If you're interested about service providers and how they help other teacher business owners, this is a must-listen! I have special guest Chloe Tascoff on the podcast to talk about all things hiring for your TPT business!

Chloe is a former teacher-turned-business-owner. She started out selling her resources on TpT and while doing so, accidentally slipped into video marketing for teacher authors! Chloe currently lives in Ohio with her two children, two dogs, and her husband.

In this episode, you will learn about:

• Chloe's journey as a service provider
• The differences between a VA and a freelancer
• Misconceptions about a service provider
• How the hiring process typically looks like for most TPT sellers
• What TPT sellers should realistically expect when hiring a service provider
• Best practices for managing a project when hiring out 
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Resources and Links

Follow Chloe at @videomarketingtpt and chloe.tascoff 

Submit a question for the CTP Q&A!

Let's connect!

• TPT Store: The Southern Teach
• Website: thesouthernteachdesigns.com⁠
• Instagram: @thesouthernteach.designs
• Facebook: The Southern Teach Design and Branding
• Blog: The Southern Teach Blog
• 
  

Mentioned in this episode:

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Chloe 0:00

I will tell you my favorite clients are the people who are like I trust you to do your thing. And in my contract, I allow them edits, I allow them to change things, right are so many edits. But if you're working with someone who is very skilled, they have a process in place. And they're established business owners just like you are so I would not be checking up on your web designer, or really your photographer, right unless they're newer and that you know they have questions, but they'll most likely to tell you that. Now, if you have a virtual assistant, that's someone who you might be checking on a little more like managing a little bit more, I would urge you to try to find somebody who's self sufficient and can kind of pick things up and and do them without having a lot of oversight.

Kirsten 1:49

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kiersten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

Hey there and welcome to another episode of the creative teacher podcast. Last week, I talked a lot about my journey into being a service provider and offering a service based business for TPT. Sellers. And also gave you some tips if you wanted to get started in that path as well helping other TPT sellers. But somebody I mentioned in that episode was Chloe Teske off, and she has helped me a lot as far as kind of where my service based business is today. So I thought in addition to that, we could get her as guest on the podcast. To talk more in this realm. Perhaps you're thinking that you may not want to be a service provider, or you may not want to be a VA, but you would love to hire a VA or a service provider. And that's kind of where our conversation goes today. I did have a solo episode about this. But I wanted to bring in somebody who pretty much knows this world inside and out to talk more about this with us. She is somebody who is a video marketing guru, YouTube for TPT sellers, video previews for TPT. And she also helps other service providers build a successful freelancing business. So she does a really great job at explaining just a lot of do's and don'ts as far as hiring a service provider and a VA. And there are differences just to you know, be a little transparent. There are differences. And just as a little peek into what we're going to talk about. So I hope you enjoy this interview. I love the frank discussion that we have. I think it is super helpful. And I think that you will really enjoy it.

Today we've got a special guest Chloe task off. So welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. Yay. So tell us about yourself and your experience as a teacher, of course for sure.

Chloe 4:36

Kirsten 5:25

Wow. Yes.

Chloe 5:29

So I quit to stay home with my daughter, and I started my TPT store. And then I kind of just, like accidentally fell into creating videos. Nobody was really doing it. And I thought it was fun. And so I just like experimented, I use iMovie a lot at first, and then I heard about, you know, Final Cut Pro. And I'm like, Oh, I wonder how professional we can really make these videos. And so I started doing that people started catching on. And then I was able to build a really successful freelance business creating videos of TPT products. Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah, I didn't notice like, there were and there's been an influx of video previews in like, the TPT listings and stuff like that. Yes. So it's definitely become like more common place. Definitely. And I know there was a glitch, but they supposedly fixed it. So with the views and all that.

Kirsten 6:28

So you kind of already talked about like your journey as a teacher, printer VA, but like, just kind of tell us how that's been going as far as because I know, you are a pretty big expert in the Video Preview or video marketing realm. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Chloe 6:46

So yeah, I when I started doing it, basically no one else was doing it. So I wasn't really sure where to go with it, what to do with it. So it's been a lot of trial and error on my part. And it's funny, because people always tell me, like my video stick, they look so bad. How do you get yours to look like they do. And I just have to tell them, You should have seen my first videos. And I tell people that I'm really not that talented. It's just I just figured out how to do it. And it took a lot of practice and a lot of troubleshooting with lights and you know, props and staging, and, and editing. So at this point, I do even have a team and you know, we create videos for TPT sellers. I was at another conference this in Chicago this past July. So yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. We're just kind of rolling along. Yeah.

