In this episode, we welcome Molly Rose Speed, founder of Virtual Assistant Academy, to discuss strategies for creating time freedom in your business and life. Molly shares insights into managing time effectively, balancing work and personal life in a virtual business environment, and practical tech hacks for boosting productivity.
Conversation Highlights:
Key Strategies for Time Management
Molly emphasizes the importance of prioritizing tasks and setting boundaries to manage time effectively. She suggests using time-blocking techniques and tools like calendars and project management apps to stay organized.
Balancing Work and Personal Life
For entrepreneurs, finding a balance between work and personal life can be challenging. Molly suggests creating a designated workspace, setting clear work hours, and incorporating breaks and self-care activities into your daily routine.
Productivity Tech Hacks
Molly shares some of her favorite productivity tech tools, including project management apps like Asana and Trello, communication tools like Slack and Zoom, and automation tools like Zapier. She also discusses the benefits of using virtual assistants to delegate tasks and streamline processes.
Outsourcing to a Virtual Team
Outsourcing tasks to a virtual team can help entrepreneurs save time and focus on their core business activities. Molly shares tips for finding, hiring, and effectively working with virtual assistants, as well as common challenges and how to overcome them.
Building a Profitable Virtual Career
Molly explains the inspiration behind Virtual Assistant Academy and how it empowers virtual assistants to build successful careers. She outlines the steps for aspiring virtual assistants to start and grow their businesses, highlighting key components of a profitable virtual business.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Good Enough Mompreneur Podcast. Be sure to visit Virtual Assistant Academy for more information on how to create time freedom in your business and life. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll discuss more tips and strategies for mompreneurs.
Connect with Molly:
🌐 www.virtualassistantacademy.com and www.virtualassistantmanagement.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mollyrosespeed
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mollyrosespeed/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mollyrosespeed/
💖 If you enjoy The Good Enough Mompreneur Podcast, subscribe, follow, share and
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Leave a Review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen! 🎧
Thank you for listening and keep up the great work, mama!
In this episode, we welcome Molly Rose Speed, founder of Virtual Assistant Academy, to discuss strategies for creating time freedom in your business and life. Molly shares insights into managing time effectively, balancing work and personal life in a virtual business environment, and practical tech hacks for boosting productivity.
Conversation Highlights:
Key Strategies for Time Management
Molly emphasizes the importance of prioritizing tasks and setting boundaries to manage time effectively. She suggests using time-blocking techniques and tools like calendars and project management apps to stay organized.
Balancing Work and Personal Life
For entrepreneurs, finding a balance between work and personal life can be challenging. Molly suggests creating a designated workspace, setting clear work hours, and incorporating breaks and self-care activities into your daily routine.
Productivity Tech Hacks
Molly shares some of her favorite productivity tech tools, including project management apps like Asana and Trello, communication tools like Slack and Zoom, and automation tools like Zapier. She also discusses the benefits of using virtual assistants to delegate tasks and streamline processes.
Outsourcing to a Virtual Team
Outsourcing tasks to a virtual team can help entrepreneurs save time and focus on their core business activities. Molly shares tips for finding, hiring, and effectively working with virtual assistants, as well as common challenges and how to overcome them.
Building a Profitable Virtual Career
Molly explains the inspiration behind Virtual Assistant Academy and how it empowers virtual assistants to build successful careers. She outlines the steps for aspiring virtual assistants to start and grow their businesses, highlighting key components of a profitable virtual business.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Good Enough Mompreneur Podcast. Be sure to visit Virtual Assistant Academy for more information on how to create time freedom in your business and life. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll discuss more tips and strategies for mompreneurs.
Connect with Molly:
🌐 www.virtualassistantacademy.com and www.virtualassistantmanagement.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mollyrosespeed
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mollyrosespeed/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mollyrosespeed/
💖 If you enjoy The Good Enough Mompreneur Podcast, subscribe, follow, share and
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Leave a Review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen! 🎧
Thank you for listening and keep up the great work, mama!
