STP 38 | 5 Questions to Ask YourSelf Before Hiring a Virtual Assistant, with Alyssa Avant
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James Marland: Thanks for tuning into the scaling therapy practice. This is James Marland. This is the show where we ask you to take small steps towards big growth. The other day, I was looking into my website numbers and I was thinking, oh, we've had some growth. How many, and I was asking myself questions like how many visitors did I get? How many visitors did I get a month ago? Six months ago. Where are they coming from? You know, how are they, how do they find me? What words are they using the search for me?
James Marland: And how do I make that better? Like, how do I improve? How do I expand the reach? And I. Have a friend Daniel fava who is going to do a free webinar on. SEO strategy. It's called from keywords to content. How to create a simple SEO strategy for your private practice. It's coming up very quickly. September 7th at 11:00 AM. Eastern standard time. And he wants to give you some, some information about how to improve your SEL. So I'm going to let him, uh, I copied this from his. Registration video. Thank you, Daniel. But he's going to explain exactly what he's going to talk about in his webinar. Give a listen. Hey there, Daniel here.
Daniel Fava: I created this webinar because, you know, I can see that there's so much confusion when it comes to SEO and rightfully so, because SEO is a very big topic. There's so many parts to it and there's, you know, keyword research. There's. Understanding the data, where do I put the keywords? Um, you know, all this stuff, and I've seen so many people try to create an SEO strategy and they do things a little bit out of order. And so really what this workshop is about is just to give you a good starting point to understand what are the key things you should do now, so that you can start to create a strategy that is going to serve you longterm, uh, in your private practice.
Daniel Fava: And so things we're going to talk about is, uh, how SEO and search engines work. Like let's just get a baseline understanding of how things work. They're just really going to help you understand why we're going to be doing what we're doing. Uh, we're going to go to things like, how do you uncover how your website is doing right now? What are the key things you can look at to assess your current performance? And keyword research Uh, That's always a big question you know what makes a really good keyword how do i know which keyword my ideal clients are using we'll talk about that And then we'll go into more about content how do you actually create content that is going to rank well in search engines Uh that's going to continue to grow your traffic and bring in more clients plus We're obviously going to have a live q and a at the end of it all so that's always good to just get to those specific questions that you might have about seo Thanks Daniel. So that was the webinar from keyword, the content, how to create a simple SEO strategy for your private practice. You're going to learn the top five mistakes when trying to do it yourself for SEO, for things you need to put in place in order to create a holistic SEO strategy for your private practice. Tips tools on your website, keyword research, and much more. That's going to be September 7th at 11:00 AM. I hope you register, click the link in the show notes for the registration page. The second update I'm going to give you is that, uh, David is creating a new podcast. I don't have the name for that podcast yet, but I'll get it to you in the upcoming episodes. Which also means he's going to step back a little bit from co-hosting duties. He's still going to be a part of the podcast. I'm going to bring him on for things, uh, hopefully upcoming up in the next couple episodes. We're going to do an episode on webinars and how to create webinars that. Attract your audience. He's really good at those types of things. But he's taken a step back. So we're going to change the format of the show. To a panel show. And I have three other members who are going to do 12 episodes with me. And then they might stay on, they might rotate off. Um, we're not exactly sure, uh, what the rotation is going to be, but I have some contacts in the psych craft network and also in the therapy world. So we're going to talk, uh, the, in the next 12 episodes, we're going to talk about marketing. We're going to talk about the different phases of marketing from web pages to podcasting, to blogging. Uh, joint venture partnerships, email. Uh, all, uh, networking with other people, going to conferences, all sorts of things on marketing. Um, because that's what a scaling therapeutic practice needs to do is figure out their marketing strategy. So the three other members of the panel is going to be Don Gabriel. She's the soul care. For therapists podcast host. She does consulting group, group consulting. And also runs group on nurturing your souls. Your soul, your faith side. Um, she's just got a great perspective. Then we have Lisa mustard. She's the therapy show host with Lisa mustard. She is pretty innovative, very energetic. I love listening to her. She's full of ideas. When she has, uh, on her webpage pod courses. Where you can get CEU, uh, units or CE CEU units. Where. You can listen to a podcast and if you want to take a. Uh, if you want to take a test for that podcast. You get, you get a credit for it. Like it's pretty cool. So you could be out, you know, jogging or going through your day, listening to a course. And then sign up for
James Marland: the test, get the test, take the test, get the credit. It's pretty cool printing. Pretty innovative. I really like. I really like her show. And then there's somebody new to the network that is a Steve Busan. He has the podcast finding your way through therapy. He's written a book and he's a coach for emotional management. Very excited to have him here and what we're, what we're trying to present. Is different ways that we're all trying to scale. Our businesses. A different. We're at different phases, different stages. We've made different mistakes. And we want to give you a real view of what it's like to scale your practice. So we are going to be. Uh, having a panel discussion. Coming up. Um, and that's probably going to start in about a month to a month and a half, uh, when we get the, some of the shows recorded. So you'll find more about that and learn more about the new. Panel. Um, panel hosts. Now I'm also hoping to get questions from the audience. It would really thrill me to get some real questions that you're struggling with with marketing in particular. That I can feed to the guests on the different shows.
