How Hiring a VA Can Help you Buy Back 40 Hours of Your Time Each Week with Matthew Baitieri, Box 2 Business

Matthew Baitieri is the Founder of Box 2 Business. His goal is to bring all the knowledge he's gathered over the last 8 years of running his business and share it with other gym owners worldwide. Throughout his journey, he's had several business coaches, and they taught him a little on how to grow a fitness business and a lot on how NOT to coach gym owners. This gave him a fire to hone his craft through reading, watching, and listening to experts from all industries and then applying the best methods into his gym and those of his clients. Matthew is all about serving the little guy and believes no two gyms are the same.

On this episode of the gymOS Podcast, Matthew and Dan find common ground and discuss how making a virtual assistant a part of your team is a GAME CHANGER! Both have experience in hiring and training VA's that have saved them countless hours. You'll walk away from this episode with tried and true tactics that will save you time and allow you to focus on growing your business!


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Transcript

Dan Uyemura  0:00 
Welcome to the gymOS podcast, helping fitness professionals become better business owners one episode at a time.

All right, everyone. Welcome back to the gymOS podcast. We're trying to make better business owners out of you fitness professionals one episode at a time. On today's episode, I'm going to choke on this, we have Matthew Baitieri.. I think I said that right?

Matthew Baitieri  0:34 
That's good.

Dan Uyemura  0:35 
Yeah, Matthew is the founder of Box 2 Business out of Australia. He's been working as a consultant in a business coach for the last eight years or so. But he comes from the gym ownership cloth himself, he opened a gym, I think around 2011, he told me, and recently sold it kind of following the same footsteps a lot of us here at PushPress have, recently sold his gym so we can focus on helping gym owners help their clients. And that's kind of a perfect segue, actually, into today's episode. Today, we want to talk a lot about balance, work life balance, like how many of you gym owners out there feel like you're spending 12-14 hours a day in the gym only to come home and work on the gym, or to go to sleep and wake up and work on the gym. It's not really good work life balance might cause a little stress to your family might cause you to wish you had a few, a few hobbies are able to spend more time with your friends. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about today with Matthew. So that's exactly what we're going to talk about today with Matthew. So without further ado, Matthew, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Matthew Baitieri  1:29 
Well, firstly, Dan, thanks for having me on. I appreciate always talking to people across the globe. That's what allows us to connect right, it's awesome. I have to bet the zoom shares have dropped since the vaccines been the vaccine was discovered yesterday. But hopefully zoom is gonna survive with our podcast today. So a little bit about me, I guess I was yeah, across the gym owner since 2011. Started business coaching in 17. I started my own business January last year, and just helping sort of gym owners around the globe find that work life balance, working less in the business more on the business. I'm sure everyone's heard that before. But helping them embrace technology. Because I know when I was a gym owner, I was pretty scared of Facebook, Instagram, all that type of jazz. And I think a lot of gym owners are still kind of old school, you know, they might still you know, use the whiteboard or have Excel sheets or pen and paper and try and get them to understand and fall in love with technology that can help them leverage such things like touch points, client touch points and nurturing and campaigns. So clients can spend more time doing the things they love inside the business coaching classes connecting with members, and not worry too much about you know, their social media or how their ads running well, are they getting enough leads that type of jazz?

Dan Uyemura  2:45 
Yeah, this kind of goes right in line with I think the direction we're gonna go in this podcast, I've recently read a book called E Myth. Have you read E Myth?

Matthew Baitieri  2:54 
No, I haven't.

Dan Uyemura  2:54 
Okay, cool. So E Myth is, I think it's kind of the Bible for small businesses it might be might be like kind of required reading, in my opinion, for small businesses like mom and pop gyms or boutique fitness facilities. And one thing that they talk about in the book is granted, this book was written in 1986. So in the book they talk about, you want to be able to buy back your time, and you want to be able to hire people to replace functions of your work. So you can focus on bigger picture things, right? Very obvious concept. You know, I'm sure that you believe in as well, something we preach. But in the book, it talks about hiring an accountant to take the accounting work off your plate, and I'm like shit in 2020, there's software systems that will do it all for you for like 150 bucks a month as opposed to three or $4,000 like na accountant would want. So I find it to be a very interesting concept that we live in a time where you can basically hire assistants for 150 bucks a month, because it's software. But we now have 100 more things to do. So the burnout is real. In fact, I think it's worse now than ever. What do you think about that?