Interview with Molly Rose Speed
[00:00:00] Hi, Molly, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to talk to you about your expertise and being the go to virtual assistant for so many people in the industry. So thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for having me, Angela. I'm excited about this and stepping into the new year full force and supporting VAs and those that need them.
Yes. I think this is such a great topic and it's, I think it's such an important. Pivotal point as an entrepreneur, being able to. Develop yourself and trust somebody else to help you and then the growth that can come from that is just awesome. So why don't you give listeners a little background on how you went from corporate accountant to starting this virtual assistance academy and what you do now.
Yeah, absolutely. So I like to say I was a corporate cubicle dweller. I'd had three jobs in three [00:01:00] years. I was just and I had relocated trying to find, my spot in corporate America for a career and found myself as an analyst in a hospital, which would have been a great career path in healthcare.
But I knew that wasn't how I wanted to spend my time. I didn't want 10 days of vacation. I, my husband was in the still is. And so I would Wanted to be around when he was home because he would deploy a lot and realize quite young that this is a, there's a different path for me. And so I did at the time, it was the scariest thing.
And I quit my job called Turkey and I became a virtual assistant without even knowing what a virtual assistant was. I got hired to do some social media work for a crowdfunding campaign and kind of got my feet wet. And it. And that shift of I can get paid for my expertise outside of a W 2 was that first taste of freelance and getting into the VA world.
So fast forward about five years, I had supported several [00:02:00] clients, built websites and courses and mastered the administrative role for online business owners. And I. At the same time, I was traveling quite often. And so several of my peers, many military spouses and moms would see what I was doing.
And they're like, how do I do this? And so I created what is the virtual assistant Academy. It's gone through several iterations as technology and the advancements of this career have come along. And so it is a training program for virtual assistants to really professionalize the space. Cause.
Anyone can pick it up and decide to be a VA like me and have to figure it out. And then now today we have a placement agency, virtual assistant management, which places are certified virtual assistants with awesome entrepreneurs. So that's full circle. That's awesome. I had no idea you were a military spouse because I was a military spouse for more than a decade.
And that was really. Military spouses are underemployed and it's [00:03:00] so difficult having to juggle deployments and family and still wanting to earn an income and have, a professional career. That's part of my momentum behind this podcast is empowering military spouses and. Parents that have young children that still want to be a parent like they would like to be, but still be able to earn income and work.
Yeah, but just in a non traditional way, it's becoming more traditional, thankfully, but that's really awesome. I love that because it is so needed. There are so many. Moms and military spouses that just feel really isolated and stuck with very few options. Yeah, absolutely. And I see how this career and several others, and certainly the economy shifting to a more work remote acceptable workspace has really opened up the doors for military spouses.
So [00:04:00] I'm proud to see that happen. Yeah, when I started that more than a decade ago, it was not no, it was like that's a wonderful. So maybe we should start talking about how we can open up our thought process on how. a VA can create time freedom for us in our business and how we need to start valuing that.
So what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, absolutely. So I like to share with entrepreneurs and business owners, which by the way, virtual assistants are also that, we start our business. For a specific reason, we want to coach that demographic. We have a widget. We're trying to sell. We have a consulting business.
We're a public speaker. We're an author, whatever it might be. There's tons of online businesses these days. And as business owners, we say. Oh, this is all I have to do. I'm going to start a business. But along the way they have to wear what I call 27 hats. They have to do billing and [00:05:00] bookkeeping and marketing and check their inbox and customer service and send the invoice, get paid, track the payment down, open the checking account.
I can go on and on, build courses, build websites, update the blog, update the social, all of that. And. They quickly find themselves not in what I call their zone of genius or the passion, the reason why they started their business because they're running their business. And so the first person that I think an entrepreneur should hire is a virtual assistant because they can take care of so much of that admin off of your plate.
