EP 68: Lindsay White - Empowering Others to Find Their Brilliance

Feel like you're wearing every hat in your business — and drowning in decisions? This episode is your lifeline.

Join Nikisha and guest expert Lindsay White, founder of High Voltage Leadership, a sought-after executive coach, people and culture strategist, and podcast host who believes that every business deserves three things: great leadership, an impactful people strategy, and an inspiring culture.  

Lindsay utilizes her 15 years in strategic talent management to guide these incredible leaders in creating inclusive cultures and people strategies that are missing from their business plans. 

Whether you're thinking about hiring your first virtual assistant or you're ready to build a full team, this episode will shift your mindset and give you tools to do it right.

Why this episode will transform your business journey:

You’ll stop seeing hiring as a headache and start seeing it as the most strategic move in your business. Lindsay doesn’t just drop advice — she gives you a system, a strategy, and the mindset shift you need to step fully into leadership.

 3 Takeaways You’ll Love:

1. Clarity comes before hiring. Learn what to do before you post that job description — from identifying your values to defining the right role.
2. Culture is built, not inherited. Discover how to create a team culture where people feel seen, aligned, and motivated to grow with you.
3. You don’t need to hire perfect — you need to hire right. Get the exact steps to build a recruitment system that helps you find and develop the best-fit team members, even if you've failed before.

Lindsay's Gift:

Download Lindsay's People Strategy Playbook, which is designed to accelerate your 2025 business growth planning by aligning your talent directly to your most important goals and accountabilities! 

Don’t stop here!

Follow Us on IG: @nkbizguru

Download our "Secret Sauce to Writing Emails That Feel Warm, Not Spammy," which gives you the exact templates to create emails that feel personal, welcoming, and full of personality—even when automated.

Chapters

• 0:42 Meeting Lindsay White, People Strategist
• 8:08 What Leadership Really Means
• 15:16 Building a Culture of Empowerment
• 22:40 The Ultimate Recruitment System
• 31:36 Employee VS Contractor Relationships
• 39:20 How to Start Delegating Today

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Leading Her Way with your host and business guru, Nakesha King. This podcast is the ultimate destination for women, creative entrepreneurs, who want to break free from burnout. If you are overwhelmed by client demands and feel like you're doing this all alone, you, my friend, are in the right place alone. You, my friend, are in the right place Now. Let's dive in for steps to take back your time and simplify your workflow. All right, Nikisha, take it away.

Nikisha: 0:42

Hello, gorgeous Welcome to Leading Her Way podcast, and, of course, this is the Make Money series, and today we have an amazing guest with us and it's Lindsay White, who will be telling us a little bit about people, strategy systems and our leadership, and I'm all for it. So, first and foremost, welcome Lindsay, and please share a little bit about how you got to this point of your business Like, how did you even get in this industry? And tell us, before you do that, what is it that you do?

Lindsay White: 1:16

Yeah, first of all, thanks for having me so glad to be here, a discussion that I am absolutely obsessed with. So I started my journey into human resources and people strategy almost 20 years ago. I had a leader at the time. That was very encouraging and it was something that I deeply enjoyed. I am a connector at heart and I think that that's really key If you're going to work deeply with people. So I've spent so many years developing the skill set working in a corporate environment. I was lucky. I got to do so many things recruitment, organizational design, leadership development, strategic work with the C-suite and then, about seven years ago, I actually ended up working for a very toxic boss. I quit my corporate job in the middle of a meeting. I literally closed my laptop and walked out because I thought this is insanity. I'm not doing this anymore. And at the time I already knew that I wanted to strengthen my coaching skill and I had committed to a professional coaching program and I just jumped right into that, like my job in August, right into my first coaching certification in September, right into my first coaching certification in September, spent a year and a half just really back in school almost right, deeply immersed in developing my coaching skill, and it was actually my own peers that challenged me to start my own practice.

