were the things that you saw in this industry? And you said you work a lot with other solopreneurs, online businesses, things like that. What were the things that you were seeing that were making you say, you know what, I think people need help throughout this process. And I think that hiring can actually be a good thing. Absolutely. I think with the online space, there are so many people

that are doing a variety of different things. And recently, you just had a guest talking about being a freelancer. And there are so many people that are making careers being freelancers and so many different titles out there. And it's really intimidating. Who does what? And who can help me? And how much should I pay them? And how do I find this person?

Because it's so overwhelming. Am I finding them on Instagram and Facebook? Am I posting on LinkedIn? It's so confusing. And then on the flip side, there's a lot of freelancers and it can get super overwhelming when you post for a role and you're getting 100, 200 responses. And I mean, how do you make sense of that? So that's what I was seeing. And when I came on with my retainer clients and in the online space and started hiring for roles to fill their teams, I saw how different the process could be compared to when I was hiring just like in a regular brick and mortar business. When the pool is widened to anybody in your country or anybody in the world, it can be so overwhelming. So that's where I started.

Yeah, because this is a fairly new space, relatively speaking, in terms of being a business, being an online business owner, a lot of people, I would say, don't even understand what that means at this point in time. And so I think that that kind of contributes to like, okay, now what? What do I what do I do now? How do I connect with people? How do I trust people? Can you explain a little bit about what an assistant is that can help you virtually like a virtual assistant? What does that what does that really mean? That's a great question. So that can mean, honestly, anything. And that's kind of the trouble with some of the online titles that we have, and people not understanding

what exactly people can do. So a virtual assistant is usually some sort of generalist that can help with admin work, can help with behind the scenes work of posting any sort of little tasks that's maybe not from a strategic perspective. Oftentimes a virtual assistant can help with. That being said, there are virtual assistants that specialize in different things. There might be a tech VA who's really into tech stacks. Those

VAs actually usually charge a little bit more and they can do all the tech things. If you were to hire a tech VA, you're probably not going to want them creating your graphics in Canva because there's likely not going to be that skill overlap. There could be for the few special unicorns out there, but somebody who's creating more on the creative side might not be as strong in the tech side. So while it is a generalist position, you really want to make sure that you're finding somebody that has a skill set for what you need specifically. And also go in with the understanding that they're not always going to be able to be a unicorn and do every single tiny little task that you might have, because that might not be in their wheelhouse. I think that that's good advice. And I think it's also something that confused people because we are used to

thinking about hiring someone in a capacity of usually like a 40-hour workweek. So we take it as like, well, I can't afford to hire somebody because I don't have the money to give them. But I think something to think about is that it doesn't need to be that amount of time. So when business owners are just like dipping their toes into the idea of this, online business owners, I want to make sure I say that, what is something that they could

like very easily start with? Like, and how many hours is that something that if somebody is like just toying with this idea, like, you know, I could use a little help and a little bit, just a little part of my business, what would be an encouraging space for them to say, hey, try this first and this amount of time first? Because I think when people hear the amount of time and how much value that can provide your business, it can be a game changer.

So virtual assistants and social media managers, for example, are two places where I think bloggers might want to start. And with social media and virtual assistants, either one of those, they often start with retainer packages. So you could do a package of even like 20 hours a month, which is like four to five hours a week. Some virtual assistants will do packages that are smaller than that. So we're not talking about bringing in like a full-time employee. And I agree with you, there is that mindset around, well, I can't justify this entire role. But where you could start with would just be small tasks. And maybe you buy a package of hours and you change what you need each week. Like maybe some weeks you need more help with email and other weeks you need help with doing

some things on the back end. Whatever there is, there can be a variety. Or maybe it's, I have this set task that's happening every week, every month, and I just want them to completely take care of that. So there's a lot of variety in how you can bring somebody on. And your question as to where they should start, which tasks should start with, I think that that would vary for each different blogger because we all are different and we all have some tasks that we love and don't love and some that come easier and don't come easier. So what I always suggest when anybody is thinking about hiring for any role is to make a list with