Matthew Baitieri  3:54 
Yeah, I think especially in the early stages where you hustling and grinding as as a gym owner in the first sort of six months, you tend to be wearing all the hats. As you grow, you start adding more classes, you start doing you know, one on one consultations, and you have the systems and processes for like a one man band. But if you growing exponentially, your systems and operations are ongoing, probably at the same rate that your membership is so then you start getting stressed. You're not exercising, you're you know, taking takeaway, because you don't have time to like precooked meals when you go to work and all that type of jazz. And yeah, burnout is, is well and truly, it's going to happen. I think that COVID sounds really bad, but has given the opportunity for coaches and gym owners to have that, you know, forced break. It's also given them the opportunity to restructure their business into more something that gives them longevity in the space because how many gym owners do you know are over the age of 50 not many. It's a really it's a young man or young woman's, I guess sport. And that's because of the way that it's structured. early mornings, late nights split shift. And it's not sustainable. So we hire young people, or we need to leverage tools and systems to help us manage all the things that you said, like the sound meetings that a small business needs to be done. Accounting, bookkeeping, coaching classes, admin paperwork, all that type of jazz. And a lot of it doesn't bring any value to our clients, right? All the backend stuff that we don't really want to do as a business. And we just thought, Hey, we're going to coach people, we're going to train, we're going to eat a shit ton of protein, drink coffee, and that's how it is. But the reality is, as more and more gyms pop up, if you don't have your marketing in check, you don't have a good sales system, you don't have a good client onboarding system, you're bound to fuck up, you're bound to burn out, you better stress the other year competitors are doing better than you because you're scrolling through Facebook, seeing how many members and how many people are in their classes, because they're uploading videos and photos. And you start burning out and then you're like, Fuck, where? Where am I and you start looking for help. And then, you know, the rest is history. If you get help, you can solve the issue. And if you try to figure it out by yourself, you're gonna waste more time and more money in doing so.

Dan Uyemura  6:04 
Yeah. One thing that I noticed in a lot of small business owners and gym owners specifically, as they're starting up new gyms is, it's kind of what you said, like you're running a one man shop, you're doing all the work and all of the information is in your head. And it's really hard to hire someone if everything's in your head, because and it's not scalable, either. Because if you have to hire two people, you're gonna have to tell this two people the same two things and three people three things, you know, it's because it's all just in your head. What kind of advice do you have for somebody who's looking to grow their business, or at least set their business up to grow and be able to transfer knowledge easier, because it's such a task to get something out of your head exactly how you want it to be done, when it's just sitting in your head?

Matthew Baitieri  6:46 
Yeah, I mean, a great point is when you go to school, we learn all this shit that we don't end up using when we're older. Right. And when you go get your way into Australia, it's called the fitness certificate three and four, they teach you how to coach people like babysit, but they don't really tell you how to run a business. So exactly what you said you've got all the concepts and in your head, like you know how to open up your you know how to open a gym, you know, how to do consults, you know, how to close the gym and all the things in between. But what you should be doing is literally tracking what you do, creating a step by step process by writing it down, typing it out, creating a loop, or zoom video out of it, and storing it somewhere easily accessible. So when you hire someone, you have this built up coaches onboarding system, where even if you teach them everything in a couple of days, and they don't remember, they can reference back to this portal. So for example, Box 2 Business, we give our clients a Google site where they store all the systems and processes in their business, it's easy to find a new coach comes in, they show them hey, this day, open up the gym, blah, blah, blah. By the way, if you ever start closing the gym by yourself, you can refer back to the portal document. So you know what the code is, you know, to turn off the fan, the music's to mop the floor, or clean the toilets, make sure the toilet paper is filled up with all this stuff that you know, and that you do subconsciously. But everyone else after you might need a bit of hand holding. So gym owners, especially in the early stages, write down everything that you do and how you do it. And then put it somewhere, put it in a folder, put it in a Google site, put it in a Dropbox, whatever, but store it for the day that you start growing and scaling your stuff.

