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Episode 308: Getting Help Sooner Rather Than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

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Get it Done: 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

by Kathleen LeGrys | Feb 12, 2024

Get it Done: 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

If you’re facing tech challenges as a health coach, you are not alone. We hear this quite often, so we know the struggle can be real and quite frustrating.

While having an online business requires some tech, coming at it from a different perspective can sometimes be helpful.

In this episode of The Wellness Business Podcast, you’ll discover:

A 5-step strategy that will help you determine whether it makes financial sense to stick it out to overcome the tech-challenge yourself or instead, hire a virtual assistant
The importance of analyzing the cost implications of choosing between DIY solutions and seeking external assistance
A super-simple strategy that allows you to hire someone to help you that won’t cost you a single penny
The best approach when hiring a virtual assistant to guarantee that you get the results you’re looking for within your allotted budget

In this episode, our goal isn’t to cover the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant to help you if you’re dealing with a tech-challenge, but rather to give you a 5-step process that helps you overcome your tech challenge once and for all. Yes, in some cases, that may require hiring someone to help, but in other cases, our system may prove that you are the right person for the job.

Let’s dive in!

Here are 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

Step 1 – Identify the specific tech challenge you’re facing

First and foremost, you have to know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, this could be setting up a MailerLite landing page, thank you page, email delivery & automated follow email sequence. That feels like a lot of moving parts but when you work inside one platform it does make it easier to navigate.

When you feel like the task is big and overwhelming it’s easy to stay in analysis paralysis. However, when you identify the specific tech challenge you’re having it may not be as big as you thought. For example, in the scenario shared above, it may be that you’re only having trouble with one piece of that puzzle, rather than the entire process. Hiring someone to help you with that one piece could be more cost-effective and a huge time-saver that makes it worth your while to bring them on board.

Step 2 – Decide if you can do it yourself with minimum learning or if you need to find someone to help you

This is the ultimate question, right? Do you need outside help which costs money vs. spending hours or even days, figuring it out yourself? There is a cost to doing it yourself. Time spent doing that task means less time for working with clients. Does the expense savings outweigh the lost revenue? Even if you don’t have clients at the moment, time spent working on back-office tasks means you’re not doing the marketing things that attract clients to you. That’s a major trade off and has the potential of lost revenue. It has to be part of your decision-making process.

As we discussed in step 1 – if you break down the project you’re trying to complete you may find that it’s only a small portion of it that you need assistance with vs. the entire project.

Step 3 – Look for someone in your family, friends, colleague group that has tech skills that would be open to helping you

In other words, get scrappy. While you may not be the techiest person in your circle of family and friends you have a skill set that you may be able to offer as an exchange for their services. Think of bartering your services for theirs.

Karen hired a high school student to edit her YouTube videos several years ago, and it was a great decision.

Maybe it’s a tech-savvy grandchild or girlfriend/boyfriend of someone you know. You can either offer a reasonable rate or offer something in exchange. Maybe a coaching session, meal planning, or a discount on a 30-day coaching program.

Outside the health coaching space, you could offer to babysit or a week of meal prep may be a good option. Be creative and see what you could do that would help them that doesn’t include paying them.

Get it Done: 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

Step 4 – If you decide to hire a VA, here are a couple options to find the right person

The easiest and best option is to ask for recommendations from other coaches. It’s always great to get an introduction from someone in your field. It takes the guesswork out of whether the VA is legit and reliable.

Another great option, and one Karen has personally used, is to post the job description in the VA Savvies FB group. This does require a little more work and keep in mind that the job description will need to be extremely specific to get the right person. Since this will more than likely be a one-time service it makes sense to ask the applicant to give you a quote to complete the job.

If hiring someone is on your radar, be sure to listen to episode 308 of the podcast. In that episode we walk you through Getting Help Sooner Rather Than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant.

Step 5 – Review applicants and quotes. Hire skilled VA with specific instructions, milestones, and timelines

Here we are at step #5 and at this point you’ve for sure made the decision whether you’re going to work through the tech challenge yourself or hire someone to help you.

If you’re decision is to hire someone then it’s key to set yourself up for success by giving them specific instructions, milestones, and timelines. Every subcontractor needs to have some form of accountability as a way of completing the job on time and giving you the results that you’re looking for. The more details you can agree upon before they start the less chance things will go off the rails. Do your best to make sure you are both on the same page.

Lastly, requiring a specific quote from them ahead of time is imperative so you know that completing the project is within your budget and they feel like they are getting paid what they are worth.

