But how do you know who to hire and what to hire them for? It’s overwhelming, especially when you think about onboarding and training. (Why can’t new team members just read our minds!?)
We’ve talked about hiring on the podcast before, but I wanted to talk specifically about hiring for an administrative role. And who better to do that than the woman of many talents, Tasha Booth?
In this episode, we talk about how to determine what skills your new hire needs, how to test for them, how to onboard so they’ll meet expectations and stick around, and what to consider before even writing that job description. So many great tidbits to consider.
Tune in now and hire that new team member right.
About Tasha Booth:
Tasha Booth is an agency owner, coach, and podcaster. She is the Founder & CEO of The Launch Guild – a full service launch support agency working with established coaches and course creators with Course & Podcast Launches. Her team is over 20 members strong and works together to support their clients in being able to focus back onto their zones of genius.
Additionally, she mentors Virtual Support Pros, Launch Managers, & Agency Owners who are passionate and ready to grow their businesses while living life on their own terms, and she is the host of the How She Did That Podcast — a podcast for Virtual Support Pros to learn business and tech tips. Tasha has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur, and she has appeared as a guest speaker for various summits and podcasts including Amy Porterfield’s “Online Marketing Made Easy,” and Julie Solomon’s “The Influencer Podcast.”
Tasha is an Air Force wife to her husband Scott, stepmom to Grace & Meredith, and work from home dog mom to Stanly and Boomer. In her spare time, she watches true crime tv, sings karaoke, and tends to her organic vegetable garden. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
Links & Resources:
Time Stamps:
[1:36] – Hiring is the number one pain point right now
[4:35] – Clarifying roles of virtual support
[7:07] – How to decide what you actually need in your biz
[14:07] – Vetting for skillset
[15:56] – Always pay for test projects
[16:40] – It’s an employee market right now
[19:30] – I do, we do, you do
[20:45] – Being ADHD it’s tempting to pass things off vs. following up
[21:47] – New team members need to know how best to work with you
[26:01] – What questions you should ask when hiring a VA or OBM
[29:22] – You can’t teach resourcefulness and common sense
[32:14] – When you’re hiring someone more established
[37:09] – Think outside the box
[39:50] – Find out more about Tasha
Transcription:
Amber Hawley 0:01
Business owners are increasingly being pulled in so many directions, feeling like they aren’t reaching their full potential in business and life despite their type aways. With my background as a therapist, entrepreneur, and as a.com dropout with ADHD, I interview and coach high achieving business owners like you who want to stop struggling for success by using psychological systems, strategies, and the occasional care for entation. This is the easily distracted entrepreneur, your place to slay overwhelm perfectionism and shiny object syndrome so that you can get done what matters most to you.
Amber Hawley 0:40
Hello, hello, my focus seeking friends, I have a awesome episode for you today. Today, I’m talking to the wonderful Tasha Booth who is an agency owner, coach and podcaster. She does it all folks. She has the CEO, She is the CEO of the launch guild, which is a full service launch Support Agency. And she also helps train and support VAs and virtual assistants and all kinds of things. She basically she does all the things. That’s essentially what I could say. But I’m so grateful. I think this is gonna be a great episode where we’re going to talk a lot about hiring and vetting vas. So I know that this will be a great one for you. But welcome, Tasha.
Tasha Booth 1:23
Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.
Amber Hawley 1:26
Yes, I’m very excited about this. As we were saying before we got started here. Hiring is really the number one pain point that I’m hearing from everybody right now. It’s like hiring and retaining really good support is people are just struggling. So I was like, well, I need the expert. Yes, who trains them? Who knows all the things who knows how to vets?
Tasha Booth 1:53
And let me first say that, like, it’s hard for everybody right now. And so for those of you out there who are just like nodding your head going like me too, like I coach agency owners like all day, every day, and I see all of us are in the same boat right now when it comes to hiring. So it’s just a really difficult time in general. It’s not that anybody’s necessarily doing anything wrong.
Amber Hawley 2:15
Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, there’s there’s a lot of components to it. Right? Like there’s, there’s so many factors that are playing into it. I feel I know people have before I’ve talked about, like hiring is kind of like dating. And right now like, I’m I was like, I’m gonna date a couple of people, because that way if one falls off right, yeah, like I need a spare. I’m yeah, I’m all about polygamy at this point. So. But yeah, I guess I gave a little bit of your bio, but maybe if you want to add anything to that, anything that that I missed there just to kind of give people a little more information about you and where you know, your background, and then we’ll get into talking about the struggle. Yeah, absolutely.
