Episode 286: A Week in the Life of a Virtual Practice Manager with Amy Crumpton

Full Episode Transcription:

Arianna Vernier: Hey, y’all. Welcome back to the Virtual Assistant Mama podcast. We’re continuing our week in the life series here on the show where I’m bringing on different service providers in the virtual assistant world to share what their role is, what they actually do in that role, and then what their life looks like outside of business. Cause I really want you to get a clear view of what it looks like when you’re actually stepping into this world of virtual assistants. So in this episode, I brought on Amy Crumpton. She is a virtual practice manager, and I’m just going to let her share her story with you and tell you all the things about her life. So welcome, Amy.

Amy Crumpton: Hi Arianna, it’s so great to be able to chat with you today. 

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, we’re excited to have you. So I would love if you would just kind of start us out by telling us a little bit about you, how you got into this role that you’re in now, just so my listeners can learn a little bit more about you.

Amy Crumpton: Yeah, perfect. I actually started out my working career as a nurse back in 2013. I worked in a couple of different areas of nursing, family practice, urgent care. I worked a little bit in mother, baby in the hospital, and then I also did pediatrics in the clinics as well. And. And then just wasn’t feeling fulfilled in my nursing job and still thinking, like, there’s got to be something more to life, something with a little bit more flexibility, , just to allow life to happen because it’s hard to be able to juggle work and life and all that kind of stuff, especially when you’re stuck on like a very rigid work schedule and nursing schedules are not easy schedules. Even if you’re working three days a week, it’s still taking. A couple of days to like prepare yourself, especially if you’re working overnight, so maybe another day to get yourself recouped back into normal life after working an overnight shift and that kind of stuff. So it’s hard work, no matter how many hours you’re technically working, but still just didn’t feel fulfilled in everything that I was doing. I eventually found a work from home nursing job and thought, Oh my goodness. This is like the answers to everything I’m looking for. I want to be able to stay home, be able to have a little bit more time with family and be able to get house things done and everything that way. It didn’t end up being exactly what I thought it was going to be. I’m still definitely had all of the time constraints and everything that all of my other nursing jobs had. And I was working as a VA since, oh, goodness. I honestly don’t remember exactly when I started the VA journey. It was back when I was working in pediatrics as a nurse as well, that I kind of dabbled into that.

Amy Crumpton: So even when I was doing the work from home nursing job, I was still working as a virtual assistant with some of my clients on the side as well. And then on top of all of the life craziness, I was also helping to take care of my elderly grandmother who was living in the house with us. And I’ve been helping to take care of her for the past seven years, up until recently where it was just too much for me alone to be able to take care of her. So family decision to get her to a safer facility and everything that way for her. But I did start into virtual practice management. Full time with having to take care of grandma and being able to run my business in summer of 2022. And it’s been amazing to have the flexibility and time to be able to take grandma to appointments, take my daughter to appointments, go to my own appointments and just kind of have all the flexibility of needing to do all the other things during the daytime that I would have never been able to do working in a nursing job.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah. Like you said, having that flexibility for the people in your life that matter. Your job is not the only thing that matters, and I think we used to live in a society where, like, your life had to revolve around your job, and that’s no longer the case. And a lot of people, their life still does revolve around their job, but they can change that. It takes work. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it can change, and you want to be able to be there for your grandma, and for your kiddos, and for whoever in your family needs you, and also for yourself. And have time for yourself. So I’m so grateful to hear another, another woman’s story of the stepping out of, you know, the typical nursing career and just stepping out in faith and believing that you could do this too.

Amy Crumpton: Yes, it has been amazing to be able to find something that finally aligns with what I was looking for and be able to give me all of the flexibility and freedom that I was looking for before. 

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, so could you explain to my listeners what a virtual practice manager is if they don’t know what it is?

Amy Crumpton: Yeah, so the easiest way I can describe a virtual practice manager is a combination of a virtual assistant and OBM and some healthcare knowledge kind of sprinkled in there all together because a virtual practice manager definitely will do a variety of tasks where we will do the overarching stuff of like an OBM where we’re doing team management, project management and operations management. But then we’ll also get in and do some of the nitty gritty detail work like a virtual assistant does of the actual implementation of tasks and things to move the business forward. And then we also do that all with all of our health care knowledge because we’re serving towards private practitioners and wellness providers.

