Yes, a Control Freak Can Find the Perfect Virtual Assistant with Belinda Wasser

Belinda Wasser (self-confessed control freak) talks to Jen about hiring her first VA. She wasn’t sure that any of this would work for her. Following the process outlined in the Front Row CEO program made the difference. 

Belinda shares how things started:

• She used a test week to make sure her VA would be a good fit 

• Get her suggestions for the tasks to assign that make an impact without worry

• Using videos helped to make sure she was communicating exactly what she needed as part of VA training

Get the breakdown on 3 specific processes that Belinda created that her VA implements. Repeat tasks that used to take hours, now feel automatic. A key benefit: her VA was able to get up to speed on her content, voice and messaging from the beginning. 

Other projects that Brenda has in the works: 

• Periscope research and process development

• YouTube updates based on a content template

• Social media posting/scheduling

Jen and Belinda discuss the time difference and how that works. Hear how they keep track of projects and how they’ve developed a process flow for each day. (Copy this and make it your own.)

Belinda has used her videos and Teamwork to create a knowledge library. She also outlines 2 other benefits that were completely unexpected and delightful.

Taking the Front Row CEO course to hire her VA has been a huge help. More than anything, Belinda says she feels supported and that the sense of overwhelm is gone!

RESOURCES

Front Row CEO

The VA Connection

Teamwork

Loom

Your Perfect Match Virtual Assistant is Out There with April Pertuis

April Pertuis is on today’s episode with Jen. She recently hired her first VA and it’s been a game-changer for her business. 

Being an entrepreneur was a choice for freedom but as her business grew, April was feeling anything but free. One of the most time-consuming tasks was managing the large amount of social media content that she creates. 

April shares it all: 

• Hear how she got things off to a great start 

• Find out what made the biggest impact for April 

• How April’s VA took the lead on curating existing content 

• The method they use to keep in touch and how they continue to establish processes to increase efficiency (This is so easy you’re going to wonder why you didn’t think of it!)

Delegating hasn’t always worked for April. She explains why it’s different this time. You’ll love her her unicorn analogy that explains why she thinks anyone can find their “perfect-match” VA. 

Working with someone overseas was also a concern. The Front Row CEO program addressed exactly what to do and it made the process simple to implement. April credits the course for helping her: 

• Recognize past hiring mistakes and how to correct it 

• Establish the foundation for a long-term partnership with her VA

• Get her freedom back! 

• See business growth since she’s now able to focus on serving her audience

April wants everyone to know that The Front Row CEO program is a great first step for anyone who is ready to get their freedom back. 

RESOURCES

Lightbeamers

Front Row CEO

April’s Instagram

Trello

Loom 

My Team Helped Me Love My Business Again with Heather Alice Shea

This episode is going to be a huge help for anyone who has had difficulty delegating. That’s where Heather was when she took the Front Row CEO course.  

Heather shares how she began delegating with her two recently hired VA’s. It started with: 

• The key question she asked herself to get super clear on the first thing she should delegate (you can use this same strategy) 

• Why saving time was the 2nd best part of delegating a key task

• How she uses “team parties” as part of her training process

• Next steps: allowing her team to manage her entire calendar (huge step for someone who didn’t think delegating this was possible)

Jen and Heather also talk about culture and what it takes to build a team. 

• Hear the impact of creating an environment where your team members take ownership of their contributions

• Find out the 2 key methods Heather uses to keep her team huddles efficient 

• Hear Heather’s before and after podcast production process and the surprise benefit she didn’t know she was missing 

Heather provides life-coach training for energy-sensitive people who want to bring that aspect into their coaching. She shares two strategies that she has time to implement now that she has help. Key impact: new clients and stronger relationships. 

Heather told Jen 2 things that were unexpected but have already made a huge shift for her. Plus, it’s allowed her to stop running her business by sticky posts. (Who hasn’t been there?) 

Lastly, Heather wanted Jen to know that she followed every step of the Front Row CEO course. In just a few weeks she had 2 VA’s that have allowed her to “love her business again.”

