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