Teri Carangela: Creating an empire isn’t for the faint of heart. Join us for our guest today who shares one of the biggest challenges businesses face. If you don’t grow, you can’t hire staff. But if you never hire staff, you’ll never grow. Join us for this incredible conversation to take your business to the next level. Trapped by the belief that I’m not good enough, bound by the limitations and the lies that consumed my world, this was me. It wasn’t until I took the biggest leap in my life to know and trust the power within. And it was at that moment I made a choice. My past will not define me anymore. Hello, I am Teri Carangela, and I know I am not alone in this. Over the years, I have found that the number one mistake that we make is that we get in the way of our own success story. Yes, I said it. On this show, together we’ll tackle limiting beliefs, self-sabotage, getting stuck, fear, doubt, overwhelm, and the imposter syndrome. Join us on this journey designed to transport you beyond your limitations to a world where anything is possible. This is Talking with Teri. Hello and welcome back to Talking with Teri, where we have powerful conversations to transform your life and your business. And I am delighted to have our guest today. Barbara Turley is with us. She’s an inventor and entrepreneur and founder and CEO of The Virtual Hub. And what I love the most about this is that this is a business that she started by accident that exploded in the first 12 months and has become a household name for virtual assistants across the U.S. and beyond in all, I don’t know how many countries, but it is just incredible. And what I love about your model of business is you use this term called unlocking dreams is your company as a purpose. And I just love this. So Barbara, welcome to the show.

Barbara Turley: Thanks for having me, Thierry. It’s great to be here to chat all things business and mindset and motherhood and whatever we can touch upon.

Teri Carangela: I know. So we were talking just offline, and we’re like, there’s so many different angles that we can go with this. So bring us up to speed. How did you get to where you’re at today?

Barbara Turley: Sure. I’ll try and give you the very short version. So I’m ex-corporate. So for all those corporates out there listening, it is possible to exit and do your own thing. So I’m ex-investment banking. I came from no background in HR or recruiting or any of that sort of thing, but always kind of had a, well, sorry, I wouldn’t say always wanted to run my own business. When I was reaching my thirties, I was kind of like, I don’t know if I want to do this corporate thing anymore. I think I don’t. I look up the ladder and go, I don’t know if I want to go there. And I kind of wanted to work for myself, but I had no idea what that looks like at all. And then lo and behold, the last financial crisis hit, which is 2008. And of course the financial industry just melted down completely. I was in that industry, but I got a kind of a lucky break. Like this is the very short version in that there was a group of us that got together and got to buy a part of a business from one of the big investment banks in Australia. And with that company, it’s an asset management business. I’m still involved in it today. But that we took like it was 1.6 billion of assets that we theoretically took out of that bank. And we had the distribution rights for that. And that’s how it started. But the main point of that story was that I got a huge learning in those years that I worked in the company. I was a shareholder as well as working there in how great companies are built. And that really whetted my appetite to want to build my own company. So I left corporate after a while, did some business coaching, and then through my business coaching experience of maybe two years, I noticed that all the clients I was coaching all had the same problem. If they didn’t grow, they weren’t going to be able to hire staff, but if they didn’t hire staff, they were never going to grow. And I was kind of like, you gotta solve this problem. You can’t keep doing everything yourself. So I started recruiting VAs in the Philippines for them, but not because it was a business. It was more just to kind of help them so I could do strategy with them. And before I knew it, it was just that was the demand and I was quite enjoying doing that. And here we are six years later. I have 200 staff in the Philippines now. Wow. It’s a totally different business from back then, but it was literally I found myself in business by accident, literally.

