Sustainable Support: The Right Way to Make Your First Hire Part 2

Summary In part two, Katie and Kate pick up the conversation by walking through Kate's 90-day Hire to Rise Roadmap — the exact process she uses to help solopreneurs find, vet, and onboard the right VA. They explore why rushing the hiring process always costs more in the long run, how conscious leadership creates a foundation of trust and collaboration, and how to handle VA mistakes with curiosity and compassion rather than reaction. Kate closes with a powerful reminder that has stuck with us: delegation is self-care.

Takeaways

• The Hire to Rise Roadmap breaks the hiring process into three clear phases: assess, interview, and onboard.
• Hiring out of desperation leads to poor matches — take the time to get it right.
• Hire before you think you're ready whenever possible.
• Conscious leadership means approaching mistakes with curiosity rather than judgment.
• Creating a safe environment for mistakes fosters trust and long-term collaboration.
• Your VA will likely be harder on themselves over a mistake than you will be — lead with compassion.
• Responding instead of reacting as a leader sets the tone for the entire working relationship.
• Delegation is self-care — asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
• You don't need to have everything perfectly organized before hiring — just know how you do things now and what success looks like.

Rise to Hire Website
Rise to Hire on Instagram

Resources

• Website
• Free Mini Cogno Mondays
• Learn more about Cognomovement
• Try Cognomovement for yourself!
• Book a call with Katie

Credit: Tom Giovingo, Intro & Outro, Random Voice Guy, Professional ‘Cat‘ Herder

Mixed & Managed: JohnRavenscraft.com

Disclaimer: Katie is not a medical professional and she is not qualified to diagnose any conditions. The advice and information she gives is based on her own experience and research. It does not take the place of medical advice. Always consult a medical professional first before you try anything new.

Transcript

00:00
Welcome back to the Catapult Effect podcast. Last week, we sat down with Kate Linehan of Rise Higher Consulting to talk about how to find and hire the right virtual assistant for your business, from avoiding the unicorn trap to nailing your onboarding process. Today, we're back with Kate to dive into her Hire to Rise roadmap, how to lead your VA with compassion and curiosity, and why delegation is actually a form of self-care. Let's go. That's coming right up.

00:29
Welcome to the Catapult Effect podcast. I'm Katie Wrigley, neuroscience coach and entrepreneur. This podcast is for high performing leaders who look capable on the outside, but know the pressure of carrying too much alone.

00:42
Each week, we explore the internal and external systems that create real ease from nervous system regulation to delegation and smarter support. If you're ready to build in a way that feels steady and sustainable, you're in the right place. I'd love to hear more about what you do within your agency and then also about this, your 90-day program that you have, the Hire to Rise Roadmap.

01:07
Yeah, so what I do within my agency, I partner with each client that comes through my doors, my proverbial doors, and we work together. So I have a coaching program, but really it is a very like hands-on program. very lead held program where we do the first thing that we do together is essentially a brain dump. What are all of the things that you're working on? And it's really this 90 day higher to rise roadmap is broken out into three phases. And the first is really understanding what you're working on and what we need to offload and figuring out who is going to fill that role best in terms and also what skills they need. The next process is really the interviewing, the vetting,

01:53
Typically all like I will write the job description. I put it out there. I've got all the resumes and index them all in a very nice and organized way for you. Because that in itself for entrepreneurs is an overwhelming thing. task to take on you're like now i've got 35 resumes i need to review and i don't know what i'm looking for so i look at them i vet them i put them in a very digestible way and then i present you three-ish candidates to say i think these are the three people we should interview I'm on each interview with you. We debrief after each interview to really talk strengths, weaknesses, what we thought, all that kind of good stuff.

02:34
And then we'll go into test tasks if necessary. And then the third and final phase is really that onboarding and training. So inviting each of my clients to really step into leadership in an empowered way that doesn't feel like the manager you hated when you had your last day job, right? Like the last time that you had a manager and were like, I don't want to be a manager. I don't want to manage people. We really talk about leadership and management from a human perspective and a human first. I've worked very closely over the last five years with a conscious leadership coach. And so that's really the basis and the foundation for everything I coach my clients through in terms of communication and setting expectations early, because if we're constantly moving the goalposts on our new VA, it's not going to be a successful relationship in any way. And so really being clear, I've got I've got all the things I've got intake forms that helps collapse time between

03:34
getting to know each other. And a lot of times too, somebody might say, I really hate negative feedback. And somebody might have a negative bias where they immediately talk negatively. And so having that written down instead of me saying it to you, if it's uncomfortable, it still sets that boundary and that tone without making it confrontational in any way. So all of these tools that I prepare for my clients and they have to take with them on their journey,

04:04
are all part of the Hire to Rise roadmap to not only find the right person, vet the right person, but also then to get to your next level as a leader.

