What Wedding Pros Need to Know Before Hiring a Virtual Assistant | Ariana Teachey

Kevin Dennis (0:0.840)

All right, welcome to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. We're here with the one and only Ariana Tichi. Did I say it right? Oh, yeah, thank God. I've been practicing that. I don't know why. Sometimes I just names, they're rough. But anyway, Ariana is here to talk about today about virtual assistants because she is a virtual assistant. But before we jump into that, Ariana, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today?

Ariana Teachey (0:8.856)

You did, yeah, perfect.

Ariana Teachey (0:31.154)

So I have been in the wedding industry since I was in college so it is something that I live and breathe for for my whole career basically, which is you know I can't get away from it. I feel like that's most people who start the wedding industry you get sucked in so um so yeah, I've Yes, yes in a fun industry, so it's like why leave uh

Kevin Dennis (0:49.884)

Yeah, it's like a drug.

Kevin Dennis (0:56.316)

Yeah. Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (0:58.110)

So I worked in a bunch of different capacities in the wedding industry. did PR, I worked at a venue for a year, I worked at a wedding magazine and did a wedding show with them as well. So I did a bunch, dabbled in a bunch of different things. But ultimately, I like behind the scenes. I like helping wedding professionals, all of you wedding pros who handle engaged couples. Just hats off, all the claps for you because it is.

Kevin Dennis (1:9.062)

Ooh.

Ariana Teachey (1:27.456)

It is stressful. yeah, uh about two and a half years ago, I started my virtual assistant business and knew right away when I was gonna start that that I wanted to help wedding professionals. That was gonna be who I was reaching out to. uh So yeah, I started my business and get to work with a bunch of wonderful people like yourself. Little nephew.

Kevin Dennis (1:52.144)

I was going to see if you're going to say if I was wonderful or not, because I know sometimes we're a pain in the butt on our side as well. yeah, you say. right. All right. So as we jump in, Ariana, why don't you tell us what a virtual assistant is and does and how does it differ? How is it different from someone that does like social media marketing, that kind of stuff?

Ariana Teachey (1:58.030)

No, never a pain in the butt.

Ariana Teachey (2:18.082)

Yeah, so there's a bunch of different types of virtual assistants uh who kind of hone their skills in what they are passionate about. For me, I'm a type A, I like to be organized, I like to be efficient, as efficient as possible, um and see my clients thrive and be able to take some of their time back um to have some self-care, to be able to be with their families. um That's kind of why I like being a virtual assistant, but.

Kevin Dennis (2:32.264)

you

Ariana Teachey (2:47.224)

They're really there to help you with those menial tasks that you're like, if I have to do this one more time, I'm going to scream. You all need to be working in your business to be able to further it down the road. You don't need to be doing those tiny tasks of, you know, making sure you're getting all of those wedding photos from all of the wonderful photographers or, you know, culling 3,000 photos down to just like the 50 that you probably need.

Kevin Dennis (2:54.248)

Hmm.

Ariana Teachey (3:15.214)

uh So those small tasks, to be able to tan those over is really helpful. I mean, there's just a bunch of different things that virtual assistants can do. There are some who do do social media, who do do marketing, but honestly, they usually stop calling themselves a virtual assistant then and start calling themselves like marketing management. uh But yeah, a lot of just staying organized.

Kevin Dennis (3:34.952)

Hmm. Well, that makes sense. All right. I love it. All right. So we let's dive in. What kind of tasks, projects can a virtual assistant help with in the wedding industry? Let's get specific.

Ariana Teachey (3:49.358)

So yeah, so different tasks like calendar management, making sure that you have all of your canned emails in one place. Do you have SOPs set up? If you're gonna hand over the task to someone in your company, if you're expanding your company, adding on a new planner, adding on an associate photographer, are they gonna know what to do? How do they get that contract to someone? What do...

Kevin Dennis (3:58.427)

Hmm. uh

Hmm.

