Welcome to another edition of operations, unfiltered. The podcast that takes you behind the scenes and into the operation and logistics side of influencer and talent management. I'm your host is arena. On episodes when I'm not joined by a special guest, I'll be doing a deep dive into topics or events that have caught my attention. Of course, through the lens of operations, project management. For now we'll call it ops talk, but don't hold me to that name. I might change it.
Top of mind for me this week. Outsourcing. But not just any outsourcing, outsourcing for efficiency. So without further ado. Let's get started and to this week's operations unfiltered. In today's economy, it's almost criminal not to have more than one stream of income. For me, that looks like maintaining my full time corporate job. I'm also a fractional project manager, consultant, talent manager, aspiring PR representative, and now a new podcast host.
In my personal life, I'm a wife and mom to a two year old, this often means that I'm the house manager, vacation planner, everything rolled into one. So wearing all these hats made me realize two things, burnout is real and AI is the answer. No, I'm not talking about Allen Iverson. Shout out to all my sports enthusiasts. You'll get the joke. I'm talking about artificial intelligence. Now if you just groaned and said, Oh no, not another podcast about AI.
Yes, it's another podcast about AI, over the past few weeks, I've been searching for ways to outsource both personally and professionally, and. AI is it. Professionally, there are a few tools that have helped minimize my stress, maximize my time, increased efficiency. Those tools include ChatGPT and an AI note taker app called Fathom. Don't worry. I'll link it all in my podcast notes. Starting with ChatGPT, I use ChatGPT to improve efficiencies for my own internal processes.
More specifically, I use it for help with writing prompts or for idea generations. Learning the writing prompts for ChatGPT has proven to be incredibly beneficial for me, so I highly recommend learning how to write prompts for ChatGPT. The AI note taker app that I mentioned called fathom has been a complete lifesaver.
based on my calendar settings, my AI Notetaker joins the meetings, films the entire call, and immediately after it spits out key takeaways along with a bulleted summary of what was discussed. It even generates action items with hyperlinks to the direct portion of the video for extra contents, again, a complete lifestyle. I can't tell you how much time I've gained back to my day to day by outsourcing simple things such as note taking. If only I could get my corporate job to allow AI note takers.
I definitely could save some time there, right? I mean, I'm sure we've all been on calls that we spaced out, started doing laundry, started focusing on other things, and come back and someone says our name and we're like, what's happening? Multitasking during meetings, that's a conversation for a different day, but with AI and AI note takers, we could surely be more efficient and make better use of our time.
So many of my fellow entrepreneur friends have told me that they could benefit from a VA, a virtual assistant, someone to help make those day to day tasks easier for them. One big piece of advice. I can give you as you start your search for a virtual assistant. Outline in detail, what you need. Start small, maybe one or two items that you need them to complete and go from there.
This might surprise you, but up until just a few days before starting my search for my own virtual assistant, I truly had no idea what I needed help with. So, I set aside a 15 minute Timebox. Meaning, I set a timer for 15 minutes, and in that 15 minutes, I documented everything that I needed help with for my business, canva presentations, social media posts, scheduling, social media posts, responding to emails. Later on I set another 15 minutes where I re prioritized.
What tasks do I need her to do this week, next week, and so on and so forth? Again, I highly recommend that if you're new to your journey of looking for some assistance, write down what you need help with. Prioritize that list so you're not spinning your wheels trying to figure out what I need help with when it's time for you to hire. Outsourcing in my personal life absolutely means that I need to invest in a cleaning company.
I have realized that as a small business owner, a wife, a mom, a full time employee, sometimes I just don't have the energy to clean up. The amount of hours that I spend trying to scrub my oven, my microwave and my refrigerator. Those are billable hours that could be spent ideating for a podcast securing a podcast interview. Uh, securing deals for my clients. The list goes on and on. So yes, I will be investing in my mental health, my productivity, and investing in a cleaning service.
So if you are in the Baltimore County area, please send your information my way. Another way that I'll be outsourcing in my personal life is investing in child care. A nanny. Date nights have been suffering. New moms, I know you can understand. When you have a baby, you become that identity. I'm a mom first. And yes, I'm still a mom, but mom needs a self care day. Mom needs a date night. Mom needs a girl's night.
So in 2024 and beyond, I'll be investing in my mental health and wellness by investing in a nanny. So again, if you're in the Baltimore County area and you know, some nannies or, you know, in any agency, please send them my way. Moral of the story, outsourcing for efficiency is key to success, not only in your professional life, but personal life as well. How are you going to be outsourcing this week? Are you going to invest in that nanny? Are you going to get an AI notetaker?
Let me know in my comments on Instagram at LiveMoreAgency, or send me a message at OpsUnfiltered at LiveMoreAgency. co. Until next time. And remember, make it a great day or not. The choice is yours.