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Looking for inspiration, insightful advice, and a supportive community to help you navigate your business journey?
The Carolina Women's Collective is your one-stop shop. This biweekly podcast, hosted by Booth Parker, features interviews with a powerful network of female entrepreneurs and business leaders, sharing their inspiring stories, actionable advice, and industry expertise.
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[00:00:00]
Booth Parker: Today on the Carolina Women's Collective Podcast, I am joined by Vanessa Ulmer, Vanessa and her husband, Chris Own Crystal Coast Graphics, a business that they have grown dramatically in a very short time. Welcome to the podcast today, Vanessa.
Booth Parker: Thank you. So first little background. Tell us about what Crystal Coast Graphics, uh, does, what they make, your product offerings, and kind of where it started and, and what it's grown into now.
Vanessa Ulmer: Right, so Crystal Coast Graphics, we do vehicle wrap, um, and [00:01:00] signage. Uh, we also do some other promotional items. Uh, we'll do.
Vanessa Ulmer: Uh, customized, uh, canopy tents or business cards, flyers, mainly branding for companies so we can come up with logo creation and then, um, anything that you're kind of needing after that. Chris started it in 2006 and he was needing a sign and he, wasn't exactly getting what he needed out of somebody locally, so he went out and.
Vanessa Ulmer: Got the equipment himself and taught himself how to do it, and then really found the love and passion for vehicle wraps. He was doing it out of, uh, the parking lot out of his other business that he had at the time, and then he decided to go full-time into it. So he's been doing it since 2006.
Vanessa Ulmer: I joined in with him about five years ago.
Booth Parker: Okay, awesome. When you and Chris, you know, you, you came into the [00:02:00] business that he mm-hmm. Had, had started, was it just the two of you when you came in and kinda what have been each of your roles, you know, working together with your husband is probably not always the easiest thing to do day.
Booth Parker: So kinda what were the, the roles that each of y'all assumed and how, how did they kind of evolve as you grew?
Vanessa Ulmer: So I had. Um, I was working in, in the hospital actually, so I've always had admin, um, clerical experience. And so he, it was him in the shop and he was, you know, taking, um, the phone calls, doing the quotes, doing the estimates, doing the des uh, most of the design work or some of the design work.
Vanessa Ulmer: He had a part-time designer on staff. He had one other installer, and then one guy helping him with production. So it was just really the four guys at the time. And then he, but he was doing a little bit of everything. Well, yeah, [00:03:00] everything really. Answering the calls, doing the quotes, um, design, production, installation.
Vanessa Ulmer: So he was doing all of that. Right now we are at 12 people in our staff. We have three full-time installers, not including him and production. a designer full-time on staff, uh, sales. Uh, we also have part-time social media content curator, and we also have a project manager. And I have a, administrative assistant and another social media, um, curator.
Vanessa Ulmer: And four of that of these employees are virtual assistants.
Booth Parker: Okay. Excellent. So the team, the team has grown, um, a good bit. And then how, I wanna get to the virtual assistants in a minute, but how has your role changed since, since you got there? I know you wear a lot of hats. How did that kind of evolve over time?
Vanessa Ulmer: I did see that he [00:04:00] had a need for, um, the admin portion. So again, I came from the hospital admin portion of it. So I knew that he needed, I could see that he needed help in. Taking the phone calls, you know, making sure he has sending out his quotes, getting his schedule right. So I kind of jumped in board and it did take us a while to kind of find our lanes.
Vanessa Ulmer: We were playing a little bit of the bumper cars situation, and once we kind of established, okay, this is what I'm in charge of, this is what you're in charge of, and we really stuck to our lanes, it just. We had the same goal, but it was picking our lanes and what we were good at. Uh, it really changed it for us and.
Vanessa Ulmer: Less bumper cars.
Booth Parker: Yeah, I bet, I bet. For sure. Yeah. So as growing and you're, you know, you're, you're finding your lane and all the tasks you're in charge of, how did you know that it was time that you needed help? [00:05:00] Women can be bad about asking for help. We tend to just overload our plates. So how did you know it was time for you to ask for some help, whether it's another employee or you went the route of the virtual assistant?
