Case Study From Michala Leyland, Wood For The Trees Coaching

What is your business?

I’m a Performance and Mindset coach, so coaching one-to-one and groups, and I do corporate workshops outside of that. So effectively what I’m aiming to do is to help people to create a vision and then live it, with the right energy, so that they don’t burn themselves out, so they are thriving not just surviving.

What stage were you at before working with Megan?

I had worked with several VAs, but none of them consistently and longer term, and some of them worked out well, some of them didn’t. But then I had got to a point in the business where I had grown. I’d got one to one’s that, obviously, take up a lot of capacity in terms of my physical time. I’d also got group memberships which I’d been growing and that was the point where really, I wanted to have someone more consistently. That’s when I’d heard really good things about Megan and so I approached her because I wanted somebody, again who would be able to help me to produce the resources in a much more professional way.

I’d also got a free community as well and doing lots of guests and hiring people for guest speaking slots etc. So again, there was a lot of the sort of day-to-day operational stuff that I wanted, you know, it was the right time to bring Megan on so then I could have somebody do it more consistently. And, to compliment, I’ve got somebody who does all my web design stuff, but again, it was just something which I knew would complement what they were doing as well if that makes sense.

How did you make the decision to work with Megan?

I’d heard good things about her from clients and a colleague that I’ve got.
But it was just really once I had a discussion with Megan, I knew we would be a good fit together. We just decided we would start off to see how it went, and I was really delighted that it was a really good working relationship, so it’s carried on.
I think because I had part of my longer-term vision to create online courses, I knew Megan had that skill set as well. So again, as the relationship has evolved it’s been great to be able to have her support me in that development area. It was good to have her on board because I knew she had that skill set.

What’s it like to work with Megan?

It is really good, we set up a Trello board which is a project board basically that’s how I got us going. It’s just been a really simple and effective way. I just basically upload tasks into there and then we have an interaction if needed beyond, but quite often just what I put in there in terms of what I need doing and when I need it done by, it just gets done.
So, it’s been a really good way and you know sometimes I’ve suddenly had an idea and it’s not been in the project plan, but equally, Megan’s been really responsive to that.

Then equally you know, I’ve been able to cut her slack if there’s she’s had an increase in workload or if there’s been an issue, so for example with a sick child or whatever and we both understand what it’s like to work around our children, et cetera. I think from that point of view as well, it’s been really nice having Megan on the team because we’ve been able to work with each other on that as well. I think Megan’s really communicative in terms of when she’s taking leave or if she is dealing with a personal illness or the children’s illness or whatever. She’s very communicative with stuff like that again, which is really useful. And I think it’s a really good part of the relationship. She knows that she can come and do that, but equally that you know it’s important to know what’s happening with somebody. I think that’s been a really clean, good, good part of the relationship in that she’s very good at communicating her availability as well, that’s important.

She’s always really enthusiastic about the projects that were working on. And you know, she does the work on time and sometimes she’ll get ahead of the project deadlines which is really great. She’s really intuitive as well, sometimes she’ll sort of pre-empt what I might need and be saying to me “actually Michaela we could do with doing this this and this”. So, then I’ll know and be “right, yes, I’ll get those bits ready for you.”

She’s been a real asset in the business over the last couple of years definitely.

What impact has working with Megan had on yourself and the business?

On a personal level, Megan has given me the opportunity to work in the areas that I want to focus on as opposed to the things I don’t particularly enjoy, like the tech stuff. So, it’s nice to hand that over and let her run with that because I know that she enjoys doing it. She’s very intuitive in terms of how to develop that as well.

I think the fact that she’s got multiple clients actually helps as well because she can see different ways of working. She’s super professional about confidentiality, I’ve no idea apart from the people I know about, who she’s working with right now. Again, just knowing that she knows the systems and the way to put things together, that variety helps in a way and then she can use that in different ways with other clients as well and bring different initiatives to me.

I think on a professional level, particularly when we were running my membership and had The Next Level Women’s Club that just enhanced my customer service. It meant that my clients were getting the best from the work that I was doing with them as well. She’s used lots of the templates that I have for particular content and her ability to then adapt those and to make them my own, just upped the level particularly when I’m working with corporates etc. It’s just given a next-level offering and that’s been really good.

What do you see for the future, for your business, with support from Megan?

I think the online course creation has been a big one for us. So we’ve started that process and I think that’s something that will definitely continue in terms of my vision, and again she’s a real asset in terms of building those courses and, obviously, I come up with the ideas and the content side of it, but her abilities to put that together and make it look really professional and using the back end of the tech as well, means that my customers have a really smooth journey when they are working in the platforms that we’ve got the courses in. So yeah, I think that’s a big part of what Megan and I will be doing together as we move forward.

Are there any standout moments of collaboration when you realised you worked well together?

I think the big one was particularly when I was running the membership, just the smoothness and the ease really from my end, that working with Megan created. There have been times in the past where, as somebody who is a sole trader, if I hadn’t had a VA working with me I’d be having to sit and do all of the physical drafting up of resources and so being able to hand those parts over, it’s streamlined the whole system for me and allowed me to be much more energetically available to work on the things that I am happy to do and feel really confident doing.

I just want to say thank you, and I do hope that my general interaction with her in the things I say and do show her that I’m grateful, I really do enjoy working with Megan, she is an asset in any team and we have a good laugh as well and she’s a really nice person so it’s just been really it’s been really enjoyable first experience having her on board.