Lindsay White: 3:02

I am an accidental entrepreneur. I never intended, never intended to start a business, but here we are. I celebrated my fifth anniversary just just a few months ago and, you know, just looking looking forward, getting stronger and stronger. And so what I do now is I combine. Now is I combine all of that strategic level, as you put it, systems around people and talent, as well as my deep passion for helping leaders in their business lead effectively. And that's what I do. I do both together helping business owners and entrepreneurs be effective leaders, build high-performing teams and create cultures in their business where people feel like they belong and they can achieve. And when you bring those three things together, magic happens.

Nikisha: 3:57

It does, it creates a beautiful synergy 100%. And that's where the culture is developed, in this energy of the people and the positive energy and just the showing up and the action taking. Yeah, that's so good. I love the part where you said I'm an accidental entrepreneur. I am very aware of that. I am too. I've never seen it. I mean I know it, but I've never said it in that form.

Speaker 1: 4:21

When.

Nikisha: 4:21

I started it was no, I'm going to do this and I know it's coming. It was just like I need something different. I need something a little bit more for me and that works with me, and I don't have to go into places that are toxic, cause I was also in a toxic environment, and toxic just means that it didn't go with you when against you every way, every how, people were just like fighting for no reason, and it was just like it's not. It doesn't make sense. So I thank you for sharing that. Now I want to make sure that we're on the same page about leadership, because leadership is a word that is also subjective. What leaders are right Cause it could be looked at as leaders are people you follow and you follow, no matter what they do. Because it could be looked at as leaders are people you follow and you follow, no matter what they do. They're leaders. I laugh because I feel like we're in that era of time.

Nikisha: 5:12

Well just a little bit, yeah. And then there's leaders that they lead by empowering you to take a position of decision, understanding, clarity. So I want you to tell us a little bit more of when you say leadership. What is that to you?

Lindsay White: 5:30

Yeah, that's such a great question, and I think actually it's an important question that we all ask ourselves, because we are all leaders, and that that's the one of the foundational philosophies of my coaching is that we all lead, and we lead in the way that we conduct ourselves in the world. And when we do that, when we lead in a way that's aligned with what we value, what we care about most, what is key to who we are, when we lead with our purpose, we get to then lead in a very authentic and very intentional way, and so leadership is going to be defined a little bit differently for everyone, because we all believe in slightly different things, but for me, it is about showing up in the world in a way that is high integrity, that it is high authenticity that we can encourage and grow others. Our number one job as a leader is to grow other leaders, and it is, to your point, a place where we empower other people to really leverage their skills, their experience, their brilliance to their best ability. That's what leadership is, and we can do that in a variety of ways. We can lead from the front. We see that Our corporate world recognizes the person who is the loudest and the most present as a leader.

Lindsay White: 6:53

That's not necessarily true. We also need to be able to leave them behind. So create and hold space for other people to be engaged and explore, for other people to be engaged and explore, to take that front of the room position. We need to be able to lead with each other. There's lots of spaces where we co-lead in our lives, and then, of course, we need to be able to lead in a more universal way. So what is the change we want to see? How do we want to set an example in our local community and across the universe really?

Nikisha: 7:28

Right Question For my team. You're going to cut this out your mic. Where is it?

Lindsay White: 7:35

It's right here in front of me.

Nikisha: 7:37

It's open out. It sounds like muddled.

Lindsay White: 7:39

Okay, do I not have it, is that better? I'm trying Wait let me see.

Nikisha: 7:46

Yeah, just speak, you can sit up and speak. Let me see if it happens.

Lindsay White: 7:52

Can you hear me any better now?

Nikisha: 7:54

Yes, let's try this and see.

Lindsay White: 7:56

Maybe I didn't have it plugged in very well, I'm sorry.

Nikisha: 8:00

No, don't be sorry, you're fine.

Lindsay White: 8:02

I wonder if I just didn't have it plugged right in firmly in the back.

Nikisha: 8:06

It's fine. I want to make sure that it catches up to you, because it was a little delay. So when you finish, say a full sentence of anything you desire.

Lindsay White: 8:15

Is the mic working now?

Nikisha: 8:17

Yes, it is Good.

