Geoff Nicholson: Welcome to the Success IQ Podcast, the show for entrepreneurs who want to create and live an exceptional life. I’m your host, Geoff Nicholson, and this is episode 91.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are in the world. I truly hope you are having an amazing week.

So we have got another great guest, Barbara Turley. Now, Barbara is an investor, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of The Virtual Hub, a business she started by accident that exploded into the space of 12 months to become one of the leading companies that recruits, trains, and manages virtual assistants in the digital marketing and social media space for businesses who need to free up time and energy so they can go to the next level.

So, Barbara, welcome to the show.

Barbara Turley: Hi, Geoff. Thanks so much for having me.

Geoff Nicholson: Oh, I’m really, really looking forward to it. As I said at the beginning, before we sort of hit the record button, this is a topic that keeps coming up with my clients and even some friends of mine who I mastermind with. But before we really get delved into all of this cool stuff, could you just give us some back story about what brought you here today?

Barbara Turley: Sure. It’s actually quite an interesting back story, especially for those entrepreneurial listeners. Look, you would think that having a business of virtual assistants in the Philippines, you would think that I might have a background in HR or people management or some sort of team leadership type thing, or even digital marketing, which is where we kind of specialize in VAs. And I actually have a background in none of those things.

I totally by accident ended up starting this business. So the story in and of itself is quite interesting in that way. I wasn’t planning this at all. My background was all in investment banking. I was also in asset management sales for a long time, living down here in Australia where I am. But I always had dreams of running my own business and I started out doing a lot of business coaching as a lot of corporates who leave their job would tend to do.

And I found that all of the clients I was coaching, they were all smaller businesses, and they all typically had the same problem. I noticed that they kind of knew what they wanted to do. And there was a lot of strategy that I was bringing in, but they couldn’t actually get anywhere because they had no time. They had no time to implement the things we needed to implement. And they also didn’t really have enough money to hire the types of people they needed in their own country.

So like a lot of other people, I had read The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss’s book. I knew a bit about how you could get these VAs in the Philippines. I had one myself. So I started recruiting just friends of my VA to help out with some of the businesses I was coaching.

And to cut a long story short, literally within a few months, I was just getting way more demand for VAs than I was for business coaching. And in the space of about a month, I literally flipped and decided, you know what, I’m going to do this as a business instead. I just figured there’s a business in this. And now it’s four years later and we have 100 staff in the Philippines. We’ve got clients all over the world. We’ve got offices there. It’s a crazy ship altogether.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, it’s an amazing thing, isn’t it? How sometimes the, I guess maybe not a side hustle because it might not have been that, but it’s just how things just seem to take a path and that when, and I suppose you had the foresight to go, actually, I’m not sticking with the business coaching side. This is a bigger opportunity, so I’ll take this one.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, I just found that people were literally falling over themselves to kind of come, and I was getting calls from friends of friends and clients of clients saying, can you get me one of those VAs? And everybody in the entrepreneurial world tells you that if you’ve got to find a problem that people will literally fall over themselves to pay you to do right now. And if you find that one thing, there’s your business right there.

And I just looked at it and went, wow, it’s just staring me in the face. So people were willing to. And then I naturally found actually, I guess, I mean, that was the beginning. But to be successful at something is a whole other game. And I guess this was maybe a lucky break. I discovered that, but again, by accident.

I’m very good at systems, processes and teams. I have a natural interest in that and I’ve been quite successful at that, even though I wasn’t really doing that in my previous career. So that has helped a lot. I’ve really enjoyed that part of the journey.

Geoff Nicholson: And how? Because obviously being an investment banker must be a highly, you know, intense high pressure career. How does that compare to being an entrepreneur in your experience?

Barbara Turley: Some days it’s harder, some days it’s easier. You know, there’s a lot to look into. So in the banking days, I spent ten years on an equity trading floor. So when I say investment banking, I mean more I just use that as a broad term. So I was in the trading floors, which was, you know, fast and dynamic and all the things you want to have when you’re in your 20s.

And then I moved into asset management sales, more of a sales sort of role in my early 30s. And so that transition was moving to a slower pace anyway, still high pressure, but a slower pace of some sort of thing. But I just always had a dream. I just knew I wanted to build my own company one day. That’s really what I wanted to do.

