November 1, 2023 • 44 mins
FREE GUIDEBOOK: The 10 Pitfalls of Growing a Creative Team
Description
Ever feel like there's just not enough hours in the day to get everything done? You're not alone! This episode is all about my personal journey of overcoming that feeling of overwhelm by hiring a virtual assistant (VA). I know the idea of hiring a VA can be daunting, but getting started is actually so much easier than you might think.
Let's face it - emails are the bane of our existence! But what if I told you there's an efficient way to manage them with the help of your VA? Yes, it's possible! We get into the nitty-gritty of creating an effective email management system for your VA, including how to train them to respond to your emails and keep your inbox organized. We even discuss the types of emails you can immediately delegate, so you can start reclaiming your time.
We also discuss how better time management and creating an ideal work week can significantly boost your productivity. Incorporating this system has been a game changer for my productivity and overall well-being. So, let's dive in and get you back in control of your time!
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
BELAY: my top recommendation for virtual assistants
Schedule a call with Anna and mention Hannah Bjorndal for $300 off the implementation fee
Episode 82: Exactly How I Organize My Inbox to Save Hours of Time Each Week
OTHER RESOURCES
Vision Casting Workbook: Download for Free
SIGN UP NOW: Dream Team Accelerator Waitlist
Join the Insiders Group: Team Building for Creative Entrepreneurs
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am your stereotypical procrastinator.
I always have been, probablyalways will be.
When something is overwhelmingto me, or when there are like
big question marks that I stillhave about a task, I tend to put
off doing that thing Somehow.
Just by being an unknown, atask seems so much larger and
(00:21):
more time-consuming anddifficult, I just automatically
assume it's going to take aninfinite amount of time and I
won't be able to do it.
An example of that recently isthat I have been redecorating
our condo.
It was just time for a refreshand so, little by little, we've
been redecorating the rooms.
The wall in our living room,specifically, was a spot I
(00:43):
wanted to redo.
I had this vision for a reallybig gallery wall.
We have some original art fromEvan's grandfather, who was a
painter, and we have photos I'vetaken on our travels and some
posters and vintage framedgraphic art.
So I've been really excited tomake this thing happen, but also
figuring out how to lay it outand get it perfect and also make
(01:07):
sure it all looks good together.
It was like ridiculouslyoverwhelming to me.
I got started with the task onmultiple different occasions,
like trying to figure it out,only to abandon it because I was
frustrated or I'd get aheadache.
I actually am pretty sure Ieven started crying one day
because I was so frustrated bynot being able to make progress
(01:28):
and being kind of stuck on whatto do.
However, this week we hosted afriend's birthday celebration at
our place, so last weekend Isuddenly had a lot of energy and
excitement to really get thisthing done and thankfully Evan
had a strategy for getting thewall laid out on the floor and
then hung properly so everythingwould be spaced out evenly.
(01:50):
And you know what it cametogether, and not only that it's
really beautiful and I love howit looks.
Sometimes I just need someoneto light a little fire under me
to give me some motivation andreason to just get it done.
And knowing that there was apath forward for this task, that
Evan could help literally putthe nails in the wall and get
(02:11):
everything hung straight andevenly, that gave me the
confidence that this thing couldactually get done.
My experience hiring a virtualassistant in some ways was
similar.
I waited way too long, wasstuck on, just not knowing how
it would work, and I was worriedthat I didn't have enough time.
But then I took a little stepforward and realized that the
company I was interested inhiring actually was going to
(02:34):
help me and had some tools forme to get started, and that
helped me actually take the leapand hire the assistant.
Since you're listening to thisepisode, I'm going to guess that
you're at least intrigued bythe idea of hiring a virtual
assistant, or maybe you're onthe fence about hiring one, or
maybe you already even havehired one and are just a little
stuck on what to do next.
(02:55):
Fear not, that is what today'sepisode is all about helping you
get a jumpstart on working witha virtual assistant so that you
can gain back hours of timeeach week without the hassle of
figuring out what to do first.
(03:15):
You're listening to TeamBuilding for Wedding Pros, a
podcast dedicated to helping youscale your creative business
through building a team.
I'm your host, hannah Bjorndahl, owner of LaVian Rose, an
expert in all things teambuilding in the creative
artistic world.
Over the past several years,I've gone from being a one woman
(03:40):
show to leading a team ofamazing people to serve more
clients, dramatically increaseour business income and
ultimately make a much biggerimpact in the world, and I'm
passionate about helping you dothe same.
So let's do it.
I will be the first person toadmit that it took me way too
(04:03):
long to hire an executiveassistant, also known as a
virtual assistant or VA or EA,whatever you want to call it.
I'm going to call them VAsthroughout the rest of this
episode because I think that'sprobably the term you've heard
the most.
It's definitely the one I hearthe most.
So hiring a VA was somethingthat I was pretty sold on for
(04:24):
like a few years before actuallygoing for it.
I had read a lot about it,listened to podcasts and I had
friends who were successfullyworking with VA's themselves and
I knew it saved them a lot oftime.
And yet I still hesitated anddidn't move forward.
The cost was probably thebiggest or most obvious thing
(04:44):
holding me back, but I alsothink that I felt like I needed
to do a ton of prep work beforemoving forward.
I didn't want to start payingsomeone until I felt ready
myself, but then I would justnot do the prep work, so that
absolutely held me back.
I also think that I lackedconfidence that a VA would work
(05:06):
for me.
I had heard that VA's managedemail inboxes.
That was kind of like thenumber one thing I was hearing
and honestly, I just like wasn'ta believer that that would work
for me.
I felt like that would beimpossible for me and just cause
more work than it was worth.
I don't feel like I'm a hugecontrol freak around things in
my business.
It, honestly, is more just notknowing how to get started on
(05:30):
that, like I couldn't visualizehow it would work and no one had
given me tools to know where tostart.
So it just felt impossible.
So I've been thinking aboutthat this week and I've also had
a few questions recently in myDMs and in our private online
Facebook community.
By the way, if you're notalready in that, go check it out
.
It's at hannahbjornedollcomslash Facebook or you can check
(05:52):
out the link in the descriptionfor this episode.
So these questions were areminder of how overwhelming it
was for me to bring on a VA,especially when I didn't have
someone guiding me through theprocess.
So in today's episode I want tooffer you both encouragement to
take that first step towardshiring a VA if you're on the
fence, and also give you someconcrete tasks that you can
(06:15):
delegate to your VA, and also alittle bit more about how I made
that happen in my own businessso you feel ready to take that
first step and it's actuallygoing to be effective and save
you time.
So first a little backstory.
Like I said before, I spent along time considering hiring a
VA before I actually movedforward on it.
(06:36):
I finally felt ready like I wasgoing to go for it at the
beginning of 2022, but I feltlike I needed to have a lot of
available time to train my VA,so I didn't want to move forward
until I had an open enoughcalendar to have that regular
training, which is so funny nowbecause it was not that much
(06:57):
extra time each week and theamount of time it saved me
immediately would have been soworth a week or two of working
an extra hour or so to get thatup and running.
So I went through this crazysix months of extreme busyness
and a lot of travel and I justkept putting off pulling the
trigger until I finally had abreak in the busyness in July.
(07:19):
So again, it was like sixmonths of being ready but just
doing nothing and I decided togo ahead and move forward and
work with a company called Belay.
As soon as I started workingwith Belay honestly, even before
I had officially signed on thedotted line to work with him, I
realized, oh my gosh, I shouldhave taken this leap six months
(07:42):
ago.
Even with that crazy schedule,carving out just like an hour or
two each week would have gottenmy VA on boarded quickly and it
would have saved me hours andhours of time.
Those six months would havebeen way less crazy and better
for me if I had just gone for itright away.
Belay was really great becausethey actually provided me with
(08:03):
some helpful resources tojumpstart my relationship with
my new VA, alison.
It set me up to hand things offright away and also gave me a
template for how to train hermoving forward, which took out
some of the guesswork.
And I know, for me personally,when I feel like I have to kind
of figure things out myself andthere's going to be a lot of
(08:24):
guesswork I procrastinate orjust don't do it.
That kind of thing reallyoverwhelms me and I just want to
get all my ducks in a row anddo things the right way and then
I just don't do it at all.
Can you relate to that at all?
I think that's a commonbusiness owner thing.
So if you're on the fence rightnow about hiring a VA,
especially if it's because youdon't feel like you have enough
(08:45):
time to like prep all this stuff.
I hope you'll learn from mymistake that you don't need to
spend tons and tons of timepreparing in advance and then
training for hours and hourseach week for it to actually be
worth it.
It is worth working maybe anextra hour or two for a couple
of weeks to get your VA up andrunning.
(09:06):
There are a million things a VAcan do for you, but
specifically there's a handfulof really easy to offload tasks
and that's going to start savingyou time right away, like hours
and hours of time each week.
And then that's a snowballeffect.
Then you're able to prep evenmore that your VA can do and
then you have more and more time.
