Intro (00:00)

Hey there, I'm Sadaf Beynon and this is Pod junction Podcast, the show where business leaders share how they use podcasting to grow, connect and build their brands. Now this episode is a little different. First, I'm recording this intro while on the road and second, instead of a brand new recording, I wanted to share a conversation I had recently with Kirsten Graham. Kirsten is the co-founder of Six Figure Business Coaching.

Kirsten and I talked about outsourcing and how learning to delegate is actually the first step toward making podcasting far more sustainable. It's a powerful reminder that growth isn't about doing more, it's about releasing more. So here's my conversation with Kirsten.

Kirsten Graham (00:47)

Thank you so much for having me and I know we're going to talk about one of my favorite topics today, which is outsourcing.

Sadaf Beynon (00:52)

I've been really looking forward to this one too, especially because I think your journey really captures something I think a lot of leaders quietly wrestle with.

Kirsten Graham (01:00)

So I've always owned businesses like a mortgage company and a title company or a gym. I've always owned businesses that have had, you employees. We've had staff. When I first started coaching, business coaching, I really started mentoring people. I did it for about a decade for free. But on that journey, I realized how so many small business owners do not have the help or the support that they need in their businesses. And about 17 years ago, I was having a great conversation with a client.

and she had a marketing agency. She was doing mostly business cards and print items. But 17 years ago is about when Facebook first rolled out ⁓ fan pages, right? So we started talking about how small businesses could really leverage things like Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, and email marketing, because back then a lot of small businesses really didn't understand email servers and all of that.

So we put together a focus group to find out what business owners wanted to learn. And then after that focus group, she hosted five classes. The first one was kind of a free class with an overview of those four topics. And then she sold classes for each of the topics and she sold out.

which was fantastic. But then what happened was her phone started ringing and people were like, I don't want to set up this fan page thing. I don't want to set up this LinkedIn page. You know, could you post there for me or I want to send emails, but I don't want to do that myself. Can you do that? So her business really turned into a digital agency rather quickly. And along with that came, you know, there's just not enough hours in the day. She had started her business so she could stay home with her toddler and her newborn. So, you know, at this point, I think there were four and two. So she'd been in business for a little while.

So what we talked about was what would it look like to outsource? And I said to her, I've read about this. I have not done this, but you can outsource overseas where it's really affordable. And so that led us down a journey of outsourcing. And it was fascinating. We didn't have Zoom. Everything was done via email. And so she really started to build a virtual team, which was absolutely amazing. And we both like to say if...

Sadaf Beynon (02:54)

You

Kirsten Graham (03:04)

If we didn't have really thick skin or we weren't really stubborn, we probably wouldn't still be outsourcing because we learned a lot of lessons the hard way. But it was so powerful to see what it was like to be able to afford the help that you need when your business is really just getting off the ground. And so now we're business partners and that's our passion. We help business owners learn to outsource different things. Video marketing, social media, email marketing, blogging, because that's Jeannie's passion is marketing. We also help them outsource

Sadaf Beynon (03:10)

Hmm.

Kirsten Graham (03:33)

a lot of their tech and software because I hate software and tech. I mean I'm not a tech person and then also their bookkeeping because that's kind of my background with mortgages. I love everything about financing and so helping people understand that growing a business doesn't have to be done all by yourself. You don't have to wear all the hats.

Sadaf Beynon (03:36)

Thank

Hmm.

It's really interesting to me how many stories I've heard from people about how they've started a business based on their own felt needs. And they've been in a rut and they've found a way out and then built a business around that.

Kirsten Graham (04:04)

Yeah, even with having a full team, you when I had my mortgage company, I had several processors and an office manager and you have a team of loan officers. I think when you build a business, it's always isolating and lonely in some ways. So even if you have a team, it can feel a little bit isolating because you can't always share what's going on in the background. know, cash flow is tight or whatever's going on. So yeah, think growing a business is always a little bit isolating and challenging. But I think what happens is when you have... ⁓

Sadaf Beynon (04:16)

Hmm.

Kirsten Graham (04:31)

someone on your team, like a bookkeeper, because I know when I first got a bookkeeper, that really helped us to be able to have someone to have those conversations with. It really helps you feel not as alone, you know, because like, Jeannie hates doing bookkeeping. I don't love it, but I'll do it. But it's amazing when you have somebody who's doing something in your business that they are freaking amazing at. But not only that, they're passionate about it they love doing it. So when you're meeting with your bookkeeper, they're all jazzed up about the numbers and the charts that they're going to show you and going over your profit and loss statement.

Sadaf Beynon (04:33)

Hmm.

Kirsten Graham (05:01)

where if you had to do that yourself, you would keep putting it off. So I think there's just so much power in working collaboratively with other people.

Sadaf Beynon (05:04)

Hmm.

