EPISODE #14 - SHE LOVES TO PLAN | OUTSOURCING with LINDSEY FAIRHURST

In today's episode, I am so happy to welcome Lindsey Fairhurst a super-skilled Virtual Assistant.  She lives in Dubai and work as a VA and also runs a hugely successful Academy for trainee VA's.

Her background was as a PA and Executive assistant for Johnson and Johnson for 20 years before she moved into the virtual space when she moved to Dubai 6 years ago.

After being made redundant from J&J, Lindsey decided to recreate her role as a Virtual Assistant and bring all her skills and knowledge to the online space.  It enabled her to work from anywhere and work at her own pace allowing her to work and enjoy the ex-pat life of Dubai.

Lindsey talks about how she now helps support other people in their business and is the unsung hero behind the scenes. She covers diary management, admin, email management, customer service, scheduling social media and so much more. As a VA things have changed a lot in the online world and Lindsey loves adapting.

Today Lindsey talks about her VA academy and how she teaches others to take on this incredible role.

We talk about the cost of a VA and how it can balance out and is it worth having a VA in your business. By outsourcing some things it will enable you to work on another income-generating project or time with family. Sometimes you can't put a price on this.

You can find out more from Lindsey either as a VA for yourself or you can join the Academy here:-
http://www.lindseyfairhurst.com/virtual-assistant/
www.instagram.com/thevirtual_assistant
https://www.facebook.com/lindseyannfairhurst

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 0:17

I am so excited to welcome. Today's guest to the sheet, loves to plan podcast. In today's episode, we are talking about outsourcing, you know what it's like, we're always told to plan when it comes to business, because when we plan, we have a structure and we have a focus, but sometimes those plans can run away with us, especially at really, really crucial times in our business. It's not unusual to feel that we can't cope. So what do we do about it? Well, today's guest is the unsung hero of behind the scenes in a business. She was a PA for 19 years before becoming a virtual assistant. She lives a fabulous life in the desert that is Dubai and runs a hugely successful academy for training virtual assistants. She is what I like to call the Mary Poppins of the business world, and it gives me great pleasure to welcome a founder of the virtual assistant and co and also founder of the VA academy. Live Lindsey fair Hurst and Lindsey, and welcome, welcome. Welcome to she loves to plan podcast. I'm really excited to have you here today. So Lindsay, tell us, what do you do? Um, what is a virtual assistant? What is this all about in the online business world?

Speaker 3: 1:42

Uh, hello money. It is amazing to be here today. Thank you for that fantastic introduction. I'm actually beaming from ear to ear Mary Poppins. I love that

Speaker 2: 1:53

You are, you're the one that kind of sweeps up behind all of us and makes us all look beautiful.

Speaker 3: 1:59

Yeah. And I think obviously, like you touched on there that I've been a PA for many years, a PA and an executive assistant, and I've been my whole career. Um, I think two years now that's coming up 20 years. So it's just like a real journey and effectively that's all where it just sort of starts start off. Um, you know, we are the ones behind the scenes. We are the ones dealing with the day-to-day business operations, the business administration, um, you know, doing all the ad hoc jobs for, for somebody. So for example, you know, I started off working for the managing director back in 2000 and oh gosh, 2002, and I was doing really basic admin. And then I became a PA and I started my career and started to learn a lot more about, you know, what it takes to be someone's support and that day-to-day mechanism in, in someone's business. And I think really important job. And I think it's really good for me to sort of touch on that because I forged that man as a career besides doing the completeness of the wedding planner, which again was an amazing fit yet.

Speaker 2: 3:04

Not the super organized job. Of course,

Speaker 3: 3:08

I think I dealt with around, I would say the two year period, I must've turned over around a hundred weddings. Wow. And so did a lot of grinds to manage. And so again, people management comes highly high on my

Speaker 2: 3:23

Practice, you know, it's the same thing.

