#76. How to Hire Your First Virtual Assistant with Your Business Ally, Queenie Verhoeven

In our last episode, we talked about the many ways that adding a virtual assistant to your team can enhance your success.

Did you hear that one? If not, you might want to go back and check out Episode 75 before you listen to this one. 🙂

In that episode, you met my assistant, Queenie Verhoeven, who runs a company providing VA services to small businesses around the world. Queenie has been a critical part of my team for several years now; I can’t even imagine running a business without her.

And I’d love for you to have that kind of help yourself.

So let’s say I’ve got you convinced, and you’re ready to hire your first VA.

Now what?

How do you find them?  How do you choose the one who’s right for you? How do you actually hire someone?

Ohhhh so many questions.

Let’s talk about all that. Shall we?

Give this a listen, and you’ll learn how to get started.

~Wendy
Xoxo

P.S. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a minute to share your 5 star review and a few words over on Apple Podcasts or even Spotify.

Your words matter so much more than you know.

And thank you! 🙏

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TODAY’S GUEST:  QUEENIE VERHOEVEN,  Founder of Your Business Ally.

Queenie Verhoeven is a Proactive Virtual Assistant. She is a highly skilled and experienced VA specializing in administrative, marketing, and tech support.

With over 15 years of experience serving small business owners and entrepreneurs, she isn't just a virtual assistant to her clients but a trusted partner on their path to success.

What she offers goes beyond her areas of expertise. She provides freedom from overwhelm - the freedom from those mundane yet crucial tasks that can drain your time and energy. Whether it's managing your administrative duties, implementing effective marketing strategies, or providing tech support to streamline your operations, Queenie ensures that you can focus on what truly matters - growing your business.

You can find her online at www.YourBusinessAlly.com.

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THIS WEEK’S JOURNAL PROMPT: 

What is the most important quality you want any team member you hire to have? Is it a specific skill set, experience, an attitude or perhaps a personality trait?

Before you begin your search, taking some time to think about what matters most. You’ll make a better hire when you do.

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MENTIONED:  

• EPISODE: #75. Virtual Assistants: What They Do, How They Help, and Why You Should Hire One 

WHERE TO FIND HELP

• Your Business Ally
• Online Jobs Ph
• Indeed
• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Freelancer
• Guru

COMMUNICATION TOOLS

• Voxer
• WhatsApp 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to Ideal Practice, episode number 76. If you tuned into our last episode, then you heard my conversation with Queenie Verhoeven. Queenie is my right-hand woman y'all. I cannot imagine running my business without her. In that episode we had a terrific and wide-ranging conversation about what it means to hire a VA, a virtual assistant, and all the different ways that they can make such a difference in your business and can contribute to your success. So what did you think? Are you convinced? If so, you may have gotten through the end of that episode going great, wendy, I'm on board, but, good Lord, what do I do now? Well, you're in luck, because today I'm gonna tell you what do you do now. We're gonna talk about how to hire your first virtual assistant. So stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Hi, I'm Wendy Pitts Reeves and, with over two decades of experience in the private practice world, I've built my six-figure business while learning a lot of lessons the hard way. This is the first podcast that shows you how to apply the principles of energy alignment and strategy. So I'm gonna talk about how to apply the principles of energy alignment and strategy. So I'm gonna talk about how to apply the principles of energy alignment and strategy To build a practice that is profit-centered but people-forward. This is the Ideal Practice Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Ideal Practice. I'm your host, wendy, and I'm so happy to be hanging out with you here.

Speaker 1: 1:46

I have missed this for the last couple of weeks. I had some things I needed to tend to to help my folks my folks are fairly elderly at this point and I need a lot of extra support and there were some things I just needed to tend to that I could not do both. I was tempted to try, but in the interest of my own health and well-being, not to mention theirs, I took a little bit of a break, which we have to do, don't we sometime in our work? And in fact, this is one of my favorite things, one of my many favorite things about being the CEO of your own show that you have the freedom and the flexibility to adjust as needed to tend to what you need to in your life. So that's what the last couple of weeks have been for me. You know, if you'd like me to, I would be happy to do a little episode for you guys at some point about how you manage the multiple challenges of running a business and managing a family, all the kind of life stuff that we all have to handle and how you do that and keep your practice going. I would be happy to talk about that at some point. If you guys would like to hear that, just let me know and I'll be sure and put something like that together for you.

