Boost Productivity by Seeking Support w/ Meridith McCarty

podcast

Mar 14

Discover best practices for entrepreneurs to find, hire, & trust a VA to support you so you boost productivity and profitability!

Your daily/weekly plan as an entrepreneur is very similar to a blog outline—hear me out! It gives you a starting point. But one that can ebb & flow with you.

Because let’s be real—
→ Plans change.
→ Outlines shift.
→ Life happens.

And nothing will keep that from happening.

Meridith McCarty joins me for this episode of The Basic B Podcast where we get into everything time management, planning, & productivity for business owners.

You’ll learn how often you should do braindumps, what to do instead of creating your thousandth To Do List, how to prepare to bring on a VA, & mistakes entrepreneurs make when hiring.

Topics covered in this podcast episode:

How often you should do a braindump in a week
How a heavy mental load impacts us as moms & business owners
What to do instead of creating a neverending To Do List
How Meridith uses The Rule of 3 in her planning
How to know what to prioritize each day as an entrepreneur
The brilliance of a transition task
What to do when your plan gets derailed
How mindset comes into play with time management
How to prepare to bring on support for your business
The #1 mistake business owners make when hiring a VA
Steps to take to document your processes
Hot tip to find a stellar VA for your business
Mistakes entrepreneurs make when hiring

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Meet: Meridith McCarty

Meridith, founder of Time Freedom Co., is a growth strategist empowering service business owners to build scalable businesses without sacrificing their personal life. With over six years of experience growing 6 and 7-figure service businesses, she's mastered the harmony between career success and family time. As a mother of three young children, Meridith runs her business in just three focused days a week. Her journey from overwhelmed business owner to freedom-focused entrepreneur has equipped her with insights on strategic efficiency and intentional business design. Meridith's mission is to help others redefine success, proving it's possible to have both a prosperous business and time to enjoy life.

This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!

The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows

Brittany Herzberg:

Hello and welcome back to The Basic B Podcast. I'm so thrilled to be here with you as well as my friend Meredith McCarty. We're going to be talking about how to actually cross things off our to do list and even how to boost productivity by seeking support. I know. Hold on to your party hats for that one because that's a big one that I have been learning and I'm still learning. Before I bring her on, here is a quick intro. Meredith, founder of Time Freedom Co, is a growth strategist empowering service business owners to build scalable businesses without sacrificing their personal life. With over six years of experience growing six and seven figure service businesses, she's mastered the harmony between career success and family time. As a mother of three young children, Meredith runs her business in just three focused days a week. Her journey from overwhelmed business owner to freedom focused entrepreneur has equipped her with insights on strategic efficiency and intentional business design. Meredith's mission is to help others redefine success, proving it's possible to have both a prosperous business and time to enjoy life. Meredith, thanks so much for being here with me.

Meridith McCarty: Thanks for having me. Even that intro just gets me so excited. I just love it.

Brittany Herzberg: It's my favorite thing to do, the intro part, because people are like, oh my gosh, I sound kind of awesome.

Meridith McCarty: I'm so great. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was like, oh, I kind of love that I should do that just to start my day.

Brittany Herzberg: I was just thinking that, yeah, just like, you know, how do you start your day? Oh, I listened to my intro from this podc.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah, I love it.

Brittany Herzberg: So I'm curious because like we connected on threads and then I jumped in your community and on your email list and I was like, meredith, please come trivia on the podcast. So how did you even get started with time management, productivity, any of this stuff?