Ariana Teachey (4:15.158)

What do they do during their intake meetings, those kinds of things? What's the SOP on how we get from point A to point B? So that's something that's really important and then I think gets missed a lot um in companies, especially because a lot of wedding industry businesses are small businesses. So sometimes it's like, well, I only had to do that twice. And it's like, yeah, you did it twice. So you still were taking that time away from yourself when

Kevin Dennis (4:27.752)

Mmm.

Kevin Dennis (4:42.354)

Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (4:43.522)

You could have trained them quicker by saying, here's an SOP, here's a Loom video that walks you through the process. So those are some kind of tasks that I take on. uh Projects, I've helped with podcast management, uh reaching out to guests, making sure that they have scheduled, that they have signed their contracts, those kinds of tasks as well. And then there's some people who have

no organizational system whatsoever and we try to get them organized. Whether that's Airtable, which I really, really love, or if they're a Google Docs person, em that kind of thing. And I think I've already mentioned it before, but also reaching out to photographers to make sure that you're getting the photos so that you can use them on your website, on your social media, updating those.

Kevin Dennis (5:32.552)

Hmm.

Ariana Teachey (5:39.244)

you know, all those profiles that you have across the internet, making sure all that's up to date too. So, yeah, those are a few things, but it kind of runs the gamut.

Kevin Dennis (5:51.266)

I was gonna say, and I would imagine it's different for everybody you work with, know, like we all, like what you do for us is gonna be different than what you do for, you know, whoever down the road, you know, so it's just kinda, so that's probably where it makes it fun for you, you know, like you're not doing the same task over and over again, you're doing, you know, multiple things, so.

Ariana Teachey (5:56.716)

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (6:13.248)

Yeah, and I find too when I get a client, they're hiring me for one thing and then we're working together and I'm like, hey, have you ever thought about doing it this way? Or they're talking me through kind of what's going on behind the scenes with their business when we're having a one-on-one meeting and I'm like, wait, I can do that task. if that, especially I see people who are getting like bottlenecked at one thing, you know, they're like, I can't pick the photos for my website because I'm too close to it. So.

Kevin Dennis (6:23.143)

Hmm. oh

Kevin Dennis (6:41.000)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (6:42.668)

you know, and they're telling me like, oh, I have to get this done because my web designer needs it. It's like, okay, well, what if I pick, you know, call it down to like 20 images and you ultimately have that decision on what goes up, but I can take a little bit of that burden away from you so that you're not bottlenecking yourself on task too.

Kevin Dennis (7:0.730)

Well, and yeah, and time, you know, and like you said, we get so close to it that it's nice having fresh eyes that are are looking at it differently than we do because we get so fixated on I think one eye like I really like this one thing, but you're like, well, wait, if you look at the whole picture, it's not it's totally different. So amazing. Yeah. All right. So how is a contracted virtual assistant different from an employee?

Ariana Teachey (7:20.802)

Yeah, yeah.

Ariana Teachey (7:28.130)

Yeah, so a virtual assistant is a contract contracted in, you know, person. It's not an employee employee. You can set their hours so they can be, you know, your nine to five. You know, they're on the clock for you at specific hours where a virtual assistant, you can't dictate what hours they're working as long as they're getting the task done and getting them done in a timely manner. Now, you can't take, you know, two weeks to do one task.

Kevin Dennis (7:53.352)

Yes.

Ariana Teachey (7:55.796)

And you do need to be available to your clients. You can't just be like, I'm never available. But a lot of virtual assistants that I've met to work in different time zones. I'm East Coast. You're in California. And I had someone that I met with who was in Jamaica. there's just different. You can definitely work within different time zones um with that. the difference is that you're not set uh hours. um

Kevin Dennis (8:5.350)

Mm-hmm.

west coast yeah

Ariana Teachey (8:26.230)

So that's one thing that I think is the biggest difference there. normally when a virtual assistant works, it's like a certain number of hours a month that you have to utilize. um And they keep you in the know of how many hours they've used um and how many hours you have left. Where an employee, you can just stack on all of those tasks and you know that they're going to get accomplished in one month. Where with me, if I've gotten multiple tasks, I'll have to go to them and prioritize, like, OK, hey.

