#262: How to Outsource the Tasks You Hate!
Have ever wondered how to outsource the tasks you hate? It’s by hiring a VA you can trust.
In today’s episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast, I’m talking to Kristy Yoder, who runs her own VA agency.
We talk about:
- Why hiring a VA is a good investment
- Why hiring VAs from other countries can be beneficial
- How to onboard and train your new VA
- How to let your VA go if things don’t work out
- And more!
If you are ready to start outsourcing so you can better scale your business, this is the episode for you!
Table of Contents
Show Notes:
- MiloTreeCart
- Personality Quiz: What Digital Product Should I Create?
- MiloTree Pop-Up App
- Catch My Party
- Kristy Yoder
- ChatGPT
- Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group
- MiloTreeCart Affiliate Program
- All Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes
Subscribe to the Blogger Genius Podcast:
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.
Jillian Leslie 0:11
Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius Podcast. I’m your host, Jillian Leslie. I’m a blogger and serial entrepreneur, I build businesses on the internet with my husband, David. We started with Catch My Party, we built our pop-up app called MiloTree to grow your social media followers and email subscribers.
Jillian Leslie 0:32
And now our new baby, MiloTreeCart, which is the easiest way for you bloggers and creators to sell digital products to your audience. So, today was a very busy day, because I led a workshop on how to write an eBook quickly using AI to help you so I was demonstrating it with ChatGPT.
Jillian Leslie 0:55
Now for all of you, please know that there are right ways of using AI and wrong ways of using AI. So, in the workshop, today, I went through all of that. Think of AI as your assistant but don’t let it do all the writing for you.
Jillian Leslie 1:10
Really, this is all about you putting yourself out there. However, it can give you ideas, and really structure your thinking. And that’s what we talked about today. And really what I showed was from start to finish, how to come up with the idea how to outline it, how to write it, and then it’s all about how MiloTreeCart helps you with the rest.
Jillian Leslie 1:30
So, we give you Canva templates to make your eBook look professional. You upload your eBook to our platform so that we can directly deliver it to your customers, we get you paid because we integrate with Stripe. We also offer free sales pages so you can have your sales page for your eBook up in about 10 minutes.
Jillian Leslie 1:53
We pride ourselves on two things, giving you the easiest platform to sell digital products. We built it especially for the non techie and the beginner we have complicated tech on our side so we can serve up ease for you. And two, a team of people ready to help you have success making money online.
Jillian Leslie 2:19
If you are listening to this and you think ooh, this sounds interesting. I have an eBook in me or a paid workshop or a membership or some other digital download or coaching head to milotreecart.com. Because I have a feeling we are the solution for you, buy it for our lifetime deal price $349 own it forever.
Jillian Leslie 2:41
And of course, we offer a 30-day money back guarantee because we only want you to keep it if you love it. So again, go to milotreecart.com and check it out. If you have questions reach out to me at jillian@milotree.com.
Jillian Leslie 2:59
For today’s episode I have Kristy Yoder on the podcast. And she is the founder and CEO of Smart VAs which is a virtual assistant agency and she’s the host of her own podcast called Master Delegator. Wait until you hear her story.
Jillian Leslie 3:17
She comes from the Philippines. She has built this enormous company and she has great advice for how to outsource especially the tasks you do not like. So, if you’re at that place in your business, where you need outside help, but it just feels overwhelming to find it hire it know what to look for. This is the episode for you.
Jillian Leslie 3:40
So, without further delay, here is my interview with Kristy Yoder.
Jillian Leslie 3:48
Kristy, welcome to the Blogger Genius podcast.
Kristy Yoder 3:52
Hey, Jillian, thanks for having me. I’m so excited.
Jillian Leslie 3:56
So, you reached out to me and said, “Hey, I have a podcast. Do you have a podcast? Let’s come on to each other’s podcasts. We’ll do like a swap.” So, this is the first piece of that you coming on to my podcast.
Jillian Leslie 4:07
And you have something really interesting to talk about that I think a lot of people in the audience are thinking about or not exactly knowing how to jump into so would you share a little bit about how you got started? And really what you do what your service is?
