In this episode of Expertise Made Real, Kristin N. Spencer is back with Lisa Simone Richards of Pearl Spark Pages to talk about something that doesn’t come easily to many experts: letting go.

Lisa gets candid about her control-freak tendencies, the story that “no one can do it better than me,” and the moment she realized she was the common denominator in a string of assistants that didn’t work out. Instead of staying stuck, she studied the problem. After reading Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell and watching his YouTube content, she built a full onboarding for her new assistant, with 30-60-90 day plans, SOPs, and Loom videos. Her assistant told her it was the best onboarding she’d had in 15 years.

Lisa walks through the tools that keep the partnership running: Dan Sullivan’s one-page impact filter, which makes expectations crystal clear, a weekly scorecard each of them fills out on Fridays, and a daily 30-minute sync that has shrunk from five days a week to two. Kristin adds another resource for listeners, Now Hiring by Dana DeVito, and the two close with book talk and where to find more of Lisa’s work.

In this episode:

• Why “no one can do it better than me” is a story, not a fact
• What Lisa changed after going through multiple assistants
• How a thorough onboarding (30-60-90 day plans, SOPs, Loom videos) sets a new assistant up to succeed
• The impact filter: a one-page delegation tool that spells out the project, the desired outcome, and the cost of not getting it done
• How weekly scorecards keep a visionary connected to long-term goals
• The daily sync strategy: start at five days a week, then work down to two
• Why Lisa learns from free resources before she pays for anything

Resources mentioned:

• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
• The Impact Filter by Dan Sullivan and Strategic Coach
• Now Hiring by Dana DeVito

Connect with Lisa:

Visit pearlsparkpages.com to learn more about Pearl Spark Pages, and check out her blog, The Female Founder Diaries, for behind-the-scenes looks at building a business and a team, plus the tools she uses to grow her company.

Links referenced in this episode:

• pearlsparkpages.com
• bit.ly/expertisemr

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Strategic Coach
• Loom
• Claude (Anthropic)
• WhatsApp
• Indigo Books & Music
• Pearl Spark Pages
• YouTube