Episodes

  • How to Create an Online Course for Free with Chris Badgett

    How to Create an Online Course for Free with Chris Badgett
    Aug 3 2020
    How to Create an Online Course for Free with Chris Badgett Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Chris Badgett of LifterLMS about the process of creating your own online course and membership sites, and how this will help you and your business especially in the middle of a global crisis.Some key points include:Getting your course ideas out of your head and actually creating themThe minimum tech stack needed in order to start an online course or membership siteTaking advantage of the current crisis and developing your business online Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:11 How to create an online course for free06:22 SCIDL Method09:58 How to avoid getting stuck with the Tech Stack13:13 Taking advantage of the current crisis17:20 What does it mean to Pivot your Business18:30 Having the right Business Mindset this crisis19:44 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work? Are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show. We bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts, Matt Malouf, and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Welcome everyone to today's episode of the Virtual Success Show podcast where today I am joined by Chris Badgett, who I've had on the podcast before, who's the founder of the LifterLMS membership site plugin. And we're here today to talk all about membership sites and why now is the best time ever for you to get your course out of your head onto a learning management system. Like something like Lifter and get it out to the world so obviously, I'm Barbara Turley, your host of the Virtual Success Show podcast and founder of The Virtual Hub. Chris, welcome to today's show. Chris Badgett: Thanks for having me, Barbara. I'm really excited to get into it with you today. Barbara Turley: Yes, so look, you know, I know loads of people over time have always wanted to create membership sites, online courses and you know as well as I do that people get stuck not just with getting the course out of their heads but getting it onto the platforms, the tech stops people and usually business stops people in that you're running the day to day running of your business stops you, so now is the best time I think, for a lot of businesses to try to pivot fast and go this route. We'll talk about kind of the best businesses that can do that in a minute but I was really inspired by your- recently you did a four day course creation boot camp, I think you'd call it online and with the idea of to help people to get a course out of their heads, get out of the weeds and actually get the course created. Can you give us the short and dirty version of how do we do that? And how do we make it less overwhelming? Because it's quite overwhelming to do it. How to Create an Online Course for Free Chris Badgett: Yeah, well, first, I just want to acknowledge the huge problem and this isn't a new problem because if you think about it, if you're watching this right now, just raise your hand or smash the like button or whatever, if you have ever thought about writing a book, but you never actually wrote the book. This kind of- this is an age old problem right here too, with creative entrepreneurs and people who want to innovate and are really passionate about a topic or helping a certain type of person. So I see unfortunately, a lot of people get stuck in the weeds of like they're looking at the mechanism, they're looking at the course or the membership site, or the coaching program that they're going to put on the internet and they're really focused on it. But then there's this giant gap between, "Alright,
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    21 mins
  • Office to Remote: The Tech Stack for a Seamless Transition with Peter Moriarty

    Office to Remote: The Tech Stack for a Seamless Transition with Peter Moriarty
    Jul 20 2020
    Office to Remote: The Tech Stack for a Seamless Transition with Peter Moriarty Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Peter Moriarty of itGenius and discusses the how-to’s of setting up your company fit for a virtual environment. They talk about creating the right systems and processes in order to effectively manage a remote team. Some key points include:The tools that you need in order to have a great task and communication flow in your business.Challenges working in a virtual environmentWhy you should eradicate emailsWhat does it mean to have the right mindset shift Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:02 Roadblocks when setting up Cloud Based System04:30 Important G Suite features07:40 Task Management, Systems and Processes 11:58 Working in a Virtual Environment15:22 Why Task Management by Email never works19:21 Tips in getting through this remote setup successfully26:28 Remote Business Playbook28:09 Wrapping Things Up Tools Mentioned:AsanaTrelloPodioG SuiteDropboxZoomSkypeSlackZapierOntraportActive Campaign Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you’re not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey, everyone, welcome back to another special edition episode of the Virtual Success podcast where we're now taking it live online to cope with this COVID-19 crisis that we're currently all in right now. Today's guest, I'm talking to Peter Moriarty from itGenius and he's given me so many tips already before we've even started this show. But really what I want to talk about is so many companies have been scrambling to try to move people