Brian explains that early on he hired a VA before his tasks were clearly defined or repeatable, which created inefficiencies because training her took as much time as doing the tasks himself. He realized that slowing down to systemize processes first—like he did later with Restaurant Engine—was essential so a support assistant could handle recurring tasks effectively and add real value.
How Brian Casel, founder of Audience Ops, has built a support team of specialists to help grow his online content marketing business
Virtual Success Show
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Episode breakdown
In this episode, special guest and founder of Audience Ops, Brian Casel, shares with us his experience of building a virtual team of content marketing specialists and how you may not always get it right the first time. Brian reveals that in order to grow a successful business in today’s constantly evolving marketplace, business owners must remain responsive and ensure their own businesses continue to evolve.
- The initial challenges faced when building a virtual team of specialists
- Why systems and processes are so important in building your team up for success
- The need for effective communication tools within your virtual team
- Ensuring you have a sound onboarding and training process for new recruits
Take a pause somewhere in the business if you're not prepared, cause training and onboarding is a whole challenge in itself.
In this episode
00:00 - Introduction
Barbara introduces the episode of the Virtual Success Show, flying solo, and welcomes Brian Casel, founder of Audience Ops and host of the Productize Podcast. They discuss managing content teams, creating consistent content, and the challenges of scaling a business through effective team management.
02:28 – Who is Brian Casel?
Brian shares his journey from being a solo freelance web designer to running multiple businesses, including Audience Ops, a U.S.-based remote content marketing team with writers, editors, project managers, and international assistants. He describes managing a 15-person team, launching Audience Ops while traveling across the U.S., and balancing family life, podcasts, and business growth. Barbara highlights how this experience provides valuable lessons for listeners struggling with delegation and managing virtual teams.
05:57 – Initial challenges with building teams
Brian explains that hiring and managing people was challenging at first and full of trial and error. He started by contracting other designers, developers, and copywriters as a freelance designer, learning hard lessons about reliability and quality. Over time, especially with Restaurant Engine, he gained experience outsourcing to assistants in the Philippines to keep costs down and free himself to focus on growing the business, emphasizing that having systems and processes is critical to avoid common pitfalls in managing teams.
09:55 – The importance of systems and processes
12:14 – Do you need a support assistant or someone else?
Barbara emphasizes that if a business doesn’t have repeatable processes, hiring an offshore support assistant may not be the best solution; sometimes a part-time local helper is more effective for handling irregular or unpredictable tasks.
13:04 – Firing yourself from business processes
Brian explains that systematically removing himself from daily tasks to make the business scalable took several years, with true independence achieved only in the last year before exiting. Barbara adds that many new business owners underestimate this process, expecting delegation to happen in months, when realistically it can take 6–12 months.
14:48 – Business processes are constantly evolving
Brian and Barbara discuss that building and refining systems is an ongoing process that evolves as a business grows. While tedious, investing time in creating effective processes pays off by freeing the owner to focus on higher-value work and gain more freedom.
16:50 – Brian’s business processes
Brian explains Audience Ops’ client onboarding and team management process: clients first fill out a consultation form, watch a demo video, and then have a sales call—making the call shorter and more effective. Once signed up, a dedicated team of manager, writer, editor, and assistant is assigned based on skills and availability, rather than fixed “pods,” ensuring efficiency while balancing workload and client needs.
22:30 – Challenges of bringing new people into your team
Brian explains that even with strong systems and processes, new team members can feel overwhelmed. To address this, he created an internal training course for new project managers, including videos, slides, and best-practice guidelines, followed by shadowing current managers before taking on clients—ensuring proper onboarding without repeatedly doing live training.
25:42 – Getting the onboarding process right
Barbara and Brian emphasize that proper training and onboarding are essential for all team members, regardless of experience or location. Brian adds that while onboarding the first hire is challenging, it becomes easier with subsequent hires.
26:36 – How to deal with an underperforming team member
Brian advises that when a new hire is struggling, it’s often not a talent issue but a process issue. He recommends being open and understanding that people approach tasks differently, and adjusting processes rather than immediately letting them go.
27:48 – Have your team suggest ways to improve processes
Brian and Barbara emphasize that when a new hire struggles, it’s often about differences in learning styles and unclear processes. They suggest collaborating with the team, encouraging feedback, and refining instructions—like using bullet points—so tasks are clear and manageable for everyone.
29:56 – Outsourcing a task that requires talent or expertise
Brian and Barbara discuss that outsourcing skilled work effectively requires hiring talented people and building structured processes around their creativity. Structure allows for consistency, scalability, and client trust without stifling creativity, while lack of structure leads to chaos internally and for clients.
33:18 – The need for good online content
Brian explains that consistent, high-quality content is essential because it steadily grows organic traffic and nurtures leads over time. While ads may convert only a small percentage immediately, ongoing content keeps your brand top-of-mind for the majority who aren’t ready to buy yet.
35:37 – Brian’s #1 tool that has streamlined his business
Brian explains that the key tools streamlining Audience Ops include Trello, Ops Calendar, and Help Scout. Trello is used extensively to manage article production, track each stage from draft to client feedback, and maintain a clear history of actions, with a consistent process established for its use. Ops Calendar, their in-house content calendar software, integrates editorial planning, social media scheduling, and performance analytics in one platform. Help Scout serves as a centralized client-facing help desk for both support and sales, enabling internal collaboration without siloed inboxes. Brian emphasizes the importance of linking all relevant tools—Trello cards, Help Scout threads, and Google Docs—so the team has complete visibility, ensuring organized communication and overall effectiveness.
40:20 – Wrapping things up
Barbara wraps up the discussion by highlighting the main takeaways: the importance of evolving systems and processes, ensuring effective team communication, and getting onboarding and training right. She thanks Brian for sharing his insights and directs listeners to his personal site, casjam.com, and Audience Ops at audienceops.com for content outsourcing. She also invites listeners to leave a review on iTunes and join the conversation on the Virtual Success Facebook group to suggest topics or interview guests.
