Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to the solopreneur Sisterhood Podcast. A podcast designed to help heart centered service providers like you build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to you. I'm your host Becky McCleary and I am so grateful that you are here.
[00:00:23] Speaker C: On this episode we are talking with Kendra Harris. After dedicating 15 years to education, Kendra embarked on her entrepreneurial journey by founding Kendra Harris Co where she transitioned into the virtual assisting and online business manager roles. Leveraging her skills as a doctor of organization, she helps overwhelmed business owners in efficiently managing their virtual offices and streamlining operations, creates personalized task management systems for overwhelmed mobs and school systems, and supports transitioning teachers. With a background in teaching, math, coaching and leadership, she brings a unique blend of organizational expertise and problem solving abilities to her clients. Kendra's passion for helping others coupled with her desire for better work life balance led her to this new career path. Initially skeptical about whether this new experience would be as fulfilling as teaching, she soon discovered that celebrating wins with her clients and being an integral part of their journey is just as rewarding.
[00:01:30] Speaker D: Well, thank you so much for joining us here today, Kendra. I am so excited to talk with you and learn from you. But before we dive in, I would love to just learn more about you.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: So can you take a few minutes.
[00:01:41] Speaker D: And tell us more about what you do and how you found your way to this work?
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Sure. I live in Tennessee. I'm just a little old country girl. I have lived here with my family for almost my entire life and I became a teacher. So I have five kids. My husband and I live out here on a farm. I taught for 15 years and just did all the normal things like, you know, like everybody else, going to school, working, going to ball games, different stuff like that. And so how I found my found my way into this space is I actually in the past couple years, I just realized with five kids and they're getting older and now four out of the five are in middle school or high school and playing sports and all of the demands of teaching, I just realized that it was too much. I was missing out on a lot of things. And I know that people always say, well teachers, they have the whole summer off, but that's not entirely true. But also teachers work a lot from August to May. So I was researching other avenues, other ideas. I made some digital products products on Etsy that didn't really turn into I tried teacher pay teachers because I was like, hey, I'm making these resources for my classroom. Why not put Them on teacher pay teachers and see if any teachers want to buy them. And so I tried a couple other things, and, you know, I was just making a couple bucks here and there, and it was something that I couldn't transfer from, you know, or transition from teaching to doing that. There was no way I could do that and support my family. And I didn't have the luxury of being able to just, you know, quit my job and start something new without the income. Like, the income has to be there because we live on two incomes like a lot of families do. So I found out about virtual assisting. I like to say the Instagram gods connected myself and Sarah Wiles. And I took her course. The start and the rest is kind of history.
I actually took her course from March to May of last year. I had no business background. I don't even think I've ever even been in a business class.
And the thing about virtual assisting that caught me was I knew I would be great at it because I can learn really quick. I'm resourceful as a teacher. That's what we do. We're constantly looking for resources and organizing activities and events. And so I took the course. By May, I had my first client. By July, I had four clients. And I was thinking, is this something that I can do? Yeah, I know I can do it, but I've got to go back to teaching in August. So talked to my husband about it. I told him, I said, I'm almost making what I was teaching, and I know what I'm doing. I think I can build this. And I knew I had another teaching paycheck for one more month. So, again, like a lot of people, I had to have that income to support my family. We live paycheck to paycheck. And so, you know, I had a great business coach, Steph Rubio, who, you know, asked me. She was like, what's the worst that could happen, Kendra? I said, well, I guess I could go work at the Dollar General down the road, or they'd probably take me back. They need teachers all the time. So I took the leap of faith. By August, I was making way more than teaching. I was way happier.
And I just absolutely love what I get to do every day in my virtual assisting business. So that's kind of how I ended up here.
[00:05:10] Speaker D: That's awesome. I will say a couple of things that jumped out to me. One small world.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: I.
