Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Hosts Spencer Horn and Christian Napier discuss a better way to build and strengthen teams in any organization.
Christian Napier
00:13 - 00:27
Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to a special Friday edition of Teamwork a Better Way. I am Christian Apier and I am joined by my favorite mole companion along with Patrick. Spencer Horne.
Christian Napier
00:27 - 00:29
Yeah, Patrick. Spencer, how you doing?
Spencer Horn
00:29 - 00:35
So good. I'm so excited. It's been a while since we've gone to have some mole amarillas.
Christian Napier
00:36 - 00:52
Yes, enchiladas amarillas, and we're so ready. Looking forward to catching up with you today. But before we get to the mole stuff, we've got an amazing guest joining us today, Spencer.
Spencer Horn
00:52 - 00:58
And I just want to get right into it, because you and I, we can catch up over mole here in about 90 minutes.
Christian Napier
00:58 - 01:04
But we've got an hour with an amazing guest. So over to you to introduce her.
Spencer Horn
01:04 - 01:40
Absolutely. Today we have Brittany Bettini, and she is the CEO and founder of I Need a VA, Virtual Assistant, and it's the fastest growing virtual staffing agency in the US, where she is redefining what it means to scale with ease, She's a serial entrepreneur, and Brittany's built and run multiple successful businesses, including a financial services company, a janitorial business, a thriving event venue, all while raising three kids. Unfortunately, life happens sometimes.
Spencer Horn
01:40 - 02:14
She did that all while surviving domestic violence and creating a life of true freedom So her work and insights on delegation systems and building sustainable business infrastructure have been featured in Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine where she's recognized as a powerful voice for entrepreneurs who are ready to grow without burning out. I am so excited for this because I have all of that to learn. You know, Christian, so often we are talking about more corporate teams and bigger teams.
Spencer Horn
02:14 - 02:34
And sometimes we forget the entrepreneurs with smaller teams and we need to focus on them as well. But she really knows firsthand that hustle is not an identity. And I want to learn more about that. She has built her companies on the belief that freedom is the flex.
Spencer Horn
02:34 - 02:52
and you don't have to sacrifice your sanity to succeed. And so today, she's empowering founders and CEOs and entrepreneurs to stop doing it alone. And that is at every level, large organization, middle organization, small organizations, right, Brittany? Yes.
Spencer Horn
02:52 - 03:14
And really to build powerful virtual teams to reclaim their time, energy, and lives. And when Brittany speaks, she doesn't just teach delegation, she embodies it. And her talks are a masterclass in how to build business that works for you so you can finally get out of the weeds and into your zone of genius. Let's get her on the screen so everyone can see your beautiful face.
Spencer Horn
03:14 - 03:16
Welcome, Brittany. So glad to have you.
Brittany Bettini
03:17 - 03:19
Hi, guys. Thank you so much for having me.
Spencer Horn
03:19 - 03:47
Well, thank you, so excited to talk about this. We have audiences that are listening all over the world, and they have so many different circumstances, and we're just so excited for you to teach them about delegating and finding that freedom flex that you talked about. You've built these businesses while raising a family, and what inspired your belief that freedom is the flex?
Brittany Bettini
03:48 - 04:14
probably crying in the shower, being completely overwhelmed. And really what did it for me was when my eight-year-old son came to me and said, can we go back to being poor? That was the gut punch that really made me sit down and reimagine and reconfigure my life so that I could do both and do them both well.
Spencer Horn
04:14 - 04:38
You know, that is a very powerful inspiration when you hear that from the family. But you know, what's interesting is that many entrepreneurs, they own this burnout, you know, like a badge of honor. You know, I'm grinding and I'm working so hard. What, you know, what really helped you break away from that?
Spencer Horn
04:38 - 04:43
Yes, you had this impetus, but how'd you get out of that cycle? How'd you get out of that mindset?
Brittany Bettini
04:45 - 05:20
Really for me, it was figuring out what in my business that I was a genius at and then giving myself permission to let go of the tasks that I wasn't good at and the tasks that were bogging down my time and taking me away from being in my genius zone. That was ultimately the hardest hurdle to jump was the mindset of I don't have to do this all by myself. And one thing that entrepreneurs or founders or CEOs say all the time is no one can do it as good as me.
Brittany Bettini
05:21 - 05:34
And that was where I was in my head. I built this by myself. I'm the only one that knows how to run it well with the right SOPs and, you know, the right plan of action and the right team. You don't have to do it all by yourself.
Brittany Bettini
05:34 - 05:37
And honestly, they'll probably do it way better than you.
Christian Napier
05:39 - 06:37
So one of the questions that I have, excuse me, for you, Brittany, is You can kind of go on this journey of self-discovery to just improve your existing businesses and finding your work-life balance and finding your freedom. But what was it that kind of struck you to say, hey, rather than just use this newfound ability to offload some of my work, get help, I'm actually gonna turn that into a business myself and I'm gonna focus on that. So what kind of sparked in your brain to pivot you from just, okay, well, I'm gonna learn skills and I'm gonna bring in a resource to help me run, whether it's my janitorial business or whatever, to say, you know what, I'm actually gonna turn my focus and actually turn this thing into a business.
Brittany Bettini
06:39 - 06:51
Okay, so number one, I think that entrepreneurs are insane. And we turn everything into a business. I thought of 15 new businesses in my dreams last night. So that's number one.
Brittany Bettini
06:52 - 07:10
But also, I'm the type of person that if I like something, you're going to know about it. If something is helping me, I'm not a gatekeeper. And I want to share that information and share that love with everyone I talk to, not just other entrepreneurs. I was at PTO meetings.
