Ready to Bring on a Virtual Assistant or Team Member? 5 Key Strategies to Building a Top-Notch Team

Hey Friend!

I’m so excited to bring this post to you. Today we are going to talk about growing your team. If you feel ready to bring on a virtual assistant or maybe that first or second team member, this post is for you. I’m going over 5 key strategies that I and my company have used to build a top-notch team. So be sure to grab a notebook and pen. This one’s going to be gold.

Testimonial

Hi, my name’s Deb, and I’ve been interning for Stef for a year. It’s coming to an end, which is pretty scary. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as an intern. It required about 5 or 6 hours a week. I started out with the Facebook book group, which was really easy and enjoyable, and then moved into blogging because they needed a hand there. I had a few skills in that area. And I loved it. You get so much support and you learn about the background of the business, which is really interesting.

Yes, I would thoroughly recommend it. If you want to get her high ticket course and you’ve got a few spare hours in your week. You should totally do this.

You Are the Absolute Best

Thanks, Deb. We have so loved having you on our team. If you like Deb want to come and intern for the Stefanie Gass team and earn Podcast to Profit, which is my 6-month mastermind program. You can do this for basically free in exchange for interning for us for 6 months.

We have all kinds of openings from Facebook interns and student success interns to program and podcasting interns, blogging interns, and so much more. So come on over and learn a new craft in your business or cultivate the crafts so that you can really learn what it takes to grow a thriving successful company. A company with leadership all the way down through the different systems that we have in place and the different operational practices that we have.

You’re going to learn everything inside of this internship. It’s going to really help set you up for success in the future and not to mention who doesn’t love earning a free ride into Podcast to Profit?

My Team: From Virtual Assistant to Intern

Let’s talk about the 5 Key Strategies for Building a Top-Notch Team. I truly believe that my team is excellent. Of course, this has been an evolution over the past five and a half years of doing this specific job. It started from having one virtual assistant who actually lived in another country as me, to having a local virtual assistant. And then to bring on some other types of help like Facebook moderators and things of that nature. Then getting an operations assistant to now having this beautiful team five and a half years later that encompasses an operations manager.

We have an executive assistant on staff. We have lots of contractors that help us out with all the different areas and then we also have this beautiful robust internship program that I spoke about. The reason that we have this internship program. One, it’s to teach people in my community how to run a business that is truly excellent and that is truly top-notch. Two, to give people an opportunity to earn Podcast a Profit, if that’s something they can’t afford. Third, it’s a kind of mission to pour out, cultivate, and grow the community we serve.

Work and Learn at the Same Time

It’s really cool. I absolutely love it! They can work for P2P and learn at the same time. So today’s conversation is really around you being ready to bring on maybe your first or second person. Or maybe you’ve brought someone on and you’re like, “This is not it.”

Maybe this doesn’t feel exactly like Stef mentions. When you go into Stefanie’s communities, you don’t have the same experiences as when you go into other communities. You really like what you see and what you experience over here. So I wrote down 5 key strategies that I think are really going to help you. Let’s dig in.

Strategy Number 1: Love It or Leave It List

Number 1 is called the Love It or Leave It List. You guys may have heard me talk about this before. I use this practice often as a CEO. Yes, you are already the CEO of your business. Whether or not it’s making money yet, please put on that CEO hat.

Recognize that if you are trying to grow a business from your podcast that actually makes money or has a big mission impact, you are now a CEO. So what you need to do is get rid of some of the tasks that you should not be doing. I used to think that because I could do everything, I should do everything.

That is false! I have proven that to be absolutely incorrect now that I have a team of people. Now I can see where God created each person with these beautiful different skill sets so that we can all come together to create this beautiful company full of strengths in different areas.

I am not skilled in details and operational management. And so Lydia, my operations manager truly excels in that area. She’s probably not going to want to come out and run a live launch and be in front of the camera. Different people have different skill sets. When we try to do it all, we fail at the things we’re not gifted in because God did not create us to do it all.

As soon as you have the bandwidth to bring that first person on, you need to know what you’re going to hand off. So for Step 1, you’re going to create your love it and leave it list. This is really simple.

How to Create Your Love It or Leave It List

You inventory what you do in your company for about 2 days. If you really have a lot of tasks that are happening maybe a 3-day period. Write down literally every single thing that you are doing.

• Opened My Inbox
• Wrote an Email
• Posted Something on Social Media

Then I came over here and I forgot what I was working on. So then I walked around in circles. Then I decided to record a podcast episode because that sounded like a good thing to do today. You know what I mean? That’s often what happens when you’re a brand-new CEO. You’re not very organized, right? So you’re creating this list and then what you do is you take that inventory list and split it into two columns, the love it list, and then leave it list.