Vanessa Ulmer: Right. So we, Chris was, um. We had one other installer at the time, and then we decided to bring on another installer. Um, so we had, because it was myself and one other person doing sales, so we were picking up on the volume, which was great. And so we had to turn out that volume and so, and we wanted Chris, he is kind of the, he's the visionary in the company versus where I was the one kind of doing the day-to-day tasks, uh, integrator, I guess is.
Vanessa Ulmer: A term that's usually used. And so I was the one kind of plugging things along and so he kind of had that foresight to make sure that we had enough staff on board to make sure that everything was kind of running [00:06:00] smoothly. And so I was helping with quotes and helping with the phones and the scheduling and, you know, kind of doing like HR duties and admin everything.
Vanessa Ulmer: So, um, it just, it's a lot. Yeah.
Booth Parker: And so you went the, the virtual assistant route, and I mean, people hear a lot about virtual assistants, but a lot of people just aren't familiar with how, how they work, what they can do and things like that. So how exactly, so if someone is in that point, yeah, they feel overwhelmed.
Booth Parker: What is the process of like interviewing and hiring and finding a VA that is the right fit for what you need?
Vanessa Ulmer: So, um, I guess answer your other question though, like, I didn't really ever admit I needed a virtual assistant, so Chris was the one that's saying you're, you're getting a little bit stressed out and overwhelmed.
Vanessa Ulmer: I really think you should hire somebody to help you. And like you said, you know, we're women, we wanna do [00:07:00] everything. No, I've got it handled. You know, I've, I've got all this. And so he's like, let me just. Try to find your virtual assistant and let's see how this goes. You know, maybe just list a couple things they could help you with.
Vanessa Ulmer: So, um, we reached out to a company and he researched a couple of companies and we had found one that we really liked and they had a really good, uh, onboarding process. Um, we currently use a different, um, company That we use and they are great at it. So we just emailed them, said, this is what I need the virtual assistant to do.
Vanessa Ulmer: Um, and it can be really anything that is project management, design, admin, assistant scheduling, phone calls, all of whatever niche that you need. And then they will actually onboard a lot of the. VAs for you interview them and [00:08:00] then you can interview each of them and then kind of go the same kind of process like you would hiring another employee.
Booth Parker: Okay. So, so you said they kind of interviewed them. For you? Did you get like on a Zoom or anything with any of them before you started working with them? Or was it just kind of like, here's your person and these are the tasks they're gonna do for you?
Vanessa Ulmer: So, so you get to still interview. They say like, here's like three that we think that'll work best for you.
Vanessa Ulmer: And so we will go in the regular interview process and then we can narrow it down on who we think would make a great fit with our team. And then, We just go the normal hiring process. We, we pick one and then we onboard them onto the team.
Booth Parker: Okay. Okay. So, and then were there any, 'cause I'm still, like, I don't, I don't know very much about this virtual assistant space, so I'm fascinated to hear about it.
Booth Parker: And I know you've already, uh, inspired my [00:09:00] co-founder, Jillian, to, to hire one and she's, you know, yeah. Right RAs about it. So were there any, um, I guess misconceptions or, or things you thought differently about using virtual assistants that ended up really not being the case or not being true?
Vanessa Ulmer: I had, again, I didn't, I wasn't really drinking the Kool-Aid on me needing one or feeling like I needed the help. So after. Listing. I go, I don't know what I want them to do. I don't, what can they do right? That I'm doing it, it's fine. So I kind of just started listing everything that I did and then, um, I, everything I didn't like to do, I made that list into a separate list and was like, you know what, let's just start with that.
Vanessa Ulmer: Because what if I. Don't have enough for them to do. Um, which is kind of one of the things I was initially worried about was, you know, I don't [00:10:00] know if I can fill up somebody's time for what I'm paying them for, um, enough tests to get them what they, you know, to fill up a day and. You know, even in, in the shop, really, it's, nobody is productive.
