Unlocking Success in the Virtual Assistant Industry with Natalie Guzman

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

I’m excited for today’s guest. We have the CEO of Nadora org and NG virtual assistant. And what she does is she helps businesses strategize and create processes and systems in their business. Super excited to be rocking out today with Natalie Guzman. Hey, Natalie, you ready to rock?

Natalie Guzman: Oh, I’m so ready. You ready to roll Tim?

Tim Melanson: I am. So we always start off here on a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Natalie Guzman: Yeah. So, um, it’s kind of starts with how I got into this business and, um, what happened was I was, um, actually me and my husband are trying to start for a family and unfortunately we suffered multiple miscarriages.

Had a really hard time starting our family. I finally found out I was in the safe zone of my third pregnancy and I told my job and they told me I had two days to give birth and then I would have to go back to work. Yeah. Which is insane and a little down the legal side. Um, [00:01:00] but I love good karma story and they are now bankrupt as a company.

So I got, got my pay back in the end. I’ll of course had nothing to do with me, but, um, yeah, so I got put in this I was like, man, I don’t want a company to ever have that much control over my life and my family’s life. And so I started researching ways to make money from home as a new mom and my daughter was potentially going to have a lot of health issues.

So I knew I wanted to be my own business owner. I wanted to. Make my own schedule, not have to rely on other people’s schedules. It was really, really important to me to find something that’s flexible, uh, but also to provide the money because we were at some expensive bills coming up. So, um, started researching everything I could.

Found being a virtual assistant, discovered I was really, really good at it. I was great at creating processes and systems and SOPs and streamlining. And I fell in love with the business and I got to work in so many industries with so many clients. That when I [00:02:00] decided to launch an agency that my business hit six figures and three months.

So that is like my biggest, biggest success because I felt like I learned, I took it slow in the beginning. And then when I was like, I can do this, I can run my own, my own agency and my own employees. I mom boss too hard as I like to call it. And yeah, I got seven clients that were all about full time and seven days.

So I had to hire my first people, um, for the company. I had to hire two people within 15 days and, um, I don’t think I was necessarily ready for it, but we re rolled and now we are this huge company. And that was back in 2015 too. So by VA standards, we’re kind of, I’m kind of a dinosaur in the VA world.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Wow. That’s really amazing. So wait, so you hit six figures in three months or a run rate of six figures in three months?

Natalie Guzman: So we hit six figures in three months of starting to eat. Yeah

Tim Melanson: [00:03:00] Amazing. That’s amazing. Well, that’s not a typical story But it is but it is a great story. So thank you so much for that one now, you know on that journey though You know, this is 2015.

So, you know, there have probably been a few bad notes. Maybe that you’ve hit over the time So, can you tell me something that didn’t work as planned that we can maybe avoid?

Natalie Guzman: Definitely. It’s actually something that I see a lot of entrepreneurs going through as well. Um, and that’s, we are really good at coming up with business ideas and we like to open multiple businesses and I own two right now, but I used to own three.

And so I opened after my virtual assistant agency, I opened a marketing agency and I was like, Oh, it’s very similar to what I’m doing with virtual assistants. But the biggest thing, instead of having retainers, I did, um, Projects, so they would pay me per project. I ended up losing thousands of dollars because the projects weren’t getting done within that time frame.

Or there was a lot of tech issues. I was also helping people that weren’t techie. And so we were just spending a lot of time just trying to teach [00:04:00] them how to manage and run some of these things that they wanted to run on their own. And so it wasn’t profitable. I lost a lot of money. Um, I had yeah. Of a client switch as well.

So there was a lot of downfalls that went with that. And, um, I think as soon as I realized it, we went back to retainers and focusing on the virtual assistant agency. And then my 2nd business is also on a membership based. Um, so I think not having 1 time projects really is saving make my businesses grow.

That’s how I hit 6 figures in the 1st place was because I had, I get the client once and they pay me every month or every week. And so that money was continuous. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Right on. Well, and I’d like to dig into that a little bit because I, I, I mean, I’ve definitely experienced the techie issue many, many, many times.