Brittany Bettini
07:10 - 07:33
I was at like family functions and telling everybody what my first virtual assistant, Mavs and Mitch, were doing for me. And everyone said the same thing. Every conversation I had, the term that they used was, gosh, I need a VA. And so being that insane entrepreneur that I am, I was like, that is a catchphrase.
Brittany Bettini
07:35 - 07:47
That's a business name. And so I searched up the trademark registry to see if it was available. And I searched up the URL and the social media handles. I was like, no one's doing this with this name yet.
Brittany Bettini
07:47 - 07:54
And I went to my VA. I was like, let's do this. Will you help me build this? And she was like, yes.
Brittany Bettini
07:54 - 08:19
So not only, it wasn't just me. I sat her down, I said, what is it that you hate about this job? What is it that you love about it? How can we create the perfect agency, the perfect experience for the VA so they want to stay forever and, you know, the perfect experience for the client so that they get what they're paying for and that they feel safe when delegating and outsourcing to a foreign country.
Brittany Bettini
08:20 - 08:21
And that's where I Need a VA came from.
Spencer Horn
08:22 - 08:24
Well, I think Mavs is listening.
Brittany Bettini
08:25 - 08:35
I didn't know who this was because she put a couple of... Is that her? That is. So Mavs started off as a graphic designer in my organization.
Brittany Bettini
08:35 - 09:07
And I went to college for graphic design, so that's my specialty. But I hired Mavs and I quickly learned that I was a terrible graphic designer because she made me look like a kindergartner drawing a stick figure when it came to really elevating our brand. And the most beautiful thing about Mavs is how humble she is, because she immediately became a leader as the team continued to grow. She immediately people were looking up to her and going to her for advice.
Brittany Bettini
09:08 - 09:22
And so when the position of chief operations officer came available, she didn't apply. And I had to literally force her. I had to threaten her. I was like, I will hire a U.S. based CEO.
Brittany Bettini
09:22 - 09:41
You will have to answer to some other American if you don't take this position. And it was honestly the best decision I've ever made in business because she She comes up with all the good ideas and just lets me look like I'm the cool person, when in reality, she's the one pulling all the strings behind the scenes. That's so great.
Spencer Horn
09:41 - 09:47
Thank you for shouting out Mabs. Now, it looks like she's maybe got some kind of Eastern European name.
Brittany Bettini
09:49 - 10:03
Mabel is... Oh, where's she from then? So my entire team is in the Philippines. So our entire outsourced business is located in the Philippines, in all different areas of the Philippines.
Brittany Bettini
10:03 - 10:30
So everybody is work-from-home based. But you get to have some really great, highly educated, highly skilled professionals at a much lower rate. A lot of what these big, huge organizations have been doing for 50 years using the BPO industry in the Philippines. I've just kind of scaled it to be able to have access for smaller companies and entrepreneurs alike.
Brittany Bettini
10:30 - 10:39
And in doing so, we've taken on some big corporate clients just because we're making waves. You know, I want to talk about that for a moment.
Spencer Horn
10:39 - 11:00
So you've got corporate clients that are also, and I actually, when I'm coaching executives, I am talking to them about outsourcing internationally as well. And so what's the biggest myth you find that founders have about delegation, especially when we're talking about outsource to foreign workers?
Brittany Bettini
11:01 - 11:31
So a lot of the myths that I find are all in the vetting process. A lot of people are worried that they are going to be taken advantage of or that they can't trust people in a foreign country because they can't see them and touch them and feel them. But I have 55 in-person employees in the U.S. and throughout the years of running the janitorial business and the venue and all of that. I've been taken advantage of more by Americans than I ever have Filipinos.
Brittany Bettini
11:31 - 12:03
And so the biggest myth, I think, is that the trust capability isn't there. But really, if you do the vetting correctly, if you do the skills testing and make sure that you are hiring the right people, you don't really run into that issue as much as people who just hop on Fiverr or Upwork and they hire blindly. And then they're like, this doesn't work. This person can't do what they said that they could do, or they took advantage of me, or they didn't deliver on what I paid them to do.
Brittany Bettini
12:03 - 12:07
And you don't run into that when you do the vetting process the way that we do.
Spencer Horn
12:07 - 12:22
I've actually run into that with, so I have had my own virtual assistant for five years from the Philippines. She's just fantastic. So trustworthy. But I also ran into that with, with Fiverr, uh, where I tried, I needed an automation.
Spencer Horn
12:22 - 12:39
You know, you talk about systems. I needed an automation with my, um, with my CRM and it ended up costing more and it didn't you know, they said they could do it and it didn't work. And so I'm like, so frustrated. So I would love to learn more about your vetting process.
Brittany Bettini
12:39 - 12:40
I don't know if that's the direction we want to go.
Spencer Horn
12:40 - 12:58
But I think, Christian, how do you help clients delegate what they need to first? I mean, what's the first thing they need to start delegating? You talked about your genius and and letting go of things that you're not good at. I assume that's different for everybody, right?
Spencer Horn
12:58 - 13:00
I mean, how do you find that?
Brittany Bettini
13:01 - 13:08
So I actually just recently wrote a book. I wonder if I have one close by. So I wrote a book. It's called She Delegates.
Brittany Bettini
13:09 - 13:30
And it's geared towards women simply because I was writing the book geared towards both men and women. And then I was preparing for a speaking engagement. you know, when you're on a panel somewhere, they'll send you the questions ahead of time of what they're gonna ask you. And the first question on the list was, how do you juggle it all?
Brittany Bettini
13:30 - 14:02
And I just went into like this frenzy. I was like, never ask men how they juggle it all. And so I was like, I rewrote the book in the shower in my head that day, because I was like, I need to speak directly to the women about delegation, because we as women really struggle to let go of things because we're trained from birth to care and take care of everyone and everything in our house and our business or if we're working and taking care of families all at the same time.
