Latest / Work It Like A Mum / Beyond the Corporate World: Smashing Plates and the Power of Outsourcing with Poppins PA's Abigail Langridge

Transcript

Beyond the Corporate World: Smashing Plates and the Power of Outsourcing with Poppins PA's Abigail Langridge · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women Job Board and Community.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: In this show, I'm honored to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, their boundaries and balance, the challenges they've faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Shy away from the real talk?
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Money struggles, growth, loss, boundaries and balance we cover it all.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and make sure you cozy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: This is the Work it Like a Mum podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Ready to find your perfect job?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Search their website at investinginwomencouk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Now back to the show.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to this week's Work it Like a Mum podcast episode.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Today, I'm delighted to be chatting with Abigail Langridge, the founder of Poppins PA, and this is a business that's brought the PA role to modern life.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Abigail left the corporate world in 2016 after the birth of her third child.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: She has built her business, poppins PA, around three children, whilst her husband worked night shifts and, due to her business's success, now employs a team of five freelance PAs.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: We'll be chatting about building a business in limited time slots, often around your children and their schedule, finding her first clients and why she believes outsourcing and getting help is key to living a happy and fulfilled life.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, abigail, for joining me today.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It's an absolute pleasure to chat with you and learn more about you and Poppins.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: PA.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you, elizabeth, really pleased to be chatting and I'm quite in awe of that lady you were just talking about, because if I'd have heard of that description a couple of years ago I would think, wow, she sounds pretty cool.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: So to hear that that's me.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I don't sound like, I don't feel like I can recognise myself.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So that's quite good.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: That's my win for today.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, do you know?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I think we often don't give ourselves enough credit doing me, and then it actually takes someone to sort of say look, if you look back, look at all the incredible things you've achieved, and what would you know?
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: 2016 Abigail would be so proud of.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: 2023 Abigail, and what she's done.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so what made you want to leave?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Were you planning to go back to work?
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Had you gone back to work after your your first two children?
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, I had gone back to work.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: So I've been at that particular place for nearly 10 years and I'd had all three children there, worked part time in London and in the first five or six years I loved it because I was working as a proper PA as how I see, as a proper PA for the head of National Employment for the firm and it was.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I just really enjoyed it because it was such involved work with whether it be their client work or their personal life.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I remember at the time this particular guy I was working for was building a bomb sort of alongside his role and I'd be working on snagging lists for building as well as liaising with his clients at work.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: And it was that I just really loved that personal element of quite a conscientious soul.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: So to for someone to let me in on their personal life I've always found quite a privilege and it's where I've thrived.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: But over the time of having the three children and being in corporate it just changed.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: We ended up being glorified admin assistants at work.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: A lot of the lawyers clawed back their own client based work because the firm could charge more for it.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: So from a business point of view it made complete sense.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: But from job satisfaction and morale for me, it just fell out the window.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I would go all the way into London an hour and a half commute to archive, do some billing and chat, and that's just not what I'm about.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I do the odd other bits and pieces and it just.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm a real personable person and the personal element just got completely sucked out and it really affected me.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Actually, for quite a long time I didn't recognise it at the time.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: It took probably about two or three years for me to really realise that I wasn't happy, because I'm so used to just going in.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: You get so used to just doing the same old thing every, all the time.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: But, as I say, having my third child, Edward, just it was like someone had flipped a switch and everything was made to become so clear.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I laid in the hospital bed nursing him.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: So within hours of having him, knowing that, all right, I was going to go back, but it was only going to be for a limited period of time to get my maternity bonus and that was it.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: I was done.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So I didn't really have a clear picture of what I was going to do, but I knew that monotonous period that I'd had behind me was going to change and I didn't know how I was going to change it.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: But this, that moment in my life, was a turning corner moment because I couldn't carry on.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, I would have probably got quite depressed should I have gone back and carried on doing exactly the same thing.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you returned to work, is that right?