James Marland: Uh, so if you have questions about marketing, you're struggling with marketing, you're struggling with ads. Maybe you're struggling with SEO. Um, send me an email, James, at course creation studio.com. James of course creation studio.com.
Daniel Fava: If you want it to do an audio. Uh, clip, you can just record a little zoom and send it to me. At James of course creation studio.com. So that's going to start in a couple,
James Marland: couple of months. A
Daniel Fava: couple of weeks
James Marland: really. So that's the update. Thanks for hanging with us. Uh, we want to continue to provide great content where we help you scale your therapy practice. And this episode, we're going to be talking to Alyssa and she is going to tell us all about. Uh, virtual assistance and she has this, this really unique way. Of organization and creating systems. And I really, I really enjoyed talking with her. And I hope you,
James Marland: um, Can listen and
James Marland: learn something about using a virtual assistant and creating systems. On with the show. Welcome to the Scaling Therapy Practice. This is James Marland. This is the show where we encourage you to take small steps towards big growth. Today I have a special guest with me, Alyssa Avant.
James Marland: Hello, Alyssa. Hi there. Welcome to the show. Alyssa is a virtual assistant to Christian authors, coaches and speakers. Alyssa has 15 plus years of experience working with online professionals and business owners. She's helped many authors. Build their online presence from the ground up. And as a published author and speaker, she knows what it takes to be successful.
James Marland: Oh, I'm looking to li looking forward to have you, uh, talk, share about that. She's married to her husband Greg and is the mom of three daughters. Welcome to the show.
Alysa Avant: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.
James Marland: So we're gonna talk today about, uh, virtual assistants, and Alyssa has prepared five questions to ask yourself before hiring a virtual assistant.
James Marland: Before we get into that, we're going to go into our, uh, tool tip or tech of the week. Alyssa, do you have a tool tip or tech you wanted to share with the audience?
Alysa Avant: Yes, absolutely. So my favorite tool right now for managing projects, and it works really well if you have a virtual assistant, um, is I use the tool Asana and Asana's like a project management system, and it has lots of bells and whistles.
Alysa Avant: Um, you can use the free version or the paid version has a few more upgrades and things that you can do with it. But it helps to manage a team if you have one, or looking to build a team because you can use or, or have everything in one place and can communicate back and forth without having to chase, you know, down your emails.
James Marland: Yeah. Uh, I've seen a lot and I hear a lot of people who like Asana. What's like the killer, killer feature of that, that you're like, oh, I'm so glad Asana does this. Well,
Alysa Avant: the main one that I like because a lot of the tasks that I do are repetitive. Um, I like that it has reoccurring tasks because I have used some systems in the past that did not, and you know, sometimes you just forget like little pieces.
Alysa Avant: Like if you have a system for, like your podcast for example, there might be a step that you're forgetting every time, but if you mm-hmm. Put it in there as a reoccurring like, You can create a project and all the tasks be reoccurring, and then set it to, you know, you can set it weekly, monthly, daily, ever.
Alysa Avant: How often you want it to pop up on there as a new task, and that allows me to not miss a step when I'm doing something for myself or my client.
James Marland: Awesome. So I use Trello. Uh, I've, I've been using Trello for years. Sometimes I like look at, you know, Monday or Asana or click up. I'm like, oh, maybe something's better.
James Marland: Trello has been working for me, so I, it's hard to like, wanna. Jump out, jump out of something that works.