Tasha Booth 3:03
So I kind of stumbled into the world of virtual support. And working with virtual support pros, as I like to call it they that that term to me encompasses like OBS project managers, the whole gamut VAs everybody. But I stumbled into it and really found pretty quickly that I was good at it. And I was more good at it on the peopling side than the operational side because we are kindred ADHD ears. So definitely, I’m not always great at the operational pieces of it. But I think having an agency and supporting agency owners, and also having a certification for lunch managers just came really naturally to me. So that’s kind of what I do on my personal brand side. And then of course, on the agency side, we work with coaches, and consultants and course creators on all things launches. So yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of all that I do, basically.
Amber Hawley 3:53
Okay. I know, I’m like, Oh, we might have to have you back in talking about launch? Because that’s the other thing, right? Like, yeah, you were in the you were in the nitty gritty back end that dirty back end of the stuff that people struggle.
Tasha Booth 4:06
I know which I love all of it.
Amber Hawley 4:08
I love it. I love it. Well, I mean, I guess being in the online business world for a few years, we kind of probably assume that everyone knows all of all of our abbreviations and all of the things and but I do see it a lot. When I’m coaching and working with people we’re, you know, they have an idea like, Oh, this is what a VA is. And they don’t necessarily understand the difference between a VA and an OPM and, you know, there’s so many different things. So maybe could you first just like high level define the different kinds of roles that people can use virtually?
Tasha Booth 4:42
Yeah, absolutely. So when I think about kind of the four buckets that I see, mostly, I see a virtual assistant, online business manager, project manager or launch manager and director of operations. Those are kind of the four that I see in the online space, I think A VA and to an extent sometimes and OBM are both in the implementation category, meaning they are going to be the doers. Now, the difference is that a VA is mostly an implementation, meaning that you give them a task, they complete that task, they come back and say, Hey, what’s the next thing you need support around OBM, or managers of other people and of projects and everything, but they can also be implementers, as well. So maybe some higher level implementation like tech things, and operational things in your business, but definitely higher level while also managing people and processes. Then when you go into project managers or launch managers, I usually see those people as shorter term solutions. So they are more project based and they’re supporting you around a certain project, like you are, you know, rebuilding a website or building your first website, or you are launching something, that sort of thing. And then director of operations usually comes in on a larger company that needs more full support. So directors of operation are really skilled at the HR side of things at the operation side, looking at your business as a whole, and kind of giving your entire business a hug in terms of all of the needs of the business.
Amber Hawley 6:14
Oh, that’s awesome. I think that that’ll be helpful. And you know, it’s so confusing to write because even, even within the realm of what people call like a virtual assistant, or just Bas, there’s so many there’s like tech Bas, there’s, there’s like social media vas, there’s, you know, the day to day operational things. There’s such a gamut. So I think that’s helpful for people just to even understand that right. Yeah, absolutely. And so when people are thinking about okay, I know, I’m, you know, most of our listeners are, most of them are women, and most of them are identify as women, and most of them are service based entrepreneurs. And of course, there are, there are others. But when we think about, okay, I’m a service based business owner, and I know that I need to be outsourcing some stuff, because I’m doing all the things in my business, I guess, is there like a set of questions or, like a process of deciding like, Oh, which one of those things which one of those four buckets do I need? Right?
Tasha Booth 7:15
Yeah, yeah, I definitely think there’s a process. And I think that that starts with really looking at what do you need them to do? Like, what is the day to day doing? I like to start everybody with kind of a time audit. And I know, it’s one of those things that like we hate, but it really quickly and clearly pinpoints where the time sucks are in our business, where the leaky buckets are in our business and in our either processes, or just what we should not be doing as as CEOs of our business anymore. And so once we can be clear about that, and where the actual need is, then we can start making a job description that makes sense, instead of looking for the quote unquote, unicorn that I see people asking for all the time. Yeah, you’re you’re setting yourself up for failure in that because unicorns aren’t real. And so if you start by already looking for something that’s not real, of course, you’re gonna be disappointed, right? So the the clear, and that we can get about what is what’s part of the job description, what is inside and outside of the job description, the more clarity that we can create once we’re actually you know, creating a job posting posting that job description.