Speaker 1: 2:56

But for today, let me reintroduce our guest. I am back with you with part two of my conversation with Queenie Verhoeven. You already know her if you heard episode number 75, but Queenie is my executive assistant, virtual assistant, helper in all things. She calls herself a project integrator and a proactive virtual assistant, which is a really great way to distinguish what she does. She is not a passive participant in my work. We are very much collaborative partners in this. I have my business, she has hers. We work together. She is the founder of your Business, ally. That's a full service VA company that is devoted to supporting small business owners, and I will be sure to have a link to her website in the show notes below if you want to learn more about her.

Speaker 1: 3:54

But today what I wanted to do, so last week, or in our last episode, we talked in some depth about what a virtual assistant actually is, how different folks can fill different roles in your practice when this might make sense for you and when not. How to think about it, how to consider what you might use this kind of help for. And we even talked a little bit about the budgeting side of it, how you might pay someone. So if you haven't heard that, I do encourage you to listen to that first. But if you have, today, we're going to go a little deeper into the. Okay now what we're going to talk a little bit about some tips for hiring, how to prepare for this, what you hire them for some of the mistakes that people make when they get into this, where to find these people. All that and more.

Speaker 1: 4:47

So let's, without further ado, let's get in to the interview. All right, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Ideal Practice. How are you doing? Are you excited to be here? I hope you are, because we are following up today with part two of my conversation with my outstanding God bless her right hand, queenie Verhoeven, who, if you have not already heard it, go back and listen to the episode previously where we went into detail about how a VA, a virtual assistant, can add to your practice. And today we're going to go a little bit more into the how. How do you find them, how do you hire them? What makes this work? We're going to get more into the nitty gritty today.

Speaker 1: 5:38

One point I did not make last time, that I forgot to make, I want to come back to right now, is when you think about the benefits of hiring somebody. If there's a part of you that's going I can't afford that, wendy, you don't understand. I like I need every penny, et cetera, et cetera. Let's just do a little quick math right here before I bring Queenie back on board. If you are charging 125 a session, 150 a session, 200 a session, wherever you are, and you can pay somebody $25, $50, $75 to do something in an hour that you would take an hour.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Think about the money that you just saved. You can spend that hour serving a client, whereas you pay somebody to get that on God for plate. That's why this is an economic no-brainer. So I just want to kind of get that out before, because I know that a lot of especially those of us who are in social work or who are in the healing arts we always tend to think what's the cheapest thing I can do. We're always trying to save money, which is sort of a lack, which is lack mindset y'all. As my coach says today, when you care about your time more than you care about your money, you will have more of both. When you care about your time more than you care about your money, you will have more of both. That's why this matters. So, without let me bring Queenie back on board, say hi, queenie.

Speaker 3: 6:58

Good morning again, Hi Wendy.

Speaker 1: 7:01

Hi Queenie. Good morning on the other side of the ocean. How are you over there today? What's it like in the Netherlands today?

Speaker 3: 7:09

It's sunny and it's warm.

Speaker 1: 7:13

Is it warm, really Awesome.

Speaker 3: 7:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Yeah, it is here too, but that probably means very different things in the Southern Union, us. Well, so last time we you and I had quite a round robin conversation about all the different factors that a VA can contribute to your practice. Today I want to answer the question that I know people have, which is like great Wendy, fine, okay, I'm willing to give it a shot. Where do I start? How do I even hire somebody? Where do I find these people? So walk us through that. Queenie, what advice do you have about that?

Speaker 3: 7:46

So, like I mentioned earlier before the recording, I think that before we even start looking for a VA, there are certain things you have to consider, and one of those things, I think, is because there are many platforms where you can hire a VA, but then you have to know certain things first so that you know which platforms to use or where you can actually get a VA. So I think number one is you have to know whether you are looking for someone that you are willing to train, or are you ready to take someone on who's already experienced in the things or tasks or projects that you'd like them to do for you, right? Okay.

Speaker 3: 8:41

And then I think you also have to ask whether you have to know, whether you're looking for someone that could potentially join you in the long term. Or it just has someone on a per project or on as needed basis. Or you have to ask yourself whether you are looking for someone who is skilled on one or two specific areas or tasks, or like, for example, do you want a social media manager or someone who can help with email marketing very specific tasks or are you looking for someone who's like a general virtual?

Speaker 1: 9:30

Right, okay, that's good.

