Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed with tasks and responsibilities as an entrepreneur or business leader? If so, you're in for a treat in this episode as my guest, Kristy Yoder - founder and CEO of Smart VAs, uncovers how effective delegation can help you achieve your business goals and create a balanced life.

Kristy also dives into the challenges faced by solopreneurs when considering hiring a virtual assistant, and the importance of clear communication and setting expectations with your VA. Tune in to this episode for expert advice and insights from the master delegator.

Learn more about Kristy

Websites: https://www.kristyyoder.com/

https://smartvirtualassistants.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristy-yoder

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristyabbyyoder/?hl=en

Connect with Kristy: kristy@smartvirtualassistants.com

In this episode you will learn:

• How Kristy started her virtual assistant agency
• The ways to make the process of hiring VAs easier
• Two different types of virtual assistants - the specialist and the implementer
• The importance of having courage and resilience.
• How to overcome fear
• Why you should delegate
• Delegation is inevitable if you want to have flexibility, freedom and your goal is to grow your business

A little about me:

I began my career as a teacher, was a corporate trainer for many years, and then found my niche training & supporting business owners, entrepreneurs & sales professionals to network at a world-class level. My passion is working with motivated people, who are coachable and who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking (online & offline). I help my clients create retention strategies, grow through referrals, and create loyal customers by staying connected.

In appreciation for being here, I have a couple of gifts for you.

A LinkedIn Checklist for setting up your fully optimized Profile: https://www.janiceporter.com/linkedin-training.html

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Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of

relationships rule. With me today is Christy Yoder. She is a

proud Filipina, based in Ohio, and is the founder and CEO of

smart vas, and the host of her own podcast, the master

delegator, where she teaches entrepreneurs and leaders to

grow their business by delegating. And first of all, I

want to say welcome to the show, Christy.

Thank you so much, Jen, is I'm excited to be here.

Thank you. What I love is that Christine and I met

on LinkedIn, my favorite place to meet people. And then we've

had a couple of conversations and decided that what she has to

offer could be useful to my audience, and I believe it is

because i i vacillate between, you know, jumping into using VAs

big time or not, and, you know, get afraid of certain things. So

I want to get into that a little bit. But first of all, I want to

ask you, all right, I've read your LinkedIn profile. I've

looked at your website, you're a pretty educated person. And and

you have been in corporate, I think, and then how did you get

into doing what you're doing now? I just love to know.

Yeah, well, thank you so much. For that question.