Becoming a VA in the Philippines
Kristy Yoder 4:26
Yes, sure. Well, I’m like what you said my name is Kristy. I am here in Ohio right now but I am originally from the Philippines. I was born and raised in the Philippines. I moved to the States just three and a half years ago.
Kristy Yoder 4:43
And when I was still in the Philippines, I decided that I wanted to become a freelancer not a virtual assistant, a freelancer because back then during 2017 virtual assistants are not really that popular until the pandemic.
Kristy Yoder 5:00
I was a freelancer, I was doing a lot of stuff for my clients I was doing admin tasks, to social media, to email marketing to website development, I considered myself a multi-skilled freelancer, I can just do everything that a business owner would want me to do.
Kristy Yoder 5:00
When I moved to the States, given the fact that I am an extrovert, it was hard for me, it was hard for me to say no to my clients, it was hard for me to reject them. Because during that time, that was my mentality. When you say no to somebody, you’re rejecting them.
Kristy Yoder 5:43
So, when I moved to the States, I was able to expand my network of business owners and entrepreneurs, and my clients, they liked what I was providing for them. And so, they kept on adding so many tasks to my plate. While at the same time I was acquiring new clients, so I got so stressed and overwhelmed.
Kristy Yoder 6:11
Because I couldn’t say no, because I don’t want to hurt their feelings, I don’t want them to feel rejected.
Jillian Leslie 6:20
You’re a pleaser.
Kristy Yoder 6:22
I’m a people pleaser, even until now I am that is just part of my personality. I feel like that is just going to be like an ongoing struggle for me. But now I know how to say no. But after I say no, I overthink like, oh, wonder how that person feels. So, I overthink, but yeah, going back I couldn’t just say no.
Kristy Yoder 6:45
And I was also thinking of losing those clients and losing those opportunities that have come knocking on my door. And so, I thought of why not hire a couple of my friends whom I know that are also freelancing. And so, they were working for me part time.
Kristy Yoder 7:05
And then when my business was rapidly growing during that time, I thought of hiring my first ever full-time virtual assistant and I delegated the thing that I hated the most or the things I hate the most, I still hate it. I don’t get it the thing that I hate the most.
Building a Company that Provides VAs for Bloggers and Online Entrepreneurs
Kristy Yoder 7:25
When I hired her, within just three months, I was able to 10x my revenue. I was like, “Oh, if I keep adding more VAs to my team to work on the things that I don’t like doing or to work on my clients’ projects, then I can 100x my revenue.”
Kristy Yoder 7:46
And from 2019, since the beginning of me, hiring virtual assistant up until now, we have helped more than 300-plus business owners. And we are now a team of 70-plus virtual assistants and my revenue now is close to seven figure. And I won’t be able to be where I am at right now if I did not delegate.
Kristy Yoder 8:12
I started as a virtual assistant when I was still in the Philippines. And now that I’m here in the States, I’m the CEO of my business, I no longer do projects, I’m just overseeing my leaders and my managers and casting out the vision that I have for the business. So, that’s how I started out.
Jillian Leslie 8:31
That’s amazing. I love that you had a problem, which is you got too busy. So, you had to hire a VA and then you got to see it from the other side. And you then were able to understand it probably like, oh, this is what this is like and go through all the other side of it to understand it even more deeply.
Jillian Leslie 8:53
I always think that building a business to solve a problem you’re having is so much better than just an abstract problem you potentially see in the world.
Kristy Yoder 9:04
And now that I was able to solve my problem, I was able to solve other business owners’ problems because I went through the same problem that they are going through right now. And I am able to also help global talents have more sustainable and consistent income just by hiring them and making sure that my business runs profitably.
Jillian Leslie 9:28
Here’s a question. When you’re in the Philippines, where did you advertise, were you on Upwork, Fiverr that kind of thing? Where were you attracting clients for your business?
Finding Clients on Instagram
Kristy Yoder 9:37
It was very, very weird because when I was still in the Philippines, I was very desperate to get my first few clients. I did not know anything about effective or strategic marketing approach. So, my first two clients, I got them from Instagram. Instagram wasn’t that much popular back then in 2017, they were popular in terms of posting images.
