The Wolf of Solopreneurship & Small Teams
The CEO Mindset Shift You’ve Been Avoiding (and Why You Need It Now)
Hey there, Erin here! This week’s blog is all about a key tool to help you make decisions, whether task management or delegating. Sometimes burning it down IS the actual answer and sometimes you should do it all yourself. It’s time to draw a line in the actual sand.
Since January I’ve been working as the “Angel Investor” to a team of undergraduate entrepreneurship students in the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at The University of Houston.
They are all in a cohort and are taking a class called Implementation. This capstone class is all about putting everything they’ve learned into practice. It’s the largest and most complex project, and it’s all real-life scenarios. They have to create and run a food pop-up stand for three full days. They are in charge of finding food vendors, getting donations (capital), dealing with the fire marshall, marketing their product, and finding people to help run their business.
It’s been A LOT. I could probably write 100 blogs about this experience (and I just might)but today, I’m focusing on one lesson every female founder and solopreneur needs to hear loud and clear: delegation only works when roles and responsibilities are crystal clear.
Disaster on Repeat: No Roles = No Results
I’d been joining in on the team meetings on Fridays since mid-January, and each meeting seemed to always end in disaster. From the very first pitch, I had no idea WTF was going on…not because I didn’t understand Wolffest but because my team didn’t have their “Why.” Everything always seemed unclear and foggy.
The team has four seniors who make up the C-Suites: CEO, CFO, COO, and CMO. The juniors are paired under a senior to help with other roles and responsibilities. Then, there are the volunteers who help at the three-day event. Super cute and totally normal org chart.
Anyone can create an event, but not everyone can do it well or be successful at it. One key problem my team ran into over and over again was a lack of communication and who was in charge of what.
You see we all tend to give ourselves fancy titles, and honestly, that doesn’t mean sh*t. What is actually meaningful are the roles and responsibilities that you assign to those titles. My team struggled a lot with who was doing what, one person doing a bunch, and another doing too little. You’ve been there, you get this.
For the record, as an outsider to this process or any business process, it’s easy to see gaps and holes and it’s been fun to figure out how to fill them within this project. My biggest vision and why for helping with Wolffest wasn’t just because I was volun-told to do it by my graduate program director, but I did want to learn something from the students. I love the idea of reverse mentorship and what it can teach me too.
I was reminded that I love to be around the learning and ideas part. That will be forever fun for me. However, some big lessons I learned watching all of this was a huge reminder that:
You can’t do everything yourself.
If you don’t know why you are doing something, you can’t tell someone else why they need to do it.
You MUST define Roles and Responsibilities.
This Isn’t a Student Problem–It’s a Founder Problem
Female founders are more likely to be solopreneurs, small business owners, or have very small teams, and many many people I know who fit within that category really struggle with finding the right team–I did myself for a long time.
Whether it’s perfectionism, people pleasing, overly independent attitudes, lack of budget, lack of trust, or whatever it may be, hiring help as a female founder or solopreneur is REALLY f*cking hard.
You know this– you have to hire the person, train them, and make sure the training worked. Then you have to give them space to figure it out, make mistakes, fix those mistakes, and well, that all takes up a lot of time. That time is something none of us want to just give up, because our time is important. Because we do so much and are capable of doing a lot it’s easy to just say “I’ll just do this myself.”
Then you know what’s coming right?!?!? A major f*cking crying breakdown. I’ve been there, I’m sure you’ve been there. You know you need to give stuff up but you have no idea what to give up or how to even figure it out. You feel better, think everything is back on track, and then BOOM…the cycle happens again and again until you actually do something.
On a recent podcast episode, I was talking to Andrea Seymour about this exact thing. She talked about using the Eisenhower Box, and I figured it would be a great time to remind you of that tool here again because it’s something that has also really helped me.
The Eisenhower Box: Break the Cycle
Created by Dwight D Eisenhower the box is separated into four quadrants.