Brittany Bettini
14:04 - 14:27
So I developed this life audit and that is what I give to all founders, CEOs, high level executives who are trying to figure out what to delegate because everybody's day looks different. For me, I don't get up and run at 5 a.m. But a lot of people do. And my schedule looks different because I have kids and sporting events and stuff like that.
Brittany Bettini
14:28 - 14:56
So the life audit allows you to write down and show everything you do, not only in your business or your job, but also your day-to-day life. What time do you have to have the kids at school? What time do you have wrestling practice? All of those things are written down over a week-long period, and then you go through and highlight the things that are non-negotiables for you.
Brittany Bettini
14:57 - 15:12
I'm going to be in that car rider line today at 3 o'clock. That's a non-negotiable for me. So my entire business existence has to go around that. And my executive assistant, Nick, knows that we don't schedule anything during that time.
Brittany Bettini
15:12 - 15:30
And it's blocked off. And if something gets scheduled, he knows to call and fix it before that time comes. That is the first position every high level, high achiever person who wants to run a business has to hire for first. You have to have a clipboard person.
Brittany Bettini
15:30 - 15:58
You have to have an executive assistant who can go through that life audit with you and you can start handing tasks off to them. You know, Nick helps you book my travel. Nick helps me, calls me before my appointments because I have ADHD to remind me I have something happening in three minutes. And I love having a person that is as invested in my daily schedule as I need to be, and sometimes more.
Brittany Bettini
15:58 - 16:00
So that first hire.
Spencer Horn
16:11 - 16:11
I did it.
Brittany Bettini
16:11 - 16:18
Sorry, I didn't. That little ad-lib wasn't even needed.
Christian Napier
16:19 - 17:01
All right, so a question that I have for you, back in the 90s, for most of my career, I worked as a consultant, right? And what I would see is, all right, in the equation of success, we have these variables, we have the consultant, we have the tools slash maybe say the methodology, you know, that should be implemented, we have the client. And I would see that some clients were incredibly successful and others less so. And so the logic in my brain said, well, then the variable there is the client, right?
Christian Napier
17:01 - 17:48
And so I am curious, what advice would you give to an entrepreneur, a founder, or someone who's engaging your services to make sure they actually become successful with it. Because sometimes, I'm sure you have clients that have just taken off and achieved a huge amount by leveraging the services you provide, and others might struggle. So as you have gone through all of this experience, you've worked with so many different individuals and organizations to help them what is it that they need to be doing to make sure that they're successful and they're leveraging the services you provide to the max?
Brittany Bettini
17:49 - 18:41
Absolutely. So number one is becoming a leader, becoming the type of person that people actually want to work for. And this is a process that I have had to really work on because Ultimately, if I wanted my team to not only work hard and invest themselves in helping make me wealthy, how do you convince someone to work so hard for you? How do we attach longevity to our team members so that they're with us long-term, but not only just with us, they are almost like a An army that is always at war to take your company to the next level.
Brittany Bettini
18:42 - 19:21
And that comes with a lot of, for the founder, a lot of self-discovery and looking in the mirror and saying, am I the type of boss that people would want to work for? Am I the type of boss that I would want to work for? Most entrepreneurs, they become CEOs because they hated working for someone else or they had a boss that drove them to entrepreneurship. But then they become the CEO, they become the leader, and they continue that cycle of abuse to their own team members.
Brittany Bettini
19:21 - 20:03
And so becoming a leader, reading books about leadership and learning people's love languages in work, figuring out each individual team member, what empowers them to do more and believe in themselves, Having a really open door policy of if you have an idea, I'm here to listen and I want to help implement it if it's a good idea in the company. If something isn't working, you have that open door policy, come tell me that something isn't working that's going to drive our team away. Because everyone says the client comes first.
Brittany Bettini
20:05 - 20:28
I can't serve a client if the team falls apart. I would shut the, I would shutter the doors if my internal team walked away from me because I don't even know how to run the company anymore because they do everything for me. I mean, there's a manual and there's SOPs, but at the end of the day, I am nothing without the team. And so I need to treat them accordingly.
Brittany Bettini
20:29 - 20:40
And I hope that that's what my clients do first is if I want to build a team, what do I want that experience and that company culture to feel like so that they want to work for me day in and day out.
Spencer Horn
20:50 - 21:08
You know, Brittany, this might be a little sensitive. You know, my wife and I have been married for 39 years. We actually had that same philosophy that you just talked about with your team, putting them first, actually, before the clients. You know, a lot of parents put the kids first.
Spencer Horn
21:08 - 21:29
and their relationship second, and it actually reduces your ability to care for the kids. In a way, it seems counterintuitive. So for example, whether you go to church or not, I see a lot of couples where they sit apart from each other, and the kid's in the middle, and they play goalie. And my wife and I, we insisted we would always sit together, put the kids on either side of us.
Spencer Horn
21:29 - 22:00
We would always try to focus on our relationship first so that we could be the best parents we could for those kids. I mean, I heard that in what you were saying with your team is having that relationship with them and putting that first even before the client so that you can then serve the client better. And I truly believe in that. I mean, that's all about culture and engagement and having the ability to sustain the effort required to do the work that you have to do.
Spencer Horn
22:00 - 22:14
And for them to fill in when you're not there. Yes. Right? And to have that desire and willingness to do so, doing so voluntarily of their own desire.
Spencer Horn
22:14 - 22:27
And that's what leadership is all about. Management is, if you don't do it, I'm going to replace you with somebody that does. But leadership is, I get you to do it because you want to do it. And you'd rather work with me.
Spencer Horn
22:27 - 22:41
and say, that's our boss, and be proud of it, like Mads did on her little comment there. I don't know, Christian, do you have anything you want to say about that before I move on? Oh, I can't hear you.
