CBL Episode #112-The Sidekick Effect: Interview with Sarah Baker-Freeing Up Time for What Matters Most

 Why Every Cleaning Business Owner Needs a Virtual Assistant (feat. Sidekick Sarah Baker)

Feeling overwhelmed by your endless to-do list? You’re not alone. In this episode of Cleaning Business Life, we sit down with Sarah "Sidekick Sarah" Baker, a virtual assistant who specializes in helping cleaning business owners reclaim their time and scale their operations.

Sarah pulls back the curtain on what a VA actually does—from handling social media, email marketing, and website updates to tackling administrative tasks that drain your time. She explains why outsourcing non-Income Producing Activities (non-IPAs) is the key to unlocking growth in your business.

Why hire a stateside VA like Sarah? Unlike offshore assistants working opposite hours, Sarah prioritizes real-time communication, cultural understanding, and rock-solid organization. She shares her proven systems—from trusty paper planners to digital workflows—to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Wondering what to delegate first? Sarah suggests starting with tasks that always get pushed to the bottom of your list. Many of her clients began with social media management and were amazed at how much more she could take off their plates.

“Hiring a VA isn’t just an expense—it’s an investment in your business growth and mental health.” If you’re ready to stop drowning in admin work and start focusing on revenue-generating activities, this episode is for you!

📌 Connect with Sidekick Sarah:
🔗 Website: https://www.sidekicksarah.com/
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.ganderbaker

🔖 Tags: #CleaningBusiness #VirtualAssistant #SmallBusinessGrowth #Outsourcing #Delegation #CleaningCompanySuccess #WorkSmarterNotHarder #CleaningBusinessLife #SideKickSarah

It can be crowed when trying to figure out who you are going to learn from

Erica Paynter is the brains behind My Virtual Bookkeeper, a bookkeeping firm for cleaning companies, and the creator of Clean Co. Cash Flow Academy and the Clean Co. Collective. She’s on a mission to help cleaning business owners make sense of their numbers without boring them to tears! Erica’s all about turning messy books into profit-packed powerhouses.

 support@myvbk.com 

Up your cleaning game, join over 6000 Cleaning Business Owners most of whom are located here in the United States.  

Chapters

• 1:44 Introducing Sidekick Sarah
• 4:04 VA Services and Benefits
• 11:35 Stateside Support and Communication
• 16:59 Website Management and Social Media Growth
• 24:17 Red Flags When Hiring a VA
• 28:52 From Accidental Business to Growing Team
• 36:21 Starting Small and Building Trust
• 39:13 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

All of the things you left there. It is Recording in progress. First of all, Sarah, thank you for filling in. I really appreciate it. I know we talked about this a couple times and I'm glad that this worked out and that you're here with us on a Saturday morning. I really appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for having me. Yeah, not a problem at all. So I'm just going to cheat and read some of my questions. I didn't get no questions, but it's okay, google drive Okay, so technology, so it's okay, do you?

Speaker 3: 1:25

want me to say really quick. No, it's fine, I'm riding on your coattails.

Speaker 1: 1:34

Perfect. So for those of you who don't know, miss Sarah sidekick Sarah air quotes is my VA, she's not just my VA. I talk about her like she's all mine. It's just she's not all mine. She does VA services for a lot of people and had a bump in business, which was nice, last year, and has helpers now, which has been awesome, and I think yeah, I think the rumor was that the husband was even helping. Is that correct? It is correct, I love it.

Speaker 3: 2:10

How'd you get that to happen? You wanted to spend more time with me.

Speaker 1: 2:27

So. So I wanted to introduce you guys to her, or, you know, vice versa, so that you guys can get familiar with what it's like to have a VA, how much of a time saver it is to have a VA. I mean, there's so many things that Sarah can do and usually and it's she's gotten way better at controlling me, because sometimes I'm like, hey, you have time to do this thing. Did you put it on the list? Oh, the list it's just like, and she's great at reminding you. She has reminders that come up. I mean, there's a lot of things that Sarah does that I don't give her credit for, like she does a lot of other things just besides waiting on me. In all my little ways, sarah, why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about what services you provide and how you've been influenced in the cleaning industry?

