Episode 104

Designing Your Life: The Power of Choice | LAYC 104

In Episode 104, we explore the profound concept of designing your life and unlocking the freedom to live on your terms. Tobe Brockner, founder of Katuva, emphasizes the importance of choice in shaping our work and personal lives. The episode touches upon the challenge of giving oneself permission to break away from traditional norms and adopt a more flexible and intentional approach.

Tobe shares a personal realization about the ephemeral nature of life, urging listeners to prioritize what truly matters. The episode highlights the significance of working within one's zone of genius, leveraging strengths, and delegating tasks to virtual assistants.

The conversation delves into the productivity benefits of virtual collaboration, particularly the freedom to work without constant interruptions. 

Listeners gain insights into the diverse skills and positions virtual assistants can handle, ranging from marketing and database management to unique and specialized tasks. Tobe shares anecdotes, including an unconventional request for a funeral plan, illustrating the breadth of possibilities when leveraging virtual assistance.

This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs seeking to embrace a mindset shift, design their lives intentionally, and unlock the true potential of virtual collaboration. Tune in to discover how the power of choice can lead to a more fulfilling and productive business journey.

https://learn.katuva.com/300-tasks-ebook?am_id=isabel425

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Transcript
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Welcome to the Lift As You Climb podcast, where it's all about the

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journey and the joy of discovering who you are now, deciding who you want

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to become, and embracing your genuine identity, influence, and impact.

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In each episode, we'll explore how life's experiences have prepared us for what

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we choose to do next and how to create our Encore, write our own script, and

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star in the next stage of our lives.

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I'm your host, your Encore strategist, and transformation catalyst, Isabel Alexander.

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Hey, welcome.

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I'm so glad to have you here as I introduce the fourth in our series of

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interviews about virtual assistants with my special guest, Tobe Brockner, the

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founder of Katuva if you haven't seen the first 1, 2, 3 episodes of this series,

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I encourage you to double back, they start at episode 101, and also to share

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them with anyone in your network who would benefit from knowing more, opening

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up their aperture on what a virtual assistant can do to improve their life.

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Particularly favorite part of this interview is how Tobe shares that

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because he's changed his perspective on time and priorities and freed himself

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up by using virtual assistants in his business, in his personal life.

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that it gave him a remarkable opportunity to be present and enjoy a very long

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conversation with an 87 year old man that had some very interesting stuff to share.

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If you'd like your life to be interesting and more spontaneous, then stick around

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because we have some great suggestions for you on how to do that, how to

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live a much more Autonomous Fulfilled Life by Leveraging Virtual Assistance.

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We've got one more episode after this one, unless, of course, I

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convince Tobe to come back for a bonus and that might just happen.

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All right.

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See you soon.

Tobe:

And that, I think that's a key underscore is that it's your choice.

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It really is.

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There are obviously, some jobs that require you to be available during

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certain periods of time, but just there are some times you're required

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to be face to face with a client.

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About 90 percent of the time you don't have to be, and so that 90

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percent is open to interpretation.

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You can create it and live it however you want.

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One of the hardest things for me personally was giving myself

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permission to think that way.

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Not just think that way, but actually act that way because that

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was such a foreign concept to me.

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For the longest time of, if I didn't get up at 7:00 AM and clock

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in at work at 8:00 AM every day.

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I had to, I felt guilty about it and, because I'm always running around,

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I'm so busy, and I'd wear this busyness badge, like a badge of honor.

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Almost, and it dawned on me at some point, I don't know when the flip

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switch, it probably wasn't as dramatic as that, it was a gradual flipping of

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a switch, but it was, I'm going to die one day, and they're going to staple my

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To Do list to the lapel on my jacket, with all the things still undone that

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I unchecked that I didn't complete.

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And so who cares?

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Obviously there are things that have deadlines and you have to get things

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done and certain time periods, but a lot of it is If I get these three things

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done today, my life has gone really well, my workday has gone really well.

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If I didn't get to these other three, I'm not gonna beat myself up over it.

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That's crazy.

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Like I'm just gonna take it as it comes.

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Just the other day, a guy was like, hey, want to meet up?

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And we were talking and he said, I said let me look at my calendar.