Yeah, I agree. And I think sometimes when you're stuck doing something that you really struggle with, mean, or you can do it, but you just hate it. I think you can just zap all the creativity and all the energy out of you that it's hard to really push yourself in other areas.

Kirsten Graham (05:26)

Yeah, for sure. think that that's, I think again, it's one of those mindset shifts that we all need to make. It is not just about, you know, we'll delegate things or hire someone to do something we don't know how to do. I mean, I don't know when's the last time you fixed your car. Probably not, right? And you didn't have this need to. ⁓

Sadaf Beynon (05:37)

Mm-hmm.

Kirsten Graham (05:43)

know everything that the mechanic was doing. But when it comes to our businesses, we tend to want to hold on to things so tight that we actually choke our businesses. So often the business isn't growing because we're holding on way too tight rather than letting go. And I think when people realize that just because you don't enjoy doing something doesn't mean that there's not someone out there who absolutely loves doing it. You know, all of the marketing virtual assistants, they're like, Jeannie, they're so creative and they love they love design and they love video editing and they love just all of that. So they get

Sadaf Beynon (05:48)

Hmm.

Kirsten Graham (06:12)

to work in their unique ability, which allows us to stay in our unique abilities. And I think that's where magic happens is going from being a solprenuer to building a business with support.

And that doesn't mean you have to go out and hire a full-time person. You having a bookkeeper, you know, four to five hours a month can change everything for you. Or having a marketing virtual assistant, you know, 20 hours a week, that can change everything. Or having someone build out your landing pages and all of your automations. You know, you don't need that person on your team all the time, but maybe you need them a few hours a month or a few hours every other month. So having those resources and letting go of some things can make a big difference.

Sadaf Beynon (06:52)

That is such a powerful mindset shift, isn't it? So many of us know that we should delegate, but doing it, that's really a whole different story.

now you're helping people show up through podcast, guesting and video, which requires clarity and confidence. Do you ever find that delegation is actually the first ⁓ building block for visibility?

Kirsten Graham (07:15)

So with most of our clients, they're either starting a typical YouTube channel or they're starting a podcast. And so when it comes to our marketing virtual assistants, everything starts with the client getting clarity on their content. If it's a typical YouTube channel, what are your keywords? What are your topics? How are you gonna lean into becoming the expert and the authority in that particular topic? We talked quite a bit about that. If they're thinking about starting a video podcast, which is obviously

audio podcast as well. Again, who do you want to interview? Do you want to do episodes by yourself? Who's the ideal audience? What do you want to have come from this podcast? So it's always about starting with a client. And what we find is a lot of our clients, you know, I think

are more like us, where they love having conversations and they'll do this before they would do, you know, even talking head style YouTube videos or, you know, build a, you know, big following on Instagram or Facebook because they love having conversations. So first of all, we want to find out if the client is truly in alignment with that. Does it make sense? Because starting a YouTube channel or starting a podcast is not something you just want to try on. It really is something that's a 24 to 36 month commitment

it takes that long to get traction. It takes that long, not always, I you could definitely get traction a lot faster, but you know.

the podcast that you do six months from now is gonna be exponentially better than the one you did today. And so it is an evolution and there's a lot of growing and learning within that. So we always tell our clients, we wanna make sure that this is something that they want to have as part of their long-term marketing strategy, not just today. The average podcast, cause there's millions of them out there, but less than 8%, I think it's like seven and a half percent of podcasters are podcasting after 24 months. So most podcasts never make it to the two year mark.

And so for a business owner, if having a podcast or a YouTube channel is part of their marketing strategy, you know, there are a lot of channels out there. There are a lot of podcasts out there, but there's always a space for your unique voice. But I think having a concept of starting and learning and constantly improving to get better is important. So once our clients have their strategy, they're ready to go with their content. We always want them to have three or four videos ready to go. And so once they have those done, that's when we pair them

Sadaf Beynon (09:19)

Mm-hmm.

Kirsten Graham (09:29)

with a marketing virtual assistant who's already been through a paid internship with us. So we help them match them up to the right person. That person then does all their video editing, audio editing, graphic design, social media, email marketing. And it's really a, it's an entire system. Everything is done the same way week after week. Because again, that's, you want somebody on your team who can consistently produce your content so that there's no hiccups and there's no gaps. A lot of our clients, we encourage them if you can, wait till you have four episodes.

Sadaf Beynon (09:45)

Mm-hmm.

Kirsten Graham (09:57)

fully produced and what we mean by that is that you have all the social media schedule, the emails are scheduled, everything's ready to go before you publish the first one because now you're not behind the eight ball. Well, you're a month ahead and we want you to try to stay a month ahead because life happens, right? You get sick or your VA gets sick or holidays come. So we're always trying to help our clients understand that creating great content can be done with a strategy that doesn't mean that you always feel behind and then having the right

Sadaf Beynon (10:25)

Mm-hmm.