RESOURCES

Loom 

Front Row CEO

Heather’s Website 

Trello

Hiring a Virtual Assistant is Completely Life-Changing with Lyndsay Morris

Lyndsay is a busy business owner who travels and speaks at industry events on top of running her successful business. Jen and Lyndsay discuss why she hired not one but two VA’s and how they started. 

Lyndsay shares the first things implemented. 

• How they mapped out (and created) their content plan for the entire year

• Providing a tool each month for the email list

• Uploading prepared content (for the year) so it’s ready to go

• Repurposing videos (this is genius)

Changing her content process is saving her 15 hours a month and 2020 is completely planned and prepared. 

Lyndsay enjoys the collaboration and partnership from her VA’s. The next steps include: 

• Building out a new site on Kajabi

• Creating animations for her site 

• Adding automation tools 

Lyndsay said the Front Row CEO course was the first training that showed her how to hire the help she needed so she could implement all the strategies she’s learned. 

• Use Lyndsay’s method to keep track of tasks with her team (no fancy software required) 

• Find out how leveraging her team is making travel easier

• Use Loom to create your training library 

• Find out how her team is building systems as they learn (and how it will accelerate growth!)

Lyndsay surprised Jen with news about her 2020 plans already in the works. She credits the Front Row CEO course for helping her make it happen. In her words it’s “life-changing.” 

RESOURCES

Voxer

Front Row CEO

Planoly

Loom

Generation Wellness

When to Know When it’s Time to Hire a Virtual Assistant

Today’s podcast covers an important topic. When to hire help. More importantly, how do you know when it’s the right time. 

I’m going to break this down so there is no more confusion.  

First, there’s the conventional thinking that you shouldn’t hire until you are super-successful and completely organized or when you hit a magical revenue amount. Only that day never seems to arrive. 

When will you know? 

I’m sharing some hard truths about what I experienced. I know many entrepreneurs will relate to the busy-ness of the day to day; except you never feel like you did anything to move your business forward. I certainly had plenty of days like that. 

I’m busting a few myths today:

• Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. 

• Some actions provide exponential returns which is what you miss by doing it all. 

• I know all the reasons why not to hire. I was right there too. 

• No one can do it like I can/ you can. 

• I can’t afford it yet. 

There’s more than one way to hire and train. I outline just one of those that I’ve put into practice and helped other to do as well. 

One of the best things is not being all alone. Knowing my team has my back has made such a big difference. I want you to have that same feeling of support. Grab the resources so you can see how making your first hire can work for you. 

The Ultimate List of My Favorite Freelancers

If you are like every other entrepreneur on the planet, sometimes you find yourself bogged down doing work you know you shouldn’t be doing but you justify it because you tell yourself…

…it’s easier if you do it yourself. By the time you had to explain it to someone, you’d already be done.

Or maybe you don’t even know where to find someone to do that particular task and even if you did, you’d rather not spend that money.

But here’s the truth; there’s a very skilled labor force out there that is not only ready to work with you, but also incredibly affordable.

If you’ve been at this online business thing for a while, you’ve likely already heard of Fiverr.com or Upwork.com.

If not, let me be the bearer of life-changing news…

Fiverr.com is a place where freelancers offer their services (called “gigs”), some for as little as five dollars (hence, the name). You can’t believe the wide range of services offered there!

Upwork is a similar platform, but usually a bit pricier.

I’ve been using both services since 2013, and I’ve compiled a list of my favorite freelancers for you.

I have worked with each of these freelancers (except for those indicated) and can recommend them enthusiastically but obviously, I am not making any guarantees.

FIVERR CONTRACTORS

Podcast Editing/Production

DANIELABENDROTH: I’ve hired Daniel many time to edit my podcasts and he’s done a great job.

VUKJOVANOVIC23: Hired once for podcast editing and he did a great job.

Professional Voice Over Artists

bill_mehner recorded a podcast intro for me and did excellent work. Ver professional and polished.

Articulateasian: Hired him to record a professional intro for a podcast. Very good work.

Johnnystone created a podcast intro for me. Great work.

