Delegating to a Virtual Assistant

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Some helpful practices to follow when you are looking to delegate tasks to a VA.

Time Stamped Show Notes

00:00 - Hey hey, business wizards.

00:02 - Jen Levitz here from, and you're watching a Spellbinding Biz TV, where we brew up business strategies that transform your bottom line.

00:10 - And today's conversation is all about delegating to a virtual assistant.

00:17 - We're gonna cover some of the things that you need to plan for as a business owner before you can say "Hey, can you do this for me?"

00:43 - So today we're talking about delegating to a virtual assistant, and before we get too deep into this, this is actually part of my background.

00:52 - I actually started as a virtual assistant, and then I was an online business manager, then I shifted to being more of a consultant, and now I have my own coaching business, so I've really had experience in all four levels and mental places of running a business.

01:14 - So just as a reminder, Level One is that visionary place.

01:19 - It's the place of the CEO, you make your bigger plans here.

01:23 - Your one to five year plans really happen at the Level One mindset.

01:29 - Level Two is more of a strategy place.

01:32 - This is where I personally work with my clients, is in that strategy place of understanding how to make everything go, and in this level is where you're likely creating your 90 day plans.

01:45 - The "where do I want to go strategically," "to make those higher level" plans, and meet those higher level demands for my business.

01:53 - And Level Three is where an online business manager may come in.

01:59 - This is where you're breaking down your tasks from your bigger projects into more of the action steps.

02:07 - That really happens more at the ground level to slight strategy space, but it's the breaking down of the projects that happens at Level Three.

02:17 - And Level Four is the "git 'er done" place.

02:21 - Now, most of the time, if you're just hiring a virtual assistant, you're hiring someone to take action at Level Four.

02:31 - And if you're paying a lower price point per hour for that virtual assistant, they likely don't have the skillset to handle the work of Level Three, let alone pull in some of the stuff from Level Two, meaning they may not have all the strategic-ness to pull in to break down the plan into tasks.

02:56 - So if you're going with a lower price point virtual assistant, expect that they're looking for the Task List, and the more detailed that you can be with the Task List that you are giving, the simpler it's going to be for your virtual assistant to execute, and the more likely you'll get what you actually want from your virtual assistant.

03:24 - So let's take the example of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

03:29 - If you just say to your virtual assistant "Hey, can you make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"

03:35 - If they've had no experience with your business, they may not know your preferences.

03:40 - They may not know all the details of your particular way that you like your peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

03:48 - And they just may make it the way that they like it.

03:52 - Which may not be bad, it may actually be what you like, but you don't know.

03:58 - And that's this Russian Roulette place, that I hear so many, specifically non-techie, business owners fall into.

04:07 - They go, "Hey, can you do this thing?"

04:09 - They don't know all the bits and pieces to even tell the VA what they need.

04:16 - And what they end up with is something that they really didn't want, or don't like in the first place.

04:22 - However, if you go into, "Hey, virtual assistant, "can you make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

04:29 - "I would like it to be on white bread.

04:31 - "I would like you to use smooth peanut butter, "and I would really appreciate it being strawberry, "without seeds, but I will take apricot if that's all that's available."

04:49 - Whoa, how does that change the conversation from getting something on rye, that's crunchy, that uses blueberry?

04:59 - It could be something very--

05:01 - It's a very different conversation, and it's a very different outcome.

05:06 - So what I'm really wanting to convey to you here is, be mindful of the level of the virtual assistant that you're bringing into your business.

05:16 - Especially at a lower price point, you are really getting the technician.

05:21 - The person that can get the thing done, but really needs to be told, "I need this done, and I need this done, and I need this done."

05:29 - And the more pieces that you can provide, the more pieces to the puzzle, the more detailed your list is, the more likely you'll get the outcome that you want.

05:44 - Kind of like with my son, who's seven at this point, we give him a more detailed to-do list, than just "go mop," because him going to mop may miss most of the rooms in the house, he may just mop the entryway, but if you're more specific,

06:04 - "Hey, I need you to sweep then mop the dining room,"

06:08 - I'm actually going to get the floor swept, mostly, before it gets mopped.

06:15 - It's that kind of place versus when he's older,

06:20 - I'm just going to be able to say, "Go mop the house," and he'll take care of all of it, because he'll have experience with these different spaces.

06:28 - Now, if you're paying more for your virtual assistant, or you have an online business manager, or you're hiring an agency, you likely have somebody in that capacity that is taking on the role of Level Three for you, the one that's going to break down the pieces.

06:50 - Hopefully, they also have an eye on the strategy, and can include the more detailed pieces for your virtual assistant to do.

07:01 - So if you're paying for a $2000 an hour, $200 an hour consultant, you can bet your bottom dollar that they understand the strategy very well, and you're hiring them because they get the strategy piece to execute and create a plan based on what you're trying to get done, and will get that done in that $200 an hour, versus $1200 an hour, they don't have an idea really, of how strategically this piece plays into everything else they're doing.

07:36 - At $75 to $100 an hour, they likely have enough to pull pieces from your strategy person to build that into the project plan, to get done the "git 'er done" level.

07:56 - I hope me breaking this down has helped you understand a little bit more about what can be with your virtual assistant, and maybe where the gap has been previously when you've delegated to your virtual assistant.

08:12 - A big place that I find that there's a gap is with technology, and that's what Spellbinding Tech is all about, is actually providing that Level Three amount of information for you as the business owner to be able to delegate to a lower level, Level Four, virtual assistant.

08:34 - (coughing) Excuse me.

08:37 - I actually take some of these bigger marketing projects, and I break them down into the different pieces, and I will help you, as the business owner, understand, "How does this project go?"

08:51 - What are the big pieces, what does this look like, so that you can determine where it fits into your business, as well as, here are the non-tech things that you, as the business owner, really need to do before you can pass this off to a virtual assistant.

09:08 - Like: what tech should you be using?

09:11 - What pieces of content need to be created in order for your virtual assistant to be able to create it.

09:18 - So if you want more information on that piece, so that you can more confidently delegate to virtual assistants in your
life and in your business, specifically around those tech tasks,

09:31 - please visit, and see it it's a fit for you,

09:38 - because this is a monthly thing where you'll have the choice of a whole bunch of different projects that you can move forward with for your business, without having the "I don't know how to make the tech go" needed.

09:54 - Now, maybe you're slightly technical, but you don't understand the strategy.

09:58 - That's okay, because I'm breaking down the project in a way that if you're techie and can figure it out, once you understand the strategy pieces, then hey, here's the blueprint for you to execute too.

10:10 - So I've got both sides covered for you.

10:14 - And really, if you follow these plans, and create all those pieces, you can very confidently delegate these tasks to your virtual assistant.

10:23 - Okay?

10:24 - So that's it for today, I hope you found this very helpful for your business, and let me know what's going down, okay?

10:32 - Take care, everybody, and have a magical day!