Episode 14: Hiring Your First Virtual Assistant with Sara Wiles

Molly Cahill
You're gonna love today's episode, it is with my dear friend Sara Wiles who I met on a retreat in Nashville pretty recently, we actually got to be housemates, which was super cool. And the episode today is all about hiring and outsourcing to a virtual assistant, and or an online business manager, what that looks like how you do it, what they can do for you how surprisingly affordable it is. We also talk about a lot of the money mindset issues that especially women tend to have and about trying to kind of like a must suffer and must do it all in order to be worthy. So I think you're going to absolutely love this episode. Sara is a virtual assistant trainer and an online business mentor who lives in South Florida. She made her first million in 2022. And she was working an average of 20 hours or less per week. She's also a wife, a mom, a dog, mom, she exercises every day. She's a gun violence prevention activist and a four letter word addict, which is probably why we got along so well when we were housemates. But also, I just have to note, I was just so funny how, when we were getting ready together at our house in Nashville at that retreat, she just dropped the cool like, oh, yeah, I bought I think there's like a bracelets here. I will have to remind me what it was. You're like, oh, yeah, I bought that when I made my first million. I'm like, so amazing. So I know you're gonna get a lot from this episode. So here we go. Welcome to holistic marketing simplified a podcast for health and wellness professionals looking to simplify their marketing. I'm your host, Molly Cahill. And this podcast is brought to you by holistic marketing hub, our hybrid program that supports you with personalized coaching, captioned templates, and virtual classrooms. In this program, we teach health and wellness professionals how to fish but we also bait your hook, head to holistic marketing hub.com To learn more, and use code podcast for $100 off, you can find full show notes, resources and more at Molly cahill.com/podcast. All right, Sara Wiles, welcome to the show. I'm so happy to have you here. I already did your little intro of how we met and a little overview that episode. But tell us a little bit about you. Got here.

Sara Wiles
Yeah, well, good. That's good question, I might be able to answer it. My name is Sarah Wiles. I live in sunny South Florida. I am one of the few that is born and raised here. My background is in corporate event planning. So I graduated from Florida State University and went straight into my industry. I did that for eight years. And then I had a baby. And it turns out, people aren't so understanding in the corporate space of like, what motherhood looks like and how that changes your availability, both mentally and physically. Yeah, it's a shock, right? So yeah, I think my exit story is, you know, similar to many, and I left the corporate event planning space with a whole lot of skills, but not really knowing what on God's green earth I was going to do with those skills. And I very luckily had a friend who had started her coaching business about a year and a half earlier. And I had watched her progression, also similar story from from the corporate space. And she said, I'm pretty sure you could be a virtual assistant, like you're, you know, you're you're good at figuring things out. You've done corporate event planning you, you've planned, you know, 5000 person events in Las Vegas, like pretty sure you could do this. And that was like, okay, and I got really lucky, and she fed me clients. And I really just learned as I went, and that was in 2017. We booked out our business very quickly, I grew, we had so much business that I grew to a team of eight all mon VAs that worked underneath me. Amazing. And then I realized, Hey, this is a thing. And I love supporting I love supporting my clients, and I love having a team. But if we're being totally honest, a big team is not where my skill set is, is the strongest. And I wanted to teach more people how to do what I did. So we started, I started doing one to one mentoring. And then I launched a course and a membership. And that's how I got here.

Molly Cahill
Yeah, so I want to go back to where you put my industry in quotes. Because I think that's funny how you say, like, Oh, I got the degree and then I did the thing. Right? That's supposed to do right, like, yeah, that's the path, which is

Sara Wiles
so interesting. I just read this thing that was talking about the share of wealth by generations. So by like Boomers and Gen X and millennials and all of that, and at this time, I don't have the exact numbers, but at this time in our lives, boomers had like a significantly higher percentage of the country's wealth. And part of that is like so many of us did the things we thought we were supposed to do. We went to college and got the degrees and you know, some of us had to take out loans and you know, I personally don't feel like this but I know a large you know, amount of millennials feel like this. Like they just feel like they kind of got shafted by doing all the right things and it's not working. Like I don't personally feel shattered but I under Stan how a lot of people do.

