22: Let's Get Assisted with Guest Leesha Woolery, Virtual Assistant

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We're Erika Radis and Marie Lifschultz, a San Antonio area realtor and lender, but most importantly, we're working moms.

The goal of this podcast is to provide support and a sense of community to San Antonio area working moms like us. So join us in trying to find a balance between career, family, and everything in between.

Welcome to this week's episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We're here with Leisha Woolery, and she is a virtual assistant, um, and I'm going to turn it over to her to talk about what she does.

Hi, like you mentioned, I'm Leisha Woolery, and I am a virtual assistant. Um, it's kind of a new thing that I've gotten into, and I just was also mentioning that I am booked out completely, which is an amazing position to be in. Apparently people really need help in their businesses. Yeah, I've been doing this for a few months and it's been really exciting and fit really, really well into my schedule with my family.

That's great.

Yeah, how— so you said it's new. How did you kind of get into it, or how did you decide that, um, being a virtual assistant was what you wanted to do?

Um, my son went to kindergarten and I needed to find something to do with my time, and I knew that I couldn't go back to working outside of the house, so I did some research on work-at-home jobs, and I am, um, definitely a person who needs to work from home, or for myself really, because I just do best in that type of environment. I started another business last year and it was very, um, time-consuming and I would have to do a lot of markets and on the weekends and that just wasn't gonna fit like our family schedule. I don't— yeah, I don't want to be out of the house that long. I did some research on being a— becoming a virtual assistant and found the Virtual Savvy Group. So if anybody is interested in becoming a virtual assistant and working from home, because I know so many moms are looking for that, Um, it was a great group, a great— it is a group, but there is a course that you pay for and they walk you through how to set up this type of business, what services you can offer, and lays it out really nice. Um, so I jumped on it. I found it, I researched it, I presented this whole like plan to my husband and I was like, I want to do this, this is what I'm going to do. I can work from home, I can still get house things done, I can still do doctor's appointments. Um, I can still go volunteer at the school if I want to. So it was really fitting. So I spent, um, let's see, I started this, I started that in November of '22. Okay. And I set in a rigid schedule of I'm gonna do my course from 9 to 12 while the kids are at school, catch up on housework, and then that's just what I'm gonna do. And then I can build out my schedule for when I take on clients. So it worked out really well. I buzzed through, um, and learned about all these different services that I could provide that small businesses or solopreneurs or mompreneurs, um, coaches, all these people that have stuff that they need done in the background that they just don't have time for. Um, so it was, it was fun learning all those things. And with all that comes all the tech part of it and learning all the different platforms and all the different things. That's just not enough time in the day to learn everything for everyone. So it's been interesting applying that to my clients now. Um, but it's been really exciting.

Yeah, well, I mean, it sounds like you're super booked, so that's great. That's great news.

I didn't realize how many people actually utilize virtual assistants. I mean, I've seen— I probably way out of the tech world, I finally just heard about Fiverr maybe a few years ago, and that's what I thought. I'm like, Well, what do I mean? How, like, for what I do, I would love to have like a virtual assistant to help me, but I'm like, but I, some of my stuff is controlled through the bank, right? So there's some sensitive material. So I wasn't sure how that would even work. But do you, can you give an example of what type of clients that you, that you currently work with?

So this is actually kind of funny. And I, when you guys reached out, I was like, how perfect. I have a real estate client. And I have actually had two, and I have a mortgage lender who is—

Awesome. That's great.

That's awesome.

So some of the tasks that I do for them, um, one of my clients needed help setting up her branding and just being really cohesive with those things. And so we set up her branding, making sure everything was kind of the same across the board. Obviously, every— I think a lot of people know how important branding is. Um, and I set up Canva templates for her to use for her social media and so that she could just pop new things in there and change the colors if she needed to. I did a lot of training with her, um, things. It just— a lot of— some people don't know how to use social media or all these different tech platforms. So it was a lot of organization with her. It was setting up a project management and a CRM and a newsletter, like, uh, marketing, uh, software program. All those things. I helped her do all those things. She's still reaching out to her clients. She's still doing the showings and appointments and all of that. I don't, I don't have— I don't touch any of that. I don't have a real estate license. So there is very clear things that people can do and help with in real estate and not, which, Erika, you're probably aware of what some of those things are.

Yes, I'm very familiar, and it's gotten stricter and stricter. So they, I mean, they really are making sure that if you're dealing in any type of conversation, um, whether that be virtual or, or physical, um, in terms of real estate, like, you must be licensed. So there's definitely some, some rules.

