It’s all About the Fit

0:00 Hi, welcome to the podcast that explores virtual assistants, lump business owners to know, when they start asking themselves the question, hey, do I meet a VA? I'm Rachel Davila, and after 18 years as a virtual assistant going at a loan, I experienced the steep learning curve from the other side of the VA client relationship when I hired my own assistants. Joining me on this podcast is a group of friends and colleagues who all have their own take on what busy entrepreneurs need to know to find, hire, and work with a virtual assistant and mindfully answer the question, hey, do I meet a VA? Let's get this episode started. Hi everyone, welcome to hey, do I meet a VA?

0:50 The podcast, episode number eight, joining me or Sydney Hubbard, RABV, and Leanne Remy, and we're going to talk the things to know beyond your task list today, because finding a VA is kind of like dating. You wouldn't go, you wouldn't marry somebody just because you liked their online dating profile. You'd want to go out to dinner and have conversations with them and get to know the person beyond the profile before you said I do. The same is true with finding hiring and working with a VA. So what qualities are you looking for in your VA? You have your hand-off list, you know your budget, you probably know what kind of VA you're looking for, but what do you need in the person not just the title? So that's what we're going to talk about today.

1:56 So I always like to say it's about the fit. So we've talked about what kind of VA you're looking for. If you know that you need a collaborator versus a doer, that's important to know. What are some topics that you feel are important things to bring up in a conversation? Or what do you look for when you kind of have that initial conversation with a potential client? Sydney? I think for me one of the most important things would be communication style. And I think that goes beyond like do you like to email? Do you like to text? Do you like to call?

2:45 And all of those things are very important. I think that's definitely a part of communication. But I think going beyond that, I think communication style can mean more of what types of things do you need to talk about surrounding your business? And also, do you communicate in a way that is clear for me the VA to understand? Because I might understand something one way and you might understand another way. And I think that's the whole point of collaboration and communication.

3:25 But I think if the client wants something extremely specific, but our communication styles don't match. So I'm not understanding the specificity of what they want. I think that the like Rachel said, like it's a fitting and like that wouldn't necessarily fit. Yeah. I actually think there's a lot that goes into communication styles because you know, you say are you better by phone email? I had a client who put everything she needed all caps in the subject line of an email. Oh, that did not fit with me at all. I was like, thank you, but we are not the right fit because it felt like she was yelling at me every time she sent me an email. I didn't know that that was a thing for me until I was faced with it. I think also, when we talk about communication styles, do you think in email or do you need to talk about it?

4:30 I had one client, he did a lot of driving and I would say, hey, yeah, just send me an email of what you need me to work on and he never did. But if I called him up on a Friday, oh, the test list I had for the following week, filled up all the time we had. So I think from a client perspective, knowing that what's come up for you, Bray, in terms of communication styles. Yeah, so we, with the clients that like to talk things out and stuff to and I feel like to sometimes things, you can text it and exact same words, but if you stay it either tone or something, it can just register differently too. So we also usually try to have a way where people do voice memos. So then if it's not something, you know, like they're thinking about it late at night, maybe don't want to lose the thought or whatever they can still send it to us through a voice memo or a different channel that way. So we like to have that as well. And one of the other things I like to consider with communication is, you know, like how how do they want to receive information? Like, is relationship building really important to them? Do they want to have as part of our agenda for our meeting that we spend the first five minutes checking in with each other?

5:44 How's life? Because there's important information that comes from that too. Oh my goodness, you know, like there's a family emergency or you're not been feeling well, well, that makes sense why I didn't get this information. It kind of brings a little bit more human into it as well. And but some people that they're like, I don't have time for that. That's not part of how they're made. They want to have more of an action-based, like, okay, let's go through the agenda. Here's what we need to talk about. Here's our next steps. Thank you very much, A&X week. Whatever that is. And some people don't need a weekly meeting. Some people want it every two weeks or once a month, so knowing how much that means to look for you and that it can be adjusted. I find in the beginning we need more regular meetings to kind of get into that workflow, to get that no light contrast thing going on. And to find out those tasks and those things that come up in conversations that you may not have thought about. And kind of once you get that flow, maybe it is only every two weeks or once a month where we can be like, okay, let's do a roundup. This is what's coming up. But then again, that's like in a what, a evolution thing and kind of just checking in with each other to see where everybody's at and what expectations are around how you want to receive information. Yeah. I think it's important to note like you said evolution, but I also feel like it's important to know where you are starting from when you're having that initial call, because working with the VA, working with a client, you learn those things as you go.

