Nov 12, 2024
00:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey bosses, ever feel overwhelmed by marketing? I get it. Let's
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00:27 - Intro (Announcement)
It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level.
These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being
utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business
like a boss a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne
Ganguzza.
00:46 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Boss Money
Talk Series. I'm your host, nne Ganguza, and I am so excited to
bring back to the show money girl Danielle Famble to the show,
hey.
00:58 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Danielle, hey, glad to be back.
01:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
How are you?
01:01 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
I'm great. How are?
01:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
you. I'm good, you know, it is that time of the month, yeah. I'm
talking about that financial time of the month.
01:09 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Oh yeah.
01:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I know what that sounded like, but anyways, it's that financial
time of the month where I have to pay the people that work for me,
and so I have to pay my employees. Do I call them employees, my
contractors, my virtual assistants, whatever that I have, or
whatever you may have bosses out there that help you to run your
business, and I highly highly recommend them because they can
really help you to grow, but it is something that, financially, I
need to make sure that I account for it, and so I thought it'd be a
great topic to talk about in our episode, because I know a lot of
voice talents that are either they don't want to do marketing or
they don't want to do social media, and so they're hiring
assistants and they really need to know how to account for this
financially in their businesses.
01:56 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Yeah, no, this is a really important topic because what you're
talking about is being an employer, being responsible for the
people who are helping you grow the business that you have created,
and that's a really big responsibility. So not only is it about,
like, accounting for it, but it's also making sure that you
mentally are prepared for all the things that comes with being an
employer. So, yes, being ready for the financial implications every
single month is really important. But also, what are you wanting
your employees to help you do? Contractors, whomever and there's a
designation there. It depends on if they are specifically working
for you and you've onboarded them from a tax perspective.
02:40
But if they are a freelancer, then a contractor, and there are
different ways that you have to kind of deal with that.
02:45 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You know what? I love that you brought up the fact that not only
like financially right, we have to figure out, okay, first of all,
we're going to be outsourcing things in our businesses and we will
be paying as an employer or as a contract, whatever, we'll be
paying somebody, and so, financially, we need to be responsible,
but also as a boss right, as a VO boss, you need to be a boss, and
so there's also not just financial implications, but also are you
ready to be a boss? And really, what are the criteria, what are the
qualifications for people that you bring on board that can help you
to grow your business, to be successful financially and growth
wise?
03:24 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Yeah, I think you also need to take a look inward.
03:26
Before you become a boss of someone else is really to figure out is
there something for them to do consistently, what do you want this
person to help you with, what are the tasks? And being able to
train them on those tasks so that whenever they are doing whatever
it is you have them doing in your business, they know how to do it.
You know how to do it and you know if it's being done correctly or
incorrectly and there's some feedback that needs to be given. So
really knowing that, but also understanding that when you bring
someone into your business, when you become a boss, you're
responsible for, in a way, their livelihood. Personally, I take
that responsibility seriously because I know before I became a
boss, before I was running this business, I know what it feels like
to be sort of at the whim of your employer and it can kind of be a
bit of a vulnerable position. So you get to decide what kind of
boss you want to be when you are the VO boss of your own
business.
04:23 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Absolutely. I love that you brought that up. It is something that
you're right. You need to look inward. You need to really take
consideration.
04:30
If you've never been a boss of someone else, there are lots of
different aspects to it and how to be a good boss, right, and so,
financially, I'm going to say that number one, if you've worked in
the corporate world at all and I say this so many times, like we
just we want to be appreciated for what we do, right, we want to
feel that maybe we can make contributions to the companies in which
we work. And if we are not getting that happiness or that joy or
that satisfaction, then typically we look elsewhere or we're like I
got to get out of the corporate world, I just want to do voiceover.
So the same thing when you're an employer, you're a VO boss and you
have somebody that's working for you, you want to make sure that
number one, you're paying them a fee. That is, I think, something
that motivates them, inspires them, is fair, right Compensation,
and you're not just trying to like get somebody because you don't
have a ton of money and so I can't afford to pay you a whole lot. I
really look at it differently. I'm like right, this is someone's
livelihood. They're depending on the salary or whatever it is.
