Business benefits of a Support Assistant
Jake Carlson Modern Leadership
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Episode breakdown
Barbara Turley, The Founder, and CEO of Virtual Hub, is on a mission to eradicate “small business overwhelm” by simplifying the offshore outsourcing process and facilitating cost-effective business scalability. She and her team make this happen every day at The Virtual Hub. Her business was started by accident and exploded in the space of 12 months to become one of the leading companies that recruits, trains and manages support 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.
- Eradicate small business overwhelm with virtual help
- Support assistants can free up your time and energy to take your business to the next level
- Business struggles when you are doing things you shouldn’t be doing – the downside to trying to do everything yourself
- Many can’t grow their business because they don’t have time or money to accomplish goals.
- How do you hire a support assistant for only a couple of hours a week? Often we have much more work than we originally think.
- How you need a solid process to hand over to a support assistant to be effective.
- Find the “right” expert for the job and be clear on expectations and follow-through.
- Support Assistant is a broad term. Be realistic about your needs and communicate them.
- No time to create the processes and training to turn the business over to someone else? The importance of breaking that mindset.
- Slow down to speed up – build a scalable business that works without you one day.
- Systems run your business; people run your systems.
- Create a clear process.
- Detailed processes with nowhere to hide. Take time out to build the processes carefully.
- The more time and energy you put in your “system machine,” the more cost-effective employees you can put into it.
- Delegate down to the lowest compensated person qualified to do the job.
- Business is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on the processes and operational development and infrastructure for long-term impact.
- Processes are constantly changing and adapting – they need to evolve over time.
- Build your systems so no one has to rely on Trust.
- Communication and team connectivity does not require everyone in the same room.
- The key takeaway: It doesn’t matter what business you’re in if you put processes in place. You should try using Support Assistants.
Systems run your business, people run your systems.
In this episode
00:00 - Introduction and Host’s Story
Jake Carlson opens the Modern Leadership Podcast, sharing his background in podcasting since 2014 and his recent decision to hire a support assistant to handle editing so he can focus on interviewing guests. He introduces Barbara Turley, founder and CEO of The Virtual Hub, whose mission is to help small businesses scale through offshore outsourcing.
02:19 - Barbara Turley’s Background
Barbara describes her career shift from 15 years in financial investment banking to building The Virtual Hub in the Philippines. Initially helping clients find support assistants as a side activity, she grew the company to over 100 employees within a year by focusing on systems, processes, and team management.
05:17 - Myths and Realities of Hiring Support Assistants
Barbara addresses misconceptions about support assistants, noting that onboarding is more complex than portrayed. She explains that tasks often take longer for new hires and may require multiple skill sets, such as combining a support assistants with a freelance audio editor for podcast production.
09:44 - Defining Roles: Assistant vs. Expert
She clarifies the difference between assistants who follow processes and experts who take creative license. Building trust and capability for higher-level work takes time, often over a year of collaboration and mentoring.
11:14 - The Process Creation Challenge
Barbara stresses that reluctance to create processes limits growth. She advocates “slowing down to speed up” by systemizing operations, as strong systems enable cost-effective staffing and scalability.
12:39 - Podcast Workflow Example
Using podcast production as a case study, Barbara outlines a granular process from file handoff to publishing and promotion. She emphasizes detailed steps, checklists, and separating creative tasks from procedural ones to increase business value.
15:22 - Systems as a Business Asset
She explains that documented, detailed processes increase a company’s value and resilience, allowing easy replacement of staff without losing operational continuity.
18:02 - Delegation Mindset
Barbara advises delegating to the lowest compensated qualified person, shifting focus from short-term sales to long-term operational infrastructure. She shares her own experience of rebuilding her business after operational strain.
21:02 - Evolving Processes and Learning from Mistakes
Processes should be treated as living systems that evolve through feedback and errors. Mistakes, when made by committed team members, reveal gaps that can be fixed for continuous improvement.
23:47 - Trust Through Systems and Communication
Barbara recommends removing reliance on trust by implementing reporting, daily huddles, project management tools like Asana, and consistent communication to maintain accountability with remote teams.
27:10 - Key Takeaway on Offshore Teams
She asserts that with the right systems, any business can benefit from offshore teams to improve margins and scalability, while noting that hiring well is a separate challenge.
28:43 - Personal Insights
Barbara shares her current reading list, leadership superpower of effective delegation, and a guiding proverb: “The dogs may be barking, but the caravan still passes,” meaning to stay focused despite distractions.
33:17 - Closing and Resources
Barbara invites listeners to explore her podcast, The Virtual Success Show, and resources at thevirtualhub.com. Jake reflects on his own delegation journey and reiterates the importance of focusing on high-value work.
