Justine Parsons is the founder of YourVA, a company that supplies administrative, marketing, event management and graphic design support to entrepreneurs and growing businesses around the world.
Justine started the business over 20 years ago and has been through both the highs and lows of running a business. From dealing with burn out to then letting go of business decisions to others and finding the level of service to her clients increased. Justine now finds she doesn’t have to
feel guilty about taking time off to enjoy other aspects of her life and continues to scale her business.
Justine describes what EOS has brought to her business and how it has helped her visualise what is possible.
Transcript
Murray Smith: Justine Parsons, welcome to Gripping Business Tales.
Justine Parsons: Thank you, Murray.
Murray: It’s great to have you on. We’re going to talk about your business, dive into your journey, and explore how you started and what you’re doing now—as we always do on Gripping Business Tales.
Two questions we always like to start with: one personal success, and one professional success you’ve had recently.
Justine: Okay, that’s an easy way to start. A personal success for me is definitely not working weekends anymore—and not feeling guilty about it.
I still clear my email on Sunday night, but that’s it. Having that break makes such a difference to the new week—not to mention my relationship with my husband.
Murray: I bet.
Justine: A professional success—although not in the last 90 days—was a lightbulb moment that came from our Vision Building Day with Deborah.
Finalising our Accountability Chart helped me visualise, for the first time, our business as a real organisation—not just me plus a team of contractors. I had that moment where I could see that scale was possible, and what that meant for all the players in the business. That was like putting on your big girl pants.
Murray: I think we all have to do that at some point. Great insight, Justine. Now, tell us a bit about your business. What exactly is Your Virtual Assistant?
Justine: I own Your Virtual Assistant. We’re a team of virtual assistants and online business managers. We’ve been in business since 1998.
We help business owners and their teams spend more time in their zone of genius—working on tasks and projects they love.
By outsourcing to our team, they can scale with flexibility, which has been especially important in the past year—certainty in uncertain times.
Murray: Yeah.
Justine: Working with Deborah as our implementer, we’ve been able to identify our ideal target market: ambitious entrepreneurs and their teams around the world who are committed to partnership, who share our core values, and who understand they need our help to achieve their goals.
That probably sounds like I’m reading it. I am—because we put a lot of work into it.
Murray: Well, you’ve got to keep saying it to embed it. That’s great, Justine. A lot of businesses struggle because they write things down and then never look at them again. It’s good to see you developing the discipline to actually refer back to what you’ve created.
Let’s go back to the beginning. This business has been going for 22 years. Why did you want to start it?
Justine: I had our daughter, and I’d had a stay-at-home mum. I wanted to do the same for my daughter.
It didn’t quite work out that way—I had part-time work for the first few years while I built up the business.
About 10 years ago, I moved away from it being “just me” to growing a team, so my earning capacity wasn’t directly tied to my availability.
It also meant I could move away from being a jack of all trades.
Now we’ve got 26 or 27 contractors, all based in New Zealand, and they all work entirely from home.
They love what they do, it fits their lifestyle, and they get a real sense of achievement from helping our clients.
Murray: What drove you to make that change 10 years ago—what was the epiphany?
Justine: I burned out and started working with a mentor.
I had this belief that only I could support my clients the way they needed.
She said to me, “Justine, do you think the CEO of Telecom deals with every single customer?”
That was a turning point. She helped me see that by expanding the team, clients could actually receive a better level of service.
Murray: So you grew the team over the next 10 years. You’ve mentioned Deborah a few times—your EOS implementer. What attracted you to EOS in the first place?
Justine: A client approached us in late 2019. They’d been reading the EOS books and using the online tools, and they were looking for an integrator.
As I started doing my own research, I read Get a Grip and thought, “Wow, this is great.”
I dove into the online tools, got really excited… and then life got in the way. Client work took over, and it all gathered dust.
A few months later, I mentioned EOS in a newsletter. Deborah reached out and said, “I saw you’re looking into EOS—did you know I’m now accredited?”
I’d known Deborah for years—she was a former client—so I already trusted and respected her.
She asked if I had any clients who might benefit. I said yes, but also asked if she’d consider helping us.
I pretty much begged her to take us on!
