How Do I Know If I'm Ready for a VA?

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Hi, welcome to the podcast that explores virtual assistants, lump business owners to know,

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but may start asking themselves the question, hey, do I meet a VA? I'm Rachel Davila, and after

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18 years as a virtual assistant going at a loan, I experienced the steep learning curve from the

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other side of the VA client relationship when I hired my own assistant. Joining me on this podcast is a group

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of friends and colleagues who all have their own take on what busy entrepreneurs need to know to find,

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hire and work with a virtual assistant, and mindfully answer the question, hey, do I meet a VA? Let's get this

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episode started. Hey everybody, welcome back to episode 2 of Hey, do I meet a VA? The podcast

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I'm your host Rachel and I am joined again with my cast of VA colleagues and friends and I'm going to

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set the timer for 20 minutes because I can talk and they know this about me, but today we're going to talk

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about how do I know if I'm ready to hire a VA? My thought on that is if you're asking the question,

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then you're already on the journey, but I want to ask my friends what their experience has been

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when clients or potential clients have come to them and asked the question, how do I know?

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So, Ray, we'll start with you because we end with in the high seat last episode.

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Thank you Rachel. Yeah, I agree with you. If you're asking the question or if you're feeling

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overwhelmed or stressed or feeling areas in your business that feel like they're sucking your energy

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and not bringing you the joy that you love working in, then it might be something to consider in

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that time to like reach out and maybe ask other people who they know or even take a moment as you're

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going through your day and just jot down. What are the things that you really wish you could get to

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somebody else? Is it doing your email admin? Is it doing, you know, your bookkeeping stuff? Is it

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doing your social media? Are these pieces that you would love to hand off? Just even start like

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a dream list of the things that you would like to hand off and see what that feels like if you have

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a slight idea of what those are, it helps to start, but don't feel like you also have to have

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all the answers before you even begin. That's part of the building relationship and know that when

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you're working with a VA, that's what it is in the beginning. It's a lot of the building

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relationship getting to know each other, getting to know what your interests are, what you're doing,

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how you're serving people so that we can help support you the best way we can. Definitely. Yeah,

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and your needs change as you work with a VA, so you don't have to know at all at the beginning.

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Having a good VA on your team will help you kind of, wait, I can do that. I can ask you to do that.

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Yeah, I'm going to hand out over to you because I didn't even know that was a thing.

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So, right? Ask questions, ask your VA questions. We want to learn and grow with you.

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So, I mean, in our team, if there's something that we don't already know and a client asks it,

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I'll go to my team and ask them, like, hey, does anybody want to learn this new to skill?

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And more and often than not, I already have a course for it, and there's somebody on my

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team who's been chomping at the bit to learn it. We just didn't have the reason to yet. So,

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always ask your VA question, or if they're in a collaboration like VR,

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they'll make me somebody else that they could pull in and make it another team member for you to

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help support you in those areas.

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Sydney, you got anything to add? I think an important part of being ready to hire a VA is

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being comfortable with your business, come for all enough to trust someone else, to start to

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weigh in on it. I think one of the things that might be the most difficult about hiring a VA

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is losing that little bit of control. I think it's easy to really enjoy controlling every

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aspect of your business even though it's a draining you. And I think that learning to let go

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little by little and trust the VA you're working with. I think that's one of the most difficult

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parts, and I think it's also the part that is constantly in development even after you've hired a VA.

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That was right on the nose because having been a VA and then handing stuff off to a VA

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or Sydney, the learning curve that I had to go on to be able to hand stuff off to them was

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severe. It was pretty steep because perfectionism and you know, well it's just easier for me to do it

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versus explaining and teaching and showing why I was doing it and what I was doing.

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That is still something I'm working on. So, thank you Sydney.

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Me as well, just to speak to that for a second to you is that like when you do hand it off and you start

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taking it back, then you have to remind yourself that there's a reason why you hand it off and it's

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for the greater good for that person to take it on because I also fall into taking it back. And it doesn't

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serve me that was there was a reason why I handed it off into the evening so catching yourself

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and being aware when that happens helps too. And being ready to acknowledge that about yourself

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so that you can go, okay, this is something I'm working on. This is why I'm doing this

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is so that I can let it go and focus on other things or business building things. So

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Leanne, what do you tell clients when they ask the question? I actually ask them a question back

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which is are you able to continue running your business the way you're doing it?

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Because really, they're already asking questions. They already know the answer.

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So my biggest thing is can you keep going this way? Did your health continue?

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Did your family going to be okay? Can you continue doing 24-7 on your business or do you need some help?

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And a lot of times although I'm a little bit different of a VA I do a much more tech.

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I start with project. So it's like hey, let's try something out. Let's find a piece

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that you just is a project. Just a piece to hand off to me. I'll take care of it. And then we can

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decide hey, is this working? Is it not and move forward from there? And most of the time, even if

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the little tiny piece and the only takes me, you know, 15-20-mint, half hour, whatever. Even if it's a

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little tiny piece, they'll go, that was so much better here. And they just keep handing.