Kirsten Graham (10:26)

to help them get everything produced. And it is funny. So many of our clients will come back and say, my gosh, I did this video and I uploaded it.

I uploaded it and hoped for the best, but I also knew that if I didn't like it, I would just re-record it. You know, if it was okay, if I didn't like it, I could redo it. And what's funny is sometimes they come back and they say, my gosh, after my virtual assistant edited it and they put the B-roll in and they took out all my ums, ums, ums, once they took all that stuff out.

Sadaf Beynon (10:44)

Hmm.

Kirsten Graham (10:56)

I'm actually, I'm surprised how good it is, you know, and they're not, know, and that's, that's, you know, I love hearing that because again, having someone who can go in there and edit things and take out the long pauses and take out all the mistakes that we've made, but then they can also make it more visually interesting. So you're not always on camera, you know, they could add B-roll and images and it's just amazing to see the creativity that comes from the virtual assistants. And it's so awesome to see how that built our, clients confidence.

Sadaf Beynon (10:59)

haha

Kirsten Graham (11:26)

and makes them want to keep doing more. And they'll often challenge themselves to do other things once they have, they understand that they've got that support in the background.

Sadaf Beynon (11:34)

I can definitely understand the value of having someone who can help you with the editing and the production piece because that is time consuming and especially someone who's got a flair for creativity when it comes to B-roll.

Kirsten Graham (11:47)

Yes, yeah. And putting all the words on the screen and writing the description and uploading it to YouTube and making sure that all the keywords are there. It's all of that stuff. So what happens is our clients generally, they are passionate about talking about what they do. They love talking about the way they help people. so they generally, once they get on the role of doing their video content, they love it. They enjoy it because they just see themselves as educators and are having great conversations if they're interviewing guests. So it really is amazing.

Sadaf Beynon (11:50)

Yeah.

Kirsten Graham (12:17)

that you can show up for that recording, upload it, and then other than signing off and approving it, you're done. So you're not spending, you know, and your one video produces enough content to take care of all your social posts and, you know, things like that. So it's really leveraging your time as well.

Sadaf Beynon (12:32)

Hmm.

So thinking about your clients, your podcasting clients, what would you say the link is between their internal growth and their external authority when it comes to podcasting?

Kirsten Graham (12:43)

my gosh. So.

So many of our clients, one, they love having conversations with people. So when they start podcasting, especially if they're interviewing people, sometimes those guests become clients. Sometimes they may become clients of the guest. Sometimes they perform a collaboration. We do a lot of affiliate marketing. So, you know, some of our programs we are offering through our clients. And so they do the same as well. So what happens is when they understand that each person that you're having a conversation with, it's more than just the interview. It's about connecting. You and I connect.

before, know, I plan on reaching out to you, we'll connect again, because it's not one and done and that's one of the things I do love about people and podcasting, they're all about real relationships. So most of our clients love having real relationships. So you see their confidence go up, but you also see, you know, their businesses grow because they have the opportunity to get in front of more people and it's amazing the things that come back. You know, one of our clients, her guest, she was very afraid to have this person as a guest because she had a huge audience.

compared to what you know our client had but she said the interview was so much fun and it went so well and then what happened was you know when that guest put out that podcast and she got a lot of traffic back because of that and ended up actually having a conversation with someone about becoming a client. I'll have to follow up to find out if she did because I didn't hear the part two of that but yeah so when you realize that it really is about collaboration you know you're creating this episode and you're doing all the work and I really appreciate it but we're gonna market this you know when we get it back we're gonna share it on our YouTube channel and we're gonna post it

because there's value and appreciation for what you've done. But now we're exposing each other to our audiences. And I think that's so powerful because I think again we all go further when we work together.

Sadaf Beynon (14:20)

Hmm.

Yeah,

Kirsten. This has been such a powerful reminder that growth isn't always about doing more. In fact, it can often be about releasing more. So thank you.

Kirsten Graham (14:33)

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Sadaf Beynon (14:36)

You're welcome. But before we wrap up, if someone listening wants to connect with you or learn more about your work, where should they go to do that?

Kirsten Graham (14:43)

I'm actually just going to send them to our website, SixFigureBusinessCoaching.com. We actually are the middle updating all of our website and everything, but you'll have information about our three different programs, whether you're looking for a marketing virtual assistant or you want help with your tech, building funnels and landing pages and all that fun stuff, or if you are ready to finally hand off the books. So we have those and we also have some free ⁓ resources for you. So there's lots of stuff on our website that can help you grow your business.

Sadaf Beynon (14:45)

Okay.

Fantastic. And to those listening in, thank you for joining us The links that Kirsten has just mentioned are in the show notes for you. So please do reach out to her and connect. Thanks bye for now.