Vanessa Ulmer: I guess. Like we, we would all love to be productive a hundred percent of the time that we're putting into the work, but. Really it's not. But once they started kind of, I was working with my executive assistant, she would actually say, Hey, I see that you're getting behind on X or Y or Z, or I see that you're needing maybe some help with this.
Vanessa Ulmer: How can I help you with that? So she actually was starting to take the initiative in saying, how would I take that off your plate? That is something I can help you with. How about I take that off your plate? Um, how can I help you do this? Maybe start it for you and then you can kind of button things up and finish it up the process
Vanessa Ulmer: But [00:11:00] I can get it going for you or vice versa. So that's how it kind of started was just all the mundane tasks I don't really care to do. And then I was like, well, this isn't gonna fill up her day. Right. And then it didn't really need to 'cause it evolved into that. 'cause once I was delegating. Initially it was like, oh, then it opened the flood gates.
Vanessa Ulmer: Oh my gosh. I there like, then you start delegating almost too much. 'cause then it's like, oh, this is great.
Booth Parker: Yeah, it's freeing, I'm sure. So that was a great idea though, to, to, uh, prioritize the things you like to do the least, and that frees you up to do what you do best or what you like the most, but mm-hmm.
Booth Parker: I, I didn't really see that coming where you said how the VA started kind of taking the initiative to take stuff off your plate. So that's, oh, yeah. A misconception I had where I just thought you just. You know, you [00:12:00] chose what they were gonna do and you kind of pushed it to 'em and, and that was the end of it.
Booth Parker: So that's very interesting that they, you know, are assertive in a way to, to see how they can continue to help you and take things off your plate.
Vanessa Ulmer: Right? Yes. Yeah, it was really nice 'cause I was like, oh, you're right. I, you know, I do need to help with that. That that'd be great. You know, and then it just kind of evolved from there.
Vanessa Ulmer: Mm-hmm.
Booth Parker: So what are some of those tasks that you started with and then what are some of the ones that's invol evolved to?
Vanessa Ulmer: So now we're in, I think it's almost, almost three years with my assistant. So she is amazing. I love her. I told her I, I'll get rid of everybody else, so I just need to keep her. I was like, but my team is amazing.
Vanessa Ulmer: I love 'em. But so I guess from, initially, from the first thing in the morning. I was, um, my email, you know, when you come into your email inbox and it's just full slam full. So what I had her start doing [00:13:00] was, uh, sorting my emails and because she was, we used Gmail, so she would go in, put all of the ones I need to prioritize in a folder, and so I don't have to go directly into the inbox.
Vanessa Ulmer: I just go into the, the folder that. I, I need to look in, prioritize those, and then go in and look. She gets rid of all the spams, unsubscribes me to things, puts in the priorities of the emails that I need to focus on initially. So even that was such a time saver first thing in the morning, trying to sort through everything, go through all your emails.
Vanessa Ulmer: So now it's, I'm only focusing on three or four that I know I need to prioritize in the day. Versus trying to go through all the junk. So that's kind of, that's how I, I start my day. Then she sends me my email of my meetings of the day or my, what I have going on that day. So then I can go ahead and set my alarms on my phone.
Vanessa Ulmer: Um. Podcast at one, don't forget. So I [00:14:00] set my alarm and then, um, she, so that's just kind of the first couple things and then I'll huddle with her in the morning. So I'll jump on a call with her or, uh, either be a video, usually be. We use a program called Slack, and so we could do a video call, so we're a face-to-face still.
Vanessa Ulmer: And so I'll let her know kind of where she's at with projects, what I need, where she's at, what she needs from me, do a quick like 10 minute quick huddle, and then she kind of plugs away. And then we're constantly communicating during the day on what projects and such that we're working on. So she has.
Vanessa Ulmer: But she'll help me with my newsletter. She helps me. She can actually, uh, schedule, uh, installs as well. She has access to our scheduling system so she can, uh. Call customers as well. Uh, so she can, you know, call them and say like, hi, your vehicle is ready for [00:15:00] pickup. You know, and then take the payments and, and, um, just let them know that it's ready.
