Tanya Fox: I’m Tanya Fox and you’re listening to Fox Talks Business Podcast. I started my career in the corporate world, but always played to my own tune and love to think outside of the box. This didn’t always serve me well with the bosses. So I made the decision to become an entrepreneur. And that little seed of entrepreneurial curiosity continued to grow as I branched out into retail, service and franchise businesses. Now I’ve been fortunate to have amazing successes in the last two decades but they did not come without some really big failures and even bigger lessons learned. And that’s why I started this podcast, not just to share the failures, but to show you how you can turn every failure into a success. We’re going to hear from some amazing humans from around the world that are going to share their stories of the good, the bad, and the motivational entrepreneurial life has to offer. After all, life is too short to make all of the mistakes yourself. So why not learn from each other?

And of course, we’re going to have some fun. Because as I always say, well, you know what? I’ll tell you that at the end of the episode. So thank you so much for coming on the show today, I’m so excited to have you.

Barbara Turley: Thanks so much for having me. Very excited to be here.

Tanya Fox: So you have quite an interesting story of how you started your business because it wasn’t really expected. So tell us a little bit about that because I’m really curious about that.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, sure, sure. I mean, this even I love this story, as you were saying off air. I call it my accidental business because it literally was completely by accident. And even as it was starting to take off, I was like, is this really is this really a business? Like, I didn’t mean to do this at all. And essentially what happened was I spent most of my career in corporate. I was in the financial industry for a long time. And like many corporates, I wanted to leave and, you know, launch my own business and try all these new things. And I started consulting as many ex-corporates do when I left and I had a whole other business and I was trying to be a business coach and I was doing some coaching of smaller businesses. But what I discovered was all the businesses I was coaching, they were all different, but they all had the same problem as the root cause as far as I could see. They were never going to grow if they didn’t hire staff and if they didn’t hire staff, they were never going to be able to grow. But if they didn’t grow, they were never to able to afford to hire staff. And it was this constant problem that I saw. I mean, I had read Tim Ferriss’s four hour work week like everybody else. And I had gotten myself a virtual assistant who happened to be in the Philippines, a country I had never been to at that stage. And I was just like, look, you need you need a VA, right, to try to free up your time so that we can then go on and work on strategy. And so I was just kind of I wouldn’t even say recruiting. I was just like getting a few of my VAs friends to work for some clients.

And before I knew it, I was getting more demand for that than I was for business coaching. And I was kind of like, I think I’m doing a different business here. And that’s why I say like we had no there was no website or no concept, really. It was just I was solving a problem for that was the very early stages. I mean, it’s much bigger now, but that was how it started. It was very organic and very by accident.

Tanya Fox: Well, and I think that this is something that a lot of businesses struggle with because they get stuck sort of almost like in that vortex where you’re like, like you said, I need to hire somebody to help me, but I don’t have the money to hire. So I’m stuck.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, and people can end up in that. I mean, it’s not just new businesses that suffer from that. It’s typically a small business problem because there is a huge mindset gap where you first have to say that you have to realize that in order for you to grow, you have to embrace things that most businesses don’t want to embrace, which are systems, processes, and then delegation to teams. And I guess the job of a business owner is to build the business. And a lot of people get confused about what their actual job is when they’re running a business. And that’s the whole technician versus business owner conundrum that you first have to get your head around before you’re going to realize the solution to your problem is to actually delegate and hire people.

Tanya Fox: Which I think is a really hard thing, especially, you know, especially for someone who’s sort of a seasoned entrepreneur who’s been kind of plugging away for, you know, say five years or so. And then all of a sudden it goes, okay, something is got to give, but then there’s that, it’s hard to sort of let go. So what are some of the tips that maybe you can give to sort of how they can go about doing that? Because of course there’s that fear factor, right? I think that comes into play.