Alysa Avant: Um, that's right. And I've had people try to get me to go to, like, to click up or Trello Yes. Or, you know, whatever. And I do have some clients that like try that are using something like that. And actually what I did, I just did this last week, I set up a Zapier Zap, uh, yeah.
Alysa Avant: To zap their Trello information into my Asana so that I'm, I'm still utilizing what they're using so they can, you know, set it up, but, and. It's helped me to kind of organize things because having to open all these different programs was really, you know, hard to deal with. That's,
James Marland: that's, that's cool. And, uh, that is, uh, Zapier, Zapier, whatever I call 'em, zaps Zap is, uh, something that, that can save a ton of time.
James Marland: Um, I, I run this, uh, Facebook group called Assistance Automation and ai. And Daniel Fava from private practice, uh, elevation was like, oh, I love Zapier, so I'm gonna have to probably dip my toes into that. Well, thank you so much for that, uh, tip. I think, uh, those project management boards are just, Phenomenal for keeping, keeping everybody on track and on the same page and also in the virtual world.
James Marland: Like you need something that is asynchronous, I think is the word, like you, you work on it at different times than somebody else works on it. So keeping track of those is, is highly. I, uh, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna share about what I was just talking with, uh, uh, Alyssa about is the, uh, I have this AI recording tool that's integrated into Zoom called Fathom, and it records the, the present, the, the Zoom meeting that we're having.
James Marland: And it will give me a summary at the end. It will give me all the questions. It will, uh, It will give me highlights or suggested highlights. I can also highlight things on my own and then I can share it and save it, uh, with just the highlights so you don't have to watch the whole meeting. Um, it's just a pretty cool tool for, uh, using ai.
James Marland: Um, and show note, like I could use it for show notes. You can use it for team notes. You can use it just for. What were a customer service meeting where somebody records a problem, you can just click a button that says review, you know, problem identified, and then you can just save that as a highlight and share it.
James Marland: It's, uh, it's pretty neat. It, it, uh, I, I have the free version, which was just an integration. I, I was just clicking around as I do in Zoom and it was like, try this integration. I'm like, sure. So, uh, try it is just fathom and, uh, I'm on the free version, so, uh, give it a try. Do you have any questions about that?
Alysa Avant: I don't, but I do want to give it a try as I have some, I, I have a podcast that is actually a solo podcast, but I, every once in a while we'll have a guest for a special project, and I'm going to have one soon. So I would like to check it out to use for that particular episode.
James Marland: Yeah, give it a try. I, I think, uh, it's, it's, uh, I'm a team of one, but, well, and when I record I have normally two people and it's just been nice to share it with them.
James Marland: So that's, that's our tool tip or tech of the week. If you wanna, if you wanna share your own tool, tip or tech, you can, uh, send me an email, look me up on Facebook, and I will definitely, uh, share that with the audience. So we're gonna get into our main topic. Um, Alyssa, you are a virtual assistant. Uh, and you probably, uh, will just share, share a little bit about how you got to this place in your journey, and then we'll get into the, uh, five questions to ask yourself before hiring a virtual assistant.
Alysa Avant: Okay, great. So this kind of goes back, um, over a decade because I was, um, just. About to have my second child and had stepped down from a job in ministry to stay at home with my kids. Mm-hmm. And was looking for a way to work from home to make an income. I was on one of those old school forums is what I call it.
Alysa Avant: And it was, um, like for work at home moms. Mm-hmm. And I had a blog at the time just kind of recording my life as a new mom and. I was sharing in the group that I was looking for something and someone reached out to me. She was actually from ano another state, and she said, I've read your mom blog. I really like it.
Alysa Avant: Would you be willing to do some ghost writing for me? Mm-hmm. And so she gave me a call on the phone. We set it up and I started ghost ghostwriting articles for moms for her. And that sort of took off. I did that ghostwriting, um, gig for about three years and got kind of burnout with the writing. Yeah. But I learned, um, over that time I learned about websites and social media and all the things and started to put together those things for myself and my business.
Alysa Avant: Then other people. Um, I went to my first conference, like business conference in 2009 and um, other people started asking me, well, how did you do this? And how did you do that? And they hired me to do it, and the rest is history. Basically, I began to niche down into who I wanted to work with. Mm-hmm. Um, and what services I wanted to provide.
Alysa Avant: And it just, you know, it kind of morphed over the years into what my business is now. But that's how I got started. I.
James Marland: Okay, so, uh, yeah, bring us up to date. What do you do now?