7:09 But in the beginning, you might feel like, oh, if I ask for a weekly meeting, it's too much, or my budget doesn't allow it because I only have five hours and if we meet every week, that's four of the five hours. But if it's important to establish that you need that needed. And there are valuable things that come out of those conversations, right? Like, do you want to review process? What are your time or turnaround expectations? Like, those things all matter to or making sure you don't feel in some people don't want to know that part either. And that's okay too. So understanding those pieces and the communication. Yeah.

7:52 For communication, most of most of the time I let the client decide how they're going to communicate with me. So I kind of morph into what they're looking for. Here, comment about all caps and the subject line. I had a client to ended every sentence with two explanation points. The entire email to us every time. I'm like, what the heck? As you try to make a point? Is it, you know, as you're like, this is a, it was just how he wrote. And it was one of the things that what's I learned that's how he wrote is like, okay, whatever. I'm fine. But at the beginning, why are there so many of these estimation points? I barely started working with the person. So learning that part of things, especially in writing the way people write. Some people like to use really high-end words to explain something that's real, until they basically can be used in much shorter words. Once you figure that out, if you don't have the vocabulary, they do, you got a problem. You know, it's like, okay, you know, you need to bring your speech down to my level or I need to walk around the source or dictionary.

8:59 So, you copy the paragraph and you put it in chat, GPT. Exactly. You need to run with that. I have helped a lot with that kind of stuff. But knowing where your client is, if they are an academic type person, if they're a PhD and this is the level they speak at, that you have a hard time understanding that, that may not be a good match for you. So, it goes the other way too. If you are a younger VA and you are talking to an older client, that speech pattern is different too. So you have to make sure you understand what they're saying, which I think Sydney was trying to get to was, you got to talk the same language. And if you don't talk the same language, you may not be a good fit.

9:43 Somebody's going to have to adjust or they have to find somebody else. So, as far as communication modes, I just go to whatever they want to work with. They want to go to Slack or, you know, Discord or please not Discord. But if you want to search or any of those other methods, you know, I have one that sends everything through messenger on Facebook. I'm like really, okay fine, you know, as long as I can figure out what they want, I can work with that, but not everybody can do that. Not every VA works that way. And then the biggest one is language, because I'm sorry if I have to plug a dictionary to figure out your sentences, we're not a good match.

10:27 I'm like, I'm just imagining you, especially AI, just going out of time to look this up. I'm just going to summarize. Oh, language for a second grader, please. Some other things to think about in communication. It's not just that every day, communication, but how do you communicate anger or disappointment, like when mistakes happen? And how do you work through those? Are you open to having the conversation and giving a benefit of the doubt or are you a one and done? It's over. Having worked through some of those things will help you in terms of asking the questions or hearing the answers, one of the kind of talks with you.

11:27 So, communication styles, knowing yours, and being able to communicate it during the getting to know your process. Personality styles, I have a 30-minute discovery call because I think it's important to know, do we like each other? Can I listen to you, speak? Do we get along? I'm very relational. I like to be friendly with my clients. I want to know about their life because, like you said, brain, like, they can impact the working relationship. If there's always family emergencies, be nice to know that. But I think knowing do you want somebody who's fun? Someone who's serious.

12:21 I'm kind of extroverted on the phone and on Zoom, but I realize like shy people intimidate me because until it gets to know them, right? Because you don't know, are you angry? Are you happy? If they have the check-inaurus, like all their expressions are the same, I can't. I can't. I need to know. But somebody might look at me and be like, you are too boisterous. This is not going to work, right? Kind of thing. And then like, I think knowing like, if you want to become friends or if you're just co-workers, are you the get-rich quick-type or do you kind of go with the flow? And you want to grow your business organically? Do you micromanage? Are you micro-int, like, do you need to have a drain on everything? Because these kinds of things, if you know them upfront, then you can find somebody who fits that. What do you guys look for or think about in terms of personality styles? I think one of the things I look for is someone who is more relaxed in their style of speaking and you know, they understand there's a bit of the interest in this is a world outside their business. And so I've had the clients that are everything's, everybody's looking at business. So I have to do this right now. I know my goodness

13:51 I'm like, wow, okay, not everybody's looking at your business every second of the day. And let's you know, bring it down to notch. I know the person who's that type, I can't work with. I just, I can't. It's too much for me. I like to think I can work with a bunch of different types of people, but I've learned over the years that that type A really go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go, micro-manage, or not my kind of thing. And I think I'm more like you, Rachel, I was like, I want kind of relationship. I kind of want to know what's going on. Are they married? Do they have kids? Is there something else besides how their business is doing? Because every human, you don't want just the business face because that's too easy to just shut off. And I don't, I want to care about my clients.

