The Tarryn Reeves Show

Scaling with Support: Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a VA (and How to Delegate the Right Way)

• Tarryn Reeves • Episode 50

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In this episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, we dive deep into the world of virtual assistants with the brilliant Shaughnessy King, founder of Success by Ness. Shaughnessy shares her journey from early childhood educator to VA agency owner, revealing how the pandemic inspired her to build a thriving online business supporting entrepreneurs with smart admin solutions.

Together, we unpack the real truth about scaling with support—why so many visionary leaders struggle to delegate, how to know you’re ready to hire help, and the game-changing power of letting go. From inbox management to operational workflows, Nessy gives us the lowdown on what VAs actually do, how to build trust with your support team, and the systems every CEO needs to create a sustainable work-life rhythm.

Whether you're stuck in burnout, struggling to grow, or finally ready to stop doing it all yourself, this episode is packed with practical advice and behind-the-scenes strategies to help you scale your business with confidence.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How Shaughnessy went from exhausted new mum to thriving VA agency founder

  • The key signs you’re ready to start delegating in your business

  • Why the Four Hour Work Week might be more than just a catchy title

  • How to build trust with a VA and create a seamless onboarding experience

  • The biggest mistakes leaders make when trying to grow with support (and how to avoid them)

  • Why the human touch still matters in the age of AI

Ready to reclaim your time and focus on what you do best? Tune in now and discover how to delegate with ease, grow with clarity, and build a business that works for you.

🎧 Subscribe and never miss an episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show
 📚 Book mentioned: The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
👉 Connect with Shaughnessy:


