03:24 Tasha Eizinger: Hey Louise. How are you today?

03:30 Louise Sofia: Hey, I’m good, thank you. How are you?

03:32 Tasha Eizinger: I’m doing great. I’m so excited that I stumbled upon you. Was it on Facebook?

03:38 Louise Sofia: Yes, we connected on Facebook.

03:39 Tasha Eizinger: Yes, and I’ve been following on Instagram and I love your content. You’re so engaging and interesting and I’ve been learning a lot for my small business. So

03:43 Louise Sofia: Thank you.

03:46 Tasha Eizinger: I thought why not have you on Diary of a Dreamer to help anybody in small

03:47 Louise Sofia: Thank you.

03:51 Tasha Eizinger: business?

03:52 Louise Sofia: Yes.

03:52 Tasha Eizinger: So everybody who knows just so everybody knows who I’m visiting with today. It’s Louise she is from talent underline Hmm let me start over Louise is from talent. Underlined she is a powerhouse in HR and People strategy for UK tech companies specialize in and transforming chaotic or non-existent HR systems into well-oiled legally compliance structures. So, very important what you do Louise.

04:23 Tasha Eizinger: So I’m excited to have you here. I know you typically deal with six-figure tech companies but for the listeners, it’s okay. If you don’t have a six-figure business because Louise has created a startup and gotten it all the way to six figures. So she knows how to do it from start to finish. So, I’m excited to have you here Louise and all your wisdom with us.

04:41 Louise Sofia: Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. It has been a ride. Especially as you said, there’s often a lot of disconnect between people who have these big businesses and they’re out there and then somebody who’s just starting something up and I think we sometimes forget everything starts somewhere. You know, we have to give

05:01 Tasha Eizinger: Yes.

05:01 Louise Sofia: ourselves credit that we can get there too.

05:04 Tasha Eizinger: Absolutely. And I believe, if you have a strong foundation as your business multiplies, it won’t crumble.

05:10 Louise Sofia: Exactly, yes, exactly for that. We always talk about scaling and about how the important it’s super important in the beginning, when you’re thinking about your process and your systems don’t limit yourself, even at those bits when you’re starting out a business. It’s so important to think, Okay, this system might work for now, but, how is this going to adapt as I grow because you Also don’t want to get in your own way and create systems that are not going to grow with you.

05:34 Tasha Eizinger: Absolutely. And you can see it sometimes as an outsider or a consumer in businesses, where there’s these glitches and things that aren’t working very well. And it’s like, Oh, they probably didn’t foresee this type of growth as quickly or so, I think it is important what you’re doing and I’m so glad that

05:46 Louise Sofia: Right.

05:49 Tasha Eizinger: you had to start up because it is so different.

05:52 Louise Sofia: Yes.

05:52 Tasha Eizinger: Starting from the scratch and building everything out of nothing. So I do think,

05:54 Louise Sofia: Yeah.

05:58 Tasha Eizinger: unfortunately, HR gets a bad rap and when I hear people say, Oh, HR, okay, you

06:00 Louise Sofia: Yes.

06:03 Tasha Eizinger: can all be bad people and things like that. So can you describe what is the

06:03 Louise Sofia: Right. Yes. So traditionally HR was always seen as the gatekeeper to those big scary

06:08 Tasha Eizinger: purpose of HR? So that we can see the benefits of what you do.

06:20 Louise Sofia: exact board meetings and if you were HR your role traditionally in those companies was to protect the company, it was okay. If you’re in a meeting with HR, everybody was terrified because it was something bad. It was the people who were just there who are going to either fire you or do the dirty work of the exact who didn’t really want to do it or just have to come in and make all these big scary changes. Now, what HR actually does is supposed to toe the line between both being a representative of the people and of the company and I really want companies as well. They are now starting to see that change and that shift but it’s actually beneficial to do things.

07:00 Louise Sofia: For the people because it means you’ll then going to get individuals who will stay with the company. You’ll get more loyalty. You’ll get happier employees who will then get happier customers, which then means more sales. So I think companies are now actually starting to see the benefit of HR being. Not just this back office function to fire people, but really at the beginning and at the forefront to create strategies that will help businesses thrively to run. So it doesn’t just mean the person who signs a formal holiday but really moving HR to the forefront of your strategy thinking How can we create great companies? Now, I really love being part of this change and this shift that we now find ourselves in because it’s all about. Now, creating psychological safety in the workplace and a lot of the time people climb to the top and they end up in management roles because they are great at their job. But they may not have had those people skills to necessarily manage a team.

