How Oli Luke Got His Time Back

Stretched thin, juggling lots of plates and turning up to the airport at the wrong time!

Oli runs a niche marketing agency called Orange & Grey – they help hearing clincs to become the obvious choice in their area. Like most entrepreneurs, Oli was stretched thin. Emails we’re piling up. Multiple people and projects demanding his time. Life admin he never got round to and trying to work out how to get across a city in 45 minutes between meetings.

There wasn’t one big catalyst to get some support. It was more like death by a thousand cuts and one particular book that made Oli reach out.

Reading Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell didn’t tell Oli anything he didn’t already know. It just held a mirror up.

“I was spending a lot of time firefighting tasks that I shouldn’t be doing and doing things that are below the pay grade that will allow me to do what I need to do for the business.“

He’d tried VAs before, based overseas and it hadn’t worked for him. The cost of managing them and trying to explain a process or task became a barrier for Oli that mean he defaulted to ‘It’s quicker to do it myself’.

“The process of spoon feeding them tasks meant it took longer to tell them to do it than do it. I tried lots of different virtual assistants and found the issue was always me.“

What Oli actually needed wasn’t someone to manage.

It was someone to manage him.

A PA Who Leads And Manages, Not Follows

Oli onboarded with Mi PA in Feb 2025 and started working with Nicole and the change was almost immediate. Nicole didn’t wait to be told what to do. She looked at how Oli worked and told him what needed to happen.

“The biggest thing was when Nicole came in, looked at everything and said, right, you get out of the way there, I’m doing this, this and this, you do this.“

A few things made the difference straight away:

· Inbox Trust – Someone Oli could hand emails to without worrying they’d say the wrong thing or put him in an exposed position.

· Time Zone Alignment – A UK based PA cut out the friction that came with managing someone overseas.

· Proactive Thinking – Nicole started spotting things Oli didn’t even know were coming, like his kids’ birthdays or Mother’s Day, well before they landed as a problem in Oli’s lap.

“She’s helped me get out of jail many a time!“

The Unexpected Bit

Nicole Became Part Of The Family!

Oli and his wife Sophie are both in a WhatsApp group with Nicole where they handover and voice note business and personal tasks. Now when family logistics come up at the dinner table “Nicole can help us with that” is a normal sentence in the Luke household!

“It’s a real strange dynamic. I never anticipated that would be something from a Virtual PA service, that somebody becomes embedded in your family, who’s there to enable your family.”

Family holidays, travel abroad, a house bought overseas: all of it now runs without the usual last-minute scramble.

“Is there parking booked at the airport? I’ll find out the day before and get told it’s all been taken care of.“

The Results Of Working With Mi PA

30% business growth. Oli’s aware than not all of the credit for this one is down to his PA, but he’s clear on the mechanism:

“It’s allowed me to have the time to work on the things that I know needed working on to move the business forward.“

A Shift From Doer To Visionary

With the day-to-day off his plate, Oli’s moved into the strategic, EOS-style “visionary” role in his own business, building relationships and thinking ahead instead of scheduling calls across six time zones.

Indirect Gains Across The Team

Watching how Nicole operates has changed how Orange & Grey’s own account managers work with clients.

“There’s been a lot of indirect benefits to us as a business of watching how you’ve built the business and how you operate.“

Oli’s Advice To Anyone Considering A Virtual PA

“If you’ve never had one, then you spending your time on the activities that are not moving you forward is crazy. You’ve got to do it.“

And for anyone tempted to go the cheap route first, as he did:

“If I would have just done it properly on the first day, I wouldn’t even like to think and calculate the difference that would have made. It will be pretty harrowing.“