Arianna Vernier: Awesome. So, yeah, it’s really good for those of you listening who have experience in the health and wellness space. Maybe you’re a nurse as well, and you’re looking for something to, that you can do working from home. Virtual Practice Manager might be a great fit. 

Amy Crumpton: Yeah. Perfect.

Arianna Vernier: So what kinds of tasks do you do throughout the week, both for your business and then also for your clients?

Amy Crumpton: Yeah. So in my business right now, I do all of my own admin lead management, taking courses to level up my own skills. Definitely working with my business coach has helped me a ton. And VPM Academy, the course creation for that right now. And then in with client work, I’m doing client, their client management, their course updates, updating to any of like their websites, their exercise plans, anything that way, content creation, written and graphics that I create for them, their admin management updates, SOP creation, I’m strategizing with them to build out their businesses and strategizing and implementing ways to make their business easier for them and keep them on their desired path. 

Arianna Vernier: So you’ve just got your hands like in all areas of their business, basically. 

Amy Crumpton: Yes. Yes. I’m basically serving them as their right hand person of just being able to help them on their business growth and making sure that they’re staying on track. Cause anyone that’s in business knows that it’s really easy to go down the paper bag syndrome of like, Ooh, what’s this new shiny thing over here? And Ooh, what’s this new one? So it is nice to have that person in their corner to be like, Nope, we said we were going to do this. Let’s stay on this course and keep going so that they can continue to build. 

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, that’s awesome. And every business owner needs that. So every business owner, especially in the health and wellness space needs virtual practice manager. So that just tells you, those of you who are listening, people are still going to need this role for years and years to come, like it’s never going to get, overpopulated, or whatever people say. 

Amy Crumpton: Yes. 

Arianna Vernier: So, roughly how many hours would you say that you work in a week, and of that time, how much are you spending, like, on your client work, and then how much are you spending on, like, your own managing and growing your own business?

Amy Crumpton: Yeah, right now I would say I’m probably sitting around 30 to 40 hours a month that I’m actually having to do work work, I would say 10 to 15 hours a week right now is client work and about 10 ish hours a week is on my own business stuff. I’m spending a lot of time on my own business right now, just because I am building and growing things to push my own business forward.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, but that’s awesome because I mean, if you’re working, you said 10 to 15 hours a week on client work and then 10 hours on your own, that’s a max of 25 hours a week. So that gives you so much time back to spend on your family, on yourself, getting to prioritize what really matters to you. 

Amy Crumpton: Yes. Yep.

Arianna Vernier: That’s awesome. So outside of your business. What what does your life look like? Tell us a little bit about that.

Amy Crumpton: Right now. I would say it’s absolute chaos. We are currently renovating a house to be able to move into and we are also packing and doing updates to the current house that we’re in so that we’re able to sell it. So that’s just. Normal life chaos right now, outside of that chaos, I am a mom to a two and a half year old daughter and all of the activities that come with having a two and a half year old child. So that adds a lot more fun to life. And then I definitely like to spend time with my husband and anytime that I do have of downtime, which is not a whole lot right now, I do definitely enjoy being able to read.

Arianna Vernier: I see a lot of similarities in our stories. I’ve got an almost two year old and a four year old. We just moved in May, end of May, into a house built in the 1940s, so obviously it needs some help. And yeah, I love reading as well. Audiobooks is how I get my reading in because there’s no way I have time to sit down and actually read, but audiobooks is where it’s at.
Amy Crumpton: Yes, yes. I love to be able to use my local library. If you’re ever looking for free books, your library is always amazing, and you can get audiobooks and ebooks from them for free. Sometimes it’s a little bit of a wait, but it’s an awesome choice. 