Speaker 2: 3:13

Okay, well, thank you again for having me. I'm super excited. Never done this type of thing before, so I was a little nervous, but we got this. Yeah, as a virtual assistant, I help business owners scale their business so I can take all of those non-IPAs off of your to-do list. You know all those things that you don't have time to do, but they have to get done. You just keep pushing them aside.

Speaker 2: 3:39

I specialize in administrative support, social media management, email marketing, blog copy inventory management, website creation and maintenance so much more allowing you to be able to grow your business the thing that you're really good at. I've been an office manager in many different industries over the last 25 some years, so I can help you from with anything like. I have clients that have boutiques online boutiques and in person boutiques anything from making handmade jewelry, dog accessories, pork and homemade sauces, personalized gifts, and I have several different cleaning clients of different sizes. I even have a telehealth practice that I work with. My goal is to bring that organization, efficiency and the peace of mind to my clients, helping scale without feeling all that overwhelmed that, as a small business owner, we all feel. So basically, in the short version, I can be your remote office manager, so that to take those nine non-IPAs off of your to-do list.

Speaker 1: 4:50

And for those of you who don't know, can you explain what an IPA is?

Speaker 2: 4:53

Yeah, IPA is the income producing activities, so the non-IPAs are the ones that those back the backside things that have to get done in order to do the income producing activities, like your accounts payable, your accounts receivable, your social media creations, all of those things.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Awesome and it's helpful to have a direction. I mean, when Sarah and I first connected, I mean I just like vomited in her lap. I'm like I need this thing done. I don't even, I didn't even want to make any decisions. I'm like I just need this done seven days a week. I have all of these pages, just do it. I think that's what the agreement was. It was a big decision for you wasn't it yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:31

I remember you going through that yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:34

So for the first year, sarah just took the ball and ran with it. She was like I don't want to make any decisions, just put it, put something out there. And now we're more strategized. We have like an intent and where we're going and what we're doing and a lead, lead generation and all that other stuff. But in the beginning I was like, oh my gosh, I know I need to do this, but I don't have time.

Speaker 2: 5:53

So and it's really overwhelming. Everyone knows they need somebody because they can't do all the things, but they're no don't know what to give, they don't know what to delegate because they've done everything all themselves for so long it's hard to let go of things. It is. It is. It's really hard and I'm having a hard time with it myself, with having my husband help, and he's literally sitting right next to me and I still have a hard time handing things over because I've done them all myself for so long.

Speaker 3: 6:22

And you know right right. So what's the process of if somebody wanted to and people that, like me, don't know exactly what it is that you can possibly help with? I mean, it's just how does the process work?

Speaker 2: 6:46

Okay. So generally when I have a referral, we talk and they've already kind of have a little idea of something they want to get rid of. Usually it's social media is the first thing that they're like I just don't have time to do this, but I know I need to post consistently. So that's generally the first thing we start with, and sometimes clients already have that taken care of and that's fine. It's just an easy thing for us to take off the plate and start working on and you can see what we are capable of doing.

Speaker 2: 7:16

I have a few clients we don't do any social media for. We do all the other things. I do have a website. So if someone's just like I have no idea where to even start, I'm like, okay, here are some ideas of things that we take care of. So maybe there's something on this list that you know that you just don't have time for. So look at that list. I do have links to several websites, blogs, social media that we do on my website so that you can see our work firsthand of what we're doing.

Speaker 2: 7:49

This is what we do, like you can actually see examples of it, so that's a good place to start is like, if you're not sure where to start, whether it's with us or with someone else but looking at your list, look at your to-do list every week and be like okay, I've literally moved this five times because I haven't done it yet. That's something that you need to decide. If you need to delegate that because you clearly don't have time for it.

Speaker 1: 8:16

And one of the nice things I will say about working with you, sarah, and your team, is that you're located here. You're stateside, is what I tell everyone. I'm like when you and that was really important to me I have a couple of friends who have VAs in the Philippines and but they're those guys are working the graveyard shift in another country that you know there's a 24 hour cycle and it just. It becomes like a whole thing when you're trying to get ahold of someone and you need something. So you're stateside. You're usually very responsive unless you know you've got other things going on, but you'll still check back in by the end of the day. I've always had a good rapport in that. So I will say that she is stateside and it's really convenient to get a hold of her, should you need to do so and actually talk to a person.