[00:05:16] Speaker D: When I actually started out as a va, I worked for Sarah Wiles's obm. So I work behind the scenes on Sarah's Business. And then Sarah was my coach who helped me transition from VA to obm. So.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Wow, That's a small world.
[00:05:32] Speaker D: Yeah. And I am also a teacher, former teacher. And I definitely relate to the whole, like, I thought, you know, becoming a mom, this was, like, the perfect setup because I would have the summers off with my kids, but it wasn't enough for me. Like, I just realized, like, I at least felt I was using all my patience during the school day with my students, and then I would come home and I would be kind of burned out. And, you know, we did have, like, the work to do that you didn't have time to do during the school day. I would bring work home in the evening, and I wanted to be more present with my kids, and it just. It wasn't a great fit. So I can relate to that as well. And I love how you were really intentional with it. I will give you more credit. I was. I was going on a whole lot more trust than actually, I have a solid business. When I turned in my resignation, I did not have a solid business.
So that ended up being super stressful. But I love how you did it with a solid plan and really worked your way into it. I will also say I think former teachers make really great VAs and OBMs because of all the planning and the organization and having to keep track of so many different moving pieces at the same time. So awesome. Okay, so for someone who is listening right now and they're not familiar, I think we get so immersed in the virtual assistant online business manager space that whenever I meet someone in the online business world who's like, I don't know what a VA is, or I don't know what an OBM is, I'm kind of shocked by that. But it has happened quite a bit lately. So if someone is listening and they're thinking, I have no idea what that is. Can you tell us more about what.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: It is that you do for clients.
[00:07:14] Speaker D: And kind of like, what do you love about this work?
[00:07:17] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: So as a virtual assistant, I do a wide range of tasks that are anywhere from things that people just don't have time to get to, but they need to get done all the way to things that they don't know how to do.
So it really started out as something smaller. Like, my first couple clients, I was doing research for a keynote speaker. She needed to find conferences. She gave me her method and said, you know, can you find these conferences? Well, yeah, I can do that. Like, I'm a detective. I've been a teacher so I'm all the time searching for stuff. And then my next client, you know, it turned into inbox management and like calendar management. Like when people email her, can I respond and look at her calendar and know all the moving parts going on and. And doing things like that. So those are things that take time for business owners that they don't always have and they need to get done, but they're not super hard things to Right. And so it goes all the way up into way more complex things like building systems. And I know, like, when I first learned about being a virtual assistant, I'm like, how would I ever learn all these systems? Like, I don't know anything about these. I've learned how to use, you know, Power School and Canvas and all of these things that are in the teacher world. But how would I learn all these things? And then I'll stop myself because it's a mindset thing. Other people are learning the same stuff, so why can't I? They had to learn it at some point. So I had to completely shift my mindset into. All I've ever known is teaching. All I've ever done is teaching to somebody else has learned this too. There's absolutely no reason why I can't. So my very next client, like the third client that I had, was in the legal technology realm, and she trained me on how to build out systems between Gavel and Decision Vault, which are systems that talk to each other to build documents for lawyers. And so I got into like, coding and different stuff like that, and it just goes on from there. So really, the tasks that a virtual assistant do can be things that you can just pick up and do really quick, or they can be things where you might have to learn a little bit on the back end. But again, if somebody else has learned it, why can't you? So the things that I absolutely love doing is I really love being able to problem solve and build those systems. Again, some clients know what they want and some clients don't, and that's okay. But I love. I think that's the teaching aspect of it is I get to organize and build these systems and do these things for clients so that their business runs smoother. And it's just the gratification. That's the one thing that when I started my business, I told myself I was like, now, Kendra, I don't know if you're gonna like this because you have a servant's heart. Like, you really love to serve the kids and people. And so we'll see how it goes. And it was pretty early on in my business, just within a couple months, that one of my clients sold this really big package that we had worked on, and I had a part in that. And, like, her excitement and just how excited she was, and she thanked me. And I like. I was like, yes, this is it. Like, I'm helping her and her business. Like, it's the same thing I did teaching. I was just helping different set of people, different population. Right. So those are things that I really. I love to do, and I really just love being able to help clients in their businesses.
