267: Find a Strategic Virtual Assistant and Hire the Right Team with The Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon Tracey Osborne

Robert Plank 0:00 Robert Plank Show, episode 267 find a strategic virtual assistant and hire the right team with the entrepreneurs secret weapon, Tracy Osborne, hey everybody, and welcome back to the Robert Plank show. Our guest today is Tracy Osborne, and Tracy is known as the Entrepreneur's Secret Weapon and as an accomplished virtual assistant of almost a decade, Tracy specializes in all things strategic online business management. Launches funnels and tele summits. And by removing the stress of daily operations, Tracy allows her clients the focus and freedom to do whatever it is that they do best, thus resulting in heightened profit and growth. So Tracy, how are things today?

Tracey Osborne 0:41 I'm doing great. Robert, thanks for having me on the show. Super fantastic.

Robert Plank 0:45 I am excited to have you on and to hear about what you're all about and what's exciting you and so, so you're a virtual assistant, you kind of simplify things and make things easier. So, you know, there's all kinds of virtual assistants out there. So how do you personally kind of stand out from everyone else out there. So

Tracey Osborne 1:01 I focus more on the strategy side of things, as opposed to just the Getting Things Done. There's there's two types of virtual assistants. There's the ones that just do the tasks that you assign to them, and there's the women's that actually think and strategize and see and get the big picture. And I fall into that second category, which is a lot smaller of a category than the doers awesome

Robert Plank 1:23 and more specialized. And that's, I'm really glad that that you brought that up and that we're kind of talking about this, because when I hear virtual assistant, like, I tend to usually think of that kind of first category that you mentioned where, like, they're the ones that, you know, they'll they'll make some phone calls, or they'll send emails, or they'll do customer support, and, like, with that kind of situation, I'm thinking, like, oh no. Like, I have to, I have to sort of, like, kind of do their job for them for a while, or, like, be super, like, hands on, and make sure they're doing it, and so and so. So is what you do. Is it sort of more like, sort of like a blend between a virtual assistant and a coach. Because, like, when you talk about the strategy, I'm thinking like, it's sort of like hiring a coach to help make those decisions?

Tracey Osborne 2:01 Yes, absolutely. So you know, basically what I'm called is an online business manager, and I'm going to come in and I am your right hand person, so I'm the one that's making sure things are getting done. I'm actually probably managing the team instead of doing the task work myself. But because I've been doing this for 10 years, if there's an emergency, I can actually get in there and get my hands dirty and do the task work if need be. So that's another thing that kind of sets me apart from other people. But I also coach. I teach women how to use the skills that they have to grow and start a business working from home as a virtual professional. And so I bring my coaches hat to the table as well. So absolutely we, I get on the phone with my clients, and we strategize, we brainstorm, we create launch, launch strategies and plans and and then I, I'm the one that makes them come to life. So basically, what I do is think of it as you have this big, beautiful picture, and you take it to the manufacturer, they break it up into all these little, itty bitty, tiny jigsaw pieces, like a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle, and then somebody's got to put that sucker back together. And that's what I do.

Robert Plank 3:05 Awesome. So, so it sounds like you're the you provide, like a whole virtual assistant team, if that's what is necessary.

Tracey Osborne 3:13 There, I do have a team if that is necessary. Absolutely cool. And

Robert Plank 3:17 so, I mean, can you kind of walk us through, maybe, like, a case study, or a scenario where, like, sort of like what you mentioned there, where, you know, you have a client, they say, I need these things, and you kind of strategize. I mean, what kind of goes into, like, like, your thought process, I guess is what I'm asking.

Tracey Osborne 3:31 Oh, gosh. So, you know, really depends on what's happening and who the client is. But, you know, I've had clients where, let's take teleseminars, for example, that's one of the things that I specialize in. I specialize in. So I have somebody come to me and they say, I want to do a telesemin. My coach says I need to do a tele Summit. And that's, that's all they know is that they need to do a summit. They don't have a clue one what actually goes into putting together one of these suckers. They just know that they have to do one so that they can build their list. And so I sit down and, you know, I asked them a ton of questions, you know, how many speakers uses? What's the genre? What's, what's the whole point of doing this? What do you really hope to get out of it? You know, that kind of thing. And then I have to sit down, and I have to create an actual timeline and strategy and and I've got all the pieces and parts listed out. So I, you know, if they hire me in my team to do it, I've got templates in my teamwork that I just pop that in, and it already has all the tasks already outlined for me, and I can just go in and tweak them. If we're using their team and I'm just coming on as a consultant or a project manager, then, you know, somebody's got to sit down and create all these pieces and parts and figure out who's doing what. And that's my role. So, you know, they just know that this is, this is the final product that they want to happen, and then it's my job to create all the rest of it. So, you know, guide them, consult with them, and just make, make sure. It comes to fruition.