Lindsay White: 8:18

Okay, that's good. Oh my gosh.

Nikisha: 8:22

All right, we're back, and that's such a great way of looking at leadership, where we're all leaders and even in leadership I don't how can I say this I still had to work to be a better leader. When I was younger. It was one of the values my mom put into me, and it wasn't from a I want you to take over the world position. It was like I just don't want you to follow people into something that you're not supposed to be in. So she always would tell me be a leader, not a follower. And the one thing that did for me is it allowed me to not worry about what people thought about me as much. In sixth grade, I did have that scenario where, as a lot of middle schoolers may say, there's bullying, and for me, what bullying looked like wasn't physical, but always trying to talk about how I look.

Nikisha: 9:14

And sometimes, when you see that or the intelligence I had, because I was in a special class and not special in education, but special in high achievers. I was in a class like that, so they would always find things to say about me. But it wasn't about me, it was just about what I was doing and I didn't recognize that at that moment because of how ahead I was, and that's something a lot of. It's interesting because in middle school people don't like to see you ahead. They want you with them, like if you're not with them, you're against them. So leadership was always something for me. But as I became an entrepreneur, as I became a business owner, as I started to grow my team, the one thing I didn't desire were employees in the state or in the way that they are waiting for their command to do the job. I wanted to have a team. I wanted to build a culture where my team understands the brand, the voice, the understanding of what we do and how we do it, and then they get to take that and fold that into their values and skills. And now they go out into the world. And that's the thing I've learned recently with my VA.

Nikisha: 10:22

I got a VA three weeks ago, the first week onboarding was one hour a day we would spend. She would do work and I would show her how I would have done it or what I would update Not how I would do it, but what I would update. And while we were updating things, there are certain things in my graphics that I like spacing between the words or the letters, the line spacing, and we'll set a number and then she'll use that number going on when she creates content, which is the whole point of developing a system. Right, it gives people a way of knowing what to do, so that it's consistent throughout. And today there was moments where we're not meeting today and I said here she asked me well, we're working on a batching content and she was like which one you want me to do next? I said how about this? You decide what you want to do next, tell me what you need or what you have, and then you let me know. That's all.

Nikisha: 11:16

I asked of her Communication. Now is our next step. So, when you do something, communicate your understanding of why you're choosing that. And for me, this is everything, because now she starts to be, she starts to gain ownership over the task that she's doing for me. She's no longer waiting for me, she's no longer bottlenecked by me. Yes, I still owe her stuff, but she knows that if I owe her stuff, she has other options. She can go to and take care of it, and that's what I desire in my team Not someone who's like well, I don't have this, I can't do anything, but someone who's empowered to be like if I don't have this, that's fine, let me just keep going, and I'll add it in when she sends it to me or she does it. And I love the part where you said leadership is about helping people grow.

Lindsay White: 12:04

Yeah.

Nikisha: 12:05

Right when I got into business. I did not. I don't know if I did. I think it was recently that I I understand that I don't want to do this by myself. And to be a business owner means I have a business so other people can grow through this business, through their value, their skills and their economics, their financials Right, that's why I'm in business. This is not a me game. I don't want it to be a me game. It's not about me. It's never about us as business owners. It's about the service we provide for our clients and the opportunities we provide for our team members.

Lindsay White: 12:41

Yeah, yeah, I think that's so, I think that's so true. And when? When we can really as the CEO in our business, when we can be firmly grounded in things like what is our vision, what's the mission, what are we looking to change in the world, what are the values that we we bring, how do we translate those? And then, what are the behaviors, what are the way we do things? When we're clear on that, we can be clear with someone else.

Nikisha: 13:14

Exactly, exactly.

Lindsay White: 13:16

Right and then they can give us their best performance. And that's what culture really is. Culture at its heart is how we get work done together. We, as a leader in our business, we have to set the tone for that. And then we also have to recognize that other people are going to do things slightly differently. We have to be open to that, we have to be curious about that, we have to encourage that. We have to recognize that sometimes they're going to do it better than we are and we have to pay with that. And that can be really difficult because we have bootstrapped these business Like we poured our heart and soul and sometimes our life savings into these things and it is challenging to actually let go Right. And it is challenging to actually let go right. But when we can do that, we are really leading effectively. We are enabling other people to find their brilliance and to find their leadership.