Yeah, we have some flexibility in what we do where we can have— it depends on what you're talking about. So like someone who's helping gather documents or just calling it and making a friendly, you know, welcome call, that type of stuff is good. But you can't talk product or rates. In my world.

So yeah, both are pretty regulated. Um, so I just step in and I do the background things. Like, a lot of it is marketing. One of my other agents that I work for, um, he's gonna be getting me a mailing list to send out mailers. So things like that where I don't have the time to sit down and make this template and figure out which program or label the postcards or all— any of those things if needed. Right. Um, and then my mortgage lender, I have been gathering all her reviews and making her review templates to she had some radio ads she did, and so I applied those to some reels. Um, and then just collecting— I'm probably going to start collecting her leads. Um, like, basically she had a pile of cards that she needed input into her CRM, but I don't have access to that. So, but I— what I could do for her is input them into a spreadsheet, and then she could upload that spreadsheet. So things like that where it takes so much time sitting there, it's just data entry. I mean, that could take you hours and a lot of people just don't have time or the time that they, you know, they don't want to spend the time, but that time they could also use to go take a walk outside or eat some lunch. Because I know, like, for me, I skip lunch all the time, but it's really important to me that we live a healthy lifestyle even if we are successful.

Yeah, no, definitely. Well, so it sounds like we kind of sometimes ask people, what a typical day looks like for them, but your days must all be different, you know, that you must all have—

depending on what your tasks that need to get done that day.

Absolutely. So, um, as far as a day in the life for me, I on Sundays try to map out what my week looks like. And in the summertime, then the kids are home, it's, it's madness. It's just absolute chaos. So I try to sit down and look at like, hey, you know, the kids want to go to this splash pad this day, so I'm not going to work from, you know, 8 to 10 today. I might move my hours to, you know, in the afternoon or after dinner. Let me stop there and just explain how that works. So in my virtual assistant business, my clients prepay me a package of hours. So I— they could pay for— typically it's 10 to 20 hours right now is what my clients have. And I do what— basically, I don't say no. I'm really— I just am so open to doing all the things. So I'm like, I will do any admin or creative service that you need until I'm like, oh no, like, I actually don't know how to do that, or I can't do— I— it doesn't scare me to like have to jump on YouTube or have to take a course or anything.

Yeah.

So they pay me for this package of services, I track my time, and I just do whatever tasks they need me to do. So based on that, like, my weekly schedule, I kind of know who needs what throughout the week. Sometimes there's deadlines, um, and sometimes it's just like, uh, you know, when you get to it, do this for me, and then we have that chunk, um, of hours per month. Um, is that good?

I think that was—

yeah, that is. So I mean, it's her day, kind of varies from from day to day depending on what it is, but you get to schedule your day, which is, which is really, really important when you're a working mom. I mean, I think that's why I chose the career that I'm in, you know, where we have a lot of flexibility. I mean, most of the time, I mean, for me, if I don't pick up that phone, that lead is going to go to the next person who will. So picking up my phone is extremely important for me. So, but for the most part, I try to schedule things that I'm able to be mom first and a career, you know, um, to be there for my kids. So I love that you're able to do that.

And your setup honestly sounds like it's great for your clients as well. Like, I know that if I were to employ a virtual assistant, I have no idea what I'm going to need you to do, you know. I mean, in our business, who— I mean, God only knows. And so, um, for me to just know like, hey, I've got 40 hours available to me for any number of tasks, I feel like is probably great, especially for entrepreneurs and things like that who— there's all kinds of things that might come up. And that you might need help with?

Yeah, honestly, a lot of what people— I mean, everybody markets on social media, and that so far has been, for one of my clients, has been what eats up most of her time, is I'm sitting there outlining her content calendar, and then I go back and I research different topics and I plug them in and she approves them, and then I schedule them. I'm telling you, a month I spend 10 to 15 hours doing just that. Yeah, 10 to 15 hours that she has gained back now.

Yeah, I agree.

No, I mean, I have to say, I'm not the most creative when it comes to social media, and I, I cannot stand it because not only am I trying to think of something to create, but I get sucked into social media. Like, I start looking and reading people's posts. I'm like, oh, that's a great idea.

And then I'm like, wait, 10 hours have passed at this point and I haven't done anything.

Yeah, that pawning that off on someone else that can manage the time to get it done would be a great benefit, you know.