four columns. And in one column, you're going to put the things that you love to do and that you're really good at and that light you up in your business. And those are the things that you're going to keep forever. And then in the next column, you're going to put the things that you like doing and enjoy doing, but maybe you're not the best at, you know, that maybe somebody else could be more efficient with them at one point. In the third column, it's going to be the things that you can do and you're maybe efficient at doing, but don't enjoy doing. And then in the fourth column, it's going to be things that you are neither efficient at and also do not love, like the soul sucking little activities that we

all have in our businesses. And it's those last two columns that you're going to start with. And what's in those last two columns is going to be different for you than it is for somebody else. So those are always the tasks that I would consider starting with. For me, for example, it's social media. I cannot stand it. So that is the first thing I hired out for in my own business. I love that you said that because I think that that is so important. Can we normalize something that some parts of our business suck? And some parts of

our business, you know what? We just really don't like to do. And we come and we sit down at our computer and we sit down to do that task. And we're like, I don't want to do it. It's like, sometimes I feel like a toddler. I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. And I'm going to throw a temper tantrum. And then I'm going to wait 20 or 30 minutes. And then I'm going to get started. I think that think about what you're throwing a temper tantrum about having to do. Is that something that somebody else really loves to do? I'm going to use the example of Jennifer and I. We've done this before. If you're a longtime listener of this podcast, I'm sure by now you've realized that Jennifer and I are about as different as they come. And Jennifer is very organized. She is research-based. Everything goes into a spreadsheet and nothing in my life is put in

a spreadsheet by me. It just isn't at all. But it is very helpful in our business. And I am so very thankful that I have a business partner who is proficient in that and does her due diligence to create amazing workflows for our company that quite literally would never exist if this was a one-woman show. Now, granted, she owns this business with me, but that is an example of something that somebody else might hire out. If you're not good at spreadsheets, if that is not your wheelhouse, if that is not your zone of genius, do you feel really disorganized in your business? Do you feel like you don't know what to do next? Something like that, just like systems and processes could be a good place to start. somebody else is doing and think that we should be hiring out the same thing or, oh, well, they have a social media manager. So that means that I should too. But you might really like doing social media. And so that might not be the thing that you want to hire out. Giving that up might mean

that you're going to lose a little bit of joy in your business. So that's not at all what Allie's saying. But it's going back to that column. And I think that that brainstorming process can be really beneficial for how this process could, quite honestly, possibly turn your business around. Absolutely. And think about how much mental real estate, the tasks that we don't like, take up. I procrastinate work where if I have a task that I really don't want to do, I will do every other possible non-urgent task. I will clean my house. It's the only time my house gets clean, honestly, is if I'm procrastinating some sort of work task. Those things, just the dreading of it or the thinking about it, the anticipating, that takes up so much mental real estate in our brain. So if we're able

to offload that to somebody else where we know it's getting done, we don't even have to think about it. Maybe we have more joy because we're not thinking about it's coming up and thinking, oh, I don't want to do this. What could you do with that mental real estate? Not to mention the time. Yeah, because it definitely gives you that space to have your creativity when you're not just bogged down in tasks that you're dreading and that you don't want to do. And I think that's so important because it's not just analyzing the cost of the task, the investment that you're making, but it's also like in the future, what can that mean for my business? Does that mean some growth for my business as well? So I think for me, with an accounting background, one of the hardest things to do, because I'm always like, okay, well, if I

spend this, how much am I going to make from it? And it's not always like that. Some of it is like you said, letting go of things that are that you dread things that are taking up mental space and just bring yourself up to enjoy your business. Because isn't that why we all wanted to do this in the first place is to do something that we loved. And so giving yourself that permission that if you're making smart choices that you can potentially hire somebody to just do the stuff you just really don't want to do. Absolutely. And we don't talk about mental space, mental real estate in the same way that we talk about, okay, which tasks are going to free up my actual time. But when we factor in mental time as well, to me, that is the game changer that opens things up to make the hire really absolutely worth it. Because we're running a business, we have a blog in our head that we're

trying to manage and create. And that takes up so much real estate on its own. We don't need any extra. I think it's also good to normalize that there will be things that you don't want to do. And it's okay that you don't want to do that. It's okay. You don't have to convince yourself that you should have to learn that. But it is okay to either hire it out or request help with it. I think there's a lot of times that in blogging, there are things to learn, whether it's something new, like a tech piece, or maybe you're on Squarespace and you need to be on a self-hosted site. And so you don't really know how to do that. We have a course that can help you do that. It's called The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, and we would love to help you do that. But just thinking about that, hiring out doesn't have to be like a long-term process either, but it can just be for a specific task or a specific project.