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Return to work, and because I knew that it wasn't going to be a forever thing.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I had a spring in my step, really bit of a secret spring in my step, and I just started noticing small opportunities that perhaps I hadn't seen before.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: So, again, I researched the term virtual assistant and knew that I wanted to take what I was doing home.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I didn't really know what I was doing, in effect, because I didn't really think that I was doing much at work, so I was just doing loads of research, did loads of research into the virtual assistant, ended up building my own website and started networking completely blind.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: And were you still working at this point and I do hand to do your notes Because I always find it quite it's a really brave decision because actually I was made redundant.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I actually think that was quite fortunate because I don't think I would have had the confidence to leave that safety net of employment to settle my own business if I hadn't been made redundant.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: So I always think that people that choose to leave their role to set up a business are incredibly brave.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was still there while I was running my business, so I hadn't left yet.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you did it alongside.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did it alongside because I was only two days a week in London.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: But I knew that because of the research that I'd done, I was coming across the term virtual assistant, private PA, and the private PA job descriptions were really, really hitting home with me.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: So I'd come in up and talk to recruitment agencies, of which, to be honest, were really quite rude, because a private PA role you've got to be really knee deep, full on loads of experience, and it was recruitment agencies were basically telling me I've got no hope in hell, only having corporate experience.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Well, that again gave me a rocket up my behind because I just thought I'm not having that.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I knew that once I'd seen a private PA job description, I knew that that's where.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: So what's the private PA?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: If people listen to this and they maybe don't know what the difference is between a private PA, a VA and a PA in a corporate role?
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Lots of different.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, lots of different.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: So a virtual assistant is virtual, so you can work from home.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: So I would probably fall under that bracket now.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: But in the virtual assistant can pretty much do anything from lead magnets, social media, anything.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: A private PA is usually and I say usually because there's always a difference but it usually works for a private family, which is where the private word comes from.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: So they will work within a family again, more so from home now, but back then it was literally within the family office and they would run the private family life.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: They would liaise with housekeepers, cleaners, household staff, security staff.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: So private PA is usually work within very financially comfortable families, like in London, you know, think of Sloan Square, that kind of place where both parents are working full time and more the children at a private school.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: You liaise with nannies and you're running, you're running the house basically, and you've got a real personal relationship with the parents.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe the parents are even going away.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: You've got the travel of all the family.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: You sort of hold their holidays out.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: You're literally doing everything for the family.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: That's what a private PA is, and I say that as a general rule, and a PA back in the day used to be a corporate PA so you'd be sitting at a desk and you'd have multiple.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I was a legal PA so I'd have multiple lawyers and it was very diary management orientated.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: So you'd sort out the meetings.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: You might have document amendments through if you're in a litigant role document like witness statements, something like that or if you're convening seeing you've got all the property stuff that you'd be dealing with.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: So it'd be very corporate because you're a PA, but in a corporate setting.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: So what I effectively did just to fast forward just slightly, this might be one of your questions, but I took all the elements of all the roles that I've had that I thrived in and that I liked, because once I'd set up as a virtual assistant, I then realized that I didn't actually have to work within the legal environment anymore.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: So I had an element.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: I had a private PA role that I landed.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: It was one day a week which I ran alongside my corporate role.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: So I was doing two days a week in London and one day a week in Kent.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: How did you find that role?
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: You know a lot of people might want to set up businesses doing a variety of things, but they are.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: It's getting the clients, isn't it?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: It's marketing themselves, it's selling their services.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: So how did you find your first client?
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: So my first private PA client as a self-employed PA, I suppose was through a recruitment agency.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It was when I was doing all that research and speaking to agencies, telling them what I love to do, and I just wasn't taking a no for an answer.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: And all these recruitment agencies are all telling me you've got no hope, absolutely no hope.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Well, this one day a week role came up in Kent.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: So I'm based in Kent.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: It was only about 45 minutes away.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: I'm working for an elderly lady, judy.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: I referenced her in quite a lot of my socials, 80 years old, and she needed someone she'd been with twice.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Her daughter lived next door.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, picture the scene lovely, lovely lady she was Judy.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: But picture the scene where, if any of you are young enough to watch, absolutely fabulous with Patsy Kenseth.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Patsy Kenseth would stumble in with her bottle of wine and she'd be sitting by the pool or something.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: That was a little bit like Judy's daughter Come in, check in on how mummy was, but actually just vanished because she knew that I was there and I was dealing with most stuff, which was great.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: So I'd open all the posts, I'd liaise with all the chartered accountants, the solicitors and things, because the money that her two previous husbands had set up to look after Judy and their estate and everything was 100 to 1000 pounds annually.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: And if someone wasn't looking at all that and liaising with the professional bodies involved, then Judy would have been paying so much more in tax.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: So it was always overseeing all of that and I could say, liaising with all the professional bodies.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: And also back to the basics, having lunch with Judy.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Being that companion with Judy, I'd take my slippers and the soup.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: In the winter we'd sit and open the post together.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I would go through, read it and then put it into layman's terms to Judy as to what it would mean.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Because, again, with my legal background I had the common knowledge just to you know, I could work my way around a legal document and I'd say, look, you know this is what it is.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: But to the old generation she'd look at it.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: She doesn't really know what she's signing.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Her grown up children have all got lives of their own.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: There wasn't really anyone in our life that was able to really assist her.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: So she wanted a private PA in her life once a week that could come in, be that companion role.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: So it reminds me of, is it Amy?
