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Worth Your Salt
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Episode breakdown
If you’ve ever struggled to optimize and scale your health and wellness practice, learn about a powerful tool you may not have realized you needed: support assistants! Barbara Turley, founder of The Virtual Hub, is on a mission to eradicate business overwhelm and supercharge growth for professionals like you. Barbara shares valuable insight on how support assistants can transform your practice, from streamlining administrative tasks to enhancing digital marketing and more. Join us for a game-changing episode that will empower you to optimize your practice and embark on a journey of sustainable growth.
- How Barbara Turley started The Virtual Hub
- Signs to identify the right time to hire staff
- How an assistant can support your business
- The best tasks to outsource to an assistant
- Common challenges health and wellness practitioners face when scaling their practices
- Key misconceptions with assistants, and how to overcome them
- Real-life success stories about the power of assistants for business growth
You want to optimize the time and energy of the key people by taking the busy work off them successfully. So you need a framework for that.
In this episode
00:10 Introduction to the podcast and guest
Host Jennifer Orechwa introduces the podcast Worth Your Salt, focused on marketing for health and wellness practitioners. She welcomes guest Barbara Turley, founder and CEO of The Virtual Hub, who helps businesses scale using assistants, automation, and operational streamlining.
01:17 Barbara’s career journey and founding The Virtual Hub
Barbara shares her transition from a corporate career in investment banking to entrepreneurship. A pivotal moment came after coaching small businesses and recognizing a recurring operational bottleneck — which led to organically creating The Virtual Hub, now with 350 employees.
05:56 Recognizing business growth plateaus and hiring needs
Discussion around common signs business owners experience before needing extra help — late nights, neglected marketing, and inability to work on the business. Barbara highlights how operational overwhelm is a universal challenge for practitioners.
07:38 How assistants solve operational bottlenecks
Barbara explains how identifying process-driven, trainable tasks allows business owners to reclaim 20–50% of their day. An assistant can handle these at a lower cost than local hires, freeing time for growth-driving activities.
09:24 Shifting the mindset from “Do It Myself" to delegating
Addressing the common belief that it’s faster to do tasks solo, Barbara stresses the importance of return on time invested. She encourages leaders to document processes and accept initial slowdowns for long-term efficiency.
11:07 Specific tasks ideal for assistants
Breakdown of the “support layer” where assistants thrive:
- Admin Tasks: Email, scheduling, document formatting.
- Marketing Tasks: Social media, content repurposing, blog and YouTube updates.
- Tech/Tool Management: CRM, automation tools, Shopify.
Barbara explains why assistants excel in executing these operational workflows.
16:12 Finding the right assistant team and avoiding common mistakes
Barbara addresses myths around assistants not being as committed. She cautions against part-time, low-engagement assistant arrangements and emphasizes integrating assistants into the business vision and operational framework for mutual commitment and clarity.
20:28 The Virtual Hub’s approach to matching clients and assistants
Barbara outlines how The Virtual Hub hires, trains, and internally vets assistants before placing them with clients, ensuring a high success rate through cultural fit assessments and onboarding processes.
24:36 Client results and success stories
Barbara shares feedback from clients who’ve experienced transformational results through assistant support. Benefits include time freedom, the ability to focus on high-impact activities, and executing previously neglected tasks. Notably, Scaling Up author Verne Harnish became a client and advocate after realizing significant ROI through assistant integration.
26:45 Advice for business owners hesitant about outsourcing
Barbara validates the common fears practitioners have about outsourcing — from training demands to redoing tasks. She advises clear process documentation, expectation setting, and defining what success, mediocrity, and failure look like to mitigate risks and build confidence in delegating.
28:49 Customizing The Virtual Hub support assistant training for clients
Discussing whether industry-specific training is necessary, Barbara asserts that most marketing and operational processes are transferable. The key lies in executing predefined processes, with strategy and messaging handled by the client, not the assistant.
30:18 Training assistants on different tools and tech stacks
Barbara details The Virtual Hub’s internal training approach: a base program to assess natural strengths (admin, creative, or tech) before assigning personalized training roadmaps once paired with a client. Specialized training happens in coordination with client requirements, ensuring a good fit and ongoing support.
32:32 Operational efficiency consulting services
In addition to assistant placement, The Virtual Hub offers optional operational efficiency consulting for clients. This includes system builds and improvements, CRM configuration, and workflow refinements — handled by a separate team of system architects.
34:31 Where to learn more and connect
Barbara invites listeners to connect with her on LinkedIn or visit thevirtualhub.com for resources, information, and to book consultations. The site hosts detailed content on assistant services, processes, and client success stories.
35:47 Lightning round: Personal insights
Barbara shares personal details: her favorite business book (Scaling Up), her surprising talent for skiing, her passion for mentoring and leadership, and her favorite piece of life advice from her mother — “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”
