Building Support: Virtual Assistants, Overload & Smart Hiring

Wayne Herring [00:00:47]:
Hey, business builders. Looking forward to working with you today with Theresa Summerlin.

Theresa Summerlin [00:09:35]: Hello. How are you?

Wayne Herring [00:09:37]: Good. How are you now?

Theresa Summerlin [00:09:38]: I'm doing well. Let me turn my volume up. Yes. New computer is on the way. But this morning, after a lot of IT time yesterday, we just had major issues, which, as I think back, I think my computer is eight years old. So it doesn't surprise me, but it's pretty much saying I'm done. So I apologize. Yeah.

Theresa Summerlin [00:10:07]: So Yeah. What's next?

Wayne Herring [00:10:09]: You get it. Let me no. I had I was good, and now I can't see you. My mouse is drifting. There we go. Okay. Can you see me?

Theresa Summerlin [00:10:27]: I can. Yes.

Wayne Herring [00:10:29]: K. Good. And how's my audio?

Theresa Summerlin [00:10:32]: Audio is good. Now I don't have any fancy audio. Am I doing okay?

Wayne Herring [00:10:37]: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You sound perfect. And your lighting's good. The putting the window shade down really worked.

Theresa Summerlin [00:10:46]: Yeah.

Wayne Herring [00:10:46]: So, so, yeah, Theresa, thanks for for doing this. And it'd be just a little bit little bit different than what you did before. Of course, just you and I having a conversation. A lot of times well, most of the time for the podcast up until now, we've been specifically not interviewing, like, experts or people who are coming with teaching or information. So I haven't had other coaches or consultants, which is pretty typical for a lot of podcasts, but I've just been interviewing business owners and talking about their story of how they they built their business. But, with with you being willing to to come and do this, this is going to be the first of a group of, like, what I'll call, like, trusted advisers, people that I do know that are not, you know, random people that are coming in saying, kinda, be on the podcast, but rather are on a hand selected because, like, in your case, you came and you did, sit around the virtual campfire with us. Mhmm. And so when it I'm I'm we'll we'll do this work, and, I have a sales expert.

Wayne Herring [00:12:05]: Her name is Gretchen, and she had similarly, came and shared her book with us. And so we're gonna do a podcast interview like this. So there'll be a little bit of a series of kinda expert interviews. And when I start, I'm not I mean, it's already recording. Right? But when when we, like, officially start, I'm not gonna give you a big intro because I always come back and do that afterwards. So we'll just start we'll just we'll start talking, we'll start going, and then I'll come back and I'll record you know, this is Teresa Summerlin, and she's with Belay, and, you know, we're glad she joined us in that that kind of thing.

Theresa Summerlin [00:12:43]: So

Wayne Herring [00:12:43]: it seems odd when I start. That's why. It's because I'll come back and rerecord the intro.

Theresa Summerlin [00:12:48]: Okay. So Okay. Are we talking about delegation today? We're talking about what what are we talking about?

Wayne Herring [00:12:53]: With that. I'll help with that momentarily.

Theresa Summerlin [00:12:55]: Yeah. Okay.

Wayne Herring [00:12:58]: So what I wanna ask you when we get started is most of the time when you do, podcasts like this, people say, we don't want you selling yourself. Right? We don't want you selling your company. We just want you to show up and serve. And then if you wanna provide a link or something, that's great. In my case, I would like to start with no. Tell us why people should work with you. Like, why do entrepreneurs why do business builders come and work with BELAY? And what is it that you do? Kind of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of what you do. So I'd like to start there.

Wayne Herring [00:13:35]: And then the second question that I mean, and there may be some questions nested in that part about the five w's and an h's of what you do. But the next thing that that I have on my mind to ask you is I believe that I believe that this is true for you for you without a doubt, and I think it's true of a lot of kind of service first minded people who would be selling their services, where even if even if a business owner chose not to hire you and and belay, they will be better off for just having gone through the process. Right. Right. Going through the sales process, thinking about why do they feel overloaded and all the things we do. So I wanna I wanna ask you about that. I wanna ask you about your about your sales process. And if somebody were to go through that with you, why would they be better off even I mean, of course, you're hoping they do hire you, but if they don't, they they still will be better off for having just done the work.

Wayne Herring [00:14:39]: Does that make sense?

Theresa Summerlin [00:14:40]: Yeah. No. It absolutely does. And having been here for eleven years and most of that time sitting in this seat, I had a lot of conversations. And I've talked to people literally eight years ago that will call me out of the blue. Hey. This is Joe. Remember me? I'm ready to get started.

Theresa Summerlin [00:14:57]: And and I'm like, okay. That's great. I'm looking up Joe because, you know, I talk to 10 people today. So, you know, the biggest, compliment or humbling fact is that not everybody we're just not for everybody. It depends on where you're at in your business. And if I can help prepare you for that time when you are ready for an assistant, that that's my hope. Right? Now the other thing is I get referrals from people who do not sign up with Belay, and that's the humbling thank you that I get. Right? It's it's just to me, that that that speaks volumes.

Theresa Summerlin [00:15:36]: And and that happens all the time because for what reason or another, if we're not a fit, we're just not a fit. You don't wanna force a square peg into a round hole. But that and that's not what we're here to do, but we are a fit for a lot of people. And having done this for a long time, at my gut, you know, I I go by that quite a bit, but I I know who's a fit and who's not.

Wayne Herring [00:15:59]: Sure. So you're right. I I knew you would be. You're ready to answer that. That'll be easy. And then the other thing that I'd I I will ask you something along the lines of what brings just what brings you joy in your work. And, you know, hope hopefully, something along the lines of connecting the the assistance with the people is what I'm thinking.

Theresa Summerlin [00:16:27]: Well, for me personally, I don't I don't that that's not my job. My for me, it's the Okay.

Wayne Herring [00:16:33]: Good to know.

Theresa Summerlin [00:16:34]: Personally. Okay? Now I can tell you that the

Wayne Herring [00:16:36]: company does that.