I think that's also the misconception of it is this idea of, well, if I hire a person, then they have to stay on forever. And that's not necessarily the case, but I recognize that a lot of people going into it have that thing like, well, it's going to be this forever thing that I'm not sure that I can do forever. So what do you find, Allie, that most virtual assistants, do they have a retainer that they have to utilize within a certain amount of time? Or do they have to sign on for X amount of months? What do you recommend? What would be some of those things that somebody who is just starting to kind of think through this process of how they can hire someone in their business,

what should be some things that they would want to look for? And what are some things that they might want to steer away from? So I think part of that also depends on is it going to be a project or is it going to be something long-term? And just like there are, you know, different VAs that specialize in different things, there's also VAs that specialize in coming in with one-off projects and some that prefer long-term. So it's an absolute variety. And there are people that do both, but there will be somebody for you for whatever you need, which I think is really exciting.

which I think is really exciting. So when it comes to your retainer package, oftentimes you're looking at signing a contract. That contract will require, oftentimes require 30 days notice if you are determining, if either party is to terminate the contract. Each service provider may have a different clause. Sometimes it's two weeks. It's very rarely over 30 days. So you are not marrying yourself to anybody for the long term. The idea would be if you're signing a retainer, virtual assistant or service provider that you are going to be able to provide them with an income for a decent amount of time. But many times you'll be signing an independent contractor and they're used to having short to medium term contracts. That's the name of the online business game.

I think the message there is really you have to read your contract and know what you're getting and know what you're committing yourself to. And I think that in a lot of ways that takes some of the pressure off. You feel like, I don't know if this is going to work out. This is a big commitment. But if you're just committing to somebody for 30 days, it's not like you're just gonna be like, I'm just going to test it out and let them go. If you go into it with the intention that you want it to work, but still knowing that it's okay if it doesn't work out, you have a way out. You're

not committed to paying them for a full year. You're not going to go broke if this doesn't work out like you think it will. So I think that can take some pressure off too. But like you said, it's really important just to read those terms and understand what you are signing. Absolutely. And there are many VAs or service providers that will do a test project with you. So maybe you pay them upfront for X amount and you can see how they do the project, how long it takes them, how they communicate. And that will kind of give you a good sense of, is this somebody that I want to continue working with?

So a test project is a great way to test that out. Tailwind is an amazing tool that allows you to schedule your blog posts directly to Pinterest ahead of time. We are all about batch working here at Spark Media Concepts. And when you can schedule out your Pinterest, it can take that task from time consuming to productive with just a few clicks. We also use Tailwind to schedule our Instagram content, which we find to be much more productive than creating a post each time we need to share. We really believe in working smarter, not harder and utilizing Tailwind as a no-brainer

for our business and also our independent blogging businesses. The cost of Tailwind each month is less than what takeout for one meal would be. And it has the capability to save you hours of time. If you want to learn more about adding this time-saving tool to your blogging business, click the link in our show notes to learn more about Tailwind. So Jennifer, I think what would be helpful for some of the listeners right now is for you and I to brainstorm literally live on the podcast. What would be some projects that a blogger could hire out for a project just to start? Dip your toes in to somebody. So something that comes to mind to me is helping with a welcome

series in your email. So a series of like 5 emails that you can give them like the bones of like, this is who I am. This is what I'm about. And maybe they create those emails. You look over them. You make sure that they have the appropriate links. You basically double-check your work. But then they can go into your email marketing software provider, and they can upload them. They can schedule them. They can get all the tags that need to go to them. Because once again, that's the tech side. And doing all of that takes a lot of time and energy. So maybe setting up a welcome series. Maybe it's somebody to create your Pinterest pin images that you're going to put within your blog posts. Maybe it is photography. If you are not a photographer,