Kristy Yoder 10:10
But for businesses, they didn’t have videos during that time, or maybe they do. But it wasn’t very popular, and they didn’t have Reels during that time as compared to what we have today. So, I reached out to people to businesses on Instagram, and I didn’t even have a very fancy messaging because I’m still on my Instagram account.
Kristy Yoder 10:10
If I want to check out my messages that I sent to them, I looked at it again, and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is so cheesy, I said, “Hey, my name is Chris, I’m from the Philippines. I’m a virtual assistant, I’m looking for clients. And these are the things that I can do for you.”
Kristy Yoder 10:50
And they replied to my message on Instagram, and up to this date I’m still in awe, that they reply to my Instagram message. Because if you do that today, people are going to say, oh, you’re rude, you don’t even know me.
Jillian Leslie 11:05
Not only know rude, it feels spammy. Or it feels like somehow there’s a catch, or you’re going to try and take advantage or something like that. I would look at that particularly today.
Kristy Yoder 11:16
True. And so of course, now, I have changed our strategy for acquiring clients, we are heavily using LinkedIn, to reach out to businesses, because LinkedIn is where most business owners hang out.
Kristy Yoder 11:33
And the strategy that we have there is to build relationships with business owners, and make sure that we are providing value to them as compared to selling our services to them.
Kristy Yoder 11:47
I invite them to get on my podcasts. And then when I interview them on the podcast, I get to know them, they get to know me, and we talk about something that we can collaborate on.
Kristy Yoder 11:58
We also optimize our website. We are posting articles almost twice a week and we make sure that they are optimized that we are visible on Google, and we have a lot of clients that are referring us as well to other businesses. So, those three platforms are our virtual assistant writing.
Jillian Leslie 12:23
It’s your blog, your podcast, and LinkedIn.
Kristy Yoder 12:27
LinkedIn.
Jillian Leslie 12:29
Interesting.
Kristy Yoder 12:30
And Google.
Jillian Leslie 12:31
And SEO?
Kristy Yoder 12:32
Yes, SEO.
Jillian Leslie 12:33
So, you’ve got 70 people? Are these predominantly women? And are they predominantly in the Philippines?
Kristy Yoder 12:43
I’m not sure about if they are predominantly women, I have never really checked that data, but it’s a mixture of men and women. And then a few of them are non-binary. And most of my team members are based out of the Philippines, but I have a few team members here in the States as well.
Jillian Leslie 13:10
And how do you then train them to go, “Here’s social media, here’s what it is, here’s what the client is looking for.” Do you set up trainings for your VAs?
Kristy Yoder 13:20
Yes, of course, when I first hired my very first virtual assistant, I had to make sure that that VA pass the experience in skills that I needed her to have, in order to carry out the responsibilities that I’m going to delegate.
Kristy Yoder 13:40
At first, I was very hesitant to hire VAs, who do not have experience, because it’s hard to train somebody, but now that my business has grown, I have somebody who trains our VA. We have a development lead guy, and he’s the one that acts as our training department. And he’s also our subject matter expert.
Kristy Yoder 14:04
So, whenever a new virtual assistant gets onboarded our SME or development training head, he’s the one training them and making sure that they are up to date to whatever we’re doing within the agency. And our SME is also the one who is providing support to our V A’s whenever they don’t know how to do something.
Jillian Leslie 14:27
Got it. Here’s a question. Let’s say I find you on Google and you have these services, and I then go, “I need help I need a VA.” Do you put me with one VA and then I’m interacting with this person as my person? Or will I be spread out over a variety of VAs or what if I don’t like this VA, how do you manage it on your end?
Getting a Team of VAs to Work For You
Kristy Yoder 14:53
That is a good question. Our unique value proposition is that we assign a team of virtual assistants for the price of one, so you just pay for one package, and then you get a team of virtual assistant. But of course, if you only need one virtual assistant, then we will assign you just one virtual assistant.
Kristy Yoder 15:12
The thing is, we have to realize that not everything can be done by one virtual assistant. Depending on your need, if you come to us, and you say, “I need somebody to write my blogs for me, I need somebody to do my social media graphics and captioning, I need somebody to edit my podcasts for me.”
