In this value-packed episode, Lacey Newman, Founder of Lacey Newman LLC, shares how to stop over functioning so your first hires actually make life easier instead of busier. If you’re still the best at every task and your growing team only adds more work, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– How to hire and let go using the 80% rule so people can truly support you
– Why being the best at the work keeps your new team dependent on you
– What must change when the systems that got you here can no longer hold the next level
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a founder. I’m your host, Scott Ritzheimer, and if you’ve hired your first handful of people, you know it’s-it’s not necessarily one, maybe it is, but it’s not necessarily two, maybe it is, but it’s not quite 10 yet either. Somewhere in there. There’s this messiness that happens because you realize that instead of making your life easier, they’ve made your life busier. And this is something that happens to virtually everyone in level three. And here’s the trap, and it actually has a lot more to do with you than you think, because being the best one in the room at the actual work is-it’s exactly what’s keeping your team dependent on you. And my guest today has lived on both sides of this problem.
Lacey Newman is here with us today. She’s a founder, coach, and keynote speaker who’s helped 1000s of high-performing women build lives and businesses that are truly their own. Over two decades, Lacey built and scaled a real estate team to nearly 1 billion in sales volume, hosted an Emmy-nominated TV show, and grew her personal income to seven figures, all while raising two children of her own, and on her own, proving that ambition and motherhood do not have to compete. Today, she helps ambitious women break the cycle of over functioning, untangle their identity from productivity, and reinvent their work from a place of clarity instead of burnout, so they can build wealth and freedom without sacrificing themself. Lacey, that sounds wonderful. I hope you can show us how to do that. But this is-I just want to start because I think it’s-it’s important for folks to recognize that it’s not just you, listener, who feel this way. And and Lacey, I’m wondering how how universal you think this is. Is something that everybody goes through, or or is it something that only affects a select few?
Lacey Newman
Well, it’s interesting. It’s an interesting question because I think it is something everyone should go through. But I do think that there are a number of founders. I call them overwhelmed operators, people who are kind of in what you describe as level three. I think that there are. This is a stop on the way to scaling your business, but it’s also what I’ve seen where a lot of people get stuck because they enter this phase of business, and then they kind of like touch the hot stove, and then they never want to touch the hot stove again. So a lot of people, it is a place that you should travel through, but a lot of places, a lot of people will turn around and kind of hold themselves back in this spot.
Scott Ritzheimer
When you touch a hot stove and it hurts, right? That’s clearly something wrong, and and and I think we have this interesting relationship with pain, where pain can indicate just something new, right? And it can also indicate something wrong. How do you help your folks figure out the difference? Because maybe they maybe they hired someone and it didn’t work out. Well, there are probably lessons to learn in there as well. They probably did part of that at least wrong. How do you separate the pain from “Hey, this is just new. I’m learning” from the pain of “That was stupid. I shouldn’t do that again.
Lacey Newman
That’s a wonderful question. You know, I I have seen this post on social media a lot recently that says, you know, entrepreneurship is basically realizing how dumb you were six months ago, over and over and over again, and so that’s the whole thing. Is that in in when you are a founder of a company, whether you’re a solopreneur, a small business owner, growing a team, failure is the curriculum. You are going to constantly do things that don’t work out, and so where I see people get hung up is they let that pain be the thing that holds them back, rather than letting it just be information that allows them to make a better decision moving forward. So you know the the distinction for me is not so much like how do I know if the pain means no, it’s that the pain is always information, and so what are you learning from it? And we have, I believe that a lot of us, especially if you are, would consider yourself a people pleaser. If you would consider yourself that you know I have to, you know, perfectionist type person, somebody who wants to achieve and is really failure averse. Those types of people, and I can identify with this myself. And so many of the women that I work with do this as well. We are so afraid of failing that we don’t embrace failure as just part of the journey, and and really treat it as the curriculum that it really is.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I think one of the reasons why this shows up so profoundly at this stage, is because when you start building a team around you, the very same things that might have been dysfunctional might not, but either way, served you really well in the past, right? The people pleasing. If you’ll bend over backwards to serve your customers, customers like that. The perfectionist. If you do a better job than anybody else, your customers like. That and and in some ways we’re rewarded for that, right? Completely, and then we get to where we have a team, and they need stuff from us as well, and we don’t want to let them down, and we feel the need to please them, and they’re between us and the perfectionism. It seems like adding other people to the mix really complicates this for that that style of person.
