[00:00:00] Mickenzie Vought: How much is your time worth? every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else because your time is finite. You have the sameamount of hours in a day as Beyonce, but Beyonce is outsourcing her weaknesses.
[00:00:12] Kyle Cummings: Beyonce's not doing a whole lot of what she doesn't wanna do right now.
[00:00:15] Mickenzie Vought: if you're an entrepreneur, you probably need to get to a level where you're working more on your business, not just in your business.
[00:00:22] Kyle Cummings: to the Podcircle podcast, where we bring practical tips and insights for every podcaster.
[00:00:27] Mickenzie Vought: Whether you are
just getting started or
you're already a
seasoned podcast
pro, these conversations dive into all
the topics
that matter
most to you.
So today we are diving into
one
of my
absolute
favorite topics, outsourcing your weaknesses,
and
I would say as a. Professional
multitasker. Um, I have just delusions
of grandeur.
I think I can do absolutely everything. And one of my intentions for the new
year
is just getting realistic
about what can I actually do today?
You can't have it all.
You
can't have
it all
at once.
You can
have it
all at some
point, right? So I really am committed to that this year, and I
wanna extend you
an invitation to do
the
same, because I
think if you're an entrepreneur, which is what a lot of our clients are, a creative
person or just
frankly someone
who's willing and committed
to get
a
podcast out into the world on
a consistent basis,
you probably have similar delusions.
[00:01:20] Kyle Cummings: Yeah,
[00:01:21] Mickenzie Vought: do you
have these
delusions?
[00:01:22] Kyle Cummings: Oh good Lord. We were just talking right before there. Our . Uh, recording today. Yeah, this is, I told, I emailed McKenzie earlier this week or sometime, and I, I think I sat in there somewhere that
[00:01:32] Kyle Cummings: 24 is the year of, of delegation. So
this, this is a very, uh,
timely podcast for me. And, and I think, and I agree with you, like I'm a, I'm a very good multitasker.
I'm, you know, I'm pretty good at a lot of different things. I'm a small business owner. Which kinda necessitates being a bit of a jack of all trades.
but as we grow, it's just
gotta outsource your weaknesses like you're talking about. And so I've, I've identified four or five different areas where I can do that.
And
this will be like preaching to the choir today.
[00:02:01] Mickenzie Vought: We're just right here
in
it. So
you are not
alone in that. Um, I heard a quote a couple years ago. One of my absolute favorite shows
is
Parks and Rec and the great
Ron Swanson
says Never half-ass. Two things, whole
ass
one
[00:02:14] Kyle Cummings: one thing. Yep.
[00:02:16] Mickenzie Vought: and it's been something I've
been thinking about. So
you can't do
it all.
You can't
have it all. so let's talk about what
that actually means.
And I
think, like you were
saying, you're
really good at
a lot of
things and I'm
betting
that.
People on the other side listening to
us
today are
good
at a lot
of things. so just even
getting strategic
of
where is your time best spent. So
talk
to us
about
what outsourcing your weaknesses
is.
[00:02:38] Kyle Cummings: Yeah, so outsourcing your weaknesses simply means
[00:02:41] Kyle Cummings: delegating,
hiring help,
abandoning the things that you're not good at and just simply aren't worth your time,
so that you can spend your time and energy doing the things that you do best. And I think that can be difficult for us to identify.
sometimes because I am, I'm just the kind of person, like I'm just a Google away from learning, a new skill, or learning how to do something else,
and
[00:03:05] Mickenzie Vought: a hundred
percent.
[00:03:06] Kyle Cummings: serves us all until it doesn't.
[00:03:08] Mickenzie Vought: Yes. Oh, Kyle, I'm, I
tell
people I've
made a career
outta being able to
Google and, be the person that can find
the
answer, but at some point you have to specialize. And
I
think when we talk about podcasting, we know
that only
20% of podcasters make it
within
the
first year.
And
I think that's because they're trying to
do it
all. It's
not sustainable. So let's start with
asking
yourself a few questions. We wanna
teach you
how to
do
this. How do I
even figure
out how to outsource my weaknesses? What are the things
I can delegate?
What can
I stop doing?
What
can
I start
doing differently?
Let's get above
podcasting and then we'll kind
of bring it back
down.
But just this
general
idea of
take an assessment.
What is the total time
every
day
you spend
on tasks that you
don't enjoy,
you
don't excel at, or
you
feel like maybe are outside of what you
could. Do best.
So just
go ahead and guess.
And I think
if you
need
to track
your
time for
a couple days, you're gonna
be surprised.
And then
you
get to
identify where do
I shine?
Where am I
an expert, and
what are
the things
that only I
can do? Kyle, you
talk a lot about
where
do you
have those 10,000
hours,
what are
the
things that only you can do, that you're
not really getting
the time
to do
or you're
not doing them
to
the level
that you'd
like
to
be doing
because your time
is spread thin in other places.