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And little women that has that?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Have you seen little what read the book?
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite an old fashion type role.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people used to do it where they were a companion for you know, an elderly person that maybe had money and did that role, and this type of role has been around for hundreds of years.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly, and it was my best role to date.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: It was just and it was the making of me and it proved to me that the role that I wanted existed.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I basically just took as much of that role into what I do now.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I mean off, spin off from that.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: I did try and set up a business called Cherish Family Services because I loved working with Judy so much that I was determined that there were loads of other adult, like parents and you know, adults that were in their 50s, that had adult, older adults that were in the same situation as Judy.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: But actually we decided they're too busy, they traveled, we're in high network families that needed someone in exactly the same capacity as how I work with Judy.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: The business had to be shelled because, like most other people, I had bills and everything to pay and I couldn't find any other duties, although I did build up a massive rapport and great relationships with lots of high net worth care homes and things in the area.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: But from that failure, if you like, I mean I wouldn't necessarily see it as a failure.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: I kind of shelved it because I'd love to pursue it again at some point.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: But that's how I've become Poppins PA, because I still see it as very much a private PA service because it's completely tailored to each person.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Many people say well, you know what do you do.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: They're quite confused as to what we can do for them.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: But actually I turn it on its head because it's well, whatever's in your life is what we do, it's completely tailored to you.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: So when did you decide to leave corporate then?
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: So you had Judy, you were working two days a week in corporate, working with Judy one day a week.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So what, how long did it take you then to decide you're going to, you know, pursue Poppins PA full time?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was quite tricky, so I was working two days in London every.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Thursday, and they know about Judy.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: No, I mean I wasn't really going out of my way to hide it either, but it was on a Thursday.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be at work on a Thursday anyway.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: A couple other PAs knew about it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: So I just let my confidence build and I knew that I'd reach a stage when actually I'd just leave and my husband wasn't overly pleased about when I left because I still only had the one day a week but I'd reached a stage that I was convinced that I could do something.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: So, as much as doing two days a week in London, a day a week in Kent, I was also networking Monday and Tuesday evenings in London at the Royal Court of Justice.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: If you'd go into London on your days off, then would you no so after work.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: So when I was in court work, I'd stay and I'd found a couple of legal networking groups that I became a part of and I picked up QC, soul, practitioner, solicitors, people that were in the legal world.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: So I did start to have a couple of clients under my VA business.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: So it was quite tricky at this stage maintaining a family of five, all the other things that go with that two-day week in London and Judy, and it was at that stage that I decided to take the leap and the rest is history.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: To be honest, I just then went full-pelt into working for those clients during the day.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that you'd got by networking, yeah, by networking.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: So again, I'd never networked because again, if you're employed, you don't need to do that.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: You're told what to do, you're given your work.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: It's not something that you ever ever consider, but networking has been one of the best things I've ever done.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: But again, I've learned so many lessons because again, when you start to network, your priority is I've got to get clients, I've got to earn money.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: So you don't even think about building a relationship because you almost see people as like pound signs, which is really sad.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: But that's just me being completely open, because now, when I go to a networking event, I'm completely opposite.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: I'm never looking for a client, it's all about.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Do you know what?
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to listen to other people, because I love to hear about other people.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: People listening to this might love the idea of going to networking events, but I personally and I'm sure all the people can relate feel quite daunted.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: You go into a big room.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Everyone seems to be chatting.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: You feel like you're on the edge.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: You don't know anybody.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: How do you network?
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: How do you approach people?
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I suppose in a networking capacity in a room like that, it is.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: It always feels like you're the one that arrives last.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Everyone's already there, the circles of people are already there.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: So I'm a bit again.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I've built confidence over the years.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: But I will just go to the group usually with a mixture of men and women, depending on what group you've gone to, obviously and I will just say I will just go up to a group and say, oh, have you been to the group before?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Or you know, what business have you got?
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Or you know, do you know the host?
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And then, once I've been talking for a couple of minutes, I'll then completely throw out a crazy question and then talk about tele or like something just really normal that I would have spoken about with my friends.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: So one of the questions I asked recently is like, if you're in friends, what character would you be?
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Would you be Monica, rachel, that kind of thing.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: And sometimes people will be like what?