Meridith McCarty: Yeah, it's such a weird story. So in 2018, my husband was moving us all over the country for his career. So it was like we were moving up and down the east coast and I was doing the traditional nine to five, but I was having to leave and quit every year that we moved. And so I never was growing in my own career and I always knew I wanted to be my own boss, but I didn't really even know what that meant or what it looked like. And it was not really something that I even put thought into. And then in 2018, we made a move to Rhode island and I was like, okay, I'm going to work for myself. I'm just going to figure it out. And so I actually found becoming a virtual assistant. And I was like, this isn't real. Like I had no experience in the online world, so I was like, this is a scam. Like, this can't be real. People make money doing this, whatever. So I just kept researching and teaching myself and I'm like, I could do admin, you know, so that's kind of how I got my foot in the door. So I did that and I actually grew a virtual assistant agency. We grew extremely quickly. I had no idea that there were so many people out there that needed virtual assistants and then also wanted some. So we grew very quickly. Covid also propelled our growth because everybody needed to figure out how to work online. So we ended up growing that way. But then after I started having my little babies, it was becoming apparent just my priorities, my time, everything shifted in how much I had to give to the business and to be able to be home. And that was my first priority. So I ended up being more of not the day to day person, but I ended up consulting my clients on operations, productivity, efficiency systems, all the stuff that I loved. And so that's kind of how I have gotten here is I was actually doing the work with clients and then am now teaching people how to be more efficient and all that.

Brittany Herzberg: I love it. And I feel like it seems like when people become parents that it's like, all right, I have a finite amount of time, I really have to make it count. And it seems like that really kicks people in the tush.

Meridith McCarty: I said on another podcast interview that I did that like moms have the best time management and we're always like, we never have enough time. And like we tell ourselves all of these things that we're bad at, but no, we are the best of time. We know we have very little time to do certain things. It helps really figure out what our priorities quickly. And so it changes everything.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. And I find it very also very interesting. Another friend that I had on the podcast, Sarah Light, we talked about time management and productivity as well. And it was more about the lens of like SEO and organizing, all of those things. And she's also a mom of many, many children. I can't remember if it's like four or five, but there's a lot of kids in her house too. So it's like you have to be just so intentional with every second that you have.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah, it just makes life easier, honestly.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. So let's talk about to do lists, because I have a few of those feel like it's constantly evolving. And what I try to do, I don't know. I'll sacrifice myself just so we can learn.

Meridith McCarty: Case study. Come on.

Brittany Herzberg: So I have like a brain dump that I try to do at least weekly. It doesn't always happen, but I've tried to be like, more habitual about that. And I've even found it good to, like, do stuff for the date the next day of like, okay, these things are still living in my head. Let me get it out of my head. Not perfect with it, but I'm finding that's helping. But I still have this, like, ever growing to do list. And I do find that things get knocked off, but not everything. So then I also find myself with the, like, mental chatter of, you didn't do enough. What are you thinking? Yeah, so I don't know.

Meridith McCarty: That is so common. You are not alone. That happens all the time. And you saying that you don't complete everything. Correct. You never will. That's the downside of having a to do list, right? We take one thing off, but we add three more things. So what I tell clients to do instead, instead of a to do list. So your brain dump, we want to do that weekly. However much you need to do it. I say to do it because we need to get everything out of your head. Especially if you're a mom and you're running a business and you have all these other things, even if you're not a mom, whatever you have going on in your life, we don't know the mental load that we are carrying. I did a post just about this. It was like, you sit down to do work, and then it's like, wait, did I turn that form in for school? What are we going to do for dinner? Right? Like, the mental load. Even when you have a super supportive partner, the mental load is still there, right? So having the brain dump to get all of that out of your head is step one, perfect. The second step, and where you might be kind of veering into something we can improve on is using that brain dump as your to do list. So that is what the brain dump, then you're working off of. Okay, I need to do this, this, and this. So what I suggest is actually just doing what I call the rule of three, where you pick the top three priorities that you want to get done that day and that's it. So instead of working from one big list, we're actually intentionally picking those three most important things out and then accomplishing those each day. So it helps you Define what is priority. And also asking yourself the question of if this only got done today, it would feel like a productive day and doing those three things. And it's funny because a lot of people I know are probably yelling, listening to this, like, okay, three things. Cool. I have way more than three things that need to get done. And that's totally fine. That's the point. Because once you learn to get the three most important things done, then you can get the fourth thing done and the fifth thing done. Right. But it's all about doing it in a very specific order that will actually propel you forward and not just give you those dopamine hits of the things that don't matter. But you want to get that check off your list, right?