Speaker 3: 9:33

Can help you with varied tasks on a regular basis, and do you require fix working hours or do you work on deadlines? Because I think that's very important, especially if you have a different time zone. So, like in my case, I work on deadlines. I cannot work on fix working hours, but I also. There were people before who wanted to hire me, but they require fix working hours, like I would work on I want you like on standby between eight and five Monday and.

Speaker 1: 10:15

Thursday and you're like no, I don't work that way. You tell me what you want done and I'll get to you by a certain date.

Speaker 3: 10:20

Got it? Yes, yeah. And then I think you have to know what your budget is, because you have to work on it. I think you have to know these things first and then, once you have answers for those questions, then we can start looking for places where VAAs can be found.

Speaker 1: 10:42

This is excellent. I love you just made a really nice list and y'all. I want to repeat what Queenie just said, because this was this is fantastic advice. Let's nail this, let's capture this and you want, I want you guys who are listening to write it down. The first thing you got to figure out what it is. What's your budget? How much can you allocate to this? If you got $50 a month, got $100 a month, can you do 250 a month? How much can you allocate?

Speaker 1: 11:09

Do you need somebody who, at a certain time every week, I want someone to answer the phones for me between 10 and two, three days a week, or is it just no, I don't need, I don't care what time, I just need certain things done by a certain time. Which one is that, flex or fixed? I like that. Specific skills are a general, so do you? So this is great because I just I am in the middle right now, as we speak, of training and onboarding a new podcast editor who, and when I was hiring for this position, I needed someone who understood the podcast editing tool that I use, or maybe had something better, but I needed to make sure they understood how to edit audio and video, and that was a very specific skill that I was looking for. Do you want that or do you need something that's more general? I just want someone to help, and I love what you said about. Do you want someone on the short term, sort of project-based, temporarily, or just gonna help you out for a while, or are you looking to add someone for the for? Did I already say for the long term Short term versus long term? I'm gonna tell you, guys, I hope you think for the long term, because consistency is what's gonna help your business grow. And then, do you wanna train them or not? So you started off by going do you wanna hire an expert who already knows how to do this so you don't have to teach them, or would you rather have someone who, maybe, maybe they don't know all those skills yet, but they've got the right personality, the right energy, the right attitude? This is that's really good advice, and this recent hire of mine is a great example of all of those.

Speaker 1: 12:41

I thought about it in the beginning. What's the one thing I need to get off my plate? I love podcast editing, which is kind of a weird thing to say, but it's actually fun. I really genuinely enjoy it and it takes me hours, so it's not a good use of my time. So too, so I need so that's what I need to get off my plate. It's ongoing, it's not short term.

Speaker 1: 13:02

I want someone who already had that skill, got it. I want someone who's gonna stay with me long term. So I was looking for someone who who is also wanting to be long term, and now that I've got somebody, I'm learning that she has that skill. She also has the, an eagerness to learn, a willingness to try something new. She's smart, she's professional, she's organized, but she's relatively young and relatively inexperienced, so she knows how to do the one thing I hired her for, but I think she has real potential to learn more. So I've already got a list of things I intend to teach her and I will grow her into my little mini queenie. That's what I'm doing here. I'm gonna grow a mini queenie. That's great queenie.

Speaker 1: 13:47

So do your homework. First make some decisions, first before you're ready to hire, and then, once you've got that figured out, I would say write a job description and then start to look.

Speaker 3: 13:58

So very good on it.

Speaker 1: 14:02

I have some experience with that. Yes, there's a knack to writing a job description. So then what? Once they've got all that figured out, what should they do next?

Speaker 3: 14:10

So for more short-term projects or, you know, if you just want to test the waters, I would say there are platforms like, say, fiverrcom, upworkcom, freelancercom, gurucom. So those are the most common marketplaces to find virtual assistants. And these are also the platforms that are less expensive. Like, if your budget is, let's say, $10 an hour, you can most likely find people from those platforms. And then, once you're inside those platforms, you look at your list. You did your homework already. Then you can screen people inside these platforms and you can like, if you say, okay, $10 an hour and in less experience is fine, then you can actually go in each of these platforms and filter the type of VAs that you are looking for.

Speaker 3: 15:28

Now, if you want to, I would say that, if maybe you would like to have a more experienced VA more long-term. There are also market, I would say marketplaces or platforms, I don't know what the exact term would be Right. It's a platform, it's a marketplace. It's like all of the marketplace, because you meet contractors and business owners there. So there are platforms that provide services that require high-level skillset.

Speaker 1: 16:11

Is marketplace like a specific site that you're talking about, or you just mean the concept of the marketplace?