Kirsten 7:48

And that kind of goes into our topic for today, as far as hiring a VA, because you did mention that like you did start by yourself. Now you have a team helping you out. So we can kind of discuss how that like expanded from there. But just in general, like what is because I know we hear a lot of people that have they hire people out or they work with a team or they might, you know, have some type of virtual assistant here and there. So can you just kind of tell us what a VA or what a service provider is?

Chloe 8:24

Yes. And one thing that I kind of forgot to mention I was thinking is that I do coach other freelancers at this point because or service providers vas, because I want them to, you know, be able to succeed like I have right now I want to clarify, amongst the terms. Virtual Assistants and freelancers are service providers. So I guess they both fall under that umbrella. But really, a virtual assistant is somebody who does more administrative tasks. Kind of like if you think about somebody at the front desk at a doctor's office, or you know, they're scheduling calls, doing calendars, answering emails, answering phones, I mean, TPT sellers don't really need that. But you know, they're kind of like a little assistant basically. They can be employees, they can be contractors. There's a very big difference between a virtual assistant and then a freelancer because TPT sellers hire both of these types of people. So we have the VAs, but we also have the freelancers and those people are more skilled, right. So not the thing specific. Yes, yeah, correct. They develop a certain skill. It's not really an administrative task. And I'm not saying bas aren't skilled. I'm just saying that a freelancer specializes in something more. Whether that's video photography, graphic design, SEO copywriting websites. A freelancer is probably unless you're a giant company, which none of us I'm in really are at this point, you know, we're not like Nike or right? giant corporations. They're not really so many have as an employee, right? They run their own business and they take on clients as needed because you really don't, you might hire a photographer month to month, but you really don't need to put them on your employee payroll every single month, like that. And it probably be really expensive to do so. So I honestly consider freelancers more like contractors, even just like a landscaper or a plumber who comes over to your house, right? So they usually have their own contracts, because they have their own business, and things like that. So hopefully that kind of clarifies between the two terms.

Yeah, it definitely does. Yeah, because there is there is a certain difference, and it's totally okay to do both like to hire both for your business. Yes. Oh, for sure. Yes. So are there any misconceptions in general about like in the TPT world or maybe like rumblings in Facebook groups? What misconceptions Do you see about Bas, or freelancers in general?

So here's the thing I think that I see in the TPT space, more than I see in just other general business areas online, because every business owner, online business owner is hiring people a fear to give up control. Because we're teachers, right, and most of us are accidental business owners. So we still kind of haven't developed that. It's beneficial to hire our type of mindset. Because again, we're kind of like accidental, our stories are our babies, right? are very, were you used to doing it all? Like, I think now that I think about it, we do a lot of the admin tasks. We don't have an assistant that helps us with parent emails, like we do it all ourselves, actually. And not only that, but you were, I think, 60, the average is like 60 to 80 hours a week as a teacher. And obviously, you don't get compensated for that. And then, on top of that, you know, just the general disrespect, and feeling. You know, there's just a lot of things going on. In education, I see a lot of TPT sellers, who are not so concerned with results, but with cost. I wouldn't go yes, they'll cook, they'll hire somebody who is cheap, and then not get the results they want. And then they don't think it's worth it to hire out or even hire someone cheap. And that person kind of ghosts. Mm hmm. And then they're like, I just paid $300, where's all my stuff? You know, and this person just left, I see that kind of stuff all the time. And at the same time, I think that there is a problem. If you follow me on Instagram on my freelance accounts. I've talked about this a lot. I think that there's a problem right now, from the pandemic and everybody wanting to work at home. There are some courses out there for VAs and freelancers saying, oh my gosh, I, you know, I quit my job. And then I made, you know, 60 grand and two months, and I'm going to teach you how to do that. And these people, they don't they're not even be the the people doing the courses. They're not even virtual systems anymore. A lot of what they say is lying. It almost reminds me of like an MLM scheme, right? And I can think of two or three very popular courses. So I'm in the TPT space. So what what TPT sellers are seeing are these courses are filtering these new VAs churning them out. Yes, they're shutting them out. It's like a VA mill, right. It's like a mill of vas, and they're filtering them into the TPT groups. Because all of the courses that I can think of right now, these people were teachers, and the course owners, I mean, and they were VAs for people in the TPT space. These bas come in, you know, thinking that they're gonna get all these clients and stuff, and they really didn't know what they're doing. I actually hired one for my store, and it just wasn't the greatest experience. So I think that there's just a ton at play here. And so there can be kind of like, friction between the two parties, or even more than two parties, right? Because I feel like the more established freelancers can get frustrated with these, you know, these courses and these people coming in Uh huh. And yeah, so I won't rant anymore about that. But I do think I do think that's kind of like the misconceptions coming along and yeah, people thinking, or being afraid to be scammed. Yeah, I understand to a certain point.