Molly Cahill
Yeah, well, my first job out of college I made like $20,000 a year or like, a little bit home. Like I'm so bored to do. What was your fault? Yeah. So I sold advertising in a newspaper. Oh

Sara Wiles
my gosh, which is obsolete. Now is that thing

Molly Cahill
now? Well, even this was in Oh, eight. So I mean, I was really lucky just to even have a job because I graduated college in 2008. I think you're the you're like, Oh, okay. Great. Recession is great. But yeah, yes, yeah. And I have a very similar story to you, as well as how I ended up, you know where I am. But you said your friend had a coaching business, what kind of coaching business did she have was video charging, okay. And so she was helping you get virtual assistant clients. So yeah, obviously, this is not a podcast for people wanting to be virtual assistants. But if for some reason your heart is like, I hate what I'm doing, then you can go check out Sara for that stuff, we are going to talk about the other side of it, we're going to talk about the business owners who need support. And I think that I don't feel like I'm putting words in anyone's mouth, just because these are the things I hear you, I'm sure you hear it too. It's like, I'm not ready for that yet. I don't have the money to hire a virtual assistant. Once I get to x, I will hire an assistant, or it's going to be more work than even do it. I'll just do it myself. I just do it myself. It's easier. We're gonna talk about all those things today. So I think it's gonna be really good conversation, because I attribute and this is a conversation that you and I had, as you were, Uber was waiting, and you were sitting on your suitcase to zip it leaving Nashville. Very, very hungover. Very, very good. Yes. I was like, I've just never resonated with that. I've never had trouble outsourcing. And you I remember, you stopped what you were doing. And he looked at me and you said, that's why you make money. It's true. And I just thought that was powerful. Because, and we did, we had a moment where we did acknowledge our privilege. So like, I want to, like, get that out of the way. First, I was in medical sales after my shitty job where I made no money, and I made great money. And I but I was really burnt out. I was really stressed out I'd I'd saved a bunch. And then my husband was in the military. So we had a consistent paycheck. It's like there was no, there was no fear of my husband getting laid off. Yeah, had insurance like so I completely acknowledge all of that. I don't know if you want to speak to that part. But

Sara Wiles
yeah, I mean, I mean, same story, you know, God forbid, something happened, we wouldn't last for a very long time. But you know, if my business did not make money, we could still pay our bills and handle all of those things and say, My husband is still to this day in a corporate job. So we have insurance through him. So yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of privilege all around in that. And also, and I think I shared this with you, I always think about this podcast episode that I listened to with Chalene Johnson, who I still rarely listened to. But you know, when you get like, a nugget of wisdom from somewhere, and it just sticks in your brain, and she talked about how right before she had her big boom, right before she became this big, you know, fitness superstar. And all of this, they were like, close, they were on their way to get in there. And they ended up hiring a housekeeper. And she was like, we had no business on paper financially hiring a housekeeper, right. We didn't, we didn't, quote unquote, have the money for it. But she was like, I also know if I am trying to keep up with this house, and these kids lunches, and all the laundry and all the things, I am not going to be able to make this money. And I've always thought about that. When I've been in a point in my business, which you and I both know, at this point, you know, it starts with hiring the first VA, but then it's hiring the OPM or investing in ads or right, there's always a level where it feels like such a scary risky thing. But you usually don't feel ready or safe when you when you take that leap. I think hiring a VA is. And we can talk about this is a lot less risky than a lot of those other outsourcing decisions I'll make later on.

Molly Cahill
Yeah, and we'll define some of this terminology in a second. I just don't want to lose this. I went into my business hearing, most businesses start to be profitable by year three. I don't know if that's true or not, I don't know if that's still the stat but I went into my business with that in mind. And for some reason, that just gave me such a sense of peace because I wasn't putting all of this pressure on myself in year one and year two, I I was really just focused on building something sustainable.

Sara Wiles
And

Molly Cahill
I really had that like your three and it's so funny because I don't know if it's like a self fulfilling prophecy, but that's what it was like, by the end of year two. I was like, uh, like, I'm still not really paying myself what I want to be paying myself and like then it's like, and there's like year three, it was just like, boom, like, Mike, you know, we just got done with our taxes this morning on my taxes. I was excited about it, right because it's like, oh my gosh, actually had a really profitable year. So I think that is like a, like a mindset shift. Have to go in. Like, I always believed in myself, like I invested in myself by investing in help. And then what was really cool. And this is something that no, no business owners really talk about, I don't think is looking at my business fresh in my mind existed my taxes, right? Looking at how much I paid other women and two is like, so cool. Like, oh, I helped them, help somebody buy a home, I helped you know what I mean? It's like, it's cool. I love that.

Sara Wiles
That's so beautiful. I think about it too, in terms of like, yes to buying a home and you know, buying a car and all those cool things. But I also think like, I help women not have to go back to a toxic work situation or deal with workplace harassment, or, you know, all of the all of the Wild Things that we we deal with, you know, as women in the workplace that are, unfortunately, normalized. So yes to all of that. I love I love that point. That's beautiful.

Molly Cahill
Yeah. And that's, like I said, I think it's kind of like something we miss a lot, because actually had to do a lot of work with my shout out to Kelly Marshall, who's my bookkeeper. But she's so much more than that. We do money mindset calls, I had to do like actual work around having a housekeeper and stuff because I felt like, embarrassed. You know? So I think we start there. Let's start with this feeling as moms and as women, then we can't ask for help.