(09:27):
You can get more and moreorganized and delegate more work
to your VA, which continuallycreates more and more space in
your life to work on the thingsthat are most important.
So again, just to kind ofreiterate, taking that first
step and just doing it is goingto get the ball rolling to
saving you time.
You don't have to be perfectlyprepared to bring in a VA for it
(09:48):
to really be effective for you.
Okay, so I'm going to share mytop five tasks to delegate to a
VA as soon as you get started.
These are tasks that are prettyeasy and they don't require a
crazy amount of prep work inadvance, just like we've been
talking about.
In fact, a few of them reallydon't require any prep work at
all in advance, depending on howyou currently structure your
(10:10):
business.
Now, these tasks might lookdifferent for different types of
businesses, but I think thereare things that we all have to
do in some way in our businessthat are all the same in one way
, shape or form.
So I think this is going to bean effective list for anyone in
the creative entrepreneurialworld that's listening.
So let's dive into that list.
(10:31):
Five tasks that a VA can startdoing for you today.
Number one is managing your mainemail inbox.
I'm starting off with this onebecause for me, like I said
before, this felt literallyimpossible, and I also think
it's the most common thing thatwe hear about offloading, but
(10:53):
it's kind of a mystery at leastit was for me.
So I thought to myself how inthe world is my VA going to know
how to respond to my emails?
Like there's no way that'sgoing to be such a long process.
I can't ever imagine themunderstanding how to write in my
voice, like, how does that evenwork?
And I had so much to learnbecause this is possible.
(11:17):
Not only possible, but it'sactually pretty easy and there's
some really simple strategiesthat you can implement right
away to start making it happen.
This is one of the items on thelist that takes a little more
prep work, but really it's kindof a develop it as you go task.
Your VA is going to learnlittle by little over time, and
if you already have an organizedinbox, this is going to be
(11:40):
super easy.
Okay, so let's talk strategy onthis one.
The first thing I'd recommendto make this task a time saver
for you is to decide how youwant this to work logistically,
and what I mean by that isreally how is your VA going to
share certain emails with youand then also keep that boundary
(12:00):
up so that you're notconstantly in your email
checking it?
This was actually like a reallybig question mark for me,
because I was thinking in like azero sum game of either don't
ever go in my inbox or I'm likealways in there, but my virtual
assistant is also always inthere and we're just kind of
answering as much as we can allthe time, and the truth was, was
(12:23):
that?
A better way to do this is tocreate a new private email
address that no one else hasaccess to other than your VA and
maybe a few other team members.
If you have other team memberson your team, that inbox that's
going to be the only one thatyou check.
Your main inbox is going to bemanaged by your VA, and then
(12:44):
they're going to share theemails with you that they need
help with and handle the rest ontheir own.
So next we'll get into a littlebit more about that in a second,
but next I want you to decideon a simple organizational
system for your emails.
I actually have a whole episodeon how I manage our inbox.
It's episode 82.
Exactly how I organize my inboxto save hours of time each week
(13:06):
.
I will link that in the episodedescription and show notes, but
it's kind of funny because thatepisode was originally recorded
before I had a VA, but it'ssomething that made it even
easier to start working withAllison when I hired her.
I really do want to keep thisvery simple for you, so you
don't necessarily have to goback and listen to that episode,
especially if that feelsoverwhelming to you If you don't
(13:32):
already have an inboxmanagement system like a way of
sorting the emails as they comein and making it easier for you
to currently look through yourinbox.
I'd suggest creating a verysimple system Of sorting emails
so that you can know whichemails have been responded to
and which can be cleared out, sothat your VA, first of all it
(13:53):
doesn't have to deal with oldmessages that have been in the
inbox for a long time.
It's much better to start themout with just responding to what
comes in the inbox after theirfirst day.
So figure out what you want todo with those old messages,
clear them out as much as youcan, and then you also want to
decide how to sort new emailsmoving forward.
So the way we do this is thatwe leave messages in the inbox
(14:19):
only if they still need to beresponded to, and we also mark
them as unread until they'vebeen responded to.
As soon as a message has beenresponded to, we sort it into a
folder or delete it, and thenit's out of the main inbox.
The inbox stays clean and neatthis way and actually a lot of
experienced VAs might have theirown ideas for you about how to
(14:42):
manage an inbox in an easy tofollow way.
So it's definitely worth askingyour new VA.
Hey, do you have anysuggestions or things?
You've seen work for pastclients when it comes to
managing the inbox, but now youkind of know how I do it.
So let's assume you've got thatsimple system set up and you
have a new private email addresscreated.
(15:03):
There's nothing in that privateemail address inbox yet and
there won't be for a littlewhile.
Then the process moving forwardwill be this and I've already
kind of touched on it a littlebit your VA will respond to what
they know how to respond to inthe main inbox and then they're
going to forward you what theydon't know how to respond to and
(15:25):
they need help with to yourprivate inbox.
You'll be able to just checkthat private inbox, respond to
your VA with how you'd like torespond.
That could be writing up a fullresponse that you just want
your VA to copy and paste backover to the main email and
respond to that person.
That way, If your VA has becomeaccustomed to a certain type of
(15:47):
email but still needs a littlebit of help from you, it might
just mean that you respond tothe email, speaking directly to
your VA, instructing them whatto do next.
Or you could even do somethinglike sending back a voice memo
so that you don't have to type.
If you're more of a talker andyou don't like writing things
out like I am, this can bereally great because you can
(16:07):
just record that message, emailit back over and your VA will
handle it from there.
Little by little over timeyou're going to have less and
less in that inbox to respond to, because your VA is going to
learn more and more about how torespond.
But how do you start showingyour VA how to respond to those
emails?
First, simply have them watchyou respond to emails as you
(16:32):
would regularly do.
So there's no extra time neededon your end.
You can simply share yourscreen in that first week that
they're working with you andexplain a little bit, maybe as
you go about, why you'reresponding in a certain way or
not.
You can also flag any emailsthat you respond to.
That could be turned intotemplates, because I'm guessing
you respond to a lot of certaintypes of messages regularly and
(16:56):
even if they need a littlecustomization, it's like
generally the same type of email.
So, rather than creating allthose templates yourself, you
can actually just flag them andlet your VA know hey, this could
be turned into a template.
Why don't you turn it into atemplate?
Send it to me for approval andthen I'll give you the thumbs up
.
So I suggest letting your VAwatch you respond in your inbox
(17:17):
once or twice a week for acouple of weeks so they can see
a variety of the different typesof emails that come in and also
ask questions as you go.
And then, as time moves on, youcan reverse that.
You can watch your VA answeremails in the inbox by screen
sharing and give them feedbackif something's a little bit off,
or they can ask you questionsin real time about new emails
(17:40):
that they've never seen before.
So this is a little bit of aprocess, but the good news is
that you can jump right in totraining your VA very quickly on
a bunch of emails that can betemplated or are common emails
that they can learn quicklybecause they're simple responses
.
The best part about this isthat you never have to stress
about double checking that theemails have been answered
(18:04):
correctly, because you're ableto give your VA the instruction
of here's what you have approvalto send out without me looking
it over, and here's what I needyou to send me for approval.
Or here are the type of emailsthat you never should answer
yourself and always forward tome.
You still maintain the rightamount of control to ensure
(18:24):
quality of the emails going outwithout having to be in your
inbox every day.
Your VA gets to sort throughall that stuff and pull out the
things that aren't worth yourtime so that you can focus on
the most important messages.
Here are some examples ofemails my VA learned to respond
to over that time period thatwere really fast.
(18:45):
I was able to offload thisreally really quickly.
First, requests for certificatesof insurance for wedding venues
.
If you're in the weddingindustry or the events industry,
you probably have had somerequests like this before.
We have to issue one of theseCOIs, probably about once a
month for weddings.
(19:05):
So the process is typicallythat a planner or even the
client will email us and say,hey, my wedding venue requires a
certificate of insurance.
Can you provide that for me?
And while that's not in and ofitself like a huge time
consuming task, it does set offa chain reaction of having to
reach out to our insurance agentand then provide them the
(19:28):
information that they ask for.
Then sometimes we have to goback and get more information
from the venue to prepare thatdocument the right way.
We have to send that COIdocument to the right person.
So Allison can handle all ofthis for me without me having to
be involved at all, becauseit's a very straightforward
process reaching out to ourinsurance company and making
(19:51):
sure we get that document ready.
The next thing that she respondsto for us and was able to do
really quickly was requests fromother wedding vendors or
clients from the past to resenda link to their wedding gallery.
We get these from clients everyonce in a while and we actually
get them from wedding vendorspretty often, especially wedding
(20:12):
vendors who maybe we didn'tknow they were a part of the
wedding day.
We were never given theirinformation, but then they see
us on Instagram posting aboutthe wedding or whatever, and
will send us a DM on socialmedia or directly an email.
It's time consuming and Icertainly don't need to be the
one to be resending those links.