And they really can do a lot for you versus a. Specialized person in social media. As an example, they might be able to do that and admin and handle some of your website work as an example. So that's where I start with business owners that getting them to realize why they should hire a VA, even just for five hours a week, it can be a huge game changer.
And the other game changer too, is [00:06:00] the mental space, like we don't talk about that and we don't realize the value of like less mental load really allows you to be able to free up mental space and time to be able to do the more creative things in your business. Yeah. That was something I couldn't believe and you don't really experience it until you hire a VA.
And you're like, Oh, my gosh, absolutely. Absolutely. So we're creating more time in our businesses with VA. So what are some of the. Ways where we can leverage that VA and maybe tech to also be more productive. Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that I encourage my virtual assistants to integrate into a business, if it isn't already there are things like.
Project [00:07:00] management tools. So the one I'm going to mention is Asana because it's my favorite and it's free but there's others out there Trello or Monday or ClickUp. There's lots of options. But in discussing something like Asana, it really takes It's almost like you're brain dumping all the things that you need to get done.
And then you're holding someone accountable, whether it's you or someone on your team and a due date of when that's going to happen. So then when you're going to sit down and be productive in front of your computer, you pull up a sauna, you look at your tasks and you just get to work. I find that even personally, when I don't know what I'm supposed to do today, I'm far less.
Productive than when say today I sat down, I was like, Oh, I have two blogs to write. I have an invoice to send. I have a PowerPoint to make, and I just knocked it out in a little over an hour before we chatted. So I think that's super important and a VA can help.
And then this isn't necessarily tech, but something I want to mention [00:08:00] is using an assistant to be your gatekeeper in your inbox, I think can be super powerful. So having them in your inbox every morning before 10 AM and you don't have to touch it. Unless there's, they'll let you know if there's an SOS, think of all that.
If you get up at 6 30, have your morning coffee and you're plugged in by 7 30, if you want, or whatever your day looks like, that is so much more mental space, like you mentioned to just be creative and have really powerful output in your business. Oh, yeah. And just, doing things that you might not have ever thought of or had the time to do creating like things that you respond to often and just creating like a kit or a packet or, a PDF or something to answer those questions.
And it's just like rainbows and like animals. It is just goodness. I [00:09:00] can't just talk about the benefits of hiring a VA enough. So what are some of the tips for implementing some of the systems that we might want to do in the tech? Because sometimes it's so hard for someone to make that mental leap.
Do you have any strategies for somebody to begin to think about how they might do that? Yeah. So I think, you might listen to a podcast like this or read an article or attend a conference and you'll be like, okay, I need all these systems set up to be productive. You could say, I need an online scheduler.
I need autoresponders on my inbox. I need a signature. I need a project management tool. I need social media planning. I just named four or five things right there and that's overwhelming. And Okay. And I notice it's almost like we have to have it built when we're shifting something. So what I would say here is start with one thing a month.
And [00:10:00] I know that sounds slow. It allows you to get it set up, operate it really well and get used to using it before you implement something new. So you don't have to do everything at once. Just take baby steps. To implementing the technology and use it. And then I also say, if it doesn't work for you, don't force it.
You don't have to have a project management tool. I have plenty of clients that use a spreadsheet. It makes me cringe, but it works for them, no, it's so true because our brains are just naturally resistant to trying to take on too much at once and you're probably going to sabotage yourself at that point and it is an ongoing process and I love that we constantly have to remind ourselves that if something's not working for you, even though an expert like yourself said, Hey, Asana works for me.
If it doesn't work for you, then that's all that matters. And it's really about being on that consistent journey to find what does work for you. Yes. Yeah, so [00:11:00] let's talk about, let's talk about some of the strategies for finding and hiring a virtual assistant because that is very daunting and me personally, I thought there's no way I'm going to ever find anybody.
It's just, I had that limiting belief. So yeah, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think people people listening can probably relate to or I've had a story where they're like, Oh, I got burned by a VA or I tried to outsource it didn't work. And I hear that a lot and I understand. So there's lots of place.