Speaker 3: 16:16

Oh, no, it's the concept of a marketplace.

Speaker 1: 16:19

Okay, got it, got it.

Speaker 3: 16:20

And some specific sites would be.

Speaker 1: 16:24

What's this on my virtual Miss Friday we can look that up and put something together for people. Yeah virtualmissfridaycom.

Speaker 3: 16:33

So if you hire one of, if you get one of her packages, for example, you're actually hiring an online business consultant and manager who's personally responsible for your general operations and she has a team that works for you. I like you, right, yes in my case, though, my team just works directly with me, right, but with virtualmissfriday, she would assign someone that could work directly with you. Plus, she's also there as your business consultant and manager. Got it, got it yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:17

There's another one that I have not. I don't, I have not used it, but I've had a call with one of their representatives because they wanted to.

Speaker 1: 17:32

They're recruiting you a bit.

Speaker 3: 17:35

Not recruiting me as a VA, but recruiting me as someone who would hire a VA.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Oh, got it. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:44

So it's called thedoorswaycom.

Speaker 1: 17:47

Oh yeah, I've heard of that.

Speaker 3: 17:49

Do you have you heard of?

Speaker 1: 17:50

them. I have, I sure have.

Speaker 3: 17:52

So I think the best thing about this is that they the first month okay. So this is how it goes. They only have full-time VA's, so you have to hire a VA for 40 hours a week and you have to pay them two months upfront. Okay, for nine dollars an hour for nine dollars an hour, so it's not very expensive. But it's just have to hire them for 40 hours a week.

Speaker 1: 18:22

Wow.

Speaker 3: 18:23

Yes.

Speaker 1: 18:24

The wow is that it's amazing to me that you could get somebody full-time for that low fee, which tells me they're hiring out of country.

Speaker 3: 18:32

Yes, they are in the Philippines, so this, the business itself, is a base in Australia, but their viewers- are the Philippines.

Speaker 1: 18:44

Got it. Yeah, this is a thing, this is a pattern I'm going to see in a lot of places.

Speaker 3: 18:48

So the JITS?

Speaker 1: 18:49

yeah, sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 3: 18:51

So their doers, when the the good thing is that their doers are actually regular employees in the Philippines, so they hire these VA's as regular employees, so they get benefits, et cetera, et cetera, and but then you're just paying them for the VA that they will provide. I see I see.

Speaker 1: 19:14

So you can hire somebody literally one-on-one, just directly one-to-one, or you can hire a company that vets VA's for you essentially and brings them to you, and there's lots of different ways of doing that out there. I was telling you right before we got online that I had forgotten. The company that I went to back in the day before I found you was a company called Assist you and I could not think of that until just a little while ago. But it's Assist. And then the letter U, like university, and I just checked and they're still around. They I don't remember how I found them, but they unless they've changed.

Speaker 1: 19:51

What they did when I was involved was they were training people how to be a VA and they create and they were also teaching people like me how to hire a VA, and they had kind of a clearinghouse, sort of a matching service, where you could submit as if you were hiring. You could say here's what I'm looking for, and then people, it's the same thing like all of them do now, but back. Yeah, that was new to me at the time. So that's how I found the person, the IBM computer person who helped me with Secret Adventures. I found her through there, so you can find them through a platform like that, you can find them through the gig places but hire them. And you can also find them through word of mouth, asking a friend or colleagues, other entrepreneurs, do you know somebody? Cause that there's quite there's a lot of us out here who do this kind of thing, looking for help. Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 3: 20:38

I get most of my nowadays. I get most of my clients through word of mouth. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:46

Another website that we did not mention is onlinejobsph. Onlinejobsph, which stands for the Philippines and y'all. This isn't meant to be a pitch just for the Philippines, that's just. But there are there's a lot of good help there. So there's also plenty of good help right here at home, and I've had both. So, but onlinejobsph is another good resource to go look at.

Speaker 1: 21:09

So once you, let's say, you have chosen a platform, you've written a job description, you're putting it out there, you're ready to begin bringing in, you can put something on indeedcom, y'all. You can even do that. You can post it there as well. But once you post it and you start getting people going, I'm interested. I do have a little tip for you about how to handle this part of the process. When you write a job description and you post it online, in whatever platform you're using.

