PODCAST When you create content, a LOT’s going on.

Cohesive messaging that’s relevant & on brand for you.
Copy that grabs your audience by the collar & makes ‘em take note.
Planning & repurposing.
Writing & recording.
Tactics, strategies, scheduling,

OH MY GOD NO WONDER YOU’RE EXHAUSTED.

This is why having someone on your team to support you is VITAL.

Today I’m speaking with Tyreen Taylor of Wise Walk Virtual Solutions.

We break down how to realistically think about getting a virtual assistant to help you with your content creation EVEN IF…

You might think you can’t afford it

You don’t know HOW to hire someone good

You have no idea what you’d hand off

You prefer to be in control of your stuff (No, I’m NOT calling you a control freak!)

Listen to Tyreen’s expertise & learn how hiring a virtual assistant, even a few hours a week, can make an incredible impact in your content creation bottom line.

Let’s go!

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Full Transcript

 Jen Liddy

Well, welcome to this week's episode of Content Creation Made Easy.

Today I'm bringing you some relief because one of the things I hear from people all the time when it comes to content and marketing is, I'm so overwhelmed. I'm not techie. I don't know how to how to take care of these stupid things that I'm not good at.

And that's why we have assistants. But a lot of times I hear content creators say to me, But I can't afford an assistant, or I don't know how to go about getting an assistant.

So that is why today I have brought you Tyreen Taylor. Tyreen is from Wise Walk Virtual Solutions.

And we are going to break down all things assistants:

•   what you can expect
•   what questions you should ask
•   how you can get the help and support that you need
•   without being overwhelmed or feeling like you're drowning in a sea of content and tech and all the administrivia, as I like to call it.

So, Tyreen, thank you for being here.

 Tyreen Taylor

Thank you for having me.

Jen Liddy

Tell us a little bit about how you got into this work.

Tyreen Taylor

Sure. So I always tell people I was kind of forced or pushed into it. I was working in the federal government, and I had a medical injury that forced me to have to resign.

So with that happening, I was kind of stuck. I didn't know what to do. And the jobs that I could do was very limited because of my injury.

And I had to do something that was from home and that was something that I could do on my time and when I felt up to it.

So I thought of this, and then it honestly started as me as the VA. And I did that for a while, and then I realized more clients kept approaching, but I couldn't take one more, especially because of the injury and time.

I just didn't have enough.

Then I said, maybe I could create a team. So I tried it.

I found a really good VA that was experienced. I found a client that was ready, and I'm just like, Let me just try it once. And it worked. Tried it twice, it worked.

 Then once I hit the third time, I realized, Hey, I could actually make this a business.

Tyreen Taylor

And that's how we are here today.

Jen Liddy

I love this story. So was this before 2020?

 Tyreen Taylor

Yeah. Wow.

Jen Liddy

So you got on board before 2020. You were ready to go when 2020 came and everybody needed a virtual assistant.

 Tyreen Taylor

Yes.

Jen Liddy

So would you describe yourself—

I know you have an agency of virtual assistants and executive assistants who work for you. Would you describe yourself as a matchmaker?

 Tyreen Taylor

Kind of, yes. And I'm glad you said matchmaker, because some people are like, Are you a recruiter? Staffing agency?

And I'm like, “Somewhat yes, maybe a recruiter.”

Because we do recruit the VA for you. We take care of all of that. But I consider myself the matchmaker because we really take our time and pride ourselves on actually finding the right match for you, because all VAs and clients don't match.

Each client is different. Each VA is different. So we really use different tools and processes to match you with the perfect VA.

 Jen Liddy

Can you talk a little bit about, I would imagine as somebody who's a little bit of a control freak myself, how do you give up control of hiring somebody?

What kind of vetting do you do?

Or what kind of process do you take your VAs through so that if somebody were to hire you, they'd be like, Oh, it's in Tyreen's hands and it's totally fine?

 Tyreen Taylor

Yes. And I get it. I'm the same way. Definitely.

We can release control. So we put our VA through a lot.