Robert Plank 5:01 Awesome. And that sounds pretty logical. So someone comes to you and they say, you know, I need, I need this in place, like, you know, a tele Summit is our example. And then you say, Okay, well, you know, I've done tell it. You say, I've done tell it. Someone's before, or I've seen this before, so I'm just kind of customized what I already know towards what their needs are. And then ask them all the questions to kind of flesh out, you know, where they're at, or what the scope of it. And then knowing that, then you say, Well, here's the timeline, or here's the order I'm going to do things. And then here are my templates. And then either you, you, you know, have your place within their team, or you have your own team to do that kind of stuff. And so, I mean, when, when you deal with these clients, and you know, when they come to you with these problems. Like, do you, do you? Is there any room for improvement, sort of in on the clients? And like, is there anything that you know, you wish that they always came to you with to make it sort of a smoother transaction, or is it pretty painless for you when dealing with people?

Tracey Osborne 5:57 It depends on the person you know. Some of them come to me and they've got it down. They know exactly what they want. They know how to go for it. They know they know where they're going, and all that. And I love those. Those are my favorite. Makes my job a little bit easier. But then there's the ones that come to me, and they're just completely clueless and and they're fun to work with too, because they're they're eager, they're excited, and they're open to learning, and they're open to picking up new ways and figuring out new ways to do things. So I get them from both sides of the spectrum. Really, as far as you know, is there room for improvement? There's always room for improvement on the client side, on my side, I, you know, I'm I'm not perfect. There's always ways that we can make things better, right? So, you know, and that's one of the things I do. I'm always looking for ways to make things better,

Robert Plank 6:47 awesome. And I think that that that makes a lot of sense in that, you know, like, you know, either they they know exactly what they want, which is great, because then you can flush it out. But I like what you said there, where, even if they don't quite know what they want, at least they're open to learning. At least they don't, kind of, they don't want to remain clueless. So that's pretty cool, right there. And so, like, just out of curiosity, do you ever have to, maybe sometimes, like, clean up the stuff that other VA or similar before?

Tracey Osborne 7:16 A lot. Yeah, I get quite a bit of that. I've had. I mean, I've had people come to me who they're really gun shy because their VA just has either really screwed things up or has just disappeared. And, you know, unfortunately that happens, and it's typically often with the newer VAs that that happens with, but I've had someone that comes to me and they're just a complete mess, and I have to fix it and put it back together. And just the other day, I had somebody come to me. She was, she was wanting to launch a course, and her yay was halfway through building a sales page, and has gone Mia. And so now we have to jump in, figure out where she actually left off, and finish this whole project. So yeah, I get that stuff, unfortunately, too often. And,

Robert Plank 8:02 I mean, is there an easy way to avoid that? Maybe, from, you know, from the hires point of view, like, is there a way to sort of, like, prevent that, or is that just kind of goes with the territory, you

