In this practical episode, Renee Hastings, President and CEO of Executive Help Now, shares how virtual assistants free up time for growth. If you struggle with admin overload or productivity dips, you won't want to miss it.

You will discover:

- Why delegating low-value tasks boosts stage 2 focus

- How to identify admin for VA offloading

- What systems ensure smooth VA integration

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 2 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Renee Hastings is the President and CEO of Executive Help Now, a premier virtual assistance agency. With over 15 years of experience, Renee and her team deliver expert administrative support, podcast production, and business consulting services to small business owners, content creators, and busy executives. Starting her entrepreneurial journey in 1996, Renee holds a degree in Business Management and has been a Dale Carnegie Leadership Training Coach. She’s appeared on NBC’s KCRA News 3. She now serves as an inspirational speaker, podcast host, philanthropist, and Small Group Bible Study Coach—her mission: freeing up time for life’s more important moments.

Want to learn more about Renee Hastings' work at Executive Help Now? Check out her website at https://executivehelpnow.org/

You're an entrepreneur or a Founder, but don't know what to assign to somebody? Text VA NOW to 1-866-943-3591 to get a freebie that will help you through that thought process.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Founder's Quiz

Scott, hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once

again to the start, scale and succeed. Podcast, the only

podcast that grows with you through all seven stages of your

journey as a founder, I'm your host, Scott Ritzheimer, and

there's a specific trap that catches almost every startup

entrepreneur off guard. It's that moment you're there, or

you've been there, that moment that you realize you're spending

more time answering emails, scheduling calls or managing

just administrative nonsense than actually building your

organization or doing the things that you feel like will move you

forward. And it's not that you tried to get there. You launched

with the hopes of freedom, the ability to make a difference.

And instead of feeling liberated to focus on growth, you feel

like you're drowning in the very tasks that are too small to

actually hire someone for, but are just consuming all of your

day. And so we tell ourselves, well, we just have to muscle

through. We'll deal with that later, but we end up working 12

hour days. And more and more and more of those 12 hour days go to

stuff that doesn't actually move you forward, and you find out

you're building a job for yourself instead of actually

building an organization, whether it be a business or a

nonprofit. And so what do you do about it? Well, here to help us

break the cycle is Renee Hastings, who is the president

and CEO of executive help now, a premier virtual assistance

agency with over 15 years of experience, Renee and her team

deliver expert administrative support, podcast production and

business consulting services to small business owners, content

creators and busy executives. Starting her journey in 1996

Renee holds a degree in business management and has been a Dale

Carnegie leadership training coach. She's appeared on NBC,

KCRA news three, and now serves as an inspirational speaker,

podcast host, philanthropist and small group Bible study coach.

Her mission freeing up time for life's more important moments.

She's here with us today. Renee, welcome to the show. So glad to

have you here.

Thank you, Scott. I'm so excited to be

here.

Awesome, awesome. Well, let's start right

out of the gate here. You've been working with entrepreneurs

since the late 90s. You've been doing this for a minute or two,

and I'm sure that you've seen this pattern 1000 times, but

you've got the startup entrepreneur that go full time,

and instead of the glory that they're expecting on the other

side, it's just the grind. So what is it? Why is it that so

many entrepreneurs become less productive after going full

time?

I think the one of the biggest reasons why

entrepreneurs become less productive after going full time

in their business is because they try to do it all

themselves. They feel like there's so much to be done. And

it's not that they just feel like it there really is there

really is all the work that's got to be done in marketing, in

legal things, getting the business all set up on all of

the finances and bookkeeping and all of the you know, scheduling

the meetings with other busy people who are trying to build

businesses or have already done it and got full schedules, and

there's just so much that needs to be done, and so they think

they have to do it all themselves. And that is not

true, and that is one of the biggest things that will hinder

them and keep them small is by not bringing on people to their

team who are subject matter experts in their field, so that

they can be freed up to go and have those strategic meetings,

and they don't have to worry about what's happening back in

the office, because it's all handled by the People who are

talented and gifted in those particular areas.

Yeah, it's interesting, because we actually

tend to use the word entrepreneur to kind of justify

this. It's kind of like when you say I'm an entrepreneur, you're

kind of saying I'm doing this myself. I'm taking on the world,

you know, on my own. And we can, we can inadvertently get trapped

here. But one of the things that makes this kind of mechanically

really, really difficult is money, and the idea that, like,

Hey, I'm barely making payroll, and it's just me. How in the

world am I going to make payroll with somebody else, on, on, on

the dime. So what do you what do you say to someone who's

struggling with just the financial aspect of getting the

help that they need.

