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Laura Nicole: 00:02

Welcome to Your Virtual Assistant Coach, the podcast for moms who want to make money from home on their own terms. I'm your host, Laura Nicole, a successful six-figure earning VA and coach who replaced my college professor's salary in just five months back in 2020 after my daughter was born, and I have never looked back. I'm here to help you build a profitable, flexible VA business that fits into your family's lives so you no longer feel like you're living just to work. Let's dive in.

Laura Nicole: 00:33

So, an interesting thing about working with online business owners, especially like course creators and coaches, is that they're not busy at like the same level all the time. And that's because most online business owners go through cycles where they will have quieter weeks or months and then they'll have really busy ones, especially around launches, because a lot of online businesses, even if they're not coming up with something new, they will go through what are called launches, where they're hosting a live event or a masterclass or a challenge or some launch vehicle to get their program out to new people and they'll run that event. And then at the end of that event, they will sell their program or their coaching or their course. And so launch support is something that a lot of online business owners need because launches are very all hands-on-deck kind of energy. Um, and there's a lot to do. There's a lot that goes into them, there's a lot that goes into executing them, and it's definitely more than the business owner can do on their own. So for today, I want to pull back the curtain a little bit and talk about what it actually looks like to support a client during a launch as a virtual assistant. And yes, they're very busy, but it's also one of the most fun parts of the job. It's something I still do for clients that I work with right now, is very hands-on launch support. And it truly is like an adrenaline rush. Like it's really fun to see everything come to fruition. And of course, this is not like a blanket, this is what it looks like all the time. It's different for different clients that you work with, the things that you would be doing. But I just want to give you guys kind of like an overview because this is a really common service, a really in-demand service. And it's one that you could be offering as part of your starting service set because it doesn't take like an especially high-level skill set or experience. It's just that we're making it specific to launch support.

Laura Nicole: 02:42

So, like I was saying, online businesses tend to run in cycles, right? And so when they are ramping up for a launch, you're headed into a busier time. The actual typically launches last about a week. So launch weeks are pretty intense. But number one, it's normal, it's just the way that online businesses operate. Number two, you're not going to be blindsided because most clients are really good about giving you a heads up at least a month ahead of time. A lot of business owners will plan like quarter by quarter. And so you know when those are coming up, right? And you have the opportunity a lot of times to be like, hey, on those dates, I won't be available at this time or whatever. And so sometimes you can collaborate with those. Sometimes you can collaborate on those dates with your clients, but most of the times you're getting a solid enough heads up that you know when that busy week or two is gonna be. And when they get planned in advance, clients will have like a launch calendar. So you'll know when live calls are, if they're a part of it. You'll have a schedule for when emails are being sent, for promos for it, the sales emails, all of the things. Okay. So you truly do have time to prepare mentally, block time, adjust your expectations for those weeks. I've had a couple of clients in the past that had like one monster launch every year. And so my husband knew, even like I was like, hey, by the way, this launch is this week in January. Like, I'm gonna be locked in, right? So that he knew that I was gonna need him to step up a little bit more at the house because for that one week, I was going to be doing more hours than normal. But again, they're fun hours. Like it's it's exciting. It's not like, oh my gosh, I have to work more. It's like, okay, this is like why we do this. So let's go kick some ass. Like, let's do it. And it's actually super fun.

Laura Nicole: 04:37

So there are different aspects of a launch that you can support your clients in. And it kind of depends how hands-on your client wants to be in it. It kind of depends if your client is trying a new kind of launch or if this is one that they've done before and they're kind of like just rinsing and repeating. But you can help very hands-on in the project management of it in terms of keeping all of the launch pieces on deadline, making sure they have the opt-in page ready by the date they need to, that they have their ads up and running by the date they said they wanted to. All of those little pieces for the dates that they put in place for the launch, you can help them stay on track with those deadlines. If you are already offering email support for your clients, so let's say on a regular basis, your client will write their copy for their emails and throw it in a Google Doc and say, hey, send this to these people on this date at this time. And you actually take it and format it and add the links and check it and schedule it and do all of that. Then you can also schedule all of the launch emails. So there will be pre-launch emails where they're getting people to sign up for the event. Then there will also be like reminder emails that go out the day before and the day of and 15 minutes before the event starts. And then there will always be a sales sequence and those last different amounts of days, different number of emails for different business owners. But that's a lot of emails that need to be scheduled, right? And the client doesn't need to be the one scheduling it. They can write the copy, tell you what day and time to send the email, and then you can take all that information, put it in the system, add the links, test it, and get them scheduled out at the right time.

Laura Nicole: 06:21

And then when it comes time for the event to actually be happening, if your client is doing like a live call, a live class, a live training, then you can be live on those calls to offer support during the actual training and the time that they're live. This is actually something that I'm doing right now for the client that I signed all of a week and a half ago. The timing, she was like, oh my gosh, this is perfect. I'm headed into a launch week. Could you be on these three trainings? And I said, yes, absolutely. And so when we're on these Zoom calls where she's teaching, I'm doing things like admitting people into the Zoom from the waiting room, checking to make sure that everybody is muted so that they're not being a distraction. I'm replying to people in the chat, hyping them up in the chat, asking questions in the chat, and keeping an eye out for any like really positive comments that I could screenshot that she can use in marketing and on social media later. I'm also keeping track of questions that people are asking because then I'm gonna take that question, copy it, put it into a Google Doc that my client also has access to on her computer. And when we get to the end of the training and she has time for QA, we're not like scrolling trying to find the question. 