And the entrepreneurial world looks in some ways, I don’t know if I’ve ever been as stressed out in my corporate days as I have been as an entrepreneur because I had never experienced the sleepless nights that people talk about. I think you can be very stressed in your corporate days, but I don’t think it ever is. I never lost sleep or as much sleep over it as I have been an entrepreneur.

So in that way I think it was easier. But then the freedom and flexibility I have now, I don’t work as many hours at all, you know, I have a lot of flexibility. So I love that. So it cuts both ways I suppose.

Geoff Nicholson: OK, OK, so let’s dive into this because as I said, you know when we did our sort of pre chat, I get a lot of people, clients and associates of mine who are looking at this virtual or this debate of do I hire or do I look at a VA. For you personally, what do you think are the benefits of hiring a VA?

Barbara Turley: OK, well the most obvious one now. Well, the term VA thinks a lot of the problem, the term VA is very broad, right? So what does virtual assistant mean? These days it has gone from anyone with a heartbeat who can touch type to someone who could almost be a business and operations manager that’s still calling themselves a virtual assistant, right?

So that’s where a lot of people are really failing at this or struggling because there’s a huge confusion around the term virtual assistance. So first of all, that’s the big thing. Then of course, there’s VAs in every country. There’s ones in the UK, they’re in the US, Australia. And then you’ve got the other camp where in the Philippines, you’ve got them in Vietnam, in Eastern Europe, you know, across India, like you can go anywhere.

The most obvious advantage of a VA in somewhere like the Philippines, of course, is the cost effectiveness of it. But again, being someone virtual anywhere is more, is possibly more cost effective if you’re good at it. And I think one of the issues, one of the reasons people have the debate is that they’re not quite sure. And we see this a lot in our business. They’re not quite sure how to get this right and how to get success at the virtual thing, because that is a skill in its own right. So I see that a lot.

Geoff Nicholson: And it’s also, I suppose, possibly the fear of letting it go out of your sight. So it’s being able to have that trust in going, right, OK, I’m giving it to so and so in the Philippines or wherever it is in the world, they’re going to do that and have that trust that it is being done where they can’t watch it.

Barbara Turley: Yes, yes. And I think again, that’s a huge fear and a legitimate one because, you know, there are, the whole Internet is littered with stories and I’ve experienced this myself of, you know, VAs going missing and work they said they were doing and they didn’t do and, you know, there’s a lot of that that goes on. So that is a legitimate fear.

I guess a lot of people are coming to companies like ours because we have managed to pretty much eradicate all those problems. You know, ours are all employees. I mean, it’s just they have to jump through so many hoops to even get hired by us before they even meet a client that, you know, we have managed to kind of create to eradicate a lot of those problems.

So, yes, it is a legitimate fear. And I think the outsourcing thing as well, just to be clear, you can like just farm something out to an outsourced person or you can have a virtual person who you bring into your business and make them feel and look and act exactly like any employee that you would bring in, doesn’t matter that they’re virtual.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, yeah. So for you, how does this sort of onboarding of a client look like for you? What sort of things do your clients have to do in order to make sure that you are getting the right fit for them?

Barbara Turley: Yes, so a lot of it comes down to a lot of people thinking if I can just get the right person, the right fit is, which is literally what you’ve said. And of course that is very, very important. But let’s assume for a second that we have great people, right? We’ve got great people.

A lot of the failure happens with clients, they underestimate the amount of work they have to do in order to get their business ready, to have a virtual team or to delegate effectively even if the person is in the office with you. So a lot of businesses really underestimate this.

So as part of our client onboarding process, we actually bring clients through a getting ready sort of thing where they get a mini, it’s not very long, but it’s a few videos by me which are teaching them how to use project management tools, like for example Asana or Trello or any of these tools out there that are very good when you’re delegating and when you’re running virtual teams.

We also teach how to create a process. A lot of people, you know, process mapping is so boring, but it’s so important if you want to build a business that is going to take you anywhere or is scalable. And the final one is communication. I mean, communication, you know, it makes or breaks this whole thing.

So we sort of bring clients through this client onboarding process. Then they get to meet a selection of VAs and they choose the one they want to work with. And then we help to integrate that VA into their business. And we just keep liaising with them, you know, as we go along the relationship. So we don’t just give you someone and then buy off on your own. It’s we who actually help a lot along the way to iron things out.