Like, it’s, it’s something that you don’t really think about because I think that when you start your business, you know what to do. And maybe you get a couple clients that know what to do, and [00:05:00] that’s fine. But then all of a sudden you get a client that, and, and by techie issues, I don’t know what yours were, but they can be as simple as.

They don’t know how to use Dropbox, or they don’t know how to send you content, or they don’t know, or their, their email, they’re not really email people, or they don’t know how to get on Zoom. There are so many tech issues that could come up that could like, just make your administration of the task so much more than you had planned for.

And then that just. Lost your margin completely. Is that, is that similar to what happened to you or?

Natalie Guzman: Oh yeah, a hundred percent. It was them not understanding. And then like, also they don’t understand how long tech takes sometimes for setups. Like automate, trying to explain the difference that’s between a CRM and auto automation and a funnel is like, if for some people, it’s just like.

They, they have no concept of it. They don’t even want to understand it. But then they’re like, why is this taking so long? And why haven’t you done this yet? Well, I can’t do an automation [00:06:00] until your CRM set up. So, um, it’s just like, they, they don’t have, it’s really we’re teaching them, you know, also while we’re.

Um, doing work for them and, but sometimes they don’t want to be taught. They don’t want to review the work you send them. Um, and that at that point, I’ve had to fire clients sometimes I just have to be like, you know, you’re, you will message me anytime you’re stressed out or overwhelmed because you don’t understand something, but we’ve provided you everything we can.

And so if you’re not reviewing that or listening, then there’s at that point, there’s can do.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think, I think that those are two separate businesses. I think there’s like the doing the work and then there’s the teaching of the doing of the work. Right. And, and, uh, you know, in that particular case, I mean, maybe, maybe the solution there is to hook up with a business coach and say, Hey, you know, if the client doesn’t know what they’re doing, then I’m going to send them your way.

And then you send them back to me once they figure it out, right?

Natalie Guzman: So our [00:07:00] VA model is actually a lot different than most agencies, and we actually kind of solve this issue. So they get assigned a project manager. The project manager will strategize with them, create the systems and processes, teach them everything they need to know.

But then they will send the tasks, the to do tasks out. To the rest of the team to complete and the project manager reviews it and then sends it back to the client. So you don’t have to monitor and keep track of hundreds of days if your business is really growing and you don’t have to worry about.

Communicating them and teaching them the right way and some people teach better by video or learn better by video or written content or whatnot. Um, one on one meetings and our project manager kind of handles all of that.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I love that. Like, I think that that’s, this is a huge topic for anybody who’s becoming a, you know, a solopreneur or starting their own business.

I think that like, I always joke around that. I’m like, well, when I first started my business, I was, my background was in, in it. I was like, I was a coder at one point. And so I was [00:08:00] like, I was really good at that. So I thought, Hey, I’m going to start a business. I’m really good at it. But then I realized that like 80 percent of my time was spent not doing I’m good at it’s all the other bits and pieces that are involved in running a business and project management is a huge one like a huge one and It’s like one of those things that, uh, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it for.

You’re still going to have to do that project management, and every single client is going to be different. So, like, it’s something that really has to either be in your wheelhouse, or you have to find somebody who can do it. So it’s cool that you guys have, like, figured that out, and you’ve got that middleman that does that work, because it’s way bigger than the thing.

It’s not just like, Oh, I just, I just handled the emails. I just email them and let them know what’s going on. No. There’s so much more to it.

Natalie Guzman: Oh, my gosh. And we do everything. So we’ve got emails, calendar management, all the usual things you first think of a virtual assistant. We’ve also done funnels. We do website design, graphic design, flyers, marketing.

Um, [00:09:00] I don’t think there’s any, I haven’t had any tasks are brand new to us. In like years, so we’ve kind of done it all. We’ve done sales, we’ve done cold calling, we’ve done cold emailing, which cold, cold emailing is a whole art form. Um, so if you’re sending bulk emails, look into cold emailing because there’s, it’s so much more complicated than people really think.

Um, so you don’t get your domain blocked. That’s my little advice, but. There’s just so much that goes into a business and so we’re basically, you know, that person to be right alongside you to really help you. We’ve been in hundreds of different industries. You know, we have doctors, veterinarians, we have online coaches, we have, you know, homeschooling moms teaching other moms how to homeschool and.