Speaker 1: 21:42

I strongly recommend a couple of things. One is say something about the type of person you're looking for, not just in terms of their skillset, but in terms of attitude, the way they think, the way that like, I like to say that they have to have a sense of humor and they need to be able to tolerate a certain amount of chaos, because that's what it's gonna be like working with me, right, you might have something else. Say something about what you're looking for in terms of their personality. Also, say something about what it's like to work with you. I actually one of my favorite things to do is to say here's what you're gonna love about working with me and here's what's gonna drive you kind of crazy, because I wanna make sure I'm weeding out people, that I'm trying to weed them out on the front end. So I will say things like you're gonna learn a lot working with me, because I can't help but teach and coach everybody, and if you, I'm going to do my best to try to make sure you are successful. I'm gonna be a huge supporter and a huge fan, and I have a million ideas and they come fast, so you've gotta be able to keep up, right, so I will.

Speaker 1: 22:43

I put all that in there. So what do you want from them? What should they expect from you? If there are specific skills, by all means put that in there. But then my favorite thing to do is to put something, some kind of a little Miniature. It's like a I don't know of a better way to say it. It's almost like a secret little test. I Put some kind of a direction in there that I want them to follow when they respond. So I've seen people say things like you know what, when you write, when you write back, tell me your favorite quote about success. Share with me the the best book you've ever read. That was a from personal development. Tell me what you, what you are looking for most in any team you work with. It might be something like that.

Speaker 1: 23:31

What I do is I will say write back and put something X in the Subject line. So, for example, in the when I just went through this recently, I had 30 something people respond to my, my ad, my job application online and In my instructions, which were fairly detailed, more detailed than I think most people would be. But I really wanted to weed people out. If you just put a little bit out there, you're gonna get a hundred applications. If you're more specific, you're gonna get fewer, which is actually better, because you you don't want to weed through a bunch of crap Okay, but it blindly. You want to get the good ones up front. But I said, if you're interested, write, send an email to this address and put Intra the word interested in all caps in the subject line. And I put that down fairly low in the description, because if they didn't do that, that tells me that they didn't read it all the way through. It tells me that they're not paying attention to details and they're not following instructions. Well, if they don't, then I don't even bother respond, I just delete that one and move on. Okay, because you will get those people. So put something in there that you want them to do specifically. That will tell you on the front end. And I I've heard a lot of people saying in the share your favorite quote, kind of stuff I like, do something in the subject line, because it I don't, I don't even have to open the email, right. So that's a really good tip as well.

Speaker 1: 24:53

And then the last thing I want to say. So I'm kind of giving you four tips here. The last one I want to say about that is if you, when you do weed it, narrow it down and let's say you've got two people, three people that are really good prospects, give them all a test project. And Although when I hired Queenie, I just was asking her to solve one specific problem for me, today, this time around, because I've learned more I Asked two different people to do the same project, and it was worth it to me to spend the money on that because I wanted to see how they would handle it and it was a fairly complicated project. Here's try this, see what you can do with it. I gave them lots of instructions, I gave them the tools they needed and then I just like turned them loose and I used that to compare right. So there's just a.

Speaker 1: 25:40

That's four quick tips for the actual hiring process and then, once you make your decision and you bring them on board, even then I would recommend a 90-day trial period that gives you both a chance to kind of test each other out and remember they're testing you as much as you're testing them. You're getting to know each other. You're making sure that they can do what you hired them to do and that you like working with them. They also are testing you to make sure they want to work with you. Which leads me, queenie, to where I want to go next. What are some of the more common mistakes People make when working with a VA? What have what have you seen? Because you've been on the receiving end of it and You've also now been on the hiring end of it.

Speaker 1: 26:24

What would you say are some of the mistakes people make when they start hiring. Okay, so I think, Such a good question, if I do say so myself.

Speaker 3: 26:35

What is, I think, having no plan on how to make use of your VA? It's, in part, one you actually. You don't need to know everything immediately, because sometimes you discover more things that you will be needing help with while you're already working with the VA, right? Mm-hmm, I think it's. It is just based on my experience, both as a VA and somebody who's Hired a VA. It's helpful for both of you and for both of you to if you have at least a plan or let's just say you can make a 30-day plan for us that you need to get off your plate immediately, and maybe another 60-day or 90-day plan for things that you'd like to get off your plate Eventually yeah, so have sort of a step one, step two, step three.

Speaker 1: 27:41

I really want someone to help me with this right now, if that goes well, the next thing I'd like them to help me with is this and if that goes well, where I really want to get to is this. That's great. I have done exactly that. That's very good advice. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, so once a one mistake people have is not having a plan. No idea, I just need help. I don't know what I need help with.