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We'll see what I have.

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And I opened my calendar and he was looking at my phone and

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my calendar was just blank.

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Even starting this podcast, you're like, thanks so much for taking the

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time, I was like, actually, I have the time, I do, because I've intentionally

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created my life to be this way.

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That's how I've lived my life, that's how I've set it up.

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I I set schedules, times like meetings and things obviously, but if I shouldn't

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be doing it or don't have to do it and that can be handled by somebody else or

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by a system being automated, whatever, then I'm going to choose to do that.

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I'm going to use my time the way I want to use it.

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Just yesterday.

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I was working on that document that I was just talking about for that client

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in a cigar lounge, having a cigar.

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I was sitting there, it was two o'clock in the afternoon.

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I finished the letter, send it off to Ivan to, to design up, close my laptop,

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and a gentleman sits down across from me.

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He said, anybody sitting here?

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And I said no, sit down.

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He's 87 years old.

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And he just moved here from Texas and we talked for three hours just about life.

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He was a petroleum consultant and he was telling me all these crazy

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stories about digging for oil back in the seventies, eighties in Dallas.

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And it was like something out of that TV show.

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It was like the Ewing's were fighting again.

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He was like telling me all these crazy stories that were real life.

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And I've never laughed that hard in my life, in recent memory, listening

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to this old guy just tell me these battle stories of when he was younger.

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It was so immensely gratifying and enjoyable.

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As I was leaving, I gave him my business card.

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I said stay in touch with me and email me or text me, if you're

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going to be back here and smoking a cigar, I want to come hang out.

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And he's Oh, you can just get away like that.

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And I said, yes, I can, because that's how I've set my life up

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and that, I think, is the key.

Isabel:

You are so very right!

Isabel:

The gold here for everybody listening is when you give yourself permission to

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do it differently, to think differently, to step out of the workhorse traces

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and go, I can do as much and probably more when I stay In my zone of genius.

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I'm a proponent of the StrengthsFinder, and do the things that I am best at and

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delegate the things that somebody else can do better than me, to set up, and also you

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used the word systems, and I think that's really important to highlight here, that

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none of this will work unless you set up the systems, and you help with that

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within Katuva, so that those ideas that you have, are conveyed to the people that

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can execute on them and create the value.

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And it's a fabulous working relationship!.

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I have a confession here for everybody.

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I've also found it much easier in many cases to work with somebody who isn't

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walking into my office, or staring me in the eyes, in person in my room.

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I don't have to say, I'm sorry, I can't talk to you right now.

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I don't need to pretend I'm too busy to take the time out for whatever

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their issue is at the moment.

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And I don't have to think, okay, now, how will I come back to where I left

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off on that really important thought process and pause to talk to you

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because you haven't interrupted me?

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I like to talk don't misunderstand, but the fact that I don't have that

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break in when I'm working on something now, unless I choose to do it myself,

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has also made me much more productive.

Tobe:

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that too.

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That's actually been a fairly common thread.

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We just had a client sign up about a month or so ago and

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he said the exact same thing.

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He's a contractor in Maryland I think or somewhere.

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He said, I don't want to have anybody in my office with me.

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I just want to be in here by myself to get my work done.

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I'm out in the field, I'm out in the field doing work.

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But if I'm here, I don't want to have somebody sitting next to

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me that I feel responsible for.

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That distance gives them that permission to hire someone without feeling obligated

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to have them in the same room with them.

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So it's funny that you had mentioned that as well.

Isabel:

Yeah.

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I think there's all kinds of aspects and maybe we haven't been entirely honest

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with ourselves as business owners.

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Certainly I told myself all kinds of fairytales about,

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really what works for us.

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Because depending on what business book flavor of the week you read, they

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prescribed walk about your people, be best friends with them close your office

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door, open your office door, whatever.

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In working in this virtual relationship, and it really is a relationship

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for us with our staff our VAs, everybody gets very clear about

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what their responsibilities are.

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,And with the systems in place we bounce back and forth on "in

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progress completed, approved, no, I'd like to make an adaptation to it.

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" I am much, much more productive, as I said, than I was last year when

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I was trying to do the same amount of stuff, but trying to do a lot

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of it by myself or trying to manage contractors that felt they were much

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more autonomous in the relationship.