And I won't say I feel bad because it's worth it to make sure that the client is good and that we are getting quality VAs because that's what we advertise.

So the first step, honestly, is the really tedious job application. I think the question is probably like a 20-question application, and for about ten of those questions, they have to submit a paragraph form, so that automatically eliminates half.

Most people are like, they click on it, they're interested. And then because I'll post on different job boards, but you can apply there.

But that's not the whole application. So you have to come back and do a private application that most people don't know about, and then that eliminates half of the people that aren't serious, that aren't experienced.

And then the questions we ask, if you don't have any experience as a VA, you're not going to know most of the answers. So I can't tell you my secrets, Jen, but I know I don't want to answer the questions, but some of them are so detailed and we ask for real life examples.

Tyreen Taylor

Most job applications, you could probably look on Google and things like that, but not the questions we ask.

And then from there, I actually conduct the interviews, the same thing with the clients, because I need to know that person. I need to know their personality.

I need to know we've asked things like, “What do you like? What's the fun fact about yourself?”

We get that detail. And then from there they go through training and orientation.

Then I always say, If you've made it through all of those steps, you're serious, you're experienced, and we can work with you from there.

 Jen Liddy

I love that. I have to tell you this funny story. I just found this the other day.

I had taken a screenshot of it and I was cleaning up my computer and I found this screenshot from when back in 2018, I think I was looking for a virtual assistant and I had put out a very thorough job description of exactly what I was looking for.

To apply, you had to jump through X, Y and Z hoops to get even through there.

I weeded out a lot of people because I got this one person who said, I kind of like what you're into and I think I can help you, but I'm not going to do all this stuff, so if you want to hire me, I'm good at Adobe, I'm good at that.

He was good at all of these things that I didn't even need, and I'm like, “Are you kidding me!?”

So this is why having a Tyreen would be so great because I'm already overwhelmed as an entrepreneur!

I do not have a good amount of time to kind of sort through all of these applications.

So that makes a sense. You've kind of made your own special application in an onboarding process.

 Tyreen Taylor

Yes, ma'am.

 Jen Liddy

I love it! So I know you have VAs, which are virtual assistants for anybody out there who's not sure what that is, and EAs, which are executive assistants.

Can we talk about how specifically we can use VAs and EAs to make our content life a little bit easier or marketing life a little bit easier?

Tyreen Taylor

Yes, of course. So most of our solo entrepreneurs, aside from email communication sometimes, but like social media management and content creation is typically the number one pain point that I hear when clients come on and sign on with Wise Walk.

And the way I explain it is all of our VAs are experienced in some type of marketing. But we actually have a set of VAs that just are experienced in marketing & content creation.

We're so blessed that we are getting awesome people that actually have had hands-on experience and outside of the VA world. They've actually worked in companies as a graphic designer. As a marketing position. Things like that.

So it's amazing. Staffing is one of the hardest things: the fact that we have awesome VAs and I'm not just like boosting it up because it's us, but they are really good.

But the way they can really help is by creating your content. So it's up to you as the client. I always tell clients you get in what you put in. So if you have a little bit of time and I say ‘little’ because they are experienced, but each person does things differently.

Tyreen Taylor

So if you have a chance to really show them whatever the claim is, if you're a client, Jen, I'll say “The Jen Way”.

Show them your way, right. Once they catch on, they could take over and it takes a while.

Sometimes I say a week, unless you're like, Hey, I want to do it like this, like this, like this.

It may take two, but because they already come into the table with that experience, they just need to know your feel, your vibe, and then they go from there.

 Jen Liddy

I wonder if your clients find this too:  with my virtual assistants, I've had them for so long, and they're absolutely amazing

I couldn't do my business without them, but they learned my voice.

So sometimes if I create something and they need to kind of zoom it up a little bit, they can totally tweak it because they know me so well.

Do your clients have the same experience?

Tyreen Taylor

Yes, and I love when that happened, which is why one of the reasons why we spend so much time on their matching process, because if you get that part right, the rest is easy.