Amber Hawley 8:26
Oh, that’s wonderful. And I agree with you, like, I know, I’ve talked about this in, in my membership with the people that I’m working with, where I think time audits are really important. Yeah, because we need that clarity, right? Like, because sometimes I’ve seen this too, where, when you’re so overwhelmed, or you know, I’m often working with people are kind of like on the verge or in the thick of burnout. They’re like, I just need to get stuff off my plate, but they actually don’t look at like, should I even be doing that? Or like they, they they like piecemeal stuff off? And then it’s like, well, you didn’t actually need somebody, some of that could have been automated some of them like, oh, and you know, so I do think it’s really helpful to have a core understanding. Do you think it’s also like when I’m just because I’ve went through this process, where you’re interviewing somebody, and then they kind of talk about their passions or skill set? And you’re like, oh, yeah, that’s something I would like to be doing. You know, do you think you incorporate those things? Or are you like, No, you should know what you need beforehand.
Tasha Booth 9:28
I think the majority of it, you should know what you need beforehand. But I’ll give you an example. So we just hired a full time marketing operations manager, that’s her official title. And when we were hiring, we originally thought that we were going to have this person, do project management for my launches, as well as kind of be the person in charge of marketing metrics and everything and giving bringing us new ideas to the table in terms of like how we should be, you know, finding and, and curating our community basically. And then as we started interviewing people and talking to people, the person that was like number one on my list, she has an amazing background in Facebook ads. And she doesn’t have as much of a background in project management. And so we kind of started, like, retooling the job description a little bit for her, because I was like, Okay, well, well, if we give this other person, the project management piece that was already on our team, and let her shine in Facebook ads, it took that back in house, because we were we had an outside Facebook ads agency, you know, it could make sense. And so instead of, it doesn’t always have to be that, like, you’re so rigid, that it’s only you know, this specific, if they have this specific skill set, it’s perfect for them, I think really thinking about like, what works best for them, as well as what, of course works best for you.
Amber Hawley 10:49
Okay, yeah, that’s helpful. Because I know, you know, everybody has their philosophy. And sometimes, again, it can be tempting, like, Oh, that would be great. But you, but then you end up picking somebody that maybe didn’t fulfill those core things that you were needing. And you’re you know, you’re in a situation where you have a bigger team, so you have more flexibility in that. But it’s a good thing to watch out for it can be tantalizing when you’re starting out, right, it really can.
Tasha Booth 11:15
And I think the key to what you said was like core, they have to have the core of what you want, right? And what you need. And so if you’re looking for an admin VA, who can check your inbox and this person comes along, and they’re amazing, graphic designer, awesome. But can they check an inbox? Because that’s what you need? moment, we can handle the graphics later down the line?
Amber Hawley 11:36
Yeah, I know. And I say this, as somebody, I always say, I’ve pretty much made every mistake in business. That’s possible. Like, that’s how I feel. I’m a Trial by Fire person. I tried to learn but but it’s in the mistake, because you get excited you get excited about those things, or, you know, like, also trying where I’m like, Oh, I hire based solely on personality.
Tasha Booth 12:00
Yeah.
Amber Hawley 12:03
To work with that person. And you figure because, you know, I mean, you hear enough times, like, oh, you can train the right person, right? And you’re like, yes, and
Tasha Booth 12:14
yeah, it definitely is a yes. And because the other question on the other side of that is, do you have the time and capacity to train the right person, I know that I used to try it, I, you know, I love people. And so I’d be like, Oh, but she’s so nice, like she can learn. And I did that a couple times. And it bit me in the butt every single time. Because I realized, like, my, the jobs that we have now are the you know, the agency side and the personal brand size, it just goes by so fast and so quickly, that if the person can’t pick things up quickly, if Ivica stopped to re explain, like, I don’t have the mental capacity to do that anymore. And so I need somebody who can come straight out the gate. And like I can, you know, get them straight out the box, open up the box, and they’re already brilliant at what they do. Of course, there’s going to be a learning curve to understanding our company and our company culture. But it’s not the same as like training them on how to use kartra.
Amber Hawley 13:09
Yes, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say I’ve, I’ve had it where, you know, I’ve gone through like, agencies to hire a VA, and then I’ve gone direct to people, or I’ve hired people as employees within my, like an assistant or an intake person, you know, doing administrative work. And so I feel like I’ve done every single version. And yeah, I have had that before where you hire even an agency. And then the person like, there’s, there’s not even knowledge of like, the basics, like literally setting up zoom meetings. And I’m like, yeah, yeah, no, that’s a little scary. So. So with that, and you’re like thinking, my thinking is you pay more to an agency, because they’ve done the vetting and the training, and they’re ensuring that that person has like, the core skills needed. So how do you if you’re not going through an agency? And also like, clearly that happened? How do you vet for, like skill set? How do you verify skill set? Like, what are some ways in which you do that?