But I would definitely agree like definitely price justifying how much to pay tire out, it's like, is it worth it? When I can just do it, you know, for free. But you know, what is, you know, you trade somebody with money, but you also save yourself some time and effort and somebody else could be doing what you do even better. So, there's definitely a trade off to that, you know, which what would you value more, I guess, exactly time.

That's what I would say by doing these menial tasks, the time like you're trading off, like, by sitting here doing admin tasks for your business, even though you're the CEO, and you're making enough money to hire, you might be sitting there doing the admin tasks when you can be with your kids, or you could be, you know, exercising or something. So there's really only my I've done a lot of reading about this, there's only so much willpower and space we can hold in our head. So the more administrative tasks that we're doing, or the more tasks that really aren't, like CEO tasks, is taking away from the CEO task ability that you have, because then you get drained. You, you know, you're running out of time, you don't have enough time for product creation, which is really where you should be spending your time for the most part, as a TPT seller. You know, yeah. So it's just your brain, your brain and your time is valuable. And there are great people who can take over those tiny tasks or bigger tasks that, you know, I'm not going to sit there and try for a week to build a website, I'm gonna pay $2,500 To my friend, Kristen Doyle, and not make her do her do it.

Yeah. So I agree with all of the above. I think that's like, just just knowing like, what do you value more, I guess, and just having the space to like, yes, it's it is money. But it's also valuable in the long run as far as you don't have to deal with it. Somebody else who could do it better than you can. So exactly. The online space is weird, because if you sort of brick and mortar, you have to hire people, right? You can't run all of it by yourself. Exactly. That's so true. Thinking about that. If that doesn't convince someone out there, like, Oh, no. But yeah. Okay, so the hiring, I know, like, there's a lot of different ways you can go about hiring a VA or a freelancer to help you whether you know, it's long term, or it's just like a one off task. But what does the hiring process typically look like? For most TPT? Sellers?

I would definitely say that. Most people, this isn't a blanket statement, because I know that some people have gotten away from us. But most people will post in the Facebook groups, right? The TPT find or Facebook group. They might actually post online on Instagram. I've seen people do that for their, you know, teacher audience because yeah, I mean, do you want a teacher to work for you who probably knows your content area, right? So there'll be a job posting that you might put out there, some people put out a Google form for the VAs and freelancers to fill out, they might ask for a portfolio for references, and then they might start interviewing people. Now, if you have the financial capability. What I recommend, and what a lot of people do is they'll pick you know, maybe like the three best applicants and give them a practice job, and you need to pay people for that, right. Like don't expect people to do that for free. And you don't need to pay them, you know, an arm and a leg. But you want to see how quickly how thoroughly how well people can follow directions because somebody might look really good on paper and you might have a great discovery call with them. Then you see their work. And you're like, oh, and then maybe somebody else did it better, right? Or just more thoroughly, or they followed directions and I've actually done that for hiring of my video services. I'll tell you a story. Yeah. Video. This is one time I this was a while ago, I was looking for people to help me with videos and I gave them about three people very simple task. It was to make a really quick video stage everything of one of my posters right at my TPT products. Very simple product. One girl had it done like immediately. It was awesome. We had to troubleshoot some lighting a little bit but it was great and and other girl took, I think like a week went by, and she said, Hey, I'm gonna have it done tomorrow, I never heard from her. And then she had about half of it done, like a week and a half later. And I was charging at this point, like $15 per hour just for this practice project, right? It was a simple project. And all of a sudden, she invoiced me for like, $400. No. And I asked her, I said, Why, okay, like, I can pay this, I guess. But did it really takes you? What's 400 divided by 15? I don't even know. Did it really take you 12 hours or whatever it might be to do this. And she she said, Oh, no, I think that was a typo. And then she cancelled the invoice and never talked to me again. That was it. Yes. Yeah. So anyway, he's great on paper. And she's very nice. But my point is practice projects can be telling. So you know, doing something like that, it's very beneficial. And then so once you find your person, you might depending on what your what they're doing, they should have a contract unless they're newer, or maybe they're just doing admin tasks for you, you need to get a contract signed, you should only do one contract. So this is another misconception that I've seen. And I'm not a lawyer. So don't take this as legal advice. But I'm pretty sure you can't have two contracts, you only one because they can conflict with each other and get confusing. So you need to pick one. So if it's your contract, if it's their contract, you can pretty much they're established, you can kind of trust their contract, right? Like you, like you'd like me, you or me, or, or someone can even have a lawyer look over it and everything, like reading it carefully before you sign.