Welcome to the Tarryn Reeves Show, where your journey to empowerment takes center stage. I'm your host, Tarryn Reeves, bestselling author and publishing expert. Together we'll dive into the hearts and minds of visionaries, disruptors, and trailblazing leaders To explore the most compelling and thought provoking ideas in life, business, and marketing. Let's inspire, impact and ignite. This is the Tarryn Reeves Show. Today I'm joined by the amazing Shaughnessy King, who is the founder of Success by Ness, which is a virtual assistant company that helps business owners streamline their operations and focus on growth with expertise in supporting entrepreneurs across industries like coaching real estate and course creation. Shaughnessy specializes in providing efficient admin solutions. Her passion for helping others scale their businesses is matched by her dedication to creating sustainable work life balance. Welcome to the Tarryn Reese Show. Nessy. Thank you so much for having me, Tarryn. I'm super excited to be here. Me too. I can't wait to have this conversation because I actually started out my business journey. Into entrepreneurship as a va, and I actually scaled it up to agency level as well at one stage in the early days. Now I own a publishing company. Completely different, and that's a story for another time, but I'm excited to hear your story. Can you share your journey to founding success by Nest? Like what inspired you to start a VA company? Yeah, so Covid. At the Covid that has made everybody change their lives. So my background is in early childhood education. I used to work as a childcare center director and I went on maternity leave in 2020 and had my daughter during Covid and after my mat leave was done, I was kind of like, don't really want to go back to childcare. And there was just before I had her, there was just like a lot of rules and a lot of running around and I was like heavily. Pregnant and I just like, I don't particularly want to go back to that. Mm-hmm. And so I was thinking like, well I, it would be great if I could find something that I could do online just in case the world shuts down again. Like I'm happy to send her to childcare, but I was like, I don't think I wanna work in childcare. Just because I was like, we just didn't really know which direction the world was going in. Sure, sure. And so I was like, okay, how can I pivot those skills that I have from running a center managing. Staff dealing with parents, like how can I transfer those skills into something else? Yeah. And so I just started looking for admin roles and everybody at that point was looking for admin, was looking for online work. And so I was like, oh, this is not working for me. Like I can't find anything. I'm not getting any leads. And so I was like, well, what if I took the opportunity to find two part-time admin roles to like equal full-time hours? So I was like, I don't know why the idea came to me, but I was like, let me try that. And then I kind of. Stumbled into like the virtual assistant world and basically just started looking for like part-time work. And I just tried to piece together a bunch of different people and so I kind of stumbled onto the virtual assistant space, just trying to find part-time admin work, and that's kind of how I got into the space in the first place. Yeah. Wow. Our, our stories are very similar in that regard. I mean, I started mine when my daughter was six weeks old as a va, and, and it wasn't during Covid. She's now eight. But it, it very much was that realization that I didn't want to go back to corporate and how could I create a lifestyle for myself where I could be a present parent, a present mama, and contribute financially to the household unit, because cost of living these days, I don't know about. I mean, Mexico might be different, but in Australia, cost of living is just getting ridiculous and you need a two income household. Mm-hmm. And I, I just think that the VA stepping stone for some is a beautiful way to enter the digital space. Do you find that a lot of your VAs. Come in that way.'cause I know you have a VA course. Do you find that that's a similar kind of vein? Yeah. A lot of the people on my team and that also that I've encountered just from needing to be a VA or becoming a va, a lot of them are moms who wanna have that flexibility to. Stay home. People who wanna be able to travel more, people who just need that flexibility. Maybe they have a loved one who's not well that they need to care for. So it definitely comes back down to like that flexibility and like, how can I enjoy my life and do the things that I need to do, but like still bring in some sort of money doing it. Hmm, absolutely. Now I know that when I was scaling my business to agency level,'cause obviously you started out with just, you as the single VA realized that you kept your income. Um, they needed to scale. Right? Because with VA work, it's literally trading time for money essentially, until you scale it to agency work. So I know I faced some big challenges, especially because it was my first business iteration. What was the biggest challenge do you think that you faced when starting the business? Yeah. I think the biggest thing is how much work it actually is. Like everybody says they wanna be a va and then I've known people that I joined a bunch of Facebook groups for VAs and stuff like that. Yeah. And I look back and I see people who probably joined those Facebook groups at the same time as me, that still three years later are like, oh, I'm looking for VA work. And I'm like, it's because you didn't put in the work, but you have to put in the work. Like anything in entrepreneurship, you have to put in the work. And so for me, in the very beginning, it was like. It's very hard to land that first client. I joined an agency and that's technically where like the first client came and then at the exact same time, I ended up signing one client of my own on, on my own at first. But every day I was looking for more and more ways to like find another client, find another client, and I, so I think that's like the biggest. Hurdle in the beginning is actually putting in the work and finding it and like actually reminding yourself like why you're doing this. And you have to like get that in your head. Otherwise you just won't put your best foot forward. And now it's like I'm at the point where my business, the inquiries just come to me. So it's great. But I put in that work and I think a lot of people like forget that when you're an entrepreneur, like nobody's gonna do it for you. You have to do it yourself. Like that's it. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that I always say that you're either born an entrepreneur or you're not, because it's not for everybody. Yes, the lifestyle can seem very appealing on social media, but it is hard work. Like if you've got a, a sick day or one of your team members doesn't deliver, or suddenly, this is my favorite one in the online space, your team member suddenly disappears halfway through a project never to be seen again or found stressful. Right. You have to have that resilience to be able to get up and do it again, and also show up every day and go, right, what's my, what are my sales activities? Checking in on the team, what are they doing? What do you think is your skillset to manage and navigate that? Hmm. Yeah. I'm very. I'm very easygoing to approach. Like I have a very easygoing attitude, like I'm very chill. And so I think the people on my team feel very comfortable with that. And it does make it easier for me to manage my team because people realize that I'm approachable and they can ask me questions whenever they want. But yeah, it is, it is a learning curve for sure, because I have worked in a leadership role in many other roles that I've worked in my life prior to starting the agency. I do think that it is a lot easier, but you're right, there's always gonna be hiccups. And so what's important too. Have contingency plans, I guess you could say in place. Mm-hmm. To kind of help with that. Making sure that you have another team member on standby if one unexpectedly needs to leave.'cause there's a family emergency, which has happened. It's having like those little contingency plans in place or like having policies and procedures in place and like, this is what to do if this happens, this is what to do if this happens. Yeah. And then also just being readily available for communication and having open communication is really big. Like you can slack me, you can WhatsApp me, you could. Call me if you need to. Nobody likes to call anymore, but like I will answer my phone if I see that one of my team members is calling me. So like always making sure that communication is key and just checking in with them as well helps make it easier for them. Yeah, definitely. Let's talk about delegation as a growth strategy, because I know like even now, nine years into my business, delegation is something that I love to do, but I also hate it depending on what it is. So. Why in your opinion is delegation so crucial for business growth, especially for US visionary leaders? Hmm, because you can't do it all. That. That really is what it is, is we, we can think that we can do it all and we're trying to juggle and wear all the hats, but then it just leads to burnout. So like that is like the main reason why is it's like you cannot be a visionary or you cannot be a better business person or a better leader. If you cannot delegate, you will end up burning yourself out. Your business will not succeed the way it should, or you want to. Because you're basically hindering yourself from doing the work. Yeah, and I'm guilty of this too. Like I now have an ops assistant on my team who helps me with success by Nest.'cause I can't do it all. So I think sometimes it's just hard to ask for help. Like especially as women business owners, like we must power through and do it all ourselves. We're just used to juggling it all. And so I applaud the people who are. Willing to to take the help and ready to delegate, but it is hard, but it just ends up leading to burnout and stress, and we don't want that. Yeah, absolutely. Now, I know, like I said, many leaders struggle to let go of control, and I don't know if it's a fear because it's your business baby, essentially, and everything that you've built, even though, I mean, technically we know seeing as we built it, if it. Burns down, we can build it again. Right. But good point. How do you help? Yeah, that's, that's always my, when I'm having a free card, I'm like, you built it. If something bad happens, you just build it again. I mean, Ooh, I really like that. Yay. Feel free to use that to help your clients kind of get over that line. I really love that. How do you help entrepreneurs get over that fear of delegation? Do you have like tools and techniques that you use, or is there a container that you kind of hold them in? Tell me about that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so normally it starts off with just having that initial chat. And like when I, I use it as like a discovery call, but sometimes they don't end up signing on. So it's just more just like a casual chat and they get a reality check and maybe they realize like, oh, okay, this is what I need. I do need a va. And other times it's like, oh, this isn't for me right now, or it's not in my budget. But at least they know some of the things that they need to do. But we generally talk about like the things that are pain points in their business, so things that like, oh. One example I often give is like, oh, you're not getting into your inbox, so you're leaving money on the table.'cause maybe you're not responding to an inquiry. And I literally had a call with a woman a week ago who was like, oh yeah, I have brand partnerships that I haven't responded to because I didn't check my email. And I was like, I. Oh, I was like, you are literally what I always preach and like my social posts where I'm like, you're leaving money. I was like, you are literally leaving money on the table. Like by not checking your inbox, I was like, that is literally thousands of dollars sitting in your inbox and you didn't respond to it. Right. So just like reminding them that that just those small things, like not checking your email or like being double booked in your calendar is like literally costing you money. And if you don't mind checking your emails and you don't like uploading your blog post, then don't just get somebody else to do it. Because in the end, when. You hire somebody else to do it. Sure. It's costing you something upfront to like pay the va, but you're getting time back, which means you're