While tech challenges can feel stressful sometimes, it can be an opportunity to either learn something new or decide to take it off your plate and delegate it to someone else. As we always say: “There is always a way!”

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Download Karen’s free guide: 10 Steps To Hiring Virtual Support That Save You Time and Money

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Getting Help Sooner Rather Than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

by Kathleen LeGrys | May 8, 2023

Getting Help Sooner Rather than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

One way to make progress in your business a lot sooner, is to outsource some of the tasks that other people can take off of your plate. When you focus on the things only you can do such as work with clients, run your programs, show up on video and expand your circle of influence, you will feel less stressed, more productive and can actually earn more money.

But how do you get started when it comes to hiring a virtual assistant?

In today’s episode of The Wellness Business Podcast, you’ll discover…

The 5 steps you should take when hiring a virtual assistant that will set that working relationship up for success right from the start
A list of questions you can ask past references to get a feel, ahead of time, if this virtual assistant is a good fit for you
Our very best pro-tips that you should consider when hiring a virtual assistant whether they will be filling an ongoing support role or taking care of one-off tasks for you

Karen and I both use multiple virtual assistants in our businesses. If we didn’t, we would never be able to keep up with the daily and weekly tasks that are demanded by our businesses.

As an example, for this podcast alone we have a podcast editor, someone else that posts our weekly episodes to the podcast blog, and then we each have our own VA’s that post our weekly podcast episodes to our individual websites, as well as we each have our own social media managers that create our podcast graphics and schedule our posts accordingly. That’s six virtual assistants between the two of us just for the podcast.

To be transparent, in the beginning of our businesses we both waited way too long to get virtual support. Knowing how that negatively affected our businesses and health we felt it was important to give you these 5 pro tips so you can hire help sooner rather than later.

Here are 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Step #1 – Determine your business needs – While it would be great to outsource almost everything in your business there are some things that only you can do. The flip side is that there are certain tasks that should be outsourced because your time is better spent elsewhere.

To figure out where you should begin, start by making a list of day-to-day or one-off tasks that you would like support with. This will not only help you get clarity about where you want help, it will also help you decide if there is overlap between tasks so one person could handle more than one thing.

Step #2 – Set clear objectives – In order for you to establish a win-win relationship with your virtual assistant, you need to set clear objectives from the start. When we first began our journey in hiring a VA we tried to find someone that could do it all for us. The idea of having one person that knew the ins and outs of our businesses felt like a dream come true. But we quickly realized that not only is it unrealistic to expect one person to be an expert in all things, it also set the virtual assistant up for failure. Not a great way to kick things off.

Now, when we hire someone, we look for someone that specializes in a certain area that meets the needs of our objectives. The clearer you can be about your job description, due date, and pay structure the more likely all of your objectives will be met.

Step #3 – Check their communication skills – Searching for virtual support is now a global opportunity. You have the ability to connect and work with people from anywhere in the world. That is a tremendous opportunity as long as there is clear communication between the two of you.

One of our favorite ways to make sure we’re a good match for a virtual assistant is to do a test project. As an example, when Karen was searching for a new social media manager she posted a job description, went through the applicants previous work history as well as the portfolios they submitted and then she chose her top 3 candidates. She reached out to each of them and asked if they would be willing to create 3 social media posts and graphics for her Instagram account. She offered to pay them 1 hour of wages based on their preferred hourly rate from their application and she gave them a due date.

Believe it or not, one gal missed the due date and never reached out to Karen. When Karen contacted the VA the next day, she offered a reason why she was late so Karen set a new due date for her. Once again, she missed the deadline. When she did finally submit her posts and graphics, Karen already knew that she was not a good fit because she could not meet a promised deadline. Communication is key and at no time did she take the initiative to let Karen know she was going to be late in submitting her posts. Not a great first impression.

Maria on the other hand, went above and beyond. She researched Karen’s social media and her website. Her trial posts and graphics were ideal client specific, and incorporated her marketing message, so she was hired.

Step #4 – Ask for their portfolio and/or references – One of the easiest ways to find a great virtual assistant is to ask your colleagues. Karen and I have shared our virtual resources with one another for years and it’s always been a great fit.

If the work you want done is something visual, like social media graphics, pdf creation, or video editing, then it’s easy to ask them to provide a portfolio that includes multiple examples of projects they’ve completed in the past. If they are truly a professional virtual assistant they will already have this created ahead of time which means they can supply the link easily.