into a remote or work from home situation over the last few weeks. Me included, I at The Virtual Hub had to move 110 staff very quickly into work from home situations and it was something apart from the issue of not having computers, the actual online or the systems, part of it was very easy because I had actually set it up that way. But I know a lot of companies have been scrambling trying to do this and not really getting it right. So, Peter's here with us today to talk specifically about how to set your company up to make sure that the next time, hopefully, we never have to do this again. But if you do, you can move fast and that your systems are portable. So Peter, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Peter Moriarty: Thank you so much for having me. I am thrilled to be here. Barbara Turley: So to kick off, can you tell me, I'm sure you see this all the time in your experience with working with companies. A company who comes to you and wants to be more cloud-based or wants to be more nimble in terms of moving people around, what are the major roadblocks and problems that you see in their setup? To kick off. Roadblocks in Setting Up a Cloud-Based System Peter Moriarty: Yeah, I'd say it's always people. But people are always the roadblocks. It's either processes that are in place, or ways of thinking they're in place, which are the biggest blockers. And technology change requires people change. And so when you're going through a process of you know, everyone's been through a bad technology change at one point in their life, whether that was you know, working in corporate and having someone implementing your system without training people properly, or just, you know, switching from a PC to a Mac, and the first couple of days, kind of not knowing where the buttons are, you know, the frustration and the the fear, it's not just a fear of change for stop, but it's certainly, you know,
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    29 mins
  • Scaling Your Delegation Game with Nigel Bennett of Aqua Guard Spill Response

    Scaling Your Delegation Game with Nigel Bennett of Aqua Guard Spill Response
    Jul 6 2020
    Scaling up the Delegation Game with Nigel Bennett, Co-Founder of Aqua-Guard Spill Response Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Nigel Bennett of Aqua-Guard Spill Response about how to delegate effectively, how to grow your team, and avoid Business Owner Burnout. Some key points include: The importance of having a business coach How to manage business owner burnout Why you need to invest time and energy in training your people The importance of systems and processes in your business Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:18 Aqua-Guard Spill Response 05:52 Business Owner Burnout 11:38 How to Delegate more effectively 18:38 Organic Growth in your Business 19:58 Processes and Systems 21:12 The importance of Life Rhythm in your Business 27:35 Who should manage the people and the teams in your Business 28:38 Keeping in touch with your team during this pandemic 32:19 Nigel’s experience with Burnout Business Owners 37:19 Fight, Flight, or Freeze 40:34 Final thoughts 42:23 Wrapping things Up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you’re not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Virtual Success Show podcast where I'm your host as always Barbara Turley. I do co-host this show with my co-host, Matt Malouf, who's not with us today. But my guest today, I'm joined by Nigel Bennett, who is the co-founder and owner of Aqua-Guard Spill Response. And also because I want to mention your book, also author of the book, "Take that leap, risking it all for what really matters" and he's also the founder of TruBeach. He's been a member of the entrepreneurs organization for 15 years, has won a whole pile of awards and not even gonna go into how many they are but I met Nigel on a mastermind call that I had the pleasure to be on a few weeks ago, when I heard his story about, how he has managed to not just delegate effectively, but has actually managed to remove himself pretty much completely from the day to day operations of his business. So Nigel, welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining me. Nigel Bennett: Hi, Barbara. Thank you so much. It's, it's the pleasure. Pleasure to be on your show. I'm in. I'm in Whistler here in British Columbia, and you're in Chamonix, I guess. And Barbara Turley: Yeah, we're both in the ski slopes but there's no snow, we're not allowed to ski Nigel Bennett: No snow and we can't go out, Yeah, I know. Barbara Turley: During this crisis time and you know, like it's been really great connecting with so many entrepreneurs at the moment during this crisis time that we're currently in. But Nigel, to kick off just give us the quick you know, Aqua-Guard Spill Response and what I love about this company and about me finally interviewing you, is that it's different from most of the types of businesses that we've had on the podcast or that I've been talking to in that it's kind of, it's way off the charts from what I would normally be doing in the digital world or whatever. So give us the quick synopsis of what it is. Aqua-Guard Spill Response Nigel Bennett: Yeah, we're an emergency response company. If you go way back, right out of high school, I was working for my father's environmental mapping company. And next day after high school I was I was on a plane down to Venezuela. And I live in Vancouver, and I'd never really been out of the country very much. So I was. I was doing overflights over Lake Maracaibo taking photographs of the coa...