14:41 If it's just a business, I don't necessarily care about it because it's a business. It's not a person with a business. If that makes sense. Yeah. I find I'm similar. Like I permeate, I like to really connect with the people. Like I feel like I emotionally invest in our work as well. Like I love that relationship. I love getting to, in fact, I am currently working from a client house as I'm here visiting with them. Like even though there's a lot of my clients, don't live in my hometown. I like to try and connect with them in person if I'm able to as well. So those kind of relationship things are important to me and feeling their passion. Like, like, Leon was saying, like, are they passionate about what they do? Are they passionate about what they, you know, what do we have similar interests and things outside of what we're doing in here that also helps us relate and understand each other on a different level.

15:30 Those kinds of things are important to me. And also, so what you were saying, Rachel, like, are they and, and Leon, like, are they looking for, like, quick turnaround times and everything's urgent? And everything's like, okay, so I just realized this needs to come up tomorrow. I mean, those things happen. And, you know, here and there that happens, it's cool, it's help you out. But if it's consistently, like, hey, we said three weeks ago, we were going to do a newsletter. I still don't have the things from you. It's due in two days and it's supposed to go out. Like, I can't deal with that. I like to have buffer. I like to like, how can we plan ahead? How can we have everything at least a week ahead? So there's time for that review process. Make sure everything set up. Tech, test out the tech, that kind of thing. I don't like living in that last minute and anxiety so that's something for me as well that I have discovered. So knowing that, you know, if clients are leaving things to last minute to that out, that doesn't work for me. But there are there are times, there are things that come up that that's, it's if it's not a consistent thing, then that's something we can work around. And I do try to be flexible in a lot of the ways that we do work. Like, we use a few different platforms and stuff. And if it's like this platform doesn't work for you, how can we adjust so we can still have communication, have a news that everybody can work in. We try to limit it so it's not too broad. So it's like out of these three which can we pick? But we do try to make it feel like there's a lot of flexibility in that as well for how do you need to receive information, how do you need to receive or project their acting like that? I will say around that if a client, if you as a client are

17:02 currently operating at that last minute, kind of energy frequency, what it's something you're wanting to change, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the people who thrive in that last minute space and don't want to change. Just so be clear because a lot of my clients come to me because they're constantly in that last minute because they don't have systems and things in place. And that's what we do. We help you set that up. But if you're not wanting to set that up, that's a different place to be. And there are people that would work with that. There are, yeah, not me. We're not a back and call girl, but yeah, Sydney. Yeah, I think the personality is, are you extroverted or you introverted? But I think it's, it also ties into a lot about how you run your business, right? And is the way that you run your business? Is that compatible with the way that a VA is running their business? Right? I think that personality really determines if those puzzle pieces are going to fit because I think that how your personality also determines your communication style and your personality determines what tasks you're going to find most important, how you're going to react when something doesn't go the way you expected to.

18:30 Because I mean, that's going to happen. Like, it's a business. And I think knowing that doing that introspection to look at like, okay, in my business, I tend to do this, this and this. And I think it's, and I know that Rachel has talked about this before. It's knowing those patterns, knowing those systems. I think we'll make it a lot smoother to hand off things. And also to just have a working relationship with a VA. I also think under personality is leadership styles are because it kind of is that my commandant or go with the flow, but I also feel like this has come up with a couple of clients. They have an expectation that a VA is just going to know what to do and they don't have to lead in any way, but it depends on how much you know your business and can verbalize and communicate the things I think leadership has an element in there as well. All right, time availability.

19:40 So the joint of being a VA, that's a flexible job. And most of us have created the business to have the flexibility for our own lives, family, business. So since a VA is not an employee, they're available work hours may differ from yours. And is it important to you that they're available during your work hours? Or are you okay with them working on your stuff? Whenever they get to it, that's a question to have. Do you work two emergencies? And do you need some one ready at any time because as we discussed, we're not that.

20:25 But there are people who are. So if you know that that is your tendency, then that's what you want to look for. And since VA is can work anywhere, we talked about domestic and overseas and however you're listening, that could be either side of the pond. Is it important that you're VA is in your time zone or that they have work hours that match your time zone? And can you work within their time zone or their working times? What other things do you consider for time availability? I think that for me, time availability is huge because I'm a college student. And so any client that I'm going to work with could know, like first and foremost, like I am a college student. And I think that also goes for like how many times do you want to meet per week? And how far ahead are you going to give me what I need different as a project? Because if I don't get what I need in time, there's a higher likelihood that I just can't get to clean it all because I have assignments and classes and everything like that in my day-to-day life. I think also for me, I work weekends.

