Welcome to the spotlight series. On today's episode we have Rosie Shilo from
Virtually Yours Virtual Assistants. Welcome Rosie. Thank you for having me. I'm so
excited to have you on here because on the Leverage and Loving It podcast
outsourcing really is a big key to creating leverage.
Before we jump into it I will give a bit of an intro for those
people who haven't come across Rosie before... Where have you been hiding? So
here we go. Rosie Shilo is one dedicated businesswoman she currently
owns and runs Virtually Yours, a network for over 170 Australian Virtual
Assistants which she founded in 2004. She mentors both new and experienced, raising
their business and sees them overcome many hurdles to achieve amazing goals
and this inspired her to write VaVaVoom how to become an amazing VA and every
clients most valued asset which was published in May 2014.
Okay so you and I are both kind of like let's just get down and deep and dirty
and straight into it so let's like dispose with all the fluff and get straight
into. I'm going to poke the bear and potentially cause a ranty pants moment
straight off the bat because I know where it's going I know we talked about
outsourcing and people think about VAs you know I feel like well I'm just
going to go to the Philippines to get a $4 an hour VA. Well I know you're a
massive advocate for hiring local so can we just start there? Yeah yeah well
that's plenty of reasons... Obviously you've got options when you're
outsourcing and we're in a global economy and that's fantastic
so you, do you've got your options. What what you can afford what you want to get
out of it but the most important thing is to realize that there are different
pros and cons to different types of virtual assistants. So you've got offshore
in countries that actually functions business-wise quite similar only ours, but you'll
still even notice the difference in those, so whether it's the UK or the U.S. even
those have different business cultures that we need to factor in. So it really
really depends on what the outcome is that you want to achieve from
outsourcing. So if it's purely time-saving for a really menial kind of
task they maybe you can't afford to get someone local to do that for you, you can
go offshore and get someone to do that task and it's cheap and all that for the
stuff but more I found over the years is purely because of a different style of
work, if you've got work that has room for interpretation and there's potential
the person that you're partner with someone and you want them
to provide you with feedback and ideas for growth, then it's really really
smart to get someone who in working within the same business culture as you.
And who understands the market that you're operating in. Exactly! Yeah, yeah
Yeah and that makes sense and you know for Stevie who is my
Content Manager she's definitely local, and
we actually can meet face to face if and when we want to as well which I
really really love but that was that was a happy coincidence really though we can
meet face to face in a cafe but I do rely very heavily on Stevie being
proactive and taking initiative and thinking things through which if I you
know which is a different experience to paying someone to just do very simple
structured admin tasks that thing you have to kind of very clearly provide instructions for.
Exactly. So if you've got step-by-step instructions and you know there is no room
for interpretation ...your culture whether it's
your country culture or your business culture isn't going to impact how that
information is perceived or interpreted, then by all means, you know
go wherever you want to go with what works for you. But the second you want
someone who has that intuition, wants to help you
succeed and grow and work alongside you well you know you need to pay more for
that. So it doesn't matter where you go, you're going to pay more for that and I
find that a lot of the really skilled virtual assistants in Australia who have
been running a really successful business for a long time have so much
information to offer, so much advice and it can be the little things. I want to
work with VAs to a good networking because if I have a VA who is good at
networking they're going to network for themselves but because they're on my
team and they feel like they're part of my team and I let them know what my
goals objectives are they're networking for me too
and they can see what opportunities are out there for me and I was very selfish
what not but to see the benefit. And I'm sure Stevie does that for you. She sees... she knows so well
what it is you and how you work, she sees opportunities that you would never ever
find someone who is working for $4 off shore... they wouldn't encounter those
Opportunities. Yeah absolutely. That's that's a really great
point and and I think that also when people think of virtual assistants they
have a very limited definition of what a virtual assistant can do so let's
talk a bit about that. What sort of things can a virtual assistant achieve
for a business? Oh it's huge. It's huge. The thing about virtual assistants is
when the industry started it was admin and you know admin was pretty much the
main thing that you could do bits and pieces of a transcription work or
formatting document that sort of thing back when the VA world started which was
in the nineties you could actually you know you can actually drive or post your
work to your VA and they would do it. I remember having a job where one of my jobs was to
go and drive to pick up the transcription stuff their VA had done
right because you could not email that back then that would just shut your whole system down.