getting more money and, and it's like I have to help them see like the grand scheme, like the bigger picture and then they kind of realize like, oh yeah, like this small nominal fee to pay a VA is way better than me missing out on like thousands of dollars because I was double booked. Or because this, for some people, things like their newsletter and their blog posts. Is something that does drive revenue to their business. I'm like, if you forgot to schedule that out now, that's like you're not building the rapport that you're supposed to build by sending it out weekly. So it's just like small things that like will add up over time if they don't. Mm-hmm. Get it done. 100%. Now, obviously every business owner starts out as a solo person unless they get seed funding and all that sort of stuff, right? But for those of us who bootstrapped our businesses, what do you think are some key indicators for a business owner that they are ready to start delegating to a va? Because it does go beyond, I just don't like uploading my blog post.'cause you've gotta have cash flow too. Mm-hmm. So what are those key indicators for those business owners? Yeah, I definitely say if they're already paying themselves, 'cause like some people just have a very expensive hobby where they're not actually, I've only recently learned this more so 'cause like starting out as a va, like my cost of my expenses to start the business was very minimal in comparison to somebody who has a product based business or something like that. So like in attending different coaching programs that I've been in, I've realized that like some people's businesses like. They have an expensive hobby. They were not paying themselves in the very beginning, so being able to pay yourself is a big one because you can't pay a team member or hire a VA if you don't have income coming to cover that. Another one is just things like burnout or stress, or things are getting missed or like contracts are not being sent out or things like that that like. Things that can't help move your business forward. If there's things that are not moving your business forward because you keep forgetting to do them or you don't have time or you're too tired, then that's definitely when you need to start bringing on a va.'cause your business can't continue to grow if you're not putting in the right steps to, to get it to grow. Right? Yeah. Definitely. Now let's talk about your business specifically, because my question was gonna be, what are some specific tasks that a VA can take off your plate? But literally having been in the business myself, you can literally delegate any task to a VA provider. They've got the skillset, but so let's narrow that one down because otherwise this is just me, a long list of all the things that businesses do. Let's go specifically to what you and your team offer. Mm-hmm. Do you guys take off business as owners plate? How? How do you give us that peace of mind so that we can go and do what we are good at and leave you guys to do what you are good at? Yeah, so we are very specific in that. Like I always say, we're anything that falls under that admin umbrella. So like we don't do social media, we don't do like graphic design and content creation. So we will check your emails, respond to your emails, triage your emails. We will do things like calendar management, project management, and then other things that are very like. Specific to the, the type of client that we have. So maybe you're in real estate, so we're helping you with your listings and making sure that those are done properly, or maybe you're a course creator. So we're answering questions to the course community, making sure that they can log in properly. Maybe you're a coach and you have like an online program and a platform, and the people need to get all the details to get logged in to make sure that they're registered, to make sure they book their one-on-one calls. So like some of the things that we do are like very niche. Specific to the type of client, but then there's also things that are very simple, like, okay, maybe you have a blog post or an email that needs to go out weekly. So we will make sure that it's formatted properly, make sure that you have the stock photos, the links are working properly, and schedule that out as well. Yeah. Amazing. Beautiful. Now you don't actually write the copy. This is No. Okay. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So a lot of the times people, they already have that idea in their head 'cause maybe they're in the legal profession or they're in the nutrition space, so like they already have the details in their head or they've already compiled the information, but it's just sitting there. It hasn't gone anywhere besides like the Google doc. And so they need somebody to actually like take the whole thing that they wrote out and put it somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. Now I know that you are passionate about creating sustainable work life balance, especially 'cause you've got a, a young child, she's four. Mm-hmm. You said, and as a mom of five myself, I've got three bonus ones and, and two, two of my own. It can get very busy, obviously running the business and that sort of thing. And it is so important because if you're like me. If I'm left to my own devices, if I didn't have kids, I would literally work all day every day because I love it, right? I'm just, I'm a workaholic, not gonna lie. Let's talk about this work-life balance, or, I actually think a work-life balance as an entrepreneur is a myth. I don't think that you're ever going to achieve that 50 50 beautiful balance, you know? Yeah. I think it's ebbs and flows according to how old your kids are, the time of your life, what you're launching, those sorts of things. But how do you create this work life balance as an entrepreneur, as a person with team members? As a mom? Mm-hmm. A lot of calendar management and time blocking is a big thing for me. Um, I really try to stick to that nine to five work. Schedule. Mm-hmm. Just to try to keep things in line. Obviously we do have, like, I'd still do some client work because otherwise I'd be bored to death in addition to my VAs who do client work as well. But there are those clients, they have like a monthly, evening workshop or tutorial or something that they have to do at like 7:00