Speaker 3: 3:26

Yeah. So yes, I've been a PA is a great way and it's like, you just explain it to, you know, you know, the Mary Poppins of the world. So going away and making sure things are done behind the scenes and, you know, being that silent partner behind the scenes for many people, because it takes a lot when someone is, um, you know, in a corporate world or in the online world as an entrepreneur. And I have transitioned across from corporate in the years, um, you know, people do need someone there to help with that. Whether it's a small job by race and event planning, whether it's, um, diary management, email management, you know, being that person who filters the calls, you're not Nope, sorry that person's not available. You know, being the gatekeeper pack that has been my job for many, many years when I was in corporate. Um, and for me, the virtual PA cane came along, um, after it, after we moved over to Dubai. So actually touched on, you know, I've been in Dubai now clean up 16 years before I needed to find relief in place called[inaudible], which is one pitcher in the UK. And I had a great job on this in my job that I was working for Johnson and Johnson. I've been supporting, uh, a general manager and her leadership team for five and a half years. And then we then decided we were moving to Dubai. So, you know, I was leading the lunch behind. I was leading our friends behind, um, house. We sold our cars, we sold all off in insurance. We'll call life savings and, you know, hopped on a flight to Dubai as you do so

Speaker 2: 4:59

Brave. So it's amazing.

Speaker 3: 5:03

It's the hardest thing we've ever had to do. And definitely character building and resilience have come off the back of that. It's changed me as a person

Speaker 2: 5:11

And you left your career behind, you know, so you, you had something for yourself when you got there, didn't you?

Speaker 3: 5:18

Fortunately, fortunately I did have some things in the pipeline, um, and J and J gave me a transfer. So I went from being a PA in the UK J and J office to the Dubai office or even, so there was still a whole recruitment process around that because I had no local experience. So my career in Dubai sort of then started from scratch, still doing the same jobs, supporting a different team, having to board jug, new relationships, having to work in a different country when some different cultures. And so again, similar job transitioning to a different country. Um, and realistically that was one of the hardest things we'd ever had to do, but the ex-pat life is, is an amazing life. You know, we are so honored to be on the beaches. We've got a great life here for it. Um, and it's, it's a fun place to live. So there's absolutely no complaints. However, this really links into why I want to become a virtual PA. I got to a point where I was made. We don't do it. Jane Jay, I then went straight into another job, thought it was going to be the amazing until I could fix this person's world being a stupid PA that lasted 12 weeks. And I walked out and then had no job. I had no income. Um, I was just lost. I wanted to go home. They put a lot of pressure on my relationship with my husband. He was financially supporting us. He was at the same time building a business. And I just thought you has got to be something else has got to be a job that I can do where I can do what I'm passionate about and work in Dubai and also allow me to travel. So I was part of a mastermind and I joined the mastermind at the time of two amazing ladies. And they talked to me through becoming a virtual PA. I'd never heard of it. So this was my, you know, four or five years ago, and I'd never heard of being a virtual PA. So I started to research it and look into it. And that is where the VA was born. The virtual assistant and co was born.

Speaker 2: 7:23

I don't think, um, I D I mean, I've, I've been in the online world now probably about eight years, but I think you're right. I think the whole need for a virtual assistant, even though people probably may have been there by bringing in teams of people to help them. I don't think that actual term was bandied about, was it quite as much as it is certainly now, now it's just a thing that if you work in the online world, you know, what a VA is, might not know what they do and how they can help you and all the things that you know, we're going to touch on in this episode, but it's certainly become something quite popular, I suppose, in the last five years. Definitely.

Speaker 3: 8:09

Yeah, I think it definitely, it has definitely grown in the last five years when I first started looking at it in 2017, I was very much like this is the future. This is the future. This is where I need to be. This is exactly what I need to be doing. I'm taking Washington for night. Well, at the time, it wasn't known to me is about taking what off my career. And I am effectively still going to be doing that. What the difference is, I'm not going to be employed. I will be self-employed and I need to find the clients. So it's my responsibility to find the clients, to support them, to retain them, to work with them. And also, you know, one of the biggest changes was, is, you know, I like to, I like to build the relationships and, you know, be genuine and I can support the right person. I will, if I can't support that person, I'll find someone who can't, there's also the element of that sort of transition of, you know, sharing the workload with other people. I'm not an expert in everything. You know, I know what I can facilitate. I know where I can support someone. I know my strengths, but I am not a graphic designer. So I would find that person, someone who can give them that I think design project deal with it. I'm not, um, I'm not well at the beginning of my MBA journey, I wasn't very tech savvy. So I'd never think of lead pages, sales pages, pornos, lead magnets, and things like that. So when I had a client ask me those things, I would say, it's not me, but let me help you find someone. And I would then find them someone and connect them, obviously four years on. Now, my VA skills have changed and I am now very tech focused and I can build sales pages and lead magnets. I'm currently on a spinels training course as well, because I over time sort of fallen into that area. And that's an area when I first started my VA journey, I was very general. I was a very general VA and there's different areas. And this is one of the things that I sort of looked at at the beginning. I didn't niche. I wasn't in a specific area. I was a general VII, wore many camps. And I thought, that's the service that I need to provide from the beginning,

