Speaker 1 0:00

Music. Welcome to the aim podcast, where we bring you actionable insights on AI and how to best apply it in your business, across marketing, sales, customer service and more, hosted by helpflow.com this is your guide to staying ahead in the world of AI for business. And just to blow your mind a little bit, our hosts are literally AIS talking to each other. Enjoy the show.

Speaker 2 0:29

Okay? So you know that feeling, the one where you're just drowning in tasks, like you're constantly battling this never ending to do list? Yes,the tyranny of the urgent, right? You look at your big goals, and then, and then you kind of get bogged down in all the day to day. To day stuff, right?

Speaker 3 0:37

the tyranny of the urgent, right? You look at your big goals, and then, and then you kind of get bogged down in all the day to day. To day stuff, right?

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Speaker 2 0:43

You're trying to make progress, but it feels like you're just spinning your wheels, like you're stuck, you know

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Speaker 30:47

exactly, and I think that's why a lot of people are really interested in this whole world of virtual assistants. Yeah, it's definitely

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Speaker 2 0:54

a hot topic. And I'm curious to see, like, what are the real possibilities here, both with human VAs and, of course, with the AI powered ones.

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Speaker 3 1:03

And that's exactly what we're going to be digging into in this deep dive. We've got a ton of great material to work

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Speaker 2 1:09

with. We do lots of insights from different sources, yeah. And our

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Speaker 3 1:13

mission here is to help you make sense of it all, to figure out how you can use vas, whether human or AI to streamline your workflows and get more done.

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Speaker 2 1:23

Sounds good to me. And you know, one of the things that jumped out at me from the research is this idea of identifying your bottlenecks. It's like, before you even start thinking about delegating, you have to really understand where the time is going totally

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Speaker 3 1:37

I mean, it's like anything right? If you want to improve something, you first have to figure out what's not working

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Speaker 2 1:42

exactly. So the material suggests a few different strategies for uncovering these bottlenecks, yeah,

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Speaker 3 1:48

like actually taking the time to map out your workflows step by step. You know, where are the manual processes? Where are the handoffs happening between people or between teams?

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Speaker 2 1:59

Oh, that's interesting, because sometimes those handoffs, even if they seem necessary, they could really create delays or even just opportunities for like things to fall through the cracks

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Speaker 3 2:08

absolutely and then there's the whole issue of repetitive tasks, the stuff that maybe doesn't seem like a big deal on its own, but when you add it all up, it's just eating away at your time. Oh,

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Speaker 2 2:17

yeah. Like data entry, yeah, or all those back and forth emails trying to schedule meetings, just soul crushing stuff, great. And

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Speaker 3 2:26

the interesting thing is, the sources point out that a lot of these inefficiencies are actually kind of hidden. They're not these big, obvious problems, but they're these little workarounds that people have developed to cope with systems that aren't really working for them.

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Speaker 2 2:40

Oh, I see. So it's like people are patching things up as they go, but those patches end up creating more work in the long run,

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Speaker 3 2:48

precisely, and that's why it's so important to talk to your team. Have those regular check ins where you specifically ask about fiction points, you know, like, what's slowing you down? What are you constantly waiting on?

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Speaker 2 3:00

Because they're the ones on the front lines. They're the ones who really know what's working and what's not exactly

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Speaker 3 3:04

and one of the sources even said something like, you know, your team often has the best insights into the tasks that are truly tedious and time consuming. So if

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Speaker 2 3:13

we're summarizing this first part, it's all about taking that step back and really understanding the current state of your workflows, you know, playing detective and figuring out where those bottlenecks are before you even think about bringing in help.

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Speaker 3 3:25

Yeah? Because once you know what the problem is, the solution often becomes much clearer,

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Speaker 2 3:29

right? Okay, so let's say we've identified the bottlenecks. Now it's time to start thinking about actually offloading some of those tasks, and that's where virtual assistants come in.

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Speaker 3 3:39

Yeah, the whole idea here is to focus your energy on your core business activities, you know, the stuff that only you can do and let the VAs handle. The rest

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Speaker 2 3:48

makes sense. So what kind of tasks are we talking about? Specifically? Well,

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Speaker 3 3:53

the sources give a bunch of good examples, like all the standard administrative stuff, you know, scheduling, data entry, travel arrangements, okay, the things that everyone hates doing, exactly. But it also goes beyond that. They talk about things like managing social media, keeping your CRM up to date, you know, tasks that are important but maybe don't require your specific expertise, right? And

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Speaker 2 4:13

then there's the question of whether you hire individual VAs or work with an agency,

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Speaker 3 4:18

right? And each approach has its own pros and cons, but one thing that all the sources emphasize is the importance of clear communication.

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Speaker 2 4:27

Yeah, you can't just throw a task at someone and expect them to know exactly what to do. You need

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Speaker 3 4:31

to be super clear about your expectations. Like, what does success look like for this task? What are the specific steps involved? And it's

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Speaker 2 4:39

also helpful to schedule regular check ins, even if they're just quick ones, to make sure everyone's on the same page,

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Speaker 3 4:46

absolutely. And one of the sources even suggested running a pilot period, you know, delegate a few tasks, track your time savings, and see how it impacts your bottom line, because then you can actually

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Speaker 2 4:55

see the ROI like if you free up your salesperson from doing all the. At admin work. How much more selling can they do? How much revenue can that generate?

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Speaker 3 5:04

Right? It's about connecting the dots between delegation and actual business growth.