Technology...
So when it started it was quite limited but the technology has
just taken off, so now bookkeepers can work virtually, graphic designers work
virtually, copywriters work virtually, receptionist work virtually, people who
help you with your social media content with your newsletters with strategies
events, marketing, PR, editing your book pretty much anything that is a business
support service that can be offered outside your office is a virtual
assistant. It's an industry, it's not a title. It's an industry and they all fall in
underneath that industry title. I think until very recently that
I still had a quite limited definition of what I consider to be a VA and
you know 'cause to the point where I would think well I don't consider Stevie a
VA because what she does is so much higher than a VA you know she was 'cause
to me VA was admin and you tell them what to do when
you have to give them very clear instructions and dot your i's and cross
your T's or you know who knows what you'll get back. Yeah and that's exhausting
That's not helpful is, it? Not really. No. So someone like Stevie is
I'm sure people that are listening to this have heard that this is the
Stevie promotion podcast. This is the I love Stevie podcast. Which I love! You all know that every time we step up in
this video she's going to edit it we know thank God, thank God
and we know what she's going to do with these it's going to take away so much of
Renee's pain points and allow her to stop the hustle and you know live the life
she wants to live and keep building the awesome leveraged tools that she's
building and allowing her to help people do that because... and there are so many
things behind the scenes encompass that role and you don't want a VA
where you have to say okay now I need you to go into YouTube load that up and
and each and every time and I will even put there you know
subtitle captions... whatever in there and then I want you to.... She knows.
She knows what to do. She knows what the outcome is and she delivers.
And I bet if there's a new program out there for you to market to, she'd go let's add this to the list.
Yeah absolutely. That's a good VA. And then the other
day when apparently she was sick in bed not able to come along to a Brainstrust
day I then get emailed from her a content strategy document. That's
above and beyond.
You're supposed to be sick in bed. She is so awesome he doesn't in strategy in her
sleep. Oh imagine that! I do that when I'm supposed to be sleeping but not in my sleep, so Stevie...
Hats off. She's one in a million. Yeah and she is your business partner and I've heard you
say that, you know, she's your partner in crime, helps you grow and you both
it's you know it's this beautiful relationship where you both grow and and
benefit from. And that is always going to be the best virtual contractor-virtual
assistant relationship is one where you both know what each other's goals and
objectives are and you help each other achieve them. You're so much
stronger. I see it as a real collaboration and you know looking
for opportunities for both of us to to grow together as well which you know
we're currently doing as well because you know for example recently we noticed
that everybody wants a Stevie I don't know why I mean it's like just some kind
of raving fan out there just telling world how awesome she is, but there's only one of her, right? So we needed to fix that
problem. So you're getting on to the biology cloning program. We have. That's creepy but we have
created the Stevie cloning project. Because everybody needs a Stevie. I love it. I love it.
and when people are looking for a Virtual Assistant that's
what I want to hear from their previous clients. Best thing that you can hear when they
say to do yet these are my references or whatever it might be I don't have a CV
they're not your employees but they can have testimonials they can have referees
and with Virtually Yours, we have a reference checking program and I love it when
people write back and just say look I would love to tell you how great this
person is but then they're going to go work with other people, so I'm zipped. That's the best. You can't have her she's mine!
It's predominately she's we've got a few guys on the network as well. It's when
they just say I can't tell you how good they are because you will steal them and they are
mine. You know you want to hear that, you want to get those testimonials and from
people who are partnered with that VA and know how awesome they are.