So if I get a DM, I can justscreenshot that message in
(20:38):
social media and send itdirectly to Allison and she'll
take it from there, or if it'san email, I never even see it,
she takes care of the wholething.
This has saved me more timethan I would have expected.
That going back and forth,getting the right email address,
making sure I input it into thegallery and send that
information.
It took up enough time that Idon't have to think about at all
(21:01):
anymore and it's been reallygreat.
Another email is sortingautomated emails and then only
updating me on the mostimportant things.
So, to be specific here, wereceive a ton of automated
emails and announcements fromour CRM system, honey Book.
Maybe use Honey Book too andthese are emails that we don't
(21:23):
necessarily not want to receive.
So there are notifications ofthings like a new contract is
signed or a new booking orpayments have come in, or maybe
there's an overdue payment thata client hasn't paid yet.
But Allison can look into thesethings and then summarize and
just send me a really quickupdate, or she can handle
(21:45):
sending a reminder to theclients without my help.
Again, these emails aren't inand of themselves incredibly
time consuming, but when takenall together, they are.
It's a lot of stuff, and whenyou open up your inbox and see
25 unread messages or more afteryou just worked through it the
day before.
That's overwhelming anddiscouraging.
(22:05):
So all these little thingsreally add up and it took barely
any time to get Allison trainedto do them.
Here are a few other thingsthat she helps out with that we
were able to train her in prettyquickly Client emails.
While there are plenty ofmessages from our clients that
either my team members arehandling directly themselves, if
(22:26):
it's their client, or it's anemail for my own personal client
that I need to be involved withor respond to, we do have a
pretty set system for workingwith clients and there are a lot
of situations that have prettystandard answers.
So having these FAQs documentedall in one place that allows
Allison to respond on my behalf.
(22:48):
She may send the message to mefor approval first, but I don't
have to be the one that'sactually prepping it and writing
it out.
It's just a simple yep, thatlooks good, or can you add one
more sentence about this yearand that FAQ document?
That's something that you canadd to little by little over
time, or you can even have yourVA add to it as you respond
(23:08):
directly to your client emails.
You can have them documentthose FAQs so they know the
answer for future messages.
There's a lot of other emailsthat Allison handles for us, and
creating those templates overtime has meant less and less
emails for me, to the pointwhere I spend probably less than
an hour every week on my inboxand emails.
(23:28):
Honestly, most of the emails Iget now are personal, to my
personal inbox that have nothingto do with work.
Before I started working withAllison, I was spending at least
an hour a day in my inbox, ifnot much longer.
It was also just a major sourceof stress.
I hated being in my inbox andyet I would get sucked in and I
(23:49):
often had some messages thatwould slip through the cracks
because I was in the cracksbecause I'd be overwhelmed.
Allison has allowed me to bemore consistent and professional
and has also saved me so manyhours of time each week.
This has been such a majorchange in my business for the
positive.
Okay, so let's go to number two.
The second task that you canimmediately offload to your VA
(24:14):
is implementing social mediaposts.
So we need to dig into this alittle bit further, because
hiring a VA does not necessarilymean that they can instantly
take over your social media foryou.
In fact, that's pretty unlikely, and if you really want someone
to do all of your social mediafrom scratch, you probably need
to work with a professionalsocial media manager.
(24:34):
But to tell you how, we haveoffloaded a lot of our social
media posting to Allison.
The main platform that we use isInstagram and I also use
planally to plan out our content.
Maybe you've used planallybefore yourself or tested it out
.
It's basically just like a gridplanning app that allows you to
(24:55):
see what your feed is going tolook like in advance and also
plan some other content.
I still like to be the one toplan out our feeds, broadly
speaking, but Allison is the onethat implements the plan and
make sure that this content getsposted and that we're on track,
posting every day.
So I prepped the feed, I choosethe images and then she does
(25:17):
the rest.
She writes out the captions,based on a bank of captions and
content that we have written inthe past things like old blog
posts, and we have like awedding guidebook that we send
to all of our couples andthere's a digital form of that,
so she's able to pull contentfrom that.
She also always makes sure totag and credit the full vendor
(25:38):
list and also put that in thecaption, which that's something
that she actually prepares abouta month before each wedding,
based off of lists that plannerssend us of our vendors and also
referencing the weddingquestionnaire that we send out
to couples that has somequestions about which vendors
they're working with.
Usually it's actually acombination of both of those
(25:59):
lists and she handles findingout that the info is correct and
puts it together right withinour Google calendar event for
each wedding, so it's accessibleto everyone on our team at any
time.
She also creates reels for usafter every wedding.
We upload all the BTS footagebehind the scenes footage to
(26:20):
Dropbox for her and we favoritethe images to use in the reel
via our online gallery system soshe's able to just pull up that
online gallery and see whichimages we would want as the
portfolio images from thatwedding.
I created a few example reels toshow her early on so that she
could see what I had in mind forthe reels, because I actually
(26:43):
started doing this right aroundwhen she started, so I was
figuring out how I wanted to beposting reels at the same time
that I was training her how todo it, so I made a few examples
so that she could see kind ofwhat was in my head when I
thought would be cool.
And then I gave her thecreative freedom to create each
individual reel with her choiceof music and timing, using those
(27:07):
examples that I gave her as thegeneral format.
The first few times I had herdo this, I actually had her send
me the reel she had createdbefore approval, before
officially posting.
But she quickly got the hang ofit and now we're able to post
these reels every single weekfor all of our weddings.
And this used to take me like,as I was figuring it out, hours
(27:30):
of time per reel.
Even when I started to get alittle bit better and more
regular at it, it still tookabout two to three hours per
reel to prep it, and that was ona good day, assuming nothing
would glitch.
And then I also had to gatherall the information for the post
and the vendor lists and all ofthat.
So it has saved an enormousamount of time.
(27:50):
Allison also posts regularly toour Pinterest, so she chooses
images from our blog more onthat in a few minutes and that's
something that was super fastand simple to train in.
So I created a handful ofcategories for of Pinterest
boards and then I explainedwhich photos would go in which
categories.
That was pretty straightforward, to be honest, and I also gave
(28:12):
a really broad, simple templatefor our blog Simple template for
how to label them and captionthem to make them go the
furthest and be the mosteffective.
And also, as a side note, youcan have your VA do some
research on what type of postingor strategies on social media
are currently the most effective.
If you don't have time to dothat kind of thing and stay
(28:33):
current, that's definitelysomething you can have them do
and then report back to you onwhat they find.
So there's so much more I couldsay about this.
It's social media category ingeneral, because we have
expanded our social mediadelegation so much since Allison
started with us.
But those are my fast and easyways to offload the heavy
(28:56):
lifting and save you time weekly, right away when it comes to
social media.
Okay, let's move on to the nexttip, which I kind of hinted at
before, which is writing blogposts.
I used to blog every singlewedding really quickly after a
wedding, along with sending outa sneak peek to our couples, but
then, when my team startedgrowing and we had more and more
(29:18):
weddings.
It became overwhelming and westopped blogging so much.
Not only that, but I wasmeasuring some of our metrics
and I saw that the inquiries wewere getting directly from
Google searches actually werenot that strong.
So blogs would take me at leastan hour per post and sometimes
we'd have up to three weddingsper weekend once my team started
(29:39):
to grow.
So it was a lot.
So we delegated those blogposts to Allison.
Now all we have to do is selectthe images for the blog for her
by favoriting them in thatonline gallery and I already
mentioned that before.
We're actually already doingthat task to also be able to
create a reel on Instagram.
So it's nice that we're able todo something that kind of
double dips and allows Allisonto do two different tasks for us
(30:02):
, so she can download thoseimages directly and then prep
them, get them sized correctly,reorder them to look pretty,
based on a really simple formatthat I've given her, and then
she's able to post, and I alsohave given Allison a general
idea, when it comes to the copyof the blog post, what that
should look like, but what wasreally helpful in her being able
(30:24):
to write that all on her own isthat we've created a wedding
intake form that eachphotographer on the team fills
out after they shoot a weddingwith questions about the wedding
day.
It's really fast and easy tofill out.
It's not a complex form.
There's no need to write fullsentences or even fully form
thoughts.
We're really just filling indetails about the day so that
(30:47):
Allison can pull that contenttogether and write something
about the wedding day.
This has not only saved me acrazy amount of time, like I
said before, it's also ensuredthat we're adding content to our
blog regularly and can sharethose posts with clients,
because it just wasn't really atop priority for me in that year
or two leading up to startingto work with Allison.
(31:09):
However, I know it's somethingthat does contribute to our
business staying relevant andmoving forward, even if it's not
the best way that we're gettingnew leads, and it's also a way
that we can honor our clients bywriting about them and posting
about them.
So it's been an incredible helpand time saver to delegate this
to Allison so that it's stillhappening, even though it wasn't
(31:30):
something that I was able toprioritize before I was working
with her.
Let's move on to the fourth taskI have on my list today.
The fourth thing that you candelegate to a VA right away is
calendar scheduling andmanagement.