21:48 Like weekends are when I do the things that I do for my business. And if a client would want me to work weekdays, I think that would definitely be a challenge. And that would definitely be something that we would have to figure out. For different people depending on what they have going on outside of their life, for some VA's, their business is the thing that they do. Right? For other VA's, their business is only one of the many things that they do. And so knowing that can be important when you're looking for a VA, I think too that's where the time available ability goes along with that turnaround time expectation. Right? So like if you're looking for things that are going to be done in the next day, is that person working hours going to be, and is that an arrangement that you've made that it's like if I give it to you by the morning, then you have it to me by the next day morning or whatever that expectation is. Right? And then I find that the time zones is a really big thing for me and my clients and stuff too, like making sure like if the earliest I want to do a meeting is at nine o'clock, a mountain time. And I have Eastern clients, but 11 am, it was the earliest that they could have a meeting, isn't going to align with their working, then that might become a problem as well. Right? So knowing what your hours are, what their other persons' hours are, and if it's something that can work with the turnaround expectation as well as those connection

23:18 points and also for communication, right? Like if I'm still working at three o'clock in the afternoon and I'm sending you a voice memo, is there a way where you don't have to hear it till the next day because you're now trying to turn off? That's also important too, right? For as business owners, sometimes we forget that's like having that turn off time is important so that's where we like to try and lose something like slacker or an app like that where you can set the hours where it doesn't notify you and we'll just know that we're putting it here for when you do have your work hours, but it's not a lost spot. So are there ways to work around that too so that it's not when they're on their off hours and we're still working that there's feeling like you can't turn off? Yeah, and it can work the other way too because like when I had clients on like I almost all my clients are East Coast clients and I'm Pacific, so you know they've been up for three hours before I even get into the office and so it's great because I can work and I can work until five o'clock my time and I don't expect responses from them but the responses are usually there in the morning when I come back to start so yeah it can work both ways like it can be good or bad depending on yeah there's definitely benefits to it. I think it goes with communication to is being upfront about it all.

24:40 Yeah in our contract we actually have that communications will be over like responded to within 24 to 48 hours. Generally we get to the same day or whatever but there is that buffer should somebody be sick or whatever else like just to know and so that's something that we stipulated communicating to with our clients but some people might not be okay with that kind of thing as well too. Yeah, I think you mentioned contracts when we were brainstorming desk and we're going to get to that as a broader topic but I think having that the time expectation and availability in your contract that you can kind of go back to like you know I'm generally in the office from this time to this time and anything that happens all-four's is a benefit not a norm right kind of thing but it is that setting the expectations and I think contracts are usually worth that is and in the conversation. Leanne you got in. I think you guys covered almost everything I think the biggest part is as long as you communicate what you expect and they communicate what they expect.

25:52 There should be a pretty good you know you should be able to make sure you have a good fit. Time zones always a there was looked at as a negative but it's a great point out it could be a benefit you know she or East Coast clients just extended their workday by three hours and they're not actually doing the work. So you know those kinds of things work well. One of the things I've noticed especially when Sydney was talking about the she's college kid she's got classes and things like that some VA's and I know when my kids were much little or I had like the middle part of my day was not an option because I was making up children and dropping them off at things and all that kind of stuff so I worked in the morning and then I had a big gap and then work at night and as long as my clients knew that they were okay it was the ones that either weren't listening or I told them or weren't okay with it where we started to have the problems. So it definitely it's a communication thing but VA's we set up our business based on what we need so my kids are now adults I don't have the gap in the middle of the day that has to come out but it has moved as they've gotten you know they were very young I started it was I used to work around nap times.

27:05 Yeah it's like I only worked at nap times but you know as they got bigger and I have bigger gaps and as long as a client stands up for what support for them the VA stands up for what support for them themselves it'll work but only if you communicate so yeah and if you're honest with yourself exactly because I think a lot of times you can go and like yeah sure no problem it'll work out just fine and then you realize oh I didn't know I had that as a need yep yeah and maybe having a like a game plan should there be things to come up how do we want to discuss it like if you have that game plan where there's issues beforehand on how you want to communicate around it it kind of takes away that how do I bring it up or I just don't bring it up and then we just don't work together anymore where it could have just been a simple conversation but I think having that in place as well like you know let's try this out and you know let's check in in a month and see if there's any problems or if there's something that comes up beforehand please let me know be back so we learn that kind of conversation helps with those kind of moments too yeah and that's come that's communication it's like a relationship you guys the VA client relationship is like a relationship right if you don't communicate things start to fall apart so remember that part all right we're going to shift into security needs and then we'll wrap up um security needs many times a VA is