I love sharing, you know, how I got to where I am now. So I grew

up in Philippines, in 2019, I moved to the States, so I'm

pretty fresh and new here in the states by but in 2017, I met the

love of my life, and he wanted me to move to the states. And

during that time, I was employed full time at a corporate, you

know, company. And I thought, I told myself that if I would want

to start my own family, I don't want to be that person who would

not be able to take care of her family, you know, not being able

to cook breakfast or cook dinner, you know, with your

husband or with your kids. And so I told myself that in order

for me to do that, I need to have more freedom and

flexibility in my life. And so at that time, I decided that I'm

going to quit my job and start freelancing. And during that

time, in 2017, I didn't even know that I was a virtual

assistant, I thought that I was just offering services to, to

businesses online, I felt I was just a freelancer, but I didn't

consider myself a virtual assistant. And so I started

becoming a virtual assistant. And then when I moved to the

States in 2019, I love meeting new people just like you, I love

building relationships, you know, with people, regardless if

they can help me or not, you know, I just love getting to

know people. And so just because of my personality, I was able to

build my network. And because I have a huge amount of

connections, you know, on LinkedIn, and even on Instagram,

I got so stressed and overwhelmed. Because my current

clients back then, they wanted me to take on new projects for

them. And my new connections, they wanted me to start working

for them. And during that time, I was like, Okay, I just moved

to the States. You know, I just moved to the States, and I

didn't really want to reject anybody, you know, I don't want

to be rude to them by saying no, and I'm worried. I was like

dealing with Americans, you know, like people from Northern

America. And I was like, Okay, I'm a Filipino. I just moved to

the States. I couldn't say no. And so I told myself to get to

have right was it's a good problem to have. And so I said

yes, to many of them, I got so stressed and overwhelmed. And

then I realized that I shouldn't be doing things alone. And so I

started contacting a few of my friends in the Philippines, who,

who were at the time also freelancing. And so I asked for

their help, they started working for me part time. And then when

they started working for me, I was like, Oh, this is such a

good idea. You know, I was kind of like cloning myself and

asking people to work on my clients projects. And, and now

my job is to just build a relationship with them, right? I

don't have to like work on their projects, what I just need to do

is nurture my relationship with them, and have my my friends who

were freelancing, continue working on their projects. And

so that's when I started to grow my virtual assistant agency. So

I was a virtual assistant, I was just solo and now I have a team

of over 70 plus virtual assistants and I'm no longer the

virtual assistant. I'm now acting as CEO of my business.

And that is thanks to the relationship that I have built

with my connections when I moved to the States.

It's fantastic. It really is you've done a

really, really good job. So if I can just dig in a little bit,

alluding to what I was talking about what I alluded to at the

beginning with you know when someone has never worked with a

virtual assistant before and And they know that they need to. And

quite often it would be a solopreneur or a, you know,

Coach consultant, people who are sort of building their

reputation and their business, by themselves really to start

with, and then it gets overwhelming, right? So then it

becomes, okay, I need to delegate to somebody, but I

don't know what to delegate to them. I don't know if I can

trust somebody else to do it the way I want it done. And all of

those questions that I know, come up for people like me, so

how do you? How do you ease the way for your clients? How do you

guide them to, to making the process easier for them and

finding the right fit with your particular VAs that you would

assign different things? So back to that?

Yeah, that is such a good question. And, you know,

I think a lot of solopreneurs can relate to this, because we

fear the unknown, and not trying to hire a virtual assistant.

That is what what's making us fear, fearful, you know, we're

like, we're, we're scared of hiring a virtual assistant,

because we have not hired one. And it's kind of like starting

your own business, right? Like, it's kind of scary to start your

own business, because you don't know the ins and outs of it yet.

But once you start, you know, taking the first step, then

you're going to realize that, Oh, it wasn't really that hard

that I, it wasn't as hard as I was thinking. And so for

solopreneurs, who are wanting to hire virtual assistants that

they're trying to afraid, because they don't know, if

they're gonna find the right VA for them, they don't know, if

the VA would be able to give them the results that they want,

or do the word as exact exactly as how they would do them. My My

advice is to start start small. So test the waters First, don't

go all out, because that's what I did as well, at first, you

know, I'm a very skeptical person, you know, I am, I may be

intrigued, I may be very extroverted, I may be good in,

you know, talking to people, but I'm very skeptical. You know, I

trust people, you know, whenever, you know, I get to

know them already. But once that trust is ruined, it's hard for

me to like, give that back to that person. So what I did was I

started small. So you need to ask yourself, what is that one

task that you can hand off to a virtual assistant, that is not

going to affect you and your business? Like, in a very, in a

way where you're gonna lose your business, or you're gonna lose

your motivation to continue working on your business. So

start small, that can be your administrative tasks, let's say,

looking up, you know, for people online that you can get

connected with, you know, in second, you need to make sure

that you have a standard operating procedure in place.

Now, I don't really like talking about standard operating

procedure, you know, I don't, I don't like it, I don't like

calling it SOPs, or standard operating procedure, because it

sounds very corporate it, you know, but I don't have a name

for it yet. So let's leave it that way. So you need to make

sure that you have SOPs in place so that you know that you set

the right standards, and that those standards that you have in

your business, how you do things in your business, and that is

how exactly, your VA is going to do things for your business as

well. So you need to set expectations. And oftentimes,

you know, I've worked with a lot of business owners, and

oftentimes they didn't realize at first that they need SOPs, or

they need to instruct their VA s, they thought that when they

hire a virtual assistant, their virtual assistant is going to

just figure it all out. And that's not actually true. You

know, if you want to set your business for success, you need

to set your virtual assistant up for success as well. And that is

by making sure that you have SOPs in place in and making sure

that you communicate with them as well check in with them,

especially for the first three months of your working

relationship together. It's important that you check in with

them at least once a week and you're not just going to check

in with them because you want to check their work. You're

checking in with them to build a relationship as well. You know,

you need to give your VA an opportunity to get to know you

and your business and you need to allow yourself to get to know

the VA as well, because that's what makes everything work

smoothly having a relationship with your team member and not

just any kind of relationship like a A deep personal

relationship with your team member.