Vanessa Ulmer: She can answer calls if I'm not in the office or if somebody isn't available in the office to answer phones, she can actually take the calls for us, get the information and have some, and then we. Call the customers back. She can, she helps me make my SOPs, my standard operating procedures, so she helps me with any onboarding, with new hires.
Vanessa Ulmer: She'll make sure that they're doing all of their videos and training and such. She helps me with timekeeping, all of it.
Booth Parker: Wow. Yeah, that's a lot. So I guess a misconception I maybe had, I was thinking that VA just kind of got some work done for you whenever they got it done and, and sent it to you or whatever.
Booth Parker: But it sounds like y'all have some like set working hours that you worked together. Is that correct? Oh, right.
Vanessa Ulmer: Yeah. She works our hours. And so [00:16:00] she is from Eight to five, and so she'll, we'll be working together during that timeframe and so, and. And again, she's in the mix on the day-to-day, uh, processes.
Vanessa Ulmer: So again, with the customers of letting them know that their vehicle is ready, things like that with, from throughout the day, um, giving them a notification of, Hey, um, you know, like your vehicle. Gonna be ready a day early, or it seems like we're running a little bit behind. Um, is it okay if we push it a little bit to tomorrow?
Vanessa Ulmer: So, um, she'll, she can message all of those customers and, and kind of keep 'em up to date on things.
Booth Parker: Okay. So. do you prefer having a virtual assistant versus hiring additional, an additional person for your team in the office? Like what do you see the pros, pros and cons kind of are of, of going, of going that route?
Vanessa Ulmer: Right. [00:17:00] So, well, there's, of course there's a cost savings. Um, she's actually in the Philippines, so the wages are all. There is a savings to us to use the virtual assistant, which, and then in turn passes that savings onto the customer because it reduces our overhead. And so when we have. Less of the overhead.
Vanessa Ulmer: I can, I can pass along that savings. and also the people that are here are installers. I can maybe bump them up more because I am saving that, um, by using the virtual assistants. So that's mainly where the reason why we had that. And the other reason is space we're already on top of each other in the building that we're currently in, so we just ran out of space.
Vanessa Ulmer: that's why we decided to also go that route.
Booth Parker: Okay. Okay. So that is, that's really interesting to hear. So she works your hours [00:18:00] and so it's mm-hmm. Almost like she's in the next office over
Vanessa Ulmer: Yes.
Booth Parker: The way y'all interact, but yet she's overseas. Yeah. And then because of that, it allows you to be able to save a lot of money in your company by using the virtual assistant.
Booth Parker: Very interesting. I'm, I'm learning a lot, um, with this. So her being overseas, I think you said she was in the Philippines, correct? Correct. Okay. So was there any kind of language barrier or anything like that since she's overseas?
Vanessa Ulmer: No, she has perfect English and so, it just was very seamless, very easy.
Vanessa Ulmer: I have three A four and all of the English is perfect and you know, there's no problems, there's never been any complaints of, from customers not being able to understand or anything like that. So it's been, nobody really actually knows until I tell them that. They're not here be, you know, one customer was like, oh, [00:19:00] I, you know, I need to, you know, let, please, let you know.
Vanessa Ulmer: I'd love to, you know, meet Rona or Rona or ia a couple of our assistants or designer and I, well, we can do it via Zoom, you know, so it's, but it's nice because they, you know, they, we've never had any problems with that.
Booth Parker: Okay, interesting. And so you have your primary one, the one you meet with in the morning and everything like that.
Booth Parker: But then you said you have some additional ones. So are you managing the additional ones or does your lead VA kind of have a team doing stuff for you?
Vanessa Ulmer: So IA is my executive assistant and she is actually, uh, oversees our social media. Virtual assistant. And um, actually she's also oversees our in-house, videographer and photographer.
Vanessa Ulmer: So, he'll, he's actually in the shop, but he jumps on Slack to, or calls her to get [00:20:00] instruction on what he's needing to do for the day. So he's actually on Zoom and he is virtually working with her and to, to see what he's supposed to be doing, uh, for his shots for that day. So, um, she oversees the social media crew and then she reports to me.