You're paying them this little stipend for their livelihood and a
lot of times they're freelancers themselves. If you happen to hire
within the voiceover community, or if not, it is a portion of their
income.
05:37
So you want to be a good boss number one, financially. You want to
make sure that they're getting paid fairly, that they're getting
paid, I would say, competitively for what they do, like if they're
social media, if they're doing accounting, if they're doing
whatever they're doing. You want to make sure that they're getting
paid a fair fee, because you want to make sure they want to work
for you and they want to be part of the team. That is the whole
mental thing, right? You want them to work their best for you so
that you can grow together, and so I think that's one thing to take
into consideration. You're paying them fairly and then also, you're
willing to manage them, because these are living human beings and
there are emotions at play, right?
06:27 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
There's all kinds of things that come into being a good boss, and I
love that you talked about managing them, because really a huge
step really comes from you being the person who is working in your
business working your business to managing and overseeing other
people who are taking on those tasks.
06:37
Again, this whole thing really is like a huge mental shift, because
you need to now be able to articulate what it is that you are
looking for, how to give feedback to that person and receive
feedback, because once the person that you've hired becomes the one
who's responsible for this task, they will likely become better at
it than you were, because they're spending more time doing it than
you did, and so maybe hearing and receiving feedback on a different
way to go about this task, for example, might actually be better.
But do you want to just stick with what you said and how you went
about growing the business to bring them on in the first place, or
do you want to take that feedback from them? It really is about
like how much do you want to micromanage or not micromanage at all,
and a huge part of it is also creating and crafting the vision for
your business. Where are you going? Because you now the boss,
you're the leader and you're sharing this vision and the people are
helping. You know you're growing together, as you said. I love
that.
07:34 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Exactly, and you want them to be motivated and inspired to help you
achieve that vision, especially for those of you that work in the
corporate world. Right, how much? If you sit back and think about
it, how much did you really care if you were helping the company to
grow right? Was it just a salary for you or were you invested in
it? And I think that, for me personally, the happier I was at my
job, the more involved I was in being proud of what I had to
contribute and being proud in seeing the company do well, and to
me, that was when I was happiest, and that's how I want my
employees to be. I want them to be happy to watch us grow together
and to be proud to be part of that vision, and a lot of that
absolutely requires, number one, that I pay them fairly and give
them bonuses for jobs well done, which I actually do to keep them
motivated. And also very much what you said listen and be open for
feedback, not just giving orders or saying here, do this, but
listening to them if they're inspired and motivated to want to help
grow the business.
08:41
And I'm so fortunate to have a wonderful team that works with me
that I think I can proudly say that I have had two people that have
worked for me for over five years, if not coming up on eight to 10
years of working with me. So I needed to every year make sure that
I was keeping them inspired and motivated and happy and giving them
compensation when they're due, Like I'll give them. Oh, you know
what I really appreciate that job that you did. Here's a $100
Amazon gift certificate, and that also requires, when you're an
employer, you have to be comfortable with paying people. I mean, I
think there's a whole mental thing about that, right. It's like, oh
my God, you have to be confident enough in your business so that
you're not worried about money all the time. Have that confidence,
right, I will have the money to pay. And you have to secure those
systems in place, right, so that you can pay.
09:37 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Yeah, I mean it can be for some VO bosses out there like a one-time
thing. I have this one task and that make it a contract thing and
once it's done, it's done. But when we're talking about having
assistance or help, that is helping on an ongoing basis. That means
ongoing pay. And, to your point, when I was working in the
corporate world, to be honest with you, I was happiest when I was
making the type of money that would allow me to live the life that
I wanted to live.
10:02
And I wasn't really thrilled about anything else other than how it
affected my life. And money affects my life in so many different
ways.
10:11
So it's really just making sure that you can keep people fair in
their compensation, but also make sure that you're paying on time
oh yeah, I like to get paid on time for the work that I've done.
And making sure that you can pay on time and to your point, it's
making sure that you have the resources and the money and the
revenue coming into your business, that paying your assistance is
not a monthly freak out moment.
10:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Exactly that's so, so important. Yeah, I like how you said that,
yes, it was all about like money was something that made you
comfortable, right, that you were being paid and being compensated
on time, to the point where that's what made you want to work for
that company, being paid well. And also, I will say back in my
younger days, I was being paid well and I had the bonus that I was
really proud of how I was contributing to the company and I really
believed in the company. So that was like such an added bonus and
actually I think that it really set a lot for like why I was in the
career I was in for that length of time because I was happy, both
compensation-wise and also like motivation-wise and purpose-wise.
So I do feel that when you have assistants, if you want to, let's
say, have them for any period of time, maybe you're just hiring
them for one job and it's one and done. But if you do want to have
them on an ongoing basis, there's also a whole relationship that
becomes important for you to develop with them so that they look
forward to doing whatever they're doing for you and it's not just a
boring job that doesn't give them any joy. So whatever you can do
to make that joyful for them and make them want to continue to work
for you and want to continue to grow the business Financially
wise.
11:55
It is a thing that I do every month. I have them send me invoices
and I have different people that I pay at different times of the
month, and so I want to make sure that I'm paying them in a way
that I'm not like PayPal, where fees get taken out, so it's pretty
much bank to bank sort of transaction wise. And when I do that,
also it's important to have my accountant who knows what I'm
paying, because technically speaking, right and we were just
talking about this earlier If I pay over a certain amount to
someone, I do need to declare that on my taxes. So having a good
bookkeeper slash accountant that can understand, okay, this money
is being used to pay my employees.
12:37 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Yeah, and we talked about this earlier how does your bookkeeper or
accountant account for the services that's happening? So these are
business expenses, these are business services that they are
providing, and you are paying for the service of having someone you
know run your business.
12:54 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
They're like a vendor. Can you really say they're an employee if
they're an independent contractor? Not really right, because
independent contractor is more like a vendor. For you, sure, and
for, I think, most of us. For me, that's what it is. I don't
actually employ someone where I'm paying health benefits or
anything like that. So, I want to make that distinction where I'm
not that type of corporation where I'm paying somebody full time
and they're getting health benefits, I'm paying an independent
contractor, but I still also have to account for that to the
IRS.
13:23 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Yeah, and most VO bosses will probably find themselves in a similar
position. I also have essentially a vendor, a contractor, who I'm
not paying their health insurance and pension and things like that,
as we did when we were working in the corporate world. So it's a
different distinction. But it also requires the level of
bookkeeping and making sure that you know how much you've paid them
throughout the course of the year so that you can get them the
correct tax form at the end of the year. And that means working
with an accountant or working with a financial professional who can
help you do that, unless you feel super confident in doing it
yourself. But if you're running a business, in my opinion, and you
are paying someone to help you run your business, another part of
that is paying someone to help you keep track of the finances of
your business.
14:10
It all works together.
14:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, absolutely. I do think that ongoing education for your
contractors or employers is important. Oh yeah, in terms of, first
of all, I make sure that I meet with my people, at least my
assistants that do the majority of, let's say, my social media work
or marketing work, that sort of thing. I make sure that we meet
once a week actually, and that works for us in our business. But I
don't necessarily meet with my audio editor at all. That's usually
done through email and then after a month's worth of podcast audio
editing he'll send me an invoice.
14:42
But anybody that's doing work for me that requires a little bit
more than just audio editing. That might require helping me grow my
business out there on social media, which I think is important that
they know me and they know what I'm looking for and that I can
specify that. And I don't like to micromanage at all because,
frankly, I'm busy and so it takes some time to get the right
employee right that you trust to handle things A control freak like
me. In case anybody didn't realize that you know, A-type
personality.
15:17
For me to give up power and just say go ahead, please do this for
me and be okay with that was a big step for me as an employer,
because I'm very much a control freak. I very much said, well, I
can't hire somebody to do it because they're not going to do it as
well as I do. Yeah, exactly, and you have to give up. That's a big
mental aspect. You have to give that up because there are people
who are better than you at certain things. And why not, right, hire
someone like we talked about with a financial accountant or
bookkeeper? Right, why not hire somebody that that's what they love
to do and that's all they do? I want people that are better than me
doing things for my business to grow my business. So you've got to
give up that ego, the fact that nobody but you can do it. Right,
you have to really place trust in your employees, because when you
do that and you hire people that are better than you, that's what's
going to grow your business.