Brittany Herzberg: You want to actually, like, mark it through. I know you have this worksheet and I can picture it in my mind, but I think it's in your free community. And I dove into some things and then I haven't had a chance to dive into everything that I want to. But. And I saw the rule of three and I am really excited to go, like, explore more. But I do remember seeing the rule of three. I was definitely skeptical. I was like, all right, let me like, give this a shot. So in the planner that I have, I have been doing the three things at the top. And so the fourth thing I do add in there is like workout or like somatic exercises for me. Cause it's really helpful. But yes, we're on Wednesday, but I've had a really good week where I'm like, I've been doing this over the last few months, but I feel like I finally locked in and it's like actually cranking and working and like, here we are, it's 2:15 in the afternoon for me right now. This is the last thing I technically have to do. Like my goal is to actually be done with work like 3:34 o'clock every day. So I'm like, this is totally doable.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. Because you go into the day with a different mindset. Right. Instead of like, how many things can I check off my list where probably a lot of it doesn't matter versus I'm going to do the most impactful things for my life or my business because I say to do it all for one. You know, you are one being in work and in your life. So you should be doing priorities based off of that. But just even the mentality switch of you starting your day right is totally different. And then you get momentum. So yeah, the rule of three is what I teach.

Brittany Herzberg: I love it. I could totally imagine people being like, well, how do I choose the three? So is there, like, some way to filter that down to really help someone know what to prioritize? Because I know that's one spot that I was spinning as well.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. And so I always think about personal life first. And that's because in general, I don't like my personal life to get squeezed out by work. So I look personally, what are some priorities there? And then for work, I typically ask myself, is this going to make money? Right? Like, is this going to make money? Is it going to help me make money? Is it serving clients? Which is technically, you are getting paid to do that, but it also can be marketing. So ask yourself the question, is this moving my business forward? And that typically will say, like, yes or no. If it's like tweaking graphics in Canva, that's probably not a priority. Right. Like, that could be number four or five that you get to. But to me, it's like reaching out to prospects or checking in with clients. Like, those things that you're like, yeah, those are tangible things that are going to make me money. Because we're all in business, you know, like, we're here to serve people. That's great. Like, I totally understand that. I love serving my audience and all of that, but also, we want to get paid. Right. We want to make money in our business. And so typically think around that of how that's going to affect pushing your business forward.

Brittany Herzberg: That is really helpful. So one thing that's really helped me is, like, I started to just notice what my brain was doing throughout the day. And I used to feel like I had to do everything in the morning. I had to do my workout in the morning. I had to, like, meditate or do visualization or any of that kind of, like, more chill stuff. And I have found these, like, different little permission slips for myself over the last few months of, like, I actually heard a bit of advice that it's better as a woman for your body and your cycle of how you are as a being to do a workout later in the day. And I was like, all right, let me play around with that. It acts as a barrier, almost like a door or something, A boundary of, like, all right, when I do my workout, I'm done with work.

Meridith McCarty: Transition.

Brittany Herzberg: There we go. There is a word. Yeah.