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: But mostly instantly they're like oh, my God, I'm all over, monica.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Or I'm a bit of CB, because it is really cliche to go hi, I'm Abby, I've got a business XYZ, when sometimes people don't care and they're just going through the motions.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: So I just go in and say, oh, have you got any kids, or just be you.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: And if that person hasn't got any kids, then you know that they've not got any kids.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Don't worry about putting your foot in it.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: You don't know them, just be you, don't worry about it.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: One question has got to be your first question, and if you break into a group, yes, they're all going to look at you, but you're at a networking event.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: That's entirely the idea of being there.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and to be honest you're talking.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: They probably only just made each other five minutes.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly so it's.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: We overthink it.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: We really overthink it because everyone has had a first networking event.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Everyone doesn't particularly like it.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Even if you're the most confident person in the room, there's always one question.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm training for the London marathon at the moment, so you'll find me talking about it quite a lot, usually because my legs are really aching.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: So, again, I'm at a networking event on Thursday in fact, but I'm hosting it, but I don't know half of the women there, and one of my first things I will say is I need to sit down because my legs are knackered because I'm doing the London marathon.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the talking point, so just talk about what's going on in your life.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: If you had a really busy weekend with your kids or you know your other half, or you've got holiday booked, just talk about it.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Just talk about what's going on in your life.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: We're all human.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's brilliant.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: So you started your business really through networking and finding clients through then.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And then how else have you grown the business and found a market to do so?
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: LinkedIn has been a massive like you know.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: I know, especially with your business as well, Elizabeth.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Linkedin has been a real pivotal point in grant business.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I've tried to be as consistent as I can, but I'm sure loads of other listeners are going to resonate with this and it is really hard to be on LinkedIn all the time Because it is a real time suck.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: So my advice for that is just do what you can.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Do not beat yourself up if you do not engage or comment or even post for a day.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Give yourself that break.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Just do what you can.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: But when you are on there, be really true to who you are and where you want to go, and don't worry about what everyone else is doing, because it's so easy to think everyone else is really successful and think that everyone else is on there, when actually you're not on there hardly at all, Because I'm not on there seven days a week.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: I'm probably not even on there five days a week and I'm getting a lead and I'm really really decent lead a week easily.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Is that because you've optimised your profile?
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: You spent time optimising your profile.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely so.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: I call her out all the time, but I call her out for a good reason.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: So I'm a massive fan of Helen Pritchard.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I did her five day challenge actually, I mean.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: I know she's doing other stuff now, but what she says is absolutely true and it's absolutely made my business.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I just do the four posts.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily do them in any order, but if I'm ever thinking, oh my God, what can I talk about?
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: I just go back to the four pillars and pick one.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: So people don't know Helen.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Do you want to explain who Helen is and what she's taught you?
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Well, helen Tudor is.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: She is now was kind of is, I think still doing a LinkedIn free five day challenge and she basically teaches you how to get lead via LinkedIn free.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: She does have a paid mastermind, which I was in a couple of years ago, which again is fantastic, but she teaches you about the four pillars of content and that's basically a go to so that it's so that you're never stuck as to what's talked about.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: So she says that you should do a video post, a call to action post, a story post and a testimonial, in any order as much as you like, if you really really need clients, and you should be doing it all the time.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: But I've basically every week.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Then is that what she advises, so she can do one of those Well?
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: she says you should be posting all the time.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: If you really are, if you've got the walls at the door and you've got bills to pay and you've got no clients, then you should be posting all the time.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: You need to be engaging all the time.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: I know that there are loads of people probably thinking, no, only post once a day, but again, stick to what you want to do.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: If you want to post 10 times a day, post 10 times a day.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: No one knows what the LinkedIn algorithm is up to.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: I don't care what influence that is.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: It's listening to it.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: They've got no idea.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: But sometimes I've posted four times a day.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Other times I've posted once a week.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I think it's good, LinkedIn, because I've posted a lot and I tend to post more, actually, If I'm not as busy.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: You know, if I need the business, then if I need, if I've got loads of business, you can post less.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: You can sort of you can flex how much you post depending upon how much work you need, and that's quite nice to do.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really hard because once you start to get the flow of clients in, you naturally drop that ball.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, then you know those clients might depend on what you do.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Those clients might be with you for a fixed amount of time.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: And then you think, oh, actually I'm a bit, I'm a bit light on the surface for clients.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: And then you think, oh, now I've got to do more work to get more clients in.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: The ideal situation is to keep yourself out there so that if people need you know, like a flexible working job, they always think I need to be in touch with Elizabeth.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: It's just about being in the back of people's minds so that the recommendations and it's getting that momentum.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: And, trust me, it takes far longer than you think it does.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: If you've been posting a couple of weeks and you're still hearing crickets, keep going.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: And even after then four months, keep going, nine months keep going.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: I'm using.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I've been on LinkedIn about three and a half years I think probably more than that but I've had periods where I've not posted for months because I have been really client heavy and I've dropped the ball and I've come back.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Just keep going.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Back to four pillars of content.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: You know it's really hard.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: That element of marketing, I would say, is the hardest lesson I've learned as a business owner, because you've got to keep on it and that doesn't matter what stage of business you're at, whether you're starting up, you're at five freelancers, like I am, you know, whether you're employed and you've got you've got six figure business.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Whatever it is, marketing is something that you have to do all the time.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's it period.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: So you've just got to find that balance for yourself as to what suits you.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: You know what kind of.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: You know I've got a family and stuff.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: I could be on LinkedIn all the time, but I want to cook dinner and actually speak to my husband at some point.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: So you know it's.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: You've got to drop one of the plates.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I mean it's again.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: It's a massive.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: It's the DNA about what I advocate for clients.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Be happy to smash some of those plates.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Why are you trying to spin all the plates?