Barbara Turley: So the biggest one I will say is that most people get to that point and then they eventually get themselves over the hump of kind of the mindset of saying, right, I’m going to accept it. I’ve read all the books. I know I need to get somebody on board. And the next logical step that people tend to go to is I just want to hire an A player who can walk in and I don’t have to manage them. Right now, that in theory sounds great, but I’ll unpack that problem. Right. Initially, somebody who’s really that good and can like, first of all, nobody’s going to walk into your business and be able to take over doing it because there’s things that you’re doing your way. There’s your vision. There’s your the whole thing is yours is like your baby. Right. So to a certain extent, somebody can walk in and take over. But no matter what level you hire at, even if you’re hiring somebody who’s really experienced, there is an onboarding time. And the bigger the role and the more experienced the person the longer the onboarding is gonna take, because they have to get their head around so many things within your business. So that’s what people fall into.

And then they try and say, I’m gonna get one of these VAs offshore, because I can do this for like, you know, a few dollars or whatever, like five bucks an hour or something like that. And the mistake people make is that they actually want like a COO or a strategist for five bucks an hour. And they get confused as to what this person is really there to do. And I don’t mean that in a sort of derogatory way. It’s something that we all fall into because we think, you know, if I just hired an A player, this is all going to be great. The problem, though, again, if you do find an A player or you hit a home run, the issue is then that if you haven’t built your business like a bit of a machine with your own processes and systems and how things work, what ends up happening is the IP all stays in that person’s head. And when they walk out the door, so does the IP. Right. So all of a sudden, even if you do get an A player, you’re not really, you’re sort of doing yourself a disservice by not accepting the next mindset shift, which is, okay, I need to delegate. Now I need to learn how to delegate. And part of that is building processes and learning how your business actually works yourself so that you can then impart that to somebody else. And that’s how you get around the, don’t want to lose control. You know, we’re all control freaks as entrepreneurs because it’s our baby, right? And that’s okay. But if you don’t wanna micromanage or give up control, the way to do that is to have a solid streamlined machine that has lots of systems and processes and meeting rhythms and communication rhythms and everything is already set. That’s the way to do it.

Tanya Fox: Well, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs sit there and go, but I have processes because I do all of this stuff.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, is it in your head though? You got to get it on paper or video or and then you got to try and impart that to somebody else. You know, that’s a hard bit.

Tanya Fox: Yeah. Well, and I think that’s just it, right? As of going, how could somebody else step in? And if I wasn’t here and be able to understand all of this stuff. And I think that’s where you’re saying really sitting down and going. Do you know, do I have processes and procedures set out that somebody else could come in and see how to do that? Cause again, keep stuff in her head and go, well, I know how to do it. Wouldn’t they?

Barbara Turley: I think as well, and this is my next tip on this, I mean, because a lot of people, they’re like, I mean, I know I have processes, but you’re trying to delegate running a whole department or like running a whole business or like doing an entire launch rather than breaking it down into tasks and simple processes. So I always say to people, if you really want to start delegating first and the first role you’re going to delegate to is, for example, something like a general virtual assistant who is an assistant there to help take some stuff off your plate, let’s say. The easiest way to do that is to imagine, you know, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a billion dollar company or one person working part-time sort of hobby type business. Every business has departments. It doesn’t matter how big or how small. You have the marketing department, you have sales, product creation. It’s all the same stuff, right? And within each of those departments, the buckets. There are tasks, simple things that need to be done daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever, to keep the engine of the business running. And that’s your recurring task list. And the majority of those tasks will be things that are process driven and repeatable and easily delegatable to somebody who’s very cost efficient. So you don’t need to pay someone 100 grand a year to do the majority of those types of tasks. And that’s the best way to start. And then you start to delegate the easy stuff first. And before you know it, start to build up and you’re able to delegate more.