Speaker 2: 9:00

I appreciate that. I was in the school of when the phone rings, you have to answer it by the second ring. So I have always done that everywhere and I pretty much do that with every single message I ever receive. Even if I can't give you the full answer, I will at least respond to whether it's a text or Facebook or an email, and be like I'm checking on this or here's a quick answer, I'll get you more later. I try to respond to everything in that aspect, because I would appreciate that too, and I don't expect a full answer every time I send a message either.

Speaker 2: 9:35

I do a lot of my work. Now that Mike's helping me, I don't have to work quite as late at night, but there are still some times that I'm working at 10 or 11 o'clock and I'm in central time zone, so you might be in a different. I have every. I have people from California to New York, so I'm in every time zone and sometimes my convenient time is not your convenient time. So I do appreciate that I can send those messages and we can either respond like hey, I'll get you in the morning, I'll get you more information, or whatever. So I do appreciate that very much with you, shannon, and we can be real. We're like hey, life right now is nuts. It's going to be a couple of days. There's been a couple of those messages.

Speaker 3: 10:15

Yeah, no, I that's. I've always appreciated about Shannon she gets it, she happens and, um, I think, uh, we're moms, she understands kid pickup time and yeah, that's great. I love that you're a stateside. I love that, that's, that's a great. So website maintenance, huh, and, and you can actually make a website, I can Really, yeah, I'm writing. I know I know Shannon will put this in the show notes, but for me, I had for my brain to work, I have to write it down. Yeah, I, for my brain to work, I have to write it down. Yeah, I'm that way. Yeah, yeah, I gotta write it down.

Speaker 1: 11:01

Sarah, you're fluent in all types of websites. I don't remember Are you fluent with all types of websites or just certain types of websites?

Speaker 2: 11:07

So mostly Shopify. I've also done Wix and WordPress. Okay, perfect.

Speaker 1: 11:15

So for those of you looking for having someone manage their website, I highly recommend Sarah to get that done for you for sure. And then I will also add the caveat that when she first took over my social media, I had like 1000% increase, obviously because I wasn't doing anything. But then I've noticed a 400% increase from year to year because now I have something measurable. So if you're really wanting your social media to take off I mean, she makes, she does. I don't do anything, I don't even even towards the end, I didn't even approve the blog post, I just let her do it. She makes the graphics, comes up with the design, does the cons. I don't do anything except for what I want to focus on and she takes care of all of that for you. So if you're looking for a done for you service, sarah is your lady.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Literally sidekick Sarah.

Speaker 3: 12:04

Huh, yeah, no, it's not really honestly in the pocket.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Right, so, but you have to learn again to let go of the control. And you know, and initially I was like no, I need to see everything. But after a while I was like no, I don't, I don't want to just take care of it, you ended up trusting her.

Speaker 2: 12:23

You're like oh, I know you got this. That's understandable. You do everything so much and it's your name that's on it, so why would you not want to see that? And I have no problem sending that. I want everyone to know that they're in good hands. Every personality test I've ever taken over the years, my top five things are responsibility, discipline, consistency, strategic and achiever. So I pride myself in all of those things. All my friends call me very OCD. If they need time help with time management organization, they know I'm the girl to go to. I want my clients to know that they can assign me a task and never have to look at it. If they want to, they're more than welcome to I will send you. We just have to be a little organized so that we can send it early. Get it done. You can approve it, then we can get it posted.

Speaker 2: 13:11

And we do that, and I've done that with several clients and, like Shannon, after a while she's like just do it, I don't need to see it anymore.

Speaker 3: 13:18

I know. I know I'm looking and I can see in your background that you're organized. I put everything over to this side so that you guys couldn't see it, because I am unorganized.

Speaker 2: 13:31

People ask me all the time. They're like how do you keep track of that Cause? I think we have 16 clients right now and I'm like this, this, right here. This is my little Bible, this is my to-do list. This is a week's worth of to-do list. I'm getting better about being digital, but I am a paper girl.

Speaker 3: 13:52

So that's my to-do list, right Like a heart.

Speaker 1: 13:54

Yeah, that's awesome. By the end of the year, that would be awesome. That'd be so cool.