Murray: That’s great. You mentioned that business owners often get stuck in the now—just running their business instead of stepping back. How hard was it to make the commitment to work on the business instead of just in it?
Justine: Not that hard, once I had the accountability.
As a business owner, you’re not accountable to anyone. Having Deborah check in, ask how things were going, if we were ready for the Focus Day or the Level 10 Meeting—it kept the momentum going.
I didn’t want to let her down, so I did my homework.
Murray: So you started with your Focus Day in April last year?
Justine: Yes. COVID had hit in March, and I told Deborah, “We’ve got a lot going on—I’m not sure what the future holds. Can we postpone?”
She said no—now was more important than ever to set up a system that would support us no matter what.
Thank God she didn’t let me delay it.
Murray: What did you get out of that initial session—what made you think, “I couldn’t have done this without it”?
Justine: So much. We’d hit the ceiling. Revenue had plateaued in 2019, and I’d lost my passion.
Getting back to basics—why we do what we do, who we work with, how we serve—it reignited my passion and helped reset our direction.
It also simplified things. We used to have so many ideas floating around. EOS helped us focus, filter out what wasn’t relevant, and hone in on what mattered.
Murray: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen since implementing EOS?
Justine: There’s three of us on the leadership team now—and we’re looking for an integrator so I can step fully into the visionary role.
That’s exciting.
Bringing the team on board has been the biggest challenge and the biggest win.
Some of the longer-term contractors were hesitant: “Why should we change?” But the newer team members love the weekly meetings, the systems, and the clarity.
It’s helped bring everyone together and created better alignment.
Murray: What new challenges are you facing now that you weren’t dealing with before EOS?
Justine: Getting full team opt-in.
Back in 2019, we were just running on the hamster wheel.
I wasn’t communicating with the whole team—just one-on-one.
Now we’re embedding our core values into onboarding, and finding the right integrator is another big challenge.
Also, we’re shifting from a “time-on-task” model to a productised service model—so instead of charging by the minute, we offer outcomes: “We’ll manage your inbox and calendar for X dollars a month.”
It’s about moving to more outcome-focused services.
Murray: You mentioned earlier how you’ve stopped working weekends and no longer feel guilty. A lot of business owners struggle with that. What helped you change?
Justine: My relationship with my family was suffering. I had to re-evaluate what was important.
At a recent team meeting, I asked, “What’s one mistake from 2020 you won’t repeat this year?”
Eighty percent said, “Not prioritising myself.”
If you don’t look after yourself, you can’t look after others.
Murray: That’s really well said. Now, I think you’ve undersold your business a little. You also offer marketing, bookkeeping, graphic design, event management, and business management—all virtually—for clients in New Zealand and beyond.
When did you know you’d hit the right bandwidth—how did you avoid overextending?
Justine: We based it on the core needs of our ideal clients.
We brought in Lisa for graphic design, Steph for WordPress, a few others for social media.
When we don’t have the capability in-house, we outsource and project-manage it for the client.
Murray: Most of the world has been working virtually for the last year. You’ve been doing it for decades. Did anything change?
Justine: Not really. We just became more present—with our team and our clients.
We listened more and stayed available.
But our services didn’t need to change.
Murray: Stepping away from EOS for a moment—what’s one big piece of advice you’d give to other business owners?
Justine: Two things.
First, every business owner needs someone they’re accountable to—an implementer, a coach, a mentor, someone on their leadership team.
Second, find your zone of genius—the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning—and outsource or delegate the rest.
Just imagine if everyone on your team was working in their own zone of genius. Think of what could be achieved—and how happy everyone would be.
Murray: That’s fantastic advice. If someone wants to get in touch, how can they do that?
Justine: Through our website: yourva.co.nz, or email me directly at justine@yourva.co.nz.
Murray: Brilliant. Thanks so much for joining us on Gripping Business Tales, Justine. You’ve shared some incredible insights. Here’s to 2021 being a great year for Your VA.
Justine: And for you. Thank you for having me, Murray. I really enjoy your episodes—I was a bit nervous coming on, so thank you.
Murray: No problem at all. Good to talk.
Justine: You too—be well.
“I had that moment that scale was going to be possible.”