Geoff Nicholson: OK. So with all that being said, obviously over the last, you know, the last few months really there’s been some huge changes to how people process data and all of that sort of thing. How’s that affected the virtual assistant world?

Barbara Turley: Yes. So the GDPR, it’s like a swear word at the moment. So the regulation, look, initially I think people thought nobody was really thinking about VAs and neither was I thinking, well, it doesn’t really affect us. I don’t even have a company. Our company is not even domiciled in Europe because we’re actually domiciled in Hong Kong. So I thought it wasn’t going to affect anyone.

But then it became very apparent that the law applies to all data controllers that have any European even leads. So like we obviously have European clients. So as a data controller, which is just my company, we do fall under the legislation.

And then I realised that virtual assistants are also classed as data processors, which means that it brings a whole other layer of complexity to the VA world. Because basically the law now states that in the European Union, any company, any European Union company must only deal with data processors that are GDPR compliant.

So it does have implications for VAs all over the world. So I went on a whole mission, took about 3 months, but basically The Virtual Hub is now GDPR compliant and we have a whole page on our membership site for our clients to see what we do and how we do that. But it’s given our clients in Europe great comfort that they are actually covered. We have proper processor agreements and all that.

So it is quite important to just understand that it does stretch that far.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, it’s a super complicated thing. I remember I was in charge of the Millennium bug at the company I work for and that was a nightmare. So for those people who are now doing GDPR stuff, I feel for you. I really, I really do.

But the interesting thing is, it’s because, you know, some people would never even think of it like that. And then, but the truth of the matter is because of your due diligence, and I wonder if then all of a sudden this information has come up. So it’s…

Barbara Turley: Yes, yeah.

Geoff Nicholson: You know, it’s that key thing that if you have got people that you’re doing work for, you’re looking for that to make sure that they’re compliant. So I guess there’s no backlash either.

Barbara Turley: Exactly. Yeah. So we have had a couple of clients come to us and say, you know, I actually need a VA, but I need to know, I need a proper processor agreement to show that you guys are GDPR compliant.

So it is coming. It isn’t as complex as it’s being made out. That’s the only tip I would give on this podcast. I think there are ways of making it a little bit simpler.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah. OK. Yeah. So for the final question before we jump over to the second part of the show is what advice would you give for those people who are going, OK, I know I need a VA, what advice would you give for them to start that ball rolling in order to take action on it?

Barbara Turley: Sure. So the biggest tip I can give people, the biggest piece of advice is that the first step is don’t go out and hire a VA, right? There’s actually a bit of work for you to do before you do that step.

And usually if anyone out there is listening and they’ve gone, I tried that before and I failed, it could be because you were not properly set up to cope with a virtual person coming into your team.

So the biggest strategy and the advice I would give is to first of all, don’t underestimate the amount of work in getting your processes documented and what you actually want done.

So a lot of people don’t even know what they want the VA to do. So it’s really good to just sit down and think about what are the recurring tasks in my business that keep the engine of the business running that I don’t need to be doing myself, or I could get a virtual assistant to do for me.

Then once you’ve sort of done that, you’ve got to sit down and create a process for each one about how you like it done. And then think about how am I going to train this person when they arrive so that I actually make sure that I get success with this when I do hire someone and I don’t waste time, energy and money.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, brilliant, brilliant. Because those are the things, you know, it’s all very good going, oh I need a VA in panicking. But if you run too fast without the structure and the strategy behind it, then actually it’s probably going to increase your experience of failing.

Barbara Turley: It’ll be like sticking needles in your eyeballs. It’s terrible. You’ll create a whole other task for yourself if you do it that way.

Geoff Nicholson: Hi guys, so just before we jump over to the second part of the show, I wanted to let you know that Success IQ Alliance, my membership program, will be entering its pilot phase shortly and I’m looking for a group of people that would like to join me during this phase at the very beginning of the whole process. If you’re interested and would like to find out more information then please email me at [email protected]. Places are limited, but it would be lovely to see you there. Speak soon. Wishing you the greatest success and have an awesome week.

So now what we’re going to do is we’re going to go to the second part of the show. This is where I get a chance to put you on the hot seat, so to speak, and ask you a set of questions. So are you ready?