Vanessa Ulmer: So that's kind of how that works out. And then we also have, um, my project manager, um, she works with our, directly with our designer and our designer and the project manager. Um. They work, uh, between our, me and myself and, uh, sorry, myself and Nathan, who is our other sales team member, so that we have, uh, our, we have a design huddle as well, so that we know that where the process is for each of our customers.
Booth Parker: Interesting. Okay. And so, um, this, this appears to be working very, very well for your business and are there additional tasks that y'all are looking to push out to VAs [00:21:00] as as you grow?
Vanessa Ulmer: I probably would say we've dabbled in actually sales. Lot. There's a lot of people that are in sales here in the US that work remotely and so we, we did work in our sales.
Vanessa Ulmer: We, uh, for a while they were part-time and that actually was working really well except for it, it was a little bit more difficult to learn a lot of our. Uh, process on creating the quotes. 'cause you have to sometimes see a lot of vehicles and such. So, um, that became a little bit more difficult, but for the most part, um, if we kind of narrowed down a little bit more, um.
Vanessa Ulmer: Some of the sales process, it probably would. It would work out nicely, but we're trying to fine tune those things so that we can then possibly hire one as a virtual [00:22:00] assistant for in sales, essentially. That would be great.
Booth Parker: I'm sure. Okay.
Booth Parker: So it's obviously saving, saving you money. Um, how does the process work for paying, do you, the company that these VAs work for, do you just get like a monthly bill from them and then they pay your people? Or how does that work?
Vanessa Ulmer: So they will go on our schedule. So we actually pay weekly, but they will go whatever you feel comfortable with.
Vanessa Ulmer: So if it's weekly, biweekly, monthly, you just make the one payment to them and then they will disperse it. So it, it's, it's really easy to do it that way.
Booth Parker: Okay. So you're paying the company directly, not the actual VAs directly.
Vanessa Ulmer: Right, right.
Booth Parker: Okay. Okay. Interesting. So there's a lot of tasks they're doing for your business.
Booth Parker: Mm-hmm. And I know I had already said that women are really bad about asking for help. Women are also really bad about letting, [00:23:00] go of control of things sometimes. Yes. So how was that process for you of letting go of, you know, kind of. All guilty of micro? Yes. Micromanaging probably. So how, how did that process go?
Booth Parker: I'm sure it was not an overnight thing for you.
Vanessa Ulmer: No. When I was initially making my list, I had to put, uh, all my tests down and I was writing 'em out. Actually, I think I, I put 'em on sticky notes and I had like four sticky notes of, and I stuck 'em on my wall and I was like, that's all I've got. So really, once I actually started.
Vanessa Ulmer: Writing everything down that I did for the day, and I, and, and it was very much, well, how can they do this if, you know, I, I do this, so how, how can they, I have to log into this program? How are they, so it actually became having an open mind one because if, and, and [00:24:00] also too, it was, you know, getting creative also too with it because.
Vanessa Ulmer: At first, I was, wasn't sure how I was going to have her do certain tasks, if it was, if she had to log into a certain program or, um, how is she gonna take calls from customers? Well, we, we figured that out actually was rather easy. So it just, I think having an open mind about it too. Whereas I was building those barriers and really it wasn't, there wasn't any, so just kind of keeping an open mind.
Vanessa Ulmer: Then after that, again, the sticky notes just kind of started. Piling up once the kind of, I was like, oh, this is, this can work. And once it kind of started working slowly, it just floodgates open. So just having an open mind, I think, and kind of sometimes you have to get a little bit creative as well, but it works really well.
Booth Parker: Okay. Interesting. And so family business, it's you and your husband. Yes. Y'all have [00:25:00] children and everything. Family businesses can kind of take over family life sometimes. Yeah. So how has the addition of the VAs. Helped with, I know some people do do not like the word balance, but I'm gonna use the word balance.
Booth Parker: How have they kind of helped regain some balance to your family and family business, work life balance?