Definitely. I, uh, that, that's a big one. That is a really big one right now.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, yes. No, I know. I'm, I'm very familiar with having to do all of that. Um, and I, I personally like doing all of that. So would you say, I mean, would you say you like the creative side more versus like the, the, like, which do you prefer, you know, the admin stuff or the, or the arty stuff?

I have really enjoyed both sides of it. I, so, I mean, not to get off topic, but my last business I was a custom home decor maker, and so I worked a lot in design and like making things. And so when I came into this and I was like, yes, I will do graphic creation for you in Canva because I love putting things together and making it look pretty, like it is fun. So I definitely enjoy that part of it. But also like I just took on a client last week and his email was a nightmare. And so I'm like, luckily there wasn't like thousands of emails. He's just kind of starting and that actually brought me some excitement of like organizing these folders and making sure everything's labeled correctly, and then being able to walk him through and be like, look, here's your action items over here, here's your email, and here's your folder. So let's figure out a system that we can like make work for everybody here. So definitely the artsy side, definitely organization is a hot one of mine. There is some things I've come across where I'm like I don't like file renaming. When I go into a folder and there's hundreds of pictures that I have to like, you know, keyword or anything, I kind of dread that.

Right.

But it's, you know, it goes by and I mean, I'm saving them time and it's making them happy and they can focus on things that are more pressing. So I think it all comes together.

Yeah. I love that. I mean, I have to say, my favorite part of the job is the administrative work. I love doing that part, the backend stuff. I love being behind the scenes and making things run smoothly. So that— I would be fascinated with that.

Yeah. Yep. And then for a virtual assistant, there's all different, um, niches that you can get into. There's definitely real estate VAs, and then there's ones that just do systems and setups. There's ones that just organize or manage, um, email or calendars. There's just— it's so— it's such a wide range of what the virtual assistants can do depending on what you like. Some might only do graphic I mean, there's graphic designers that only target that stuff, or just social media managers that only do that stuff. So it's quite an interesting world when you get in it. I learned so, so much when I found out about a virtual assistant, and then it was just like overwhelming with all these different types of virtual assistants, right?

I mean, what I, what I like is that you've got to always— I mean, you must keep learning all the time, right? So that would be something that would interest me is, is to you keep, you know, now I'm going to try to learn this platform, now I'm going to learn this software, now I'm going to do this. I mean, I, I would say it probably never gets boring. You're not really doing too much of the same thing and you're learning.

Not the same job all the time. It's different content or different needs for each person. I think that's— I think it's wonderful. Is there a— if you're able to share, like, when— since you've done so many different things, maybe for some of the working moms out there that may not have a virtual assistant yet, is there a platform or a CRM or something, an app that you found that works really, really well in, in multiple things that you do?

Yeah, so I use a, um, I'm gonna call it a project management system, but it is— can be so much more— but Airtable. And Airtable basically is an organizer. You can put in anything you want, you can build it out any way you I know that probably sounds confusing. Now I'm going to tell you, it looks like a spreadsheet. So if you know how to use a spreadsheet, this, this, we're going to— this Airtable is just like that. But you can add more fields, customize them. You can change the view, you can add a calendar. And it has helped me and I'm converting a couple of my clients into using it for their leads to keep track of their leads. So they're turning it into a CRM also. Content calendar is in one of them. I have— we do a weekly household meeting and we have like our goals and our issues and our calendar, our meal planning. We have all that in there and we just kind of— you can also set it up like Trello if people are familiar with Trello. You can set it up that the Kanban view where you have the different boards on there. It's amazing. Highly, highly, highly recommend. And it's free up to a certain amount. And like with one of my clients right now, we got up to that limit and we were able to kind of shuffle some stuff around to keep it in the free version. So helpful.

Wow, that's great. I had never heard of Airtable.

No, I had neither.

I had of Trello, but this sounds like it does maybe even more than that.

So it is amazing. I, I could talk about Airtable all day long.

Yeah.

Well, good. Maybe, you know, maybe other people from this podcast will want to— yeah, definitely.

And look at it and see if it's something that, hey, if I need to help get organized and I'm in that spot where, you know, business is real busy, but I need some organization, you have time to do that then. And then if they come and call you like, hey, I already have this set up.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm actually— this week I have somebody that is wanting to build one, so I have a meeting with them to do that. And that, I have a feeling, might be the direction I take my virtual assistant business, is doing setups like that and just kind of setting it up and then training people kind of how to use it. Or not that I— I mean, it can do so much. Huge, huge companies use these platforms to organize all of their, um, projects. And so it's, you can build it out huge, but I know the basics and most people that you got to start somewhere. So even if I can get them that far, that, that is great.