Tanya Fox: So when someone is interested in going, okay, I want to hire a virtual assistant, I want to have that. What are some of the expectations they should and shouldn’t have? Because I think we talked about that a little bit more that they think, well, this person’s just going to come in and I don’t have to do it anymore.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, so first of all, it’s getting really clear on what your requirements are, right? So the first thing is understanding what your requirements are and that’s doing your buckets and understanding how, you know, really deeply how your business works and what skill sets you’re going to need. And then asking yourself, is a VA really the person that I need to do this or do I need some sort of expertise or a project manager or there’s all these different layers that people and what ends up happening is people hire a VA and they say things like, well, I just wish they could show more initiative. And I wanted them to project manage an online launch. And I’m like, okay, that’s a launch manager. That’s a totally different thing.

Like a VA can do some of the tasks in that, quite a lot of the tasks, but somebody needs to lead the entire project, you know? And that’s where I see people really falling down. They want to just call a VA every three weeks and check in and go, how’s it all going? Is everything done? And that’s just not how it works because they’re an assistant, right? They’re there to assist you.

Tanya Fox: Right. And I think they forget that assistant part is that there’s still some work that needs to be done on your end.

Barbara Turley: There are people that call themselves VAs that are like content writers. And I’m like, no, no, no, you’re a writer or like if you’re a graphic designer, you’re not a VA. You might be virtual, but you’re not a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is a different thing. And I think the word has become, you know, anything from a heartbeat who can type to someone who can code an app. And that’s the problem. It’s too broad a term and we need to rein in what the term actually means. They’re more generalized helpers that can execute processes that have been built by you or someone else.

Tanya Fox: So when you sort of, you know, I guess sort of stumbled upon that you were sort of meeting a need, how did you kind of, because you had stated that you had obstacles as well of like having boundaries yourself. So tell us a little bit about that and then how you overcame those.

Barbara Turley: Yes. So one of a couple of things I discovered along the way, I discovered again, accidentally that I was quite good at operations. So operations of a business, most people like hate the thought of it. I like order and I can’t stand doing the same thing twice. So I tend to kind of go, right, I don’t need to do that again. And I’m always asking myself, do I really need to do this? And I’ll be honest with you over six years of running this business. 99% of the time, the answer to that question is no, right? It’s no, right? So, and that even comes down to sales and everything. People always think they’re the one that needs to do it. Ultimately, the answer is no. And then you got to figure out who’s going to do it. So I discovered that I was quite good at delegating to people. And I was also quite good at mentoring people. And I like leading teams. So I was kind of good at that. A lot of people are not naturally good at that. So what I have sort of said to people, is to think about delegation as another skill. It’s like, you know, we all go and do marketing courses and we do sales courses and we try and master all of these skills. Actually, probably the best skill that you can master is the skill of delegation, you know, and then making sure that you understand what each person is capable of and work with people as opposed to, you know, blaming the lowest common denominator, which is usually the VA about when mistakes happen and stuff like that. So, yeah.

Tanya Fox: Right. Because I think that that happens a lot because there is that, you know, it’s almost like people go too far or like you said, they don’t have the proper person in place. So when someone is looking at that, you know, saying, okay, I need to get some help in, what are some of the questions they should ask themselves to go? Is this, you know, how do I figure out what I need? Cause I think people then get stuck and go, I don’t really know. I think this is what I need.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, that’s true. It is tricky. And that’s the first thing to say is that like, it’s not, it’s not simple, you know, it’s okay to feel overwhelmed with this. And like I said, the first step is always like doing the buckets of the department. I think this is the easiest way. And people have told me that they like this concept. So list the departments in your business, all the, and they’re called their buckets really. And then try to list down all the recurring, repeatable, simple stuff that’s kind of, you know, could be boring for most people, but needs to be done. And then you got to list those down and figure out, you know, are there little people get, you know, overwhelmed trying to create a process. And I go, you know, you can create really detailed processes or you can just whack down a few bullet points, have someone else do it and wait for the mistakes. And when the mistakes happen, that will tell you where there’s a hole in the process potentially. So that’s probably the simplest way to do it. And then after that, once you, that’s generally a virtual assistant type role to do those things. And then you’ll have projects like, you’ll want to do a membership site. You might have a book launch. You might have like all of these things. And within those projects, you will need some experts and you will need some VA work who can just punch out a task. might, you know, maybe do some social media images or something around, around a task and that you’ve got to simplify it. You really got to simplify it down to those basic things. And then delegate some and start to practice delegation, essentially.