First of all, when you're outsourcing, I'd say where I see the biggest breakdown and this is on the entrepreneur actually, is that they aren't clear in what they need. And I know that sounds easy. You think you're going to outsource when we do our consult calls with clients, they'll say, Oh, I just need email and this.
And then when we get into it, it's a [00:12:00] laundry list of things that they actually need. They just didn't have the bandwidth to actually. Pull it out of themselves. So we're able to probe those questions. And so getting crystal clear on the tasks that you need someone to do. Then also what software are you using in your company so that the virtual assistant can align with those things or can easily figure them out.
And then it's a personality. Assessment, right? We don't, we got to figure out who we're going to work well with. For some entrepreneurs, you want someone totally opposite. If you're the introvert, you want the extrovert for others. They want the like minded feelers, but whatever that looks like, taking a, an assessment of who you've worked well with in the past or who you could see yourself delegating to, are they forward, are they assertive or are they more passive and.
Yes, totally. I can take it and I'll check in with you in four days, whatever that looks like for you, as well as some of the geographical things, like what country are they in? What time zone are they in? [00:13:00] It's very difficult to work with someone that's 16 hours. Ahead or behind, that's a challenge.
You get 24 hour turnarounds there. So those are like the more technical things that you really need to do. And then when you go, you have all of this clear, it's basically a job description with your budget and everything aligned in it. Then you go to find that virtual assistant. And what I tell new entrepreneurs is check your network.
There's great people that are either a connection or a connection. Further away. So using things like social media that you're hiring can be a great place to find VAs. You can go through agencies. I run one for a specific reason to really help those business owners that need all of the support and have need a trusted VA from the beginning.
And then there's more budget friendly places to find virtual assistance, like Upwork and Fiverr. I'm not saying that they're bad or shouldn't be used. I do think they should, but you have to be very specific and. It's a long game there. You have to really test and really build that [00:14:00] trust.
It takes a little bit longer than the other ones that I mentioned. So those are my things to get started. Yeah. I, those are, that's a great list and. Also too, it's especially when you're a new entrepreneur, you're not always thinking about leadership. You're thinking about getting the business going and making revenue and, but you really do have to start to hone in your leadership skills because Your VA can only do or anybody on your team can only do and perform to the level to which you lead them to the level to which you're clear and you communicate and how do you like to communicate?
I think, I love your assessment tip because yeah, I'm just a person that doesn't need a lot of communication. Yeah, I'm just like, okay, send it to me, by this and this time fine, I'm not a micromanager, but for some people that makes them [00:15:00] feel really nervous.
Yeah. Yep. So I think definitely assessing how you work and who you work with and what you're comfortable with is a really great tip. So what are some of, what are some of the challenges that you might not have mentioned that you think that we can overcome that maybe we aren't anticipating that would be good to think about ahead of time?
I'll name a few here. So I, when working with. Clients, business owners, entrepreneurs, all the names for this if I, there's traps that they get in before they're outsourcing and they honestly sabotage themselves for months, usually years before they actually take the leap. And the reasons for this are things like it's faster if I just do it myself.
So how many times we hear that okay, but would it take you 30 minutes to just teach someone and then you never have to do it again? Or better yet, can you [00:16:00] just use a little tool called the loom, which is a screen recorder and record yourself doing it one time, give it to your virtual assistant and then check and verify that they do it right.
That seems even more productive. So that's a big pitfall there. Another reason. Okay. Business owners don't outsource is because they're perfectionists and they need everything done their way. And so I do a lot of teaching and training on, it doesn't matter how the VA gets to the results. In fact, they're probably going to get there faster and better than.
The business owner, cause that's their wheelhouse and their zone of genius. So don't worry about the, how just worry about the outcome. And if it's a little off, it's okay. Your blog image isn't gonna get on fire. If the wrong font was in one little spot, but that's all teachings.
