Banish’s Founder, Daisy Jing, on Productivity Hacks for Entrepreneurs

Welcome to the Marketing Growth Podcast. I’m your host, Shane Barker. On this episode, I continue my conversation with the founder of Banish, Daisy Jing.

But first, a recap of our previous conversations with Daisy.

For those joining the conversation for the first time, Banish is an e-commerce business that Daisy Group uses social media. It’s now a seven-figure business, and Daisy shared the journey to those numbers on the first episode.

In the second episode, she shared the social media strategy that Banish used to grow their customer base and how you can find your brand’s ideal platforms.

Now remember, you can check out these episodes on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts by searching the Marketing Growth Podcast. And now that we’re all caught up, let’s kick off today’s episode.

All right, cool. I want to talk to you a little bit about productivity hacks for entrepreneurs, right? Because obviously, you being Captain Scrappy, I want to discuss what you’ve done to stay productive as an entrepreneur. I think the hardest part is staying productive.

You even said there have been times when you’ve been great on TikTok, and then you’ve lost a little bit of steam, and then you got back on TikTok again. So let’s talk about some of the productivity hacks you have going on. Anything fun?

Congrats!

Awesome you talked about, there’s some core things that you work on. Can you share? What are the things that you mainly focus on?

I like that. I think that’s the hardest part. I mean, you’re the way you are—your personality is very much like mine. I can only imagine: how many hours were you working in a day when you first started?

18? I mean, were you…

I’m laughing only because I relate. There were times in my life when I was working 18 hours and thinking, “I can squeeze a little more out.” There were also times when I wasn’t delegating at all. I had a team, but I ended up becoming the roadblock—the reason we couldn’t move forward on some things. That’s when I learned the art of delegation and putting processes in place. It was helpful because getting pregnant was good in the sense that, for a number of reasons, it showed me that this ship can go on without me. We always think that a business is only a business when you’re running it, but you can step out for three months and your business still runs, and that’s going to be okay.

For you and me, it’s always been difficult because I want to be driving the ship—I want to be doing this and doing that. But you don’t always have to be in that position. You’ve built it to this point, and as you mentioned, team is the main thing. Without strong people around you who share the same core values and can push things forward when you’re sick, pregnant, or otherwise unavailable, you’ll face problems because you don’t trust those people. Having a strong team is a differentiator. We’ve all had bad experiences with people where we think, “Oh, this is terrible.” But when you have a good person, it’s awesome—you think, “How do I get more of these types of people?” And that’s an important point: at that stage, you can trust the process.

Yeah. And I think that’s the thing: you can train somebody to do SEO. I’m not saying that having a background doesn’t help if you’re hiring someone for an SEO position, but you can’t train someone to be motivated or passionate about something. And if someone has those characteristics—especially if they already know about and love the company—then they’re going to take it on as if it’s their own most of the time, assuming they get treated fairly. And, you know, fair treatment leads to good things. Overall, your productivity is going to go up, and you don’t have to micromanage people who love what you’ve got going on, understand the core values, and know that you’re all heading in this direction for good. I mean, it does come down to skincare, but it also comes down to the psychology of it. And, you know, there are men and women out there with low self-esteem because of this, and there’s a mission here. There’s something bigger. Sales are important, but there’s a bigger mission here that I think you guys are putting out there, and I love that. Finding those individuals isn’t easy, but when you do, you can tell the difference. You hire Bob over here and Jennifer over here, and you’re like, “Wow, Jennifer obviously loves what’s going on.” Bob was doing his job, which is great, Bob, but what’s the difference?

Well, I think that’s what it comes down to when I’m interviewing somebody and the first things they ask are, “What are all the perks? I’m not here for that.” I’m okay with some perks and benefits, but if that’s the number one thing—like, “When can I get the company car? Do you guys have ping pong? Do you guys give fresh juices in the morning?”—I’m like, “Yeah, it’s called the juice store. You can just go there and pick it up. We don’t give massages on Thursdays.”

It’s funny—I did have a company, many moons ago, where we did that. I tried to make it like Google—not a Google, but a place where you got all the snacks you wanted, drinks, energy drinks, and massages on Tuesdays. I ended up going to people’s desks and finding they had, like, 85 candy bars. They were hoarding. I’m not saying you don’t want to treat people, but for me it’s about finding the people who are less focused on the perks. There will be perks—I offer bonuses and other things because I want to make sure people are taken care of. I want a team; I want people who take care of me, and I’m absolutely going to take care of them. But in the beginning, if they’re asking about those types of things, you’ll never win that rat race. There’s always somebody with more, and there’s always somebody who comes along and says, “Hey, we’re willing to give you a car with rims.” You’re like, “I don’t have rims on my current car.” It’s like, is this not something I’m going for? If it’s all about that, it’s like dating somebody who’s a gold digger—you’ll just go find someone who has more money. I’m okay with that for a two-week stint or whatever, but they’re not long-term material for what you’re creating.

So, you kind of talked about yoga—or maybe I said yoga—but you know, meditation and some other stuff. Are there any productivity tools or anything that you do to help you make life easier, other than maybe a babysitter for you? You have a boy or girl?

I’m just trying to think of things that you do—maybe you listen to a book or a podcast—when you’re not feeling productive and need to shut down for the day. I’m wondering if there’s anything that helps you be more productive, I guess.

Yeah, so you guys use Slack. So I was gonna ask you, you guys have slack.

Yeah, no, I am my email. It’s funny—I’ve cleaned up my emails over the last few years. I actually have two because I have two businesses—actually more than two businesses, but that’s a whole nother conversation. I have two executive assistants who are in my email every day. That’s how many emails I get.

