Natasha Boyd - The Clutch VA

Natasha · 0:00

Hello, my name is Natasha Boyd, and today's quote comes from the Bible, one of my favorite books, and it'll be in Romans chapter 12, verse 13. And that is the basis of my business to share with the Lord's people and to practice hospitality.

Speaker 2 · 0:22

The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.

Jeremy · 0:37

Everyone is talking about NOVA Chief of Staff, and it's no surprise when graduates walk away with huge benefits, like greater confidence and the validation that they can do the role. There are over 300 students in the NOVA Chief of Staff Certification Course, many of which are growth-minded executive assistants like you. Many of the leader assistants taking the course aren't necessarily looking for a promotion, they simply want to become more effective, strategic, and game-changing assistants. Over 18 countries around the globe are represented by students in NOVA's course. So I highly recommend you join the club. Visit leaderassistant.com/nova to learn more about this amazing professional development resource. Hey friends, welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast. It's episode 275. You can check out the show notes for this episode at leaderassistant.com/275. I'm your host, Jeremy Burrows, and today I'm speaking with Natasha Boyd. Natasha is a virtual assistant specializing in client service management. Natasha, welcome to the show.

Natasha · 1:46

Thank you for having me, Jeremy. This is so great to be here. I'm honored.

Jeremy · 1:51

Yeah, likewise. And what part of the world are you in?

Natasha · 1:55

I'm in Dallas, Texas. So I'm originally from Houston, but I've been here in Dallas for about 10 years. So I'm a Texas girl, through and through.

Jeremy · 2:04

Nice. My wife was a teacher in Houston for a couple of years, for Teach for America, way back when.

Natasha · 2:13

That's awesome.

Jeremy · 2:14

She has a little bit of Houston experience.

Natasha · 2:17

Yes. And I love educators. So shout out to your wife. That's awesome.

Jeremy · 2:20

Yes, definitely. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Do you have dogs, cats, kids, all of the above?

Natasha · 2:30

Yeah, for sure. So I've been married now for about 10 years. It'll be 10 years in June. So we'll be celebrating the 10-year milestone, which we're very excited about. And we met at the University of Houston, which is my alma mater, Gokugs.

Jeremy · 2:48

Yeah, you've got a big tournament coming up, eh?

Natasha · 2:52

Yes, we do.

Jeremy · 2:53

Although I will say that by the time this goes live, the tournament will have finished. So let's just pretend that Houston won it all and you're celebrating.

Natasha · 3:05

Yes, of course. Let's speak into existence. Yes, the Cougars are great. University of Houston is great. I love that school. So yes, that's where I met my husband. And then we moved here to Dallas about nine years ago. And we have two little kids. So I have a four-year-old little boy and a one and a half year old little girl. And we don't have any dogs or cats yet, but of course, I feel like they're coming around the corner. They say you have to have like 2.5 kids and a dog. So it's coming soon, I feel it.

Jeremy · 3:41

Oh, there you go. Well, when you're not busy wrangling those kiddos or working, what do you like to do in your free time?

Natasha · 3:51

Yeah, so I love to read. As I said before, the Bible is one of my favorite books. I love to also read about finance and financial literacy and things of that nature. Way back when I used to be into, you know, like the whole fantasy novels and everything, but I found out as I've grown older, like I have to, you know, buckle down and get serious about things. I have I do like to have fun here now. And then I listen to some fun podcasts and things of that nature. But as far as reading, I really like educational things.

Jeremy · 4:25

So. Awesome. What's one of your favorite educational books that you've read recently?

Natasha · 4:31

Oh, that I've read recently. Oh, that's a good question.

Jeremy · 4:35

It was maybe even the topic of it.

Natasha · 4:39

It was about financial literacy, of course. And I think it was by Dave Ramsey, if I'm not mistaken. But I can't remember the actual name of the book. So anything about, you know, financial literacy and things of that nature. I love that stuff.

