How to Set Your Virtual Assistant VA up for Success from a CEO Perspective Part 2 of VA Series | Ep. 42- Business Podcast
Summary
Part 2 in our Virtual Assistant Series
I’ve had a virtual assistant or executive assistant for over fifteen years. I was lucky enough to find Gia about five years ago.
There’s a lot of buzz about having a VA for years now. It may have been Tim Ferriss who really lit that flame. But here’s the thing…
To make the relationship really pay off there are some things you should do.
Gia and I thought it would provide you value by doing a two part series on working with VA.
In this episode I offer some HPTs from an Entrepreneur’s perspective that you need to be successful.
We also drop some more HPTs on how to find a good VA. Check out this episode to learn have to leverage a VA to help build your business
More Information
- Build a Business Homepage
- How to Write a Business Plan in 13 easy to build slides
- How to be More Productive
- 7 Quotes to Inspire Success in Your Life and in Business
- How I Build an Online Business of my Dreams
Hello,
Brandon:
friends. Welcome to another episode of Build a Business success Secrets. I’m your host, Brandon. See, White. And today G a is back in the house and we’re doing in episode to follow up on our last one. Um, how toe work with a remote assistant from the perspective of a entrepreneur, CEO or manager?
Brandon:
In our last episode, we gave the perspective from an executive assistant or virtual assistance point of view and g a thought that I should come on here and give some advice on success tricks or tips that I’ve been able to use for us to work together better.
Brandon:
So it’s not waste another second.
Brandon:
Let’s get to it.
Brandon:
Welcome back, everyone.
Brandon:
Today in this episode with G is very good suggestion we’re doing how to work with a remote assistant from the perspective of an entrepreneur, CEO, manager or whoever you are, that has one.
Brandon:
So I think, uh, real quick, one of the things that people always ask media and I think you here in our student calls is Well, how do you hire remote assistant?
Brandon:
Where do you find one?
Brandon:
Where do you do this and that? And there’s a bunch of places. There’s some services out there that you could use that would do it on per hour. That wasn’t for me. You could go to someone. I think up work. Isn’t that one of the sites out there? And you could scroll. You could put something on indeed listing. Or you could put something on. What is it linked in jobs? JIA.
Brandon:
Yeah, something like that. We’ve used the recruiter we’ve used. If there’s a recruiting service, we’ve used it.
Gia:
So here’s what I will tell people is or I’ll tell you listeners, you will go through many people if you go that route.
Brandon:
I did not go that route.
Brandon:
Well, that’s not completely true. I do have some virtual assistance that were very task specific that I’ve used for probably 15 years, actually, but it took me many, many, many people that we went through. I think in the early days I probably went through 15 or 20 literally until I found and you know them, Geo. We found Mark and Oh, Mark and Kathy.
Brandon:
Kathy, right?
Gia:
And then we have Paulette, who sometimes we use, but I’ve known them forever. But when I started to look for an executive assistant. I really didn’t go that route. And for me, it just sort of hit me and I had I’m gonna tell the story real quick. Where was it that you were working? G N M?
Brandon:
Yeah. I used to fly into B W I Airport a lot. And being from Maryland, I always wanted crab cakes, so I would go to G and M Seafood, which was down the road from the airport.
Brandon:
And I made a lot of trips Tombo high over a few year period. And I always saw JIA there and another lady And you know the feeling when you go to a restaurant or ah, market or wherever you’re going to see the people that work there. So one day I wouldn’t say I’m cheap. I would just say I might like to save money.
Brandon:
So I was sitting in the front of GM seafood where you can do take out, but eat there and it was really crowded. And Geo just happened one day to be sitting there, and it started out that we there was a table for four and said, Hey, can I sit here? We started talking. I learned that Geo went to art school we needed. And my brother and I need an artist. She did a bunch of artwork for us, Probably over six or eight month period. And then one day I don’t know how it happened. I went to get a crab cake, and I was like, Hey, what do you actually do? Like for a living? You’re like, Hey, I work here and I do smart work, right?
Brandon:
Photography. And I said, Well, have you ever would you be interested in a I’m making it short, but And you were going to school and I said, Hey, have you ever you would you have an interest in being an e A. And I don’t forget what you said. Maybe I was like, Okay, well, I need one. And I think that day I sort of hit me that I was just overwhelmed, and there’s no way I was gonna dig myself out. You’re flying around. You’re trying to work, trying to manage people. I was like, I gotta leverage my time here better with somebody. So I asked you to send me three writing samples. You sent me three writing samples. We talked a little bit about your situation with school and everything. And that was how it happened. Was that affair?
Brandon:
Yeah, it’s a good CliffsNotes version description.
Gia:
So that’s how I found JIA. And I think the reason I want to tell you that is that you could go the traditional route, But sometimes the people that will work with you, the best are in random places. And you have to look for it all goes back to like my number one business book, right? Celestine prophecies Got to understand why the situation is why you’re there and what you can do from it.
Brandon:
So did I miss anything in that?
Brandon:
Nothing. I know nothing important.
Gia:
So from there, I actually had not had any a before.