We use Slack, and when I’ve tried to cut down on the number of emails, Slack has definitely helped. I have a 30-person team on one side and a five-person team on the other, and that’s just for two of my businesses. The efficiencies of being able to do that are clear because my emails, before I hired somebody, were out of hand. It was silly. Slack has helped us for a number of reasons. I should probably have them as a sponsor because I said their name too many times in the podcast.

It’s just the efficiency and transparency of being able to see that kind of stuff. I’m a little allergic to emails too—I’ve received, I don’t know how many in my lifetime—but I want my executive assistants to only bring me the three things I absolutely have to respond to; all the other 26, 2000, or 1 million can be handled by our processes. When you said you don’t like emails, I was like, “Yeah, I feel you. I’m not a huge fan.”

Shout out to the team, man—making it happen. Yeah, I do have an awesome team, but like I said, I always tell people the team makes me look good because I would probably be homeless or something, or strung out in the streets, if I didn’t have my team helping me out, making things happen. So do you have any other tips for entrepreneurs on how to be productive? Anything else there? Is it just get a spin bike and get on a Zoom call or anything—anything fun?

The bad stuff. Yeah, it sounds like you might have one or two of those. We’ve all have one or two of those.

You’re like, what do you I wasn’t working hard enough before?

Yeah, but I actually do. I have some good friends of mine. That’s why I was talking about when I said the Asian community I’m very familiar with. It’s like I’m either working too hard or not working enough. At what point are we just gonna be like, “Hey, you did good. Hey, how about a hug?”

Some are like, “Whoa, whoa, who’s not doing whatsoever.” No, that’s right—I’ll high five you or something, but that’s about the extent that we’re getting. So, anybody understand that the Asian community is not, not all the time—I shouldn’t say all the Asian community—but it just is. Sometimes it happens. Yeah, yeah.

Well, cool. Let’s talk about, like I said, we call it the fun section. If you could travel to any place in the world for free—and this is also, I would also tell you that it’s COVID-free, so it’s super awesome, you don’t have to wear a mask—super, super weird, I know—where would you go, and why?

Ah, that’s interesting. I like that. I went to school in Costa Rica and lived with a family there. I’m not going to say exactly how long—it was a few years ago, give or take—but it was an awesome experience. I remember getting dropped off; I went to the house, and they greeted me with a “Hola” in Spanish. I had only two years of high school Spanish, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t study as hard as I should have, so I thought, “Oh, man, this is going to be terrible.” But it was awesome. I didn’t learn the language, and a lot of it has diminished over the years since I haven’t used it much, but I still think it’s amazing to live with a family and have that experience.

And then Mongolia is interesting—I just want to get off the radar. They can’t attack me on Slack. That’s what I want—no more Zoom calls. I just… Mama needs a little time. Mommy needs a little baby time, or even just a mama time.

Yeah, my family—I don’t think we can say that we’ve gone to Cuba, but my actual family has been to Cuba a number of times, and it’s been nothing but a great experience out there. I’ve got a funny story—we have time for today—but actually, I’m not going to say it because if I do, you’re gonna be like, “You have to tell me more,” because it’s one of those stories you can’t just mention without telling the whole thing. But yeah, nothing but good experiences with Cuba. In fact, my family’s kept in contact with a number of families out there. They’re very generous people, just over the top, very accommodating, and very present, for sure.

So what about superpowers? If you could have any kind of superpower, any kind of superpower that you would want?

What do you want to do?

Yeah, you’re not kidding. Okay, there we go. No, that works. I mean, that’s a little…

So could be, that could be dangerous. Yeah, it can be dangerous. Power, time travel, yeah, you’re like, going back clean and some tests left. There we go. No, that’s not a bad option. Um, what about you have any favorite books or podcasts that you listen to that has helped either your career, your personality, anything fun?

Yeah, that’s hard. I’m telling you, the biggest thing for me was scaling and delegation. I used to think, “Nobody can do it as well as I can.” But then I realized, “Wow, that’s maybe true, except you’re not getting 70% of your stuff done—you’re working 18 hours.” So maybe you delegate, you train people. The processes I’ve created today versus whatever 10 or 15 years ago is just night and day. I can do whatever I need—go places, do podcasts, do whatever it is—and not have to worry about my team because my team’s phenomenal. I’m not just saying that because my team’s listening; you guys are awesome. Just want to shout out to my team.

And speaking of great teams, Daisy, allow me to pause our conversation for a minute and talk to our listeners. I have a great team ready to help you skyrocket your brand’s growth with digital marketing strategies. We offer services such as content marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, online PR, and more. And the best part, you can choose to hire us on a consultant basis or opt for our fully managed services. Sounds like something you want? Visit shanebarker.com—that’s S, H, A, N, E, B, A, R, K, E, R.com—to discover more.

Cool so if anybody wanted to get in contact with you, find out more information about Banish. Where do we, what’s the good intel?

Dazer. And how do you spell daiserz? Just out of pure curiosity.

Tricky. Look at you—the old Z at the end kind of throws some people off. Awesome.

Well, Daisy, it was awesome having you on the podcast. I was really, really excited when you accepted our invitation, just having you on here and talking about your perseverance, what you had to deal with, what you went through, and how you built it into a seven figure business. So congratulations on that.

And you guys, if you want to reach out to Daisy—also known as Daiserz—you can contact her anytime to inquire more about Banish. If you have any issues with your skin—no, not healthcare, skincare—you can call Banish and see what you got going on there.

Thanks, Daisy. It’s been fun, and I’m sure my listeners now know a lot more how to improve their productivity. For our listeners, thanks for joining our conversation. But don’t go too far on the next episode of The Marketing Growth Podcast, I host another expert, so stay tuned.