Teri Carangela: I absolutely, you know, actually I am a client of The Virtual Hub and I don’t know how I got involved. I don’t know how I found you guys. Honestly, I was like doing a late night Google search or something and I stumbled across it. And what I fell in love with was a couple of components. One is, is that you guys train them based on your client’s needs. So I interviewed the person I’m working with and then you guys train them based on what I need, versus having them come in and having them know all these things. Because as you know, every client has different systems, different programs that they use. And now there’s like endless amount of apps and resources out there. It’s impossible to have someone come in and like know exactly what that is. So I just love that. And you know, if there was anything that happened to my person, you guys are the ones who were responsible for retraining and transition and it’s just, I’m like, sign me up, right? Like if I have to take off one more or less worry, I think that’s a lot of what happens for business owners is that you know, the other thing too that’s powerful is that you only have your staff working with either one person or two people. That’s it. You know, either 20 hours or 40 hours, or I’m sorry, two clients with 20 hours or one client with 40 hours. And I love that because

Barbara Turley: I like simplicity.

Teri Carangela: Yeah, because I know a lot of virtual assistants out there that are working with you know, eight or nine clients and I don’t even know how they can be.

Barbara Turley: They get burnt out. Yeah. And then the work is, you know, I mean, some are amazing at it, but you can only keep that up for a while. So we, I mean, as you know, we have a very big culture as well of the wellbeing of they’re all employees of our Philippine companies. So we have a huge cultural, like people first approach and we’re like, we’re not going to burn them out. Like, so even clients who sort of try to push too many tasks into the timeframe, like we’ll step in and be like, hey, this is a bit too heavy. Can we work on trying to make it a bit more realistic? So that’s our role is to really step into the middle of the relationship and make sure that we’re reaching success for both parties and not just for clients. Like you need a successful career for this person too and unlock their dreams. So the unlocking dreams concept actually comes from this theory that, you know, I know that there’s no business owner out there that went into business without a dream of some form. And that dream definitely was not working 15 hours a day, seven days a week with no breaks and never getting a let up from it and making no money, right? That’s, you know, business owners end up doing that, right? And then similarly for the people that we employ, they’re not going, you know, they have dreams for the careers that they want to build and the types of clients they want to work with and what they want to learn and the lifestyle they want to have. So we take those two things into account and our job is to not realize any dreams because we can’t realize a dream for someone else, but we can unlock a pathway so that those two entities can come together and unlock their own dreams at the same time. That’s very comfortable.

Teri Carangela: So this business was started accidentally because you are helping find a resource for your coaching clients. It has grown significantly and it’s just been super, I mean, you’ve created a household name for yourself. So what has been the biggest, I guess maybe challenge or barrier or block that you’ve had to overcome in the building of this?

Barbara Turley: Yeah, that’s interesting actually. I mean, obviously there’s been a few, but I think one of the things which could be a block, but it also turned into an opportunity for me. So this is interesting. I had never been to the Philippines when I started this business, right? I knew nothing about the Philippines. I was never, I had never led a team in my previous career. I had always done solo type roles. I had never recruited anyone. I knew nothing about HR. And I’d never run my own company. So you would think that those things would be huge blocks, but I think what I focused on, and this is a tip for anyone listening. All I did was I listened to the client and to the VAs and I was hearing, getting this feedback all the time. Like there was huge complaints. I mean, in the beginning, it was a mess, right? You know, there’s people complaining and whinging and, my God, it was terrible. But I kept trying to go, right, just listen deeply and then try to build it. Keep rebuilding the entire business such that we keep answering for all these problems. And I was like, rather than seeing it as a complaint or, you know, yeah, it’s annoying in the beginning, but you can use that as the gold from which you can build from. And then the block of thinking, oh, well, I’ve never done this before, forget that crap. I mean, just, you know, don’t worry about it. I had no experience in any of this and I had to learn, you know, incrementally myself. And, you know, it’s a commitment to getting it right. And I guess I say this to people trying to delegate all the time. I go, delegating is not an easy thing to get right. And it’s something that it’s like mastering delegation and systems and operations in business is a skill that you must master. You’re not naturally going to be good at it. You have to continue to hone it like your leadership skills. I think that’s, yeah, it turns into your opportunity if you commit to the learning and doing.

