Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt in required, where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years, and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you. With us right now, it's Barbara Turley. Barbara, you are the founder and CEO of the Virtual Hub. You're found online at the Virtual Hub. Com Barbara, thank you for joining us.

Speaker 2 00:01:18 Thanks so much for having me, Josh.

Speaker 1 00:01:20 Well, I'd love to learn a little bit more about what the virtual hub is, what you do and who you serve.

Speaker 2 00:01:26 Sure. So we typically serve scale up companies who are in that phase where their operation starts to become quite a thing. And what we find is that the the owners of the business or the managers in the business tend to start getting bogged down even more in the busy work that needs to be done, but not necessarily by them. And we integrate great cost effective support teams into those businesses to free up the time and energy of those people so that they can go on and grow that business and have the impact that they really want.

Speaker 1 00:01:57 Yeah. And this is the world that that you watch. you know, obviously staffing and building teams and, you know, kind of knowing as well, you know, how we can connect with remote teams to be able to, you know, do the things that we really, really want. What's the state of the, I'd say the state of the Union, as it were, for, you know, all things VA and staffing and virtual teams right now.

Speaker 2 00:02:23 Yes. So the look, the virtual staffing, remote virtual assistants, this whole industry has been around obviously, for a very, very long time. And some people think it's just new, but it's not. It's been around for a couple of decades now, but it has exploded, particularly since the Covid years, of course, because more and more companies that wouldn't traditionally have looked at, you know, remote teams, Covid came along, changed everything. Now it doesn't matter. Different house, different state, different country doesn't matter essentially. So more and more companies are really embracing this. I think the other side of it is as well that, you know, obviously since Covid as well, we've had interest rate increases. We've had issues around difficulty getting capital, you know, margin squeeze, employee engagement is plummeting. All of the issues that are coming are seeing companies think really deeply about their people budgets and their and their people strategy. And they've realized that a lot of these issues and the burnout, the lack of engagement, etc. is coming because people are actually really, really overwhelmed with all the busy work.

Speaker 2 00:03:27 There's a lot of work to be done. Sometimes this hiring freezes, and in this context, what you really want to start to do is think about how do we deliver, how do we get more out of our current resourcing, out of our current people, out of our current capacity? Of course, you can do that with platforms and tools like asana or even AI, which is of course a big topic that's coming. But there's still a big place where where people are really needed. And I think there's just the landscape is changing in that people are companies are more open to doing remote and are now looking at this strategy for a whole host of reasons that I've mentioned.

Speaker 1 00:04:04 Yeah. Well, you know, there are a lot of ways, I think, to find great team members. you know, certainly there are plenty of platforms that have existed for a long period of time, that, you know, and platforms like, say, like an Upwork or Fiverr, you know, some of these other, you know, platforms, solve certain needs.

Speaker 1 00:04:31 but there are problems that are inherent, with those types of platforms. and obviously, you know, I talked with a lot of leaders and, you know, it's it's really great. you know, depending on what the role is that you're looking to fill, to be able to work with what, like with exactly what you do with the virtual hub, do you mind maybe sharing, how the virtual hub is is a significant improvement over, say, other platforms.

Speaker 2 00:04:59 Sure, yes. So of course you can. You know, you can go online and you can get, you know, they call it cheaper stuff offshore. That's, you know, you can do that and maybe get a home run doing that. But what I would advise is usually companies or businesses, by the time they come to us, they're already too busy for this. And I think if you're going to use some of your time and energy in recruiting and in managing people, you probably want to save that time and energy because it does take a lot of time and energy to get the right people.

Speaker 2 00:05:27 You want to save that for the really key roles and for the key people that you already have within your business. If you're going to go out looking for what I call the support layer. So the support layer is all the doing that has to happen, you know, beneath certain roles or in certain roles, if you're going to go out and try and find assistance or a team to actually deal with that support layer, it's going to take to a lot of your time going online, sifting through resumes, interviewing tons of people when typically this is what we're talking about. Here is a support layer role. And if you partner with a company like us, you know, we do all of that heavy lifting. We also manage training, HR culture, all sorts of things. So we're very much a plug and play premium type service in that regard. And companies like that because, you know, we even have, you know, 7 to 10 day onboarding. So it's you know, it's one call coming in.

