"But, I know where all the documents are. The structure makes sense to ME."

Those were the words my Operations Manager said to me. A kiss of death. We had a problem.

Translation:

"I've built a system that only works if I'm here to explain it."

In other words, she had made herself indispensable by making everything else...incomprehensible.

This is common in many growing orgs.

So what happened?

We were growing. Fast. New hires coming in. New processes needed.  

She said she was on it. Building SOPs. Organizing documents. Creating systems.

And she was...sort of?

She was attempting to translation my ideas and my brain into repeatable processes that other team members could follow. 

Everything that was created was at my directive, but it didn't "translate" the way I wanted it to.

And part of that problem?

Nobody could find anything.

I'd ask for something and get sent on a treasure hunt through 4 different folders, 3 Google Drives, and an Airtable base with 34 different tabs.

Then she said the words:

"But, I know where all the documents are. The structure makes sense to ME."

It hit me like talking a golf ball to the head.

She wasn't building systems for the company.

She had built a gate, and she had the only key.

Every question had to go through her. Every doc required her to navigate to. Every process needed her to explain.

And, what may surprise you is this:

This doesn't even happen consciously...

It's what happens when someone does not have the actual ability to build operations and systems. It becomes a map that only they can read, so it makes them look far more valuable than they actually are.

In business, the person who builds the map everyone can understand is the MOST valuable person. 

The person who builds a map only one person can read is a liability, likely overpaid, and worst of all...

...subconsciously is building their own power instead of decentralizing across the company.

One more thing, it's important:

If it only makes sense to one individual, it's not a system. It's THEIR job security.

A good system means someone new could walk in tomorrow and find what they need in 60 seconds.

It doesn't require asking the person who built it.

It just works.

When the OM left, I took every single one of her documents and moved them into a folder called Z_Archive - it sits at the bottom of our company file structure. 

I removed access so they don't get an idea of how things SHOULDN'T be. I will never look at the folder again.

Not because the documents didn't exist.

But because they were organized in a way that only made sense in her head.

The lesson?

If your Ops person says "it makes sense to ME" - you have a serious problem. It may not bite you today, it may not be tomorrow. But eventually, that bomb is going to go off.

Because they're not building for the company. They're building for themselves.

And the moment they leave, you'll realize this:

The only thing they built was a moat around their job.

"But I know where the documents are..."

"This role is overpriced. The market must be wrong."

Well, here's the thing...the market is the market.

You're not going to wave a wand and change it.

You walk into the Chevrolet dealership. You see a Corvette for $75,000. Just because you think it's expensive doesn't mean that Chevy is going to sell it to you for the same price as a Malibu.

You may think the role should be $2,000 but when every candidate is asking for $3,000, the market isn't lying. Either they all think they can get this, and they can't, and the market will correct (eventually) - but if that's what they think, that's what they think.

When this happens, you have 2 options:

Option 1. 

Increase budget and pay the market rate, since you will always struggle to fill + retain at the budget you wish to fill out.

What this means is simple:

Even if you manage to find someone willing to work for the rate you're wiling to pay, if they have any true understanding of the market, they are always a ticking bomb. 

Eventually they are going to figure out they can get more, and then they are going to hold a gun to your head. You will then cave and pay the rate you didn't want to pay to begin with, or, you end up back at square zero. Again.

Option 2.

Hire very junior people in your budget and train them up, you will at least squeak a year or so out usually, but eventually they realize their skills have grown and can command more, so you just run as long and as fast as you can with them, and then replace.



Market Realities

Your employee asks for a raise. They usually have no idea what they are inviting, because they don't think like you. They think along the lines of, "I deserve it."

They are NOT thinking along the lines of, "Do my numbers and contributions to the business JUSTIFY this from a numerical sense?"

There is a MASSIVE gap between these two mindsets.

When someone asks you for a raise, here's what they think is about to happen:

A conversation about fairness, loyalty, how long they've been there, how hard they work, about what they "deserve."

Here's what actually happens...you start an audit.

And usually...they're not ready for it.

You audit everything they do, what they produce, whether the company would miss a beat if they left the next day.

Because the moment someone asks for more money, they're asking you to justify their existence.

And most people aren't ready for that spotlight.

You can ask simple questions:

- "Show me your numbers."
- "What breaks if you're not here?"
- "Are you producing a 3x multiplier of your salary in value?"

And that's when the silence happens.

Not because they're bad people. Not because they're lazy.

But because they genuinely thought "working hard" and "being here a long time" was the same as creating value.

It's not.

And, the kicker that may surprise you:

They ARE, in fact, busy.

But when you turn the light on actual output?

Nothing's there.

The raise request becomes an audit. And it's brutal for both of you.

Why?

Because...

When someone asks and your instinct is "...for what?"

...you likely have a ticking bomb on your hands.