Tasha Booth 14:13
Yeah. So I think the biggest issue that I see with people not bending skill set is that they are hiring reactively instead of proactively. And so when we do that, what we end up doing is kind of like reaching for the closest warm body instead of taking the time to test skill set and test competencies in general on a number of different levels. Right. So for example, before somebody becomes a team member at the launch guild, they have two applications, two rounds of applications application one is more so like yes or no questions like do you deal with in the US or Canada? Or don’t you live in the US or Canada? Like do you have daytime availability or do you do you know, these, you know, five, I think there’s five or six like core other systems that we use that like people have to know when they you know, when they’re starting with us, then the second one is more open ended and more for those soft skills and understanding conflict resolution and those sorts of things. But then we go into interview, and then test project, which is where we’re testing for that, that core, the core competencies around skill set. And then I think that we have them do Colby assessment, and then Clifton Strengths finders as well. So yeah, they’ve, you know, it sounds bad in some way, but good and other, but they’ve jumped through several hoops before they’ve they’ve gotten a green light from me or for the rest of the team. And while it takes longer, we have people that stay on our team longer and are committed, because they’ve already shown that they’re committed to a longer process. And they’ve already shown that they have the skill set in order to be able to do the job.
Amber Hawley 15:51
Right, right. So in that process, like even on the test project, are you paying them for that time that they’re doing?
Tasha Booth 15:59
Yes, absolutely. Um, yeah, that’s a huge, it’s a huge one for me, I truly, truly believe in paying people well. And that starts with a test project, right? Because this test project, usually, depending on the role, I know, like our tech VA, one is about two hours or so that it takes him from start to finish. Because we’re not just saying like, okay, take this email and upload it into ConvertKit. Like, anybody can do that. But we really want to see like, are they thinking about? What’s the next step of the process? Are they thinking about the tags, the exclusions, the inclusions? Like? Are they thinking about all those pieces? Or are we going to have to tell them about each one of those pieces every single time once they’re hired?
Amber Hawley 16:37
Oh, absolutely. No, I’m glad. I’m glad to hear that. Because that’s, you know, there’s that balance, right. And it is a it is like an employee market, so to speak, like, kind of like a buyer’s or seller’s market, where, like, you do want to vet people, but then there’s also that being thoughtful about people’s time and energy and respectful of that. So I feel that’s important for people to hear. You can’t just set up millions of hoops.
Tasha Booth 17:04
Not enough people. I’ve seen people that are like, you know, create piece 10 posts with like, accompanying graphics, and they’re like, Okay, how much you’re gonna pay me? And they’re like, No, this is the test project is for free. Like, No, don’t, don’t do that. Don’t do that to people.
Amber Hawley 17:21
I know, behind the scenes, because I that part, I get a lot of behind the scenes stuff of me, a major multimillion dollar company who was doing that to, like experts like to hire experts, not even not even a VA but like to hire experts. And it’s like, That’s some bullshit like, yeah, people. Yeah. Yeah, so that’s really good. And I guess, you know, kind of along that lines, because like I said, I I’ve just recently been, or maybe I didn’t say it. I’m recently in the hiring process of finding new assistants. And so I was talking to my operations person. And we were, she was saying, Okay, what you should do is, we had somebody I met with them, I’m, you know, we’re gonna give him a shot, there’s like a 60 day trial period. And everything’s on the up and up and clear. And we’re gonna go through some projects. So I’m gonna go through and kind of walk through some things to show her how we do it, because this person is newer, like, it was known that this person is newer, but I, I feel like there’s like a, you know, an energy there that. So once again, I’m almost saying I’m hiring for personnel, and she’s young, she doesn’t seem burnt out. Just kidding. That was the other thing that I actually thought, oh, this would be really helpful is to literally walk through wall, you know, screen sharing, and then have them do it just to kind of show me that they can do it, because I realized, when I was hiring, you know, my assistance before when I was still in California, they were in person, and all of our onboarding was in person. So I got to see it, right. Whereas since then, when I’ve hired a few people like they came in, and they were experts at what they did. So they already had such, they had such experience that like it was fine, and I kind of trusted them. But it’s like when you’re starting with somebody and you’re giving somebody a chance when they’re a little bit newer, maybe you’re like, Okay, let’s How do you ensure that they’re getting it and they’re not missing a bunch of steps?