If you’re looking for general virtual support with things like email management, calendar bookings, organizing Dropbox, customer service replies, etc. then that’s not as easy to put into a portfolio. This is a great opportunity to ask for references. References are people that you can reach out to that have worked with this person in the past that will share their feedback about what they think of your potential hiring candidate.

Being prepared with a few questions ahead of time that you can ask the reference will make this process go more smoothly.

Here are 5 sample questions you can ask:

How long did you work with the virtual assistant and what tasks did they perform? This question will help you understand the length and nature of the previous working relationship and the tasks the virtual assistant has experience in handling.

Can you describe the virtual assistant’s communication skills and responsiveness? As communication is a crucial aspect of any remote working relationship, this question will give you an idea of how well the virtual assistant communicates and responds to queries and requests.
How well did the virtual assistant adapt to new tasks and challenges? This question will give you an idea of the virtual assistant’s problem-solving skills and ability to handle new tasks and challenges.

Can you describe the quality of the virtual assistant’s work and attention to detail? This question will give you an idea of the quality of work that the virtual assistant delivers and whether they pay attention to detail.

Would you recommend this virtual assistant to others, and if so, why? This question will give you a sense of the reference’s overall impression of the virtual assistant, and why they would or would not recommend them.

Step #5 – Start small and build your skills as a project manager – In any good employer / virtual assistant relationship, both people need to bring their A-game to the table for it to be a win-win. I’ve found that oftentimes, the quality of the work being delivered to me is determined by how well I’m doing my job as the business owner and project manager. That’s why I like to start with smaller projects and progress from there over time as we build a relationship.

Here are some things to think about when hiring virtual support:

Are you clear in what outcome you want to receive by providing examples, clear specifications, due dates, pay structure, milestone check-ins, etc.
Are you meeting any expectations put on you by the project such as delivering sample screenshots, brand colors, user names and passwords for necessary platforms, etc. If you aren’t meeting deadlines you’ll be showing your virtual assistant that you do not put a priority on deadlines so why should they.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will the relationship you have with your virtual assistant. It takes time to build trust on both sides so starting with smaller projects, getting great results, course correcting as needed, and moving forward in incremental steps is a recipe for success.
If your working relationship with your new virtual assistant is going to be ongoing, rather than a one-off project, let them know up front that you’ll start them off with a 90-day probationary period. After 90 days plan to have a meeting to see how things are going on both sides. Is it a good match? How’s the communication? Is there anything you can do to make their job easier? Great communication works both ways and this is a great way to set clear expectations and parameters of the first 90 days.

What is one task or project you can start outsourcing in the next 30 days? Once you get started with outsourcing, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner!

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Article from Harvard Business Review, called “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time.”

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Managing Your Energy Vs. Managing Your Time

by Kathleen LeGrys | Mar 6, 2023

Managing Your Energy Vs. Managing Your Time

When it comes to your business, there is a lot to do. You are likely already busy in your personal life, so managing it all can feel a little overwhelming sometimes.

We are all familiar with the concept of time management, but there is also something else to consider which is managing your energy.

When you’re conscious and intentional about how you’re spending your time and you’re aware of what is draining your energy vs what makes you feel happy and energized, you’ll notice a big difference in how you feel – your mood, your productivity and enjoyment of what you do.

Today, we are talking about managing your energy vs managing your time, and we’re having an open and interesting conversation to give you some ideas on what you may want to implement or try.

In order to manage your energy, it’s important to start with the things you know tend to drain you, vs what doesn’t. Things that drain you can also be things you enjoy doing, but because it takes mental or emotional energy, you have to limit how much you do in a day or a week.

Kathleen: For example, I enjoy doing livestreams in my Facebook group, but after 30-40 mins, I need to take a break. I could not do livestreams every day or probably not even every week, and I’m aware of that and I schedule accordingly.

Also, because I know I will feel tired afterwards, I know not to schedule other appointments or tasks that take a lot of brain power. So, after doing a livestream, I wouldn’t plan to outline a podcast episode or do something that takes a lot of creativity.

Another thing that helps me manage my energy is not overbooking my calendar. I spread out appointments during the week – whether it’s lunch with friends, doctor appointments, interviews, recording podcast episodes, I’ve learned that if I overbook my day, it wipes me out.

Karen prefers to work in longer blocks of time, so she can power through and get the most important things done by noon.

