I am SO excited to jump back into some of the basics of things like what an Integrator is, what a Visionary is, today’s question: How do you know if you need an integrator? 

If you’ve determined that you are a Visionary and you’re intrigued by the idea of having an Integrator on your team, you probably want to know if this is the right time for you and your business to bring an Integrator on!

As you know, I am an Integrator, so if you’re a Visionary, my brain works pretty much the opposite of yours. But I want to help you grow and scale your online business by helping you think like an integrator.

I know this is a polarizing statement but I think that every scalable business needs both a Visionary and an Integrator.

I know that so many of you here are solopreneurs or you have very small teams, so you are not maybe at a point where you can bring on an Integrator. I want you to bear with me – I don’t want you to feel defeated. You still CAN grow your business.

However, I do think that you need to be able to at least be able to start thinking like an integrator (hence the name of my podcast!) so that you can understand the moving pieces of your brand and see the value of that Visionary/Integrator duo.

I want to share why I think it’s important to have both a Visionary and an Integrator on a team. And, even if you are a solopreneur, I want you to keep reading, because I’m going to close the loop on how this can directly apply to a solopreneur!

WHY DO YOU NEED BOTH A VISIONARY & AN INTEGRATOR?

In any online business, you must have a Visionary and you must have an Integrator because as a Visionary, you need someone who is willing, able, and excited to sit in the weeds and actually enjoy running your business.

You need a project manager who’s detail oriented, team management focused, and able to help you think about ALL of the ideas that you have so that they can help you best figure out what’s going to make the most sense right now.

An Integrator can kind of act as your sounding board and an Integrator is your right hand when it comes to understanding how your brand operates on a daily and a very micro level. Yet they also get excited to think high-level on big picture ideas and where the brand is headed.

The Integrator is able to have those conversations like to tell you your idea is great but also to help bring you down to earth to see if it’s realistic for right now and how to move forward on that idea.

You can’t just live in the ideas as a Visionary. And you can’t just keep creating and creating and creating without having a sustainable foundation, systems, and organizational processes in place that keep moving the needle forward.

You need someone who’s really going to partner alongside you and get it done, and that is exactly what an Integrator does for a visionary.

Be sure to grab my free resource where I break down the Visionary/Integrator Duo specifically for my solopreneurs and small teams, helping you visualize how Visionaries and Integrators work together in a company.

FOR THE SOLOPRENEUR

I understand that if you are a solopreneur it is just YOU right now. You are doing all the things.

Now, when you download that guide that I just shared, you’re going to see a company org chart. A little background – my Bachelor’s degree is in business management with a concentration in organizational management. So when I say that I love this kind of stuff, I love this kind of stuff!! I went to college for 4 years for it. I love company, organizational structures and the way that businesses operate.

ALSO, because I was a solopreneur, I understand the hang ups that a solopreneur has with all of this, because when you think about your business, and you think about all the seats in your business, the customer service and the marketing, and the Visionary, and the Integrator and the janitor… literally all of the things that you’re doing in your brand, YOU as a solopreneur are sitting in every single seat.

So when you look at a company org chart, you are going to see yourself in every single seat. I have been there. I did that for many, many years, and honestly at that time, I was so afraid to hire, I was so afraid to take myself out of seats, because I was worried about the financial risk, I was worried about giving up control.

I know that your plate is very full, because you are sitting in all of those seats, and you’re balancing all of those things. YOU are who I want to speak to and help you THINK like an Integrator because I know that you are not at a place financially, you are not at a place with business growth, where you feel like you can bring on an Integrator yet.

I *do* believe that you need a Visionary and an Integrator to continue to grow your business well. But I do not think that if you don’t have an Integrator your business will fail. That is not at all what I ever want you to believe about my belief in the Visionary/Integrator duo.

I want YOU to believe that you can do it because you can stretch your Integrator muscle and teach yourself proper systems and mindset shifts and actual strategies to implement within your digital product business so that it will grow in revenue.

And then in the future, you can bring on that Integrator, you can bring on that project manager, you can start to remove yourself from all of the many seats that you’re sitting in on that company org chart and actually have helping hands to walk you through and work with you on all of these pieces of your business.

The good news is that I want you to leave this feeling excited that now there’s going to be a resource to help you get to a point to be able to grow and hire an Integrator.

FOR THE SMALL TEAM

Now I also know that there are some of you here that have a small team and you are wondering… Do I bring on an Integrator? I have a VA or a handful of people subcontracted. What do I need? How do I do all of this?

So I really want to laser focus and talk to you right now and help you process if NOW is the right time to bring on an Integrator.

DO YOU NEED AN INTEGRATOR?

I’ve already answered the question. Yes, you need an Integrator, because I think ALL businesses need an Integrator.

Maybe you’re stretching your own Integrator muscle and learning how to best sit in that seat until you can bring someone on. Or you’re at a spot in your brand where you can actually bring on a human to fill that Integrator role.

Either way, ALL online businesses need an Integrator.

5 QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE IF NOW IS THE TIME TO HIRE AN INTEGRATOR

So for those of you that are considering hiring an Integrator, I have 5 questions that I want you to consider that will help you to decide if NOW is the right time.

Question #1. Are you currently doing too much in your business? Are you responsible for most of the moving pieces and feeling spread way too thin? What are the tasks that only YOU can do?