Tracey Osborne 8:14 know, it doesn't. It doesn't, you know, I actually have a whole free mini course on how to find your ideal virtual assistant, and it kind of helps to weed out the ones that might actually end up dropping off. You know, nobody's perfect, and life just happens. So you never know what's going to happen, even if you get the best VA, you never know what's going to happen with them. But, you know, my process helps to really make sure that that and virtual assistant that you have is probably going to be the best fit for you. And the way to do it in, in a total nutshell, is you've got to get very clear on what it is that you want to give to them. So you need to make sure you have, you know, you know in advance, you know, what exactly am I going to do? I get people that I see them on Facebook all the time. I need a VA, but I don't know where to start. So start with following yourself around for a couple of days and like every 20 minutes, set a timer every 20 minutes, write down what you've done in that 20 minute time block. And that's going to tell you where you can start delegating stuff. And it's also going to tell you where you're spending too much time on things that you probably shouldn't be like Facebook in your inbox and those kinds of things after Oh, go ahead. Oh, I was gonna say after that, you know, you need to figure out some of the qualifications as you want in this person. It's kind of like building your client avatar. You're building your ideal virtual assistant avatar. So think about their background, their personality, their work habits and ethics. You know, create that ideal person, and then when you actually go out and you're looking for them, when you're writing that post that you're going to put out on Facebook or wherever, looking for your virtual assistant, you want to make, put as much detail in there as possible. Who are you? Who is your company? What are the skills that you're looking for? What are the qualities that you're looking. For do they have to be location based? Is North America preferable? Or can they be all over the world? Do they have to be the eastern time zone? Or does it matter? Either those kinds of things, put as much detail in there as you can, and then be very specific on how they actually contact you. And this does a couple of things. So if you put in there, I want you to email me with a specific subject line, and people are emailing you without that subject line, and they're sending you a private message. You know, they're not detail oriented, and they're not going to be a good fit for you. So you want to get very specific and and ask pointed questions, ask for certain pieces of information, and then, you know, it's you just kind of start going through what's happening or what they're sending you. So again, you're looking for your specific subject line, making sure that they have sent the required information that you have asked for, looking to see if their responses are boring or canned or, you know, full of grammar and typos, that kind of thing. And then you get on the phone with them, and you're asking even more questions. You're asking them, What happens if there's an emergency? What if you get sick, or your kids get sick, or your dog gets sick? Who's going to take care of me? What's your backup plan? How do you work? How do you operate? How quick of a turnaround can I expect if I send you an email before I hear from you again, and those kinds of things, and then after that, you want to check their references. And this is really, really important, and it's a step that most people skip, and you want to ask the references the questions like, What did you feel their strengths and weaknesses are? Because you're going to get some really interesting answers from people who've actually worked with them and have seen just what you know, what they actually are like, and then you make your decision from there. So the whole process is higher, slow, fire, fast. If you get them on after 234, weeks, you can tell this is just not a good fit. Cut them loose. Awesome. That's, that's my mini course in like five minutes.

Robert Plank 12:04 Cool. And just just to make sure, like when people follow along here, where can they get that mini course?

Tracey Osborne 12:10 So they can get that course? It's Tracy, hyphen, osborn.com, forward slash, partner, and that's T, R, A, C, E, y, hyphen. O, S, B, O, R, N, e.com, forward slash partner,

Robert Plank 12:24 awesome. Cool. And it sounds like, as you're sort of explaining this whole process where, like, and first of all, that's super cool, like I've heard so many times about, you know, how the customer avatar, but I never had thought of having that virtual assistant avatar to the extent of, you know, what kind of emails they'll want to receive, what time zone should they be in? You know, where should they live? And what does it matter? That's super awesome. And then it sounds like, as you're sort of, you know, making them jump through that hoop of having the right subject line to make sure that they have that detail, and sort of moving things along to the phone and figuring out their emergency plans and going the references. It almost sounds like, I mean, it's pretty close to almost like the amount of research you do, like hiring a full time person, almost it sounds like, to

Tracey Osborne 13:08 an extent, because here's the deal, you're not just hiring someone to come in and do stuff. You are looking for somebody to partner with and and this is one of the things that people don't really think about, and I really emphasize and push, that you've got to have a partner mindset, especially if you're hiring a specialty, like an OBM, say, somebody like me, we get so in depth with your business, and we're working side by side that that person, whoever it is, whatever level it is, they're your partner. They're an extension of you. And you want to make sure that you're hiring that right person. Awesome.