Dan Uyemura  8:29 
Yep, I have two pieces of advice to add to that one, try to store it in a format that's kind of like, think of it like a book or a manual. So there's going to be some type of like logical order to it maybe from opening a gym to closing in gym, or maybe it's in the process new customer to, you know, turning a customer or losing a customer, but write it in some type of an order that makes sense when an employee like opens it up, whether it's virtual or physical, they can they can understand where to find kind of like what they're looking for the other one, to semi contradict what you said not really contradict but you said record a loom or zoom. Yeah, I've learned from experience that videos are really bad at doing documentation because stuff changes so fast. Like it's really easy to open a Word doc or some type of sheet spreadsheet or something and type in like, Oh, I forgot about this one step that fits in between step two and three. But you got a video you got to record the whole video again. And and I know it seems easy to record a video but whenever you make changes until that process is so nailed down. It doesn't change. I learned the hard way like videos are tough for doing that because redoing them later.

Matthew Baitieri  9:34 
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. I think it depends what it is like let's just say a CRM software like your PushPress right? Importing or creating a new customer, it's probably not going to change a whole lot in the space of you. You don't make that many updates. I will assume you're going to completely change the world every time. So like that type of video where you you know the the owner makes it step by step video showing this is where you click the Edit button, put in their email, like that type of stuff. That's pretty easy. Every other system like, you know, maybe a client onboarding as you grow, you might do group inductions, and then go to one on one inductions because you have more staff. And you can do that personalized touch. Yeah, of course there might change. I'm more talking about the technology use like how to use your email CRM, I use Active Campaign, for example, sometimes it's complicated to figure out how to create a new campaign. So small videos like that help and having template email if the client cancels or a new client, like that stuff's pretty easy, might be hard to find. But it's always good to have stored somewhere. And I recommend an associated video to show how it's done. Always helps.

Dan Uyemura  10:40 
Right on, let's actually talk for a moment to the new gym owner, because these are two different beasts like trying to get an existing gym owner who's been three years into this business, a work life balance is a different beast than a person who's thinking about starting a gym today. So let's talk directly to a person right now who is aspiring to become a gym owner or is just opening a gym. Yeah, more of a blank slate much easier to you know, mold fresh clay than than something that's already been molded. What do you recommend people do in their first six months to a year to get up and running in the best possible way that sets you up for success later on?

Matthew Baitieri  11:16 
Definitely structuring their day, is making sure we you know, we have certainly with the tasks at hand. And as we grow, we may add more tasks. But if we can systemize and optimize the simple tasks, and be prepared each and every single week, that's going to make the weeks run a whole lot smoother. Where I see a lot of gym owners go wrong, as well is as they grow, they tend to either pocket the money or reinvested in equipment and whatever, like they need to think outside the box and go, Hey, I need to just keep this money piling up and utilize it for marketing, utilize it for coaching, utilize it to grab a new staff member, a virtual assistant, they started with nothing, especially if you started with zero clients, right? You just got a space you decked out with the gym, you started with no members and no income. So as it's rolling in, why not utilize that to continuously further your growth? I think a lot of people tend to, you know, like I said, they just hold on to their money. And they don't want to spend it especially now with COVID, I find more gym owners are a little bit more weary about where their money's going. They're not as frivolous as they once were. And they're thinking more about, you know how tight the situation is.

Dan Uyemura  12:32 
Right. So it's an interesting, I mean, I've been there in the same in those shoes, like, you get new clients, you make more money, and you want to buy the new GHD or some new treadmill or some sort of machine. And it's such a trap. And honestly, what it is, is it's as a gym owner, it's like you get to go to the toy store and buy some cool stuff. Because that's what you want, it's fun. But you're not really running a business. Hopefully, for the aspect of having fun, you should be running a business to help people and build a living for yourself and your coaches. So that's a very good warning, if you haven't opened a gym yet. Avoid the trap, like you're gonna have to kind of slow roll your your equipment purchases, but don't like take a good month and look at it. Like I've got 10 grand to blow on all the cool toys because that's literally what you're doing, you know. So be careful with that.

