{"id":444,"date":"2026-08-18T13:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/?p=444"},"modified":"2026-08-18T13:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:08:12","slug":"the-hire-i-was-afraid-to-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/the-hire-i-was-afraid-to-make\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hire I Was Afraid to Make"},"content":{"rendered":"

I live in a town of four thousand people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember that, because it matters. At the tail end of Covid, my agency was growing faster than my team could handle. Pattie \u2014 my best \u2014 was drowning. So I went looking for another Pattie.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no other Pattie in Vidalia, Louisiana. I did all the things you do to hire someone. Reviewed dozens of resumes. Interviewed the few worth interviewing. Insurance experience? Forget it. Someone who knew my AMS \u2014 EZLynx? Not a chance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then a friend asked if I’d considered a virtual assistant.<\/span><\/p>\n

I almost said no. Not because of the work \u2014 because of the town. My clients know me. They know where I live, where I go to church. I was sure they’d hate it. I was sure my staff would think I’d lost my mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hired her anyway. Her name is Hannah.<\/span><\/p>\n

She had a college degree, real insurance experience, and a work ethic I hadn’t seen in years. Within weeks we built a renewal department around her. Personal and commercial lines. She ran it by herself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pattie and Sue got their days back \u2014 and doubled their sales volume.<\/span><\/p>\n

My clients? Never skipped a beat. My staff? They embraced her. She took the work they dreaded and gave them back the work they love.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s what I learned. Most agencies aren’t understaffed. They’re mis-staffed. Great people trapped in busywork instead of the work that drives revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Look at your own office this week. Who’s doing $15-an-hour tasks on a licensed salary? Who got into this business to talk to people and now stares at a screen all day?<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s not a hiring problem. That’s a work-placement problem. And it’s fixable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hannah, by the way, leads my entire VA team now. The hire I was afraid to make leads all the others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes the thing you’re afraid of is the smartest decision on the table.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get the Delegation Focus Matrix \u2014 www.iablueprint.com\/dream<\/a><\/b><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I live in a town of four thousand people. Remember that, because it matters. At the tail end of Covid, my agency was growing faster than my team could handle. Pattie \u2014 my best \u2014 was drowning. So I went looking for another Pattie. There is no other Pattie in Vidalia, Louisiana. I did all… Continue reading The Hire I Was Afraid to Make<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}