Teri Carangela: That’s powerful. And like you said, like delegation, I think a lot of us have this head space around it costs too much. They’re not going to do it correctly. Yes, there’s some upfront learning, but when we teach someone and yes, there is some time that we have to take to teach somebody. But once we do that, they’re off and running. Yes, we have to invest in that person for a little short time, but then that gives us freedom, time freedom.

Barbara Turley: The dividends it pays later. Otherwise you end up doing the same thing. Like I say this to people who say to me, I don’t have time for that. I go, okay, well then in 12 months time, you’re going to be doing the same as you are today. And you definitely won’t have time then. So it’s about slowing down now. You sometimes you have to take a step back in order to take two steps forward, which sounds like a cliché, but it’s totally true in this scenario. And, you know, I mean, look, I run a company, it’s got 200 people. I’m the, well, there’s one other person at the moment, I’m pretty much the only person who is not in the Philippines. Most of my team grew up from VAs themselves. Some of the head of HR, I hired her in, she was a big role, but most of them I have mentored them up. I have worked with VAs that other clients were like, nah, can’t work with them, and I’m like, I’ll work with them. And some of those have gone on to be super successful on our internal teams. So it is about saying, okay, what are the strengths of this person? What’s the training gaps? Where’s the communication gap? What’s their style? What’s my style? There’s a lot to the delegation game that people just kind of don’t realize. It’s simple, but not necessarily easy. So you also have to lay off yourself and go, it’s not easy, right? But committing to it can pay the largest dividends to any business.

Teri Carangela: What do you think is the biggest challenge that entrepreneurs have about delegating to like a VA or because the VA, I think, you know, there’s so many specialties within a VA that we get to pick and choose, but like just taking that next step for that business expansion, like what do you find has been the biggest challenge with working with employees?

Barbara Turley: Yep. So, so now this is going to sound kind of, you know, not fair, but it’s because all business owners go hell for leather putting the work in to most other things. But with this thing, they don’t want to put the work in. Everybody wants to put the work into the fun stuff, like marketing, social media and product delivery and like getting the thing right and talking to the client or whatever it is that is your thing. Process mapping is like, for some people, is worse than sticking needles in their eyeballs. You know, like they just don’t want to do it and they just won’t admit. And the idea of building a machine, a business is a machine, whether we like it or not. It has impact and it can be beautiful, but the machine element is something most business owners shy away from and it’s operations. And if you want to delegate effectively, you first must have the right operational framework such that you can plug anybody into it. And then, you know, you need training and all that on that side, but there’s work to be done. That is a little excruciating for the majority of entrepreneurial types of people, because the nature of an entrepreneur is you want to go after the fast stuff and you want to, you know, you’re a hunter, not farmer, you know, and to farm takes time and fertilizing the soil and, you know, showing the love and all that sort of stuff. So that’s why it’s hard. But, you know, committing to it will raise the asset value of your company. This is the other thing, this is completely outside of VAs. But the asset value of a company is way higher the more systemized it is and the lower the cost of people you can put in to run it. And that is a fact. So it is worth it to commit to it.

Teri Carangela: I love this. And we were talking kind of offline here, talking about systems and structure. And that’s so powerful. Like when you have, I mean, that’s why small, you know, in the U.S., you know, that’s why McDonald’s is so successful. It’s the smallest, most successful, you know, one of the most successful small business models, right? Because everything is systemized, right? And so we were talking about the book E-Myth Revisited and they talk about the systems, like having the systems and structure. Changes everything because you can have someone leave and you can replace that person really quickly and simultaneously to still keep the business growth model going.

Barbara Turley: You’re not going to be held hostage then by, you never find yourself held hostage by the person who has the IP. So the person who’s like, excuse me, want way more money because I hold all the IP. Well, you will have those types of people in the business too, but it means then you can have what I call a high-low strategy. You can have like the super talented, quite highly paid positions, a small number of them in your company, or you can even hire them in as consultants and not actually have them in your company at all. And have most of the execution work, which is 80% of the stuff that needs to be done. The doing can be done by amazing offshore teams. And that’s not to belittle the offshore staff, of course, but you’re also creating great careers and stuff for people like that. They might be onshore. They could be U.S. people that just want a nice job that has recurring, clear expectations, clear tasks. You’ll have a happy company if you run it that way. And it’ll be very profitable if you do it that way.