16:09 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Oh, absolutely, and a huge part of that is communication. As you
said, you meet with your team once a week. I also have a weekly In
person.
16:18 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, not in person, I shouldn't say on Zoom.
16:19 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
On Zoom.
16:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Like a Zoom. I don't just text back and forth. Although I do text a
lot of times, but-.
16:24 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Right.
16:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We meet on a Zoom meeting. On a Zoom meeting.
16:26 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
I also with my assistant. We meet once a week on a Zoom call and
then we use Slack to communicate. We communicate via Slack every
single day and at the end of our meetings I always say, if you need
anything, I'll be in Slack. I mean, it's the way to get to me as
quickly as possible. I love Slack.
16:42
Yeah we talk every single day and the more communication actually
the better, because then that person gets to know you and they can
kind of hear your voice and your tone of voice and how you're
wanting things done. They get to know your style, how you give
feedback. That open communication actually really just helps person
to person. You're dealing with, in some ways, hopefully a human
being who can really start to craft what they do to who you are,
because this is a brand about your personality, about your voice,
about your style so it's huge.
17:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I really do feel that I make it a point to express my
appreciation frequently to my assistants, because they're like my
right-hand people in reality and I'm always like, oh God, I
appreciate you guys, thank you so much. I'm always making sure to
do that because, again, I want them to feel appreciated. A thank
you goes a long way to really having employees work their best for
you, which is what you want. I mean, you're investing money in your
employees as well as your business, right? So you want to make sure
that your investment is going to pay off for you. And now here's
the question what if you hire someone that is not necessarily
working out well for you? What are your best tips for that? Because
that's happened to me too, and that's not always easy as a boss to
fire someone.
17:56 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
It is not always easy. It is a very real possibility. Whenever you
bring anyone into your business as a contractor, as a one-time gig
work, whatever, whenever you bring someone in, it's very real
possibility that it doesn't work. So I think, before you bring that
person in, have a very clear understanding, write it down. I would
even say with what it is that you are looking for, what are the
checks and how do you know if this person is working or not
working.
18:22
Have the metrics so that you can say hey, this is what I'm hoping
to accomplish, this is what I need, and you know if that person has
it or not.
18:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, and you bring up a really good point, because when you say,
write it down, so everybody that works for me has to sign
an.
18:40
NDA right Number one and they have a contract Like I have a
statement of work, here's what I expect, here's what you'll be
paid, here are like the terms, and you can actually create that NDA
or that contract fairly simply.
18:54
I have a lawyer that I hire all the time, but there are templates
out all over the place, but that kind of keeps me I feel legally
secure, so that, let's say, I'm discussing something about growing
my business, that I don't want them to go out and then implement,
which is always like an issue when you hire people within the same
industry, because if they work for you and then you discuss ideas
like here's how I want to grow my business, what's to stop them
from necessarily taking those ideas and implementing for their own
business? And sometimes I'm not saying that I'm completely
possessive, but there were cases. A long time ago, I hired somebody
to work on development of this podcast and there were a lot of
ideas that were flying around about how to grow which then, after
the person did not work out for me, ended up somehow being
implemented by them. And so that's just one of those things. I
think. To safeguard your own business and your personal brand, you
need to have a contract in place.
19:50 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Absolutely. I think having a contract in place again, this is,
you're running a business and so doing the things that businesses
do to keep themselves safe. Contracts are a huge part of it. Ndas
are a huge part of it. Sometimes I have to sign an NDA in order to
audition.
20:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, yeah exactly.
20:06 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
There needs to be that sort of level of secrecy and security. So
that's incredibly important and making sure that the person
understands why and understands what they're assigning is
incredibly important as well. So there are so many layers to it,
not just oh, I need help with my marketing, let me just bring
somebody in. It goes deeper than that and to your point of if it
doesn't work out, have the off-ramp. How do you offload this person
from your business? How do you off-board them? And understanding,
like, what does that look like? And it needs to take
time.
