While building LooseKeys with the team I work with I’ve quickly learned the challenges of being a virtual leader is much different then being the boss in the corner office. At the office you can quickly walk down the hall and ask a question or get feedback. When the team is spread out working where ever they like and on their own schedule I have to make sure I’m available whenever they might have a question. Which get’s tricky sometimes. I often find myself distracted with my own projects and consumed with day to day business, that it is easy to ignore emails or phone calls. I do my best to not let this happen but it can happen from time to time. Since I’m at my computer my most of the day I make sure to have Skype or IM open and if an email comes in from someone I’m currently working with then I try to answer right away. I don’t want to hold up the project and I want to keep the team working and not waiting around. Learning how to function in this “new” work environment can be challenging but that’s ok, I like a challenge.

Don’t kid yourself, you physically can’t do it all by yourself and don’t worry it’s not a sign or weakness or failure to ask for help. For many of us, asking for help can be a difficult thing to do. Sure it may be hard to admit you need a hand, you’ve been making it work this long without that help but at some point there comes a time when you’re better off getting things off your plate and your mind. If you’re getting better at your work or your business is growing you’ll need to use your time to focus on harder, more time consuming things. It doesn’t mean you failed or couldn’t cut it, your efforts were just focused someplace better. But figuring out which tasks to give up and hand off is the hardest part and this is what I think makes a good leader or great boss.

That’s the fight I’m having with my work right now and its something that needs to happen if I’m going to grow LooseKeys. Most of the time I can be a “lone ranger” of sorts and do everything myself. It’s not because I’m afraid to ask for help but more often then not its because I want to prove that I can do it all myself. But it’s gotten to the point that I need to figure out the best way to scale up or pull back a little. More and more I’m starting to see the benefit of asking for help to get the work done. And I’m finding in most cases that the work is better when you are putting faith and trust in another person. The people I’ve chosen to work with have been doing such great work with each and every video that I’m receiving more requests with even larger projects on the horizon. Now I’ve always been a team player and love working with others but it’s a different thought process when it’s your team and it’s your job to figure out how to make it all work. At times I have it in my head that I’m the only one that knows how to do it the right way. But you can’t play a game of baseball by playing every position on the team so why am I thinking of the business as a single man game. Just sitting down and creating the work or doing the sales is the easy part but being the leader and finding the right people to make your team great is trickier then you’d think. If you just ask, you can quickly find some great people out there that are willing to help you in any way they can. You just have to ask for it. You’ll likely see me giving up more responsibilities on some projects and trusting the team I’ve been putting together to handle more so I can focus on other parts of the business that might not seem as exciting but are crucial. Success is almost never forged alone, there is always a team right there with you, you just have to know when to ask.