Theresa Summerlin [00:16:37]: Would would answer that a different way than I would. But for me, it's when the light bulb goes off. When I when I see that the client gets it, that my life can be different, that I'm about to make a decision that's gonna transform my life to some degree. You know, I literally feel like sometimes I'm in that in almost a therapist role when someone comes and they're so overwhelmed, and they they get a they get a glimpse of what can be with a quality person supporting them. That that's where, you know, that that's where my joy comes from. Now years ago, it was probably more like, oh, it the joy came from the contract. Right? It just doesn't it it's it just is not that way anymore. So

Wayne Herring [00:17:23]: Got it. And then the last thing I want to ask you about is can you can you think of changing the name to protect the people, so to speak? Are you able to share a bit of a case study of, like yeah. There's an entrepreneur I worked with, and their name was Sally or Bob, and these are the kind of things that they were struggling with.

Theresa Summerlin [00:17:47]: Mhmm. Can

Wayne Herring [00:17:48]: we do, a little bit of that?

Theresa Summerlin [00:17:51]: Yeah. Yeah. We can. You know, again, I don't I don't get into the weeds with the client, but but I'm the one that, you know, I'm the one that hears the success stories. You know, I I, are you familiar with c and I won't use the name, but are you familiar with c twelve, that that group? C twelve? Okay. So I've got a director or president down in Florida, and he he's he's done a case study for us. But it's because he signed on after having a lot of reservations. Right? He did sign on.

Theresa Summerlin [00:18:24]: It's very successful for him. He has provided with with their membership, he's provided referrals, but at the same time, when I'm talking with somebody that might be a good contact for him, it's a two way like, I provide referrals for him. But I hear him in his case study, you know, when he talks about just it's not just the ROI because he is now, you know, focusing more. He is growing his membership because of the support he's getting. So I do know stories like that. I can't get so much into the weeds in terms of day to day, but just bigger picture is is really what comes back to me. Is that helpful?

Wayne Herring [00:19:06]: Yeah. Can you think of a particular it it so maybe without saying, like, would that be the story? Would that be the person that you'd think about that was most impacted by this change?

Theresa Summerlin [00:19:22]: Okay. Well, I no. I'll say this. When a client comes in and we start working with them, if they're if they're really not sure about this whole thing and where to start, we're going to always suggest email, calendar, time management, meeting prep, meeting follow-up, travel, expense reports.

Wayne Herring [00:19:43]: We're we're we're

Theresa Summerlin [00:19:44]: just gonna suggest that.

Wayne Herring [00:19:46]: Hold on. Let's let's go back to that. I like

Theresa Summerlin [00:19:50]: that. Yep. Yep. Email management. And there's a reason I may have talked about this before, but there's a reason why we suggest that. It's not just because every other, you know, productivity guru, tells you you need to get out of your email. You know? It's because it gives your VA access to your world that otherwise they don't have, and now they're positioned to proactively serve you. So there's a reason why we suggest these things.

Theresa Summerlin [00:20:15]: And and it that coupled with the fact that that does create success. So when you when you're looking for the tactical, like, what am I doing day to day, that is where I'm gonna suggest you start as well as one of our CSCs. Now I hope people push back on that, but that that is technically where you're gonna get the biggest impact the quickest, and you're setting the app to be a true assistant to you.

Wayne Herring [00:20:41]: Email, calendar. Meeting prep, meeting follow-up. Mhmm.

Theresa Summerlin [00:20:48]: Yep. After after calendar, you can put time management. Because time management's a little different. Time time management's for that person that truly needs that they either need to get into time blocking or they they they need somebody that's gonna hold them accountable to what their perfect work week looks like. Right? So that that's more time management versus calendaring. K. Okay. And then, research.

Theresa Summerlin [00:21:16]: Like I said, meeting prep and meeting follow-up. The follow-up is where a lot of my leaders fall short.

Wayne Herring [00:21:22]: No doubt.

Theresa Summerlin [00:21:23]: Yeah. Yeah. And then research because it's a rabbit it can be a rabbit hole for you. Again, we're looking for we're looking overall to get your time back, and these are the things that we see that does that the quickest. If you travel, you know, your your travel I don't know. There's so many leaders that think they're the only ones that can do it. They'll put they'll spend three hours putting an itinerary together, which is absolutely in insane if you ask me. But, you know, there's that's the whole that's the other part of what Belay does, which anybody, whether you use your business coach or or whomever, but really helping you understand delegation.

Theresa Summerlin [00:22:06]: Right? Like, what you should and should should or maybe should not delegate depending on where you're at in your business. But, and then expense reports. You know, if you're doing an expense report or you're tracking on expenses per client, just tracking expenses. Either way. Expense report management or tracking on your expenses.

Wayne Herring [00:22:27]: Okay. Now I'm good. And then the the last thing will be, what would somebody do next and any resources that you would wanna offer?

Theresa Summerlin [00:22:39]: So we do have the delegation toolkit. I can send that to you, or I can send a link to that. Of course, you know, my calendar link, I can send that to you after however you wanna share that. But I can talk about the toolkit. Is that what you're getting at? Or or just the or just the offer of it?

Wayne Herring [00:23:03]: Hey. You can talk about it a little bit. There'll be times. You can talk about it a little bit.

Theresa Summerlin [00:23:06]: Okay. Okay.

Wayne Herring [00:23:07]: I'm I'm pretty good if you are.

Theresa Summerlin [00:23:09]: Yeah. Let me bring up the

Wayne Herring [00:23:11]: I got this, like, framework now.

Theresa Summerlin [00:23:14]: Okay. Let me bring up the the delegation toolkit because I haven't looked at it in a while. So, obviously, I know the matrix and the worksheet is in there. Oh, come on. This is why I'm getting a new computer. Oh, it's not delegation toolkit. It's delegation mastery toolkit. Okay.

Theresa Summerlin [00:23:50]: I got it. I just had to refresh my memory in terms of what was, what's in there. That over. Okay.

Wayne Herring [00:24:03]: It's good?