Tanya Fox: Yeah, because I think, you know, there’s probably a lot of people that almost need to keep dipping their toes into it and just sort of slowly figuring out, you know, not only what that feels like as an entrepreneur, but, know, get kind of get to know who you’re working with. Cause I think sometimes people just jump straight into it.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do. Well, I think they just jump in with their expectations are too high, to be honest, in the beginning. Again, people want the absolute superhero VA who can. I mean, we get people saying to us, I’d like them to run my Facebook ads for me and I’d like if they could strategize out. I’m like, OK, stop. That’s just not like you need an expert for that. Right. So VA can help. There’s a actually here’s a great tip. There’s a thing called a high low strategy, which people forget. So the majority of any stuff can probably be done by the lowest common denominator. So somebody who is the lowest, you know, the most cost effective person on the team. But you do need somebody who’s running the strategy and then you need somebody leading the project. Now, but those people don’t need to be 40 hours a week, right? Because the majority of the stuff is the work that needs to be done. So the hands, but you need to have the head, right? So, and some people hire a VA expecting the VA to be the head, the hands and the leadership. And that’s never going to work. You’re always going to fail. Absolutely with that.

Tanya Fox: tell us a little bit more about The Virtual Hub and if someone like is coming to you, what they would experience and why they would go with someone like you.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, yeah. Well, first of all, first of all, for all those people out there who have done this in the past who are going, it failed for me, it was terrible. It is notoriously difficult to get this right. OK, so like it wasn’t you. There are, you know, the Internet is littered with great VAs and terrible VAs and everything in between. Right. So the stories are real. The pain is real. And the fit matters. So I know this because we’re hiring people constantly and we have nearly 200 staff now. So the pain of it can be. Trust me, gray hair. But so when you come to the Virtual Hub, I think one of the first things that I did was solve this problem of people. So I was just getting people. It was just recruiting. But then after that, what I rapidly saw was that a lot of people didn’t know how to delegate and that’s the stuff we’re talking about now. So that was kind of solved for that problem where we teach a lot of clients on the way through. We helped them to get set up correctly. Then we noticed that a lot of VAs said they knew how to do stuff and they really didn’t. So we had to launch training programs. So we have our own learning and development department and we actually don’t, we’re not a recruiter. So if somebody comes to us, we’re not going to say, what’s your brief and then go out and recruit for you. We’re actually going to introduce you to our own people that have already been working for us and we’ve trained them ourselves. So we just hire continuously and we always train our own people, mainly in digital. That’s kind of where we’re a digital marketing implementation. And then the next layer of that is we have, and this is something we’re ramping up this year, every client has a results coach that works with the VA. So it sort of acts not like a project manager, I don’t want to oversell this, but it is a slant of a project manager to make sure that the goals are being met. So the VA is doing the work, they’re executing on the processes. Results coach is helping to see, are we on track for the milestones and all the training that needs to happen for this VA to actually be able to execute. And then we have a client success team as well. So every client has a client success manager. So we can talk more deeply about kind of how we grow, et cetera. So we are more of a partner to clients. We’re not just a VA company. Our tagline is we don’t just give you a VA, we give you an entire ecosystem. And that’s what we are. So if somebody wants all the bells and whistles, then we’re the right partner for them. And, you know, if VAs leave or anything happens, we do transitions pretty quickly and we hold the hand of the client basically through those kinds of situations.