Lacey Newman
It absolutely can if you don’t change who you are and how you operate. Because in the way that you just described it, if I’m the founder and I am people pleasing my clients and I’m showing up perfectly all the time and I’m really managing the entire experience on my own, and then I bring some people on the team to quote unquote support me slash help me, but instead of letting them take some of some ownership off of my plate, I end up like mother henning them instead of letting them really support me. Then I have just added to my own chaos. I just have more people to serve at this point. So I tell my coaching clients sometimes, and they laugh at this. But I tell my I tell my clients that when you hire someone, you need to act a little bit incompetent. You need to you need to really ask yourself: Is this something that I can do, or is this something that I truly should do? And really drawing that distinction between what can I do, what should I do, is really that line. And you’ve got to be willing to go. I know I can do it. I know I can do it amazingly well. But if I continue to do it, I’m standing not only in the way of the growth of my business, but in the growth of this person that I just hired to support me, and so you kind of just have to take your hands off the wheel and trust in some areas. And one great rule of thumb that I use is that if somebody can do a job at least 80% as well as you can, then you need to let them. And so, but this is hard because especially people who have built our businesses through grit, through doing everything on our own, we have those perfectionist tendencies. It can be really hard to allow someone to not do something as well as we know that we could do it. But not only do we stand on our own way, we don’t give them the opportunity to shine. And what I have discovered so many times is that when I take my hands off the wheel, I let someone own something. A lot of the time, more often than not, especially if I’ve hired well, they will actually outperform me in this new task, and that is where it gets really exciting.
Scott Ritzheimer
Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about hiring well because it is, in some extent a prerequisite because if you have the wrong person and you do the right things, you can still get the wrong result. Which then again, how do you like? What was the right thing? What was the wrong thing? It’s really hard to tell. So, yet, how many entrepreneurs do you know that went and had any type of formal training on hiring at all? I mean, it’s almost none. And those that do, it’s almost this equal but opposite problem. So let’s just talk with the the average, normal, typical founder. She has she has found out that she has to hire and figured out how to hire or maybe how not to hire just by having to.
Lacey Newman
Right.
Scott Ritzheimer
What? How can we help pave that road a little bit clearer for them so that they can hire well as opposed to just hiring because they have to.
Lacey Newman
Sure, I’ve got a few steps to do this that are really, really easy to follow. I mean, step number one is hire before you need to, but nobody ever does that. So let’s not pretend that’s a reality. We don’t do that. Normally, we hire when we are already in significant pain, and we will often throw out some sort of job description. Put out, put out the signal. We need some help. We bring a couple people in, and we look at who we have in front of us, and we go, okay, any, miney, moe. Which of these people is probably the best out of the ones that are in front of us? And then we hire them, and we bring them on board, and then often we are so busy doing what we do that we don’t actually onboard them, train them, and support them properly. Much less the conversation we just had about actually letting them support us, and then it doesn’t work out. And then we go, “Oh, I touched the hot stove. I don’t want to do that again. That was a mess. But really, it was because there was no process that was really followed. So the way that I do it, and when I’m working, especially with my one-on-one clients who are are really in this position, I say first of all, you have to start with what what truly is the job that you need.
You need to look at what is mine, and what should I not be doing. And then now we used to have to go, okay, what needs to be done by me? What needs to be done by a system? What can a system take over, or what needs to be done by another human? Well, now there’s a fourth category, which is what can AI do? So before in if you lose someone on your team, or you’re creating a new position on your team, you need to first begin. With where can this be tackled with AI? Because there is so much that can be automated and can be done by AI now. That’s really exciting, which then allows you and the other humans on your team to do really important work that only a human can do. It’s better for you. It’s better for the people and their growth on your team. So you’ve got to ask yourself that question first, but you put out okay, this is what I truly need. This is what the rule the role truly requires, and then I always have people submit a video with applications. So I have you fill out my application, and at the bottom of the application it says, please submit a three minute video. You know, couple basic questions like, why do you think you’re a great fit for this job? What do you see yourself bringing to the role? You know, don’t.