28:38 privy to important and sensitive or confidential information so if that is part of your business then you need to think about your specific needs around security do you need a non-disclosure agreement as part of your contract through the VA to work on your projects you know some VA's work off their dining room table or used to um with their computers and full of you of family and kids is that going to cause issues if a family member is walking by and sees them working on your stuff you know up until up until September I shared my office with family all different family so I didn't have the luxury of locking the door and having things where people couldn't get to it now I have a shop at my own door yeah with a lock sorry get very excited about that piece um but is that like my clients I was very afirm with them my kid you know because I started when my kids were young so they were always around so I couldn't I couldn't work with clients who needed security type of things now that I've put systems in place and and their their adults now too they've out you know they've outgrown the what's my working on stage um you know but I still

30:13 for my comfort level I don't work with clients that have really strict security needs probably because for so long it wasn't an option what do you talk about when it comes to security I think for the most part because I've always had an office I haven't thought about you know what what people can see so much um my for security I always try to make sure that we're doing things as security spots will move through the internet so things like hey yes you need to give me a password how about don't put the username password and website on an email as you send it to me um yeah so you know those kinds of security things I lead the client more than let the client lead me only because that's how my brain works although I have had clients say you know this is highly confidential and I'm gonna give you you know a 20 step system you need to get through to get to whatever account it is I'm fine with that but I know some people aren't so it kind of depends on what everybody is comfortable with for me security one way the other is fine because I have my office I have for 20 something years that's fine but it's always say hey you know I don't want to be hearing our phone calls okay now I've got a problem nothing's some proof and it is still a home office so you know those kinds of things obviously I would have say okay I'm not the right person

31:46 for you for that but you Brie I'm sure you you're pretty careful on your security stuff yeah we have password bolts and things and sometimes either we'll find ways to get the passwords from clients in a secure way and put them in ourselves or help set up a client so they have their own password bolt and can share it through us that way especially to something like I don't really want you to know the password but I want you to have access then we accommodate that as well we do have an on-disclosure in our contract I have worked with people who wanted in the additional one on top of that that we gladly will sign and make sure we adhere to and just as a general rule like we don't be like so so and so doing this or whatever if there's some ideas that we want to share it'll be more of like generalizations of things that we've learned that we've been testing and sharing information that way but never specific or things like that on other clients and that's kind of how we go about it I haven't really had other things come up like we have everything backed up on cloud they stuff and things like that so that everybody has access and her copies on some computers and things like that but other than that we haven't had any other needs that have come up on our world yet. Did anything come up for you? I think you guys covered it all I think for me it's the main security things is just like yeah like I'm getting user name and password so protecting that and making sure like okay like I'm on my personal account now

33:20 I'm not on like a business someone else's business account you know using that all of that responsibly and again like I'm I'm a college student I bring like computer places because I'm going to class and stuff and so I think understanding that as like a lifestyle type piece and like who you're looking for is a virtual assistant it's good to keep in mind. Thank you I know we're going to talk about contracts but I kind of feel like that's its own episode so stay tuned and he last bit before we wrap up. I think the last piece that I had was knowing if it was important to you to have a VA that's very passionate about your business and maybe has like like a hobby that's like in line with your business and it's like like very like understanding and the no like if that's important to you or if it's not important to you I think that all virtual assistants will respect the businesses that they work with as professionalism but if you want like an extra layer of like that like this virtual assistant as like interest outside of their business and your business happens to align with that like if that's important to you or if it's just kind of a cherry on top I think that would also be something to think about. And I think I think these

34:52 can tend to niche into areas that they are equally passionate about so you know finding if if the VA is passionate about the business that you're doing I think that's a plus that is our episode for things to consider beyond your task list. If you have any questions you can email us at hey VA podcast at gmail.com or use the link tree to connect with any one of us individually and we will see you at the next episode. So thank you so much for joining us for this episode. We are wrapping up for our summer vacation but please subscribe on your favorite podcast channel or on YouTube to be reminded of when we come back and we will see you soon. Thank you for joining us on this episode of hey do I need a VA the podcast. If you found this episode helpful please leave a like, comment or review and feel free to join our Facebook group find higher and work with a VA for more tips and tools.

36:07 If you have any questions please email them to hey VA podcast at gmail.com. We'll see you next time.