PM at night or 8:

00 PM at night. And so, you know, sometimes I'm working at that time, but it's. One day a month, but definitely like time blocking my day. So making sure that like I'm not overbooked and trying to do too many calls at one time because I do have like team meetings, but then I have potential discovery calls that come in and then I have coaching calls that I'm in. And so I try to make sure that those are scattered on the calendar throughout the week. Otherwise I go a little bit cuckoo, doing too many calls in certain days. And I don't do call discovery calls on like Mondays and Fridays, like those, Fridays are my free days. I don't take calls on Fridays 'cause it's. Like I use that as kinda like the CEO day to catch up on anything. Is there anybody that I need to email that I didn't get to earlier this week? That type of thing. So definitely making use of the calendar. Also, my daughter goes to school. Um, when she was smaller she did go to daycare, so that definitely did help me like really focus, but that was something that I also. A few years ago made the decision that, like, because I do work for myself and my calls normally don't start until like 9 30, 10 o'clock. Um, I always made the conscious decision to not rush my daughter out the door in the mornings. Yeah.'cause that was something that was, I was like, we have to go, we have a, you know, 'cause at one point her, she was going to a daycare that was not that close to our house, so I had to like hop on the train to get her there. And so one day it just clicked and I was just like. Who cares? You work for yourself, like why are you rushing her out the door? You've already given her breakfast. Yeah, she's in daycare, so it's not like school where like, yeah, they have like a more regimented timeframe to start and stop. So I was like, okay. I was like, what? Like going forward, we're just gonna saunt her out the door. And so that has made a huge difference in like, I. My mental health work life balance in the sense that she's casual.'cause like she doesn't feel like she's being rushed out and, you know, freaking out and throwing herself on the floor. And I'm also just like, morning is good. So like I have time to like enjoy my breakfast, have my morning tea, and like she can play and then we walk to school. And so even now that she's four, I still have that same approach because I have that opportunity, uh, at halfway through the year. Mexico is like where I live. The time zone doesn't change here, but there's daylight savings in Canada. Yeah. And so for half of the year, this year, the time was an hour different and I had to like change my work calls.'cause I was like, I'm not taking calls at eight 30 in the morning when Canada, it's nine 30. So I was like, you know what? I was like, no, no, like we're just gonna do. Calls start here at nine 30, which is 10 30 in Canada. But I was like, this is just something that's good for me to make sure I don't have to continue to rush again. Yeah. But yeah, that makes a huge difference. I couldn't agree more because that was one big reason that I actually started, I. As an entrepreneur, like I never intended to be an entrepreneur, like it wasn't a thing. So I call myself like an accidental entrepreneur, like, like nobody around me was an entrepreneur or anything like that. And I kind of just taught myself, like I taught myself to website code and all those sorts of things as I was building my virtual assistant services. But that was one big drive for me, especially as a woman and a mother is. I did not want to have the kind of lifestyle where I had to wake up early. I had to wake the kids up early out of their natural sleep cycle. When they're toddlers, I mean, when need teenagers, that's different, right? Sure. But when they, like, when they, when they're young and going to daycare and, and that sort of thing, I was like, why are we putting alarms on like a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old? Left? That's silly. And then getting them dressed and trying to force them to eat when they don't want to. And then, like you said, they're throwing themselves on the floor and you're like, quick, we've gotta get in the car. And then you get stuck in traffic and then you drop them off for somebody else to care for, for the rest of the day for 9, 10, 11 hours while you go and build someone else's dream. And then you get stuck on traffic to go and pick them up. And then you're in a bad mood. And then you've gotta get them home and you see them for like an hour. Yeah. Like you see them for an hour, you are cooking dinner and they want your attention, but you can't give it to 'em.'cause you've gotta go do laundry and you've gotta do dinner and you've gotta get it all on the table and you've gotta make sure lunches are packed for tomorrow. I was like, this is mad. Mm-hmm. Like this is a mad rat race hamster wheel system that Yeah. Modern society has created. I was like, yeah, we're not doing that. Thanks. Mm-hmm. I agree. Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, some people are very well suited to that sort of corporate environment. Of course. Yeah. It's not me, and so I love that, you know, virtual assistants is such a beautiful entry point option for especially women. There are men who do it, but I do notice that it's predominantly, yeah, women who are Definitely. Talk to me about your course, because you offer a platform for people to learn how to become VAs. Is that correct? Yes, I do. Yeah, that's beautiful. What does that look like? Yeah, so I realized shortly, well, not shortly after, but after being a VA for a few years, I did notice that a lot of people were asking me how to be a VA or talking about being a va, but not really knowing where to start. And I think there are like a lot of different courses and programs and. People that are very popular now that do offer the course or like training on how to become a va. But I was like, I just wanted something that was like very low entry level, doesn't cost a lot of money, and just kind of give people like the basis of like what you need.'cause I found that like there were, there have great programs out there, but I did everything on my own. I was self-taught. When I became a va. I joined a bunch of Facebook groups to learn additional stuff. I watched a lot of YouTube videos. Basically I created the course because people just kept asking me like, how do I become a va? But they just didn't know where to start. And I was like, you shouldn't be spending $4,000, $200 for this pro, like to learn about being a va. It could cost you a lot less that I could kind of show you the ropes. And so the course essentially just, it's like, I call it the Guide to Becoming a VA and it has like a little workbook and then different modules on like the different types of VAs and how to become a VA agency versus being self-employed.'cause for some people, they just prefer to work for somebody else, and that's. Good for them, but other people, they wanna like start fresh on their own and be self-employed and just run their own VA business. Yeah. But then it also talks about things like different tools and like other things that people don't often talk about. Like things of like how to get paid and like how you have to deal with taxes and legal aspects. But then also things simple like where to find the clients or different resources. So there's also resources in there, tools that are good for VAs if you're just starting out, how to contact people when you're interested in working with them. So there's like an email template.'cause some people. Just, they don't even know where to start in terms of like how to talk to somebody about it, et cetera. So there's just like a bunch of little things that I put together that were missing when I first started to give people like a little stepping stone. Yeah, that's beautiful. And an extra income stream for you, even though you don't charge a lot of money, it's still Yeah, just find your income stream. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Let's talk about leadership and letting go. I know we touched on it earlier in our conversation about delegation, but delegation really does require trust. A lot of people aren't just willing to hand over passwords and all of the other stuff that, especially like emails. Which you guys manage, right? Mm-hmm. Email inboxes, those sorts of things. What advice do you have for people in leadership positions on building trust with their VAs? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's an interesting dynamic and it starts with me doing an introduction call with the VAs so that they can get to know them. Sometimes they do. Do a call with multiple VAs before they've decided which one they want to go with. Just to like kind of get their vibe and make it a final decision. Yeah, but once they do decide which VA they want, we normally do like an intro call so they can kind of get to know each other, like kind of more personal level just to talk about like some of the things that they like and don't like about running their business. Like, oh, I don't like emojis in my email, or I don't like communicating via email. I prefer to communicate with you via Slack or something like that. So they establish like a base. Flying and then I normally say to have like weekly meetings or biweekly check-ins so that you can kind of get to know each other better and kind of understand your workflow, check in and see how things are going over time in like 30, 60, 90 days. Obviously, you can then decide if, you know, you would prefer to only do monthly meetings or biweekly meetings, and then just checking in with them. So I will check in with the VA on a regular basis. Sometimes like. Weekly in the beginning and then, you know, biweekly or monthly. And then I also check in with the client in that same timeline just to figure out are things going well, what's working, what's not? And then we also do something like a a three month, a quarterly check-in. So that's talking with the client and the VA separately, and then together being Okay, what's working, what's not. Is everything good? So those are like the main ways that we build rapport. But then in terms of, you had mentioned like the inbox for instance. So things like that. We make sure that we have safety measures in place and like we have confidentiality agreements. Some clients need NDAs. And then also just making sure things are saved on the drive instead of on their personal computers using things like LastPass for security purposes. But we do have some clients who, yeah, last pass is great. We do have some clients where we're not actually in their inbox. To respond, not to emails. Sometimes we're just triaging them, so we're removing the spam or the things that they don't care to respond to. Deleting the things that they don't need, and then maybe moving certain emails to the top of the inbox to the important section or starring it and then moving other ones to the lower level, low priority. Sometimes it's just filing them away. So some clients, I wouldn't say it's a trust issue per se, it's more just like it's their style of keeping things organized so that they're not overwhelmed with the amount of influx of stuff coming into their inbox. So for some people it's just something simple like we're triaging the inbox. We're not actually reading their emails in like great detail or responding on their behalf. Yeah. Beautiful. Now, we just mentioned that we both love LastPass. Mm-hmm. What other systems and tools do you recommend to help entrepreneurs manage their teams? Talk to their VAs? What are your favorite tools that are mm-hmm. Your current, yeah, so the most common one is anything under the Google Workspace. Yeah. I do find a lot of people are on Google instead of. The old fashioned outlook. Microsoft. Yes. I think this most people just like trying to get away from that corporate life and Google's just that much more affordable in comparison for like licensing purposes, but then programs for like project management. So Asana's a really big one. Some people do like Clickup. I do find people tend to gravitate more towards Asana just because it's a lot more simplified, and a lot of the times the clients will come to us and they're already overwhelmed, and so putting them into clickup with all the different colors and different things is just a little too overwhelming. So Asana works really well for project management and then for communication, we like to use. Slack. We use that internally a lot just to communicate with the team, but then if clients have their own Slack channels, they're more than welcome to add the VAs to their Slack channels. Again, LastPass is another big one. Those are probably the main ones that we use. Obviously we use things like Google Calendar. Some of our clients use have online courses or programs, so we use things like Kajabi and Thinkific, and then obviously for emails we have. Convert kit, which is now just kit. Uh, yeah, we have, yeah. Noticed that, and I jumped on there the other day to check some pricing and I was like, what's going on here? Yeah. They did a rebrand, I think, in the fall. Yeah. Kajabi. Kajabi also did a rebrand recently, so, oh, uh, it's, yeah. Kajabi's not blue anymore. It's like pink. It's like almost like the color of your shirt. It's like a pinky. Yeah, it's like a pinky color now. Um, I've always been fascinated when big businesses do rebrands, like I'm, I'm such a marketing. Mm-hmm. So I'll be like, what are they, what are they doing? Why? Yeah. They like went ghost on, like everyone, they were just like, something is coming. Something is coming. And they had that big Kajabi like, uh, event or something, and. The states. I actually only know this because, uh, another business owner that I met in the States who's from Australia, is big on Kajabi, and she came Yeah. To the US for this big Kajabi event. And she's like, oh, they've done a rebrand. And like she woke up the next morning and the Kajabi was pink. And I was like, that's weird. Yeah. I was like, you went from blue and white to pink and white, but. Yeah. So that's another, that's another one that we use. Kajabi, or, yeah, for email platforms. So ConvertKit, flow desks, MailChimp, those types of things. So lots of different programs. It's more just like whatever the client has, we will jump in on.'cause so many clients have their preferred types of programs and softwares, but you, we generally see the same ones keep coming up over and over again. Mm. I'm a Trello girl myself for project management. The only reason I like, like preferred over Asana is because I can put the background pictures. Mm. Yeah, be visual. I just, I love that idea. Anchoring, kind of visual for each project board. Like, I don't know why, but that's literally the only reason I prefer to, I like, I like it for that reason too. I like that