08:00 Louise Sofia: And that’s where kind of new HR, which is why you may have seen. It’s now starting to be labeled as talent talent acquisition at talent managers and human resources is now starting to see is, How can we make the most of the people in our business, which benefits them, but also benefits the company. And we also now fall into this area of compliance, where not only HR is great for all of the basic housekeeping. I Tracks and getting people signed on and working out their holiday and that admin. But we also now need to consider as people get more rights in the workplace. As we get things like maternity paternity, understanding of what people need and understanding of our organization as a whole, in terms of demographics. Do we have enough women in the workplace? Do we have enough men in the workplace? What are our skills? Like, when we start to really consider our people as a resource, That’s what human resources means. It’s the resource in your business and it’s one of the heaviest most expensive resources. If you do something incorrectly, in terms of compliance law, you don’t give the right paternity or you hire somebody incorrectly that can a massive cost for the business. And so now it’s more important than ever that before. Oh HR it’s not really important. It’s a back office function but if you do something incorrectly like you don’t check someone’s passport and you hire them in certain Is uncertain zones and certain countries you could get huge finds or your business could be closed. So I really want to give HR the attention of desserts, not just from the business side because of the compliance piece and how important it is. But from that human angle of, How can we reconnect and see the

09:47 Louise Sofia: people in our workplaces as teams colleagues? Something that’s going to benefit our business, if we can all work together and I’m so passionate about it and I am really exciting that we’re finally starting to see That move of, you know, HR as a support system and not just scary HR, You know,

10:07 Tasha Eizinger: I love that.

10:07 Louise Sofia: we’re people we have name and people often forget, You know, we’re people too. So when we don’t like our bosses where we go, I don’t have anyone to come Blender, you know, it’s like Where does HR go when HR needs to complain?

10:20 Tasha Eizinger: We go to each other in the department, right?

10:20 Louise Sofia: People need to understand this. Exactly. And in some businesses you might just be the only person. And so you’re kind of having to have this, really? I like to see HR and myself as this really kind of fluid chameleon, who has to move through all of these pieces of a business. I have to be able to go to the exact and say, Well, yes maybe the employee isn’t performing but also maybe you didn’t manage them very well. And then you have to go to the employee and say I’m sorry. The boss is really terrible, but also maybe you shouldn’t be late all the time, you know? And you have to kind of try and balance. All these individuals in a, in a really diplomatic tactful way to build those relationships. So I love to see HR is that the bridge build you’re putting in those foundations into the business. And I, I love that.

11:03 Tasha Eizinger: I love you explaining to how it got the bad rap and why and the transition and

11:06 Louise Sofia: Yeah. A hundred percent. Yes.

11:08 Tasha Eizinger: so it sounds like it’s a people development is what you are. And you have to develop yourself and have really good communication skills and people skills to connect and make it a win-win. Is that what I’m hearing?

11:20 Louise Sofia: Who 100% yes. Yeah, absolutely yeah.

11:22 Tasha Eizinger: Okay. so when does a business need to have an HR department, when does that or a

11:28 Louise Sofia: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think, people need to always have an awareness

11:28 Tasha Eizinger: person for HR

11:35 Louise Sofia: of HR responsibilities from the very beginning, even if you’re not necessarily going to have the HR person. So, what I would consider to businesses, you normally need HR. When you get to the point where you’ve started building a team but it’s getting too much for you to manage all of those various requests. Maybe now you as your business, as the business owner, you were managing those people, you were going. Oh, it’s Until this person want to do and we all working together and it’s fine but then maybe you’ll get to enough people. Where you, I don’t really have time to look into this person wants to go and maternity leave or I don’t really know how to handle this. I’m not sure what to do and then all of that seems to be now like a pressure on top of you. So what you could do in those instances, It’s a very difficult area where a lot of people don’t realize that you can get support from outside consultants. I would not recommend to a tiny business to hire an HR person straight away. You just don’t need it straight away. What you do need is to get some decent advice, Decent research, maybe get an external consultant, someone like myself or research online where you can build those foundations.

12:41 Louise Sofia: Initially yourself just have an awareness. What Tracks. Am I giving people because that depends what area? I’m in. What job descriptions Am? I giving people to make sure that those very first four people who join your team do, they also know what you want them to do. Do you both have the same understanding? If I say to you Come join my podcast, and I’m expecting you to edit. But then you think your job is to book guests. Those are two very different responsibilities and needs to be discussed. So what you would need to do is have that in writing as a reference document. So it’s just having that awareness of What is the journey of someone who comes into my business? I’m a soul person. When somebody else comes into work with me, What does that look like? What is their journey from there? Very fast day to their last day and all those steps in between, What am I expecting from this person? Write it down and it sounds so basic, but so many of us when we start a business, we’re excited.