And building that relationship and building that trust between the client and the VA, like you said, once you get to that point with your VA, it's a game changer, like, for your business and for your personal life.

You'll get to the point where your VA is texting you, “Hey, don't forget it's your anniversary next week!”

It's like those little things, right?

 Jen Liddy

Yeah, that's right. Recently, my VA, Jessica, said to me, look, every time you come back from a vacation, you do this thing. Like you jump into something else, and we need a better system for it. And I was like, Damn, I totally do.

And I needed that kick in the ass because she knows my business so well, and sometimes we can't see our business clearly at all.

 Tyreen Taylor

And I'm glad you said that, Jen, because what I'm learning, too, a lot of our VAs are becoming thought partners for our clients, especially our solo entrepreneurs.

Sometimes you don't have anyone else to talk to. You may have a spouse or a friend, but they're not in the weeds with you!

But you have that person to bounce ideas off. Like, one client actually hired us to find them a VA, literally, to be that thought partner, like, to think things through.

 Jen Liddy

Strategic partnerships.

 Tyreen Taylor

Yeah.

 Jen Liddy

I'm so glad we're having this conversation, and I'm really going to be transparent here.

One of my really weak points is asking for help, even though I have this amazing team. And when I came back from this vacation and they kicked me in the ass, they were both like, “Hey, we can help you. We can see things ahead of time.”

So we had a strategic conversation and we planned out the rest of my year together. And they were like,

“No, we don't want to do this in October. We want to do it in September.”

“No, you don't want to have this person on then, you want to have this person on here.”

And I was like, how much have I been holding myself back by not having them as strategic thought partners?

 Tyreen Taylor

I love when it happens and then it just does something. It's such a big, heavy weight that's lifted off your shoulders as a solo entrepreneur, because we already have so many things going on.

Most of us have family, have young kids and things like that. You're trying to keep everything together.

And that's when you have that person just right there kind of on your shoulder, like, “Yeah, hey, you know, I'm here. I can support you.”

 Jen Liddy

So one of the big things I hear my clients, beyond the I don't know how to hire somebody, the second thing I'll hear is, I can't afford it.

Can we talk about how you don't have to hire a VA full time, right?

Tyreen Taylor

Oh, that's the best part. One, they're virtual. So guess what? Half of your employee expenses, that's cut in half, maybe more than half. Because you don't have to pay for office space. You don't have to pay for payroll tax.

We take care of all of that.

Literally.

You pay your monthly invoice and that's it. So we offer affordable packages.

We start at 20 hours a month. So that breaks down to almost an hour day. Especially with the content creation, like those clients who need that.

Our day is perfect. They plan their day. They go ahead and schedule the post out for a week in advance, and then the hour is done and your job is complete.

 Jen Liddy

I wonder if your clients find the same thing I found. True. Which I was scared. I was scared to hire a VA at first because I'm like, OHh my God, this takes me so long. But it doesn't take that long because they're experts at it.

Tyreen Taylor

Exactly. Not only that, too, Jen.

What I've noticed, and I'm going to do more research on it so I can actually have facts but what I've noticed is when you hire someone that's outside of where you work and things like that, your VA, let's just say they're set for 2 hours a day.

They're giving you two solid, steady hours. Uninterrupted.

 They're not in the office where someone's coming in and saying, “Hey, I'm here for an appointment” and you have to stop what you're doing.

No, they're giving you those set 2 hours every single day. And I find that it's way more productive.

You get more. I won't downplay an eight-hour day, but you get more with less. That's a good point.

Jen Liddy

I really never thought about that.

They're like, I just have to do this for 2 hours. It's just a really focused that's a good point. I never really thought about that!

So beyond the I can't afford it thing and I don't know how to hire some one thing, what are other objections you hear from people when they are worried about hiring a VA for the first time?

Tyreen Taylor

What you touched on: control is not wanting to release it.

Because most business owners, it's their baby. That business is their child, literally.

So I always tell people it's just like when you take your child to daycare for the first time, the first couple of weeks, if they have a camera system, you're checking in every five minutes, looking trust. Yes.