Nikisha: 14:25

Let me ask you, in your experience, what's the biggest mistake small business owners make when it comes to hiring talent to support the growth of their business that they do not pause to get real clarity around.

Lindsay White: 14:45

Who do they need, why do they need them, what exactly do they need them to do and even to some degree, as you've articulated, how they might want that person to perform that. But also, who is that person, how do the values Um and when? We can get really clear about those things. First, we can find someone who looks at our job description, reads our ad and says this is the perfect job for me. This is exactly what I've been waiting for. In fact, if you're doing it right, you should have three or four of those people. You should have a difficult decision, and then we need to have a system to help us delineate who is the right candidate. If we do not have a recruitment process, then we are not going to have success. Going to Google and asking it what are the best interview questions that's not going to get us what we want. We need to design a system that's going to get us to the result we're looking for, and if we have clarity around that, we can do that.

Nikisha: 15:59

You know I'm intrigued what this system looks like. Right, tell me some more and tell everyone listening, because they all got their ears perked up and it was like I hope Nikisha is going to ask what is this system?

Lindsay White: 16:11

I knew I used the magic word. So a recruitment system or program is a very clear outline of what you want to do, the tools and the templates that go inside of that and then how you're going to execute. So it really does start with spending that time to actually think very clearly about what you require in the job. And also, is that really realistic? Like I get a lot of business owners and they're looking for a unicorn right, you're laughing because you know exactly what I'm talking about. They are not going to be a bookkeeper, a graphic designer and a customer service expert all in one. Like, if they're promising you that they're either overestimating their ability or they're outright lying and you truly are setting people up for failure. Like, those things don't all exist. Those are different skill sets. So, again, being really clear about what you're looking for, why you need them and who they are, how they're going to fit your organization, that's first.

Lindsay White: 17:16

Then designing a job description that is really compelling. It actually just like in our marketing, it doesn't start by talking about who you are and what you do. It talks about who they are and what they bring to the table. We know that that's what attracts people to us for our services, but also for our employment. Then we make sure that we are advertising that in the places those people hang out. This probably sounds familiar. These are marketing techniques. To be clear, you are marketing your business, but you're marketing to a different, like a different, audience. Okay, so where do they go? Where do these people hang out, how? How are you going to attract their attention? We need to be very clear about what our salary or our hourly rate, what benefits we offer, because I think that's fair to people, right? We've got to tell them. We've got to be clear about how it fits in our budget, right, or we're putting ourselves at a disadvantage.

Lindsay White: 18:17

Then we need to design tools to conduct the interview process that are all geared toward what we have in our job description. So are we going to start with some kind of you know, virtual or digital interview process? So maybe we have them fill out a questionnaire. I actually like to have people do a few questions and then I like to get on the phone with them. I want to talk to them. What are the questions I'm going to ask? What are the first few things I need to know? And then I want to invite only the top people back to do a very clear, very in-depth behavioral interview.

Lindsay White: 18:56

Tell me about a time that you have done this thing. What did that look like? What issues did you encounter? How did you fix them? What was the result? And all of that is geared right back to your really great job description and, of course, what are you looking for them to produce in your business? When you have all of that really well articulated and you have that system well organized and you have great onboarding so you talked about you spend an hour with your person every week you need to think really clearly about how do you want to get this person up to speed. What do you, as the business owner, need to do? You can't just set them loose with a job description and a to-do list and expect them to perform. That is not how it works.

Nikisha: 19:42

I tried that. It didn't work.

Lindsay White: 19:43

It didn't work and listen. Sometimes you hire the wrong person. Nobody bats a thousand. I've been doing this for 20 years. Even I sometimes make mistakes right, but if you don't set them up for success, that is on you, not on them. You have not allowed them to perform for you, you've tied their hands. It's all about a great recruitment system and when you do it right you get great results. It works. It works every time if you do it the right way.