Jeremy · 4:55

Nice. Well, super excited to have you on the show. Thanks again. What, tell us a little bit about your career journey and how you ended up as a virtual assistant.

Natasha · 5:10

Yeah, for sure. So when I graduated from college, I graduated with a degree in marketing and a minor in sales. So business marketing. And I was in the nonprofit field for a while after I graduated. And then once I moved here to Dallas, I became an office manager and I was an office manager for about 10 years. And then once COVID hit, like a lot of us, I was furloughed from that job. And I actually was an educator for a brief moment. I was a preschool teacher. So I taught, I was a preschool lead teacher for two-year-olds. And that was so much fun, but as you could imagine, very, very, I would say, not draining, but it was very, like a lot of, lots of energy you have to give to the kiddos, especially at that age. So I have two of my own, but I have like 10 in my class. So imagine 10 two-year-olds every day. So it was a lot of fun. I really did. I made some great connections with those kiddos and it was a Christian school. So I got to teach them about Jesus, which was also fun as well. But after that, I got pregnant with my second child. So I was kind of getting my wheels turning, like, you know, what can I do in order to have, you know, flexibility for my own kids and be able to stay home with them and watch them grow and, you know, be there for them when they're sick, or, you know, if they need to go to the doctors or something like that. So I really wanted that time and flexibility to have with my family. So that's when God planted, you know, a virtual assistance in my heart. And so I came up with the name The Clutch VA. So that means that Clutch means I'm very resourceful. I love, like, putting puzzle pieces together. I love figuring out things and searching and finding out things and solving problems. I'm a big problem solver. And then, yeah, so that's when I thought about virtual assistance. I was like, that'll be a great way for me to be able to stay home, but still, you know, contribute financially to my family. So that's how I got started here.

Jeremy · 7:30

Nice. So when you started, how did you find clients? Like, how did you get going?

Natasha · 7:38

Yeah, so I really just took a leap of faith, and I started posting about, you know, service that I could offer to people on my Facebook and on my Instagram. And so a lot of my clients were people that I already knew. So I worked with a photographer that I knew. I worked with a graphic designer. And then, you know, people just kind of started learning that, hey, I need somebody to help me, and she helps people. So that's how I got going. And I'm still building my clientele and things of that nature. But yeah, basically just putting myself out there and letting people know that I offer administrative services. That's how I started to gain clients.

Jeremy · 8:27

Great. So then what is your specialty now? And how long ago was that that you started Clutch?

Natasha · 8:36

I started the Clutch VA about a year ago. And then as you can imagine with the newborn, things kind of lulled for a little while, but now she's older and getting back into promoting myself and promoting my business and letting people know what I have to offer and how I can help them. So.

Jeremy · 8:58

Awesome. So yeah. So what's your specialty? A lot of the assistants, they start off, they kind of do a little bit of everything, virtual assistants with multiple clients. And then they kind of hone in on, okay, you know, I'm a graphic designer, a virtual assistant, or I'm a scheduling assistant, or, you know, project management or event management, virtual assistant. So what's kind of your specialty?

Natasha · 9:23

So my specialty is client service management. So I kind of noticed in the VA industry, it's all about, you know, automation. And automation is great. We love and we need automation, but actually building those human connections and human relationships was kind of lacking in the industry because, you know, your CRM automatically sends out your follow-up email or they automatically send out a prepared thank you note or something like that. So I just, I was feeling like something was missing as far as that human connection and building relationships with your clients in order to retain your clients. And that's really something that I learned as a sales student when I was a minor and in sales is your number one thing in order to close a deal, you have to build a relationship with people. People have to trust you and want to come back to you and return to you for business. So client service relations is very near and dear to my heart. I love to take care of people. I'm a natural caregiver by nature. So I just love to talk to people and build those relationships and kind of make sure that they have everything that they need.

Jeremy · 10:41

And how many clients do you have or is it kind of, you know, vary depending on season?