Right? You raised some good points. But it also

raised another question for me, which is my experience with the

little bit of work I've had done by other people, especially the

and in fact, Philippine Filipinos as well. Because what

I've learned is, I have to know that our timeframe is completely

different. So we have to know when the best time for talking

to that person is and then, you know, adjust and set that up.

But more importantly, my experience with any kind of VA

has been, I think, maybe my expectations of a VA, perhaps

were too much in the sense that if I want a task done that I

don't know how to do properly, because I'm not technical, or I

don't know how that program works. I just know, I need to

use it to get from point A to point B, I want you to look

after that. Is there is there a fine line between the VA who

understands that and can take over and say, Well, this is

here's what you need. Tell me if this looks right, or not? Or

someone who's just waiting for instructions? Because that would

work in that case?

Yeah, that is? That is a good question. You

know, and that is a very valid concern. And I've experienced

that as well. And I realized that there are two different

types of virtual assistants. The other one might be actually

quite different. They probably shouldn't be considered virtual

assistants, you know, because they're more specialists, you

know, but virtual assistants mainly are implementers, the

implement the strategy that you already have. So these are the

doors. So if you already have a strategy, they will immediately

implement those strategy for you. Now, in your case, you said

that you didn't know about, you know, some of the technicalities

of the tasks that you delegated to a virtual assistant, then

what you need is a VA specialist. You know, not all

virtual assistants are skilled to think the way how business

owners think. But there are VA bas out there who specializes in

a specific skill, let's say social media strategy. So if if,

let's say, for example, you don't know anything about social

media, and you want your VA, to run it for you, then you need a

specialist, so that you can make things happen so that your

specialist can make things things happen, even without you

knowing all about social media. So those are two different

virtual assistants that you're going to be looking for, you

need to know whether you need a specialist or do you need a doer

or an implementer?

Okay, okay. Makes sense. That makes sense. So, so

you do the the, the intake, the onboarding, and you match your

new client to your, your, the right Assistant, the right,

yeah,

exactly, yeah. And we always tell our clients, we

set expectations at the onset, that we're not a marketing

agency, you know, based on the experience we've had with so

many clients that we've helped, we know different strategies,

you know, we can only recommend strategies that we have already

implemented. But we cannot create a strategy from scratch

for our clients, because we're not a marketing strategy. So we

help them a little bit with, you know, weed strategies that we

think are that we think that's going to work for them. And we

also are very proactive when it comes to telling them that no,

this isn't gonna work. We've tried this for other clients,

and we don't think this is going to work for you.

Oh, that's good to know. That's really good. So

let's just broaden the scope here a little bit, because I'm

fascinated that you know, you are and I noticed this when I

first talked to you, the very first time we met on Zoom is

you're very, you're very smart. And I think I think you know,

you are and I love that you have you have taken something and

created this business for yourself and you you've been

very successful at it. And I love that. And what would you

what would you attribute your success? Mostly to?

Wow, that is such a good question. And I feel like

I'm gonna tear up. You know, what if there is one main

investment that I have invested in my business, that would be

two things. First, courage and resiliency. No amount of money

can help you grow a business if you don't have courage and

resilience. MC, if you are a business owner, you need to have

those two. If not, then people are just going to stomp on you,

you're not going to be able to make it, you're not going to

have a successful business. And I'm glad that I was brought up

in a way where I'm not fearful of things, you know, I mean, I

have, I fear a lot of things, but I don't feel too much to the

point of not trying them. You know, if that makes sense. So,

I'm glad Yeah. And I'm glad that my parents were very courageous

as well. And they're very, very resilient. You know, I grew up

in a third world country, we make do of things that we have.

Are your parents still there? Uh, my dad is actually visiting

the States right now. So he's here at home? My mom is in the

Philippines.

Okay. Okay. And my experience with the many

Filipinos that I know are, they're all hard workers and

everybody, yeah, and quite often have such a strong sense of

family as well. So all of that builds character. And I love

that. So that makes sense that, you know, you know that you need

to work hard, and you know, that you need to be strong inside.