Okay, that was 3 questions in 1, but this is the first premise that I want you to consider.
If you have not grabbed a sheet of paper and written down all of the things that you do in your business, you need to do that. That’s your first action item.

Pull up a Google Doc, grab a sheet of paper, whatever you need to do. I want to know what you’re doing in your brand.

When you think about it, you’re probably doing too much. If you’re truly honest with yourself, if you’re the one writing the email, designing the graphics, scheduling the email, posting on Instagram, even if we stop right there, I’m going to tell you that is way too much for one Visionary to do! You do not need to be sitting in all of those seats.

So, I want you to be honest with yourself. I want you to think about the things that require YOUR face, and YOUR energy to do. These are the things that only you can do.

This might look like a YouTube channel, or your own podcast, or recording the content for your course. That’s YOU. Your zone of genius!

Taking that course content that you created and plugging it into Kajabi, designing thumbnails, writing descriptions, writing the student welcome email – that can be somebody else.

Question #2. Are you ready to give up control and trust an Integrator?
This one is so important, and this is honestly kind of an overall outsourcing mindset that we need to have. When we’re outsourcing, we’re trusting, right?

We’re giving up a level of control where we’re opening up our hands of our business and saying, Okay, somebody else can go into my Canva and design the things and I don’t have to look at it…

And yes, that can be so nerve wracking!! What if they don’t use the right fonts? What if they get the color wrong? What if that’s not the picture you would have selected?

But can you let go and trust? Can you give up control? And yes, there might be a working relationship there where you’re, you know, getting through the messy middle of figuring out what you want them to do, and how, and the nuances of those brands.

But I’m willing to bet that a lot of those moving pieces you can teach somebody else to do.

So are you ready to give up control and truly trust that somebody else can do the job?

Question #3. Can you start thinking like a true CEO?
You have this task list now (because, remember, your homework was to write down the things that only you can do!) and a true CEO is going to now stay in their lane and only focus on those things.

Going back to Question #2, you will then need to trust that your Integrator is in control and allow your team and that Integrator to work together to mobilize and manage and do the things that they need to do so you stay in your lane as that Visionary CEO.

I want you to empower those around you to rise up to take ownership to have accountability.

I don’t want you worrying about the mundane, everyday business tasks that are not your lane. We’ve already established here what a Visionary is, and a Visionary’s role is not managing and being so nitty gritty on the day-to-day.

A Visionary’s lane is high level, big picture thinking, motivating the team, and the overall brand & mission with new ideas and long-term vision. So are you ready to truly step into that?

If you are, now might be a great time to bring on an Integrator.

Question #4. What are the day-to-day operations like for your business? Do you have workflows, systems, and processes?

First of all, it’s totally okay if you don’t! I’ve stepped into brands where it’s a little bit of a hot mess express with some things in Apple Notes, or Google Docs, or texts, or Voxer, and they’re just flowing all over the place. It is a-okay if you do not feel super strong and secure in your workflows and processes!!

However, I want you to realize that *now* because that can impact the role of your Integrator.

Not all integrators are necessarily workflow specialists or maybe they don’t know all of the ins and outs of the tech and tools that you’re using. However, Integrators do tend to love organization and workflows in general.

So whether it’s the Integrator creating those systems and processes for your business, or you’re working with an expert in those in order to have an Integrator on your team, you will need systems and processes.

So if you don’t already have really great day-to-day operations for running your business, I want you to be aware of that now, knowing that that might be a great first project.

And actually, for the KS Agency, the first project with a lot of our clients is typically stepping in to streamline all the day-to-day stuff so that we can work really efficiently and effectively and then tackle those big picture projects once the day-to-day is streamlined.

Question #5. Can you financially afford an Integrator?
An Integrator is a member of your business that is sitting on your leadership team. If you’ve read Traction, they talk about the EOS model, which is the Entrepreneurial Operating System, and they use the leadership team a lot in that book. It is a helpful way of thinking about that Visionary/Integrator Duo – they’re side by side almost and you need to have so much trust and a level of respect for that Integrator knowing that the Integrator is acting as you in certain scenarios.

So that means that the Integrator needs to be compensated as such!

Our industry has a pretty wide range for pay for integration and if you look up Integrator in online space (you may see OBM or Online Business Manager as a description), the pricing and the ranges that are in place are anywhere from $50/hour to $110/hour. This depends on the Integrator’s experience level, their scope of projects, the amount of time, etc.

So your business needs to then be at a financial place to sustain a team member at that level.

It may be one of the most expensive hires you’ve ever made. Maybe up until this point, you’ve been working with $20-$40/hour positions, and you haven’t made it, you know, $50+. But you do need to be in a financial space in your brand to be able to sustain the support and the expertise that you want from an Integrator.

SUMMARY

Are you wondering, Is now the right time to bring on an Integrator?

If so, here are 5 key questions to ask yourself as you self-assess:

-Are you currently doing too much in your business? Are you responsible for most of the moving pieces and feeling spread way too thin? What are the tasks that only YOU can do?
-Are you ready to give up control and trust an Integrator?
-Can you start thinking like a true CEO?
-What are the day-to-day operations like for your business? Do you have workflows, systems, and processes?
-Can you financially afford an Integrator?

So, there’s your homework. Start with creating a list of what exactly only YOU can do, and let’s go from there!

Be sure to stay tuned as we continue to go back to the basics – next we’ll break down the different TYPES of Integrators and find out which one is right for you and your business.

I can’t wait to hear what you think!!