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Just be realistic with what can be in your life.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: If that made any sense.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Absolutely so you were doing LinkedIn networking.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Is there any other marketing tips you have for somebody starting a business and trying to find their first clients?
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I am a fan of niching.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: So again, I know not everyone is a fan of niching it largely comes down to what you do but niching has worked incredibly well for me because I don't turn myself to be a VA.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: I work for high net worth women that absolutely adore working like 10, 16 hours a day.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: They've got no qualms at all about working long hours.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Money isn't an object for them.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: It's not something that they strive to.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: You know their bills are being paid.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: It's not something that worries them.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: They get immense joy out of what they do, but they've reached the point that they cannot carry on as they are.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: They've not always got a family, not always got children, but they've reached a point where they actually really want to see their other half.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Or they've got elderly parents that they know that they need to spend more time with.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Or, if they have got children, they know that bedtime's aren't going to be the same once they hit teenage years and they don't know how to combine the personal and work life.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: That is what we do as PA.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: So, although we prioritise personal lives, we really incorporate the mix between professional and personal life so we enable them to hit their professional deadlines in whatever capacity that's in, regardless of what industry they're in.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: But we do it in such a way that they don't lose their identity so that you know, with a yoga running, whatever it might be, we carve that time into their diary so they might think they've not got any time to do whatever it might be you know, coffee with their girlfriends or whatever.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: But me and the team have been doing diary management and we've all been PA's for a long time.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Once we look at a diary and we've worked with someone for ages we can see those snippets of time that will work best with that particular person and we start to carve that time back in without them realising, particularly that actually they've been.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe leaving an hour early for a meeting.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: Well, you could be talking to one of your girlfriends on the phone for half an hour while you're driving, or, if they want to learn about a particular subject, if they're doing a degree.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: I've got a client at the moment who's doing a degree outside of her business.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: She's struggling for study time outside, actually working.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Well, I found some podcasts that she can now listen to while she's driving, while she's cooking dinner.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: So we've incorporated that learning time in amongst her daily life that she's already living.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: That's what it's all about.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: It's not about saying right, actually on Friday you now finish at three and everything else just falling out the window.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: It's about working with the way they want to live their life and us coming up with really creative solutions around that.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: But they're not going to see that until they work with us.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: So talk me through your thought process.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: You know how you felt employing people and outsourcing some of your business, I suppose, and knowing that you had that responsibility of maybe paying other people and letting things go there was a lot of mindset work needed, Absolutely.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, all my PAs are freelance.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: I've not got to the stage of employment.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: It is something I want to do, yeah, and my accountant has said to me I'm at the stage where I do need to do that, but again it's probably more my little Lego men in my head.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Just I don't quite feel that I'm ready to do that.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: So I got my own PA.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Basically was one of the first things I did, because I found that I was doing all this stuff for everybody else and I was keeping up with my own life because, again, I suffer, not suffer, but I might.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: I've got three children.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: I've got my husband you know a life of my own who was doing all that.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: It was me that was doing it.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: So I finally, after talking to myself for a long time, thinking, no, I can't get my own PA.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: That's ridiculous.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I am a PA and I would tell myself that I would.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I must be a really bad PA if I need my own PA.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: That's the voices that were telling me.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Anyway, I've got over myself, long short of it, and my PA is absolutely fantastic and I love her dearly and she's actually on two weeks off at the moment.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I really guess you're feeling it.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Well, day one, so I'm this.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Two weeks is going to be tough, but I couldn't.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I was such a fan for her going because she is so good at what she does and she does for me pretty much all the things that I do for my clients.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So she'll remind me.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: You know, if she doesn't see my run scheduled in my diary, she'll be what's up in me.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I know you're running this week, but it's not in the diary.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Why is that?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: You know and that's that's the thing is accountability.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I suppose it's not.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's massive, you know, and it that's what I love to do with clients.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: So she does that with me and she's put in all my children's half terms and the fact, you know, the teacher strikes that have come up.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those dates are in my diary because some of my kids are affected and not all of them, and it's I delegate some of my client work to Rebecca.