Tasha Booth 19:26
Right, right. I think of it as like when people are student teaching, and the model is like I do we do you do, right? And so you start with basically exactly what you said, where they’re shadowing you, they’re looking at the process, and you’re walking them through the process, and then they may do all of it or part of it, and you give them feedback on it. And then they do the entire thing from start to finish on their own. And you still give them a little bit of feedback or like check to make you know quality assurance things for a while. But there’s that there’s that slow grind Agile handoff. And I think that that’s the place where a lot of hiring goes wrong. It’s not necessarily the hiring process. But it’s an onboarding and training and support process. Because no matter if the person is amazing and has years of experience or is brand new, they’re still brand new to your business. And so understanding how you want things and expect things to be done, or what like, a great job looks like to you, that’s going to need to be modeled and explain instead of just assuming that they know that straight out the gate.
Amber Hawley 20:31
Yeah, and I’m gonna, like I said, I’ve made every mistake. I’m working on it. But it’s one of those things where when, especially when you’re so overloaded, and you’re just like, I just need to get this off my plate. And especially being ADHD, it’s so tempting to just pass it off, and then not double check. And that was part of the thing, like even going through, like you said, campaigns, and there’s always those little nuances are those little things, I might go through like one or two, and then I didn’t go through all of them. And you’re like, oh, like all these mistakes. And so I’m like, Just do it. And I don’t want to have to follow up. And you know, when I hire a company, I mean, I have been known to tell people that they’re like, Well, you can go through and approve. And I was like, I won’t be doing that. I won’t be I’m trusting you. Because right now I’m too overloaded. Like, I know myself. But I but because I’m giving somebody who’s a little bit newer a chance. And frankly, because I’m trying to be better about the onboarding. I’m like, Okay, I have to so I think I think for me, it’s even scheduling time every day, where it’s blocked on my calendar, so that I go and follow up and really go through all of that.
Tasha Booth 21:38
And yes, we are like totally kindred spirits on that. So on all of this, but yes, so that’s definitely my my advice to when you’re hiring somebody new, I like to tell them, first of all, I think it’s really important that they understand like your working patterns and how best to work with you. So a couple of things that I put it now in my how to work with me document, our team member onboarding document is a how to work with me page, it explains to them that I have ADHD, and so they’re probably going to need to come to me three or four or 17 times to remind me of things sometimes, and they’re not bothering me, it doesn’t mean that I’m mad at them. If I don’t respond, it just means that I forgot, and it slipped my mind. Same thing about like, if I if they don’t understand something, I would rather they come to me and ask then not understand it and not do it. Because they don’t understand it, you know, like little and big things like that. Also, understanding that like Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be my heavier days when it comes to coaching. And so if they asked me a question in slack on those days, it’ll probably take me longer to answer than if they asked me on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but I think like in the very beginning, especially for the first month, I like to carve out at least 10 to 15 minutes every day and say, Okay, if you have a question, ask it by 2pm My time every day, and from two to 215, I will make sure that I’m available and in Slack so that I can answer any questions that I see that come in from you. Same thing about maybe a couple times a week in the beginning, meeting with them. And it doesn’t have to be long 15 to 30 minutes, to have a container to make sure that they’re getting their questions asked, asked and answered in real time, so that you’re not, you know, like looking at them. Like why didn’t anything get done this week? And they’re like, oh, because I had all these questions and it became a bottleneck. So they’re probably going to do better work and get up to speed faster. If they’re given that space, and you give yourself you know, the capacity to answer their questions.
Amber Hawley 23:36
Oh, I love that we really are kindred spirits, though. I mean, literally, that whole working with me thing, it’s the same thing. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are like heavy client days, like all of it. All of it’s the same. I do like the idea of saying like, if you have questions by two, I’ll answer them during this period of time. I think that’s really smart. And I I usually meet once a week, yeah, like 30 minutes in the beginning, because it’s also one of those things where sometimes you’re like, oh, I don’t really need to ask that question. Or you, you kind of hold on to it because you like, I don’t want to bug them. Maybe I’ll come back to it. And then you forget, but when you have that chance to meet, like they’re more apt to just like free ask things, you know, free flow it. Plus for me as somebody with ADHD, like once you’re in front of me, I am going to remember to answer your questions like yeah, I am present I’m here for you. But if I if I’m like, Oh, I’ve got to do that. Like all you know, I’ll do the ADHD thing. Oh, yeah, we’ll get to that. All right, or even being
Tasha Booth 24:35
you know, I was gonna say like, even things like, oh, I need I still need LastPass access for this thing, you know, and you’re like, oh, yeah, I’ll get that too. You know, if you’re in front of me, let me give you a LastPass Access Now, let me like press record and do that loom video for you right now and send it to you so that like we don’t forget about it until next week.