13:39 Louise Sofia: And we forget just to write down, This is my assistant. Okay, what do I want? My To do. What can my assistant do? What should they do? How much should I pay them? What happens if they work overtime? All those little questions, get it on paper in the beginning and then as you grow, you then have a reference document to work from and decide. Okay. Well, what does this look like? Should we change this? Should we add those responsibilities? Do we need to make things of a different? Somebody else will come into the business. Where does that person fit between me and the existing person? And so getting it.

14:14 Louise Sofia: On paper, I would say it would be your first point. Then you can get an external consultant by hour. Then you can get an external consultant, just do a bit of payroll by month, and then you can get somebody full-time in your business. So see it as like a step-by-step, where you first just need a bit of hand holding. Then you need someone to actually stop taking over but just keep it in mind the whole way through especially when it comes to your legal obligations.

14:40 Tasha Eizinger: So, I think it makes a lot of sense to have clarity. Because if you don’t know what you want, the people in your business, cannot

14:44 Louise Sofia: Yes. 100%. Yes.

14:48 Tasha Eizinger: produce it because you haven’t explained, you need to take time to have clarity, right? If this is what I want. These are my expectations and then as you

14:54 Louise Sofia: Mm-hmm. Yes.

14:57 Tasha Eizinger: continue to grow Would it be something like Having HR come in like, Hey, I need to build my team out. Where does it make sense? Would that be any more question?

15:04 Louise Sofia: Mm-hmm. Exactly. Exactly. And so, that’s why, then you could use an external consultant who you just pay hourly, or for a specific project and they could support you and work with you, to figure out what roles do you actually need? Because in the very beginning of a business, everybody needs a bit more hands-on. You need someone who’s just willing to kind of do whatever to get the job done. And then, as your business grows, you can kind of define those roles. And especially if you’ve worked in one particular area, you might not have the technical knowledge, yourself, you might not know what that role is called or really what you need. So getting an extra support person or or strategy to kind of help you figure that out. I know it seems like An extra step when you are but I’m a small business and I don’t have the money but even just paying like a little bit of investment into this hourly, really then will save you money in the long run because a bad hire because you’re in a rush or you’re stressed, will really make a mess and when it makes a mess then that’s time, you’re not gonna get back, it could be a bad impression on your company. It could be affect your reputation. So you have to lay the groundwork and I’ve been there. I know what it’s like, It’s all hands on Doctor. All hands on deck and there’s no time and you’re stress but just take that time, even if it’s not half an hour in the morning to do a bit of research or lay the foundations in your business, because that’s what will help you survive later on 100%.

16:24 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, I love you hitting on the investment part of it because it is hard. When you don’t have the time you don’t have the money and you’re struggling and spending your wheels. I don’t know if in the UK, if you have this but we have

16:32 Louise Sofia: Right.

16:35 Tasha Eizinger: cancel culture in the United States where you make a mistake and you are completely canceled for. Who knows how long and these companies are not going to

16:42 Louise Sofia: Yes.

16:43 Tasha Eizinger: have PR teams to help get them out of the mess, right? It really is an

16:47 Louise Sofia: 100%. It is, it is an investment and just doing that little bit of research,

16:48 Tasha Eizinger: investment.

16:52 Louise Sofia: especially than having that framework or reference point to start from it. Also helps you start to think about things and then when you bring people on board, you’ll be able to explain things to them. Even if you have a look at some templates online or some documents, you can then start to ask yourself some of these questions that will help onboard somebody else into your business so they can represent you in the way you want to be represented.

17:14 Louise Sofia: And it stops having these awkward moments where maybe you, then have somebody who’s working with you and your you don’t really you don’t like their work or you’re not sure how to address it, and you want to have a good working relationship with them. If you have everything as a document, that becomes your tool, document everything in the early stages because that becomes your base, if then somebody’s not performing, that gives you the first bit to go. Okay? We said You were gonna do this. Remember how we wrote it down? Do you think that’s what’s happened? And they go, Oh, actually, no, I haven’t done that. You’re like, Oh, okay, well let’s do that there. And it stops, it becoming a conflict between me and you, but it’s more me and you versus the document and the

17:54 Tasha Eizinger: Yes, one.

17:54 Louise Sofia: document can be the bad guy.

17:56 Tasha Eizinger: Exactly. The documentation takes out the emotion because either you’ve tracked

17:59 Louise Sofia: Exactly.

18:00 Tasha Eizinger: it or you haven’t you have proof and we all have poor memories even people who have good memories because we have emotion and so many other things that we’re

18:06 Louise Sofia: Yes. Yeah.