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Cherry is one of my VAs that I've hired with you.

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I call her part of team success She makes me feel successful, I make her

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feel successful, because we each have our own individual areas of strength,

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and it's a good match because of what you do to pre qualify people.

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And there will be subsequent hires.

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I've already determined that there is additional capacity,

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which kind of takes me to one of the other questions I had for you.

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What are the types of positions and skills?

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It's pretty common in my work for people to say my VA does my social

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media, but what other skill sets are you placing with clients?

Tobe:

It runs the gamut.

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There's so many different things that VAs can do.

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And very niche, esoteric type positions.

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Just give you some of the more sort of Outlier on the bell curve type positions;

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we have a guy who runs a commercial real estate investment company, and he's

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looking for a financial analyst, somebody that can do the financial modeling on

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commercial properties to see whether they're viable investments or not.

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There's so many variables involved.

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not just the purchase price and, the rent.

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It's there, there's property taxes and vacancy rates and, all

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these different things that the VA has to take into account when

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building these financial models.

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That was a unique one.

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More common sort of down the middle of the plate type stuff is marketing.

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That's a big one.

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Most people need help with their marketing.

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They're very inconsistent with it or they Confuse being tactical with being

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strategic, and so they you ask them, what's your marketing strategy, and

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they say, oh, I run Facebook ads, or I do networking meetings, and those are

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tactics and so having a strategy in place, and then hiring the VA to implement on

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the tactical side, that's very popular.

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Big one is database management and CRM, types, automation, workflow type stuff.

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A lot of people have these databases that they've never actually contacted.

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They get them in, maybe it's past clients or maybe it's leads that

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they've generated at some point.

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They never talked to them, even a simple email.

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My philosophy on marketing is when people say, how long

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do you follow up with people?

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It's until they buy, they die, or they tell you to go away.

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Those are the rule of thumbs for me, and so we have three stages,

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short term follow up, medium term follow up, long term follow up.

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And when you combine them all together, it's about five years worth of follow up.

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And I'm sure two or three or four years from now, I'll extend that out to longer.

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But My VA went and built that entire workflow out for us.

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We use a CRM tool called GoHighLevel.

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It does everything you could possibly imagine it could do, and so

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everything is set up inside there.

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It's email follow ups, text message follow ups phone.

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I've recorded voicemails that just drop into their inbox or their voicemail

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box, so their phone doesn't even ring.

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It just gives them a voicemail and they can listen to it.

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Obviously, all of this is permission based marketing.

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They opt into my list and those types of things.

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We try not to be too intrusive, but we do follow up aggressively

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and somebody has to build that all out and my VA's build that all out.

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They run social media.

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We have a graphic designer, video editor.

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I'll do a batch of videos.

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I'll shoot four or five videos, just short little 30 second, 45 second videos on my

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phone, and then I'll upload those to a drive folder that say need edited and then

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Ivan will pull them out and he will edit them into TikToks and Instagram Reels.

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I don't even see them until, I don't see the ones on TikTok because I

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never get on TikTok, but they're all posted on TikTok and on Instagram.

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So all that's handled for me, I just do the video itself and

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upload it and I batch them so that it doesn't take me too much time.

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Bookkeeping is a big, getting to be more and more popular as that was one that you

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came in on as well and needed help with.

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Most of us, our books are not as pristine as we would like them to be.

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Virtual assistants are great with that!

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We have customer service reps a couple of insurance agents.

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They deal with Medicare supplement type stuff.

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And so they have clients calling in, asking questions.

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And so they have VAs that have daytime coverage that will

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field those calls for them.

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We've had people do appointment setting.

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We've had people do lead generation.

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One of the things that we do internally as well as like outreach on LinkedIn.

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I'm trying to build partnerships with YouTube channels and podcasters.

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Their audience might resonate with the message that we have at Katuva.

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And so we're trying to build partnerships with them.

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My VA does all that outreach.

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So I'm only talking to someone once they've said, yeah, I'm

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interested in talking to you.

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That saves me hours and hours of time.

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We have a Facebook ads and Google ad specialist.

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Her name is Marge.