Kevin Dennis (8:35.720)

Hmm.

Ariana Teachey (8:55.724)

what needs to be done right now and you're coming up on your hours so we might have to push that to next month or do you want to do two more hours this month with me?

Kevin Dennis (9:3.432)

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (9:7.236)

Yeah, and that makes sense. was going to say you mentioned the time zone. Is it helpful having clients in different time zones? Because we all probably are coming at you differently.

Ariana Teachey (9:17.708)

Yeah, I really like having clients in different time zones. have several who are West Coast like you and then several that are more East Coast. So it's nice because then I can adjust my schedule. Like, you my East Coast clients, I'm getting them done kind of early in the morning. If I have meetings with them, then I have that time in that afternoon before everybody on the West Coast is hitting, hitting their desks, which is kind of nice. And I'm also a night owl. I have two kids. So I work after, you know,

Kevin Dennis (9:23.558)

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (9:27.227)

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (9:40.925)

Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (9:47.264)

after they go to bed. So it's not too, too late for everybody on the West Coast at that point. So that's kind of nice too.

Kevin Dennis (9:48.742)

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (9:55.152)

No, always, it's funny you and then, you know, I have my goofy sister, Megan Ealy that we both know very well, but like there'll be times that I'll be like, it's five o'clock my time and I'm like, crap, shouldn't text her because it's eight o'clock and we all know that she goes to bed at eight o'clock at night, but you know what I'm saying? Like it's that the time zone is, I think a blessing and sometimes a curse, you know, just depending on what it was. So, all right.

Ariana Teachey (9:59.968)

Yeah

Ariana Teachey (: 10:14

Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (: 10:19

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 10:24

How can someone know if they're ready or they need to hire a virtual assistant?

Ariana Teachey (: 10:30

I think when you see that you're bogged down and you're frustrated with those little tiny tasks, you're like, cannot do this one more time or I am, I'm going to lose it. I think that that, that is a time where you know that you need to pass it on to somebody else. um And I just, I also think that you have to be in a place to know that you can let go of those things.

Kevin Dennis (: 10:42

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 10:56

Hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 10:57

because I have had people before where super sweet, nice people, and they say like, okay, I want you to do an XYZ, but they won't let go of the reins. So they haven't come to the terms with, okay, I'm ready to hand this over to somebody. Especially if you've never had a virtual assistant before. I work with people who have had virtual assistants before, and they're totally fine with handing over a little bit of the keys to the kingdom.

Kevin Dennis (11:7.653)

Mmm. uh

Kevin Dennis (: 11:13

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 11:26

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 11:27

it's definitely a little bit harder for those people who have never had one before em because they're having to let go. So I think you need to be in a place where you're really ready to let go of that task and have someone take it over.

Kevin Dennis (: 11:42

Now, do you think it's harder for someone that maybe never even had an employee? And, you know, so it's even more difficult for them to let go?

Ariana Teachey (: 11:50

Yes, definitely way, way harder for them to let go because they've never had to let go of absolutely anything. They've been a one man, one woman show for so long that for them to let that go, it feels personal. And I get that because I own a business and I am a one person show at this point. So, you know, I understand that it's hard to let go. It's your company.

Kevin Dennis (: 11:57

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 12:19

Yeah. Well, and wonder too, if like, do people feel like they won't represent them well or, you know, like, I think there's a lot that goes into that and there's a lot of trust building that has to go into what you do as well.

Ariana Teachey (: 12:33

Yeah, and I think that leads into like when you're looking for a virtual assistant, what you should be looking for. There definitely needs to be a level of trust with that person, a level of connection and an understanding of your company and what your company's goals are. And just what you stand for as a company, you need to have that aligned with your virtual assistant uh because...

in some ways they are an extension of your company. Even if they're not front-facing, they're not emailing for you or anything like that, they're doing things behind the scenes that are in your brand voice. They're ultimately representing your company in different ways. So you really do need to have a trust and an understanding. And I think a lot of, you know, I've seen virtual assistants in, you know, their different industries and things like that. I think one thing that I think a lot of...

clients that come to me like is that I do have a wedding background. So I understand that, you know, you all are, it's busy season, you all are not in the office on a Friday and you're probably not in the office on a Monday. ah You know, because you're on site, you're putting stuff up on a Monday, you're either breaking stuff down or you took that day because you don't get a weekend, you know? So, you know, I work on a weekend, so I might email you on a weekend, I don't.