Speaker 2: 10:24

The online world wasn't as sophisticated then as it is now funnels. Weren't a thing, you know? Um, and just for the listeners out there that don't know what a funnel is. It's, um, essentially if you think of a funnel that you put in into a cup or anything like that, it starts out wide at the top. And it's bringing in, uh, a selection of audience and gradually narrowing them down, who is interested in your products and services. And you can do that by ways of advertising and, uh, social media posts and, uh, what we call landing pages to, you know, th th it's it's quite a complex thing, but it w it wasn't something that we, it was very talked about, was it certainly five years ago? So when you say you were general, that was probably what was needed at the time,

Speaker 3: 11:15

100%. And I completely still feel the need for general visuals. And obviously, like when we talk on general and I, since set up an academy, we've had an ISL, the virtual assistant academy, and we had our first cohort start in April this year. And they are all now just launching, which is amazing. Now, most of the ladies in navigating my general VA, so that when I'm talking about general, they can do help with business growth and development. So create in Nicole's coaster service, data entry, date, diary, management, inbox, detox inbox file manager, because

Speaker 2: 11:51

We all need

Speaker 3: 11:55

High up at the other service. When I first started and sort of in an inbox audit to put a file management system in place for somebody, um, you know, customer service is a huge one for people in the online world. And I do this for one of my current clients. And basically it's the best thing that she did for me was giving me my own inbox. She created my own outlook attached to their outlook, and my give me my own email address. And every day I go in and check and any invoicing queries, payment queries, I can't get access to the online portal. I need to log in and I want to come to my subscription. It all comes through to me. Now, I deal with

Speaker 2: 12:35

It, nice cleanly, efficiently

Speaker 3: 12:38

Responsive. My out of office is only if I'm out of office. My client knows when I'm, if I'm sort of out of the office as such, which, you know, I do generally work in nine till five sort of day. Um, she can come onto in a moment, but that customer service piece is absolutely key. And this is one of the things that I have done. I'm planning an extension training for the ladies. Who've been in my recent VA academy because in the online world at the moment, there are so many people who are launching these businesses. They are using specific platforms. For example,[inaudible], they're having things done for them. They're launching a program and they've got no idea then of how to deal with the customer service. Cause they don't understand the product. They don't understand the system. So to me, there's a huge opportunity there for virtual assistants to really, you know, take that on as a customer service piece. Um, so that's something that I'm sort of rolling out as an extension to the ladies in my academy to teach them around some of the customer service that you can do online. And me, myself, you know, we are growing, we happen to do academy launching in October

Speaker 2: 13:46

Academy. Your academy is for teaching late. Is it like

Speaker 3: 13:52

The first Qubole the VA academy? Um, first cohort has all been leaders. Again, we are open to men as well. And the VA academy is that to support people on a 12 week journey to teach them each week a different learning about setting up an online business as a virtual assistant. So we cover things like learning your skillset or understanding your student. He says, create in an online portfolio, pricing your services correctly, branding your business because we all know, I mean, we love money. We love our brands. I love it is the brand is everything. And I think that sometimes is missed the missed so much, you know, and people like to see, well, if that's how she presents herself, then sets a really good example of how she can represent me. Um, you know, being a PA for all them years, you all the representation of that person. You, you you're the you'll decide this and you're the go-to person that people come to you before they get to that manager. That was what my sort of learnings were throughout my career. I, you know, people would not speak to my managing director at the beginning of the beginning of the Creek. Cause obviously I was still learning, but in my most recent contract, I did a six month contract for somebody here in Dubai. Um, great contract, great company, um, six months that turned into eight months. Um, it was pretty much full time and it wasn't a corporate still had a couple of VA clients as well, but that was an amazing job. He literally was black and white do's and don'ts everyone came to me. He would not speak to anyone until they came through me. And we had a valid reason of why it was going in his diary. You know, from that side, I've not operated as a VA in that, to that capacity booked the whole customer service, being personal, being that touch point, being reliable, um, you know, reach out to Lindsey. That's what one of my clients, she said, oh, you know, any questions we'll be canceling the, on this email address saves, uh, how was a week? I was, you know, I mean, I check in every day, two or three times a day on my email account. Sometimes it's empty. Sometimes it's five to six emails that client is going into launch mode again and towards the end of the year. So I know for a fact that that then will increase. And when we launch her new course, we will then be, um, the inbox or fill because, so again, it's just about being able to manage that on behalf of the client. So the customer service side is really important and also preparing presentations PowerPoint. I've done that for clients creating on canvas and updating on LinkedIn, scheduling posts, social media, using, um, buffer, creating someone's online presence and allowing it to be consistent is the right word.