Oh, that's awesome. Um, I have a question about virtual assistants, like regarding privacy, right? So like when you think about, when I think about, you know, using a virtual assistant, you know, do people like give you all their passwords and you like get into all their stuff or like, is there like a way to like keep things secure? Like how does that work?

That's a really great question and probably top of everybody's mind when they have to let go of their responsibilities or accounts or anything like that.

Right.

So there is password sharing apps like Dashlane and LastPass, and I think 1Password. I haven't had an issue with anybody not willing to share passwords yet.

Sure.

And to start Over all of that, when I go into working with a client, we have a contract and it protects both of us. So they, you know, I am holding privacy for them. I'm not sharing confidentiality and I'm not sharing any of this information. Um, I have virus protection and all those things on my computer, and I also carry a business insurance for any errors that might occur or, you know, things that get lost or hackers, I don't know, all the things, right?

Of course.

So, so far it has been pretty easy to, um, a little hack if there's any virtual assistants out there that might need this, or anybody that works with multiple clients. I create a Chrome profile for each of my clients, and in doing that we can bookmark everything at the top and sign everything in. They can sign it in, and then we can just get verification, um, through them, which usually happens in my kickoff calls, and then I can get in there and do everything I need. Um, I usually try to have people kind of do a strong but generic password. That way it's not like giving away their other personal passwords, possibly. Um, and then we just sometimes keep a list. Um, there's a lot of— I mean, even if you keep a Google Form, I think it's somewhat protected from people getting in there. You can, you can do a password encryption on Google Forms also. So you can do that. You can also do that in Airtable if you upgrade and keep like locked views, but it hasn't really been an issue. It's been pretty easy to go about. If you're not comfortable though, that's what all those password sharing apps are definitely for. And you can put it in there and then it kind of, I actually, I haven't had to use them, but you would put it in there and then you would just copy it out. And then you don't really see it, or it like randomizes it, or I don't know, it links it up in some way.

Wow, you know, that's really, really smart about the Google Chrome.

That's what I just thought I was thinking. I was like, hey, because you would never validate that. Yeah, you would just validate the device, right? Verify the device and it allows it to share. Um, because I do that on multiple— on my multiple devices, obviously, depending on what I'm doing. I hadn't thought about that.

Interesting. Yeah, I actually— my, my client that I just got, we signed into his— I opened it and then I was in his email cleaning it up and it kept alerting suspicious activity, suspicious activity. And I'm like, hey, it's just me, don't worry. Yeah, I'm in here moving stuff around.

I'm not being super suspicious, right?

Right. I know that's the last thing I want is like to stress out my clients when I'm just helping them, right?

Yeah. No, of course, of course.

Lisa, I know that you said you— this, this business had just, you know, for the most part recently started with you. How did you decide on which clients, and how do you, how do you market yourself to obtain clients? How did you do that?

Yeah, so this is kind of a crazy story because I started in November, I launched in February-ish, and my first client that I had, um was an agency. So she was kind of starting a business and she was bringing on VAs to work for mompreneurs, um, and she was finding the clients. And it was kind of a different setup on my end of it, um, and that kind of got me started. And I was like, okay, cool, I have one client. I reached out to her on Instagram. It was a new business that popped up on Instagram. I was like, I have nothing to lose. Like, what's the worst she could say is like, no? Yeah, right, right.

That's right, you have a 50/50 shot every time.

Yeah, so I was like, all right, it's done that. So worked with her for a few months, um, we split ways, and it— towards the end of that, I was marketing in, in your guys's group, and I— on, um, that's Fridays, right? I'm part of so many groups. Yeah, so every Friday for, um, about 5 or 6 weeks, I would post my flyer or post my thing, and somebody messaged me, and I was like, wonderful, this This is great. Well, in that same week, I had another client lead come in through a friend. I had somebody that came to me from LinkedIn, like optimizing my LinkedIn profile was huge because I would've never gotten her. And she's one of my, she's wonderful. As is the one from the Working Moms of San Antonio group. She is like a dream client. And oh, I love that.

Isn't that nice?

It's been incredible. And that it all happened in the same week. I had like 5 leads all in one week, all going from like—

that's a great week.

