Not all Virtual Assistants are the Same

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Hi, welcome to the podcast that explores virtual assistants, lump business owners to know,

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when they start asking themselves the question, hey, do I meet a VA? I'm Rachel Davila,

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and after 18 years as a virtual assistant going at a loan, I experienced the steep learning curve

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from the other side of the VA client relationship when I hired my own assistant.

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Joining me on this podcast is a group of friends and colleagues who all have their own take on

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what busy entrepreneurs need to know to find, hire, and work with a virtual assistant,

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and mindfully answer the question, hey, do I meet a VA? Let's get this episode started.

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Hi, welcome to episode 4 of Hey, do I meet a VA? The podcast, with me again is land

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earnally, Sydney Hubbard and Bree BV, and I'm your host, Rachel Davila. And today we're going to talk

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about how not all virtual assistants are the same. What do I mean by that? So, last episode, we kind of

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talked about how the term VA has changed over the decades since we've been doing it.

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And so a lot of kind of specialty tasks get lumped in with virtual assistants, but

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there are roughly five types of support. So, I call them specialists, personal assistants,

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sometimes that could be a housekeeper or an Annie, and then with virtual assistants, there are employee

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minded VA's and business partner minded VA's, and then there's employees. So, those are kind of

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where I go with what kind of support you might need when I'm talking with potential clients. So,

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when I talk about specialists, those are people like web designers who specialize in the

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profession, bookkeepers, marketing specialists and strategists. If your tasks need to be done in

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person or have a hands-on quality where they need to interact with you in person, that would be more

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of a personal assistant or a housekeeper or an Annie. But when we talk about virtual assistants,

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there's two kinds that I kind of differentiate, and those are employee minded VA's, which tend to do

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the doing. They are detail and task oriented, and they keep their focus on the task at hand

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without necessarily doing too much collaboration. Whereas a business partner minded VA is more

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collaborative. They kind of look at the whole picture, and they can kind of see the direction you

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want to go and handle the steps along the way. So, it still falls within that broad administrative

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scope of work and can be done virtually. In place, those are when you need somebody in-house

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to do just your work and they work just for you. So, when we talk about the different kinds of VA's,

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what is that bring up for you guys? Yeah, I agree. You call them doors. I usually refer to them

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as task-based virtual assistants. And to me, those are the ones that you tell them,

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hey, I need this done, they go do it, they come back, and they wait for you to tell them the next

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thing to do, or it's directed mainly by you. Whereas that business partner or a team-based version,

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they like to kind of have that conversation and go back and forth. That's actually one of the

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things that my clients are like, they find a lot of value in the has having somebody who knows their

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business and being able to bounce ideas back and forth and see what comes up and be able to see

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some of those pieces if they want to do a challenge or launch something or whatever being able

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to talk about all the different pieces and kind of come up with a plan and then put that plan into action.

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So there's a lot more back and forth and then a lot more helping see all the pieces and maybe

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fill in the gaps in that version and being proactive versus having the client have to have all

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the thinking and putting it into place. And then, yeah, also with the specialized ones,

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we're being like, you know, people that just specialize in those certain areas that are rock stars at it,

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they can all speed pull in to help accent if that's a gap that is in between the partnership,

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that it's good to draw on those people as well even for part-time support or that kind of thing.

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Yeah, I think I use the word online business managers more for the collaborative stuff.

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When I'm explaining what we do so that there's a more clear definition between

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a general VA who does task work and someone who's more collaborative helps them run the office,

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helps them run the back office. So online business manager for me is the more strategic partner

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versus a general admin who does basic stuff and then of course the specialty stuff which is more

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of a specific thing. So the bookkeeper or the graphics designer or the webmaster kind of concepts.

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I will, I will point out because within the industries, there is a difference between kind of a

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high level VA and an online business manager the way you describe it absolutely, but there is actual

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online business managers as an industry and they tend to be more the client brings their team of

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VA's and the online business manager manages the teams. At least that's been the definition.

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I was given by someone who did the certification to become an online business manager.