This was one that I reallythought would never happen for
me, kind of like the inboxmanagement.
(31:50):
I just couldn't imagine handingover the responsibility of
scheduling things on my calendarbecause I falsely believed that
it would mean I'd have toalways be available from like
nine to five.
Something I love about being asmall business owner is the
flexibility, and I sometimeswill just randomly take days off
.
So I was like no way thisscheduling thing could never
(32:14):
work for me because it's goingto limit my flexibility.
But here's what I learned If Ikeep strict boundaries around
when I schedule meetings, thisbecomes really easy for a VA to
manage and it also helps me havemore free time and protected
time so that I'm not constantlyscheduling random things during
(32:36):
the times that I would actuallyprefer to have focus or
productive time uninterrupted.
This is actually something thatBelay really helped me with as
I was hiring Allison.
Allison, they suggested that Icome up with an ideal work week.
I'd never done that before, solike time block when I did want
uninterrupted time and when I'mcool with having meetings, and
(33:00):
what I've learned about myselfsince then is that I do not like
having morning meetings.
Anything before noon is reallydisruptive to my workflow.
I'm hyperproductive in themornings and I prefer to reserve
that time for like deep work.
I also avoid meetings onWednesdays and Fridays
altogether.
(33:20):
These are days that I block offentirely for me, whether that
typically be for a work day ofjust uninterrupted time to work
or sometimes for time off.
I didn't have that clearboundary around my work before
starting to work with Allison.
This actually forced me to be alittle bit more disciplined
(33:40):
with my time, which in turn hasallowed me to be more flexible
with my time.
I didn't realize how much I wasputting random stuff on my
schedule at random times withoutreally thinking about it.
So now Allison knows what timeseach week are blocked for just
me and that I don't like toschedule meetings in that time.
(34:01):
But I also have a window oftime throughout the week that is
open a couple different windows.
To be honest, that window ispretty small, but that's OK.
When I get requests formeetings, she just sends me a
quick confirmation that I wantto in fact take that meeting
with that person, and thenshe'll handle the coordinating
and scheduling of it with thatperson separately and will
(34:25):
create a Zoom link if needed, ora calendar invite, whatever.
If the person absolutely cannotdo the time that is my free
window of time, then we'll havea further discussion, just she
and I.
But honestly, I can't evenremember the last time that that
happened.
When you give people a limitednumber of hours of your free
(34:45):
time, they usually figure outhow to make it work and this
allows me to protect my time alittle bit better than I used to
.
Logistically speaking, we useGoogle Calendar for scheduling.
I look at it every morning andI usually give it a quick glance
in the evening before bed justto preview what I have the next
day.
And honestly, when it comesdown to it, I know the time
(35:06):
blocks in my week thatpotentially might have a meeting
, and there are plenty of weeksthat go by that Allison hasn't
scheduled anything for me, whichis really great.
I also have some regularmeetings that always happen each
week, so I'm always kind ofprepared for those upcoming
meetings.
But using Google Calendar asour scheduling system makes
(35:27):
things so easy.
My whole team uses it andhaving that specific time
blocked really has helped keepmy brain clear and free to be
creative when I need to becreative, focused when I need to
be focused.
It's really changed a lot for me.
I had no idea how much time Iwas wasting in my week not only
(35:47):
trying to piece together myschedule and plan for meetings,
but also that time that waswasted because I was haphazardly
putting things in the middle ofmy most productive time.
I had no rhythm or scheduled tomy weeks and I hadn't really
paid attention to what parts ofmy day were most productive that
I should protect, and Idefinitely didn't have blocked
(36:08):
time to do uninterrupted workregularly.
So I was a lot less productivebefore working with a VA Time,
blocking my weeks and leaving mymornings free.
That's probably been the numberone thing that has made me more
productive and saved me time ontasks.
It's also contributed to a hugeimprovement in my overall
(36:28):
well-being.
My mental health is so muchbetter knowing that I can always
do my morning routine beforework.
I can even start work a littlebit late sometimes if I want to,
and I'm able to utilize my bestcreative energy right away.
All right.
Finally, the last time-savingdelegation that I would
recommend if you're just gettingstarted with a VA is having
(36:51):
your VA manage your receipts.
I'm willing to bet that you donot enjoy keeping track of your
business receipts.
This is pretty freaking boring.
It's also super tedious andit's something you have to do as
a business owner.
So we use QuickBooks.
We used to use theself-employed version and now we
have the QuickBooks onlineversion, but both of them have
(37:13):
great upload receipts featuresso you can manage all of your
receipts in one place and makesure that you're not missing
anything.
In general, I think using asystem like QuickBooks is a
really good idea for yourbusiness.
It's relatively cheap and it'sso useful.
It makes life super simple forjust sending everything off to
your accountant at the end ofthe year.
(37:34):
But gathering all those receipts, finding them, sorting them,
uploading them it's really timeconsuming.
This is something that youabsolutely can hand off to a VA.
For us, many online purchasesare made using our main email
account as the email address forthe purchase, so we have a
(37:56):
Gmail folder in our main accountspecifically for those receipts
.
Allison will collect them andput them in that folder
throughout the year and then sheturns them into PDFs and
uploads them directly toQuickBooks for me.
She also will store them in afolder in Dropbox which we
organize by year, so thatthere's a second copy of all
(38:17):
those receipts somewhere.
And I also will add receipts tothat Dropbox folder as the year
goes on, if I get a receiptthat didn't go to the inbox, or
maybe even it's a paper receiptthat I can take a photo of and
upload it.
That way I don't have to worryabout trying to find a million
different receipts when gettingstuff ready for my accountant.
And if there are receipts thatare still missing, allison also
(38:40):
will make a Google spreadsheetof all of those different
transactions so that I can go ona search for them.
But it's great having Allisonbe the manager of that task,
because now I've gotten into thehabit of just sending over any
receipts, photos of receipts,even text receipts directly to
her as soon as I get it, andthen she can handle it from
(39:02):
there.
It has felt so good to get thisoff my plate.
I'm pretty organized with myfinances, as is around my
business, so I actually waspretty diligently uploading
receipts, like once a month, butit still took so many hours
every month and then I'd have togo back through and figure out
which ones were still missing atthe end of the year, because
(39:24):
inevitably there were a few thatI couldn't find each month.
It was just this whole longprocess and huge time waster.
So, all in all these five tasksthat a VA can do for you right
away that I've shared with youtoday, which are again, managing
your email inbox, implementingsocial media, posting, calendar
scheduling and management,writing blog posts and managing
(39:46):
your receipts those, for me,save between 15 to 30 hours per
week.
I'm not kidding.
This has been an absolute gamechanger.
Looking back on July 2022 and onwhen I first started working
with Allison, I see this as oneof the major turning points in
(40:07):
my business.
There've certainly been timessince then when I've had a
difficult or overwhelming week,but it's never, because I have a
lot of little tasks adding uplike never, and before working
with Allison, I got overwhelmedby a bunch of little tasks
adding up like all the time.
But now I have so much moretime and it's only increased
(40:30):
more and more as Allison haslearned to do things better and
better and taken on more tasks.
It's definitely been a snowballeffect.
I just keep gaining back moreand more time in my schedule,
one of the things I've taskedAllison with, now that we've
been working together for awhile, is that she's actually
been documenting all the thingsthat I've trained her in and
(40:50):
creating how-to YouTube videos,so that we have a library of
standard operating procedures invideo form of specifically the
tasks that she does, and so evenif, for some reason, allison
stops working with us, we'regoing to be able to easily
onboard someone new.
Allison can also now furtherdelegate her tasks and train
(41:12):
other people, like our interns,because we have an intern
program.
Without needing me to spearheadthose trainings, she can
actually do them herself, and Idon't even necessarily need to
be a part of them.
It's pretty amazing.
I genuinely have no idea what Iwould do without the help of a
virtual assistant.
It's a major regret in mybusiness that I waited so long
(41:33):
to do this, and so I hope thiscan be an encouragement to you,
especially if you've beenthinking about it and you're on
the fence.
It is 100% worth it to workwith a virtual assistant.
There are so many greatcompanies out there.
I mentioned Belay earlier.
I would highly recommend them.
They're fantastic to work withand you don't have to do quite
as much work up front to getstarted.
(41:54):
They also have some socialmedia managers and bookkeepers,
so if you have multiple needs,you can kind of bundle that
together.
I'll drop some info in thispodcast episodes description and
the show notes for you.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can get 300
off your starting implementationfee when you reach out to them
and mention me.
But even if it's not Belaythere are so many great VAs and
(42:16):
VA companies out there I wouldhighly recommend hiring someone
who is a professional at being avirtual assistant so that they
can give you some guidance andtools to make it even easier to
get started.
It's only going to furtherboost the impact and make it
easier to start saving time inyour calendar if you work with
someone who really knows whatthey're doing and they can give
(42:37):
you some advice.
It's also going to ensure thatyour VA is actually doing the
work that makes the most impact.