Kristy Yoder 15:38
Those are three different skills, a social media manager may be able to write a blog for you, but it’s not common. That’s why we provide a team of virtual assistants. Because if you have a growing business, there are just too many moving parts.
Kristy Yoder 15:52
And if as business owners, we don’t expect ourselves to do everything in our business, we shouldn’t expect our VA to do the same. So, we assign specialized tasks to different VAs because we know that each virtual assistant has something that they are passionate about doing as well.
Kristy Yoder 16:11
And we want to make sure that they’re enjoying what they are doing. So, you get a team of virtual assistants, depending on your need.
Kristy Yoder 16:18
And then on top of that, we also assign a project leader, because if we assigned three virtual assistants to you, you as the business owner are going to have a hard time tracking those VAs. Managing those VAs and making sure that the tasks are done correctly, and how much time are spent on each task.
Kristy Yoder 16:36
Sometimes us business owners were very meticulous and detailed when it comes to tracking, how much time did you spend here, because we are on a budget most of the time. So, we provide a project leader, like a project manager that monitors your tasks for you. And that is at no extra charge.
Kristy Yoder 16:54
So, we assign a project manager for free because we understand that a business owner can monitor different tasks.
Jillian Leslie 17:07
It sounds like you are for larger businesses. How much does this cost? Let’s say, a blogger, and I’m wanting to grow my blog, and I’ve got all these different things. Let’s say I’m starting a podcast, and I’ve got Instagram, and I’m trying to do TikTok and I’ve got blog posts too.
Jillian Leslie 17:27
How would that be an option for somebody like me? Or is this for a larger company? How much does something like this cost?
Kristy Yoder 17:38
I don’t think it’s really that expensive. Given the fact that the economy is changing a lot. And with high inflation rate, you also have to keep up with it. If you are a business owner and we live in this time, right now, you also have to make sure that your pricing, keeps up with the inflation rate or else you’re not going to be profitable.
Kristy Yoder 18:05
To answer your question, we don’t really focus on large businesses, but we focus on businesses who are ready to scale, meaning businesses who are willing to invest. I don’t know how to word it properly, but who will do what it takes, to grow their business who have the vision to grow their business.
Kristy Yoder 18:33
At the beginning of my agency, we tried just helping anybody and it’s really hard to hire somebody or to work with someone who’s not ready to scale because they have a solopreneur mentality, and they don’t know how to collaborate with a team member.
Kristy Yoder 18:52
So, we want to work for businesses who are ready to scale regardless if they are a one man, business owner or two people in the business. But we charge them so that the investment we charge them, it depends on your needs.
Kristy Yoder 19:09
So, we have three different plans. We have 40 hours a month, we have 80 hours a month, and then we have 160 hours a month. And the pricing ranges between $15 to $20 depending on the plan.
Jillian Leslie 19:28
Per hour?
Kristy Yoder 19:29
For a team of virtual assistants.
Jillian Leslie 19:31
That seems pretty reasonable.
Kristy Yoder 19:34
If you sign up for our 40-hour plan, you get a team of virtual assistants, we help if you need a podcast manager if you need a social media manager, if you need a writer, if you need a website developer then we’ll allocate those 40-hours to those people.
Kristy Yoder 19:49
And then we’ll let you know, “Hey, we need you to upgrade to the next plan because it’s just not doable.”
Jillian Leslie 19:56
You’re running out you need more time.
Kristy Yoder 19:57
It’s not just sustainable it’s impossible to work on four different tasks when you only have 40-hours available.
Why Hiring VAs from Other Countries Can Be Beneficial
Jillian Leslie 20:06
I just wanted to share my own experience because I feel this connection to you in that I have right now, three Filipinos working for me.
Kristy Yoder 20:15
It’s the reality right now. Almost everyone now is employed remotely, so there’s really competition out there. And the reason why I’m hiring people from the Philippines, and soon actually, we’re going to hire people from Dominican Republic and Venezuela. The reason why I’m helping out those people because they have limited opportunities.
Kristy Yoder 20:46
I know how it feels like living in a third world country. And that’s why I have such great desire to help out those people with limited opportunities. And I don’t want to stop by just helping people in the Philippines. That’s why I’m expanding my team.