You realize when you have to figure out WHY they might deserve it, that usually you've done something lethal in your business:

You rewarded tenure instead of impact. You gave titles instead of accountability. 

Here's what I've learned:

The people who deserve raises rarely have to ask.

Their work speaks so loud you're terrified they'll leave if you don't pay them more.

The people who have to ask? They're usually operating on "I've been here X years" logic, not "here's the value I created" logic.

And when they ask, they force you to perform an autopsy of...

- What they actually do versus what they say they do.
- Whether they're solving problems or just forwarding them.

And most of the time, what you find is uncomfortable.

When someone has to ask for a raise...and you have to think about it...that's your signal.

Not that they're bad.

But that somewhere along the way, your systems broke down.

You stopped measuring what matters. You let "busy" replace "productive."

And now someone's asking for a raise, genuinely believing they've earned it, while you're looking at the data thinking "...have they?"

That gap? That's the real problem.

The raise request is just a symptom.

The disease is a system where people can hide.

Fix that first.

Then raises become what they should be: Obvious rewards for undeniable value, not uncomfortable negotiations about what someone "deserves."

Your Employee Asks For A Raise

4 "senior" people left the team. 100 days. That's been the state of reality since August for HireUA. 

The domino fell with our longest-tenured person leaving. 

She'd been with the company nearly 4 years. She left for a new opportunity in a new country. That one hurt. 

Then the Head of Recruiting left, though I would have had to remove her soon.

Then the Operations Manager. I removed her from the role.

I offered them the chance to slide back into Recruiter roles. Both declined.

The HOR and OM departures made me realize something - there was a LOT of bloat. A lot of people were given fancy titles and they...weren't doing much. They had effectively removed themselves from "doing", whilst constantly telling me things were "improving". 

And they weren't. It was a lot of busy, useless work.

As soon as they left...things got better. 

I started looking at things and seeing how broken they had become. We were sending 12 messages when 4 would've sufficed — by everybody passing the rock. No one was taking accountability. 

I've since dubbed it "The Glorified Forwarders".

Then...once I got back involved, things tightened up.

Accountability was installed.

There was no more forwarding.

And I suspected it could break more people. 

It did.

The other senior AM put in her notice. This one surprised me. And then...something happened.

After the first AM left, I realized I didn't like the hyper-personal and emotional messages that were sent on the way out. 

So I standardized them. 

And when the second AM left? Not a beat was missed. Not a single client said goodbye to her. Instead, they all just welcomed the new one, and business proceeded as normal.

And then I realized.

→ It's the business. 
→ The brand. 
→ The HireUA magic. 

What we do, our systems, our scoring, everything. That's the sauce. It's not one Account Manager. It's not one person. We are a system.

The fact that we had 4 senior people depart in 100 days and the company didn't miss a beat is proof.

Here's what I learned:

For years, I thought senior people with titles were the backbone. I thought their "experience" mattered. I thought clients loved them personally.

Wrong.

Clients trust results. They trust the system. They trust the brand.

They don't really care who it is, as long as the job gets done.

I realized then...

Senior people weren't holding up the business. The business was holding them.

With my time. My patience. My emotional labor. My constant checking. They had built little kingdoms of isolation where they could hide. 

And when they left, the audit was instant.

Nothing broke = healthy company.

If everything had collapsed = that's on me for building a bad system.

It's hard to face the reality of that last one. I didn't want to either. But 4 departures in 100 days forced me to see it clearly.

The lesson...

If your company can't survive someone leaving, you don't have a people problem. You have a system problem.

And that's on you to fix.

4 Senior People Gone, 100 Days

Middle management empires are built by promoting people and then back-filling the junior roles at the lowest price possible. It's insane.

On the surface, it makes sense. Once you look at it with the lenses above, you realize just how genuinely stupid the concept is.

Here's how it works...

—

Your mid-level manager is "busy". Maybe it's Manager of Customer Service. Maybe it's Head of Product. Maybe it's Operations Manager. Whoever it is, they need help.

So they pluck their favorite junior (the one actually DOING THE WORK — really key point!), and promote them up into their right-hand.

Now that junior is "learning to lead/manage."

Which means they stop the DOING.

They start "coordinating", "aligning", or whatever other slop they're writing with ChatGPT.

Now...you must backfill their old role.

And you must hire as cheap as possible.

Why, you ask?

Because you are keeping the EXACT SAME output...at 2X THE HEADCOUNT.

THAT IS THE ACTUAL MATH YOU HAVE JUST DONE. READ IT AGAIN.

—

Let me show you exactly how this played out in my company.

Our senior person was busy.

She needed help. So she promoted one of our best recruiters to Head of Recruiting. And yes I signed off on it.

The recruiter was great. She deserved it.

But, what happened:

That recruiter stopped DOING THE THING THAT MADE HER VALUABLE.

