Josh Elledge: Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients? Well, I’ve had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I’ve got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I’ll share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don’t forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I’d love to have you.

Introduction to The Virtual Hub and Business Scaling Support

With us right now, it’s Barbara Turley. Barbara, you are the founder and CEO of The Virtual Hub. You’re found online at thevirtualhub.com. Barbara, thank you for joining us.

Barbara Turley: Thanks so much for having me, Josh.

Josh Elledge: Well, I’d love to learn a little bit more about what The Virtual Hub is, what you do, and who you serve.

Barbara Turley: Sure. So we typically serve scale-up companies who are in that phase where their operation starts to become quite a thing. And what we find is that the owners of the business or the managers in the business tend to start getting bogged down even more in the busy work that needs to be done, but not necessarily by them. And we integrate great cost-effective support teams into those businesses to free up the time and energy of those people so that they can go on and grow that business and have the impact that they really want.

Josh Elledge: Yeah. And this is the world that you watch, you know, obviously staffing and building teams and, you know, kind of knowing as well, you know, how we can connect
The Essential Role of Assistants in Modern Business

with remote teams to be able to, you know, do the things that we really, really want. What’s the state of the, I’d say the state of the union, as it were, for, you know, all things VA and staffing and virtual teams right now?

Expansion of Virtual Assistants and Remote Work Adoption After COVID

Barbara Turley: Yes. The look, the virtual staffing, remote virtual assistance, this whole industry has been around obviously for a very, very long time. And some people think it’s just new, but it’s not. Been around for a couple of decades now, but it has exploded, particularly since the COVID years, of course, because more and more companies that wouldn’t traditionally have looked at, you know, remote teams, COVID came along, changed everything. Now it doesn’t matter—different house, different state, different country—it doesn’t matter, essentially. So more and more companies are really embracing this.

I think the other side of it is as well that, you know, obviously since COVID as well, we’ve had interest rate increases, we’ve had issues around difficulty getting capital, you know, margin squeeze, employee engagement is plummeting. All of the issues that are coming are seeing companies think really deeply about their people budgets and their people strategy. And they’ve realized that a lot of these issues, the burnout, the lack of engagement, et cetera, is coming because people are actually really, really overwhelmed with all the busy work. There’s a lot of work to be done. Sometimes this hiring freezes.

And in this context, what you really want to start to do is think about how do we deliver? How do we get more out of our current resourcing, out of our current people, out of our current capacity? Of course, you can do that with platforms and tools like Asana or even AI, is of course a big topic that’s coming, but there’s still a big place where people are really needed. And I think there’s just the landscape is changing in that people or companies are more open to doing remote and are now looking at this strategy for a whole host of reasons that I’ve mentioned.

Challenges with Freelance Platforms and Inconsistent Hiring Outcomes

Josh Elledge: Yeah. Well, you know, there are a lot of ways, I think, to find great team members. Certainly, there are plenty of platforms that have existed for a long period of time. That, you know, and platforms, I say like an Upwork or Fiverr, you know, some of these other platforms solve certain needs. But there are problems that are inherent with those types of platforms. And obviously, you know, I talked with a lot of leaders and, you know, it’s really great, you know, depending on what the role is that you’re looking to fill to be able to work with what exactly, what exactly, what exactly what you do with The Virtual Hub.

Do you mind maybe sharing how The Virtual Hub is a significant improvement over, say, other platforms?

The Virtual Hub Approach to Hiring, Onboarding, and Team Integration

Barbara Turley: Sure, yes. So of course you can, you know, you can go online and you can get, you know, they call it cheaper staff offshore. That’s, you know, you can do that and maybe get a home run doing that. But what I would advise is usually companies or businesses, by the time they come to us, they’re already too busy for this.

And I think if you’re going to use some of your time and energy in recruiting and in managing people, you probably want to save that time and energy, because it does take a lot of time and energy to get the right people. You want to save that for the really key roles and for the key people that you already service in that regard. And companies like that because, you know, we even have, you know, seven to 10 day onboarding. So it’s, you know, it’s one call coming in—hey, we need a support layer. We get what you’re talking about. What are the next steps? When can we get started?