Kevin Dennis (: 13:31

Mm.

Kevin Dennis (: 13:41

Mm-hmm. m

Ariana Teachey (: 13:56

expect a response. you know, there's, I understand kind of how the behind the scenes work and that there's going to be your busy season where I might have to follow up a few more times because you guys are bogged down, but doing it in a nice and a kind way knowing where you guys are at em in your business day to day.

Kevin Dennis (: 13:58

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 14:16

Well, and sometimes too is like, feel like us in the wedding industry, we deal with deadlines and we're good at deadlines. And so just having someone like yourself to be accountable to like, Hey, in order for me to move this, whatever XYZ project or this, you know, task forward, I need you to sign off on ABC, you know, and just sometimes I think that helps us in the wedding industry. It's like, Oh,

Ariana Teachey (: 14:33

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 14:42

I'm paying you money and I need you to make sure, you know, and it kind of keeps us kind of going. But it's like, also, then you mentioned too, like, you know, Mondays and Fridays and days that we're busy, you know, things could, you could get a virtual assistant maybe to be responding to your, you know, your inquiries or something that therefore, when you come back to work on a Tuesday, you're not behind, you know, like there's all kinds of stuff you can do. So you got my mind going, which is crazy.

Ariana Teachey (15:6.188)

Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (15:9.730)

Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Kevin Dennis (: 15:12

because you know, I might put you to work more. All right. All right. That's right, girl. All right. So how can a wedding professional make the transition seamlessly when working with a virtual assistant? Like, how can we help you help us?

Ariana Teachey (: 15:17

That's what I'm here for, so.

Ariana Teachey (: 15:28

Yeah, so this is. Help you help others. Yes. So I think going in knowing at least like three to five tasks that you want to hand over to them. And like we talked about before that you're willing to hand over to them. And I think that that's really key. If you go in and you're not sure why you even need one, but you think you need one, because I have had people come to me like that. They're like, well, I think I need one. And I'm like, well.

Kevin Dennis (: 15:39

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 15:43

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 15:57

Why do you need one? What are you wanting that person to take on? So you have to know very specific things that you want them to take on. There can always be like, oh, here, can you do this one-off task? But there needs to be set tasks that they're accomplishing every month for you. And I think that's really important to know what those things are. It's also really important to have open lines of communication.

Kevin Dennis (: 15:59

Hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 16:20

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 16:26

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 16:27

I do an onboarding call where we go over everything, but then always being open to like, you and I, meet twice a month, because that's what works for us to keep the lines of communication open. em And I think also coming to them and letting them know exactly, as a wedding professional, how you like to operate. I've worked with people who... em

Kevin Dennis (: 16:52

Hmm

Ariana Teachey (: 16:55

have ADD or have ADHD and it's like, okay, well, for me, I need to communicate through, you know, Voxer and like that's easier for me. And I'm more than willing to adapt to that kind of situation. Or I need you to put it in ClickUp, but then I also need you to send me, you know, it needs to go to an email too. And it's like, okay, cool. you know, you really need to come to them too with what works best for you when it comes to communication and in tasks.

Kevin Dennis (17:3.783)

Hmm. oh

Kevin Dennis (17:7.793)

Mmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 17:25

Hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 17:25

Task planning. I think that that really kind of makes a difference uh And you also need to have some level of understanding of how you're gonna train them to do those tasks because as much as you can hand something off if you have Maybe that's not a task you did before maybe it was an employee and you're gonna pass it off to a virtual assistant and you need to make sure that that virtual assistant talks to that employee or you have some sort of training for them to

be able to do that. Because if you come to them and go, oh, well, Sally did it for years, but she's gone. I don't really know how to do it. It's like, that's, you know, I have to see how you do that process. So if you can have a loom video, if we can set on a Zoom call and I can record it, um and then we can, you know, I can do that task several times to make sure that it's correct. And then we can ultimately create you that SOP um so that we have that moving forward and that

Kevin Dennis (: 18:20

Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (: 18:23

there's continuity with that.

