Virtual Assistants | LeadingLane Podcast | Episode 45

And imagine if you had, depending on what you're doing, if you had multiple different VA's, they're on a completely different, typically on a different time zone than you. So what if you had one VA that is working your timeline and then what if you had like as far as your 8 to 5 in your time zone and then you had the next VA working their time zone. You're now working almost 24 hours around.

The clock, which you can't do yourself.

And you can't do that all by yourself. So how much more effective and efficient are you going to be if you are going to structure it that way? And when you get in, in the morning, here's all everything queued up for you of what you need to be doing, because somebody now is queuing that over for you. I think it's a beautiful way to be extremely efficient.

Welcome to the Leading Lane Podcast for Real Estate Pros by Real Estate Pros with your hosts Ashley Frederick and Stephen Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic and raw perspective, you found it.

So I wanted it done. Okay, now you guys are good. Let's carry on. Action.

Go for it.

I feel like I did it like the last 12 times.

Oh, stop it.

Welcome back to the Leading Lane podcast. Okay, your face threw me off there. Goodness gracious. Welcome back to the Leading Lane podcast. We're, we're on one today. It's, it's Halloween, so I think we're, we're entitled to have a little bit of trick or treat, you know, mentality this morning. So we are coming back from the Broker Fast Track retreat and one of the big topics that we had the most conversation about and around, in my opinion, was about virtual assistants VAs. So in my opinion, VAs are crucial. But I want to hear from you, Ashley, and your perspective. Like you're, you're on the, the teeter totter here of maybe getting one, maybe not. So tell me what you think the benefits are and then what do you think maybe some of the, the negative the cons to hiring a VA would be?

I think that it's a matter of letting someone who isn't physically like by you into your files. I think a lot of people struggle with that. It's like sharing all this private information to someone that might be halfway across the world. But you know, like through listening at the Broker Fast track, obviously listening to you as well, know that you have two or how many virtual.

We have three VAs. We have three on the real estate side and then one on the the leaning lane side.

So I mean, right, I can see it from your standpoint. I've actually, you know, had contact with our virtual assistant on the leading lane side. So I totally understand that she does a great job. But I think that people struggle with just not being in person and giving up control at the end of the day. Because if we're in real estate, we're probably a control freak of some sort. So what do you think are some of like the just easiest tasks that a VA takes off of someone's plate?

Well, really it. And I have to say first start out like when I first hired a va, I was like, I don't really know what I would be able to give them. Like they're not here. So I was one of those people. Um, but really now it's like, what can I give them? Like I'm going to throw it over to them. I want to be able to challenge them. We have a really good group of VAs and they want to help and so they're looking to advance as well. So I think it's a. Having that open communication and dialogue with them. But the first thing that I was able to get off my plate was reports. I would pull a report every single morning and you know, check to see what pendings we have, making sure everything is closing on time. All of those kind of fun, tedious things. Super important. But I didn't need to spend 20 minutes of my morning going through these reports and compiling it. So what I first did was like, hey, I need you to do these reports. And what I learned was like I said, get it to me whenever you can. Well, because of the time difference and expectations and everything else, like really, I didn't want it whenever they could. I really wanted it first thing in the morning because that's what I was used to. So I had to change the way that I started delegating these different tasks and saying, you know, I. Are you able to get it to me by 9am and so I had to look at my schedule of what is my routine. And so when I get that now report by 9am I can continue to move forward. And I just saved myself the 20 minutes and 20 minutes. Like that doesn't seem like a long time over time, but over time I think we've had Daelyn with us for three years now. Three maybe going on board like so, you know, so that's a lot of freaking time. Monday through Friday, 20 minutes added up over the three year span. You know that, that just one task has been Able to save me. So then as we have a question though, with that. Yeah.

So like, how. How do they know how to do the report? Like, are you spending. How much time are you spending? Are you doing tangles? Like, how do they actually start to understand how to do these?

So at first I didn't have any tools other than Zoom, because obviously they're not there with me. So what I would do if it was somebody boots on the ground in person, I would say, here, sit next to me, let me show you how to do this. And then kind of just remember how you're hoping that they would remember and comprehend exactly how I wanted it. So with a virtual assistant, I first just did a zoom, recorded the call, and then now they have the reference point. And that's kind of when my like, aha moment started to happen. Is okay, yes, I can sit here and I can train. I have all of these videos, but I don't have them organized in a fashion that what happens if I hire another va? And, you know, in which we did. And now it's her job to, you know, teach the next VA in line of what their roles and responsibilities are. So now it's all about, yes, the recordings and doing screen share and everything else and, you know, having the Zoom call. But we use Tango. It's Tango us, which is instead of doing screenshot by screenshot, you know, and then cropping it down, throwing it into a PowerPoint, trying to type all of this out, it basically does all of that for you. And so it is a sop, standard operating procedure. Click by click, screenshot by screenshot, and it's automatically putting all the steps in there so that now you have this link that you can send them. This is exactly how you accomplish what I want you to be able to do. So it was a evolution of how I learned how to train. But then that also came over, like, that's a huge now resource for agents that are boots on the ground or other admins, other staff, you know, that are. That are here. So we have all of these different Tangos pretty much for any task within our company and organization. So anybody can do it if somebody drops the ball or, you know, they advance up or we have to bring somebody else in. However, it may be cool.