Absolutely and you know I think some people have been following along
with this podcast and have heard me talk and rant about how awesome Stevie is, you
know I think they're pretty sold on how important it is to outsource, but
for those who maybe aren't sold yet why why do we outsource? We outsource because we
should absolutely and utterly know what our most valuable tasks in worth and why
we're in business. They're the two things. Okay so why you're in business.
A lot of people get into business so they have freedom and
flexibility. It's hilarious! It's so funny. Because until you outsource and leverage you need up to you then you are
kidding yourself because you're fine it can't be everything to everyone and
you can't do everything a million times it's impossible and the reason why you
need to love what you're doing is because you're doing it so much and go
crazy. So that's one thing. The other one you you need to know what your
what you want to achieve out of it. I'm sorry I didn't really finished that first one
when you've got into it to have that flexibility and freedom right?
Or you've gone into it so you can make a certain amount of money
or you can have a particular impact on certain stakeholders or whatever it
might be and if you know why you got into it you will know that you need help
to do that. It's pretty much 100 percent guaranteed that that's going
to be the case. So that's the first reason why you would get a VA, to help you get
toward achieving what it was that inspired you to start the business in the first place.
Can I add to that as well because for coaches and thought leaders
specifically really what we should be focusing on as Peter Cook mentioned in
episode 2 is think, sell, and deliver. So they are your three roles as a coach and
thought leader so all the other stuff needs to get outsourced. And that
is what you're aiming for. That's perfect that's
exactly right. The other reason is because you
cannot move forward on the things that you do really well you can't have
clarity and focus and clean thinking if you are doing everything. And you know
it's just impossible and nobody's awesome at everything including VAs.
VAs who say they can do everything, I'm sorry they can't. Some of them are
amazing at bookkeeping some of them are incredible with phone
related stuff. I'm terrible with that so I bow down to them. Some are
copywriting geniuses, website geniuses... Anyone who says they're genius in all of
those you know they they need to get on Oprah because they are amazing. They are
one in a million. And it's rubbish. So you need to have those people
helping you move forward to your goals and and you cannot do that without all
these other distractions and you cannot do it well on your own. Now
you've heard me talk about how you know it's great to package results and not
time. What's your perspective on that? Completely.
I often talk about one of the situations that I had with the VA
where I got her to do some writing for me and she found it really easy and
she's like I can't even charge you for this it took me 15 minutes and I said but how
long would it have taken me? Would it have been as good?
And how much of my brain space and energy would it have taken? What it's worth to
me is not how long it took for you. You're good at it and fast at it
because you've practiced and you're amazing. You shouldn't be
penalized for that. So to me it's all about outcome-based. So if you can do it based
on outcomes so we're going to achieve. That's why you need to know what your goals are.
However if you do want to go for
the hourly rate and some VAs will and I've spoken to them about this because
the type of work they offer is very very hard to package because they want to be
there doing a lot of the generalist stuff and it changes from month month so
they might go on a retainer but to have it at the outcome based package can be
quite difficult it doesn't necessarily work for everyone. I guess that's in a situation
where the work is more ad hoc. Yes absolutely. And that does work
for some people but if you know what you're most value task is and
what your worth when you're working on your most valuable task you'll know
whether you can afford a VA or not. If your most valuable task when you're
working is worth less than say fifty dollars an hour
you probably can't afford a VA. You need to do the maths around that.