Speaker 2: 16:56

But cause when you, you know, we know in any kind of online business that you have matter what it is, you know, social media now is absolutely integral. And I know from speaking to people and helping people, what I do plan their social media, finding time to, you know, write their content, um, helping people to prepare that so that they can have a constant, consistent presence is really, really important. Um, but sometimes it can be very overwhelming for people, especially I think, especially when you're new in business, you know, and I said this actually on a previous episode before that you, um, when you, when you start out in business, you wear all the hats, you are the PR person, you are the accounts, you are, um, the social media manager, you're the marketing, you're the designer, you do everything. So it can be extremely overwhelming. So to find somebody that can really help you and maybe taking a little bit of that pressure away is so valuable to somebody's business. But I don't think a lot of people know that that service really exists. Um, and certainly I know, again, from talking to people, one of the things that people might find tricky is like, hang on a minute. Well, how I'm new in business. So is this going to cost me a lot of money? And I really want to talk to you about that because sometimes the value of the services and, you know, listening to you talk about all those things that you do. I mean, you're superwoman, you know, what super woman to somebody's business because you know this stuff and we can't, you know, when you want to be in your business, you can't be all of those things might get put off by the cost. So I'd love you to talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 3: 18:56

Yeah. Irritable. I think one of the important things there is, if anyone's listening in, they are considering hiring, hiring a VA and you've not had a VA before. Some of the top tests would be is to, first of all, look at what you do in your business that you don't like doing some, how can we find someone to do that? Something that teaches so much time. So obviously it really great from you. So again, you'll, you lose passion, but you keep putting it to the bottom of your list. So can we find someone to do that for you? And then one of the other things is, is, you know, thinking about how much time do you spend doing things that you know that, oh, not really lighting you are providing value. Can you find someone to do that as well? Um, so those are some of the texts and one of the things would be is. And again, this is not a question I asked at the beginning of my bag and you, when I was starting to have calls with people with potential clients, but then over time I realized is that, you know, it's important for me to ask as a BA, if you were to outsource 10 hours a month, what would you do with that time? So of course there's going to be a cost attached to that. So an example I can give you was, I've already touched on the customer service side. So the question said is that I look after for one of my clients is typically around 10 hours a month. Someone's sick a lot more. Sometimes it might be a slightly less that 10 hours means that that client comes focused on strategy and building a business because she knows that customers are being looked after and effectively that's costing her. Let's say for example, 25 pounds an hour to 10 hours, 250 pounds, the client would pay me 250 pounds to look after that customer service piece. Now, how can the clients monitor that? Well, we can see from an inbox and we can have like a spreadsheet and a tracker with all the queries that come and keep that up today, everyday, add the Queens to the spreadsheet so that the client can then maybe, actually this is really worth it because look at what the VA is actually doing. Or that was a really quiet month. There wasn't really a lot going on that month, you know, further down the line, the Navy. So again, that peace that client gives me 10 hours a month to look after her customer service. She can focus on getting new business. So it then effectively gives me more people to look after from, and I don't mean customer service, just looking after them from, um, you know, anyone's complaining, this is, uh, keeping in touch with people sending a newsletter out. Um, you know, particularly I have a couple of Facebook groups, questionnaires, feedback, questionnaires, that's all you can do about the inbox. Another example was a lady who, again, why to hire some two, what to outsource for 10 hours. Can't remember what she gave him. Might have been some social media scheduling and posting. So she had me for 10 hours for the moment. I'm going again on Saturday, you know, with this 10 hours, what is this going to give you, mom, what are you, what would you like to do with that time? And she said, I'm going to take a day off and spend it with my kids. Wow, invaluable. Now. So for her, that was pretty much every Thursday. So she was not going to be earning on that day because effectively she was not going to be working because she's going to be spending it with the kids. But she valued that time with the children because they were only small and she thought 250 pounds to outsource 10 hours to Lindsey because she, what she did was then she worked every day of the week. So she then put a block in her diary for the Thursday, moved all the Thursday, work onto other days, talk 10 hours with this department. A diary will stick to me to do.