Meridith McCarty: Your transition task. Yeah, it's true. I have never been a morning person in general. Even after kids. I still am not up at 6am I am definitely not a Morning workout person. I've always worked out later in the day, but that's why I tell people because once you kind of get your rule of three and you start time blocking those rule of three. So once you figure out like these are the top three priorities I want to do, you can look at your schedule for the next day. I typically do it like a night ahead so that you can like crank out work immediately when you sit down at your computer. Not like, okay, what am I going to do today? Because you're already wasting time. But I've been there, I get it. I'm blocking based on your energy levels, which is what you're talking about, right? Like if you know I'm sluggish in the morning, I'm not going to be doing my most creative work in the morning. Then you aren't going to put your record, your reels priority in your morning slump. So then you just kind of learn how and when you're most productive. And don't fight against that just because somebody might say, I see it all the time from the productivity bros wake up for an uninterrupted work time from 5 to 9 and you're like, okay, cool, never gonna happen. Because that doesn't work for us women that have children, you know, so it's, you gotta figure out what works for you and work off your energy.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, that is so helpful. So, okay, couple of things, words of advice for someone who's like gonna give this a try and then they're absolutely gonna hit that hiccup moment of like, I didn't do the thing, I didn't cross it off. I like put too much on my list, like whatever the thing is, or they feel like they haven't maybe matched their day to their energy levels. Like help.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. So I typically tell clients to try like craft their perfect ideal week that they would like to spend their time at and then try it for two weeks. And you will notice things like, oh, I scheduled for myself to do the creative in the morning and that didn't work. So then you're tweaking. You don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Brittany Herzberg: Right.

Meridith McCarty: Because a lot of times, perfectionists, it'll be all or nothing. So it's like, I had a really good day, I had a bad day, so now it's never going to work for me and I'm not doing this anymore. You have to be flexible. Life is flexible. You get a call from your kids school saying they're sick. So you have to learn to Go with the flow, accept that things are different. And that's also why we plan is because it's a lot easier to be flexible when you plan. So a lot of people that are reactive, in reactive roles especially are like, well, I can't plan because somebody tells me what to do. But it's much easier to plan and to shift when things happen, when you have a plan set in place for those 3% chance times that come up. But a lot of it is your mindset and just accepting that you don't need to be a perfectionist. Things are going to happen. You might have something on your calendar that tells you you should do X, Y, Z and you really just want to take a nap. And you can take a nap and you can move it to another day. Right. Like accepting it and letting it go. Progress over perfection every time.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, that's huge. As someone who has perfectionist tendencies to hear, and I literally just said this in the last podcast too, about being a perfectionist. It's a theme that seems to follow.

Meridith McCarty: Me around perfectionist overachieving. Yeah, you will have the voice. You just say, thanks, voice. I am not going to listen to you right now. And I'm going to do this right.

Brittany Herzberg: Go have a snack.

Meridith McCarty: Right. You get better at it. Just kind of maybe you go take a workout and you come back. There's just things that you can implement that will help.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. So I do SEO copywriting and a lot to do with like, if we just take a blog, for example, one thing I tell people to do is outline the blog and then you can fill it in. It seems very similar. I have not thought about this until, like right now as you were talking. Like, your plan is your outline. So it gives you something to work from, but then you're going to be flexible with it. So for me, that, like, really helped me to think of it that way. What's the saying? Like, you can't edit a blank page.

Meridith McCarty: That's a good one.

Brittany Herzberg: So I mean, like, you need to have something on there and then like, you're saying you can shift it around, but it at least gives you a focus to work with.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. I mean, your plan changes specifically with time for your season of life. Right. My plan right now with kids is going to look a lot different in the summer because they're not in school. Right. So things are flexible and that's okay. They don't need to be perfect all of the time. Also, I just want to sneak this in because this just triggered something is triggers. Right. So a lot of people will say, like, oh, I had a hiccup, or, I don't want to do this, or, you know, like, I'm going to push this back, or, you know, things will come up. And so there's triggers that we have to deal with, Whether that's internal triggers, which is perfectionism, or outside triggers. So that's. The doorbell rings, that's my phone's not on. Do not disturb those kinds of things. So as you are going through your day and you're kind of learning how you like to spend your time, also think about that when things come up. Like, if you pull up something to do and you're like, oh, I don't want to do this right now. Kind of ask yourself, like, why am I avoiding this? Why don't I want to do this? You can start asking yourself questions when you start checking in, like, what's actually going on? Cause it's never about time. It's the same for everybody. It's always like, what are those triggers happening to?