Speaker 3: 28:00

That's one thing.

Speaker 1: 28:01

What's another mistake people make?

Speaker 3: 28:02

another is having no clear expectations from your VA. So that's why a job, this very clear job description, is really helpful. So, for example, if you're hiring someone to help you with email marketing, let's just say so. Then you have to be specific on what you need that person for in terms of email marketing. Do you need them to To create, to craft the copy of your newsletter, or will you be the one to craft the copy and then your VA Vs job is to set it up?

Speaker 3: 28:41

Mm-hmm set it up somewhere, like on Mailchimp or Kajabi, or, and then send it out to your Lins, because sometimes clients think that because a VA can set up a newsletter, they can also write one, which is not true.

Speaker 1: 29:00

You can set it up. That mean you can write it.

Speaker 3: 29:02

That's right, yes, Okay, I don't, I cannot write, I can never write it one. So for I Between us when they always write the copyright and then I just set, set it up and make sure it's nice and beautiful, and you know and you're but you can edit, you can catch typos.

Speaker 1: 29:23

You can ask me if something doesn't make sense, you will tell me that kind of stuff, right, so you won't write it, but you do you do, proof it for me, right? So so one of the mistakes people make is not Communicating clearly. This is what I expect from you and I would. I'm gonna beef that up a little bit like I'm gonna want this from you Every week. I'm going to expect this on a certain amount of time. I'm going to need you to. I'm gonna expect you to be able to set it up, design a Meme with a quote in it. I'm gonna need you to be able to post it on Facebook. I'm gonna need you to be able to send this email out to my list. I'm gonna need you to understand how to work with Mailchimp, right? So, so clear expectations. Your ex versus just.

Speaker 1: 30:05

Will you just help me with my email marketing. I don't care how you do it, just fix it. Right. Yeah, that's, that would be a mistake. That's a really good so. So fuzzy expectation, no plan at all and then really fuzzy Expectations. So I don't really know about if I'm your VA. I don't really know what you want for me. That would be hard.

Speaker 3: 30:24

With your deadlines, with everything.

Speaker 1: 30:28

Mm-hmm. Good, what are some other? Are there other mistakes that are popping into your head?

Speaker 3: 30:35

I can always think of lack of communication, like in yeah Everything, because there are some clients who would you know, okay, they will hire you and then After a month you don't hear from them. Yes.

Speaker 3: 30:50

Yes, and and then suddenly the following month you get all this projects, all these tasks, all these to-dos and that is and I know it's frustrating for the VA, but it keeps the VA. It leaves your VA hanging Like suddenly you're here and suddenly you're not, and they know why. So sometimes you may not have enough work for the VA, but you should at least let them know, or if you have a lot of work coming up, you should also give them a heads up so I just wrote down pacing.

Speaker 1: 31:35

So too much work, not enough work, spreading it out too far. And the communication piece I think is huge, right. So if you don't tell, if you don't let your staff, your team know what's going on, they can't prepare. So, yeah, regular communication, clear communication and y'all. That's a whole topic all in itself. So, being able, if something doesn't work right, if there's a problem, you've got to be willing to talk to your VA about it. And I would say, be careful about this, don't leap to all kinds of terrible conclusions If your VA is not performing the way you want your first place to look is with yourself.

Speaker 1: 32:18

Do you have a plan? Are you communicating that plan clearly? Are your expectations laid out in writing in a way that makes sense to them? Do they understand what you're asking them to do? And is the pacing crazy, my? Pacing actually is kind of crazy we have to-.

Speaker 3: 32:36

You always give me a heads up.

Speaker 1: 32:38

I do, I will drop you a note and I'll say heads up, I need to let you know, this is coming.

Speaker 3: 32:41

I've got this idea.

Speaker 1: 32:42

I'm gonna start it next week like buckle your seat belt, here it comes. Yes, I do do that, yeah.

Speaker 3: 32:48

But that's fine. I mean, then I can plan ahead. And then we have to remember that most VA's they also work for other clients. So yes, Even if they would love to help you out with these things, but because it's last minute notice, they might not be able to deliver.