[00:04:23] Kyle Cummings: yeah, to, I mean for me personally, it's like starting this business back in 2016
of as a side hustle to my music production business.
I could edit podcasts, audio podcasts with my hands tied behind my back. So that's 'cause
I'd already kind of had my 10,000 hours . And editing software and mixing audio and all of those things.
So it was a very natural extension of
what I would had already done and been doing for so long. I think going from, from doing that and growing my business to the place where I just
can't do all of that anymore, or else I'm turning away business and also just expanding. .
Services into video editing,
is something that I can do.
But like, you know, there's just people that are better at that than I am,
you know, show notes, writing all the different aspects of the services we offer. That's when,
[00:05:10] Kyle Cummings: it's become abundantly clear over the past few years, like it's time to start hiring help. And so I'm,
taking the same advice that I'm giving you all today.
And
one thing that you, that you say sometimes McKenzie and, um, that we tell people is like, yes, you can . You can do these multiple things. You know, you can learn,
[00:05:29] Mickenzie Vought: Yep.
[00:05:29] Kyle Cummings: you're You're smart people. We can all learn how to use descript or edit audio if we really put our mind to it. So So you can, but you probably won't. And that's where I, that's kind of the crux of the issue, I think is like,
what's it gonna take to get, the ball across the goal line or whatever.
What's it gonna take? So, so maybe you can do it, but you probably won't.
is the truth. And so what's gonna get you to actually release that podcast, launch the podcast, and then release episodes in a consistent basis?
And my bet and my experience is that it's going to include hiring out your weaknesses and outsourcing your weaknesses.
[00:06:03] Mickenzie Vought: Yeah, and you're probably overestimating
yourself. I
know that
I do that of,
hey,
I know I
can
do that,
but I overestimate the amount of time
I have
in
a day.
I
overestimate how long
something's gonna
take me.
And I think, how can you find
the people
and partner
with people
who do do
the task
you're talking about with their
hands tied behind their back?
I
think, I
mean,
I emailed you
a couple
years ago after
I've
been working
with
you and
said, Hey. you ever
need help,
you were telling
me, you were talking about
expanding your
business. If you ever need
help, show note writing is something I can
do in my
sleep.
And I think there are parts of what
I do
with you
now that
I can do in my
sleep
in
a different
way. You could lead a
strategy session, but there's
things
that
[00:06:39] Kyle Cummings: Not like you.
[00:06:40] Mickenzie Vought: at a, an
easier level,
right? And so
I think it's
just.
Who
are
those people who can do this with their hands tied behind their
back?
I think you've
gotten
really strategic
of getting video
editors because
you can
do that, but is
that where you're best
spent and how much is your time worth? This is a question
that
[00:06:56] Kyle Cummings: I
think that brings up a lot of things for, for different people. It can be really hard to be objective about that.
[00:07:02] Mickenzie Vought: Yes. How
much is
your time worth? Is it worth? What, what is the sacrifice
that comes
to this?
What
are you
saying
no
to? Because
every time you say yes
to something, you're saying no
to
something else because your time
is finite. You have
the same
amount of hours in a day as Beyonce,
but
Beyonce is
outsourcing her weaknesses.
[00:07:20] Kyle Cummings: Beyonce's not doing a whole lot of what she doesn't wanna do right now.
[00:07:23] Mickenzie Vought: Right, exactly.
So, but
I
hate that
when
people are
like, you have the same amount of time.
Yes, but she's being strategic in
how she's outsourcing
her time. She's
using her hot time exactly where she
needs
to be.
So
don't be deceived.
Your time is not
free. And
whatever you're doing that is
outside your
skillset
is keeping
you from
doing
the
things that
are inside your
expertise. And if you're an entrepreneur,
you probably need to get
to a
level where
you're working more on
your business, not just in your
business. And so you need to get above that and be realistic. And
if you're a podcaster, there's gonna
be a point where, let's
outsource what we don't do
the best. So let's talk about some life
examples, right?
We've been
talking a lot about podcasting.
We've been talking about business, but what are things
you need
to do even
in your own personal
life to get you
above,
to get
you that time
and capacity
to focus on? Your
podcast, your
business, whatever.
Uh,
some examples
for me is
that
I,
there
was a season of our life, it was glorious.
Before we
had
two children
in daycare. we got a house cleaner every week because we wanted to be able to
have time with our child
at the time.
We were both working full-time. It was a
lot. And so
my ambition is
to make
a certain amount
of money
this year so that I can get back to doing that. That's my goal
because I want that time back with my family.
And
also there are some projects
and some dreams that
I wanna
chase that
I just
don't have
margin and capacity
to do right now. So if I
had a
house cleaner, I wasn't
focusing on
that
on the
weekends.
