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Hosted by matt malouf
If you're enjoying the podcast and want to get more engaged with the Breakaway Entrepreneur podcast community, join our Facebook group, there's a link to it belowwww.facebook.com/breakaway.entrepreneurIf you have any questions for me or suggestions on topics for the podcast, please contact me at coach@breakawaybusinesscoaching.com. This week my guest Matt Malouf and I discuss a number of topics, how and why to write a book, real estate investing and Matt's TERM process for getting stuff done. TERM stands for Time, Energy, Resources and Money. I hope you enjoy our chat.Matt Malouf is a Part Time Investor and Author with a professional degree in Engineering- USC. His niche is Traffic Management, Real Estate Investing, Productivity and Writing.Professionally, Matt Malouf has worked as an engineer for over two decades. However, Matt Malouf's zeal for problem-solving led him to explore the real estate industry. There are many parallels to project management, value engineering and infrastructure development to entrepreneurship. Mostly the innovative problem-solving aspect and helping people live better lives. Today, he is an expert, self-taught real estate investor as well.Matt has been able to use his proprietary TERM Analysis technique to rebuild his life from scratch after some devastating life difficulties to acquire over 30 properties across four countries while consulting with some wonderful business owners to help them achieve more than they thought possible.Contact Matt:investwithmatt.comtwitter, facebook and instagram all @mattbestsellingLink to Matt's book - 22 Secrets to Success and Wealth Creation https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PPTSN6SIn this episode we explore…..Timestamps1:15 – Matt's Bio2:10 – About Matt3:15 – Real estate investing6:00 – Turning challenges into something positive9:45 – Uncertainty and readjusting11:30 – Always start with the end in mind16:00 – How to write a book18:30 – Use your book to promote your business23:00 – Real estate insights27:40 – Remote working is here to stay29:30 – TERM process
How to Create an Online Course for Free with Chris Badgett Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Chris Badgett of LifterLMS about the process of creating your own online course and membership sites, and how this will help you and your business especially in the middle of a global crisis.Some key points include:Getting your course ideas out of your head and actually creating themThe minimum tech stack needed in order to start an online course or membership siteTaking advantage of the current crisis and developing your business online Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:11 How to create an online course for free06:22 SCIDL Method09:58 How to avoid getting stuck with the Tech Stack13:13 Taking advantage of the current crisis17:20 What does it mean to Pivot your Business18:30 Having the right Business Mindset this crisis19:44 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work? Are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show. We bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts, Matt Malouf, and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Welcome everyone to today's episode of the Virtual Success Show podcast where today I am joined by Chris Badgett, who I've had on the podcast before, who's the founder of the LifterLMS membership site plugin. And we're here today to talk all about membership sites and why now is the best time ever for you to get your course out of your head onto a learning management system. Like something like Lifter and get it out to the world so obviously, I'm Barbara Turley, your host of the Virtual Success Show podcast and founder of The Virtual Hub. Chris, welcome to today's show. Chris Badgett: Thanks for having me, Barbara. I'm really excited to get into it with you today. Barbara Turley: Yes, so look, you know, I know loads of people over time have always wanted to create membership sites, online courses and you know as well as I do that people get stuck not just with getting the course out of their heads but getting it onto the platforms, the tech stops people and usually business stops people in that you're running the day to day running of your business stops you, so now is the best time I think, for a lot of businesses to try to pivot fast and go this route. We'll talk about kind of the best businesses that can do that in a minute but I was really inspired by your- recently you did a four day course creation boot camp, I think you'd call it online and with the idea of to help people to get a course out of their heads, get out of the weeds and actually get the course created. Can you give us the short and dirty version of how do we do that? And how do we make it less overwhelming? Because it's quite overwhelming to do it. How to Create an Online Course for Free Chris Badgett: Yeah, well, first, I just want to acknowledge the huge problem and this isn't a new problem because if you think about it, if you're watching this right now, just raise your hand or smash the like button or whatever, if you have ever thought about writing a book, but you never actually wrote the book. This kind of- this is an age old problem right here too, with creative entrepreneurs and people who want to innovate and are really passionate about a topic or helping a certain type of person. So I see unfortunately, a lot of people get stuck in the weeds of like they're looking at the mechanism, they're looking at the course or the membership site, or the coaching program that they're going to put on the internet and they're really focused on it. But then there's this giant gap between, "Alright,
Office to Remote: The Tech Stack for a Seamless Transition with Peter Moriarty Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Peter Moriarty of itGenius and discusses the how-to's of setting up your company fit for a virtual environment. They talk about creating the right systems and processes in order to effectively manage a remote team. Some key points include:The tools that you need in order to have a great task and communication flow in your business.Challenges working in a virtual environmentWhy you should eradicate emailsWhat does it mean to have the right mindset shift Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:02 Roadblocks when setting up Cloud Based System04:30 Important G Suite features07:40 Task Management, Systems and Processes 11:58 Working in a Virtual Environment15:22 Why Task Management by Email never works19:21 Tips in getting through this remote setup successfully26:28 Remote Business Playbook28:09 Wrapping Things Up Tools Mentioned:AsanaTrelloPodioG SuiteDropboxZoomSkypeSlackZapierOntraportActive Campaign Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey, everyone, welcome back to another special edition episode of the Virtual Success podcast where we're now taking it live online to cope with this COVID-19 crisis that we're currently all in right now. Today's guest, I'm talking to Peter Moriarty from itGenius and he's given me so many tips already before we've even started this show. But really what I want to talk about is so many companies have been scrambling to try to move people into a remote or work from home situation over the last few weeks. Me included, I at The Virtual Hub had to move 110 staff very quickly into work from home situations and it was something apart from the issue of not having computers, the actual online or the systems, part of it was very easy because I had actually set it up that way. But I know a lot of companies have been scrambling trying to do this and not really getting it right. So, Peter's here with us today to talk specifically about how to set your company up to make sure that the next time, hopefully, we never have to do this again. But if you do, you can move fast and that your systems are portable. So Peter, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Peter Moriarty: Thank you so much for having me. I am thrilled to be here. Barbara Turley: So to kick off, can you tell me, I'm sure you see this all the time in your experience with working with companies. A company who comes to you and wants to be more cloud-based or wants to be more nimble in terms of moving people around, what are the major roadblocks and problems that you see in their setup? To kick off. Roadblocks in Setting Up a Cloud-Based System Peter Moriarty: Yeah, I'd say it's always people. But people are always the roadblocks. It's either processes that are in place, or ways of thinking they're in place, which are the biggest blockers. And technology change requires people change. And so when you're going through a process of you know, everyone's been through a bad technology change at one point in their life, whether that was you know, working in corporate and having someone implementing your system without training people properly, or just, you know, switching from a PC to a Mac, and the first couple of days, kind of not knowing where the buttons are, you know, the frustration and the the fear, it's not just a fear of change for stop, but it's certainly, you know,
Scaling up the Delegation Game with Nigel Bennett, Co-Founder of Aqua-Guard Spill Response Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Nigel Bennett of Aqua-Guard Spill Response about how to delegate effectively, how to grow your team, and avoid Business Owner Burnout. Some key points include:The importance of having a business coachHow to manage business owner burnoutWhy you need to invest time and energy in training your peopleThe importance of systems and processes in your business Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:18 Aqua-Guard Spill Response05:52 Business Owner Burnout11:38 How to Delegate more effectively18:38 Organic Growth in your Business19:58 Processes and Systems 21:12 The importance of Life Rhythm in your Business27:35 Who should manage the people and the teams in your Business28:38 Keeping in touch with your team during this pandemic32:19 Nigel's experience with Burnout Business Owners37:19 Fight, Flight, or Freeze40:34 Final thoughts42:23 Wrapping things Up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Virtual Success Show podcast where I'm your host as always Barbara Turley. I do co-host this show with my co-host, Matt Malouf, who's not with us today. But my guest today, I'm joined by Nigel Bennett, who is the co-founder and owner of Aqua-Guard Spill Response. And also because I want to mention your book, also author of the book, "Take that leap, risking it all for what really matters" and he's also the founder of TruBeach. He's been a member of the entrepreneurs organization for 15 years, has won a whole pile of awards and not even gonna go into how many they are but I met Nigel on a mastermind call that I had the pleasure to be on a few weeks ago, when I heard his story about, how he has managed to not just delegate effectively, but has actually managed to remove himself pretty much completely from the day to day operations of his business. So Nigel, welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining me. Nigel Bennett: Hi, Barbara. Thank you so much. It's, it's the pleasure. Pleasure to be on your show. I'm in. I'm in Whistler here in British Columbia, and you're in Chamonix, I guess. And Barbara Turley: Yeah, we're both in the ski slopes but there's no snow, we're not allowed to ski Nigel Bennett: No snow and we can't go out, Yeah, I know. Barbara Turley: During this crisis time and you know, like it's been really great connecting with so many entrepreneurs at the moment during this crisis time that we're currently in. But Nigel, to kick off just give us the quick you know, Aqua-Guard Spill Response and what I love about this company and about me finally interviewing you, is that it's different from most of the types of businesses that we've had on the podcast or that I've been talking to in that it's kind of, it's way off the charts from what I would normally be doing in the digital world or whatever. So give us the quick synopsis of what it is. Aqua-Guard Spill Response Nigel Bennett: Yeah, we're an emergency response company. If you go way back, right out of high school, I was working for my father's environmental mapping company. And next day after high school I was I was on a plane down to Venezuela. And I live in Vancouver, and I'd never really been out of the country very much. So I was. I was doing overflights over Lake Maracaibo taking photographs of the coastline for environmental mapping.
How to Hire A-Players Consistently with a Streamlined Recruitment Process Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley and her co-host Matt Malouf discuss The Virtual Hub's recruitment process, what makes it different from others, and the secret to hiring A-players in your business. Some key points include:The importance of having a great recruitment processThree key things to remember when recruitingHow to determine A-players from B and C-players Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:2:39 The Virtual Hub's Recruitment Process8:40 Recruitment Status in this Crisis11:05 How to avoid bringing in the wrong people14:20 Attitude vs Skill17:48 Three key fundamentals in Recruiting21:59 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Matt Malouf: Hi, everyone and welcome to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co host, Barbara Turley. Hi, Barbara. How are you today? Barbara Turley: I'm great Matt and you? Matt Malouf: Yep, going really, really well... really well. Very excited to starting to see what we're coming out of lockdown through this pandemic that we've been going through and life is starting to get back to some form of normality. How is it on the; I'm in Australia today and your in France. How's it, how's things over in your neck of the woods? Barbara Turley: Well, you know, I'm just excited too Matt because the restaurants are opening this week. So, you know, we're slowly opening up, but we can finally have a glass of wine somewhere else other than our house. So that's got to be a good thing. So but yeah, very slowly opening up, everyone wearing masks where we are. But I guess that's the right thing to do for now. But good to see us all opening up again. Matt Malouf: And today's show, I wanted to actually spend some time interviewing Barbara, because we've been having a few conversations recently off air. And one of the most interesting things that we've been talking about is the recruitment process. And the hiring of VAs and how Barbara and her team are doing that process at the moment. But the, I guess, not just about the process, around, I guess the numbers behind how many VAs are the like you've got to go through or interview to get to a diamond and I wanted to share that with everybody today because I think it's an area of business that so many business owners struggle with, which is hiring a little and hiring their VA. So I wanted to spend some time just getting Barbara's insights and sharing that with you all today. So Barbara, I guess let's start with regards to hiring VA's and the like. What is the sort of process? Is it just a, do you just follow a traditional recruitment process? Or are you doing something a little bit different to test and find the right people? The Virtual Hub's Recruitment Process Barbara Turley: Yeah, great question, Matt. Because, you know, a lot of people would have different definitions of what is the traditional recruitment process, I suppose in most people's head, that is put out a job ad, get a load of applications, look at a few resumes, narrow them down, interview a few people and pick the one you like the most. Over the years, you know, you start off doing that. But really and I know we did a full show on this, you and I before where I dissected out our recruitment process, and it is a lengthy process that we go through that involves a lot of metrics. And it is very, we only bring in the relationship piece at the very,
Vital Business Cashflow Management with Matt Malouf Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley is joined by her co-host Matt Malouf to talk about How to Manage Cash Flow in a Crisis and Lead your Business to Survival and come out Strong. Some of the key points include:What is cash flow analysis and how it is doneHow to survive in this crisis The difference between a Bookkeeper, an Accountant, and a CFOThe importance of numbers/data in your business Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:06 Cashflow Analysis and Forecasting05:48 How to help business owners with their Cash flow statements08:48 Reacting vs Responding10:57 Importance of Cashflow analysis during this crisis18:39 90daycashflow.com22:03 Accountant vs CFO26:56 Importance of numbers in the business28:06 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm finally rejoined again, I've managed to coax my co-host, Matt Malouf, back to join me on this show. I'm your co-host, Barbara Turley. Matt, thanks for coming back and joining us on the show again, Matt Malouf: No worries and yeah. So sorry, I haven't been, I've been so proud of all the episodes you've been doing and we should've been on there. It's just been one of those crazy times at the moment. Barbara Turley: Absolutely. I know if, we're you know, as we're recording this today. We're sort of right in the middle of this Coronavirus situation that's going on. But it's a very interesting time for the show Matt. And you know, the concept of remote working and virtual teams. And we've actually seen a massive uplift in people interested in actually the podcast. And the stuff we've been talking about for the last three years on this podcast has all of a sudden become even more important than ever before. So what I wanted to talk to, I'm getting Matt back on the show specifically to talk today about cash flow. It's not really a virtual team kind of topic, but it's important in the environment that we're in right now. And Matt, you've been out talking a lot about cash burn, cash flow forecasting, managing your cash and being lean in this environment, but not so lean that you can't come out strong. So I want to dig into this topic with you. First of all, let's start with talking about cash flow analysis and forecasting and watching your cash. Can you start at the beginning and talk to us about what do we actually do to do that? Because lots of us don't even know how to do that. Cashflow Analysis and Forecasting Matt Malouf: Let me start with I think the importance around cash flow is that it's more than just looking at your bank account. And I was, I did a presentation this morning. I think one of the biggest mistakes so many smaller, medium business owners make is their key report that they rely on in their business is an ATM receipt, to tell them what's going on in their business. And the reality is that cash in your business is like oxygen to a human, where you can only last a very short period of time without oxygen and in a business can only last a very short period of time without cash. And so, in normal practices, in normal and I'm using very common, as in normal times, we should be managing our cash flow. What does that mean, that means we should be predicting based on our leads and conversion, cash coming in. And we need to factor in things like, if our business invoices,
To Pivot or to Pause with Jenny Blake Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Jenny Blake about the Concept of Pivoting. They talk about taking control of your business and recognizing the opportunities that are out there in the midst of the current global crisis. Some of the key points include:How to pivot your business How far ahead should you plan when pivotingShould you pivot your business or should you hold off Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:23 How to get the right mindset when pivoting05:11 How to listen more effectively08:55 Rising into a pivot from a negative mindset13:05 The Next Steps15:52 The Pivot Runway20:26 The Important thing about pivoting22:30 Final thoughts25:09 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey everyone social medialand... Welcome to another episode of our special COVID-19 series of the Virtual Success Show podcast. I'm your host, Barbara Turley and today I am joined by somebody who has become somewhat of a friend. Jenny Blake is author of pivot, the book called “Pivot: The only move that matters is your next one” and she also hosts the podcast, Jenny what's the name of the podcasts? Jenny Blake: Pivot with Jenny Blake Barbara Turley: Yeah so welcome to the show, Jenny and she's here to talk to us today about this whole concept of pivoting, it's very easy to talk about it and everybody out there right now is talking about how in this crisis, that you know of course there's gonna be opportunity there's gonna be opportunity absolutely everywhere because in every crisis there is and those who know how to pivot, and those who can handle the pace of pivoting and pull it off can do quite well. From my own experience over the last what, we're five weeks into this whole thing, 5-6 weeks into this thing and what I have personally found difficult and I wanted to talk to Jenny about this today is, you know when you're coming out of saving your business in the initial stages of the crisis and then you have to try to shift very quickly into a different frame of mind, which is the creative side of yourself. To try to pivot your business and get the animal spirits flowing again of entrepreneurship and it's hard to wake up every day and to try and get yourself into the right mindset to do it, when you've come out of kind of being you know, beaten over the head every day with your ops and trying to save your clients and save the business. So Jenny, welcome to the show and talk to us about you know, how do we quickly shift this mindset and how much of it is mindset, if you can talk to us about that. How to get the right mindset when pivoting Jenny Blake: Well there's so much that you said there and I think one thing is giving ourselves permission to be on this roller coaster and have, that's really one we do train for us entrepreneurs, is that exact journey, that exact roller coaster, but right now during a global pandemic, a crisis, the volume to such metaphors, the volume on that station just got turned all the way up to a ten. So we're gonna, I feel that the highs are high and the lows are pretty low and what you described Barbara is so important is, I don't know about you but I also, simultaneous to all the stress I felt a lot of adrenaline tried to navigate every single day these first five weeks and I do a lot of keynote speaking and traveling for work, all of that was canceled, not all of it went straight to virtual.