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And it works both ways. It gives me a chance to learn how they work. And it gives

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them a chance to relax a little about handing something off.

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One of the biggest things like we've preset and I think actually every basement you just

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hand it off, they want to take it back. It's like the meal. I want to take it back.

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I'll take care of this little piece for you. And then let's see how we go.

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And for me from the way my business works, that works better than hey, sign on the dotted line.

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And I am now your VA and for all things, you know, 30 hours a week. That's not the thing for me.

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But it is for some businesses. That works that way. So sometimes starting really small, even if it's

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like a little tiny piece works better. And they kind of get to understand what a VA can do for them.

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Because that little tiny piece is like, like, they're stumbling block. They couldn't get past it.

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And then like, hey, they did that. Now I have an hour free. And I can go do something else.

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Yeah. And it's not always a task. Sometimes it's a feeling that you need like,

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if you're a solo per newer and you've been doing it on your own,

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for however long you've been doing it. And then suddenly now you have somebody that's on your team.

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It's it's um, it's a learning to go, oh, I'm not by myself. I have somebody. And that does take time to

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sink in. It takes time to build the trust, the, I picked the right person. I didn't even know I needed

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that kind of support. And they're giving it. I didn't even know. And so there's a lot of elements

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that we're going to talk about this season on this that when you're first thinking, am I ready to

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hire a virtual assistant? Most people come to it with what am I going to hand off? And I think

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what what I got out of it and what I think we all try to cultivate with our clients is

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it's not just the handing off of tasks. It's that feeling of, I'm not alone.

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I can, I can hand off this piece that's been holding me back and somebody's going to catch it,

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run with it. Sometimes better than I could do it myself because I'm distracted or there's more

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things, right? I just got to get that done. And I just spent three hours on a graphic because

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I can't get out of my own way. And sometimes it's just, I need a starting place. I need somebody

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to just, right, just do it so that I can not think about it anymore. And I think there's some of

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those emotions that like when I, you know, when they, when I was in my program to become a virtual

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assistant, they're like, we're not going to teach you the skills. We're not going to teach you

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those kinds of things. We're going to teach you the foundations of being a business partner

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with other businesses, your business, their business, and you're working together. And it's going

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to change your life because you're going to look at things differently. When you're working with a

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virtual assistant, it's business to business. They're not, and employee, they're not somebody that you just

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order about. And at least not the way we do it. I mean, I can't speak for everyone else here, but

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that's not how I run my business. I am a partner with my, with my clients. And so

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having that sounding board for both businesses is, is a value added that you don't necessarily

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go into a VA client relationship with. But once it kicks in and once you're like, oh, they're doing

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this better than I could. They're, they're taking it and they're running with it in a direction.

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I never imagined it could go. Wow. That's, it's a, it's a feeling, it's not a task. It's, I mean,

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that that's how you build the trust and that's how you kind of, you know, go, okay, I can hand

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off more, but it's that freedom that relief that I'm not alone. And I have more space, I have more time.

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And I always joked because I've seen it with clients. Is that when I start to take things off their

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plate, things that they're like, okay, that's, that's why I hired a VA. That's what I need them to do.

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They're like, oh my God, I just had this idea. This crazy creative download of what's next. And

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and it just, their confidence grows their Because I know when I handed things off to

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Sydney, you know, and actually surrender crazy, crazy growth happens. So it's not something that we can tell you

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is going to happen. We just know it's going to happen. So how do you know if you're ready?

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You may not be ready for what's going to happen, but you don't have, it's never that like,

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that super fast growth, right? It's baby steps. It's incremental. It's learning, trusting, growing,

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and my wrong. No, it totally develops over time. And I can just those tasks that you need to get done.

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Those ones that have been on the back burner hanging off of you for a long time,

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just getting those ones off your back, too. Yeah, yeah. I call them procrastinations and tolerations

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because before you can even start looking at goals, I just, I just need to get this off and out of the way.

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And a lot of times Sydney is just my starting place. It's like, Sydney. They did an amazing job

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on my social media because I met with Bree. And she gave me all these wonderful pillars to

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incorporate in my social media. I was like, oh my god, that is Sydney. Look at this and tell me what to do.

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I can do the video. I can write the content, but give me an outline, give me a direction.

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And they did, they took that and they, and I didn't know I needed that until I was faced with it.

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And it makes life a lot easier. I think that is our job is to make our clients' lives easier.

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And so if you're starting to think, am I ready? Are you ready for ease? Are you ready for

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more time, more creativity, more ability to focus on the reason you got in your business in the first place?

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Because there's the two sides of a business, right? There's the client facing side, the reason you got

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in your passion side. And then there's the business owners hat side. You know, the running of the

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business and the in-voicing and the pain, the bills and the scheduling and all the things that make your

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business run. And sometimes those are things you want to end off because I just want to focus on what I've

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passionate about. And so if you're ready for that, then you know you're ready.