That would be great. Another one is
grocery pickup. I do not go to the grocery store anymore. I put my, list
in and I pick it up.
I do it like in the margins
of my
day.
I take
notes, I put in
my grocery
order and then
someone
else does
my shopping
and I pay
a premium $2 and 99
cents for it and is the best $2 and
nine, 9 cents I've ever spent in my life.
Um,
do you
have any
examples
in your
own personal life
of things
that you have outsourced
in different
seasons
or
[00:09:10] Kyle Cummings: yeah, yeah. Keyword seasons. 'cause our life right now, we've been nomads, digital nomads for, you know, going on two and a half years. Uh, so that looks a lot different now. Um.
But in the past we've done the same. We've hired, uh, we had a house cleaner that came a couple times a month, which was awesome. I mean, my, my wife and I have always worked full time and now, you know, especially once we had a, our son.
Yeah. I mean that was, that was a no-brainer. But even now, I mean it's, you know, we, we move around on average or, uh, every six or so weeks, six or eight weeks here and move to a different place, and my wife is really diligent about doing her best to find just short-term childcare wherever we go, so that we can get a few extra hours.
Either to ourselves or a few extra hours to work.
so that's been huge, like using care.com to hire babysitters and obviously, you know, vetting them out and all those things and making sure it's a good fit. But
we've used them in probably, you
Seven or eight of our stops in the past couple of years.
So things like that, like
[00:10:07] Kyle Cummings: I'm gonna be hiring a bookkeeper this year for the business and
a handful of other, uh, just kind of fractional
things just because there's just things I'm,
I need to get out of
[00:10:16] Kyle Cummings: I've kind of done the, the, uh, analysis a bit of like, okay, what's my time worth?
And
else can do this better and cheaper essentially than, you know, than how I'm doing it. And I, once you kind of think about it that way, it becomes very, very clear what to do.
[00:10:31] Mickenzie Vought: It becomes
an easier decision
and I
think something
that I've watched you do is like you're an expert in
audio. Like that's just something,
again, like you
said, you can
do it with your hands tied
behind your
back. But you and I
were having a
conversation where
you said, I need to
get more editors. I can't be doing every single one of
these anymore.
You know, you've got a couple
editors
on
your on
your team,
but you need
more. And Yes.
this is something that you
could do
efficiently and quickly. But
you've
gotta delegate
and you're
getting, you're also training
some of the tactical
elements that you are and figuring
out how to multiply yourself.
[00:11:03] Kyle Cummings: Yeah, definitely
just like reproducing the way that, uh, that I approach editing
a podcast episode, like
just documenting the whole process. Like I'll, I'll go through
a whole episode from top to bottom and I'll record a loom video
[00:11:15] Mickenzie Vought: Hmm.
[00:11:16] Kyle Cummings: you I mean, I'm literally building my business on that method right now. So just kinda re trying to reproduce, like just take my 10,000 hours, distill them down,
and .
just find people that are kinda like-minded. Um, I mean, I'm a perfectionist, so delegating in in that realm is maybe the hardest thing I've
done
in this business just because I have really, I have high expectations on what the audio can and should sound like.
And I think for my long-term clients, I,
I don't want to serve them anything different than what they've become accustomed to. So,
at the same time, like I need to, I need to step out of that. I need to let some other folks.
that are really talented and, and, and have also gotten that had their 10,000 hours too,
step in, train them up and, um, let them,
[00:11:59] Kyle Cummings: continue to develop a skill, the same skill that I have.
[00:12:02] Mickenzie Vought: what I'm hearing is
you're doing a little bit of work on the front end.
To reap a
ton of benefits on the backend
[00:12:08] Kyle Cummings: Yes,
totally.
[00:12:09] Mickenzie Vought: And so instead
of just like continuing to churn
it
week after week
you're putting a
little
bit more effort in,
Hey,
it's gonna
make
it a
little bit longer to edit this podcast, but I'm gonna have something that I can reproduce,
like you're saying, reproduce
your expertise. Um, this is an analogy that I think is.
I have heard, so my husband was talking about, this company
that they work
with,
this
distributor of '
books cause he sells books. But he was saying that their CEO every year
he like makes a big show
of
it and he goes in the month of December and packs boxes
and he packs boxes to send out
and
the Christmas season with his warehouse guys.
And you know, it's
this
whole thing. And
I
was like,
oh, that's kind of like a good morale booster. And my husband, who just thinks so
differently than
me
said, that's
a complete waste of CEO's
time.
I kind of
laughed
and he said
if
I was in that situation, I'd be so mad he would
make
me be
more
inefficient in what I
was doing.
'cause I'm an expert at the warehouse
and packing boxes. it would disrupt
everything. People would not be
on their A
game because they'd be nervous.
And
he said, and third,
what are you not
doing? What strategic
things
are you not doing in your skillset
that
is gonna be putting our
business
at
risk?