04:16
I love that. Thank you for outlining that. And I'm curious. So I know by the time that I realized I needed a VA, I wanted to hire her yesterday.

04:26
So how do you speak to that person that's like, I can't do 90 days. I need someone yesterday. Kate, I need someone yesterday. What do you say to that person? um i say let's take a deep breath together and i say i i understand and also it's really important to get this right it's important not to hire out of absolute desperation because then you're going to be really hiring somebody based on

04:54
Yes, they check this box and I can afford them. And that's not always going to be the best, most successful fit. And so while I absolutely understand the I needed them yesterday, and it's also why I will shout from the rooftops to hire before you think you're ready. It doesn't always work that way. Right. And so.

05:17
Staying the course with the process that I lay out or that any hiring agency lays out is just as much a part of the process as hiring, as managing, as leading, as finding the right person.

05:33
There is a process in place for a reason so that we're not just like snapping somebody up and then firing them and wasting your time, money and energy and resources. Yeah. And plus it sucks to fire people. I hate firing people. It really sucks to fire people. It really does. Even though it usually frees everybody up to have a better match, it still sucks. Like it's just, it's not fun to tell someone that you have to let them go. Right. Like it never feels good to give negative feedback. That's like you're not cutting it and we're going to let you go. And yeah, I agree that it never it never is a good feeling. And the other side to that coin is like you've spent so much of your energy and your and your kind of your trust currency almost gone. bringing this person in inviting them in and and giving them the keys to the castle to only turn around and let them go is like another see i should have just it's it's almost this self-fulfilling prophecy of like see i should have just done it myself and that doesn't get us anywhere either

06:38
And it's almost like the example we talked about earlier of I can take five minutes to do this now or I can take an hour tomorrow and teach them like it's that's almost like a microcosm of what you're talking about now is like when we're rushing into it, we are not helping ourselves long term. And that's.

06:55
That's pretty much a good thing to think about in life in general, even outside of business. Like when we rush into things, those aren't necessarily usually the things that work for us the best long term, at least not in my life. Maybe you've had a different experience, but I'm like, oh, I did it again. I'm trying to teach my teenagers that lesson right now of like, where's your pause button? Let's figure out how to push it before we get to the point of rushing into a rash decision of any kind. yeah the the woman i took copywriting from uh anna powers she she had this quote that goes through my head a lot especially when i get all excited about something it's like the power of the pause yes the power is in the pause and i hear her every time like with this big grin on her face in the zoom meeting we're in oh the power of the pause like thank you anna thank you yes and it's and it's true like i'm sure in your work too you you feel this with your clients of like

07:53
that groundedness that comes from closing your eyes and taking five deep breaths and just what it does for our psyche, for our nervous system, for our body and for our brain. Like all of those things makes, and I mean, I've been, this is a different podcast, but I've been on such a healing journey myself and learning how to embrace that pause and feel safe in it is, is a,

08:22
is an adjustment. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Especially like, and I love the way Dr. Dispenza says this, and I want to start to go on a healing tangent because I could talk about that all day. I want to keep the focus on VAs. But this is also really applicable to what we're talking about here. And the way he describes is we get used to being on. All the time. And instead of the threat being the lion or the saber tooth tiger or the woolly mammoth chasing us down, now the threats are notifications on your phone and comments on Instagram or a nasty message from a client. Like those are the threats. And so our body's just like, I may as well just stay up here. And taking that breath tells the nervous system, hey, hey, you actually don't have any active threats right now. Because when we have a real threat, you literally cannot take a deep breath. It doesn't even come into your mind because you're literally getting out of dodge before you die.

09:15
And it helps the brain to discern, oh, okay, yeah, my heart may be racing because I just got a really scary message from a client, but I'm actually not in danger right now. Let's pause. Let's get into this. Well, and I think kind of like tying, like kind of marrying the two is like

09:33
We, most of our businesses, most of us, we're not saving babies. We're not, right? Any deadline is self-imposed, almost always. Everything, like Marie Forleo, I think, is the one who coined that everything is figureoutable. And the best leaders that I have worked for and worked alongside have had this attitude of thanks for bringing this to our attention. You know, we...