Speaker 2: 22:39

And that's amazing because especially, I think sort of, um, many, many people go into work certainly in the online space so that they can be a homes. Many, many are mums, two young children. You know, it's a very common theme, isn't it? That you see many are mums and you think, how can I, you know, I want to work around my children. I don't, I don't want to be going out to the office every day. I want to work from home. But what I find is that many get lost in that, that they're so busy working. They forget that the reason that they went into work for themselves in the first place. So we know that that lady did that is so, so powerful, but she took the time off and you can't, but I don't think you can put a monetary value on that. You know, there, there isn't any, it's just, it's, it's important. It's amazing.

Speaker 3: 23:33

Especially when you have your own business, because you know, it's nonstop. It's like, you know, my husband's got his own business and I've got my own business. I literally, you know, we're in downtime at Lulu because we are not generally quiet in July and August, but once it gets to September, we're not passing ships amongst because it's just so busy for him as well. So, you know, you have to have that scheduled time in, and obviously she chose it for our children. Um, and again, it was amazing. And like you said, you can't put a price on time with your family, especially when the kids are little because they need that. Nutrient is so important, isn't it? So, so that's like another example. And then another one, which is, this is again a completely different spin on it. So one lady came to me and she was looking for the support. She didn't know what she needed. She spent a lot of time on social media. So she outsourced her schedule in for her Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. So again, posts, Sheba, old content. She delivered it to me. I would go in and schedule it all. And then there was people, the little bits and things in there as well. So she did 10 hours. So again, answer to, you know, what effectively do you want to do with the time that you're going to get back? And she said, well, I decided that I want to run a one to one program. Um, and so I will have 10 hours available in my diary to take on one-to-one clients. Now she basically charged 129 pound for the one-to-one session. So she did 10 months and 1,250 pound paid me 250 and ended up with a profit of a thousand.

Speaker 2: 25:07

So it saves her it's saved her money. Plus she, hasn't got to worry about forgetting, you know, oh God, I didn't post today. Oh, I'm not showing up online. She could probably have spent one day writing out the copy for the month of her social media, hands out over to you. And job's done allowing

Speaker 3: 25:29

Yeah, she earned, she gained by a thousand pounds and she gained by a thousand pounds. So it was a really positive thing for her. That's just another way of looking at it because like you say, you know, people see, well, you know, can I afford to bring somebody else in? But the question is, is can you afford not to got a strategy around it? And if you've got starts, you, I have to put some money into my business for 10 hours a month. And I know August what the project's going to be September. It's a different project. And then October there'll be the support with the VA academy launch. So I know every month what the person's going to be doing. So it's a value to me because I know once I've sort of given her the support and the training and what needs to be done this month, this is our month of the project. She can go away and work on it and it frees me up. I know that's going to get done and it's building to a bigger picture. So I think it's always good. When you're looking to hire someone, it needs to ask the questions to yourself. Like, why do I need to hire someone in, what do I not like doing what doesn't like me? Or what can I pass out? That takes me so long. And also, you know, the monetary value put on that value on your own time. So I know what my times with, so if I was sit for a day and, and do it, you know, 10 hours, one to ones with teaching VA's oh, aspiring MBAs. I know what income that could bring me, but what could I pass out? Just someone to do over 10 hours? What would that cost me? You know? So it's understanding your own value as well. And also for people that have the vision for that business to grow you, again, comes back to what you said. We're having all the camps. We all let camps where HR we're finance. We do our accountants, we have to do invoicing. We do our social media. We do. It's just so much. So if that can be broken down and you can look at what can sound makes our life easier, then it just gives you that little bit more clarity.

Speaker 2: 27:30

Absolutely. It gives you the space to think that's, you know, I think that is crucial when it comes to outsourcing anything. I just, I'm just moving away from the specifics of a VA or just talking about outsourcing in general. I think there's probably lots of areas in our, in our life in general that we can outsource isn't there. I mean, I know for me, it is not just in business because sometimes, you know, again, thinking about that space that we need, that comes down to our home lives as well. And I, you know, for example, I hate cleaning. I'm not gonna, you know, I hate it. Um, so I will outsource that. So I don't know about you. Is there any other areas that you will outsource in your life business?