Tanya Fox: Well, and I think that’s something that a lot of businesses don’t take into consideration because like you said, I mean, you can go online and find hundreds of thousands of people who claim to be virtual assistants. And, you know, I see it too. I used to work in the financial industry and I used to always see that, right? People are like, I’m a bookkeeper. And I’m like, no, you worked in accounts receivable and payable. That’s not the same thing. And I see that in the virtual assistant world where people are like, well, I know how to answer emails and stuff like that. So I could be a virtual assistant. So I think, you know, really taking into consideration, you know, thinking about working with a company that can do all of that background stuff, because just going out and hiring on your own, that’s all then on you.

Barbara Turley: And like you could, I mean, you can get a home run. I mean, you can go online and get a home run in your first hiring. If you’re only looking for one VA, that can work really well. But, you know, it can be fraught with annoyance. And if you’re already too busy, you’re probably too busy for that. Yeah, you know, that’s why I guess that’s why people come to us and they don’t want the pain of training them or, you know, managing people. I mean, the other thing is we have a full Philippine company. So all of our VAs are under our top level private health cover. have all their benefits sorted. So we take care of all of that. So, you know, that’s another thing that people forget about when they’re working online.

Tanya Fox: Well, and I like that you mentioned that actually, because I think that’s important because a lot of people don’t consider the longevity of it. And there is comfort when you work with somebody, you kind of get to know them and you get a feeling no matter what avenue you’re in. So knowing that they’re being taken care of is a big deal.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, we’d like more clients to see what a big deal that is, because, you know, I mean, stuff happens. I mean, even last year we had several really big health care issues with certain members of the team. And, you know, the expense was enormous. Some of them ended up in hospital with, you know, very big diseases and stuff. It was only two people, three people, actually. But, you know, our private health cover covered the whole thing and they were adequately taken care of, whereas that would decimate an entire family in the Philippines if they weren’t protected by that. It doesn’t matter how much money you’re paying for your 10 hours a week from the US, it would never cover the tens of thousands of dollars that those things will cost if it happens.

Tanya Fox: So I think the other question that some people might have is, you know, they think of going somewhere like the Philippines because they’re like, hey, it’s cheaper for me. It’s less money for me than hiring somebody here. But then they always go, but they’re so far away and the accountability. So what do you say to people who have those types of questions?

Barbara Turley: Yeah, so there are a couple of ways of working with people in a different time zone to you. So we operate 24 hours and we actually always operate in the time zone of the client. And there’s a reason for that, because again, I’ve tried even more. I’ve got a few on my team that work different time zones to me and it’s difficult. And I’m like, I’m good at it, but I still find it quite difficult because people think, nirvana is I go to bed at night and I wake up the next morning and all this magical work is going to appear. And sometimes that happens but invariably, like, there’s a whole list of questions and clarifications and stuff that wasn’t understood. And you’re like, what? Days go by with this back and forth stuff. That’s actually what the reality is. But with accountability, I mean, there, you know, it’s one thing getting the person and then having all your processes and all that sort of thing in place. But the two really important things that people forget are that you must have a meeting rhythm and you must have a communication rhythm. And what I mean by that, it doesn’t just mean WhatsApp messages back and forth. It’s like every Monday we have a 30 minute meeting about, you know, it’s like a huddle and maybe every day we might have a 10 minute catch up to address the questions that are coming up or whatever the rhythm is for you and this VA, they’re going to need some of your time, right? They can’t just operate on their own steam all the time. So you’ve got to just factor those things in and then the right tools. So tools like Asana or Trello, you know, and making sure that you’re on the right communication channels, how you’re going to communicate back and forth. It’s very important to get right.