it's a little more customizable, but for some people, like we, I've noticed there's an influx of people who have a DHD, and so for them it's like. Asana works really well because it's less distracting and it's just like very straightforward and I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. They're like, it's too distracting. I'm like, yeah, Trello and Clickup are too much for you. Then like, just go back to Asana. So that's the only reason why I always keep coming back to it. I'm just like, if you can't focus and like you get distracted very easily, then like here. That's so interesting because I have that, I am like one of those cats where you shine like the light. Yeah. Which is why my team is like, Tarryn, you need to finish this project focus. Right? And I can sit down and do the little tasks because I was a va, but I hate doing it. It's like the biggest drain on my energy. But yeah, that's so interesting because I like those visual things so I can focus. It helps you differentiate what's what from the like, so instead of this being this big jumbled, like 500 projects on the go, because we've got books and our anthology projects and with books like there's literally for a solo book, my SOP is 91 steps. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot. It's a lot. And then when we do the anthologies, we've got that, but for 20 different people in the same book. So it's like, ah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I need that little pigeonhole beautiful box. That makes sense. You are going here. You are going here. That makes sense. That tracks for sure. That's right. Now, what are some common mistakes that you see leaders making when they're trying to. Scale with support and how can they avoid them? Let's give them some practical tips. Ooh. The biggest one I would say is being too scared to let things go. Mm-hmm. So one thing that I've recently started doing in our onboarding process is creating an offering clients like an onboarding checklist. Just like five steps to start. And so it's like signing your contract.'cause some people they just, they're so busy, they get very distracted. And so in the beginning, sometimes it can be very hard to onboard a VA because. They're not used to having to give that task to someone. They're just used to doing it themselves, and they do it whenever they get to it. And so in the beginning it can be a little bit hard. So I've created a checklist of things to do, and one of the things on the checklist is like make a list of like the things that you don't like doing the most or the things that are causing you the most amount of issues. Sometimes if they have something that's. The most annoying thing that they have to do, but it requires a lot of steps. I'll ask them. Okay, start with like a Loom video. So create, take loom, record you doing every little thing on the screen, and then we will just, the VA will just watch it back to get the idea of it first, and then they can go from there. I'm also really big on. Taking the time to carve out time on your calendar with the VA to have a call.'cause like they'll be like, I'm so busy. And I'm like, you have to carve out the time.'cause the VA won't know what you need right off the bat. You can send it all to them in an email all you want, but the second you add a step that's like very specific to your business, we're not gonna know what you're asking for anymore. And so making sure that they've had that initial intro call, but then setting up a secondary call right away doesn't have to be the next. Day, but like within the same first week of starting that we can have time to like have the client share the screen, show where things are, start to make a list or show on the screen how things are going so that the VA can know what steps to take next. Yeah. Beautiful. I love it. Now let's talk about the industry in general.'cause virtual assistance now is a huge industry. Where do you see the industry going in the next four, five years? Ooh. Yeah. I think it's gonna stay. I do think some people are very concerned about, um, AI taking our job. Graphic designer specifically. Your job is totally safe. Like, have you seen the AI generated graphics be terrible? It's like using, yeah. Like if you're a personal brand, it's like using stock photos, everything. I'm like, what is going on? It's, and you can call it, I generated like three fingers instead of five. And you graphic designers, you're totally safe. The rest of us, eh, I do still think the reason why being a VA is so successful, even though we have more and more AI coming out, it definitely comes back down to the personality and sometimes it's synchronicity and sometimes it's just an actual human because. You can have an ai, like think of when you go to cu, get customer service and it's a chat bot on somebody's website. Like your phone, your phone bill, you wanna lower it, it's over. You're being overcharged. You go to the website, it's like a chat bot, we can help you with this. And like you ask a specific question in the chat bot like, does this help you? Yes or no? And it's like, no it doesn't. Like I wanted a very customized answer. And so I think so rage, and I'm like, I want to talk to a person. And they're like, person, human. Yeah. And then, and I'm like. Yeah. So I think I often think of like being a va, comparing it to that. Like there still needs to be somebody who's behind the screen to answer the questions. Yeah. And provide support. And I think for some of it, like a lot of our clients have very specific niches. So we work with people in finance, we work with people who are in nutrition or in real estate. And a bot cannot answer some of the questions that like some of these people are having issues with, well, we need to help them troubleshoot. Or when there's an inquiry coming in and we're the ones answering it. And sometimes it's just like. And this is just so simple, like answering emails as an example. Like sometimes there's multiple questions in one email from one customer, but like a bot can only process one question at a time. Even when you ask chat GPTA question and like you give chat GPT, the prompt, like it will spit out an answer, but then you're like, oh, can you, you have to edit it or like you have to like rephrase it. Okay, can you please add this? Can you please remove this? So it's like. Even though AI is good, like, and it's definitely a beneficial tool to use in all businesses, especially if you're in like the online space, it's a good tool to use as a bonus to support you in your business. But it shouldn't be the be all and end all.'cause I do think that if you're heavily relying on ai, you're gonna miss the mark. And I think a lot of the times people still want that personable, like they want somebody who's real, they want that authenticity. So like, yeah, sure you can use AI to like help you generate your social media content, but you always know that you still have to review the content anyways to check for errors or like, is that, does that sound like me? Yeah. So like you still need somebody else, like an actual human to help decipher that what's real and what's not. Yeah. I also think, like I'm a big fan of AI, provided you know how to drive it, how to use it, it takes a lot of, you already have to be good at what you're doing. I'm a writer and everyone's using AI for writing and stuff, and I'm like, that's all well and good, but if you don't have the initial