Speaker 3: 28:23

Yeah, we tend to. So from a business perspective and I have a VA and then I have a graphic designer, so I specifically work with someone who specialized in graphic design and I help you say a VA as well. So that helps me with the business, but then in life as well. So we've got like an accountant. So then I will send the accountants is always great, quite a bit as well. But then from a life perspective, we have a cleaner. So we have a cleaning company that comes in once a week, once every week or every two week, depending on how we're feeling. And just obviously helps us just look after the house. We have a gardener that comes in to maintain garden because obviously with it being really hot and we've got full of lots of greenery. So we have a little bit

Speaker 2: 29:10

Of help with that all day when we need

Speaker 3: 29:13

To water it today, it's on my job list to do today. Um, so I need to do that, but like just obviously the plump side of it, we have someone can look after that. We have, um, dry cleaning picked up once or twice a week and all day, but they didn't sheets and things like that. So all that gets taken care of. So it's like these little things are things we don't need to think about it. I'm um, my pattern is shifting slightly as we move into the middle of August. So I've considered, and this sounds real, it sounds passionate about it. Actually. It's considered getting a driver because I potentially will be do you mean a lot of meetings and working away from the office on a big project? So until I actually get into that sort of project, I don't know what it looks like, but I'm thinking, you know, we've only got one car at the moment, so my husband's going to need to call and I'm going to need the call. So we need to marry our schedules with which is not going to work because he's out and about in an evening. So I've currently looking at, if I hired a driver for the month, what that looks like. So I would get picked up, probably get taken to the office and then take it to meetings throughout the day. Now Dubai traffic is absolutely amazing. So I'm not saying this because it's quite a, I'm saying this from a time perspective, if I'm traveling, but Hey,

Speaker 2: 30:30

You don't want to be broken in that. Hey, do you want to be

Speaker 3: 30:32

Walking? Don't want to be relying on taxes because you know, I have to wait on a quarter in the sweating heat, so you're getting a taxi. So it's not a glamorous thing. It's more from a time perspective because if I'm in a car, I can still be braking. So if I'm, you know, it'll take me potentially 45 minutes to go to the main office, it could then take me half an hour to drive down to downtown an hour, an hour home because of the traffic times, you know? So on those days where I am out of my home office, what does that actually look like? So again, not theoretically outsourcing, I think, but it's looking at where can I say time, time, once the post is going to be and how, how, you know, is it going to be more productive and cost effective? Um, so again, so that's nice. They basically just try to make,

Speaker 2: 31:25

I get a super glam card. I don't want to see pictures of you drinking champagne, your

Speaker 3: 31:37

Yeah. The Starbucks coffee in a new bag,

Speaker 2: 31:42

But you know, it is true. So we have got to think about every single element and how we use our time. And essentially that is what this all comes down to is how we utilize our time. And, you know, when we look at our business and we look at our personal life overall, it is it's pulling all of those elements in and going, right. What do I leave? What, what do I like? What do I not like? And you know, all those things that you said. So, um, just before we wrap this up, because it's been, it's been a pleasure and I could absolutely talk to you about this so much, cause I absolutely love it. But tell us a little bit, I know we sort of touched on it, but you've got the academy. Your academy is launching in a few weeks. Um, this is for aspiring VA's, isn't it, which I think is a fabulous role for somebody that might be to start their own business from home. So tell us a bit about the candidate,

