{"id":14108,"date":"2012-01-24T04:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=14108"},"modified":"2012-01-24T04:00:31","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T10:00:31","slug":"my-experience-using-a-virtual-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/my-experience-using-a-virtual-assistant\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience Using a Virtual Assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I left <a title=\"Post: \u201cStepping into the Next Chapter\u201d\" href=\"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/stepping-into-the-next-chapter.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my role as CEO<\/a> of Thomas Nelson in April 2011. I thought I could get by without an assistant. Boy, was I wrong.<\/p>\n<p>[youtube id=&#8221;CyOgvUdOKt4&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p>As a result of greater focus on writing, my blog traffic spiked and my comment load doubled. I started getting more email. I had to book my own travel. I soon felt overwhelmed.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Initially, I thought I\u2019d hire a part-time assistant. I even created a job description and sent it to several people I thought might know of someone. A few people applied.<\/p>\n<p>But then I started counting the cost:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where would I put them, since I work out of my house?<\/li>\n<li>Would I have to supply my assistant with a computer? a cell phone? other equipment?<\/li>\n<li>Did I want to pay payroll taxes and keep up with the paperwork?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, I switched gears and considered a <em>virtual assistant<\/em> (a \u201cVA\u201d). I re-read Tim Ferriss\u2019s excellent chapter on virtual assistants in <em><a title=\"Amazon: The 4-Hour Work Week\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0307465357\/fwis-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The 4-Hour Work Week<\/a><\/em> (see Chapter 8).<\/p>\n<p>I had hired a \u201cVA\u201d a few years ago while I was still at Thomas Nelson. I did this more as an experiment than anything else. I hired someone in another country for about $10 an hour. It was cheap, but the service was disappointing. I decided this time that I would hire someone domestically.<\/p>\n<p>I posted on Twitter that I was looking for a virtual assistant. Within an hour, Bryan Miles of <a title=\"eaHELP website\" href=\"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/recommends\/eahelp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BELAY<\/a> responded. We talked by phone a few minutes later.<\/p>\n<p>I was impressed by Bryan\u2019s responsiveness, personal values, and operating philosophy. After considering a few other options, I decided to give his firm a try.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan assigned Tricia to my account. I was immediately impressed with her. She has worked for me since August, and I couldn\u2019t be happier. People I interact with, assume that we are working out of the same office. She has her own michaelhyatt.com email address. I routinely get compliments on her responsiveness and efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what she does:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>She screens my email.<\/strong> She checks my main email accounts, handles what she can, and \u201credirects\u201d the messages that require my personal attention to my private account. She has reduced my email load by 90 percent.<\/li>\n<li><strong>She books my travel.<\/strong> She handles all the details, including airline reservations, hotels, car rental, etc. She sets up a trip in TripIt, so I have everything I need in one place.<\/li>\n<li><strong>She makes calls on my behalf.<\/strong> She makes appointments (both personal and professional), confirms my appointments, checks my voice mail, and follows up as needed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>She manages my calendar.<\/strong> Almost nothing gets on my calendar unless it passes through her first. We have agreed together that I will only accept appointments on two afternoons a week, and she works to stay within those boundaries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>She handles other projects as needed.<\/strong> I continue to turn over more and more to her. For example, she recently screened all the people who had applied to be <a title=\"Post: \u201cOur Community Leaders\u201d\" href=\"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/our-community-leaders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a community leader<\/a> on my site. She and my manager, <a title=\"Joy\u2019s Twitter Account\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/joyjoyg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joy<\/a>, ended up picking the final ten I appointed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Basically, Tricia can do anything that doesn\u2019t require her physical presence.<\/p>\n<p>I started using her for five hours a week and quickly went to fifteen. I found that I was so much more productive that it was well-worth the additional investment.<\/p>\n<p>Tricia has now become such a partner in my business that I no longer even think of her as virtual. She's just one of my teammates\u2014and a very valuable one at that.<\/p>\n<div style=\"color: #000033; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 16px;\">Question: Have you ever considered hiring a virtual assistant? What would it make possible for you? You can leave a comment by <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/my-experience-using-a-virtual-assistant.html#respond\">clicking here<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been using a virtual assistant now for nine months. It has been a great solution for me. Here&#8217;s how it has worked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":14112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1196,45,213,948],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>My Experience Using a Virtual Assistant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have been using a virtual assistant now for nine months. It has been a great solution for me. 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