Alysa Avant: So now I am a, um, Christian virtual assistant to author, speakers and coaches, and I primarily help them with three different areas of their business.
Alysa Avant: So I do consulting to those, those those groups of people. I also help them with email marketing, with social media marketing and their website. So, I will help them keep their website up to date. I will help them create a marketing, you know, plan for their social media and schedule that out. And, um, My biggest offer that most people, um, have hired me for is helping them to set up their email list and get, and mm-hmm begin to build a list.
Alysa Avant: Because so many authors, new authors especially, aren't aware of all that it takes to do that, and it's a lot of moving parts. And so they, uh, need, you know, what I provide as a service to them.
James Marland: So what does building an audience or an email list do for people? A lot of people in this audience probably know some of this, but what does it do for authors and speakers as you're, you know, what problem does it solve for them?
Alysa Avant: Well, most people don't realize that it's not in that publishing world, that even if you are a traditionally published author, they expect for you to have a platform or to have mm-hmm. An audience already. Mm-hmm. And you don't own your audience if it's on social media only. Right. You do own your email list, and so if you can have a email list of people that, that are ready to open your emails that have said yes.
Alysa Avant: Mm-hmm. I want to receive your emails. That looks really good in the publisher's eyes, whether you're traditionally published or if you're doing it independently. I work with a lot of, in independent authors, it, it gives them someone to promote to someone to sell to because that is a captive audience that already likes what they're providing on social and in their newsletter.
Alysa Avant: Mm-hmm. And things like that. Um, because you know, we can, anybody can publish a book these days, but is is it gonna sell is the
James Marland: question I know, I know the tools are right there. Right. But will it, like, without an audience, the best book is not gonna sell.
Alysa Avant: That's right. So it gives you that audience, um, and a captive audience because, you know, there's so much that people's are, it is vying for people's attention.
Alysa Avant: There's so much noise. Um, but if you, uh, have that list and you have people that are regularly opening your emails, you can sell, you know, your books to those people, and that would be your target audience mm-hmm. And the people that are looking for the problem that you solve as an author. So,
James Marland: okay. I'll ask another question about email lists.
James Marland: Like what, what is a good, what are two or three good choices for an email list? MailChimp or ConvertKit or something. So
Alysa Avant: this week on my podcast, I talked about the top three Oh cool. Mail service providers. So if you go to the Christian Business Advantage podcast, that's what this week was about.
James Marland: Oh, well, great.
James Marland: Do you gotta highlight then, but
Alysa Avant: I'll highlight it and say my top two. Okay. My top two are, um, ConvertKit and mm-hmm. Active campaign. I use Active Campaign. Active Campaign. Okay. But ConvertKit and Active Campaign are my top two. There is one more. If you wanna go listen to the episode that I recommend.
Alysa Avant: Sure. Podcast episodes are like 12, 11, 12 minutes or less. Like all. Unless I have a guest, which is very rare, but when I do have a guest, it might go 30 minutes, but I have short tip type, you know, podcast episodes that are, you can listen to, like, you know, in the time it takes you to do the dishes or something.
James Marland: Yeah. Go get the mail, walk around the corner. Mail. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Great. Oh, well that's awesome. So I'll make sure to put your, uh, podcast in the, the show notes. Um, I think that would be an interesting, uh, listen to and also just, uh, something you can do, you know, relatively quickly to some quick tips.
James Marland: Correct. Alright. Uh, so let's talk about the topic, which is the five questions to ask yourself before hiring a virtual assistant. And, um, So why don't you just take it away and start with question number one.
Alysa Avant: Okay. So question number one is, am I willing to let go of control?
Alysa Avant: When you used, when you're used to doing something yourself, it is very difficult many times to let go of the reins and allow somebody to help you. So if you want to grow though, you have to be willing to let go of some control.
James Marland: Yeah. Uh, I've definitely had, um, experienced that managing the virtual assistant company.
James Marland: So what are, what are some signs, if you can identify them, that you're struggling to lose, to let go of control? Like, what's some of the behavior you would see in somebody who might not be ready to let go of some control?
Well,
Alysa Avant: they, one of the, another question that we're gonna get to is like helping the person know what you're going to outsource to that person.