It was, but my head was spinning. I was like, what is happening? How did I get here? Like, this is crazy. And so when things settled down, I ended up onboarding both of those 2. I had to turn down one, and, um, I, my aunt is also owns an agency and she wanted me to work for her. So that was 3 all in that same week. And I was just like, this is crazy. And here I was just trying to go slow and steady, get used to my time management and my schedule and the family schedule. And nope, that's not what life had in store. So I was like, great, wonderful.

Yeah.

Isn't that always the way, right?

Yes. So it was crazy. So my tips for other people is to show up. If you have a group that you are in that is doing like Small Business Saturdays or self-promote days or marketing days, take advantage of that. Find your group, find people that you like, that you, you like what they're doing in their group, in that group, and market yourself. And then be confident in what you're doing. Show up, be confident, and just be you, because that is huge. I started out trying to be very professional and have all my words right. And I was like, I can't keep this up, like, this is gonna exhaust me. So I'm like, you know what, I just have to start talking to my clients, which I target moms because I know that we need help. We have kids, we have schedules, we need to eat, we need to get sunshine, like, we need all these things. And so fine, doing all of those things was what just blew up, just blew up my— I booked out really fast after I got going.

You're so right. I tell Erika at the same time, I just be us. Like, I— when we look at social media, sometimes I see posts and this is a topic where, you know, things are saturated with the same type of, um, clients or businesses at the same time. Like, well, how do you win? Just be you. Like, I am who I am. I'm a working mom. I love what I do, been doing it for a long time. But this is who I am. Like, you know, sometimes I'm in a t-shirt, sometimes I'm in a dress, sometimes it don't matter. You know, my hair's in a bun, I didn't put makeup on today, it is what it is. So, and I think when people see that, especially within our group, that was something when we talked about a working moms group, it was just, hey, people that we can connect with, we have something in common with, and that we would enjoy their company, right? We enjoy this, you know, and, you know, share the same, um, wins and losses typically at the same time. Right? So, um, I, I 100% agree. Be yourself, and that's how you win. So I love that. I love that she's like, I'm just gonna be me.

Yeah. And I definitely think it makes like the— then your kind of clients, like people that you would want to work with, like are attracted to you, you know what I mean? If you put out sort of airs and don't act like how you really normally would, you might attract the wrong kind of client, and you're not going to vibe anyway, you know? Right.

You won't enjoy it as much. It feels more, more work, you know. Obviously it is work, you know. There's things that you got to do. But if you at least enjoy your client, like you said, hey, I've got one from the Working Moms Group and she's a dream. Well, because she's probably similar to you. She understands what you're, you know, and understanding and going to be there because it's a similar, you know, um, life, you know. Yeah, they understand stuff. So no, I agree, 100% agree with that. So that's a great tip. Use Working Moms Group, ladies. Yeah, and advertise. We don't even do it, Erika. We forget to I forget that I advertise myself on Fridays.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You got to show up. Be consistent.

Yeah, show up. You got to show up, guys.

That's right. Cool. So we always ask our guests what their favorite thing is about what they're doing. So of all the things that you're doing, what is one of your faves?

The top would be— I mean, I think it's been very clear— is saving people time. I think that time is so important. Yeah, it is.

Yeah, no, that's true. And that's a nice thing that you're providing other people because there just isn't enough time in the day, especially for working moms.

Yeah. When I get the feedback of like, oh my gosh, this was so helpful. I had one of my clients went on vacation and she goes, I wouldn't have been able to take this vacation if you weren't back working in the background for me. It wouldn't have been as like relaxing. And I was like, right. Yes.

Oh, I love that. And lastly, uh, Leisha, we always ask people to share with our listeners, um, how they can get a hold of you. Sounds like your plate is already pretty full, but things could change. So if people want to reach you for your services, how can they do that?

Yeah, so the best option would probably be Instagram. I like to kind of market there the most, um, and that is leishawoolery.va. And I am in my DMs there, and I think I should have something in my bio there about how to contact me further.

Okay, perfect.

I try to be pretty just easy. I don't like to have a lot of steps. Just send me a message and I'll tell you more.

Yes, there you go.

No, that's great. Well, I want to thank you for being on, and I will also say thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this week's episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. And we will just catch you guys next week.

See you guys next week.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for tuning in to the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. Be sure to follow us on social media at our respective Instagram accounts or join our Working Moms of San Antonio Facebook group. Those links can be found in our episode description. If you have an episode topic suggestion or question, please email us at office@radisagent.com. And be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. See you next week.