Nikisha: 20:16

So true, and you know what it's so interesting, as much as you clearly see that system, people won't put that in play. They won't put it in play until they've done it a couple times and the pain starts to come in, and then they're like you know what? Let me listen to Lindsay, let me get this done this way, and I wanted to also say something, cause you're saying have a clear process.

Lindsay White: 20:39

Yes.

Nikisha: 20:39

And I want to make sure I don't put my clients or the people listening into perfection mode.

Lindsay White: 20:45

Yes.

Nikisha: 20:45

Clear doesn't mean perfect. No you won't get it perfect the first time you do this.

Speaker 1: 20:51

No.

Nikisha: 20:51

So what I want you to do is take Lindsay's information and test it, and the first time you do it, trust me, it's not going to go as flawless as she says it. What's going to happen is you're going to learn something new in it, because this is the journey of learning, and then you'll be able to implement that the next time, and that's how this system becomes a powerhouse. But you have to start it. So when she says clear, don't sit down and let perfection kick in and be like I have to do this right. I have to like no, don't do it on your highest level, do it where you are and build on that. Clarity comes through action, intention, and that's what we're talking about in this conversation.

Lindsay White: 21:36

I really appreciate that you said that, because I do think we can get really locked in on it. Has to be perfect or it's not good. Keep in mind, when we talk about people systems whether it's recruitment, performance management I'm talking about organizational development, how we grow as a business. Because there's people involved, it's always got a little bit of flaw built in. We're innately imperfect. That's the way we're designed and so we do. We have to recognize 80% is a great result here, and the best result in the recruitment process is that you found someone that fits. They align, they get your vision Like if you're doing it right, they should see what you see and be like holy smokes. I want to be a part of that. They should understand the mission, what you're changing. Their value should line up and they should have some of the skill sets and experience you're looking for. To be clear, they're likely never going to come with all of it.

Nikisha: 22:37

Right, they'll create, they'll, they'll build it on your team.

Lindsay White: 22:41

That's where the leadership comes in. How are you going to help them grow? How are you going to grow together? Cause they're going to come with skills and experience the likely you don't have. So that is for you to pull out and to encourage and your word empower as a leader. So you're not going to get a hundred percent result. You're not going to get. You're not going to check everything off on your job description, but if you can get 80% and you can get alignment and you can get someone that you feel really good about working with, that's the person you want to hire Exactly.

Nikisha: 23:13

And that's the blessing in it. Yeah, now let's speak to the amazing entrepreneurs who tried it hired someone, been hiring employees, w-2s taxes didn't work out, didn't work out and now they got to do it again and they're so scared because it didn't work out the first time.

Nikisha: 23:30

They're like I don't want this anymore. I want to do collaborations and independent contractors and they think this is like a better system and I have my opinion about that which I will share. But I want to hear yours first about what should they do? How do they like process the first experience and not to let that dictate their second experience?

Lindsay White: 23:56

Yeah, that's a great question. So, first and foremost, I think what you need to do is again, I think you need to pause, you need to spend a moment and you need to actually recognize and be with whatever that emotion is. And for many of us it is that sense of disappointment that we have been a failure, that we have not, you know, like we've not executed, and we just need to be with that and recognize that there are parts of it that belong to us. And then there are other parts that aren't. Like my mother says, takes two to tango Right More than enough laying to go around, and that's okay. Parts that aren't Like my mother says takes two to tango right More than enough lane to go around, and that's okay, it didn't work. But what part belongs to us? And we really need to sit with that just for a moment and be okay with yeah, we didn't have the right process, we weren't really clear.

Lindsay White: 24:47

Okay, now those are opportunities for us to shift. Okay, and we can do that. We can implement a different system, we can make changes. Right, we are always evolving and our processes and systems can evolve with us. But we got to acknowledge, you know, what do we want to leave behind? Where do we need to find the gift or the opportunity that we can move forward with? If we do that first, then that will help us step out of that space where we're really fearful, where we feel really anxious about it. It seems maybe even a little overwhelming to try and dip our toe back into that space where we need an employee. So that would be my opinion. I'd love to hear your thoughts. So that would be my opinion.