Speaker 2 00:06:20 Hey we need a support layer. We get what you're talking about. What are the next steps. When can we get started. So you know I think other other things we see companies doing is that, you know, they sort of go, yeah, I think that having an assistant would be great, but they're just not willing or ready to put in the amount of work that it's going to take to find one, then cultural fit, integrating them inside the business. And then the third point I would make, which is more on the on the client side, I think sometimes certain companies or people think, well, we're already busy, I know, let's just throw a body at the problem. So I call this like literally, you go online, you find someone and you dump a load of tasks on them. You don't treat them like a proper employee. You don't treat them like a part of the team. You know all of these issues. This is where things start to unravel. So realistically, I think we help with a lot of the heavy lifting of that with a client, too.

Speaker 2 00:07:13 And in addition, we have a final piece of the puzzle, which we built a couple of years ago because we saw the need. A lot of companies are not set up with the right operational frameworks in order to make remote work work. That that's a whole other topic, not just about assistance, but if you want to make remote and distributed teams work really effectively, you you need the right tooling, the right architecture online. You need to build the company digital first. And everybody needs to be connected in the cloud. And that doesn't mean Slack and Zoom, right? Slack and zoom don't make a digital company essentially. So we also have consulting and implementation to help with certain platforms like asana, for example, or Monday. We do all sorts of things in that way, and that helps when you also have a remote support team to really integrate them properly into, for everyone to feel very, very connected within the mission and within the company.

Speaker 1 00:08:08 Yeah. Barbara, and I and I love that you kind of talked about, you know, tips for ensuring success, which I think is just so critical because I know, I know, it can be very problematic and very expensive.

Speaker 1 00:08:24 You know, if we get going with someone and it doesn't work out, and I, it can be easy. Easy for, leaders or team members or hirers, to, to say, well, it's the VA's fault. you know, they just kind of gave up or, you know, they're not as good as they were, you know, during the first month or so. what tips would you provide? so that and again this could go for, you know, obviously someone that we've sourced through the virtual hub or, you know, maybe it's our own, you know, employee that's a little bit more local. but are there any best practices that you think are, are just very valuable, to ensure that that people stay connected, that everyone feels rewarded, everyone feels motivated. Were creating great outcomes together?

Speaker 2 00:09:15 Sure. Yeah. The number one tip I can share, and this applies, of course, to remote teams that are a support layer that we would put in. But also this applies to any company in today's environment where regardless of even if you're all in an office together, there will always be somebody who is not in that day or is out on the road that day.

Speaker 2 00:09:35 Distributed and remote teams are not new. Everyone thinks it's new since Covid, but there were always people who weren't in the office. You know, if you think about it, it's actually that been that way for a very long time. But in today's world, you know, with hybrid working and all this sort of thing going on, you need to change the structure of how we work. So of course platforms really, really matter, but also process of how we use the tools also matters. You need to have. So starting at the beginning you need to have a design that the entire company agrees upon. For example. You can't I mean, lots of companies are doing this wrong. They've got one team that likes asana, another team that likes Jira, another team that likes Clickup. And everyone's allowed to choose their own adventure with the platforms that they use. And while you might think that that's a great way to allow people to, you know, explore whatever they want to do or do it the way they want to do it.

Speaker 2 00:10:29 From a company perspective, there's no cohesion, right? So you need to all be rowing the boat in the same direction. You all need to be in the one boat for a start, and then rowing the boat in the same direction from a company perspective, in order to achieve your goals. So there has to be some, you know, discussion about the architecture we're going to use, the tools we're going to use in order to get into this digital first realm. The second piece of it is the process around how we use the tools. So for example, a lot of people are talking about it now. Again, it's been around for multi decades, but objectives and key results are absolutely a game changer for how you deal with remote teams. And that trickles right down to support layer assistance. And if you're focusing on, you know, what are we trying to achieve and what are the key results we're expecting to to to see that we've achieved these objectives. It means that your conversations become more about the outcomes, about where we're driving to and the processes that we're doing to get us there, rather than watching work hours, etc..