18:09 Tasha Eizinger: dealing with in life. So I like that documentation aspect which leads me into like how can a small business? Make sure that they are legally compliant, I know that United States people are big into, you know, suing an attorneys, and

18:19 Louise Sofia: It can do.

18:24 Tasha Eizinger: all of that, and it can get very expensive. but it doesn’t invest a little bit on the front end so how can small businesses do this without

18:33 Louise Sofia: Yes.

18:34 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah.

18:35 Louise Sofia: This can be, this is very difficult and this all depends on the zone that you’re in and the legal requirements. So you just have to show that you’ve done your due diligence, okay? So that just means sitting down and researching. Okay, where is my business set up? And what laws are going to apply to my business? Doesn’t matter where you’re operating selling anything like that. But you have to make sure that you have checked what are the local laws that will apply to your business and then okay, where is this person based? If they are somebody, who is that outside of that? Check the region that they’re in and see how those two regions connect. You will need to check what the local laws are. You will need to check what documentation is required. And in that case, especially maybe after you’ve had to go at it yourself, just run that documentation by a professional. Because then, if you’ve done that, then that can at least show that you’ve taken, you didn’t, should somebody then, come, and sue you, or try and do something else. If you’ve got a paper trail of this is what I did. It will put you in much much.

19:34 Louise Sofia: A Position to protect yourself. Now, in the UK we have databases and laws and things are much more clearly laid out, because the HR law is much more detailed than than you have in the US. But it’s just to know the rights both from your side as a business. But from outside it as an employee. And like I said, even if you can spare, Getting a Quick Check. Once you have your documentation, it will be so worth it in the long run to protect yourself.

20:02 Tasha Eizinger: So, here’s a random question.

20:04 Louise Sofia: Mm-hmm.

20:05 Tasha Eizinger: When so you have your business and whichever country, right? And you obviously have to do the local laws and all of that. What about when it’s international? You probably have also abide by international laws as well, right?

20:20 Louise Sofia: Yes, so the good thing to do is to, if you’re looking at both laws, always apply the strictest one. So if in one country, it says it, you know, you have this is

20:25 Tasha Eizinger: I mean.

20:29 Louise Sofia: allowed. This isn’t allowed, then always go for the one that says it’s not allowed always just apply them. The most strictest, one For most part people can work. In whatever jurisdiction is going to cover them, should they get sued or anything like that? But as you mentioned, the best thing to do is just to apply the strictest test so that you can protect yourself the best

20:49 Tasha Eizinger: That makes so much sense. Great, simple answer. That would have been the common sense, guess, but I’ve learned common sense is not always, so common. So

20:58 Louise Sofia: When you’re in business, it is so difficult because there is so much to think about this so much to remember, which is why it’s another great thing, just to get something down on paper because it even you yourself can find the gap. But then, if you run a job description, you can go. Oh, hang on a minute. I, you know, in this template says I have to write their full name and their date of birth and then you think, Oh well I just hired my friend for the last hire I didn’t ask their date of birth or their surname but then what happens if I’m working in on I know Gaming Industry Online Maybe there are age restrictions that apply for that. So just having all that documentation and even going off a template then like you said we forget those simple things because we’re so in it and we’re in the weeds, we can’t see the bigger picture, but if you just use at least a template or documentation, it would be your friend.

21:45 Tasha Eizinger: So I I’m guessing that one of the most common mistakes that small businesses make is lack of documentation and lack of clarity. What are some other common

21:52 Louise Sofia: Yes.

21:53 Tasha Eizinger: small business mistakes in regard to HR?

21:57 Louise Sofia: That’s a really good question. I think that people when it comes to HR they are so focused on their business that they forget about, maybe some of those communication pieces, or how they might be coming across. It’s really easy to be like, That’s not right? This is bad. This is this. And just dictate that you actually forget that. There’s a human on the end on the other end of that who can’t see what’s inside your head, and you have to be able to explain something.