Alysa Avant: Mm-hmm. And if you're not willing to let go of control, you can't even make a list. You're like, oh, well I, you know, I can do that. I can keep that, I can keep that. You know, it's kind of like when you're trying to clean out something and you, um mm-hmm. Don't wanna let go of memories or whatever. Um, it's the same thing.
Alysa Avant: Like, you can't put down on a list what someone else can do because you think it's something you have to handle and everything you have to handle. So that's a big one for sure.
James Marland: Um, how do you help somebody overcome that?
Alysa Avant: Well, um, one of the things that I do is help them to see what the result will be like if you didn't have to do X, y, Z every week.
Alysa Avant: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Then what could you be doing? Um, and help them to see that, you know, they have an area or what I call a zone of genius that mm-hmm. Is important that they need to share with the world and they can't do that if they're spending time, you know, uh, putting their nurture sequence in their email.
Alysa Avant: Management system, or if they are spending time scheduling out their social media or, you know, updating their website, all those things, um, that tends to take a lot of time away from what they need to be focusing on.
James Marland: A lot of, a lot of times what I would see is, um, they would, uh, the, the therapist, the practice owners would delegate the email to the virtual assistant, but then check the email.
James Marland: Then, then it would recognize, the email program would recognize that the email was read, so the virtual assistant wouldn't see that they needed to do it, and then things got missed, and then they got mad and they're like, well, if you would just let us. Do our job. I've experienced that before. Yeah. If you would just let us do what you, you said, and, and then, you know, have some sort of verification system, not a duplication system.
James Marland: I. You would feel better and we, we would be less stressed. 'cause I don't know if you've experienced this, but the virtual assistants would get stressed out when they're, they were kind of helicoptered like, don't you trust me to do my job? It's taking twice as long to do it. Yes, yes. You gotta, you have to trust that it's gonna get done and verify it.
James Marland: But you don't, you have to, you know, let go of that sometimes like, The, the you, there's just no, uh, there's no benefit in having an assistant if you can't let go.
Alysa Avant: Right. Exactly. And that's where you get. Into, into it not being a good relationship. Mm-hmm. Or good fit. Um, I've had that happen in the past where, you know, they wanted to micromanage, is what I call it.
Alysa Avant: Yeah. And, um, it wasn't a good fit for me because I was the, on the end of being the VA who mm-hmm. Knew I could do the job and do it well if they would just allow me to.
James Marland: Okay, great. All right, so first question, am I willing to let go? What's the second question?
Alysa Avant: The second question is what do I not enjoy doing?
Alysa Avant: Mm-hmm. Even if I can do it. So there's a lot of things I can do, but what do I not enjoy doing so that I can hand that off to a virtual assistant? That way, you know, when you get to the point of hiring them, you already know what's, what are some of the things you could should outsource and um, you know, my example is I can do my books, for example.
Alysa Avant: Mm-hmm. But I hate math and I hate trying to figure all that out, and it gives me stress. Yeah. So I hired a bookkeeper. Mm-hmm. That was my example for that. But it, um, it will make it easier if you choose to outsource something you don't necessarily enjoy.
James Marland: Uh, so do you have a trick on helping people identify some of those things they don't enjoy?
Alysa Avant: Well, I. I, I would say when you get ready to do this task, what is, what is the task you put off the longest? Because for me it was always the bookkeeping stuff because I didn't enjoy it and I hate math, so, you know, I'm a writer and, uh mm-hmm. Technical person, but mm-hmm. I was never enjoyed math, so I realized that because it would just pile up, you know, and then I would be so behind and it would cause even more stress.
James Marland: Ah, very good. Uh, I, I've recommended to people, like, just as you're going through your day, before your virtual assistant, write down the things you are doing and then just either put a green or red check mark, or maybe even a number from one to five. I love this. I hate it. Right? And then see if you can figure out, can, is it possible to delegate the things you hate?
James Marland: Now, if it's, if you're a therapist and seeing clients is something you hate, you probably can't delegate it.
Alysa Avant: Maybe you're in the wrong career,
James Marland: because there's some, some things as a business owner or the main, you know, provider of service you have to do. But I, I love the fact that you gotta, it's easier to delegate things you don't like doing.
James Marland: It's, that's right. It's, that's great. All right. What's, uh, question number three.
Alysa Avant: How much is my time worth? So a lot of times people are, are concerned about spending money, but if you are able to consider if you're making a higher income than the hourly rate of the person you hire, then you know you're going to end up making money from this process.