Barbara Turley: Yes, go for it.

Geoff Nicholson: OK, so the first question is how much time a week do you spend on self development, that body, mind and spirit can be included in that?

Barbara Turley: I’d love to say that I do yoga every day, that I spend hours every week. I should do more, but I would say personal development I would spend, oh gosh, maybe a couple of hours. I do have a 2 year old though. Not to make excuses, but I used to do more. I should do more.

Geoff Nicholson: That can be.

Barbara Turley: Just very open.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, absolutely. And I suppose it’s because obviously you live in Australia, I mean that just the sun just fills you full of nutrients and sorts everything out anyway.

Barbara Turley: Well yeah, like I mean even just walking around the corner for a coffee, it’s like blue skies and the beach. So I just probably get more of it than I realise, you know, I just love it.

Geoff Nicholson: Excellent. What is your favourite personal development book and why?

Barbara Turley: Yeah, so I’m not sure if this is totally classed as a personal development book, but I did see it this way. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. That’s a very corporate one to pick for personal development. But I think it was one of the most pivotal books that I ever read.

I read it a few times and I don’t normally do that, but it was a very pivotal book for me. That whole concept of starting with the end in mind, you know, listening, like deeply listening to understand what another person is saying, those kinds of things. I really got a lot from that book for me personally.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, the big one for me from that book was the paradigm shift, where I think the example was of the guy on the train seeing the children playing up and he had one thought and then all of a sudden, after the guy told him exactly what was going on, his whole concept of things. And that was the real thing that changed.

Barbara Turley: Sort of perspective, yeah, yeah, your perspective on things. And yeah, that book for me was very pivotal. So it always stands out in my head.

Geoff Nicholson: Brilliant. OK, question #3 What’s your favourite app?

Barbara Turley: OK, I again, I’d love to say something really cool, but Asana is a project management tool that has an app that changed my life. Like literally my phone is like, I just can keep up with the team. My business is all virtual. So Asana for me has, yeah, changed my life.

Geoff Nicholson: And what did you use? Did you kind of like go from paper system to Asana or did you drill through the nosebees, the Trellos, the Meister tasks or anything?

Barbara Turley: No, I went from nothing to Asana and I’ve looked at the other ones and thought I just have no interest in changing because it does what I needed to do. And I think people overcomplicate things. They just look at too many things. They’re all great, just pick one.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, because I like for projects, I like Trello because I like the way you can move it and all right, it’s a bit funky.

Barbara Turley: It’s a whole other podcast, that topic.

Geoff Nicholson: Exactly. Yeah, but it is amazing how many out there and the debate of do I do this or do that or do that and at the end of the day, just try one. How long did you give yourself? Because the interesting one is when you hear people using productivity tools like Asana or Trello, whatever, to me it’s the amount of time they give themselves to get used to it before they make a decision, is it working for me or not?

Barbara Turley: Yes, look, I might be unique in this feeling, but the minute I saw it and I realised that you could run things this way, I mean for me it just made so much sense. So I don’t really understand people who don’t want to do it or who want to remain trying to run projects over email. Like that’s a disaster. Email’s not a project management tool.

So yeah, I do think people need to give it time, but I also think the mistake people make is they overcomplicate it. So I always say to clients, just keep it simple and don’t create Frankenstein in there. You just need a couple of projects and a few bits and pieces to get started.

Geoff Nicholson: And is Asana your communication tool as well? So is it sort of like doing things like Slack or whatever else?

Barbara Turley: Look, I have looked at Slack. Yes, it is our communication tool. I have looked at Slack several times and I probably will bring it in at some point, but at the moment I still don’t see the point in having Slack and Asana for what we’re doing. It’s just that I like it.

Geoff Nicholson: Brilliant, excellent. OK #4 What’s your biggest business mistake and what did it teach you?

Barbara Turley: OK, my first, the first business that I did, it wasn’t a mistake, but I launched a platform called energizewealth.com and Energize Wealth was all about empowering women around money. It was quite a success. I had an online TV show, I had a podcast, I did a product launch of an online course.

