This is going to be a solo episode with me, your host Beth Anne Schwamberger. I’m going to be talking all about finding and leading a great team in your business. This is a question I get all the time: How did you find your team? The ladies who work for you are so awesome, how do I find these people for my business!? And what do you do once you find them? How do I get these awesome VAs to stick around? Those are exactly the topics I’m going to dig into during in this episode. On the Podcast 4:43 - Finding A Great Team 8:15 - What I Look For 19:40 - How To Lead Your Team 28:07 - Letting Go (of Micromanaging)30:00 - Be Open To New Ideas 33:30 - Facilitating Creativity35:02 - Working With New Employees41:34 - Bonus Tip: Help Your Team Prioritize 45:00 - Wrap Up Listen Now   I want to start with a caveat: I don’t want this at all to sound like I’m tooting my own horn. I’m not this totally amazing, flawless boss. I have lots of room for improvement in terms of being a leader, and the boss of a few employees. I’m constantly messing up - and also learning! - and having to say sorry. I constantly need to get feedback, and ask how I can make my business an even better place to work. I’m just one, humble mamapreneur sharing what I have learned so far. I’m sure that a year from now, or 5 years from now I’ll have loads more to share. Many of you are in the beginning stages of hiring help for your business, and some of you are seriously just thinking about it. But I know you’ll absolutely relate to my 1-year experience having a team and leading a team. Keep in mind I’m just a few steps ahead! I also want to point out this is the very first episode I’m recording since Baby Levi has been born! I’ve been taking a nice, long break from work - honestly barely checking in, which has been fabulous. I plan to keep things pretty minimum for a few more months. Bear with me during this episode, as I’m a little out of practice and not getting as much sleep as I used to! Hopefully it’ll be fun to hear from me, knowing I’m thinking about you all and missing you all. I’m excited for jumping back in during a few months. Finding A Great Team The first step of this formula is finding your awesome team members. I’ll just share quickly my experiences finding a great team. And to quickly clarify, when I say ‘team’ I mean: Ellen (Tech guru, problem-solver extraordinaire, and the glue that holds our team together) Carlee (Answerer of emails, organizer of stuff, keeper of spreadsheets, and maker of downloads) Victoria (Community builder, social media manager, and coordinator of podcasts) These are the three ladies who work in the business every single week. Beyond these 3, there are several independent contractors who work for me. Contractors like Sarah Heddins who edits our podcast, Hadassah Stoll who does most of my graphic design work, and Lydia Kitts who does all my InDesign stuff and planner formatting. These are people highly skilled in a particular area who I hire to do specific tasks and jobs. Our independent contractors do those same jobs for a lot of other people as well. For Ellen, Carlee, and Victoria, I’m their main squeeze. Some of them work with other clients here and there, but BBM is the main thing that they do week in and week out. They feel like Brilliant Business Moms is where they work. Their roles change and morph, they are constantly learning new skills and have new tasks and get to work independently. There’s a difference between someone who does specific tasks working for many clients, and someone who does many tasks for a specific client. All this to say, our independent contractors are just as amazing and awesome, too! Finding my team really happened gradually. In all cases, I hired each of these ladies through word-of-mouth referrals and personal reference. The Brilliant Business Moms private Facebook group was (and continues to be) a place where I find help for my business. My sister and I started that group a few years ago when we