Matthew Baitieri  13:24 
I mean things to avoid, big mistakes, any strongman equipment, because usually then it's massive, takes a lot of space. Avoid GHDs, avoid slam balls, and wall balls just choose one or the other. Because yeah, the more equipment you pile up, the more space it takes up. And as well, the more you're trying to buy a unit, no one ever, no gym owner ever goes out and goes, I'm just going to buy one of these because it never happens, you'll end up buying multiple. So if you want to buy, for example, rollers save up and get five at a time. Don't just get one at a time where one person can use it. It's fucking useless. And it's a waste of money. So just be smart with those initial purchases and think about where's it? Where's it gonna get stored? How many people can use it in the group? That type of jazz.

Dan Uyemura  14:09 
Yeah, yep. Yep. I've learned the hard way. Again, like you said, strongman equipment, buying yokes and buying things like that are just complete. They're super cool for like three months, and then nobody will use them again. And they're gonna take up like 100 square feet of your space. So don't do that. Keep it keep it really functional, and just push back on members when they start asking for stuff like that. So now let's shift gears and talk about a gym owner who's been in for three years a little bit stuck in the mud, maybe feeling like E Myth does talk about this phenomenon where you start, you're working 10 hour days, and you're loving it. And then you have more demands put on you and then you're working 12 hour days, and you're kind of begrudging, and then you're working 14 hour days, and then after dinner from home, and you know, pretty soon it's just all consuming. And all the while you're dropping more balls, you're not actually getting more stuff done, your things are getting worse, right? So if you're a gym owner and you feel like that's the trajectory, you're on, that's where you're At, what would you recommend right now someone can do to like, start to unwind some of these things,

Matthew Baitieri  15:07 
I tend to ask my clients, what's the digital stuff that they're doing, and is taking way too much time away. And look, the fantastic thing that in a business that has absolutely been booming, the last, you know, five years is having a virtual assistant, hiring someone from, you know, South America or Philippines, getting countries and they have really skilled workers, it's phenomenal money for them, they get paid way more above the average wage, and you can get someone to help you with the digital stuff, side of things, there might already be an expert in it, right? It's just plugging and playing them into your business, it's going to save the business a whole lot of money, because in Australia, the you know, the average wage is $50,000 to $60,000. And you can get yourself a virtual assistant for 40 hours a week for $15,000, a fourth or a fifth of the price. And, you know, they come with a digital social media background as well. If you do your research, you can find them on Upwork or like different other companies. If I had my time back again, I was in the first six months, I would hire a virtual assistant. First and foremost, if I'm an existing business that's been in the game for a while, and I'm still buying myself, I'd get for a VA but if I have a team, I'd start teaching my team to take on some of the digital load.

Dan Uyemura  16:22 
So now let's talk about that VA concept, because I've recently just hired my first VAs and I'm very happy with them. But I feel like in the capacity of myself as a gym owner, I might have struggled to find stuff for them to do keep them busy for enough hours a day. Or, I mean, honestly, I'd probably have some trust issues with things that I gave them. So if there's a gym owner right now, like, Oh, I want to I want to hire a VA, that sounds great. But I can't, like what would you have them do?

Matthew Baitieri  16:50 
Okay, first of all, manage social media. Okay, when what that's not just posting, that's actually also having access to your Facebook page. That is liking, commenting, sharing your own clients posts, because that's engaging, that's touchpoints that's connecting with your members outside of clubs, watching their stories, you know, giving them thumbs up or commenting like that takes a lot of time. And I'd love to do that. I used to love to do that with all my clients. But when you have 200 members, that's a very difficult task to do. Right? Scheduling, and then wishing clients happy birthday really important, right? Because it's a special day for them. But it takes you away from other stuff that's important at the gym. You know, managing spreadsheets data, replying to emails, holding or cancelling or changing membership memberships with clients. So that's first and foremost, then it's about you know, you're just doing some some research, hey, Christmas parties coming up, find me five locations in the local area, email them, find out what packages they have for our Christmas party, how much it would cost, right? Ring around or emailing or whatever, that's going to take a lot of time. That's not time best use for a gym owner. But that's something you could give to a VA. Yep. So I mean, if you want, I could literally tell you exactly what I get my VA to do if you really want but the list. I mean, it's pretty big.