[00:10:41] Speaker E: Yeah, Yeah, I love it.
[00:10:43] Speaker D: And a couple things that jumped out to me. I think one of the things I loved when I was a VA was that there was variety in the work. It wasn't like doing the same thing every single day. And I think it related to me as a teacher with that love of learning and that stuff that I never would have learned how to do on my own before. Now. It's, oh, I have to figure this out. And so there was always learning new things. And I think you really captured. I think one of the things I tell people who are considering this line of work is if you have the attitude of, I can figure it out, you're going to be just fine. If you are telling yourself, I have no idea how to do that, and you can't get yourself to that point where you're like, I can find the resources, I can figure this out, then it's going to be a struggle. But as long as you have that mindset of, I can do this, I can learn, then you're going to be okay. And I also love how you talked about how it is helping.
[00:11:41] Speaker C: It is still serving.
[00:11:42] Speaker D: I think I too, struggled with that at the beginning, because teaching we definitely think of as a helping profession. And so I think as a virtual assistant, it's kind of, what difference am I making? But as you work behind the scenes of businesses, and I worked with a lot of coaches, people who were helping people, it helped me to view it as well. I'm helping them to be able to help more people who need them, because I'm taking things that need to be done that they don't really have the time for, and taking that off their plate gives them more time to help more people. So I love how you brought that in as well.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: So for anyone who is listening and.
[00:12:21] Speaker D: Thinking, oh, well, I might want to be a virtual assistant or an obm, do you have any recommendations for them on kind of where to start with their business? Or is there Anything that you recommend they don't do. Like maybe there's common advice out there that you think is not actually helpful.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: I think the one thing I would say don't do is wait. If you wait, then it's going to take longer before you get started, right? And that's with pretty much anything in life. Somebody told me many years ago and I don't even remember who it was. And it's like been such a profound thing in my life now. I hate that. I can't remember who told me this, but they told me, kendra, if you wait until you're ready, you'll never do it. And you know, I didn't think much about it when they told me that. And then it was like some years later, I got remarried and my husband and I were talking about having another kid. And I was like, well, we need to do it. And he's like, well, right now? I was like, yes, we need to have a kid now. Because if we wait, we'll never be ready. We'll never have enough money. We're living paycheck to paycheck, you know. So having said that, like, it's kind of the same thing. When I started looking at virtual assisting, it was a couple years ago and I waited, I watched, and you know, I call it the Sarah Wild Stalkers. So I was part of Sarah's stalkers. We stalked her on Instagram. Other people that are virtual assistants now that have taken her program the start. You know, we all laugh about it that we're the Sarah Stalkers because we all watched for a couple years and then we're like, she's a real person. This is really working. I've met all these people that have done it. Let's do it. So I would say don't wait.
The one thing I would say to do is figure out the best approach for you. So for me, you know, like you said, I kind of had to have a game plan. I can't go without the income because my family relies on that. So if you look at some different courses and things to take, look at the process, you know, can you figure it out on your own? Yeah, you can, but it's probably going to take you a little bit longer. So, you know, as a virtual assistant, I am very resourceful. I figure out things on my own all the time. But in order to set up a business, when no business background, no knowledge of any of it, it really just kick started me and got me in that right direction really quickly. Sarah's program was like two months where as it probably would have taken me much longer to figure out all the moving pieces that I needed. So, yeah, I would highly recommend just not to wait.
[00:14:53] Speaker E: Okay, I love that.
[00:14:55] Speaker D: And I would just add on to that two things.
[00:14:58] Speaker C: One is, I do think in some.