Robert Plank 13:39 And so when people are, are hiring that person, and you're figuring out, like, some of these details, like, you know, like, what kind of things will do and what kind of response time. I mean, how to, how do you do with that, that price issue? I mean, like, what kind of price range should someone, like, expect to pay for certain things, for a virtual assistant? And, like, how do we kind of avoid that, that trap of, you know, paying too much or not enough,

Tracey Osborne 14:02 right? So part of it is people get get kind of hung up on the pricing, and I get it, you've got to be able to budget and you've got to be able to afford it. So you can expect to pay a virtual assistant anywhere from $20 up to in the hundreds, depending on their level of experience, the kind of work that they're going to do for you, and if they specialize. So somebody coming into the industry who's going to do general admin things like checking your email, scheduling calls for you, you know, things like that. They're going to be on the lower end of the spectrum, of course, as they get more specialized and more technical, they're working on your website, they're putting your funnels together, you know, all that kind of stuff. Then you're looking at more of probably the 35 to about 55 $60 an hour range. And then as we get into the specialties, of course, that's going to go up into the higher the higher rates. Now, what happens is people get scared. They see those price numbers, and they get scared. And I. I always encourage you to look in the long run, not the short run. So and then also, you really want to hire people based on the skills that you need. So don't hire that $45 an hour. Va, to do the $20 an hour work. Hire somebody for that, and then hire that $45 an hour. Va, to do what they do best. Don't hire the $20 an hour via to do the $45 an hour. Va, work. And that's what happens with people. And what happens there is, okay, well, I'm gonna save money because I'm gonna hire this brand new person who is new to the industry. They're they're hungry, they want to work. They're gonna only charge me $20 an hour. They're gonna take twice as long or longer. They're going to make more mistakes, and you're going to have to spend a lot of time hand holding them and reviewing everything they do, what a new VA can do in two or three hours. I can pretty much guarantee you, I can probably whip out in at least half that time. So I'm going to save you money in the long run. I may cost more in the short run, but I'm gonna save you more in the long run. I'm also going to make you money, because we can do a heck of a lot more stuff.

Robert Plank 16:03 Awesome. That's a really good way of looking at that, that hire that right person for that right job in it, it seems that to make common sense as you're kind of explaining that, you know, in hindsight. But I can, I can imagine that a lot of people get stuck in that trap of saying, Ooh, I hired this really cheap person. They don't know much. They must be, you know, like young and hungry and getting started. But then, if they don't know what they're doing, or, you know, maybe you save money by on that hourly rate. But then they took, you know, 10 times as long to do this thing for half price. Well, now you've paid, you know, like, five times the price, and so yeah, and

Tracey Osborne 16:36 how much time did you have to spend guiding them and instructing them, you know, that kind of thing too.

Robert Plank 16:41 And fixing their mistakes. If they right, they messed up or didn't complete, yeah, and then right. So sort of on, on that issue of the price. Like, you know, you mentioned all these things in a like, hourly rates. I mean, how is that sort of thing usually, like, sort of negotiated? Is it just, like, however long it takes hour by hour? Or should someone expect, like, a va to say, well, this, this job will take, you know, 20 hours, and it's a flat rate. Or I'll be after, like, how does that hourly thing kind of work out there?

Tracey Osborne 17:09 Well, so that varies based on the virtual assistant. It varies based on what it is that you're actually needing. So we'll go back to the telesummit example. For me, a telesummit is a that that's a product. That's a package price. I will give you one flat rate, and it encompasses XYZ. Now regular, ongoing VA support, my weekly newsletter, my blogging, my social media, my website updates, those kinds of things are typically broken down into more of an hourly rate, but you can expect to pay a monthly retainer. You know, everybody who's coaching and teaching vas, we always teach them, you get your money up front, and we work on retainers. So for example, maybe you come on board with a 10 hour retainer, and you pay me X dollars on the first of every month and you get your 10 hours now this is something you have to talk to and work out with the virtual assistant you work with. For me personally, I send out time reports on Friday so you know where your hours are at on Fridays, how many hours you've got left? There's no surprise at the end of the month when all of a sudden we went over 20 hours and you have this huge invoice. You'll know long, long before that happens. And then also anything that's unused. We had a slow month unused for me, rolls over for 30 days. So that's something to definitely check with the people that you're talking to. How do they handle that? You know? How will you know in advance before you get a bill for overages. I've actually had VAs on my team who that was part of my contract, that anything over what I contracted with them had to be approved before they went over. And I had one VA who did two months in a row where she went over and sent me an invoice with you know, it was like double what I was expecting to pay her, and I ended up letting her go because she she wasn't doing what I needed her to do. So you need to be very, very clear on that, that this is your expectations, you know, I want those time reports on Fridays. I want to know well in advance before we go over time, that kind of thing, awesome,