And then the third thing I'll mention is trust. I think that we, we have this business we've had for years and it's our baby in a lot of ways. And so trusting someone to come into that and take over [00:17:00] a lot of the responsibilities is challenging. And so that's. That's something you have to build with an assistant, but when it happens, it's amazing.
And they love your business just as much as you do. Yeah. And I think it's so important to, for people to realize there that is totally possible. There are so many people out there that can love your business as much as you do and be as passionate about it. But not be you or, yeah, I really like to point that out because that totally is possible and there are people ready to help support your business dreams make that happen.
And that's so rewarding to be able to do that. I just want to add one, one thing real quick here for business owners that do find that person. I can't echo enough how important it is to. Elevate them in your business. This could be something like changing their job title from virtual assistant to director of ops [00:18:00] or marketing manager, whatever their role really is within your business, that little thing adds so much confidence to the assistant and allows them to have a lot more of a autonomy and they're going to work harder and more, it'll be more beneficial for your business.
And then also, as your business grows, don't remember the person that's. Likely helping you scale that in a big way. So just whether that's verbal recognition or monetary recognition, that's also very important, and just remember those things when you find the right talent, cause you don't want to lose them.
Yeah. And I've asked other BAs that have been on the podcast, this question that, you know, and you touched on that, what can we do? Are there any other tips as. business owners that we can do to better utilize? Is there something that VA's wish entrepreneurs knew? I think the recognition piece is super important.
I know that's always important for me. [00:19:00] Yeah. Getting to know your assistant, even though most virtual assistants are virtual, you might not ever meet them. We're still human. So how was your weekend? You get to know their kids names. You ask how the dance class was or Valentine's day with their husband, whatever that is.
I think that's also really important. And then lastly, I think admitting when maybe you're the one, the clog and the wheel, is that what you say? Whatever that is. You're like a business owner's life gets busy too. And a lot of times the most frustrating thing for an assistant is I can't get my job done until they do.
And if they wait until two on Friday, that creates a lot of frustration. So gotta watch things like that. Yeah. And I always ask for feedback on, is there something I could do better to make your job easier? Yeah, that's a good one. Is there a pro a new process that you've thought about that might.
Make this easier and just always creating that safe space where somebody can share their ideas. I [00:20:00] think is a really important thing to do. Many times when we create businesses, especially if you've come from that corporate environment, we have a tendency to create what we know, not maybe what we wanted.
In that corporate environment. So that is so important to do. But yeah, for somebody who is aspiring to maybe create a virtual assistant career. What are some of those key components for a profitable virtual assistant business? Yeah, absolutely. So I think I want to say anyone can start this business, but I'm learning that there are virtual assistants that really excel at this career and they're rather organized white type a they're a little assertive.
So when I train my virtual assistants, [00:21:00] I teach them to go into a business, to be the professional admin in the company. So your expertise is unlike no one else's in the business. You need to elevate yourself to that role and then step into it and take over all these processes and systems. And you're really are the adding so much efficiency.
So for new virtual assistants. I see them going rather quickly when they dive into kind of that attitude. This is my career. I'm not just a freelancer sitting on my couch between taking the kids to school and home, which by all means, most of us are doing that. But it's a feeling, that you can bring to a business.
And then. Starting with when we talk about profitability, there's lots of ways to structure your business. So there's hourly, hours for dollars, which is where most VA start. And I want them to start there to get their feet wet and get experience and then they can quickly move to retainers where.
They're securing business with clients, [00:22:00] really becoming a part of that business for possibly 10 hours a week at a minimum. And then going from there. I think that's really important. And then lastly, and how I've made quite a bit of money in my businesses is doing project work. So you're going to learn all these skills as a virtual assistant.
So what could you do one off for clients where you do a project you charge, in the thousands of dollars, you finish it all flawlessly, and then they move on while you still have your clients. That's a way to package a business. So you're, and it's also really fun. You're not doing the same thing every day.