Tanya Fox: Well, and I think that’s an important thing to keep in mind when you’re looking at, okay, I’m ready to delegate. I have somebody coming in, but making sure that you are setting that time so that you’re not just walking away and then coming back months later and going, what do you mean? None of this is done.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, and people say, I don’t have time for this. And I would say, well, maybe you don’t, but if you don’t have time today, I can guarantee you won’t have time in 12 months time, because you’ll still be where you are today. It’s very difficult to grow a business. It’s very difficult to scale a business if you’re not going to master delegation. That’s the truth. You can go out and master marketing and you can master sales. But if you’re not going to master delegation, what ends up happening is you get all these sales and marketing leads in the door and then you sell to them and your delivery on the back end falls over because you haven’t learned how to delegate effectively. And that’s really the curse of so many businesses because they don’t realize that delegation is another skill that needs to be mastered and you need to focus on it as a whole team, including the people you’re delegating to because it’s this whole batting handing back and forth between you. So, as a team, you need a commitment to learning together about how to delegate more effectively.

Tanya Fox: Well, and I guess ideally, you know, I just think of it as, you know, if all of a sudden somebody who’s helping me, so I’m just going to use an assistant for easy terms. If my assistant now all of a sudden needs an assistant, that’s a good thing. Then, then I’m growing. That’s a good thing. Whereas sometimes people go, well, what do you mean you can’t do it all without thinking, well..

Barbara Turley: Yeah, people will say you’re clearly too slow or I don’t know I need to and then what you find is people just keep churning through VAs and eventually, I mean, I’ve seen this and I go, well, the only common denominator is actually you. If you’re churning through people that could be, you may want to kind of sit down and go now it may not be the business owner could be terrible hires. You know, you need to hire right. You need to recruit right. And that’s, you know, a whole other challenge. But yeah, a commitment. I think the main central point is a commitment to learning how to delegate more effectively means that it will pay you back in spades. It doesn’t matter whether the person is in the Philippines or you hire a consultant in the US or Canada, or you work with anybody. Being able to delegate effectively and communicate with people effectively is key.

Tanya Fox: Yeah, I think those are fantastic tips. So we always ask on our questionnaires, what’s one of the most memorable pieces of advice that you have ever received? And I really liked yours, because it was feel the fear and do it anyway, which you attributed to your mom, which you did, you did clearly state it’s not her original quote, but to you, it is her. Just tell me, tell us a little bit about what that means to you, because I think, especially in the time that we’re in, people are feeling the fear.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, I mean, I guess how can I unpack that? I mean, my mum used to say that to me as a kid. I don’t even know what her motivation was there. I think it was just instilling a sense of self-belief in me. And it’s only as an adult now I think, wow, what an amazing thing that she did for me. And I think it’s because she didn’t lack her own self-belief, but she did doubt herself. So she gave me the gift of that. So that was very powerful. But for me, I think one of the things you have to be careful of is that some people can just be like, feel the fear and do it anyway and like jump off a cliff without, you know, thinking about what might happen or what the possible outcomes might be. So I think it’s more like a chess game. So rather than just sitting on the sideline, not making a move, you have to make a move and be calculated. And you will feel fearful. Like, what if you make the wrong move? But what if you make no move? That’s, you know, like making no move in life means you’re sitting on the sidelines while everybody else is in the game. You have to kind of get in the game. And that’s what I mean. It’s not just blindly diving in and taking risks. It’s being calculated and trying to think through what might happen, but also being okay with the fact that you might get it completely wrong. And that’s okay. Cause you can always pivot. You can always change direction. Nothing is ever, you know, completely linear in its way.

Tanya Fox: Well, and I think like your story, sometimes if you sort of take that step, it leads you in a direction that you weren’t expecting to go like you did.

Barbara Turley: I ended up, yeah, totally. I mean, as I said, I had never even been to the Philippines and I ran a business there for quite a while before I ever set foot in that country. But, you know, that didn’t feel fearful to me. It was just I don’t know. I just put one foot in front of the other and break it down into smaller fears like what’s today’s fear, you know, and that’s kind of the way I handle anything, really.

Tanya Fox: So if someone is sitting there and they’re like, okay, I need help. I know I do. And this sounds exactly up to my level. What is the best way for them to reach out to see if you guys would be a good fit together?