Alysa Avant: Mm-hmm.
James Marland: Uh, how would you help somebody identify what their time is worth?
Alysa Avant: Well, um, what do you Well, it's, it's probably easier for like a therapist than it would be for an author because an author gets, gets paid a lot different. That's true. You know, what is your hourly rate? Um, but also what do you, what are you able to accomplish?
Alysa Avant: You know, are you able to, like, for an author, are you able to write. Uh, you know, 3000 words that day because you're not dealing with all these other things. Mm-hmm.
James Marland: Interruptions and Yeah. Things. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Uh, I think it, the podcast manager tools called it like manage management economics or something like if, if somebody can do the same task for a lower rate of pay.
James Marland: Then with the similar outcome, then it makes sense to delegate that task to that person. Right? And I think we get trapped in question number one, right? Like, oh, I don't wanna give this away. I can do this. And we don't recognize there are other people like a virtual assistant who can do your books for you for similar or lower rate of pay, even if it's the same.
James Marland: Let's say, you know, you're paying somebody $200 to do your books every month. It takes them two hours. So they're getting a hundred dollars an hour, but it takes you four hours and you hate it. Yeah, exactly. Like you're hating your life every minute, like, are you doing it? Like, it just makes sense to, to delegate it, even if you're breaking even, um,
Alysa Avant: even if you're breaking even because time wise, you know, it's probably more valuable.
James Marland: Um, and I'm sure. I've seen, uh, calculators online for like wage calculate, like real work, you know, put in your numbers and this is what your hour's worth. I don't, I don't have that, but that, that's something that can probably be searched out. Uh, what's, uh, what's number, question number four.
Alysa Avant: So question number four is what is your communication style?
Alysa Avant: Because many times the communication or lack thereof between a VA and the business owner is, uh, what can make or break that relationship. So if you're pretty hands off and quiet and you don't, you know, require a lot of check-in, you need to know that about yourself. You need to know, you know, whether or not you, keep in mind, if you're super chatty, you might spend a lot of time with that va and most vass do require, um, if you're on the phone, they charge you for that time.
Alysa Avant: Yeah, I had someone tell me one day, you know, I didn't know you were gonna charge me for the 20 minutes we talked about my projects. Well, it's the time that I, you know, I'm spending time on it. Um, yeah. And so, yes, the clock is, the clock is definitely running on that time. So, um, if they, especially if they're working hourly, some, some, um, vass are gonna work by package and it might not matter as much, but they're usually gonna cost a little bit more as well.
James Marland: So, yeah, I do some social media for some people, and I put the, the price of doing the social media separate from like meetings. Yes. If we're gonna, if we're gonna, like, set up is different, but if we're gonna meet, you know, if we have frequent meetings or project management meetings, anything over like 10 minutes is, it's like, I'm gonna charge you an hour.
Alysa Avant: Right. Right. Some people don't understand that, but that's just the, you know, but if, but your communication style is key though, to know, because some people, uh, some vass, um, are going to. Resonate with you more than others based on, you know, maybe they prefer a specific type of communication, um, or you prefer one or the other.
Alysa Avant: And, uh, that VA doesn't work in that way. So it does, you know, it is a lot of times, uh, about the, your personality and style of doing things, whether or not it's a good fit.
James Marland: So working, working for an office might be different than what you are doing? Um, yeah. Uh, what my, when we set up the, uh, the virtual assistant company, I liked frequent communication rather than like monthly communication.
James Marland: I felt like, Like even weekly, 15 minute meetings with an agenda that shares like the results of all the things that they've asked us to do. Like, uh, the call logs and like conversion rates. And if they were doing insurance problems, like are we solving the insurance problems, just frequent checkups, kept the, kept the car on course instead of heading into the ditch.
James Marland: I guess that's true. Yeah, absolutely. And if you didn't have these frequent meetings, Like o often people would be like, everything's going fine. We don't need to meet as often. So they would stop meeting for a month or two and then these micro problems would creep in. I don't know where they'd come from.
James Marland: They just come from like skipping a step or missing an email or I. Somebody updated something in one area, like a price or like, uh, what was one of the big things? Um, like availability, like schedules and availability and somebody didn't update something and then all of a sudden a therapist doesn't have their schedule's half full for two weeks because.