Natasha · 10:51

So right now I have four stable clients and then I also offer VIP days or where I offer a certain amount of hours where people can have me do bulk administrative tasks for them or ad hoc tasks. So things of that nature. So I have four main clients that I work with now, but then I also offer those VIP days for people who are not quite ready to commit to a long-term VA or don't need one at this point in their business.

Jeremy · 11:24

Interesting. I really like that idea. So it's kind of like project-based, like, hey, I have this project I need help with. Can you crank it out?

Natasha · 11:31

Yeah, exactly.

Jeremy · 11:35

Well, what's maybe a good tip for assistants listening as you've transitioned into this world and really jumped out on your own? Like you said, take a leap of faith. What's a good tip for those who are thinking, you know what, I want to either leave my full-time job and be a virtual assistant and get my own clients or whatever, or I just want to do a little bit on the side and have a little bit of extra income. What's your number one tip for becoming a virtual assistant?

Natasha · 12:08

Yeah, my number one tip is to keep going. So keep putting yourself out there. Keep letting people know what you have to offer. Because if you don't put yourself out there, people don't know what you can do for them, and they don't know how you can help. So my number one tip is just to keep going, keep putting yourself out there. Don't be afraid. Don't spend 30 minutes on a graphic that you want to do. Like just be clear about what you offer, and just put it out there and let people know that you can help them.

Jeremy · 12:43

Great, great tips. What about remote work? You know, you have little kids at home, you know, I'm sure you have eight hours of uninterrupted time, you know, to get all your work done. I wish. What's your best tips for those listening that are working from home?

Natasha · 13:04

Yeah, I would say time management. And even, you know, with that time management, you also have to give yourself grades, especially if you have children. Because we know as parents, things don't always go as planned, even if we plan our day, you know, by the minute or by the hour, something is going to go awry. So give yourself grace for those times, but do try to plan out your day and have that time management that's going to help you, you know, navigate the day pretty well.

Jeremy · 13:37

Well, what's a fun story about a project that you had to tackle, you know, for one of your clients that maybe was something that they were, like, in shock and awe of, like, wait, how did you do that remotely? You know what I'm saying? Like, a lot of people are like, well, I need an assistant, but I don't know if I can do a remote assistant. I need them here, right? I need them on site. I don't know, you know. So what's something that maybe you've done remotely that people in general or maybe a client has said, you know what, I don't know that that's, maybe they had doubts that it could be done from, you know, a different virtual, physical environment.

Natasha · 14:25

Yeah, I would say the main thing I run into with some of my clients is like, I wouldn't say, well, taking phone calls or answering their phone calls or checking their voicemail and making sure like their voicemails are cleared. Sometimes that could be tricky for a lot of clients, especially like when they're in a different time zone and things of that nature. But now we have great technology like Ring Central and we have the Google. So we have things that can help us, you know, with technology so that that's not an issue. So I would say if there is a client out there, there's nervous about someone taking their calls. You know, we have great technology that can help us. I'm a big fan of Ring Central, so that's a great technology that you can use in order to manage your phone calls if you have big call volumes.

Jeremy · 15:23

And what's, share a little bit more about that, like how do you specifically use that Ring Central?

Natasha · 15:29

Yeah, so basically it's like an app almost that you can put on. Like I have an app on my cell phone via Ring Central. You can also do it on your desktop and you can literally take someone else's calls in real time. So it's basically like a phone hub, you know, for your calls, your voicemails and things of that nature. You can even send text messages through the app as well. So it's kind of like I'm in the office, but I'm not there. So someone will never know that I'm not in my client's actual, you know, physical office because I can do everything on my cell phone.

Jeremy · 16:11

Gotcha. Yeah. Awesome. Well, talk a little bit about serving others in business. And, you know, I know being an assistant, you know, a lot of times we have to put ourselves on the back burner while we're trying to help others and we're not in the spotlight. Yeah, share a little bit of your thoughts on that.