Brandon:
So there wasn’t a model except that. And I would argue that the e a that I was looking for and actually my wife spent sort of an EA but really chief of staff. It’s really chief of staff because you do so many things like you manage you. I don’t I mean, how would you even describe the job June or the position operations specialists?
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
There you go.
Brandon:
Like you got to do all sorts of things.
Gia:
Crazy things. Like the other day I asked you to take a class and figure out actually took a class before and designed the whole funnel that we built for build a business. So I’ve got some tips for E A s.
Brandon:
No. What do I have tips for today?
Brandon:
You have you have tips for CEOs working with?
Gia:
Yes, that’s yeah. They typically remote is remote yays.
Brandon:
And here they are.
Gia:
My first h p.
Brandon:
T is You have to be accountable. One of the key things for me was that the person that worked with me needed to put be able to push back.
Brandon:
Because how would you would you say that I have a, I don’t know. People described me as intense personality or strong personality. How would you describe that, JIA?
Brandon:
I think I’ve actually used that exact word. Intense is a good one.
Gia:
You’re very Goldring.
Brandon:
You’re very driven. You’re very goal oriented. Once you set your mind to wanting something, there is absolutely nothing helm or high water nor the laws of physics that can stand in the way.
Gia:
So with that in mind, there’s actually only a few people in my immediate circle that can push back and get through that.
Brandon:
And I’m also a sales guy. I mean, I’m not gonna admit it, and it’s not because I’m sales e. I think it just because I’m passionate and I believe, and when people say no, I just don’t believe no knows a temporary opinion based on data that the person has eso with that I needed a very strong person to be able to push back. And I think you need that because GS jobs not easy, but there has to be some trait in that person that can, because G is really here for a whole bunch of reasons. But one is accountability, and you have to push back and you’ve got to be able to deal with the uncomfortable nature of it. So I think you’ve got to be strong and push back in that way, for you’ve got to explain things. So one of I think my or I don’t know best traits is that I expect people to generally just know and maybe with Elon Musk neural link, I’m gonna be super excited because I could just plug something into my brain and plug it into Ji s brain and then it just downloads.
Brandon:
And I think I don’t know what that is, but I just expect people and I don’t think it’s a It’s a realistic or fair expectation. But sometimes I just expected. Is that fair to say Yeah, but I mean, I don’t really think that that’s a bad trait, necessarily.
Brandon:
I think that’s a byproduct of having a very clear thought process.
Gia:
And I guess, you know, like you’re moving faster than the person that you’re trying to explain it to.
Gia:
So, you know, by the time you have a fully developed idea and the other person is just now finding out about it, you know that you have to bridge that gap, but it But it is unfair.
Gia:
So you’ve got to be able to explain things people in a good way.
Gia:
That is my number two h p. T. Number three really builds on that which is teach. So you can’t expect someone when I ask GF for instance, What have I asked you to do?
Brandon:
That would be somewhat unrealistic to think that you just knew that data integration.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Gia:
There you go. So we’re doing data integration project where you have to hook the CRM to the email program to the landing page program. What else? I don’t know you.
Brandon:
There’s a P I keys. I’m still not entirely positive what that actually means. I know what it stands for, but I’m not entirely positive. What? It Actually.
Gia:
Yeah. So I basically Yeah, I just put that on G. And I said, Hey, now you’ve got to teach that though, which I think I do. And I’ve learned over the years that I think the easiest way isn’t directing email.
Brandon:
I use loom, write and record the video. And then g you can watch it when? When she gets it. So I think you have to do that for whoever your EA is. E think my number four HDP is set up systems? I don’t think Jay, You and I had very good systems in the beginning as it relates like now what do we have?
Brandon:
Trillo?
Brandon:
If cello we have asana, we have We have more than that.
Gia:
Well, we share notes, right?
Gia:
Yes, all of your apple suite of cloud sharing things.
Brandon:
You have access to all my emails.
Gia:
Right?
Brandon:
So you got to give that person, you’ve got to set up the system so the person can be successful and you’ve got to explain how that works. So I think now that this whole code thing I’ve been managing my email better. But when I was on the road more, you were looking at my email and managing that and doing that. But you’ve gotta have those systems in place and you can’t expect someone to do something if it’s not documented.
Brandon:
Well, so now we use We’ve been using trailer. I think that’s been working well. We still text back and forth things but eventually winds up on that board. And I think it goes both ways, right? I mean, I think JIA that it’s been easier for you to get me to get those things done because I can see the card and finish it when I need to.
Brandon:
Is that Yeah, I would think so.
Brandon:
Plus, you know, there are all kinds.
Gia:
I mean Trela specifically, there’s all kinds of different ways that you can customize it like, for example, just the other day we added the card priority power up.
Brandon:
So now we can see Oh, delicious high priority this is critical, the low priority.
Gia:
So it kind of helps us communicate in in that way to where it’s just like, Okay, this could take a back burner because this has to happen right now and stuff, Not stuff not getting lost in the mix because of any miscommunication.
Gia:
And it’s a sink asynchronous, right?