The range we have, uh, landscaping industry, house cleaners, the industries are like, none of them relate to each other. They’re all different. Um, we have product and service space clients and it’s so much fun and we get to learn so much so [00:10:00] quickly. So you also get like our knowledge from working these amazing people.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, of course. You get to share the knowledge that works with somebody with somebody else. Yeah, that’s a huge benefit of working with the team to do any of this stuff. Speaking of which, let’s talk about the band. So now, uh, I mean, I don’t even know where to take this question because there’s so many different aspects of a band that you have in your business, but let’s, let’s start here.

What would be the, uh, actually let’s start here. When was your first hire and what did you hire for first?

Natalie Guzman: Yeah, so it was two hires at once because I mentioned the beginning. I had seven clients at once that were all kind of around the full time hourly rate. Um, and I had to hire those two people really quick.

And so they were both technically like project managers. So they were not only project managing though, but they were also doing the tasks. Um, and So I didn’t really have this model where you could give it to a team [00:11:00] yet, because I was brand new and I was figuring out what was really needed. I didn’t actually come up with that model until about a year later.

Um, and so they were just basically executive assistants for, I think that’s the closest term to what they were. And, um I had never been a manager. I’d never been a supervisor. Um, so I had to learn how to, you know, train these people to be really good, um, executive assistants. And one of those hires is now my director of operations for my company.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Right on. Okay. And what, like, did you, um, actually let’s talk about this. How did you know who to hire

Natalie Guzman: first? Ooh, so that’s a great question. I basically hired little miniature versions of myself. So I figured, you know, I’ve been doing this work for the clients. The clients like me, they like my personality.

They like that I’m extroverted. Um, they like that I can explain things fully. So I actually use this, um, [00:12:00] interview technique that most actually FBI agencies use, and it’s where you actually ask them to explain something to you. It can be how to make a peanut butter sandwich. You let them choose what it is.

And I’m just like, just teach me something. Just explain, just train me just by talking how you would do something. And their answers are basically what got me to choose them. Um, because. I got to see their thought process. I got to hear their communication skills. I was able to kind of put myself in the client’s shoes.

Do I actually understand what they’re trying to teach me? Did they give me enough detail? Did they give me too much detail? Did they make it confusing? So, um, that, that was like the biggest part that really helps me choose who the right person was.

Tim Melanson: I want to point out something because this is super rare.

You, most people when they hire the first person, they look for things that they don’t have. They look for, you know, maybe hiring somebody that does [00:13:00] something totally different than you do or something you don’t want to do. What you did is you hired somebody to replace you. That is super rare and is super awesome as well.

Because it’s exactly what you need to do, right? You need to start to free up your time, right? Like, where did that idea come from? Like, was that something that was scary? Did you think you were working yourself out of a job? Like, was there any of that that hit your mind?

Natalie Guzman: Yeah, so I had seven clients. One of me.

About 120 hours of work, right? And so, um, I had to be like, Okay, I can take on this many people, but I need to clone myself. So that is kind of how I got that thought process. I had no business training. I had no one teaching me. I know coaches at this time. Um, so I think it was just, you know, I need to replace myself.

Kind of like with, um, being a mom, right? At the same time that I had this brand new business, I was also a brand new to being a mom. So I only took advice from people that were just like me or had the same values as me. I have found, you know, [00:14:00] daycares or sitters that taught like I want to teach. So I think, you know, one of the biggest things you mentioned earlier was most entrepreneurs work in their business.

You have actually want to work. on your business. So you don’t want to do all those to do’s. And I realized that really, really late because I was just going to be a really overwhelmed mom and business owner if I just took on everything. And yeah, that’s definitely what set us up for success.

Anik Malenfant: Hi, my name is Annick Malonfant from Mastering Ascension, and I’ve been working with Tim Melanson and the Creative Crew Agency for a number of years now.

Tim is my go to guy for all things technology, and his team have helped me to really create the platform that I need that represents my brand, my message, and connects me directly to my ideal clients. What I particularly love about Tim is before he starts to dive into the technology, he always makes sure that he understands what your global view is, what your ultimate goals are.