Christian Napier
22:43 - 23:22
I muted myself. There was some noise in the background, and I muted, and I forgot to unmute. OK, so one of the questions that I had that's kind of related to this and being a leader is your organization is based far away and I'm curious with an organization that's pretty much virtual, like how do you actually craft and maintain a culture, you know, a company culture, a winning company culture and that, with those kinds of, parameters, right?
Christian Napier
23:22 - 23:41
Like I'm dealing with people that are in a very different time zone. English may not be their primary language, et cetera. So how is it that you've been able to actually craft this and maintain this wonderful culture that you've created?
Brittany Bettini
23:42 - 24:10
Yeah, that's a great question. I think I learned a lot about my leadership style from working in janitorial. and then carried that over to building this team. But I always just, number one, was very open with my first, you know, two to three team members about I wanted their input on what would make a VA stay.
Brittany Bettini
24:11 - 24:32
And so the great thing about my company is you get the built-in company culture when you have our VAs through management, because everyone's invited to the company meetings. Everyone comes to the weekly trainings. Everyone gets to come to the Christmas party and get a gift from Big Boss Brittany. And we make everything fun.
Brittany Bettini
24:32 - 24:51
As if we were in an office together, we just can't give each other a hug. So like we have virtual parties where we all to the Philippines. So I have a team member in the Philippines who, um, like literally yesterday maps was like the Christmas party stuff is ready. Here's the spreadsheet.
Brittany Bettini
24:51 - 24:55
And then I go through and approve what things I want to be in the giveaway.
Spencer Horn
24:55 - 25:02
That's hard because I remember sending my son served a mission in the Philippines. It was really hard for us to get packages there.
Brittany Bettini
25:02 - 25:14
Yeah, so they do the cooking from there to there. So like two or three days after the Christmas party, everyone will get their gifts in the mail. We send birthday cakes. This is a huge one.
Brittany Bettini
25:14 - 25:35
Like every single person on my team, on their birthday, they get pizza delivered to their house for their whole family, and they get a birthday cake that's branded. Is it difficult to find bakeries in every single little province? Jollibee has bakeries. Well, I'm not sure how they do it or how they find the cakes, but someone on my team, I delegated that task.
Brittany Bettini
25:35 - 25:47
I want the cakes to look like this. I want them to have a message on top that's straight from me that every time it's someone's birthday, like, I need your birthday message for Francis. I type out a message, send it in a chat. They send it to the baker.
Brittany Bettini
25:48 - 26:00
The cake gets delivered. I can be right there in their house for their birthday from all the way across the world. That's great. And it's because I'm intentional about it.
Brittany Bettini
26:00 - 26:28
It's easy to forget someone's special moments like that. Like one of our team members had a baby. We're like, let's have a digital baby shower. Those kind of things, the fact that I think about doing that for my team is what makes them really, really loyal and just, I mean, fiercely loyal and want to help me grow this organization continuously.
Brittany Bettini
26:28 - 26:41
Yeah. I'm going to get one of those ube birthday cakes or halo halo or something like that. I'm actually going to the Philippines. As soon as this call is over, I have a meeting with my team to iron out all the final details.
Brittany Bettini
26:41 - 26:50
I'm going in January. That's fantastic. First trip to hug everybody's neck. I'm bringing everyone together in one central location.
Brittany Bettini
26:50 - 26:59
It's going to be really magical, because I've been waiting to go for a really long time. I would love to go. I'd love to go back with my son. The closest I've been is Indonesia, three times.
Brittany Bettini
26:59 - 27:09
And I just got invited to go back to speak in Bali, Christian. Oh, wow. Yeah, so. OK, well, I have a- Oh, I get to do that job.
Spencer Horn
27:09 - 27:10
What's that?
Brittany Bettini
27:10 - 27:13
How do I get on that roster? I need to speak and engage with Bali.
Spencer Horn
27:14 - 27:36
That's right. Yeah, this is our third time to Bali, but Indonesia is amazing. I mean, I love Southeast Asia, just humble, hardworking, wonderful people all over the place there. But talk to me about what are some systems or tools that you swear by for making delegation more attainable or sustainable, if you will.
Brittany Bettini
27:37 - 28:01
Yeah, so number one is protecting your information. So we use tools like LastPass to protect all of the different tools that we use and access to those. So if that way, if someone moves departments or if someone leaves the organization, we can revoke access. Another thing that we swear by is our Google organization.
Brittany Bettini
28:01 - 28:24
Like every single person on the team, whether they work internally or for one of our clients, has a Google email address and access to Google Docs and chat and all the things. That's how we keep in touch with everyone is Google Chat. Every department has a chat room and it keeps everything organized. Um, it allows you to go back and look and see what did we say about that again?
Brittany Bettini
28:24 - 28:43
I can search for a word. Um, which for me is really, I gotta have that. Um, and you know, just having a really solid CRM, uh, for your company so that everyone is held accountable and everything is in one place. We use go high level.
Brittany Bettini
28:43 - 28:54
It's my favorite. Um, you use go high level. I've been using it for years. We build for our clients and go high level, but we also use it internally for everything.
Brittany Bettini
28:54 - 29:10
So like every company I have has a sub account and everything that you see in the atmosphere of Brittany Bettini and I need a VA is all built there. Okay. So do your VA's know go high level? My internal team does.
Brittany Bettini
29:11 - 29:37
Whenever a client comes to us, we recruit specific for them because we work in about 30 different industries, everything from roofing and real estate to, you know, customer service reps. So we recruit specific for that client. If they're looking for someone in automations, it is harder to find. that someone who knows that specifically, but also- Yeah, sorry, because I use that too.