Kiffinyjean is the first voiceover artist I ever hired. Great work 

PaulKStadden can do anything voice! I hired him to do 3 commercials for my podcast and they were great. He will actually write the commercial, record it, add music, everything. His background is in radio where he used to write and produce commercials!

Graphics

Karinavoitenko created a custom content calendar for me to share with my community. It was less than $20 and truly excellent quality.

Jingle Writers/Composers

Soulriter: Wrote an original jingle for my podcast. While I haven’t used it yet, you gotta admit, it’s pretty groovy.

Rapper_man  created an amazing original rap song for my husband’s 50th birthday and made a video to go with it. He was fantastic

Jcattoor composed original background music for my Social Media Summer Camp I paid $5.50 but it looks like the price as gone up a lot since then!

Promo Videos

eighth_studio created a professional video promo for one of my courses. I never used it, but I think it’s cute, albeit a little corny and too long. 

Royaljatt created a fun video bumper for one of my courses. 

Coding/Templates

Saidulemarketer created a custom coded email template in ConvertKit for me. 

Transcription (these days, I use temi.com or rev.com for transcription, but lots of people still like to hire real transcriptionists.)

Mhhann provided high quality transcription 

Theexecutive great work

Social

Jamesdalton will proved a 1000 quotable tweets for your niche for $5

Misc/Silly

Virtues turned me into a Simpsons character which I use as my profile pic on my messenger bot. 

This amazing gentleman created this special custom video for my Taco Tuesday posts in my Facebook Group.

Squeezeboxhero created the most hilarious singing telegram for a friend of mine who was sick

This one is from 2013. I had just discovered Fiverr and was clearly out of control. Dog rings bell with my logo nearby. Here it is. If you’d like one, looks like the dog is still busy ringing people’s bells. Hire him here.

Book Editing and Layouts

Grammargal is a great book editor and proofreader 

lyubomyr Did a superb formatting my book for Kindle and for print.

Fiverr Gigs That Have Caught My Eye (but I have never purchased)

Logo design

Mockups for courses

Stop Motion animation

Video Editing

More Video editing

Brush calligraphy logo

Google Tag Manager Expert

Really cool portrait art (would make a great gift for a client)

UPWORK

Debra Boggs wrote my resume when I applied to be a professor.

Nata created a slide deck for an important presentation. Since then, I’ve referred people to her but I think her rate is higher now than it used to be.

Avadhesh is a Kajabi expert. I have not worked with, but several of my clients have, and I refer him often.

Obviously, I’ve just scratched the surface here.

When you go to do search for your own freelancers on Fiverr and Upwork, filter by the variables that are most important to you: language, ratings, rate, etc. I always look for the most highly rated freelancers who also have a lot of reviews.

If you have a freelancer you’d like to share with me and my readers, please put it in the comments below.

I’ll be updating this list as I find more freelancers I love, so make sure and subscribe to the updates below.

Hire and Train Your First Virtual Assistant (Before You Think You Need To)

I wish I would have known this when I first started my business: hiring a virtual assistant, right off the bat is one of the smartest things you can do to grow your business.

I know the objections:

I'm not making money yet.

I wouldn't know what to give to a virtual assistant, I can barely figure out what to do myself.

I'm so disorganized. And by the time I explain it, I might as well do it myself.

But listen up:

If you spend your days doing $10 an hour tasks, that's about how much money you can expect to make?

That is time you ARE NOT spending doing the things that are actually revenue-producing. 

Hiring a virtual assistant for my tiny little business was the best move I EVER made.

I've created an entire system that will walk you through how to find someone who you can afford to pay, where to find them, and how to onboard them in a systematic, automated way that will not take up a ton of your time.


Onlinejobs.ph - These are VA's exclusively in the Philippines.

Loom Video: This free software allows you to record your screen (or yourself) so that when it is time to onboard your VA, you will have a full training portal in place.

Trello - A project management system that allows you and your VA to be on the same page, literally. (I use the free version)

Lastpass - Allows your VA to access your accounts, without knowing your passwords.

Click this link to grab the notes I created. 

Let me know if you have any questions!