Build Your Team Episode 3: Virtual Assistant
Hey everybody. How you do and what's going on?
I'm Sweet Deat, and I'm so glad that you’re here. If you're creative, you're gonna find a lot of really good stuff here that you can use, like business tips from beginner to advanced finance ideas, strategy, even music tips, if you're a musician like me, all of this information is for you to have 100% free because it's information, somebody gave it to me for free at some point, so I pass it to you. I'm very excited to talk about this particular topic because I feel like there's sort of a misunderstanding among the creative community as to whether or not you can afford this. I would think that if you polled anybody within the industry, they would probably say, know that most people couldn't, but the truth is, almost everyone can, and in certain situations, it could be one of the most powerful tools you have in your tool belt to land a client or to make your life a lot easier as a creative. But before we get too far into it, you know what's coming! If you're an experienced follower, you know it's time to talk about the artist of the day.
Today's artist is a band that does not have a record out, but there's tons of live clips you can watch and they're totally insane. How in saying... You might ask, how about progress or insane? That group is called the Wednesday Night Titans. It's an incredible duo of improvisational based music that features my friend Kevin Scott and the drum virtuoso Zach Danziger, who in addition to playing with tons of jazz Legends, he is also the composer for a lot of the oceans movies, like ocean 11, oceans 12, etcetera. Kevin, on the other hand, has played with all kinds of incredible artists that includes someone that I mentioned previously, Jimmy Herring. So how does improvisational music somehow pair with wrestling... Well, it's best seen to really experience, but they take old historic wrestling clips of all sorts of famous wrestlers from their day and put together these improvisational loops and songs together to form this crazy soundscape that goes along with the wrestlers wrestling on a big screen while you're watching them play. It's crazy. But you gotta check it out.
Let's face it, we're not all good at everything, and it's kind of counterproductive to even try in some cases to be so excellent at everything.
And also creative at the same time. Maybe you can get a couple of those things together, but chances are, you won't be able to get everything, so it's important that you learn how to outsource and build people around you to make your creative life better. So today we talk about a virtual assistant, a virtual assistant is simply someone who provides support for an entrepreneur or creative like yourself, and maybe doesn't even live in the same city as you, they handle tasks like social media management, event management, managing calendars, appointments or emails, preparing reports, personal tasks like booking flight arrangements or hotel arrangement, and even simple digital marketing tasks, so even though these people aren't in the same city as you or even in the same state as you, they can be a vital part of your business. If you don't already know, later in this video, I'll reveal how much one cost and you're gonna be really surprised after I give you all the things that they can do for you.
So let's get started with number one, administrative work.
Probably the most obvious thing, but as a creative, they can answer your phone calls, they can answer your emails, they can do a lot of inbetween work with clients if you're really busy, say, working on a project with another client. From my own experience, I remember the first time something like this happened for me, I was in the middle of a film shoot for one of the bands that I represent, and it was very complex and there was lots of moving things happening all at the same time, and the next thing I know, I get an email that looks like something that's really important, before I had a chance to even pick up my phone and call my assistant to help me nurture this client that had just come in, she had already handled it, which believe me is a huge, huge advantage, and it just really takes the weight off of your mind that you're making sure you're giving the client... Everything that they need to make them feel important. So if you're a small business, you might not have an actual brick and mortar location to where you go and do work every day, you might be doing it right out of an office like this one that I'm in right now. The only real difference between an admin assistant and a virtual assistant is the virtual one is just located somewhere else, so this point is pretty straight forward.
Moving on to number two, personal tasks.
Do you ever feel like you're just totally overwhelmed with work, you've got a client over here asking for something, you've got a client over here asking for something, and there's probably one over here and they're just like, Hey, could you get me this too... It just gets to be overwhelming at times, trying to keep dates together, time together, all the logistics for each particular event, what songs you're playing, if you're a musician like me, all these types of details can be easily lost in like say, a long, long email chain that's why? Having someone like a virtual assistant will help, they'll organize all of this information to make sure that you always show up prepared and ready to go, they can organize your personal todo list book, all your travel arrangements, they can help you make gifts for clients, which this is something that my administrative assistant does for me a lot, I will personalize and think about a gift that really impacts the person that I want to give a gift to, and a lot of times I'll have workers go ahead and make those purchases on my behalf, a lot of these tasks don't have to be handled by you, they can be handled by somebody else, like your virtual assistant.
Number three, content creation.