Speaker 3: 13:59

Oh, that'd be great. Yeah, we'll have to talk after the show. Yeah, that's great. I know that I've reached out before and again. Life happens and then you just fall down to the bottom and you forget, and then Shannon will be like did you reach out? I don't know if you reached out. Have you hired Sarah yet? Oh, yeah, sarah Ring. Somebody calls and it's like oh just, you know how life goes. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 14:31

And being with that I can. I feel like one of my special things is that I can handle the different types of businesses and the different type of business owners. I have some that want to be part of every single thing that is done. Literally, I do a task, they check it. I have other ones that will assign me something. They've assigned me something three years ago and I still do it every single week and they know it's done because they can see the results from it.

Speaker 3: 14:58

So anything from anywhere.

Speaker 2: 14:59

I also have some that can't remember to do anything. They don't know if they've even assigned me something, or part of our conversation. I'm not just looking at you.

Speaker 1: 15:10

Shannon, I've been there a couple of times.

Speaker 2: 15:13

I have several that are very, very, very much have adult ADHD, and that's okay. I think. As we all start going through perimenopause and menopause, we all have a little bit of that, but they get to the point where they're, they have so much on their plate they don't know. If they said to me yeah, do this. Or if it's part of the conversation is, I want to do this. Down the road, I just get to know you. As we get to know each other better, I know which of those things during a conversation I should just do and say, oh, by the way, this is done so we figured out.

Speaker 1: 15:47

Many, many times I'm like, oh, I was supposed to do that 15 days ago. Yeah, cause I try to always give myself deadlines days ago. Yeah, cause I try to always give myself deadlines, but I'm the classic overachiever. I I take, I bite off more than I could do. So instead of having like one bowl of cereal, I'll have two bowls of cereal and maybe a third bowl of cereal. I'm like I got this and then I don't. And then I freak out. I'm like I don't, I don't have this at all. Same, crazy, crazy. Um, you manage several different types of businesses, not just cleaning businesses. Um, what do you think that are some time-wasting habits that, as a business owner, we might have? Obviously, biting off more than you can chew would probably be in there somewhere.

Speaker 2: 16:32

That's definitely in there and just getting frustrated to try to get it all done and forgetting that you can delegate Right, Whether it's a simple thing as social media or anything. I mean really anything. You guys, as cleaning business owners, you know that you want them to hire you to clean the house right, or commercial offices, whatever. We have a hair girl, we hire the hair girl. We have a massage girl that we've hired. They're skilled to do those things. So you need a new tire on your car. You're not gonna just go to Walmart and go oh well, that one might be, okay, I'll take it home and see if it fits. You ask them what you need for your car at the tire shop because that's their specialty. So if you don't have time for it or the skill for it, then you need to hire someone to do it.

Speaker 3: 17:23

I think people need to, and whenever you're asking yourself what do I delegate? How would I even do? I can just see the audience right now, like you know, and I think it's the very thing that pains you and you put it so far down on the list to do you'll do anything else but that task Before you do that one? Yes, exactly that is where I think you would come in handy.

Speaker 2: 18:24

Yes. The thing that's on your to-do list and you continue to set it aside for when you have time. Those are the things that you need to delegate first, Yep.

Speaker 3: 18:35

That's it, mic drop.

Speaker 1: 18:39

So I guess that would be the thing when you would consider hiring a VA is when you just can't get to it. Um, and I've mentioned in other podcasts, cause people are like how do you accomplish what you accomplish? I'm like everything is done in blocks of time. I have a six hour window from drop off to pickup, five days a week, so everything is crammed into those spots. Um, but'm like everything is done in blocks of time. I have a six hour window from drop off to pick up five days a week, so everything is crammed into those spots. But if I, if for say, for example, you didn't have children and you, you know what, what point would you consider having a VA, then Right, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 19:11

I mean, we all still have the same amount of hours in the day. There's only 24 hours regardless.

Speaker 1: 19:16

No matter how hard you try.