Spencer Horn
29:37 - 29:39
And so I've just, I've switched so many.
Brittany Bettini
29:40 - 29:47
I mean, CRMs are such a challenge, but- I found GoHighLevel and I never looked back.
Spencer Horn
29:47 - 29:55
I tried them all, HubSpot. I mean, I've been every day. So I started from HubSpot and then I most recently have been using Zoho. I'm actually still using it to transition.
Spencer Horn
29:55 - 30:07
but it was specific for, for, for, you know, what I do as a speaker and a coach and, uh, but it's so freaking clunky. And so anyway, sorry, sorry, listeners.
Brittany Bettini
30:07 - 30:27
I will, you know, these are tools that are important. Yeah. And, um, you know, go out a little, it doesn't pay me to say this, but it's been life changing for me having, um, those tools that I can, toggle back and forth between organizations and have everything in one place. Because I was spending so much money on all these different tools.
Brittany Bettini
30:27 - 30:50
My automations were here and this was there and my marketing was here, but now everything's in one place. And I do, our team loves it. And we are always trying to learn and then train our VAs as well. Everything that we learn, we want our VAs to have access to getting better in whatever they're doing for their clients.
Brittany Bettini
30:50 - 31:04
And that's why we do those bi-weekly training calls with our whole team. So is that what you were describing before we got on the call, is you were doing these automation training calls and sometimes they don't work out? Yeah, well, yeah. Everybody's not tech savvy.
Brittany Bettini
31:05 - 31:24
And sometimes it takes- Christian, we are, I mean, we are perfect at the technology, aren't we? Oh yeah, yeah, we're just grand. I can't even run a Zoom room by myself. I was speaking at a conference yesterday or day before yesterday in Houston, and I was trying to share my screen with the audience.
Brittany Bettini
31:24 - 31:30
And I was like, I need a VA to be here with me to do this because I can't.
Christian Napier
31:30 - 32:04
Should have had a VA. That actually leads me to a question here, Brittany, which is, the breadth and depth of services that are offered. Because on the surface, when people say VA, virtual assistant, they're like, okay, someone who maintains my calendar and books appointments and answers emails, right? But I'm guessing that you can go beyond that because there are other things that some people would want to delegate to someone else to do.
Christian Napier
32:04 - 32:39
So I'm curious to understand from you, what are the range of services and how did you kind of settle on that? Because there are some things that are like, hey, maybe we could do this, but maybe you look at it and say, well, we don't actually want to get into that particular realm. because it requires a significant investment or a lot of like really deep expertise and something. So how did you go about kind of you know coming up with the menu of services that you can provide clients?
Brittany Bettini
32:40 - 33:12
So really our menu is is very very slim. Even though we serve so many different industries, we don't advertise necessarily that we service that industry. What we advertise is delegation as a lifestyle. For me, I've taken delegation so far that people think it's like a joke almost, because every single department in my business is a Filipino VA.
Brittany Bettini
33:13 - 33:49
Marketing, research, customer care, recruitment, HR, security. I mean, I am the only U.S. based employee of I Need a VA, and my only job at the company is what we are doing here today. So my job is to go and speak at conferences, to do guest coaching inside of other people's coaching programs, and to be on podcasts. And that's what my genius is.
Brittany Bettini
33:49 - 34:01
That's what I love to do. I love talking to entrepreneurs and I love talking about this amazing business that we've built together. Everything else is, you don't want me doing it. You don't want me doing bookkeeping, right?
Brittany Bettini
34:01 - 34:14
So we can hire a bookkeeper for you. We can hire this. And the way that we do that, the way that we've been able to be in so many different places at once is because the more expertise, the more it will cost you. Right.
Brittany Bettini
34:14 - 34:35
So it's not just like one flat fee and you can get anybody. But also we recruit specifically for each client. So it's not like we have a bunch of VA sitting around and we just plug one in and say, good luck. When you come to us, you tell us what it is that you're looking to delegate, what skills you want them to have and what software systems that you want them to be proficient in.
Brittany Bettini
34:35 - 35:05
And we do our very best to find the best three to five candidates out of hundreds and hundreds of applications that we get every day. and put them in front of you. We vet them, we put them through multiple interviews, they go through a week-long training. So if you were to come to me for a service, it's about two to three weeks before you actually get to meet any candidates we have for you because it's such an in-depth process of we're finding that person for you, we're acting as a headhunter for you.
Brittany Bettini
35:06 - 35:22
So those VAs actually work for the client and not for you? They work for the client and we act as a kind of a conduit in between. We have two options. So you can do a direct hire where we act as a headhunter and then they go work for you directly.
Brittany Bettini
35:23 - 35:37
Or we have our management service where we act as a headhunter. But then once you pick a VA, we're monitoring them to make sure you're getting what you're paying for. We are offering ongoing training. They are entrenched in our company culture so that they stay longer.
Brittany Bettini
35:38 - 35:57
So the management piece costs a little bit more hourly. then you would pay if you direct hire. But you're getting, I mean, the value behind what I've built as far as the ongoing training and the company culture alone is worth probably way more than I actually charge for it.
Spencer Horn
36:11 - 36:16
So you do a lot of speaking. Are you familiar with the National Speakers Association?
Brittany Bettini
36:17 - 36:32
I kind of fell into speaking. It started off as I just was telling people who hired me for my service about what I was doing. And then all of a sudden they were like, well, I'm having a conference. Would you like to come?
Brittany Bettini
36:32 - 36:47
and be a speaker. And that's kind of how it started. I literally just joined like a mentorship kind of to really start focusing on high level speaking. Okay, well, I want you to write this name down.
Brittany Bettini
36:47 - 36:52
Okay. She lives in Asheville. Her name is Meredith Elliott Powell.
