Podcircle Podcast

[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