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And I think if you're listening to this podcast, you're ready. Or at least you're ready to start the

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journey, right? Even if you're not ready to sign on the dotted line. And there's a lot that goes into

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finding hiring and working with a VA. Be on that question of am I ready for this? So as we go through,

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we're going to touch base on all of those things that you may not have been aware of,

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were reasons and things that you need to consider. And that will also help you to answer the

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question, are you ready to hire a VA? Because you might come up again, some things really like,

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no, I don't necessarily have a process in place that I could easily hand off to somebody,

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or I don't really know enough about this to explain it to somebody else. I need to do some work on

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that. Anything else, maybe? I think I like what you're talking about about like the things that

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need to be done before hiring a VA makes sense. Because I think there's a lot of, I guess

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consideration about what even you would hand off. And what you would need to teach the VA about your

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brand and your style. And so I think that I think that that is something to consider,

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that like sometimes it takes time to make time in the future. So I think that is part of the learning

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curve. Yeah. One of the things I realized when I, you know, I brought Sydney on board,

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but I hadn't done any of that work. So it was kind of like, I don't have anything for you this week.

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You know, because I didn't do my homework. And so there are things we'll talk about in later

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episodes, but do you have enough work to hire somebody? Do you know how to hand it off

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in what format? Like there's just a lot to consider since we do have time. Oh, no, we got two minutes.

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Oh gosh. Okay. So real quick, is there anything that you want to wrap up with and say to consider

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if they're asking that question? I'd say you can also consider your virtual assistant

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as also like an accountability partner, right? Because there's a lot of things that we have

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on our plate and we just fluff off because it's easy for us to do. But when there's somebody on the

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other end, waiting for us to get those pieces to them, then now it holds us accountable. And that's

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where some of that momentum and traction will come because somebody's keeping you on board and asking

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those questions and helping you look for those answers that you may not know you needed to find

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because you didn't have to ask those questions yourself. So it's nice to have an outside perspective

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on those things that you're getting to build that relationship as well. Yes. Yes. Good point. Good point.

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Man, I just think that if you think you might be ready to hire a VA, the biggest question you can

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ask yourself is, can you keep going the way you are or when working with a partner help?

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Because that's definitely what VA's are as a partner. Nobody has the band with

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to run a business and tell somebody exactly what to do all the time. You can't micromanage that.

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You have to just hand off to a VA and let them do the work. So they become a business partner for you

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that is different because they're not part of your business, but they're part of your business.

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It's kind of an odd way of looking at it. They're not financially or contractually attached to your

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business, but at the same time they have invested interest in your business and they kind of help you

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grow. So like you said, a accountability partner. It's amazing how many of my clients go. I got so

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much more than that because I knew I was going to meet with you. It's like, yep, I'll just sit here

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and you can give me the work. But at the same time they knew they were going to meet with me.

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They didn't want to face me and tell me they didn't do their homework. It's amazing to me

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how they're like, this is so awesome. I didn't even really do anything but show up and they're like,

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that you're helping me get things done. That's part of it. Yeah. Yeah.

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Is it nearly any last thoughts? Yeah. I mean, I think I like what Leanne is saying about

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and you continue with the way you're going. Because I definitely, I think being in college

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is definitely giving me a new understanding of what is sustainable and what's not sustainable.

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I feel like, and I feel like the college lifestyle maybe isn't meant to be sustainable.

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But at the same time, I think pairing that with like being a business owner is definitely like

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like sustainability in like energy and everything you're doing is definitely a strong consideration.

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And I hadn't seen it like that before. So I appreciate that perspective. Yeah.

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I can definitely attest to the accountability piece because I'll do things for clients,

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but I won't do them for myself. So having to get things to Sydney so that they can do what

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I need them to do by the time I need to do it creates that deadline that end goal for me that I need

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to to be accountable to myself, to my business to Sydney. So it's definitely a strong, a strong piece.

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And I know that I have a 30 minute clarity call to kind of touch base with potential clients who

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think they might be ready. Do you all have a short call to just see if

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were you kind of talk through with a client if they're ready? If the fit is right, you know,

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those kinds of things? Yep. Definitely. Yeah. So even if you're not sure if you're ready to

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hire a VA, if you just want to have that conversation with a VA, you can reach out to any one of us

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in our in our clarity call discovery call to ask the questions to get those answers to even just

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start the conversation because even if you're not ready in the moment to start, it might be

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let's start with a small project, see how it goes. When we ask the questions of

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these are the things that I'm thinking I want to hand off is that even a thing of VA does,

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you know, all those kinds of questions that you might have instead of letting them swirl in your head,

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it could really help to talk with any one of us to get the perspective that you might need to

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answer the question I'm already. So thank you for joining us today on episode two of

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hey, do I need a VA, the podcast, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you.

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Thank you for joining us on this episode of hey, do I need a VA, the podcast? If you found this

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episode helpful, please leave a like, comment or review. Until free to join our Facebook group,

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find hire and work with a VA for more tips and tools. If you have any questions, please email them

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to hey VA podcast at gmail.com. We'll see you next time.