We have some helpful tips to share to help you better manage your energy, and we’re going to cover 7 of them:

This is obvious, but still important to point out – get enough sleep. If you don’t prioritize sleep, you are going to start your day feeling tired, and it goes downhill from there.
Tune into what gives you energy, so you can incorporate that, such as exercise, meditation, spending time in nature or whatever you enjoy.
Arrange your schedule whenever possible to focus on maintaining your energy rather than overbooking and overscheduling yourself. If you notice you are wiped out by 3 pm each day, it’s a good sign to listen to your body and take a break or end your workday then if possible.
Take mini breaks during the day. This could be doing something as simple as stretching, doing some breathing exercises, stepping outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air and sunshine or it could be going for a quick 5-10 minute walk.
Limit multi-tasking and focus on completing one task before moving to the next one.
Limit distractions as much as possible – this means leaving your phone in the other room when you’re working or turning off push notifications.
Look at tasks that you can outsource to free up more of your time and protect your energy.

When we focus on managing our energy, managing our time tends to fall into place because we will likely get more done while feeling better.

Tune into the things that deplete your energy and decide how you can work around it, delegate it or break it up during the week.

Resources and Links mentioned on the show:

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Kathleen’s Free Facebook Group Audit Checklist

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3 Common Facebook Group Mistakes to Avoid

by Kathleen LeGrys | Feb 20, 2023

3 Common Facebook Group Mistakes to Avoid

If you have a Facebook group for your health coaching business but it seems like an uphill battle to get members to engage (and sign up for your programs) it could be that you’re making one or more common mistakes.

The good news is that you can turn things around pretty quickly. Once you know what mistakes to avoid, you’ll have more of the right people joining your group, and you’ll also have more members enrolling in your paid programs (instead of them only consuming your free content).

On this episode we’re sharing 3 Common Facebook Group Mistakes to Avoid, and here’s what you’ll discover:

The #1 reason why people are joining your group but not becoming clients
Tips for naming your group to attract the right members
One of the first things new members will look for as soon as they join your group, and if you don’t have this in place, you are missing a huge opportunity to build trust and connection
How to lead people to the next step to working with you in a non-salesy way

Let’s dive in!

Mistake #1: The group name is not directly aligned with or related to your niche.

One of the common mistakes made with groups is that the group name isn’t clear about who it’s for. This is a problem because if your group is pretty generic about health and wellness, you may have a lot of people joining, but they won’t necessarily be your ideal clients. This means engagement tends to be low and people won’t be enrolling in your programs because they aren’t a good fit for your particular area of expertise and your offers.

One way to know if your group name is specific enough is can people self-identify that this is an area where they need help and is it very obvious who the group is for. Will people see the group and know right away if it’s for them or not? Remember, you only want your potential ideal clients joining your community, so be bold about claiming your niche and go all in on it.

See if you can spot the difference in these two names and see which one is very specific:

Abundant Health and Energy
Thrive Through Menopause

The first one is general and could be for anyone – men or women at any age with any issue or problem. The 2^nd one would be an option if your niche was helping women with menopausal issues, and the right people will be interested in joining and the wrong people will scroll on by, and that’s exactly what you want.

When you look at your group name, is it specific enough? You can always fine tune it a bit to narrow it down more.

Mistake #2: No welcome video pinned to the top of the group.

This is a really important element to include in your group because when people first join your group, they come in and take a peek around. They want to know who you are as the host of the group and the expert. When they see a welcome video from you, they instantly get to connect with you and get a feel for your personality and what you’re about. Think about what you do when you join a new group – you want to see what’s going on and find out if it’s going to be a helpful community – or not. By having a short 1-2 minute video pinned to the very top, it’s usually one of the first things new members will check out, and when they feel like they’re in the right place, they are more likely to come back the group, post questions and engage.

Mistake #3: No (or very few) calls to action to work with you. A call to action to work with you could be to book a discovery call or join your paid program. It’s easy to post content in your group, but it’s important that members know how they can take the next step to get support from you. People are busy and they don’t want to have to dig around to find out what you do and how you can help them, so you want to post about it from time to time.

There are several ways to do this and one of them is during your livestreams in your group. You can share a story about a client and what problem they were having when they came to see you and what the result was after they implemented what you recommended. This creates interest and curiosity about working with you. During the livestream, mention that you have a few spots open for discovery calls this month and how they can schedule one.

Another way is to post occasional direct invites in your group to book a free discovery call. Be sure to include who it’s for and a link to your online calendar to make it easy for people to take action.

Need more ideas for your Facebook group?

Be sure to download your free Facebook Group Audit Checklist, so you can audit your own group to help troubleshoot any issues you’re having and get the best results possible.

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