Then after that, in the mornings, you're like, “Come on, Herman, you got to get to daycare.”

I always kind of ease the clients into it.

And I'm honest and very transparent. You just have to build that trust. And then you have us as an extra layer because we've already vetted all of our VA. So we know they're trustworthy.

We know they're dedicated. They're not going to leave you high and dry. And if for some reason your VA up and left, we will replace them.

You won't go without your hours that you pay for being used.

And another objection that I see is and they may not even say it, but I'm learning to listen, it's not being able to delegate.

So it's like, you have so much to do, but it's all just sitting here and you're like, I don't really know what they can do.

Tyreen Taylor

So I created multiple documents that literally spell out What can my VA do?

You'll be surprised all the things that we have listed.

Then what I do with people that are like that, that are like I don't really know what to do, I call them peelers and dumpers.

So clients that are peelers, I need to pair them with a VA that's going to peel the layers off, build that trust and get those tabs out.

We have dumpers who are like, “Hey, I got everything! I need help with these 20 things!”

So with them, I paired them with a VA that's more, Hey, focus. Doesn't really doesn't do the extras. It's just, hey, I'm on this list. I'm targeted.

Yeah, that's kind of how I sort it.

Jen Liddy

To this is such good things for people to think about. Because before you can hire a VA, you have to believe in the possibility that a VA can help you.

So it's just literally believing that this is possible for me. Even at 2 hours a week or 4 hours.

I think for you, the minimum you said, is 5 hours a week, right? 20 hours a week, a month.

So tell me some of the outcomes. Once people make this leap and they have your support, what results are they getting?

 Tyreen Taylor

This is my favorite part. Jen, I love. So what we do, like I said, we do a lot of quality assurance.

When you first sign on and your match, we actually check in with the client bi weekly. So it will be either a text or phone call or email. We check in with our VA's weekly just to make sure everything is going well.

Then at the 30-day mark, we do a video call with someone from our admin team, the client and the VA. This is the chance to talk about anything, any issues.

And every call that I do for the 30 day check in, as long as it's not an issue. Sometimes we have issues. They're going to be transparent, but we work it out.

But for the calls that are working, for the pairs that are working, I love when they say this one line: It's been a weight lifted off my shoulder.

When they say that, I'm just like I get shields because I get excited because that's what you signed on for!

And then I just had a 30-day check in last week with a client, and I was just so happy because she was very skeptical.

Tyreen Taylor

She had never used the VA before. She's not techie, so she didn't even like fathom.

How can this work? How can a person in a whole different state really help me in my business?

I told her, Just trust us. Give us a chance. Do one month.

We don't do one month anymore. We do three months or more now. But I'm like, just do one month and see what happens.

At that 30 day check in, she said, ‘Tyreen, I want to sign off for a year because this VA has literally changed the way I do business.’

The VA actually increased because she was just doing social media marketing. That's what she needed.

The VA increased her social media following. She increased engagement. I want to say don't quote me, but I want to say by almost 45% in 30 days.

So the results, it speaks for itself.

Jen Liddy

When people are creating content, you can have a VA and still maintain your content. You can still maintain control over it.

You can still maintain your voice.

The strategy and the intention can come from you, but that virtual assistant can tactically get you more opens or understand, like the time of day that this email should go out or schedule things at a time that could be better or do hashtag research for you.

All those little minute things that you don't want or don't have time to do or aren't good at.

 Jen Liddy

I want everybody listening to think: I could still maintain the integrity of my content and have a partner to help me make it go further.

Tyreen Taylor

Exactly, yes. And prime example, the client I was just telling you about for social media, she was doing social media on her own, and it was going fine, right?

So she still wanted her voice. What she does at the top of every week when they do their check in, they have like a Google sheet going, and then the client will put the captions that she wants for each picture or whatever the posting is.

Then the VA just tweaks it. She makes it a little bit more social media savvy. Yeah, there we go.

Then she's already done the research, so she knows the hashtag for you. She already knows what time of day to post, like you said, so you can still do as much as you want.

I always tell clients, you can do as much as you want or as little as you want, depending on how much you want to release.

And I get it. Especially people like you, like the type of business that you have. You want your own voice. You wanted to come from Jen because you're telling people some amazing things. Your VA may not do that, which is okay.

Tyreen Taylor

So just let her one another thing, too. You can just text it to your VA. You can have grammar issues, spelling issues. Let her format it correctly. Let her fix the spelling, let her fix the grammar, and then she posts, and that's it.

Jen Liddy

I'm laughing because there's so many times I'm going to– put air quotes around this – “save time for Jessica by doing something myself”.

I'm sure she must roll her eyes because she always has to redo it.

Really, just let the person you've hired live in their genius zone.

 Once you have that person, it really can lift–  it's interesting, we're talking about lifting away.

What you really feel, Tyreen, is relief, time. You sell a lot of intangible stuff, like effectiveness. You can breathe again.

Tyreen Taylor

Yes. Productivity. Stress reduction.

 Jen Liddy

That is so cool. So what do you think? If people were like, I'm listening to Tyreen, I know that I want to get in touch with Wise Walk Virtual Solutions.

I know that I'm ready to really start having this conversation. How can people learn more about you or get on a call with you?

 Tyreen Taylor

Sure. So they can definitely go to our website, which is https://www.wwvirtualsolutions.com.

 Then they can find us on LinkedIn and you can just search Wise Walk Virtual Solutions. We just stopped posting on Facebook and Instagram, and we're solely doing LinkedIn because we realize that's really where our target market is.

So if you do, you can still see us on those social media platforms. But you'll see, like, our last post says, hey, we're moving to LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/wise-walk-virtual-solutions/

But yeah, you guys can find us there. And then you can click schedule consultation. Consultations are about 45 minutes. And then during that time, we'll just chat.

I'll tell you about what we offer, you tell me what you need, and I can let you know, honestly, on the spot, if we have a VA right now, that would be a good match for you.

Like I said, I'm very transparent. If we don't have one, I'll let you know, hey, I don't have a good match for you right now. We can try this person and then train them up and go from there. Or you can wait. So it's really a smooth process. That's great.

Jen Liddy

One of my favorite things that you just said as a content person is that you decided that LinkedIn was your place and Facebook and Instagram were not.

So you just decided because I always say that to people. Where are your platforms, where your people are and feel good for you.

And I love that you're just, like, bye Facebook by Instagram and leaning into LinkedIn. Yes, love that. Thank you so much.

Is there anything else that we didn't cover that's important for people to know when thinking about hiring a VA?

Tyreen Taylor

I just want to thank you, Jen. This has been awesome. I really enjoyed myself.

But as far as for the audience, it's almost like a game changer, guys. And like I said in the beginning, I was thrown into this, but seeing the joy and the peace that comes from the clients not only the clients, the VAs.

When they're matched with a good client, they feel supported, they feel happy because they're helping someone.

I realized a few weeks ago that this is a business, it's a service. But I'm also really changing the way people do business, and I'm changing our mission statement to that.

Our goal is to really change the way all people do business by giving their support. Yeah.

Jen Liddy

One of my favorite aspects of your story is that you were thrown into this and you had to be really creative and you had a problem yourself, but you also saw a problem in the marketplace.

That's what entrepreneurs do. Just big, huge congratulations on turning your medical leave into a business that really seems like you just have everything under control and it flows really well. So bravo.

Tyreen Taylor

Great. I can't take all the credit, Jen. It's well put together, but luckily we have a team because I can't do it all. But I am so grateful that, yes, sometimes pain turns into purpose.

Jen Liddy

That's so nice, Tyreen. Thank you so much. And I hope every single listener starts thinking about a VA and goes to Wise Walk Virtual Solutions and checks them out, because I can attest it is a complete game changer to have somebody heavy of your back like that.

Tyreen Taylor

Yes.

 Jen Liddy

Thanks, Tyreen.

 Tyreen Taylor

Thank you.

 Jen Liddy

See you next week, everybody. Bye.