22:23 Louise Sofia: Now, a really good way to explain something to somebody is, Make sure okay, is it that this person has had enough training or is it a capability issue? Now,

22:33 Louise Sofia: when you covered both of those things, you should always assume that you’re the one at full. If you’re the business owner, it’s your fault. If you immediately start from a position where you’re not defensive and you can immediately go, okay, I didn’t give this person enough training. I didn’t explain it right? I didn’t give them enough materials. This is my If you cover all of that first and you are 100% sure that from an objective point of view, you have provided the right resources, the right examples, you’ve documented, all those things, then you can go to capability. And then it will probably become obvious, whether the issue is you or them, but sometimes, there isn’t anyone’s fault, it’s just a miscommunication. So you have to immediately assume it’s your fault. If you back down with your defenses, the other person will back down as well. I would say that from an HR point of view if I just assume. Oh my goodness. You know, perhaps I didn’t say this clear enough, I didn’t write it down, right? I didn’t give you enough time. I wasn’t clear the other person, usually will then go. Oh, this is a safe space. I can tell them what actually happened and they go, no, actually, I did see your email this morning, but, you know, and then you can have an actual transparent conversation if you want to apply something similar to clients. I would always say that when

23:52 Louise Sofia: you’re talking to your clients, make sure you get Front of issues and you have to be transparent. So if you know that your team member has done something wrong, don’t lie and try and cover it up and make it just, it’s messy, get in front of it, go and tell the client. Hey, I know, we said Thursday, actually, we’re gonna need a little bit more lead time on this and shall we meet on Monday? The client will probably go. Oh, okay, fine. But if the client discovers, they’ve come to the meeting. You’re not prepared. It’s a rush job because the other person didn’t do it. When they said they would nothing just Make sure that you control your business before it controls you and get in front of things.

24:30 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, it was really hard not to applaud you. When you said first the business owner to take full responsibility that’s just good. Life. Advice in any

24:40 Louise Sofia: Right.

24:40 Tasha Eizinger: relationship, ask yourself first. What is my role and own it? Usually people are

24:45 Louise Sofia: Yes. Right.

24:46 Tasha Eizinger: pretty understanding when you actually own up report, right?

24:48 Louise Sofia: Of course. Mm-hmm. Of course 100% and you’ll be so surprised how much beauty can come out of that and how much connection can come out of that if we just, you know, get our push, our egos to the to the side.

25:01 Tasha Eizinger: Yes. Yeah. One of the biggest things that we say on my little shot team for my books is It’s about our project, not our egos. So the ego has to be left at the

25:07 Louise Sofia: Yes.

25:13 Tasha Eizinger: door and it’s what is best for this project. So anything that I work on, I make that a point with everybody. Hey, it’s about producing results and working

25:21 Louise Sofia: Yes.

25:21 Tasha Eizinger: collaboratively, which is what I’m hearing you say.

25:22 Louise Sofia: 100% and we often say to our leaders in the team, It’s not about you. It’s about the best idea in the room. So when you, when you look to be a leader to be a good business owner, you have got these people on your team because you want them to be better than you. You want them to have ideas and collaborate and bring something to the table. They might be able to see a blind spot that you can’t. And that’s why it’s brilliant. When you’re doing your hiring, I would also just to deviate here going to tangent when you’re doing your hiring. Look for somebody who’s not Same as you but intentionally, somebody was a different skill set because if you are great with the team, but your horrible with clients then, actually, you need someone who doesn’t really matter what their team skills are, but they have to be great with the clients because they have to fill that gap that you are to make your team really strong. So I get a little bit antsy. Whenever I see people saying things like, Oh, you need to be a culture fan and you have to fit with us. I say, But that diversity of choosing somebody different from you who has different perspectives and different ideas. You all need to be able to collaborate nicely, but to be able to fill each other’s blind, spots will just have such a great effect on the diversity of your team and those ideas and problem-solving skills that you’ll have.

26:40 Tasha Eizinger: Completely agree. Like, we were meant to meet. I’m like, nodding over here? Yes, completely agree. It comes to culture though. I think the culture and we talk about this on You

26:50 Louise Sofia: Yeah.

26:50 Tasha Eizinger: know my teams is the culture is the character values, right? How you treat people how you communicate, emotional intelligence, all of those things but

26:56 Louise Sofia: Yes.

27:01 Tasha Eizinger: you’re 100% right? You? I don’t care how good you are. You cannot do everything yourself and so by filling in the gaps with the people, you come a complete

27:08 Louise Sofia: Yes. Yes.

27:13 Tasha Eizinger: team, a complete project, whatever it may be a complete business, so

27:15 Louise Sofia: Yeah. And that can be so difficult for business owners to want to delegate because it’s such a natural thing to say. I want to do everything myself and I want to control it all. And But as you said, you mentioned that key where there is results and think about, okay, what do you want the results to be? And try to get out of that micro managed space and instead, get into that results focused solutions, focus space, okay. What is the impact of this? What do I actually need? And I sometimes myself have to remember, especially in the early phases, of my business, I was very much thinking, Oh, I’m working all the time and I just need to work work and I was just burning myself out working at everything.