Spencer Horn
36:53 - 37:03
Meredith Elliott Powell. She is the chairman of the board of the National Speakers Association. She's based in Asheville.
Brittany Bettini
37:04 - 37:05
In Asheville where I am.
Spencer Horn
37:06 - 37:27
Yeah, she's in Asheville and she's been on our show before and she is the chairman of the entire organization. She is absolutely brilliant, incredible speaker, lovely person. There's a lot of, you've got John Long Jr. who is the president of the North Carolina National Speakers Association.
Spencer Horn
37:27 - 37:35
Good friends of mine. You need to just just look them up. But reach out on maybe on LinkedIn to Meredith Elliott Powell.
Brittany Bettini
37:35 - 37:36
Tell her I said to say hey.
Spencer Horn
37:37 - 37:51
Yeah. I'll give you some other contacts if you want. OK so back to you know for business owners maybe afraid to let go. What what's the mind shift that they need to make to start to scale.
Brittany Bettini
37:53 - 38:28
Well, really, it's the decision that you want to scale because we only have so many hours in a day. Me personally, if I were doing this by myself without a team, I could probably take two to three new clients a month. So in order for me to scale, I have to multiply myself. So that mind shift that you have to do is I am willing to take everything that's inside of my brain of how I do this thing and I'm willing to break it down into departments, and I'm willing to let someone else give it a try.
Brittany Bettini
38:28 - 39:16
And once you make the decision, I'm going to let someone else do this, then really sitting down and helping them develop out an SOP so that you never have to train the next person when the organization continues to grow. And ultimately, I started with one VA, then we went to three VAs, and then we had five, and then we had you know, 7 and 10, and now I think we're at like 18 internal team members. And that's all from every time someone got a little overwhelmed, we're like, okay, let's tighten the SOP and let's bring in another person to help you there. So that mind shift you have to go through is, I am willing to share this knowledge with someone and trust that they will help me continue to grow my organization.
Brittany Bettini
39:16 - 39:43
But You have to just be like, I believe that I run, and this is what I say when I'm on stage at every conference, you are the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation. And I'm talking to a room of maybe brand new startup entrepreneurs. That's the mindset you have to have. How do you grow and scale a business to a multi-million dollar or multi-billion dollar corporation is you believe that that is what you are and you build the way that they do.
Brittany Bettini
39:43 - 40:00
You mimic the way that they move. create the organizational chart that looks like, okay, that's what my competition that is making millions of dollars looks like. They have this, they have that, they have a marketing team, they have this, they're not doing it by themselves.
Spencer Horn
40:01 - 40:18
Yes, but that's still hard for some of those smaller entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, because it's like I can be so much more efficient if I just do it myself, but if I let go and have somebody else do it, not only do I have to pay them, but I have to train them to do it, and that's going to cost me even more, and how can I afford that?
Brittany Bettini
40:19 - 40:31
How can you afford not to? Yeah. not to when your hour is worth $100. So that's what you need to say.
Spencer Horn
40:31 - 40:48
So categorize everything you do and put a dollar value next to everything that you do. And for example, you speaking, what's the value return on your time compared to the administrative tasks dollar value, right?
Brittany Bettini
40:49 - 41:11
If I were to sit down and, you know, five years ago, having 20 hours of my week back to do income generating activities instead of trying to figure out how to do bookkeeping because I have dyslexia. You don't want me doing bookkeeping. I'm going to prison. The FBI will be here to be like, why are you taking care of this?
Brittany Bettini
41:12 - 41:27
So for me, getting that time back isn't just about um, how much money, more money I can make. Cause that's great. But like now I'm actually doing what I'm supposed to be doing. So many people start businesses from a hobby.
Brittany Bettini
41:27 - 41:39
I always like to use pottery for an example now, because now that I'm so delegated, I'm on this whole bucket list thing. And so I've been doing pottery. A person starts doing pottery. They fall in love with it.
Brittany Bettini
41:39 - 42:02
They find out, Oh my God, I can do this every day for the rest of my life. And, someone will pay me to make pottery and I don't have to have a real job. And so they start a pottery business and then they have to be the bookkeeper and marketing and they have to pack boxes and ship pottery and they have to, you know, go to shows and show the pottery. And now they hate pottery.
Brittany Bettini
42:05 - 42:19
Solo entrepreneurs end up hating their business to the point, like I said, they're crying in the shower and they're ready to go back to corporate America because they won't delegate. You can't afford not to delegate. Amen.
Christian Napier
42:20 - 42:55
Yeah, amen. One question I've got for you, Brittany, is coming back to the technology side of things. So, you know, three years ago, chat GPT became a thing, and everybody's talking about AI these days. And I'm curious to get your thoughts on AI, its potential benefit in your organization, but also maybe some of the pitfalls you're seeing with clients as they're like, oh, well, I can just have AI do this or that or whatever.
Christian Napier
42:56 - 43:05
What are you seeing in the emerging technologies that come out in the last couple of years related to AI and their potential impact?
Brittany Bettini
43:05 - 43:34
Yeah, this is my favorite question. And everyone always asks me about AI because, you know, will VAs become redundant? Because now we can just have a robot do it. And I utilize AI not only in my business as far as like the actual operation of the business, but also we are always, from day one, when Chad GPT became a thing that everyone was talking about, we started training our team on AI tools.
Brittany Bettini
43:35 - 44:11
Because someone has to tell AI what to do, right? Someone has to operate and manage and make sure that those automations and AIs aren't broken, and that should be a team member that you have. It should make your graphic designer's job faster and easier, but it shouldn't mean that you again become, I need to get rid of my graphic designer so I can be an AI operator masked as a graphic designer now. You don't want to give that job back to you because now you have to be the one to tell AI what to do.