Speaker 2: 19:17

Six of them, or you're working eight of them. We all have the same amount of time in our day. So if there's just that time, that and some people are out networking. I know several people that go to networking meetings almost daily or at least a couple times a week. Meetings almost daily, or at least a couple times a week, that's taking time away from when you can be working. But that is an income producing thing. That's your advertising budget. So you still have to do that. They're still working. They're just not at their computer working on some of those things. So it's the same thing whether you have six hours in front of the computer or eight hours in a workday and six of it's in the computer. Because I know, shannon, that sometimes when you're in the pickup line that you're doing things from your phone.

Speaker 3: 20:03

True, true, true, it's a lot, it's a lot on your phone. I can, I have. I've literally sat at kid pickup doing payroll.

Speaker 1: 20:13

Yeah, that's not good. You can make a mistake.

Speaker 3: 20:18

Switching back and forth. I have it.

Speaker 2: 20:27

I've only done it a couple of times but still, I just yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:29

Sometimes you just got to do what you want to do. It's just like I got to get. I have a deadline. Why didn't I do this earlier? I have a deadline. Why didn't I do this earlier? Why am I doing this now?

Speaker 2: 20:36

Yeah, We've all had to do that at some time or another. Yeah, do the things on our phones. I mean, luckily we have that. I mean think about 10, 20 years ago we didn't really have the technology that we have. Now that we can do things remotely, I love that.

Speaker 2: 21:07

That is one of my favorite things about this is that it's so flexible and I can do it from anywhere. I went to Arizona a couple weeks ago and spent some time with my dad while he's winteringdaughter date week and you know, in the evenings I was able to work from the hotel room and my husband was working from home. You know, it's just love that I can do it anywhere anytime. Last a couple of weeks ago we went to see my mother-in-law. I can do a couple of things. I try not to work on Saturdays, usually usually a couple hours on Sunday, unless it's a big project, you know. But Saturdays I keep for family time and I can do whatever wherever we're at.

Speaker 3: 21:42

I love that you make a. You specifically make set aside a day for your family. I think everybody should do that and we all need to do that. Make sure that you spend and you know, even with your my employees yeah, there's gotta be a day.

Speaker 2: 22:03

You have to. You have to have a time. We have one night a week that we don't do any work and is our family evening. We eat dinner, which is usually ordering pizza, because generally if we order pizza we're sitting on the floor and just kind of chit-chatting. We might play games and watch a show together, but there's one night that we are not on our phones and not doing schoolwork or business work. That makes it nice, definitely.

Speaker 3: 22:27

Schoolwork.

Speaker 2: 22:28

You said schoolwork. Do you have kids? Yeah, I have a senior in high school.

Speaker 3: 22:32

Woo-hoo, good job.

Speaker 2: 22:37

We're almost there.

Speaker 3: 22:38

We're almost there, just there, chugga, chugga, choo choo.

Speaker 2: 22:41

Yes, he can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 3: 22:44

I think oh, good job.

Speaker 2: 22:46

Good job.

Speaker 1: 22:48

So what would be some red flags that you've seen in the industry, if you?

Speaker 2: 22:59

wanted to hire a VA, what would be some red flags for someone to look out for before they hired a VA? Obviously communication, I would think, but I don't know. Yes, that was going to be my first thing. That's a really good question. Poor communication for sure. If they're very slow to respond or they're vague in answers, definitely a red flag. Lack of experience or skill set matching what you're needing. If they can't provide examples of work that they've done or even references, that's definitely. I've never really actually been asked for references, but 97% of our clients are all referrals, so that would be reference anyway. If they don't have any systems or processes in place, they should have some ways of workflows or systems or tools that they use to stay organized. Like I said, my binder right here, this is like this is gold for me.

Speaker 2: 23:48

I am trying to be more digital, so you know anything like that over promising not following through. If they're not responding to anything that you're sending, that's definitely a big red flag right there. I know Shannon's had some problems with that with someone recently. Definitely red flags or subpar work, not not following the instructions that you're giving them Even in the beginning, like the first project. If they're not posting on social media if the agreement was to post five times a week and they're doing maybe one, that's definitely not following through, not asking questions.

Speaker 2: 24:32

A great VA is going to take time to really understand your business and the needs of your business. So if they're not asking questions, whether it's about your business or how you're wanting something done, that's a good, a big red flag, or it's every time you've asked something. It's totally all over the place. Unclear expectations for both of you on whether they're working time or the response times all big red flags. And it's okay if you find someone and you think they're gonna work and the first time they don't, it's okay to fire them. Just have clear expectations before you start on money, communication and expectations of the job.