27:55 Louise Sofia: Anything just because I was so needing to to get to the goal that I actually

28:01 Louise Sofia: didn’t focus, Okay. Let me put this in a priority order of what’s gonna make the most impact, what’s actually connected closest, to the sale, because it’s beautiful that I’m here, writing up all this extra stuff and changing all the fonts, but, you know, maybe it doesn’t, maybe it’s not quite as high priority. Think it is and maybe I need to look at the bigger picture and not get so stuck in a little weeds of everything and just go okay, The bigger picture is I need to get from A to b which route is gonna get me there fastest and then I can go back and do the other little bits. You know, when we get the time and just try and focus on impact and results, I love that.

28:38 Tasha Eizinger: Yes, so important, see the bigger picture, What do you actually want here? And

28:41 Louise Sofia: Yes. Yes.

28:42 Tasha Eizinger: one of the things you said about micromanaging, I hate micromanaging. So I tend

28:45 Louise Sofia: Mmm. Yeah.

28:49 Tasha Eizinger: to just, here’s what I want you to do. Here’s everything. Ask me questions and want them to do it, which doesn’t always work either. So what’s the balance

28:56 Louise Sofia: That’s, that’s a great point. I think we need to know what the end result of

28:57 Tasha Eizinger: between micromanaging and quality leadership?

29:07 Louise Sofia: something is. In order to not feel, we have to micromanage so if we are giving somebody a task or we’re delegating number one, if we say, we need to be good, we need to actually show them. What does good mean? What does good look like? Give them some examples of that so they can get there on their own. Also making sure that people have the tools. So you can say to them, rather than the font needs to be size 11, Ariel. Tell them the font needs to be on brand. The guides are in the drive and then they can then go and find out what the branding is again. That brings it back to your early documentation that you should have everything documented, you shouldn’t be. The only person in your company, who knows you’re branding is that should be written down. So that when somebody else comes to do it, there’s a reference guide of standardization. Again, if you have things standardized, anybody can pick it up. And that’s a really important thing

29:54 Louise Sofia: when we talk about standardization in a business, is to make sure that we have managers on managing the processes and Off the people, the people have to show up in the people have to do the work or they just don’t get employed or they don’t get rehired or the contract ends, but we need to manage processes. And so, rather than, like we said, getting into all those details of saying, Well, this color needs to be changed. Tell them How does this project fit in the bigger picture? Oh, you’re making labels? Okay. Where are the labels gonna go? Don’t just tell them You need to make this label.

30:26 Louise Sofia: Tell them. Okay, we need product packaging for the candle, which is gonna go out next week for those clients needs to be on brown. What else involve them in the

30:34 Louise Sofia: tops? What should we put on the labels? Maybe we should put the ingredients song, You will compliance. Get everybody involved in the creation of the task and that will help them feel engaged in the completion of it. And that way we can kind of balance that sort of quality control and I always like to ask open-ended question with my team members. Well, how do you think it went? This is the brief what we said we were going to do, what do you think? Do you think we did all these things? And they’ll be like, Oh, maybe actually looking at it again, Maybe we could do this bit and kind of encourage people to do.

31:02 Louise Sofia: Own self-reflection. So they’re not nervously coming to some big scary boss for the scary bosses opinion, you know make it like a reflective thing. So we’re all getting better all the time.

31:13 Tasha Eizinger: So be a good teacher.

31:14 Louise Sofia: Yeah, be a mentor mentor. These people, you should give everybody in your team, enough, wings and strength to leave you. And the chances are if you’re developing people like that and you are giving them skills and knowledge. And you’re not gatekeeping, then they will want to stay. They’ll want to be in that kind of environment, a word of warning and caution. Of course, goes back to compliance. Get your house in order. When you hire somebody, make sure you have an NDA in place. Make sure you have a non-compete. What are those? If you don’t know, immediately go and find out as business owners. You need to know, Make sure that you have a documents Essentially that protect your intellectual property, you should be able to share, whatever you need in your company of a way of people learning skills. But also making sure that if you have any company secrets or company documents, you don’t want them giving those things to other businesses, which is why it’s really important in the beginning, three main things, you Have a contract that writes down, who this person is, why you’re hiring them, how much you’re going to pay them or There’s terms. Need to have an NDA. That’s a non-disclosure agreement. Usually we associate it with like all celebrities have ndas because they have all this secret stuff to protect their brand but

32:31 Louise Sofia: also you as a small business, your ndas could be thinking, things could fall under your NDA like your and all of your passwords and your access to things, you need to make sure they’re not sharing that with anybody, you know. That’s A private information on top of that need to make sure they might have a non-compete in your industry. You might be developing technologies, you might be developing you know, a great storyline or a plot for something a book and you don’t want someone working in the same sector for however, might have time in case they are giving away your plan and strategy to the competitor. So, make sure in the very beginning, when you take on somebody, you need to know who that person is get their possible, their ID, their documentation, you need to make sure you have the NDA and you need to make sure that you have the non-compete.