But I think the biggest mistake I made was that just as I was getting momentum, I think I was just before the tipping point and I got jaded and demotivated with it because I wasn’t getting anywhere and I stopped. Now I did launch The Virtual Hub, so that’s fine. But I think the biggest lesson I learnt is that I was probably just before the tipping point there.

And had I kept going, I just needed to get through that hump. You know, content online and all that takes a long time. But when you reach that tipping point, it’s gold. So it was a big lesson for me to realise that you just have to be consistent and keep going with these things.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, no, brilliant. It’s that patient bubble, isn’t it really?

Barbara Turley: Yeah, and you’re tired. You become tired of it and dejected and all those feelings. But I think I will try and push through that. But experiences? It’s only experience that teaches you that.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, absolutely. OK, question #5 What are your challenges in harmonising work and life and how do you manage them? Obviously, you mentioned that you had a young child. How do you do that?

Barbara Turley: Yeah, so my business is 4 years old and my baby and my toddler is 2 years old. So I basically brewed a business and a baby sort of at the same time, which is nuts, I know, but people often think I must have driven myself into the ground to do that. I actually didn’t.

I just, like I said, I discovered I was very good at building teams. I’m very good at delegating. I’m very good at running teams and being in the orchestra role. And I guess because I want to be a mother, I didn’t want to be, it’s very important to me that I am that mother role.

I’ve been very strict with my time and I’m a big fan of small bursts. So if I have to do something important, I sit down and go, right, you’ve got 45 minutes to go and like I literally just make myself deliver quickly and then I’ve got to cut it. So I am very strict with my time. I say no a lot, saying no more than yes. It’s a big tip that, again, experience has taught me.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, that’s a hard thing to do. It’s one of those words that we’ve been taught that you don’t say it. And it’s like, actually, it’s one of the most powerful words you’ll ever learn.

Barbara Turley: Yes, say it more. Say no all the time. So I say no a lot. Like I say no to particular business opportunities, you know, make sure that you stay focused and you just, you know, say no to all the noise around you and just keep going with what you’re doing. Same with your life.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. I say no a lot to my children.

Barbara Turley: Yeah.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: No, no more money.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, yeah. Can I get this? No. Oh, what do you think I’m going to say? OK.

OK, question number 6 What advice would you give an entrepreneur that you wish you had known starting out?

Barbara Turley: So it’s sort of like, what would I say to myself starting out, yes. So my biggest piece of advice that I really do like to impart these days to people starting out is that yes, you need to be persistent and you need to hustle, right? And these words are bandied about. You do need to have a sense of I will win, right? And that’s what hustle is.

But you’ve got to measure that with making sure that you’re being persistent and hustling in the right direction. Because if you go persistent hustle at something that’s blatantly not working, but you’re just so pigheaded you can’t see it, then you’re going to just drive yourself into the ground.

So it’s about listening to the market, listening to the customer, listening to the problems, and then being persistent and hustling that you will win and you will find the answer to that business you’re going to launch or that you’re launching. Yeah, that will get you there.

Geoff Nicholson: Brilliant. OK, question #7 What is your definition of success?

Barbara Turley: Yeah, I love this question actually, because everyone has a different definition of success. For me, success purely means that I have enough or maybe more than enough, but enough passive income that I’m not involved in to cover my lifestyle and that I don’t have to, so that I can work for the love of it and not for the money.

So that’s a really powerful thing. People always think I want to make millions. I go no, no, no. I just want to make sure that if I’ve got enough money coming in wherever I am, be it a business or investments or whatever that covers all my costs and my lifestyle, me living, then the work that you do is because you love it and not because you have to do it for the money. That’s success for me.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah. And actually, Barbara, that’s one of the reasons why I asked this question, because time and time again I’m speaking to people who are chasing someone else’s definition. And the amount of stress that that is causing is absolutely crazy.

And once you can understand what it is you’re pursuing and why you are pursuing it, then I get why you’re looking at that target. But don’t just throw a figure in the air and go because that sounds really cool.

Because actually, if you’re looking for financial freedom for you and your lifestyle, it may not actually be a million dollars.

Barbara Turley: Actually, sometimes financial freedom has nothing to do with money, actually.

Geoff Nicholson: It does absolutely. And it’s looking at it and taking the time and sitting down and going, OK, this is actually what I want to achieve. And this is what success means.