You know, I think other things we see companies doing is that, you know, they sort of go, yeah, I think having an assistant would be great, but they’re just not willing or ready to put in the amount of work that it’s going to take to find one, then cultural fit, integrating them inside the business. And then the third point I would make, which is more on the client side, I think sometimes certain companies or people think, well, we’re all really busy. I know—let’s just throw a body at the problem.

So I call this like literally you go online, you find someone, and you dump a load of tasks on them. You don’t treat them like a proper employee. You don’t treat them like a part of the team, you know, all of these issues. This is where things start to unravel. So realistically, I think we help with a lot of the heavy lifting of that with the client too.

And in addition, we have a final piece of the puzzle, which we built a couple of years ago because we saw the need. A lot of companies are not set up with the right operational frameworks in order to make remote work work. Now that’s a whole other topic, not just about assistance, but if you want to make remote and distributed teams work really effectively, you need the right tooling, the right architecture online. You need to build the company digital-first, and everybody needs to be connected in the cloud. And that doesn’t mean Slack and Zoom, right? Slack and Zoom don’t make a digital company, essentially.

So we also have consulting and implementation to help with certain platforms like Asana, for example, or Monday. We do all sorts of things in that way. And that helps when you also have a remote support team to really integrate them properly and for everyone to feel very, very connected within the mission and within the company.

Common Delegation Mistakes and Why Hiring Efforts Break Down

Josh Elledge: Yeah. Barbara, and I love that you kind of talked about, you know, tips for ensuring success, which I think is just so critical because I know it can be very problematic and very expensive, you know, if we get going with someone and it doesn’t work out. And it can be easy for leaders or team members or hirers to say, well, it’s the VA’s fault. You know, they just kind of gave up or, you know, they’re not as good as they were, you know, during the first month or so.

What tips would you provide so that—and again, this could go for, you know, obviously someone that we’ve sourced through The Virtual Hub or, you know, maybe it’s our own, you know, employee that’s a little bit more local—but are there any best practices that you think are just very valuable to ensure that people stay connected, that everyone feels rewarded, that everyone feels motivated, we’re creating great outcomes together?

Best Practices for Managing Remote Teams and Driving Team Performance

Barbara Turley: Sure, yeah. The number one tip I can share—and this applies, of course, to remote teams that are a support layer that we would put in, but also this applies to any company in today’s environment—where regardless of even if you’re all in an office together, there will always be somebody who is not in that day or is out on the road that day. Distributed and remote teams are not new. Everyone thinks it’s new since COVID, but there were always people who weren’t in the office.

You know, if you think about it, it’s actually been that way for a very long time. But in today’s world, you know, with hybrid working and all this sort of thing going on, you need to change the structure of how we work. So of course, platforms really, really matter, but also process of how we use the tools also matters.

You need to have—so starting at the beginning—you need to have a design that the entire company agrees upon. For example, you can’t—I mean, lots of companies are doing this wrong. They’ve got one team that likes Asana, another team that likes Jira, another team that likes ClickUp, and everyone’s allowed to choose their own adventure with the platforms that they use. And while you might think that that’s a great way to allow people to, you know, explore whatever they want to do or do it the way they want to do it, from a company perspective, there’s no cohesion.

So you need to all be rowing the boat in the same direction. You all need to be in the one boat for a start and then rowing the boat in the same direction from a company perspective in order to achieve your goals. So there has to be some discussion about the architecture we’re going to use, the tools we’re going to use in order to get into this digital-first realm.

The second piece of it is the process around how we use the tools. So for example, a lot of people are talking about it now. Again, it’s been around for multi-decades, but objectives and key results are absolutely a game changer for how you deal with remote teams. And that trickles right down to support layer assistance.

And if you’re focusing on, you know, what are we trying to achieve and what are the key results we’re expecting to see that we’ve achieved these objectives, it means that your conversations become more about the outcomes, about where we’re driving to, and the processes that we’re doing to get us there rather than watching work hours, et cetera. And you can have those conversations with your entire team at the beginning to make it very, very clear what is the process around how we’re going to work together and how we’re going to get success.