Brandon:
I mean, it’s not, doesn’t I could do it three hours later, you could do it.
Gia:
I could do it tomorrow and it’s still documented.
Gia:
So I think you’ve gotto set up systems and my number five HDP is You’ve got to build Emanuel now.
Brandon:
What I mean by that is I was traveling a lot for a few year period, and that meant and I had preferences.
Gia:
I only wanted certain rental cars.
Gia:
I only wanted to travel on certain airlines.
Brandon:
I only wanted to stay in certain hotels, and I wanted to eat it all at specific places, and they were all designed all that.
Brandon:
All those opinions or preferences were all designed where all came from just going on these trips and Gaea you were really responsible for doing a lot of that, and what I realized was that while G I can pick up things like I don’t like Sarah fonts.
Brandon:
Apparently, over time, if it’s happening in a shorter time period, you might not be able to learn that.
Brandon:
So I built that.
Brandon:
If you remember that shared note where I say VW I here’s my number one hotel. Here’s my number three hotel or to three, right? And was that helpful?
Brandon:
Oh, for sure. And that, you know, there’s especially being remote. There’s some things that you’re not going to pick up on because you’re not physically there. Like, for example, because it was in that handbook that Brandon put together. I know that under no circumstances he’d rather walk than ride in the middle seat of an airplane, you know?
Gia:
So those are things that I never would have observed otherwise. So he had to tell me and the fact that it was all in this one package that was put together and very user friendly, you know, that’s something we’ve never had to make that mistake.
Gia:
Yeah, and some of those hotel things were designed around having a good gym. So I found.
Brandon:
And who had included breakfast and stuff like that?
Gia:
Yeah, exactly. So those were things that you could research but maybe not know and not not That’s not always easily found.
Brandon:
Nor is it, frankly, the best use of your time. Although I know you’ve spent enormous amount of time doing research.
Brandon:
Well, that and you also without telling me, I wouldn’t have known.
Brandon:
Well, do you prefer to be in a place that has included breakfast? Or would you rather be in a place that has a really nice gym? Or is the pool the most important thing to you? You know, you have tow, You have to tell people what your top three, you know what order everything goes in your preferences. Otherwise, you know mistake’s gonna happen.
Gia:
So those are my five https for E. A s working with CEOs, entrepreneurs or managers again as a quick review, you’ve gotta hold the person accountable and you’ve got to be able to push back. You’ve got to explain what you mean. You’ve got to teach in some circumstances, which will require a time investment from yourself, but will pay dividends down the line because that person will learn your EA will learn, and then he or she will be able to force. Multiply your time, you need to set up systems. What we mean by systems are things like Trillo asana slack text message alone.
Brandon:
What else notes we should. We use the apple platform so we can share a lot of documents and notes that you like pages and keynote and stuff.
Brandon:
So we use that system, set up the systems and build manuals for yourself so that you can hand those off and then there’s not a lot of guessing.
Gia:
And then the person understands because being remote, like you said it sometimes it’s just hard.
Brandon:
I mean, you might be able to pick that up if you if we were in office every day and you overheard me talking about it, right? But that could be hard. The bonus htp is I would say you do need to talk in the beginning, you probably need to hang out, or I don’t know how you do that remotely. I guess you and I talk on the phone a lot, right? Or facetime or whatever we use. So I think you do have to get to know that person’s personality, and I would probably have that discussion up front.
Brandon:
I think we have that discussion upfront, right? I was like, Hey, here’s how I am. Here’s what. Here’s what you can expect.
Brandon:
There was probably some singers that you didn’t realize, but yeah, only.
Brandon:
I think when we have been working together for e think probably 3.5 4 years that I find out that you have a pilot’s license to fly an airplane.
Brandon:
Didn’t know that before.
Gia:
Thought that was very surprising.
Brandon:
Yeah, so those things that you know, those are the things that’s a great example of things that just wouldn’t come out right or those things.
Gia:
So I think you almost have to write a really good biography for yourself.
Gia:
A swell, I think. I think executives or entrepreneurs or manager, they focus a lot on what they need that person to do. But they also need to focus on who they are so they can communicate to that person so that person can understand because I think a lot of conflict with Ania or actually anyone in many ways is really a communication gap.
Brandon:
Yeah, well, that and I think another big piece of it is that everybody is human. Everybody in this situation everybody in this environment relationship is human and you have to remember that nobody’s a computer.
Gia:
I think we’ll end on that.
Gia:
Yes. So there you go. There’s five h p. T. S to work with your a e a and said him or her up for success.
Brandon:
Alright, pretty good tips, right? Those are six plus years of experience with Gaea and probably 15 plus years of working with other virtual assistance. So put those tips toe work. And if you have any experience or tips that you found useful, drop me an email, let me know. I love to hear him be at Brandon, see white dot com.
Brandon:
And hey, if you enjoyed this episode, please rate review and hit Subscribe. So you don’t miss any of our weekly episodes until the next show.
Brandon:
Remember, you are just one business plan away.
Brandon:
I’m rooting for your success.
Brandon:
We’ll see you soon
