Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast. My name is Melanie.
Oh, and I'm Esther
Glad you remembered. And today I'm going to be speaking with Esther and a good friend Barbara Edwards, who are going to be starting a new service called the Superstar VA.Com. But first, this. We know how hard it is to juggle all the things in your business, accounts, meetings, the never ending inbox. That's why we've teamed up with Agorapulse to give more than five hours back a week. When it comes to managing your social media marketing, no more complicated Excel Docs, long emails or millions of open tabs, although I have currently several hundred here, simply manage all of your social media channels in one place. Go to www.agorapulse.com/Monday morning marketing to get one month's free. Now all you need to do is figure out how you want to spend those five hours possibly with a virtual assistant. So first up, Barbara, let me pick on you because you look more vulnerable at the moment. So. So what made you think of the Superstar VA?
Good morning, Melanie, and thank you so much. And I tell you, I was actually in conversation with somebody in the States and they wanted me to do some training for them. And they run an agency with some with a few VA's. And as our conversation developed and I was trying to nail down on the training and pinpoint different things, I realised that there was a massive skills shortage within their group. So we developed the training around that. And when I left that conversation, then it was kind of playing on my mind that it's really only in the last few years that the world of the VA has really come to the fore. And I suppose this year, 2020 big time, because a lot of people at home, a lot of people now out of work. And I was rummaging through my mind, as I do, how and what could I do? So even with my mark, between my marketing background, my teaching background and coaching, I kind of said right well, I put some trainings together, so I would say it was probably about 11 p.m. midnight, usually when those ideas kind of come to your head and I got on to Esther and I said, guess what? I have an idea.
And I always know what Barbara has an idea. It means that I turn into tech support
And that's how the Superstar VA was born.
So what kind of skills are you going to be helping people with? What's the skill set going, Esther?
There are so many that VA needs, but not every VA meets every single one of them. So you have your general time management, you have your bookkeeping skills. I mean, for yourself, for a VA to be able to send out invoices for a client and to be able to do different bank reconciliations for a client and building up a contract and how to hire a VA should start. Basically, that'll be our starting point. How to start off as a VA, what you need to have in place before somebody can hire you as your VA. And that will include being self-employed, registering with your local government agency to be self-employed. It'll all starting from the most basic all the way through managing social media, managing client calls, managing a diary. It's a lot about how to help other people in your VA journey.
And so is this something that you've been formulating with Barbara or are you just, as you say, tech support, or are you also combining efforts mentally as well?
Yeah, we're combining efforts mentally, and I'll be given some of the courses as well when it comes to especially Web design and setting up a website for yourself, running your social media, running other people's social media, basic stuff, because it's just to get people started, you know, because when somebody says, oh, "I'm a VA" what does that actually mean?
And that was part of our conversation, you know, because VA from PA, as we would have understood it a few years ago, was, you know, and you could walk to somebody in their office beside you and say, oh, can you do this? Can you do that? A research from the Economic and the World Economic Forum, they recently showed that employers now want a ninety six percent of them want their staff to be learning constantly as they are going through their work process. Now, two years ago, that figure was about between 60 and sixty four percent. So in this two year period, employers want and start to be learning on the go. And whether that staff member, new staff in inverted commas, because the VA is off site and they can be anywhere in the world, they still want to know that they are keeping their skills up to date. Thus, you know, I mean, technology is moving so fast. Systems are moving so fast, platforms are moving so fast that they are constantly updating and they know what way their market is working. And they know especially as Esther was saying, their social media, you know, and even analytics. Can you read the analytics? You know, if the ad is working for your client, who you're working for, you're taking the contract on for, have you taken on a contract that is maybe too big for you and now you're lost half way through it and you don't know how to manage what else is coming up? These are all the kind of things.
Certainly a really good question. Barbara, do you help people understand how to work as a contract VA as well?
Yes, we are, and we will help you be a VA and also help the businesses that want to hire a VA, know how to outsource. This is one of the things that even Barbara noticed this herself recently when we hired a VA and she had an awful time letting go. She couldn't let go. It was one of these. But but what can I ask her to do? What can I do? And it was also through that process that we're able to build these courses more robustly as well. And because it comes from personal experience as well, I mean,
nice to see her on both sides. Sorry Esther for jumping in on, you know,
No, you're grand, here in IPA group. We've always had offsite workers. But they've not always been called Va's because they have one specific skill set, the graphic, you wouldn't ask the graphic designer to go and, you know, write a word document or blog about something. So everybody had their skill set. But a VA can incorporate so many more of those skill sets, but not all VA's can do all of them and they shouldn't have to. There are VA's that only specify or only help with bookkeeping or only VA's that can only help with law or VA that can only help with social media.
Well they all have their niches. Don't they? They might have a podcast.
Oh yes, absolutely. And even you know, some might be more comfortable in specific industries as opposed to even just niching down on themselves or some I mean, as Esther said, stay within the theory of law or whatever. They're comfortable working within that sector where they may not be as comfortable, say, working at the pharmaceutical sector because the language is different. So even in that in itself that they can understand from within the courses how each course is going to and help them move because the courses abroad and they will work within any sector. So it's been able to relate what you learn to your own sectors so that you are improving yourself.
