Podcast Episode 8: What to do before you hire a VA, Weaknesses to Strengths

Hiring Virtual Assistants isn’t rocket science, but hiring a VA isn’t as simple as it might seem. Often times we think we can just click a few buttons, send out some emails with directions and then as if it were some sort of mystical solution guided by unicorns and rainbows all your problems go away. No… unfortunately VA’s aren’t elves with super powers. VA’s are people too!

SO…

with this in mind we need, podcast #8 of Clone Yourself is about the up front planning we have to do in order to experience success with VA’s!

VA’s Are Similar to Employees
We need to look at VA’s as if we were to hire them as our EMPLOYEES.

THINK ABOUT IT FOR A SECOND… If you’ve ever hired or trained an employee (and if you haven’t … think about the last time you were hired for a new job)... there’s a lot of work involved. Everything from crafting the job description equipped with responsibilities, KPI’s (that’s key performance indicators), the interview process, the on-boarding process and finally of course realizing that your new employee will likely have growing pains.

If we want to get rid of this overwhelm by the number of tasks and projects on our plate, then we need to look at VA’s as employees and do the upfront work before even thinking about clicking that hiring button.

In this episode of Clone Yourself, I’m going to give you 3 options to help uncover the tasks that are wasting your time.

You can catch the full pod by clicking here: https://www.cloneyourselfu.com/podcast

Previous Pods (have you listened?)
Now, before we begin - have you listened to the first 7 podcasts? This is a sequential pod so I highly recommend listening to these podcasts in order.

In the last podcast we talked about the differences between subjective and objective tasks.

As a reminder, AN OBJECTIVE task is pretty black and white. Either it gets done correct or incorrect.

A SUBJECTIVE task is something that requires artfulness (that might be a made up word but we’re going to roll with it). Artfulness is the opposite of black and white. It’s the opposite of math, it’s the opposite of right and wrong. A subjective task leads room for interpretation.

Now, when hiring your first VA - I highly recommend to choose a tedious task that is mostly objective. Here are 3 ways you can uncover some of those objective tedious tasks consuming your time… 

#1: Where Do You Spend Your Time?
FIRST, is by using my Time Audit worksheet. (NOTE: need to link to lead magnet) 

Admittedly, no one likes to use this… I even don’t like using the time audit worksheet. But, the truth is this exercise will truly show you where you spend your time (not where you THINK you spend your time). I talked about the Time Audit worksheet in episode 5 of Clone Yourself. But, as a reminder the time audit worksheet is something you can grab by going to CloneYourselfU.com/time-aduit. 

The worksheet is actually a google sheet that you can easily access and update on your phone. Okay, so what exactly is it? Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like it’s an audit of your time. For at least 5 consecutive days (bonus points if you do it for two business weeks), you’ll be documenting where you spend your time. The sheet has lines setup for you to write in the amount of time you spend on any given task or project. The idea is if I were to ask you what you do in any given day you could likely tell me what you do. But the reality is we have distractions, the time audit helps us to see the distractions and where we spend our time because of these distractions. I usually do the time audit once a year because it is a pain to do, I’ll be real with you… but I continue to do it because each time I use the time audit it opens my eyes to tasks that I need to outsource because they are simply wasting my time. 

#2: Delegate & Conquer Worksheet
Another option to uncover some tasks you can hire a VA for is by using my Delegate and Conquer worksheet. This is a simple 3 column worksheet that you can download from here. This worksheet is if you are 100% positive you know all the tasks you do and feel like the time audit would just be a waste of your time.

Once you snag the worksheet you’ll see that you are simply plugging your tasks into columns based on the level of skill needed.

Honestly, this is the easiest of the 3 options I’m giving to you in this pod. But, to use this one you really need to have a list of documented already of all the tasks you (and your team) already do. 

#3: Skills / Thrills Worksheet
Finally, your third option is downloading my Skills/Thrills worksheet which can be found here.

This worksheet is actually a matrix. Again with this worksheet, you will need a list of all the tasks needed to operate your business to use this matrix. This is more in-depth than the Delegate and Conquer worksheet from option 2 because there are a total of 9 different boxes that your tasks may be plugged into this matrix style worksheet. This is extremely specific. When you download this worksheet, you’ll notice that the bottom left corner is almost like cherry-picking. The bottom left corner will show you the tasks that are easiest to perform as well as train. This is the section that I would recommend starting with when hiring VA’s.

So, there you go… you just learned 3 different ways to uncover tasks that your VA can do for you… remember, when hiring for VA’s we want to look for our weaknesses.

Weaknesses can either be tedious tasks wasting time OR they can be the type of tasks that require the skills we don’t have. For example, I have no clue on how to build websites or edit videos. Yet in the past 3 years, I’ve built over 4 websites and have 2 YouTube channels. I work with VA’s to actually build the websites and edit my videos. Now, remember that building websites and editing videos are actually subjective tasks so they may not be the best tasks to do when getting started but it’s something you should know so that you can visualize what you’ll be able to accomplish after hiring your first few VA’s.

When getting started with a VA look for those mundane and repetitive tasks that are simply wasting your time. You’ll clearly see these tasks after working with any of these worksheets.

ACTIONS
So, are you ready for some homework?!

First, go to each of the links I mentioned to download all 3 of these worksheets and use the ones that resonate with you most! 

Second, remember how we were talking about an accountability buddy in previous pods? Hit up your accountability buddy - this exercise of uncovering tasks is a great project to do with your accountability buddy.

Third, thank yourself. You’ve been consistently showing up and that’s what matters most. Don’t put pressure on yourself. There’s no rush to do anything. Just breathe. Your business is doing great, you are investing in yourself and you’re gathering data. We all go at our own pace. Please don’t feel overwhelmed, you can do this!

With that, THANK YOU again for showing up and checking out these tips. I can promise you that with a burning desire and having the consistency to show up daily (even if it’s just in your thoughts and not in your actions), then you will ultimately find success in working with VA’s. Just remember VA’s are like employees. There’s no such thing as an overnight success and we’re going to need to put the time into visualizing the tasks our VA’s will be performing before even thinking about hiring and training.

To hear the full podcast, head on over to Spotify, iTunes or any other pod player to listen to the full podcast!

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Worksheets Mentioned in this Podcast
• ROI Calculator (Use this quick tool to see how much you will save by hiring a virtual assistant)
• FREE Guide (In this guide, I offer a few suggestions on easy tasks to outsource and a canned template to instruct your VA how to do the task)

If you have any questions at all, hit me up! Email is [email protected] and you can schedule a time to chat with me by going to Calendly.com/CLONE.

To the Uncovering Weaknesses,
Sam AKA SwagSam

P.S. Are you ready for my full blown process? Are you ready to take the leap and actually get the transformation you know you need? If you’re ready to learn my step-by-step process on how to scale your business by working with VA’s so that you can work less while making more, then check out my upcoming workshop! Forget about the overwhelm, in this workshop I’ll be guiding you every step of the way to ensure you have success and can begin to breathe again. Learn more by checking it out on the link here.

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