And usually, I always have them sign my contract before they even make a payment, you know, just because like, I want everything to be set before anything comes up.

Yes, 100%. And like, my contract protects everyone, it protects me, and them. So and I know this and I actually had a lawyer write it up for me like my lawyer. So that's a very good point, look at the contract before you pay anything, or have them sign your contract before you pay anything. And then you know, once they're on, then you can start you know, if it's somebody who's doing a like your website, they'll more than likely already have a system for you. So they'll send you a questionnaire, they'll send you information. Now, if you're kind of like hiring someone on as like a content creator, or a VA, you're gonna have to train them. Yeah, with your store and your brand. And you're gonna have to give them stuff. And a really good way toexpedite this process is have systems in place already already have training system or systems, training videos, write and spell things out for them, it'll save you so much time. And them so much time in there, you know if they have questions they can ask. So I would say this is generally the the way people go. Now I've also VAs and freelancers can post their services, and then and then people can sign up. So I think that's another way you know, if something piques your interest, and you're like, oh, wow, that person, stuff they're doing is so cool. I want to hire them.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm, I have hired people through that as well. Just somebody posting like what they offer and message them. And we go from there. So yeah, and that that always works. So there's really no like, from what you're saying, There's not like one set way TPT sellers can hire somebody, it's just really a matter of what you feel the most comfortable with. And yes, just depending on what the actual project is.

I completely, completely agree with that. And I do recommend, you know, if somebody's new, you can give them a little bit of elbow room, I totally, you need to talk to your TPT friends. Word of mouth is actually how I get most of my, or how I got most of my clients at first. Use somebody who's pretty established and has good ratings overall, you know, nobody's perfect, and they might have a bad day or a bad experience with, you know, with a friend or something. But I don't know. It's your business. So you do want somebody who comes recommended, for the most part, if you can afford it. Yeah.

And that's kind of like when you're hiring somebody to like, for example, we just had pest control comm yesterday, but the reason why we hired them is because like we went on, I saw that they had good reviews and you know, I looked at their website, their fees were reasonable. And you know, we were able to get on their little quarterly treatment plan and all of that so it's It's not just in TPT, it's outside as well.

Exactly. And that if you even think about it, too, I mean, that's a good point. And I always I do talk about this a lot. But the people who come to your house like my father in law is a finished carpenter. Like, he's a contractor. He's technically doing what a freelance, like a freelancer is doing. And photographers are as well. Like, if you go get family pictures done, so you're gonna look up reviews, or I know that probably a lot of people go through word of mouth, they use who their friends are recommending, or their, you know, their family. So yeah, yeah, great.

All right, yeah, those, those are all great points. So what should I guess TPT sellers realistically expect when hiring a VA? So they might like, they they have somebody that they're interested in? And they they're signing the contract and all of that, what should should they be like, checking on them every out? Like, what what does that look like? I guess for most vas?

Yes. So again, I think it really depends on the tasks, I will tell you, my favorite clients are the people who are like, I trust you do your thing. And in my contract, I allow them edits, I allow them to change things, right are so many edits. But if you're working with someone who is very skilled, they have a process in place, and they're established business owners just like you are. So I would not be checking up on your web designer, or really your photographer, right? Unless they're newer, and that, you know, they have questions, but they'll most likely tell you that right? Now, if you have a virtual assistant, that's someone who you might be checking on a little more like managing a little bit more. However, I would urge you to try to find somebody who's self sufficient and can kind of pick things up and, and do them without having a lot of oversight, right? Because you don't want to spend all your time managing, right.

And I've had, I've had that experience a couple of times as well, where like, you know, I'm providing this specialized or I'm not, I'm not a VA, I'm not on team. But it's like the micromanaging not only affects the person who's doing the work, but it also takes time away from the actual, you know, from you, like, you could be doing other things in your business instead of, you know, trying to micromanage everything that they're doing. So, it's all about really just trusting like trusting the experts in what they do. Giving feedback when needed. And all of that kind of Yeah, that's and no, you're totally right.