Speaker 3: 32:44

Um, for those that want to sort of start from home and work around the kids have that flexibility. And I suppose know that as an income, you know, you work for an hour, you get paid for the hour, you work for half an hour, you get paid at the half an hour. So the income is like a guaranteed income because obviously you be contracting, some, someone will be contracting you in. So again, it's about obviously someone looking to outsource, but the persons who is the BA, you know, they are obviously looking for clients to work with as well. And I think the reason the academy came about is because I, I like to share what I know. And I really think that I've got so much experience and knowledge from my career history. It's silly for me to keep it all to myself and not share with other people and teach other people what I know and how to, you know, earn an income from becoming a virtual assistant. Um, and also the another reason the academy came up was because over the years, four years, you know, there's been times where I've been fully booked. There's been times where I only had a couple of clients due to my choice, like for, at the moment last four weeks, I've only been looking to two clients, maybe three, but one of them I'm still finishing, working with, again, it's a positive thing for both of us. Um, and it's a great thing. Her business has grown that she's taken on two VA's in the UK because that's what she needed for her business. Um, but I think one of the reasons why I want to D companies is because I needed to create Mullins is I, I have had a lot of requests. Um, I caught weight within any, everyone, as much as I'm once a week with everyone and be everything to everyone, I just can't do that. And it's not, it's just not right. It's just not easy. And I just want, you know, we need to multiply what I do. So collectively a group of us comes to more people and look after more people. So when we started, when I started thinking about this a couple years ago, um, it was about creating a training program. What does that training program look like? What's the foundation pieces that people need to learn, you know, wanting to sound good and go skillset, how to price your services, um, creating yourself a brand, setting up your social media, finding clients, you know, having discovery calls with clients, you know, how to invoice contracts, legal finances around the business, you know, having a financial projection understanding in each month, what you're going to do and where's that money gonna come from? How many clients do you need to give you what you need into your family plot, et cetera. So there's so much in the academy that I teach and we've had some amazing guest speakers in the academy as well, which is great because it's, you know, I've been able to use the professionals in my, um, to support that as well. Because again, I know why I know, but I'm not an expert in absolutely everything. So the academy for me is a way of me being able to still say to people, yes, we can help you. This person is perfect for you. And I would refer a client onto one of the VA's that has been in our academy and successful is acting

Speaker 2: 36:01

As an agent as well. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 36:05

And there is a, there's a business model there with that. Um, I there's a business model there that is that I'm not there with that one yet, but there is, and it is fantastic. But for me, it is more about the sort of the teaching and the training, um, you know, giving the people the confidence, you know, because I had joined a mastermind at the beginning when I started at VA, but that was completely business and starting a business and find in a business I wanted to create it. Wasn't a specific VA how to be a VA course. It wasn't a specific, this is how you set up a business course. So I made so many mistakes. I troll the internet. I jumped from Facebook group to Facebook group. I downloaded a million freebies and did nothing with it. I wasted so much time. So for me, the academy is very time bound. We were two different schedule every week. There is homework and there's support. There is question and answer time. There is online training portal, there's access to the academy, you know, for the foreseeable future. So that if you take two weeks holiday, you can capture, or there's a launch program as well. We focus on launching the do's and the don'ts have to reach out to your network. So it's been described, it has been described as so many amazing words. I like, I can't think of what the ladies have said, but, um, I'm looking forward to sort of getting all their feedback next week to be able to sort of share some of that online because they are going into launch mode. Now they are putting their brands out there. We've shown them how to create a brand. There's a DIY, um, element as well for them a done for you service, where we create the website for them. We create a brand in their logos and pull it all together. So obviously my graphic designer steps in, um, and she's calling on from concept two to three and she steps in and supports the whole brand side and creates the logos and brings that vision to life. So for me, you know, there's, there's nothing on the market like that, you know, and I'm really passionate that we have created something that is a bit different. And also I am the, we can, we count teaching. So that's why, that's why it's called the VA academy live because I, um, they're holding

Speaker 2: 38:26

And the wealth of your experience. And then on-page, and I mean, it's, it's amazing. I think, uh, you know, I know a little about your academy, um, anyway, prior to this, but I just think for anybody out there aspiring to do this or looking for something a little bit different, you know, I just think it's an amazing career. And as we've talked about the need for, for virtual assistants and just outsourcing in general, to help you organize to help you plan your businesses more effectively is growing by the day. So how can anybody find you if they want to find out a little bit more about you and the academy? Yeah.

Speaker 3: 39:04

So they can find me, I've got website, um, www dot Lindsey, fair hearst.com. And there's quite a little bit of information about me on that. I am also accessible on Facebook, LinkedIn for Hearst, and my Instagram is the virtual assistant. So our Instagram handle is there. And I can share that with you, um, all the information around how hiring a VA, um, is on the website. And then also there's information around the academy on there as well. Um, some top tips and we have some really exciting things coming along as well. So something new coming out in September.

Speaker 2: 39:39

This is very exciting. I can't wait to hear all about it, Lindsay first, thank you so much for joining me today on the sheet loves podcast. Um, can't wait, thank you.

Speaker 1: 40:09

[inaudible].