10:02
maybe didn't they took as much responsibility for whatever the situation was, as well as let's figure out the solution together. And so I think being able to pause in those moments where a VA might make a mistake because we're all human beings, right? We're all human beings and really just kind of saying, OK, what's the solution instead of reacting to that?

10:30
mistake or that error, I can almost assure you that 98% of the time the VA is beating themselves up more than you are beating them up. And so having honoring that person's experience too, and just saying it, the best leaders I've worked for have done this and made it safe to make a mistake and to solve it and resolve it.

10:52
Thank you. I love that you mentioned that. And yeah, you're right. And not just within VAs, like when we know that we've made a mistake, chances are we're all beating ourselves up way worse, but it's so satisfying to be the person who feels wrong to be like, you were wrong. But when you look at it, like, and I asked myself in those moments when I've seen those mistakes and I feel the anger, it's like, okay, who are you actually angry at here? Like, you're not angry at them. You know, they made a mistake. You know, it was unintentional. Like,

11:22
you're actually probably a little bit more angry at yourself here. Like just take a moment here and be kind with the way you give them feedback because they are probably way more upset than anything that you can say. So piling on is just going to make it worse.

11:40
Every way, right? Like the reaction that you have as the leader then sets the tone for future trust, future delivery, you know, the future morale, all of these things that they feel safe, they're going to do their best not to make another mistake. And also they know that if they do, there is a path to repair.

12:01
Yeah, 100%.

12:02
And one of the things that I've adopted in my personal life and my business life is like when I feel that and I ask myself, like, what am I hoping to get out of this? Like, oh, I just need to get it out. Like, no, that's not a reason to say it. Like, work that out, process it. I don't want to push it down. I want to process it out. But that's not something that needs to be shared. And the other thing is, like, if I need a moment, say, okay, like...

12:27
Thank you so much for telling me. I'm just going to pause and process on this. Don't worry. We're going to work through it. I just need a moment to process before I get back to you. And so that person knows like, and they, you know, don't worry. Like, yes, I may be upset, but you know, Hey, I'm not going to come back and fire you.

12:45
And if it is something that I may have to fire them for, I'm not going to give them that assurance. Just, hey, just give me a minute here. I'm going to circle back with you as soon as I can. Like, I never want to give a false promise. But if there is no way, shape or form that they're getting fired, I'm going to like, hey, nothing to worry about here. I just want to process it. We will circle back. It's all good. You're human. You made a mistake.

13:09
Pause.

13:10
And that's a gift like that is 100 percent a gift that many leaders do not have the awareness to exercise. And so I think your VAs are very lucky to have you as a leader and and to have that kind of an environment. Right. It just creates more collaboration and trust within a team.

13:30
And thank you. And that's that's the nervous system regulation. I practice what I preach. So when you have that extra margin, you have the space to give the same grace to other people that you want for yourself. And I also saw it done differently and also took different action when I was in corporate and I'm 100 percent guilty of piling on when someone already feels like crap. over a mistake that they made like i'm so guilty of doing that and that's part of what helps me pause now is i didn't like how i felt to know that i piled on let alone how much worse i made that other person feel by piling on like it's just it doesn't it it helps in the moment because we feel that validation of like they say i'm sorry and it's like yeah you better be sorry but then an hour later you're like yeah that really wasn't worth it again you're setting the tone right so next time they make a mistake they're not going to come to you they're going to try and hide it they're going to try and prepare it they're going to be secretive about it like that doesn't that doesn't foster the trust and and growth in it for the business or for the humans involved

14:39
Yeah. Like, and I can think of people that tend to be a little bit more critical in my, that I know in my personal life, they aren't the people I'm going to go to when I have a problem because I'm not going to get criticized. Like I made to need to be supported. I may need to be validated whether work or personal, whatever it may be, but like the people who are criticizing, that's not who I'm going to go to. Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yes, very true. So important. You don't want to be the critical person. And I, I was lucky enough to work for some amazing, amazing managers in corporate. And so I try to take

15:17
how they manage me and incorporate some of their style into what i do and it's exactly what you're you're talking about kate with you know having that compassion having that connection taking that pause responding versus reacting and supporting that person on holding them accountable like i can think of there was a time where i i made a a mistake that was a small mistake, but it wound up having a massive repercussion because of the software that we were working with.

15:46
And it was a disaster of a weekend. Like I actually, it was so bad. I actually threw up in my mouth a little bit from the anxiety of it. Like we were trying to upgrade products and it just, and Cisco came in and set up a whole redundant data center. And the time it took us to get back to where we had started because I missed one step. Oh, But the repercussions were due to the software being really, really bad.