She became "Head of Recruiting" which meant coordinating, aligning, managing, making documents nobody read. Blah, blah, blah.

So we had to backfill. And they needed to be...you guessed it, CHEAP.

Before I knew it:

The Operations Manager was "managing the recruiting function."

The Head of Recruiting was "managing the recruiting team."

And juniors were doing all the actual recruiting.

— 

The real dagger that will land in your heart is this:

IT FEELS REALLY GOOD IN THE MOMENT.

It feels like major growth.

— Your manager says: "I need to promote Sarah, she's ready."
— You think: "Great, we're developing talent."

— Your manager says: "We need to hire two juniors to backfill."
— You think: "Makes sense, someone needs to do the work."

And before you know it...

You have a structure where:

Managers are managing...a manager. LITERALLY. READ IT AGAIN. 

And that manager then managers the juniors. Who actually...DO THE WORK that makes you money.

Okay, so what? Here's what...

1. I removed the Operations Manager.
2. I removed the Head of Recruiting.
3. I kept the juniors who were actually doing the work.

Guess what changed.

We got...more efficient. Success rates went up. Speed went up.

And I cut a fortune in costs.

Because suddenly there was no managing the managers nonsense.

Just people DOING.

—

Be very skeptical when mid-level managers want to promote people beneath them.

Ask:

— What additional OUTPUT justifies this?
— Why can't the current person do both roles?
— What's the total cost increase?
— What breaks if we don't do this?

Most of the time, these promotions aren't about building capacity.

They're about building comfort.

The Middle Management Empire

“Outsource and delegate everything!”

This is not a nuanced take.

As a small business/agency you NEED to be perfect for your clients.

It's how a small business grows.

But you can't do this at scale.

Here's what you do

Thread👇

The thing is, with small business and agency owners, many of you are very, very OCD when it comes to client communications and catering to individuals. You’ll move the world for your clients. And this is both a good and a bad thing.

Let me explain:

It’s a good thing because catering to each individual client (and you know, actually, caring, something that many big companies don’t do enough of) is how you get ahead as a small business/agency.

In fact, it’s the only way.

Now, on the flip side…

It’s a bad thing, because eventually, at scale, this breaks. Not because of a lack of effort but because of a lack of time. If you have dozens or hundreds of clients you simply can’t be there all the time and give them all a great experience.

By yourself.

But what you can do…

Is hire a team that gives them that same experience.

Now, that’s easier said than done.

If you have any previous experience with outsourcing to typical countries in Southeast Asia, or hell, if you’ve had the horrendous experience of a call center lately, you’re probably wondering how it’s possible.

Because most overseas talent sucks.

And frankly, most domestic talent isn’t anything to right home about these days, either…

Instead, the trick is to hire the RIGHT overseas talent.

And that’s not really from Southeast Asia.

It’s from Europe.

More specifically, Eastern Europe. Where people are hard-working, dedicated, loyal, and have the general IQ and smarts to slot right into your business and drive it forward — not become another burden and chore for you to manage.

Previously, this area has been pretty inaccessible for a variety of reasons…

Now though, myself and my company, HireUA, have tapped into it in a way no one else has done before.

And…

While I can’t be involved in giving every client an A+ experience (we have well over 100 active), my team gives every client that A+ experience.

Because I instilled it in them.

And because they have the smarts and chops to execute it.

To see how we work and how we can put A+ talent in your business — click the link below:

https://hire-ua.com/

Client Relationships and Small Business Growth

Sales maestro @DavidJacob_1 talks about hiring via HireUA for both his agency and his SaaS.

In this thread we'll talk about the best quotes from our discussion about his Inbox Manager hire.

📤

“We brought in an inbox manager from Kyle to basically handle all the replies for our clients. We were managing at one point like 8 or 9 clients simultaneously.”

“Before I was doing that, it was literally just me across all of the email inboxes. It was a massive, massive time drain out of my day. It meant that we couldn't focus on actually growing the business.”

“I have a very particular style in how I do inbox management that I've trained other people on, but it kind of takes a lot of time to actually learn and it's fairly unnatural for a lot of people, especially with how other people are trained.”

“When I went to Kyle and said:

"Hey, look, I need this kind of person, I need them to be able to do this, I need them to do that."

Kyle sent back 5 or 6 resumes in maybe 48 hours, maybe 72 hours at the longest.”

“We did all the interviews. One of them was an absolute rock star. She's been with us now for maybe three or four months. Literally the minute that we got on the interview, we just clicked and she got it immediately.”

“She's been basically a second version of me, which I didn't think I'd be able to find.”

“Inbox manager is meant to be an extension of you, which is a busy executive and busy executives don't have time for bullshit requests."