And even though you're fearful, feel the fear and do it anyway.

Right.

Yeah, exactly. And if I may just share for, you

know, a little bit when I moved to the States, you know, when I

was the one doing our sales presentation, I was so scared

doing it, because I was looking at myself as somebody that have

built nothing, yet at that time. So I was thinking to myself,

like, who am I to talk to these people who are successful

already, you know, I was, I was pitching our sales to pitching

sales to CEOs and founders, you know, and I had envisioned CEOs

and founders, as somebody who wear suit and tie. So it was

changed a lot. That's true. And with that kind of image in my

mind, you know, that created fear in me. And somebody

actually asked me, So how did you get over your fear? I told

that person I actually don't know, I just, I just did it

anyway, you know, the more you keep on the, the more you keep

on doing it, the more your fear is gonna go away, and you won't,

you won't even notice that you're so confident already

about the things that you fear the most.

That's really good. So on your bio, it says

here that you leave more than 70 team members, and have served

more than 200 businesses in the US together with your team since

2020. You grew your business from zero to now close to seven

figure revenues and desires to help business owners achieve

their business goals. That's pretty, pretty. Something to be

very proud of. And along the way, would who would you say has

influenced you the most? Did you have anyone in your business

world that you latched on to as a you know, as a mentor? Or was

it what was it? Who was it?

So I had tried different mentors, and at the

moment, I have two mentors. And the reason why I have two

mentors is because I believe that one person can really they

don't have, they don't know everything, you know, and my my

two mentors, their personality are very different. My other

mentor, he's very focused on emotions. And my other mentor is

very, very focused on logic. So I like that I have the two of

them because they're able to balance things out. And so But

although they have impacted my life, my business, I can say

that they're the ones who have a huge impact in my business. And

this person that impacted my life. A lot is somebody that I

have not met yet. His name is John Maxwell. I'm sure you know

him. Yeah. I binge watch his leadership podcast on YouTube,

his sermons. Yes. And there was actually I think, a couple of

months where I was just like, every day, watching his videos

on leadership and his his, his topics are not about how to

start a business. But he's his main goal is to teach a person

how to become a good leader because he believes that

everything falls and rises on leadership.

Yeah, his 21 Laws of Leadership. Yeah, I remember.

Yeah. And I actually spoke with someone yesterday who she she's

a John Maxwell. Coach, certified coach and also took His disc

training. Are you familiar with disc? Yeah. A personality? Yeah.

And she said that, yeah, that he had his own sort of way of doing

that. So yeah. And he's been around for a long time, and I

can understand where that would be an interesting and, and

educational and, and practical kind of mentor to have. So

that's awesome. Yeah. And so as someone who teaches people to

delegate, do you delegate

a lot? There was actually a point where I was

like, What am I gonna do now? Like, you know, I delegate, but

I always reassess myself, I am such a visionary, I'm a dreamer.

When I take a shower, I have a lot of ideas. In my mind, when I

take a walk, or even just for five minutes, I probably have 10

to 20 ideas already. And I, I need to delegate because if not,

I won't be able to implement those ideas that I have in my

mind. And I am a goal oriented, a goal and result oriented

person as well. If I have an idea, I'm not afraid to like,

share that with my team members and have them have them do it.

So I'm not I'm not really afraid of failing. Unless it's going to

take my business down. So I take calculated risk. And so I

delegate, but there are also times that I don't realize that

I'm doing too many things already. And so I always

reassess reevaluate myself. Every time I don't stop working

at 5pm. That's when I asked myself, What am I not

delegating? And, okay. And I always ask myself that, because

when I get stressed and overwhelmed already, that's

that's a sign that I'm not delegating some of the tasks

that I'm not supposed to be doing.

Oh, that's a good question to ask oneself, right?

Because you like it, you're very Are you very strict with

yourself about your timeframes? Like work life balance type of

thing?

Yeah, sir. Sure of, but I know it's going to

change once we build our own family. But I always go back to

my why, like, why am I doing this? Why did I start my

business and ensure that at the beginning of this episode, that

the reason why I started my business, is because I want to

be able to spend time with my loved ones? And if I'm not able

to do that, then what's the point of having a business?

Right? So that's why I always ask myself, why am I not

delegating?