Kevin Dennis (: 18:26

Well, and you just, I feel like you're just setting up a person to fail if you can't help them help you.

Ariana Teachey (: 18:31

Yeah, yeah. So that really makes the smoothest transition and also doing it at a time that you have the time to do those things. Because if you're setting in the middle of your busy fall season, you don't have the time to bring someone on to try to take on those tasks that you're drowning in at that moment. Unfortunately, you should maybe push that off as much as that's

Kevin Dennis (: 18:50

No.

Ariana Teachey (19:0.354)

you're drowning. And I know that sounds bad, but you know, do it at a time where you can really take that time to make sure that that transition goes well, I think is important.

Kevin Dennis (19:2.118)

Well, yeah. No.

Kevin Dennis (: 19:12

Well, that makes complete sense because I think a lot of people too need to look at we need to be planning, you know, like in the art, our slow time, everyone has slow time. You know, the one thing when I was with the president, I got to learn is everyone's wedding season is completely different across the country. And, uh you know, like we're almost year round where we do get busier, you know, spring through the end of fall, because all the outdoor venues come online, you know, we're all our indoor venues that have indoor site.

Ariana Teachey (: 19:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 19:41

Don't continue to go year round, but it's not as busy. So we need to take the time that we're not as busy to look at projects. What do we need help? And really evaluate. And I think that's the time to do it. Like you said, it gets to be too late if you're in the thick of it. And it's like, how are you going to get someone to help you get out of that? It's going to be really difficult. All right. You mentioned a lot of different tech. So how is it you got to meet everyone?

Ariana Teachey (: 19:44

busy, do we need to take the time that we're not as busy to look at projects, what do we need help?

Ariana Teachey (20:1.613)

Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (20:5.262)

You mentioned a lot of different tech. So how is it you got to meet everyone where they were? uh

Kevin Dennis (: 20:10

where they work, I'm assuming. So is it difficult to learn or are you becoming an expert at all? All these different project management programs and all that kind of stuff, how does that work?

Ariana Teachey (: 20:17

different project management programs, all that kind of stuff. How does that work? Yeah, so I like to meet them where they are at. So I've used Monday, I've used Boxer, I use Slack. I will text with some people. Some people, we just have to have an understanding of if it is after hours, I might not text immediately back because I do have two children. there's, know.

Kevin Dennis (: 20:35

You

Kevin Dennis (: 20:40

Yeah. And for the record, I only text you when I really, it's 911. Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (: 20:46

And usually it's at like 10 a.m. on a weekday. So it's like, of course, like that's a normal time. So um that's not a weird time. um So I think that meeting them where they are. So those are some things that I've used. I've used Monday and ClickUp and Airtable and HoneyBook, uh the backside of Dubsado. um

Kevin Dennis (: 20:56

Yeah.

Ariana Teachey (: 21:16

all of those different programs, uh Trello a little bit too. uh Not my favorite, but I've been in it. But then ultimately, the way I keep myself organized is that I have to put all of that into a task system for myself too. So that's kind of how I keep organized with all the different places that I have to be.

Kevin Dennis (: 21:34

Mmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 21:42

And then, just out of curiosity, because I love tech, is there one that you love the most that you work with? And one that you like, you said Trello, not your favorite. Is there, you know?

Ariana Teachey (: 21:56

Trello's not my favorite. ClickUp is my favorite. Monday is also really, really good. uh But I would say ClickUp is my absolute favorite. Yeah, that's what I use. And that's what I've set up a few clients to use too, to keep them on task. So that would be my favorite, for sure. It's so easy to set up, and it's visual, which I think a lot of wedding professionals like because

Kevin Dennis (: 21:59

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (22:6.160)

And is that what you use for your business as well?