So then that way you’re not wasting a lot of time back and forth. Switching around technology or [00:15:00] platforms. He creates something from the get go that is scalable, which is highly, highly beneficial for any business. What I’ve experienced from Tim and his team is they’re highly responsive. They are a wealth of information and they’re going to offer you the tools that you need to really make the mark that you want to make in the world.

So that’s my recommendation for Tim. He’s awesome. You’re going to love every minute. You won’t regret it.

Tim Melanson: Amazing. Yeah. I hope a lot of people listen to this episode because this is very, very cool stuff. Uh, yeah. Replace yourself as quickly as possible. That’s, that’s great. Uh, now I guess then the next, the next part of that was that you, like you did have a unique situation where you had so much work.

I think that a lot of entrepreneurs don’t end up in that situation where they literally do need to replace themselves seven times. Right? It’s a, so. I guess in that mindset, like, you did get, you did have to do that. There was no other choice. You couldn’t just hire a [00:16:00] couple people to do a couple things.

You, you didn’t, you had too much work. You couldn’t do it all yourself. Uh, so, you know, if you’re an entrepreneur on the line, on the call, that’s like. I did it wrong. It was a different scenario, . So, yeah.

Natalie Guzman: And I, I kind of set out, because when I got in the, that mind, um, frame that I was like, oh, I wanna turn this into agency, so I need clients.

I was hustling, I was just trying to find all these different ways to find clients as quick as possible. And then my closing rate is really, really high. I’ve just, I’m really good. Yeah. at talking as you guys can probably hear in explaining things. And so, um, yeah, so I had probably about 10 interviews and I had seven of them were closed.

Tim Melanson: Perfect segue to the next section, which is how to get fans. How’d you do that? That’s magic.

Natalie Guzman: So I pride myself on that. I’ve basically been all organic for ever. I’ve never spent a dime on ads. I haven’t [00:17:00] done like any crazy like video commercials, although I am looking at them for the future, um, as we continue to scale and grow.

But, um, yeah, I never I. Basically what I did my favorite thing I love to do and it still works to this day and it’s so simple Is that I literally just write on my facebook that has a bunch of different business owners Basically my whole target market my facebook friends list and I just say hey i’m taking on two more clients uh for um by the end of this month, um, so if you want to Um, if you need a virtual assistant, just reach out to me, um, but I’m only taking on two more for this month and having saying having a goal.

So having a specific number of how many clients I want, but that’s also limited and small with a deadline really kind of puts that pressure on people to be like, Oh, I really, I’ve been wanting to talk to her. I haven’t reached out to her. I better do it now before she stops taking on clients. And it works like a charm.

I don’t overuse it. [00:18:00] I probably use it every other month, once a month. Um, and I try it around when I’m needing more revenue. So some weeks I have more revenue than others. So I just time it for when I’m, you know, it’s a slower week. I actually do a week before the slow week. So that way, hopefully when I close them, the money starts coming in.

It’s that week that needed money. Love it.

Tim Melanson: I’ve used that same strategy. It really does work. But you’re right. You can’t overuse it because then it looks disingenuous, right? Yeah.

Natalie Guzman: And I get like five people that respond to that. And I actually, I think it was five people that actually we closed on using that last month.

And I didn’t say that, you know, I said only… But five people contacting me, we close on them. Um, so that kind of shows you, you know, don’t think it’s just two people that are going to respond. It’s, that’s not how it’s going to work. It could be a lot more.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, it could be a lot more. And hopefully you can handle all five.

You

Natalie Guzman: can’t turn them away if you have to.

Tim Melanson: Well, that’s the question. Like, [00:19:00] so what happens if you get too much work and you, and you aren’t prepared to, to do it? Like, is there any strategies that you can use to put it off? Or like, what do you do then? I don’t know.

Natalie Guzman: Yeah, so we actually just kind of changed our model.

So I’ll talk about what I did first and then what I do now. So what we did in the beginning was if we just had too much work, so I always made sure that my load was a lot less because then I can have some free time and to take care of my needs too. But If I, um, if we had a lot of work, I could easily take that on myself.