Vanessa Ulmer: So I, I'm gonna kind of do a little brag here, I guess, on my team. I have had to call them. They haven't had to call me. And it feels amazing because we've gotten to the point now to where we've been working really well as a team to where I am able to be home today, work from home, and not have to be at the shop where I'm fighting all these fires there.
Vanessa Ulmer: And so it's been really good to be able to have. If the [00:26:00] guys have questions, um, say they need to know how many vacation hours they have, or, um, they need to know, Hey, where is this information on our, um, handbook? I need to watch this video. They know that they can contact Aya if they have a design question.
Vanessa Ulmer: They know that they can contact Rona and they all have phone numbers or they can contact them in, or again, in Slack, our program. So. The team knows Now, it's not necessarily go ask Vanessa, go ask Chris. Where now we have really managed to make sure that the team is asking their peers, like we're asking our team members the information instead of being kind of the, the, the go-to all the time, which it is hard to let go of that because then you feel like, well, what am I gonna do now?
Vanessa Ulmer: But it's really great because then you free up that time to really work on the business, which is [00:27:00] what Chris and I, that's our goal. That's our, the big goal is to really get more time to work on our business. So that's, that's really been amazing. So being able to be at home and not have a million phone calls.
Vanessa Ulmer: What's this, what's going on? I haven't, I, I don't know what's, what I'm supposed to be doing. It's, they're either asking each other, um, and, and getting the information from each other really working well as a team. It's been amazing.
Booth Parker: Yeah. And what I'm hearing, like throughout so many of your answers is how much stress and overwhelm the VAs have taken off.
Booth Parker: Yes. Your plate, but your whole, your whole family's plate and the
Vanessa Ulmer: Yes.
Booth Parker: The, the culture within the business itself.
Vanessa Ulmer: Yes. They're, they're absolutely amazing. I, you know, initially I needed to make sure that I had. Um, Chris had really had to sell me on getting a VA for myself, and then [00:28:00] I did. I was, you know, we really need some project manager to help too, because I'm spending a lot of time.
Vanessa Ulmer: Going back with customers, revisions, things like that. And, you know, I'm not getting back in a timely manner and I feel bad for the customers and, you know, I, I'm missing a little bit of the details, so, you know, I really feel like we could use another virtual assistant for the project management piece.
Vanessa Ulmer: He's like, I don't know. So I did a time study on how much time it was. He's very analytical, so I need to prove the data to him. So I did timestamps of my days on how much time I was using, going back and forth with emails and calls and things like that with revisions and edits for design. And so it was enough to then justify the project manager.
Vanessa Ulmer: And between the two of them, it's just amazing. And then again, where social media in itself is. Huge time suck away from [00:29:00] the day and coming up with captions and posts and things like that where, you know, our, our, um, may is wonderful with that and she helps us with all of our content, creating everything, editing, taking all that time to do all of those.
Vanessa Ulmer: And our social media is amazing. I love it. So they do such a good job. So stress is, yeah. 1000% less.
Booth Parker: I can see why you already talked Jillian into one and now I I'm gonna need one. I'm gonna need one too. So, you know, your team, your VA team is, it sounds like they're pretty full-time, but if someone is thinking they have a few tasks they wanna start alleviating.
Vanessa Ulmer: Hmm. There
Booth Parker: RPAs out there would, that would do part-time work or seasonal Oh, right. Things like that. Correct.
Vanessa Ulmer: Or you could do it just based on a project. So you have one project that you wanna do and it could be anything really. Um, and so you can have one that is just working [00:30:00] on one project for you, it might take.
Vanessa Ulmer: A week, a day, you know, a couple hours, whatever. But they can also do it by the project. So it's not even something that you have to necessarily pay for, for part-time. You could find one that specific project that you're wanting to do. Um, Chris was doing, we were doing some videos at, we need some video editing, uh, for our website that we're updating.
Vanessa Ulmer: And so we did hired them for just editing. Um, about, I think it was 60 videos, and they were able to go ahead and knock that out for us, um, as one project instead of us trying to figure out how to do all of those edits and or use our social media person, but then it would take 'em away from the task that they were assigned to do.
