Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-5fbnc-1435b1c
Let it go. No, we’re not going to sing that song. We are talking about all the ways solo PR pros can delegate to people and tools so we can grow our businesses and free up time in our schedules while still delivering for our clients.
Transcript
Michelle Kane (00:02):
Thank you for joining us for that Solo life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi, Karen. Here we are, another day, another episode. How are you?
Karen Swim, APR (00:20):
I am good, thank you. I, you know, it's funny for listeners who will later see the video, I feel like I am took myself back to 1970 for some reason today, like I'm wearing a headset over my head today and have this purple thing on the back of my chair, because it's freezing in my office, <laugh>. And so, yeah, I'm good.
Michelle Kane (00:43):
All good. It's all good.
Karen Swim, APR (00:44):
Karen Swim, hippie. Karen Swim, coming to you from 1972, <laugh> <laugh>.
Michelle Kane (00:50):
I'll send in my radio request later. Oh my gosh. Well, I'm excited about our topic today because it's something that really helps us through our day today, and the theme of the day is - let it go - and no, we don't mean just run away from your desk and never come back.
Karen Swim, APR
Are you sure?
Michelle Kane
Well, it has been that kind of week so far, but I'm going to grit my teeth and get through. It's about delegation. What can we delegate? Because how else can we grow our business? You know, we only have a finite amount of time and energy, and of course we solos have a whole lot of get up and go and, ooh, let's do all the things. So how do we marry those two ideas to achieve the most success? We're just going to touch on some points of things you can do.
Karen Swim, APR (01:49):
I feel like this topic comes up quite a bit, what are the practical ways that I can relieve some of my load and gain back time so that I have the opportunity to work on the business and the opportunity to do more strategic work for my clients? And so I'm looking forward to chatting about this today and offering up some, some practical tips, some things that you can think about.
Michelle Kane (02:20):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, one of those is certainly your content creation, right? You don't need to write every single piece of everything you do there. There is low hanging fruit that you can hand off, or even dare I say ChatGPT, if it's an event release, something so simple that you could do in your sleep. Well, pop those facts in, massage it up and, you know, let it go. Or, even work with others. I know my local school district has a program called Pathways 360, where they encourage you to take on a mentee. So that's a great way to get help as well. Look around you and see what opportunities there are to mentor someone and also get a little help for yourself too.
Karen Swim, APR (03:10):
I completely agree and realizing, we should have set this up top, but as you delegate things to other people, you will have to realize that there will be a period of time where you will need to train people on what you want. So it's really important to, for example, if you're going to outsource writing, I think content creation is a fabulous thing to outsource and outsourcing it in a way that you can truly optimize it. For example, if you, for your own agency, write a blog, or maybe you're doing blog posts for clients, that is something that you personally don't have to write. But oftentimes we want to take that content and we want to get the most out of it by repurposing it. So maybe you have a byline opportunity and you want to take that byline and you wiant to pitch it again by slightly tweaking it, outsource all of that at one time. If you're chopping it up into social media posts, that's something else that you could do all at once. Make sure that you clearly communicate needs in a written brief or some type of document that the writer has on hand. Provide examples and then build in a window of time so that you could step in and help to shape the content.
Michelle Kane (04:33):
That's so key. I think especially, it's not just giving them an a deadline, but because, and especially if this is someone new that you're working with, or if it's the first time that you're doing it, because let's face it we tend to be type A control freaks in this business. What? Me? Who? And so you want to make sure that it's going in the way that you want it to go. It has the right tone, it's hitting all the right points. So I agree. Set up that check-in time as well.
Karen Swim, APR (05:03):
Yeah. And here's the big game changer. AI really has been a game changer in being able to use it for content creation, but that does not mean that you cannot still outsource that as well to someone else. Maybe you have an assistant and it's a good