Kristy Yoder 21:02
And we are going to try to hire people in Venezuela in Dominican Republic, because those people deserve better as well.
Get The Free MiloTreeCart Digital Product Personality Quiz
Jillian Leslie 21:13
You know, I talk a lot about selling digital products and services as a way to turn on a new income stream. But people say to me, “Yeah, but I don’t know where to start, I don’t know what kind of product to create.” No problem, I have a digital product personality quiz based on who you are, it will tell you what kind of digital product to start with.
Jillian Leslie 21:34
So, to get this go to milotree.com/quiz. It’s fun, takes two minutes, I’ve got some other really powerful resources in there. So again, go to milotree.com/quiz. And hopefully, this will light that little fire under you to start creating digital products today. And now back to the show.
Jillian Leslie 21:59
So, let’s say though, I am a blogger, and I am a one woman show. And I keep hearing, I should outsource. And there are those tasks that I hate in my business. But I have to do them over and over again.
Jillian Leslie 21:59
And I always say to people look for those tasks, because if those tasks are keeping you stuck, where you wake up in the morning, saying, “I hate this, I hate this.”
Jillian Leslie 22:31
And it’s keeping you from moving forward in your business. This is a really good sign, dingi ding ding ding that you need to take this seriously and start thinking about outsourcing. That’s like the first thing.
Jillian Leslie 22:41
The second is you’re running out of time, and your business is growing. And you need to outsource and let go of a little bit of control. So, let’s talk about this. I’m thinking about this, but I’m scared.
Jillian Leslie 22:55
And I mentioned this before we press record, I’m scared because I don’t want to make the wrong choice. I don’t want to hire the wrong person. I’m a nice person, God forbid, it doesn’t work out I don’t want to deal with how do I let this person go? Or how do I give them tasks? Or it just feels like a lot of mental loads. And I’d rather just struggle along in my business.
How to Hire Your First VA
Jillian Leslie 23:15
Talk to me about how I should think about this. And why hiring out for tasks makes more sense than I even know.
Kristy Yoder 23:26
That is such a good question.
Jillian Leslie 23:29
So, to make this concrete, let’s say I hate posting on Instagram. Or coming up with what to post or who knows, my Instagram just feels like a nightmare. And I want to hire this out. How do you recommend I think about that, how do I break it down? And what should I look for?
Jillian Leslie 23:50
Then let’s assume I’m not starting with a company like yours. I just want to hire one VA to help me with Instagram. What do I look for? What do I think about?
Kristy Yoder 24:00
You have to make sure that you are ready. I think most of the time when we hire a VA, we think that oh, this VA should have this should have that.
Kristy Yoder 24:11
So first, if you don’t like doing your social media posts, you have to make sure that you have a step-by-step guide on how you want your social media to run or your social media posts to look like.
Kristy Yoder 24:33
Get a piece of paper and then write down the step-by-step on how you want your social media posts to look like and then once you have it lined out or listed down, then create a job description for your VA based on those things that you have just outlined.
Kristy Yoder 24:57
You will not know what to look for in a VA if you don’t even know what exactly you need. So, when you have those tasks, you create a job description based on those tasks. And then when you have the job description, in your job description, you should also put in there, how much are you going to pay your VA.
Kristy Yoder 25:18
How much is your budget so that you know what you can afford, and you cannot afford. Because that’s very important when it comes to interviewing VA, because you’re going to ask them, how much is your expected salary? How much do you charge?
Kristy Yoder 25:31
And write down including in the job description what time do you want your VA to work for you. Because we can’t expect them to work 24 hours a day for us, when we’re only paying them 10 hours a month. So, write down your expectations and where are you going to communicate with your VA.
Kristy Yoder 25:55
Are you going to communicate with them through Messenger or through Slack or through email? And you also have to make sure that you know, what are your non-negotiables. When you hire a VA, you have to prepare questions that will determine whether the VA is the right fit for you.
Kristy Yoder 26:15
Usually, you need to have questions that are going to assess their skills and questions that are going to assess their soft skills. I don’t know about you, but I’m the type of person who values character the most than skills. So, I have a lot of questions pertaining to my core values, in order for me to determine if the person I’m interviewing is the right fit for me or not.