And I
I,
he just thought of it so differently and so.
I
think there's opportunities to
bring
build morale,
but
also,
[00:13:23] Mickenzie Vought: uh, what should you
be
doing? I just
think it's a great example of
step
back
and say like, maybe I
think this
is beneficial
and maybe it's really not,
[00:13:30] Kyle Cummings: Yeah, that's a very interesting case study. 'cause I'm like, oh, I love the morale. Just to kinda like, you know, the boots on the ground. Like, hey, I, especially if they're a C, like a founder, CEO, where it's just like, Hey, I've done all this stuff.
Like this
isn't, this
isn't foreign to me, I'm just stepping back into my old role.
[00:13:45] Mickenzie Vought: Well, I am
excited to
really get practical, um, about this
idea we've given you Some things
to think
about about outsourcing
your weaknesses.
And
over the next three weeks,
we are
going to dive into three areas that
you,
we think you should
consider
outsourcing
as a
podcaster, as you grow,
and begin to
assemble
what we're gonna
call your podcast
team.
So like
Avengers
Assemble, here
are the three things over
the
next
couple weeks that we're
really
gonna be
diving into. We're gonna
be
[00:14:10] Mickenzie Vought: diving into why we
think you should outsource video and audio editing,
outsource marketing and content, and some things in that
space. And
then the third,
we think you
should outsource the production and producing
of your
podcast. So
[00:14:23] Kyle Cummings: talk about that a little bit more, the
production, the producing side of it. Because I think there's a little bit of a misunderstanding and
know, there's the post-production, which is kind of the editing and things. But what
is the kind of the pre-production, just really quickly as we round it out.
[00:14:35] Mickenzie Vought: Yeah, so I think
the pre-production, as I think
about
that, I
think about someone who's thinking really high level
and strategically about
your podcast
as a whole,
um, and they're thinking more macro of what
is the
narrative we're telling? What
are the themes
that
we're
doing?
How can we connect
to
larger conversations outside of your podcast?
How can
we be strategic
and
connect everything else that
you're doing and use
your podcast as
a content source for.
Social
for your
email newsletter for, everything else business
and
make sure that your podcast is really being
strategic and
serving all
of your goals. and so we do
that on our end.
We
help
some of, uh,
our
clients
produce their podcast
and
we think really
strategically, right? We do a quarterly strategy
session where we outline
all of their episodes for
the quarter. We
create,
[00:15:21] Mickenzie Vought: outlines for their
podcast so
that they don't have
to
kind of be
in the nitty gritty of it. They can just. Pop in and say,
okay, this is
what we're talking about. And bring their
expertise. Right. But we give them something to start
[00:15:32] Kyle Cummings: Yep.
[00:15:33] Mickenzie Vought: and
then we also
just
continue
to keep
them on track from a content
perspective. So that's
kinda what production
looks like from what we
offer.
And then we'll talk a little bit more
about, different elements
that you
could outsource and
really
lean on the expertise of other people.
[00:15:45] Kyle Cummings: Yeah, totally. Thanks for giving that. I mean, obviously I know that, 'cause we do that for folks, but
[00:15:49] Kyle Cummings: I think some of the terminology
[00:15:51] Mickenzie Vought: weird. It's something
[00:15:51] Kyle Cummings: can get, kind of squishy for people. Yeah. So,
[00:15:54] Kyle Cummings: as we wrap up,
you're tired of doing it all, like
we've talked about, uh,
we've got you covered. That's, that's exactly what we do at Pod Circle.
You're gonna hear about it over the next few weeks.
[00:16:02] Kyle Cummings: a whole slew of services that we offer to podcasters. .
at pod circle, we want you to do less of
what you're not an expert at
that you can get back to what you do best and, and free up your time.
And
I think a big thing is just to enjoy your podcast. I think a lot of people get, have
a lot of excitement getting in and it's like, oh, you know, I'll, I'll learn some of the ins and outs. And then that's when episode five and six roll around and it's like, man, I don't have . I don't have time to keep this up, you know, but, and I, but I've already started it.
So that's, that's very often where people meet us and, um, and we, you know, we, we forge an alliance together and take all that off of their plate so that they can do the thing that they started out
for the reasons they started out doing it. Mm-Hmm.
[00:16:42] Mickenzie Vought: And if
you want to
launch
your podcast, if you're at the front
end of
this conversation and
you
wanna launch smarter, not harder,
uh, and really be
strategic in how you're
optimizing your
efforts, we
want to get our free complete podcast starter kit in
your
hands. So you can head
to podcircle.com/start
and we
are gonna
outline
everything you need to know about getting that podcast from your head out into the
world.
[00:17:04] Kyle Cummings: All right. Well that's it for this week.
come back to us next week. We're gonna talk about outsourcing your editing and the importance of that and dive into some of the details there. So we'll talk to you next week
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