Most people wait until they’re underwater before they hire help. Gwendolyn Young, founder of Your Virtual Admin Expert, didn’t get that choice. A lupus diagnosis in 2013 meant she had to build a business that could keep running on the days she couldn’t get out of bed, and that constraint ended up shaping everything about how she operates today.
Why She Built Systems Before She Needed Them
What stood out most in our conversation wasn’t the diagnosis itself, it was what she did with it. She got specific about her capacity, then started documenting business processes before she needed to hand them off, not after. That’s the piece most founders skip when they’re thinking about hiring your first virtual assistant: the systems have to exist before the person does.
Gwendolyn built scheduling and communication systems that let her business look active even during a hospital stay. When she finally brought on her first VA, she still got it wrong the first time, she hired without a clear plan for training or oversight, and had to rebuild her approach around real delegation in a small business rather than just handing off tasks and hoping. That distinction, she said, is what separates a hire that helps from a hire that just adds another person to manage.
When the Brand Finally Caught Up to the Business
The branding piece of her story is just as telling. For years, Gwendolyn’s visuals didn’t match the quality of the work she was doing behind the scenes. It wasn’t until she invested in real brand strategy for service providers that she was able to raise her rates and attract the clients she wanted.
That’s a pattern I see constantly in branding for service based businesses, including with the founders I work with at Lyon Creatives, our branding agency serving Morris County, NJ and beyond: the business is often further along than the brand lets on.
If you’re wondering whether your own brand is keeping pace with what you’re actually capable of, take the free Brand Audit Scorecard and find out where the gaps are.
Audio Production
Huge thanks to Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions for editing this episode. If you have a podcast and you are doing your own editing because you cannot find someone you trust, Mike is the answer. He has been editing every episode of This Might Get Creative and the difference shows. Reach out to him at nielsenaudiosolutions.com
Not sure if your brand is the thing holding you back?
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