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    43 mins
  • How to Hire A-Players Consistently with a Streamlined Recruitment Process

    How to Hire A-Players Consistently with a Streamlined Recruitment Process
    Jun 22 2020
    How to Hire A-Players Consistently with a Streamlined Recruitment Process Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley and her co-host Matt Malouf discuss The Virtual Hub’s recruitment process, what makes it different from others, and the secret to hiring A-players in your business. Some key points include:The importance of having a great recruitment processThree key things to remember when recruitingHow to determine A-players from B and C-players Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:2:39 The Virtual Hub’s Recruitment Process8:40 Recruitment Status in this Crisis11:05 How to avoid bringing in the wrong people14:20 Attitude vs Skill17:48 Three key fundamentals in Recruiting21:59 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you’re not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Matt Malouf: Hi, everyone and welcome to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my co host, Barbara Turley. Hi, Barbara. How are you today? Barbara Turley: I'm great Matt and you? Matt Malouf: Yep, going really, really well... really well. Very excited to starting to see what we're coming out of lockdown through this pandemic that we've been going through and life is starting to get back to some form of normality. How is it on the; I'm in Australia today and your in France. How's it, how's things over in your neck of the woods? Barbara Turley: Well, you know, I'm just excited too Matt because the restaurants are opening this week. So, you know, we're slowly opening up, but we can finally have a glass of wine somewhere else other than our house. So that's got to be a good thing. So but yeah, very slowly opening up, everyone wearing masks where we are. But I guess that's the right thing to do for now. But good to see us all opening up again. Matt Malouf: And today's show, I wanted to actually spend some time interviewing Barbara, because we've been having a few conversations recently off air. And one of the most interesting things that we've been talking about is the recruitment process. And the hiring of VAs and how Barbara and her team are doing that process at the moment. But the, I guess, not just about the process, around, I guess the numbers behind how many VAs are the like you've got to go through or interview to get to a diamond and I wanted to share that with everybody today because I think it's an area of business that so many business owners struggle with, which is hiring a little and hiring their VA. So I wanted to spend some time just getting Barbara's insights and sharing that with you all today. So Barbara, I guess let's start with regards to hiring VA's and the like. What is the sort of process? Is it just a, do you just follow a traditional recruitment process? Or are you doing something a little bit different to test and find the right people? The Virtual Hub’s Recruitment Process Barbara Turley: Yeah, great question, Matt. Because, you know, a lot of people would have different definitions of what is the traditional recruitment process, I suppose in most people's head, that is put out a job ad, get a load of applications, look at a few resumes, narrow them down, interview a few people and pick the one you like the most. Over the years, you know, you start off doing that. But really and I know we did a full show on this, you and I before where I dissected out our recruitment process, and it is a lengthy process that we go through that involves a lot of metrics. And it is very, we only bring in the relationship piece at the very,
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    23 mins
  • Vital Business Cash flow Management with Matt Malouf

    Vital Business Cash flow Management with Matt Malouf
    Jun 8 2020
    Vital Business Cashflow Management with Matt Malouf Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley is joined by her co-host Matt Malouf to talk about How to Manage Cash Flow in a Crisis and Lead your Business to Survival and come out Strong. Some of the key points include: What is cash flow analysis and how it is done How to survive in this crisis The difference between a Bookkeeper, an Accountant, and a CFO The importance of numbers/data in your business Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:06 Cashflow Analysis and Forecasting 05:48 How to help business owners with their Cash flow statements 08:48 Reacting vs Responding 10:57 Importance of Cashflow analysis during this crisis 18:39 90daycashflow.com 22:03 Accountant vs CFO 26:56 Importance of numbers in the business 28:06 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you’re not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm finally rejoined again, I've managed to coax my co-host, Matt Malouf, back to join me on this show. I'm