So that’s kind of what I was doing. But now, um, my family situation has changed. My stepfather has dementia. So all my free time kind of goes to spending time with him, which I’m so thankful for. Um, but. Now I’m like, well, what am I going to do? I can’t use me anymore to fill in those hours. Um, so the first thing I have is a director of operations.

So she kind of steps in where I go. She’s more put onto the strategy and working on the business. And then she’ll fill in when we have [00:20:00] fires or things like that. Like today we had a fire and she’s handling it. Um, the second thing we do is we make sure we have more contractors than we need. And we basically tell you.

Actors. This is as needed work, you know, kind of like the per diem style. And when we have a lot of overflow work, we’ll contact you. And so that way you can help us. Um, and that has been a game changer. There’s so many people that don’t want to work just part time or full time. They really want to just work, you know, as needed as the work comes.

And, um, it’s worked really well for us to have more contractors.

Tim Melanson: That’s great. Yeah. Yeah. And nowadays you’re, you’re totally right. There’s a lot of people that have their own business. And as we’re discussing, like one of the hardest parts really is the project management. It’s getting the clients, it’s all that kind of stuff.

Right. And there’s a lot of people that want to work either in the business, they don’t want to work on the business. And so it’s a win win for them. Like it’s not like a lot of people are a little bit, you know, [00:21:00] maybe they shy away a little bit from bringing on all these extra people. Cause they think, oh, but I can’t give them enough.

Enough hours, you know, but that’s not necessarily they just want the projects to roll in and maybe they have five of you right, you know, that they get projects from is like white label or whatever. So, you know, there’s that’s definitely out there. It’s nothing that is, uh, actually, there’s probably more of those people out there, especially now.

Right.

Natalie Guzman: Oh, yeah, 100%. So I always love to say that the only person stopping us is ourselves. And that’s like one of the mindset things that people are always letting it get in the way of their business. They’re like, Oh, well, people aren’t gonna want to be hired for this. People don’t want to be hired for that.

Um, and I will say in my business, hiring is not an issue. I get 140 applications every time I put out and hire. Because one, I’m a work from home to we have very, like you make your own schedule. So my VA’s can work at night during the day, except project managers [00:22:00] have to be around when the client wants them.

Um, but that is Ben, the, the best thing about our business is that hiring isn’t an issue, but you also can’t let it stop you. Like we have a cleaning company that has been finding it really hard to hire. And they were letting a lot of things stop them. They’re like, Oh, well, they’re not going to want this rate or they’re not going to want to just do two days a week.

And I’m like, let’s just put it out there and see what happens. And sure enough, they got a bunch of applications. So, um, a lot of times it’s just our mindset that’s stopping us.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And now, I mean, it can be a pain in the butt if there’s a lot of turnover and, you know, people coming in and going out and all that stuff.

But then on the other hand, you know, that, that just makes you. Like tighten up your systems. Number one, it tightens up your system of hiring to make sure that you figure out how to hire people that are going to stick around, but also your onboarding systems start to get better. And you know, that churn ends up like, of course, for your first [00:23:00] hire and then fire or whatever, that’s tough.

But after a while, I imagine it, doesn’t it get easier?

Natalie Guzman: Yeah, it definitely does. You get to learn what to look for. Um, and especially if you start delegating the hiring process out either to a VA or to someone on your team, um, you get to see also, you know, we’ve made some mistakes there. Like, um, I didn’t train someone necessarily.

Sometimes I like to throw them in the water, see if they sink or swim. And so I got to see, you know, by them hiring someone, what did they look for? What didn’t they look for? You know, like, so my director of operations is amazing with hiring website designers, graphic designers, because that’s her background.

But me, I’m the one that’s really good. And for more strategic thinking, because that’s something I succeed in. So, um, we’ve kind of paired the hiring process with the strengths of our team. And I’ve seen a really, um, great, you know, conversion rate on that.

Tim Melanson: Great tips. So, uh, one last topic. What about [00:24:00] tools?

So what tools do you use in your business to get success? Oh,

Natalie Guzman: yeah. So of course, my second business is actually one of the greatest business tools. I like to say myself. Um, it’s called the Dora and it is a all in one system for entrepreneurs. So this is what we built all of our systems for all of our businesses.

