Vivian Tu talking with Michelle Phan on the Afterglow podcast about how smart your assistant should be:
Vivian:
…and I think it’s so funny I’m like, looking over, peeking at my right hand, um, my—
Michelle:
I love that you call her your right hand.
Vivian:
My right hand!
Michelle:
I love that!
Vivian:
Because, you know, at first I called her my assistant and that’s what I was hiring for. But when you find someone who wants to work in your business, and they don’t just want to be your assistant, and you can see there’s hunger, they’re smart enough to do the job, and suddenly they’re doing—
Michelle:
You empower them. Yeah.
Vivian:
—higher cost work.
Michelle:
Yeah.
Vivian:
I mean, I— I looked at my right hand the other day and I was like,
“Grace, we need to hire an assistant.”
And she was like, *puzzled look, points to self*
…and I was like,
“Not you. Someone to assist you and me.”
Michelle:
Oh, wow!
Vivian:
And so it’s become an opportunity. I’m like, I don’t ever really want to hire an assistant or a long-term assistant. I want someone who comes in, learns the ropes, can do all of that stuff — because, we all need to be team players, there have been a number of times where I have done, you know, the grunt labor as well —
But, okay, when you’ve been on board for a year and a half, you’ve been on board for two years, what part of the business do you want to own?
Michelle:
Yeah.
Vivian:
What part can you run with 10% input from me? Because, my time has become more and more scarce, and there are some things that I can never outsource:
I can never outsource on-camera work.
I can’t outsource my interviews.
I can’t outsource stuff where I need to be there.
But, over the past few months, like, I haven’t been editing my own videos as much because I don’t have the time. And I haven’t necessarily been, you know, thinking up people that I want on my podcast — that has been a joint conversation. They’re reaching out to make sure that we can get that scheduling done.
There are things that are done just as well in conjunction with another talented person as you can do yourself. Hiring the right team is critically important.
— ▶️ end of vid clip: 1:00:02
Score another one ☝️ for hiring a really intelligent assistant — someone so sharp, you can actually see them growing into a GM or COO role for your team, later down the line.
— Tang
Michelle Phan’s owned platform is: EM Cosmetics. Vivian Tu’s owned platform is: Your Rich BFF.