Theresa Summerlin [00:24:05]: I'm good.

Wayne Herring [00:24:07]: Okay. Alright. Great. So, Teresa, thanks for, joining us and giving your expert advice on the Business Builder Way podcast today. So the first thing I wanna ask you is I and I know it's pretty typical that when people do an interview like this, they say, hey. We don't want you pitching your stuff, but the business builders will benefit from what you have to offer. And so I'd like to go against that a bit and say, tell us about BELAY and the service you provide. If you could give us a little bit of the kinda who, what, where, when, why, and how, that would be great.

Theresa Summerlin [00:24:46]: Sure. Absolutely. My favorite topic. It's one of my favorite topics. Okay. So I I wanna give you a little bit of backstory on BELAY. BELAY is a fourteen year old company. We were started by a husband and wife team, Brian and Shannon Miles.

Theresa Summerlin [00:25:00]: They literally started their family and realized that both of them having separate careers and Brian traveling all over The US and Canada, etcetera, Shannon being a a high level project manager, that it just wasn't conducive to to the way they were working to to raising a family. And so, they talked with their employers, and there really wasn't a good solution. So they literally decided to resign from their jobs, cashed in their four zero one k's on the same day, and started what is now BELAY. Okay? So really, really cool. You know, just fast forward fourteen years, the assistant that Brian had when he was at the the construction company before he quit, her name is Trisha. Trisha is now our CEO.

Wayne Herring [00:25:49]: Okay.

Theresa Summerlin [00:25:49]: Yeah. Yeah. I I call it it's like the lion king, like the circle of life, but she has been with us from the get go, and she she was his assistant and and now is is leading, this team, this organization. And currently, you know, there's, like, a 38 of us on the corporate team and over 2,000 contractors across the country. And we have maintained the virtual model. We've maintained strictly US individuals that we work with. So that I mean, that's just a little bit about the the, you know, the background of BELAY. Personally, I joined, eleven years ago, coming up on twelve years.

Theresa Summerlin [00:26:29]: So I have primarily sat on the business development team, the sales team, but I've I've served in different, different teams as well. That's just a little bit about Belay. Mhmm.

Wayne Herring [00:26:42]: Yep. And and BELAY provides virtual assistants who are US based to entrepreneurs, which we call business builders around here.

Theresa Summerlin [00:26:53]: Okay.

Wayne Herring [00:26:54]: And tell tell us a bit more about, who are these people that are working at BELAY? Who are the who are the entrepreneurs that you serve?

Theresa Summerlin [00:27:05]: Sure. Sure. Yeah. So on the entrepreneurs of the small businesses, that's really the heartbeat of of who we serve, because what we're offering is is a solution for these individuals to work with someone that we have recruited, vetted, tested, assessed. Right? So we've got this great pool of talent, and then we have an entrepreneur coming in who has a need, but not necessarily for a full time hire. They're just not ready for that. They're they're or they're scaling. You know, maybe maybe they're not the the solopreneur, but they're a small team.

Theresa Summerlin [00:27:45]: They're scaling quickly, and they they need that support. This entrepreneur needs the support so that they can keep up with themselves, you know, in that in that period of high growth. That's where an individual comes in and supports that that entrepreneur, that that leader of the the small business so that they can continue to focus on on growth or or hiring. You know, the if if you're expanding a team and you really wanna put your focus on hiring well, you've gotta have the bandwidth to do that. So, that that's really the the type of leader that comes to us. It's looking looking for that support, and, ultimately, they need time back.

Wayne Herring [00:28:26]: Right. And how many hours per week do the assistants work with the with the entrepreneur in the different packages that you have? Mhmm. Yeah.

Theresa Summerlin [00:28:36]: Yeah. It depends. Yeah. Because I mentioned the beauty of of, you know, being able to work with somebody on a fractional basis that's very that's very talented. So for us, you you can start for a package of forty five hours per month, which is our most fractional. That's about ten hours a week. What I really love about this and, you know, to me, it should be important to the entrepreneur is that these more fractional levels, it's not about blocking, you know, ten hours a week, twenty hours a week. It's about creating a workflow so that you're getting the support and you're working with your assistant, and you're getting that support when you actually need it.

Theresa Summerlin [00:29:15]: So that that thinking about time sensitive things, what has to happen multiple times, thinking about deadlines, and then creating workflow with your assistant to accommodate that. So that's our our more fractional package. And then we go all the way up to full time. So anyway anywhere from forty five hours a month up to a hundred and seventy five hours a month. And then you can look at this in increments. Anything that's that's in an increment of five hours per month. So forty five, fifty, fifty five, sixty, all the way up. So a lot of flexibility there.

Theresa Summerlin [00:29:48]: And it's not a one way street. You you have the ability to increase, but then there's also a lot of a lot of clients who get to a level of efficiency, and they may scale back. Or they hit a season, and they may scale back. So, again, having that flexibility without having to, think about you know, or or you have a higher you're you're asking them to take less hours. With us, that's just part of the model. Right?

Wayne Herring [00:30:16]: Got it. And so who who are the people that like, what's the background of the people that are working as VAs within the organization? And then so there's a, like, who you're hiring and who comes to this work, and then there's also the piece of and what kind of training do you provide to them Right. Via BELAY.

Theresa Summerlin [00:30:35]: Right. So so keep in mind, like, the the roughly 2,000 people across the country, we have multiple service lines. So some of them are considered virtual assistants. Right? Some are tagged as marketing assistants. So more knowledge around marketing and social media, it is that's considered a specialist with us. Some are tagged as virtual bookkeepers. That's their area of proficiency and expertise. And then we have fractional CFOs.

Theresa Summerlin [00:31:01]: So if you think about all of the 2,000 people, it's gonna be a mix of those individuals. Okay? And so the requirements are different, you know, for for the individuals coming in. But on average, the people that are coming to us are gonna be degreed, advanced degreed, but the key is testing. We we we are gonna ask every applicant to go through our testing. And we are testing application knowledge, but we're also testing use of the English language. Like, we we have to have great written and, in this case, we're testing written. But use of the English language, we're looking for resourcefulness, timeliness in the work in terms of during that testing period, how quickly they got everything back to us. Mhmm.