Brittany Herzberg: That is a really good point. Yeah. Because I definitely noticed, like, some of my stuff is, like, distractions or procrastination. And so, like, I have tried to get a little bit more curious over the last few months of, like, all right, why am I avoiding this thing?

Meridith McCarty: But that's good, because that's your brain trying to keep you safe. That's what your brain knows is normal, but then also checking in and saying, like, something's going on here is how you fix that long term.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. Yeah. And, like, I'm glad that you said that first, because what was coming to mind with this specific example is that, like, I didn't want to disappoint a client. Well, if I never get the thing done, that's going to be more disappointing than turning something in that they want to modify or tweak a little bit. So it's like, okay, just do the thing and get it to them and then say, you know, open for feedback. What do you think? Like, what changes might you want to make?

Meridith McCarty: Oh, I love that you said that. I think that'll resonate with a lot of people.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, I hope so, because it definitely helps me. There were, like, a couple of projects where I was like, ooh. And I would stare at it for a couple weeks, and I'm like, all right, pull up your big girl panties and, like, get the show on the road.

Meridith McCarty: I love that you said that.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. So another thing for me that I'm hoping and I think will resonate with a lot of other people listening Is that I have this thing with control where, I don't know, maybe it's got to do with the perfectionist thing, but I really resisted for a very long time of, like, letting anyone help me personally or professionally.

Meridith McCarty: Mm.

Brittany Herzberg: And we could totally go down, like, more of a therapy lens for this, but we won't.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah.

Brittany Herzberg: But, like, I always needed to be there for everybody else, but, like, I couldn't ask for support. Why? Go figure. But now I finally did go through the route of, like, okay, doing some things to figure out that I did want support and then finding that support. So I'm keeping that high level because I would love to know, like, what are some things that. If someone is looking into hiring a VA for support or something like that, like, keeping it through the professional lens, like, what would we maybe need to do to prepare for that?

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. So we won't veer into the mindset stuff. Although it's a huge, huge part of it.

Brittany Herzberg: It is. I can tell you.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah, do that work. It's really important. There's nothing that, like, opens up mindset stuff that comes in besides being a business owner and being a mom. Those are, like, the two things that'll change, like, how you've thought about everything but more tangible things, like, what can I actually do? So I think I'm ready to hire a virtual assistant or start hiring somebody for support. The very first question they always ask me is, what do I outsource to your point of, like, you know, the control and getting over that kind of stuff. Like, what do I even give to somebody? So a lot of people get really, really bad advice online, and they just outsource what they hate. I'm sure you've seen, like, people that are like, oh, if you hate doing that, just hire somebody else to do it. It's terrible advice. Okay. And I'm gonna tell you why it is terrible advice. Because a lot of times when you hate it, you shouldn't even be doing it anyway. And what happens, I call it the resentment cycle, is that they will hire for the thing that they hate doing. They will spend money to get that thing done, but then they will feel guilty about spending the money that they actually could be doing it. Right. Like, have you ever thought of, like, I'm gonna outsource that? And then you're like, oh, I could do that, and now I'm spending more money. Like, I'll just let them go and I'll do it myself. And then you get back into the cycle. Right. So what you actually want to do is hire somebody to help you create revenue that you are already creating. So if that is a consultant, if that's a coach service provider, that's typically going to be somebody that helps you managing your current clients. Like, that is typically 9 out of 10 times I say that, please, for all that is holy, do not hire a social media manager as your first hire if you are not making money on social media. That's the mistake I see a lot is that people are like, oh, I want to do that. And so I'll hire higher to help you create more revenue. Why? Because then you and you free up your time to create more revenue. You already are still making that same revenue. So you truly are getting an ROI for your investment almost immediately.

Brittany Herzberg: I totally follow.