Well, first of all, entrepreneur doesn't always

mean solopreneur. Okay, there's a big difference. And just

because it's you and you're trying to make ends meet for

yourself, just now you're still in the beginning stages, it's

expected, it's understandable, but just like you're building a

budget for all of your project materials or all of the

different resources that you need to build, the widget that

you are in charge of building for your business, you need to

add a line item for administrative support for. For

marketing support, for whatever that looks like, because when

you take yourself out of that picture of having to handle

those things, you have more time. It's like you're buying

time for yourself to go and do the things that really do move

the needle. So you don't have to hire somebody full time, a full

time salary, yes, that can be inundating, that can be

daunting. That could be, you know, several 100, you know,

several $1,000 a month or a year, or whatever that looks

like. But when you hire a company that will offer you an

opportunity to hire somebody for 10 hours a month, that it can be

doable that is much easier entry into that support field. So

look, a company like ours definitely starts at hours, at

10 hours a month, 20 hours a month, 40 hours a month, that's,

you know, 40 hours a month is 10 hours a week. So if you don't,

even if you don't have a whole lot to give, but you just know

that what you have right now is too much for you. Call us. Call

a company like ours, we've already done the screening.

We've already done the vetting. Our team is already qualified,

pre qualified and tested to know that what they have to offer you

they can hit the ground running to make an immediate impact.

Yeah, there's a couple of great points in

there. One is, I think we are the most likely in any stage, at

this stage, of mistaking our most precious commodity as money

and not time. And so this idea of buying back your time, I

think, is excellent and is worth restating. You're so on point

with that the other one. And you kind of allude to this a little

bit, but I'm wondering if we could unpack it a little more,

and that is that it's not help that you need. It's good help.

You need someone who can actually do those things. And

one of the things that I've seen keeps folks trapped here is that

they, they actually do go get help, but they get the wrong

person. They they get someone who it's like they're having to

hold their hand every step of the way, or they're just not

competent enough to do the job, you know. Or they're they're

doing a job that that person is not really familiar with, the

entrepreneurs not really familiar with, and so they don't

know, are they doing a good job? Are they not doing a good job?

So tell me a little bit, and to whatever extent you're willing

to disclose some of the secret sauce here. But what makes a

great admin? What is it about your team that you guys look for

and qualify for?

So when someone wants to become a member of our

team, and Scott, trust me, we have people who want, who apply,

who never make it, and it's just because they don't have a high

enough skill level, and we find this out by testing. We also one

of the things that's super important to me is that our team

members share the same values that we have as a company, so

that they know how I operate, how we treat clients, what our

culture is our attitude of service, and if they don't fit

all of those buckets, they don't check all those boxes, they

never get to be a part of our team. Once they get through the

pre vetting period and the pre screening process and that sort

of thing, then we're able to dig deeper into them and their

actual skills, and who they would be the best fit for So,

and that's my job is to find out who I'm not on my team. If I

have a client and they share with me, I need this, this, this

and this and or I might need email management, calendar

management and some project management. Or I might need a

strategic partner to help me. You know, do this application,

whatever that looks like, I pick from my team based on that

information, who is the best fit for this person. So when you

have someone who's a real person fitting you with someone who

actually makes sense for you, then it's an easier transition.

So and once you get your person, or you get introduced, it's so

important to discover who they are. At their core, you as the

client to the virtual assistant, so that you just start to

develop a relationship with them. Because this is not

something that's a one and done kind of thing. Typically, when

clients hire us, they want a partner for the long term. They

want someone who can see their vision and want to join with

them in lockstep on this journey, and that's what we do.

So it's so important to make sure that that relationship is

set up on a foundation of success, and that's one of the

ways that we do that going into the relationship, and then as

you continue to share information about what you know,

because you may not know everything, and you may be

bringing them on because of their experience that they bring

with them, that is kind of fills that gap, then the two of you

together are working in harmony. Because they are now filling

that space that is needed, kind of like a piece of a puzzle to

help you get to that next level.

Yeah, that puzzle piece is great analogy,

but the first time you're going through it, it's hard to know,

like, what are the edges of the puzzle? So what have you found

in doing this for so many years now? What have you found are

kind of the best jumping off points? What are the things that

most entrepreneurs get rid of first, or should get rid of

first?