I would love to keep talking toyou about this subject, so if
you have questions, reach out tome anytime.
I'd love to talk to you.
You can join our privateFacebook community,
hannahbjornedollcom, or you cansend me a DM on Instagram.
(42:58):
I'm at hannahbjornedoll andthat's a wrap.
Thanks so much for listening toTeam Building for Creative
Business Owners.
I hope you learned somethingnew that you can use to grow and
thrive.
If you're interested in gettingin touch, send me a message at
info at hannahbjornedollcom, oryou can always shoot me a DM on
(43:20):
Instagram.
I'm at hannahbjornedoll.
I'll see you back here nextweek.
I am your stereotypical procrastinator.
I always have been, probablyalways will be.
When something is overwhelmingto me, or when there are like
big question marks that I stillhave about a task, I tend to put
off doing that thing Somehow.
Just by being an unknown, atask seems so much larger and
(00:21):
more time-consuming anddifficult, I just automatically
assume it's going to take aninfinite amount of time and I
won't be able to do it.
An example of that recently isthat I have been redecorating
our condo.
It was just time for a refreshand so, little by little, we've
been redecorating the rooms.
The wall in our living room,specifically, was a spot I
(00:43):
wanted to redo.
I had this vision for a reallybig gallery wall.
We have some original art fromEvan's grandfather, who was a
painter, and we have photos I'vetaken on our travels and some
posters and vintage framedgraphic art.
So I've been really excited tomake this thing happen, but also
figuring out how to lay it outand get it perfect and also make
(01:07):
sure it all looks good together.
It was like ridiculouslyoverwhelming to me.
I got started with the task onmultiple different occasions,
like trying to figure it out,only to abandon it because I was
frustrated or I'd get aheadache.
I actually am pretty sure Ieven started crying one day
because I was so frustrated bynot being able to make progress
(01:28):
and being kind of stuck on whatto do.
However, this week we hosted afriend's birthday celebration at
our place, so last weekend Isuddenly had a lot of energy and
excitement to really get thisthing done and thankfully Evan
had a strategy for getting thewall laid out on the floor and
then hung properly so everythingwould be spaced out evenly.
(01:50):
And you know what it cametogether, and not only that it's
really beautiful and I love howit looks.
Sometimes I just need someoneto light a little fire under me
to give me some motivation andreason to just get it done.
And knowing that there was apath forward for this task, that
Evan could help literally putthe nails in the wall and get
(02:11):
everything hung straight andevenly, that gave me the
confidence that this thing couldactually get done.
My experience hiring a virtualassistant in some ways was
similar.
I waited way too long, wasstuck on, just not knowing how
it would work, and I was worriedthat I didn't have enough time.
But then I took a little stepforward and realized that the
company I was interested inhiring actually was going to
(02:34):
help me and had some tools forme to get started, and that
helped me actually take the leapand hire the assistant.
Since you're listening to thisepisode, I'm going to guess that
you're at least intrigued bythe idea of hiring a virtual
assistant, or maybe you're onthe fence about hiring one, or
maybe you already even havehired one and are just a little
stuck on what to do next.
(02:55):
Fear not, that is what today'sepisode is all about helping you
get a jumpstart on working witha virtual assistant so that you
can gain back hours of timeeach week without the hassle of
figuring out what to do first.
(03:15):
You're listening to TeamBuilding for Wedding Pros, a
podcast dedicated to helping youscale your creative business
through building a team.
I'm your host, hannah Bjorndahl, owner of LaVian Rose, an
expert in all things teambuilding in the creative
artistic world.
Over the past several years,I've gone from being a one woman
(03:40):
show to leading a team ofamazing people to serve more
clients, dramatically increaseour business income and
ultimately make a much biggerimpact in the world, and I'm
passionate about helping you dothe same.
So let's do it.
I will be the first person toadmit that it took me way too
(04:03):
long to hire an executiveassistant, also known as a
virtual assistant or VA or EA,whatever you want to call it.
I'm going to call them VAsthroughout the rest of this
episode because I think that'sprobably the term you've heard
the most.
It's definitely the one I hearthe most.
So hiring a VA was somethingthat I was pretty sold on for
(04:24):
like a few years before actuallygoing for it.
I had read a lot about it,listened to podcasts and I had
friends who were successfullyworking with VA's themselves and
I knew it saved them a lot oftime.
And yet I still hesitated anddidn't move forward.
The cost was probably thebiggest or most obvious thing
(04:44):
holding me back, but I alsothink that I felt like I needed
to do a ton of prep work beforemoving forward.
I didn't want to start payingsomeone until I felt ready
myself, but then I would justnot do the prep work, so that
absolutely held me back.
I also think that I lackedconfidence that a VA would work
(05:06):
for me.
I had heard that VA's managedemail inboxes.
That was kind of like thenumber one thing I was hearing
and honestly, I just like wasn'ta believer that that would work
for me.
I felt like that would beimpossible for me and just cause
more work than it was worth.
I don't feel like I'm a hugecontrol freak around things in
my business.
It, honestly, is more just notknowing how to get started on
(05:30):
that, like I couldn't visualizehow it would work and no one had
given me tools to know where tostart.
So it just felt impossible.
So I've been thinking aboutthat this week and I've also had
a few questions recently in myDMs and in our private online
Facebook community.
By the way, if you're notalready in that, go check it out
.
It's at hannahbjornedollcomslash Facebook or you can check
(05:52):
out the link in the descriptionfor this episode.
So these questions were areminder of how overwhelming it
was for me to bring on a VA,especially when I didn't have
someone guiding me through theprocess.
So in today's episode I want tooffer you both encouragement to
take that first step towardshiring a VA if you're on the
fence, and also give you someconcrete tasks that you can
(06:15):
delegate to your VA, and also alittle bit more about how I made
that happen in my own businessso you feel ready to take that
first step and it's actuallygoing to be effective and save
you time.
So first a little backstory.
Like I said before, I spent along time considering hiring a
VA before I actually movedforward on it.
(06:36):
I finally felt ready like I wasgoing to go for it at the
beginning of 2022, but I feltlike I needed to have a lot of
available time to train my VA,so I didn't want to move forward
until I had an open enoughcalendar to have that regular
training, which is so funny nowbecause it was not that much
(06:57):
extra time each week and theamount of time it saved me
immediately would have been soworth a week or two of working
an extra hour or so to get thatup and running.
So I went through this crazysix months of extreme busyness
and a lot of travel and I justkept putting off pulling the
trigger until I finally had abreak in the busyness in July.
(07:19):
So again, it was like sixmonths of being ready but just
doing nothing and I decided togo ahead and move forward and
work with a company called Belay.
As soon as I started workingwith Belay honestly, even before
I had officially signed on thedotted line to work with him, I
realized, oh my gosh, I shouldhave taken this leap six months
(07:42):
ago.
Even with that crazy schedule,carving out just like an hour or
two each week would have gottenmy VA on boarded quickly and it
would have saved me hours andhours of time.
Those six months would havebeen way less crazy and better
for me if I had just gone for itright away.
Belay was really great becausethey actually provided me with
(08:03):
some helpful resources tojumpstart my relationship with
my new VA, alison.
It set me up to hand things offright away and also gave me a
template for how to train hermoving forward, which took out
some of the guesswork.
And I know, for me personally,when I feel like I have to kind
of figure things out myself andthere's going to be a lot of
(08:24):
guesswork I procrastinate orjust don't do it.
That kind of thing reallyoverwhelms me and I just want to
get all my ducks in a row anddo things the right way and then
I just don't do it at all.
Can you relate to that at all?
I think that's a commonbusiness owner thing.
So if you're on the fence rightnow about hiring a VA,
especially if it's because youdon't feel like you have enough
(08:45):
time to like prep all this stuff.
I hope you'll learn from mymistake that you don't need to
spend tons and tons of timepreparing in advance and then
training for hours and hourseach week for it to actually be
worth it.
It is worth working maybe anextra hour or two for a couple
of weeks to get your VA up andrunning.
(09:06):
There are a million things a VAcan do for you, but
specifically there's a handfulof really easy to offload tasks
and that's going to start savingyou time right away, like hours
and hours of time each week.
And then that's a snowballeffect.
Then you're able to prep evenmore that your VA can do and
then you have more and more time.
(09:27):
You can get more and moreorganized and delegate more work
to your VA, which continuallycreates more and more space in
your life to work on the thingsthat are most important.
So again, just to kind ofreiterate, taking that first
step and just doing it is goingto get the ball rolling to
saving you time.
You don't have to be perfectlyprepared to bring in a VA for it
(09:48):
to really be effective for you.
Okay, so I'm going to share mytop five tasks to delegate to a
VA as soon as you get started.
These are tasks that are prettyeasy and they don't require a
crazy amount of prep work inadvance, just like we've been
talking about.
In fact, a few of them reallydon't require any prep work at
all in advance, depending on howyou currently structure your
(10:10):
business.