Meridith McCarty: Okay. I want to make sure that, like, people that are listening truly understand that if you hire a virtual assistant, that will help you with manage your clients. So inbox management, scheduling, literally onboarding, offboarding, whatever that looks like, so that you can start doing more sales calls to bring in more clients, that is going to be the best ROI for hiring a virtual assistant. That's obviously for consultants, coaches, service providers. You listening, should think, in your business, how do you generate revenue with clients? What brings in the most money to your business? And hire somebody to help take that over so that you can free yourself up to start creating more revenue. That's number one. What to outsource.

Brittany Herzberg: In my head, I'm like, remembering what I've done. So I did actually have someone come in to help manage my inbox. And then I realized that I really liked that and that I needed to respond to a lot of the messages anyway. And so I was like, all right, let me take this back and let me think about it. And I think it was probably like a year and a half between having that person in and then having this other person come in. And when I brought the second person in, which was, like, very, very recent. So, like, we're still, like, figuring stuff out. But, like, she knows me, I know her. That was another part of the thing. There was already, like, the rapport and the friendship there, the trust there.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah.

Brittany Herzberg: And just, like, I can see how her brain works. And she also, like, wants to understand how my brain works. So I feel like I got, like, the jackpot of all support people. But when we had that initial call, she literally asked me, like, okay, what's the thing that's bringing in the most money? So I feel like she was like, yeah, she must have read your playbook or something, because that's how we decided to make decisions and prioritize things, even from the laundry list that I gave her. So we're looking much more at, like, holistically. Like, I knew for me, systems was a big thing and workflows, and I have decent ones. But how can I automate some things? How can I hand some stuff off to her so that she can be the touch point for that thing? You know, what do I need to add in? What are some things I can clean up and streamline? And so I feel like I was much more prepared for this person coming in than I was for the first one. The first one, I was like, oh, I'm seeing everybody else hiring people. Maybe I should do that.

Meridith McCarty: Well, that's what I did. That's why I learned all of this and now teach it. Right? Because it's like, you do the first one and you're like, oh, man, that didn't work out like I hoped it would. And then you learn. So in that case, it's more about freeing you up to make money, but also saving money because you're implementing systems and automations and all of that. So there again is an ROI of like, oh, okay, I'm saving some money here. So that's what I would say is, when you're looking at what to outsource, think about financially, what will make sense for an ROI immediately, instead of outsourcing something that has no revenue and you're just taking a loss on it from the beginning, because that will just, like I said, resentment cycle.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah.

Meridith McCarty: And maybe you did this after your first one. But the next thing that I say people can do, like right now is once they figure out, okay, I want to outsource this to a virtual assistant in a month, in two months, in six months, is to start documenting processes, right? How do you do the things that you do? That's really all that it is. You hear people say SOP and standard operating procedures, and people get all nervous and they're like, that sounds scary. It really just means documenting what you do, Right? So if you're going to outsource your inbox management, turn on loom and record yourself going through your inbox. This is how I do this. This is how I categorize, Right? Like, you're starting to create a training library, really, of videos that when you hire somebody, they can go through that, and then it helps when you're onboarding, they can actually visually see. Or maybe you use like, Scribe is a great one where it actually will write out an SOP for you. But Just start documenting processes that you do each day so there's no extra time. Right. You're doing them already anyway. And you will be much more thankful to have that when you're onboarding, because people will have resources to go to before you get bogged down of, how do you do this? And, you know, all the questions that come when you hire somebody, which are not bad, but also we want to give them as many tools as we possibly can.

Brittany Herzberg: I really love that. To just do, like the over the shoulder, like, here's what I'm doing. That has also been a very challenging thing for me because they live in my head, which I'm sure is, like, totally common, but it's like, it lives in my head and then it's like, what do I actually do? What are the steps here?