Ariana Teachey (: 22:25

your creatives. you want something that's, yeah, yeah, we want something pretty. We want something a little color coded, um kind of kind of simple user friendly situation. So that would be my favorite for sure. And mobile. You can do it on your, you can get it on your phone. So and then app and the app's pretty good. So that's also another thing.

Kevin Dennis (: 22:26

We like pretty in the wedding industry.

Kevin Dennis (: 22:39

Yeah, all right, we've, oh mobile? It, oh.

Kevin Dennis (: 22:49

That's usually a selling point for me. It's it's mobile, great, done. I'm, hire me. Cause you gotta, cause you know, like you brought up ADHD or ADD, you know, like we, most of us in the wedding industry do struggle with that, me included. And if I don't write it down or think about, like put it down right then and there, ah you know, I'm going to forget. And so that's why I usually love stuff that's mobile. Cause then I can put it right into my phone.

Ariana Teachey (: 22:54

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Ariana Teachey (: 23:11

there.

Kevin Dennis (: 23:18

then it pops up in my desktop and my laptop and all that different stuff as well.

Ariana Teachey (: 23:23

Yeah, I find it really helpful because when I had other jobs uh before, I would be that person that like 10 o'clock at night, I'm thinking before I go to bed, I'm like, oh, I got to do X, Y, and I'm just like emailing myself a list, which works, but it's nice to have it somewhere where I can check it off. uh

Kevin Dennis (: 23:36

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 23:41

Yeah, we do like a good list that we can check as well. So all right. So we've gotten to the point where we really figured out that we need a virtual assistant. So what should a wedding pro be looking for when hiring a virtual assistant?

Ariana Teachey (: 23:58

I think it's really important to look at what their background is and to ask questions of do you currently have clients? How long have you been in business? And also make sure that they have everything squared away in the background for their own business. Do they have an LLC? Do they have an official contract? uh How are you paying them through Stripe, through whatever? Because I do think that

Kevin Dennis (: 24:19

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 24:28

there are some virtual assistants out there who sometimes do it as a hobby or as a side thing. And it's just important to make sure that people have everything squared away, em which I think we all understand, or you all understand being in the wedding industry is that you all have all those things squared away. You're not just fly by night. So I think that's really important when you're looking for someone. I also think word of mouth. em

Kevin Dennis (: 24:40

Hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 24:55

you can ask people like who are you using? I think that obviously that always says a lot and you know asking them like hey can I reach out to some of your past clients and see you know how you worked with them or or a current client um if you're not familiar with some of the people that they're working with. So I think that's really m

Kevin Dennis (25:9.256)

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 25:13

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 25:20

um an important thing to look for. And like we talked about earlier, I think there's a level of trust and a level of connection that you need to see with them from the start. um And an openness for communication. um Even as, know, and it's talked about a lot in the wedding industry, you're, you know, kind of your client process is like, what does their client process look like? um Is it something that you align with? um

Kevin Dennis (: 25:36

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 25:47

Are they good with their communication? Are they following up with you if you didn't go ahead and set up a consultation with them? Are they following up with you after you've met with them with a proposal and all those kinds of things? I think that that can show you a lot upfront of how they're gonna work with you in the future. uh

Kevin Dennis (26:8.424)

Yeah. Well, and it's funny that you brought up, I don't know why this came to mind, but like for you, you have an ariana fantasy sound, you know, email address. And some people think that you're you're not real, that they're just email. Yeah. That you're you're like, you know, chat, GBT, AI girl out there do it. I'm like, is one of our clients. I'm like, no, she's a real person. I'm like, You know, and then someone when they.

Ariana Teachey (: 26:17

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 26:22

Yes.

Ariana Teachey (: 26:31

Hahaha!

