The Secret to Scaling with Virtual Assistants!

Yo, what is going on, Sean? We are live right now, bro. Dude, I'm excited to have you on here. So my name is Nathan Payne, but I got a special guest on here. We got Sean Young. So yeah, so I brought Sean. I like to bring on other wholesalers on this show just so you guys can get a little bit of a different taste of, you know, what's going on out there. Sean, you're from Atlanta. You want to kind of let everyone here know what you do, and then we can get right into it.

Hey guys, Sean Young from Atlanta, Georgia. As Nathan stated, I've grown up all over the country. I come from a military background, so I had the fortunate opportunity to travel the country and the world. Got into real estate, hit the ground running. My first deal was a $72,000 sandwich lease option. Within 30 days, I had 11 more deals under contract, wholesale deals, and I haven't looked back since, guys. So here I am to add value to Nathan Payne's show. The man, Nathan, the man.

Hey man, I appreciate you coming on here because like I said, when I'm just talking the whole time, I think people want to hear some other stuff, you know, they want to hear from somebody else. So I love having you on here. So let's kind of talk about VAs, man. I know you do like a VA business, right? Is that what you do?

100%. 100%. I own and operate a virtual assistant company based here in the United States, but my employees, which, uh, which are the virtual assistants, are based in the Philippines. Uh, world-class, professionally trained, all college educated. They all go through a 3-step training process to ensure that they're a good fit for our company. So man, they're awesome. I stand by them. They have helped me make made a ton of money, me and my clients.

Dang, bro, college educated?

College educated. I'll have 4-year degrees. Absolutely.

So, Sean, the reason why I asked you and wanted to bring you on here is VAs are super, super important to your wholesaling business. I think it's important to any business, bro. Like, I think every business should have a VA. So how did you even get into working with VAs? Like, how did you even get to working with people in the Philippines? How's that even work, man?

Great, great question. Well, one of our mentors, which is Tom Crow, of course he's been a mentor of mine for quite some time, and he was talking about expanding and growing your business and adding on team members. And, you know, at first I was like, you know, there's no one that's going to be able to talk on the phone like me, there's no one that's gonna do this like me, I can't risk getting my deal to the finish line and someone else dropping the ball. All these, you know, self-defeating, ridiculous kind of thoughts run through your brain. But gotta expand things, I need more help. So I made my first hire, and it was a disaster. So I'm not going to tell you I made my first hire and it was, you know, peaches and cream. I actually went through maybe 4 or 5 virtual assistants with massive headaches before I decided to say I've got to come up with a new method. And that's why I created my own virtual assistant company because I said, hey, you know what, I can't be the only one that's going through this stress, this strain. I can't be the only one that's having these troubles getting a VA trained, managed, and monitored, bro.

I feel you. There are some struggles. When I first started, I was like, I'm gonna hire a cold calling team. I tried to manage that, bro, and I just gave them the dialer. I said, hey, go dial on Mojo. You know, I started listening to the recordings. Half the time they'd say hello, the person would say hello, they wouldn't respond, and they'd hang up. And this happened for weeks until I actually like dove in. So there's a lot of things that are happening on the back end and if you don't manage those VAs right, that you could just be wasting money, right?

100%, brother. And we have provisions in place to protect our clients against all that stuff. So every 10 minutes, screenshots, all calls are recorded and monitored. You have the ability to click into a call live if you ever just want to listen to your VAs talking and they're on a call. You can go in live, talk into their ear, hey Sally, say this, hey, no, no, back up, say that, and the person on the other end can't hear it. So we have really nailed and dialed this down to ensure that, that our VAs are, um, different breed. It's They're not just your typical, hey, we'll make calls for you here and there. They're dedicated to your team and your team's success solely, 100%.

Bro, I love VAs, man. I freaking love them. They're the best. Are they not the best, dude?

You need them. Without them, my business would not thrive.

Investor Thrive Live. That's what we're on right now, man. And your business is thriving because of those VAs you got.

100%. I could not do it without them.