Dan Uyemura  18:10 
Yeah, I mean, I just think that maybe what we can do is you can send that over, and we'll attach it to the show notes. Like some examples. I think that's a really good starting point. But literally, until you start thinking in the mindset of somebody who's going to offload your work, and you're thinking like, I'm going to do all my work, and I'm going to control all my work, it's going to be hard to think of these things for them to do. But once you start thinking that way, there's probably a million different tasks, emails, you need to send people you need to talk to things you need to check. Like you said, even Christmas, I didn't think about Christmas parties. But flights you have to book you know, you could honestly even use them to do your personal stuff. Like if you're in the gym trying to run your gym, and then you know, your husband is asking you to book flights for this family trip for Christmas, you can have your VA do that. You just got to tell them the requirements. The only thing I will warn you with VA is is you have to be very well documented, you have to be very well you have to be explicit at what you get to think of them as like a robot, right, like as a computer program. And it's like you give them the exact inputs and the desired outputs and then they can do it. Right. But if you're making a guess, what's that,

Matthew Baitieri  19:12 
But don't treat him like a robot.

Dan Uyemura  19:14 
Oh no, yeah. Do not treat them like a robot did. They're human beings and they just they deserve a ton of respect. Right?

Matthew Baitieri  19:24 
So I was gonna say that's the biggest issue I find with a lot of places. A lot of gym owners that get VA is like all my VA was shit. It was like, You know what, it wasn't them. It was you?

Dan Uyemura  19:33 
Well, I mean, I can say that for most relationships, right? Most of the time someone's calling someone an asshole. It's like the it's a reflection of how they treated the other person.

Matthew Baitieri  19:43 
And you know, there's gonna be some teething issues like any new staff member, you don't just get a new coach to shadow you for one class and say, Hey, looks like you're ready to now coach your first CrossFit class. Fuck no. You go through, hey, this is what you need to do for a warm up if we're doing legs day or upper body work. Like, you're gonna have teething issues, hey, you didn't do this, you didn't do this. Same with the VA, right? My VA has been with me now for two months. And when an issue arises, then I need to create a new learn video, or I write out a step by step, or whatever it is to make sure next time the issue doesn't occur or that problem, you know, solve a whole lot easier. And we have a team meeting each and every morning. I didn't just meet a once, tell it what I wanted to do, and never see her again, and just think she's my, you know, my side gig. You need to respect them, they part of the team, make them feel like they're part of the team, make them join your team huddle is your weekly team meeting your monthly reviews, whatever it is, but if you don't treat him like a person, then they can underperform they can let you down. And at the end of the day, you're gonna hate your VA.

Dan Uyemura  20:45 
Yep. I think we've hired four of them now. And they've all turned out relatively really well. And I mean, I'll tell I'll tell you guys this much. This is kind of the guideline I had I, I interviewed a lot of them, I made them actually fill out a questionnaire upfront. So I posted a job listing. And in that job listing, I told them to fill out a questionnaire, I got like, 400 emails for the job. And only like, 20 of them filled out the questionnaire. So I filtered out like 380 people. And then of those 20, I would interview the ones that actually looked good. And I made it very clear to them, I'm like, look, these are my expectations, I want you to work full time for me, I don't want you to have another job. I want you to work my hours, and they will if you pay them enough. And I basically told him like, I will take care of you in every way as long as you're trustworthy. And you're honest. And you know, you don't lie to me, right? Because I've had experiences with VA s, where people over shores where they're working, like for jobs clearly, right. And because they're not in front of you, they're just mailing it in. Every single person I've hired so far for pushpress has been phenomenal. But I think it's because a lot of they tell me, no one's really respected us enough to tell us what they wanted up front to pay us a fair wage, you know, something that's fair. And basically, like, I gave him PushPress email accounts, which made him really happy. You know, it's just like the little things, these guys want a job, they don't want like a bunch of freelance crap. And I think this made them all feel pretty happy about it.