Robert Plank 19:15 and that whole idea of, you know, sort of managing those expectations ahead of time, and sort of, you know, be being clear about, you know, what kind of things will happen on what date. It sounds like that's, that's something that, it keeps coming up in our discussion here, that, and it sounds like that, you know, like, what? What makes you a successful VA, versus maybe some of these other horror stories, is maybe that, like, you seem like you've not only ever yen it before, but you've all you're also, like, more organized than the average VA. It seems like just from talking to you, especially with this whole, like, the the monthly retainer thing and the the payout days and the rollover, it sounds like just that you've thought through maybe a lot of the like, the a lot of the gotchas that all these other VAs maybe haven't even considered.

Tracey Osborne 19:57 Well, I've learned it by trial and error. Yeah. I'll admit, when in my early days, if you ask any of my early clients, they will flat out tell you I was probably the most unorganized person they'd ever met. So I've had to learn that if I was going to be a success and I was going to make it in this business, that I had better get my act together and I'd better get organized. So it was, it was kind of a struggle for me in the very beginning, but yeah, now, you know, 10 years later, here I am, I am. I have to be organized or else things aren't going to get done in your this business just won't make it

Robert Plank 20:28 awesome and and so what was the secret to sort of getting organized like that? Like, because I really like the that thing you mentioned earlier, where you kind of follow yourself around, and every minute the timer goes off, you kind of document what you the last 20 minutes. Like, was that sort of involved? Or, like, how did you sort of go from, like, being disorganized to being organized

Tracey Osborne 20:50 for what it was mindset, and it was just getting the right information. And what had happened for me in the beginning was, you know, I transitioned from corporate and sales, and there was a sales guru out there that I just I loved his style. He was very no nonsense in your face. Tell it like it is. And one of the things that he would teach was to do list were for losers, and that if you had to use a to do list and you probably weren't doing something right. And I thought, gosh, well, I don't want to be a loser, right? So I wouldn't write stuff down. And probably, I think in my second year of business, I'm like this. This isn't working, so I guess I'm gonna be a loser. I'm gonna write stuff down, and I've got lists everywhere now, but my biggest thing that really helped me was project management system. I use teamwork, and I've been using it for about three years now, and I absolutely love it. It lets me get really organized per client per team member. I at one point, had over 35 clients and about 19 team members. And you can't continue that kind of an organization without some kind of organization, you know, some kind of a tool in place to keep all the pieces and parts together. So there's a lot of different project management systems out there, but that, for me, was probably the most key piece, key component from for me to get organized. Awesome.

Robert Plank 22:11 And so do you have an affiliate link for that, or is it just teamwork.com?

Tracey Osborne 22:16 I do it. You can just go to it's Tracy hyphen, osborne.com, forward slash, teamwork. Awesome.

Robert Plank 22:23 Cool. Thank you. And I'm Yeah, you're welcome. And I'm looking at that now, and that looks pretty cool, like you can do the like the organizer teams and chat with them and see where things are at. Looks pretty awesome there. Yeah, so cool. And so again, I don't want to keep you too long, but as we're kind of starting to wind down our conversation, you know, we talked a lot about you, you do some of these tasks. You have this package for a tele Summit, and then you mentioned a little bit that you have, like, a weekly newsletter package, or you do blogging or social media. I mean, what other kinds of, like, cool things do you do for, you know, what other sort of VA tasks you do for these business owners?

Tracey Osborne 23:01 So we do. We do a lot more the technical and the strategical side at this point in the game, not to mention, not to say that I don't have people that I do their newsletter for you know that I've been with for a long time. But some of the other things I do is I manage podcasts. I'm a podcast expert. As far as bringing on great speakers, managing those speakers, and all that kind of thing. So that's one of the things we do quite a bit of. Again, the newsletters are very popular because that's what everybody needs to do. We put together a lot of funnels, a lot of launches, webinars. My clients can come to me and say, hey, I want to do a webinar, and this is the name of it, and this is the date of it. And that's pretty much all they need to tell me, and I do everything else, or I tell them what I need from them. So, you know, we do a lot of the the higher level, strategic stuff, awesome

