From burnout to boss: How Fiona Campbell built a thriving VA empire

In this episode of Flying Solo, we chat with Fiona Campbell – founder of Thought Penny and the VA Lead Network – about how she turned redundancy on maternity leave into a booming remote business.

Fiona shares her journey from C-suite EA to virtual assistant queen, her top tips for setting up systems that scale, and how she gets a whopping 70% open rate on her emails. If you’re drowning in to-dos, struggling with delegation or unsure whether a VA is worth the investment, Fiona’s got you covered with smart, actionable advice to streamline your solo business – and reclaim your time.

Key topics

1. Building a Successful Remote and VA Business

• Fiona’s journey from executive assistant to launching Thought Penny and the VA Lead Network
• The impact of niching down and leveraging online presence to quickly gain clients
• Addressing common client needs: supplementing skills, freeing up time, and growing teams 

2. Essential Systems and Automation for Soloists

• Importance of task management tools (e.g., Asana) for visibility and organisation
• Strategies for identifying which business tasks to automate or delegate
• Encouragement to document workflows, even for solos, to enable growth and efficiency

3. Finding and Working with the Right VA

• Process of matching business owners with suitable VAs through detailed onboarding and education
• Avoiding the pitfalls of hiring solely based on lowest cost or unrealistic role expectations
• Key advice: hire for capability and value, with clear communication and role definition

4. Maximising Email List Engagement and Deliverability

• Maintaining a high-quality, engaged list through ruthless pruning and double opt-in practices
• Creating relevant, valuable content and offering subscriber preferences to boost open rates
• Ensuring technical setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for strong email deliverability and reputation .

Timestamped overview

00:00 Streamlining Business with Fiona Campbell

06:12 Virtual Assistant roles & responsibilities

10:06 Letting go in business delegation

11:30 Evaluating task automation needs

15:36 Task management: Digital vs. Paper

20:39 Optimising Virtual Assistant roles

24:19 Beware cheapest Virtual Assistants

28:41 High subscriber lists hurt reputation

31:50 Optimise email engagement strategy

35:02 Optimising email preferences

38:12 “Set SPF records to avoid spam”

40:25 Outsource Tasks You Dislike

Presenter: Cec Busby

Audio: Matt Jackson

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