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Speaker 2 5:08

Yeah, I like that. And ultimately, the goal is to free up your team to focus on the stuff that really matters, whether that's building relationships, developing new products, or just, you know, thinking strategically about the future of your business exactly

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Speaker 3 5:23

you want your team operating at their highest level, not getting bogged down in busy work. Hey, there.

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Speaker 2 5:29

Before we continue with our discussion, we we thought you might be interested in a resource that addresses something I think a lot of entrepreneurs face, and that's getting the most out of working with virtual assistants?

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Speaker 3 5:43

Yeah, absolutely. It's a challenge we hear about all the time, right? And we've got a deep dive prepped for you, based on help flows, AI empowered virtual assistant guide. Oh, very cool. This guide really dives deep into common VA challenges, how they impact businesses, and a fascinating solution, and that's using AI to boost VA productivity. I love

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Speaker 2 6:04

that idea, because it's not about replacing that human connection, right? It's about making it even better with smart tools. You know what? I mean, totally it's like giving them superpowers. Yeah, exactly. So if this sounds intriguing, we're gonna hit some of the highlights today, but you can grab the full guide for free at HELP flow.com, forward slash, folks as pi, empower dash virtual assistant guide. And honestly,

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Speaker 3 6:23

it's one of those guides that really gets you thinking about the future of delegation. Oh, yeah, like if we can train AI to handle those routine tasks the worst, what kind of creative and strategic work will this free humans up to do?

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Speaker 2 6:35

That is a great point to ponder. I would love to hear what our listeners think about that, and remember, you can download the full AI empowered virtual assistant guide for free@helpflow.com

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Speaker 3 6:48

packed with even more insights and actionable steps to leverage AI with your VA.

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Speaker 2 6:55

okay, so we've talked about human vas, but let's not forget about AI, and the sources are really excited about the potential of AI to streamline workflows. Yeah,

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Speaker 3 7:06

and it's not just about like asking a chat bot a question and getting an answer. It's about using AI to automate entire processes. So what are some concrete examples? Well, they talk a lot about chat bots for customer service, you know, handling those basic inquiries like order status updates or appointment reminders, which frees

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Speaker 2 7:26

up your human agents to deal with the more complex issues, exactly. And then

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Speaker 3 7:29

there's the whole area of data entry. AI is getting really good at handling those repetitive, error prone tasks, which

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Speaker 3 7:39

are AI powered scheduling tools, you know, things that can automatically sync calendars, send reminders and even reschedule meetings when something comes up. It's like having a personal assistant who never sleeps, right? And one thing that the sources stress is the importance of measurement, you know, actually tracking things like error rates, time savings and response times, because that's how you know if the AI is actually working, and it's also how you can refine your approach over time.

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Speaker 2 8:03

And I think the most interesting point they make is this idea that once you start using AI effectively, you're gonna wonder why you didn't do it sooner. It can be a real game changer. Okay, so in the material we're focusing on today, help flow talks about their own solution called Smart staff, right?

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Speaker 3 8:19

And it's basically this idea of combining human VAs with AI support. So it's like a hybrid approach, exactly, and they make it sound really easy to use. You just hop on a quick phone call to explain your needs, and then

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Speaker 2 8:31

their AI goes to work creating a detailed task brief for the VA. And

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Speaker 3 8:36

the VA also has access to what they call an AI copilot, which provides assistance throughout the task. It

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Speaker 2 8:42

sounds like they've really thought about how to make the whole process as seamless as possible. They

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Speaker 3 8:46

also say they can provide support across a wide range of functions, marketing, sales, customer service, project management, even executive assistance. So pretty much everything, it seems that way. And they also mention their 24/7 live chat team, which is basically designed to engage with visitors on your website and answer their questions in real time. So

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Speaker 2 9:09

it's like having a virtual sales team working for you around the clock. Yeah,

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Speaker 3 9:12

I think that's the idea. And they encourage you to check out their demo to see how it all works in practice.

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Speaker 2 9:18

Sounds interesting. Okay, so as we wrap up, what are the big takeaways here?

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Speaker 3 9:22

Well, I think the first one is the importance of understanding your workflows and identifying those bottlenecks,

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Speaker 2 9:26

because that's where you're losing time and efficiency Exactly.

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Speaker 3 9:30

And then the second takeaway is the power of delegation, whether you're using human VAs AI or a combination of both, because

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Speaker 2 9:38

the goal is to free up your team to focus on their highest value work

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Speaker 3 9:42

exactly, and ultimately, it's about working smarter, not harder.

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Speaker 2 9:46

And here's something for you to think about. What are those projects that you've been putting off because you just don't have the time? You

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Speaker 3 9:52

know, the ones that could really move the needle for your business? If you could free

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Speaker 2 9:56

up even just a few hours a week, what could you accomplish? It's

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Speaker 3 10:00

worth taking some time to reflect on that and to think about how these strategies could help you achieve your goals, because

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Speaker 2 10:07

the possibilities are really endless.

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Speaker 3 10:09

I think so too. It's an exciting time to be thinking about how to work more efficiently and

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Speaker 2 10:14

effectively. Absolutely. Thanks for joining me for this deep dive. It was my pleasure.

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Speaker 1 10:21

Thanks for listening to the aim podcast. If you found today's episode impactful, be sure to check out helpflow.com where we help businesses maximize AI across marketing, sales, customer service and more. Visit helpflow.com today you.

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