Nikisha: 25:33

I'd love to hear your thoughts when I think about an employee which is considered a W-2 in the United States of America. I'm going to be clear. This is where we're recording. We have independent contractors, considered 1099s. They don't work on our schedule, they work on their own, but they supply us with some form of what we need done. And then we have collaborations. Collaborations is when two people come together with an idea. They bring it to life, they put it out in the world In some form. They have some type of relationship either. To split it, it's a revenue share. It's so many different opportunities there. Here's the difference, in my opinion, with all three. The independent contractor and collaborator is not part of your culture. They're not part of your structure, your business. They have no ties to it. But that moment in time that you're asking them to do something specifically for you.

Lindsay White: 26:25

Yes.

Nikisha: 26:26

An employee becomes part of your culture, they become part of your team, they understand the brand's voice, tone and messaging and they have skin in the game. Because when you do good, they do good right. And as much as you think of an employee as being a heavy burden, the reason you think it's a heavy burden is because you don't teach them how to feed the system. You actually depend on them or they depend on you. That's what I mean. They depend on you to feed them, but you're creating that culture.

Nikisha: 27:04

So there's a lot of companies that have independent contractors work with them and I usually would speak to the owner and they would tell me oh man, it's so hard to be the person responsible to have to pay these people and feed them and their families. And I'm like I don't understand. Why do you have that pressure when, if they're independent contractors, how do you produce an agreement where they bring in opportunities? If they're doing a gig, why are they not promoting this opportunity like it was their own business? And now people are coming in to your business paying you so they can hire them again for other opportunities.

Nikisha: 27:42

Why are you not one teaching that? You teach that through finding educational programs. If you can't do it. You find ways to help them grow, because when you invest in them, they invest in you. Why are you not creating an environment that, if you're working with a team, they understand when they show up, when they do the work, when they invest, when they become owners of the product that they're creating? Now, all of that positive, loving, good energy goes into that art. That art speaks volumes and generates more business. The more business you make, the more you can pay them. But you also have to remember that too, as leaders, we cannot be greedy.

Nikisha: 28:25

So, we're able to learn how to measure someone's production, which is a fact, people, not your feelings. Don't put your feelings in your business. Use your facts to interpret the story and then how do you want to respond? That's what I love. So what I mean by that? Yes, there's a way to measure someone production. When they produce one, how much time did you get back so you can go do the visionary work? To, when they produce, what's the KPI? How many people are you get back so you can go do the visionary work? Two, when they produce, what's the KPI? How many people are converting? Do they help people convert? And if all of these are yes, what's that percentage coming from that person? And then, how do you create a formula that says, well, if you do this amount of work and you're bringing in this revenue, I can give you a certain percentage of what you're bringing in. It could be a bonus, it could be a gift. So many different ways to look at how to do this 100%.

Lindsay White: 29:23

So many different ways to create a performance management system that really represents how you want to measure and reward performance in your business. I would also add you need to reward the right behaviors, because the right behaviors are what is likely to get you the right performance right.

Nikisha: 29:46

Wait before you go on. Determine or not determine. Define what right means.

Lindsay White: 29:53

Yes, All the way back to your values. So I'll give you an example. Many businesses have a value of integrity. That's a value we bring to our business. Right? You and I, we do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, even when no one's watching. That's one of the simplest definitions. And in a business that translates into doing the right thing for our clients, even when it's not profitable, because it's the right thing to do. I want to find and bring into my organization particularly employees, but I would want a contractor to be on side with that and so have that behavior. I do the right thing because the right thing to do for the client I can reward, I can measure that and I can reward that. Where did you go and do the right thing for the client? And it didn't immediately result in revenue, but what it resulted in was a long-term build in the relationship, which then brought in more business.

Nikisha: 30:49

Right Retient retention Yep.

