Brad Alexander owns a creative marketing agency that provides marketing coaching and accountability to help owners and founders build businesses that last.
Clarity Creative works with startups and small businesses between the $500,000 to $5 million revenue range on website and email marketing projects, website building, copywriting, and design management.
The Challenge
“The only way I could grow and build a bigger team, make more revenue, and serve more people was to recreate myself in some capacity,” Brad explains. “I needed better systems. [I needed] someone to manage the day-to-day random requests or feedback and updates.”
“[I always wanted someone with] some thought level of what things we could get better, faster, and more efficient at. There was only so much of me to spread around, and I needed more help.”
And then came BELAY Virtual Assistant Joanne Tribble.
The Solution
Brad understood that it would probably be a learning curve for whoever BELAY matched him with. Once Joanne was onboarded, he slowly delegated tasks to her to gauge whether she was overwhelmed or enjoying what she was doing.
She jumped right in and took general management off Brad’s plate by prioritizing the things he needs her to do and following up on responses in his inbox.
“I just was progressively asking her — and myself — the question, ‘OK, what am I doing that you could do?’ And then we just started trying more things,” Brad says.
“She’s streamlined our process of when we build a new website [for a client] so we can get the project done faster. She also manages the maintenance of what we do for our retainer clients monthly, and she will take notes from my calls and create a summary and action steps.”
From there, Brad was able to steadily increase his contract with Joanne up the next two levels for more dedicated hours every week.
The Result
“[Joanne] understands the scope of what we’re trying to do,” Brad says. “So when we get feedback or tweaks or edits or changes, she can tack that on.”
“There’s a willingness to take on whatever she can. She’s up for whatever needs help and she seems eager to do so.”
As such, Joanne has been a great fit for Brad and Clarity Creative.
“She’s doing things well without me having to micromanage and, on the flip side, she’s asking questions when she needs help.”
“It’s given us both a lot of freedom relationally as we work together.”
Brad has gained bandwidth and mental space getting the right support from Joanne. He’s been able to check out of work for a couple of hours a day when needed while simultaneously gaining clients and more projects.
“I’ve taken two trips with my wife and family and not had to take my computer and check my email — she’s been there,” Brad says. “And for somebody who runs their own gig, it’s not very common.”
“I needed somebody to help who was qualified to help, but I didn’t have time to go through my own job postings, my own vetting or putting things on Indeed and ZipRecruiter, getting all the replies, and figuring out who’s actually legit,” Brad admits.
“The fact that I could pay BELAY to bring someone to help me was huge,” Brad says. “I got the help that I needed faster than I would’ve been able to on my own if I would have hired [by] myself.”
“I’m looking forward to getting to a place where I can buy [Joanne] out of her BELAY contract!”