this is an area of my business that I personally hire out. Photography is something that someday I would love to learn. But right now I am not in the phase of my life, nor have I been since I started my blog in 2017 to learn photography. And so that is something that I hire out. I come up with the recipe idea. So I'm the one who does the keyword research to see if this would be a good search term for my blog. And then I give... She's actually a registered dietitian and a photographer. And I give her my idea. She creates the recipe, and she shoots the photos and then gives those back to me. And then I write the post and put them on my blog. That to me was a huge, huge load off of my personal shoulders. And it allows me to do more of what I love to do in my business

while also serving my audience well. So those are a couple ideas. Jennifer, what ideas do you have? You could have somebody who maybe writes your weekly newsletter for you, puts it all together because you've already created the content. So it's all there ready to go. So they can take the time to put it together and send that to your audience. You can have people help you with smaller like backend projects for your website. Say like you don't even have your email marketing connected. You could find somebody that can help you

create all those forms and embed them on your website. You could have somebody do like more of a technical audit of your site, maybe check all your plugins and make sure that you're using all the right ones. Gosh, I think it's endless. I think you can have somebody help you with some of your marketing ideas

in terms of coming up with some of the content that you're going to create that would perform well. I have somebody that helps me figure out the SEO piece, does the keyword research. So I'm kind of the opposite of Amy. I prefer to create my photos, but I want somebody to tell me what will perform well. And so then I do my process that way. So I think that's a perfect example of how we can both create

a recipe blog post, but we can go about it in a completely opposite way. Absolutely. I think the options are endless, quite honestly, especially in this industry. And I also want people who are listening to take a moment and I want you to think of yourself as more than just a blogger. I think often we think that, well, I'm just a blogger. And so that means that I sit down, I open up WordPress, I write a post, I hit publish, and that's it. That's it. That's all I do. But blogging has become so much more than that. You're also a marketer. You're also a salesperson to a degree. You are constantly putting yourself in front of people who are getting value from your content.

And your job is to figure out how you can best serve them and how you can continue to get in front of those communities. So it also means that creating a course might be something that you're doing. It might mean that starting a podcast is something that you're doing. We started this podcast in January of 2022. And there is absolutely zero way that this podcast would come live out to you without our podcast manager. That is something that when we knew this was a project that we wanted to do, we knew we were going to have to enlist help in order to do it. And I can't imagine our business without this podcast now. I just can't. I'm not sure where it would be. We're just going to say that. Without the podcast, I'm not sure where it would be because we just were not getting in front of

the people that we needed to get in front of. And this has been a vehicle to help us reach more people, to make an impact and add value. But I think oftentimes bloggers think of themselves as just a blogger. We put ourselves in this box of just a blogger, when in reality, there's so much that you can do with it now. That's how the industry has changed so much that there are other spaces that if you started out as just a blogger that you can definitely move into and enlist some help in those areas. So we've talked a lot about hiring. And I'm sure the question is going to come up with the legal side of it. Okay, well, do I hire an independent

contractor? Or do I hire an employee? How do I know what to hire? And what is the difference in those two types of people? That's a great question. So most of the time, nine times out of 10, the first hire that you are making is going to be an independent contractor. An employee, you would hire an employee if you needed somebody full-time or you wanted some sort of exclusivity. Whereas an independent contractor, they get to make their own hours, they get to set their own pay, but they take on the burden of their own taxes. With an employee, you would need to get set up to be an employer in whatever state they are in. If they're in the US, you have to pay employment tax, depending on what state, sometimes workman's comp tax. There's a lot more paperwork involved when it comes to hiring an

employee, but most of the needs that entrepreneurs have for these one-off projects or for someone that's only in the business 10 hours a week, 5 hours a week, 20 hours a week, you oftentimes don't need that exclusivity of, I need you to be available from 9 to 2 Eastern every Monday through Friday. So most of the time, it's going to be an independent contractor. Yeah. And I think that's a lot less overwhelming commitment as well. Because like we talked about,

it's a shorter term contract. It's less of a commitment. You have more flexibility. And oftentimes, or probably most of the time, the people that you're hiring have some sort of experience in some area. They are the expert. They are the business owner. You're basically hiring their expertise in whatever area is to help you. So you probably have a little less obligation on your part to train them as well.