Jillian Leslie 26:44
Something that I’ve done is I’ve hired all of my virtual assistants on Upwork. And what I’ve done in the past is there’s been a job that’s been like, something pretty regimented, in my business that I hate doing. So for example, we have a site called Catch My Party, everyday, we swap out our featured parties.
Jillian Leslie 27:10
It’s a pretty mechanical job, you do this, you go here, you do this, you switch this, you take this link and put it here. And then you send me this email. I hated doing it, so what I said is, ooh, I could create a video where I go through the process, and I videotape me doing it and I go, you grab this link here, you go here, you do this. And it’s very concrete.
Jillian Leslie 27:36
And then I found people I put the job out and said, “This is what it is.” I don’t remember how much time I thought it would take. But I timed myself doing it. And of course, I know how to do it. So, I’m faster and I put that into the calculation.
Jillian Leslie 27:54
And then I asked for people to apply to this job. And then people did, and I interviewed them, I think via Zoom, and talk to them. So, I could have a face-to-face. And I said, “I’m going to send you this video, so that you can see what the task is.”
How to Set Up a Two Week VA Test Period
Jillian Leslie 28:13
And then what I did was if I liked them, I said, I’m going to hire you for two weeks. And what I want you to do in that two weeks’ time, whenever you have a question, reach out to me, I’m completely available, because I want you to be successful. And I’m sure you want to be successful. So, do not be intimidated or afraid or think, oh, no, the video is here.
Jillian Leslie 28:39
And I really, really made sure that my directions were incredibly clear. Please, I’m available. And then I said in two weeks, what we’ll do is we’ll both evaluate, is this working for you? And is this working for me? And if it’s good for both of us, then we’ll continue. And that was super great, because I had this escape valve.
Jillian Leslie 29:04
And there had been some people that I’ve hired that I’ve said, you know what, it’s not quite working out, because let’s say she was late, or let’s say the links were wrong, or she hadn’t fully studied the video. And then if I feel this connection with this person working for me, I will say hey, do you have more time because I have this other concrete task that I would love you to do.
Jillian Leslie 29:33
And then I make the video we go through the same thing. We see how it works. And like you were saying you look for their values. I do too. But I would I would say it’s more like I see how we work together. And if it’s a good fit, then I’m looking for more tasks in my business that I can offload to this person.
Jillian Leslie 29:54
I want to invest in the person. I don’t want to invest in the task, but I want to use the task as a way to make it very concrete, we understand the boundaries, versus I just need help, I’m going to hire a VA, I don’t know what they’re going to do for me.
Jillian Leslie 30:10
then it’s going to be weird and soft and mushy. And then I don’t necessarily think it’s a great fit. But now I feel weird letting her go, because it’s not like she did anything wrong, but it’s just like, oh, too much. So, tell me, what you think of that strategy.
Kristy Yoder 30:24
I love that, we kind of do the same. We have a probationary period, where we test out our VAs, and we talk to them. And we communicate with them clearly that, hey, for this certain period of time, this is your probationary period, and then we’ll evaluate your performance.
Kristy Yoder 30:46
But what we do is we meet with them on a weekly basis, our project leaders who handles our VAs, they meet with them on a weekly basis, to see where they are at and how they are performing. And if the clients are happy, and then on a monthly basis, we have a monthly performance review.
Kristy Yoder 31:03
So, we have a scorecard for each of our VA, and I think this is a good idea, for business owners to have, even if you’re just hiring a part time independent contractor, because then you will be able to evaluate on a monthly basis if your VA is providing results for you.
How to Let Go of Your VA
Kristy Yoder 31:22
And by the time you have to let go of your VA, because you have your monthly performance review, and you’re giving your VA feedback, your VA is not going to be surprised that you’re letting her or him go because you have given him feedback. And the VA knows that oh, my scorecard last month was below 70%. And it’s not a passing rate.
Kristy Yoder 31:45
And so, you wouldn’t have a hard time letting go of your VA. And you will not feel guilty because you have objectively measure. And you’re not subjected to letting them go. You’re not just basing your decision on firing them on what you feel towards them. Because that’s very hard.