your co-host, Barbara Turley. Matt, thanks for coming back and joining us on the show again, Matt Malouf: No worries and yeah. So sorry, I haven't been, I've been so proud of all the episodes you've been doing and we should've been on there. It's just been one of those crazy times at the moment. Barbara Turley: Absolutely. I know if, we're you know, as we're recording this today. We're sort of right in the middle of this Coronavirus situation that's going on. But it's a very interesting time for the show Matt. And you know, the concept of remote working and virtual teams. And we've actually seen a massive uplift in people interested in actually the podcast. And the stuff we've been talking about for the last three years on this podcast has all of a sudden become even more important than ever before. So what I wanted to talk to, I'm getting Matt back on the show specifically to talk today about cash flow. It's not really a virtual team kind of topic, but it's important in the environment that we're in right now. And Matt, you've been out talking a lot about cash burn, cash flow forecasting, managing your cash and being lean in this environment, but not so lean that you can't come out strong. So I want to dig into this topic with you. First of all, let's start with talking about cash flow analysis and forecasting and watching your cash. Can you start at the beginning and talk to us about what do we actually do to do that? Because lots of us don't even know how to do that. Cashflow Analysis and Forecasting Matt Malouf: Let me start with I think the importance around cash flow is that it's more than just looking at your bank account. And I was, I did a presentation this morning. I think one of the biggest mistakes so many smaller, medium business owners make is their key report that they rely on in their business is an ATM receipt, to tell them what's going on in their business. And the reality is that cash in your business is like oxygen to a human, where you can only last a very short period of time without oxygen and in a business can only last a very short period of time without cash. And so, in normal practices, in normal and I'm using very common, as in normal times, we should be managing our cash flow. What does that mean, that means we should be predicting based on our leads and conversion, cash coming in.
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    30 mins
  • To Pivot or to Pause with Jenny Blake

    To Pivot or to Pause with Jenny Blake
    May 27 2020
    To Pivot or to Pause with Jenny Blake Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Jenny Blake about the Concept of Pivoting. They talk about taking control of your business and recognizing the opportunities that are out there in the midst of the current global crisis. Some of the key points include:How to pivot your business How far ahead should you plan when pivotingShould you pivot your business or should you hold off Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:02:23 How to get the right mindset when pivoting05:11 How to listen more effectively08:55 Rising into a pivot from a negative mindset13:05 The Next Steps15:52 The Pivot Runway20:26 The Important thing about pivoting22:30 Final thoughts25:09 Wrapping things up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you’re not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey everyone social medialand... Welcome to another episode of our special COVID-19 series of the Virtual Success Show podcast. I'm your host, Barbara Turley and today I am joined by somebody who has become somewhat of a friend. Jenny Blake is author of pivot, the book called “Pivot: The only move that matters is your next one” and she also hosts the podcast, Jenny what's the name of the podcasts? Jenny Blake: Pivot with Jenny Blake Barbara Turley: Yeah so welcome to the show, Jenny and she's here to talk to us today about this whole concept of pivoting, it's very easy to talk about it and everybody out there right now is talking about how in this crisis, that you know of course there's gonna be opportunity there's gonna be opportunity absolutely everywhere because in every crisis there is and those who know how to pivot, and those who can handle the pace of pivoting and pull it off can do quite well. From my own experience over the last what, we're five weeks into this whole thing, 5-6 weeks into this thing and what I have personally found difficult and I wanted to talk to Jenny about this today is, you know when you're coming out of saving your business in the initial stages of the crisis and then you have to try to shift very quickly into a different frame of mind, which is the creative side of yourself. To try to pivot your business and get the animal spirits flowing again of entrepreneurship and it's hard to wake up every day and to try and get yourself into the right mindset to do it, when you've come out of kind of being you know, beaten over the head every day with your ops and trying