James Marland: The, something got missed. Um, so, and then there's a customer service issue, you know, and you're like, and then trust is lost. And like, now your car is heading into the ditch. Where if you would've recognized, you know, three weeks earlier, oh, we're drifting this way, you could solve it. So I always, I always went to the, um, defaulted to more, more communication, more frequent short communication.
James Marland: Over, you know, oh, let's have an hour long meeting and hash out all our problems. I just didn't like that. What, what's your, what's your preferred style?
Alysa Avant: Well, I don't mind having frequent meetings. I have some clients that I do a weekly meeting with, but not every one of them, but at least a check-in via email with what I've done, which is more common.
Alysa Avant: Um, I, some of some people, I do that every week. I send them a report of what I've done. Um, I usually leave that up to the client whether they want to do a call or they want me to send them an email on a weekly basis. Mm-hmm. But at least on a weekly basis, I don't do the monthly thing because like you said, a lot can go off track.
Alysa Avant: I also will tell a client, um, like yesterday, for example, I had a client who had text me on Monday and they had text a really long, you know, summary of stuff and I'm, I don't really like getting text messages. Nope. I told her that I would either, like for her to us to get on a phone call or for her to email me a summary of what these updates were.
Alysa Avant: Because it would be easier for me to track. And so we actually did a 15 minute call and I was able to go back to our last meeting and she had updated some deadlines. She needed to push them out, but because of her, her schedule, not mine and mm-hmm. So, but yeah, the text messages, I don't mind a text if it's a quick something, but like a ton of information, I almost always say, can you, you know, get
James Marland: on a call.
James Marland: Yeah, send it to me in an email or, Voicemail list. Yeah. Because it's so hard to call. Absolutely. I miss, uh, uh, if I'm gonna miss anything, it's 'cause it came to me through a text and I, I either didn't understand it or it was like buried or I can't move it easily into my, you know, Trello board or on my checklist, my Google checklist.
James Marland: Right. Text, texting is my least preferred method of communication, especially 'cause you can get 'em at any time, night or day. Like, they're like, oh, I have this idea, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they text, you know, and
Alysa Avant: then you, you might read it, but not like, not,
James Marland: oh, I'll get to this Monday. You know, I got this over the weekend.
Alysa Avant: Forget that they ever sent it because you know, you're not, it's not like your inbox where you open it back up and there it is and you can unread it. You know? You can't do that. Yeah. So, yeah, I knew she had text me and I was actually, um, Into this office, like I sh shared with you that it's new.
James Marland: You had a lot going on.
James Marland: Yep.
Alysa Avant: I was like, I don't remember what she said. I even went back and read it and it didn't make a lot of sense, so I reached out to her. So I definitely, and that, that kind of, uh, leads into the last question on this series. Sure. Actually, because, um, this, this communication and, and how often is the question, how often do you wish to communicate?
Alysa Avant: Because everybody's communication style is different, but everybody's expectations a lot of times are different as well. So like I said, I usually use either email or phone. Um, I've had clients in the past who wanted to use something like Slack, if you've ever heard of that. Oh, yeah. And, um, so I don't mind using something like that.
Alysa Avant: I currently don't have any clients that are using Slack, though I use it with my interns that I have in my business. Um, but communication takes over two questions because it is a huge make or break in, um, working with a virtual assistant.
James Marland: Yeah. And, uh, you know, uh, getting set on how often is, is key. I do, I do, I would recommend if you're not doing it, if you're not having some sort of conversation weekly, the email, the voicemail, uh, some like, even like update a card in Asana or something, like, these are the things I accomplished.
James Marland: You know, do you have any questions? I have a way to track it. Oh, man. It's, it's, it's so helpful to have that documentation, especially, especially when there's problems. I don't know about you, but often the virtual assistant would be doing things, um, and, uh, If they didn't document it, then the owner would come back and say, why aren't you doing this?
James Marland: And then if there was no documentation, you're in trouble even though you're like, I was doing what you told me to do, or I was doing what I understood you told me to do. So having the, the, the regular documentation has saved us, even if they're like, oh, I don't have time for meetings. You know, I don't have time to come check in with you.
James Marland: Having, having your little weekly form, these are the things you assigned me. These are the things I did, the, the, these are the questions I have that are stopping me from advancing. Can you give me some advice? You know, gimme some, yeah, absolutely. Something to do on it. And then, then there's just no excuse, you know, oh, why did you do this?