[00:15:00] Speaker D: Cases a course can be helpful just to, as you said, kind of speed along journey so you don't have to figure everything out on your own. And to give you credit, you did the work. So it wasn't just you took a course and you magically had a successful business. You, you took the course, you applied what you learned, you did the work and built a successful business. So needing to be at a point where you're ready to do the work because I will say, especially at the start, it can be difficult to, to get things up and off the ground. And so you have to have that determination in order to bring it.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: I do appreciate that. And I, you know, I do have a really strong work ethic. I'll, you know, I'll get up at 4 o'clock in the morning where some people are like, you're crazy. But I know that my kids are not going to bother me. Then it's like the only couple hours of the day that are literally mine. The phone's not going to ring. Nobody's gonna come to the door, like. And so I do have a really strong work ethic. Is, can anybody do it? No. You know, that's just the cold hard truth. This isn't for everybody. Can you do it? Like, if you want to and you put your mind to it and you're gonna do the work? Yeah. It's not something that is unattainable. If you've never been in the business world or have any clue how to run a business. If you are someone that will work hard, like you said, and you can be resourceful and, you know, use a little bit of common sense, it can work for you. So you are right, you do have to do the work. And I've seen people take courses and not be happy with the outcome, but I've also known some of those people to be the ones that expect clients to just come and find them. And that's not how it works. You do have to reach out to people and you do have to do the work. But it is very, very possible and especially in a short amount of time.
[00:16:48] Speaker E: Yes. Yeah, I love all of that.
[00:16:51] Speaker D: And I regularly tell people who are considering becoming a va, they said their concern is they see so many people out there who are saying that they are VAs and I said, as someone who was a VA and has worked with a lot of VAs, yes, there are a lot of people who are saying they are VAs. However, there are a smaller number of people who are actually willing to do the work and who are really good at what they do. And so if you are willing to do the work and really honor your commitments to clients and show up and follow through and meet deadlines, you are going to quickly stand out in your business. And you'll get other clients through word of mouth that way too, because unfortunately, a lot of people don't view it as an actual job and they don't treat it with as much care as clients need. So it sounds simple, but a lot of people don't do it. So if you're willing to do the work, it will come together for you.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: You are so correct. And I tell people, too, each person can't have an infinite amount of clients. I have already, you know, occasionally there's been a client come to me and I've had a discovery call and I realized they want way more hours than I have available in my business. So, you know, personal connections, you know, I know you mentioned referrals from clients, but my personal network, I refer clients to people that I know are going to do a great job because I can't have just an infinite amount of clients. So work is definitely there. But yes, you are correct in that you have to, you have to do the work and, and actually, you know, follow through and, and do the things that not everybody is going to do. And I always tell people too, like, what's the worst that could happen if you do try it and it doesn't work? You know, kind of like I was talking about earlier. But, you know, if the worst that could happen is what you're already doing right now, then why not, like, if the worst that could happen is you go back to the job you have now or you have to get another job down the road? Okay then. But you've tried it, right?
[00:19:00] Speaker E: Yes. Yeah, I love that.
[00:19:03] Speaker D: So we probably also have some listeners who already have a business. They're not thinking of being a VA or obm, but they've been considering hiring support for their business. What recommendations do you have for them to be ready to hire and then also to help find the right person and help that process go as smoothly as possible.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: As far as being ready to hire, I think that a majority of the time, and I'm guilty of this in my business as well, because I just hired my, my first teammate Back in December, a lot of times, you know, like, I'm probably going to need somebody pretty soon. That's probably when you need to start looking, not wait until you are so overwhelmed and things are not getting done in your business and you're just focusing on you, the, the stuff that's that you should be, but the back end of the business and tasks like that that you don't have time to get to, you know. So earlier is better. Kind of like I said, if you want to be a VA and you're thinking about it, earlier is better, don't wait. So I would recommend business owners start reaching out to people, you know, rather soon if they have the thought of that. And then as far as like having things ready and prepared. And that's the beauty of getting a va, you know, they can come in and they can meet with, talk to you, and they can help you figure out where to start if that's something that you know you don't have ready. Because if you're already struggling with getting tasks done, who's going to have time to sit down and figure out what all would the VA do? They can help you with that. And so that's why, myself included, I offer a free discovery call for business owners so we can talk about where you're at, where you might need help, you know, things like that. And then after the discovery call, if you realize, hey, maybe this isn't a good fit for me. I don't need a virtual assistant, or, you know, maybe now isn't the right time, then that's okay. But at least you've talked through it with someone that has some knowledge of, of the business and background and how virtual assisting works and how they can help you and stuff like that.