You can also kind of lay down the foundation of if we don’t do this, then here are the steps we’re going to take along the way, be it coaching, training, mentoring, discussing it. And eventually, we’re going to say, well, is this a people problem? Et cetera. So it makes those conversations a lot easier later in a remote environment where problems around transparency and visibility are the key issues, right? Because we can’t see each other, we feel like it’s a black hole. So therefore, we’ve got to plug those gaps in visibility and transparency.

And if you do that really, really well and you get this kind of platform and process set up right, then you can plug a lot of support layer people in because now you’ve built a machine. I mean, this is business 101, right? This is the Michael Gerber’s E-Myth. It’s all of these things, you know, put into practice. The amount of companies that are still not doing it is phenomenal. I see it all the time. And they invariably blame the lowest person in the company, which is the assistant who, you know, doesn’t get it, isn’t trained, and all of the above. But really, you’re not putting them into a system that is designed for anyone really to get success. And then you churn through people.

Now, the issues are real, though. You do have people issues. You know, we’re talking not a widget, we’re talking people who walk and talk and change their mind and do the wrong thing and all that sort of thing. But from a company perspective, if you build it this way and you have the right communication flow and platform architecture, then you’re a long way towards being able to integrate great support layer cost effectively and get the most out of the VA world and the remote.

The Role of AI in Business Efficiency and Team Productivity

Josh Elledge: Yeah. Okay, a couple more. I want to ask you one more question before I kind of talk about next steps for our friend that’s listening. AI has likely impacted your world quite a bit. And my suspicion is that more and more employers are probably asking about that because they’re looking for efficiency or they’re looking for, you know, some sort of enabling that or, you know, can I get, you know, talent that knows how to use AI-enabled tools so that, you know, we can do more things together. Is that—are you observing that, or is that just my imagination? I don’t know.

How AI Enhances Assistant Performance

Barbara Turley: No. So with AI, great topic. So AI, when it first launched, I mean, like many of us, we were thinking, my gosh, this, you know, so many businesses are dead. The reality is, of course, AI is amazing. It is moving super fast. In two years’ time, we have no idea how amazing this is going to be, what it’s going to cannibalize, like all sorts of things.

However, on the flip side, what I am really seeing is that while the tools are amazing, I personally don’t really use the tools because I want my team using the tools, right? So I still, you know, we have managed to get better work, and our support people are able to—the assistants at that layer are actually more effective than they ever were before because of AI now. But I don’t know whether it’s fully replacing them because you still need someone to run the tools.

And, you know, if you’re snipping this podcast, for example, of course there are AI tools that will do it for you. We’ve tried them all out. They are good. I’m personally not going to spend my day doing that, though. I’m still going to get my assistants to do that and just speed them up. And it means that we can do more content, more snipping, more and better. But sometimes we find the tool doesn’t quite get the snippet that we think—we still have to work with it. So I think it’s still a little like—

Using AI for SOP Creation, Planning, and Process Development

Josh Elledge: Oh, absolutely!

Barbara Turley: Yeah, I agree. It’s okay. But I often find that we’re sort of re-snipping it, going, I’d miss this bit or that bit, or, you know.

Josh Elledge: Yeah. Specifically, I think if we’re talking about content—and content is still—you know, there’s definitely an AI voice, and it takes quite a bit of massaging plus, you know, editorial oversight. Now that said, I think leaders are listening. If you want to monkey run with AI, use it for planning, use it for strategy, use it for decision-making, use it for mind mapping, use it for, you know, a SWOT analysis or something like that.

We use—I use it all the time for just like thinking things out and potentially creating SOPs that I can then give to my team so that I feel like I can resource them better or in a way that they deserve me to resource. And I think historically that’s been a challenge for me. I was like, do I come up with robust SOPs, or have I relied on them to kind of figure it out with more high-level direction? And I would say, if I’m criticizing my own past behavior pre-ChatGPT and AI tools, I would say I do a much better—let me just reflect on the positive—I do a better job today.