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, this is totally off subject, but I actually didn’t know this until like, Maybe a year or two years ago, your local library has access to one of I think two different apps. Typically, there’s Libby, L I B B Y, and then there’s Hoopla, H O P P L A. There might be an H at the end, I can’t remember. But then there’s free audiobooks and ebooks and everything on there. And like you said, sometimes you have to like wait in line, but then you’ll get a notification like when it’s your turn, because they only like purchase so much access to the books, but yeah, it’s so cool. Cause you can read seriously. So many books are completely free instead of like with audio books. If you go on audible, it’s, it can get expensive fast. So yeah, that’s a really good resource. That was a little bit of a tangent, but if you guys love to read, which I know a lot of you do, because we, a lot of listeners have similar hobbies, then go check that out if you didn’t know about that.
Amy Crumpton: Yeah, it’s been super awesome. 

Arianna Vernier: Yeah. So. I want to ask you a question that I ask every guest that comes on this show, and it’s if someone wanted to start their journey out of their nine to five, but they just felt so overwhelmed, what would you say to them?

Amy Crumpton: Honestly, reach out to people like it is definitely overwhelming to get started and get going with everything, but find somebody that offers a course or a program or a friend that may be doing something similar to what you’re wanting to get into and just reach out to them, have a conversation with them, get chatting with them to figure out how they got started. Most times people are definitely willing to. Help other people on getting started because after you’re on this side of the journey and everything that way, you realize how wonderful it is to be able to do what we’re doing. And so you definitely want to help other people realize like you can actually have what you’re looking for with working and life balance and everything in between. So people are definitely willing to help if you are wanting to do. Like a paid program or anything that way, find someone that you align with that chat with them. Most times the course creator is definitely willing to have chats with you before you purchase their program and make sure that it is. Somebody that you align with so that you’re getting the most and the best out of their course and everything that way.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I 100 percent agree having someone in your corner, both as like a friend that you can go to that might already be in this space or is doing it like alongside you. That’s really helpful because then you have someone to like ping ideas back and forth with as you’re building your business, but then also investing in a mentor. That’s really helpful. Or a course that has somebody who’s done this before that walks you through exactly what to do It’s going to help you avoid those mistakes It’s going to help you overcome the roadblocks when you face them and I think a lot of us hold ourselves back from investing in something like that because A lot of people see it as throwing money away But it’s not, you got to think of it differently.

Arianna Vernier: You got to think of it as I’m investing this into my business with the goal to at least make that money back. If I just only make that money back, then I didn’t lose anything, but what would happen if I made that money back? And then it kept going. And this allowed me to fully replace my income and be home. Like, what would that change in my life? And you got to start to pivot that mindset around getting somebody to help you and to be in your back pocket when you need them.

Amy Crumpton: Yes. Yep, for sure. And definitely having somebody that’s been there and done that is going to make the whole process faster, easier, way less scary for you. And it’s definitely nice. Entrepreneurship can definitely be a little bit of a lonely journey, especially working from home. Like you’re by yourself a lot of the time. So it can definitely be a little bit lonely. So it is always nice to build those connections and have someone to reach out to when you are on the journey and things aren’t going exactly how you wanted them to, to be able to reach out and be like, Hey, yeah. Can you help me with this problem? What would be my next best course of action? So it’s always nice to be able to make those connections.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I a hundred percent agree. So this has been so great having you on the show today, Amy, where can people come and connect with you and just learn more about what you do and become your best friend?

Amy Crumpton: Yeah, so I would say the best way to connect with me would be over on Instagram. My personal handle, which I kind of use for business, I’m not great at posting on social media, but I’m definitely on there. But my personal handle is just @amycrumpton, all one word. And then the course that I’m creating for VPM Academy is at VPM period academy. So both pretty easy to find.

Arianna Vernier: Perfect. And I’ll have those linked in the show notes for those of you listening.

Amy Crumpton: Awesome.

Arianna Vernier: Awesome. Well, like I said, it has been so great having you on today. I’m so thankful for you giving my listeners a glimpse into your life, allowing them to picture what it would look like if they stepped into. Something like this, what their life could look like. So it’s been so much fun doing this series and having guests on here Like you and just getting to hear everybody’s different journey, but all the similarities at the same time.

Amy Crumpton: Yeah, perfect. And thank you so much for having me. It’s been super awesome chat today.

Arianna Vernier: Perfect All right, y’all. Thank you so much for listening Make sure you go and follow amy follow her VPM Academy if you’re interested in that And we will see you in the next episode.