Hey, I want to show everyone something because I run a wholesaling company. I also run Investor Thrive. And I use VAs for everything. VAs are huge for everyone. And I know people right here says executive assistant right here. Thanks for watching us and add some comments. And she says in the ability to assist the VA during the call, she loves the screenshots every 10 minutes, but I want to show people how I set up my business to use virtual assistants. Cause I think this would be actually pretty useful for people to see. I used to use Slack for all communication with my VAs, but I actually recently got Discord and I have my Discord for the coaching setup. And then I have my Discord for my wholesaling company, which I got my VAs in., and I have the Investor Thrive people chatting in here. So it's really cool. I talked to, you know, Zeeshan's one of my leads managers. We got Jackie in here talking, Jamie. These are all my VAs and we talk all the time. I ask them, they're very responsive. The VAs are no different, everybody, than, you know, regular employees. I actually don't even treat them different. We have meetings every week. We have trainings every day. A VA is not something you just hire if you do it yourself, whether you use your, uh, you know, your company or you just hire out, you don't just hire them and just say, here's a task and you never talk to them and just hope they do it. Exactly.

They're employees. 100%. Got to be engaged, guys. You have to be engaged. I see it. That's one of the number one biggest factors as well. That people— Nathan just hit it right on the nail on the head. If you are not engaged and don't set expectations and are not leading them, then where are you going? Where are they going?

100%. So kind of tell me a little bit more about the hiring process. That's really interesting that you make sure that they have college degrees.

Absolutely, guys. They go through a 3-step assessment. Which includes English tests. We train them on cold calling. We ensure that they are familiar with basic tools that are in our industry. They all have to pass this test before they are even recommended to be hired to our employees. Once they are on our company, we don't just throw them at you. When you sign up for our service, we listen to you. We have what's called an assessment session where we ensure we know what you're doing in your business, what tools you're using, what are your goals, and then we match a virtual assistant based upon your requirements. So it's like a match.com type of a system, so to speak.

That sounds pretty intense hiring process, bro.

It's very easy. It's very quick. You guys are on a quick call, quick 15-minute assessment call. If it takes a little longer, of course, we know we're willing to go over with you, but it's very quick to, for us to assess what are your needs and that we match those needs with the skillset of the virtual assistant.

So let me ask you about accent, right? Because when I first started, I was really concerned about accent when they're calling. Tell me your thoughts on that. If you got a really high-level VA, who's really smart, can work hard, but their accent is bad. Tell me, how do you navigate that? Because I know there's a lot of people that are watching this, maybe have one higher VA, but they're worried about that.

Well, for our company, we understood that was a big challenge. So there's two things that we did. First of all, we have English coaching. We have accent coaching. Our VAs have actually accent coaching. So now my pool of VAs, now they sound like they're pretty much from like Southern California. They sound almost like me, like how I talk now.

So why don't you, why don't you try New York accent, bro? Why didn't you teach them?

What's wrong with, what's wrong with the New York, huh? Yeah, forget about it.

Yeah, exactly. That'd be hilarious. Like they're talking to a Filipino that's got the New York accent.

Exactly. That would be funny. That would be funny. But guys, our country, I mean, we all deal with this every day when we talk, when we call AT&T or Verizon, it's usually someone that's overseas. And I know that was a hard concept to get, wrap our heads around, our hands around at first as a country maybe. But we've all gotten used to it because that's the norm. So just like Nathan's saying, this is no different. These are regular people. They're regular employees. They're now pretty much respected as such because we are all dealing with folks overseas on a regular basis anyway.

So are you telling me you don't think it's that big of a deal?

I think people are pretty much used to it. And our VAs, again, they sound amazing. So yeah, on top of them sounding amazing, so the slight accent that they may have, again, it just sounds like anyone else here in America. Most people here in America may have an accent. It could be Southern, could be a Midwestern, could be a New York accent, as we stated earlier. So accents aren't really that big of a factor, and I've never seen that be a roadblock for us.

You know, I don't think it's that big of a factor either because like, let's say for example, you get call from someone, they have an accent, like, yes, you might at first, like, be like, this is interesting, but you feel like that no matter who calls you. You're like, who is this? So you have that reaction. But if the person that's talking to you has an accent and knows what they're talking about, I might even be more willing to listen because I'm like, okay, what is this? You know, I'm a little interested. They know their stuff. They're talking. They got an accent. But let's kind of further see.

Yeah, they sound sharp. Like you say, it makes sense to tune in whether that accent comes from, you know, Paris or whether it comes from, you know, the Far East. So it doesn't matter. An accent is an accent. But we definitely understand importance of people wanting to have their business being represented in a particular fashion. So the fact that they are US-based companies, the majority of our clients, we ensure that our VAs do have a great US accent.

Well, if we can get a message across to the people at Batch Leads that are watching this, that will watch on for future, when should someone get a virtual assistant?