If you're worth less than fifty dollars now but you're really really really slow
at bookkeeping then it might actually still be worth it because the
bookkeepers going to be really fast and efficient and it's going to save you money. So
you just need to do the maths around it. If you going to do it based on hourly, do the
maths. If you can do package outcome-based
you know why you hired them, you know what should achieved by the end of it
and and it's just clearer and easier for everyone to assess how that relationship is
going in terms of providing value. Absolutely and I think it also just
means that you know if anyone's ever tried to hire an assistant but doing it
on an ad hoc basis there's that kind of pressure and stress of oh my goodness
I've got to find something to give this person to do this week and that's actually
to me not an empowering way to be working. Stevie's got her set list of
outcomes every month that she just does and I don't have to think about it at
all you know it just happen sand to me that's leverage because
it's just it's guaranteed activity and things that need to be done in the
business every single week, every single month and you know to me that is what we
should be thinking about as coaches and thought leaders you know what are those
tasks that you need consistently done every week, every month and imagine you
know write them all down and imagine how that's going to feel if that is taken
off your plate and how much headspace you've got left you know how much how
much time you got left, how much energy you've got left to actually get the get
the stuff done that really will make a massive impact in your business you know
that thinking, that creating, delivering, selling you know that's what you need to
be focusing on. I'm kind of I'm of the mindset and you know one of my
sayings around this is if you don't love it, outsource it. And you know think about
the tasks in terms of if when you do a task it energizes you and lift your
energy then that's probably something that should stay in your you know in
your domain, but if when you do a task and it drains you and you have less
energy, pass it on. I call those "Life Sucking Tasks" or LST. And if it's an LST, sounds
like a disease, and it kind of is, just not the one that you're thinking, then you
know you need to outsource it. You have to.
And back on the whole thing of thinking about what people have to do
I remember years ago that someone who wanted work and I really liked
her and everything and I said tell me what you could do for me and my business? And she
said I could do anything just let me know what you want. And I'd never did
because I just went, "no, you've just given me a task". You're supposed to be doing the tasks.
You're supposed to giving me the solutions and the ideas. You've made it
harder for me, you've added to my business pain by saying, "No, you work it all out"
No, what are you good at and what is the pain
you ease. You tell me, thank you very much. So VAs need to work
that out and and not add... The client is not responsible for your income and
responsible for finding work for you. I'm sorry, they're not. You're responsible for
easing their business pain and that's one of the pains right there. That's so
refreshing to hear you say that and I'm so excited to know that all the VAs in
your network you know have that philosophy as well and and realize that
you know it's not the clients job to come up with your work.
One of the key turning points was when Stevie and I started
working together and what really made a difference to me was she had a really
clear package that said you know I can do weekly newsletters, weekly blogs
weekly social media posts and this is how much it costs every month. I was like
that sound awesome. Yes. And I had been beating my head against a brick wall
trying to work out how I can make working with an assistant work but just
struggling to find out how I was going to come up with all the tasks and as soon as I saw
that I thought that it brilliant. That is done in my business
consistently every single week you know my visibility skyrockets right? And
and without me doing anything. It really is so so powerful so you know for the
coaches and thought leaders listening I highly highly recommend that you know
when you're looking for someone to join your team look for someone who is
packaging up results like what are the results that you consistently need in
your business, what are the things you need delivered regularly in your
business?I think that's much more powerful than going off and finding
someone and hiring them for 20 hours a month or 10 hours a month or whatever it
is for $4 an hour or whatever you know local or offshore
either way if you're then trying to find 20 hours worth of jobs for them to do,
how long does it take you to think about every month? In that case you want them to
be slow so that you don't have to think of as much stuff. If they're really efficient, you've got to think of more work to do.
If your VA one organizes a meeting with you to really understand what it is you need
and where you're going that's a big tick and if they listen and
actually implement something around that the other one is a VA who knows who
they want to work with because they've got the package that is the solution to
that person's business pain.
I have a particular opinion about not paying per hour you know for your VA and you
know yes because you've got to then find the work for them if you're going for a
set number of hours per month but also I find... have you ever
like paid a lawyer, Rosie? Like a $350 per hour
whatever the hourly rate is and then they spend the first 10 minutes going so how was your weekend? How are the kids? Get to the chase!
For a small business owner you know when they're hiring
someone on their team you're praying by the hour I feel like there's always this
tension of are they being the most efficient they absolutely can in that hour?
It's another another reason I really love just the freedom of paying for the
results and saying well, if they get distracted and go and play pokemon, it's not my
problem. If they're having one of those
days, like a brain-dead kinda day, you're not getting penalized for it.
