Jon Tromans: Hi, welcome to Not Another Marketing Podcast, where I’m talking to Barbara Turley, the CEO of The Virtual Hub, who provides virtual assistance. So I’m going to be talking about how a VA can help a business optimize their operations, what questions should we ask a VA agency, and should we integrate our VA into our team.

Now, check out all the links in the show notes, give them a quick tap, subscribe if you enjoy the pod. Let’s get to it. Hey, Barbara.

Barbara Turley: Hey, Jon. How are you?

Jon Tromans: I’m good. You’re somewhere really nice at the moment, aren’t you? I’m jealous because I’m looking out of my window and it’s grey skies. There’s that really fine, misty drizzle that you only get in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s like it’s not raining, but when you go out, it just soaks you in two minutes.

Barbara Turley: Yes. Well, being Irish background, I grew up with that, so we call it soft rain. I moved away from that about 20 years ago. I went to the beautiful shores of Sydney and Bondi and lived there for a long time. Now I’m back living—I spend half the year in a beautiful place called Chamonix Mont Blanc in France, where it’s snowing and it’s a ski town.

Jon Tromans: Totally jealous. We’re going to be talking about virtual assistants and how they can help marketing agencies and other businesses as well, which is going to be quite interesting. But first of all, let me give you 30 seconds to tell everybody who you are and what you do, starting about now.

Barbara Turley: Sure. So I’m obviously Irish, for those who didn’t pick that up. I would say I’m a recovering corporate career junkie. I spent 15 years in the financial industry, working on trading floors. I was in asset management sales and all sorts of high-flying career jobs.

Then I decided that I wanted to build my own company about 10 years ago, and I branched out, did some consulting. This is the very short version—through doing some business coaching for a couple of years, I discovered that so many businesses were getting the support layer wrong. They were spending too much money on execution.

I started The Virtual Hub, which is an offshore staffing business based out of the Philippines. We have clients all over the world—US, Canada, Australia, the UK, even Europe now—we’re growing quite a lot there. We provide support and virtual assistance to lots of types of businesses.

Jon Tromans: I was talking to somebody about an hour ago on the phone. They run about 10–15 staff or something like that, and they get their well-trained staff to do some of the marketing work and admin work on top of it. Like you said, you end up paying a much higher wage for somebody just ticking boxes, filling in forms, sending stuff to accounts—that sort of thing—and that could be done somewhere else.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, absolutely. I see this constantly. It doesn’t matter the type of business or geographical location. I’ve gone into so many industries—everything from retail to financial services to yoga retreats, e-commerce businesses—you name it, I’ve pretty much done it. Even local brick-and-mortar businesses like swim schools or tennis centers.

What you find is that the most expensive asset any business has—outside of real estate, which used to be the biggest one—is human capital. Your people are your greatest asset, and usually the most expensive one. Yet it’s the asset most businesses do not optimize the way they do everything else.

For example, many businesses are paying people $150,000 a year to spend anywhere from 20% to 60% of their day doing process-driven tasks—things that are trainable and delegatable. You can delegate that to offshore teams, like those in the Philippines.

It’s about getting the support layer right and constantly delegating so your key people are focused on what moves the needle.

Jon Tromans: It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you’re paying someone £80,000 to £100,000 a year and asking them to do admin, that’s a waste of money. Why do you think companies see hiring a VA as an extra expense rather than a saving?

Barbara Turley: I love this question. First of all, why do we do this? Because who else is going to do the work? Hiring locally can be expensive and difficult.

Enter offshore teams and virtual assistants—you suddenly have someone to delegate to. You free up your key people’s time and energy so they can focus on what they were hired to do.

But the reality is, in most organizations, 20% to 60% of the day is spent just keeping things moving. That’s a big cost.

Jon Tromans: Yeah, I’ve spent half my day dealing with email after being out for three days. I probably need a VA, don’t I?

Barbara Turley: Yes! What I usually say to business owners is: focus constantly on delegation. It’s underrated. The skill of delegating effectively isn’t talked about enough.

It’s the gateway to scaling a business. Without systems, processes, and delegation, scaling becomes expensive and inefficient.

Jon Tromans: Do you think there’s a control issue? People thinking, “No one can do it as well as me”?

Barbara Turley: There’s a two-part answer. First, there’s the 70% or 80% rule. People think in absolutes—“this can’t be delegated”—but usually 80% of it can.

Freeing up that time lets you focus on growth.

Second, control isn’t a bad thing. Delegation doesn’t mean losing control. Done well, it means someone else executes while you maintain control through processes, expectations, and management.

Jon Tromans: Yeah, and goals matter too. There’s more than one way to do something correctly.

Barbara Turley: Exactly. But it’s also important to define roles. A VA is part of the support layer. If someone is designing creatively, that’s more of a specialist role.

Expectation creep is a big issue—people expect VAs to do everything.

Jon Tromans: So what tasks are VAs typically doing?

Barbara Turley: At the basic level: admin—calendar management, email, expenses, invoicing.

Email is tricky, though. My theory is: first reduce email, then delegate the rest.

Then you move into marketing execution—content scheduling, Canva images, captions, etc. About 80% of marketing is execution, and that can be handled by VAs if processes are strong.

Jon Tromans: What about AI? Is that changing things?

Barbara Turley: It is. When ChatGPT launched, I thought, “This is the end.” But actually, it’s powering up our people.

For example, I recorded a 4-minute Loom explaining a document. My team transcribed it, ran it through ChatGPT, refined it—done in minutes instead of a week.

Jon Tromans: So you’re not worried about AI replacing admin work?

Barbara Turley: Not really. Many businesses are still behind even on basic automation. AI is just a tool to speed things up and improve productivity.

Jon Tromans: What questions should we ask a VA agency?

Barbara Turley: Key ones include:

• Attrition rates (continuity matters)

• Dedicated VA vs. pooled team

• Employees vs. contractors

• Data security and compliance

Also, understand what you actually need before speaking to an agency.

Jon Tromans: Do people ask about fair pay?

Barbara Turley: Sometimes. The market is more competitive now. You can check platforms like Glassdoor or certifications like “Great Place to Work” to assess company culture and fairness.

Jon Tromans: Do clients integrate VAs into their teams?

Barbara Turley: Yes, absolutely. That’s what we encourage. They become part of the team, even though they’re on our payroll.

Freeing up 20–30% of your key people’s time is like cloning another team member. It should generate more revenue, not just cost money.

Jon Tromans: Do they join team socials?

Barbara Turley: Yes. We encourage full integration—virtual events, team meetings, even synchronized Christmas parties across locations.

We also provide internal culture through events, gaming, and community-building.

Jon Tromans: That’s important for fulfillment, isn’t it?

Barbara Turley: Definitely. Relationships matter. Otherwise, people feel isolated, and results suffer.

Jon Tromans: Fantastic. I could chat for ages, but I’d need a VA to edit it all! Where can we find you?

Barbara Turley: Sure—our website is thevirtualhub.com. You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I post regularly on LinkedIn—just search Barbara Turley.

Jon Tromans: Brilliant. Thanks so much for your time.

Barbara Turley: Thanks for having me.

Jon Tromans: Thanks again to Barbara for her time. Don’t forget to check out all the links in the show notes. Give them a quick tap. If you enjoyed the episode, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify—it’s everywhere. Just search Not Another Marketing Podcast. Thanks for listening.