Speaker 2 00:11:30 And you can have those conversations with your entire team at the beginning to make it very, very clear what is the process around how we're going to work together and how we're going to get success. You can also kind of lay down the foundation of. If we don't do this, then here are the steps we're going to take along the way. Be it coaching, training, mentoring, discussing it. And eventually we're going to say, well, is this a people problem, etc. so makes those conversations a lot easier later in a remote environment where problems around transparency and visibility are the key issues because we can't see each other, we feel like it's a black hole. So therefore we've got to plug those gaps in visibility and transparency. And if you do that really, really well and you get this kind of platform and process set up right, then you can plug, you know, a lot of support layer people in because now you've built a machine and this is business 101, right? This is the, you know, Michael Gerber's E-myth.

Speaker 2 00:12:26 It's it's all it's all of these, these things, you know, put into put into practice. But the amount of companies that are still not doing it is phenomenal. I see it all the time. And they invariably blame the lowest person in the company, which is the assistant Who you know doesn't get it. Isn't trained in all of the above. But really, you're not putting them into a system that is designed for anyone really to get success, and then you churn through people. Now, the issues are real, though. You do have people issues. You know, we're talking not a widget. We're talking people who walk and talk and change their mind and do the wrong thing and all that sort of thing. But from a company perspective, if you build it this way and you have the right communication flow and platform architecture, then you're a long way towards being able to integrate great support, lower cost effectively and get the most out of the VA world or the remote world.

Speaker 1 00:13:18 Yeah. okay.

Speaker 1 00:13:22 Do you have a couple more? I wanted to ask you one more question before I kind of talk about next steps for our friend that's listening. I, I has as likely impacted your world quite a bit. And, and my suspicion is that more and more employers are probably asking about that because they're looking for efficiency or they're looking for, you know, some sort of enabling that or, you know, can I get, you know, talent that knows how to use AI enabled tools so that, you know, we can do more things together? Is that are you observing that or is that just my imagination? I don't know.

Speaker 2 00:14:04 No. So with AI. Great topic. So I when it first launched, I mean, like many of us, we were thinking, oh my gosh, this you know, so many businesses are dead. The reality is of course AI is it's amazing. It is moving super fast in two years time. We have no idea how amazing this is going to be, what it's going to cannibalize, like all sorts of things.

Speaker 2 00:14:23 However, on the flip side, what I am really seeing is that while the tools are amazing, I personally don't really use the tools because I want my team using the tools. Right. So I still, you know, we have managed to get better at Better work and our support. People are able, like the assistance at that layer, are actually more effective than they ever were before because of AI now. But I don't know whether it's fully replacing them because you still need someone to run the tools and to, you know, if you're snipping this podcast, for example, of course there are AI tools that will do it for you. We've tried them all out. They are good. I'm personally not going to spend my day doing that, though I'm still going to get my assistants to do that. and just speed them up. And it means that we can do more content, more snipping, more and better. but sometimes we find the tool doesn't quite get the snippet that we that we think, you know, we sort of still have to work with it, so I think.

Speaker 1 00:15:20 Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2 00:15:22 Yeah, I agree it's it's okay. But I often find that we're, we're sort of re snipping it going, oh I'd miss this bit or that bit or.

Speaker 1 00:15:29 Yeah. You know specifically I think if we're talking about content and content is still you know, there's there's definitely an AI voice. It takes quite a bit of massaging, plus, you know, editorial oversight. Now, that said, I think leaders. Listen, if you want a monkey run with AI, use it for planning, use it for strategy, use it for decision making, use it for mind mapping, use it for, you know, a Swot analysis or something like that. We use I use it all the time for just like thinking things out, and, and potentially creating SOPs, that I can then give to my team, you know, so that, you know, I feel like I can resource them better or in a way that they deserve me to resource. and I think historically that's been a challenge for me.