Speaker 3: 25:18

In my opinion, Great, no, that's great Money. Communication and instruction yes, I like that. That's something.

Speaker 1: 25:32

And sometimes too, from the little bit experience I've had with others, it really does come down. They they will say this is just my personal experience. They'll say that they can do or work a certain program so you give them full access to the program and they don't. They're trying to learn to do the program while they're doing the job for you. And it's like you know, I just say yes or no. It don't. You know, it's, it's not. It's not a do or die situation and it's okay. Maybe a year down the road you guys revisit the whole thing and it ends up being a good fit or or not. But don't say that you can do something and you can't like. I'm usually pretty transparent. I'm like I can do this or I can't do this, or I like you, I don't like you.

Speaker 2: 26:14

I'm pretty transparent. If I don't know how to do something, I'll be like, well, I kind of think I do, but I'm going to do some research and I'll get back to you, or no? Just give me a quick little loom video and I'm sure I can figure it out, like there's always YouTube university. But I will tell you if I don't know it. But if you don't know either, I'll be like okay, let's do some research, we'll figure it out together.

Speaker 3: 26:36

Right, oh, I love that. I really genuinely like that. That's great Thanks. Yeah, no, how long have you been in doing this for?

Speaker 2: 26:49

Um kind of by accident since 2020.

Speaker 3: 26:53

Oh, okay, right Right, the whole COVID era.

Speaker 2: 26:57

Yeah, and it was really by accident. Yes, it seems so long ago.

Speaker 2: 27:02

Well, yeah, so I've been in direct sales for a really long time. I was with the same company for 15 years. They just closed in December. So during COVID, my husband had lost his job and my business coach knew I was looking for a little more income. And you know, everything was pivoting at the time during COVID that we weren't doing home parties, so we were figuring out how to do them online.

Speaker 2: 27:33

I was making graphics, I was helping other people, coaching my team, and my business coach was like, hey, I know someone that's needing help with social media. Can I connect you? And I was like, yeah, sure, she had a marketing agency and a photography business. She wanted to focus on photography, which was her main thing, and she needed someone helping with the social media. So I was like, yeah, whatever. So I started doing social media for her, just thinking that that's what I was doing.

Speaker 2: 28:02

And we were having a meeting and with another, with one of our clients, and during the meeting she was like, hey, can you do this? And this? She? Um, they had a pork business. They actually had pigs for a really long time and they were still doing the pork and homemade sauces, but there was no way to do food shows. All of those were going digital.

Speaker 2: 28:22

So she needed help getting all of her products onto all these separate websites to do online food shows. And my girl was like no, I don't have time for that. But Sarah, do you have time for that? And I was like I don't have time for that, but Sarah, do you have time for that? And I was like I don't know what that means, but if you show me what to do, I'm sure I'll figure it out. And so it just kind of has snowballed from there. Every time she would be product boss, is a big product coaching business on online and every time she would be in one of those groups and someone was like I need help, I need an assistant. She was putting my name out there and basically for the first like three years, all I didn't even have a Facebook page or a website. Everything was just word of mouth and referral and which, as we all know from a small business, that is the biggest compliment ever and appreciate it so much. And so that's just kind of how I grew and we have grown.

Speaker 3: 29:22

And then did it just dawn on you, like I'm going to. I can't, I'm going to take this and give this a go. I'm going to go.

Speaker 2: 29:28

I was like oh this is actually becoming like something like there's actually money coming in. And yeah, it's been fun, fun watching watching others grow and being part of the success of other businesses, and ours has grown at the same time. And I didn't even know that's what I was doing for myself. I was just trying to help others and then mine grew also oh, that's so.

Speaker 3: 29:49

That's such a good story. Thank you, yeah, congratulations. And then how'd you come up with the name site of that's? It just goes great.