Teri Carangela: Yes. I agree. I agree. So because we were talking about this earlier and I want to bring this back, this other layer into this conversation, because we were talking about having being entrepreneurs and also being the mom, right? And tying that piece in. And what you said offline was great because you said, you know, I really wanted to focus on, you know, creating a company and proving to myself that I can have young children at home and still be able to have an impact with a successful business. So say more about that.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, so that was, I was almost like a, you know, red rag to a bull when I was back in corporate and I was talking about, you know, with our CEO, who was my boss at the time, who I loved to bits and is still friends, friend of mine. And I remember him saying to me, he goes, you know, Barb, you know, you’re at an age in your life where I know you want to have a family and like, you should stay here. You should stay in corporate and take your maternity leave. And I remember just feeling so kind of, like really, is that where it’s going to come to? Like, I can’t do this because I want to have children. And the world is against us as moms. It is very hard. Like it’s really exhausting. And I kind of set out on a path to prove that I could run a company from anywhere, right? So I also have moved from Australia to France and nothing has changed in my business at all. It had to be online for me. It had to be something that had the ability to run from afar. And it had to be something I could run while having children. And the interesting thing is from building this company, I’ve realized that you can do this with any company. The committing to the operations, to the frameworks and to the delegation and the leadership has freed me to be able to not only be pregnant and give birth and have children, but also now have young children and to be very present in my business, but also very present in my family. And that was very important. Now, the one thing I learned though, and here’s the golden tip that I missed out on. I remember thinking, you can do it 50/50. And I was all excited about this concept until I sort of burnt myself out slightly going, oh, I forgot about me. So I was like, you can be 50% mom, 50% business owner, entrepreneur. I was like, now these days I’m like, you need to be 40/40/20. So you need to have a space for you as a person as well. And actually currently I’m working with my highest up leadership team right now on carving out a similar sort of structure for them. Like my head of client experience, for example, I need her to have strategic thought time. So like maybe she just goes for a bike ride, but that’s part of her job now. I’m like, I need you to go out and have space in here so that we can work on strategy. So you know, that’s something I didn’t get so right in the beginning.

Teri Carangela: Oh, that’s powerful and incorporating that into their job description is powerful.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, very important. I mean, maybe not for everyone in the company, but definitely your people who need to think strategically. If they’re doing all day long, you know, and you might think, you know, I’m like, well, if they’re doing an eight hour day, I think they need like three hours in that day where they’re kind of doing nothing or go or like part of their role is to go and do their fitness or their passion or whatever it is. They need to be able to do that. So that’s important for their mind.

Teri Carangela: That’s powerful. I love that. So let me ask you this. What has been something that’s been powerful for you? A tip, a tool, a strategy that has been helpful for you in this journey for yourself that you can share with the listeners?

Barbara Turley: So first of all, I have a tool that changed my life when I found it. And that tool is a very simple tool. It’s free, called Asana. There’s also Trello. So that’s the same. It is a project management tool. And some people will be like, I don’t need that. Well, you have, there’s an app on your phone. You can, I run a 200 person company sometimes from my phone because of Asana. It is the most powerful tool that changed how I ran business, how I run everything. And all of our team communicates inside of Asana. And we’re all on the same flow. So that’s number one. And then a book that changed my life, which I would highly recommend is the book Scaling Up by Verne Harnish. I read it once on a flight going to the Philippines and I came back from that Philippine trip and I completely rebuilt the entire company on that book. So I went on to do the course. I did the course last year, the online program with them and it just blew my mind. So Scaling Up, the Growth Institute, Verne Harnish. Amazing book and course.

