The All Aboard Newsletter

This week we’re talking about a topic that I spend a ton of time thinking about…

Virtual Assistants!

If you’re an entrepreneur or high-level leader, chances are there’s more on your to-do list than you have time for!

With so much to do and so little time, how do we get more done?

Well, either we do less OR we hire some help to get leverage. The problem is that good help can be very expensive. But, what is the cost of not having help? Between time, money, energy, and attention - the costs can be extremely high.

But how do we find a great assistant? What is the best way to train them? And aren’t there issues with off-shore help?

We’ll cover all those questions and more in this week’s edition.

Lets dive in!

How I use a Virtual Assistant!

If the embedded link doesn’t work, you can access the video here: Click Me

For the best experience and most information, I highly suggest you click the video!

Are You Ready to Let Go?

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to hiring a VA is being willing to let go.

I know what is like to NOT want to give things up.

When you give up tasks and responsibilities you’re losing control, and the reality is that if you’re an entrepreneur, being in control is probably pretty important to you.

The harsh truth though?

If you’re not willing to let go, then you’re likely to hit a plateau and stay there.

Hiring an assistant is an investment. Its something you pay for with your time and money today, to give you more time and energy later. It lets you focus on high-value work, rather than getting stuck in the weeds.

But that doesn’t mean the process isn’t without its challenges…

Common Pain Points with Virtual Assistants

There are all types of reasons that people either don’t want to hire an assistant, or have hired an assistant who didn’t work out.

But I see a few common themes emerge as it pertains to challenges when working with an assistant.

1. Training: One of the biggest challenges when hiring a Virtual Assistant is the time it takes to train them. In the early days and weeks working together, it is a TON of work. But it doesn’t need to be that way forever. By creating training videos and reference guides, you can make this knowledge accessible for your VA long-term and the person that comes after them. Yes, it takes time to train someone, but once done, you won’t need to redo it, and you can build a resource base for everyone in the organization to use.

2. Letting Go: In my mind, this is the toughest part: Giving up control.  You must be ready to delegate. Holding on to the small tasks is the easy thing to do. Training your V.A to do it is the hard thing to do. But to really benefit from a VA, you need to be willing to invest your time AND trust them with tasks you don’t have the time or desire to do yourself (if you should be doing those tasks at all. Before hiring, make a list of all the tasks you don’t want to handle anymore and be ready to let them go. I had about 25 tasks ready to go when I hired Mariana my V.A!

3. Processes: Without clear processes, your VA won’t be able to help as effectively. And in some cases, you need to develop the processes. That is something y’all can do together. When you first start working in tandem, there will be missteps. Mistakes happen, and that is ok! We all know that people learn their best lessons from mistakes, so why are we so impatient when our team makes them? Create, define, and refine processes for all types of tasks that the V.A is going to be working on. The key is being thorough with your directions, and having a process in place so you can create clear expectations for both you and your VA (its a two-way street!). Loom can be your new best friend here (video recording software).

4. Short-Term vs Long-Term Mindset: Think about the time you're investing in training and systems as a long-term play. If you focus on the short-term effort of training your VA, it will feel like a cost rather than an investment. Stick with it!! Once those systems are in place, you'll save significant time and energy down the road, allowing you to focus on higher-level tasks and growth. Figure it out, then teach someone else to do it so you can focus on new things and high-value tasks!

5. Security: Security is a valid concern when working with a VA, especially if they need access to your systems or sensitive information. How do we know who to trust? However, there are solutions! For example: You can restrict access to certain systems to protect data or use virtual credit cards with set limits to protect your financials. If you are still concerned, work with a VA firm that offers protections such as insurance or bonding. At the end of the day, most virtual assistants are professionals—just from different parts of the world—and with the right precautions, you can keep your business secure.

This week’s edition of All Aboard is brought to you by:

Virtual Latinos!

Its becoming a common occurrence to be asked “Who do you use to find your virtual assistants?”

We have used a couple of firms, but the company we’ve enjoyed working with the most is Virtual Latinos.

We’ve hired 6 people from V.L and will likely hire another 5-6 people over the next 12 months. The professionals are based out of Latin America and that is a great fit with us for a few reasons:

1.) They’re in a similar time zone in almost all cases.