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She just runs our Facebook ads and our Google ads and she's killing it!

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But yeah, anything, like I said, you're limited only by your imagination.

Tobe:

One of my VA's, her name is Gellie.

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She mostly handles our marketing stuff, but I threw her a loop one night.

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I started thinking about my own mortality and Hey, I'm going to kick

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it one day and I'm not prepared.

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I need a funeral plan and I was thinking about I need to work on that tomorrow.

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And I was like, why am I doing a funeral plan?

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I'm just gonna have Gellie do it.

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So I sent her a Skype message and I said, Hey, Gellie, I need you

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to create a funeral plan for me.

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And her response back was is this urgent?

Tobe:

No, I'm not ready to kick it off yet.

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I just need to be prepared.

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And she said, this is the worst task you've ever given me, but I'll have

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it done by tomorrow and she did.

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She put a whole funeral plan together; here's, who's going

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to speak and here's the songs.

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And it was crazy and hilarious at the same time.

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But a point is you're limited literally by your imagination because you can have

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VAs do almost anything you can think of.

Isabel:

That has to be the most surprising thing.

Isabel:

I thought you were going to say that your VA could do for you!

Isabel:

I suffer from a condition that I call open file syndrome.

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I think of it in my head, and it just continues to annoy me and

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take up bandwidth until I can do it or now I can delegate it, right?

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So that funeral plan could have been an open file syndrome that you keep

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saying, I know I need to do this.

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I'm a responsible father and businessman.

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I'm a husband.

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I should have this organized so somebody else doesn't get left with a mess.

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But when are we going to have time for that?

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So this is brilliant!

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I thought I was going to say my VA is producing this podcast that you're all

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listening to, and that is, just among many of the things that she's doing.

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And we're learning more and by example from you how to even expand that, because

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why wouldn't I as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, and as a woman with

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a whole lot of epic living left to do, Why wouldn't I want to create more time

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for myself to do things that are fun, and new, and exciting, and expansive?

Isabel:

I hope you thought that was another great and resourceful interview with Tobe

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and that you're already thinking about how this information is transforming

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your life and business for the better.

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I'd also like to say thank you so much to the VAs on Tobe's team and mine,

Isabel:

and all the others out there waiting to help you have one great whole life.

Isabel:

So stay tuned for upcoming episodes and more information, and of course,

Isabel:

be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes, and to like,

Isabel:

follow, and share with everyone else.

Isabel:

Thank you for spending this time with me.

Isabel:

I hope our conversation added value to your day and expanded your

Isabel:

vision for your legacy and impact.

Isabel:

Please join me in increasing my impact and expanding my reach to even more

Isabel:

people by sharing this episode on social media, with friends, and leaving a review

Isabel:

on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Or channel of choice to catch all the latest from me.

Isabel:

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.

Isabel:

Connect with me and others in our community Facebook group, the Lift

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As You Climb Movement, where you can engage, be inspired by and grow

Isabel:

with a tribe of like-minded people.

Isabel:

As I evolve as a podcaster and spokeswoman for collaboration and

Isabel:

economic empowerment, your input and feedback are especially important.

Isabel:

To me, I welcome your suggestions and questions to hello@theencorecatalyst.com.

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Until we meet again, please remember your success may be the foundation

Isabel:

for someone else's to together we can raise success ladders around the world.

About the Podcast

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Seasoned Women Serious Business
Wise Enough to Want More

About your host

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Isabel Alexander

Dynamic, self-made entrepreneur who overcame obstacles with an unrelenting positive nature, a farm girl work ethic and a conscious choice to thrive rather than survive, Isabel Alexander Banerjee cultivated an award winning, $10 million+ global chemical wholesale business and grew it from dining room table to international boardrooms.

Isabel’s strengths include the ability to initiate & nurture strategic relationships, a love of lifelong learning and talents for helping others maximize their potential. An inspiring speaker within both industry and community, she is a driving force behind those with the courage to follow her example of thriving against the odds.

With 50+ years of business experience across diverse industries, Isabel is respected as an advisor, a coach, a mentor and a role model. She believes in sharing collective wisdom and empowering others to economic independence.

Isabel Alexander
Your Next Business Strategist and Transformation Catalyst