16:11
And so and it was, of course, multiple days. My manager jumped in to help smooth things out. And, you know, by the time we talked, like I was so scared to talk. And he modeled such a great manager in that moment. And he was like, OK, tell me what happened. And I was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so I already did blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And next time I'm going to do X, Y, Z. He's like, there's literally nothing I can add to that.

16:35
And so one thing I was going to add to this conversation is I mentioned earlier, like a lot of my foundation is based on conscious leadership. And one of the foundations of conscious leadership is this curiosity that you just, without saying the word curious, your manager had, right? And he like, I'm curious, can you walk me through your process of what happened or what you did or what, whatever the, whatever the question is, but truly approaching it from the place of curiosity instead of preconceived notion or a story I already have in my head or a judgment that I already have against you. All of these things are so vitally important to creating that collaborative team environment and being the leader so that things can continue to get done.

17:24
Yeah. And, and it, again, he's one of the people that I model things after and he, I had worked with him long enough to know, okay, these are the things he's going to bring me through. So I proactively went and I had written down the steps. I just accidentally skipped one. I even was going, I just, it was a total oversight and it was an innocent mistake that had ridiculous. And it was one of our biggest customers. Like it was ridiculous.

17:52
I cleared this out of my nervous system. I'm actually getting impacted by this. And it was like 10 years ago. Like, it was one of my, it was not a good moment, but he showed me.

18:05
a real leader in that moment. And those are those are the people that I try to model my own leadership after is taking that time. I have no idea how pissed he was how much he worked out on his own before he talked to me. I'm sure he didn't stay calm that whole time.

18:18
But I saw a calm, respectful, powerful leader when he did come to me and he's like, this is my job as a manager. Do you know what you did wrong?

18:29
What would you do next time? And you covered all that. So

18:35
And just to mention, if the code was more stable, this wouldn't have been the debacle that it was. So this isn't all you. A lot of this actually just goes back into the quality, which is totally not on you.

18:49
And so he was very, very clear with, okay, here is the actual issue. Here is where you wound up exploiting that issue and it just wound up getting magnified

19:00
Times 100 because of the way that we did it. So but yeah, those are those are the moments where you really want to have your leadership chops like ready. 100% because you want to be able to stay grounded in those moments. Absolutely. I have really enjoyed this discussion, Kate. Thank you so much for joining me today. And I want to make sure that the listener who is like, oh my gosh, I need a VA so bad. I need Kate. Where can they find you, Kate? Yeah. So I'm at Rise Higher Consulting on Instagram and Rise Higher is I'm hiring a person, not higher as in height. So I always like to call that out, Rise Higher Consulting on Instagram. And then my website is risehigherconsulting.com. So super easy.

19:45
On my Instagram, if you want, you can grab a 15-minute call with me. There's a call link there or call link somewhere on my website.

19:55
I might be lying that it's actually on my Instagram bio, but it's somewhere. It's somewhere. So if you want to grab a 15-minute call, we can work out what you're currently working through. I always love connecting with people. Awesome. Thank you for that. We'll make sure that the call link is actually in the show notes as well. So people can just go down in this episode, grab their 15 minutes with you and start to get on their way to getting supported and having the support that they need.

20:21
Thank you again so much for joining me today, Kate. Is there any last word you want to leave the listener today who is desperately needing someone to help them?

20:29
I would say, and I'm going to echo what I said on a podcast I was on last week is delegation is self-care. And so if you're working on regulating your nervous system, that's how you came into Katie's world. If you are a solopreneur, a visionary, you know, one thing I would encourage you to lean into considering is that delegation and asking for help is actually self-care.

20:52
Oh, my gosh. I love that. Like, my whole body just went, oh, yes. Like, 100%. It 100% is. And that's not something we're taught as kids. We're taught we have to do it all on our own. That is not true. We are not designed to do it on our own. We are designed to ask for help. It is a sign of strength. It is self-care to do so. I love that.

21:14
I'm so glad, Katie. It was so amazing connecting with you. Thank you so much for having me.

21:19
Thank you. And thank you, listener, for being here with us today. And I hope you come back again next week to listen to the next thing that is going to help make your life easier as an entrepreneur. And until then, please be well. Thanks for being here on the Catapult Effect podcast. If today's episode supported you, share it with another leader who's ready to create more ease in how they build and leave a review so more heart-led leaders can find these conversations.

21:46
You don't have to do everything yourself. When the right systems are in place, inside and out, business gets lighter. Until next time, protect your capacity.