Split Testing Myself Has Left Me Split At The Seams

You remember my last post about split testing myself?
No wonder everyone tells you to focus on just 1 thing. Trying to do all 3 business models at once has left me, well, feeling a little split at the seams.

There’s not enough time in a day and time is slipping through my hands. If you’ve ever seen the famous internet marketing manifesto by Rich Schefren (you know the one with the cover that has all the different job descriptions and each and every one of them has the word YOU as the person doing the job), then you know I’ve been doing things wrong.

Rich Schefren's Manifesto

Hey, I’m not embarrassed doing things wrong. I’m not embarrassed at all. I’m engaged in the doing and that’s half the battle right there. When I do things wrong, I can always change things for the better and start doing them better. If there’s anything embarrassing it’s in NOT doing.

Seth Godin recently wrote his blog post about something similar, naming it “Hope and the Magic Lottery”. As newbies entering internet marketing for the first time, we’re fed so much hype from all over all the time that it feels like the norm. We’ve been feed the magic lottery story and find ourselves looking for shortcuts wherever we turn. Until that’s all we do. Until we start NOT doing anything.

Here’s what Seth Godin has to say about it:

“When someone encourages you to avoid the magic lottery, they’re not criticizing your idea nor are they trying to shatter your faith or take away your hope. Instead, they’re pointing out that shortcuts are rarely dependable (or particularly short) and that instead, perhaps, you should follow the longer, more deliberate, less magical path if you truly want to succeed.
If your business or your music or your art or your project is truly worth your energy and your passion, then don’t sell it short by putting its future into a lottery ticket.”

Unfortunately, I want to do so much that I end up not doing a lot. I literally feel like that diagram on Rich Schefren’s manifesto cover.

The one good thing I’ve been sticking to for a long time is planning. And since I write down my plans for each and every day, I can also look back at what I’ve achieved.
In my case, it’s sad. I really don’t get much traction going. I want to, but de facto I don’t do much damage.

I could quit. It’s the logical thing to do.
I could bitch and moan about how I don’t have enough time, how I don’t have the energy.
OR…
I can find a way to overcome the obstacle.

So I choose to overcome the obstacle. My real obstacle is time – I don’t have enough of it. But you can’t create more time, right?
Or can you?

After thinking long and hard about it, my solution is outsourcing. And I don’t mean handing out small mini projects to someone on Elance.com or Odesk.com (popular outsourcing sites). Nope. I’m talking about taking on someone full time. Someone that you teach once, and then they implement for you again and again. Someone that in time can actually take the load off and give me more time to work ON my business rather than IN my business.

I’ve been closely monitoring a guy names John Jonas for a long while, and that’s exactly how he does it. His own success as well as countless of the people he taught how to do this has inspired me to hire someone full time.
It’s scary to be responsible for someone’s job, and I hope I’m not overwhelmed trying to teach it all to someone else, not to mention the fact that I need to figure out how best to communicate, how best to plan, how best to track, how best to pay without a lot of hassle.

Luckily I’ve got John Jonas on my side. He’s actually got a program with all of the tools and all of the tutorials for your people, so I can save a ton of time instead of trying to do it all myself.

So I’m off to find my first full time employee. Wish me luck and I’ll be back soon to tell you how it’s going.

Gil

p.s. I’d love it if you could share any of your own experiences outsourcing, either good or bad. Even extremely bad
I’m sure I’ll learn a lot.

Share and Enjoy:

12 Responses to “Split Testing Myself Has Left Me Split At The Seams”

Mike Helton on June 15th, 2010

Hey Gil,

As I was reading your post I was thinking “Why doesn’t he just outsource”. LoL!

Then I saw that you know John Jonas and that explains everything. He really does know about outsourcing.

I believe that will be next step in building my business.

Thanks,
Mike
gil on June 16th, 2010

Mike,
It’s so obvious isn’t it?! I’ve been thinking about outsourcing for some time now but I just wasn’t ready.
I’m ready now. I get it from you comment that you are too.

Good luck to both of us then!
Gil
Dawn Kay on June 22nd, 2010

Hey Gil

I can remember doing everything myself being overworked and feeling like I was going nowhere fast…..

It’s not a great feeling at all.

I figured I had 2 options I could quit or I could outsource some of my tasks to free me up to do the more important tasks like building my business.

I’m no quitter so I outsourced, and I’m so glad I did.

Outsourcing is really the way to go if you want to succeed online and I hope that you find all of the outsourcers you require.

Good luck

Regards

Dawn Kay
WP Themes on June 24th, 2010

Good dispatch and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you for your information.
Dave Jeffreys on June 25th, 2010

G’day Gil
My wife Melanie and I have just been through the same dilema. I am doing MWA 3 with Alex Jeffreys. We are getting so many great ideas to impliment. We run a web based printing business from home and have a 10 week old son. Net result trying to do to much and not really doing anything properly.

About 2 weeks ago we subscribed the John Jonas program and we have employed our first full time VA. We are currently screening for our second. Obviously early days but we are finding the whole experience to be very positive. We are using Johns training modules and My Project Plans to help manage the process.

We are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I think possibly it could be the one single thing that makes the biggest difference to our business.

Cheers
Dave
Lauri Rottmayer on June 27th, 2010

Seems like you came to the right conclusion. I wish you the best!
Srinivasan on July 10th, 2010

Good luck Gil
Srini
Cheryl Jones on August 9th, 2010

Gil,

I have never outsourced. I’ve seen some things written that were really poorly written and I assumed they were outsourced, so I would be very careful about whom you use when you outsource. Be sure they can speak and write proper English.

Best regards,

Cheryl
Lesley "Wes" Klatt on August 10th, 2010

Gil,

Just getting past the info overload phase of IM. One of my favorite sayings is “The problem with wringing your hands is that it prevents you from rolling up your sleeves”

I’m rolling up my sleeves, planning my time and looking forward to the day when I outsource. When I do I’ll give John Jonas a look.

Thanks for the post!

Lesley
Sue McDonald on August 12th, 2010

Hi Gil

There is nothing wrong with making a mistake as long as you learn from it and you sound like you are the type of person who does. Well done.

A little about me – My name is Sue McDonald and I am a student of Mark Terrell and I am actually going through the course a second time – by invitation. I love it and know if I do all he says, I will be successful. I am Australian but the US is my second home as I have family there and visit quite often. This is why I started Internet Marketing so I can travel whenever I want and have the money to do what I want.

Well I hope you are doing well and you become very successful. I would love you to come visit my blog and leave a comment.

Kind regards

Sue
Mark * Coaching Newbies* Terrell on August 12th, 2010

Hi Gil

I have just come for a visit to your site. How are you going?

Yes it is Mark and I am following my students as they post on other peoples blogs. They don’t know that I am always checking to see they are getting results. I am passionate about helping them achieve and then they are able to make some money online exactly the same as I am doing. It is not really difficult as long as they are willing to put in the effort.

Keep up the good work.

Regards

Mark
Allan *OzzyAce* Riley on August 17th, 2010

hey Gil
there is certainly nothing to be embarrassed about – in fact there is an old but very wise saying – “fail your way to success”
just have a look at Thomas Edison, Colonel Sanders,Henry Ford … – the list goes on.
the message is the same – never give up!
now that you’ve recognised that you are all but there
interesting that we (my wife Dawn and i actually do our blog as a joint venture) have just done a post with the title “Learn From Your Mistakes”
you might even take the time to give us your thoughts on it
stick to your plan
allan