Matthew Baitieri  22:02 
Yeah, I actually have a joint venture with a virtual assistant company. And I went with a company because they oversee the upscaling of the VA as the systems that they have for the VAs and the VA is at the end of the shift actually email you to tell you exactly what they did how many people they message, or like pretty much just saying, Hey, I went through my list. Plus, on top of that, I scheduled all of next week social media content, for example, right. And I really liked that, because the company now is responsible for making sure that their VA is actually working the a lot of hours a day did. And you don't have that issue of them working multiple jobs, which is why I went with the company rather than finding a freelance. And by myself, sure, I'm paying a lot more. But I have the security knowing that I can actually change my VA at any stage if the VA ends up, you know, performing poorly. And also, because I liked the onboarding that this company did with their VA is actually take them through a three month VA training, where they teach them how to do data entry, social media, video editing, WordPress, like, it's kinda like a Swiss Army knife, you get given a Swiss Army knife, and it's like, hey, do this. And that was what was really appealing to me.

Dan Uyemura  23:14 
Yeah, so if you're out there listening right now, and you're wondering if a VA is the way to go. This is an exercise that I always run with my own stuff. And it's basically like, how much do I place on my own times value? Like, how much would I pay myself to do my job per hour? And if you don't really know what that is, the easiest way for you to do it as a gym owner is just to say, if someone came to me and wanted to pay me for an hour Personal Training, what would I charge them? 50 bucks an hour, 100 bucks an hour, I don't know, whatever it might be for you. That's your number. And honestly, it's probably about five times too low. But let's just start at that number. Let's say it's even 50 bucks an hour. Is it worth you doing social media posts? When you could be earning 50 bucks an hour? Or how much are your VA costs per hour? Can you say?

Matthew Baitieri  23:59 
$1000 bucks for a month.

Dan Uyemura  24:01 
And they work 40 hours a week?

Matthew Baitieri  24:03 
40 hours a week. So $250 a week. So you take that, I think it's $10 an hour.

Dan Uyemura  24:08 
Okay, let's say 10 bucks an hour, right? So is it worth your $50? And like, you can do the math real quick, then if it's worth $50 an hour for me to do whatever I'm doing, or to pay someone 10 bucks an hour to do any job, whatever it might be. Do I do it? Right?

Matthew Baitieri  24:22 
Oh gee man is probably do the same. I always used to think how many members do I need in order to afford XYZ? So like, that's the thing. If you're getting a 40 hour week, the a and your gym memberships 50 bucks a week. That's five members? Do you need to find five members to be able to afford to have a full time VA? That's probably not that difficult. So especially if you're a new gym owner, the first thing you do you open up your doors you get your first five members don't pocket the cash, hire VA so you can continue doing all the other things that are really, you know, super important.

Dan Uyemura  24:53 
Right. This episode just turned into like the VA episode and that's fine because this is actually a huge, huge potential. For gym owners, and again, we'll work with you to get this list of things that you have gym VA's do, because that will be a good starting point. But you just got to have enough, like, you have to have all of the processes in place ready for them to go. So it's like Monday morning, you need to go through this email, this email bucket on my email and check for people who are like, asking me questions. And so the ones you can and if you can't ask me, and I'll tell you the answer, and then write that down in your little log of answers. And then you have that answer for next time, right? And then go with that go to this next thing, you're done with that do some social media when you're done with that, and just they have to have an ever growing list of things to do. And then if they ever get to the end of that list that they need to contact you, right, so they maybe have something in your mind to give them. I also think something you brought up, we do this here is that morning, standup right? Every morning, have a 10 minute call, you know, meeting with them. What do you do yesterday? What do you get done, you know, here's some things that I saw that came up yesterday, I need you to look at blah, blah, blah, that will get them on the right path, at the beginning of the workday really quick and easy. But you need to have these kinds of processes in place, while you're gonna have someone overseas that you're paying that you can't watch. Doing. God knows what, for 40 hours a week, you know, if you're not giving them work, that's your fault, right?