And what you just said made me think of, you know, we're talking about contractors, right? Mm hmm. I'm not gonna hire a plumber. I mean, maybe my husband will do this, but I would like kick his butt. I'm not gonna hire a plumber and like, just stand there and watch him and be like, Oh. That's, like it was screwed the right way. Right. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Right. Or, or a carpenter or something? I don't know. But they're the specialist. That's why I hired them. Right? So I'm not doing it myself. So true.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Oh, that's such a good thing to think about. And it's, you know, um, you know, if you continue to hire out people in the TPT space of just like word of mouth comes for people who are recommending vas, the same can be said for TPT sellers who, maybe there wasn't a really great experience or something like that. So it's really important to be mindful of who you work with in the future, because VAs talk freelancers talk, just like TPT sellers talk. It's all it's on both sides.

You know, that's something that I think that maybe TPT sellers don't realize is that, just like, they all have friends, I have friends too. Like I'm friends with TPT sellers, and certain, like, friend groups. Sounds stupid. But I also have tons of Freelancer friends, and we're all talking and, and we're all asking each other for advice. Right? And I can tell you that there's people that I know of who I haven't even worked with yet, but they've worked with my friends. And I'm not sure if I would take them on as a client. Right? Yeah, my friends experience so most of my clients, I would say 95% of the people I've ever worked with are wonderful, amazing. Agree. Like yeah, I love them. Yeah, you know, I send them presents. But, but there have been a few times you just have to be mindful when you're hiring people that you're being unkind to them. There are people like, right, like with any business in like outside of the TPT world, grocery store.

Like pretty much anywhere where there's, you know, a customer and a buyer, customer and seller? Exactly.

Yes. goes both ways.

Well, what are some best practices for managing any type of projects that is hired out? So you're like, you know, you're like, I don't want to step on anybody's shoes, I want to make sure everything goes smoothly. What are some best practices for making sure like, when you are hiring out that the project, you know, you're making sure things are done in a timely manner? Or just checking up on them? Like, what are some tips on that?

So I would definitely read the contract and know what the expectations are from beginning. In my contract, I tell people how long it'll take, they're gonna get one, you know, one video for approval so that I know they'd like the style I'm going with. And they can expect that within so many days. So it really depends on who you're working with. I think they have it spelled out for you, then you can kind of guess. If they're not sticking to their contract, I would I would ask them, yeah, they would say, hey, this was supposed to be done yesterday. I know that TPT sellers, they kind of have some of them have a flow, right? If, if I'm taking videos or making videos for somebody, on Monday, they might have assigned another person to upload the videos and do things, you know, with the video, so they need me to be on time. So I would just say, communication, read that contract. And, again, just just check in, you don't have to come at them aggressively or anything like that. It's just okay. I you know, I was just wondering where this is, or maybe if you had a, you know, an issue or if you need something from me, there's been times where I have had to put off projects, because I mean, this week, I had to because I we had COVID. So you know,

pretty big reason to hold things. Yeah.

Right. But I'm going to tell people that right. So if something like that happens, and your VA isn't telling you that's a red flag, right? You indicate with you. Yeah, question? Yes.

Definitely important. So yeah, that's, that's always good to remember is just like, like, it's given the benefit of the doubt. Like if something is not in a time that you expect, you know, give them a little bit of grace. I feel like giving a little bit of grace goes a long way. And then if it's still like a problem, then then that's when you can probably like, start to inquire a little bit more. Well, Chloe, where can we learn more information about hiring VAs or just even your services in general? Because you did mention video marketing? Where can we learn more from you?

So my Instagram is just that? Was it called handle?

Gosh, the app symbol? Yeah.

Gosh, my brain. I'm, we just talked that I'm in my first trimester of pregnancy. So I feel like I can't think straight.

I know the feeling was crazy. Like seriously, brain fog

is literally Video Marketing TPT. That's it like video marketing TBT. If you want to learn about hiring, freelancers, or just the freelance space in general, I have another side of the business for coaching vas, and that would be the at symbol then slowly dot txt off with a period between.

So all right, so Well, thank you for coming on the show and sharing about just the VA process Freelancer process. I know that people will get a lot of great tips from this,

of course, and if anybody has any questions like please feel free to reach out because I love new friends and we can give you you know, tips on videos or hiring so yeah, good.

Well, thank you so much. All right. Thank you.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.