Theresa Summerlin [00:31:44]: From there, we use a tool called predictive index. We give these individuals a behavioral assessment, and we give them, the cognitive side of that assessment as well, which is a game changer. Right? Because that's telling us, can these individuals solve problems? Do they take initiative? Can they connect all the dots? That's what our clients need. And so part of our assessment is going to tell us where they stand on that scale. If all of that checks out, whether they have a degree or not, we have people that have associates degrees or just ten years of experience that that allows them to get through that testing, then we will we'll move on to the the process of interviewing and possibly issuing a contract. So that that's a lot of heavy lifting that an entrepreneur would have to do if they were looking for someone just to support them. Because what we do know is a lot of times people make hiring decisions, especially around admin support, for the wrong reasons.

Wayne Herring [00:32:43]: So bring somebody a question that I think people would have as they listen to what you just said. What happens if you match me with an assistant and it's not a good fit. And I I think that could be I don't like to look in the mirror sometimes. Right? But that could be on my end that I need some help, or it could be that even though you went through all the testing, there's some things that aren't fitting about them. How do you address that

Theresa Summerlin [00:33:15]: Mhmm.

Wayne Herring [00:33:15]: When there's a mismatch and it's not working?

Theresa Summerlin [00:33:17]: Yeah. Yeah. And that I will tell you right now that we are really good, but we're not perfect because there is no perfection, you know, particularly when we're come we're dealing with people. But but I this is what we would do. First of all, the emphasis on matching when a client comes in, because you did did kinda complete my thought, though, you know, I kinda talked about the caliber of people that that are on the roster. And then you've got the client that that is a good fit. Right? They're the client that needs that quality admin support, or that needs project project coordination is a big one as well. They they need somebody they need a glue.

Theresa Summerlin [00:33:53]: They need some an air traffic controller or some glue to keep to keep the the projects going. So, anyway, once that client comes in, we do discovery. We'll have a discovery call. You do that with a client success consultant. And the goal is to check all the boxes, right, so that we're mapping well. And we are looking at hard skill fit, but we're looking at culture fit. We're looking at personality fit. So in general, we're assessing the hard skill and soft skill fit.

Theresa Summerlin [00:34:21]: Because I will tell you right now, hard skills alone are not enough.

Wayne Herring [00:34:25]: Sure.

Theresa Summerlin [00:34:25]: They're not enough. We do know that it's got to be a combination of both. And sometimes even the soft skills, depending on what we're doing, is gonna actually trump hard skills out of the gate every time, almost every time. Okay? So we're really, really intentional about looking at the the need from from all angles, which then allows us to make a match. And we're looking at this from the VA's perspective as well. Like, we spend that time saying, why do you think this client is good for you? Right? We're looking for certain reactions. We're looking for confidence. We're looking for, just the understanding.

Theresa Summerlin [00:35:02]: Like, what does that under I have an understanding of what Wayne expects of me. Like, that's important. I have a plan of action. That's important. So we're really good at matching because of the steps we take, but we are not perfect. If we are off for whatever reason, whenever, then we're gonna get new knowledge from you, and we're gonna go back to the drawing board, but not without new knowledge. So that's important. Right? Because now with a little experience, a new a new a leader that's new to this, right, they're gonna they're gonna go through this learning curve.

Theresa Summerlin [00:35:35]: A lot of times I hear, I I just I thought I needed this, but I but I realized I need this, or I thought this was gonna be the right type of person for me, but I actually realized that it's not. I'll give you an example. People that are super, creative, you know, I've heard it time and again. I really enjoy working with somebody that's as creative as I am, if not not more. Mhmm. They don't need an assistant that has that high level of creativity. They need someone that's organized because people that are super creative typically are are not high on the organization side of things, but that's what they need. So that is our job, is to kinda read between the lines and make that fit.

Theresa Summerlin [00:36:13]: But if we have missed it, there is there's no concern about communicating that. It's just about reevaluating, getting new knowledge, and going back to placement.

Wayne Herring [00:36:22]: Yeah. Got it. Good. Oh, okay. Great. So that that helps with, what you do and how you do it. And I I hear it's finding the right person, then it's the matching, then it's the doing some training, on your end, and you're all set up to do that. So the entrepreneur doesn't need to be concerned.

Wayne Herring [00:36:42]: You've got a coach. You said find new knowledge. So that tells me, in that case, we would go back to the entrepreneur and the new knowledge is understanding what didn't work about this. Is there anything we can tweak in your process to delegate? So that makes a lot of sense. The, you know, the other the other thing I I wanted to bring out in this conversation that we're having is I believe that business builders, entrepreneurs, if it's the right partner, if it's the right consultative salesperson, which is what you are, your solutions salesperson, you talk to entrepreneurs all day long trying to find out is this a good match, do you need this help, and helping them to get to the point where they can see the possibility for the future and why this would be a good idea. So given all that, I think that if if business owners get think they might have a need for what you offer and what Belay offers, if they go through the sales process process, you or the business owner determine that this isn't the right fit, or maybe it's not the right fit right now or they're not ready, I think they're probably better off for that. Yes. They're they're better off.

Wayne Herring [00:37:57]: They'll have grown. You'll you probably ask them thought provoking questions that make them think and expand their understanding of what's possible. So could you talk about your what what is that? If somebody contacts you after they hear this episode and they say, Teresa, I wanna have a conversation. What does the sales process look like, and how does the the business owner grow through the process itself?

Theresa Summerlin [00:38:24]: Yeah. No. That's a great question. And and thank you for asking because, yeah, that is what I do. And when we think about when I think about consult because that's our title, solutions consultant. Right? And so when I'm thinking when I'm talking with someone that's not done this before or has done it but hasn't had success, I I really I really like to just kind of ask them, like, when you when you're when you first think about support, where do you feel that you need it? Right? So get the client get this this person thinking about what are they doing day in and day out that is not the highest and best use of their time. Right? So we do talk about that. We talk about what is, what is normally delegated, like, because sometimes people will come in and they know exactly or they think they know exactly what they need.