Amber Hawley 24:58
That’s exactly that’s why Do you think? Well, you know, for the reasons where they said, but I think meeting weekly in the beginning, because then you can get all you don’t, I don’t ever want to be the bottleneck. Like, that’s always my goal. And, and I’m the bottleneck. So it’s got to figure out those things. Even when I was in person, which I love having somebody in person sometimes because you know, there’s just stuff that needs to be handled. But I would have my assistant come in and sit like in my office, and I would do the thing she needed from me, and she would sit and do her own work, but it was enough of an accountability that she would notice if all of a sudden they just went and picked up my phone or, you know, did something else. It’s like that accountability, like no, Amber, you’re staying on task. I love it. I love it. That’s a good one. So okay, so yes, onboarding is important, how you onboard having having the understanding that it does take time to train people on your business, you know, like managing expectations, communication, all of that. Are there any other pieces that are either in like the hiring process, or, like certain questions that you think are important to ask, let’s say, I’m gonna say, like hiring a VA or an OBM? Because those are probably, those are probably the ones most people are hiring, you know, that they’re really looking for that consistent support?
Tasha Booth 26:18
Yeah, I would look like if you had somebody before, in that role, specifically, or in a similar role, I would look back and look for the things that didn’t work, or the thing, the reasons that things didn’t work, not because we want to start with the negative, but because that points to what is important to you, and what necessarily you didn’t get from that past relationship. So for example, if you were like, Oh, I had an admin VA, she was great, and putting things in Carter and everything, but she was terrible at, you know, misspelling things on emails or something like that, then we can test for that even in that first or second application. And just say, like, Okay, this is an email that like an example of an email that would come in, how would you respond to that? One of the examples, or one of the things that I do for Redmond specifically is, I have an email, as example email that says something like, oh, you know, I, I got your name from a friend of mine. She raves about you guys. I’d love to book a call to talk about lunch support, like, let me know next steps, something like that. And so I am looking for, of course, grammar and spelling. But I’m also looking for people who have taken the extra step and understanding what is our process that we already have in place for people to book calls with us? And so the people that were like, oh, yeah, Tasha has available, you know, Tuesday at 2pm, or Wednesday at 3pm. Or like Tasha never have never had anything available. So absolutely not are like, Oh, tell us what works for you. We’re not playing that volleyball back and forth game, right. But what is already on our website is, here’s the link to book a call with us. Here’s the link to fill out the form. So those people that took the time to find that form, and to say, oh, you know, we’re so glad that so and so is having a great experience with us, we’d love to learn more about how we can support you in your business. Here’s the link to fill out the form so we can get to know you more. And to book a call with us. That is what I’m looking for. And those people go to the front of the line. So really thinking through what do you what would feel like, excellent and above average, what would feel like an A plus service for you? And how can you kind of ask those questions that get to, are you going to get that from that person?
Amber Hawley 28:31
Oh, I love that. And that’s something you do in the interview process.
Tasha Booth 28:36
That is something that we do in the application process. So even before they get to the interview. And it’s funny the last two times we’ve hired for admin VAs because we don’t hire a lot of admin VA, since we only need like a couple for launch support. But the last time the last couple times, we’ve done that. I now put that in the first application because I was getting so many people in the second application that had horrific spelling and grammar that I was just like I just need to eliminate eliminate these people around one. So now I put it in the you know, it’s not one of those things that takes a long time. It takes five to 10 minutes at most to find the answer and to really curate you know, a response. I’m not looking for paragraphs. I’m looking for a couple sentences. Right right.
Amber Hawley 29:18
Okay, that’s fascinating. Yeah, I love I mean, it’s it’s that one just speaks to also resourcefulness Right. Like that’s one of those qualities where I used to always say back in my.com days when I would apply for jobs. This was before I had my degrees so they always want a degree and I was like, I have resourcefulness and common sense and you can’t teach that. And I almost across the board got hired I swear. Screw though that’s somebody it takes somebody who’s resourceful. I love having those things that eliminate massive amounts of people. You’d have to go through all those applications, right?