to save your clients and save the business. So Jenny, welcome to the show and talk to us about you know, how do we quickly shift this mindset and how much of it is mindset, if you can talk to us about that. How to get the right mindset when pivoting Jenny Blake: Well there's so much that you said there and I think one thing is giving ourselves permission to be on this roller coaster and have, that's really one we do train for us entrepreneurs, is that exact journey, that exact roller coaster, but right now during a global pandemic, a crisis, the volume to such metaphors, the volume on that station just got turned all the way up to a ten. So we're gonna, I feel that the highs are high and the lows are pretty low and what you described Barbara is so important is, I don't know about you but I also, simultaneous to all the stress I felt a lot of adrenaline tried to navigate every single day these first five weeks and I do a lot of keynote speaking and traveling for work, all of that was canceled, not all of it went straight to virtual.
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    28 mins
  • The Power of Podcast Marketing with Interview Valet Founder Tom Schwab

    The Power of Podcast Marketing with Interview Valet Founder Tom Schwab
    May 13 2020
    The Power of Podcast Marketing with Interview Valet Founder Tom Schwab Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Barbara Turley speaks to Tom Schwab of Interview Valet about the rising relevance of podcasts especially with the current global crisis and the opportunities podcasts present to business owners everywhere. Some of the key points include: How to leverage your business with podcast and podcast guestings When to become a podcast host and/or a podcast guest. How to repurpose old podcasts in order to get more traffic and attract more listeners. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 02:09 Why Podcasts are a brilliant marketing strategy 04:10 How to capitalise on Podcasts 06:39 What makes a great podcast guest 09:17 How to be different with Podcasts 12:16 Content amplification and repurposing 15:11 Growth of the podcast industry 18:46 Wrapping things Up Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work? Are you spending time doing things that you're not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the virtual success show. We bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. And now, here are your hosts, Matt Malouf, and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the virtual Success Show where we are streaming live now online for our episodes of the show. I'm Barbara Turley, your host, I co-host this show with my good friend Matt Malouf. And today we're here to talk about the very topical topic right now of podcasts and I'm joined by, good friend and someone I work very closely with, Tom Schwab from Interview Valet, who is the go to guy if you want to be talking about podcasts, you know, getting on podcasts, getting guests on your podcast. Welcome to the show, Tom, thanks for joining us today. Tom Schwab: Barbara, I am thrilled to be here. And there's a lot of problems in the world. But there is no better time to be alive. We look at the technology that we have. And still, we can reach customers around the world. Barbara Turley: Absolutely, yes. So you know, like, guys, you guys watching the Facebook Live, you know that we are in a major crisis right now. There are many crises that happened throughout time. I have to say I was thinking today to myself, I'm old enough now to say that this is not my first rodeo with crises like this. We've had the 2008 financial crisis, we had the tech bubble collapse, and in my career, I've been through a couple of these. So it's every crisis brings its own challenges, but I always feel that they're crises nonetheless and some things that we do in business are the same. Now in this particular situation that we're in right now. I feel podcasts are really gonna be it. So Tom, talk to us about, first of all, why podcasts, in general, are a brilliant marketing strategy for any business right now. But also why now specifically. Why Podcasts are a brilliant marketing strategy Tom Schwab: Well, the way I look at it is that every business's biggest problem is obscurity, right? There are millions - thousands, millions of customers that you could serve right now, with your current product, your current offering, your current service. The only problem is they don't know you exist. Right now a lot of people talk about breaking through the noise. Honestly, I think that's like adding to the noise, right? The idea that I'm going to yell and somebody's gonna hear me, I think is laughable, right? So, if I can get in on the conversation that my ideal customers are already listening to, that's golden. If I can get introduced by somebody that is a trusted resource, a trusted friend of theirs, that's golden. And really, that's what podcasts and especially podcast interview marketi...