Why Process Documentation Strengthens Delegation and Business Scalability

Barbara Turley: Yes, and look, let’s be honest, writing SOPs is like sticking needles in your eyeballs for most people. I mean, I actually quite like—

Josh Elledge: Okay, thank you, thank you. Okay, I don’t feel so bad.

Barbara Turley: No, it’s such tedious work. It’s painful. I mean, the only reason I sort of get off on it is because I’m the type of person who I’m naturally lazy. And I just think, oh my God, if I could process this up—and I think to myself, if I could just process this thing, I could delegate that. And then I don’t ever have to do this again. I can train it and delegate it.

And I’m really good at, like, I’ve created processes and systems from all sorts of things that you wouldn’t think you could get support assistance or virtual assistants, as we call them, to do. But I’ve been very successful at that. So I’m very passionate about the process mapping thing. So whatever helps you to get the processes done is an absolute game changer because doing them yourself is tedious, right?

So that’s okay. You’re totally normal. You’re most people with this. And if you can use AI, I mean, use it whatever way you can. And then you can use it to iterate process and say, you know, watch for mistakes and go like—mistake happened here because sometimes the person doing it doesn’t have the IP that you did when you’re thinking through the process. So you need to add steps so that can deepen things. But, you know, whatever way you can use AI.

But having said that, though, the key point here is I think that you’ve really highlighted—whatever way you get to the processes and the systems to build your company, whatever way you get there, it’s important that you get there for a number of reasons. Number one, you’ll have happier people. Number two, it’ll expose the support layer that’s in your business. And there’ll be lots of processes that you’ll go, well, 80% of that process doesn’t need me, so why am I doing 100% of it? I should really get a VA to do 80% of it and I do the 20%. People have very all-or-nothing thinking when it comes to this sort of thing.

And then, of course, the final bit is we’re all in business, obviously to create impact and to do amazing things, but it is also an asset. And the better your business is built, the more systemized a business is, the higher the asset value of that company and the cheaper the support layer you can get in to run it. So there’s a whole myriad of reasons why you would want to have a well-built, well-oiled, systemized process map, digital-first type company. And putting in the support layer or virtual assistants or support teams or however you want to call it is kind of the big icing on the cake. But the real key is actually building the company properly.

Getting Started with The Virtual Hub and Building a Support Team

Josh Elledge: 100%. Your website, thevirtualhub.com. Barbara, when somebody goes there and they’re looking to build out their dream team, what would you recommend? I see something here. I don’t know if you were going to mention this. I’m going to mention it. You’ve got a button right on the front that says “watch the masterclass.” And that looks like it’s pretty valuable. It’s how to delegate and scale your business. That plus anything else you’d recommend for a friend that’s listening?

Barbara Turley: Yeah. So that masterclass is definitely by me. I mean, I have a background in the financial industry and scaling companies, et cetera. So it’s really my philosophy unpacked a bit more than the things we’ve been talking about here. So I’d really encourage anyone to go and look at that masterclass.

In addition, excuse me, of course on LinkedIn, I’m talking a lot about the issues that we discussed here today. So please come and follow me on LinkedIn, Barbara Turley. I think it’s Barbara-Turley. There’s a forward slash IN—maybe we can put that in the show notes. And yeah, hi over there.

And of course, you know, if you want to explore this further, do book a call with our team. The guys are great. They’re not salespeople. They’re there to try to help you figure out how we would fit into your company or not. And where—what level are you ready for this? Should you do this? Can we help? How we would help, et cetera. So please book a call and go and chat to the guys over there about what we can do.

Josh Elledge: Excellent. Barbara Turley, founder and CEO of The Virtual Hub, found on the web at thevirtualhub.com. Barbara, thank you.

Barbara Turley: Thanks, Josh.

Josh Elledge: Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders.

And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you’re looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I’ve got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I’m going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies.

Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning—that’s right, seven days a week—you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day.

Thanks for listening, and thank you for being a part of the thoughtful entrepreneur movement.