Speaker 2: 30:01

That was actually my business coach that did that, so she is super good at that type of stuff. Um, I was selling bags when I was network marketing, when I was going to marketing networking meetings all the time, and one of my weeks to present, she made a slide that said Baker got bags, or I got big bags and I cannot lie, or something to the effect and we're huge Friends fans anyway. So I was like I love that Baker got bags and so that's what my group was and everyone just knew me as Baker got bags. And then she had me working on a project and I didn't want like to use my normal Facebook thing. She was actually doing an online training and I was going to be in there responding to people and communicating, and so we created another Facebook so that I wouldn't be using my personal one, and she called me her sidekick and I was like that actually works really well for me.

Speaker 3: 31:09

Isn't it funny how it comes to you like that, yeah same with, above all, cleaning services.

Speaker 2: 31:15

it just bop and I was like that it just fit, it was just perfect.

Speaker 3: 31:19

So I love and that's a great story and congratulations, congratulations on that.

Speaker 1: 31:25

That's a good one interesting to reference the, the bump in the road of 2020. I mean, I think it will be remembered for forever. It's kind of like the depression that happened that no one is around to tell us about because they're all gone. I just think it was a pivotal point in our society where we just kind of went the other way. It was time for a change.

Speaker 2: 32:20

Boom pivoted a lot of different ways, and I think so too. It's like before and after, like there's. I don't know it's just it's kind of a line that was drawn in the sand for a lot of us.

Speaker 1: 32:44

Yeah, definitely, definitely. So you have a team of three, two, three of us. Yep, there's three of us.

Speaker 3: 32:48

Okay, awesome, that's a that's a lot of work, of work. Definitely that's great. That means you're growing like when I'm taking on another person hiring, that is hiring another person that you, you know you're doing something right.

Speaker 2: 33:01

Well, thanks, I know.

Speaker 3: 33:03

I because it's just like. Sometimes I'm sitting here thinking to myself how did I, how am, how did I get here? How am I here right now?

Speaker 2: 33:11

Yeah, yes, as business owners, I think we all think that sometimes it's just like yeah, are you sure?

Speaker 1: 33:19

So I'm going to throw one from left field. What's the most unusual task you have been asked to do?

Speaker 2: 33:27

Oh, I'm not sure I mean. One of the odd ones was I had um someone that one of my clients is a verbal processor former clients, we're not working together anymore. Um, he's a verbal processor. What honey.

Speaker 1: 33:51

Don't tell that story, you'll tell it don't tell that story.

Speaker 2: 33:55

You'll tell it, he was a verbal processor and occasionally he just needed help writing an email and I didn't even have to say anything. Sometimes we would just be on the phone and he would be reading what he was writing and I literally didn't even say anything. So I would just keep working doing whatever it is I needed to do, and he just talked it all out loud.

Speaker 3: 34:21

There we go. While you were typing, yeah, like kind of like on.

Speaker 2: 34:25

Zoom and do like reading what he wanted to do and what he should do, and we would work through it. But there were other times that he just needed it to be out loud and so I would just be on the phone and I just thinking I was going to answer questions or help process through it. But no, he just was doing it himself and I just was like, okay, well, I'm just going to keep working.

Speaker 1: 34:47

There we go. Sometimes you just need to be heard, right Sometimes, yeah. A shoulder to cry on oh, my goodness gracious. So if you were to give advice to the fellow cleaning business owners who are going to listen to this podcast, what kind of advice would you give them, business-wise, obviously, besides hiring you and your services?

Speaker 2: 35:12

you mean like advice on if they need to hire?

Speaker 1: 35:15

or anything, yeah. And if they need to hire and where, where they should go for getting ahold of you, that type of stuff, sure.

Speaker 2: 35:24

So first advice would be start small and test the waters. So hiring a VA does not mean that you're going to be handing over your entire business overnight. You've been doing this for a long time, so you clearly are the master, right? You're the head honcho. But when you start handing over those repetitive tasks or the time-consuming tasks, the things that you just don't like to do, the ones that are draining your time and they don't really need your personal touch Maybe that's email management, scheduling, social media, customer follow-ups, anything like that Once you see how much time and mental energy that you can free up by delegating those tasks, giving that extra support from someone, that's not just an expense hiring a VA.

Speaker 2: 36:17

That's actually an investment in your business for your growth and your efficiency. That makes it give you more time for and your mental health. I mean, when we're having all those things in our mind, it's just like it's crazy, right? So the key to start is with the clear expectations that we talked about, the communication, and then it gradually, as you're growing your trust, then you can start building the trust and giving them more and more things to take more of the overwhelm from your plate and give it to someone else.