This is not rocket science. Just something. But what I do is that by having them submit a video, number one, you rule out a lot of people instantly because lots of people will not submit a video. Okay, if you can’t follow instructions, you’re not going to be on my team. A lot of times, people will email me and say, “I can’t figure out how to submit this video. Okay. Well, if you can’t figure it out without coming to me, you don’t belong on my team. So then, of the people who followed instructions and figured it out on their own, even if they didn’t quite know how to do it, I then get the opportunity to see how people communicate. See, you know, get their thought process. I really go into my interviews with them coming from a more informed place, and then I always like to give people a test project, a paid test project, because a lot of times we will make assumptions about a new hire and what their capabilities are, or you know what they know or they don’t know. But I love to give people a test project and I pay them, you know, equivalent of what that project might be. A lot of times I’m working with independent contractors, so I’ll just say, okay, this is the this is the job I want you to do.
Lacey Newman
Let’s negotiate a fair rate for it, but this is not a big contract, and then it gives me the opportunity without a ton of instruction to see what they bring to the table, and then if you’ve done that, if you know that you found, if you’ve really done your own due diligence on what are you truly looking for, you do a really nice streamlined vetting process of the right candidate. You give them an opportunity to show you what you can do before you make a commitment. Then you have really done a lot more in creating an environment that allows for that person to be the right fit on your team. But then you really have to take it to the next level, and you have to show up for them and give them your time and attention, give them proximity to you, because you can give somebody an SOP and a job description, and say go figure it out. But they will learn so much more by being around you and being in your presence, and really learning how you think, not just how to do the job. And if you follow those that set of instructions, the the success rate that I and my clients have had with making a great hire that lasts a long time and truly does add value is is really really high.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, one of the things that I kept thinking about as you’re going through this because those are really wonderful and simple steps, and it makes sense, especially why you would need to start hiring ahead to give yourself time for this process to see its way through. But one of the challenges I think listener might be thinking as they’re sitting there, like Lacey, you seem super, super confident. It’s easy for you to just say, “Oh, they’re the they’re not the right fit. But there’s this imposter syndrome that sneaks in on us that kind of tells us, “Who do you think you are? Why do you think they would work for you, or or why do you think you’re so special that they should have to jump hoops for you? What would you say to you know a client of yours that was wrestling with that imposter syndrome at this stage?
Lacey Newman
Well, the right person for you would never think those things. So the number one thing that founders who are like me, who are often you know solopreneurs, small team leaders, small business owners-I’m not talking about like 10 person teams, as you know. The number one quality that I’m looking for in someone to bring on my team is a “I will do whatever you need” attitude. Somebody who comes in and is like, “I am here to learn. No job is too big. No job is too small. I’m here to show up because that that level of appreciation for what you do and engagement in the process is something that you can’t really teach. So that’s what I’m looking for first and foremost is somebody who’s just like I’m excited for this opportunity. I’m willing to roll up my sleeves and do whatever needs to happen to get it done. That that is a really good indicator that you have the right person. And so you know if you if you are hung up on I don’t deserve to have support or I’m not ready to have support or you know I don’t have well I hear a lot of times well when I get all these systems in place. Then I’ll be ready to bring someone on. I mean, it that that is a mentality that will keep you stuck in exactly the place that you are for so long. You bring someone in who will help you create the systems. Bring somebody in that will help you untangle the mess that you have made by trying to do it all on your own. And so it’s really it’s really not achieving perfectionism that or achieving a perfect spot in your business where you now deserve to have support. It’s bring that support in and let them help you get to the place that you want to get.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, to to just totally let that fear go away, and I think you you would speak to this as well. I remember thinking I was the only person who had a screwed up business, and then I remember walking into my first like other $10 million business, and I was like, “You guys are more screwed up than we are. And then I remember the first time I consulted with $100 million organization, I’m like, “This is terrifying. You know, how could I teach them anything? And in 30 minutes, I’m like, “They’re just as screwed up as we are. And then the same thing for a billion dollar organization and and a $7 billion like everyone screwed up so yeah I love that like don’t wait for everything to be great it’s always going to be messed up but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better I really really love that Lacey there’s this question that I want to make sure we make time for because it’s a question ask every one of our guests, and I’m very interested to see what you’d have to say. But the question is this: What is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish every founder watching or listening today knew?
