Secrets to Delegate & Elevate
In this episode of the Business Builder’s Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Mary Elaine Baker, CEO and Co-Founder of VAUSA, to unpack how entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, and senior-level executives can finally stop doing everything themselves and start delegating to truly elevate in 2026.
Mary Elaine shares her journey from burned-out teacher and military spouse to virtual assistant and ultimately founder of a relationship-driven VA company that matches values-aligned, highly skilled military spouses with overwhelmed leaders. Together, David and Mary Elaine dive into why delegation is so hard, how to overcome the fear and control issues that keep you stuck, and what it really takes to build a trusting, high-ROI relationship with a virtual or executive assistant.
Not sure what to delegate? Download the "Delegation Discovery Guide" today!
You’ll learn how to:
Identify your unique abilities and stop wearing every hat in the business
Use tools like DISC and Working Genius to align tasks with strengths
Avoid the biggest mistakes leaders make when hiring and managing VAs
Build trust in the first 30–90 days so you’re not “handing over the keys” blindly
Calculate the true value of your time and see the ROI of delegating “low payoff activities” and task that don’t match your gifts, talents and abilities
Use your assistant to protect your health, family, and mental bandwidth not just your inbox
If you’re tired of being the bottleneck, drowning in email and calendar chaos, or feeling like a slave to your own business, this conversation will give you both the mindset and the practical roadmap to delegate, elevate, and reclaim your life in 2026 and beyond.
Summary of Best Takeaways
Start with your unique ability, not your to-do list.
Before you decide what to delegate, get crystal clear on what only you should be doing—the high-leverage work you’re uniquely gifted, trained, and called to do. Everything else becomes a candidate for delegation.Use a 4-level task filter: incompetent, competent, excellent, unique.
The goal isn’t just to offload what you’re bad at. Over time, you want to delegate even the things you’re excellent at but not uniquely designed for, so you can live primarily in your Unique Ability zone.Self-awareness is step one: assess and audit.
Mary Elaine recommends pairing DISC (communication style) with Working Genius (natural gifts/energy) and running a time audit to see whether your daily activities actually align with how you’re wired and with your mission.The “gateway” of delegation: communication, tasks, and calendar.
The first high-impact areas to hand off are usually:Inbox and communication management
Task and project management
Time and calendar management
Using your inbox as a to-do list is “a dangerous game” let your assistant triage and route what truly needs your attention.
The real reasons leaders don’t delegate: fear and control.
Common blockers include:Fear of trusting someone new (especially after a bad hire)
“I can do it faster and better myself” thinking
Resistance to change and the discomfort of slowing down to train someone
If you avoid delegation, you’re choosing plateau or burnout.
Trust is built intentionally in the first 30–90 days.
Trust doesn’t magically appear, it’s built through:Regular communication and relationship-building (knowing their story, family, goals)
Clear expectations and a 30/60/90-day success roadmap
Early, honest feedback and healthy conflict (don’t wait six months to say “this isn’t what I wanted”).
Head, Heart, Hands: a better hiring filter.
VAUSA screens for:Head – Do they understand the role and what success looks like?
Hands – Can they actually execute with skill and excellence?
Heart – Do their values and wiring align with the leader and the organization?
Experience and resume alone are not enough—values misalignment = long days and constant drama.
ROI is more than money.
Financially, if your time is worth $150/hour and you’re doing $40/hour tasks, you’re losing money by not delegating. But the non-financial ROI is huge:Lower stress and fewer “open loops” in your mind
Better health, sleep, and energy
Being fully present on vacation, at dinner, at kids’ games
Having time for prayer, reflection, clarity breaks, and deep work
Biggest mistakes when hiring a VA.
Mary Elaine flags these as top pitfalls:Not being clear on what you need and what success looks like
Dumping too much too fast without a clear path or patience
Not investing in the relationship (it’s two-way trust)
Hiring in desperation just to fill a seat
Hiring on resume alone and ignoring character and values
You’re not meant to climb the mountain alone.
Trying to carry every weight up the mountain of success is often rooted in pride and ego. Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should. You were designed to do a few things deeply well—and to surround yourself with a team for the rest.
Action Steps for Viewers
Here’s how to turn this episode into tangible change for 2026:
Clarify your unique ability.
List the top 2–3 activities where you are truly world-class or uniquely gifted.
Circle the ones that drive the greatest impact for your business, mission, and family.
Run a 7-day time audit.
Track your work in 15–30 minute blocks for a week.
Label each task as: Incompetent, Competent, Excellent, or Unique Ability.
Highlight everything not in your Unique Ability zone—this becomes your delegation backlog.
Calculate your true hourly rate.
Write down:
Average hours you work per week
Weeks you work per year
Total income from last year
Divide income by total hours worked to get your real hourly value.
Ask: What percentage of my week is spent on work worth far less than my hourly value?
Design your Ideal Week.
On a blank calendar, block time for:
Deep work & high-leverage activities
Family, faith, health, sleep, and rest
Clarity breaks and strategic thinking
Use this as the template you and your assistant protect and optimize.
Define the first 5–10 tasks to delegate.
Focus first on “gateway” categories:Inbox triage & communication routing
Calendar management & meeting prep
Task/project tracking, follow-ups, and reminders
Convert each into a simple SOP (screen recording + bullets is enough to start).
Create a 30/60/90-day success roadmap for your VA.
For each time frame, define:
What they should understand
What they should be able to own
What “mastery” looks like
Schedule weekly check-ins to review progress, adjust expectations, and provide feedback.
Screen for values, not just skills.
Write down your top 3–5 personal and company values with practical examples of “what it looks like” and “what it doesn’t look like.”
Use behavior-based questions in interviews to test for character and alignment.
Build in accountability for your life, not just your work.
Share one personal habit or goal with your assistant (e.g., gym, Bible time, weekly date night, clarity break).
Ask them to:
Put it on your calendar
Protect that time
Check in weekly: “On track or off track?”
Grab a delegation resource & start small.
Download a delegation worksheet or use the VAUSA delegation journey (mentioned in the video) to spark ideas.
Start with 1–3 tasks this week, then expand as trust and competence grow.
Adopt the 50% rule.
Borrow the mindset: “If someone can do it 50% as well as I can, I’ll let it go.”
Trust that, over time, the right person can often do it better than you—and enjoy it more.