One of the things that I found made a huge

difference in the life of an executive is email management

and calendar management, because they are so busy working in on

the business, trying to bring in new business, they may miss

opportunities because they haven't had a chance to check

their 100 emails that come in every single day. And so you'll

need someone to make sure you're not missing opportunities be

able to respond on your behalf. And that's the other thing, is

that communication on your behalf, so that person that you

get matched with should be able to communicate with on your

behalf, as you mentioned, not just be a doer of a thing, but

actually know what needs to be done and how to handle this

situation. You know, based on that, that time spent with you

and being trained and what it is that you need to do, so, I think

my experience has shown me that when you take off those things,

calendar management, email, management, off your plate,

expense reporting, travel arrangements, all those things,

even if they may only take a few minutes for you to do, those are

minutes you need to be spending doing things that move the

needle for your business. So it's if you think about it like

this, say you're a $300 an hour entrepreneur, and you hire an

assistant, that's $100 an hour. I'm totally making this up. But

would it make more sense for you to be spending your $300 an hour

time doing something that someone who gets paid much less

can do more effectively, and probably quicker and faster, and

loves doing it.

Yeah, yeah, the dollar value of time is,

again, it's just a great way of thinking about it like, is that

a $15 an hour task? Then, you know, it's just not anything you

should be spending any time on. But here's here's where I see

folks get hung up even once they're kind of like, yes,

that's a $15 an hour task. Is being good at something doesn't

necessarily make you good at making someone else good at that

something. And so especially with something like their email

inbox, where there's so many different things that are

passing through that one gateway, it can feel

overwhelming to even begin to think about how to train someone

else to take that on. How do you help your clients to tackle that

feeling of there's just so much? Where do we even begin?

So one of the things that our clients have

done that's been really super helpful to them is taking that

time, initially, to go through the inbox with their assistant,

to share with them who are the important people, who are the

people I want to hear from. What are these different emails? Is

this junk, or is this spam? You know, explaining these kinds of

things? Because typically, you'll start to see a pattern if

you sort the box by Sydnor, and so it's easy to identify who

those key people are. And so once we have that knowledge and

that understanding, it gives us a framework from which to move

to know and understand how to manage your inbox. So it's

important to take that initial time at the very beginning, to

let your person know who's important to you, who are your

VIPs? Who are you trying to reach out to? What are some key

words that that match their industry or their title or their

this, that or the other? Does that make sense?

It does. Yeah, it does. It sounds so easy and

and it really when you break it down and address it one step at

a time. It really is and and to your point, earlier in the show,

you're buying back time. It's not just doing it that one time.

It may take a little longer to explain how you answer an email

than to just answer it, but think of the hundreds of emails

that you don't have to answer afterwards because you took the

time to explain it once. Yeah. Fantastic. Renee, there's this

question that I ask them. I guess I'm very interested to see

what you have to say. But the question is this, what is the

biggest secret that you wish wasn't a secret at all? What's

that one thing you wish every founder watching or listening

today knew?

I wish everyone knew that they were worthy of

being served well. And some people feel like, well, I have

to do it all myself. Because if it's if it's going to be done

right, I have to do it myself. If it's if I can't allow someone

else to serve me for whatever reason, if someone else does

this for me, then I feel some kind of way. Mm. I want them to

not feel some kind of way anymore, but recognize that they

are worthy of being supported and of receiving help and of

getting the support that they need, where the meeting where

they are, and that they will grow, and they will get

accustomed and used to this feeling of being served, and

then they'll start to like it.

That's so good. That's so good because it

is true. There's the there's this thing about entrepreneurs

that there is a service mindset behind like they do serve. The

root of the word entrepreneur is to go between right and to

serve. But allowing others to serve you in the service of

others. Is, is, is so powerful, and it does. It feels pretty

great when you get used to it. You're right. So Renee, there's

some folks listening and like, they're there. They're in it.

They're work. They just finished working all weekend, and there's

got to be a better way. What? What would you say to them? How

can they connect with you? How can I learn more about the work

that you

all do? Yeah, so feel free to reach out to us on

any of our socials. We're at executive help now. We have a

website at executivehelp now.org We also have this book called,

well, what can a virtual assistant do for you? Some

assist, some entrepreneurs and founders, they're like, I don't

even know what to assign to somebody. So if they text the

letters VA, now to 1-866-943-3591, they will get a

freebie that helps them work through that thought process and

what it would what they have options they have available to

them.

Fantastic. Fantastic. We'll drop all that

information right in the show notes, so they can get it when

you're done driving. Don't do it while you drive, but yeah, we'll

get all that in there, and so you can just click and go

straight to it. That'll be fantastic. Well, Renee, thank

you so much for being on the show. It's a privilege and honor

having you here with us today. And for those of you watching

and listening, you know your time and attention mean the

world to us, I hope you got as much out of this conversation as

I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.