Sara Wiles
I mean,

Sara Wiles
I think, you know, if you're listening to this, right now, you have two women here who are successful business owners and moms. And we're both telling you that we struggle with this as well even you know, at the at the level that we're at. So I think there's like a normalization to that feeling there where it's not just specific to you, we actually all feel this. So then, that points to my brain is like this is actually more systemic than it is individual. So I think just acknowledgement of bad first and foremost is really helpful. But also like the conversation we had when I was jumping up and down on my suitcase to try to get it to close it Nashville, right? Like, there is no, there is no successful business that you can look to right, pick a business, pick a business that you admire, they didn't get there by doing it all themselves. So every step of your business, when you do something new, it's going to be uncomfortable. And there's no reason that we shouldn't think that outsourcing should be any different. It's going to be uncomfortable. It's going to be scary. Handing, you know, the keys to your business castle to some random person on the internet. Hopefully, you can find a trusted person. You know, I think some people are more trusting than others. I'm I'm like a wildly trusting person, somebody's team, and I'm like, here's my credit card. Yeah.

Molly Cahill
Me too. My team has my credit card, my Gmail login, you know, like, this is my mom's maiden name. And

Sara Wiles
here's my social. And we're not saying that you should do that. We're just saying that it's what we do. But I think it's normal that it feels scary. And it feels a little risky, like, so let's just normalize that first and foremost.

Molly Cahill
Yeah. So let's define some let's take a few steps back. Let's say you said VA, and OBS.

Sara Wiles
I'm sorry, sometimes I get so caught up in my industry, I like spew the word no, no.

Molly Cahill
on that? No, no, I did to it. The only reason I know that we need to define these is I, we added it to our website, we have a new girl on our team who's amazing. And where we normally just provided like Instagram management services. Now we provide some extra, you know, we call VA services. And we're like, what's VA services? What does that mean? I'm like, oh, yeah, you probably don't know what that means. So what what are what is VA OBM? What is all this stuff?

Sara Wiles
Yeah, so a virtual assistant is really just somebody who works remotely. And they do in general, one of three or four types of work. So one of them would be general admin, right, which is the stuff that 99.99% of business owners need help with, then sometimes you get a virtual assistant who has more creative skill set, right, maybe their background, led them to a creative path, or they just really are more creatively brained. And those are the folks that are probably going to, you know, maybe be able to do some like graphic design for you in Canva, maybe they can make a graphic look really pretty for you for Instagram, maybe they can, you know, help you with some of those things. Not full on social media management, because that's a different person, but just kind of like dipping their toe into the water there. They can make you a PDF, they can edit a beautiful form and dubsado or something like that. Then of course, sometimes you have a virtual assistant who might also help you with some social media type stuff, again, really careful to make sure that we're clear on our titles. A virtual assistant is not and will never be a social media manager. That's a specialized person at a specialized price point. And then And then sometimes we'll have a VA who tends to be more techie. Right? So like they're kind of the people on the back end, right, really helping you figure out the platforms and the tech and how things talk and connect with each other and stuff like that. Now, some virtual assistants might be a jack of all trades, right? They can like kind of dip their toes into all of the waters. They might not be a master at any of those things, but probably most business owners especially for the folks that we Support, don't really need a master of anything, right? They need somebody who knows a little bit about everything. And what you really need is somebody who's resourceful and likes to learn. Because that's going to serve you longer than finding the person who knows exactly all the platforms that you use right now. Because let's use Instagram as an example, if you think you're an expert on Instagram today, good luck six months from now, because if you're not great if you're not resourceful, and you're not willing to learn as platforms change, what you know, right now is probably not going to help that much in six months. And so that's really what you want to look for. And I know we'll get there in a second, but in a higher, right, it's not necessarily do they know, all of the things that I need them to know right now. But do they have? Are we a cultural fit? And are they willing to learn? Because I think that's going to serve you in immeasurable ways.

Molly Cahill
I just I have one. Now, Jordan, shout out on our team. She's one of those people who I'm really big on in this is one of the things we're going to talk about its retention, making sure we have somebody for the long haul. And one of the things I always ask anybody who comes on the team is like, hey, what do you enjoy? Like, what do you like most? Because I'm not going to assign you something you don't like, because I want you to be with me forever. So I certainly do you enjoy more of like the creative or with the tech. She's like, I love it all. It's like your unicorn, how do I know you'll stay forever? Yes. But then I also have someone on my team ona who's in Nigeria, which is really cool. And she is I used kartra for my course, my email. And it's a pretty robust platform. And it's it has a lot of ins and outs. And so, owner was hired through a kartra va registry because she's a Karcher expert. Now she does that work for me a lot. But she's the one that makes sure all the little tick things work. She also knows WordPress, which is kind of our website, is she? So yeah, like you said, you can kind of have somebody you there's there's no one size fits all what your business needs, you can find, find that person.