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 26:37

heard that we were working with a virtual assistant thought that you were a personal assistant and that you like go do my dry cleaning and pick up my kids for me and all that kind of stuff. And I was like, no, that's she lives in Richmond, Virginia. And she's nowhere near she could be running dry cleaning or any of that kind of stuff. So it's totally by working with her allows me time to pick up my kids and uh yeah, and go do my dry cleaning and all that fun stuff. So anyway.

Ariana Teachey (: 26:58

Yeah, yeah.

Ariana Teachey (27:4.332)

Yeah, I think, you know, it's kind of like an, it's an executive assistant, like you would see at a big company in some ways, uh the same kind of tasks. uh You're, I'm just not sitting next to you. You know, that's the big difference, but.

Kevin Dennis (: 27:10

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 27:18

Yeah. Yeah. No, no. And I think the biggest thing too is like you brought up is you got to be able to have an open line of communication with whoever you're working with. And it's like anything you do is as long as you do that line of, you know, open communications there, I think you're going to be successful. It's going to be like a really good relationship going forward. So that's why I think, no, go ahead.

Ariana Teachey (: 27:43

Yeah, I think it was.

I think another thing to making what you're looking for in a virtual assistant, it comes down to that trust. If you sent that person, even though they're virtual, if you sent that person to a networking meeting on your behalf for your company, do you think that they would do a good job? Do you think that they would promote your company as well as you would?

Kevin Dennis (28:5.561)

Oh.

Ariana Teachey (: 28:14

they're not going do it as well as you are because you own it, but how are they going to represent your company if they went out into a networking event? I think that's something, because like you said, I have an email for you. So I am writing emails on behalf of Fantasy Sound. I have other clients where I have that as well. So you need to be really comfortable knowing that if they're out in the world, how are they representing themselves and representing you?

Kevin Dennis (: 28:25

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 28:36

Well, yeah, and I never thought of it that way. And I would be 100 % confident that you would represent us very well, just over the years working with you and different things. I'm like, yep, yeah. Too bad you didn't live closer. We'd be sending you to networking events. There you go. There you go. Having fun. All right. So do we miss anything? I feel like we covered it all.

Ariana Teachey (: 28:51

Yeah, yeah, I'd be at NACE every month. uh

Kevin Dennis (29:4.848)

Yeah. So I think everyone needs to just look at their processes and look what they're doing and where do they need help, especially because right now it is so hard to find people to work for them. And I think the one thing too I think you got to remember is that a virtual assistant I think works faster than an employee because they don't get drawn into the minutia of the drama and whatnot that's going on.

you know, whatever it is, you know, like white lotus just ended and then we're all talking about white lotus here. uh You know, so yeah, because you're there working on your own. do. I will, I will admit, um, I'm not a Taylor Swiftie, but you are. And the girls are in the office. And so usually our, our every other week meeting is talking about something Taylor did, but we haven't talked about Taylor in a while because she's kind of been, she's a little MIA right now.

Ariana Teachey (: 29:38

Yeah, yeah

Ariana Teachey (: 29:54

Yeah.

Yeah, she's been, yeah, she's hanging out with Travis. Yeah, but that is something good to remember is that they're not getting bogged down with things going on in the office or getting pulled in like five different directions because when you're in an office, naturally you're gonna be like, hey, did you do X, Y, Z? And it's like, everybody stops. And so I think that is nice to be able, I'm just over here in my office in my own little bubble.

Kevin Dennis (: 30:19

Yeah, no. Good point.

Ariana Teachey (: 30:25

listening to true crime podcasts while I work or Taylor Swift. So

Kevin Dennis (: 30:26

Just...

There go. There you go. Hey, we all got to have our little vices what we do. All right. So I think a good thing to walk away with a good tip for everyone is just to really go out there and look at their processes and do they need help. you know, because I think if you can relieve yourself of some of the processes that you do or some of the business stuff, it'll open up that creative side. And that's where we need to live. Like, I feel like

Ariana Teachey (: 30:33

Right.

Kevin Dennis (: 30:54

us were more successful when we're in working on that creative side of our business more. So well, all right, girl. Thank you for being here before you go, though. I do ask all the guests. What is the favorite? We did find out that you did not like Trello, but what is your other than the ones you talked about? Do you have a favorite app that you're using right now?