Exactly if they particularly slow at something,
you're not getting penalized for it and then if they're really good at it, they're not
getting penalized for it. Absolutely yeah because of course you know if it
takes them 10 hours to do a task the first week it might take them eight
hours the next time well they should be penalized for getting faster and and
more efficient and better their work .
If they're leveraging it they've created the templates and
stuff like that to get it done, again shouldn't be penalized for it.
So I think hiring hiring assistance by
the hour is one of the ways that I see people going wrong but what other
mistakes do you see business owners making when they're hiring VAs?
They're not really sure on what the outcome is that they want from
it, they know they're stressed, they know they're overworked, but they don't really
have an idea of how they're going to measure whether this works or not. So that's the first one and the second one would be when they kind of feel
sorry for people who go on to the big social media groups and say I need a VA and
then they get 70 responses that they would then need a VA to filter. I always
see the irony in that. You've just added to all of the work that you
need to do. Good luck with that. But the big one that that I see or
this - one not sharing what their goals objectives are with their VA and thinking that
they just a... how people treat receptionists. I was a receptionist for years so I
actually really do respect what they do I know that they keep the business going.
But people do treat them like they are a lesser rank and if you treat your VA
like that your little plebs then they're
going to work, they're not going to work like a partner. So letting them know what
your goals and objectives are and letting them be a part of that so that
they can see where things are going well see where they will not, see when
opportunities come in front of them that would work for you. The second or third... I don't
know what I'm up to, would be not giving them time to learn what your business is
so you might have someone who comes into a business and they're you know in the
employee realm and they're an incredible accountant and they come into the new
business and they know accountancy, right. You would still give them workplace
orientation, you would still let them know how this business works, where it wants
to go, give them time to get their head around stuff, whereas with a VA they kind of
expect them to hit the ground running or that you need to you know write things
down like they're in grade two. You need to meet in the middle and just
see it as someone new coming into your business wants to learn how you want
them to work, without you telling them how to do their job. But also you know to
give them that time and to share with them what it is that you want to achieve
together. So it's all about communication and a little bit of time and respect.
I think respect is really a key point there because you made the point
about people treating their VA is a little bit like plebs and I know that
hierarchy which really just doesn't work I think one of the reasons my
relationship with Stevie works so well is that we are collaborators. We have..
... it's a win-win collaboration and it's such a different energy.
My main VA she knows she's my partner in crime. So her name's Monique and she does
all my writing and stuff for me but she's also my bounce-off ideas,
make sure I'm not doing stupid stuff person and you know she's not a magpie
I like I am which is amazing that's great because I'll go, "oh, shiny thing". And she''l go,
Rosie, I love you but you need to focus on the original shiny thing.
She's actually treating me like a grade two. But that's appropriate so and a lot...
And I think as entrepreneurs we need, that we need that yeah reality check we need
that person who can you know... Because we are
magpies, that's how we roll that's why we do so well is because we do love bright
shiny exciting things that's the thing that makes us awesome
at what we do. But without someone there to balance that and to bring us in
check every now and then you know then get a little bit distressed. Really?
It's funny you should mention that Rosie because I get so distracted by shiny
object syndrome that I created a flowchart to myself and that I need to work
through my decision making before I follow off on the... I love that
Do you have a picture of a magpie... I missed that but
maybe we could add that in. Get on it. So I will make sure that there
is a link to the shiny object syndrome flowchart with the show notes so that
If you kind of get excited by new things... And then we go oh
I've got 4,500 projects on the go and we freak out okay. You should see how many
tabs are open on my other screen over here. I did a webinar a while back and I share
my screen and are like oh my god and one my email inbox is sorted all over that but yeah my tabs... I think a key
indication of how addicted you are to shiny objects is how many domains do you
have registered. A few. Do you collect domains? I've probably got about...
I've culled a few recently, but how many have I registered over the years? I reckon maybe
ah look it's not too crazy maybe 40? Maybe 40 business ideas.