20:39
But before you get to that point, I would ask the VO boss
themselves if it didn't work out, why? If it's a personality thing,
completely understand that happens too, because personality traits
if you're working with someone, you need to be able to work with
that person. But if it didn't work out because they weren't doing
things correctly, did you train them correctly? Really
understanding, like your role in it? Because, as the boss, it is
your responsibility to make sure that you are running the business,
your business the way that you want it to be run, and it needs to
be run If the people that you've brought into your business are not
living up to your expectations. Did you set the right expectations,
did you communicate those expectations to them, did you provide
feedback on those expectations and then did you give consequences
for what is going to happen if those expectations are not
met?
21:28 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean that is employer 101 right there.
Absolutely, and that's covering yourself, and you want to make sure
that you've covered yourself because your assistants have potential
access to your life. I mean a lot of times like they'll have
passwords to social media accounts. My accountant has the password
to my QuickBooks. I mean my gosh.
21:48
Essentially, that could be very damaging if that person was not
ethical right, and so there's a lot at stake for you. Passwords,
personal accounts, branding, I mean just so many things that you're
going to entrust them with. And I realize that, as an employer,
again, as I said, if you're that type of person that says I'm the
only one that can do it correctly or I'm worried about that, that
is a mental thing that you will have to step back and take a look
at. If you want to hire somebody and make sure that, if that is the
case now, you want to make sure that you're protected, and so that
requires NDAs, that requires contracts, and again, mine were not
difficult. A consult with a lawyer that had me fine tune. A
template for a contract for working for me worked, and all I have
to do when I hire somebody else is just change the amount they're
getting paid and change the name and change the address and then
have them sign it before you start giving them access to your life
and your business, because that is sacred to you.
22:44 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Yeah, and it's a vulnerable thing, like you are putting yourself
knowingly in a vulnerable position where other people know intimate
details about your life and your business.
22:56 - Intro (Announcement)
However, large or small you?
22:58 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
want to give out that information and if you are not prepared for
that mentally going into it, it's a really hard transition to make
when that person is actually there. I would say really ask yourself
are you mentally prepared to be a boss of other people? Are you
financially prepared to pay them and the finances not be a thing
that other people? Are you financially prepared to pay them and the
finances not be a thing that stresses you out, Because this entire
process is quite a lot and are you ready to manage? Are you ready
to share your vision and make sure that your vision is being
executed by other people, that's not just you. All good
stuff.
23:34 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And in the end, guys, I promise you, it may be scary, it's worth it
but.
23:38
I'll tell you what it's worth it, and it's the only way, I believe,
that I could have grown my business to the point that it has grown
and to allow me the freedom. I'm a little bit of a serial
entrepreneur and I think, danielle, you probably are too, and so
it's been the only way that I've been able to really do the things
that I want to do in my businesses, to progress and move forward,
and it's taught me a lot. Being a VO boss number one just in my
voiceover career, but also being an actual boss, has taught me so
much about myself and helped me to grow personally as well as
professionally. So I think it's a win-win. It's a challenge and
it's scary, but it's so worth it, oh man.
24:19 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
I couldn't agree more. You learn so much about yourself when you
are now responsible for other people. I'm not a parent, but I can
imagine there's a very humbling sense when you become a parent,
that you are now responsible for this other person and you have to
think about yourself and them in a different way. Similarly with
business, you learn so much about yourself, your capacity to lead,
your desire to lead, your generosity, all of those things when you
have someone else that you are bringing into this thing that you
created your business. It is a journey. You'll run into adversity,
you will have to figure it out, and then you learn about yourself
how you're able to do that. And once you learn those things about
yourself, the next hurdle may be just around the corner, but you
know that you've been able to do it in the past. So that
resilience, really that muscle builds up. It's totally worth it. I
would not be able to have the business that I have if I was
responsible for doing everything. You can only do so much with the
amount of time.
25:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You're only one person. You have only so many hours exactly in the
day. So, oh, I love this conversation. Thank you so much,
Danielle.
25:28 - Danielle Famble (Guest)
Yeah, this is great, I love it.
25:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
For having this conversation with me. Bosses, I'm going to give a
big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You, too can be a boss. Find
out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see
you next week. Bye.
25:44 - Intro (Announcement)
Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host,
Anne Ganguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for
our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content,
industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock
your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to
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