Lindsay White: 30:51

Client retention. So this is the thing when we measure the right things and we get people moving forward in their performance and being a leader of those things, that's when we really get incredible traction and performance from people.

Nikisha: 31:09

Yes, yes, so good. I truly, truly hope that the people listening are able to take away from this, because, in my opinion, this is so important. Now, the last thing I want to ask you about is how do they start this process Other than the system? There is someone right now sitting down. They are in high capacity value, they are by themselves.

Nikisha: 31:39

They're really scared about the idea of hiring someone because there's a story they're telling themselves this person's going to steal my ideas, they're going to steal the way I do stuff, they're going to open up their own company and then they're going to make more money than me, because all of that is what it takes to make a better business and it doesn't. It's a lot more, you know. But they want to start by figuring out how to get possibly a virtual assistant, a VA, in their business. And right now, the VA feels like the low hanging fruit, where everyone is a VA, everyone is an online business manager, right, and they feel like, maybe they've tried it and it didn't work the first time. And someone might be like well, I'm scared because I've heard so many horror stories, but I need help, and they're kind of stuck because they're not making a decision, they're an indecision at this moment. Do we have something very simple for them to do, to even start the process?

Lindsay White: 32:40

Yeah, I think one of the most effective things to do when you're in that space is sort of this idea of delegate or die. Right, what are all the things that you do? So, creating that master list of all the things that have to get done in your business and really analyzing it very carefully. What are the things first and foremost? That analyzing it very carefully, what are the things first and foremost that I love to do? What are the things that I really would never want to give up? Right For me, that's that's my one-on-one coaching. I love coaching business leaders. I don't ever want that to go away.

Lindsay White: 33:11

I know they say in a lot of places oh, you can only scale through group I. You know what if that keeps me from scaling my business, I'm cool with that. Scale through group I. You know what if that keeps me from scaling my business, I'm cool with that. I'm keeping one-on-one coaching. What are the things that I actually have to do? Right? So there's for some of us, especially as we're scaling our businesses, there are some things that have to remain with us, at least for a short period of time. What I had a client that was like I pay the taxes right.

Lindsay White: 33:36

That has to come out of the bank account. I want to make that transaction happen. Okay, if that feels like it's important for you to keep, keep it. And then we need to think about what are all the things that potentially someone else could do right and and who would? Who would do those things? What skills would they have? What experience would they have? And likely it's actually more than one. And you can hire people fractionally. You can hire people part-time or hourly. So, for example, one of the first things that usually happens is bookkeeping right. Finding someone who has higher skill and capability in that than I do was key, right? Maybe there's something around some of your digital marketing.

Lindsay White: 34:21

If you're like me, that's actually not my jam. I'm the, I'm the thought leader. I come up with all the brilliant stuff. I need someone else to help me execute it. The copy and the graphics, okay, that I can read. So just really thinking about all the things and then thinking carefully about is this, is this something I really need to be doing? And if the answer is not an immediate yes, then it's no. It needs to be delegated. And how am I going to execute? That's step number one.

Nikisha: 34:51

Good, got it and then once they curate that beautiful list, yes. What comes next?

Lindsay White: 34:59

Yeah, I think you can start to do some grouping right, so you're curating or you're analyzing, and then you can start to group activities together, right, so what makes sense in terms of skill sets or capabilities? Well, again, I think what you're likely to see is it doesn't all live on one list. There's likely two or three subgroups, and then I can start to really think about okay, I really need someone who actually can do this bookkeeping pieces, because I'm not doing them effectively, I'm not doing them efficiently, and so what would that look like? Right, so I could outsource that, potentially. I don't need a full-time bookkeeper. That's something where someone who was on contract and does a fractional piece for hours a month, that works. If it's something that I'm really compelled about and I really feel like that needs to be an employment relationship, okay, what kind of time does that look like? What would happen if that was part-time or full-time? Where would that add value in my business? Now I can really start to get granular with it.