Meridith McCarty: Yeah, so next time you do it, just literally turn on loom and say, I'm about to onboard a client, and this is what I do. I open my contract and I do this and I update this and I send it and then I come up. Right. Like, just as. As you're doing it. And then you can start filing these videos into, like, onboarding a client. And it's just so much easier when you do those things every day instead of, okay, now I hired for help. She's starting in a week. Crap. What do I teach her or him? Right? Like, you avoid that because you're like, oh, I already have that. So it's just like taking a big project and breaking it down into what you already do.

Brittany Herzberg: That is so smart. Okay, so that's what we can do once we have the person. How do we get the person?

Meridith McCarty: Yes, that's a good question. So it's really as easy as once you figure out what you want to outsource, that's the number one thing. Then you can create a job description. And that also does not need to sound as scary as it sounds. You literally can just put what you need, what they do, Right. I actually might have one in my free community. Like, just a typical template job description. But what are they going to be doing for you? Are there any tools that they need to know or that you use? Just like the typical things that you know. You can Google job description and it'll show you exactly what should be on it. Right. And just fill that out based on what you do, like what you might want them to do in three months. You can always think about that too, and have all those things on there. And then you can disperse it to different places. Right. There's Facebook groups that are meant for virtual assistants that they love to post those. If you have somebody or know somebody, like, a referral is always going to be the best thing to do. Right? Because you know that person. And. And when you start feeling uneasy about bringing somebody into your business, typically that's because there's no trust there. And so that helps kind of bridge that gap, like you mentioned before. And one hot tip I will give is that when you are at that process of posting the job description in Facebook groups in an email, wherever you're sending it out, I say send it out to wherever.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah.

Meridith McCarty: Do a Google form, and that's how people will apply. So create a Google form of your application. Do not put email support at your company, your application, because there's so many people that do that and they will get inundated, like hundreds of applications, and there's no way to compare the applicants. So use just a simple Google form. I usually write, like a job description in a Google Doc, and at the very bottom, apply here, and it's just a Google form link. They go right there. Because then when you turn off the applications, you know, you say you leave it open for two weeks, you can just close it on the back end. You're not getting inundated. That is my hot tip advice. When you actually are at the point of wanting to take applications for people.

Brittany Herzberg: That is very, very wise. Because I definitely heard from friends who were like, I posted this thing and I got, like you said, hundreds of responses. And then, you know, you thought you had a problem managing your inbox. Now you legitimately have a big problem managing your inbox.

Meridith McCarty: Because once you're done with the Google form and you turn it off, you can just pull all that information and look pretty quickly. Like, if you said you wanted somebody in the U.S. anybody that isn't in the U.S. you can just delete out. Right. Like, that is so much easier than. Yeah. Going email by email. That gives me hives.

Brittany Herzberg: Oh, yeah. That just, like, makes my body not happy. Like, no.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah, no. Make it easy on yourself.

Brittany Herzberg: What are some other maybe, like, red flags or just, like, pieces of advice that you end up sharing with people? I'm thinking, like, of the entire thing, like finding someone.

Meridith McCarty: Oh, yeah.

Brittany Herzberg: Or figuring out what to delegate. Like, what are some things that come up even as I say that?

Meridith McCarty: So a big thing that I see people don't do is hire with your values up first. That's a huge, huge one. Especially if you want to keep the VA longevity. Right? Because, you know, like, if you Grow and scale. Because the idea is a VA comes in and helps you scale and then maybe they could be your director of operations one day. Right. So there's room for growth. And if you want somebody to be with you for a very long time, you have to have your values first and foremost. So if you do not have values, everybody has values. But you might not immediately say, like, these are my values. Right. My values are family and fun. If I don't have that, it's like I'm not me. Right. So those are the values that I carry in business and in life. And so every decision, that's your guidepost in your business. Right. I'm not going to hire somebody that's a stick in the mud personality wise. Right. Because. Right. Like I like to have the fun experience. So think about things that are you values wise and put them on the job description. Like I will say, you know, this is the business, this is what we do. Our values are. Because then people will start weeding themselves out as well. They're like, that's not so much me. I always use the example of if you really value responsiveness, if it's communication, you're probably not going to hire a virtual assistant that has a 9 to 5 because that person is not going to be available when you are working. Right. So things like that you can kind of think about long term is like no matter the relationship, if your values aren't aligned, then it's not going to work out. So that would be like a hot tip. People don't talk about that a lot.