Theresa Summerlin [00:39:15]: But most of the time, if if we're not that's not the case, and we are talking about where can we help you? Where can we help you? So I do like to get the client, really kind of communicating first, though, where he or she thinks they need the help. Because I don't wanna disregard that. Right? Before I make my suggestions, I wanna hear, where they think they need the help. But a consultation I mean, literally, we're gonna get around to what are you what are you gonna delegate or what should you delegate because that that's what this is all about. You know? So the the idea of talking about what you should delegate sometimes will go the route of, have you thought about what what it would look like to delegate your email, for example, and and or your calendar. There's there's the traditional admin bucket that we do a lot of work in. And when a client is not sure where to start, that is what we're gonna talk about. And there are reasons for that because when we focus on that first, we create impact.

Theresa Summerlin [00:40:24]: K. We create impact. When the client can't get a vision for what that looks like, it's my job to cash to really cast that, right, to to help them understand, like, if you really think about your email because I've had people, oh, no. I could never give up my email. But if you think about it, there is a large percentage of your email that that doesn't have an action item that just needs to be organized, right, maybe into a folder, maybe it's a color coded system. Every every leader's different. We've got that covered. We we know we know different ways to do this, and and we share that with the client and the VA, of course.

Theresa Summerlin [00:41:00]: So yeah. But thinking about that, you know, the fact that a high percentage of your email probably doesn't have an action item, but then there's also the idea of creating some some canned responses to respond to a lot of the same questions that you get over and over and over again. And and there's there's a percentage of that for most people. So having not a can, dear sir, dear madam, but something created in your voice that the VA can use and tweak a send sentence or two and then start responding to these emails. Right? So now you're seeing you're pairing down the percentage of emails that you actually have to look at. And the goal is to get you to a point where you really only have a a handful of emails that have to be addressed by you. Now and that's our job, right, to to get there, to to, chink away at the percentage of email that we're able to process. And a good VA is gonna get there pretty quickly, and and they're gonna be in the position to respond on behalf of you as you or as your assistant.

Theresa Summerlin [00:42:04]: There's there's three different ways to look at this, and there's different there's appropriate scenarios where each of those are more appropriate than than another. Right? So so that's sort of the email. And what I I will always like to tell clients, like, if you just think about your day and you're if if you're spending three hours of your day processing your email, if not more, then what will really, what will your life look like in six months from now when you're really just looking at those things that are super critical to your to your business to growth?

Wayne Herring [00:42:38]: I just had a moment where I thought, what would it be like to have three hours, less email per day? And that that sounds like a good idea for sure.

Theresa Summerlin [00:42:50]: Yeah.

Wayne Herring [00:42:50]: And I do I do have three hours. I I have significantly less time that I spend in email today than I did, you know, five years ago. Yeah. But but there there's always room to reduce it more, I think.

Theresa Summerlin [00:43:06]: Well, it, yeah, it when the client comes in, though, and a lot of times they think about email management as being, oh, I'm I'm gonna cc my assistant in, and she'll take care of it. That's just tasking your assistant. That is not allowing your VA to proactively manage your communications into your email. Okay? So that's where sometimes we start with a client because they're just not gonna give up that access, and they that they look at that's oh, I'm I'm I have email management. I'm, you know, I'm cc ing my assistant in. That is not giving your VA the position to proactively serve you. So that's another reason why we like to suggest to a client that they start with email management and calendar, the things that we mentioned, email manage calendar, time management, meeting prep, meeting follow-up. All this can be done virtually.

Theresa Summerlin [00:44:00]: But when you give your VA access to your inbox, they now have a a view of your world that they otherwise don't have. And with time, they can start they're in the position now to proactively serve you. If you don't get them access, even if it's just access to look how you responded to a previous email or, you know, somebody's wanting somebody's wanting an appointment and the VA sees, well, you've said no three times, you know, they're not gonna say, oh, yeah. Let me get you on Wayne's calendar. Right? So it's it's that kind of access and and connecting the dots. But with that comes that level of proactiveness that most of our leaders are looking for from a VA. So you have you've got you've got to own your part in allowing that to happen.

Wayne Herring [00:44:47]: Use that word proactiveness right there. And a little bit earlier when you were talking about the testing process for VAs, you use the phrase connecting the dots. And I think all most, at least, entrepreneurs would love to have somebody who's, like, a right hand person who connects the dots and uses a proactive approach.

Theresa Summerlin [00:45:08]: Yes. Yeah.

Wayne Herring [00:45:10]: So be before we started recording, I was, asking you about, what what brings you joy or what what's your favorite part of this process? And you mentioned that you've seen the the light bulb go off was the Mhmm. Phrase that you used. Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

Theresa Summerlin [00:45:29]: Yeah. When I'm talking to somebody and, you know, I I again, my goal is to to have that client kinda share with me where they're at because they they decided to have a conversation for a reason. Right? Usually, it's because they are struggling with something

Wayne Herring [00:45:45]: or they've just

Theresa Summerlin [00:45:45]: a major opportunity.

Wayne Herring [00:45:46]: We're we're we're in pain and we need help.

Theresa Summerlin [00:45:48]: Something needs to be

Wayne Herring [00:45:49]: a relief. Yeah.

Theresa Summerlin [00:45:50]: Sure. And I listen. And I've heard it I've heard it all. I've heard my family's falling apart and and on on a more serious note.

Wayne Herring [00:45:57]: Gonna have deep impacts. Sure. Mhmm.

Theresa Summerlin [00:46:00]: Yeah. To, you know, to I I just missed a $200,000 opportunity because I was late to the game.

Wayne Herring [00:46:05]: Sure. Family, health concerns, stress, big deals lost because you're focused on $5 problems. Sure.