Nikisha: 36:07

Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, makes sense. And I'm just going to add a third part to that. Once you finish grouping it, you need to use a recording screen system so you can record how you're doing it and then just store that in your drive, wherever drive you use, so that now, when you start your interview process and onboarding, these are tools you already have, because sometimes I work and I get in a zone and I'm not recording my screen so I can teach the person I'm working with how they can do it, so they can take it off my plate.

Nikisha: 36:44

But I think when you get clear about the things you don't want to do, it gets easier when you do that and you just show them and you kind of talk through them. And there's so many I love Loom. Loom is my number one where you can literally record and it creates an SOP. It does so much for you in a second. And I think once you start putting that in play, is it going to be perfect? No, because perfection is not the goal. I love reminding people because my people are like me, they're like perfectionism and when I work with my clients I'm like throw that away, just brain dump, for now we can clean it up as we go.

Lindsay White: 37:20

Yeah, iterate, we can iterate.

Nikisha: 37:23

Yeah.

Lindsay White: 37:23

And as your business grows, you're going to have to iterate anyways.

Lindsay White: 37:26

Right I mean that is the part about growing and scaling a beautiful business is that you're not going to do it the same six months from now because your business is going to have a different complexion to it and your team so that's one of the attributes you want to hire for is someone who can understand maybe even better than you do about iteration is imperative that they are comfortable in the continual recreation cycle, especially if you're not, you know I think that's the other thing is hire for attributes that you know you don't necessarily have. Right, you need to have people around you that aren't all the same. If you have a whole bunch of perfectionists in the room, what happens? Nothing. Nothing happens because it's never perfect. That's what happens. You need people that are confident and comfortable with change, they're comfortable with iterating, they're actually comfortable pushing back and saying you know, lindsay, that was great, but actually I think we could do it this way Like, think about who you need to round out the skills, experience and the culture in your business. That's what's going to help you grow.

Nikisha: 38:41

So true, so true. Lindsay. You have been an add value to so many iconic women CEOs who are listening to this right now, and this is what I love about my podcast Leading Her Way. It's all about adding value to people who are hungry to grow and there are moments that they're just not sure how, or they don't know how to make sense of it all. But when they get to come here and listen to you and other guests that I have, there's an opportunity for them to actually take action and we were able to give them those small, little, bite-sized steps so that they can move forward. Now, in other words, I will add your, of course, Instagram, whatever links to the show notes. So if you're looking for Lindsay you love what she said I'm going to tell you to go follow Lindsay on Instagram. Where are you, Lindsay? Where's your favorite space to be?

Lindsay White: 39:34

Yeah, so I'm on Instagram and it's high vault leadership, and I also spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so you find me there, okay.

Nikisha: 39:42

Perfect, so those will be in the show notes so you could go follow her, please, and let her give you so much tips and tricks on how to do this. Of course, I would love you to go to our resource page and sign up for our workshops, because I'm going to create some value from this. I already have some ideas forming my beautiful mind and I want you guys to know. This is not a journey where you have to be alone. Growing your business is not a alone journey. It's not a me journey, it's a us. And community is everything, and you want a community that supports you but still drives action right.

Nikisha: 40:20

I am a action lover. My clients, they're so freaking phenomenal with action. Sometimes I'm like wait for me, let me catch up. And action for me is everything. I am a believer in my energy. I believe in, I don't know, manifestation is good, but manifestation comes through action. There's opportunities and I take action, but it all boils down to one thing decision. When I make a decision, everything happens from that point. If I am indecisive in decision, nothing really occurs. So all I'm trying to tell you who's listening today is this is your time, this is your moment. Don't let your past dictate your present. You are more than capable. So, lindsay, thank you. Thank you for contributing your time, investing in this beautiful community and sharing all the value, and more, that you have to give. I appreciate you.

Lindsay White: 41:21

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 41:24

Thank you for joining us today on Leading Her Way. We loved having you with us. Remember each action you take, no matter how small, adds up to big results. If today's episode fired you up, hit subscribe for more insights and visit our resource hub, which is linked to the show notes. There you'll find tools to streamline, organize and grow your business. Keep moving forward and we'll be right here to cheer you on next week.