So you were able to basically train them via meetings or whatnot, how to do your stuff?

Absolutely.

Did you ever feel concerned about, you know, obviously like private information or customer, like, how do you. How did you deal with that?

Absolutely. It was, it was tough, you know, like at the very Beginning, um, but I think with, as any relationship it has to, you have to build the trust first. And it wasn't like the very first thing that I did was here's all of our transaction by any means. But also let me back up. We use my out desk on the real estate side. And so they go through their extensive process on being able to hire and, and, and go through the, the, the process of making sure that these are good legitimate people.

You know, they provide a kind of like match. Like do you give them what you're looking for and then, okay, they help.

You through the hiring process. They, they go through and you know, see exactly what you're looking for. And one of the things that I wanted is actually somebody that has never been in real estate because in my mind I would much rather teach somebody the, the different skill set that I'm looking for versus them coming in and saying, oh well, my previous place, this is what we did and this is how they did it. And so in trying to adjust that, I was more after making sure that the person knew exactly what my goals were, they were aligned with that, you know, the vision of where I was going. They had a good personality. They understood, you know, that sometimes I don't communicate the best and sometimes I kind of expect you to read my mind, you know, so I need the feedback from them. And I needed somebody that was not afraid to be able to articulate that to me. And so, you know, making sure that the personality match was, was there over the skill set was there. So yes, so that the company that I hired to help me then hire make this choice with the va, I think that's super important. Making sure that there is protection there as well. And then from there, you know, as I started giving these little tasks, these reporting, you know, I eventually opened up my email to Day Lynn so she can monitor my email to make sure that I'm not missing anything so I don't have to be hyper focused on it. And then eventually, you know, I saw the opportunity to be able to take some of the tasks off of Kim, our director of operations, which was doing all the compliance and file work and everything. So I was like, okay, is this an opportunity that, you know, Dalen has mastered these things that I needed. Now what can I get off of Kim's plate? So now I can throw those more higher level tasks that Kim can do versus, you know, handing them over to a, to a va. So we kind of restructured. Go ahead.

How many hours did you like? What was the average of the va, like did she work like four hours to start with? Now she's full time. Like how does that work?

I hired her full time from the very get go because in my mind like I, I knew that there was enough time or enough tasks to be able to fill up the full 40 for the entire week. But I needed to challenge myself that if I'm going to make this investment into, to somebody into this and to scale the company that I needed to push myself in making sure I got as many tasks off, off of my plate.

So, so what is the, like what would someone expect to pay to have a va?

I know that it really varies and what your, you know, what their skill set is, but I think we're anywhere between like five to nine dollars an hour right now with, with our VAs.

Well, and I think where that's important and correct me if I'm wrong, is that when you look at how, either as a real estate agent or as a broker, how you're spending your time, is your time worth doing reports, going through your emails versus you know, prospecting boots on the ground elsewhere. So if you're looking to spend whatever it might be, 10 to $20 an hour, same thing, like what's more important, going through your emails or having that taken care of by someone so you can spend more time in your brokerage or with your clients.

Absolutely. And the way that we, we have systemized this is that, you know, because Kim is over the VA's and so Kim is trained and so therefore they are trained. And if there's an escalation, if there's an issue, it doesn't go directly to me. So it goes from VA number one, VA number two up to Kim. Right. And then if there's any sort of issues or if it's outside of Kim's realm, then it goes to Ryan for to be able, since he's the supervising broker and then Ryan will actually pull me in. But that's over that three or four year span of how we've added people and because I did not want to be the direct person for every single little question. So it's making sure that we categorized exactly what the roles and responsibilities are and then created that hierarchy and communication plan to ensure that it is followed every single time. And then as things escalate or as there's the continuous, you know, questions or maybe Kim will recognize that there's repeat issues that are happening. Well, it may not be issues with the VA directly, but now we can identify the training opportunities for our agents. So we can see, hey, we need to actually train on XYZ because we're seeing this repeat offender or repeat issue across the board which then I think helps create our critical thinking agents which then increases our production and productivity right there. So as long as it's I think in, in a systematic manner of understanding that the goal is to get the tedious tasks but important off of your plate, empowering your team to be able to work and maximize to their maximum strength and giving those weakness opportunities over to somebody else so that you can be maximizing the the time and get that return of investment. Because time is money in any business.