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So an OBM or an business manager tends to run teams of VA's. So they might be that center point of

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contact if you have multiple VA's that you work with. So that's just something to know as far as

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definition. Does any have anything? Yeah, I think something that I'm seeing is that there are these

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distinct categories, but these categories can also often overlap and be found within the same

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person. So in my experience, I'm mostly very task oriented, employee-minded, I am my own business,

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but if you give me a task to do, I will do it. However, I also very much enjoy brainstorming.

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So if there's, if you want to brainstorm social media, if you want to brainstorm the flow of an event,

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I will certainly give my input. However, I think I feel less inclined if a task were given to me,

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I would feel a lot less inclined to critique it on behalf of that other person's business.

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And I think that's just for me, I have been owned a business for that long, so I don't feel as

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inclined to give other people critiques on how they run their business unless they're inviting

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that type of brainstorming. And so I think it can very much be a back and forth between

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business-minded employee-minded. I think it's kind of like a scale almost. And I also think that within

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virtual assistance there can be times when you receive a job that's a personal task.

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So I received a job that was looking at someone's bank account and putting what they purchased

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into a spreadsheet. And that was a personal task for them. So a personal assistant type work,

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which is different than my business working with someone else's business.

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So yeah, I think it's interesting how they play with each other like that.

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And I do think that we as VEs can support our clients doing personal tasks. I mean,

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I help with personal tasks all the time. So I think that is something that can be a conversation

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or piece. I do think that the difference between detail and task oriented and collaboration

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is that kind of conversation. Do you want to be more collaborative or do you just want to

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focus on what's what I'm having you do? And I think that that collaboration piece does come with

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time and experience and comfort with a client and your VA. And I think that as you as the VA

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gets more comfortable in the business, if they want that additional level of interaction,

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that's a conversation to be had. So I don't necessarily think that it's the client pigeonholes

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the VA so much as the VA says, well, no, I just want to do this. I don't want to do that. And that's

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kind of where those definitions kind of come into play. Because I mean, I know like,

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I need to talk it out and I definitely want because Sydney's my virtual assistant. And so,

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I didn't necessarily know what kind of VA was looking for until I was like, well, I need somebody

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who can talk it through with me and do all that. So I definitely think that there can be that

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conversation, especially where if you as the client comes in and you're like, well, I need somebody

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to do the things. And then you start going through, you're like, okay, and now I need to add this

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layer, then it's, are you comfortable adding that layer? And then this up to the VA to say, yes,

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I'm comfortable or no, that's not my thing. And one of the things that

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Breed brought up is that just because you hire one VA doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be

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able to do all the things that you need them to do. And so being able to incorporate the

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different kinds of support to match your needs is fully in line. I don't know if it was this episode

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or the last episode, but we talk about this collaboration element of working together. And so,

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you might find that your needs are, you need to start with a high level thinking VA to help you get

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those processes and workflows and pieces figured out. But then you can bring on more of a do or task

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VA to handle those things that you put into place so that you're maybe the high level VA can

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then work on other aspects of your business. And so it can be a fluid business move where you work

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with different levels for different things. That's too clever, so for the collaboration part

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two, one thing to keep in mind is that that virtual assistant will also probably take a deeper

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dive, like they'll have to. They'll take a deeper dive into getting to know you and your business.

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There's a bigger investment in time as well, right, to have those conversations so that people

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can get to understand and have a deeper understanding and meaning and what you want your impact

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to be to be able to do a really good job in that place and to make sure that if you are looking

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to build out a team later, then that's something that you might want to consider when you're

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starting because you might want to make sure that the VA that you're working with is open to collaborating

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and working in a team with other VA's or looking at an agency or something that already has that

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in their back pocket, you start with one and maybe you expand as you go and just thinking of those

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options as you're getting into it or as you're progressing through, it could be something that

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comes up later but just keeping that in your mind. Yeah, what is something that you would suggest

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to potential clients who may not know if they want a standalone VA or a team VA, if they're not

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short necessarily what kind of VA they're looking for when they come to you since you have a team.