James Marland: Well, because I told you I didn't have enough information. Uh, this is what I think I should do. The deadline is coming up. What, what do you want me to do? So, uh, yeah, documentation and frequency of meeting is, I think is critical and I think it builds trust. Like if you're a practice owner or you're a, you know, somebody working with a virtual assistant, the more frequent contact you have with them, the greater trust you build and the more trust you have in the relationship, the faster you move.
James Marland: Like it's just, and you can't do it. You can't, you can't microwave it. I think it's very difficult to do over email, you know, build that trusting relationship. Right. So, you know, the, the 10 or 15 minutes you deposit weekly is gonna compound over time if you're frequently meeting with somebody. That's so, that's right.
James Marland: That's my, my experience. Uh, so, um, so those were the five questions, and you have a handout on that, right?
Alysa Avant: I do, I do. And um, I gave you the link 'cause it is a little bit, a long link if you'll put in, in the show notes
James Marland: for them. Sure, absolutely. I will put that link in the show notes. So if you wanna like, examine that a little further, um, I'll also put the podcast in the show notes before we get to the one thing.
James Marland: Where can people find you Now that we're talking about like handouts and freebies and stuff, where can people find you online?
Alysa Avant: It's alyssa av and company.com.
James Marland: Okay, so it's a v a n t, Alyssa Avant and company.com. All right, Uhhuh. That's correct. And, uh, are you on, uh, social media at all?
Alysa Avant: I am, I'm on Facebook.
Alysa Avant: It's the same thing. Um, just Alicia, a van and company. And then, um, over on Instagram. It is Christian Business Advantage because it is for my podcast. That I'm mo mainly on Instagram for, so that's over there as well.
James Marland: Great. Awesome. All right, so if people were going to just remember one thing, you know one thing about some of the advice you've given or one thing about the episode, what's the one thing you'd want them to remember?
Alysa Avant: I would say that, um, be willing to, you know, Be willing to admit about yourself, what it is that you're struggling with. So if you're struggling to let go of something in your business, if you're struggling with a particular piece of your business, that's probably the area that you need that, that help with the most.
Alysa Avant: But be willing to, you know, be vulnerable a little bit about where you're struggling so that you can let go and give someone else some tasks and that it can help you and your business and it can help you, you, and you to grow as well.
James Marland: Awesome. Well, my, uh, definitely my one thing I think is like a combination of couple your questions.
James Marland: It's like, There are things that you either don't like doing or you're not good at. Yeah. You've gotta identify them like, and there are people in the world who love doing those things. It's crazy. I know. But if, uh, I love putting together podcasts and I use a program called D Script and I drop in the audio and like make things sound nice and I feel good when I do it.
James Marland: And there are people in the world that they'd rather go to the dentist, you know, than produce a podcast or they'd rather, you know, be in the rain for five hours than. Do anything technical, right? There are people out there who love to do what you don't like to do. And the second thing is with that, you know, value your time, your time is super valuable and there are only certain things in your business you can do.
James Marland: You, you're, you, you might be the only one that can give supervision, or you might be the only one who can make contracts with people or do some of the, you know, the advertising or the marketing type stuff. Go into conferences and meeting people. You're, you're the only one that can do that in your business, so why not free up more of your time to do the things that generate more income for you.
James Marland: By hiring somebody who likes doing what you don't like to do, just start there. I think that would probably be the easiest place to start. Can I hire somebody for two or three hours a week that, to do something I don't like to do? Yeah, exactly. So, uh, yeah, that, that would be my one thing. Just value your time and find the people who like to do things you don't like to do.
James Marland: Uh, so Alyssa, uh, uh, thank you so much for joining me.
Alysa Avant: I really appreciate you having me on this show. It was a lot of fun.
James Marland: And everybody, uh, please check out her podcast, which is Christian Business Advantage. Christian Business Advantage, right? Uh, and that's on all the podcast players. I am gonna definitely gonna check out some of those tips 'cause I love those short shows that have just a quick tip that I can use.
James Marland: All right? All right. Thanks everybody. Remember to take small steps towards big growth. We'll see you next time.
James Marland: Thank you for listening to the scaling therapy practice I hope you enjoyed the show I want to remind you that the content shared today is for general information and entertainment purposes only It shouldn't be considered as legal or tax advice If you need a professional advice in those areas please consult with a licensed attorney or accountant but thank you so much for listening The scaling therapy practice is part of the psych craft network