Lacey Newman
Well, you kind of just stole my thunder on this, so I’m going to have to come up with another answer because the first thing that came to my mind, as I know you ask this question on this podcast. Is when I have clients come to me and they say, “When I I thought that when I had a multi million dollar business, it would all be organized and it wouldn’t be stressful and it wouldn’t be a mess. And I was like, “Well, why would you think that? You know, the bigger your business becomes, the bigger mess there is. So I’ll piggyback on that and say the thing that I really wish people understood is that the current the the business that you built that will get you, let’s say, to earning six figures, that will get you earning multiple six figures, that is not the same business that’s required to get you to seven figures and multi seven figures and eight figures. Your business has to look completely different at every major jump in its size and structure.
And so, one the moment that I really had that realization in my previous career as a real estate agent, all of a sudden, I mean, we’d been we’d been clicking along for a very long time, things were working beautifully, and then there came this point in time where everyone on my team started crying, and I was crying. the The support staff was crying. My business partner at the time. I mean, it we the wheels fell off. We were not happy. We were really stressed out. And what I came to realize is it wasn’t a cultural issue on our team. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the right people on the team. It wasn’t the clients. It wasn’t anything other than the fact that the systems that we had created, that had worked beautifully up until a certain point, could no longer hold the business that we had then. And so that’s that’s really the thing I wish that people understood more. Is that you cannot hit your next level? I talk to I talk to the women I work with a ton about capacity. You can’t hit a you can’t carry a bigger business on your own capacity. You have to add additional structure. You have to add additional systems. You got to add additional support to really get to that next level, and I think that I think that so many of us believe, especially if we built our business by white knuckling it ourselves, we believe that if we just work harder, if we just learn a little more, if we work a little bit longer, we can get to that next stage. But that’s not it at all.
Scott Ritzheimer
all. Yeah, yeah, so true, so true. Well, Lacey, before I let you go, I know there’s some folks listening who just they’ve loved this conversation. They’d love to hear more about you, the work that you do, who you help, and how you help them. Where can folks connect with you? Where can they find more about the work th at you do?
Lacey Newman
So you can find more about the work I do at my website, LaceyNewman.com, or I hang out on Instagram. That’s my. That is my favorite social media. That’s where I’m posting a ton of free content. My Instagram handle is heylaceynewman, and reach out to me if anybody has any questions. You know, one of the things that I really enjoy helping people with is time management because so many people want to work on their business, but they’re so busy working in their business that they never really have time to do it. And I’ve created a super easy framework that will help you find the time in your own schedule to work on the things that will truly move your business forward. Even if right now you say I don’t have any time to do it, and that’s one of. My specialty is one of the things that I love helping people do the most because you’ll never you never find time you have to go make the time and that’s what I’ve really solved for. So if anybody’s interested in learning a little more about that, I’ve got a totally free training that you can get from me. Just go and text me reclaim on Instagram, and I’d be happy to send it your way.
Scott Ritzheimer
Brilliant, brilliant. We’ll get that in the show notes for all you, both the handle and the keyword. Lacey, this was a wonderful conversation. I really, really enjoyed it, and appreciate you coming on. And for those of you watching and listening today, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Scott Ritzheimer
Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what you need for the level you’re in right now. If you want to discover what level you’re in, take our 10 question Founders Evolution quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That’s foundersquiz.com. It’ll pinpoint exactly where you are and give you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next level in your journey as a founder. If you got something out of today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, or review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let’s be honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Contact Lacey Newman
Lacey Newman is a founder, coach, and keynote speaker who has helped thousands of high-performing women build lives and businesses that are truly their own. Over two decades, Lacey built and scaled a real estate team to nearly $1B in sales volume, hosted an Emmy-nominated TV show, and grew her personal income to seven figures, all while raising two children on her own, proving that ambition and motherhood don’t have to compete. Today, she helps ambitious women break the cycle of over-functioning, untangle their identity from productivity, and reinvent their work from a place of clarity instead of burnout—so they can build wealth and freedom without sacrificing themselves.
Want to learn more about Lacey Newman’s work at Lacey Newman LLC? Check out her website at https://laceynewman.com/
Connect with Lacey Newman through her LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lacey-newman1/
Check Lacey Newman’s Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/heylaceynewman/