And then a lot of our clients use it because they heard about it and It’s a great thing that we do. They knew there was nothing really comparable to it on the market. So you can create limited websites, funnels, automations, email, marketing, social media, scheduling calendars, um, all for just 1 low the month.

Whereas usually, if you look at how much you’re spending on the 1000 dollar range. Um, so this kind of, um. You know, make it, it makes it affordable. It makes it so all the things connect because how many times have you had so many different software systems, POS systems, and you have to use Zapier, and then you can’t figure it out, or Zapier is costing too much, or [00:25:00] maybe doesn’t even integrate the API key with Zapier at all.

It happens for businesses all the time. It’s one of the biggest. Things that we’ve seen is that people hear about the newest product or system or tool and it’s not connecting with what they already have. So that’s what I love in the door because it completely gets rid of that issue. Um, and it just makes it so easy to connect and you don’t have to pay for per automation or anything like that.

Right

Tim Melanson: on. That’s cool. And you guys built that yourself?

Natalie Guzman: Yeah. So it’s actually a white label of a software. And then we had a website developer come in, add a bunch of extras to it. And we built a networking community and educational led course system to go with it as well to really support entrepreneurs.

So is that like go high level? Yes,

Tim Melanson: it is. Yep. Yeah. Cool. I’m a tech guy. Remember?

Natalie Guzman: Yes, I know. I know. Yep. I’m super open about it. But we, yeah, we had a website developer just come in and just like add a bunch of extras. GoHighLevel. [00:26:00]

Tim Melanson: It’s, it’s actually, I’ve been seeing a lot more of it over the last couple years of people white labeling GoHighLevel and then fixing it up.

Uh, so that’s, that’s actually pretty sweet. And you can customize it however you want to customize it. It’s pretty cool stuff. Right on. So, um, so now it’s time for your guest solo, the most exciting in your business.

Natalie Guzman: Ooh, I think the door has been the biggest excitement. Um, we have done some really, really cool things with it.

And I think my favorite is an adore you that’s coming out where we have entrepreneurs and experts in their field teaching what they are really good at and well known for. We have some of the most famous speakers in the world that are. contributing to this. So I’m really, really excited. Um, and it’s just so much fun.

Plus, you know, you can, um, interact with the speakers, you can, um, interact with other [00:27:00] nadora users. And so we’re really trying to make it like that networking, um, community. That way you can, um, learn while connecting and also building your business.

Tim Melanson: Oh, okay. So tell me more about that. Who will be the best people that would get the most out of, uh, participating in that?

Natalie Guzman: Yeah, so it’s actually crazy because you think it’s mostly when you think of, you know, coaching or courses, most people think, oh, I’m just throwing out my business. That’s best, which is great for that too. But we also have a lot of seven figure entrepreneurs that have tested it. And said that it’s really amazing and it’s helpful even for them.

And they’ve been in business longer than I have. Like we have a, um, a technician guy and he absolutely loves it. And he says that he’s even learning things that he didn’t know about. Um, and he can even give it to his team to learn as well. So it’s something that he can just easily give login access to his staff and then they can learn.

So he’s not spending as much time teaching [00:28:00] and training them.

Tim Melanson: So is this something that they need to be a client of yours to participate in?

Natalie Guzman: use actually a separate don’t even have to have t You could even just get n

Tim Melanson: Wow. Cool. Okay. So how do we find out more about this then?

Natalie Guzman: Yeah, you go over to nadora.

org, you can get a two week free trial to, uh, the software itself, or you can just look at the, uh, NadoraU, and we also have like a membership directory, even as a separate membership as well. So you can see kind of what works for you and your business. And then you also mentioned this podcast and, um, you’ll get those two weeks free.

Tim Melanson: Love it. What’s, how do you spell that for the people?

Natalie Guzman: Yeah, it’s actually funny because it’s my name. My director of operations name squished together, Natalie and Dora. So N a D O R a. org. Awesome.

Tim Melanson: Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Natalie. [00:29:00] This has been a lot of fun.

Natalie Guzman: So much fun. Thank you so much, Tim.

Tim Melanson: Right on. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment. We’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar

Natalie Guzman: podcast. Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one. Head on over to work at home rockstar. com today.