Sara Wiles
And the term VA is an umbrella term, right? Much like manager is an umbrella term, right? Like, Well, is it a sales manager or a finance manager or retail manager or right? And so it's really more about you defining what you need in your business, and then finding the cultural fit for your business versus versus, you know, every virtual assistant is not going to come to the table with the same skill set.

Molly Cahill
Yeah, exactly. And so and OBM taking it a step further, and you guys as well, but if you want to talk about that,

Sara Wiles
yeah, so OPM stands for online business manager, and I would say that's like a VA on steroids, right. So that is somebody who most of the time they they graduated, most people don't start, as OPM say, start as VAs and they kind of realized that they enjoy some of the higher level support. So whereas a VA is more reactive, meaning you give them work to do, and then they do the work, and OPM can be more proactive in your business, they can take more of a strategy approach, they can a lot of times and again, it's also an umbrella term. So it depends on their skills and things like that and what they like to do. But as an example, my OPM and my business managers are a whole team. So I, nobody comes to me for the most part until they go to Meghan first, right and have a conversation and make sure she manages all the operations of the business, make sure everything has an SOP attached to it. She Yes. So she manages team, she manages all the high level tech, we're moving to a new course platform. So I'd love to talk to you about yours. Yes, but Right. It's Megan's responsibility to she knows the business and she's gonna go out there and find, you know, options for better platforms for us. And then she's going to be the person to implement that switch. You know, I'm a mom, I work about 15 to 20 hours a week. There's no way that I could do that without these people. And to be frank, I don't have the skill set to do that. I am not Megan.

Molly Cahill
No, I told my husband if I get hit by a bus call Carolyn. Because I don't know immediately. I feel like sometimes that kind of like Carolyn, I'm sorry. She's my mom. I attribute a lot of my my growth started when I had got couldn't afford it. When she told me her minimum I was like, can afford that. I don't have that money. Okay to find that, okay. Because she came on for a project base. And that's how she got me I was like, Oh, shit, I can't not have you now, you know? Yep. Um, she told me her monthly retainer minimum. I was like, Well, I don't have that. But I don't really see a way forward without you. And what's cool, I don't know if you have any thoughts on this, but I love personality tests and stuff. Carolyn is my exact opposite on the Myers Briggs. So exact opposite. So it's like, I'm all over the place and I have ideas 24/7 or whatever. She's the one that like, makes them happen. Yeah. I call it like project management. She She doesn't do like she doesn't do a lot of the doing right. She's just like, making sure everything gets done.

Sara Wiles
What's your Enneagram?

Molly Cahill
Are you a three on a seven? Doris happen? Oh, yes.

Sara Wiles
Yes. I remember talking about this. I remember talking about this on our coffee walk. Okay. Yeah, she had to

Molly Cahill
she that one? No, she's a three. She's a great she's a three. Yeah, she is. But Myers Briggs. She's like the top like she He's just organized. And she's just so like, thoughtful. She's thinks things out. But anyway, I don't want to go. But let's, let's go back to so I had a, we had a question come in today when I asked him, he said, I was interviewing you three to what questions you have about hiring a virtual assistant, my student Rose said, so many, I still don't really think I understand what they do and how to get started. Just kind of talks about the what they do part. And that really, can you maybe give some tips on how people can almost take an audit of their business and say, This is what I need support with

Sara Wiles
100%. So what I tell people when they're first starting to outsource is a couple of things. And you can do all of these things. Or you can maybe, you know, kind of pick and choose. So the first thing that you can do is just a really simple brain dump. And I call this a love list and a love list to think about your business, and then go great, what are all the things that I love doing, and then set yourself a timer for five minutes and just go right? There's no filtering, nobody else is going to read this, but you there, you don't get an A on it or you know, 10 out of 10, it does not matter. There's no shoulds here, there's just honesty. So what do you love to do, and then I want you to write all that out, then I want you to take another five minutes, and I want you to write out what you love. Okay, and again, like, the more honest you can be with yourself in this process, the better because, again, you know, these are all umbrella terms. So we're looking for personality, fit and cultural fit, not just can you do this task like a robot, right, right. So love list and love. Those lists are really great, because then you can kind of see like, well, if I love to do the client, right, the client interfacing stuff, and I'm what I really love is having to send them the onboarding package, and right, and responding to customer support email, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay, cool. So then like, let's find a fit for that. Those are really easy things to start to outsource. Okay, so you can look at it like that, a couple different ways that you can look at it besides love and loads, you can also look at your assuming, you know, if you have a task management platform, you've got Asana or clickup, or any of those things, go ahead and look at your repetitive tasks in there. What are the things that you're doing daily, weekly, monthly, those are the easiest things to outsource in the beginning, because let's say what you can do is the two birds one stone approach, which is the next time you need to do it. So Maluma video of yourself doing it. So you're actually checking the task off your list, you're also creating a training video. And then you can use that training video to give to your new team member. And they can watch it without you having to explain things to them as many times as they need to figure it out. Right, right. So that and then again, the repetitive tasks are really biggest bang for your buck, because you have to do the least amount of training in theory, you train once and they do it in perpetuity. Right. And then the last piece here, and this is the one for folks that are really feeling apprehensive about outsourcing, but they want to push themselves, I would pick anything that's not client facing. If you feel nervous about introducing somebody into the business or introducing somebody into your clients, or you know any of those reasons, or things, which is very understandable, pick all things that really, if it gets a little messed up, it's not that big of a deal because it's not client facing

