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.
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 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.
“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.
“[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.”
“[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.
“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.”
ALEXIS WINCHESTER
Virtual Assistant