Vanessa Ulmer: So they were able to just knock it out in a very quickly for us.
Booth Parker: Fantastic. So for anyone listening who is. [00:31:00] Is sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, I wanna take some of this stress off my plate. I want to, I want to feel like Vanessa does about her family business, work life balance. What are some tips you would give someone who, you know, this is their, their first time hearing about how VAs actually could work and be beneficial to 'em?
Booth Parker: What are some tips you could give them for starting that process of maybe hiring a va?
Vanessa Ulmer: So my suggestion would be, again, kind of listing all the tasks that you do in the day, whether it's mundane or not. Like I would, everything you do for the day, because I, I wasn't even realizing. All of the tasks I was doing, because some of them are such second nature, you don't realize it's technically a task and that you could then delegate.
Vanessa Ulmer: Right? And then you, again, I listed mine, uh, the ones I don't like to do. So definitely punt those [00:32:00] over and see kind of where your list is at. Believe me, it grows naturally on once you see it working and delegating it, um, starts. You start delegating even more and more and more. So it, I would say, list all the things that you wanna do, that you do during the day.
Vanessa Ulmer: Then put the list of things you don't like, maybe even, or if it's even things you don't like but have to do. I would say, is there a piece of it that you could then delegate some of it and then kind of go from there? But it's, it's amazing. It's life changing. It really is great.
Booth Parker: And, and as far as like finding an actual va, I mean, is, right.
Booth Parker: Is calling it the, the best way to go about it and just kind of interviewing from there.
Vanessa Ulmer: So what we've done is we've, we've used a couple of, um, I think my executive assistant, I, she came from a different company then I used a different [00:33:00] company, because we had met our friend in a.
Vanessa Ulmer: Uh, event that we were doing and he had a virtual assistant, uh, company. So we have been using his company and had great success with that. So if anybody is interested in using the company that we use, they're more than welcome to email me. You can email me at Vanessa at Crystal Coast Graphics. Dot com and I'll be happy to send a intro letter and they'll be able to reach out to you and kind of give you some more details on the onboarding process and how it goes, so they can help you with that.
Booth Parker: Yeah. Now, I'm, I'm totally interested in this now, so is there anything about using VAs, the process of anything like that, that I haven't asked that you think our audience should know about?
Vanessa Ulmer: I would say that once you have the virtual assistants and again, like kind of making sure you're outlining exactly kind of [00:34:00] what the expectations are and what they're doing, I wouldn't, again, I wouldn't worry necessarily about how much you think that you're giving them or if it's too much or too little.
Vanessa Ulmer: Again, it kind of progresses naturally on how they can assist you during the day. Um. And I, it, it is easy to communicate with them on, there's so many apps now, and they have a phone line now and, um, the system is, is easy to work with the way that we, we do it now via Slack or whatever. So it's amazing.
Vanessa Ulmer: I tell Chris now too, I will never say, I'll never admit that he was. Correct. Um, I needed a virtual assistant. I will never say that, but, um, I will always, always, like a hundred percent never regret that I hired one and then I kept hiring. Now he's like, are you, I'm replacing him eventually with a va.[00:35:00]
Vanessa Ulmer: I just keep hiring more and more, more so they're, they're fantastic. Fantastic.
Booth Parker: Alright. This has been so informative. I have learned so much. Um, I clearly had some misconceptions about virtual assistants that have now been cleared up, but I know our audience has, has greatly learned a lot as well to go that route to grow their business.
Booth Parker: So thank you so much for sharing your experience. You're welcome And your knowledge on this today. Really appreciate it.
Vanessa Ulmer: No problem. Thank you so much again, if anybody has any questions or would love to chat to see, you know, how, if, how I go about it and or have any more questions that they have, I'm happy to answer.
Vanessa Ulmer: They can reach out to me.
Booth Parker: Perfect. And I will include, uh, your contact in the show notes so that they have it right there.
Vanessa Ulmer: Thank you.
Booth Parker: All right. Have a great one.
Vanessa Ulmer: You too.
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