The Power of Podcast Marketing with Interview Valet Founder Tom Schwab Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Tom Schwab of Interview Valet about the rising relevance of podcasts especially with the current global crisis and the opportunities podcasts present to business owners everywhere. Some of the key points include: How to leverage your business with podcast and podcast guestings When to become a podcast host and/or a podcast guest. How to repurpose old podcasts in order to get more traffic and attract more listeners. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:09 Why Podcasts are a brilliant marketing strategy 04:10 How to capitalise on Podcasts 06:39 What makes a great podcast guest 09:17 How to be different with Podcasts 12:16 Content amplification and repurposing 15:11 Growth of the podcast industry 18:46 Wrapping things Up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work? Are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the virtual success show. We bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts, Matt Malouf, and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the virtual Success Show where we are streaming live now online for our episodes of the show. I'm Barbara Turley, your host, I co-host this show with my good friend Matt Malouf. And today we're here to talk about the very topical topic right now of podcasts and I'm joined by, good friend and someone I work very closely with, Tom Schwab from Interview Valet, who is the go to guy if you want to be talking about podcasts, you know, getting on podcasts, getting guests on your podcast. Welcome to the show, Tom, thanks for joining us today. Tom Schwab: Barbara, I am thrilled to be here. And there's a lot of problems in the world. But there is no better time to be alive. We look at the technology that we have. And still, we can reach customers around the world. Barbara Turley: Absolutely, yes. So you know, like, guys, you guys watching the Facebook Live, you know that we are in a major crisis right now. There are many crises that happened throughout time. I have to say I was thinking today to myself, I'm old enough now to say that this is not my first rodeo with crises like this. We've had the 2008 financial crisis, we had the tech bubble collapse, and in my career, I've been through a couple of these. So it's every crisis brings its own challenges, but I always feel that they're crises nonetheless and some things that we do in business are the same. Now in this particular situation that we're in right now. I feel podcasts are really gonna be it. So Tom, talk to us about, first of all, why podcasts, in general, are a brilliant marketing strategy for any business right now. But also why now specifically. Why Podcasts are a brilliant marketing strategy Tom Schwab: Well, the way I look at it is that every business's biggest problem is obscurity, right? There are millions - thousands, millions of customers that you could serve right now, with your current product, your current offering, your current service. The only problem is they don't know you exist. Right now a lot of people talk about breaking through the noise. Honestly, I think that's like adding to the noise, right? The idea that I'm going to yell and somebody's gonna hear me, I think is laughable, right? So, if I can get in on the conversation that my ideal customers are already listening to, that's golden. If I can get introduced by somebody that is a trusted resource, a trusted friend of theirs, that's golden. And really, that's what podcasts and especially podcast interview marketi...
Do I Need a VA and a Bookkeeper? Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara speak to Bean Ninjas founder and CEO, Meryl Johnston about why it's so important for companies to have a strong financial team, what that team needs to look like, and why financial reporting tools are the key to business stability and growth. Some of the areas covered include: Meryl's journey from a consulting firm to global, systemized, online business and the perils behind bringing in virtual contractors before you have your processes in place. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 1:50 Xero as a Platform 2:38 Aspects of Utilizing Virtual Teams 4:50 Boundaries 5:12 Key Roles Within the Finance Team 8:21 Cost-Effectiveness Medium 10:14 Bookkeeping Role vs VA Role 12:55 Differences with Bookkeepers and VAs 15:11 Stop Doing Book 16:42 Xero Cleanup 19:29 Reporting Practices 20:53 Where to Start 22:10 Building Skillsets 23:22 Next Steps Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show. Where we dissect everything you need to know about how to outsource, how to get the right team members into your business, and how to do it all in the right order. Because today's show we're going to be dissecting a very common problem, and I'm going to be sharing a big trap that I fell into myself. But of course today I'm joined by my cohost, Matt Malouf. Hi, Matt! How's it going? Matt Malouf: I'm well, Barbara, and yourself? Xero as a Platform Barbara: I'm great, thank you. And I'm pretty excited that on the back of last week's show, we invited Meryl Johnston, who's the founder and CEO of Bean Ninjas back to the show to dissect this particular problem with me. So Meryl, welcome back to the show. Meryl Johnston: It's great to be back. Thanks. Barbara: So guys, I was chatting with Meryl after we interviewed Meryl around the growth of Bean Ninjas and her experience around managing a global virtual team. Because obviously, that's the genesis of this show. But in chatting after the show, I was sharing a story that I... A trap I fell into myself around using Vas, bookkeepers, accountants. And in the very early days, not that long ago, really, I decided in my wisdom that if I had Xero as a platform, which is your, you know the platform that everyone's using I guess globally for bookkeeping and accounting. And a good VA that I could show a few tricks of the trade to, that then I wouldn't need a bookkeeper. And I went that route, and needless to say it blew up in my face. Let's just put it that way. After a couple of years, and really cost a lot of pain. It wasn't the VA's fault. It was just a whole host of problems. And Matt, I'm sure as a recovering accountant yourself, this is making you chuckle because I'm sure you see this a lot. Aspects of Utilizing Virtual Teams Matt: I do. I do. You know, I think it's interesting. Barbara, you and I have talked about this in many aspects of utilizing virtual teams, but find it, yeah. People's expectations of that whole concept of the super VA that can do everything is still very, very prevalent in today's society, business community. Barbara: Absolutely. And you know, actually, I am still recovering, honestly, from that mistake myself. I was quite badly burnt. All my own fault. Completely and utterly my own fault. And Meryl, that's kind of what led me to your company in the end, to go, "Oh my God.
How Bean Ninjas CEO Meryl Johnston Built A Global Virtual Powerhouse Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara speak to Meryl Johnston, the CEO, and founder of Bean Ninjas. Some of the areas covered include: Meryl's journey from a consulting firm to global, systemized, online business and the perils behind bringing in virtual contractors before you have your processes in place. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 1:20 Meryl Johnson the founder and CEO of Bean Ninjas 3:38 The power of systems and processes 4:29 Building a business to scale 8:38 Key Tools or Methods to manage your team 10:24 Wrike 12:06 Systems, tools, and Processes as the front driver 13:30 The Strength of the machine 14:01 Team Meetings 17:07 Concept of the Lunch and Learn 18:02 Virtual Christmas Celebration 20:43 Local knowledge vs Overseas Knowledge 24:39 Training Guide Procedures 29:27 Highlights of the show 33:14 External Leverage 35:09 Top 3 Learnings working with Virtual Team Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of the Virtual Success Show. I'm joined by my co-host Matt Malouf as always. Hey Matt. Matt Malouf: Hey Barb. How are you? Barbara: I'm good. And you? Matt: I'm excellent. Yeah, I'm enjoying a sunny day here in Sydney after what's been a very, very wet sort of week down here. Barbara: Yes, unusually so for Sydney. But the Sydney sun is back, which is awesome. Matt: It is, it is. Barbara: Yeah. So we're back, guys, doing one of our interview series, which we love doing. We love when we find interesting business owners that are building virtual teams and can really add value to our listeners and to ask quite frankly about how they're doing things. So today's guest is someone who's become somewhat of a friend of mine, Meryl Johnston, and she is the founder and CEO of Bean Ninjas, which is a bookkeeping, financial reporting, and education business. She's also a chartered accountant. She's host up her own podcast, the Bean Ninjas podcast, which I definitely can recommend listening to. And she's also a big surfer living on the Gold Coast, the beautiful Gold Coast here in Australia. So welcome to the show Meryl. Meryl Johnson the founder and CEO of Bean Ninjas Meryl Johnston: Hi Barb. Hi Matt. Great to be here. Barbara: Good. So listen, why don't you just give us the quick rundown, Bean Ninjas. What is it? Why did you start it? Meryl: Well, Bean Ninjas is a bookkeeping and financial recording business, and before starting Bean Ninjas, I was running a consulting firm, not very cleverly named MCJ Consulting, my initials. And I was doing project accounting work and quite quickly found the business difficult to scale. It was hard from a cash flow perspective, with project work being lumpy, and it was difficult to build a team. And I looked at some other business models out there and the kind of business that I wanted to build, which was recurring revenue, it would have processes so I could scale the business and I wanted it to have global potential. And then I looked at my skill set, which is accounting and thought about how I could marry the two together, my skill set and the kind of business that I wanted. And that's where Bean Ninjas was born. I founded the business with a co-founder who had a similar vision of creating a global business and a business that we could run from anywhere in the world. So that was where it started.
Matt Malouf is a passionate business coach, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and podcast host on a mission to help entrepreneurs around the world break the shackles of mediocrity and reach new levels of personal and business success. Matt has experience at every stage of the business lifecycle, from conception to exit strategy. His business coaching methodology is simple: understand your current position, map out your journey, and establish measurable goals to track progress along the way. By focusing more on accountability than quick fixes, Matt’s coaching has helped his 1,000+ clients add millions of dollars in turnover without adding pressure on internal resources. Matt takes a holistic approach to uncovering business roadblocks, then utilizing a hybrid of tools to creatively overcome challenges by implementing and fine-tuning proven business systems. Whether working with startups or established businesses, Matt refines every detail from the ground up, ensuring each business is both efficient and profitable. Matt’s coaching program, Profitable Lifestyle Business, incorporates strategies outlined in his best-selling book The Stop Doing List, inspiring entrepreneurs in any industry to address their most crucial business needs and build a thriving business allowing them to live a 500/40/30 lifestyle ($500,000 annual profit, working no more than forty x 30-hour weeks per year).
The Quick and Effective Way To Assess The Success Or Failure Of My Virtual Assistant Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara talk about the quickest way to assess your Virtual Assistant whether they're working out for you or not. Some of the areas covered include: The challenges of assessing an offshore VA, identifying the key areas you need to assess! Reviewing your onboarding procedure to make sure you are setting your VA up for success in their role. Continually reviewing and refining your processes. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 1:18 How do you assess your Virtual Assistant? 1:52 Biggest Challenges to Assessing Your VA 3:10 Identifying your Key Areas 6:55 Delivering Feedback in An Effective Way 7:42 Identify KPI ‘s 8:14 Assess Your Onboarding Procedure 10:17 Feedback 12:35 The Stop Doing List 14:46 Role Expectations and Communication 16:04 Monthly Assessments Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Matt: Hey everyone, and welcome to another show of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co-host, Barbara Turley. Hey Barb. Barbara: Hey Matt. How are you today? Matt: I'm really well, and yourself? Barbara: Good, thank you. Excited about our topic that we're going to dissect into today? Matt: I am, I am. As always, meetings before the show are always interesting conversations and topics just pop up. This one, it was funny. We were halfway through a conversation, Barbara and I, and we went, "This is a show, let's start recording." So we did. Barbara: So here we are, to dissect what the problem I presented to Matt is… How Do You Assess Your Virtual Assistant? Matt: And it is. I think one of the questions I get asked regularly is how do I assess or measure the success or failure of my virtual assistant? How do I know whether they're doing well or not doing well? It's a really interesting topic. I think there's many many different ways you can do this. But what we wanted to do today was open a discussion between Barbara and I because we were talking about this beforehand, and then we share some insights into this. I think one of the biggest challenges when trying to assess your virtual assistant is making it really complicated and then therefore hard to measure and be transparent. When you try to measure the success or failure of a role, you've got to make it really easy and transparent for both you and the persons you're assessing to understand how they're doing. There should be no surprises. Biggest Challenges to Assessing Your VA Matt: The way that I've done this over the years with the virtual teams and even local people that I've had working with me, I create a list of the things that they are responsible for. For instance, they may be responsible for managing my calendar, managing my emails, booking hotels, booking travel. One for Barbara and I is the podcast, so actually taking the recordings and producing the show. You need to create a list of all of the key areas or key responsibilities that your VA has. What you then need to do is you need to get them to score themselves, let's say it's a scoring system out of five, and five is that they are completely competent, confident, and do this task exceptionally well, and one is that they're a novice at it, that they really don't know what they're doing and are struggling with it. Identifying your Key Areas Matt: You get them to assess themselves in each of those areas as a score out of five.
How to Get Success Working With A VA Outside of Your Timezone Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara talk about how to avoid frustration with Virtual Assistants who work in different time zones as you and how to keep everyone accountable. Some of the areas covered include: Tools to use for tasks and reporting Frustrations most business owners feel when their VA works in another country Let us know in the comments below what your key takeout has been from this episode or why not join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 2:27 Timezones 6:21 Setting parameters and direction to avoid feelings of frustration 9:12 Loom and Asana 9:30 Designing a system that works 10:32 Stand up 15:06 Creating documentation for recurring tasks 18:21 Time, Patience and Attention to Detail Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm again joined by my co-host Matt Malouf. Matt, how's the going? Matt: It is. It is, and I had to think about that because we normally do these recordings in the morning but it's— Barbara: Great, thanks. And as always we've come up with a fantastic topic again today that we think the listeners, you guys are gonna really love, common problem. I love how when we're just chatting in the planning of the show, we just come up with all these ideas that just come from our experiences with clients and, Matt you with coaching clients, me seeing people getting VA's, brings up the most interesting stories for us. Matt: Absolutely, and I'm really excited about today's show. Barbara: Yeah, so a common one and something that did come up for us recently, and I know a lot of people in the Virtual Assistant, virtual team game out there globally would have this problem, is how do you get success when you're working with a virtual team or a Virtual Assistant that is not in your time zone? So for example, you're in the US working, your business hours and you have a VA in the Philippines who works their business hours. So therefore, it's in the middle of the night for you, which sounds like the Holy Grail because the idea would be that you wake up in the morning, and all these amazing tasks have been completed overnight. But often we find that, while that does seem like the optimum solution, it doesn't always work out that way. So, Matt, I'm sure you've seen this with people who have offshore VA's and overseas contractors. Matt: Absolutely, and I'm, and I'm like, I've even seen it to the extent of where Australians are working with Filipinos where there's only a couple of hours time difference. Don't get this right. So its- Barbara: There's a couple of extra tricks I think to getting this right. The… Matt: I agree. Timezones Barbara: I think all of the things that we talk about on this podcast all still hold very true. But when you're working different shifts and different time zones from each other, you almost need to like crank up the fuel on all the things that we talk about and you need to be extra vigilant with so many things. Of course that means, using things we always talk about, project management tools like, Asana or Trello, whatever, using Slack effectively, making sure that you've got really detailed processes and task lists, et cetera. But there's a little bit more to it than that, isn't there Matt, to get this right? Matt: Absolutely. Barbara: Yeah, so we had a case of this, the reason this is an interesting one for us.
3 Crucial Tech Tools to Guarantee Success with VAs Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara speak about the 3 most crucial tools you must have in your business to guarantee success. Let us know in the comments below what your key takeout has been from this episode or why not join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 1:25 - Technology that is crucial to succeed in your business 2:58 - Tool Number 1: Project Management 9:25 - Tool Number 2: Effective Communication 17:49 - Tool Number 3: Data Management 22:40 - Why having processes is also crucial to your business 23:40 - Benefits of these tools 24:26 - Bonus Tech Tool 27:03 - Wrapping Up Tools Mentioned: Asana Basecamp Trello Slack Zoom Skype G Suite/Google Drive Dropbox Loom Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work? Are you spending time doing things that you are not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks, so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show. We bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, and now, here are your hosts, Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Matt Malouf: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another show of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co-host Barbara Turley. Good afternoon, Barb. Barbara Turley: Hey, Matt from sunny Sydney. Is it sunny where you are in Sydney today? Matt: It is. It is, and I had to think about that because we normally do these recordings in the morning but it's— Barbara: I know. It's nice to do it in the afternoon. Matt: It is. It certainly is. How's everything going? Barbara: Good, great. We're heading into a nice time of the year here, my favorite time of the year in Sydney. The weather gets a bit cooler, which is good. But excited about today's topic. I love how we pow-wow and come up with these problems that we see across business coaching and in what I do in outsourcing and gel them together and come up with these great topics. So what are we gonna talk about today, Matt? Technology that is crucial to succeed in your business Matt: As Barb and I were preparing, we were talking about the technology that's crucial to succeed and win when you're working with your virtual teams. I think there's so much technology at our fingertips these days and so much advice around, you should use this, you need to get that, you need to integrate it with this, it can be very, very confusing for many of us. I know technology is not something that has come naturally to me. It's something that I've had to learn and train myself with. But the key is that there are some crucial pieces of technology that you must adapt and adopt in your company to succeed with virtual assistants. Barbara: Definitely. I mean, I echo those thoughts. You know, Matt, I'm someone who is into technology and I love integrating systems and everything, but my love of simplicity is bigger. Even though I love tools, I actually have very few. We recommend strongly that clients stick to a few key things. It was great when we were discussing this today to actually come up with three. There's lots of things we could talk about, but there are three that we would describe as the non-negotiable. If you want to get success with a VA or a virtual team, or, honestly, even if you have a company that just has a lot of people, there are three non-negotiable tech tools and setups that we've isolated to make this work. Matt: Absolutely. Barbara: Let's kick this off, Matt. Tool Number 1: Project Management Matt: Okay. The number one that Barb and I were discussing was you need a project management tool. It may be a tool like Asana, Basecamp, Trello, or the like. Our preference and what we both use in our respective businesses, and I know Barb you highly recommend it with all of your clients, is Asana. What's the experience that you and your team have had arou...
Running a business has never been easy, but today’s 24/7 world makes moving forward more difficult than ever before. Plenty of resources can show you how to make lists, create schedules and manage your time, but expect your time to be 100% devoted to work – it’s no way to live, and no way to […]
Matt Malouf is a passionate business coach, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and podcast host on a mission to help entrepreneurs around the world break the shackles of mediocrity and reach new levels of personal and business success. Matt has experience at every stage of the business lifecycle, from conception to exit strategy. His business coaching methodology is simple: understand your current position, map out your journey, and establish measurable goals to track progress along the way. By focusing more on accountability than quick fixes, Matt’s coaching has helped his 1,000+ clients add millions of dollars in turnover without adding pressure on internal resources. Matt takes a holistic approach to uncovering business roadblocks, then utilizing a hybrid of tools to creatively overcome challenges by implementing and fine-tuning proven business systems. Whether working with startups or established businesses, Matt refines every detail from the ground up, ensuring each business is both efficient and profitable. Matt’s coaching program, Profitable LIfestyle Business, incorporates strategies outlined in his best-selling book The Stop Doing List, inspiring entrepreneurs in any industry to address their most crucial business needs and build a thriving business allowing them to live a 500/40/30 lifestyle ($500,000 annual profit, working no more than forty x 30-hour weeks per year).
How To Successfully Recruit The Right VA Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara talk about the importance of recruiting the right virtual assistant for your business. During this episode, we talk about the in-depth process you need to have when recruiting from Overseas. Some of the areas covered include: Barbara's personal recruiting process Why taking your time during the hiring process pays off in the long run Why you need to define the culture of your business so you can identify the characters that will thrive in your workspace Why it's important to have strong systems in place for your staff Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 1.17 - Recruiting the right VA 3.23 - Biggest fears around hiring an offshore VA 4.05 - Barbara's personal recruitment process 5.18 - Steps to successful recruiting 14.58 -Why a trial period is so important 15.43 - Hiring an expert to recruit your staff 18.02 - staff character and work culture 25.27 - Local insights into what's important when hiring a VA from the Philippines 27.10 - Recapping of the major steps 27.59 - Wrapping up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work? Are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks, so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show. We bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, and now, here are your hosts, Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey, everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co-host Matt Malouf. Hey, Matt, how's it going? Matt Malouf: Excellent, Barb. And yourself? Barbara: I'm good. Now, where in the world are you today? Because I know you're traveling a bit at the moment. Matt: I am. I'm in the beautiful sunshine coast of Queensland ... Barbara: And is the ... Matt: ... up in Noosa. Barbara: The weather? Matt: It is, it is. I went for a beautiful walk this morning along the river there and it's balmy and humid as Queensland is this time of year. Recruitment Barbara: Yeah, Noosa is an amazing spot. Well, I'm based in my hometown of Sydney at the moment so it's kind of wet and windy here today. Today's show look, I'm really excited about today show because it's a topic that's close to my heart and it is we're gonna tackle the difficulty in getting offshoring right and specifically the difficulty about recruiting because that is literally the first step to get right. I know I hear it all the time with clients coming to our business who sort of say, look I tried, I failed, you know, how are you different? That's kinda what they ... They're burnt out from the experience of trying this and I know, Matt, you've had some stories like this as well. Matt: Even just yesterday. A lot of the business coaching that I do we're obviously trying to help people grow their business but also increase their margins and their profits and so using Virtual assistants is one great way of doing that. Getting great people to do things. Yesterday I'm in a meeting and as soon as I broached the subject the callers like, "Stop." He actually put his hand up, stop. I've done it, it doesn't work for me. I looked at him and I was like, this guys been in business for a long time. I'm like, "What do you mean it doesn't? I've tried it, I've tried it, I've heard it all, I've read the books, it doesn't work for me." Barbara: Absolutely, yeah. Matt: I think what we want to really get out of this episode today is to dispel this myth because Barb and I have a belief that it can work for everyone. It's simple but not easy. Barbara: Yes, and I guess what I really want to show today, is you know, I'm running ... We've got almost 120 employees now in the Philippines and I can t...
Matt Malouf is a business coach, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and podcast host on a mission to help entrepreneurs around the world break the shackles of mediocrity and reach new levels of personal and business success. His coaching program has helped more than 1,000 clients add millions of dollars in revenue without adding pressure on internal resources. His framework helps entrepreneurs address their most crucial needs and build a thriving business that gives them more certainty, more profit, and ultimately more freedom for the things that really matter in life. Links: https://wisdomcg.com.au www.stopdoing.com.au The Stop Doing List book The Richest Man in Babylon book
Listen to guest Matt Malouf discuss money making opportunities and strategies with real estate. He shares his experiences and tips on how he grows a real estate portfolio and uses the properties to generate income.
Matt Malouf is a passionate business coach, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and podcast host on a mission to help entrepreneurs around the world break the shackles of mediocrity and reach new levels of personal and business success. Matt’s coaching program has helped more than 1,000 clients add millions of dollars in turnover without adding pressure on internal resources. He incorporates the framework outlined in his best-seller The Stop Doing List to help entrepreneurs address their most crucial needs and build a thriving business that gives them more certainty, more profit, and ultimately more freedom for the things that really matter in life. During our interview we discuss: - Matt shares his #1 strategy for getting new clients for his business. - Matt breaks down his 4 step strategy for working less while making more. - Matt shares an easy way to measure and improve your productivity. - We discuss a strategy that he calls, "assessing your genius" and why such an important part of growing a successful business. - Matt shares how he leverages what he calls a "focus funnel" to help create your "stop doing list" - We talk about how working more is not the key to success and why humans are so focused on checking things off their list. - Matt shares his favorite growth tool/software. - He shares and recommends one of his favorite books. Matt's websites: www.wisdomcg.com.au www.stopdoing.com.au ——————————————————————————– If you enjoyed this episode, please RATE / REVIEW and SUBSCRIBE to ensure you never miss an episode. Connect with Dennis Brown AskDennisBrown.com LinkedIn Twitter
023: Success with Systems to Alleviate Stress with Matt Malouf Matt Malouf is a passionate business coach, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and podcast host on a mission to help entrepreneurs around the world break the shackles of mediocrity and reach new levels of personal and business success. On the podcast today we focus on the mindsets that keep us stuck and unable to delegate and work in our zone of genius. Matt has lots to share on this topic and it is so important for us to consider as we are business building. Topics Mentioned: Mindset Business Development Clarity Delegation Thoughts from Matt: There are four negative mindsets that decrease productivity. Negative mindset 1: Others can’t do it as well as I can. Negative mindset 2: I don’t want to give up control. Negative mindset 3: I can’t afford it. Negative mindset 4: I don’t have time to implement. We should be working 60-70% in our genius zone. If you do a task more than twice, create a system for it. Create a system to create systems. Ask yourself what you really want - and why. Books: The Stop Doing List by Matt Malouf Socials: Website: www.wisdomcg.com.au Facebook: Leap Business Accelerator, Wisdom Coaching LinkedIn: maloufmatt Podcast: Virtual Success Show
I Don't Know What My VA is Doing Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara and Matt talk to listeners about a common anxiety felt by many business owners who work with VAs - “I don't know what my Virtual Assistant is doing” – and the strategies they can put in place to ensure they are always across tasks that their VA is working on. During this episode, we take a look at the importance of communication and the setting of clear expectations within your team, to ensure that business owners and their VAs always know what each other is up to. Some of the areas covered include: The importance of managing your team and flow of work Set clear expectations around what the deliverables are of each task How important project management tools are in keeping communication open and transparent Building solid systems within your business and ensuring you have the right systems and processes in place for your team Let us know in the comments below what your key takeout has been from this episode or why not join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 01:36 - “What is my VA working on?” 02:17 - How do I manage my VA? 02:45 - Set clear expectations 03:57 - Use project management tools 05:50 - Keep communication open 06:58 - Set clear deliverables 08:09 - Build a solid system 10:58 - Have I got the right systems and processes in place? 15:15 - Working within your ‘genius' 17:08 - Refining your systems and processes 20:58 - Wrapping things up Barbara Turley: Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my fabulous co-host, Matt Malouf. Matt, how is it going? Matt Malouf: Excellent, Barb. How are you today? Barbara: I'm good. Thank you. Loving doing this show as always. I'm always amazed of how many times we think we have no more topics to cover. Then, we go, "What about this question?" So many things to talk about. Matt: Absolutely, absolutely. We would come up with a list of I think half a dozen in the prep for this show. Barbara: Exactly. I know. So, guys, what are the things we're going to talk about today on today's show? It's a very simple topic, but it's one I actually see quite a bit not just with clients, but people online talking about VAs, and the question that I get sometimes is... It's not really a question. More of an observation or a fear. "I don't know what my VA is working on," which is a tricky one. So, people feel a little bit almost disempowered because they feel like, "Well, I think my VA is working, but I don't actually know what they're doing." Now, Matt, is it just me, or do you hear anything similar in your coaching practice, right, your retreats, or any of your masterminds? “What is my VA working on?” Matt: Yeah. It's very common. I hear, "I'm not clear or sure what they're doing," or it's, "How will I know if they're working all the time at their desk?" So, it's very, very common. Very common. Barbara: Yes. Yes, and I think what happens is people start to feel, like I said, a bit disempowered, and then the fear comes in, and I even talked to our VAs about this actually. I say it's very important that you don't let yourself fall into this trap because the client in the back of their head won't be able to help themselves, but wonder, "What are they doing?" So, you got to try to be visible, and you got to try to be demonstrating what you're actually working on. How do I manage my VA? But at the same time, it does... I feel it comes back to the client and the way the client is managing their team and managing the flow of work that's going on in a business, which really is the responsibility of the owner or the person managing... You might have an operations person that's managing this. It's really their responsibility to know this kind of thing. So, Matt, what would you... As a coach, what's your take on this? What's your advice? Set clear expectations
Matt Malouf is today's guest on The Segilola Salami Show. Matt shares with us tips on he started investing in property and how you too can invest in property. I assure you, you need to click play now to listen to all that Matt Malouf has to say. If you enjoy listening to this podcast, Read more about Matt Malouf: How To Invest In Property[…] The post Matt Malouf: How To Invest In Property appeared first on Segilola Salami. Segilola Salami teaches a course on grief resolution https://www.segilolasalami.co.uk/membership-account/unresolved-grief-live-course/?utm_source=Segilola%20RSS%20feed&utm_medium=Online&utm_campaign=grief%20course
The Stepping Stone to Hiring an Operations Director with Sarah Noked, OBM — Part 3 Want the transcript? Download it here. During this episode, we take a closer look at the role of an Online Business Manager and whether this a seat you want to be filling in your own business. Some of the areas covered include: Understanding the role of an Online Business Manager (OBM) The key differences between what a VA does and what an OBM does When you should consider bringing in an OBM to help you grow your online business Knowing when to replace an OBM with an Operations Manager Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. This episode is the last part of a 3-episode series. You can listen to the previous parts here: Part 1: Do I need a VA, Project Manager or Operations Manager…or all three? Part 2: Right People, Right Seats, Right Time In this episode: 02:12 - What is an Online Business Manager? 04:58 - The difference between VAs and OBMs 06:56 – When you should consider bringing in an OBM? 09:25 - OBM versus having someone physically working next to me 11:26 - Online presence vs. offline presence 13:28 - Knowing when to replace and OBM with an Operations Manager 15:05 - Choosing the right team member for the right stage of business 19:19 - Having team members play to their genius 20:50 – Sarah's Top 3 Tips 24:00 - Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey, everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. Hey, Matt, how's it going? Matt: I'm excellent, Barb, and yourself? Barbara: I'm good, thanks. I'm good, thanks. I'm trialling out a new space today in Sydney. I'm at the beautiful WeWork Co-Working Space in Sydney recording this podcast. Matt: Very cool. Very cool. Barbara: For today's show, guys, we're going to do the third in a three-part series that Matt and I are quite excited about. The three-part series where we talk about VA versus project manager versus operations directions, or more of an operations manager. The first show we did, it's worthwhile listing to that, where we dissected each of those roles and where they fit in your business. In the second part of this three part series we looked at getting the right people in the right seats on the right bus. Sometimes you got the right people, but they might be in the wrong seats and that can destabilise things. Often you see people just getting rid of staff rather than just figuring out whether that is the issue. In this third part we really want to get into this operations project manager piece. Barbara: I've brought on a very good friend of mine and someone who helps me out a lot in my business too, Sarah Noked, who is a certified online business manager and trainer. She's one of only three people in the whole world who is actually able to train people to be online business managers. She runs an amazing agency of OBMs from Tel Aviv and she's joining us today, very early in the morning, from Tel Aviv. Hey, Sarah. How's it going? Sarah: Hey, I'm fabulous. Thanks for having me on. What is an Online Business Manager? Barbara: You're very welcome. Look, Sarah, to kick things off, can we just talk about ... You run OBMs which are online business managers. Let's just explain to the listeners, break it down, what is an online business manager? What's the sort of definition there? Sarah: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, a great question that I get asked quite often. Basically, an online business manager deals with the management piece of an online business. Project management, people management, operations management, and resources management. You'll often find an OBM in the place working alongside the business owner where the business owner comes to the table with the "what". You know,
Do I need a VA, Project Manager or Operations Manager…or all three? — Part 1 Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara and Matt take a closer look at what really defines the role of a Virtual Assistant, Project Manager and Operations Manager and when you may need all three roles in your business. During this episode, we explore all three roles and the importance of business owners taking the time to delineate each role to ensure the lines are not blurred in order to avoid any problems arising. Some of the areas covered include:Understanding the skill sets required for each role and ensuring you have the best person for the jobDetermining whether your VA can confidently carry out the tasks you require or if you need to bring in a Project Manager and/or Operations Manager to fill the skill gapPlanning for the future and ensuring you bring the right people onboard at the right time, and not when it's too lateThe importance of seeing each member of your team as investment, rather than an expense Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. This episode is the first part of a 3-episode series. You can listen to the next parts:Part 2: Right People, Right Seats, Right TimePart 3: The Stepping Stone to Hiring an Operations Director with Sarah Noked, OBM In this episode:00:45 – Do I need a Virtual Assistant, Project Manager or Operations Manager?02:49 – What is a Virtual Assistant (VA)?04:38 – Common VA tasks04:56 – VAs managing social media content05:38 – VAs and content management06:18 – General VA tasks08:07 – The role of a Project Manager10:33 – When should I bring in a Project Manager?12:34 – Confusing the role of a Project Manager with a VA13:46 – The role of an Operations Manager17:39 – Part-time or full-time roles?19:25 – Investment vs expense20:20 – In our next couple of shows…21:05 – In summary…22:45 – Wrapping things up Resources mentioned in this show:The Stop Doing List Barbara: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Virtual Success Show, where I'm joined today by my co-host, Matt Malouf. How's it going, Matt? Matt: Very good, Barb. How are you going? Barbara: I'm great. Excited to be getting back into these shows and producing some more epic content for our listeners. Matt: 100%. 100%. Do I need a Virtual Assistant, Project Manager or Operations Manager? Barbara: So guys, look, today, Matt and I wanted to delve into a topic that we've been… we've sort of been hashing out this topic for a long time, because we think there's a lot of value in defining parts of roles that you need in your business. Today, what we're going to be talking about is, do you need a Virtual Assistant, a Project Manager or an Operations Manager, and when is it time to have all three? It's really important that we define each of these roles, because what we're finding is sometimes, clients, there's blurred lines between each of these roles, which is okay initially, but it can lead to problems when we're not clear about what the roles are and how to progress to the next one. So Matt, I'm sure you see this in your coaching businesses all the time as well. Matt: I do. I'm really excited about this topic, Barb, because so many of the clients I work with need help and like the idea of a Virtual Assistant but they get very confused very quickly, I think, with being able to clearly delineate roles, so I think this is going to be really, really helpful for our listeners today. Barbara: Yeah, and we often talk about expectations management. I know we did a full show on this. What I find is where people sometimes get disappointed is when they get a Virtual Assistant, but they don't realise that possibly what they were looking for or what they need might be more of a Project Manager or, dare I say, an Operations Manager, which is a whole other thing. And when you try and make a Virtual Assistant do certain things that real...
Learn 4 ways to become a better host, entrepreneur and all around person from Matt Malouf, author of "Short Term Rental Success Stories From the Edge, Volume 1: Conquering and Crushing Fear in Today's Sharing Economy" [Available on Amazon Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/Short-Term-Rental-Success-Stories/dp/1981050760 ] and Airbnb Entrepreneur podcast host, Rachel Prince [Airbnb Realtor / www.Rentalpreneur.com] Become an Airbnb Host and join the short-term rental revolution. Use Rachel's Ambassador Link to become an Airbnb host: airbnb.com/r/rprince1 Thank you for subscribing, liking & commenting. Email info @ rentalpreneur.com for show ideas! music credit: [www.bensound.com]
How Often Should I Talk To My VA? Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara and Matt cover a question that they are both asked all too often…”How often should I talk to my Virtual Assistant?” And if you yourself are asking this very question, then the answer is ‘start communicating more'. This episode is full of insights into not only how often you should communicate with your VA, but also the ways in which you can communicate effectively. Some of the areas covered include: Common barriers to communication, including geographical location and time zones The importance of establishing communication protocols and meeting rhythms Constantly evaluating your communication style and frequency to ensure it is working for you and your VA/ team There is no such thing as ‘over communicating' Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 01:24 – How often should I talk to my VA? 01:52 – Barriers to communication 04:03 – Establishing communication protocols 05:43 – Setting a meeting rhythm 09:22 – Matt's ‘Bat Signal' 12:35 – Re-evaluate your communication style and frequency on an ongoing basis 15:23 – There is no such thing as ‘over communicating' 17:28 – Wrapping things up Resources mentioned in this show: Asana Barbara: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I am joined by my co-host Matt Malouf. Hey Matt, how are you? Matt: Hi, I am well Barb, and yourself? Barbara: I'm good, thank you. Good, thank you. Enjoying all these shows always and learning all the time from everything we talk about on the shows. Matt: Absolutely, absolutely. And I must say also I'm also I'm loving the warmer weather we're having here in Sydney at the moment. Barbara: Yeah, that helps. Winter has finished. Matt: It has. Barbara: We are now into summer. For those in the northern hemisphere you're heading into your winter now, we don't envy you. So look guys, today's show we've been getting a lot of questions actually, which is great, from a couple listeners and some of our clients that actually listen to the show about stuff that they'd really like us to address on the show. So, today one of the biggest questions that I get asked and Matt gets asked a lot is how often should I talk to my VA? How often should I talk to my VA? Now, it sounds like a simple question but like I said, we get this one a lot and people actually are quite confused about it and even when they figure out how often should I talk to my VA, how should I do it, and how should I make it effective? So, Matt, I know with your coaching and in your Stop Doing book and in all the stuff that you teach you've got this concept of a meeting rhythm, which I thought would be really good for us to delve into today to address this question. Barriers to communication Matt: Absolutely, and just as a preface before we get into meeting rhythm. I think one of the most important things with communicating with your virtual teams, your virtual assistant, etc., is to try and act as if it's no different than if they were sitting next to you in the office. Now, you want to be mindful of that because it's not that you want to be picking up Skype and the like every five seconds to ask a question. But I think too often we have this separation in this, they're over there and I'm over here, maybe I'll just message them rather than talking to them etc. We create these barriers of communication, and I think it's really really important to have rules around communication. And for me, this is whether you're in an office working with people or in a remote kind of environment. It's knowing when to communicate and in what form to communicate, I think, is critically important. Barbara: You know what struck me as you were saying that, I don't know but people who have…and you would know the answer to this because it's probably more...
The Trials And Tribulations Anfernee Chansamooth Has Faced Whilst Building a Virtual Team of Specialists Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest Anfernee Chansamooth, Chief Marketing Officer at Simple Creative Marketing, takes listeners through the challenges he faced when building a virtual team of specialists to support his rapidly growing business. Anfernee, whose expertise lies in writing online content, takes us through his journey of assembling a team of specialists and how it's important to not only find the right people, but also have well thought out systems and processes in place to ensure everyone is set up for success. Some of the areas covered include: Before you do anything else, work out what the core service is that you are delivering and then start to decode that first Building a virtual team isn't easy, but it's definitely worth it The importance of systems and processes as they provide the foundation to which you can then build a team around The need for good communication tools in order to systemise the processes used for communicating with your virtual team and/or clients Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: Simple Creative Marketing Trello Podio Google Drive Google Docs Upwork In this episode: 02:15 – About Anfernee Chansamooth 05:13 – Getting started 06:32 – The challenges of building a virtual team 09:25 – Making sure you have the right people in your team 12:30 – A global team 14:16 – Tools for communication 15:33 – Team collaboration 18:09 – Shifting your mindset 18:35 – Constantly refine your processes 21:40 – Building a Virtual Team isn't easy…but it's worth it 22:50 – Advice from Anfernee… 26:18 – Key takeaways… 29:11 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show, where I'm joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. Hey Matt how is it going? Matt: Excellent Barb, how are you going? Barbara: I'm good, I'm good. We've been punching out these shows recently. We've got a whole bank of amazing content up on the site virtualsuccessshow.com these days. So, I'm excited to keep going with this. Matt: Absolutely, very exciting for the community. Barbara: Yeah. So today's topic is quite a good one because I know that we're going to be interviewing a very good friend of mine who runs a business, who delivers content for people looking to do content marketingonline or any business looking to build content. And we all know that actually it's quite a big job to get content up. Writing blogs and doing this sort of thing. And a lot of people really don't enjoy it. But it's a really important part of your marketing strategy. So today we're going to be talking to Anfernee Chansamooth who is the Chief Marketing Officer at Simple Creative Marketing. He also has a podcast called Authentic Influence, which is a fantastic podcast, that I myself was on the other day. So, check that one out also. So, Anfernee, welcome to the show. Anfernee: Thanks for having me Barb and Matt. Matt: Welcome Barbara: So Anf, just to kick off, just give us the quick background of how you ended up… I love the offer that you have around people can sign up for a monthly offer basically to have your team, which is all a virtual team of writers, create their content strategy and deliver the blog strategy for them. What's the back story to how you actually ended up delivering that offer? About Anfernee Chansamooth Anfernee: Well, we go back about four years, I was the Marketing Manager at one of Australia's largest co-working communities. And so I was actually writing a lot of the content for the company at the time. And then what we realised was we had a distributed team of about 12 people across Australia. And we struggled, even with a team of that size,
Is a Virtual Assistant Really What You Need? Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara and Matt take listeners through the necessary steps for business owners to take to determine whether they really need a Virtual Assistant or the help of a specialist. This episode takes a look at some of the key questions business owners need to ask themselves in order to determine who they need help from and how they can go about getting the right person for the job. Some of the areas covered include: Determining whether it's a VA that you need, or a specialist Understanding what your business needs are in order to make the right staffing decisions Slowing down and taking the time to map out your business needs will actually allow you to speed up your business Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: The Stop Doing List In this episode: 02:00 – Do I need a VA or a specialist? 06:25 – Understanding what your needs are 08:44 – Slowing down in order to speed up 12:08 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show, where I am joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. Matt, how are you? Matt: Barbara, I'm excellent. Barbara: Good, how's all your brood? Matt: They're well, they're all good. They're on school holidays at the moment, so they're back in school next weekend I'm sure my wife will be very, very happy about that. Barbara: Yeah, all the mums are like, “When is school coming back?” I'm not into that phase yet, I've just got my almost one-year-old, well she's nearly 11 months, so I'm a bit off the school holiday thing yet. Matt: Nah, it's all good. Barbara: Yeah, so today's topic guys, is again, a sort of a scenario that Matt sees and I see. I probably see a bit more than Matt, actually, in my line of business at Virtual Angel Hub, where we had a particular case and we've seen this a few times, where a client will come in, all revved up, excited about getting a VA, get a VA and then it just doesn't work, right? And then we get in and try to see what the problem is, get another VA in there, still doesn't work and in one particular case I said to the team, “Can you ask the client to send us a very detailed brief of exactly what it is that they're really looking for?” Just so we can get a better sense. We just had this feeling that we're missing something. So the client very kindly sent a very detailed briefing, which was fantastic for us to see, because the whole team sort of collectively, virtually online went, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Do I need a VA or a specialist? Because what was laid out would actually…really what this client actually needed was kind of a marketing agency and they were trying to get a part-time VA to do things that really are way outside the scope of what a VA is capable of doing. So I thought this would be a great topic to discuss. When is a VA really not necessarily not the right choice, but maybe not the first choice you should make or you need something more developed alongside the VA. Otherwise, you are actually going to waste time and money. So Matt I was interested to hear your thoughts on this. Would you see this happen a lot? I mean you're on the coaching side- Matt: Yeah— Barbara: So presumably, we'd actually recommended that this client go and get a strategist or a marketing person to sort of lay out what they need first. Matt: And I do see this regularly. I think when I wrote the stop during this book and put the tool together, I actually put one of the questions to ask, as you go through the tool is, I'm just going to read it, so I get it exactly right – Are special skills required for the task? And so, as you're unpacking all of the things that you want to stop doing and categorising them into your excellence,
My Amazing Virtual Assistant Just Resigned …What Do I Do Now? Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara discuss the reasons why business owners should never become dependent on any one person in any specific role and the common traps many fall into in this area. This episode focuses on some of the key areas that business owners need to stay on top of to ensure there is minimal impact to their business when that superstar VA leaves. Some of the areas covered include: The need for up-to-date and current systematisation and documentation Understanding that you need to slow down, in order to speed up your business It is the responsibility of the business owner to build and create the systems to ensure business success Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: The E-Myth by Michael Gerber In this episode: 00:54 – My VA just resigned… 02:05 – Creating a turn key business 02:56 – You must document tasks 05:05 – Everybody is replaceable, including you 06:28 – Slow down to speed up 10:40 – Key takeaways 12:57 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show, where I'm joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. Hi Matt, how's it going? Matt: Well Barb, and yourself? Barbara: I'm really well, thank you. We've been flat out busy, both you and me in the last few weeks, up-leveling. Matt: Absolutely. And braving that it's very chilly here in Sydney today, but … Barbara: It is. Matt: But we've got a hot topic that we're going to be talking about. My VA just resigned… Barbara: Yes, definitely, definitely. One of the questions … I mean, I hear this quite a bit at Virtual Angel Hub, but I also see it online and I've heard it from people I've spoken to, who've had VAs or virtual teams before, what if my … Let's say you have an amazing VA, that just does epic work for you, is a massive asset to your business, and then they tell you that they're resigning for whatever reason, they may be going back to study, or whatever. They've announced you that they're resigning and you go into this total panic mode of, “Oh my god, what am I going to do now?” because this person is such a huge part of my business and knows all the processes and what we do. And I find this really interesting, because in my business, I often move people around, I promote people. Thankfully nobody's ever really left me, but people often very quickly have to be moved into new roles, which means that I can't have a situation where they're indispensable in the previous role. So Matt, I'm really interested to talk to you about this as a business coach. How can people not fall into this trap of having somebody who is indispensable, I guess, in their business, and then you're left in chaos if they leave? Creating a turn key business Matt: Yes. It was a really interesting conversation we were having just before the show, but I think that the person that put this best is probably Michael Gerber in The E-Myth, about you've got to create a turn key business. A business that can operate without you. And I think that anytime in business, where knowledge is held with a person, without documented systems or processes, it's risky. And I know Barb, what I see, a lot of these business owners holding a lot of the IP in their head, and doing things just naturally in the natural course of business. Then they bring a team member on, and what they do is they download their brain into the team member's brain, without getting it all documented. So really what you're doing is transferring the risk, as opposed to de-risking the business. You must document tasks Barbara: Yes. And you know what I find as well? Sometimes when a client comes to us, and we have a very high success rate as you know,
How Brian Casel, Founder of Audience Ops, Has Built a Virtual Team of Specialists to Help Grow His Online Content Marketing BusinessWant the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest and founder of Audience Ops, Brian Casel, shares with us his experience of building a virtual team of content marketing specialists and how you may not always get it right the first time. Brian reveals that in order to grow a successful business in today's constantly evolving marketplace, business owners must remain responsive and ensure their own businesses continue to evolve. Some of the areas covered include:The initial challenges faced when building a virtual team of specialistsWhy systems and processes are so important in building your team up for successThe need for effective communication tools within your virtual teamEnsuring you have a sound onboarding and training process for new recruits Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show:Audience OpsCasjamSlackTrelloHelp Scout In this episode:02:28 – Who is Brian Casel?05:57 – Initial challenges with building teams09:55 – The importance of systems and processes12:14 – Do you need a VA or someone else?13:04 – Firing yourself from business processes14:48 – Business processes are constantly evolving16:50 – Brian's business processes22:30 – Challenges of bringing new people into your team25:42 – Getting the onboarding process right26:36 – How to deal with an underperforming team member27:48 – Have your team suggest ways to improve processes29:56 – Outsourcing a task that requires talent or expertise33:18 – The need for good online content35:37 – Brian's #1 tool that has streamlined his business40:20 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of the Virtual Success Show, where today I'm flying solo without my co-host Matt Malouf. When we have guests on the show, which we do today, often we find it's easier to get really good guests if we can split the shows up and not have our own schedules getting in the way, so on today's show I'm really excited because I'm talking to Brian Casel, who is the founder of Audience Ops and also has a fantastic podcast called… it's called the Productize Podcast, Brian is it? Brian: Yeah actually I have two podcasts, but yeah Productize Podcast and the other one that I co-host with Jordan Gal is called Bootstrapped Web. Barbara: Oh fantastic, fantastic! So guys today we're going to talk all about all things content and managing team's when it comes to content and how to get content up on your site without it overwhelming you. I know one of the questions I get a lot Virtual Angel Hub is clients who have VA's through us will say, “Well how do I get a consistent stream of content?”, particularly when the VA's able to do quite a lot of work with that content but one of the challenges is trying to actually get consistency in this area. So Brian's going to talk to us all about this today and his own journey with managing teams in this area. So Brian, welcome to the show. Brian: Well thanks Barbara. It's great to talk to you. I just love talking about this stuff, whether it's outsourcing, working with a team, collaborating, managing people, growing, yeah. Barbara: Me too because I think one of the key things to actually growing or scaling is getting this right, cause so many people can't nail this and it will trip you up if you can't figure out how to manage a team once you start to grow, as you and I've just been talking about off air Brian. Brian: Yep, absolutely. Barbara: The whole challenge of it. Okay so to kick off the show, give us first a quick Audience Ops, the Productize Podcast, all about you so give us the quick what are you doing these days with your businesses. Who is Brian Casel? Brian: Sure. Yeah I tend to like to work backwards in this story.
The Stop Doing List – Part Three: How to Actually ‘Stop Doing' Want the transcript? Download it here. In the final episode of our three-part special on The Stop Doing List book, author Matt Malouf takes listeners through the final step in the process – how to actually ‘stop doing' those tasks that are not in your genius. During this episode, Matt focuses on the importance of the KRC model – Knowledge, Responsibility, Control – as without knowledge, we actually are unable to effectively be responsible or control any aspect of anything. Some of the areas covered are: Understanding that without knowledge, we actually are unable to effectively be responsible or control any aspect of anything In order to start imparting knowledge and enable somebody else to take responsibility, there needs to be training systems and technology, and a blend of these, with systems being at the center of this To avoid tasks boomeranging back to you, you must invest time and money in the on going training of your team The importance of reporting and accountability once a task has been delegated In this episode: 02:00 – How to actually ‘Stop Doing' 03:02 – The KRC model 04:38 – Linking the KRC 08:22 – Reporting and accountability 11:33 – Managing delegation 18:23 – Wrapping things up Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: The Stop Doing List – www.stopdoing.com.au Barbara: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another show of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. How are you, Matt? Matt: I'm well, Barb, and yourself? Barbara: Good. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Really enjoying this series that we're doing on your book, The Stop Doing List. I learn a lot every time I do this show, but it's about refining things. Although I've gotten quite good at all these steps of delegation, and systems, and processes, and teams over the last few years I've been doing this, there's always little bits that I learn more of when we do these shows and particularly from this series about The Stop Doing List. Matt: Yeah. It's interesting. I started writing the book two years ago. Obviously, we published it three months ago now. As you go back, and you remember, and you go, “Oh, yeah. We put that part in there.” I was also preparing for the show, you know, there's things you forget that you put into the book, so it's really great for me to go back and reiterate what I actually put in here as well. Barbara: I think the point actually that it's a good point we make here, and I've often said to clients, “Processes are not a one-time thing like, none of this stuff is you just set and forget. It's a constant evolving process of mindset, ‘Stop doing. Stop doing. Stop doing.'” Okay. Today, we're going to tackle part three of the book, which I think is probably one of the most important areas to get right and one of the areas we see a lot of clients getting tripped up in, which is actually how to stop doing. How to actually ‘Stop Doing' When you create your task list, you've got all your processes and systems in place, and you delegate, and you got the VA on board, and you've done everything you were told to do, and then this is the area where people often fall down. First of all, Matt, can you tell me why is that? What happens in the actual process of how to stop doing? Matt: Yeah, and this was one of the most interesting parts to writing this book because I think many of us, myself included, have delegated and passed tasks on before, and it seems like that boomerang effect where they keep coming back to us. I was just intrigued and kept asking, “What is it? Why do these tasks keep coming back?” Then, in my research, I stumbled across what's called the “KRC model,” the Knowledge, Responsibility, Control. It's a model that is part of the Harvard Management System.
In the final episode of our three-part special on The Stop Doing List book, author Matt Malouf takes listeners through the final step in the process – how to actually ‘stop doing’ those tasks that are not in your genius. During this episode, Matt focuses on the importance of the KRC model – Knowledge, […]
Every entrepreneur knows that the hardest thing about running a business is keeping up with all the work. This week’s guest Matt Malouf has a radical solution: stop doing that work. Matt isn’t saying that you should ignore your responsibilities. In his new book The Stop Doing List, Matt explains how to rid of yourself of all that time-wasting work so that you can focus on the tasks that will make you happy and wealthy.
The Stop Doing List – Part Two: Unpacking and Creating Your Stop Doing List So You Can Step Into Your Genius Zone Want the transcript? Download it here. In the second episode of our three-part special on The Stop Doing List book, author Matt Malouf talks about the key to understanding where you are spending your time and how to categorise those tasks to get clear on where you should be spending more time – your Genius Zone. During this episode, Matt explains that the more time you spend in your ‘genius zone', the more you'll love your business, the more profitable your business will be and the more freedom you will have long-term. Some of the areas covered are: The importance of determining the value of your time – your hourly rate – and the process to do so Understanding your genius zone – those tasks and activities that you love doing, that you do really well and that have a positive financial return to you and the company How to filter your tasks through the focus funnel in order to determine which tasks you should, delegate, automate or eliminate to create your ultimate Stop Doing List In this episode: 02:30 – Unpacking and creating your Stop Doing list 03:55 – Understanding your genius zone 08:00 – Calculating your hourly rate 10:25 – Determining your opportunity cost 12:35 – Wrapping things up Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: The Stop Doing List – www.stopdoing.com.au Barbara: Hey everyone and welcome back to the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. How's it going Matt? Matt: It's going well Barb, and yourself? Barbara: Really good, I'm very excited about today's show, and to delve into part two of our three part series on your The Stop Doing List book, which has just been a pivotal book for me to read recently. All the things that- I thought I knew lots about this but I've just learned so many things from delving into your book again. So guys, last show we did was part one of The Stop Doing List, where we talked about the mindset- and it's such a detailed show on the specific steps and the specific mindsets that you need to get into in order to actually stop doing, and then in today's show we're going to talk about actually unpacking and creating your stop doing list, which- one of the key questions we get at Virtual Angel Hub is “how do I know what to put on my list to give a VA?” So it's a really big question that we get asked, and I'm sure Matt, you get asked this question all the time as well. Matt: Absolutely and also those that are wanting to grow their companies, this is the starting point. Everyone's looking for what I need to do, I need to do more, do more, but unless you let go of some of these things first, and utilise a virtual assistant, or even employing technology and the like to help you with this, it'll just burn you out. Barbara: Yeah, and you don't have the space and time to strategise and move forward. You actually need to free up your time effectively first, it's like the number one thing you need to do, I think, before you start trying to grow and scale. So, now, we did a show- a couple of shows back we did a show that we delved into quite a lot of what this second part of the book talks about so Matt, can you just run through- I think it was the show called, “Think You've Only Got Five Hours to Delegate? Think Again.” So it's a great show on how to figure out how much you're actually doing that you need to stop doing. So Matt, can you give us- just kind of run through the key steps in this part of the book. Unpacking and Creating Your Stop Doing List Matt: Absolutely. So, this part of the book is really about you're starting to understand where you're spending your time, and then how to categorise those tasks to get clear on where you should be spending more time.
In the second episode of our three-part special on The Stop Doing List book, author Matt Malouf talks about the key to understanding where you are spending your time and how to categorise those tasks to get clear on where you should be spending more time – your Genius Zone. During this episode, […]
The Stop Doing List – Part One: The Essential Mindsets You Need To Unlock Your Entrepreneurial Freedom And Ultimately ‘Stop Doing' Want the transcript? Download it here. In the first episode of our three-part special, our very own Matt Malouf, author, business coach and co-host of the Virtual Success Show, talks us through his recently published book, The Stop Doing List, and the importance of adopting several specific mindsets in order to gain more time, more profit and more freedom in your business. During this episode, Matt explains to listeners the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone and letting go of negative mindsets in order to adopt the essential positive mindsets to ultimately ‘stop doing'. Some of the areas covered are: The importance of mindset, before strategy, before tactics Realising when you have stepped too far out of your comfort zone and how to reign it in Being aware of common negative mindsets and how these are holding you back from business success The five essential mindsets specific to ‘stop doing' which will ultimately unlock your entrepreneurial freedom In this episode: 01:51 – The Stop Doing List book 03:25 – Mindset, before strategy, before tactics 05:00 – Three key areas of mindset 07:00 – Signs you've stepped too far out of your comfort zone 09:30 – Four most common negative mindsets 10:47 – Essential mindset #1 – Learn to say ‘no' 12:05 – Essential mindset #2 – Less is more 13:48 – Essential mindset #3 – Investment vs expense 17:18 – Essential mindset #4 – Adopting the 80/20 rule 19:30 – Essential mindset #5 – Don't sweat the small stuff 21:50 – Wrapping things up Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: The Stop Doing List – www.stopdoing.com.au Barbara: Hey, everyone, and welcome to yet another episode of The Virtual Success Show, where I'm joined by my co-host Matt Malouf. Hi, Matt, how are you? Matt: I'm well, Barb, how are you? Barbara: I'm good, thanks. I'm good. What's been your week like, biggest learning this week for you? Matt: Yeah, biggest learning. It's a really interesting week, and I think the biggest learning is that as business owners and entrepreneurs, sometimes we need to have a recovery week to allow our energy to come back up. I had a big week, three weeks on the road and presenting and the like. I came into the week feeling a little bit low, and I've had a really great week. I've just allowed myself to recover. Energy's now flying again. Barbara: Yeah, that's so true. Actually, for me, it's interesting, the show we're going to do today on your book, The Stop Doing List, I've had a week where … Or probably a month, really, where I've been pushing very far outside my comfort zone, because there's some business decisions that I've had to make. I've been really grappling with the emotional turmoil that that can often bring. It's just interesting that today's show, we're going to talk quite deeply about that, because we're going to discuss your book. Matt: Yes, absolutely. It can actually be detrimental to be too far out of our comfort zones for too long, because it's very draining. The Stop Doing List book Barbara: Just for the listeners, Matt has written an amazing book, The Stop Doing List, which I would encourage anyone … I've been diving into it. I've read it about twice already, because there's still so many nuggets of things to learn inside. What I wanted to do was actually interview Matt on the three very distinct sections that are in the book. What we're going to do is we're doing a three-part series on The Stop Doing List. Show one today, we're going to talk about the mindset that you need to get into and the challengesyou're going to face mindset-wise when you start this stop doing list exercise. Part two, then,
In the first episode of our three-part special, our very own Matt Malouf, author, business coach and co-host of the Virtual Success Show, talks us through his recently published book, The Stop Doing List, and the importance of adopting several specific mindsets in order to gain more time, more profit and more freedom in your […]
Gordon Jenkins, aka The Visible Guy, Shares With Us The Results of His Global Survey and How Virtual Assistants Can Market Themselves in a Way That Clearly Differentiates Them From OthersWant the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest, Gordon Jenkins, takes listeners through the results of a global survey he conducted aimed at people who have used, or are using, Virtual Assistants to get their feedback on exactly what they look for when engaging the services of a VA…and the results may surprise you! Gordon touches on some of the more stand out results from the survey and explains how VAs and their clients may need to shift their thinking in order to gain more success from the client/VA relationship. Some of the areas covered include:The importance of verbal communication – emails alone are not enoughJust because an employee is virtual, doesn't mean they aren't part of your teamAs a VA, client perception is your reality – so really understand what your client is looking forAs a client, be really clear on what your expectations are – so you can set your VA up for success Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show:The Visible Guy30 Different Ways to Network20 Different Ways to Differentiate Yourself In this episode:01:45 – The Visible Guy…Gordon Jenkins02:59 – Surveying clients of VAs to find out what they really want06:40 – Stand out results from the survey08:06 – The importance of verbal communication13:51 – Just because your VA is virtual, doesn't mean they aren't part of your team16:26 – Email shouldn't be your only form of communication with your VA18:15 – Top 3 tips to gain success as a client or VA20:50 – As the client, be clear on what your expectations are of your VA25:31 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone, and welcome back again to the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. Matt, how's it going? Matt: Excellent, Barb. How are you? Barbara: I'm very good, thank you. How's your week been? Matt: The week's been great. It's been busy but it's been really, really good, and having great conversations with many entrepreneurs out there at the moment. It's a really exciting time for business owners and entrepreneurs at the moment. Barbara: Yeah, and how about your book? Is it starting to fly off the shelves, The Stop Doing List? Matt: It is, it is, and we've recorded the audible version so that should be coming out in the next little bit, so very, very exciting. Barbara: Brilliant. Brilliant. Well, listen, on today's show we've got a very interesting guest to talk about client feedback and a survey that he did with clients that are using, or have used, Virtual Assistants in the past. So my guest today, or our guest today, is Gordon Jenkins, who's actually called The Visible Guy. Gordon, welcome to the show. Gordon: Welcome. Good morning, Barbara. Good morning, Matt. How are you? Matt: Good thank you. Barbara: Good. So, Gordon, just to kick off, can you just give us…you know, who The Visible Guy? Talk to us about who is the The Visible Guy and what does The Visible Guy do? The Visible Guy…Gordon Jenkins Gordon: Sure, so a quick snapshot … The Visible Guy, in simple terms: we look at people and organisations and we look at what they are and then simply we go and tell the world what they actually do and the world is simply their marketplace, so it could be just the people in Melbourne or it could be we're going to take people globally and tell the world about exactly what they're doing. We do it in a way that is not talking about what's unique about the person or the organisation, but we look at what's the clear differentiations, and it's as simple as that. Barbara: That's very interesting. When you recently, just for the listeners, Gordon was asked … he was a speaker at the Virtual Assistant … is it at the Virtual Assistant's ...
Think You've Only Got 5 Hours of Work to Delegate to a Virtual Assistant…Think Again! Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara and Matt talk listeners through some honest truths when it comes to deciding just how many hours per week you 'think' you can delegate to a virtual assistant. This episode takes a look at the essential factors to bear in mind when deciding to onboard a VA and how, if you are truly committed, you could easily find at least 20 hours of work for a virtual assistant to do in your business, every single week! Some of the areas covered include: The only way to really know what to delegate is understanding where you're spending your time The importance of changing your mindset to “Stop Doing” certain tasks, so you can focus on more of the things you love doing How putting ‘positive stress' on yourself can help your business grow faster Bringing in specialists for ad-hoc tasks can also help reduce your workload, freeing up valuable time for more important, revenue-generating tasks Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: The Stop Doing List – www.stopdoing.com.au In this episode: 00:55 – So I ‘think' I only need 5 hours a week from my VA 03:28 – If you think you've only got 5 hours, you're not committed enough 04:32 – Changing your mindset to ‘stop doing' 06:59 – Are you in business, or have you just created a job for yourself? 09:30 – How to ‘Time Log' 11:35 – Ask yourself – “How can I stop doing?” 14:30 – Positive stress 16:43 – Shifting your focus 17:45 – Pros of committing to a full-time VA 18:47 – Bringing in specialists for ad hoc tasks 22:51 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show. I'm joined again, as always, by my co-host, Matt Malouf. Matt, how are you? Matt: I'm well, Barb. How are you? Barbara: I'm great, thank you. Great. Enjoying this a little cooler weather we're having in Sydney now, which is very nice. I love this time of year. Matt: I know. But its beautiful blue skies today. We've had a lot of rain over the last few weeks … Barbara: I know. Matt: … and so very interesting. Barbara: Very enjoyable. So I ‘think' I only need 5 hours a week from my VA Listen, on today's show, everyone, we thought a really interesting thing that I've wanted to delve into on the show for a quite a while, actually, because we get quite a lot of customers coming to Virtual Angel Hub with this exact question. They'll sort of hit up our Facebook page, or our live chat, asking, “Look, I only need five hours or so a week with a VA. You have a minimum of 20 hours a week. Is there anything you could do for me?” What I find interesting about this question is that, for me, five hours a week, having worked with a lot of virtual teams and in various different businesses, five hours is actually not very much and, obviously, some smaller businesses will think, “I only need that much time.” My feeling is that well, I know that within a few weeks of joining Virtual Angel Hub, so many people who thought they would never fill 20 hours can't believe how quickly it got filled up when we actually helped them to sort of see what else they could be doing. Matt: Yeah, and I think I'm just going to be real direct to our listeners straight upfront, is if you only think you've got five hours to delegate, you're not trying hard enough. You really aren't. Because I think too often these days, we get caught up in being busy and, so, we think that the busyness is important. Yet, in actual fact, a lot of the tasks that are causing the busyness are either not necessary, or not of high priority and can be done by somebody else. They need to get done, but they can easily be done by somebody else.
As entrepreneurs we wear many hats in our business, but what can we do to stop working IN the business and start working ON the business In this podcast interview with Matt Malouf we discuss what exactly should you stop doing now in your business that is making you less productive
How Entrepreneur and Blogging Expert, Yaro Starak, Is Embracing ‘The Laptop Lifestyle' and How to Break Free From Emails in the Process Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest and online blogging expert, Yaro Starak, takes us through how he has adopted what some may call ‘The Laptop Lifestyle' and how to break free from emails to focus on the things he loves. This episode is full of insights and tips from Yaro on how you can begin the process to ‘break free' from managing your emails and once mastered, can bring so much freedom and success to you as a business owner. Some of the areas covered include:Adopting The Laptop Lifestyle – having the right people on your team is paramount to making this happenThe importance of separating personal emails from business emailsHiring the right person to take on the task of your emailsThe value of setting up systems and processes for responding to emailsTips on training your new recruit Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:05 – About Yaro03:22 – The laptop lifestyle04:15 – Having the right people on your team08:20 – Yaro's blog: Break free from emails13:10 – Steps to break free from emails13:25 – Separating personal from business emails14:35 – Hiring someone to take over your emails15:56 – Creating systems for dealing with emails19:07 – Emotions experienced when handing over emails22:35 – Key competencies needed to take care of emails25:48 – Tips on training your new recruit35:41 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show, where I'm joined by my co-host Matt Malouf. Matt, how are you? Matt: I'm well Barbara, how are you? Barbara: I'm good thanks. You must be having a good week. Finally, your book has come out. Your book has launched – The Stop Doing list. Matt: It has. It's been really exciting over the last … it's been out for about a month now. Getting some really positive feedback. So really, really enjoying the journey. Barbara: Yeah and probably a bit of rest time after all the push that was involved with pushing the book out. Matt: Absolutely, absolutely. Barbara: I can imagine. Matt: There was a few things that I might stop doing years from now. Barbara: Yeah. Well, I'm reading it at the moment and I'm thinking “Gosh, there's so many things I can still stop doing.” Anyway, one of the things that I do need to stop doing is my own email, and our guest today on the show, I'm very keen to talk to today's guest about this because he wrote a fantastic blog post about this a while ago which triggered me to bring him on the show. He's not only a friend of mine, but he's very big in the online marketing space online. I would call him sort of the King of people who would want to start a blog and figure out how on earth to get traffic to your blog. And get going with your blogging journey. Yaro Starak, welcome to the show. Matt: Welcome Yaro. Yaro: Thank you guys. Love to be here and looking forward to talking about something I don't really talk about on podcasts very much. Barbara: Yes, obviously you would usually be interviewed about online marketing, getting started in blogging. Tell us a bit about your background, tell the listeners a bit more about your background just to get things going. About Yaro Yaro: Yeah, you're quite correct. I do normally talk about blogging on I'd say, 95% of the podcast interviews I do. Primarily because that's what I teach and what I'm known for, and I've been blogging myself for, we're in year 12 now of blogging. I started in 2005, so it's been a career. I've pretty much had an online entrepreneurship career my entire adult life. It's been great to me. I have to really thank the Gods for being born in a time when I can use the internet as a way to run a business, and I've pretty much made my living entirely online.
How Women's Fitness & Nutrition Expert, Elle Kealy, Has Used a Virtual Assistant to Take Her Global Business To The Next Level Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest Elle Kealy, founder of Rebelle – an online women's fitness and nutrition coaching business – shares with listeners her experience of taking the plunge into the world of Virtual Assistants and how the experience of taking on a VA has been a liberating one. Elle takes us back to where it all began and how her decision to take her business online resulted in her engaging with a Virtual Assistant, which has resulted in her building a highly successful global business. Some of the areas covered include: Don't wait till you are drowning before seeking help The importance of finding a VA that is well trained The value of having sound internal processes Why addressing issues with your VA as they arise is vital to business success How having a VA has allowed Elle to concentrate on the drivers of her business The need for an effective project management tool Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show: VSS Episode 17: How to Expand Your Business, Rather than Contract it, when Important Life Events or Business Goals Result in You Having to Take a Back Seat in the Day-to-Day Operation of Your Business The Four Hour Work Week Asana In this episode: 01:42 – About Elle 03:10 – Taking the plunge into the VA world 05:18 – Challenges in the early days 09:37 – Challenges faced on-boarding a new VA 11:10 – Speak up when things aren't going well 12:06 – All processes are evolutionary 14:07 – More time to work on your business vision 15:44 – The importance of sound internal processes 18:40 – Communication is key 21:40 – The importance of using project management tools 24:38 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show. Today I am flying completely solo again, my co-host Matt Malouf is not going to be on this show today. He has been doing some epic work with some clients, and I am just doing a couple of shows by myself. So it's Barbara Turley here and I'm delighted with the guest that we have on today because she is one of the longest standing members actually of Virtual Angel Hub, the company that I run where we recruit, train and manage VAs. Elle Kealy, she is the founder of Rebelle, which is an amazing online health and fitness coaching business for women. A beautiful platform that is just about to launch an on-demand video streaming platform, I guess, where we can find beautiful fitness and health strategies and tips online for ourselves as women. So Elle, welcome to the show. Elle: Hi Barbara! Welcome, thank you so much for having me. Barbara: Yeah, and look, you know you're probably going to explain this a lot better than me, but I'm really keen first of all to kick off and, just tell us a little bit about the business and … You were raised up in Hong Kong, so tell us about … Elle: Yeah Barbara: …. tell us about, you know, your journey there and how this business started and where you're at now. About Elle Elle: Sure. So I'm actually originally from the UK if you can't guess from my accent. Barbara: Yes. Elle: Found myself living in Asia about 10 years ago, so, I've been here a while. But my business is actually a global business. I made the decision to go online because I am global, because I travel a lot, and now I run Rebelle, which is an online fitness and nutrition coaching business, exclusively for women, which I think you just mentioned. Barbara: Yeah. Elle: And you know the grand vision really for this business is to be able to support women from all over the globe, which is why we made the decision to launch an online business. In revolutionising,
From Corporate Jungle to Lifestyle Entrepreneur Using Virtual Teams with Paul HigginsWant the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest and co-founder of TrackZEN, Paul Higgins, chats with us about his transition from the corporate world to running his own business and how, along the way, he has amassed a team of virtual specialists to help him achieve immense business success. Paul, whose passion is helping business owners slash their work hours whilst exploding their profits, shares with us his strategies and tips for getting outsourcing right, the first time. Some of the areas covered include:The importance of investing time into recruiting, training and building your systems and processesThe common challenges faced by business owners when dealing with outsourcing countriesPaul's framework for success with virtual teamsTips on starting out with a VA Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Resources mentioned in this show:https://www.facebook.com/groups/buildlivegive In this episode:01:50 – About Paul Higgins and TrackZEN06:03 – Tips and strategies for getting outsourcing right08:19 – Challenges faced when dealing with outsourcing countries08:56 – Using virtual staff at TrackZEN10:06 – The 3 key elements to managing a virtual team11:44 – It's up to the business owner to get these elements right13:28 – Managing a large virtual team15:43 – The challenges of managing a large virtual team17:14 – Framework for success21:53 – Paul's future vision23:18 – Paul's top 2 tips on starting out with a VA24:00 – Wrapping things up Barbara Turley: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show. I'm joined today by my fantastic co-host, Matt Malouf. Hi Matt, how's it going? Matt Malouf: I'm well, Barbara. How are you? Barbara Turley: I'm great, thanks. I'm great, thanks. Matt Malouf: Excellent. It's sweltering here in Sydney today. Barbara Turley: It is. Well, they're talking about … They're actually talking about power outages because all the people are using air conditioning. It's awful. You know, in the 15 years that I've lived here, I don't think I remember a summer this hot. Ever. Matt Malouf: Nah. It's brilliant. We'll all be down at the beach later today. Barbara Turley: Yeah. All the international guests will be thinking, “Yeah, we really feel for you. It's terrible.” Very good. So, listen. Today's show, guys, we're … we have yet another Virtual Angel Hub client and a good friend of mine and someone who's just very experienced in this whole outsourcing and systems and managing teams type business. Paul Higgins is the founder of TrackZEN Club. Paul, welcome to the show. Paul Higgins: Thanks, Barb. Good to be here and Matt. Matt Malouf: Welcome, Paul. Paul Higgins: Thank you. Barbara Turley: So, listen, Paul, just to kick off … TrackZEN Club … Let's talk about…I said before we started the show it would be better for me to let you explain a bit about what you actually do. What is TrackZEN Club? And why should we all know about it? Tell us a bit about it. About Paul Higgins and TrackZEN Paul Higgins: Sure, so, they say if you've got an itch, it's best to scratch it yourself and really, the TrackZEN Club came about me not being able to find the solution. So, I was ex-corporate running my own business. I was lonely. I was missing the corporate team and environment and I was really struggling to sort of focus and be accountable. And I was looking for different groups and I just couldn't find a group or a mastermind group that sort of suited my experience and exactly where I was. It was either a lot of people for young start-ups or really young business that hadn't had a corporate career or there were sort of people that were running very bricks and mortar businesses that sort of didn't suit me either. So, in short, I created my own and it's a mastermind where people like m...
How to Keep Growing Your Business Even If You Have to Take Time Off Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara shares with Matt and the listeners, her own personal journey of the process she followed to ‘fire herself from her own business' when a very important life event – having a baby – meant she had to step right back from the day-to-day running of her business. This episode focuses on the step-by-step process that Barbara followed to ensure that her business went from strength to strength, whilst she focussed on being a mother to her baby girl. Some of the areas covered include:Think expansion, rather than contractionThe importance of strategic planning – taking yourself out of business processes is a process within itselfDon't expect your new processes to work from day one – allow time to smooth out any ‘bumps' and refine your processes before you ‘exit' the businessHow to empower your team to make important decisions in your absenceThe importance of having the right people, in the right seatsBelieving in your people and their abilities ultimately leads to a more engaged team and successful business Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:03:02 – Think expansion rather than contraction06:05 – You have to plan strategically06:54 – Taking yourself out of processes10:22 – Allow time to smooth out the new process, once handed over13:22 – Refining your processes15:40 – Empowering your team17:28 – Believe in your people18:26 – Support your team's decisions22:09 – Give yourself time to fine-tune the processes25:15 – My key people are now more engaged in my business27:04 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show, where I'm joined by my co-host, Matt Malouf. Hey Matt, how's it going? Matt: Hey Barb, I'm well, and yourself? Barbara: I'm really good thank you, really good. I'm … As we're about to talk about today, I'm in the throes of motherhood. So it's been a lovely journey, but obviously a challenging one in terms of running your business, and setting things up so you can do a podcast recording like this, et cetera. So, a unique experience. Matt: Absolutely, absolutely. Barbara: Which brings me onto today's show. So obviously we're going to talk about how to fire yourself from any business, I guess. And what we're going to focus on guys, for the listeners, we're going to focus on actually my experience of having a baby. Because you know, as a woman when you're pregnant, you've got this kind of deadline looming, that doesn't move, and it's not going to change. In fact, it might even move closer. So you become … You're under a lot of pressure all of a sudden to fire yourself from your business if you're running your own business. But as Matt and I were talking about earlier before the show, this would apply to any sort of life event, or if you just want to, you want to work more on your business or have a business that runs itself with a team. So it really doesn't matter if you're not pregnant, or if you're a guy, or if you've got a wife having a baby, I guess. This can apply to anything. I mean Matt, you've done this in a couple of businesses too, haven't you? Matt: Yeah I have, yes. And just to add to what Barb was saying, if you really want to enhance and grow your business faster, what we're going to talk about today is essential to fast growing businesses. Barbara: Yeah, so although we're talking about it, I'm really going to focus on my experience of doing this, because the trigger for me was pregnancy, but the trigger for you could be something … It doesn't matter what your trigger is, what your reason is, but the steps that I'm going to talk to you about here would apply to anybody. But I guess there will be a few women with their ears pricked up all of a sudden wondering how they can get their business to actu...
How Nathalie Lussier Built a Powerhouse Business Using Virtual TeamsWant the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest Nathalie Lussier, who has been making websites since she was 12 years old, takes us through her journey of starting her own business and using virtual teams to help her grow her business to what it is today. Nathalie takes us back to the beginning when she started with just one VA who was working 5-hours a week, and how she has grown her team to include seven specialists, who span the globe. Some of the areas covered include:The importance of good systems and processesThe need for a project management toolAllowing your team to step-up and performThe importance of meetings with your virtual teamTips on engaging the ‘right' virtual team memberWhy it is important to adopt the mindset of ‘let it go and have somebody else do it'. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:01:50 – Who is Nathalie Lussier?03:25 – Nathalie's virtual team04:40 – Her first real hire05:53 – The importance of using a project management tool07:47 – Good systems and processes already in place8:23 – Write down your processes, step-by-step10:57 – Growing the team13:26 – Allowing your team to step up16:31 – Managing a big virtual team18:16 – The importance of meetings21:54 – Nathalie's tips on engaging a VA24:27 – Investment vs expense mindset26:58 – Share your business vision with your team28:19 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone, and welcome back to another show of Virtual Success, where we give you the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. I'm joined as always by my fantastic co-host Matt Malouf. Matt how are you? Matt: I'm well, how are you Barb? Barbara: I'm great thanks, excited about today's show as always. Because we've got a new guest on the show today. Matt: Yes. Barbara: Nathalie Lussier who a lot of listeners will be very familiar with. Because Nathalie is someone I followed myself, in my own entrepreneurial journey for a long time. She is the founder of Ambition Ally, which has the software tools, “Access Ally” – which is a membership site, a fantastic membership site plugin, I think if I'm using the right term. She also has Popup Ally, which is a popup forum builder on websites. I love the fact that Nathalie … not only does she have a team, a virtual team that we're going to talk about today. But she is also a female really going for it in the tech space, which is not that common, getting more common. Nathalie, welcome to the show. Nathalie: Thanks for having me here guys. Barbara: Great, so Nathalie just to kick off, can you just give us a quick idea of what you're up to today? A quick synopsis of where you started, and this whole virtual team thing. You started out as I think a web developer? Who is Nathalie Lussier? Nathalie: Yeah. I like to go way back to how I got started on the web. I started making websites when I was just 12 years old. I studied software engineering, and I had this job offer on Wall Street that I turned down to start my first business. That very first business was in the hub space and the info-product marketing space. I quickly learned that my gift was technology, but for some reason when I was in the corporate world I didn't really enjoy my work in that space. I realised, “okay, let's go back to tech, let's focus on that.” So I did do web design in those early days. Then I switched off to doing more website building and more training in the tech space and marketing space. Then eventually I came full circle and I started designing software where instead of teaching people how to use tech tools, I design the tech tools to make it easier for them to achieve their results. So that is how I got to where I am today with our Ambition Ally products for ambitious business owners.
Online Course Specialist, Janet Kafadar, Shares the Trials and Triumphs in Recruiting the Right Virtual Assistant for Her Growing BusinessWant the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest Janet Kafadar, who is the Fairy Godmother of Online Course creation, shares her experiences, both good and not so good, in finding a Virtual Assistant that was the right fit for her and her business. Janet steps us through the trials she faced when looking for the right VA and how she has finally found the right person, with the right skills to really take her business to the next level. Some of the areas covered include:The three biggest problems faced when you have an offshore VAThe importance of recruiting the right VAWorking to your VAs strengthsHelping your VA grow in their role and in your business Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:01:46 – Who is Janet Kafadar?05:44 – Knowing when to hire a VA08:48 – Dealing with quality issues09:45 – Sometimes things just don't work out12:00 – How to deal with employees personal issues affecting their work14:20 – The 3 biggest problems with having an offshore VA17:30 – Recruiting the right VA for you and your business19:00 – Working to your VAs strengths22:46 – Helping your VA grow in their role24:35 – Building your virtual team27:43 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success show. I'm your host Barbara Turley, and I'm flying solo again today because my co-host, Matt Malouf, is off scaling businesses like mad, and taking on lots of consulting clients. We are getting back in the fold together in the next few weeks, but I'm flying solo for a few shows. I don't mind so much today, because the guest I have on is not only a very good friend of mine, but she's a very good client of my company Virtual Angel Hub – Janet Kafadar. Janet is an online course creation expert, is how I would describe her, and she's changing business for so many people out there who want to create their online courses, and really getting it out there. Janet, welcome to the show. Janet: Thanks so much, Barbara! Barbara: Did you like that intro? Janet: Yeah, it was really nice. I'm like a super star. Barbara: You are a super star. Course creation is a challenge for so many people. We know that online courses are the way to really scale businesses and get some passive income into your business, but it's hard to get round to doing it, and then creating a course that people actually get traction with. To kick off, do you want to just tell me a little bit more about what you do, and tell our listeners a little bit about your business, how you started, and where you're at now? Who is Janet Kafadar? Janet: Sure, yeah, absolutely. As you said, I'm an online course design specialist, and I help my clients create online courses and information products. Before I used to do a lot of the coaching and mentoring side of things, but I realized that I couldn't handle it. I really just wanted to get in there and just help them, and get it done for them, and help them move quicker, and help them move forward faster. That was the main issue that I kept seeing. After they would finish coaching and mentoring with me they would still be at that point where it still wasn't launched, and I kept thinking, “What is it? Why are they not moving forward?” It's really just the… Barbara: Doing. Janet: Implementation is what would just trip them up. Then life gets in the way and other things happen. Barbara: That's a challenge. Janet: Yeah, it's a challenge. Barbara: As you know that was the main problem I saw as a business coach as well, and why I launched Virtual Angel Hub, was because people really get stuck in their business with the doing. They learn what to do, they usually know what they want to do, but they just have no time to get it done.
How Nathan Chan Used Virtual Teams to Smash Foundr Magazine Out of the Park Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest Nathan Chan, who has had the pleasure of speaking with some of the world's leading and aspiring entrepreneurs, shares his experiences in building and using virtual teams to take Foundr Magazine to the next level. This episode is full of insights and tips from Nathan on how he has built virtual teams to allow himself to focus on what he really enjoys doing in his business. Some of the areas covered include: What to keep in mind when building a virtual team The importance of delegating effectively How to fine tune your processes and why this is so important Effective communication with your team The need for a team or project leader Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:06 – How Foundr Magazine came to life 06:00 – What to keep in mind when building a virtual team 06:40 – How to delegate 07:28 – SOP – Standard Operating Procedure 08:03 – Tracking your time 09:08 – Be specific in your instructions 10:12 – Creating your list 11:54 – Creating videos for each task 16:35 – Building a virtual team 20:02 – Communication with your team 22:54 – There needs to be a leader of the project 24:22 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Virtual Success. I'm your host, Barbara Turley today, and I'm not joined today by my co-host Matt Malouf who's normally on the show with me, but given I've just had a baby and Matt has taken on a whole raft of new clients and businesses, and as business goes, schedules are very hard to line up, so I'm doing the show solo today. I'm quite excited because somebody that I have been following online for quite a long time is Nathan Chan, who is the founder of Foundr Magazine, an absolute, amazing magazine for entrepreneur, with a huge Instagram following, and actually where I found Nathan was on Instagram. I'm very excited today to have Nathan on the show to talk about how he's using virtual teams in his business and has been using them to really scale a fantastic platform, both digitally and internally as well. Nathan, welcome to the show. Nathan: Thank you so much for having me, Barbara. I also just realized, we have a mutual friend, Yaro Starak. Barbara: Oh, Yaro. We'll have to get Yaro on the show actually. Yes, Yaro and I are really good friends, yes. It's a small world in digital land. Nathan: Yeah, it is. He's a great guy. Barbara: He is, indeed. He is, indeed. Nathan, I found you probably, I think it was in the early days of when Foundr Magazine kind of first launched, and I did find you on Instagram because you had, you do have an amazing Instagram strategy and it's something I know that you talk a lot about. Can you tell me a little bit first, just let's start off with your sort of entrepreneurial journey, the quick two minutes on your background and how did Foundr Magazine come about? How Foundr Magazine came to life Nathan: Yeah, sure thing. I started it March 2013 while I was working my day job just as a side hustle, passion project. I never thought it would be this big media start-up or any platform or anything of the sorts. Barbara: Did you just, I love that, so you just started as a sort of a hobby sort of thing and had no plan for this big platform that it's become. Nathan: No, not at all. Barbara: Wow. Nathan: I launched it while I was working my day job. I was looking for a job in marketing. I even took the first issue of the magazine from my iPad to some job interviews, but no one would hire me. Barbara: I see. That was a stroke of luck, in hindsight. Nathan: Yeah. Long story short, I just, I started this magazine. I identified that there wasn't really a publication in this space that spoke to aspiring and novice entrepreneurs and ...
Virtual Angel Hub Success Coach Ram, Reveals The Biggest Challenges Virtual Assistants Experience with Clients Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, we cross to the ‘other side' and hear from special guest, Ram Sta. Maria, a Success Coach and Virtual Assistant at The Virtual Hub, about some of the challenges of virtual assistants for not achieving success with their clients that he commonly sees happening. Ram shares his insights into what he believes to be the key problem areas faced by VAs and by recognising and accepting that your VA also has certain needs, this can ultimately lead to a very successful client-VA relationship. Some of the areas covered are: The importance of maintaining an open and positive channel of communication between you and your VAHow to make your VA feel empoweredTips to ensure the feedback you give your VA is constructive, rather than destructiveThe need to provide a sound support system to ensure your VA stays on track, and feels connected and part of a ‘team' Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:37- Key problems03:55 – Maintaining an open channel of communication04:59 – Positive communication channels09:50 – Blocked communication channels12:26 – Cultural challenges14:10 – Empowering your VA17:33 – Constructive vs. destructive feedback21:44 – Having a good support system24:20 – Celebrating Success26:30 – Staying connected with your VA30:20 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey, everyone and welcome back to another show of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my fantastic co-host who gives us insights every week into virtual success, Matt Malouf. How are you, Matt? Matt: I'm well, Barb. How are you? Barbara: I'm great, thank you. Great, thank you. I'm quite excited about today's show because we're taking a little bit of a different tact today. We've decided that on these shows, we often talk about what Matt and I are doing with clients or with our own businesses. We interview people who have big teams offshore and around the world and how they manage things. We thought today would be very interesting to actually bring one of our superstar VAs onto the podcast and interview him around what it's like from the other side. Let's hear from the virtual assistant's side and some of the challenges that you might, as listeners, you may not realize is happening in the background. Today, we've brought on Ram Sta. Maria from our team and Ram is … look, he's one of our superstars I have to say and he is one of our success coaches inside Virtual Angel Hub. He has a very unique insight because not only does he work with one of our fantastic clients, but he also coaches a lot of our new VAs that come on to work with some new clients. In the first few months, he will be coaching them and guiding them and just helping them in those initial few months to get success with their new client or clients. So Ram, welcome to the show. Ram: Hi. Thank you, Barb. Thank you, Matt. I'm very honoured to be here. Barbara: We're delighted to have you. Matt, you would have some insights here as well. You're probably excited to get some questions in for Ram, too. Matt: Very much so, very much so. I'm really, really excited about the show today because it's going to give everyone an amazing insight into, let's call it, the other side. Barbara: Yeah, which you often don't hear because as we know, we often don't hear enough from the other side. It's very hard to, and especially with Filipino culture as we've been chatting about off air, it's hard to the real insight and the truth from the other side. Key Problems Ram, obviously in your role, look, you started out with us with working with one of our clients and I say you were quite lucky because that went quite well. She was a great client, but I also think it was because you're a great VA and you've a great ability to communicate.
How Matthew Barby, Global Head of Growth & SEO at HubSpot, Is Leveraging Specialist Virtual Teams To Drive Business Growth And Ultimately, Business Success Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest Matthew Barby, an award winning blogger, industry speaker, and lecturer, shares his experiences in creating and working with specialist virtual teams and how when you commit to making it work, can lead to exponential growth and success for your business. Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of ‘trying to do it all'. When used effectively, virtual teams can be very powerful; and Matthew knows this all too well. This episode is full of tips and insights from Matthew on how to approach the task of building specialist virtual teams to perform tasks within your business and how to leverage these teams to their greatest potential. Some of the areas he covers are: Why having teams of specialists allows you to focus on things you love doing The importance of a having stringent screening process for team members Making sure you commit the time upfront to training team members so as to build rapport with them Understanding the value of Virtual Teams to your business His top three tips for anyone starting out with virtual teams Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:48 – Trying to do far too much?! 04:20 – The challenges 05:51 – Cheapest isn't always best 07:58 – Commit to making it work 08:42 – Building teams of highly specialized people 11:28 – Prove the process can work for one small task 12:33 – Replicate the process 13:54 – Don't rush through training up team members 15:45 – Complementary skill sets within the team 17:55 – Document your processes 19:58 – How can specialist team members add value? 24:09 – Growing the team 26:28 – Refining the process 28:46 – Spend the time to find the right people 29:31 – Project-based roles vs. Retainer-based roles 32:04 – Key selection criteria 32:27 – Nice-to-haves 33:19 – Absolute deal-breakers 34:03 – Trying to find your ‘silver bullet' 36:09 – Understanding the value of virtual teams 41:06 – Matthew's three top tips when starting out 41:27 – One – Start off small 42:08 – Two – Strong selection criteria 42:49 – Three – “Treat people like people” 43:48 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hi everyone and welcome back to the Virtual Success Show podcast. The show where we give you the inside tips on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. As always I'm joined by my fantastic co-host Matt Malouf. Matt, how are you? Matt: I'm well, how are you? Barbara: I'm really good. Long week, good week, as always. Matt: Excellent. Oh, that's good. That's good. Hey, tell me something interesting that's happened to you this week. Barbara: This week. Big lesson this week for me was refining processes, and I know we talk about this a lot on the show, but I've discovered that, you know, even when you have a great process you can still refine it, evolve it as little problems happen along the way. So I've been doing a lot of that this week. Big thing for me. How about you? What's been happening? Matt: I've got a little bit of a left-field, quick story to share. I was at home this evening before we're coming in to do this recording and my eight year old son says to me, “Daddy what are you doing tonight?” And I said, “I will be doing the podcast and recording.” He goes, “Daddy, is that the one where you teach people how to get other people to do work for you?” And I said, “Yes.” He said, “Can they do my homework?” Barbara: Oh, he's clever. (laughing) Tell him, “He doesn't need homework, he's clever.” Matt: And he said to me, “I've got the money to pay them as well.” So I was just blown away. Barbara: He's clever and savvy. Matt: Eight year old ready to leverage homework. I'm just like,
How Taki Moore, Coach Marketing Expert and founder of the CoachMarketingMachine.com is leveraging his virtual teams to encourage everyone to work in their ‘genius' Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, we hear from Taki Moore, one of Australia's leading ‘coaches to coaches' on the benefits of using virtual teams to grow your business and how, if done correctly, will allow you to play to your strengths and live in your ‘genius'. This episode is packed full of useful tips and insights from Taki on how to leverage your virtual team to allow you to make more money, have more fun and help more people. Some of the areas he covers are: Why breaking down your tasks from the beginning allows you to find your ‘genius' and delegate the tasks you don't enjoy/ aren't good at, in order to get ahead Why letting go of the belief “They can't do it as well as I can”, can be very liberating The importance of not trying to get rid of tasks all at once, as this can be overwhelming Why it is important to be a strong team leader Why a sold ‘communication rhythm' is important for the entire team and why you should stick to it The importance of viewing the remuneration of your team as an investment as opposed to an expense Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:56 – Taki's 60-sec elevator pitch 04:33 – It started with a book… 06:42 – Breaking down your tasks 09:00 – “But no one can do it as well as I can” 09:51 – Delegating to get ahead 11:51 – Finding your ‘genius' 14:29 – Allowing others to play in their genius 15:24 – The ‘Super VA' myth 18:14 – A communication rhythm 20:34 – ‘Check-ins' time frames 21:50 – Daily check-ins 23:16 – Weekly, monthly & quarterly check-ins 27:09 – The importance of sticking to your comms plan 29:51 – Create a meeting structure 30:51 – What Taki would do differently next time… 36:27 – Return on Investment 38:32 – Wrapping things up Tools & resources mentioned in this episode: Tribal Council Blog The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What you must do to increase the value of your growing firm by Verne Harnish Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable…about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick Lencioni Matt: Good morning everyone! Matt Malouf here for another exciting show of the Virtual Success Show and as always I'm joined by my co-host, Barbara Turley. Good morning Barbara! Barbara: Morning Matt! How are you? Matt: I'm excellent! How are you going? Barbara: I'm good you know I have had an interesting week. I've sort of had an evolving week in my business and I wanted to share a quick quote that I saw this morning just sums up completely the week I've had. It was by Ben Chestnut who's the CEO of Mail Chimp – ‘As it grows, your business will go through several stages and each stage requires a different kind of leader' – and I'm definitely feeling that in my business this week. I'm sort of moving to another level and feeling that sense of needing to be a different kind of leader as I go forward. Matt: Fantastic! What a great quote, as your business grows, you need to become a different kind of leader. That's amazing, that's great! We'll make sure we get that posted as an attachment to this. I think it' a really good start! Barbara: I'll organize that! Matt: So Barbara, I'm super super excited about today's podcast. I've got a dear friend and mentor of mine, Taki Moore joining us. Taki Moore was one of my very early business coach and mentors when I became a coach and we've been friends for many many years and we actually met in my former life as a personal trainer. We've stayed in touch over the years and Taki has been responsible for an amazing amount of learning that I've had over the years, both in the area of virtual assistants,
Communication – Part Three: How To Approach Tough And Emotionally Challenging Conversations To Achieve a Win-Win Outcome Want the transcript? Download it here. In the third and final episode of our three-part special, we take a look at those tough conversations you have to have when things aren't going as planned and why the approach you take to these is so important in obtaining the most positive outcome for all involved. Let's face it! No matter who you are, tough conversations are never easy; you're dealing with humans, and as humans, we all have an emotional side. It doesn't matter how great your business processes are, inevitably, as a business owner you will have to have these tough conversations. In this episode, Barbara and Matt draw on their own personal experiences and share their tips and insights into how to approach these conversations to ensure that you achieve the most out of them. Some of the areas covered are: Why shying away from tough conversations is never a good thing. Why it's important to become masterful with your language and communication style. The critical steps you need to take when planning for those tough conversations. Common conversation hurdles you may encounter and tips on overcoming these. Advice on how to respond if the meeting doesn't go to plan. Ways to reduce the number of tough conversations you may be having. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 04:00 – Tough conversations are never easy 06:16 – Client case study – shying away from the ‘tough' conversation 08:38 – The “tough guy syndrome” 09:19 – Candour 11:18 – Becoming masterful with your language and communication style 13:56 – Setting up for those tough conversations 14:12 – Set up a meeting with an agenda 15:52 – Present the facts as they are 17:28 – Use video communication channels 18:58 – Conversation hurdles 19:47 – Conquering those hurdles 24:03 – How to respond if the meeting doesn't go to plan 28:29 – Reducing the number of tough conversations 30:21 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Virtual Success Show. I am joined by my co-cost Matt Malouf. Hey Matt, how's it going? Matt: I'm well. I'm joined by the magnificent, wonderful, bright, positive, Barbara Turley. Barbara: I was thinking we already said … I was chuckling in the background, and I thought, “I shouldn't assume he's going to talk about me.” Thank you for that great accolade. A lot to live up to on this episode. Matt: How have you been? Barbara: I have been well. I've been really, actually…the last little while I've been thinking back on the episodes we've been doing, actually, about communication. It's something that I've had to grow into myself as a business owner and entrepreneur as well. Some of the tips you've been giving on these shows have really actually helped me a lot in my communications with my teams and thinking about how I'm communicating and the language I'm using. Am I being too nice? You know? Wanting them to like me and not attacking the difficult conversations and the effective feedback and stuff like that. It's been excellent. How about you? Are you communicating more effectively with your wife and your children? Matt: Well, I'm doing my best (*laughs). For me too, I think each one of these episodes that we do, there's so many learnings that we're trying to share, but I think we end up walking away, and after every episode we say, “Wow, that was … we took so much from it as well.” It's certainly inspiring for me. What it does too, I think these episodes for me, not only with my own teams but in the coaching that I do, it just enables me to enhance the experience for everybody and really uncover and help people keep moving forward. Barbara: You know, I think it's an important point actually that we've just di...
Communication – Part One: How To Ensure Your Communication Style Sets You Up For Success With Your Virtual Teams Want the transcript? Download it here. In the first episode of our three-part special, we delve deep into the world of communication and take a look at how your ability to communicate effectively with your virtual team is often the difference between your success and failure. Communication is not only one's ability to listen; communication is the response you get. This episode is full of insights from both Barbara and Matt on how to communicate with your team effectively for success. Some of the areas covered are: Understanding the differences between the three communication styles. Accepting that one style of communication is not going to fit every single task. Communication must happen regardless of how experienced your VA is. You must have clarity on how you want to be communicated with in order to promote work flow. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:36 – Communicate effectively 03:14 – “Communication is the response you get” 04:25 – Setting up for success 05:48 – Styles of communication 07:49 – Communicate what failure looks like 11:20 – Slowdown in order to speed up 12:22 – Communication must happen regardless of experience 17:00 – Reporting back 18:14 – Clarify how you want to be communicated with 21:10 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Virtual Success, where I'm joined with my fantastic co-host Matt Malouf. Hey, Matt, how's it going? Matt: I'm well, Barbara. How are you? Barbara: I'm good, thank you, and excited about today's show. Matt: I know. It's a really interesting and exciting topic we're going to be talking about today. Barbara: Absolutely, absolutely, and just for the listeners, we've been talking about, Matt and I have had the topic of communication written on our podcast show list for quite some time, and it's a show we haven't done yet. And actually today, I was just saying to Matt off-air that I'm really glad we didn't do it yet, because today we have such a powerful episode for you based on actual live case studies and actual live problems that we are seeing with some of our clients in Virtual Angel Hub, and we're going to dissect them on this podcast, and actually on a few, we're going to split this podcast into three episodes, that's how deep this topic is. We're actually going to kick off today with talking about, how do we actually set up for success? How do we make sure that our communication sets up for success with a virtual team? Then episode two, we're going to dive into giving effective feedback, with emphasis on the word “effective,” and then in episode three, we're then going to move on to having the tough conversations, because these, obviously, are the things that can derail us emotionally, can be very challenging to attack, and we're going to give you some great strategies and tips on how to attack those tough conversations in a constructive way. Matt: Just to add to what you're saying, Barbara, I think, for the listeners, I want everyone to understand that, what we're teaching in these three episodes are relevant to not only your virtual teams but your teams that you may have in your offices or locally as well. These teachings are universal and you need to really understand that communication at all levels in your organization is critically important. Communicate effectively Barbara: In fact, actually, I would say, and I know you'll agree with me here Matt, for me, in what I've observed over the last couple of years of dealing with clients, dealing with virtual teams, I would say that your ability to communicate effectively together actually is the difference between success and failure with this. Task lists and processes and all those things are vitally important that...
How Dan Norris, Co-Founder of WP Curve, is Using Virtual Teams To Build A Million Dollar Business Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the inspiring Dan Norris, serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of WP Curve, on how he is building a million dollar business using virtual teams. This episode is jam-packed full of great insights and tips from Dan on how to engage your virtual teams for maximum success. Some of the things he touched on are: Why doing what you love and delegating the rest is the wrong approach if you are a true entrepreneur building a scalable business. Why ‘working with people' and ‘managing people' are two totally different skillsets. Why it is crucial to have your expectations clearly laid out and documented. How to build processes for everything so every angle of your business is systemised and your virtual team can manage it effectively. How to build flexibility within a structure that works for your virtual team. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. Tools & resources mentioned in this episode: Trello Slack Zapier Google Docs How To Use Trello and Zapier by Dan In this episode: 02:13 – Where it all started 08:06 – Some of the early challenges 10:18 – Dealing with different work ethics 13:25 – The importance of systems, tools and processes 13:53 – Dan's ‘must-have' tools 17:04 – Creating processes is NOT boring 18:35 – Train your people to use your systems, your way 21:47 – Managing your staff 23:15 – Consider the costs of growing your business 24:13 – Your biggest mistake could be saying ‘Yes' 27:29 – You should be delegating everything 29:12 – Wrapping things up Barbara: Hey everyone welcome to the show! And as always, I'm joined by my fabulous co-host, Matt Malouf. Matt, how's it going? Matt: I'm going well Barbara! How are you? Barbara: I'm great, thanks! Good week? Matt: It has been an amazing week and I'm really looking forward to today's episode. Barbara: Yeah, me too! I mean I'm super excited because someone I've been following from quite a long time, has been actually an inspiration to me in building Virtual Angel Hub and how to manage virtual teams, which is actually not as easy as people think, is our guest on the show today and that is Dan Norris, who is co-founder of WPCurve. And not only is Dan a very passionate entrepreneur with a huge obsession of content marketing and everything in digital, he's also running a big virtual team and with 30 people at the moment in Philippines and a co-founder who lives in the US, so truly global virtual teams. Dan welcome to the show, we're really excited to get chatting with you! Dan: Well I'm excited too, thank you for having me! Barbara: Yeah, it's good! So, just to kick off, do you want to give us quick background into how you ended up with such a big team of virtual staff? Where did it all start for you? Where it all started Dan: Right, so two years ago I just sent an email to my list and asked them if they wanted ongoing WordPress support and I made the offer of unlimited small fixes each month for $70 a month and at the time I had one developer in the Philippines, Andrew, who was a really, really good developer and he'd worked on a lot of stuff with me and I really didn't want to lose him. And actually the other thing I said was 24/7 too, so I had small jobs 24/7 and I only have one guy in the Philippines which is the same time zone as me and I had a bunch of people say yes to it and so I was like, doing it on my phone at night time. So I knew straightaway I was going to have to hire people. What ended up happening was I found a co-founder in the US to manage that side of the world, which made things a lot easier. And I'm also not a WordPress developer, so I was always going to hire people – it never would have worked without doing that,
Opening The Kimono On How Any Entrepreneur Can Use Virtual Teams To Start Liberating Time… Successfully! Want the transcript? Download it here. On this very first episode, we open the kimono on the key challenges we see people facing when it comes to how to use a virtual team. Liberating time is really the number one reason entrepreneurs look to hire virtual assistants so they can then utilise their precious time on more high value, business growth activities. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as people think ! Often people get tripped up very quickly and can end up getting frustrated and giving up. They throw their hands in the air and decide that outsourcing just doesn't work for them or their type of business. Sadly, we see these entrepreneurs and their business growth plans suffer when they try to outsource and then suffer again when they can't get it right. The purpose of this show is: To educate more entrepreneurs on how to successfully implement and maximise the use of virtual teams in their businesses To provide strategies, tactics and action steps that boost success throughout that implementation process To talk about our own experiences and those of our clients case study style To interview the many entrepreneurs out there that have achieved success with virtual teams both small and large – the pros and cons, do's and dont's. To kick things off in this episode we dived into: How every business across every industry can make great use of virtual teams for business growth – even when they are convinced it wont work for them ! Why thinking you are a great communicator and actually being a great communicator can be two very different things. Why slowing down to speed up is one of the most pivotal things you can do to grow your business. How to delegate so you gain control instead of lose control. How to take the guess work, misses and mistakes out of your virtual experience. Let us know in the comments below what your key take out has been from this episode or if you have something cool to add – also let us know. Systems and tools we mention in this show: Asana Project ManagementSkypeSlack ChatDropvox In this episode: 01:04 – Using virtual teams for business growth 06:42 – Being a great communicator 08:00 – Create a recurring task list 11:25 – Use a project management tool 13:10 – Create a meeting rhythm with your team 15:35 – Build rapport 18:17 – Be direct in your communications 22:06 – Working out your communication style 26:32 – Slow down to speed up 29:57 – Wrapping things up Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work? Are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource this task so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show. We bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs and now here are your hosts, Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara: Hey everyone, welcome to the show. I am very excited to be co-hosting with Matt Malouf. Matt how is it going? Matt: It's going great Barbara, how are you go today? Barbara: Pretty good, excited to be kicking off our first show together. Matt: I sure am. It just seems like yesterday that we were sitting around having a coffee talking about the challenges our clients and we were having with virtual teams, then we came up with the idea for this podcast. And here we are. Using virtual teams for business growth Barbara: Absolutely, yeah I know. We were just chatting and saying that one of the things that nobody is talking about is how do we solve some of the challenges that we face when you have virtual teams because it's not easy. Let's face it. Matt: Absolutely. You know, I think the idea and ideal of a virtual team is attractive to a lot of people but then wading through the minefield of challenges like in most team...
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