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: To Rebecca because, again, there's only so much I can do.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: And sometimes I reach a stage and I'm like, right, ok, all clients want me, it shouldn't matter who does it.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: I supervise the work when it goes back to the client.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Rebecca can do this.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: I am absolutely I'm drawing a line under this Rebecca's going to do it because Rebecca is a part of me and clients know that.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: You know, as long as the work's done, it could be me or Rebecca.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: But as for getting other freelance staff in as an extension of me or that's how I used to term it, I also gave permission to myself to realise that clients are always going to want my strengths.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: So I am not a techno expert in any shape of the word.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: I can't stand technology.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I'm not generally interested in technology, but because of the setup of my business.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: Obviously we're virtual and with some clients we do go out and visit, depending on where they are.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: But I wanted client.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: I wanted other PA's within the team that actually had different experience to me.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, sophie loves travel.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: She's been, she's travelled the world through her previous roles and she's actually set up as an Airtel registered agent within a luxurious setting.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: So anything travel related direct it straight to Sophie, which is great.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: So I can't stand booking flights.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: It makes me really nervous, and we've got other people on the team that also have got different strengths.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Rebecca loves the personal staff.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: She's very good at getting restaurant bookings and stuff like that.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: So do your freelancers have their own.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Do they have you allocate clients to them, or is it more like you're allocating the work to putting no.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: So when you take on freelance staff, if you are in the PA vicinity, I would recommend giving the PA's their own clients, because otherwise your workload is huge.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: If you are then supervising all the work, that's that's spread out, that's going to be your role forever.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just quite management, isn't it, I suppose?
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: exactly and then in terms of earning capacity you're really limiting your your ceiling.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: So the clients have one PA as well and I think it's good for seamless service and transparency that that client has one PA, just as in a corporate setting, when that PA is on holiday I can provide cover.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: But usually they'll just work out between themselves because even if they had a PA, that PA will have breaks at some point and they just build that relationship between themselves.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: But I have all brand new client calls so I talk to every brand new client myself.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: I work out what kind of support they need.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: I know my PA's relatively well because my onboarding for PA's is a bit quirky.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: So I'll ask how they take their tea or coffee, what music do they like?
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Have they got a family?
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: You know why are you a PA?
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Because it's really important to me what kind of PA they want to be.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: So I don't just want a PA on the team because they need to earn money.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: That's not the kind of PA I want on the team.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: I want them on the team because they might love diary management or they might love the personal element of what they do, or so when I take a client on, if I've got a client saying to me they're always back to back, like their diary is an absolute mess, I know that I've got a PA that absolutely is all over diary management.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, ok so you basically take the client brief and then you know which PA is going to best support that Absolutely.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: So I operate a little bit like a dating agency in that I then have to match the client to the PA, again with personality.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I can tell from the client on a call how they operate and they're quite black and white.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: What's the sense of humour like how they want, how much of the PA they want in their life, because some clients don't want their PA to necessarily be made public.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: So some of us are complete secrets to their families and work colleagues, which is fine.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Discretion is very high on our values, but we need to know that from the outset.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: I go into a lot of detail when I take on a client because what we do is so involved.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: If personal shopping and changing their wardrobe every season is really important to that client, I'll be asking what their brass size is, what their shoe size are.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: All that kind of stuff is really important, so that when they're booking on to a wardrobe, a personal styling appointment, we already know that information.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: We don't then have the toon and fro-ing of oh God, what shoe size are you?
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: It just makes it unnecessarily clunky.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: I take all that information away in the beginning.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Again, my strap line is live life seamlessly.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: So I try to put that in as much as possible, depending on what the client, the way the client wants to live their life.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Do you've got your own PA.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Is there anything else you outsource at home or anything you'd love to outsource?
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Absolutely cleaning, do you?
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: currently have a cleaner Ro.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I currently have a cleaner.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I'm not right this very moment because we've had lots of building work, but she is definitely on standby to come back once the carpenter's stopped making an absolute mess.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Because again I got to the stage where I thought who do?
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: I think I am trying to spin all these plates?
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: What badge am I actually trying to get?
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: What certificate am I working towards?