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Yeah, so sometimes it's trial and error, right? Like sometimes we don't know what we want

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or what we're looking for until we start doing it and so some of it might be just a process of

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trying things on for size and see if it's a fit but collecting things you can along the way,

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like those processes you're amen and talking about, like try to capture those no matter which one

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you're starting with so you still have something to bring and build with and then the other piece

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would be I always tell a possible client or a potential collaborator that if you're wondering

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what kind of VA you're looking for, start capturing those things that you might want to hand off,

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the things that aren't bringing you joy in your business, the things that you might want to

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have somebody and maybe it's through looking at that collection of tasks that you want to hand off,

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that that piece might fall into places to which virtual assistant model might fit for you right now.

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If it's a lot more admin things then maybe start with a task based one and get some of those

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admin things sorted and then after you get that going you want to do some of those higher level things

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or have that kind of view of it then maybe look into that if you want to start there and then

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work in the processes then that works too. It really depends on budget, it depends on your preference

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and what it is you're looking for but a good place to start is capturing those tasks and seeing

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what kind of task it is that you're wanting to share with or offload or if you're looking

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as you're going through those tasks, you know, hopefully that have somebody to talk this over with

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and bounce over ideas that could also be an indicator as to which one works for you.

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Yeah, yeah, it's what I tell them too. Yeah, knowing what you knowing what you want to hand off

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really is the starting place for helping you to figure out what kind of support you're looking for.

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And also what your goals are, what you're procrastinating on, what you're tolerating in your

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business, those kinds of things too and kind of knowing where your goals are down the line.

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Sometimes you need to start where you are and get those things off your plate so that you have the

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time and the resources and energy to do those bigger things but kind of knowing where you're

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heading can help you kind of have that conversation because if you know down the road, you need that

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more collaborative picture thinking than when you're talking with a V8, is that a direction that you

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can see yourself going with because someone like Sydney who is task and detail oriented but

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also likes that collaboration and wants to grow in that direction, you know, having that conversation

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really can when you're looking, we end. You think to, I don't think you guys kind of covered it.

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The biggest thing is knowing what you think you need and just get started, just get started with a

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V8 and try it out. I can completely agree. I think that in the end, I agree that it's

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very essential to know what you want to hand off to have an idea of what would be good for

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your business. And I also think that if you don't even have the slightest clue,

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then I would just look for a VA who matches your communication style because at the very least,

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they can communicate to you what they are seeing a need for in your business and a way that

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that you understand in a way that is right for you. So yeah. So one thing before we go,

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some businesses, some business models that get lumped in with virtual systems, but are actually

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more specialties are if you are looking for somebody to help with your podcast, there are podcast

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managers and that is a specialty, though some VA's do do that. So social media managers get lumped

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in sometimes with virtual systems. So if you're just looking for social media, that might be

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a specialist. We talked about bookkeepers, web designers and marketing. The marketing really is

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kind of the strategy and like I don't do analytics and things like that. I can put a strategy

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into action, but I don't come up with the strategy. Though Bree, she's a great strategist in terms of

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social media and things like that. Though thumb VA do have those skill sets. If you're looking

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for just that specialty, there are they do tend to get lumped into virtual systems even though

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I was like, there was 11 of them. What are you talking about? And I didn't actually find the list,

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but it was like social media manager and podcast manager, marketing strategy, all those things

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I was like, oh, I guess we do kind of we can do those things, but if you're looking for like

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Facebook apps over my head, but yes, so when you're looking for a VA, it is helpful to know what

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you want to hand off and what kind of quality and support level you're looking for. Well, thank you

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so much for joining us today on this episode of Hey, do I need a VA the podcast? And we will see

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you next episode. You have any questions you can reach any one of us. We'll put the details in the

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show notes and we will see you next time. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hey,

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do I need a VA the podcast? If you found this episode helpful, please leave a like,

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comment, or review. Until free to join our Facebook group, find hire and work with a VA for more

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