This week’s post comes from the amazing Rita Domingues, our marketing assistant. She’s sharing her top tips for working with a marketing assistant—what to look for, and how to find the right fit. Enjoy!

Hi there, new author!

If you found this post, it’s probably because you are stressing out about how to start working with your marketing assistant as a new author. Or how you can start working on a more strategic approach to marketing within your small business. My hope today is that you will be able to get the clarity you need to start this journey.

This might be your atypical blog post on all things marketing. You know the ones where they dive deeply into all the things and use language that seems so out of reach and overwhelming. Well, this isn’t it. What I will be going over today are the insights based on a session Stacy and I did last week with our Author Influence Circle community (or how we like to call it, the AIC—we love an insider’s slang).

In preparation for this session, Stacy and I went back to the basics on a journey of self-reflection of the last three years since I joined the team. It was such a joy to go back in time and reflect on all we have accomplished, to all the adjustments that made sense for Stacy’s business and brand based on what her needs and goals were. The best of all was seeing where we were three years ago and how much we have grown. It really took us right back to the beginning, which is what I want to be focusing on with this post.

So without further ado, grab a cup of coffee and let’s go. (Apparently coffee is the fuel to any successful marketing position, and I think I can vouch for that.)

The soft skills you should look for

If you’re hiring a new virtual assistant or personal assistant, and your intent is to have them support you with some marketing tasks, or if your current assistant will be transitioning to support you with your marketing, here are some important skills to look out for:

• Growth mindset. It’s important that the person who will be supporting you with these tasks has a growth mindset themselves. They look at challenges as learning lessons and how they can improve themselves, even in the areas of their lives that are already successful.
• Demonstrated interest. Just like a growth mindset, it’s key for the person to have a demonstrated interest in supporting you with these tasks, with a natural curiosity for marketing and/or the creative space. Marketing can and should be fun! 
• Shared personal and growth values. As mentioned before, a growth mindset is important, but more important is that those personal and growth values are in alignment with yours.
• Trust. This is something you will build over time, but it’s important that you have that sense of trust that your assistant will be able to support you in the marketing tasks you will hand to them—not only trust they can handle them but you believe they will excel at them.
• Aligned ways of working. Last but not least, it’s crucial that your way of working is aligned. We are all different and unique beings, but it’s important that even in those differences you approach work similarly.

But hold on; it’s not all on them!

As a business owner, there are soft skills you should bring to the table. This point was super interesting to dive in with Stacy, because honestly, this journey would have not been as successful and as fun if she hadn’t created a safe space for growth and creativity.

• Give space to learn. It’s important to make your assistant comfortable in knowing they have the space, time, and tools to learn about the role and your business, while developing other marketing skills they might not have yet acquired.
• Create safety to ask questions. When your marketing assistant feels like they can ask you questions, and make sure they have clarity on the things they need to do, the better they will perform, mistakes will be avoided, and a sense of partnership will be created.
• Maintain a mentorship mindset. In my perspective, great mentors provide support, lead by example, and foster independence. These are all great ways of showing up for your assistant so they will feel capable of supporting you in the best way you need.
• Invest time with your assistant. They will need time with you, especially if they are a new hire and are getting to know your business. By spending time with them, they will be able to learn faster and more in depth about the ins and outs of your brand, your voice, and again, how you want to show up with your marketing efforts.

The transition to a marketing role should be smoother than your coffee—minus the caffeine crashes.

Let’s be real. A transition isn’t always smooth and easy, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. We seem to forget the latter more often; however, you should always aim for it to be smooth. In our experience, these were the top three pillars that supported the transition from my previous assistant role to a marketing assistant role.

• Opportunity. See the opportunity and seize it. During the last three years, there were plenty of opportunities and challenges within the business that allowed us to reflect on where we could simplify and grow. By doing that I ended up supporting Stacy on multiple projects, which was crucial for me to really understand the voice of Stacy and the business, and how she wanted to show up.
• Systems as a foundation. As you know, Stacy loves Asana, and let’s face it, we all love Asana on our team. When I joined, there were already many systems in place, which form the foundation of all the things we currently do, but we are always taking an extra step further by constantly developing those systems and creating more. When we see a problem or mistake, we look at the system first and pinpoint what can be improved.
• Collaboration. This is probably our favorite—spending time together. Every quarter, and at the end of the year, Stacy and I get together for what we like to call our “big sessions” (I know, very creative of us). In these sessions, we ideate, we look at our successes and failures, and we plan. We get our sticky notes and sharpies out, and we map in front of us everything that is happening within the business and how marketing will support the overall goals. We split it into three sections: what we want to keep, start, and stop. These collaborative sessions have been a key element to our successful transition, and just like our systems, we are always finding ways to improve them and make them more fun, while keeping a mindset of profitability.

Redefining marketing and what the big scary word actually means to you.

As much as Stacy and I are learning about marketing and all the fun terminology—metrics, funnels, leads, SEO, successful strategies, open rates, CTAs (alright, alright, I will stop now!)—we are always looking intuitively at marketing and redefining what it means to the voice of the brand and business. We also evaluate how to make it functional for us while assessing important data.

It’s important that you take the time to do that self-reflection too. I hope by now the unease you were probably feeling when you started researching about marketing for new authors, or marketing for beginners, has reduced a little. And if it hasn’t, ask yourself a couple of questions that will hopefully help:

1. What does marketing my brand, business, or book mean to me?
2. How does that align with how I want to show up and serve my audience?

Asking yourself these questions, in collaboration with your assistant, will bring you closer to getting the confidence you will both need to start this journey together.

Steps to get started—we wish we had found these sooner.

Just like you, I was the newbie typing on my keyboard just a couple of years ago, “marketing for beginners,” and boy, what a journey it has been. Here are what Stacy and I recognize as the first steps to get you going on what should be a smooth, fun, and profitable ride for you.

• Focus on one thing at the time. Evaluate where you want to show up, where your people are, and how that aligns with your big vision.
• Make time to make time. Set aside time to learn together and to develop those systems. Trust me on this one; it will really support both of you in the long run and naturally allow you to have more time to focus on all the other areas of your business that you need to be showing up for.
• When a mistake happens, look to the systems first, not the people. Yes, systems are key, but they can sometimes fail too. Just like your business is in constant development, so your systems should be. And when a mistake happens, look at them first and see where you can improve, where you can grow, and what isn’t working anymore.
• Be willing to step outside your comfort zone. Even though stepping out of our comfort zone isn’t always smooth and easy—most of the time it’s quite the opposite. Be willing to unlearn some beliefs or ways you might have and embrace the new. You will be surprised how much this will impact the success of your marketing strategy. And this is for both you and your assistant. Approaching it together won’t feel as scary.

Just like we say it in Portuguese, Grão a grão enche a galinha o papo. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go ask ChatGPT what this means: “Grain by grain the chicken will fill her neck.” Yes, it sounds better in Portuguese. But truth be told, my grandma was right when she taught me this. Step by step you will start feeling more confidant talking about and developing your marketing strategy, and how you will show up and serve your people.

I hope this will bring you some clarity and get you started on this fun journey (insert smile with a tear emoji). If you enjoyed this post, and would like to learn more about our systems and marketing efforts, drop a question below, and who knows, I might be back again with some marketing and Portuguese insights just for you.

Your newbie Portuguese marketing assistant,

Rita