Teri Carangela: All right. I have not read that, but I…

Barbara Turley: The operations and all that kind of thing is in there. You had to do it. Yeah.

Teri Carangela: I love it. I love it. I have not read that book, but it is now on my list to read and listen to. Thank you. And again, Asana and Trello, those are systems that just help manage. They allow you to know what’s going on at a glance without having to get into the weeds. So it’s just some fighting for your business, what works for you. And Asana and Trello can be used across in any industry, I believe, in any type of business model. So very powerful. I love it. Well, thank you so much for being here and coming to us straight from France. So appreciative of your company. And I am so appreciative. Like I have been referring people all the time because I know the model and I love how you treat your staff and I love how it’s different. It is really different than anything that I have found to be true. And so I just absolutely appreciate you for having this accidental business success here, because you’re helping other people like myself build a company that we can, we can absolutely, you know.

Barbara Turley: Change lives. I mean, that’s your unlock…

Teri Carangela: Delegate and outsource stuff that I’m not a brilliant, that I’m not a genius in. You know, Malou, my assistant is fantastic at doing like, I mean, sometimes I’ll say, can you do this? And she’s like, let me get back to you. And then she’s like, yes, I can. I’m like, my gosh, like that just freed up another 15 minutes of my life, you know? And so looking at, for folks that are listening to us, look at what is it that is not in your zone of genius? What can you outsource? And I know on your website, I’m going to tell people about this because I hope it, I hope it’s still there. They have a task list, like a VA task list, a master task list. For me, it was like one of the things I had a hard time wrapping my head around, you know, outsourcing things was like, what are they going to do? And so when you see this list, I literally printed it out and I went through and I highlighted everything that they could do for me. And then I gave it back to them and said, okay, this is what I need. And it was so effortless. And I’m like, okay, then we created a plan around that. And then, you know, over the course of three to five months, we tweaked things. I’m like, we didn’t really do this. We’re doing it this way instead. And so there was a little process, but my goodness. Absolutely love. So if you’re interested in reaching out to The Virtual Hub, please do so. We’re going to put down all the information down in the links as well. And then for anyone who has questions, they have a great staff there, so reach out to them as well. And Barbara, where can they find, where can they connect with you?

Barbara Turley: Sure, so if you want to connect with me personally, LinkedIn is probably the best place to find me and can find out a bit more about me personally over there. So just Barbara Turley on LinkedIn. And then on our website, thevirtualhub.com, it is a wealth of content over there. I also have a podcast, shameless plug for my podcast, which is all about how to delegate to VAs, there’s like all sorts of shows there. And if you really want to take this further, on our website as well, under the resources section, so thevirtualhub.com, there’s a masterclass by me there where I delve into, you know, the no-brainer strategy that we just kind of talked about here and a bit more about how to actually get into the nuts and bolts of doing it, figuring out what you can actually get off your plate and then the financial impact to your company of doing that. So that would be great. Jump on over there. And you can also book a call with us over there on our website.

Teri Carangela: I love it. Thank you so much, Barbara, for being here today.

Barbara Turley: Thank you.

Teri Carangela: I am so grateful that you joined me for this episode. If you’ve enjoyed this, then there’s just one thing that I would like you to do. Click to subscribe and leave me a rating and review. As my way to thank you, let’s connect for a free consultation. Just reach out to me at TalkingWithTeri.com to book your time.

So the question you have to ask yourself, what’s on your plate right now that is not in your zone of brilliance? Yes, go ahead and do it now. If you need help, pop over to thevirtualhub.com website, print out their task list, highlight all the things that you’re doing that’s not in your zone of brilliance. And then it’s time to stop doing them. Okay, seriously, let’s hire this out. You will be amazed at how much more money, clients, freedom you can actually generate where you’re not getting stuck doing all the work and getting trapped in those weeds. All right, our next guest shares an unbelievable journey that there, I mean, just there are no words. Join us for this incredible journey.