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Because I was just knackered and I wasn't doing any cleaning.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: I was doing that.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: You know that when we've got someone around, you do the mental run around for half an hour and you've, like, cleaned the entire house in half an hour.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: I was doing that and I just didn't want to do that anymore.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: So again, I got over myself, got a cleaner.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: And I don't clean before she arrives either.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: That's completely ridiculous.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: I let her actually do the cleaning and the tidying.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: So I got a cleaner that tidies as well, not just cleans, because I learned oh good, you know, because I've got a cleaner, but I do have the tidying, so I only have them every two weeks, and then the night before.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: That's why I don't think I'd want them more regularly, because the night before I'm spending like a good hour tidying and I'll just yeah.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: So I did have a cleaner that just cleaned, but then you'd pick up something and there'd be a rectangle where she'd cleaned around it.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that just drove me mad, because sometimes you don't have time to go through a pile of clutter or whatever it is.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: So and she will say to me when she first arrives okay, that needs attacking, are you happy for me to attack it?
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: And I'd say, right, that can all just be piled neatly, feel free to move it, just let me know where you've put it.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: And she's great.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: And again that most things you build up trust and I love her dearly and she's got a team for the same reason, and that message is then passed to the team if it's not her that comes around.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: So cleaning is wonderful and I'm quite happy for her to clean around me.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: You know, as I lift my laptop up, she cleans underneath it.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: On that, okay with it now.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: And the next stage which I haven't yet reached, which is really, really on my list, is a housekeeper, because my husband works nights, so I don't ever get to make my bed when I get up, because he's in it.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and by the time he's up at probably around half past one, two o'clock, I'm already thinking about school run.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: I'm well into work or whatever it is.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: I'm not then thinking about going back up and making the bed.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: It's just you know not.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's too late now.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: That point.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, my husband isn't about to make the bed either.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: He might flick the Duvay back at best, but I will then get in the bed as to however.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: He's got out of it and it's.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: But she'll want to.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: Housekeepers, come down and just make the bed, make sure the bed's changed every week, do the cleaning and do the washing, and, just, you know, putting the washing away.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: I don't mind doing the washing, but putting the washing away is mind numbing.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: I'm sure everyone agrees.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: And again, in complete transparency, I'm quite, I'll put the washing in each person's bedroom and then they'll just wear the stuff from the pile, because far easier.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, putting the washing away is a real, just horrible, horrible job.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: So that's next on my list.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: How's your life?
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Because you know a lot of people might listen to this thing.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: I'd love a cleaner, but feels like it's quite a luxury.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Or, you know, particularly on my own PA, I mean that sounds amazing, but I know that is that's a real luxury.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: You know I can.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe you know I should be doing it myself.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: That's a lot often, especially a lot of women feel that they should be doing things.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Or maybe you know, I've seen people and they say I've had a cleaner before but they don't do it as well as I would do it.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: What would you say to them?
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've had quite a few cleaners over the last couple of years and you've just got to be really clear with what you want.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: And I think it's only because you then get a cleaner that you realise what you then do and don't like, because no one's cleaned for you before.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: You've always done it yourself, so you don't really realise how you do it.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: So having a cleaner will really highlight what you do and don't like.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: So just own it.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: If you don't like someone I don't know, I don't know, I can't really think of an example.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Actually, looking at my mirror, there's smears on my mirror especially.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: It might be because she's using a certain window cleaner or something.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: But just say, like I prefer, mr Muscle, do you want to use mine?
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Or do you want me to have a word how I like doing it, and then you can go get on.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't be embarrassed by that kind of stuff, because it's a business and I'm sure that you in your business would also like to be told by your clients how they like stuff done so you can provide the service better.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: But that's a learning curve that takes time.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: You can't just after the first couple of weeks of having a cleaner get that confidence.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, be clear and try different cleaners.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you meet someone you're like oh, I don't feel comfortable when they're in my house.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it is, they just don't feel right, change them.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: It changed them again.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: It's your house.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: They're coming into your house and cleaning your things.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: If it doesn't feel right, get a different cleaner.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: Rebecca, my cleaners call Rebecca as well as my PA, but she's probably my fourth or fifth cleaner in the last couple of years because a couple of cleaners just didn't feel right.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: They'd come in and do it so quick that I could have done a better job and that does completely defeat the object.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: So if you feel that you should still be doing it, change them.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: And then, as for introducing a cleaner or whatever you want to outsource a PA, I did it really slowly, so my PA is by no means full time.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: My cleaner comes once a fortnight, like you, because I can't really quite stretch to once a week yet, and my PA does five hours a month, so really part time, and I started off with her doing I think it's about two and a half hours a month.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: So I had to be really quite strict with what I would give her, because once I was used to having her, the floodgates open because you're like, oh my god, this is great, she could do this and do this and this.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: And she'd say, well, we're at two and a half hours already and I'd only be 10 days into the month.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: So again, like the cleaner, it's a learning curve.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: You've got to work with that person.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: But it's got to be the right person for you to build that confidence and trust.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: For them to turn around and say to you, actually we're already at that time, let's prioritize.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: You know, rather than saying, actually you're at the time, you'll have to save it to next month.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: That's not going to be the right person to you.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: But Rebecca's my third PA.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: She's not the first VA and PA that I've spoken to Talk to people.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: Tell them what you need.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: If you're not sure, flip it round and tell them the kind of thing that you think you can delegate.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: But if you haven't had a PA before, that PA should be able to help you delegate.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: They should be able to lead and almost coerce you into delegating.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: I mean again, that's what I do with clients.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: How's that transformed your life?