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    21 mins
  • Do I Need a VA and a Bookkeeper?

    Do I Need a VA and a Bookkeeper?
    Jul 31 2019
    Do I Need a VA and a Bookkeeper? Want the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, Matt and Barbara speak to Bean Ninjas founder and CEO, Meryl Johnston about why it's so important for companies to have a strong financial team, what that team needs to look like, and why financial reporting tools are the key to business stability and growth. Some of the areas covered include: Meryl’s journey from a consulting firm to global, systemized, online business and the perils behind bringing in virtual contractors before you have your processes in place. Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode: 1:50 Xero as a Platform 2:38 Aspects of Utilizing Virtual Teams 4:50 Boundaries 5:12 Key Roles Within the Finance Team 8:21 Cost-Effectiveness Medium 10:14 Bookkeeping Role vs VA Role 12:55 Differences with Bookkeepers and VAs 15:11 Stop Doing Book 16:42 Xero Cleanup 19:29 Reporting Practices 20:53 Where to Start 22:10 Building Skillsets 23:22 Next Steps Intro: Do you find yourself running out of time to accomplish your work, are you spending time doing things that you’re not that good at? There are effective ways to outsource these tasks so you can focus on your business. This is the Virtual Success Show, we bring the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And now here are your hosts Matt Malouf and Barbara Turley. Barbara Turley: Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show. Where we dissect everything you need to know about how to outsource, how to get the right team members into your business, and how to do it all in the right order. Because today's show we're going to be dissecting a very common problem, and I'm going to be sharing a big trap that I fell into myself. But of course today I'm joined by my cohost, Matt Malouf. Hi, Matt! How's it going? Matt Malouf: I'm well, Barbara, and yourself? Xero as a Platform Barbara: I'm great, thank you. And I'm pretty excited that on the back of last week's show, we invited Meryl Johnston, who's the founder and CEO of Bean Ninjas back to the show to dissect this particular problem with me. So Meryl, welcome back to the show. Meryl Johnston: It's great to be back. Thanks. Barbara: So guys, I was chatting with Meryl after we interviewed Meryl around the growth of Bean Ninjas and her experience around managing a global virtual team. Because obviously, that's the genesis of this show. But in chatting after the show, I was sharing a story that I... A trap I fell into myself around using Vas, bookkeepers, accountants. And in the very early days, not that long ago, really, I decided in my wisdom that if I had Xero as a platform, which is your, you know the platform that everyone's using I guess globally for bookkeeping and accounting. And a good VA that I could show a few tricks of the trade to, that then I wouldn't need a bookkeeper. And I went that route, and needless to say it blew up in my face. Let's just put it that way. After a couple of years, and really cost a lot of pain. It wasn't the VA's fault. It was just a whole host of problems. And Matt, I'm sure as a recovering accountant yourself, this is making you chuckle because I'm sure you see this a lot. Aspects of Utilizing Virtual Teams Matt: I do. I do. You know, I think it's interesting. Barbara, you and I have talked about this in many aspects of utilizing virtual teams, but find it, yeah. People's expectations of that whole concept of the super VA that can do everything is still very, very prevalent in today's society, business community. Barbara: Absolutely. And you know, actually, I am still recovering, honestly, from that mistake myself. I was quite badly burnt. All my own fault. Completely and utterly my own fault. And Meryl, that's kind of what led me to your company in the end, to go, "Oh my God.
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    31 mins