Molly Cahill
right. Or I would add to that to two of my like litmus tests is like one, you could always hire somebody for a project basis, right for just for like one project. Yep. And see how it goes. And you say up front, this is a trial one project. Yep. And then my other is, this is like completely unrelated. But instead of the love and loads, I look, I look to whatever I've been putting off. I love that. I'm like, I've had this on my To Do lists and keep putting it off. Why this is such a dumb example. But it's so funny. My husband's Lululemon shorts have a tear in them. And you know how Lululemon has like this, like lifetime guarantee, it would take me what, three minutes maybe to like, actually take a picture of the shorts, go to their website, and I just like haven't done it for like a year.

Sara Wiles
You're like, but don't throw those out. Because those are $78 We're

Molly Cahill
going to do it one day, okay. And obviously, that's like a personal assistant type task, which also could be we're just finding because that's what my mom, my mother's my personal assistant, which I love. Like, when we went to Orlando for spring break. I was like, hey, we need a rental car, log into my Gmail, find the dates I'm flying out, give me a rental card. She's like, Yeah, and she's just like, bills. Me. It's so cool. But um, what was I going with that? Oh, the example I did in the email that we wrote when I was in Nashville about starting my email list. Guys, I know all of you listening like You're like having meetings start by email. It's so common. You'll be shocked at how little it would take you financially to have somebody set up a lead magnet to trigger the page the email like and then it just be done. And then it's not just this kind of emotional weight gone to 100% it's just done and you're like, oh, and then you'll get like a high fragment. You're like, Alright, I gotta start outsourcing all this stuff.

Sara Wiles
Racing. That's my goal in life is to outsource everything.

Molly Cahill
Yeah, pick one thing, right like, so this feels overwhelming to you right now. And you're like, oh my gosh, I don't even know where to start, pick one little thing that you've been putting off. And for a lot of you, I'm gonna give you the homework assignment of your email list. And then I'm going to also plug a holistic marketing hub and say, hire one of Sara's vas, put them through my course. And then they can pull the content for you. So that's another thing we didn't talk about. Let's talk about, you talked about finding somebody who is adaptable and loves to learn, I think that is so important. And that will become apparent, I have found pretty quickly, you have people who are resourceful. And then you have people who are like, I don't know how to do that period. That's not usually the right fit. But I know a lot of people who will buy a course buy an online course and then put a virtual assistant through that course, because they're like, I don't have I want to learn this, I want to implement this in my business. I don't have the bandwidth here. I bought this course. And so people love that, like, they love to learn and do.

Sara Wiles
Mm hmm.

Sara Wiles
Yes, to all of those things. Um, oh, there was something that I was gonna say about mom, brain, Mom Brain just came and ate it out of the sky, it'll come back at some point. Yeah, you can totally have a VA go through something like that for you. Oh, that's what I was gonna go back to the project bases work that you were talking about. Sorry, real quick, you can do that. And I also recommend doing a trial with any of these folks, right? Like, run them through a trial process, run them through, right. If you're wanting them to repurpose content for you, we'll pay them for an hour of work and see what they have to give you. Right? Not everybody will be willing to do that. Not every VA will be willing to do that. But a lot of times folks that have a lot of transferable experience, but they're newer in the online space. We'll be happy to do that all day long. So you can see the quality of work, you're gonna have to pay for it. You can't expect them to do work for free, but you can see the quality of work before you really have to invest, you know, at 10 hours a month or 20 hours a month.