Okay, good point, you got me thinking you got me

fake. So I think one of my biggest downfalls is not being

consistent with things and I get sidetracked really easily,

because I love to learn, and I want to hear what someone else

has to say. And I find myself going down rabbit holes all the

time. And so I need to be more consistent. And I think,

probably having, I don't know, there's, there's a fine line

between having having the support of someone to help me,

or having the responsibility of having that person because

that's what makes it difficult for me, sometimes. It's the

response, oh, my gosh, I gotta get this ready for my right

person. And I, and sometimes I want them to, to push me a

little bit. Does that make sense? I think that

makes sense. You know, what, I'm actually kind of

like you to like, I get easily distracted. But because I have

somebody that I trust, and she's actually my co she is my first

full time hire. And, and she has handled so many roles in the

business already. And she is one of the main person that I

really, really trust. And she's my right hand person. And I feel

like if you have that person, if you have your right hand, not

literally your right hand. Of course you have your right hand.

Left Handed. Yeah. Okay, cool. That works. So I think it will

make things easier for you because even though you're a

business owner, you have to be accountable with somebody as

well.

Yes, that's a great point. I love that. That's

so cool. Okay, so this is so much fun. And so finally, in

terms of the VA business, what advice would you give to someone

who is considering hiring a virtual assistant, but is

hesitant or unsure about taking that step? You may have answered

this already, but if you want to put it in, in a little tight

little package with a bow, you can

Yeah, sure. I love this question so much, because

it it gets me thinking and it gets other people thinking as

well. You know what, if your goal is to grow your business,

then you don't have a choice but to delegate. Sooner or later.

You're gonna delegate. You don't have a choice. So my advice for

you is delegate before it's too late, I've met a lot of

businesses who have started delegating, at the point where

their business is already messy. And you can, you can expect your

virtual assistant to fix your mess, you know, again, your

virtual assistant is there to implement your, your, your

strategies, and so don't so delegate before it's too late.

But if you are a solopreneur, and you don't have the desire to

scale your business, then it's okay to do everything your own,

you know, like, there are people out there who, who are content

with just 5k or 10k, you know, months, you know, but there are

ambitious intrapreneurs out there like me who are not

content with those, you know, and so, if you're a solopreneur,

and you're content with what you have right now, you know, go for

it, you know, like, continue what you're doing right now, you

know, don't, you don't have to force yourself to hire virtual

assistants just because I'm telling you to hire virtual

assistants, you know, you don't have to copy other people. But

if you're an entrepreneur who's ambitious, and you're a dreamer,

and you really want to grow your business, you have to delegate.

You know, even even at home, I delegate, I don't vacuum

anymore, I bought a robot to vacuum my house because we have

a dog. And that's one way to save time and energy as well. So

delegation is very, very, it's inevitable, you know, especially

if you want to have flexibility, freedom and peace of mind in

your life. Regardless if it's personal or professional.

That's a really good point. And I do that with

with things at home too. So I need to think of it a little bit

differently in my business. So. So thank you, thank you for your

information, and your you and your story. Because I love that,

and I'm so glad I met you. And where can people who are maybe

now intrigued and interested, where can they get ahold of you?

And how do they? How do they even investigate that process

with with your company?

Yeah, you can find me on my website, Christy

yoder.com KRISPYYOD or.com. I have free training there on how

to hire a virtual assistant. And I also have a mini course on how

you can delegate effectively to a virtual assistant. And I'm

very social. I'm on Instagram and LinkedIn. So feel free to

send me a DM if you have any questions. I love getting to

know people. So don't be shy if you want to reach out to me.

You totally do. I know I love that. So I thank you

thank you for being here. And I wish you further success in your

business. And I think that your your secret. I think your secret

sauce is you I think it's that personality that and confidence

that you exude about being able to help people and know that you

believe that that it will help them and their business and I

think that's what's going to take you a long way. So I

appreciate that. I appreciate you being here. And for my

audience please remember to check out Christy's website

Christy I will put it all in the in the show notes Christy

yoder.com. But your company's name is is smart virtual

assistants, our virtual assistants, they can

find it on my website as well

got it, okay. And I know that she will be willing

to talk to you whatever happens in terms of going forward with a

VA or not. So and remember to stay connected and be remembered