Sarah Moore is the founder and CEO of Inquiry & Renegade, an organization focused on executive coaching and fundraising consulting for nonprofit leaders.
Inquiry & Renegade identifies nonprofit leaders who are underwater and helps them solve their money problems while reframing how they think about expanding their capacity.
The Challenge
Along with running a business, Sarah Moore is also a stay-at-home mom of five.
“The first time I reached out to BELAY, it was a few years ago before I started this business,” Sarah says. “I was getting married to a widower and about to adopt his four children, running a full-time consultancy, and working for a radio show.
“I was doing too much, and I needed help. [My] first VA helped me plan my entire wedding and manage my workload.
“BELAY comes highly recommended [by] Michael Hyatt, one of my favorite coaches and leaders. I just [had] finished his Business Accelerator program, and he sang BELAY’s praises. I also love the ethos of BELAY and appreciate that [...] I'm allowed to be unabashed about my faith without consequences.
“I wanted to support an enterprise that was looking to lift women up, [and] have a system of mutual benefit for people like me running businesses, but also for the VA. There's a high view of human dignity, and I'm about that.”
“I also appreciated the rigorous criteria that [BELAY] ran both of us through on each side, and it just looked like a good business model to me.”
Enter BELAY Virtual Assistant Alexis Winchester.
The Solution
“Alexis is helping me automate my personal life,” Sarah says. “[She] also set up a workflow for different clients where my deliverables are on time, aesthetically pleasing, and the business is well run from the backend.
“We check in for 30 minutes a week, and other than that, it's pretty ad hoc via text, but in essence, she's helped me streamline my life.”
To help Sarah streamline her life, Alexis has helped with several personal tasks.
“We've done a lot of work on grocery list automation and streamlining that process so that we're ordering different meals for different weeks to keep things fresh, but also not reinventing the wheel every month,” Sarah explains.
“[She’s doing] everything from groceries to ordering new social security cards that we lost to working in Canva to take something I created for a client and make it dreamy and professional.
“If I'm the engine, she's the caboose for client deliverables. [Alexis is] also keeping tabs on expenses and receipts [and] making sure systems are foolproof.
A BELAY Virtual Assistant is exactly what Sarah needed to help her manage all things client experience and personal life.
“Her level of customer focus is [what] I would describe [as] excellent. She cares about the type of groceries I want to order. She cares about client response or managing inbox chaos. If I forget something in my inbox, she'll text me before the end of the day.
It's like somebody is holding another half of my brain. And for the amount that I'm dealing with every single day, it's been incredible to know somebody's there and somebody's consistent when there's a lot of inconsistency in the season of life right now.”
“[Alexis] anticipating needs has been just such a blessing. [She] keeps presenting me with options in different aspects of professional and personal life when I feel stuck.”
The Result
“[With Alexis,] I noticed in the first week something different – majorly different. It was that customer focus, attention to detail, desire to serve, but also the strong boundaries because when I work with someone who has good boundaries, it encourages me to do the same,” Sarah adds.
“We have some similar strengths. Right now, we're in a building phase. She's helping me scale the business to get to the next level.”
One way that Sarah is going to scale her business best is by prioritizing her tasks.
“Priority management would be the thing that's changed my life, and then careful and clear communication,” Sarah says.
“Most mornings, I try to send her my big three for the day. I use the Full-Focus planner, [...] and then I write it out [in] an email form for her so she knows what's fighting for my attention today and what I would like to prioritize. On days when I don't send it, she'll say, ‘Hey, want to know what's going on? Are we able to get to that email?’
“She's respectful, and she understands service and kindness. And today, [when] hiring, people don't know the basics of workplace professionalism. And just because I work from home, I don't want my clients or my business to be treated like a joke or sloppily.
“[She’s] given me the opportunity to give up scheduling and logistics so that I can be freed up to spend more time interfacing with clients and providing them with the service that they need. That buys me more time and buys me more money.”
“And so to have found someone [who has] high character and [is] professional with so much life going on in their own world, it doesn't just help me from a pragmatic perspective, but it gives me hope for what's happening in the world outside of [the] small little bubble that I operate in.”
Meet the Specialist
ALEXIS WINCHESTER
Virtual Assistant