Molly Cahill
Yes, let's go there. Let's talk about how much does it actually cost? No, this is a it depends and knows the answer but um, you do get what you pay for it just like anything in the industry. As an example. I I hired some quote copywriters from a virtual assistant group, which was my first mistake. Yep. I mean, some of them, look, maybe some of them are great copywriters. I don't know. Because that's one thing. It's hard for me to give up, give up because I'm a I'm a strong copywriter, because that's my background. And so it's hard for me to give up, right? Yeah. And so I was like, hey, like, we write these captions. Here's the prompts. I had literally 35 people apply. And part of the application was to give me a sample caption. And some of them were just easy to be like, no, and then some of them were like, Okay, I'll give you a chance. And then I got the first round back. And I'm like, Oh, this is taking me more work than it did. But the problem was, I didn't pay very much.

Sara Wiles
And I know better.

Molly Cahill
I wasn't trying to underpay. I mean, obviously. I mean, my team has paid very well. That's not what I mean. I just was like, Hey, these are easy captions to write like, this is how. So now I have a copywriter who I pay? Probably four times more. Yep. And I don't have to go tweak anything. Yep. So let's start off by like, how much can somebody expect? Yep. Hey, and then let's talk about like, level of experience versus like, you know, yep.

Sara Wiles
So, so we run a course, right? We run people through it, who are brand new to the industry, right? A lot of times they have a lot of transferable skills to bring into their business much like I did when I first started. But they're new to this industry. They're new to being a business owner who's contracting for other people. So if somebody is brand new, and they're really as green as they come, we're going to tell them, hey, you're probably in the 25 to $35 an hour range, right? Then when when they're mid level, right, so either they've been in the industry a little bit or they came in with a ton of transferable skills like you would have been at least mid if not high level because you had copywriting experience. You came in with marketing and sales experience, right? You had a lot of transferable skills. mid level, we're looking at 35 to 45. And then upper level we're looking at 45 Plus, right I know I'm you know, all the all of my bas makes $45 An hour or more on my team been spending

Molly Cahill
mine mine ranges from 25 is the lowest and I had one that was up to 75 because she was we finished cheese. We finish each other's sandwiches.

Sara Wiles
She was one of those people that like

Molly Cahill
I would be like, oh, I need to go tomorrow to do this thing. And then it'd be done. And I was like, Oh, I didn't have to tell her she already did it. But she's not with me anymore. She started her own doing her own thing starting her own business benefit for her but yeah, no she deserves She's amazing. But anyway, continue.

Sara Wiles
Yeah, so the rates are all over the place. Right? I would say if you're brand new to outsourcing Start lower right and start with those repetitive tasks. And start, you know, with the stuff that maybe doesn't freak you out as much to handover. What I also like to tell people too, is let's just say you hire somebody, and let's say you hire them for 10 hours a month, just as an example. Okay? And you don't have to start there, especially with folks that are newer, the folks that are newer, you know, they're greener to the business world. And they're also you know, more willing to be flexible. They, they might say, Sure, let's do a package for five hours a month, right. So you can really start lower risk financially. However, let's say they're working with you for 10 hours a month, it's going to take you four months, to get one full 40 hour week of work out of them. So you just have to think about setting that expectation around how long it might take them to figure you out, right, if you're not used to outsourcing yourself, then chances are let's, let's shine a mirror right here and just say you might not be the best manager in the world. And that's not because you're a bad person, but maybe you've just never, you know, walked through the opportunity to be in management before, if that's what you are, you're managing a team member. And so you're really gonna have to brush up on your management skills, you're gonna have to really brush up and this is where I see most issues with feedback. Yes, so what I always say is, you want to create a culture of consistent feedback for your team, because you want to get your 2535 45 $55 out of someone, you can't have an expectation that they're going to read your mind, you can surely have an expectation that they're going to show up, do the job, you know, hit their deadlines, all of those things. But the chances that it's going to be perfect the first time somebody needs you. Hi, Lo, hello.

Molly Cahill
Yep, I love that. And one thing that I found and this is so I think anybody to do this, I'll just go fix that real quick. Because it was faster in my mind to just go I'm just gonna fix it. And then I was like, That's not that's that's like a what is my husband call it a self licking ice cream cone. It's like, the problems never going to solve itself. So loom for those of you who don't know what loom is, loom is a free chrome extension, you could literally just film yourself. So don't go make the changes to hey, I would prefer this to be this way. And here's why. And then guess what? If they don't get it after the second or third time, then they're not a good fit. Totally.

Sara Wiles
Yeah, I think you

Sara Wiles
can even make the change, but record yourself making the change, right? Because actually, then it's even easier, right? If you're going to change your caption as an example, right? Or something like that. Okay, here's what I'm changing. And here's why. Because then you're giving them that information. And then they can better support you the next time. So often people just need more information. And again, if you've never outsourced before, it's okay, that it's not going to be perfect, but just know that you're going to have work to do as well. I also think that you touched on this in the beginning, too, I often see that outsourcing is not a quick fix that people are looking for, right? They usually go and hire when their hair's on fire. And then they realize it's actually more work to get the good stuff out of them. But welcome to Life most most good things take a little bit of work. So just know that you are going to have to put some work into this person in some work into training them the way that you want things done. And you'll get out of it, what you put into it. But I always want people to have a realistic expectation.