Yeah, what is an example of some of the projects that are project types that you've worked on? Because I think sometimes people don't realize where virtual assistants can be utilized, whether you want to start a business or hire a virtual assistant. Yeah. Great question. I'd say some of the most in demand ones are, and I teach my VAs that like to do social media, create a [00:23:00] package where you provide 30 days of social media content for a client for a set price.
You can probably do that in an afternoon if once you get really savvy on Canva and you have their brand and that's a great service you can uplevel that by offering engagement. Daily, on your posting and actually scheduling the social media. So social media is huge and I don't see a lot of VA's actually doing it.
It seems like we all run from social. I'm a huge fan of online courses. I think that, the whole there's. Some stat out there that it's like a 4 billion industry. I might have that wrong, but some, something insane. If you have it wrong, it's low. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. It's that big. Yeah. It's huge.
And it's just ever growing. So if you can learn how to create courses and things like Kajabi or Karcha or. Thinkific and this might sound daunting if you've never been a VA, but once you learn it, it's not very difficult. And then it's all about creating a really organized process for a [00:24:00] client to give you all their files and you to build it in two days.
That's something I offer and really enjoy. There's, I have a VA who basically got a taste of Squarespace, the website builder. And she was hooked and now she, she's literally booked out through August doing two day website builds. And she started as a VA, so there's so many angles. And then here's a basic one.
I talk about inbox zero a lot, and I think it's really important for VAs to help clients get their own Fridays, but you could be a VA that if you're really into just the admin world, you offer a service where you take someone's email account down to inbox zero. So you're sorting and cleaning and unsubscribing and doing all the things that take time.
That's something that I know a lot of people would pay for. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds really interesting to me.
That's awesome. That's a really great list because I think sometimes people don't realize the things that [00:25:00] they can outsource or have, even if they have a virtual assistant, they're just. Have kind of their blinders on what they can get assistance with. Absolutely. So I think always ask, always look for that person, whatever your pain point is, whatever is it that you dread doing, or is not unique to your talents.
Yeah, just try to find some help with that. So Molly, if you wanted to leave listeners with a key takeaway or just want them to remember one or a few things from the conversation, what would that be? I think for the entrepreneurs listening, if you know you need help, get it before you.
Actually need it, like it's not coming out right, but if you're getting a glimpse of I'm on the border of being overwhelmed, or I know that I can scale. If I have someone start creating that job description and just get someone for 5 hours a week. 20 hours a month, it will change so much [00:26:00] for you and you'll just probably spiral into 20 hours a week as your business scales.
And then for virtual assistants I just want to echo the power and this is actually entrepreneurs too, but the power of, I would like to say, create a career around your life, not a life around your career. And that's what entrepreneurship to me is if we do it right. So For those entrepreneurs that are able to outsource, you're able to get more of your life back.
And for those aspiring to be a VA, that's truly what this business can create for you. And you can literally create tasks and create space in your business to help pay for that virtual assistant for that or even more. And I always tell my clients, like if you can't hire a virtual assistant, start documenting your processes.
Yes. When that comes, you can just already just start working with somebody a lot more effortless, effortlessly. Absolutely. Yeah. It's [00:27:00] been wonderful talking to you, Molly. You've got such expertise that I'm sure listeners are going to want to learn more from you. So where can they contact you and connect with you?
Yes, I love that. So I'm Molly Rose speed on all social channels. I like Instagram, so you can find me there. If you're looking to hire a virtual assistant, you can hop, hop on over to virtualassistantmanagement. com. We have an amazing placement manager that can help you even just with a discovery call, if you're starting to dip your toe in this, and then if you're looking to become a virtual assistant virtualassistantacademy.
com is my training and certification program. I love it. This is so great. It's just so necessary to help entrepreneurs just scale their dreams and make all of that happen and more. So thank you so much for your time, Molly. Thank you for having me, Angela. Yeah, it's been awesome.