Sheena Parker is the founder and CEO of 4SYT Industries, a facility maintenance company based out of Atlanta, GA. She has also used her expertise in this area to launch her official YouTube channel, Sheenapreneur.
Sheenapreneur is an educational hub and online community focused on government contractors. As an influencer, Sheena uses this platform to educate and inspire fellow entrepreneurs in the government contracting sector.
The Challenge
While Sheena experienced the benefits of a full staff at 4SYT Industries, she was the only one managing her entire workload for Sheenapreneur. Tasks like scheduling interviews, setting up speaking engagements, and automating posts were all falling under her personal to-do list.
As the founder and CEO of two separate businesses, Sheena realized quickly that tasks like those were holding her back.
“We all think as business owners that we can just do it all. And I did social media, but it wasn’t amazing, and then with the admin work, I kept wondering, ‘Am I doing the best with the latest and greatest tools? Am I using the latest and greatest? Do I even have time?’ So I knew I needed to cut that time.”
So she started looking for help with Sheenapreneur.
“I hate hiring, and since this wasn’t my original company where I have HR and all that kind of stuff, I wanted to not have to put that burden on myself… I want to give my wishlist to someone, and then all the goodness would come to me essentially.”
And that’s exactly what she did when she contacted BELAY.
“Having someone to assist with the hiring was amazing — because I don't think people understand how challenging that is… I mean, having those nice long conversations about what you need makes a difference in everything.
“You can say you want an admin and not realize that that admin is the worst possible fit, but you're in too deep, and you can't even afford to lose this person. You need someone, at least, to do data entry for example.
“But to be able to go back and say, you know what? Maybe this is not the right fit. Can you find someone else? Here's my wishlist. And then all the work is done for you, and then boom: You’re meeting.”
The Solution
BELAY made finding and hiring Destiny, her new Virtual Assistant, easy for Sheena — but the support didn’t end there.
“There were a lot of training materials that BELAY offers. They say, ‘We're going to be the intermediary — here's a guide for you to use.’ I had onboarding all figured out at this other company, but it felt like I was doing it for the first time again, essentially.
“The company itself grew arms and legs without me really realizing how much it grew, so I did need to have a lot of those thoughts and processes mapped out that I hadn't really thought about. It's like, this is a real company now. I need real help.”
Sheena was pleasantly surprised by the way Destiny not only met her administrative expectations but also clicked with her personally.
“It sounds weird, and it feels weird to say I need someone to gel with my personality,” Sheena explains, “Because it sounds like it's all about me. But no, it is important for someone to gel and how they communicate needs to be the way that I communicate.”
And that’s what Sheena found in her new Virtual Assistant Destiny.
“She's very responsive. Government contracting is a little tricky, and you can't really teach that overnight. So she even took the initiative to say, ‘Okay, I'm diving into your course. I'm watching your videos. I want to understand a little bit more, at least to be able to answer questions.’
We have a community as well, a free community, and people ask questions sometimes, and I don't always get to it, so she's like, ‘I'm trying to find the answer. Is this a good answer to give the person?’ That initiative is just not common, and I so appreciate that in her personality.”
Destiny quickly started to take on more and more responsibilities for Sheena so that she could focus on running her business and channel more effectively. In no time, Sheena was experiencing the multiplying benefits of working with a Virtual Assistant:
“The reminders, the reassurance, and having someone who gets me and gets how I function and how I work,” says Sheena, “And that's not easy to get just in general, but then also when it came to my social media, understanding the culture, the language, and everything.
“She even found a tool to pick up on how I speak, and that was creative. Just the extra mile to make sure that she's delivering the best service for me, even though I didn't even know I necessarily needed that. But just bringing things to me that make both of our lives easier, essentially, is the win.”
Sheena values the administrative knowledge and expertise Destiny brought into her business as well from introducing relevant tools to streamlining her processes.
“She introduced me to LastPass, and I had heard of it for a thousand years, but she's like, ‘No, we're doing LastPass because this is going to be easier for you. Listen to me — roll with it.’ And she does all of my admin stuff, scheduling my interviews for YouTube — creating the processes. When I was doing it myself, I was just running the gamut. You need to have a process in place so it's easier for both of us.”
But Sheena and Destiny’s journey wasn’t without challenges. As is the case for most dynamic working relationships, they experienced obstacles that they both approached as delegation learning opportunities rather than roadblocks.
“I interview people on my YouTube channel that are doing government contracting in some form or fashion, mostly business government contracting. So it has to be scheduled in advance, the artwork has to be created, and we have to set it up on StreamYard and promote it. The person has to know and have the link… and then it goes out to my audience via email, a certain amount of times per week at specific times. It was like a four page document, and I was doing it all by myself. It was all in my head.”
“So, it's a very, very lengthy process with a lot of checks and balances, and the first time I delegated it, it was not that great, so I'm thinking, ‘Nope, mine, and I'm never giving that up again.’ But Destiny reassured me, ‘Nope, let's go through the exact steps, and I am here for it even if you need me to work at a different time in order to accommodate.’”
Destiny not only adapted to learn the interview process better, but she also made sure to get to the bottom of the miscommunication:
“I think the main thing that she does is ask very clarifying questions, and then I learned to foresee things that she hadn't asked. Like, ‘Hey, we didn't talk about this, so let me make sure that this is abundantly clear how important it is to me…
“So there were moments of misunderstanding — maybe miscommunication — but they were important, and so I expressed to her how important it was, and she communicates very well. She responds and gets me. She says, ‘Okay, well, Sheena might not see this email, so I'm going to send a text, or I'm going to send a voice message because she can't respond to text or vice versa.’ Just a lot of pull and push figuring it out.”
The Result
While Sheena sees Destiny’s role impacting the overall trajectory and capacity of her business, those aren’t the results she is most focused on right now.
“I pay for peace. That's one of the things I've always said… So essentially, the ROI is right away as long as I don't have to do the 50 million things — and then once there's going to be a lot more revenue generated from the activities that I'm going to be presenting to her, then that's going to be even better.”
The assurance and accuracy Destiny offers on the administrative side of Sheenapreneur allows Sheena to lead with confidence and look into the future of the organization.
“To see things go out that I know are being done correctly relieves that eternal stressor. Moving forward, I'm confident that she'll be able to do some of the heavy, heavy stuff with sales and stuff like that. And I'm excited about it because I feel like she's really getting the baseline of Sheenapreneur to get to that point, and that will help me tremendously. I have no one doing that. It's all me doing that. So I'm really excited about her knowing how the company works and helping me build the company, and then she can turn it into something that's beneficial for both of us.”
To learn more about how Sheena’s partnership with BELAY impacted her and her business, check out her own YouTube episode on BELAY.