If you've been following anything on social media, you know that content is king these days, just putting out pieces of content after pieces of content can get really taxing on one particular individual, having someone like a virtual assistant that maybe has your vision in mind for your brand or your stylings, could really help you really speed up the amount of pieces of content that you have to put out for the world to consume. So if you're a creative that's a photographer or a musician or an artist, and you wanna be top of mind with somebody that you really wanna work with, putting out content all the time really helps, and having someone like a virtual assistant near you will definitely lighten the load.
Number four, managing finances.
Now, before you go run off and try to replace your accountant, let's manage those expectations just a little bit, while your virtual assistant maybe could do a lot of those details, it's may be better if they help manage them, so maybe they help with assisting with a budget for a particular project that you have, maybe they help keep track of expenses and follow them accordingly. When tax season comes around, you won't be running around like a chicken with your head cut off, so to speak. Looking for all of the pieces of information that you need to give to your accountant... They can help with that too.
All right, for number five, we're talking about social media management.
There's no better way to get word out about what you do these days for the cost in social media, it's likely where most people are going to see you and want to talk and get to know who you are... People can also draw conclusions on who you are just simply from your social media page, and it seems to be a little bit more personal than a lot of websites, you see, this is definitely crucial for any creative because a lot of times we showcase our art on these mediums, just to let people know who we are, so they could be in charge of creating content for all the media accounts, engaging with people that maybe say something nice of something you posted, they can also gather data from the social media post and present those to you as well, so you know what kind of content is really working well, this is something you can easily outsource, and maybe before you do to that 20-something year old in your office that is really good with these kinds of things, it's really important that you cast that vision as to who you are and what you're all about before you just hand over the keys, so to speak, I think it's also important that if you are gonna hand over social media responsibilities that you have a really solid talk very consistently, like maybe once a week about the stuff you're posting and also to remind them who you are and what you're about and what your business is about, or your creative work is about.
Number six is research.
There's constantly things changing in the world as we speak, in regards to your creative world, wouldn't it be nice if somebody was just out there keeping tabs on what the trends were, what's gone viral, what's fallen sort of out of vogue, having someone keep up with the trends of today, and all the research really help you progress and make sure you're always staying in the lane that is being most viewed, so having someone just keeping a pulse on what's going on that's in trend and maybe following out of trend may save you a lot of money.
Number seven, customer service.
This one is a really, really big one. We as creatives don't always have the best reputation for getting back to people on time or working on a time frame at all, sometimes we just get so consumed with our art that we just forget about the world that's around us, and that's kind of what makes us unique, being able to block out the world and just focus in on something and create something that then could be representative of the world that you're in, really moves people, but if you're trying to get hired and you're to also use your art as a medium for work, having someone like a virtual assistant really up your game in the eyes of the client, think about it, somebody doesn't know you, and they're reaching out to you for the first time, if they're greeted with a virtual assistant, just simply saying hello and gathering their information for a potential phone call, it really shows organizational stability, and there's nothing that a client likes more than very quick responses, especially ones that are filled with organization and clarity.
Number eight, email management.
That's right, sounds ridiculous. But let me explain, think about all the emails you have in your inbox right now, they probably run together like an endless stream of information, but it doesn't have to be that way. It could be very organized and very detailed. That makes it very easy for you to find what you need when you need it, we as creatives do so much all the time, some things we can just simply give to someone else and they'll probably do a better job of organizing it. I kinda relate this with house cleaning in a way, every person has sort of their way of cleaning a house, but whenever you get somebody that's a professional in there that steps in and maybe clean your house for the first time ever, all of a sudden you see things sparkle in a way that you've never seen them sparkle before, having your virtual assistant manage your email box is a great thing, and she'll have it stick in span and looking good. So how is that? That's a lot to think about right now.
The best part... How much do they cost?
You might be surprised that a virtual assistant can cost you as little as $12 an hour, they also range all the way up to $20 and $30 an hour, and probably even farther than that, the more specific skill sets that you want likely will cost you more... The most important thing in finding a virtual assistant is someone that you really connect with and that you really, really trust, having someone put their hands on your creative world is really scary, but truthfully, not learning to let go and letting someone else handle some of these affairs, can be a detriment to your growth. I used a third party company that I hired to handle my virtual assistant, they did a search out into the world, found candidates that best suited me from a personality standpoint and from a skill set standpoint, and then presented those clients to me, I interviewed them, and then made the decision that worked out best for me, there are companies out there that do this for you, and they may cost a little bit more, but they're also really, really good at pairing you with somebody that you like.
Oh, that was a lot. I think we'll end it there.