[PODCAST] Virtual Assistants Can Help With Your Digital Marketing Tasks

Imagine being able to design your own life and actually love the life you are living. As a business owner, it seems like a far-fetched idea with all the tasks you have to get done on a daily basis. While you don't mind having to do it for the sake of business success, it can have some serious consequences on both your physical and mental health, which is not a worthwhile trade off. On the other hand, there is a way for you to have the best of both worlds. You can still grow your business while also having the time to do the other things you want to do and be with the people you love - living life to the fullest. Having a virtual assistant by your side is your ticket to living the life you want, as Jess Ostroff Tyson discusses in this episode of The Digital Slice Podcast.

The Director Of Calm

You are not meant to toil all your life and end up unhappy, stressed out, or sick. You are meant to do great things, and you'll only be able to achieve them when you are well-inspired, healthy, and highly motivated. You're meant to be free to do the things you love, no matter what you do as a job or operate as a business. Jess Ostroff Tyson can only live one way, and that is to live free to design her life the way she wants it, saying, “The reason I wanted to build my own business was because I wanted to design a life I love.” She says you’ve got to love both work and other things – not only work alone. She doesn’t try to strike a balance between the two because she doesn't believe balance is achievable in this case. Instead, she puts it this way: “I like to work hard and play hard.”

Jess owns Don’t Panic Management, an agency which adopts a people-first approach in the virtual assistance industry. In her own company, she is also the Director of Calm- she's responsible for matching those entrepreneurs who tend to panic and work too hard with virtual assistants who can help them achieve calm, so they're able to focus on the things that matter most for their business.

Jess herself is an entrepreneur who understands the demands of being a business owner and having to juggle between priorities and tasks. Having worked as a virtual assistant herself, she also knows a little help can go a long way. From scheduling, research, online advertising, to marketing, there's so much you can entrust to your virtual assistant or VA and help you free up some time so you can be where you are truly needed. In her work with clients, she states, “I like to get to know people on a deeper level because I think that makes our work more meaningful and it makes us do want to really make a difference in their lives.”

Work-Life Balance Versus Life Integration

Can you truly achieve balance? Often you hear about the concept of work-life balance where one has to strive to strike a balance between work and play. However, Jess herself finds the concept to be ideal but unrealistic. She believes such a balance cannot really be achieved. What is possible and most desirable though is life integration where you integrate work into the rest of your life, together with other equally important factors to make it into one big whole of a life worth living. With the help of a VA, this has now become easily accessible and right within your reach. How would you like it if you had someone to answer those endless queries and messages? What about having someone to schedule your day or week, so you don't miss out on important appointments? How about someone who would handle social media and manage your ads?

Jess knows when you have assistance in the different aspects of your life, even including housework, it all contributes to your overall happiness and contentment. At first, it will feel like it is hard to let go of the things you only trust yourself to do. But when you are looking at expanding and growing your business, self-reliance will not work. If two heads are better than one, then four hands are even much better. As you keep working with your virtual assistant, you will see how reliable and skillful they can be at what they do. They will not only be able to relieve you of routine or administrative work but complement what you lack in skills including digital marketing.

The VA Industry

How did the virtual assistant industry blossom into a budding business? Most companies have a traditional administrative or executive assistant who is one of the most reliable persons in the office. Jess was also an admin assistant before she became a virtual assistant freelancer at the age of 23 and this was around 2009 to 2010. The VA industry developed as the Internet business boomed and there were more new entrepreneurs who were needing help online. Those she connected with when she was still an admin assistant became her clients as a VA.

What she loved about being a VA was she could virtually be anywhere and still do her job. As long as she was able to provide her clients with the administrative support they needed, they didn’t really mind where she was, and her location was never an issue. She could be at the beach and still get work done. The best thing about it was she could also design her own schedule: “Most of my clients, they just wanted the tasks to get done, and they didn’t care when I did it.” It was the best thing she could ever have as a job.

As a form of business, however, Jess didn’t really expect a need for VA services would develop, or that it would thrive over the years. But the VA industry blossomed, and she decided to make a business out of it. She remembered how “The virtual assistant industry itself began to grow - the awareness about virtual assistants and what they could do.” Jess felt very motivated, and it wasn’t really for riches or fame or making a big impact but wanting to make a difference in people’s lives. She liked that she was needed.

Don’t Panic Management: The Company

Jess can clearly remember, “Ever since 2010, whenever I started, that has always been my purpose. I’m not trying to be the biggest. I’m not trying to be rich necessarily. But I really want to help make a difference in people’s lives in any way I can.” Since then, Jess focused on training other people how to become the kind of virtual assistant who is a big help to clients. Originally, the tasks they did focus on were executive and administrative assistance. Meanwhile, Jess had a marketing background, and so they expanded to doing marketing tasks, and she discovered what clients wanted: “People who are entrepreneurs and wanna grow their business don’t just need help scheduling their meetings. They also need help writing blog posts or publishing a podcast or posting to social media sites.”

Her company provided these services, and they grew organically. In the first few years, they doubled both in size and revenue, and it continued on year after year. Today, they have 20 to 25 contractors who are all college educated, are based in the U.S., and have English as their first language. She also has a team of employees who oversee all the work, does quality control, and provide back up support. Jess has observed “One of the biggest things I heard from people working with virtual assistants - which was terrible - was they would just disappear.” Most of the time, they would just disappear in the middle of a project after they had asked to be paid in advance, so she has made sure this dis not happen with her clients. “People are getting burned left and right by working with virtual assistants, and it’s been my goal to change this reputation and change the way people perceive VAs because we’re not all crooks.”

Rising VA Trends And Your Mental Health

Today, the trend continues to rise when it comes to the use of virtual assistant services. Statistics say half of the workforce will be virtual by the year 2020. The usual 8 to 5 job is certainly going to be there still, but Jess confirms, “Having butts in seats is less important now than just being efficient and getting things done.” You simply have to take advantage of this trend as VAs become more skilled and more reliable at doing digital marketing. This is especially true of the millennials who came of age in the internet generation. They are highly creative, and tech savvy. They can work with your marketing department full time or part-time depending on your needs. No need for extra equipment or paying for insurance. Jess points out how “People are seeing virtual assistants as another option of getting things done in a cost-effective way.”

Besides, your mental health as a business owner takes precedence over everything else. And taking care of your mental health means being able to take the necessary breaks, taking up a hobby, loving yourself, and spending time interacting with other people. Your VA is your ticket to finally living the life you have always wanted.

Be sure to listen to this episode of The Digital Slice Podcast to get the scoop on using virtual assistants! And, if you like it, leave a rating and a review!

Please note: The Friedman Group is an inbound marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado, and we work with professionals and business owners across the U.S. Our digital marketing services include: inbound marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and digital marketing strategy and implementation.