Brittany Herzberg: They really don't. And that was something that I did last year, I think when I updated my website or the year before, I don't know, I can't remember. I've lost track of like time in years and months and all of that.

Meridith McCarty: Totally. Yeah.

Brittany Herzberg: But I ended up putting my values on my about page. For me, it's very easy to pull out. Whether it's. There's a speaking gig that comes up and I need to submit that or doing something like this. If I were to have created a job description and then post the values, it's like, oh yeah. For anyone listening, it really does make a huge difference to take the time to think about that and write those down.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. And if you haven't done it, you can just Google Brene Brown list of values and it'll have like a hundred that comes up and you just go through and you mark them off until you get down to your last couple. Like I just say two or three and so it's just like those things are everything that this client is coming. Does this align with the business values? Right. You just get into the habit of thinking as a core person, this is what I believe. Does it align? And it just is so much easier when you know those.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, it does make it a lot more helpful. It's again, it's another filter that we get to filter things with. Are there any other red flags or pieces of advice or hot tips that it's like, oh, this would be.

Meridith McCarty: So I have hired many, many, many virtual assistants for myself and for clients because I used to run a virtual assistant agency. So I know a thing or two about it. And what I will say is that you can teach people tools and softwares all day long. Personality, you know those non tangible things, how do they speak? Like those things are gold. So just keep that in mind is that I typically hire off of personality things. How they think like that to me is so much more important than can they use dubsado? Because those things can be taught. So I actually put on my job descriptions the tools that I use at the very bottom because I can teach you how to use tools. I have these videos. Right. So keep that in mind too. That's not a red flag though. That I would say is if people can't follow how you tell them to do a job description, that's an immediate no for me. Because like if you say don't DM me, just apply right here and they DM me. It's an automatic. I don't even read the dm. I appreciate the hustle, but that's completely opposite of what I asked for. So that would be a red flag for me is like you're automatically out.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, totally. I worked at a couple of chiropractic offices when I was a massage therapist. So back in my previous life.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah.

Brittany Herzberg: And that was like the number one thing. If they couldn't follow the instructions, it's like, okay, we can't because we have a lot of moving pieces.

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. Or like you're just applying to any of them. Yeah. You could do like a secret word in there that really shows people are paying attention. So there's these little tricks and stuff that you can do. But I would say those are kind of the big things to do or don't do.

Brittany Herzberg: Those are really helpful things. And some that I had thought about, but a lot of which I really hadn't. So I'm sure anyone listening is going to be like just blown away. So I know you have your free community but like, yeah, tell us all the things. Where can we connect with you? What can we come get from you? How can we work with you?

Meridith McCarty: Yeah. So the school community is going to be where I hang out for a majority of time and that's where all the goodies are. So the freebies, I have masterclasses in there that aren't available to the public. As you know. There's just tons of good things in there that I would say go there first and then also on Instagram is where I'm most active. So if you find me on social media, it's going to be on Instagram. It's just at time freedom Co with a little underscore DM me questions. Don't be afraid to DM me and say like, help ask questions and all that stuff.

Brittany Herzberg: So awesome. This is so great. Yeah. And definitely don't be shy about messaging her because that's how we ended up here today.

Meridith McCarty: Yes, please do. I love. Instead of just lurking, come, come say hi, I want to meet you.

Brittany Herzberg: Well, this has been great and thank you so, so much again for carving out the time and sharing all of your knowledge with us.

Meridith McCarty: Of course. Thanks for having me. And I'll make sure to get everything over to you so that you can pass it off, all the good stuff.

Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, we'll have all of the links and things below, so I'll catch you guys next time.

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