Theresa Summerlin [00:46:12]: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. And so, but for me, when when I can cast that vision of, hey. Let us help you. Let you know, I'm gonna make a recommendation. I want you to think about what life could look like with with someone that's supporting your communications, that gets to know you, gets to know your family, gets to know what your challenges are, what projects do you have going on, what's priority or should be priority in your world. So when I see that that light bulb go off and they're like, okay.

Theresa Summerlin [00:46:45]: I get it. Like, I need to think less transactionally and bigger picture in terms of of what's what good support looks like and what I'm capable of now that I have good support in place. And and that to me is that's the joy. And and, like you say, whether they sign on for our services or not, after eleven years, I'm I I want you to. I I want the client to experience what we see so many other entrepreneurs experience with us. Right? The success stories are just, I mean, thousands. Right? Over fourteen years, thousands. Sure.

Theresa Summerlin [00:47:29]: And and I want that for my clients. But if they choose not to move forward, I will always leave them with get help from someone. It doesn't have to be BELAY, but go somewhere and get support. Start now. Because Right. You don't wanna be in that position where, you know, I'm hearing my family's suffering because of this or my health, you know, that it's be like, I my doctor's telling me I had a call last week. My doctor's telling me I've got to do this.

Wayne Herring [00:47:56]: Sure.

Theresa Summerlin [00:47:57]: Yep.

Wayne Herring [00:47:57]: So one of the things we did for the business builders is we came and joined us for a virtual campfire and talked to a small group and answered questions and helped people see what was would be possible, whether they do it on their own or whether they choose to work with you. And, it was very gracious to see you and Belay, and we appreciate it. You sent out copies of the book, by Dan Martell, buy back your time.

Theresa Summerlin [00:48:21]: Right. Right.

Wayne Herring [00:48:22]: And and it so it sounds like for people listening that even if they don't have a conversation with you, that that's a book that they could read that could start to help them understand what it would look like to have some help in their life and to be able to get some relief from some of these things.

Theresa Summerlin [00:48:40]: Yeah. Yeah. That's that is a really good book. You know, Dan will tell you in the book that your first hire should be an assistant. Like, it's not for his philosophy kind of aligns with ours, that it's really about identifying the things that you're doing that are keeping you from that next level of growth and then putting, you know, putting some context around that and and bringing someone in to support support you so that you can continue to grow. And so your next hire doesn't necessarily need to be the director of marketing or, you know, another higher level individual that you're gonna pay a big salary to, but it needs to be someone that's supporting you so that you can continue to build out the the future. And so, unfortunately, you know, there are people that the next hire is gonna be, you know, that that full time hire, and and they're still doing their day to day, like you said, $5 tasks, versus what they they truly went into business to accomplish. Right? So but but Dan does a great job of putting together.

Theresa Summerlin [00:49:44]: He's got, you know, different diagrams, and so he gets real tactical on how to do on how to evaluate, where your time is being spent.

Wayne Herring [00:49:53]: The book is really great and actionable, so I really appreciate that. And I hope anybody listening, if they haven't read it, that that they do, I just bought a copy for, not one of my clients, for a friend of mine who I was like, you really need to read this book. So, yeah, that was a good recommendation. Awesome. So yeah. Thanks. So you you mentioned, email management. You dove into that a little bit more, and I do think that is probably, surprising to some people or hard to think about letting go.

Wayne Herring [00:50:25]: I had a hard time. I work with Rhonda who's an assistant locally here. I had, a belay assistant for about eleven months, I think, and she did a great job of organizing folders and getting me on the straight and narrow, so to speak. And then I I I went through a period of time where some other things had to catch up, and then I hired a a local person. And it was it was hard for me to let go of of email and have Rhonda in my inbox. And, progressively, we've had to learn how to how to work on that together, and and we have, and it's growing. So for anybody who hesitates, I get it. But I love your explanation right here today about how a lot of having your assistant in the email inbox has to do with, the like, trust comes to mind.

Wayne Herring [00:51:23]: Mhmm. It's it's it it is like an intimate type of relationship with your assistant, so it's important that you have, somebody that you trust. And because they're probably gonna see things relative to, like you said, your family or doctor's appointments, which, you know, I don't know. I'm 49 years old, and, you know, it means we should have a colonoscopy screening and, like, we'll get weirded out by that. But, I mean, look, we all are, you know, on the on the path to life doing things proactively, but money is the other thing I think that people are sensitive about.

Theresa Summerlin [00:51:55]: Mhmm.

Wayne Herring [00:51:56]: You know, you have credit card statements coming in or statements of finances. And and yet, that's if we really truly want to have a partner and somebody who's able to clear our calendar, we need to let them peek behind the curtain like that. Mhmm. So so that makes sense. And then, calendar, probably similar. I I and I definitely those it I'm doing less and less time in email on my calendar. I'm doing less and less time in email, but you actually make me feel like, realize calendar is still a place where I've kinda pushed Rhonda away a little bit and said, like, only I can figure out where the buffer blocks go. Only I can figure out, you know, where the yoga class is at or when when it's okay to push and squeeze my calendar a little bit when it's not.

Wayne Herring [00:52:48]: But, well, I feel a little bit convicted right now that I need the or or it it's an opportunity for growth if I let her in more and more on the calendar. But

Theresa Summerlin [00:52:58]: There's an exercise that we recommend for that. Right? Two things that that you mentioned. Trust is critical. So, you know, earlier on, I said that, entrepreneurs hire sometimes for the wrong reasons. Right? But when we're making a match, we're we're we're trying to match so that we think the relationship will cultivate good communication and trust quickly. And we're not saying that happens right out of the gate, but we're looking at, can this relationship is there an environment here? Do these personalities seem to be the type of you these two people the the type of, environment where that trust and and and confidence, in this person can can cultivate quickly. So that you you hit the nail on the head. It has to be present, or you will never delegate to your full capacity.