OK, so give us an idea of the type of audience that you're targeting and are there different levels of training, so is the only suitable for beginners or will the more advanced VA be able to get something from this, Barbara?
No, it is either. I mean, obviously it is designed there. There are courses there are for the beginner, as we said. I mean, as Esther mentioned earlier, how do you become a VA? So what kind of skills are needed within that or what areas should cover that? What platforms do I use? What do I need? You know, what do you do with Google? What do you do with all of these platforms and how do they work? So from the beginning, right up to those who are saying, "well, you know what, I think maybe now it is time to either read". I did a talk before about using your skillset, just use it differently. So what skills that have you got that you could actually fall into this area of working as a VA? And don't forget that working as a VA, you can be anywhere in the world.
Yeah, exactly, and any age, I mean, this year, especially, a lot of people have become unemployed like Barbara was saying earlier, so they're looking for other ways to get income and that, you know, they're a good place to start would be to upscale, whether you end up being a VA or whether you end up using these new skills in another job. It's, there's no sort of limit that way. And there's no age limit from. Well, like I was saying to our VA, as long as you're still in school, you know, even if you're still in school and you keep up with your studies, do this as well, because then will give you life skills as well for whenever you do finish school, uni, tech, whatever you're in right the way up. I mean, it will be for everybody, men and women.
I mean, I was just going to say, you know, it's not just for women.
It's not gender bias, is it?
No, definitely not.
Now, can kind of VA do this part time or does it have to be a full time?
You know, VA is definitely flexible and. A flexible system. I mean, the thing the beauty, actually, of being a VA is that you can set your own hours and your own workload and how many tasks clients and work that you decide to take on. So somebody might be starting off say, well, you know, I have. I have Friday's free. I just do it on a Friday or I'm free between nine and two, for example. I just do it, on those hours and that's fine. So you might decide then to offer client like, look, I can give you four hours a week, I can give you 10 hours a week. I can do whatever it is completely. And that's the beauty of being self-employed and being able to keep your skillset going. I mean, if you've been let go from work and say you were a supervisor, leader or whatever, it is like that and you still want to keep those skills, you don't want to lose your skillsets. This is a great way, then, of maintaining that and working and keeping it going.
Now, as you say, this is suitable for beginners, Esther. Can you actually help people price what they're doing as well?
Yes, yeah, we can, because then we look into their existing skills, whether they're just starting out. You know, it's it doesn't also whether they are geographically I mean, this is also open to because it's an online course. You can be anywhere in the world and take this course. And based on your geographical location, you could be charging different amounts as well. So, yeah, and we help them, like Barbara was saying, you know, if you only have a Friday, let your client know that you're only available on a Friday because otherwise they'll start messaging you through the week.
Is customer expectations in every respect, isn't it?
Yeah.
I must ask, is the training live or pre-recorded?
A mixture. It will be a mixture of both, and we will have time set aside to say, OK, so for the life training, join us this time or join Barbara or join myself and the rest will then be pre-recorded so you can spend a night whenever you want.
And just talking from Esther's perspective, will this be available in different languages
eventually
It was just going to be English initially.
For now, it'll just be English. Yes, it will, because Melanie knows that I speak Spanish, too. It will be translated and it will be put into Spanish as well.
And for those who understand gibberish, she does that to.
Barbara might even translate it into Irish for us. You never know.
Oh, that's a challenge (Mic drop).
Yes, absolutely is a challenge. And yes, everybody out there listening. There you go,
Melanie and I don't have a clue what...
I don't know.
OK, so you saw a gap. You know how to fill it. When is this going to be made available, Barbara?
We launched in January, however. There is a certain Black Friday coming up soon and where there is 50 percent off and I know Esther has all the information there on that,
yeah, it'll be from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. So that's the Friday through over the weekend, 50 percent off your first course with us. And then after that, we might keep doing a few discounts, but you might just have to pay full price after that. So get in early and buy your course. You can even, will even extend it to your first two courses if you want to. Just if you mentioned the Monday morning marketing podcast will extend it to two courses.
That's a bit of free promotion there in it?.
I'm covering all bases here right now, giving both collaborators happy.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
OK, well, thanks for explaining your new venture. Not that you haven't got enough to do already, Esther. Barbara, I just can't keep up with what you put your things in. It's just insane. But obviously, there is a market for it and it's just a case of reaching the audience now. And so if we wanted to learn more information about it, because obviously people would want to find more information. Where do we look, Barbara?
You can head to the Superstar VA.com and info and sign up. It's all it'll all be there. I'm tripping over my words. That's the Superstar VA.com.
It's insanely early, so I do appreciate what I was struggling. And is there an email list, Esther?
Yes, right there on the superstar VA.com. You'll be able to sign up to our newsletter and we'll be sending that out as soon as possible. Barbara's going, oh yeah. That's another thing on the list at the VA.
Oh, well, thank you so much, ladies, for telling us about your new venture. Best of luck with it. And obviously, if it's anything I can do to help, let me know and come back next week for another exciting instalment of the Monday morning marketing podcast.
Bye, guys.