skillset, how do you know that what you're writing is good or anything like that, or it sounds like you, but I also think from a delegation standpoint, depending on what stage you're at in your business, if you are using ai, that's awesome. It takes time to put in the prompts. It takes time to copy out the stuff into your Trello boards. It takes time to then delegate that to the graphics team. It then takes time for those graphics to be reviewed. So you do need VAs regardless. I think VA's jobs will be always be there, honestly. Mm-hmm. Because you need someone to drive the ai. As well, because that still takes a human input, right? Yeah. And if you are the visionary leader, you can't be sitting there on chat GPT all day, like doing all of this stuff.'cause it takes time. You should be doing your sales things, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We just had a client that signed out and he's very big on ai. He's in tech, so that's his thing. So then I was like, okay, well how do you foresee your business growing with the use of ai? Like, do you still think you'll need a va? He's like, yeah, I think I'll still need a va. And now it's like. The VA is working with him alongside ai, but I'm like, oh yeah, you don't have the time to do the things that you need with the ai, so the VA needs to do the ai. So I was like, at the end of the day, you've proved the point that like AI is good, but somebody has to drive the ai. And if it's not gonna be you, it has to be somebody else. It has to be the va. Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent agree there. Was there space for VAs? I, I love my VAs. I love my team, honestly. Mm-hmm. I could not do what I do without them. I'm so grateful for them. Agreed. What's one piece of advice that you wish every entrepreneur understood, like really understood about scaling with support? Hmm, that's a good question. The support should be there to make your life easier, not harder. I have talked to many people who have had a VA and it was not a good experience, or they have somebody on their team, but it's basically creating more work for them. And I'm like, their job is to make your life easier in some way, shape or form. Not necessarily everything of your, not every aspect of your business might not be easier, but. The one aspect that you hired them for, it should like make it less stressful. And I think there's just this misconception that like, oh, I hired somebody so everything's supposed to go like super smooth. Yes it should. Like you're gonna have hiccups, but it shouldn't be so stressful that it's like making your life more difficult or giving you double the work. Yep. Agreed. Now I feel like we've had a really insightful conversation about all things that it takes to delegate and the power of our VAs to help us scale our businesses, but we have a tradition here on the podcast called The Book Drop. Obviously, I'm a massive book nerd, and I want to know our listeners and viewers want to know, what book can you recommend that has changed your life, either personally or professionally? Hmm. This is a good one. Hmm. I always come back to this and it's because, so the book is The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. Yeah. And in the book, he actually does talk about hiring virtual assistants, like help him run his business and like it cost him next to nothing.'cause he hires him from. Eastern side of the world and originally my husband read that book many, many years ago, like maybe 20 16, 20 17, before I was like, he's like, oh, you should be a va. He said that when he read the book and I was like, I don't even know what a VA is. I don't like, nobody does that. Like that's not a thing. He clearly said that like they were in Southeast Asia, like we live in North America. Like this is not relevant. Fast forward, like, I don't know, seven, five years, something like that. And I became a va. And my husband is always like, oh, I told you, like you, I told you back then that you should have been a va. And I was like, and I always say, it just wasn't my time. It just wasn't. That wasn't, yeah. If covid didn't happen, I probably. Still would be working as an ece. Like I wouldn't be a va. But now it's interesting because now I've built a life for myself where I don't work four hours a week. I work more than that. But I definitely feel like I have a lot more flexibility to really enjoy some of the things that he talks about in the book. What if you work a four hour work week? Like you have a lot of spare time to like do other things and learn other things. Yeah, so I do think that, like I have reread the book since becoming a va, and I do think it's very. Interesting that I now am working as a va, but also have more time in my life now that I am a va, to be able to, like I said, drop my daughter off to school without rushing to be able to enjoy family dinners or to be able to travel to other countries and like pick up other hobbies that I never would've had time for before. Yeah. And so that's like one book that I. Love to like think back and it's one of the books that I've actually reread a few times just 'cause I'm just like, oh, it's like a good refresher. Yeah. So that would be my book choice. Although that was a hard one because I feel like I, like, I've read a bunch of books a year. I know it's, I read 25, 26 books last year, so like how do I pick one? You don't. You read them all. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like Tim Ferriss's book, the Four Hour Work Week, that was one I read in my early entrepreneurship journey and I got. So pissed off with it because I was like, nobody works four hours. Mm-hmm. It's true, realistic, and I still don't believe that anyone who is, unless you're a multi, multi-billionaire. Yeah. Even, even then you have a whole team to manage and like four. But it the principles, yeah. It pick for a book as well. Book. Because when you look at a book and you're shopping for a book, or you're scrolling Amazon, whatever it is, it's the title and the book cover that jump out you. Mm-hmm. And this book cover was. Orange with the, yeah, the, the palm tree or something. Yeah. Someone in a hammock and the four hour work week. I mean, brilliant, brilliant use of capturing attention and hooking readers in the marketplace. So hats off to him on that. He did, he did an amazing job and the principles are awesome, but four hours, Tim, I. Maybe we can get Tim a podcast one day and ask him about it. Oh yeah. That's a hard one because he's, he's got his own podcast and that's blown up. That's yeah. So much. Yeah. I like, yeah, I like it as an entrepreneur. Anyway, I think he's amazing. Yeah, agree. Nancy, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. Today, and if any of you want to connect with Nessi and her team, and I highly recommend you do. If you are looking for admin support and VA work, I will pop all of her information in the show notes. Thank you so much for being a wonderful guest on the show today. Have a fantastic rest of your day in Mexico. Thank you, Tarryn. It was a pleasure being here. Have a great rest of the day. Thank you. That's a wrap on today's episode. If you love the insights and inspiration, don't let it end here. Hit subscribe to stay connected and turn your visions into reality alongside our community of change makers. I'm Aryn Reeves. Thank you for joining me. And remember, your story has power. See you in the next episode.