Brittany Bettini
44:11 - 44:38
Also, we're never going to be able to completely replace human interaction. And if we do, I don't want to live in that world anyway. I want my clients to want their clients to talk to a human on the other side of the phone when they need to. Because if you call my phones after hours, an AI agent will answer the phone and you can ask her, oh my gosh, tell me all about your CEO, Brittany.
Brittany Bettini
44:39 - 45:04
And she'll tell you how pretty I am and how nice I am and how great I am. And she's been trained to know everything about our company so that after hours people can get the information that they need. But during the time that my business is open, a new call, someone sweet and kind and with empathy and a heart and a soul is going to answer the phone and talk to you human to human. And I want to live in that world.
Brittany Bettini
45:04 - 45:21
And I want to have clients who want their businesses to run like that. If you want to AI automate your entire business, you can do that. for me and my clients, we're going to stick with the humans.
Spencer Horn
45:30 - 45:41
Brittany, you have faced some personal challenges that would shut a lot of people down or stop them. How did those experiences shape your leadership style?
Brittany Bettini
45:44 - 46:12
When I get mad or sad or someone does something hurtful to me, I'm kind of, my husband calls me Michael Jordan. And Michael Jordan used to think of reasons to be upset because it was so motivating to him. And so honestly, I struggle more when life is good. When everything is calm and everything is going well, I am like, oh, I don't really want to do anything today.
Brittany Bettini
46:12 - 46:46
I don't have the motivation. So for me, it was like this driving force of I can prove this person who said I was never going to survive without them wrong as a mother, as a entrepreneur, as just somebody who can take care of herself. Really, the driving force between all of my business was that I wanted to be self-sufficient and not be at a food pantry with my kids. When I left that domestic violence situation, I couldn't afford to feed my kids.
Brittany Bettini
46:46 - 46:53
I was on food stamps. I was at a food pantry. I lost my home. I was in just absolute disrepair financially.
Brittany Bettini
46:53 - 47:18
And so for me, building businesses became a security blanket that I would never have to depend on another person for basic human necessities, but also It felt good. It felt good to win. And so, you know, I am different from a lot of people. A lot of people would have just kind of laid down and been like, you know what, this is too much.
Brittany Bettini
47:18 - 47:36
I can't take it. For me, the adversity was the driving force behind most of my success. And so now I'm like Michael Jordan, I just sit in the corner, I make up fake scenarios in my head of what someone mean might say, so that I can just get up and keep going every day. She's a great coach, right, Christian?
Brittany Bettini
47:37 - 47:51
That's right. Somebody slighted me somewhere, get me fired up. We had this discussion last night, me and my husband, because he's not an entrepreneur. He doesn't understand the way my brain works or any of that.
Brittany Bettini
47:51 - 47:59
I think we're like yin and yang. But he was like, you are so much like, because he's a big sports fan. He's like, you're so much like Michael Jordan. It's scary.
Brittany Bettini
47:59 - 48:09
He was like, it's almost insane the way that you will just like get mad about something. and then go build a multi-million dollar business. It's weird. Normal people don't do that.
Spencer Horn
48:09 - 48:35
But this is kind of verifying. We've talked about this on the show, the research by psychiatrist Anna Lemke. You know how you said when things are calm, you kind of like, the brain does not release that dopamine or that oxytocin, those feel-good drugs. And when you do things that are difficult, Even if you create the scenario in your own brain and you go out and accomplish something difficult, your brain rewards you with those feel-good drugs.
Spencer Horn
48:36 - 48:46
So you create the scenario that drives you to go out and do that and then the brain rewards you and it creates, in a way, a positive feedback loop for you from getting angry.
Brittany Bettini
48:47 - 49:13
Yeah, and I think that that's another reason why I really like speaking now, because I get a lot of, instead of like that hustle every day that I had to go do this, now I get to talk about those things that happened to me over and over again, but I also get to talk about the outcome of the hard work that I did. And I get that feel good drug without the anger, and I'm so much calmer and happier now.
Christian Napier
49:14 - 49:14
Good for you.
Brittany Bettini
49:15 - 49:18
I've got one more question.
Christian Napier
49:18 - 49:33
Spencer, do you have a lightning round question? I do, yeah, yeah. Okay, so I wanna make sure we leave enough time for that. So my question is around the timing of engaging a service like yours.
Christian Napier
49:33 - 50:05
So you mentioned the pottery person, right? So the pottery person has the idea that she likes making pottery and then realizes, oh, I can sell the pottery. and then starts to build a business, then gets in a situation where he or she is overwhelmed and then they hate the thing that they do. And it sounds to me like in many cases, engaging with a, I need a VA or a virtual assistant service is kind of a reactive thing.
Christian Napier
50:05 - 50:23
Like I've hit a place where I'm like, I can't do this anymore and I need help. But if I wanted to be proactive, and I am looking to start a business, and I'm going to go on this journey. When is the right time? Let's say I am planning to start a business.
Christian Napier
50:23 - 50:43
I haven't even started yet. It's an idea in my head, right? When is the right time in that process of building this business to say, go from doing everything myself to, you know what, engaging the service? I'm guessing it's probably earlier than most people think, right?
Christian Napier
50:43 - 51:14
So when is that inflection point? where you would recommend people who are contemplating, because I know we have a lot of listeners that are probably in the corporate space who would like to do their own thing, and they're planning, they're kind of scheming in their brain, like, I want to do this, and I want it to be successful. I don't want to get to the point, like the pottery person, where they hate something, and then, you know, just for their own sanity, is engaging a service.
Christian Napier
51:15 - 51:21
Proactively, I want to plan this out. When is the right time to actually engage your service?
