How Matthew Barby, global head of growth & SEO at HubSpot, is leveraging specialist virtual teams to drive business growth and ultimately, business success
Virtual Success Show
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Episode breakdown
In this episode, special guest Matthew Barby, an award winning blogger, industry speaker, and lecturer, shares his experiences in creating and working with specialist virtual teams and how when you commit to making it work, can lead to exponential growth and success for your business. Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of ‘trying to do it all’. When used effectively, virtual teams can be very powerful; and Matthew knows this all too well. This episode is full of tips and insights from Matthew on how to approach the task of building specialist virtual teams to perform tasks within your business and how to leverage these teams to their greatest potential.
- Why having teams of specialists allows you to focus on things you love doing
- The importance of a having stringent screening process for team members
- Making sure you commit the time upfront to training team members so as to build rapport with them
- Understanding the value of Virtual Teams to your business
- His top three tips for anyone starting out with virtual teams
The best hires aren’t always the most skilled, but the most coachable.
In this episode
00:00 - Introduction
Barbara and Matt open the podcast with light banter and personal stories about refining processes and Matt’s son joking about outsourcing homework. They then introduce guest Matthew Barby, Global Head of Growth and SEO at HubSpot, to discuss how he effectively manages virtual teams alongside his demanding corporate role and side projects.
02:48 – Trying to do far too much?!
Matthew shares that balancing his demanding role, blog, and side businesses would be impossible without virtual teams. He learned the hard way that trying to do everything himself led to burnout and poor results, making virtual support essential. Barbara then asks him about his early experiences starting with his first virtual team members and the challenges he faced.
04:20 – The challenges
Matthew explains that in the early days of building his site, content creation consumed most of his time, with blog posts averaging around 5,000 words. He often sacrificed sleep to produce content but then had little time left for promotion, even though he knew how to do it effectively. His main challenge was managing time, as creating without promoting wasted much of his effort.
05:51 – Cheapest isn’t always best
Matthew first hired cheap freelancers for outreach but faced poor results due to lack of vetting. Over time, he refined his process, built stronger systems, and realized the value of virtual teams not only for his personal projects but also for client work at his agency. This experience showed him how scalable and versatile virtual teams could be.
07:58 – Commit to making it work
Barbara highlights that many people quit after bad support assistant experiences, but Matthew committed to making it work, which led to exponential growth in his blog and consulting. She asks him to share the pivotal moment and changes that helped him turn things around.
08:42 – Building teams of highly specialized people
Matthew realized his mistake was expecting one support assistant to be a jack-of-all-trades. The turning point was shifting to building specialized virtual teams, assigning each member focused tasks. He trained one skilled person deeply, then let them help manage others—creating a scalable, layered delegation system.
11:28 – Prove the process can work for one small task
Matthew turned things around by starting small—assigning one clear task, documenting the process, setting expectations, and doing frequent check-ins at first. Once the task ran smoothly on its own, he replicated the system for other tasks, gradually building efficiency and results.
12:33 – Replicate the process
Matthew applied his framework to social media management, reusing training materials and building a team with varied skills. This setup, though split among multiple people instead of one jack-of-all-trades, was more efficient, cost-effective, and allowed quicker problem-solving and growth.
13:54 – Don’t rush through training up team members
Matthew explained that instead of focusing on a fixed timeframe, he ensures at least a month of intensive onboarding and training with virtual team members. Once they move from just learning to delivering results with minimal check-ins, he feels confident to shift focus and begin building the next stage of the process.
15:45 – Complementary skill sets within the team
Matthew explained that building complementary teams (e.g., press outreach followed by social media) creates collaboration and knowledge-sharing, leading to continuous improvement. While he hires specialists, he still invests time training them in his processes to maintain control and align outcomes with his expectations.
17:55 – Document your processes
Matthew highlighted the importance of creating detailed training and process documents, then reinforcing them with one-on-one guidance. This upfront investment saves time long-term, making it easier to onboard new team members and scale. Barbara then shifted the discussion toward content creation and how Matthew manages writers and bloggers within his virtual team.
19:58 – How can specialist team members add value?
Matthew explained that content creation is where virtual teams add the most value for him. Instead of hiring generic writers just to produce keyword-driven articles, he focuses on industry specialists who not only write quality content but also bring audience insight, networks, and promotional power. For example, in his fashion projects, he targets writers already contributing to top blogs and publications, evaluating their social media reach, engagement, and email subscribers. This way, the writers don’t just create content but also help promote it and advise on what resonates with the target audience.