Theresa Summerlin [00:53:48]: So but the other thing with the calendar management, we recommend that, a leader that we're serving sit down and and literally, you know, even bring your wife in because and Dan will talk about how important it is to let your person into your per your your assistant manage your personal life. Give them those personal things that are eating away at you. Like, it's eating away at your mental bandwidth because, oh, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. I need to you know, my I told my wife I would do this. Like, let the VA help you. So the the idea of sitting down with the leader, your wife, or the team, looking at what is a perfect week work week look like and being very candid about it. So this is just an exercise that you go through, and then we talk about what days you know, if you're not sure how to do this, like, do can you have days that are focused on meeting days? Can you know, what days do you go to yoga? What time do you like to go? Which classes do you do I need to confirm that class for you? You know? So it's really about just laying it all out there, and then as you work together, fine tuning it.

Theresa Summerlin [00:54:54]: Right? Michael Hyatt talks about it in his book, The World Class Assistant. I don't know if you've ever seen that. Do you know the name Michael Hyatt?

Wayne Herring [00:55:01]: I haven't read it, but I I I'm going to get a copy of it now.

Theresa Summerlin [00:55:05]: Yeah. That that he also recommends that. This is also a tactical approach to working with an assistant. A lot of the tools that we, you know, that we use are shared, like, shared resources, very similar. But that that is invaluable, just sitting down and saying, this is this is my perfect work week. This is what I want it to look like, and then this is what it looks like today, and then work towards getting to that perfect work week. But don't exclude your VA from that conversation. Like, let them be part of a solution.

Wayne Herring [00:55:44]: Nice. So email management, calendar, time management, meeting prep and follow-up, research, travel arrangements, and expense tracking. Those are the things that that you gave me that are first and that are the things that would give the most time and impact.

Theresa Summerlin [00:56:03]: Yep. Those those are the things that kind of fall in that traditional admin support. You know, Oregon you mentioned that the VA that you have through BELAY set up a lot of, you know, put some organization in place. I mean, that that kinda goes with this as well, just depending on what we're walking into. But we sometimes have to build the airplane with the client as we fly it, which which may be addressing and cleaning up and, creating systems, defining processes. So that that for an entrepreneur that's never done this before would also be part of this. Right? So

Wayne Herring [00:56:38]: I'm gonna give a shout out to Angela, who is that person that I worked with from BELAY. And I was I I had so many folders in my Dropbox, Google Drive folders on my computer and all these folders and things I was trying to sort out. And I had this whole story about how it was all supposed to work and how, you know, complex it was. And she's and she was very proactive. And she said, make sure, going into filing cabinets and taking everything out of there and dumping on the table, but I'm gonna sort it for you. You don't have to sort it. I'm gonna take it out of the filing cabinet. I'm gonna sort it all, and then you are going to be able to just have some insight into whether it makes sense or not.

Wayne Herring [00:57:25]: But I'm gonna do the work. You don't need to get overwhelmed by it. How does that sound? And I was like, that sounds like a dream, and she she did it. And so that is the kind of thing that is possible, I think, when somebody works with a with a high quality assistant.

Theresa Summerlin [00:57:40]: Mhmm. Yep. So she brought she brought her, experience to you. She led you through that. And that that's that's part of the the coaching that we provide our VAs, you know, kinda going back to the recruiting, vetting, testing, and the training. Like, we're not training our people because we're we're recruiting them with experience. Right? Three to five years of experience. So we're not training them how to open a Google Doc.

Theresa Summerlin [00:58:06]: That that that's Sure. You know, that needs to be there. We're training them on how to lead a client well through this. We're training them on the belay expectations. We're training them on establishing what do you need to establish first with your client to ensure success. We're helping them understand, you know, again, where we see success. So we're giving them the best practices to bring to you, but we're also reinforcing best practices with that client success consultant and providing resources like your world class assistant or the ultimate guide to working with an assistant. I mean, we've, you know, over all the years, there's a lot of structure that we've we've put behind this that I think people don't necessarily realize, but we do have structure.

Theresa Summerlin [00:58:58]: So it's not, you know, it's not just willy nilly. And and there is a process that we we have that that helps truly, truly increase that that percentage of success with the relationship.

Wayne Herring [00:59:10]: Yeah. Oh, that's great. Yeah. And and probably the body of knowledge and what you have today for both the entrepreneur and the assistant is is even more than when I was working with with with Angela those years ago. Yeah. Mhmm. To to take us out, to give so we, you know, we've talked more about, like, the executive assistant or the VA, which makes sense, admin assistant with the email and the calendar, so on and so forth. And as you said, Martel Dan Martel in the book says that's where you gotta start.

Wayne Herring [00:59:45]: But you did mention a little bit earlier, and I think it's useful to at least get just a real quick description. You said you also provide marketing assistance.

Theresa Summerlin [00:59:54]: Mhmm.

Wayne Herring [00:59:55]: And they do, like, you know, they do what? And then the CFO and the could you just give us the for those, different

Theresa Summerlin [01:00:02]: The highlights of that? Yeah. So the marketing assistant is like I said, that that's considered a specialist. Now to be fair, a really social savvy VA can execute a lot. You know, we're we're talking about staying in that traditional admin bucket pretty much here, but realize that your assistant, especially in in a solo with a solo practitioner or a solopreneur, this VA needs to be able to change lanes. They need to do they need to be able to do the admin work as it relates to ops, social media, posting, etcetera. There's admin all throughout an organization. So that is that is totally acceptable with a VA. If you are looking for someone that's got a deeper knowledge base around email marketing, funnel building, content creation, social media platforms, you know, paid ad campaigns, all all the all the things as as it relates to marketing, and you're looking for somebody you really think is gonna help you level up.

Theresa Summerlin [01:01:05]: Right? That, for BELAY, is a specialist, and and we can match you with someone that's really gonna focus in those lane you know, in that lane of marketing and and, email marketing and and social media support. Okay?

Wayne Herring [01:01:19]: Got it.