Ariana Teachey (: 31:16

favorite app? I really, know people are gonna probably not love this answer. I like chat GPT, but I really like it to keep me organized and block my schedule, which I never thought about until like a couple months ago of helping it block my schedule. So I input all of my clients, how many hours I'm working for those clients, what hours in the day I work, like, you know, I work nine to five, or I have extra hours in the evening, put everything in, it spit out.

Kevin Dennis (: 31:23

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Dennis (: 31:29

Oh.

Ariana Teachey (: 31:46

when I should be working blocking my schedule for my clients, which was really cool.

Kevin Dennis (: 31:50

And that's crazy. what did you have to like, now I'm curious, what kind of prompts did you have to do?

Ariana Teachey (: 31:58

I just put that I was a virtual assistant that I have. listed all of my clients. I listed the hours per month that I have to work for them. listed, my schedule is a little weird because like I said, I have two kids and one of them is not in school yet. So I have childcare, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So I said, I work, you know, nine to five Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I work, you know, through.

Kevin Dennis (32:6.290)

Mm-hmm.

Ariana Teachey (: 32:23

couple hours, like three hours Thursday afternoon, work in the evening, I put all of those parameters in there and it spit out exactly uh the hours that I chunked out time. And that works for me uh to block my schedule that way. So chat GPT did that for me.

Kevin Dennis (: 32:42

No, that's I you know, it's funny more people I find like I was telling you earlier when we were on the call There's a guy I coach Little League baseball. I love Little League baseball This is my 17th year coaching baseball and one of the coaches puts in all the kids stats and let's chat GPT pick the batting order and they're pretty successful So I was like, hmm, maybe I need to have that girl help me help, you know do a little bat So it just it's it's amazing the things that we can do

Ariana Teachey (33:0.066)

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (33:9.170)

You know, and imagine if you had to do that on your own, how much time would that have taken you to try to block that out? And it was probably done in, you know, seconds.

Ariana Teachey (: 33:15

Oh, I yeah, I did it like you know, like six months before but then I had new clients come on So I had to go back, you know I had clients who left clients who came on so I had go back to the drawing board of like how am I gonna you know block this time and I was like I I just need someone to do it for me. So Chad, you did it and did a good job. So You know always always you know, I tell you all the time if I could clone myself

Kevin Dennis (: 33:22

Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 33:36

Yeah. Your virtual assistant needs a virtual assistant or an AI assistant. Yep.

Kevin Dennis (: 33:46

I We all feel that way. I just got to make sure you said thank you at the end to her, right? Chat, GBD. OK, yeah, because it's very important because when the computers rise up, we want them on our side.

Ariana Teachey (: 33:46

Which we all feel, but...

Ariana Teachey (: 33:54

Yes, I told her thank you.

Ariana Teachey (34:2.759)

Thank you, always a thank you. And you did a great job. That's what you have to tell them.

Kevin Dennis (34:7.224)

Yeah, you keep complimenting them because I feel like they do appreciate that. right, Ariana, it's been a pleasure. How can we or our guests get in contact with you?

Ariana Teachey (: 34:18

Yeah, so my website is just ariannatc.com and then I am on Instagram and it's ariannatc.virtualassistant and those are the kind of two places that I mostly hang out. So, yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 34:34

All right, we will be sure to uh put all your information in our show notes. And we can't thank you enough for being here today. And folks, yeah, I hope everyone goes out there and really evaluates and sees how a virtual assistant can help their business. Because you've been extremely helpful to us. And we do consider you part of the team. So it's kind of funny, even though you live so far away from us.

Ariana Teachey (: 34:41

Yeah, thank you.

Ariana Teachey (: 34:55

Yeah

Kevin Dennis (: 34:58

We very much look forward to all the help that you give us. So thank you so much. All right. Thanks for everyone for listening to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. And we will see you again soon.

Ariana Teachey (35:8.504)

Thank you.