Molly Cahill
Oh, I love it. You said that. So let's like because let's wrap up this conversation here. I was talking to my business coach about it. And I'm like, I don't know where people don't just hire a VA have them go through the hub. And then like it's done, and they're like she was like, Molly, someone has already overwhelmed. The thought of hiring a teammate is not just like you just said is not just going to fix their problems. And that's a blind spot I had because I have Rachel who's my social media manager lead. And I have Carolyn OBM, who have since taken over all the onboarding of new people.

Sara Wiles
And I'm like, Oh, yeah.

Molly Cahill
Go back a few years, Molly, remember that it is tough to bring on a new person sometimes. And so I do want to acknowledge that and like, but I think we've given some solid tips, like you said, like, making sure like either starting on a project basis, starting with something repetitive. Starting with something that's not going to require a ton of effort. And not waiting too late. Don't wait until you're burnout. Don't wait until your hair's on fire. I love that you said that. Um, do you have any other tips for that? And people were like, well, I'm already overwhelmed. Like, how can you bring someone else on?

Sara Wiles
It's so interesting that you say that I'm actually going to pull I'm gonna pull a quote from Adam Grant that I just saved on Instagram the other day. I was like, oh my god, this is so good. And I haven't shared it yet. So I'm sharing it here.

Sara Wiles
This is what he said. Okay, I'll call you

Sara Wiles
buckle your seatbelts. buttercups. Okay, here it is. Balance rarely comes from increasing efficiency. It usually involves reducing responsibilities. The more priorities we have the harder they are to juggle it's better to do a few things well, the be overwhelmed by many a key to avoiding burnout is deciding what doesn't matter. Oh, I know like way to hit it, man. So I think very often, especially if you're newer in business, and especially if you're not where you want to be, very often our brains are like, Well, if we just did more, surely the outcome would be better, right? But oftentimes, that's not true if you just pulled back and focused on one or two things, right? And really kept your focus there. Another quote I love all the time is split focus, yield split results, right? Like if you pulled in that focus and pulled back, right, like, look around and go, what where do I actually have to be showing up right now and pull back and that way, you can pull some more time energy, you know, mental energy resources, all of those things for your outsourcing for your team? Because it is going

Sara Wiles
to require? Yeah, I love that.

Molly Cahill
That's such a good way. Yeah. Because I used to, like, drown myself in time management packs, right. I listened to the time management podcast and the hacks and the productivity. And I was like, wait a minute, this is dumb. I just need to do fewer things.

Sara Wiles
Just do less. You'll find a way

Molly Cahill
to fill that time with something else that probably doesn't matter. 100%. And

Sara Wiles
did we talk about the ADHD thing together? Or no?

Molly Cahill
No, we're Yeah, you and I did? Yeah. Yeah,

Sara Wiles
yes, yes. Yes. I mean, like, I have newly diagnosed ADHD. So it's like, all of that productivity and efficiency stuff is not for me. For a brand that functions like mine, like, I gotta let that go. But yeah, I think a lot of people get trapped in that, like, Oh, if I could just manage my time better, I would get a better result. Probably, if you just did less, you'd get a better result. And that's hard to hear.

Molly Cahill
So I think if I were to summarize this whole conversation, it's like, you can't do it all.

Speaker 1
And maybe, maybe like, really dig deep. Think about why is it that you haven't asked for help? I know that I feel like a lot of moms especially and if you're not a mom, I don't want you to think this doesn't apply to you. Because I think it's it's just any person in general, man, woman, whatever. There's like this inherent guilt that if you're not struggling, that you aren't worthy.

Sara Wiles
Have you seen that? Huh? Oh, this

Molly Cahill
is too easy. Like, gotta work hard. You gotta work hard to make money. Like it's hard because you look at how our parents and grandparents like they're they didn't have the opportunities that we

Sara Wiles
have now. And it

Molly Cahill
it can come with some guilt. And I think I think Kelly again, my money mindset coach who have worked through a lot of that with some other resources. I know both of you, you and I love Amanda Francis. Love Denise Duffield Thomas. Get Rich Lucky Bitch. Love that book. Find someone who can work through because it might not be it might be a little deeper than you think. Like why are you afraid? Do you feel the inherent need to struggle? Because if you're not struggling, struggling, then you're not worthy. Do you wear the busy badge of honor? Are you the busy one? I just don't know how she called her know how you do it all. To you.