Important + Urgent = DO THIS FIRST. This is like an eat it while it’s hot situation.
Important + Not Urgent = PLAN & SCHEDULE FOR LATER. This is that thing that can get pushed to later. Think of this like leftovers.
Not Important + Urgent = DELEGATE & BATCH. This section is something someone else can do, or if you’re into time blocking do these tasks within a time block.
Not Important + Not Urgent = DELETE. This goes straight to the trash.
Remember communication is key–that means with yourself too. If you want to start delegating, hiring, and training new people to help you with your workload. You need to know why you are doing something, what you are doing, and how its importance impacts the why.
Example: The Tasks Breakdown
You can sort these by task buckets like accounting, social media, client emails, team check-ins, and deep work. Or, if you are looking to expand your team or work on task delegation this is really the tool you need. List all of the things you have to do, then put them into the buckets.
Here are some example tasks just for writing this blog:
Create Blog theme
Research blog concepts
Find sources and create notes
Write blog
Create Blog Graphics
Upload blog to website
Publish and Schedule Blog
Create short-form blog
Create short-form blog graphics
Finalize any SEO keywords that need to be added in
Finalize SEO Data
Upload short-form blog and graphics to the website
Create blurb and graphics for the weekly newsletter
Upload blurb and graphics to newsletter
Create blog and short-form blog summaries and key takeaways
Create blog and short-form blog social media graphics
Schedule and post blog and short-form blog social media graphics
As you complete each project, write the tasks associated with that project. This will help YOU understand what you are doing, and you will be able to ask yourself WHY you need to do these. From this point, you can then put each task into the Eisenhower box quadrants.
Doing this really helped me realize that I really enjoy the blog writing part, but the uploading, creating social media graphics, and scheduling everything isn’t something I actually enjoy or need to do. I have Jenn and her team.
Jenn has been instrumental in helping me understand the tasks and what can be offloaded, but it does take time and trust.
Reality Inventory: EER: The Built on YES Prioritization Grid (AKA Erin’s Eisenhower Remix)
You can do this with task types, and specific tasks, but I’ve realized another great way for us as solopreneurs and do it all-ers is to use this to understand HOW you are living each day.
EER: The Built on YES Prioritization Grid (AKA Erin’s Eisenhower Remix)
HANDLE IT LIKE A CEO: Important + Urgent. DO THIS FIRST.
What’s the one thing today that will move my business forward—and will set off alarms if I don’t do it? (Then ask: Is it truly urgent—or just loud?)
DREAM + DESIGN TIME: Important + Not Urgent PLAN & SCHEDULE FOR LATER.
What non-urgent task deserves my time because it feeds my vision, creativity, or long-term growth? Bonus: When am I scheduling time for this? Put it on the calendar.
DELEGATE THAT DRAMA: Not Important + Not Urgent PLAN & SCHEDULE FOR LATER.
What am I holding onto out of habit or control that someone else could actually do better or faster? (Then ask: Why am I still doing this? Be honest.)
BYE, FELICIA: Not Important + Not Urgent DELETE.
What can I remove from my list that doesn’t serve me, my goals, or my values? (Seriously, who or what can I lovingly say “no thanks” to today?)
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Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need to Do It All
No matter how you run your business, grow and hire, or work on a project with someone else, communication will always be key. Knowing your why, and knowing what you actually do so you can delegate will make your life so much easier.
Life is hard, don’t make it harder.
Whether you’re a solo act or building your dream team, you owe it to yourself to get clear, communicate well, and stop trying to be everything to everyone. Delegation isn’t giving up—it’s leveling up.
So take the time, make the box, assign the roles, and start acting like the CEO of your life and business… not the unpaid intern.
You are courageous. You are capable. You are strong.
Now go be Built on YES. 🖤
Other Resources:
https://www.built-on-yes.com/mindful-workspace-organization
https://www.built-on-yes.com/mindful-clutter-cleaning-mantra