33:18 Louise Sofia: If it applies, if it doesn’t apply. Have one that says it doesn’t apply, just cover yourself and make sure you have things in order. When you first take someone on, you are taking that person on to the most important part of your of your life. If you’re building a business and you’re inviting them into that little home that you have, you need to make sure that they’re going to protect it and that you you’ve put down foundations to protect yourself.

33:42 Tasha Eizinger: so, here again, documentation, if anybody

33:45 Louise Sofia: Documentation. Yeah.

33:48 Tasha Eizinger: Make sure everybody’s getting this Yes, documentation. So I’m kind of seeing then how maybe AI could help. With HR, right?

33:54 Louise Sofia: Yes, a hundred percent, yes, HR, especially now with the technology A lot of people are scared about AI. They don’t need to be. It can be your friend, especially if you want to go and make yourself a base times. You could say, Please write me an onboarding email for my new employee. Write me a three-day plan. And to charge gbt of what their first few days could look like now, please don’t just use ai stuff. AI is like a great tool. It’s like a new Google, so it needs to be tailored for you. You also need to go and get an external checker or research and make sure that it’s the right location, jurisdiction, whatever. But it’s a great place to start. If you have no idea what you need to do, then you can use some of these AI technologies to write training plan for you to ask. You can ask it to critique you, I use it all the time to critique me. I say you here is a lesser. I wrote to, I mean, I don’t use it now for an employee, But like, in the beginning I would be like, Oh, here’s a letter, I wrote to my co-founder, Could you make it better? Could you check the language is not defensive? Could you make sure that it shows any breeds? The values of my company? We have these lovely company values and say, Oh, we create psychologically safe, work spaces, and then the email goes, This is terrible, do it again, so you need to make sure Or if you’re having a value in your business, are you actually breathing that into everything that you do is it running through like a tapestry that needs to run through the work that you’re producing the way that you speak to people the language that you use across your brand. Because otherwise as you said, the way you treat your employees, whether you have an internal external facing business and we’ll get out and then it will be your biggest PR disaster, you know? So especially with social media as it is the The employees and the teams are your first customers. They are your internal customers and you have to remember that as much as they are on your side, make sure that whatever you do. However you speak do it as though you were speaking and a client could see you.

36:00 Louise Sofia: There is never a private chat that I write in that. I wouldn’t be happy. If a client saw it, you know, you need to make sure of that because an employee could be screenshotting how your bad-mouthing the client boom business over in one second. So just be prepared, internal customers.

36:14 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah. Here again, great life advice. If you wouldn’t want it publicly shared everywhere, then maybe we shouldn’t say

36:23 Louise Sofia: Yeah. Yeah.

36:26 Tasha Eizinger: it or write it in the first place.

36:27 Louise Sofia: A hundred percent great Advisor. Yeah, yes especially if you imagine in HR that’s also a reputational thing that we have at all. They’re just there because so and so sent in inappropriate message to someone else or whatever. So you just always have to write with integrity all of the time and it’s also okay to not know all of the answers, it’s a hundred percent, okay? To say to your team member, Oh, um, I really want to come back to you with the thoughtful response.

36:54 Louise Sofia: I’m gonna need a couple of hours, just sit on this and come back to you, okay? And then immediately that person’s had a response, They know that they feel hard and that gives you time to either go and get the correct advice. Not get yourself in hot water by saying something rushed because you’re unsure you know, it’s okay to take your time and just tell them I want to come back. To you the right way. So give me some time with this and I’ll appreciate that. It’s a great way. It’s a little placeholder, you know.

37:19 Tasha Eizinger: And everybody hates waiting when they think something’s wrong, they hate waiting. So just have the common decency have effective communication here

37:23 Louise Sofia: Yes. Yes. Hmm.

37:27 Tasha Eizinger: again. You know effectively communicate like we will touch base. This is the time

37:29 Louise Sofia: Yes. Mm-hmm.

37:33 Tasha Eizinger: frame. It also shows. Emotional intelligence. These are just foundational things. I feel like people should have anyways, right?

37:40 Louise Sofia: You’ll yeah, you’ll be surprised by how many people just get lost in the crisis. That feels like a startup and and they just forget everything.