Now, these tasks might lookdifferent for different types of
businesses, but I think thereare things that we all have to
do in some way in our businessthat are all the same in one way
, shape or form.
So I think this is going to bean effective list for anyone in
the creative entrepreneurialworld that's listening.
So let's dive into that list.
(10:31):
Five tasks that a VA can startdoing for you today.
Number one is managing your mainemail inbox.
I'm starting off with this onebecause for me, like I said
before, this felt literallyimpossible, and I also think
it's the most common thing thatwe hear about offloading, but
(10:53):
it's kind of a mystery at leastit was for me.
So I thought to myself how inthe world is my VA going to know
how to respond to my emails?
Like there's no way that'sgoing to be such a long process.
I can't ever imagine themunderstanding how to write in my
voice, like, how does that evenwork?
And I had so much to learnbecause this is possible.
(11:17):
Not only possible, but it'sactually pretty easy and there's
some really simple strategiesthat you can implement right
away to start making it happen.
This is one of the items on thelist that takes a little more
prep work, but really it's kindof a develop it as you go task.
Your VA is going to learnlittle by little over time, and
if you already have an organizedinbox, this is going to be
(11:40):
super easy.
Okay, so let's talk strategy onthis one.
The first thing I'd recommendto make this task a time saver
for you is to decide how youwant this to work logistically,
and what I mean by that isreally how is your VA going to
share certain emails with youand then also keep that boundary
(12:00):
up so that you're notconstantly in your email
checking it?
This was actually like a reallybig question mark for me,
because I was thinking in like azero sum game of either don't
ever go in my inbox or I'm likealways in there, but my virtual
assistant is also always inthere and we're just kind of
answering as much as we can allthe time, and the truth was, was
(12:23):
that?
A better way to do this is tocreate a new private email
address that no one else hasaccess to other than your VA and
maybe a few other team members.
If you have other team memberson your team, that inbox that's
going to be the only one thatyou check.
Your main inbox is going to bemanaged by your VA, and then
(12:44):
they're going to share theemails with you that they need
help with and handle the rest ontheir own.
So next we'll get into a littlebit more about that in a second,
but next I want you to decideon a simple organizational
system for your emails.
I actually have a whole episodeon how I manage our inbox.
It's episode 82.
Exactly how I organize my inboxto save hours of time each week
(13:06):
.
I will link that in the episodedescription and show notes, but
it's kind of funny because thatepisode was originally recorded
before I had a VA, but it'ssomething that made it even
easier to start working withAllison when I hired her.
I really do want to keep thisvery simple for you, so you
don't necessarily have to goback and listen to that episode,
especially if that feelsoverwhelming to you If you don't
(13:32):
already have an inboxmanagement system like a way of
sorting the emails as they comein and making it easier for you
to currently look through yourinbox.
I'd suggest creating a verysimple system Of sorting emails
so that you can know whichemails have been responded to
and which can be cleared out, sothat your VA, first of all it
(13:53):
doesn't have to deal with oldmessages that have been in the
inbox for a long time.
It's much better to start themout with just responding to what
comes in the inbox after theirfirst day.
So figure out what you want todo with those old messages,
clear them out as much as youcan, and then you also want to
decide how to sort new emailsmoving forward.
So the way we do this is thatwe leave messages in the inbox
(14:19):
only if they still need to beresponded to, and we also mark
them as unread until they'vebeen responded to.
As soon as a message has beenresponded to, we sort it into a
folder or delete it, and thenit's out of the main inbox.
The inbox stays clean and neatthis way and actually a lot of
experienced VAs might have theirown ideas for you about how to
(14:42):
manage an inbox in an easy tofollow way.
So it's definitely worth askingyour new VA.
Hey, do you have anysuggestions or things?
You've seen work for pastclients when it comes to
managing the inbox, but now youkind of know how I do it.
So let's assume you've got thatsimple system set up and you
have a new private email addresscreated.
(15:03):
There's nothing in that privateemail address inbox yet and
there won't be for a littlewhile.
Then the process moving forwardwill be this and I've already
kind of touched on it a littlebit your VA will respond to what
they know how to respond to inthe main inbox and then they're
going to forward you what theydon't know how to respond to and
(15:25):
they need help with to yourprivate inbox.
You'll be able to just checkthat private inbox, respond to
your VA with how you'd like torespond.
That could be writing up a fullresponse that you just want
your VA to copy and paste backover to the main email and
respond to that person.
That way, If your VA has becomeaccustomed to a certain type of
(15:47):
email but still needs a littlebit of help from you, it might
just mean that you respond tothe email, speaking directly to
your VA, instructing them whatto do next.
Or you could even do somethinglike sending back a voice memo
so that you don't have to type.
If you're more of a talker andyou don't like writing things
out like I am, this can bereally great because you can
(16:07):
just record that message, emailit back over and your VA will
handle it from there.
Little by little over timeyou're going to have less and
less in that inbox to respond to, because your VA is going to
learn more and more about how torespond.
But how do you start showingyour VA how to respond to those
emails?
First, simply have them watchyou respond to emails as you
(16:32):
would regularly do.
So there's no extra time neededon your end.
You can simply share yourscreen in that first week that
they're working with you andexplain a little bit, maybe as
you go about, why you'reresponding in a certain way or
not.
You can also flag any emailsthat you respond to.
That could be turned intotemplates, because I'm guessing
you respond to a lot of certaintypes of messages regularly and
(16:56):
even if they need a littlecustomization, it's like
generally the same type of email.
So, rather than creating allthose templates yourself, you
can actually just flag them andlet your VA know hey, this could
be turned into a template.
Why don't you turn it into atemplate?
Send it to me for approval andthen I'll give you the thumbs up
.
So I suggest letting your VAwatch you respond in your inbox
(17:17):
once or twice a week for acouple of weeks so they can see
a variety of the different typesof emails that come in and also
ask questions as you go.
And then, as time moves on, youcan reverse that.
You can watch your VA answeremails in the inbox by screen
sharing and give them feedbackif something's a little bit off,
or they can ask you questionsin real time about new emails
(17:40):
that they've never seen before.
So this is a little bit of aprocess, but the good news is
that you can jump right in totraining your VA very quickly on
a bunch of emails that can betemplated or are common emails
that they can learn quicklybecause they're simple responses
.
The best part about this isthat you never have to stress
about double checking that theemails have been answered
(18:04):
correctly, because you're ableto give your VA the instruction
of here's what you have approvalto send out without me looking
it over, and here's what I needyou to send me for approval.
Or here are the type of emailsthat you never should answer
yourself and always forward tome.
You still maintain the rightamount of control to ensure
(18:24):
quality of the emails going outwithout having to be in your
inbox every day.
Your VA gets to sort throughall that stuff and pull out the
things that aren't worth yourtime so that you can focus on
the most important messages.
Here are some examples ofemails my VA learned to respond
to over that time period thatwere really fast.
(18:45):
I was able to offload thisreally really quickly.
First, requests for certificatesof insurance for wedding venues
.
If you're in the weddingindustry or the events industry,
you probably have had somerequests like this before.
We have to issue one of theseCOIs, probably about once a
month for weddings.
(19:05):
So the process is typicallythat a planner or even the
client will email us and say,hey, my wedding venue requires a
certificate of insurance.
Can you provide that for me?
And while that's not in and ofitself like a huge time
consuming task, it does set offa chain reaction of having to
reach out to our insurance agentand then provide them the
(19:28):
information that they ask for.
Then sometimes we have to goback and get more information
from the venue to prepare thatdocument the right way.
We have to send that COIdocument to the right person.
So Allison can handle all ofthis for me without me having to
be involved at all, becauseit's a very straightforward
process reaching out to ourinsurance company and making
(19:51):
sure we get that document ready.
The next thing that she respondsto for us and was able to do
really quickly was requests fromother wedding vendors or
clients from the past to resenda link to their wedding gallery.
We get these from clients everyonce in a while and we actually
get them from wedding vendorspretty often, especially wedding
(20:12):
vendors who maybe we didn'tknow they were a part of the
wedding day.
We were never given theirinformation, but then they see
us on Instagram posting aboutthe wedding or whatever, and
will send us a DM on socialmedia or directly an email.
It's time consuming and Icertainly don't need to be the
one to be resending those links.
So if I get a DM, I can justscreenshot that message in
(20:38):
social media and send itdirectly to Allison and she'll
take it from there, or if it'san email, I never even see it,
she takes care of the wholething.
This has saved me more timethan I would have expected.
That going back and forth,getting the right email address,
making sure I input it into thegallery and send that
information.
It took up enough time that Idon't have to think about at all
(21:01):
anymore and it's been reallygreat.
Another email is sortingautomated emails and then only
updating me on the mostimportant things.
So, to be specific here, wereceive a ton of automated
emails and announcements fromour CRM system, honey Book.
Maybe use Honey Book too andthese are emails that we don't
(21:23):
necessarily not want to receive.