24:09 – Growing the team
As Matthew scaled his writer teams, managing emails, invoices, and content scheduling became overwhelming. To fix this, he added a “writer liaison” role to handle the editorial calendar, budgets, and coordination with writers. This reduced his admin workload and transformed the setup from a group of freelancers into a full virtual content marketing team—a streamlined machine.
26:28 – Refining the process
Matthew realized his freelance content team model worked so well that he could replicate it across industries. By building specialized teams with a manager in the middle, he could quickly “plant” them into new projects, scale campaigns efficiently, and drive exponential growth. This system became a repeatable engine for delivering strong results to multiple clients.
28:46 – Spend the time to find the right people
Matthew emphasizes that investing time in finding, training, and building relationships with the right people pays off. It leads to better work, long-term collaboration, loyalty, fresh ideas, and even more favorable rates over time.
29:31 – Project-based roles vs. Retainer-based roles
Matthew explains that retainer roles are for people who manage processes and maintain quality across multiple projects (e.g., a content liaison), as their value grows with experience across projects. Project-based roles are for specialists with sector-specific expertise (e.g., fashion writers), whose value is high within a project but limited outside that context.
32:04 – Key selection criteria
Matt asks Matthew to share the key selection processes or criteria he uses when choosing people to join his team.
32:27 – Nice-to-haves
Matthew explains that his first selection criteria focus on project-specific skills. He looks at whether candidates already have the abilities to perform the tasks required, or if they can quickly learn what’s needed. For example, in a press liaison role, he values strong written English, experience using email frequently, and any background in blogger outreach or PR work. He views these as “nice-to-have” qualifications when evaluating candidates.
33:19 – Absolute deal-breakers
Matthew highlights that the absolute deal-breakers for him are poor communication and lack of motivation. No matter how skilled someone is, if they can’t communicate well or stay engaged, they cannot be part of his team. He recalls working with talented writers who still proved unreliable because they failed to meet deadlines or keep in touch, making their skills useless in practice.
34:03 – Trying to find your ‘silver bullet’
Matthew advises against looking for a “perfect” ready-made hire, especially in virtual teams. Instead, he stresses the importance of finding people with basic competencies, strong communication, genuine interest in the work, and a willingness to learn. With training and dedication, these individuals can develop into strong team members. Barbara agrees, noting that at The Virtual Hub, their most successful support assistants have often been those with enthusiasm, coachability, and eagerness to grow, rather than those who simply came in with polished skills.
36:09 – Understanding the value of virtual teams
Matthew emphasizes that many failures with virtual teams stem from poor management, not the support assistants themselves. Business owners often treat support assistants like agencies expected to deliver immediate results instead of employees who need guidance, training, and time to grow. He stresses the importance of treating support assistants as people—encouraging questions, fostering engagement, and valuing their motivation to learn. A lack of questions, he warns, often signals disengagement or fear. Barbara and Matt strongly agree, noting that unrealistic client expectations, such as demanding results by day two, are common mistakes. They highlight Matthew’s advice as crucial for building successful virtual teams.
41:06 – Matthew’s three top tips when starting out
Matthew would likely advise three key things for anyone starting with a virtual team: first, invest time upfront in selecting the right people, focusing on motivation, communication, and willingness to learn rather than expecting a “finished” skill set. Second, treat your virtual team like employees, providing clear instructions, training, and ongoing guidance rather than expecting instant results. Third, create processes and documentation so that tasks can scale efficiently and team members can support each other, building a sustainable system rather than relying on individual effort alone.
41:27 – One – Start off small
Matthew’s first key tip is to start small: focus on completing one task really well, rather than trying to solve all problems at once. By proving a process works on a small scale, you can gradually expand and scale the virtual team effectively.
42:08 – Two – Strong selection criteria
Matthew’s second key tip is to prioritize finding people who are the right fit, not just for the task but for your team. They should understand your expectations, communicate well, and be genuinely motivated and passionate about the work.
42:49 – Three – “Treat people like people”
Matthew’s third key tip is to treat virtual team members like real people. Be realistic about expectations, give them time to learn, keep them motivated, and respect that they’re new to your business and tasks.
43:48 – Wrapping things up
Matt and Barbara wrap up the show by thanking Matthew for sharing his insights and advice. They encourage listeners to share the episode, comment, and join the Virtual Success Facebook Group to continue the conversation and access more tips.