Watch whole video here.

https://youtu.be/SoIFvHLD_Ho

Hiring for Sales Agencies and SaaS

- Virtual Assistant
- Personal Assistant
- Executive Assistant

Which type of assistant is right for you?

I break down all three roles so you can decide which is best suited to help you take back your time and your life.

Read on:

#1 - Virtual Assistant

Many people confuse this term.

They think a VA can be an admin, a video editor, a content creator, an appointment setter...

Anything.

It's a broad term that can be used for anyone that works remotely.

A jack of all trades.

That said, people are more likely to succeed if you give them specific roles, responsibilities, and expectations.

You want your video editor to be really good at editing videos, right?

You want your social media manager to be really good at social media, right?

Etc.


#2 - Personal Assistant

Typically, this role is...yes, in person.

Some executives might also call their assistant a personal assistant, there an be overlap with Personal & Executive.

A personal assistant is in charge of basic stuff, tasks, errands, etc.

Going to pick up a gift for someone.

Managing your schedule to a certain extent.

Picking up groceries or ordering a pizza for your family if you're in a pinch.

And whatever else you might need that person to do in order to make your life easier.

What they don't do?

BUSINESS.

Which leads me to...

#3 - Executive Assistant

An EA will do the things I listed above under Personal Assistant...

And also help you thrive in your business.

They might take on tasks such as:

- Auditing your time
- Building your calendar based off of tasks you need prioritized
- Responding to people in your stead to save you the bandwidth
- Running and managing high-level projects so you don't need to
- Building systems, operations, SOPs to help the business overall

That's in addition to:

- Personal tasks/errands
- Any other odd requests
- Managing emails and inboxes
- Managing your team members
- Running, scheduling, coordinating meetings
- Researching, booking, and coordinating travel

As you can see, there's not a lot they CAN'T do.

Many have years and years of business experience.

An EA is trusted to be your right hand. To speak for you if needed. To make decisions up to a certain financial point without your approval.

+ ANYTHING else you need

An EA is a role where you can hire someone and tell them "you just gotta figure this out".

It's a high-level role, much more so than a basic Virtual Assistant or a Personal Assistant.

(Not a knock on either one of those positions, it's just how it is)

If you're looking to hire for any of the roles above.

Click the link below and learn how HireUA, the premium agency for overseas talent, can place someone in your business in just 5 days:

Hire-UA.com

Choosing the Right Type of Assistant for You

ECOM OWNERS:

eCommerce is a tough game. Having to work on all of the ins and outs of your eCommerce business is a recipe for disaster.

As the owner of the store brand, you need to start taking things off of your plate so you can focus on the big leverage items in your business.

Media buying, new products, macro-level customer service, and more. Getting stuck down in all of the tasks talked about in the video is a surefire way to make sure you're constantly distracted, always running around like a chicken.

Never have time to step away from the business and relax...and many other things that will result in you burning out faster than a customer can demand a full refund.

Learning how to effectively delegate these 8 items will make sure you're in the eCom game for the long term, and save you a ton of money, time, and headaches in the process.

Watch this video to learn how:

https://youtu.be/Fo1CxWEum_I

Outsourcing for E-commerce Success

How To Truly Work On Your Business, Not In Your Business

It all starts with one of those infamous time audits. I know, I know, they’re absolutely no fun. I know, I know, you’re a business owner, you have better things to do than logging your time and jotting down notes all day…

I’m telling you though — it’s important.

Every day that you spend doing repetitive, time-consuming things, or worse, every day you spend doing stuff you hate doing is a day of lost energy and joy.

That’s not why you built a business, is it?

It doesn’t have to be anything super fancy. Pen and paper tends to work well because it becomes a bit more real. It’s easy to lose yourself in a myriad of Excel spreadsheets and time-tracking/productivity apps.

Keep it simple, do what works for you. If you have an executive assistant, ask them to hold you accountable for this.

Start taking a look at the tasks you write down.

(See below for more info on EAs)

hire-ua.com/utilize-executive-assistant/

Ask yourself…

• What tasks am I doing that are repetitive? (write an R)
• What tasks am I doing that are time consuming? (write a C)
• What tasks do I love doing? (write an L)
• What tasks do I hate doing? (write an H)

Of course, you can start getting more nitty-gritty and writing down what really makes money (more on that later), but for now, start here.

Tasks that have Rs, Cs, and Hs —

Start thinking about getting them off your plate so you can stop working on your business, not in your business.

Automate Or Delegate?

There’s tons of powerful software out there that can easily automate some repetitive processes to get them off your plate.

• Sending out Slack invites to new clients
• Parts of the onboarding process
• Auto-responders

The list is endless. You shouldn’t just hire out a role because you think you need it, you should have a good, long, hard think about whether a simple snip of code can replace you (and this is even with the fact that I run a hiring agency in mind!)

If you can automate it — do it