So there are notifications ofthings like a new contract is
signed or a new booking orpayments have come in, or maybe
there's an overdue payment thata client hasn't paid yet.
But Allison can look into thesethings and then summarize and
just send me a really quickupdate, or she can handle
(21:45):
sending a reminder to theclients without my help.
Again, these emails aren't inand of themselves incredibly
time consuming, but when takenall together, they are.
It's a lot of stuff, and whenyou open up your inbox and see
25 unread messages or more afteryou just worked through it the
day before.
That's overwhelming anddiscouraging.
(22:05):
So all these little thingsreally add up and it took barely
any time to get Allison trainedto do them.
Here are a few other thingsthat she helps out with that we
were able to train her in prettyquickly Client emails.
While there are plenty ofmessages from our clients that
either my team members arehandling directly themselves, if
(22:26):
it's their client, or it's anemail for my own personal client
that I need to be involved withor respond to, we do have a
pretty set system for workingwith clients and there are a lot
of situations that have prettystandard answers.
So having these FAQs documentedall in one place that allows
Allison to respond on my behalf.
(22:48):
She may send the message to mefor approval first, but I don't
have to be the one that'sactually prepping it and writing
it out.
It's just a simple yep, thatlooks good, or can you add one
more sentence about this yearand that FAQ document?
That's something that you canadd to little by little over
time, or you can even have yourVA add to it as you respond
(23:08):
directly to your client emails.
You can have them documentthose FAQs so they know the
answer for future messages.
There's a lot of other emailsthat Allison handles for us, and
creating those templates overtime has meant less and less
emails for me, to the pointwhere I spend probably less than
an hour every week on my inboxand emails.
(23:28):
Honestly, most of the emails Iget now are personal, to my
personal inbox that have nothingto do with work.
Before I started working withAllison, I was spending at least
an hour a day in my inbox, ifnot much longer.
It was also just a major sourceof stress.
I hated being in my inbox andyet I would get sucked in and I
(23:49):
often had some messages thatwould slip through the cracks
because I was in the cracksbecause I'd be overwhelmed.
Allison has allowed me to bemore consistent and professional
and has also saved me so manyhours of time each week.
This has been such a majorchange in my business for the
positive.
Okay, so let's go to number two.
The second task that you canimmediately offload to your VA
(24:14):
is implementing social mediaposts.
So we need to dig into this alittle bit further, because
hiring a VA does not necessarilymean that they can instantly
take over your social media foryou.
In fact, that's pretty unlikely, and if you really want someone
to do all of your social mediafrom scratch, you probably need
to work with a professionalsocial media manager.
(24:34):
But to tell you how, we haveoffloaded a lot of our social
media posting to Allison.
The main platform that we use isInstagram and I also use
planally to plan out our content.
Maybe you've used planallybefore yourself or tested it out
.
It's basically just like a gridplanning app that allows you to
(24:55):
see what your feed is going tolook like in advance and also
plan some other content.
I still like to be the one toplan out our feeds, broadly
speaking, but Allison is the onethat implements the plan and
make sure that this content getsposted and that we're on track,
posting every day.
So I prepped the feed, I choosethe images and then she does
(25:17):
the rest.
She writes out the captions,based on a bank of captions and
content that we have written inthe past things like old blog
posts, and we have like awedding guidebook that we send
to all of our couples andthere's a digital form of that,
so she's able to pull contentfrom that.
She also always makes sure totag and credit the full vendor
(25:38):
list and also put that in thecaption, which that's something
that she actually prepares abouta month before each wedding,
based off of lists that plannerssend us of our vendors and also
referencing the weddingquestionnaire that we send out
to couples that has somequestions about which vendors
they're working with.
Usually it's actually acombination of both of those
(25:59):
lists and she handles findingout that the info is correct and
puts it together right withinour Google calendar event for
each wedding, so it's accessibleto everyone on our team at any
time.
She also creates reels for usafter every wedding.
We upload all the BTS footagebehind the scenes footage to
(26:20):
Dropbox for her and we favoritethe images to use in the reel
via our online gallery system soshe's able to just pull up that
online gallery and see whichimages we would want as the
portfolio images from thatwedding.
I created a few example reels toshow her early on so that she
could see what I had in mind forthe reels, because I actually
(26:43):
started doing this right aroundwhen she started, so I was
figuring out how I wanted to beposting reels at the same time
that I was training her how todo it, so I made a few examples
so that she could see kind ofwhat was in my head when I
thought would be cool.
And then I gave her thecreative freedom to create each
individual reel with her choiceof music and timing, using those
(27:07):
examples that I gave her as thegeneral format.
The first few times I had herdo this, I actually had her send
me the reel she had createdbefore approval, before
officially posting.
But she quickly got the hang ofit and now we're able to post
these reels every single weekfor all of our weddings.
And this used to take me like,as I was figuring it out, hours
(27:30):
of time per reel.
Even when I started to get alittle bit better and more
regular at it, it still tookabout two to three hours per
reel to prep it, and that was ona good day, assuming nothing
would glitch.
And then I also had to gatherall the information for the post
and the vendor lists and all ofthat.
So it has saved an enormousamount of time.
(27:50):
Allison also posts regularly toour Pinterest, so she chooses
images from our blog more onthat in a few minutes and that's
something that was super fastand simple to train in.
So I created a handful ofcategories for of Pinterest
boards and then I explainedwhich photos would go in which
categories.
That was pretty straightforward, to be honest, and I also gave
(28:12):
a really broad, simple templatefor our blog Simple template for
how to label them and captionthem to make them go the
furthest and be the mosteffective.
And also, as a side note, youcan have your VA do some
research on what type of postingor strategies on social media
are currently the most effective.
If you don't have time to dothat kind of thing and stay
(28:33):
current, that's definitelysomething you can have them do
and then report back to you onwhat they find.
So there's so much more I couldsay about this.
It's social media category ingeneral, because we have
expanded our social mediadelegation so much since Allison
started with us.
But those are my fast and easyways to offload the heavy
(28:56):
lifting and save you time weekly, right away when it comes to
social media.
Okay, let's move on to the nexttip, which I kind of hinted at
before, which is writing blogposts.
I used to blog every singlewedding really quickly after a
wedding, along with sending outa sneak peek to our couples, but
then, when my team startedgrowing and we had more and more
(29:18):
weddings.
It became overwhelming and westopped blogging so much.
Not only that, but I wasmeasuring some of our metrics
and I saw that the inquiries wewere getting directly from
Google searches actually werenot that strong.
So blogs would take me at leastan hour per post and sometimes
we'd have up to three weddingsper weekend once my team started
(29:39):
to grow.
So it was a lot.
So we delegated those blogposts to Allison.
Now all we have to do is selectthe images for the blog for her
by favoriting them in thatonline gallery and I already
mentioned that before.
We're actually already doingthat task to also be able to
create a reel on Instagram.
So it's nice that we're able todo something that kind of
double dips and allows Allisonto do two different tasks for us
(30:02):
, so she can download thoseimages directly and then prep
them, get them sized correctly,reorder them to look pretty,
based on a really simple formatthat I've given her, and then
she's able to post, and I alsohave given Allison a general
idea, when it comes to the copyof the blog post, what that
should look like, but what wasreally helpful in her being able
(30:24):
to write that all on her own isthat we've created a wedding
intake form that eachphotographer on the team fills
out after they shoot a weddingwith questions about the wedding
day.
It's really fast and easy tofill out.
It's not a complex form.
There's no need to write fullsentences or even fully form
thoughts.
We're really just filling indetails about the day so that
(30:47):
Allison can pull that contenttogether and write something
about the wedding day.
This has not only saved me acrazy amount of time, like I
said before, it's also ensuredthat we're adding content to our
blog regularly and can sharethose posts with clients,
because it just wasn't really atop priority for me in that year
or two leading up to startingto work with Allison.
(31:09):
However, I know it's somethingthat does contribute to our
business staying relevant andmoving forward, even if it's not
the best way that we're gettingnew leads, and it's also a way
that we can honor our clients bywriting about them and posting
about them.
So it's been an incredible helpand time saver to delegate this
to Allison so that it's stillhappening, even though it wasn't
(31:30):
something that I was able toprioritize before I was working
with her.
Let's move on to the fourth taskI have on my list today.
The fourth thing that you candelegate to a VA right away is
calendar scheduling andmanagement.
This was one that I reallythought would never happen for
me, kind of like the inboxmanagement.
(31:50):
I just couldn't imagine handingover the responsibility of
scheduling things on my calendarbecause I falsely believed that
it would mean I'd have toalways be available from like
nine to five.
Something I love about being asmall business owner is the
flexibility, and I sometimeswill just randomly take days off
.
So I was like no way thisscheduling thing could never
(32:14):
work for me because it's goingto limit my flexibility.
But here's what I learned If Ikeep strict boundaries around
when I schedule meetings, thisbecomes really easy for a VA to
manage and it also helps me havemore free time and protected
time so that I'm not constantlyscheduling random things during
(32:36):
the times that I would actuallyprefer to have focus or
productive time uninterrupted.