2.) Many people on our team speak spanish, so if there is every a language barrier (hasn’t been an issue), we have back up.

3.) Culturally, Latin America tends to be closer to that of the U.S as it pertains to customs, norms, and etiquette.

The reality is that there are many great firms out there in all parts of the world.

We just prefer Virtual Latinos and they have my stamp of approval!

If you decide to use them, use my referral code and we’ll both get $150!

Code: VLRA-94627108361

You can check out their website here: Click Here

Check em out!

How I use a Virtual Assistant

I’ve been using a V.A for the last 8+ months, and I find more things for my assistant to do every single week.

When you first get started, it can be hard to think about what tasks to delegate, but once you have a person working with you that you trust, its not long before you automatically start delegating things in your mind.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. The trust between you and your V.A and the task list you create for them won’t be built in a day either.

So here are some tasks I ask my V.A to help with:

Social Media Management:
At first, I handled all my social media myself. Its great to connect with other agents and I genuinely enjoy it. But when it started to feel like a full-time job, I decided to delegate more and more.

Now, my VA helps me manage connections and manage my messages and responses on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. For instance, we use the 5s strategy on Linkedin and this is a perfect thing for a V.A to help with. That strategy means you do each of these every day:

1. Leave five comments on posts.

2. Endorse five people on LinkedIn.

3. Add five new connections or friends.

4. Join five comments on groups posts.

5. Send five personal messages to welcome new connections.

If you want to adapt this for FB, you can! Just remove endorsements or find a different category.

The extra help and eyes on social media accounts allow me to be more active than I would be normally because I don’t need to be on the platforms all day. Someone is watching them for me and hitting me up when something needs a response. Gamechanger!

P.S - Two more social media strategies in the video.

Research Tasks:
One of the things that eats up a lot of time is research. Whether it's comparing pricing from different companies or gathering data on competitors, these tasks can be overwhelming and never ending.

I love research, but it can take hours of time out of your day to be done right. My VA helps me with this by gathering all the information I need, like finding the best options for certain services or even looking up industry trends. Instead of spending hours doing this myself, my VA provides me with summaries, which saves me a ton of time and effort.

Even if they don’t get it all figured out, they save me a ton of time by narrowing down my search criteria.

Manual & Tedious Tasks:

Any time you find yourself doing a task multiple days or weeks in a row, that should be a big red flag. I like to tell my team “If its manual ask yourself if you can automate it, and if you can’t, delegate it!” Tasks like data entry, CRM updates, and organizing email lists can be really time-consuming.

These are the kinds of tasks that don't require my expertise or focus but are still necessary for running my business. My VA handles these tasks, so I don’t have to worry about small but important things falling through the cracks. It frees up my schedule so I can focus on helping the team or working on strategic initiatives to help the business grow.

Personal Tasks:
Many people are shocked when I say this (and I don’t know why) but a VA can even help you with your personal tasks.

Some examples of the things they can do:

• Manage your Instacart order.

• Prep returns for you 15 daily amazon orders.

• Give you travel planning information (Flights/Hotel/Restaurants)

• Getting 3-4 companies to come to your money-pit house to give estimates (my favorite).

These are just some examples, but you get the point.

As a pro-tip, use your phone’s voice recording feature and send voice notes to make it even easier on yourself.

Final Tips for Success

1. Have a Plan: Before hiring a VA, make sure you know exactly what you need help with.

2. It’s Probably You, Not Them: If things aren’t going well, look in the mirror. It’s likely a problem with how you’re delegating or giving instructions, not the VA.

3. Treat Them Like an Employee: Your VA is part of your team. Train them, invest in them, and treat them like any other employee.

4. Pick a Trusted Firm: Work with a reputable firm like Virtual Latinos or one that you trust.

5. Automate First: If the task can be automated, do it! If not, delegate it to someone who can do it for you at a lower cost.

I couldn’t recommend hiring a VA enough. It’s been a game-changer for me and my business. If you want to talk about VAs, share ideas, or need a referral, just reach out! Let’s all work smarter, not harder.

Until next time!

Cheers!

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