Brittany Bettini
51:22 - 51:53
If I could go back and start from the moment I was sitting on my couch trying to decide if I wanted to start a business and I had $200 in my pocket and I had to choose between paying myself or hiring a team member, I would have hired them before I had a website. I would have hired them before I had a logo. Because not only are they going to help me develop all of that, I'm going to have a cheerleader on all those hard days in the beginning that I wish I would have had.
Brittany Bettini
51:53 - 52:13
Because most entrepreneurs almost quit over and over in just the first six months because it is very difficult to get something off the ground. Having a team member, whether it's in person or virtual or whatever, will push you. every single day when they clock in at 9 a.m. and they're like, good morning, Miss Brittany.
Brittany Bettini
52:14 - 52:32
What will we be doing today? I'm like, oh, my God, I got to get up and work on this business I'm creating because they're here and they're working on this business I'm creating and they can help me bounce ideas. They can help me build the website. If I could go back, I would have hired someone before I ever paid myself.
Brittany Bettini
52:32 - 52:44
That is when I would do it. Yes, a lot of people come to me when they're already burnout. But my ideal client is like I have funding. I have an idea and I need someone to help me execute it.
Brittany Bettini
52:44 - 52:58
And that's my ideal client. We're getting good at that.
Spencer Horn
52:58 - 53:13
I try to get their timing right, but every guest is different. General Patton said, a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.
Brittany Bettini
53:14 - 53:16
Yes. Stealing that.
Spencer Horn
53:16 - 53:17
Take action now.
Brittany Bettini
53:17 - 53:26
And it's momentum that will always win the day in the battle. And until you wait for things to be perfect, that's when you lose momentum.
Spencer Horn
53:26 - 53:35
All right. So we have what's called the lightning round. I'm going to give you 10 questions. Just very quick answers.
Spencer Horn
53:35 - 53:44
You don't have to think about it. Whatever first comes to your mind. So what is your zone of genius? Teaching and speaking.
Brittany Bettini
53:45 - 53:47
First thing you delegate in a new business?
Spencer Horn
53:51 - 53:55
Graphic design. One system you couldn't live without?
Brittany Bettini
53:58 - 54:12
Go high level. Worst doing-it-all-myself moment? Trying to plan my honeymoon. I delegated that.
Brittany Bettini
54:12 - 54:16
Oh, okay. Well, freedom means?
Spencer Horn
54:18 - 54:20
Being with my family whenever they need me.
Brittany Bettini
54:21 - 54:29
Yeah, that little eight year old. So I wish we could go back to when we had more time. Book every entrepreneur should read.
Spencer Horn
54:31 - 54:33
Tim Ferriss's Four Hour Workweek.
Brittany Bettini
54:34 - 54:56
Your leadership superpower. being kind and being in a kind authority. One of the questions that I had that you answered was, how do you manage those virtual teams?
Spencer Horn
54:57 - 55:08
Anybody listening to this, you answered that perfectly. I never asked the question, but I think Christian got it out of you. Best piece of business advice you've ever received?
Brittany Bettini
55:10 - 55:21
Just get back up and keep going. And that came from my dad who started the janitorial company. He was like, I was crying and didn't want to keep going. And he said, just get up and keep going.
Brittany Bettini
55:21 - 55:32
It'll fall together. When you order coffee, what's your coffee order? Trinta iced coffee with cream and classic. I'm the basic as you can get.
Brittany Bettini
55:34 - 55:42
One thing founders need to stop doing today? It all themselves. All right, Christian, that's what I got.
Christian Napier
55:44 - 56:04
That was awesome. Brittany, thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate you sharing your insights. If people want to learn more about you, if they want to have you come speak at a conference, or if they want to engage I Need a VA, what's the best way for them to connect with you?
Brittany Bettini
56:04 - 56:27
Yeah. So for speaking and like getting to me directly, Brittany Bettini dot com, just my first and last name. When it comes to anything, virtual staffing or building anything for you and your side of your business, I need a VA dot com. And all of our socials are also listed on the websites as well.
Brittany Bettini
56:27 - 56:37
We're easy to find. I am everywhere online. My team makes me look like I am a social media superstar, but in reality, they're the ones pulling all the strings.
Christian Napier
56:37 - 56:39
So you can find me just about everywhere.
Brittany Bettini
56:40 - 57:11
We'll make sure to put those in the show notes. And I wanted to see, is there one other thing that maybe, you say you do this assessment, what did you call it, the personal life assessment? Yeah, so inside of my book, she delegates, this is geared towards women, but any, any woman who's working and raising a family needs to read this, because it doesn't just talk about building businesses, it talks about building a life where you don't have to be burnout, and you can have it all.
Brittany Bettini
57:11 - 57:24
And that's why Amazon link for that book as well for the show notes. SheDelegates.com, you can buy it, you can get a signed copy, all that good stuff, it's all right there. So I'll send you all the links.
Christian Napier
57:24 - 57:39
All right, fantastic. Thank you so much, Brittany. Spencer, you've been helping organizations build high-performing teams for decades, and you've coached so many individuals. If people want to connect with you, how do they do that?
Spencer Horn
57:39 - 57:49
Favorite place? LinkedIn. Just message me there. I get messages every day and I love chatting with people there and it's a great way to get a hold of me.
Spencer Horn
57:49 - 57:59
And same as you, Christian, you're changing the world of AI and just brilliant consultant. How can everybody find you?
Christian Napier
58:00 - 58:15
I'll just go LinkedIn as well. Just look me up, Christian Napier, find me there, happy to connect with folks. So this has been a super engaging, informative, and impactful hour. Thank you so much, Brittany, for spending the time with us, and thank you viewers and listeners.
Christian Napier
58:15 - 58:20
We're grateful for you. Please like and subscribe to our podcast. We'll catch you again soon.