Natasha · 16:39

So serving others is very big for me. Like I said before, I'm a big caregiver by nature. I just love taking care of people and making sure that they have everything that they need. And most of the greatest leaders that I have worked for before were servants first. So people who are not afraid to get down in the trenches, with the people that they work for and not afraid to learn from the people that they work with is a great quality to have. So definitely serving first will make you a great leader. I don't know if you heard the term of servant leader, but I 100% stand behind that term of being a servant leader or a servant leader because you can't lead without serving first.

Jeremy · 17:30

Love it. Well said. What, if you could put a message to all assistants of the world, virtual or in office, you know, all the above on a billboard, what would that message say?

Natasha · 17:48

That's a great one. I love it. So a message from all of the assistants of the world to everyone in the world?

Jeremy · 17:55

Yeah, two assistants. Oh, two assistants. Two assistants, yeah. Like if it was all the assistants were driving to work and they passed the same billboard on their way to work to deal with their crazy bosses, what would you say?

Natasha · 18:09

Yeah, I would probably say, I would probably go back to the quote of Romans 12-13 to share in the needs of the Lord's people. I mean, whether you're a believer or not, it's kind of human nature or a part of your moral compass to help those who need help. So even if you're going to a place of business where you don't really like your boss, you're not really getting along with them or you're trying to plan your escape, while you're there, don't think of it as you're serving them, you're serving the clients that they serve, their patrons. So you're taking care of their business, but you're not necessarily giving all of your time and energy and effort to them. It's for a bigger cause, I would say. So everything is for the greater good of humanity whenever you go to work, and you serve others, and you meet their needs, and you practice hospitality. So it's like the golden rule, you will want to treat others how you want it to be treated. So that's what I would say. Just treat others how you want to be treated, practice hospitality, and give people what they need.

Jeremy · 19:31

Love it. Yeah, I like that thought of, you know, it's not just supporting and serving your executive, who you directly work for.

Natasha · 19:41

Exactly.

Jeremy · 19:42

But it's actually like your service to them, and your support of them is actually has ramifications to the team, to the organization, to the customers, to people they interact with. So yeah, that's well said. Thanks for sharing.

Natasha · 20:03

That's what I would say. I would say it's bigger than you. That's what I would say.

Jeremy · 20:07

There you go. See, you just had to talk it out.

Natasha · 20:10

It's bigger than you.

Jeremy · 20:11

You just had to talk it out, and then you could come up with a little tagline for the actual billboard.

Natasha · 20:17

Yes, that's my tagline. It's bigger than you.

Jeremy · 20:21

Love it. Love it. Man, these are some good ideas. I'm going to have to start a billboard company.

Natasha · 20:26

You should. You should.

Jeremy · 20:27

I'm getting all these good ideas from some guests like you. So, cool. Well, yeah, I think it's been great to chat, and best of luck in your business and with your little kiddos. And thank you so much for joining us on the show. Where can people reach out? What's the best way for people to reach out if they just want to connect and say hi, or maybe they're thinking, hey, my executive, or I need a virtual assistant?

Natasha · 20:59

Yeah, for sure. So I'm on all the socials. Well, except X. I've never really been to Twitter slash X. So Instagram, I'm really active on Instagram. It's the Clutch underscore VA. And on Facebook, Natasha Williams Boyd is just my name. I'm also on LinkedIn. So yeah, all of the LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, you can find me there.

Jeremy · 21:28

Perfect. And I will definitely add those links in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/275, leaderassistant.com/275. Natasha, thank you so much for your time. Do you have any questions for me before I let you go?

Natasha · 21:49

I don't, but thank you so much for this. This is awesome that you highlight different people in administration, and we sincerely, you know, thank you for this. This is great.

Jeremy · 22:01

You're welcome. It's my pleasure. And we'll hope to meet up in person someday. And yeah, love to love to stay in touch.

Natasha · 22:10

Yes, of course. Thanks. Please review on Apple Podcasts.