My opinion is that you've got to get your feet wet. You've got to jump into the pool, take some strokes before you can give anyone else instruction on their stroke. And you don't have to be an expert at it, but you definitely have to put some reps in so that you can have respect for for what's happening and so that you can have an understanding because again, you're leading them. If you have no clue and no understanding and you've solely thrown money at a situation, which is what people use virtual assistants for sometimes, like, hey, I'm just going to throw money at this and that VA is going to handle it all. No, you've got to still train them. Of course, our company is a little unique, but we still tell our clients, you still have to manage your virtual assistant. You still have to be engaged with your virtual assistant.

So hey, we got Jackie on here. Jackie, I'm bringing you on again. I just wanted people to hear you. I know you're a little camera shy, so we don't have to turn on the camera for you, but everybody that's watching, I want you know how important virtual assistants are to helping you build your business, whether it's a wholesaling business or it's a, you know, coaching business, any business. And Jackie, I wanted to have you on here just to kind of ask you of your experience of, you know, being a virtual assistant. Did you immediately like work as a virtual assistant or did you have other jobs until you jumped into the real estate VA world?

Well, I started working in the BPO industry back in 2016. That's my start off. So my last work was with JPMorgan Chase and Company. Then I finally decided to take this route of working as a virtual assistant, working from home. My first job was with John Martinez. I was a seller sniper doing cold calls.

Sniper. Remember that? I know you remember that. Sean, do you remember the snipers with John Martinez?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I was the first few batches who's doing cold calling with John Martinez. So it was a pretty, pretty good experience doing that. I've learned how to actually talk to sellers. And I think that really helped me build my confidence over the phone. And then I actually looked for a greener pasture than I applied for a better position, eventually got in as a coach, then as a trainer, eventually a training manager for a real estate agency.

She's on fire. So I want everyone to know that like you don't have to just box in your virtual assistants, right? Like if you have a task, if you teach them, obviously they can learn just anything like we can, right? So yeah, it's been super fun. What I've used Jackie with as my executive assistant is instead of just saying, hey, call people, I've said, hey, these are things we need to accomplish in our business and we get it done. Yeah, Jackie, again, I appreciate you coming on here. It means a lot to me that you're willing to to work hard and help me run the company. I know Shawn's got his executive assistant, so I just wanted to show everybody here that, you know, no different to work with someone in a different country. It's all the same. We all have the same goals. We want to provide for our family and our friends. I know that family is really important to you, Jackie. So that's our goal is to, you know, continue to improve and help everybody achieve their goals.

Thank you, boss. I appreciate you inviting me.

Thank you. Later, Jackie.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Yeah, man. So I thought it was important to bring her on here just so people could see like, Hey, it don't matter wherever they're at in the world. They have the same goals. They want the same things, just like we do, Shawn, just like anybody else that is building a wholesaling company. And that's the important thing about building a company is you gotta have a vision for everybody that joins. So they're all working towards accomplishing something. 100%, man.

I really like that, man. Like you brought Jackie on and, uh, you can tell through her enthusiasm, professionalism that, uh, she is just like, you know, most folks that are in that space, they're just in the culture. They want to go give, they're go-givers. They want to go above and beyond. So these are Cultural differences are definitely between the United States and the Philippines, and they're good. There's some of these are good cultural differences because we want folks who are wanting to be part of the team, who are wanting to work with us and go above and beyond. And I can tell in Jackie's voice that, you know, she's definitely dedicated to you. So guys, you heard it, you heard it firsthand. She said it. How do you want to grow? What's the best thing to do? Get a virtual assistant.

That's 100% right. Well, Sean, it's been awesome, man, chatting up with you about the VA service, having Jackie on. Before we head out, Do you have any advice? Do you have anything you want to leave Batch Leads Nation with?

Well, guys, go out there and take massive imperfect action. I'm sure you've heard Nathan Payne say that before. We come from the same school, so you're going to hear that from us. Take massive imperfect action, guys. And remember that discipline is far more important than motivation. You're not going to be motivated every day to get up and do the things that are necessary to get you to your goals. But if you have discipline, through that repetition, you will build a momentum and you will see results. So stay consistent. Consistency builds momentum. Momentum will get you to results, guys. And if you want to reach me, guys, if you need a VA, hit me up, reiworldsolutions.com. I'll take care of it.

You know, we're going to definitely have to have you back. I hope you had a good time, brother.

Man, I loved it, man. I always have fun with you, man.

Let's do it. Well, guys, Batch Leads Nation, this has been Investor Thrive Live. He's out, Sean.

Thanks for coming. Peace.