Absolutely. The right fit should come in and be able to ask the right questions. You're still going to need to guide them. It's a bonus if you have any SOPs, standard operating procedures, in place where you can say, these are the steps to do this action. That's in a perfect world and that doesn't always happen. So as long as you're willing to hop on a call and guide them, they should be able to get the ball rolling for themselves. But with an independent contractor, I think this is important to bring up, can come sticker shock. Because with an employee, we're used to job postings being for certain amounts, which has raised drastically in the US in the last few years. So we're already having a little bit of sticker shock, I think, when it comes to hiring in our country. But with an independent contractor, they're absorbing their own taxes. They have their own set of business expenses. So they're going to be a higher amount per hour than it would

an employee, but you're still probably likely paying less because you are paying somebody, especially for a project, you are likely paying for somebody that's an expert in what they're doing. And you're not paying for all of that training time. They're coming to you with that experience and you're not paying for that employment tax. So even though the number can seem a little bit scary at first, if you were to break it down on a long-term basis, you would probably be paying the same or less for an independent contractor. Okay. I like that you're talking numbers because I think that's always helpful. So what is a typical going rate then that somebody could

look to for, let's call it a beginner virtual assistant, because I think that there are going to be assistants that are likely going to charge quite a bit more based on their expertise. But let's say somebody who is entry level, they're going to get the job done, they're going to do a good job, you're not going to have to train them from start to finish. What is the number? What is the hourly rate that you would say, hey, this is a pretty typical number to start? I would say between 25 and 30 per hour. 30 is the number that I see most virtual assistants starting at this point. And to clarify, I am referring to US-based virtual assistants. And there are some that come in at 25 that are really fresh, really excited to get started. But the more relevant work experience they have outside the online space, typically the higher they will

charge. So I recommend personally not paying less than $25 per hour, because if you're paying 20 or less, and you start breaking down the math of their taxes and business expenses, then it starts being less than minimum wage in the US. Yeah. And I think that's important to understand is, you know, creating that good relationship with them for the long term as well, so that they feel like it's worth their time to continue to work for you as because you don't want to keep having to hire people over and over again, because that's just a waste of everybody's time. And money, because it costs more money to train somebody than it does to retain somebody. Oh, yeah. That's an excellent point. And once again, the mental load of that,

the mental load of thinking that you have this task off your hands, and then it's not off your hands. And so then that mental load of, well, now I have to find somebody else who can help me in this particular area of my business. And that's the time and the energy that it goes to take to find somebody else to take over that position. So be really picky on who you are hiring to make sure that you feel really good about it. And we just recently hired a couple of virtual assistants in our business. And it was a very... I don't want to call it a lengthy process because it actually wasn't. But we did have a lot of applicants and we wanted to make the right call. And I think just being really honest with yourself about what you need and what you're willing to sacrifice and what

you're not, I think is really good to go into it with that mindset too, to know like, where do I really need help? And what if I can't find somebody who can do all the things? What are the most important things or thing that needs to be done to make sure that that biggest task at hand can be taken care of. So Allie, how do you recommend that people who are wanting to kind of start this process, where do they go to find somebody to hire? I think that can be an overwhelming piece. Well, first, I would say don't go to your friends because that hardly ever works out. I am so glad you just said that. Like this is my favorite thing that you've said on the podcast so far. Like that is a nightmare.

Moving on. I'm so glad you said that. That could be a whole separate podcast. Yes. So don't start with your friends. Don't hire friends or try not to hire family as well. But there are a lot of places you can go. So if you're looking for like a service provider, virtual assistant, there are

people that use, you know, websites for projects such as Upwork or Fiverr. I am personally not as interested in those because they Upwork and Fiverr retain a part of that fee. And there's a lot of under people are under bidding each other and that can lead to exploitation. So if you are using something like that, I would just say be careful and make sure that you're using it in a fair and ethical manner and just know that the companies get a portion of that. So there's that whole avenue. But a lot of virtual assistants, they're on social media, they're in Facebook groups. For any sort of niche, you could probably find some sort of

virtual assistant Facebook group. I'm sure if you entered in Facebook, virtual assistants for bloggers, that there would probably be a Facebook group of people that specialize in bloggers. And just posting on your social media, sending out an email, posting on your blog, posting, you know, having your friends post. If you know a friend or colleague that has had success with a certain virtual assistant, you could ask for their recommendations. However, I would encourage you to make sure that you're still giving them a proper vetting because somebody that worked well for your friend or colleague may not work well for you. But that is a place to start as long as you give your proper due diligence.