Kristy Yoder 32:07
And I think, most of the time why we feel so guilty, because we’re unsure of our feelings. But if you have this set of parameters or competencies to measure your VAs performance, then it’s going to be easy for you. And it’s easy for your VA.
Kristy Yoder 32:24
You might not even have to let go of your VA, your VA might even say to you, “Hey, I think I’m not providing results. I’m resigning.”
Jillian Leslie 32:34
I like that. So, if you have this objective measure, it is much easier, because that’s always awkward, and it feels uncomfortable, and it feels personal. And it feels like ah, could I have done more? And somehow you don’t want the ickiness.
Jillian Leslie 32:50
So, I liked that idea of like, “No, you know what, look this month, here’s what you did great. And here’s what you didn’t, and this is not okay. And so, we’re going to just part ways.” That’s why I do that two-week window, and give that person the same. They can decide I don’t like working with you and leave and then it’s clean, I just want it to be clean.
Kristy Yoder 33:09
And it’s like you said, it’s not personal, if they’re going to leave you because it’s not the right fit for them. That doesn’t mean that you’re a bad boss, or you’re a bad business owner, you have to know that we’re not for everybody. We’re not for everyone, we just got to find that person who’s the right fit to work for us.
Jillian Leslie 33:30
What about if in my business, I do things in a certain way? And my VA does them slightly differently? How do I think about letting go of control?
How to Let Go of Control in Your Business
Kristy Yoder 33:43
That is a good question. And that’s very hard to do letting go of control, because there’s just so many things that go into that, you’re letting go of control. Not just because you’re afraid of letting go of control, that may be rooted into something else.
Kristy Yoder 34:08
Are you afraid of letting go because you feel like you’re the only one who can do all the things in your business, you’re afraid that your VA might not be able to do it the same the same way as you do. But in this question, you said that the VA has a different approach to what you’re doing.
Kristy Yoder 34:31
I think for me that’s okay. If your approach is highway A and your VAs approach is highway B, if you’re going to the right direction, and if you’re going to be at the same place, at the end of it, then it’s okay. If the VA in you, the business owner has different approaches to doing things and that’s very normal.
Kristy Yoder 34:56
The way how I do my podcast is different than how you do your Podcast Jillian. So, we do things differently because we are unique individuals. But letting go of control is easy when you know what you want.
Kristy Yoder 35:09
And if you have a vision for your business to grow, and if you can get past your control freak nature, there are a lot of benefits that can happen, or a lot of good things that can happen in your business as compared to keeping control in your business.
Kristy Yoder 35:32
That’s totally understandable that most of us may find it hard to let go of control, because our business is our baby. Just think about it, we were talking about, having kids.
Kristy Yoder 35:32
If you have a baby and you find a nanny, you want to make sure that you know that nanny because your baby is so precious to you and you don’t want anything bad to happen to your baby.
Kristy Yoder 35:57
So that’s the same way with our business. We don’t want other people to touch our business. But I think what I’ve learned recently is that we’re afraid to let go of control, because we don’t really know the person that we are delegating to, we don’t trust them.
Kristy Yoder 36:14
But if you learn how to trust your people, your VA, then it will be easy for you to delegate. And trust is not something that can happen overnight, you have to build a relationship with your VA, you need to make sure that you get to know your VA, and you let your VA get to know you.
Kristy Yoder 36:30
It’s not like a hierarchical relationship where you’re the boss and the employee doesn’t have the right to talk to the boss, because the boss is so busy. It’s not like that. We’re not in that world anymore. We are now in a world where we partner with our team members, and we see them equal we are equal to them. And we’re not high human beings than them.
Jillian Leslie 36:59
Like a hierarchy. I think what you’re saying is really good. And I like the idea of the nanny. And it’s funny because I know when my daughter was little, I hired a babysitter for her. And my babysitter wouldn’t do things exactly like I did. I had certain parameters of like, you can go to this park instead of this park or feed her this snack and those things.
Jillian Leslie 37:25
And she would of course, follow those. But otherwise, they would go and do stuff that I wouldn’t do. I didn’t like parks that much but she would take her to the park and play with her in the sand and all this stuff. And so, my daughter got this bigger experience by me trusting my babysitter, but she wasn’t me.