They're like branches of. If I said 40 I reckon that'd be pretty
conservative for me. I know that I know and I think it's just for me
clearer. It's an indicator for me that how much closer I'm getting to
really being in my zone is that I am easily letting go and surrendering
domains as they expire I'm not feeling that need to renew them maybe that could
be a new program and the domain release club because I'm doing that too I am I
think I need that. I let you go. You may go out to the universe with peace.
Domains addiction anonymous. DAA
This is like case in point. Shiny object. We're creating new program for domain addicts.
You need Stevie there and Monique here just tapping us on the shoulder going
just back in bring it back in, the audience has fallen asleep. Except for the ones that have
shiny object syndrome that are going yeah yeah. There's no one else out there who
collects to me like it's a hobby. No. There are.
I'm pretty sure we're not alone here. Awesome alright so I
think it's pretty clear how you created leverage in your business but let's just
spell it out can you give us a bit of an idea so clearly you outsource stuff so
that's leveraging people what about products and systems how have you use
those to create leverage yeah so it's taking me I'm a little bit of a CRM tart. It's
taken me a long time and I'm still on the hunt for the ideal CRM
drives me bonkers. To try and make sure that things the leveraging properly and they just don't
talk to each other the way that I would like them to. One day I
will be just feet up in the Bahamas when everything talks to each other the
way I want it to, but I have my CRM that does a lot of the stuff, so new members coming,
then they get a series of emails introducing to the different programs that exist
within virtually your. You know then if job leads it comes in same sort of thing
we follow up with them, make sure everything's going okay so there's a lot of
automation in that regards in the CRM. I used Zapier to get my website to
speak you know properly to where things are going out mail
wise and all that so few different reason why I need to use different programs.
But I also have I've got my online courses that I've set up so that people
can you know, same questions all the time you might as well make them into a program and
I've got my book again ,same questions all the time
new VAs come in I can go way to start is read this.
and they have worked beautifully for me to try and leverage my time and my
knowledge. Brilliant. Awesome. Love it. And what do you love most
your business? Community. The community. I'm really lucky
I feel really cheeky that my community in Virtually Yours, the network makes my
business more awesome because they are awesome so I'm just obviously have done
something right to attract those people but they make my business better and
they're my clients, so I feel really cheeky about that but I absolutely love it. I love speaking to people openly and honestly about outsourcing and
keeping it real you know you've heard me talk about business undies and stuff like
that. How hard it is outsource your business undies I mean yeah there's a
mess just people's business undies and trying to convey to virtual assistants
that responsibility and around you know handling somebody else business undies and
how hard it is for business owners to let people in because we all create this
perception that things are running beautifully behind the scenes and I'm
pretty sure that 99% of the time that absolutely rubbish and so then you know
especially if there's a VA who says I really admire you and want to work with you and then
you go, check this out. And you think they're going to think I'm the biggest idiot ever because this isn't
working and this isn't working and blah blah blah you know so it can be really
hard to let people in and to do that so it's a really interesting and wonderful
industry because it it does touch on you know that all of those human aspects of
running a business and trying to make it work for you not for what everyone and tells
you it needs to be, but work for you. I love that and I think that
one of the key takeaways really for many people who are listening who were still
stuck in that mindset that I was thinking of a VA as an assistant doing
admin, is expand your mind to the definition of you know see virtual
assistants as an industry and you know within that they're a specialists in
various different zones of genius so I love that.
So thank you we have been talking to Rosie Shilo. So thank you Rosie Shilo.
Where can people find out more about what you do. They just need to head
over to Virtually Yours. There's two ls and two ys in there. Does your head in.
VirtuallyYours.com.au. Cyber stalk me there. I'm on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin
all that sort of stuff you look at Virtually Yours. Look for the beautiful red
logo and touch base with any of those touch points I'd
love to hear from you. Brilliant. Thanks again Rosie Shilo and we'll be sure to
put all those links in the show notes. Cheers. Have a good day!
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