Speaker 1 00:16:14 You know, it's like, you know, do I come up with, you know, robust SOPs or have I relied on them to kind of figure it out with more high level direction? And I would say, if I'm criticizing my own past behavior free ChatGPT and AI tools, I would say I did a I do a much better. Let me just reflect on the positive. I do a better job today.

Speaker 2 00:16:36 Yes. And look, let's be honest. Writing SOPs is like sticking needles in your eyeballs for most people. I mean, I actually. Thank you.

Speaker 1 00:16:43 Thank you, thank you. Okay. I don't feel so bad.

Speaker 2 00:16:46 No. Most people, it's it's such tedious work. It's painful. I mean, the only reason I sort of get off on it is because I'm the type of person who I'm naturally lazy. And I just think, oh my God, if I could process this up and I think to myself, if I could just process this thing, I could delegate that, and then I don't ever have to do this again.

Speaker 2 00:17:04 I can train it and delegate it. And I'm really good at like, I've created processes and systems from all sorts of things that you wouldn't think you could get support, assistance or virtual assistance, as we call them to do. But I've been very successful at that. So I'm very passionate about the process mapping thing. So whatever helps you to get the processes done is an absolute game changer because doing them yourself is tedious, right? So that's okay. You're totally normal. You're most people with this. And if you can use I, I mean use it whatever way you can. and then you can use it to iterate, process and say, you know, watch for mistakes and go like a mistake happened here. Because sometimes the person doing it doesn't have the IP that you did when you're thinking through the process. So you need to add steps so that can deepen things. But you know, whatever way you can use AI. but but having said that though, the key point here is I think that you've really highlighted whatever way you get to the processes and the systems to build your company.

Speaker 2 00:18:02 Whatever way you get there, it's important that you get there for a number of reasons. Number one, you'll have happier people. Number two, it'll expose the support layer that's in your business. And there'll be lots of processes that you'll go, well, 80% of that process doesn't need me. So why am I doing 100% of it? I should really get a VA to do 80% of it, and I do the 20%. People have very all or nothing thinking when it comes to this sort of thing. and then of course, the final bit is we're all in business, obviously to create impact and to do amazing things, but it is also an asset. And the better your business is built, the more systemized a business is, the higher the asset value of that company, and the cheaper the the the cheaper the support layer you can get in to run it. So there's a whole myriad of reasons why you would want to have a well built, well-oiled, systemized process map, digital first type company, and putting in the support layer or virtual assistants or support teams or however you want to call it is kind of the big icing on the cake, but the real key is actually building the company properly 100%.

Speaker 1 00:19:11 Your website, the virtual hub comm. When somebody goes there and they're looking to build out their dream team, what would you recommend? You know, I see something here. I don't know if you were going to mention this. I'm going to mention it. You've got you've got a button right on the front says watch the master class. And that looks like it's pretty valuable. It's how to delegate and scale your business. that plus anything else you'd recommend for a friend that's listening?

Speaker 2 00:19:37 Yes. So that that master class is definitely. By me, I mean, I have a I have a background in the financial industry and scaling companies, etc. so it's really my philosophy unpacked a bit more than the things we've been talking about here. So I'd really encourage anyone to go and and look at that masterclass. I'm in addition, excuse me, of course, on LinkedIn, I'm talking a lot about the issues that we discussed here today. And so please come and follow me on LinkedIn. Barbara Turley or I think it's Barbara Turley.

Speaker 2 00:20:04 There's a forward slash in. Maybe we can put that in the show notes and say hi over there. And of course, you know, if you want to explore this further, do book a call with our team. The guys are great. They're not salespeople. They're there to try to help you figure out how we would fit into your company or not. And what level are you ready for this? Should you do this, can we help, how we would help, etc. so please book a call and go and chat to the guys over there about what we can do.

Speaker 1 00:20:32 Excellent. Barbara Turley, founder and CEO of the Virtual hub found on the web at the Virtual Hub. Com Barbara. Thank you.

Speaker 2 00:20:39 Thanks, Josh.

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