SPI 103: Stop Being a Superhero. It’s Killing Your Business (and You)

I suffer from it. You suffer from it. And as a result, our businesses and our lives suffer from it too.

What is it?

It’s Superhero Syndrome—a nasty condition that all entrepreneurs have that will, as we grow our businesses, stop us in our tracks and burn us out big time, unless we are smart about it.

You see, we all want to do as much as possible for our businesses  on our own. We’re fine-tuned as entrepreneurs to want to be the hero and do everything, and wear all of the hats in our business.

Sometimes it’s because of the sense of pride we feel when we accomplish something (even a small task) on our own, and sometimes it’s because we couldn’t imagine, and can’t trust anyone else to work on our businesses for us.

Because it’s ours.

I made two huge mistakes when I first started doing online business that I wish I could take back:

1. Not starting my email list sooner.
2. Not utilizing virtual staff sooner.

I wasted a lot of time and money not hiring help when I could have used it, and only recently have I begun to seriously build my team. It’s how I’ve been able to create things like AskPat.com (my new 5-day per week podcast) which wouldn’t be possible without my team behind it—because I don’t have the time to do all of what it takes to produce that show on my own.

In this session of The Smart Passive Income Podcast, I’m extremely happy to welcome back (for the third time) one of my best friends, Chris Ducker from ChrisDucker.com. Chris is the leading expert in building virtual teams and hiring virtual staff, and I’m also happy to recommend and help promote his new book, Virtual Freedom: How to Work With Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive and Build Your Dream Business. This session isn’t just about his book though, it’s about how you can better work with hired staff, and how you can learn from both our own experiences (including Chris’s own burnout when he had Superhero Syndrome).

I was with Chris when he first started writing this book, and I know how much time, effort and sweat he put into delivering a book that I feel is quite essential for any entrepreneur—especially those of us who have yet to fully utilize the power of hiring outside help, no matter where it comes from.

The 3 Lists of Freedom Exercise

In this session, Chris shares his 3 List of Freedom Exercise to help us understand what exactly we should be handing off to others, to open up more time for other things in our business and lives.

Divide a sheet a paper into three columns, and list the following:

1. In the first column, list the tasks you DO NOT like to do in your business.
2. In the second column, The tasks you CANNOT do yourself.
3. In the third column, The tasks you can do, and perhaps enjoy doing, but you SHOULD NOT do, as the business owner.

That third one is a tough one, but that’s where you can begin to open up a ton of time for yourself and hand off things that you truly shouldn’t be doing yourself.

Thank You!

Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and for your support not only for myself and the show, but for Chris and his book as well. Whether you do purchase it or not, I thank you for taking the time to read and listen about it, and if you know anyone who you know might benefit from such information, you’re more the welcome to share this podcast episode and post with them.

Chris, best of luck to you and your book launch, and thank you all for listening!

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