Because all of the research is, ultimately when your last day comes, you’re not worried about the money.

Barbara Turley: Money is just a vehicle. It’s just a thing that you know, and maybe you want to drive a Maserati or whatever, but again, you’ve got to ask yourself, you know, I don’t know. Success, I mean I’m not into any of those things. So I just think, well for me, success is just not having that pressure of having to make the mortgage or whatever.

So I can just be, because for me freedom is my highest value. So I’ve always probably spent my life chasing freedom as opposed to success. But for me success is feeling free.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, brilliant, brilliant. OK, question #8 Do you have a morning routine that helps you get prepared for the day ahead?

Barbara Turley: You know, again, I’m thinking I get asked this one all the time and I don’t know whether, I think women, I like that. I think we’re always, I feel like people are expecting me to say I get up and I do my meditation and my gratitude journaling and all the things that I should do.

Honestly, I don’t. I literally get up. Morning is my power time. I have all my best ideas. I go out, I have a coffee at my local cafe. I feel amazing. I come back and I power through work in the mornings. So I don’t really have anything apart from going out to have a coffee. Not really, no.

Geoff Nicholson: No, but I think there is an element of a routine because you go for a coffee and then you do your power. And we can all say, yes, it would be lovely if we could go and sit on the beach and meditate all day. The reality is we can’t always do that. And you’ve got young children and responsibility.

But I guess the way I see it is you do have a morning routine. It just might not be what traditional personal development is.

Barbara Turley: What do they tell you and would I feel better if I did all these things? Possibly, yeah. I just think I’m at an age in my life where I’m sick of thinking about all the things I should be doing, and I just want to do stuff that makes me feel alive. I just want to do what I want to do and that’s it.

Geoff Nicholson: Brilliant.

Barbara Turley: So maybe I’m old and grouchy at this point. But that’s how I feel about it now.

Geoff Nicholson: Brilliant, brilliant. You’ll get your old shillelagh and you’ll start going after them. OK, so this is the final question. It’s a life lesson question. You basically pick a number between 1 and 50. These are things that I have learnt from recovering from a long term illness and starting a business. It’s OK for you to disagree with it, but pick a number between 1 and 50. Barbara.

Barbara Turley: So my daughter is turning 2 in a couple of weeks time so I’m going to pick 2.

Geoff Nicholson: No, I’m going to ask you to pick another one because actually that rule is start your day right. And we’ve just literally talked about that one. So pick another.

Barbara Turley: So she turns 2 on the 18th of August, so 18.

Geoff Nicholson: OK, practice persistence.

Barbara Turley: Oh gosh, talk about that. Want me to pick another?

Geoff Nicholson: Well no, because I suppose we could go a little bit deeper on that because it’s that thing. When I look at that, it’s about understanding that we would love to think everything’s a quick win. But life is not going to hand you everything. It’s about doing the work.

Barbara Turley: I absolutely agree with you because I think there’s two things I would say. I totally agree and I think a lot of people don’t. They underestimate when we say do the work, they underestimate the amount of work, right? So a lot of people are like, I am doing the work. I’m like, well, you’re not doing enough because it’s hard, man, right? That’s why people are, that’s why the best of the best, there’s only a few of them sort of thing. It’s big, there’s a lot of work involved. And I think with the word persistence, though, people have got to be very careful in that it’s OK.

Like, so you want to be persistent, but like I said, you’ve got to be persistent, but with your head up, looking forward, not down at the ground. Like persistent, you know, head down, keep going. That’s persistence. But you may also want to just look up and see what’s happening around you to see are you going in the right direction? Because if you’re going persistently in the wrong direction, you know, you may not see it if you’re not being very aware of what’s going on around you.

And that’s the same in life. Like, you know, if you’re driving yourself into the ground with a fitness goal and you don’t realize that you’re actually doing damage to yourself, you know, you’ve gone too far. Or in a business where you’re just striving after the wrong thing when the market is telling you, it’s almost screaming at you that you are not do it, you’re not going in the right direction.

Geoff Nicholson: No.