Laura Nicole: 07:34

She can just pop over to her Google Doc and she has them all right there for her to answer. It's also really common if you are supporting on like a masterclass or a training to be the person who drops the links into the chat when your client actually pitches their program or their coaching. So like dropping the sales page link or the checkout links, or if they have like a replay page and someone wants the link to the replay page, having those links on hand ready to just copy and paste in the chat as needed. And business owners love, love, love, love, love, love having somebody live on those calls because they're so focused on the teaching and the interacting with people in the chat and like offering a really quality experience to the people who registered and showed up that they cannot be worrying about letting people in the room or muting people or finding links or any of that. There are also a lot of times in launches, especially if somebody's doing like a challenge or like a three-part training series, something like that, where they will have a community aspect to that launch.

Laura Nicole: 08:38

So maybe they have a Facebook group that people can share their homework in or their wins or their biggest takeaways, right? A lot of people in these challenge structures will have communities and then have ways for people to interact and they can like get entered in drawings for prizes, right? To kind of encourage engagement. And again, that community and having that set up is such an important piece of the launch, but the business owner doesn't need to be the person who is approving people into those communities, who's approving posts into those communities. So you can handle the back end of it similar to if you already are offering like Facebook group moderation. And then the more that you do this, okay, the more that you offer this launch support, especially if it's with one client and you work with them for a long time. And so you go through launches with them, you can kind of become like a sounding board for them, right? Like I said, I just started working with this new client, but I've I've known her for a while. And after our first, her first training call yesterday, we were texting back and forth and she asked me, How do you think the content was? And so I had the opportunity to be a sounding board and tell her parts of it that I really liked, tell her parts of it where maybe some people had questions in the chat. 

Laura Nicole: 09:51

So it was something maybe she could expand on or go a little bit deeper into the next time she does this same launch. And you also get to be your client's biggest cheerleader. Like I said, these launches are where business owners make most of their revenue, is when they do these live launches and host these events or trainings for people. And so it's really fun. Like it's really freaking fun because not only do you get to see your client succeed, but you get to see all of these people. There's so many people at once who are experiencing a positive impact from your client's business, who are learning something valuable that they can take away from this and implement in their own lives. And it's so cool. So getting to be your client's like biggest fucking cheerleader during these launches is a really cool aspect of it. And on the flip side, you also get to offer like the calm, the calmness, right? Like there's times to be like, rah, rah, let's go. And there's other times because launches are very stressful for business owners. It's a lot of pressure, it's a lot of work. And so being able to be like that steady, calm support, even when things are a bit chaotic and like the adrenaline is running, there is not like a price that clients can put on that. That is so, so, so, so, so, so helpful.

Laura Nicole: 11:14

So, the actual launch week, like I said, is usually the busiest, right? So, there is going to be a little more work in the prep leading up to it, but the actual launch week when the trainings are happening, when the community is open, it's a lot more fast-paced. There's going to be more communication between you and your client or their team, depending how many people are working with your client. But again, it's short term. It's not forever. It's not happening like every other week. A lot of a lot of business owners do like once a quarter big launches. Some of them do like once a month. Um, but these are definitely kind of fewer and farther between. And again, because you know it's coming, it's very manageable to make it work. And they're just so fun. They're one of my absolute favorite parts. I was so excited when I hopped in with this new client. She was like, Do you want to hop in and help with the launch? And I was like, Absolutely. Absolutely, because it's so fulfilling. You're not just checking tasks, you're not being a task rabbit, you're truly contributing to success. 

Laura Nicole: 12:13

Again, not just your client's success in their business, but all of the people that are being impacted through the event and by learning from your client. It's just, I don't know. I feel like it's one of those things maybe you have to like live through to get it. But sometimes I have people ask me, like, what's one thing you've really had to learn as a VA? And I say, I've had to learn how to like create boundaries where I've have to force myself to stop working, which sounds really cheesy, but like launch weeks are a great example of that. Where I don't want to stop working. I want to keep going. There's something else I can be doing. And like the adrenaline and the excitement and the pace is there. And I know that what I am doing and bringing to the table for my client is truly, truly, truly making a difference. And it's it's a really cool thing. And it's a great service to offer, even as a newbie VA, because the things that you're really doing are email, customer support, Facebook group moderation. And those are three general admin services that a lot of new people offer anyway. The only thing new that's kind of different is doing the on Zoom or like on live call support. But y'all can handle that. That's easy.

Laura Nicole: 13:28

 If you love learning about new services and things that you could offer, and you're at a point where you're trying to still figure out which services you are going to offer as a VA and which ones are a good fit for you and your skill set, then I need you to drop down in the show notes and click the link for my four-step workshop. This workshop is going to be exactly what you need because in it, we are going to get really, really clear on all of your skills that you bring to the table, both hard and soft skills. We're going to help you take those skills and actually transfer them into services just like this type of service. And then also put your skills and your services into a professional one-sheet resume that you can share with potential clients. And we're going to do a little bit of mindset and confidence work because that matters a literal shitload when you're stepping into the VA space. 

Laura Nicole: 14:24

So if you're at the stage currently of trying to get really clear on what services would be a good fit for you to offer as you step into the virtual assistant world, I want you to do this workshop. It is self-paced. You can do it on your own schedule, but you still get to turn your homework into me in a Facebook group and get actual coaching and feedback as you make these decisions. It's one massive step in the right direction of getting really, really clear on the services that you can offer that will truly be a good fit for you for your skill set and the types of services that you will enjoy offering. So I hope to see y'all in the workshop. I'll see you all next time.