Jillian Leslie 37:47
And I think that there’s value in that other people working in your business might have new insights for you will free up time for you where done is better than perfect. Literally always in an online business, I teach this concept called B- work, which is please don’t shoot for A+ work. It’s impossible.
Jillian Leslie 38:07
So, if this VA is getting the job done, celebrate that because you have more time to work on the more important parts of your business.
Kristy Yoder 38:15
I am the type of person who values the result more than how it should be done. I value the quality of the result. If I’m going to New York and I want to fly to New York and my VA want to take the bus. I don’t really care as long as we meet in New York at 11am.
Kristy Yoder 38:46
I feel like the reason why I don’t I don’t really care. Because I always ask myself, is it a hill to die on?
Jillian Leslie 39:10
Well, the thing is, let’s say it’s a design, and you would have done the design slightly differently than they do and they hand it to you and you go, Ooh, is this the design the way that I would have done it? Maybe not. But is it bad? Or is it good enough to move my business forward? I feel like we get stuck in these ways to doing things.
Kristy Yoder 39:31
Subjective. Design is very subjective too. For young people, they like clean minimalist for most people who are older they love colors and different elements. I think for me, I don’t really care what it looks like just as long as they follow my brand colors and just as long as there is no typo in the graphic. And just as long as it’s still representing my company.
Kristy Yoder 39:57
If I want the logo on the right upper quarter of the graphic and they put it below on the lower left quarter. I don’t care, it’s just a logo, it’s not going to ruin my business.
Jillian Leslie 40:10
Exactly. That’s what I would say is think to yourself, is this a hill I’m going to die on? Is it okay if the logos in a place that I wouldn’t have put it, but yet step back and go, is this going to make or break my business? Is this such a big deal? Or is this good enough and I can be cool with that.
Jillian Leslie 40:30
And I can then use that time in other more productive ways than getting bent out of shape where my logo is.
Kristy Yoder 40:38
Exactly. Don’t major in the minor things. There’s a lot of things we need to take care of in the business, getting new leads instead of using your brain cells on a small thing, that you are blowing out of proportion. Don’t do that spend your brain cells on something that is revenue generating to your business.
Jillian Leslie 41:02
I love that. I love that. Kristy, if people want to learn more about what you offer, how to get in touch with you, all that stuff, where should they go?
Kristy Yoder 41:16
I have a website. And if you go to my website, you can check out the link to my podcast, and also my virtual assistant agency, and I have a lot of free stuff in there too. So, if you want to check it out, just go to kristyyoder.com, K-R-I-S-T-Y-Y-O-D-E-R.com. And I have my social media accounts in there too. So please, check out my Instagram.
Kristy Yoder 41:42
I love connecting with people like, I told you, I’m a very extroverted person. I love talking to entrepreneurs. So, please reach out to me on Instagram. Don’t be shy if you have any questions about delegation.
Jillian Leslie 41:54
I love that. Well, Kristy, I have to say thank you so much for coming on the show.
Kristy Yoder 41:59
You’re welcome, Jillian.
Jillian Leslie 42:02
I hope you guys liked this episode, I’m really impressed with the business that Kristy is building and the service she is providing for bloggers and creators everywhere. Honestly, I don’t know how I could be right here where I am right now if it weren’t for my team of VAs, they’re all over the world. I love them all.
Jillian Leslie 42:22
And I recommend you think about outsourcing some of the tasks that keep you up at night that you dislike, because by doing that, it will keep you in the game. And then you can focus on the more important tasks that actually grow your bottom line.
Jillian Leslie 42:43
Before I go I want to offer this to everybody if you want to get on a 15-minute call with me to tell me about your business and what kind of digital products you hope to create. I can tell you if I think MiloTreeCart is a good fit.
Jillian Leslie 42:56
To sign up for 15 minutes slot just go to milotree.com/meet because I’d love to meet you. Again milotree.com/meet. I hope you take me up on this offer and I will see you here again next week.
Other related Blogger Genius Podcast episodes you’ll enjoy:
- How to Up Your Price with Josh Elledge
- Are Limiting Beliefs and Imposer Syndrome Holding You Back with Maria Conde?
- How to Make More Money Online with Kim Garth
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