Speaker 1: 33:09

That is the perfect last mistake. I wanna pull this with this because that keep so. This is a huge, huge misunderstanding I think that people have about working with a virtual assistant. When I hire an assistant, they are helping me, but I am their client, right. So you help me, queenie, but I am your client, right? And although I joke about being your favorite, I am not only probably not your favorite, I'm also not your only. So this is something that really hit me when I first started working with VA's that I really wanted to emphasize. So I'm gonna this is a perfect spot to bring this to. You are hiring a business owner. You are contracting with another business owner. You are two equals who are coming together and deciding on a relationship that is mutually beneficial to you both. You are not the boss of somebody who is your, who is underneath you. You are co-creators and co-collaborators in a project. And for you, queenie, to say, just remember, you're not my only client. What I wrote down was respect.

Speaker 1: 34:23

That we have to remember that we are one of many people that these folks are working with. We may not be if they're just getting started, we may be there only, but they will have others along the way, unless you hire them full time. And if you do, that's great, yeah, hire them full time. But I would say that a mistake that I've seen that all of these go into is a lack of communication, a lack of understanding and a lack of respect. So, these people? So one of the dangers you all have to watch out for those of you who are listening is that if you're a creative person, you're a visionary, you've got a lot of ideas, you've got a big heart. You just wanna help your people. Don't bother me with all that silly business stuff. I don't care about that. I don't care about money, I don't care about details, I don't care about systems, I just want some. I don't care about marketing, I just wanna help my people. Well, y'all, you're a business owner and you have to think like a CEO. That means, yeah, your service is important. It is one of many things that are important, and you can delegate. You cannot abdicate responsibility, all right, so that is, I think, a biggie. So, yes, I really want you to hire a team. I want you to start building this up for yourself, but don't look at them as magicians. You're gonna come along and solve all your problems. They're not. They will help you solve your problems, but you must treat them with respect. You must treat them as equals. You must treat them as co-creators and collaborators and exactly what Queenie said have a clear plan, have clear expectations, communicate clearly and often, watch your pacing and remember that you're not the only client.

Speaker 1: 36:05

This new person that I am onboarding right now. We are meeting every week for an hour online for the first probably four to six weeks that she's working with me, because I wanna catch problems before they happen. I want her to get to know me and how I think, and I wanna get to know her better. So, even if I don't even have an agenda, we have a standing meeting. That is just temporary Now. You and me, queenie, we do like a two or three hour meeting once a quarter. That's what we've done. We communicate online most of the time, but we do. We start and we didn't. In the beginning we didn't do face to face, but today we do meet online on a regular basis. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 36:42

In the beginning we did once a week, I think. Oh, did we? I?

Speaker 1: 36:45

didn't remember I was, because I remember being surprised when I finally got to meet you, like, oh look, you're live. I remember that Maybe that was sooner on than I remember it's been so long. Yeah, it does help to talk in person. You will connect with people in a different way.

Speaker 3: 37:00

Yeah, yeah, it's really different right. Yeah. You can communicate through emails and through project management tools, but it's still different when you have in-person meetings let's just say online meetings but you see the person face to face, Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 37:19

Until I can convince you to move here. That's pretty much how we have to do it. Yeah, so y'all want the last thing I'll say about that. So, in terms of communication, so a project management tool can be a way that you communicate with your VA, and it may be that they have a tool they're used to that they just sort of bring you in, or you may have one that you prefer that you bring them on. That's either. One of those is kind of okay. It depends on the person.

Speaker 1: 37:43

Queenie and I, historically, have been using Trello for everything. We are actually, as we speak, transitioning. We are beginning to move away from Trello to something called ClickUp, which is kind of like Mondaycom or like Asana, if you've heard about any of those. They all do similar things. They all are good in various ways. Different things work different for different people, but having some kind of a platform, that is where you park the work, where you communicate back and forth here's project A, project B, project C here are the tasks that are involved, who's responsible, what's the deadline, where are we at in this, where you can communicate back and forth, that's been a godsend for us. So you and I, queenie, we've been using Trello. We're switching and we also will use Voxer every now and then when there's something urgent that I just need to get a message to you right away, yeah, or WhatsApp.

Speaker 1: 38:33

We've done both of those, yeah, yeah, well, today I want to keep this one a little bit shorter today, because I felt like we went long in the last one, but I feel like we've given y'all a bunch of platforms and all of this y'all. I'm gonna do one of two things I'm either gonna put this in the show notes or I'm gonna put together a little worksheet, a little download for you. I haven't decided which, because this is evolving as we talk about it, but I will have this information for you one way or another. Down below there, we've talked about different places you can go find a VA. We've talked about how to prepare to hire before you ever start the hiring process. I gave you a few tips for how to the actual hiring process itself, how to think that through, and then we talked a little bit about how to communicate with them and work with them afterwards. That's really good. We covered it all really quickly today.