Have to Do and Love to Do

Start with, love it or the things you want to keep or you have to keep. For example, I have to podcast. No one on my team is going to sit down and record an episode for you and I love it. So I have to do it or I love it goes on the left side of the page and then leave it. For me, leave it would look like:

• Combing Through Emails
• Dealing With Customer Service
• Creating Standard Operating Procedures
• Training a New Hire
• Filing the Contracts in the Right Places

All of those things for me would be on the leave it list and that would be stuff I’d like to delegate or don’t like doing. As soon as you have those two things separated, you’re going to look on the right side of the page. This is the leave-it list. Ask yourself what role you need to fill and how many hours is it going to take. Maybe you could hand some of these tasks to a virtual assistant. Now you have clarity on who you’re going to hire and who that position might be.

It Does Not Need to Be Overcomplicated

That’s literally as simple as it needs to be. You know, my Enneagram ones who are like, I have to have 100,000,000 things prepared before I bring someone on. No! Bring someone on like a virtual assistant and then build the job with them from a leave-it list. That’s right, people. You’re going to make this really super simple.

That’s actually a great exercise for you to be doing often. I would say at least semi-annually, maybe every 6 months. Semi-annually sit down and do your love it / leave it list exercise again. As you start growing your team, have them do the love it / leave it list. As we grew, there were certain things my operations manager wanted on her leave-it list.

We were able to hand that off to someone else in the company. You are consistently refining and defining the roles in your organization by taking a look at what people love, where their passions lie and their skill sets are, and getting things onto the right plates for those people who love those things.

Strategy Number 2: Look Within

So where do you find someone to work for you? That’s the next question and my Number 2 strategy. Where do you find your first person? Maybe you would like to have a virtual assistant or even an intern. How do you find this person? I have always looked within.

We look at our super fans or our community. This looks like going through the Facebook groups and seeing who our All-Stars are. We look at our top engagers in the student community. We look at the people that really shine in our Podcast to Profit program. We‘re like, you know, maybe it’s going to be a while before their business takes off and they want to have an internship experience. We look within and find talent.

I’ve Never Gone Wrong With This Strategy

The reason that I do this is twofold. One is because the people who are in my community already know a lot about my business. So our training is going to be a lot easier than bringing someone in from the outside. Then the second thing is you’re going to get a certain value and moral compass when you bring people in who are already like-minded with you.

We are consistently looking for that faith-led, self-starting, driven, detail-oriented, self-motivated, heart to serve and pour out. When we find those people, they are plentiful inside my community because those are the people we attract, I would love to partner with them and have them grow with us. Looking within has always been a great strategy.

Here’s the Other Reason I Love It

When you hire someone from within your own community, they may not be an expert yet. They may not be a social media expert, but you bring them in and work with them. You cultivate them and you help them grow. It’s so rewarding and fulfilling for both of you because you are able to kind of build a role with somebody who is willing to learn.

Maybe you pay a little bit less as you both get used to this and you create the role and they get used to everything. Over time you can actually give that person so much more room to grow within the company. Of course, you can always get the training that you guys need externally versus hiring outside of the company. You’re going to pay a premium for somebody who already has the skill set. A virtual assistant probably has a dozen other clients which is sometimes a problem. You’re going to have to pay a lot more.

Plus there’s no longevity because to this person, you’re just another number. That’s at least the experience that I’ve had. I know that’s not the case all the time, but especially for those of you starting and the budget is smaller look from within. I think that’s going to help you get started with somebody.

Strategy Number 3: Date Before We Marry

Strategy Number 3, let’s date people before we marry them, okay? So, you get excited. It’s like, “Oh, I found somebody. They’re going to come on and be my podcast assistant, virtual assistant, or whatever role that you need.” You’re so pumped. They’re excited. They look so great and filled out your little Google form. You had a quick chat over Zoom. “Let’s do this and sign a year-long contract.”

What we typically do and what I recommend is you always want to test the waters with somebody. Because when something sounds good, it does not mean you’re going to put the ring on it. A 30-day trial is highly recommended for anyone doing anything within your organization. Even our interns have a 30-day trial. If they are not going to be able to cut it within 30 days, we are going to part ways.

This is clear and it’s very clearly communicated from the beginning. We don’t mince words. You are expected to reach these certain expectations. We have standards and core responsibilities that you’re going to be doing each and every week. These are the hours, right?

You have preliminary things that are set out. You want to date someone and make sure they can uphold their side of the bargain and that you can uphold yours. A 30-day trial period is highly recommended.

Strategy Number 4: Set Your New Hire Up for Success

Strategy Number 4 is to set your new hire up for success. I want to be careful with this one because I think we can get into perfectionism, and that’s not at all why I bring this up. But I will say as a visionary, you guys can probably imagine what my personality is. After I hired my first virtual assistant, I would just shoot some videos and be like, there you go. That’s how you do that, bye. Versus my operations manager, Lydia. She is meticulous.

We’ve got contract links to the roles and responsibilities and those link to our operating systems. They know exactly what they’re doing on exactly what week. They check the boxes and then we have success metrics. We have all these amazing things lined out for our new hires but that was a complete evolution of probably 24 months of refining the process of hiring people.