37:50 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, emotions kind of override logic a lot of times. Do you have any favorite

37:52 Louise Sofia: Yes, Mm-hmm.

37:54 Tasha Eizinger: books or things that you recommend for people to read?

37:58 Louise Sofia: Oh, great question. Um, for me, when I was first starting out, something that I thought was brilliant, was Stephen Covey and Stephen Covey, does a life habits

38:07 Tasha Eizinger: Yes.

38:09 Louise Sofia: book and that was my first route into okay. How can I get in front of myself? How can I organize myself, and how can I control, what’s kind of around me in a better way? And I love that. So, I’m all for self-help books, doing the work doing the reflection and looking after yourself, you can make those decisions if there would be one takeaway that I would say to any business owner, I would say. Apply a solution’s focused thinking to everything that you do. And take the emotion out of it, if you can just treat yourself.

38:50 Louise Sofia: As if you are somebody that you are helping. So when you look at your own business, just step out of yourself for five minutes with that coffee, and go, right. What is the strategy here? Because if you’re gonna leave the ship because you’re the business owner, you need to know where you’re going and you can’t take anyone on that journey with you, unless, you know, and it’s surprising how many people myself included. Just get lost and stuck in the chaos, and the stress and the emotions. And just Breathe. You will be fine. Keep going and with you apply that logic. You’ll be able to carry that resilience through and just persevere. Just keep going and you’ll get there.

39:28 Tasha Eizinger: And I love that so clarity communication and documentation. Those are the three words of the day, right?

39:34 Louise Sofia: I think so. Yes, I think so. You just document everything all of the time.

39:41 Tasha Eizinger: All you do. So I know that you are doing so many exciting things. What are you

39:42 Louise Sofia: Literally, let’s do it.

39:46 Tasha Eizinger: most excited about right now in your business?

39:49 Louise Sofia: Um, So I am currently working on a leadership course, to help women get into those executive roles or to find their feet. If they are an executive or business owner, for the first time, maybe they have a blind spot or they feel insecure about their role as a business owner, or an executive. And so, what I’ve done is I’ve taken all my knowledge Working as a consultant over the last few years and I’m putting it together in a leadership course. So that women can feel I can do this and I belong here because so often especially when I was growing up I didn’t realize I put my own limit on myself of Well. Maybe I can be the best secretary. Maybe I could be like the best manager. But there’s always a male CEO in my own vision. There was always a male CEO CEO. There was always a male executive of a boss at the top and I really want women to start being able to really feel that they are.

40:44 Louise Sofia: Welcome in these boardrooms and there’s a space for us because for me, personally, I’ve never felt like there’s been a space to me, and it’s always been like, Okay, dream big but not that big, you know, and I really want to feel that not only can I prove them wrong, but also, I want to, I want to feel confident myself in that. So, I would say the exactly leadership course, I’m hoping to finish in the next couple of months, maybe for summer. I’m super excited about that.

41:12 Tasha Eizinger: I absolutely love that. I’m so excited to see what you create. I know it’ll be

41:15 Louise Sofia: Thank you.

41:16 Tasha Eizinger: beautiful and wonderful and impactful.

41:19 Louise Sofia: Thank you so much. Thank you.

41:20 Tasha Eizinger: You’re welcome. I yeah, I can’t wait. And there is a space for women at the top, we bring things to the table that are very valuable and men do as well. And I think as we learn to believe in ourselves and grow ourselves, we can collaborate better as well and really produce results, right?

41:37 Louise Sofia: Yes. Mm-hmm. 100%. Yes.

41:41 Tasha Eizinger: So how can people get in touch with you? Do you have any giveaways or any of those things as well?

41:48 Louise Sofia: So I have a website. You can reach me, it’s www.talent underlined.com. That’s the full spelling out, and I’m also the same talent underline on Instagram, so people can reach out to me. I’m gonna be doing a 40% off a discount for anybody just quote, Tasha here and I will give that discount on the website. Any products, anything that we’ve discussed today, such as needing a template needing a handbook meeting, something for your business. And also, if there’s something you need that you can’t find, I’m willing to work with people and help them create that space in their business, too. So coming over and ask me all your HR people and business mentorship questions

42:31 Tasha Eizinger: Thank you so much, Louise. I’m so glad that we met on Facebook and got to visit

42:35 Louise Sofia: Yeah.

42:36 Tasha Eizinger: today. That’s the benefit of social media, right?

42:37 Louise Sofia: Me too. Right. Yeah exactly. It’s connecting everybody. So another word for today’s office connection

42:45 Tasha Eizinger: Right. We’ll take care. Louise. Thank you.

42:49 Louise Sofia: Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye.