Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
Welcome to Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive, the ultimate resource for mental health professionals ready to step into their power, grow their practices, and create a career they love. I'm Dr. Kate Walker, a Texas LPC/LMFT Supervisor, author, and business strategist who's here to show you the path to success.
Formerly Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, we’ve rebranded because, well, we’re way too big for Texas now! This community of badass therapists is growing nationwide, and we’re here to help you create a career and practice you love, no matter where you are.
Every week, you'll get practical advice, proven strategies, and motivation to help you build a thriving practice—one that gives you the freedom to live your life on your terms. From mastering marketing to designing scalable systems and becoming a clinical supervisor, this podcast is your roadmap to leveling up without burnout.
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Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
157 From Overwhelmed to Organized: Building a Smart VA System with SOPs, Trust, and Tools
What if the fastest way to grow isn’t doing more, but letting go—carefully? We pull back the curtain on how we hired and trained two very different assistants, one in Texas and one in the Philippines, and the systems that make those partnerships smooth, secure, and genuinely business-changing. From the first grading task to a multi-role teammate, and from a five-hour bookkeeping trial to dashboards, course ops, and content workflows, this is a real-world blueprint for delegating without losing your mind.
We walk through the decisions that matter: how to choose between 1099 and W‑2, where to source talent (and what marketplace reviews actually tell you), and how to set pay based on skill, scope, and outcomes. Security and ethics are baked in—NDAs, HIPAA training when needed, and password managers like LastPass so you can grant access without giving away the keys. You’ll hear how simple, living SOPs turn chaos into consistency: short Loom or Camtasia videos, Trello checklists, and clear definitions of “done” that make handoffs clean and quality predictable.
Communication is the backbone. We explain why one primary channel and a weekly check-in beat scattered pings and why screenshots with specific notes eliminate rework. We also share candid red flags—vanishing act replies, task-dumping without initiative, and hidden subcontracting—and the green flags that signal a pro: proactive problem-solving, honest updates, and resilience when life or weather hits across time zones. Most of all, we make the case that delegation is an investment, not a cost. Start with five to ten hours, document one process, ship it, and use the time you get back for higher-leverage work—or real rest.
Ready to turn overwhelm into a system that scales? Listen now, subscribe for more practical playbooks, and leave a review with the first task you plan to delegate.
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
All right. So this is broken into two parts. In the first part, we will interview my uh assistant who is here in Texas. And in the second part, I'm interviewing my assistant who is in the Philippines because I know that's something that that's uh probably in everyone's sphere where you're aware of assistance that you can uh go on something like Fiverr, or I go to Upwork, and there are other different uh companies where you have your choice of folks all over the world. And so what do you do when your assistant is in a different time zone? Jennifer is not in a different time zone. She is right here in my time zone. And so uh we're gonna start off and then at about 5:15, we will switch over to a pre-recorded uh interview that I did with Irvin. I couldn't do a live interview with Irvin because he's sound asleep right now, or he should be. He's probably working, but he's probably hopefully he's asleep. So awesome, good to see you from Virginia. Excellent. All right, we got some East Coast going on here. Got some other people go uh joining us. Great. All right, so Jennifer, introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_00:Um, my name says Kate Walker, but I'm not Kate Walker. I just log in under her Zoom. But my name is Jennifer Marie Fairchild. I am an LBC associate here in Texas, and I am a clinical mental health counseling candidate in New Hampshire. And a PhD student at Texas Tech University.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And we've got Missouri representing in North Carolina. I'm so happy you guys are here. So when I started doing hiring or thinking about hiring a virtual assistant, I was in a place of complete overwhelm. And Jennifer knows she wasn't my first assistant. She is actually my second, probably third. And so it's something that I've learned along the way, and I'm in a constant state of learning, and and we kind of grow into this together. But um, Jennifer, do you remember how I found you?
SPEAKER_00:Um, yes. So I was still in my master's program. And um I had just joined, you know, as we a lot of us do, we just join every Facebook group we can find. And I see this post and I have no idea who Kate is. And it just says, hey, I'm looking for a PhD student um to help me out with some grading. And I thought, well, I can I can do that. That that's doable. So I messaged Kate and I said, I'm not a PhD student, but can I help you? And um that's kind of how my role started was helping out with grading. And it over the course of the next few minutes kind of just transitioned to a little bit more here and a little bit more there. And then I graduated. And um, you know, most associates, and that was kind of the plan that after I graduated, I would move on because obviously I'm, you know, getting hours and doing all that, but Kate was such an amazing person to work for. I just never left.
SPEAKER_01:And we're well, I'm almost a year four.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we're almost a year four.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And it started out with grading, but this is how uh when you hire someone, you may have a specific task in mind. Like mine was specifically, I needed help grading assignments for the online 40-hour training. But with that, and if you've followed me at all or listened to our webinars about um, if you want to have a course, you know, 90% of what we do once the course is built is customer service. And so handling folks where technology is breaking down or emails just won't talk to email or things get lost. And I found and out Jennifer's amazing with customer service. So, okay, then I piled that job on to her. And then I find out other areas where, you know what, she lets me know, hey, Kate, you can give me this job, but I'm up to here right now. And you, you know, we who knows, right? And you had better words than that. But at that point, then I know it's time to hire another virtual assistant. And so, Jennifer, we have you. Well, you started out as a 1099, correct? And then once we actually got deeper into the definition of a 1099 and the W-2 employee, uh, we found out, we figured out that it made sense to switch Jennifer to a W-2. And so Jennifer is a W-2 employee. She works 20 hours a week for me. Uh, job description is is clear, but it always changes. We just had a huge overhaul last week of our support system. And so you notice that I use the term SOP at the beginning of this presentation because that's the standard operating procedure. So if I have a new system that I want to roll out, I will check with Jennifer. I'll say, okay, look at this. Does this make sense? If she says, okay, but we really need to clarify here or or change this over here, I'll wait until I get her to look at it, and then I'll develop the SOP for the other people that will be using our system. So Jennifer was very, so this is sort of how this transitions, very specific for one job, but then it grows into another job and another job and another job. A virtual assistant or any type of assistant can go the other way too. So you can hire for this job over here, and you find out, okay, they're not cut out for that job at all. And so you need to plug them here or you need to plug them there. Um, and that's okay too. So uh we're gonna address, I think it might be a good idea, like right now. Uh, I want to make sure I do address all your questions because we are gonna address the ethics of things like sharing passwords, the ethics of things like sharing protected health information. But if you would just take about 10 seconds and pop your questions into the chat, what what questions do you have or worries or concerns about hiring a virtual assistant?
SPEAKER_00:I like that you brought up like the the whole there were things that that person may not do. Like very and that for me was the directory. The directory was so overwhelming that we shifted that to somebody else. And it wasn't because I was incapable, it was just it was a beast, and I just didn't have the time to dedicate to it. So it often kind of got pushed to the bottom. So, I mean, finding somebody that you can have those conversations with and it's not personal, it's just hey, how do we fix this is huge.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And one thing, how much should you pay your virtual assistant? That's a really good question. Um, you are if you're on a site like Upwork, you're going to be given a rate. And you'll be given different rates for different levels of skill. You'll be given different rates for different level levels of customer reviews. Um, so let's say you're looking for a bookkeeper. You're gonna look at their skill set, you're gonna look at how many jobs they've accomplished. So you'll be able to see so much information and customer reviews to really know if you want to pay$50 an hour or$100 an hour, or if you want to give this person over here a chance who maybe has only done 10 jobs, but they have really, really good reviews, and they're only charging$15 an hour. So it's it's easier to see the going rate on a site like Upwork or Fiverr. Now, when I just put it out into the ether for Jennifer, I just I asked around. I said, okay, what is the going rate? You know, I didn't want to pay just terrible wages. Um, so I asked, you know, what is what is better than minimum right now, especially for the level of education that I was looking for, because it was a skilled job. And uh, so then so you might want to look at it that way if it's something you're gonna go a more traditional route, like indeed, or you're gonna do like I did, and maybe in Texas Counselor's creating badass businesses, you're just gonna post it in the in search of thread or in the lemonade stand. Um I may not be tech savvy enough to handle it. Well, Mary, I'm gonna make sure that you understand how to do that. Also, there's a download that I have. It's at KateWalkerTraining.com slash bonus. And I'm gonna have different resources every month. But this month it's how to create a sample SOP. And so you'll be able to see how to create an SOP for something. And also, I'm gonna show you one of my organizational systems. We use Trello boards, and I'll show you how I use the Trello board to create an SOP. So hopefully that addresses that, but it can uh slash bonus. So if you want to go grab that freebie, like I said, it's just 10 things to delegate and how to create an SOP. Does the assistant have their own liability insurance policy or are they covered under your professional policy? Well, so that's part of uh Carlin. My organization of my company is an LLC. And so as a limited liability corporation, that's a uh it's a lead curtain between what happens in my business and in my practice or my personal assets or my husband's business. And so in that, there are all kinds of choices. You can get trip and fall insurance, you can have uh, you know, gosh, home and auto insurance if you have a building or if you're letting your assistant drive a car or something like that. If your assistant or if your virtual, if this person you're hiring is going to be seeing clients, then they would have their own malpractice insurance. But because they Jennifer's a W-2 employee, she's under my control. That's the the definition of a W-2. Um, I don't require her to have any insurance. In fact, uh what we do on our end is more around trademarking and copyright to protect our assets, but we're completely virtual. So I would you probably need to look at your particular situation. Like if you were hiring somebody to clean your office, would you make them have insurance? Or would your insurance cover if they tripped and fell? And I have met Jennifer, so that's kind of funny.
SPEAKER_00:We do live far apart, but we have met.
SPEAKER_01:We have met what two years, but it took two years to meet. And then every when I go to Colorado, I swing through Lubbock. Um, I had an assistant in Ohio, and when I passed through Ohio, I did stop and meet her too.
SPEAKER_00:It's happened a couple of times where because I do help with scheduling um and cancellations for Kate's um clinical stuff. Um typically if if a client's in crisis, I do the same thing I would, you know, do. If is this an emergency, you know, call 911, make sure, you know, they're okay. And then I, you know, notified Kate. Um, I don't I don't know what I would do if I were not, because I am.
SPEAKER_01:You know, that's a great question to ask. Like if you go to your physician's office and you talk to the receptionist and say, hey, how are you guys trained? Uh, if there was an emergency in the waiting room, or if there's an emergency back behind the desk, and let's say when you're drawing blood with someone, right? That that's a perfect example or opportunity to create an SOP. Number one, this is what you'll do. Number two, this is what you're gonna do. Number three, you're gonna need to give me your certificate. I want to see that you've been CPR trained and you know how to use the defibulator machine, right? So everything short of like surgery, you know, can be trained. Um, and I know that's an exaggeration. If wanting to hire for admin tests, building schedule, email phone, et cetera, do you recommend hiring someone with mental health background or are the SOPs efficient or sufficient? That's a great, actually, that's a great segue to the next interview. So, Jennifer, I'm gonna let you go. Thank you so much for joining.
SPEAKER_00:And don't forget to grab the link. I dropped it one more time and grab the webinar number because I can't email it too many. All right. Thank y'all.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Jennifer. See ya. And this is Irvin Nixon Cruz. And uh as I mentioned before, I've gone through lots and lots of assistance. And with Irvin, he was so willing to grow and he was so wonderful at taking feedback. And uh I did pay a little bit more because of his skill set. Uh, because you always have the option to start off with someone who maybe doesn't have the skill set you're looking for. They're just sort of a general assistant. But I started off needing Irvin for bookkeeping. So he was going to have access to numbers, not necessarily protected health information, but you'll see how that grew. So here's Irvin. All right, so today I'm with Irvin Nixon Cruz, and he is very special to me because he is my virtual assistant. So um, so let's get to the questions. I want to, we're just gonna go bullet by bullet because of course I have to have prompts here. Um, what exactly can a VA virtual assistant do?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, that's a good question. You know, the VA industry has really become such a big um part of how business operates today, not only for business, but also for the professionals. And honestly, we are needed more than ever because of, of course, the existence of AI and so on. There are many lots of things to do as a business owner and professional. And think about it, uh, most business owners and professionals are already juggling so much on their day-to-day activities. So they just don't have time to deal with those time-consuming um tasks. So I'm talking about like things like admin work, um, keeping up social media, managing calendar and indexes, creating or updating websites, doing research, customer support, and so on and so forth. Or, for example, creating courses like what I'm doing with you, um, and then managing um different social media platforms. So that's what exactly we step in as a virtual assistant. We basically the extra hand of the business owners and the professionals. So, whatever task that you need to take off your plate, that's what we come in. So that's exactly what we do as a virtual assistant.
SPEAKER_01:Well said, exactly. No, that's that's so well said. And it uh as a business owner, probably the hardest thing for me was to let go of some of these tasks, like the course creation. I mean, that's that's what we do at Kate Walker Training, right? We create online courses and webinars, and to take my hands off and to say, okay, I'm gonna let someone else do it. I'm gonna teach someone to do it, I'm going to help them learn to do it as well as I do. It's it's a little it's a little scary. Um, but worth it. I I cannot emphasize this enough. It is worth it. And the time that Irvin frees up for me has just helped me grow my business exponentially. I mean, it's it's just been such an incredible help. Um, so you may be asking yourself, business owner or potential business owner who's watching this, listening to this, do I have enough tasks to keep a VA busy? So, Irvin, how would you respond to that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's such a common question, actually, during discovery call or interview with potential clients. Do I really have enough tasks to keep a BA busy? And the truth is, um, most of the time the answer is yes, um, way more than you realize it. Um, here's the thing when you're running a business, you get used to doing things everything yourself that you stop um noticing just how many little things are piling up. So answering emails like that, scheduling appointments, updating your social media and so on. So even if you think um even if you think I probably only have a couple of things to delegate, once you start working with a BA, you'll quickly see that um your plate is actually um overflowing. And the beauty of it is you don't need to hand over 40 hours of work right right away, just like what we did. We can um do step by step, like you can start small, delegate a few tasks, and as you build trust, um you'll naturally find more and more things your VA can take off your hands. So, in summary, um no need to hire a full-time virtual assistant. Um you can start like five to ten hours a week or a month, and then after that, once you figure out um the best way on how you can work together as a team, then that's the time you need that you can hire them full-time, something like that. Um, do not pressure yourself on hiring someone to go full-time for yourself, like to help you full-time, because if you don't have enough tasks, then how can you hire someone to work full-time? So do not pressure yourself. Just um take it one task at a time, and then from that you can figure it out moving forward.
SPEAKER_01:Again, well said. Uh you and I started off um with bookkeeping. And not even really bookkeeping. I guess my dream was to have a dashboard for my um my my courses, my uh main course, which is the 40-hour training to become a supervisor in Texas. And then I had some smaller products, and it's you know, it was sort of looking and saying, okay, now I don't understand which one of these is actually moving the needle toward my five-year goals. And so Irvin helped me develop a dashboard where I could see the things that I sold and how they impacted my profit, uh, how much the shared cost was. All of these things I really wasn't thinking about. And it helps to just, because I just have it at a glance. I mean, he created a dashboard where at a glance I can see at the end of every month which of these categories of products is helping me. So if you're listening to this and you're a therapist, you know I've taught you guys every single session is sort of a different product. You have individual sessions, group sessions, couple sessions, family sessions. You may have sessions with kids, sessions with uh folks in their 20s, right? So you can actually start to look at how these sessions impact your bottom line. You can look at days of the week, you can look at times of the day. And there's a way that uh, you know, a virtual assistant could create a dashboard so you could see uh, oh, this would be great too if you're trying to come off of insurance, right? You look to see which ones of your clients, you know, uh uh your insurance clients as a category versus your self-pay clients. So I could go on and on and on, but this is just one way Irvin and I started off. I think we started off with um, was it five hours a week?
SPEAKER_02:Or it was it wasn't very five hours, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's it's not that much. And then we we grow into something close to full time already.
SPEAKER_01:We're getting now that you know, like you said, it uh we build trust, we we communicate, we have the occasional Zoom meeting, we work with our Trello board, and so it's it's evolved over time, but I gotta tell you, it's not just trusting Irvin, it's me letting go of my control. And as a business owner, that's that's not easy. So I let it go of it.
SPEAKER_02:Actually, one of the hardest things um that I noticed during um Discovery Call is because it's it it's not easy to delegate. To be honest, that it's not easy to delegate. So um, letting go of the task that you usually do on your own is not easy to let go and share it with other people. So I really understand that it's really a step-by-step process to build a trust between the client and the virtual assistant. And yeah, going back to the question, we really need to um take it one step at a time, take a few hours, and then from there we can start um getting being something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Okay, next question. How do I know if I can trust them with sensitive information, passwords, clients, finances?
SPEAKER_02:That's a big yeah, that's that's actually a serious question because as as we know, there are many scammers everywhere. And uh as AI is progressing, we don't know if we are talking about we are talking on a real person or not. So it is really important that we do our due diligence to make research about um who we are talking, especially the virtual assistant, like checking their social media and then before sharing anything. And it's a good thing that we are talking about this because recommendation from a friend or a mentor is really important because we're lowering the risk of being um scammed or sharing the ink, like high risk of sharing information to the people who are untrustworthy, trust not trustworthy enough. So when it comes to sensitive information, just like what we are doing, we have like tools to lower the risk, like um um LastPass. So it's like a vault of share. Um you need to uh, for example, for the client, you need to you need to um save your password on on that password vault, and then um to lower the risk of getting the password, like you don't need to um send the exact password of all of your um tools, for example. All you need to do is to save that in the um last pass a password vault and then um get the email of your um virtual assistant, and then from there they can already have the access. So I think we can lower the risk on that. And also one of the things that we need to point out is we as a virtual assistant, we value confidentiality the most. So we can also lower the risk by, for example, creating contracts or signing a non-disclosure agreement. So this is the important thing that we we should not um we should always take into consideration because as you work together as a team, it is very important that you don't only protect the sensitive information, but also there are um information about, for example, business model that you need to protect for your business. So that's the that's that's the power of non-disclosure agreement. So it will protect both parties from disclosing anything, especially on the part of the client. It will help you a lot.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, uh I love that. And for those of you uh who have uh who are thinking about a virtual assistant to help with clients, now Irvin, he works uh in Kate Walker training. He doesn't work with clients and client files, PHI, sensitive information. But if he did, um I would treat him like I would treat any other hire. I would train him on HIPAA. I would send him to a HIPAA training. I would make sure my annual self-audit that we talked about on the last episode, that we talked, you know, we kept a copy of the certificate in a file. And when I do my self-audit, I would include Irvin with the other employees or anyone else, any other therapists in my office who have access to that personal health information. So, you know, training someone on HIPAA, getting a certificate, making sure that they're trained in your office procedures for your practice, that's the due diligence that you would do with anyone. And so the idea that Irvin is also there to protect my business, to protect any sort of intellectual property with my courses, to be there to protect, you know, anything that I share with him. He's a he's a team member. And uh that's but one of the things, I mean, I know with Irvin, we have done Zoom calls. Like I knew Irvin was a real person, you know, and and uh we are on WhatsApp, you know, if Irvin has a question, even though I might get it the next day, because we are how many hours apart are we? I always get this wrong. We're 14 hours.
SPEAKER_02:Like the 14 hours, something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And so where are you located, Irvin, exactly?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I'm located in um Bagu City, like the coldest place in um in the Philippines. Like I'm in the top of the mountain, something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. So coldest? I didn't know you were in the coldest place.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. I wish it's gonna be 100 degrees here today. Well, great. Okay, I'm gonna keep going. Um, next question. So this is sort of relating back to the other one about do I have enough stuff for a VA? Then uh, Irvin, how would you say how many hours should I hire for starting out?
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, just like what I said, uh, we can actually start like five to ten hours. It really depends on the workload and how much you're ready to let go of. Because we cannot force um the client to like, like, for example, we set like this and like that, and then you're not ready to like um prepare prepare a certain task that needs to be done or outsourced for virtual assistant. So we can start small, just like what I said a while ago, like five to ten hours a week is perfect, something like that. And then from that, we can fill in fill in tasks just like what we did before. And then if ever that you're comfortable with each other already, and then you have other workloads to do, for example, you have multiple businesses, and then there are like example admin tasks and then social media tasks that um you need to let go of because it's a time consuming task. Then that's the time that we can increase that time um we spent, something like that. So it's it's not the force that we need to hire someone full-time. We can start small and then from there we can start working so that we can move move forward.
SPEAKER_01:This kind of this actually covers our another one where we're talking about, I'm going through bullets, everybody. Um, do I need to hire full-time or can I start with just a few hours a week? So, you know, I'm uh this is bringing it a business idea to my head, and I'm hoping Irvin's on board with this because I think he he would be great to do this. But Irvin, it's almost like you need to develop a handbook or a guide that you could give to people who want to hire you. Like, here's the best way to use me as your virtual assistant. Oh, sure, sure. I can provide that. I figured you could.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Actually, I have one. Um normally I send that to the people who are interested in my services so that it's easier for them to understand what we do, how we do it, and how we can help you better as a business owner. Because sometimes um when they research, um, it research is different from the actual experience of a virtual assistant or talking to someone who had direct experience with it. So um to make it clear, I just provided a copy for them to um to read, and then from there we can start. Like I also provided some step-by-step process on how we can proceed, how how we can onboard the client, something like that. So, yes, I can provide it. Excellent.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. Thank you so much. Um, so coming to this idea of training, because that's I I'm looking at all these questions, and uh, there are really only two more I want to make sure we hit. This one, how do I train a VA so they understand my business. This opens the gate to SOPs. And we haven't even really talked about SOPs in our conversation today. So talk about that a little bit. How do I train a VA so they understand my business?
SPEAKER_02:Actually, that's such a great question because a lot of people think hiring a VA is just about giving them a list of tasks. But really, the magic happens when they actually understand your business. Okay. So how do you get how do you get there? First, don't overcomplicate it. I think this is one of the lessons that I've learned from Kate, because she's always making sure that the instruction is simple and not overly complicated.
SPEAKER_01:So I think you can. That's great feedback because sometimes I wonder.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, just like uh you don't need a hundred pages manual to make it work, something like that. Start with the very basic, give them the overview of what your business is all about. So start giving information about your business because when they know about your business, they can easily um help you better. Like um they can propose something that can make the process more efficient. Okay. So it's not only about how they will help you to do this, but they also need to understand the ins and outs of your business so that they can help you better. So the next next is think about documenting as you go. This is what we are doing. Simple things like recording a Loom video while you walk through the process or jotting down step-by-step instruction in Google Docs, because this will really help a lot in um making sure that the output that you're expecting from a virtual assistant is the same output that they will submit at the end of the day, for example. And then one of the good things about this is of course, um you are not always on your best state. There are times that you forget something. So once you have these things documented, they can always go back to that document and then check it. For example, in our case, you're providing me an SOP, sometimes a video. So every time I forget something, um, I always go back to that video so that I will still make sure that I can provide a quality output on just like what you expect me to do. And then remember, it's not it's not just about um what, it's about why, just like what I said a while ago. If they don't understand why a certain task matters, um they'll make better, they'll make better decisions even without looking over their shoulder. So it is very important that they know what they are doing. And then one thing that I want to point out is um these VAs were actually skilled already before you onboard them. They are actually skilled. So you don't need to train them from the very basic, just um inform them and then set expectations from the both view, and then from there you can start working. So you don't need to train the train and train them because it will take you some time. And one of the reasons why you are VE is to solve your problems. So if you're if you're thinking that um you will train them over and over again, don't worry about that because they are already skilled. All you need to do is to guide them to do um the expected output that you expect you to have.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh, thank you. That's uh so there are actually two or three things. I mean, the first thing um I want to just so how do I put this? I want to own this. When I give Irvin an SOP and he gives me output, I actually get to see how well I did that SOP. And remember, SOP just stands for standard operating procedure. So I might uh go step by step showing Irvin how I want him to put um a webinar that we've created, take the recording and put it into Podia so that we can add it to the step it up membership, right? Because step it up members are the ones who get the replays. And we this just happened yesterday. We were going through something, and then I realized, okay, I totally forgot to put into the SOP some some important information that would make his life easier. So there was a step missing, and it it wasn't Irvin, it was me. And so easy fix because I do create a video. I used to do the the Google Doc and try to make a step by step by step, but it did look, it was like I would have made it 10 pages long. So I do uh so Irvin mentioned Loom. That's a great video software. I use Camtasia just because that's what I'm used to. And so when I go in and I I create a course, I say, wait, hang on a second. I'm gonna record every step of me creating the webinar into the asynchronous Podia course. And then I can put it into our system, which we use Trello. And when I put it into Trello, it gives me the ability to actually attach each SOP video to the Trello card. And so when I say, oh, wait, Urban, I see you forgot to check this box or add this thing, he can go back and see exactly which step it was and a video for how to do that. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking about, okay, what can I delegate? And this sounds really, really hard. It's not, I promise. Just start with something like I started with bookkeeping. I don't know how to do bookkeeping, but Irvin was already skilled in bookkeeping. He was already skilled in QuickBooks. And so that was our introduction to each other. The ability for him to um, it wasn't even QuickBooks. I just sent you a spreadsheet. So he was skilled in Excel. And so it was, it wasn't like I had to give him an SOP. I didn't teach him how to use Excel. I didn't teach him how to filter data. So then I was able to think, okay, what do I know how to do really, really well, which is create courses? It just takes a super amount of time and I don't want to do it anymore. And that's when I got into recording the videos creating the SOPs that I could then hand off to him. And we could both look at these finished products. And in Urban, it's still evolving. I mean, I talked the other day about combining two of our boards, and he came back, he's like, I'm not sure what that would look like. And I said, okay, hang on. I'll I'm gonna I'm gonna think it through first because it I have to, I've got this vision, which is really common. I get a big vision, but unless I can put it into a space where I can communicate it with him, right? It's it it has to start with me to give to him, but then I let go. And I know so many of my colleagues find it's it's hard to let go of, oh wait, but I usually do it in this color canva, or I usually use this wording, you know, what in my title. You know what? There are just some things that are more important than getting a Canva color, although Irvin, you always give me choices. So yes, I mean it's uh SOP standard operating procedures, find uh uh uh some sort of software to record step by step. Uh I don't work for Loom, I'm not a Loom affiliate, uh, but I hear it's wonderful. But even screen share. I mean, you know, on my Mac, I can write, I can I can record a video, right? I mean, I can record no screen grabs. Um, make it simple. That's the main thing. Make it simple. And then uh Irvin will communicate. And and Irvin, of course, I'm pushing your services, but um, I found you on Upwork initially, uh, but there are lots of uh places out there where you can find virtual assistants. Um, but if I give Irvin something and he comes back and he's like, I don't know, that wasn't the greatest, right? Well, then we work together and we build it. So um last question. No, I'll probably do two more. Okay, second to the last question. Irvin, how do we communicate effectively and smoothly? So, how would one who wants to hire a VA communicate effectively and smoothly like we do?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so here's the thing. Actually, good communication is really the backbone of successful VA and client relationship. Always remember that. And the good news is it doesn't have to be, again, complicated. So start by big picking um one main channel where you'll vote consistent. It's maybe email, Slack, or even WhatsApp, just like what we're using. We're using WhatsApp. So so that you're not scattered on one place. Because just like what I've said, it should not be complicated. So just choose one so that you can communicate, for example, not regularly, but if there is a task, you can communicate immediately. Then add in a regular check-ins or a weekly check-in, something like that. That could be, for example, a weekly Zoom call or even just a few minutes of chat in WhatsApp. And then um clarity. Clarity is a huge tool. Clarity is important. Be specific with your instructions, share examples if something changes, update right right away, because um this is one of the important um aspects that we need to consider so that we can communicate effectively and smoothly. And finally keep it human, encourage questions, something like that, give feedback. And uh, for example, if you uh if um if you have something in mind, for example, you don't like the output of your virtual assistant, and then communicate immediately because that's the only way that um the next output will be improve. And um, do not keep it yourself. Um, you just have to be open because it's a working relationship between you and your virtual assistant, just like what I've said in my previous um answer. Your virtual assistant is your extra hand. If you don't communicate, um then how can he or she perform his task, right? So that's it. Just don't complicate things, just choose one and then communicate regularly or weekly so that uh you can catch up on whatever things that you need to work on. And then you can also be updated on what are the tasks that was already done and what are the tasks that still on the process, something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I send Irvin, I'll take a picture on my phone. That's you know, I'll I'll go through and I'll be, you know, because uh when it's my turn to go through and check and just make sure everything looks how I want it to look. Yes, I am a little bit of a control freak still. If I see something, I just take a quick screenshot, or I'll take a picture with my camera and I'll just say, like, oh hey Irvin, you forgot to check this box, send.
SPEAKER_02:And then I that's actually works for me. That's actually works at all. It works really well because it's very specific, it's clear, right? I need to change this, and then Kate, um make a screenshot or picture picture and then send it to me, and then I will change it. And it's clear, uh, it's not complicated because at the end of the day, you want to make the output um better, not perfect, but better. So just communicate, and then for sure your virtual assistant will assist you on the best of his capacity.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I didn't I didn't think about this. I I am gonna ask two more questions. Okay, so we didn't have this, but what are some red flags for a bad assistant when when the business owner might sit and think, uh-oh, you know, because I I know in my mind, but I want to hear from you, like, because I've had some bad ones. And I can tell you what kind of started giving me, uh-oh, what's what's going on here? And it wasn't anything dire, like, you know, my my passwords are being shared or something. It wasn't like that. Um, but what would you say? I mean, you've you've got a a business there where you actually have some virtual assistants who are working for you and you vet them, right? You make sure that they understand how to do things well before you let them uh go with other clients. So, what would be a red flag for you for somebody who's just not getting it?
SPEAKER_02:For me, and that's correct. Since I'm working with other virtual assistants, um, there are red flags. What are the red flags that I consider? Maybe the opposite of like what I consider the best virtual assistant. Because for me, a good virtual assistant is proactive and resourceful. So if they are contrary to that, like you're not willing to learn, for example, or or if you are not open in um discussion, that's one of the red flags. Because um uh you need to build a client, be a client relationship. So if you are if you always um what do you call it? If you always um if you're a type of virtual assistant who always or only asks for instruction, that's one of the red flags. Because as a virtual assistant, you also need to step in, like you need to be proactive and um do your task beyond what is expecting on you. Like, for example, if you if you task if if you ask by your client to create a certain um spreadsheet, do not create just a plain spreadsheet, just go beyond that, like make some bold text or like make the alignment alignment. You know, you know what is good and bad, right? So you need to make sure that um you need to work beyond what is expected on you as a virtual assistant. So that's one thing. Second is you don't communicate really well, you're always missing in action. I don't like to work with someone who has the like the habit of replying more than 48 hours, something like that. Because as a business owner, uh as a business owner or professionals, you you're meeting deadlines, and then that's one thing, one red flag for me because um you're there to be a hand, not to be like other person. So you need to communicate, um, you need to communicate as soon as possible, something like that. And then what else? What else red flag? I think is one of the red flags is if you are not honest to your to the client, for me honesty is very important because it will go a long way. Like if you are not honest to your your your clients, for example, you are asked by your clients to do a certain task and then you outsource that to somebody else. That's really a red plug. Because in the first place, if you really want to outsource that to someone, you need to tell the person, you need to tell your client beforehand. Because um you are not only sharing the task, you're you're sharing the important and sensitive information of the client. So um you need to be honest and transparent, otherwise, um I will not choose to ask my virtual assistant. So these are the things that I consider as a red log of a virtual assistant.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, and so I want to tell y'all, I mean, one time uh Irvin, I I hadn't heard from him in a couple of days, and it was like very unusual. Like I I Irvin is very, very good. I mean, not just for I mean 24 hours, less than 24 hours. He always gets back to me. Well, there was a freaking typhoon happening. And he should be like pictures outside his window. I mean, flooding and wind trees, you know, blowing. And he's like, our internet's pretty sketchy. I'm like, okay, just stay safe.
SPEAKER_02:You know, so life happens with your virtual actually, actually, during that time, just to share, we have deadlines that we need to uh there are tasks that the deadlines already do. And then unfortunately, we struck by two consecutive typoons. And I'm looking for ways, and there is a power power interruption, and then we don't have internet, and as we all know, that's our lifeblood as a virtual assistant. We need electricity, we need internet, otherwise, we cannot perform our tasks. So during that time, we don't have that aspect. So I really make made sure that I uh I can find a way to work things out, otherwise my clients will be like, I will find them me as a missing in-action person. That's why beforehand, before the typoon, I already told Kate that there is a typoon coming and it's a category which we haven't seen in a while in the Philippines. So, and then after typoon, she's reaching out because yeah, we we already have a due date. So, what I did is I transferred to a coffee shop just to make sure that everything is um um fixed and I can provide the output that she's expected me to have on the specific date. And that's what I'm telling you. Um, you need someone that is resourceful enough to finish the task. Yes, we we can be considerate, but if the virtual assistant keeps on doing that, um we can because we cannot delay that. We are on the process, we we work on the back end. So as much as we always want to give consideration to the virtual assistant, we also need to consider that we are running business and we cannot delay things. So so that's it. We need to be resourceful, otherwise, um it keeps getting worse and worse.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and and and as a business owner, okay, say, you know, take that even uh out of the equation, you know, natural disasters. I mean, I live in Texas, you know, and so we have uh, you know, life happens. I think for me, when it becomes a red flag is I call them touches, right? So for me to move on to another project, I have to be able to take my hands off this one over here. And that trust that when I have handed it to Irvin, I can take my hand off of it and then go over here and focus completely, right? So a red flag for me or our you know would be a virtual assistant that's I think you said constantly asking for instruction or they they are not proactive, they don't take the initiative, right? I mean, I want to be able to give me a product, give me something I can look at and say, Oh, you were close, got it 80%, let's get at the other 20%, right? But not just tell me again, tell me again. And and especially if I have have given pretty decent SOPs, right? So keep that in mind as you're hiring your virtual assistant. They aren't supposed to just keep asking, asking, asking, right? Yes at the same time, give them a decent SOP, right? Give them something.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, correct.
SPEAKER_01:All right, Irvin, final comments. Give us a give us a takeaway.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm caught on guard. So so I I think um the best takeaway in this um conversation is that um it is really important to ask help to someone who are expert on what they are doing, because at the end of the day, there are many aspects of business that you can focus on. And if these are the tasks that you uh if you are eating by like by this task day by day, you need to let someone handle it. Because I know that delegation is one of the challenges, even personal, not only in business, but even in personal. Like you've been doing that for like maybe for a decade or for months or years, but I mind you, once you outsource this um this task that makes your life so complicated, um you can turn that time into a more proactive, um like in more fruitful endeavor, um, you can focus on like um building your business more, you can focus on the business side rather than focusing on like the ad hoc or the admin side of the business, which can be handled by other people. So trust me, um, if you're if you're thinking about the costs, don't think it as a burden on your part because you're spending another dollars from from these people from the virtual assistant. Take it as an investment because at the end of the day, when you are free on the task that you are you're you're you used to do daily, um, you can focus you can focus more on upscaling your business. And once you upscale your business, it can generate a lot of income. So instead of thinking that as additional cost, take that as investment. Because that's how business works. Um we we pay people to make our life more easier in this in this industry. So that's it. That's that's that's my my takeaway. And as a virtual assistant, we are really, really, really wanted to help business owners. Because once we see you thriving on your business or on your career, it it is really a good feeling for us because we are helping you in the back end, even though we are not at front like commending other people, commending by other people. It's okay with us for as long as we we we see you thriving in your business. That's that's really a big um big thing for us as a virtual assistant.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome. I love that. And so, Irvin, if people wanted to contact you, because as you mentioned, one of the best ways to trust a new virtual assistant is to have a referral from another person, and I'm your referral, everybody. So, Irvin, there there are a couple ways. I know one, we'll put we'll put a link in the show notes uh to make sure people can contact you, but how else could people find or what's the best way for people to find you if they wanted to hire you or one of your virtual assistants?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you can find me in all of my socials. Um my name is Irvin Nixon Cruz. You can check that for my credibility. You can hire me upwork in Upwork. Um, you can also um contact Kate for my details, or we can put it here so that you can um contact me and then we can do a discovery call so that if you have questions, then you can easily um ask me directly. So, for example, if you need someone to help you, of course, I am currently exclusive to Kate as her virtual assistant. But if you really wanted to have a virtual assistant um who are efficient, um, that can really work hard on your business, I can actually um you can hire on my agency. I have a mini uh virtual assistant agency, which is actually trained by me. So do not worry about that. What is good about hiring a virtual assistant from an agency, from an agency in particular, is that um when you hire someone from an agency, for example, you are not good match with each other, um, we can um actually replace that because at the end of the day, um, if it's not best fit for you, we cannot force to fit a certain virtual assistant because we consider, because we're considering a lot of things. Um, even if the virtual assistant is scaled, but personality-wise, he or she is not best fit for you are not best best fit for each other. We can replace another virtual assistant. So if that's the case, you can contact me, I can give my WhatsApp, or we can schedule a call so that um you have an idea on how it works. So that's it.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and uh Irvin edits all my blogs. So if you are actually accessing this on my blog, Irvin, I imagine you will put all the links necessary into that blog so people can grab it. If you are not reading the blog, if you're listening on the podcast, uh, we will be sure to put information about how to contact Irvin in the mid-roll and in the intro. So listen for those.
SPEAKER_02:And I hope I forgot that I'm doing the blog, so I will put some information.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't forget. This is how I'm able to take vacations. I'm I can't even tell you. Like knowing that that Irvin and uh my other wonderful assistants are out there holding my business together. This is how I'm able to spend time with my family, visit my grandkiddo. This is uh it's it's a game changer.
SPEAKER_02:So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01:All right, thank you. Thank you for letting me interview you and everybody listening, watching. Please get yourself a virtual assistant if you haven't already. And uh we'll have another episode on how to build an SOP. I'll I'll do what I gotta do to help you get to a space where you're able to delegate and be the magnificent badass business owner that you are. So thanks for watching. Thanks for being here, Irvin.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much. Bye-bye. See you.
SPEAKER_01:And show you some examples of SOPs, and then I'm going to take up the recording so you can hear Urban talk about how to contact him. So uh an SOP, I'm gonna show you the old school. This is an old school SOP for uh scheduled Facebook post. And so I created this. And when I start to do something, when I'm thinking about uh offloading a task, you really have to get into this mindset of, okay, I'm about to do this thing. What if I just sat down and wrote down every step that I take? Like one, open the program, two, click start, three, do this. And so that's what I did with the Facebook post. And honestly, it's not the greatest SOP in the world because if you're reading it and you're like, well, what does that mean? That means it's not that great of an SOP, right? Because I'm not being very descriptive. So what I switched to was screen recordings. And so with the screen recording, and if you're in the step it up membership, I use a lot of screen recordings to show how to find your products, how to get the Zoom link for our week weekly coaching call. Um, because when someone sees a quick two minute screen recording, it can make a lot of sense. Now, if you take, so when I say screen recording, it's that app on your computer that And I don't so here it is on my PC. And I can do a recording of the whole screen. Mac is so much easier, but my PC can do it too. Or you can use outside software like Loom and Camtasia. But let me show you an example. So this is mine and Irvin's combined Trello board. So this Trello board is designed to go left to right. And so if it needs a blog post, it goes here. If it's a training, it goes here. If it's an online course, and you can see I don't have any online courses in the queue. So if you click on, let's just look at a blog post. There's a lot of information here. And with Trello, Irvin can communicate with me in the Trello card. He can tag me so that I get an email. And I can add information like the link to the YouTube video right in the Trello card. But here's where the magic happens: the checklist. So we have an 11-item checklist, and each one of these checklists is how to create a portion of the blog. So let me click step one. And uh y'all give me a thumbs up if you can see what the screen switched to. Can you see a YouTube video? Okay, awesome. So no sound, I'm not talking, but what it shows him is how to grab the transcript. So I could have explained this. But instead, I'm showing him. I mean, if you're like me, and I mean, even these one-hour webinars, I know it's like drinking from a fire hose. So imagine how your assistant might feel if you're like, okay, this is protected health information. And what you're gonna do, you're gonna answer the phone, you're gonna triage the client, you're gonna ask them five questions, but start with scheduled before you get to days of the week. I mean, right, but imagine if you could create step by step, even if you did just the old school way and wrote it down and scheduled a meeting, Zoom, you know, whatever, and just that one task, and then you could check in and watch them, you know, watch it because the virtual assistant, it takes time. This is not a fast process. On the flip, if you're hiring for something like bookkeeping, yes, you should hire a VA skilled in that skill, right? Don't teach someone how to do bookkeeping, right? Don't hire someone and teach them how to do graphic design or how to use Canva. You're gonna hire somebody who already has the skill set for that. All right. So any questions about what I just showed you, or what is it SOP, or what does it mean to break down a task? There. And I'm gonna put Irvin's information into your profile, same place where your certificate is. So you can email him if you're interested in reaching out, he would love that. And as I mentioned before, he also uh hires VAs to work for him. And he's a pretty, from what he he describes, he's a very meticulous boss. He makes sure that his VAs do good work as well. But let's let's use the last few minutes to ask questions. Are what's what's still kind of confusing for you, or what questions or worries do you have? I think the biggest mistake I've ever made with a VA is not breaking down a task enough. You know, like if they said, Oh yeah, I'm I'm great at designing Canva covers for social media. And I'm like, great, give me three for the next three weeks. And then they give them to me and I'm like, oh, these are these aren't good. Well, did I tell them what colors to use? Did I tell them I only wanted four words? I didn't want a paragraph. Did I tell them I wanted this picture of me and not this picture of me? Right. So a lot of what comes back to you is exactly what you didn't say, right? So these SOPs, they're important. And thinking about the output, and it's okay if you don't know what Canva you don't want to use. I go into Canva and I'm like, oh, too much information. So I don't, I'm not real picky about what someone gives me for a Canva product. I just want it spelled right. Um, but I know uh a lot of folks they they get a little bent out of shape if if their blogs or their transcripts come back and it doesn't sound like them. I I'm okay if it doesn't sound like me, right? I'm more interested in getting the information out because we're very consistent at Kate Walker Training. We get these things out, episodes out every week. We get the trainings out once a month. So really think about the product. What's the outcome? Right? If you're thinking about hiring someone to answer client phone calls, what's the outcome? Well, you want booked sessions and you want happy clients, right? So you would teach customer service, you would teach HIPAA, you would teach uh the 10-minute consultation script that the step it up members, you guys have that in your profile and you know how to answer the phone so that this person will book their first session. You don't have to use a Trello board, you don't have to use WhatsApp. Uh, but if your projects are going to be bigger, like if you're writing a book or um you are developing a marketing plan for the entire year and you want to develop content, yeah, then you might want to get some sort of a board or some sort of an organizational system. And of course, the ethics we talked about, you know, if you're worried about passwords, you want to use something like LastPass, uh, until you get to know someone like Irvin and I, we were in Upwork. We did not take our business out of Upwork until I was certain that I could trust him. But again, I don't give anybody the keys to the kingdom. I mean, my husband's the only one that has all my passwords. So absolutely be prudent about what you share, right? Someone doesn't have to have all your passwords in order to, you know, answer the phone or answer your emails or even manage your calendar.