[00:21:08] Speaker E: I love that.
[00:21:09] Speaker D: And I would add to that what I tell business owners is communication, I think is really the key when you're bringing someone onto the team. Yes, VAs can be incredible and do a lot, but they're not mind readers. And each business is unique. How you do everything in your business is going to be unique to your business. And so the more you can communicate, the better. And I also encourage VAs to communicate clearly too, because I just think, especially at the start of a relationship, that helps to build so much trust and for everything to go more smoothly.
And I also tell business owners that most of the time hiring someone is going to take a little bit of extra time at the start because you're going to have to take that time to communicate what needs to be done and to show Them where everything is and to, you know, get systems going. But once you do that, it is going to free up so much more of your time and you are going.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: To wish you had started earlier.
[00:22:04] Speaker D: So I think that was really good advice.
[00:22:08] Speaker C: So.
[00:22:08] Speaker D: Okay, well I want to be mindful of everyone's time but I know that some listeners are thinking they want to connect with you, they want to learn more from you. So. So how can our listeners connect with you beyond this episode?
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Yeah, my website, my LinkedIn, my Instagram, all of my socials are under Kendra Harris Co. So you can find me on any of those places.
My Instagram is mainly where I share my day to day stories and I really just started it to connect with people and share my story so that other teachers and other moms would hopefully, you know, if they were thinking about becoming a virtual assistant, they would reach out if they had any questions. And my LinkedIn is more for business owners. While you can connect with me on either one of them. One of my goals this year is to use LinkedIn a little more to grow my network and my community there. Because one, one other tip that I have for anybody who is either already in this space or thinking about being in this space is to grow your community, your personal network. You are going to make, you know, everyone's different but you're going to find your connections, your people and those are people that you can, you know, bounce ideas off of and share, you know, different things with. And when you run into problems there, that's just another resource that you can go to and you can help them as well. So I would really say anyone that's looking or thinking about this, like start finding your people, you know, that would be another thing too. But my website, kendrahairs Co has some stuff on there too. And again, I just started my business, you know, last year so I created my website and it, it's been updated a little here and there as I have time and it more updates. But there's so many things too that you're going to see other virtual assistants and, and OBMs doing that you think you might need. I didn't have my website when I started.
You know, you don't have to have all the things sometimes you get wrapped up in. Look at what they're doing. Oh my gosh, I could, I could never do all that. I have to have all these things and you don't. That's the joy of being a virtual assistant is you can start so quickly and start making money to support yourself and your family. So quickly because all you need is to make a connection with the client and then they pay you and you start helping them. It's a lot different than a lot of other businesses where you have to build up and advertise or all the things. Virtual assisting is not like that. And that's one of the other reasons that really pulled me this way, too. I was like, I can actually start making income on this and build on it and actually grow my business. So I love that aspect of it as well.
[00:24:52] Speaker E: Yes, I love that.
[00:24:54] Speaker D: And for all of our listeners, we will have all of Kendra's links in the show notes for this episode, so you can easily access those and connect with her beyond this episode. So I just want to thank you so much, Kendra. It's been wonderful talking with you here today.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Thank you so much for joining us and listening to the solopreneur Sisterhood podcast. I hope this episode has offered you some encouragement, some insight and some new ideas to support you in building a business that works for you. Remember that our world needs you, your gifts, your vision and your work. And I'm cheering you on as you bring your vision to life and build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to.