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Delegating things now.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: So you've delegated your clients some clients, obviously not all clients, some clients.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: You've delegated some of your personal life with your PA.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: You've delegated the cleaning.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Obviously want to delegate the cooking.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: How has it transformed your life and your well-being?
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just phenomenally, even that five hours a month and every other week with the cleaner, it's just enabled me to have lunch at lunchtime and have my head clear.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: So I'm all over time blocking.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: I love time blocking.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: So are you doing school hours?
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, so I do mainly school hours.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: But quite often once I've got back from the school run, I'll be on my laptop again for about 40 minutes.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: I might start dinner and then, while dinner's cooking, I'll jump back on my laptop again.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: Not every night because again it depends on what the children are up to.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, my children are kind of coming out of the more demanding stage minus 16, 12 and 8.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: So it's only really my eight year old that I need to kind of do the reading thing with, write in the reading record and try and ask him about his day, which I now leave to dinner time because I can't get anything out of him before about five o'clock.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: But even though I've got older ones, I still need to be in their life.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: But it's a completely different capacity.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: So my oldest one is doing A-levels, it's making sure that is he even doing any work, because he's a gamer.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: My daughter, it's listening to the politics of the day, so she's a 12 year old.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: It's who's had a row with who?
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: They've bought those trainers.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: I didn't, you know, I don't like those trainers.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: That's a real current topic at the moment.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: So it's about having that time, headspace, to listen without feeling massive overwhelm.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: That's been the game changer for me in outsourcing, because even though you're with kids in the room or your husband talking about work, you think you're listening but you're not.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: You can see their mouth moving but nothing's going in because your husband is saying I've told you this, but it's because you're still doing the cleaning.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: You're still doing everything yourself, you're still doing the client work.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: You're doing everything.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: And I get us as women mainly you know some other guys in that fall in the bracket as well, but mainly women we have that whole that we should be doing it.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: You know I'm their mum, I should be doing that.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: I'm the business owner, I should be doing it.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: I'm the wife.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: You might be all those things, but you know what you're human and that I can't get across more importantly, on my socials.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: It's a shame that social media doesn't have that tone of voice, because I've come to grips with that myself and I absolutely get it and I now know that I am my ideal client.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: These women that I work with are where I want to be in two or three years and that's where the ideal client came for me.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: It was because I could see myself ahead in time and I've given myself that permission to go.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: Do you know what the cleaning has to go as long as the notice is clean?
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: Actually, does it matter who does it?
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: My husband doesn't care, the kids don't even notice, so it's only me that is noticing.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: And actually, do you know what she actually does it a bit better than I do.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: So, like, give it up.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: Be prepared to smash some plates.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: So that is what I'm all about.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Giving it up.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Stop shitting all over yourself.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: It's just utter BS.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: Be prepared to smash a plate and we'll have to use that for the episode title.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: So where can people find you?
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Are they connected if they're interested in getting a PA or becoming maybe a freelance PA?
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: If you're taking anyone else on, I'm sorry.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm always looking to hear from other freelance PAs if you're coming out of corporate or whatever stage you're at, because I do struggle finding other PAs that are on the same page as me and that have got such a conscientious, proactive nature, because it really is about leading the client.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: I've got a new client that's possibly coming on board who is all over the place.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: I know we can help her, but it will be about us really putting in some structure into her life.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: So I've got a Google form, so that would just be a case of emailing me at abigalepopins-pacom.
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: My website is popins-pacom.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: Again, I'm on LinkedIn as Abigail Langman language and I have got a business page on Facebook which is popins-pa, and Instagram's exactly the same handle.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Brilliant.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll put all the links in the show notes.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, abigail, for all your time telling us about how you built your business, all the benefits of outsourcing, which I am 100% on board with as well.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: So thank you so so much for joining us today.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work it Like A Mum podcast.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: You can also follow my recruitment site Investing in Women on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Until next time, keep on chasing your big dreams.