Barbara Turley: Sure, so if you just jump on our website, thevirtualhub.com, you can book a call there with one of our outsourcing consultants. And there, it’s not a sales call. They’re there to help you decide whether, first of all, you’re ready for it. And if you’re not, we are very good at saying to you, here’s what you should do first and get these things in place, because otherwise you’re going to waste time, energy and money. But if you’re not ready structurally, you could waste time, energy and money getting VA, right? Because then you’re all over the place in chaos. So just go to thevirtualhub, thevirtualhub.com and you can book a call there. Also, if you’re interested in diving into a bit more of what we’ve been talking about here before you book a call, there’s a master class on the website that I’ve done about mastering delegation. Essentially, that’s what it’s about. And also a shameless plug for my podcast. I’ve got a podcast called The Virtual Success Show and it’s very tactical. We’ve done shows about how often I should speak to my VA, you know, how to manage communication. It is on iTunes and on Spotify. So you can check that out as well. It’s on our website as well.

So you can get lots of content there.

Tanya Fox: Perfect. Well, we’ll make sure we link to that as well so everybody can just have a quick link to access that because I love sharing other people’s podcasts and listening to them too.

Barbara Turley: I wish you could listen to more podcasts. Like, I don’t know if you have kids. I have two young children as well. So I find like I try and listen while I’m, you know, doing other stuff, but I’d love to listen to more podcasts than I can.

Tanya Fox: They, you know, when he was younger, no, now he’s 14. I just have the one, um, but I don’t exist in his world right now. So I’m getting a lot of podcasts listened to. He doesn’t want any time with me. So.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, I always say I have three children. I have a six year old business, a four and a half year old daughter and a one and a half year old son. So I don’t know what I was thinking. I mean, I was sort of accidentally fell into that as well. I tried to do it all. Feel the fear and do it anyway. I was like.

Tanya Fox: That’s so funny because I say, I have a 14 year old son and a 50 year old son is sometimes what it feels like.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, there’s that one as well, yeah.

Tanya Fox: It’s been an absolute pleasure to sit and talk with you and thank you so much for all of your tips. I think that people will really get a lot out of not only what you had to say, but also all of the stuff that you have on your website and the podcast as well.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, and look, I mean, the thing I’d like to leave people with as a message there is that it isn’t just about getting VAs. This is about growing your business and, you know, creating, getting the dream of the business that you started out with and actually bringing it to fruition. That’s really what all of this is about. Yes, we do VAs and we help with all of that, but essentially nobody starts a business to work seven days a week, 15 hours a day and make no money. You know that’s really not what any of us wanted to do but many of us end up doing that so don’t do that. don’t do that. Yeah I know. Yeah.

Tanya Fox: So true. Thank you so much. Having a virtual assistant for your business can really help take you to the next level, but it can also be something that causes you to sit and pull your hair out. I know I’ve had both experiences in my businesses, but when I did what Barbara said and really sat down and looked at the different departments in my businesses and what I actually needed help with, and then hiring for those specific tasks, I found it was a lot easier for myself, for the assistants that I had, and it made things run smoother. And I really love that there’s companies that can do that for you now, so that you don’t have to do it all by yourself like Barbara’s company, The Virtual Hub. So don’t forget to head to our website at foxtalksbusiness.ca, click on blogs on the left-hand side, you’ll see the post for this episode and all the ways that you can connect with Barbara, her company, as well as listen to her podcast. There’s some really great episodes that I know you’re gonna love there. Also, if you could take a moment to make sure that you subscribe, leave us a rating. It really helps us to keep bringing you the great content and guests that we have. I always love hearing from you, so keep those DMs and emails coming and let me know what topics it is that you’re searching for answers for, and we will do our best to bring it to you. So no matter what you’re doing today, whether you’re taking on the business world all by yourself or whether you’re finally ready to let go and get some assistance, make sure that you find time to have fun. Because if you’re not having fun, why are you doing it?