If you want somebody that's local, you can post in your local Facebook groups, your local job sites, Indeed, LinkedIn, all of these places you can find who you're looking for. I agree that you can find them just about anywhere on our Spark Media Instagram. I feel like a lot of people like that follow us, like a lot of virtual assistants and things. So I think that's a really good place that you can look at. And also as bloggers, just networking with other bloggers, like you said, is important. So getting in those Facebook groups, you can easily just post in there and you'll get a slew of answers of people who are... And something I want to also point out here is that sometimes there are bloggers who want to do things as well. They really enjoy one piece of the business. And so you can also end up becoming a freelancer in this area and a virtual

assistant to some people in this area. I'm going to use the example of Lauren from Pinch of Parsley, who is on the podcast. It's been a while back, but talking about Google Web Stories. And Google Web Stories, this is just a great example of this. Google Web Stories is something that a lot of people are like, I don't want to touch that. I don't want to do that. That sounds really complicated. But Lauren loves to do it. And she's gotten really good at it. And she's a blogger who's creating her own content, but then has this additional stream of revenue that she does on the side by creating Google Web Stories for people. So that is another opportunity that you have as a blogger. We talk often on the podcast about how to make money blogging. Don't sell yourself short if

there's something that you might want to do more of. And you could hire out some of that work that you don't like doing, but then you could replace that with something that you really do like doing more of. So I think that's the beauty of online business. I mean, we're all three online business owners. And that's one of my favorite things about it is getting to do the things that are really fun and exciting. And I don't have to spend my day doing something that I absolutely hate doing most of the time. I mean, there's always those small tasks, but... I feel the same way. Yeah. I mean, we can just all show up where we feel like we're meant to show up. And knowing that there are certain gifts that people were given, allow us each to use our gifts well. And then I think we all thrive and we can all flourish in

this space. Allie, is there any last minute thoughts that you have for somebody who is maybe listened to this episode and is thinking to themselves, gosh, that would be really nice if I could do that. Is there any like words of encouragement that you could offer to somebody who might be on the fence? I would say that you can do that. Absolutely. You have to be able to trust your gut instinct. You have to be able to know what tasks that you need so that you can set that person up for success. You also need to know what personality you work best with. And if you go in knowing that exactly what type of candidate you're looking for, you're going to find that candidate. Awesome. Well, Allie, this has been really helpful. I think

it's given some normalcy to this whole topic that I think needs to be talked about more, that bloggers need help. And we cannot do this all on our own, nor should we have to. And that when you get to that point in your business, that you kind of feel like you're doing it all all the time, and you've lost sight of why you started, which was likely time freedom, and being more in control over the money that you're making that I hope this podcast episode is found at that right time. And it inspires a blogger to maybe take one step forward to making the leap of faith and adding somebody else into their blogging business to help them with their job, with their business. So can you please tell them how they can connect with you and how also you can support

people in this part of their process? Absolutely. And I think good leadership is being able to ask for help. And we are all the leaders of our own businesses. So it's a really important skill to have to know when to ask for help. So there are two ways people can work with me right now. I have a white glove, fully done for you hiring service that I like to call hiring with heart because I'm all about people over profit and connecting the right candidate for the right role. So it's important to me that both sides of the hiring equation are as equally served in the match. So in that process, I will hand deliver to you

how usually one to three candidates that I suggest and I will have gone through the entire process. I have also recently started offering a done with you hiring program where I'll help you write the job description. I'll help you do the market research. I'll tell you where to find them, give you all the interview and application questions you may need and send you on your way to do the digging yourself. So I love, love, love talking about hiring. If anybody ever has any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I love meeting people and just chatting about how we can all find the right fit for us, whether it be somebody that we're hiring or a business that

we're looking to work with. And yeah, connect with me if you have any questions. We will put your links and your handle in our show notes so people can easily connect with you, Allie. And thank you so much for just being here today, sharing it so honestly, so authentically. I think that's really important that we're doing this and talking about this really honest conversation. So thanks for being here today. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with Thank you. ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.