Speaker 1: 39:22

What do you think? Not bad. I'm looking. I think that's really what I wanted to hit today. I wanted like, let's get into this.

Speaker 3: 39:31

If you have more questions, they can just write to you and you'll get back to them.

Speaker 1: 39:36

They sure can. You can absolutely send me an email that you can look up, queenie. We shared your website the other day. It's yourbusinessalliecom is how you can reach out to Queenie directly. You can also reach out to me. Y'all know all the different ways to do that. What I would challenge you guys to do for those of you who are sitting on the fence about this I would challenge you to start by doing the process I laid out in the last episode of the first part of the series, which was start tracking your activities. If you do that for one week, I think you will be astonished at how much you're doing that is not bringing in money. Your time should be spent on the top 5% of activities that are revenue producing. Anything else you need to get somebody else to do All right good. So, queenie, is there anything else along this line that I have forgotten to ask you anything else that you want to share? Just in general, that would make this whole conversation complete.

Speaker 3: 40:38

I think there's one tip I'd like to share. If there are thinking of hiring an experienced VA, micro-managing will not work for somebody who is already very experienced.

Speaker 3: 40:54

So it keeps up to, because if you micromanage, essentially this is really you not being willing to delegate tasks. So sure you need to check and assess if the VA is doing a good job, but let them do and deliver the job first. So you hire an experienced VA, you are hiring I would say you're hiring a senior member of your team. So after you've built a relationship with that, they allow them the room to excel. So use your VA's initiative and expertise to help you grow your business. They know what they are doing and they do like to be micromanaged very much.

Speaker 1: 41:49

That is such a great tip and what a perfect place to bring this to a close, because what can happen is you can be one extreme or the other. You don't communicate enough. You just kind of say, here, solve it, fix it, good luck, and you never talk to them again, or you're on top of them every day, which is going to drive people crazy, right, if you're hiring an expert, and that's your anxiety talking. If you're doing that, you're so you're anxiety.

Speaker 1: 42:12

So one or the other, either you're sort of ignoring your responsibility here if you don't talk to them at all or you don't communicate clearly, or you are you're not trusting that. You've hired like trust yourself to hire well, and once you've gotten through the onboarding process, once you I mean it takes a while in the beginning you're getting to know each other, but once you know them you've got a system in place. Everybody's clear on what their job is, let them do their job and treat them with respect that an experienced position deserves. So that's great. That's really good advice, greeny. That's good.

Speaker 3: 42:45

Another thing about respect. You mentioned that earlier, wendy.

Speaker 1: 42:49

Yeah, yeah, that's really good, awesome, awesome, well, great, well, I wanted to keep this one short today, but I'm hoping that between these two episodes, guys, you have learned a lot about what it takes to add someone to your team. This really is. It can be a game changer for you in so many ways. So I encourage you to don't be afraid. Just follow the steps we've laid out for you and you can do it and you'll be happy that you did and you might find your own, queenie. I hope you do All right, everybody with that. I will thank you, queenie, so much for hanging out with me to do this work.

Speaker 3: 43:22

This is so delightful You're doing my people of service and I'm very grateful as always, if having me, I'm a little bit nervous because it's my first time in a podcast.

Speaker 1: 43:32

She is always nervous, y'all. She's so much happier behind the scenes. She's like don't make me talk to people. I don't want to talk to people, you know. But she's really good and I could not do half of what I do without Queenie. I would, I would just quit If. If I lost Queenie, I would just like give up. That would be the end of it. It'd be like it's been nice knowing everybody. So that's what a good person will do to your, to your business. I don't. You're not alone anymore, any idea. You've got. There's somebody there to help you. When you drop a ball, somebody else is there to pick it up. When you've you've got an. I am like you. It just is such. It's just the best feeling in the world to have a good staff member. Now you can have one. That's not so great and that's a whole nother conversation on how to handle that, but but when you get the right people in place, it is the game changer. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:20

Which Queenie has done. I've watched her do this. I've watched you grow, do this own process. It's so cool. All right, y'all. With that, I'm going to say goodbye. I want you to have a great week. Go, start tracking your time, see what you do and tell me what you learned from this process. I would love to hear from you. Have a great week, everybody, and I will see you next time right here. Same bat station, same bat time on the ideal practice practice. Bye now.