Speaker 1: 36:51

Awesome, I love that. And where would people get a hold of you Um, should they want to reach out? Obviously, I try to connect you through messenger on Facebook.

Speaker 2: 37:00

Yeah, and that's fine. You can message me on Facebook. I have no problem with that. Um, so my Facebook is sidekick Sarah and then I also have a website sidekick Sarah, so you can connect sidekick Sarahcom. You can connect to either place.

Speaker 1: 37:14

Perfect. Do you have any questions for us? I don't think so. Sometimes we get some juicy ones. I'm like okay.

Speaker 2: 37:23

I don't think so. I mean, Shannon, we've worked together probably a couple of years. Is there anything that I've done that's like helped you grow your business, to scale your business, anything like that?

Speaker 1: 37:36

I think initially, when I first started, it was like a leap of faith, but it was that whole calming aura that you had about yourself that got me through, like, okay, this is going to be okay, Cause I just wanted to like unload boxes and boxes and boxes and I'm like, what do I pick first, Right so. And then it's just, it's just knowing you have this knack of just calming people down and getting right to the point of whatever it is this person is trying to ask you. And there were several times where I like mumbled through, I'm like I don't really know what I even want. It was great to have someone who had enough gumption to know to ask those questions. And then after a while I would realize that I didn't communicate as effectively as I.

Speaker 1: 38:22

In my mind, I always communicated effectively, but then I would blurt something out and you'd be like, what exactly did you mean by that? So I would need someone to just kind of say, hey, you said this thing. I know I want it to do it, but I don't know what it is that you want me to do or what exactly. It wasn't very clear. And after a while it's just like, hey, I need this thing done and I became more familiar, more comfortable. It's kind of like trying on a pair of jeans right, you just try on the jeans. These jeans are gray.

Speaker 3: 38:59

And then other times jeans.

Speaker 1: 39:00

You're like I don't, I don't like those jeans, but you were a great pair of jeans so well, thank you. An unusual analogy, I know, but it's a good pair of jeans. I'm wearing a jean uh dress today is probably where the jean thing came from, um, but yeah, no, I think it's. It was great to have you just kind of slip in there and take charge and not be like because there is a lot of anxiety when you're hiring a VA Is this person going to take over? Are they going to crash my business? What if they take away my secrets, even though I don't have any secrets? But that's all of this goes on in your mind.

Speaker 1: 39:27

You're like well, what if I tell them this and then they do something? I know for a fact that you helped someone, who will not be named, um, get back on their Facebook account. After that their, their account was hacked and that that was very stressful, and I can only imagine what it was like for that person to try to figure out how to get back in on their social media. It just was like and you know, there's no humans Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2: 39:53

Right, yeah, you definitely should have at least two administrators on your social medias, no matter what, because if you are hacked doesn't mean that they are, so if if there's no one else on there, then you're screwed.

Speaker 1: 40:10

It can take months. I know of a well, obviously I share a lot of dogs. His name is Randy Graham and someone hacked him from another country and they were telling like they took over his page. It was obviously a female and Randy is a male and they were telling all kinds of relationship problems and how awful their life was and everyone's like you know why are you? This is an animal rescue. So they took his personal page, they took his, his rescue site. They took like four or five other pages that all had to do with the same thing and they were just out there like pleading for someone to pay attention to them, like please give his page back. It took him months to get it back and then he ended up having a heart attack and then recovering from that. But he's okay now. But it just was this whole weird dynamic of you know you never think it's going to happen and then you know Right.

Speaker 2: 41:02

Right, absolutely yeah. You never think it's going to happen to you. It happens to somebody else.

Speaker 1: 41:06

Right, it's just got to be on awares for sure. Well, I appreciate you coming on and we'll get you a heads up on when this is going to be released and people can look for you on SidekickSarahcom, right.

Speaker 3: 41:21

That is correct and it'll be posted on the bottom of the show notes and everything. Sarah, it was super nice meeting you. Thank you for coming on and I will be chatting with you.

Speaker 2: 41:33

Okay Sounds good Thanks, Jamie. Thanks Shannon, Thank you.