Tasha Booth 29:54
Yes. And the resourcefulness is so huge for me because I am limited on time. So I’m looking for team members that are thinkers that take the time to think like, okay, what are the possibilities in how I should approach this? Instead of their go to being asking me the question like, Oh, we got this email, are you available? You know, when are you available? That’s not helpful for me, because now I have to open my calendar and figure out what I’m available instead of them having gone and figured out what our process already is.
Amber Hawley 30:23
Okay, I love that. That’s a good one. That’s a really good one. You said something else. And my brain was like, oh, yeah, come back to that. And of course, now it just, it’s literally probably in my head thinking looks, what says, Should I be giving people but I do agree. That’s been one. I’ve had a hard time passing off, like email management, right? Because I’m very well, I don’t think I say I’m particular. But I feel like it’s kind of what you’re saying, where we want a basic level of, you need to be kind and courteous, because I’ve hired somebody who seemed very professional, and she had, you know, skill sets. And she was so rude to people. I mean, it was It wasn’t like, mean, rude, but it was rude. And I was like, That is not how I talk to people I work with. So, you know, like capturing those voices. It’s it is hard. I mean, I think all of that is a process that you got to kind of figure out, like, how do you test for that? And so I think it’s important, right, depending on what the core tasks are,
Tasha Booth 31:21
yeah, absolutely. And that’s another place that you can also kind of do the ID we do you do in terms of like having a place in your inbox, where maybe they like draft an email, but don’t send it until you give them the feedback. And also, just like from the beginning, I tell people, you know, like, we use emojis we say, lol, you know, like, it’s okay to for it to be very conversational, because that’s the tone that our clients know and expect from us. And so stuff like that is okay, but letting letting people know, like, it doesn’t need to be so formal, or it should be more formal, or that sort of thing from the beginning will help them set the tone and support that.
Amber Hawley 31:57
No, I love that. Yeah, really speaking to your own company culture, like how do you guys yeah, what what you’re wanting how you want to be represented? I love that. Yeah, those things can be trained to like some of those. I mean, like I said, resourcefulness, not so much. So would you do this when you’re vetting people, if somebody’s like, Hey, I’m an established VA. And you know, like, you’re not finding an individual person applying to your company, as an employee or, or, or even as a contractor. But they’re kind of established? Do you still expect them to go through that kind of stuff? Or what are your thoughts about that?
Tasha Booth 32:33
Yeah, great question. So I think it’s a little bit different, because all of my team is coming in as subcontractors for our agency. So everybody who comes in as a subcontractor, yes, they all go through our four step three to four step hiring process. And we make that clear from the beginning that like this is, you know, it’s slightly different because they are a subcontractor. If they are a VA that has their own established business, their own established way of doing things, they’re probably going to have something like the discovery call form for you to fill out and go through their process. I think it’s okay, at a certain point to say, you know, I’d love to test to make sure that we’re a good match for each other, can I pay you for two hours of your time? And can we do a paid test project to make sure that like you understand the systems that we use, so I think that there needs to be a give and take on that side. But it is important to treat them as business owners, because they are business owners in their own right as virtual assistants. So if they have their own process in terms of it, and you’re not bringing them in as either an employee or a subcontractors for your agency or something like that, definitely start with their process, and then see if they’re flexible enough to, you know, help you out by making sure that like you have a test project of some kind, I really think that test project is huge and important.
Amber Hawley 33:46
Okay, I love that. Yeah. And I think it is important, because I know, I’ve known people that try to do all that vetting where you’re like, This person is an established business. Yeah. So there’s, they have their way and that’s the thing where I think it is important to, you know, talk to people like, this is how I ideally work. Does that work for you? And like, does it match because I’ve seen both sides of that, where it’s like, I’ve worked with people were like, they had a really rigid process, and they never wanted to, like, meet and have meetings, and it was a real life problem for them. Like, dude, I don’t have meetings with you, how am I supposed to stay focus to hand off site? Like, how do I do this? And you know, they use Trello I was like, You’re just telling me like, I can’t stand this shit. And then you know, and you’re like, you could be wonderful, but that really I know enough about myself now to know that that doesn’t work. And you know, conversely, though, like, when you have people who are like, Okay, this is what I needing, and they say, like, oh, we communicate via slack or boxer, I’m like, can I email like, can we do Voxer? Because I really am a verbal processor. And if they say no, then like, that’s information for me. Right? But they’re willing to, I think it’s a mutual respect thing. Right? Right, right. Absolutely. Yeah. So that’s good. Yeah, cuz I’ve also seen it to where, you know, I have many friends who are like OBM VA people and like, where clients come in kind of thinking, like somehow it’s their, like Don Draper, and they can treat their assistant however they want. I’m like, what the app do. person’s a business owner.