This is actually something thatBelay really helped me with as
I was hiring Allison.
Allison, they suggested that Icome up with an ideal work week.
I'd never done that before, solike time block when I did want
uninterrupted time and when I'mcool with having meetings, and
(33:00):
what I've learned about myselfsince then is that I do not like
having morning meetings.
Anything before noon is reallydisruptive to my workflow.
I'm hyperproductive in themornings and I prefer to reserve
that time for like deep work.
I also avoid meetings onWednesdays and Fridays
altogether.
(33:20):
These are days that I block offentirely for me, whether that
typically be for a work day ofjust uninterrupted time to work
or sometimes for time off.
I didn't have that clearboundary around my work before
starting to work with Allison.
This actually forced me to be alittle bit more disciplined
(33:40):
with my time, which in turn hasallowed me to be more flexible
with my time.
I didn't realize how much I wasputting random stuff on my
schedule at random times withoutreally thinking about it.
So now Allison knows what timeseach week are blocked for just
me and that I don't like toschedule meetings in that time.
(34:01):
But I also have a window oftime throughout the week that is
open a couple different windows.
To be honest, that window ispretty small, but that's OK.
When I get requests formeetings, she just sends me a
quick confirmation that I wantto in fact take that meeting
with that person, and thenshe'll handle the coordinating
and scheduling of it with thatperson separately and will
(34:25):
create a Zoom link if needed, ora calendar invite, whatever.
If the person absolutely cannotdo the time that is my free
window of time, then we'll havea further discussion, just she
and I.
But honestly, I can't evenremember the last time that that
happened.
When you give people a limitednumber of hours of your free
(34:45):
time, they usually figure outhow to make it work and this
allows me to protect my time alittle bit better than I used to
.
Logistically speaking, we useGoogle Calendar for scheduling.
I look at it every morning andI usually give it a quick glance
in the evening before bed justto preview what I have the next
day.
And honestly, when it comesdown to it, I know the time
(35:06):
blocks in my week thatpotentially might have a meeting
, and there are plenty of weeksthat go by that Allison hasn't
scheduled anything for me, whichis really great.
I also have some regularmeetings that always happen each
week, so I'm always kind ofprepared for those upcoming
meetings.
But using Google Calendar asour scheduling system makes
(35:27):
things so easy.
My whole team uses it andhaving that specific time
blocked really has helped keepmy brain clear and free to be
creative when I need to becreative, focused when I need to
be focused.
It's really changed a lot for me.
I had no idea how much time Iwas wasting in my week not only
(35:47):
trying to piece together myschedule and plan for meetings,
but also that time that waswasted because I was haphazardly
putting things in the middle ofmy most productive time.
I had no rhythm or scheduled tomy weeks and I hadn't really
paid attention to what parts ofmy day were most productive that
I should protect, and Idefinitely didn't have blocked
(36:08):
time to do uninterrupted workregularly.
So I was a lot less productivebefore working with a VA Time,
blocking my weeks and leaving mymornings free.
That's probably been the numberone thing that has made me more
productive and saved me time ontasks.
It's also contributed to a hugeimprovement in my overall
(36:28):
well-being.
My mental health is so muchbetter knowing that I can always
do my morning routine beforework.
I can even start work a littlebit late sometimes if I want to,
and I'm able to utilize my bestcreative energy right away.
All right.
Finally, the last time-savingdelegation that I would
recommend if you're just gettingstarted with a VA is having
(36:51):
your VA manage your receipts.
I'm willing to bet that you donot enjoy keeping track of your
business receipts.
This is pretty freaking boring.
It's also super tedious andit's something you have to do as
a business owner.
So we use QuickBooks.
We used to use theself-employed version and now we
have the QuickBooks onlineversion, but both of them have
(37:13):
great upload receipts featuresso you can manage all of your
receipts in one place and makesure that you're not missing
anything.
In general, I think using asystem like QuickBooks is a
really good idea for yourbusiness.
It's relatively cheap and it'sso useful.
It makes life super simple forjust sending everything off to
your accountant at the end ofthe year.
(37:34):
But gathering all those receipts, finding them, sorting them,
uploading them it's really timeconsuming.
This is something that youabsolutely can hand off to a VA.
For us, many online purchasesare made using our main email
account as the email address forthe purchase, so we have a
(37:56):
Gmail folder in our main accountspecifically for those receipts
.
Allison will collect them andput them in that folder
throughout the year and then sheturns them into PDFs and
uploads them directly toQuickBooks for me.
She also will store them in afolder in Dropbox which we
organize by year, so thatthere's a second copy of all
(38:17):
those receipts somewhere.
And I also will add receipts tothat Dropbox folder as the year
goes on, if I get a receiptthat didn't go to the inbox, or
maybe even it's a paper receiptthat I can take a photo of and
upload it.
That way I don't have to worryabout trying to find a million
different receipts when gettingstuff ready for my accountant.
And if there are receipts thatare still missing, allison also
(38:40):
will make a Google spreadsheetof all of those different
transactions so that I can go ona search for them.
But it's great having Allisonbe the manager of that task,
because now I've gotten into thehabit of just sending over any
receipts, photos of receipts,even text receipts directly to
her as soon as I get it, andthen she can handle it from
(39:02):
there.
It has felt so good to get thisoff my plate.
I'm pretty organized with myfinances, as is around my
business, so I actually waspretty diligently uploading
receipts, like once a month, butit still took so many hours
every month and then I'd have togo back through and figure out
which ones were still missing atthe end of the year, because
(39:24):
inevitably there were a few thatI couldn't find each month.
It was just this whole longprocess and huge time waster.
So, all in all these five tasksthat a VA can do for you right
away that I've shared with youtoday, which are again, managing
your email inbox, implementingsocial media, posting, calendar
scheduling and management,writing blog posts and managing
(39:46):
your receipts those, for me,save between 15 to 30 hours per
week.
I'm not kidding.
This has been an absolute gamechanger.
Looking back on July 2022 and onwhen I first started working
with Allison, I see this as oneof the major turning points in
(40:07):
my business.
There've certainly been timessince then when I've had a
difficult or overwhelming week,but it's never, because I have a
lot of little tasks adding uplike never, and before working
with Allison, I got overwhelmedby a bunch of little tasks
adding up like all the time.
But now I have so much moretime and it's only increased
(40:30):
more and more as Allison haslearned to do things better and
better and taken on more tasks.
It's definitely been a snowballeffect.
I just keep gaining back moreand more time in my schedule,
one of the things I've taskedAllison with, now that we've
been working together for awhile, is that she's actually
been documenting all the thingsthat I've trained her in and
(40:50):
creating how-to YouTube videos,so that we have a library of
standard operating procedures invideo form of specifically the
tasks that she does, and so evenif, for some reason, allison
stops working with us, we'regoing to be able to easily
onboard someone new.
Allison can also now furtherdelegate her tasks and train
(41:12):
other people, like our interns,because we have an intern
program.
Without needing me to spearheadthose trainings, she can
actually do them herself, and Idon't even necessarily need to
be a part of them.
It's pretty amazing.
I genuinely have no idea what Iwould do without the help of a
virtual assistant.
It's a major regret in mybusiness that I waited so long
(41:33):
to do this, and so I hope thiscan be an encouragement to you,
especially if you've beenthinking about it and you're on
the fence.
It is 100% worth it to workwith a virtual assistant.
There are so many greatcompanies out there.
I mentioned Belay earlier.
I would highly recommend them.
They're fantastic to work withand you don't have to do quite
as much work up front to getstarted.
(41:54):
They also have some socialmedia managers and bookkeepers,
so if you have multiple needs,you can kind of bundle that
together.
I'll drop some info in thispodcast episodes description and
the show notes for you.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can get 300
off your starting implementationfee when you reach out to them
and mention me.
But even if it's not Belaythere are so many great VAs and
(42:16):
VA companies out there I wouldhighly recommend hiring someone
who is a professional at being avirtual assistant so that they
can give you some guidance andtools to make it even easier to
get started.
It's only going to furtherboost the impact and make it
easier to start saving time inyour calendar if you work with
someone who really knows whatthey're doing and they can give
(42:37):
you some advice.
It's also going to ensure thatyour VA is actually doing the
work that makes the most impact.
I would love to keep talking toyou about this subject, so if
you have questions, reach out tome anytime.
I'd love to talk to you.
You can join our privateFacebook community,
hannahbjornedollcom, or you cansend me a DM on Instagram.
(42:58):
I'm at hannahbjornedoll andthat's a wrap.
Thanks so much for listening toTeam Building for Creative
Business Owners.
I hope you learned somethingnew that you can use to grow and
thrive.
If you're interested in gettingin touch, send me a message at
info at hannahbjornedollcom, oryou can always shoot me a DM on
(43:20):
Instagram.
I'm at hannahbjornedoll.
I'll see you back here nextweek.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.