When you’re new and getting started, you don’t need to have everything perfect and everything in place but you do need to have a few things that I definitely did not have. The first thing you need to have is a contract. If you go to my resources page, I have a legal contract bundle with one of my affiliates that you guys can snag that has all the contracts that you would need in there. You are going to need a contract for your new hire. Even if you have an intern or virtual assistant, you’re going to need a contract.

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure

The second thing you need is a very light SOP. That stands for Standard Operating Procedure. How do they do the job that you’re asking them to do? This can literally be videos, that’s fine. You can also create the videos as you begin with this person but you do need to give them some guidance on how they’re going to perform the job that you’re asking them to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s scrappy and messy but there does need to be something there.

The last thing I would do to set yourself up for success is have some type of communication method with your new person. We use Voxer over here. It’s like a walkie-talkie type chat because I can’t deal with written communication. For me, it takes too long. If you have something to ask me, just ask me. We’ll be done. You don’t want to communicate with your new hire by email. Either use Voxer or if you want to use written, go with something like Slack. Definitely have that in place because when people are new, communication is extraordinarily important.

Let People Fail Forward

Really be involved in the training process for the first 30 days. As they complete a task, take the time and the energy to go over it, find where they went wrong, and then train them on how to fix it. I’ve become a better leader by empowering other people to fix their mistakes. Empower other people by training them to show up with excellence instead of just doing it myself because it’s easier.

Tell them this is not up to par. Here’s what you need to change. Try again and submit it again. From the very beginning, spell out what your expectations are and then clearly communicate how they can optimize or make it exactly what you asked for, and then let them try again. Don’t be afraid of letting people fail forward. It’s going to help them in the long run.

Strategy Number 5: Clear Communication

The 5th strategy for building a top-notch team is clear communication. I can’t stress this enough, clearly communicate. When you start building a team, I want you to imagine a marriage. When you are married, you don’t just get to go and operate in a vacuum and not communicate with your spouse

• What’s Happening?
• What You’re Doing?
• What’s Coming Up?
• Where They Are Not Meeting a Need?
• Are You Feeling Unseen in This Area?

You are constantly working on communication in your marriage and within your family. Believe it or not, it’s the exact same thing in your company, whether it’s an intern or virtual assistant. So clear communication is absolutely critical. Interestingly, now that I’ve been working with a lot of other top business owners, some people really, really struggle with how to clearly communicate.

Remember You’re the CEO

When it’s an employee, a contractor, an intern, or a virtual assistant, they may feel bad or awkward. You’ve got to remember, you are the CEO of a future 6 or 7-figure business, whichever is on your heart. Maybe it’s not financial. Maybe you want to reach a certain size or you want to have this certain, ministry effect. You cannot get to that point and that level without putting on your leadership pants and your CEO hat. So you’ve got to have extremely clear communication about:

• The Mission of Your Company
• The Standards of Your Company
• The Excellence You Expect

All of that is within the parameters of the job, and the roles that you’ve set out. And then you have to uphold those. So really showing up with, of course, kindness, but also unapologetic boundaries and leadership. You have to pull your team up with you.

All Hands Are on Deck

For example, this month this is our focus. All hands are on deck. If you see things that aren’t contributing to that one thing that you’ve asked everyone to do, you’re unafraid of saying, “Hey, I need everybody to realign your focus to what we’ve got going on this month. I need to see this deliverable by this date. I need to see this by this date.”

If something doesn’t come in the way that you expect, you’re helping them understand how to do it better and you’re setting them free to go try again and to bring it back to you again for feedback. One of my dear friends gave me some feedback recently that I haven’t actually used yet but I’m going to. She said every time she sits down to a meeting with her company, she says, “Is this your best work?” Before they ever present to her, before anything ever gets shown to her, the question is asked, “Is this your best work?” And she said 50% of the time, they’ll go, “I’ll be right back, or can we reschedule for tomorrow?“ Maybe there are a few things that they have not dotted their i’s or crossed their t’s. I think that’s such an incredible thing to start instilling in your team is this expectation of everyone doing their best work.

Don’t Forget to Show Some Grace

Now, of course, show some grace when people are new and if there’s a training period. But I’m talking about us now and this really successful full company. We’ve got different people doing different things in the organization. If you are going to go next level, your leadership has got to elevate and it’s got to be next level to create a top-notch team. It really does start and stop with you.

• The Type of Leader That You Show Up to Be
• The Type of Standards That You Have
• The Type of Time That You’re Willing to Pour Into People

You’re willing to display respect for your team members. Clear communication is really the bottom line. That is communication on all fronts.

These Strategies Will Work for Any Size Team

I hope that these 5 strategies will help you begin to cultivate and grow your team, whether it’s a team of 1 or a team of 20, or whether it’s an intern or a virtual assistant. These strategies have been imperative for me.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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