Theresa Summerlin [01:01:19]: So that's that is one of the service lines. The bookkeeping, the virtual bookkeeping, that that's also a very fast growing service line for us. Now, again, a VA can pull memorized reports or create invoices. That's admin in nature. So I don't want you to, you know, like, think that there's there's a gray area. There really is. But if you're looking for somebody that is experienced in a QuickBooks pro that understands technology, can meet you where you're at, you know, deploy technology to support good bookkeeping practices, make sure that your income and your expenses are are, recorded properly, reconcile your accounts, report, and review your p and l and your budget to actual, your balance sheet with you, have everything audit ready or accountant ready, that's a that's a professional bookkeeper. Okay? Okay.

Theresa Summerlin [01:02:13]: We have that. The fractional CFO, so recently we've acquired I think we're at three organizations. And so with those acquisitions, we have a lot of CFOs that will come in and do a a consult with a client that needs that that fractional, support at that level. And that's more about that's bigger picture, you know, reviewing previous metrics, understanding, you know, the the goals and the the, the future in terms of, like, you know, what purchases have to be made. And and they're just they're higher higher, level individuals, but that is something that is I I don't wanna say fairly new, but it's a it I don't work on that side of the business. But, again, we're the the everything we call that whole side of the business accounting services, and that's growing very quickly.

Wayne Herring [01:03:10]: Gotcha. Great. And and then where I'd like to just wrap up is you mentioned that you do have, the delegation toolkit. It's something that you could provide to people, and, also, we'll make sure to put in any, show notes and LinkedIn posts and things like that, a link to you so people could have a conversation with you. Can you just a look. Can you tell us a little bit about the delegation toolkit and, what what's in there?

Theresa Summerlin [01:03:38]: Sure. So there's a a PDF version of the book that we put out called delegate to elevate. So you're gonna it it's gonna be a condensed version of a lot of different, information around delegate delegation, what good delegation looks like. Right? And we start with what's the value. Like, why do you even why do you even need to delegate? Right? So that's that's one piece that you'll get. Then we have the, the worksheet. So this is, this is a it's an exercise to go through. If you picture a quad quadrant.

Theresa Summerlin [01:04:11]: Right? You've got you've got things that you're, that only you can do that fall into that that first quadrant, upper for me, it would be upper left hand corner. Then you've got things that you're doing that you really enjoy and that you may be good at, but but you as the leader should not be doing those things. Examples are scheduling travel, creating itineraries, agendas, you know, posting on social. Then you've got things that that you haven't outsourced yet because you're just you simply have to consider your own budget, so you're doing it yourself and you're and you're doing it okay, but but when you are a little bit larger and you can delegate it, it should be delegated out. That would be an example bookkeeping because most entrepreneurs don't go into to start a business to run their books. Right? So and then the other the last quadrant, that's one that's an easy one. Things that you you just can't stand doing, you know, that that you hate doing, you're not good at, and, you know, those are easy to to identify and get those things off your plate. And so the worksheet forces you to kinda go through that and and just, you know, itemize those things that fall into each of those quadrants.

Theresa Summerlin [01:05:19]: So, yeah. And and that's so a lot of times on my consults, if if I'm having because a lot we will offer just the delegation consult with a with a client success you know, with a, I'm sorry, with a solutions consultant. Mhmm. And that's what we'll use. I'll send them that tool, and then we'll talk about those things that that fall in the quadrants. And what can we do? Where should we start? Or or, again, if not with belay, with someone. It's a really good exercise to go through. And then the last piece is is, it's really just it's like 25 things that you should think about delegating that we see over and over and over again that create success and that create impact, give you margin, give you peace of mind, and give you time back.

Theresa Summerlin [01:06:07]: So those are the three primary pieces in that toolkit.

Wayne Herring [01:06:11]: Yeah. And that sounds valuable because there's always things that we just wouldn't think of and didn't even though it was possible to delegate. So that's great. Well, Theresa, thank you so much for, showing up again a second time for us here at Pleasure.

Theresa Summerlin [01:06:24]: It's fun. Yeah.

Wayne Herring [01:06:26]: Yeah. And and sharing more valuable insights to how we can find freedom.

Theresa Summerlin [01:06:30]: So Yeah. I appreciate it. That is our goal and, you know, pretty passionate about BELAY and what we've we've seen in terms of, you know, changing lives and creating transformation for our leaders.

Wayne Herring [01:06:41]: Great. Thanks again.

Theresa Summerlin [01:06:43]: Alright. Thank you, Wayne.

00:00 Introducing Trusted Advisors Series

16:37 Finding Joy in Client Transformation

25:00 Family Sacrifices Career for Startup

28:36 Fractional Workflows for Entrepreneur Support

31:44 Predictive Index for Hiring Decisions

36:42 "Entrepreneurial Growth Through Coaching"

43:06 Effective Virtual Email Management

48:40 "First Hire: Get an Assistant"

53:48 Streamlining Calendar Management with Team

01:00:02 Marketing Specialist vs. Savvy VA

01:04:11 Delegating Tasks and Prioritizing

 

1. How does Theresa's approach to consultative sales benefit business owners, even if they decide not to move forward with BELAY?

2. Theresa discusses the importance of email management as a starting point for delegation. What might be the challenges and benefits of letting go of managing your own emails?

3. What role does trust play in the relationship between an entrepreneur and a virtual assistant, according to the episode?

4. Wayne mentioned that having Rhonda, his assistant, helped him reduce time spent on emails. What strategies might you use to similarly reduce time on administrative tasks?

5. Theresa talked about BELAY's comprehensive vetting process for VAs. How might this process provide assurance to business owners seeking reliable virtual assistance?

6. Discuss the importance of time management and how an assistant could support an entrepreneur in this area. What might be some effective time management strategies?

7. Theresa mentioned the book "Buy Back Your Time" by Dan Martell. How might concepts from this book be applied in your own business or personal life to gain time freedom?

8. The episode discussed the potential of fractional CFO services. How could a fractional CFO benefit a small business or startup?

9. Trust and communication are highlighted as essential for successful delegation. How can a business owner ensure they are effectively communicating their needs to a virtual assistant?

10. What are your thoughts on the idea of a "perfect work week" as suggested by Theresa? How can one work towards achieving it in a realistic manner?