Tasha Booth 35:26
When I first first the first conference that I went to, as a VA, when I first got started in, I guess, it was like, early 2008, the conference was late 2017. And I was introducing myself to somebody and I said, Yeah, I’m a virtual assistant. And she said, Well, I thought you said you own your own business. I was like, I do as a virtual assistant. And she was so confused, because in her mind, VAs RoboHelp, basically, you know, they weren’t they were employees. They weren’t like business owners in their own right, I’m guessing. And now like, yeah, like, I took that VA business and turn it into a million dollars. So they’re
Amber Hawley 36:05
also note to self never worked with that lady. Yeah, I know, right? It’s a it’s the whole gamut. So this is, maybe this is a lesson and people be thoughtful and respectful. And also, it’s okay to ask for what you’re needing. I love it. I love it. I bet you have the best stories. So yeah, I guess we’ve I feel like we’ve covered a lot of the main ones that I was thinking about like that, you know, I see people struggling like either, you know, what kind of person do I hire? What are some of the things I should be asking them? How should I be structuring this? And then, like the onboarding thing? Is there anything else that stands out in your mind, as you know, because you work with so many people who are in that virtual world, like building their own businesses that you see as a struggle for people or that would be helpful for people to know in this whole process?
Tasha Booth 37:04
Yeah, so one of the things that I wanted to make sure I mentioned is, don’t be afraid, especially in this hiring climate, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. And what I mean by that is, so many women left the workforce during the pandemic within the last two or so years, because of childcare needs, and that sort of thing. And they have not entered, like re entered the workforce, you know, for the most part. And these are women who have degrees and have tons of experience and all of the things that you’re looking for, maybe not in the online space, so to speak, but they definitely like have transferable skill sets. Same thing with military spouses. I’m a military spouse, I know you’re a military spouse. And the thing is, like, we move around so much, that it’s really hard sometimes for them to get the kinds of jobs that they’re like that they should be having, you know, in the level of their skill set. And so really thinking about people that may not understand or come from the online space, but do have those skills and do have the the wants to do to do the thing. And also, this is the other important piece don’t necessarily want to be their own boss, or build their own empire. I think that that’s the thing that we kind of see in agencies, a lot of times that we are looking for people who want to be intrapreneurs instead of entrepreneurs, I tell them that all the time. Because if you’re looking for somebody who is building their own empire, who wants their own agency, eventually, they start a clock, you know, you start the time starts ticking away, the minute they start working with you, because eventually they’re going to be growing their own thing and then leave. Whereas if you’re looking for somebody who really just wants stability, and wants to be able to work from anywhere and values that above all things, they’re the people that are going to be with you for years.
Amber Hawley 38:51
Oh, 100% I was hiring therapists like that. Like it’s different job description, but it’s the same thing. Like, if they want to build their empire, it’s like, yeah, like, Yeah, but the ones who are like, I just want to show up and have I want to have connection and community and I want somebody else to take care of all the shit that I hate. So exactly, I will do that. I will mark it the hell out of you. I love it. So that’s great. I love that. Well, I want to thank you so much. I think this was really helpful. And I know that this is going to be really valuable for people as we said, this is such a big pain point. And obviously, we’ve got to have you back at some point to talk about launching.
Tasha Booth 39:42
Launching.
Amber Hawley 39:43
We definitely do that back. Awesome. Well, where can people go to find out more about you? Because I know they’ll want to?
Tasha Booth 39:50
Yes, so I have two websites. One is thelaunchbuild.com And that’s everything that you can learn about how we can support you with your launches and then Tashabooth.com is my other website that specifically for my two programs, so either if you want to become a certified Launch Manager or if you’re an agency owner looking for support.
Amber Hawley 40:08
Awesome, awesome. And your podcasts, yes. And it’s so easy to just go right over and
Tasha Booth 40:17
over to Ryan. Yes. My podcasts was called how she did that and it’s business and tech tips. We interview a lot of women business owners, and it’s super fun. So I’m excited about that as well.
Amber Hawley 40:27
Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much.
Tasha Booth 40:29
Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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