Matthew Baitieri  26:09 
Exactly, I mean, that's being the top of this podcast is balance, you can't have balance, if you're doing everything. If you are a control freak, you have to learn to let go of certain tasks, and they may not be done, as well as what you could do, right? Because you can't duplicate yourself. But as long as you can teach someone to get close to their like 90%, then you're gonna have someone that's a really valuable team member. Yeah, and you know, grow your business. If you continuously coach each class, do each console, do each onboarding, text every client each week, wish Happy Birthday, did the social media, clean the toilets, vacuum, do the prospecting, walk the streets, hand out pamphlets you like it, just the list goes on. And if you are not, if you don't understand that you're going to need help at one stage, you are not going to be a gym owner that can go into their 40s or 50s to owning a gym, you're going to burn out you're going to sell your gym or close it down because the lifestyle wasn't what you expected.

Dan Uyemura  27:07 
Yeah, I guess in closing to this whole topic, what you have to realize as a gym owner is, at the end of the day, the end road for every small business owner is either you fail, or you build a business that you don't have to work on it at every day because you cannot work in your gym for 12 hours a day for the rest of your life. You have to find a way to make it so you work zero hours a day and you pop in on the weekends or you pop in after your day on the beach or whatever. And you see how things are going and you talk to people and you leave. People who own Chik fil a's or people who own like legitimate restaurants or or small businesses don't work in those businesses, they built a business that other people working for them. Learning how to build out a system of VA can work in what could be a very easy and cheap baby step into thinking that way. And that's the first step is thinking that way. Cool. Well, you know what, we had a few other talking points, but we're gonna have to cut it here because we went so deep on VA's, but I'm okay with that. I'm glad because this is a very good topic. It's something that in the last year, we've unlocked here at pushpress. And we're very happy with what we're seeing out of the results from the VA's and I think it's cool that you've kind of been working down that road as well.

Matthew Baitieri  28:16 
No worries. Yeah, glad we touched upon it. I think it's super important. I mean, getting a 40 hour VA straight out removes 40 hours of work you can do each and every week. And I think a lot of people don't realize that. And sometimes it's not not that it's too late to get one. But if you want that work life balance, you've got to start outsourcing more and more of your digital work.

Dan Uyemura  28:39 
Absolutely. Cool. Well, that seems like a good place to wrap it up. Matthew, I want to thank you for taking the time today to join us and drop a little bit of knowledge on some of our listeners. Super appreciated and thank you so much. Once again, if people want to find out more about Matthew at Box 2 Business.

Matthew Baitieri  28:57 
Yeah, Box 2 Business.co, so, yeah, check us out.

Dan Uyemura  29:02 
The number two.

Matthew Baitieri  29:03 
The number two business. And also they can feel free to join my free group, The Gym Owners Freedom and Lifestyle group on Facebook, teaching gym owners and how to work less and get that work life balance.

Dan Uyemura  29:15 
All right. Awesome. Thank you so much, Matthew.

Matthew Baitieri  29:17 
Thanks, Dan.

Dan Uyemura  29:18 
There ya go another gymOS podcast in the books talking today with Matthew Baitieri, from Box 2 Business, who kind of dug deep on VAs that wasn't really the plan course of this podcast. I do like to talk to my guests ahead of time and understand kind of the direction we're gonna go. And but I think the VA concept was pretty fascinating. If you agree, if you like that, make sure you share this with somebody else. Another gym owner might be able to find some value in understanding how VA is work, and how to get a lot of value out of VAs. Look for his list on things you can be getting your VA to do. I think that's a really good place to start to start thinking about what you can offload to VA to get a full time worker for 1000 bucks or so a month is a outstanding deal as long as you have enough stuff for them to do and believe me you do. You just have to start thinking about it that way. As far as VA is go for PushPress it was one of the best investments we've ever made, we're probably gonna end up hiring an army of them over time. I'm all for the remote virtual assistance. It just requires you to be very structured and think through exactly what you need them to do. All right, thank you once again for joining us on the gymOS podcast. If you did enjoy this episode, make sure to give us a thumbs up or a rating on your favorite podcasting platform. It will help other gym owners find us and get some help too. Until next time, see you guys later. Peace.