Sara Wiles
Mm hmm. Yeah, no, these are solid points. And I love I love that. Like, if you have money mindset stuff, go find a money mindset person because it's not mine. It's not me. We're practice for ourselves. But like, you gotta go find somebody that's really great with those things. And I think Amanda Francis and Denise Duffield Thomas are such great. Such great people

Molly Cahill
live. I mean, I've had a life and health coach for years, too. So I'm like I said, I like outsource everything in my life. But

Sara Wiles
oh, girl. Same girl.

Molly Cahill
But anyway, so yeah. So that's that's one thing. And then you see, so really uncover the root of what is it that makes you go beyond the surface level? What is it it's holding you back? And then the next thing is where can they find good help. And this is your where your matchmaking service comes into play. And I get nothing for promoting this. This is just, I know, Sarah trains her people well, and I know you would find some quality hires in fierce group. And we

Sara Wiles
actually don't charge for this either. So this is 100%, free service, both on the business owner side and on the service provider side, nobody pays extra to be involved here. For me, when I first started what helped me get my business off the ground so quickly with the fact that my friend was feeding me leads. She was like, here's a person, here's a person, here's a person, and it made my ability to grow the business so quickly, a whole lot easier than if I had to start at ground zero. And so that's when we started training Bas and all of that I just constantly thought, how do I help the person who knows no one, right? Because if you have a network, this is going to be so much easier for you. But But what about if you don't know anyone? So that's why we've always done this and it's why we've never charged more money for it, although we certainly could. So we have a free matchmaking service. It's if you go to Sarah wiles.co/matchmaking. And that's Sarah with no H. We'll link it below to Okay, great. We have a free matchmaking service. So you will go there as the business owner and we've got a form for you to fill out. It's gonna take you no more than five minutes. And the questions are really made to give us the information to send it out to our VAs so they can see Yeah, I am a match for that person or no I'm not a match for that part. percent right? So we're gonna, we're gonna ask the questions so that you actually, we will make it easy. You don't have to go by yourself and like, figure out what you need our questions, we'll help you figure out what you need. And then we're going to send that out to our viewers, right? We try not to send you more than like three to five potential matches, because we know that that gets overwhelming. And the people that respond back and say, Yes, I'm interested, we will then send you an email and directly connect you with them. And then it's up to you to go, you know, take it further take it for interviews, book, Discovery calls, all of those good things. It's a really great way to connect with potential VAs who are screened, right, they've been through our training program, and you'll find people from all ends of the spectrum, right, people who are brand new, and they're going to be at a lower, you know, hourly rate, and they're probably a little bit greener. And folks who have been doing this for a while longer or really came into the industry with more, you know, more more deeper skills, more deep skills that didn't make sense, but go for it. Let's go from

Molly Cahill
a logistical standpoint, just so everyone knows, typically these people are not employees, they're just independent contractors. And they are responsible for billing you you don't have to think about how do I pay them like they will have all of that they will invoice you all of mine I pay monthly. I know everyone's different. Some people get paid per project or bi weekly or whatever. So that is not something up to you and they are trained by Sara they know all of this stuff and they're professionals and yeah, don't

Sara Wiles
worry about it. Yeah, yeah, they'll Bill Yeah, it's great.

Molly Cahill
Sara, thank you so much. Where's the best place to if somebody has a question? Follow up. Where's the best place to find you?

Sara Wiles
I sure do love Instagram the most. I'm at Sara SARA underscore Wiles WILES, Shannon just made me start tic tock our mutual friend Shannon McKinstry, so I'm trying to do the TIC tock, but I'm 37 so it's rough out there for me.

Molly Cahill
The tic TOCs the TIC TOCs. You're ticking and talking.

Sara Wiles
I don't know what I'm doing but I'm doing something.

Molly Cahill
I know. She told me to do it too.

Sara Wiles
It's it's kind of fun. It's kind of fun.

Molly Cahill
I know. I know. I'll probably love it once I do it but ya know, find me on Instagram. I like I part of my identity is that I'm a laggard when it comes to I was like I had a Blackberry until like, it was like Molly, you can't have a Blackberry anymore

Sara Wiles
to grow. Me too. I am a late adopter of all things. Fashion technology. We don't jump.

Molly Cahill
I tell my look if I can do it, anyone? Yeah, if I can make it on Instagram, anyone? Anyone can do it. Yep. 100%. Here, I appreciate your time so much. wealth of knowledge, love. Yeah. Thank you for listening to holistic marketing simplified, brought to you by holistic marketing hub, our hybrid program that supports you with personalized coaching, captioned templates, and virtual classrooms. In this program, we teach health and wellness professionals how to fish but we also bait the hook, head to holistic marketing hub.com To learn more, and use code podcast for $100 off, and hey, you know, every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast. Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day to leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly a K Hill. That's c h i ll I would greatly appreciate your support. I truly appreciate you so much. I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.