Barbara Turley: Customers are telling you, you’ve got complaints everywhere, whatever, and you just keep going, that sort of thing.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, and I noticed it as well. When you’re looking at people working on their mindset and they’re kind of like, but I’ve done it, you know, 10 times. And it’s like, yeah, but you might need to do it 50 times. And they’re just automatically. I mean, I worked with a lady a few months ago who was having anxiety issues and it’s you’re going, no, OK, you’ve got to do this on a daily basis or you’ve got to do this whenever this situation comes up. And it’s like, but I’ve done it for three weeks in a row.

And I say, yeah, I know that. But sometimes you’ve got to do it longer because you’ve also got these really ingrown habits and limiting beliefs that are kicking in. And the only way to break them past is by, you know, sheer dogged determinedness to go, I’m going to do better than what the last feeling was. But it’s a hard thing.

Barbara Turley: Well, I think a lot of people also, like she said, I did it, I’ve been doing it. A lot of people think just doing it is enough. You actually have to believe it, feel it, know it. You’ve got to have persistence about that, like I will. You’ve got to know that you will get this and you will.

I can’t even describe it as knowing because people, you know, even with the VA thing, if I was to go back to that, people go, oh, I got a VA and it didn’t work. Like well, maybe it didn’t work, but you didn’t have a commitment to saying I’m going to get this offshore cost effective strategy working. I’m going to keep plugging away. And maybe it’s the wrong person, wrong story, whatever.

But just the doing and persistently doing may not yield you the results you need. You have to be persistent in your knowing you’ll achieve.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah. And the other caveat to that is, is when it’s worked, don’t stop doing what works. The amount of time people go, oh, it works. I’m just going to go back to my old habit now. It’s like no, you need to keep on going.

Barbara Turley: Absolutely.

Geoff Nicholson: Yeah, yeah.

Barbara Turley: And in this case yourself, I think a lot of people don’t listen internally, you know, about how this is affecting them internally and what they’re doing. And like I said, that’s a whole other topic that we could explore, but it’s another podcast topic.

Geoff Nicholson: Absolutely. So the floor is now yours for you to share how people can find out more about you or anything else that you want to talk about.

Barbara Turley: Sure. So a couple of things I’ve got if you want to find out more about the topic of VAs and scalable business. And you know, I’ve got a couple of gifts for anyone listening.

If you go to thevirtualhub.com/success IQ over there, we’ve got a free e-course, The Scalable Business Success Formula. We’ve got a couple of checklists that you can download for working better with VAs that are really handy.

And you can also book a call with one of our outsourcing strategy consultants there, free call to chat with them if you think that this is something you’d like to do.

A lot of people, for me personally, like to connect with people on LinkedIn. I post a lot of my content over there. And I also have a podcast if you want to listen to more musings about virtual success from me. It’s called The Virtual Success Show.

And we talk about, it’s basically all things outsourcing success by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.

Geoff Nicholson: Brilliant. And thank you very much for that lovely gift as well. And we’ll put it on the show notes and all of those sorts of things.

So just before we go, do you have any final words of wisdom?

Barbara Turley: Yeah, like we were joking in the pre-call, don’t do it. No.

My words of wisdom, I guess it’s, I’m trying to put this in the right language and I don’t do this successfully myself still, but I’d like to do more of it. I think we all worry too much about stuff that is probably not going to happen.

So we have a lot of anxieties, and I have it too, we all do. But it’s about trusting more that you’re on the path that you want, that you’re on your path, and being persistent in that.

I suppose if I was to tie it back to the persistence thing, just trusting more in the path that you’re on.

Geoff Nicholson: That’s brilliant. Thank you very much, Barbara. It’s been lovely having you on the show and I just want to wish you the greatest success.

Barbara Turley: Thanks, Geoff.

Geoff Nicholson: So first of all, just let me say a massive thank you for joining me today. It’s lovely to know you’re listening and I really appreciate the support. If you’d like to know more about me, my services and how to connect with me on social media, then please visit www.geoffnicholson.uk. And that’s GEOFF.

I also invite you to join my growing community on Facebook, search for Geoff Nicholson UK and join like minded people because it would be absolutely awesome to see you there.

You can TuneIn and listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud and TuneIn and of course iTunes. If you have enjoyed the show and have time, please leave a rating and review because it really does help me grow the show and make the impact I’m aspiring to do with the show.

I wish you the greatest success and remember, don’t settle for mediocrity. Go out there and create and live the exceptional. Have a lovely week.