Robert Plank 23:50 and cool. And this is really opening my eyes, because, like, as I said, when we first started this call, like I had it set in my head that, you know, virtual assistant is some kind of, you know, like, $10 person that, you know, does some tweets, or does some some articles. And this is really cool that there's this whole other world, this whole other next level of VA, or a VA team, or you'll do these newsletters, the funnels, the webinars, the getting speakers on a podcast. So it sounds like this virtual assistant thing has has really evolved from the stereotypical kind of, you know, outsource the stuff overseas to, you know, some teenager in their basement. So, so this is all pretty cool, and I want to make sure that people, you know, know all about you and know where to find you. So you can, you tell people about your websites and what kind of things people will find

Tracey Osborne 24:38 there. So again, my website, Tracy, hyphen, osborne.com, T, R, A, C, E, y, hyphen, O, S, B, O, R, N, E, I, and I've got a lot of good stuff. I've got a ton of articles, but I've got some tools on there about if you want to learn, if you're listening, you want to learn how to become a virtual assistant, or you are. A virtual assistant, and you're ready to scale up that business, then definitely we need to talk. I've got some courses, or I've got coaching as well for that, or if you're just a virtual professional and coaching, whatever industry you want, and you're ready to scale that business, you know, I'm definitely open to discussion and talking with you and seeing how we can help but and then, you know, I've got my different programs on her that I offer my different services. So yeah, a lot of good information there. And it's growing cool,

Robert Plank 25:29 and I'm looking at it right now at Tracy dash osborne.com and that's really cool that you have training here, not just for people looking to hire a VA, but also on the other end of that spectrum, people who want to become a VA, or want to kind of take their their VA business, to the next level and avoid some of those, those other VA people who have, kind of, it sounds like, have kind of gone to the wayside, all those, those horror stories that we talked about earlier where, you know, maybe some VA went in there and bit off more than they can chew, or didn't have a good system, or kind of ended up being in over their head and sort of just gave up, or even, like, had some sort of emergency. So it sounds like this is pretty cool, where if people have sort of your plans and your systems and your templates and stuff, then they can, they can avoid a lot of those typical, like VA stereotype kind of traps before they happen. And so if someone is on this page on Tracy osborne.com and you know, there's the courses and stuff like that, but if they want to contact you personally, maybe for some sort of, like custom thing, or like, hire you as a VA or something, where should people go on this website to look into hiring you as a virtual assistant? Yeah, so you

Tracey Osborne 26:33 can set you can actually just go to talk, talk to talk with Tracy, or talk to tracy.com drew a blank here on what that website is. Pull it up. I actually have a link talk to tracy.com Sorry, I'm working with a head cold today, so my brain isn't working. No sweat. Go to talk to tracy.com and that will just take you right to my calendar, and you can set up a free talk 20 minute consultation with me. Awesome.

Robert Plank 27:04 So that's talk to Tracy. Tracy with an e, t, a, l, k, T, o, t, R, A, C, y.com, to book that 20 minute consultation to see what's going on and then to check out everything else that Tracy has there, once again, Tracy dash osborne.com, Tracy with an E, so T, R, A, C, E, y, dash O, S, V, O, R, N, e.com, cool stuff. And so, you know, as we're about to sign off here, Tracy, is there, like a universal mistake you see happening with people you know, looking to scale their business and hire a VA and stuff like that.

Tracey Osborne 27:40 You know, I think the universal mistake is, it's lack of planning for your VA, and it's also just hiring the wrong person to do the wrong job.

Robert Plank 27:51 Cool, fair enough. And I like that. You know, as you were explaining earlier, that you sort of maybe do a bunch of research, or more research than an average person does when hiring a VA, because you're hiring someone, in a sense, partner with your business. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. So, so great advice there, have that planning and spend that extra time to hire the right person for the right job, to avoid those usual kind of mistakes. And so, lots of good stuff today, and everyone should go right now to Tracy hyphen osborne.com and thanks for stopping by today Tracy to to spend some of that wisdom with us.

Tracey Osborne 28:24 Thanks, Robert. I've enjoyed it. Please subscribe,

Robert Plank 28:27 rate and review our show at Robert plank.com/itunes and like us on Facebook, at Robert Plank show.com you.