Right. I think that there's like two methods, you know, that you use that I think could be good as far as people finding those. Maybe two or three ways. But one is just the simple like that irritates me list.

Yeah, yeah, that was a big thing.

I'm having everyone fill out like next week, so I can't wait for that. The other one is the adore. Right. So what does that look like? Which we can talk about in a minute and then the quadrants like we've talked about, right. So like if you're like what, what are you worth? What do you think you're worth per hour? And if it's, you know, one which is more like admin work, like what can you fill in the admin work that removes it off of your plate and sometimes you have to sit down. I remember I did the exercise and I was just writing down like what I did like all day long, like respond to email update loop, you know, whatever that might be. And then I was like, okay, like this stuff is just not worth my time when I could be out going to look at a property, right?

And you know, the first thing. And really out of all of those really, they, it's kind of the same activity but just in, it's spelled out and you know, set out in different manners to resonate differently with different people for them to understand the value of your time and the value of empowering your team. So the shit that irritates you list, probably the more politically correct way to be able to say is like my pet peeves list.

But it's the shit that irritates me.

Yeah, like write out the shit that irritates you. And it's that simple. Like it irritated me that I had to sit here and do this report. I hate, you know, sitting here and organizing my emails. Like, what is it that irritates you in your everyday, you know, production of what you do and I think it's a real challenge and especially when you start making a list of things that you're actually doing for people to slow their brains down to realize that, yeah, it's not that hard to check your email or monitor your email or monitor your calendar, but when you're clicking around 12 different times for one event task, you know, like somebody else can do that. So, so slowing your brain down enough to realize that that is a task that you are actually doing and then recognizing that that is a task now that you can delegate out to somebody else, still get done, but you don't have to be able to do it. So create your shit that irritates me list. Then it goes into the adore method. And that adore method is just like what we're talking about, creating a list of every single task that you're doing. The goal would be for you to.

Be able to use go through what it stands for.

Yeah, absolutely. The goal is for you to be able to take your entire list day over day for an entire week. And then from there what you'll do is you'll identify. It's a door. Automate, delegate, Outsource, remove and eliminate. Right? Did I get that? Did I spell it correctly? So you go through like, is this a task that I can automate? Is this something that I want to be able to outsource? So people ask, you know, what is the difference between automate and outsource? Your outsource is going to be like going to Fiverr or Upworks and it's going to be a one time type of project that you don't need to hire somebody full time or part time to be able to do. It's just a one and done type of thing. Um, is it something that you want to eliminate? Do you even need to be even doing it at all? Or is there a replace? Can you, can you be doing something different to get that same outcome that you're getting without having to do so many different steps? And I'm missing one. I don't remember which one it was.

Eliminate.

I think we did eliminate. I don't have the sheet in front of me, but you get it. Yeah, but you. Right. So the hard part is just making the freaking list first and then it's recognizing that there's different methods that you can, you know, be able to get off of your plate. So then we, we've done the, the four different. The four square. You know, to me it's taking each of those tasks that you have written down the easiest way to visually do it is put it in a post it note, one task, one post it note. And then if you were to have your four square, you have your, like.

That do I remember I did not do that right last.

Yeah, that's okay. It's all right. But you have your VA and then you have an admin, then you have a manager and then into you. And so you're identifying what are each of those roles worth. So what are you worth? What is the VA worth? Hourly and then manager and admin. So you take your post it note with your actual task and let's say it's email. Well, is this a $250 an hour task or could a $10 an hour VA handle that for me? And so you start doing each task, post note and putting it into the, you know, the square. And it's fun to watch people do this because they're like, well, it's my email, I can do it. But that's not the point. Like we, we can do all of it. It's a one, we can do it all. We're doing it all already. But the point here is to be able to say, is the task worth $250? Is it worth the $100, the $50 or the $10? And really it's the $10. And once we started seeing everybody put their different post its or writing on their, their foursquare, it was really eye opening to be able to see the 250 or the, the big dollar ticket item is about recruitment, retention, and your own production. So if you focus on that, get everything else off of your plate out to whoever else you have on your team. Think of how much more productive you will be able to be and how much more profitable you'll be able to be because you are actually focusing on the things that you're good at and making money.

Well, and I think somebody had like social media on like their part, like broker. And then so like my question was, is like, do you, do you as a broker need to be doing the social media? Like, couldn't a VA or an admin do that? And they were like, well, I mean, I guess so. And I was like, I mean, like, not, I guess so. Like, definitely they can. So like, it's fun to watch people move it over like that's a job for someone else. Because that's not worth your time.

No, not at all. And, but it doesn't mean that you still don't have oversight on it or, or a feedback loop. Right? You still are responsible for all, all of those different tasks, like in that hierarchy, everything still trickles up to you and you're ultimately responsibility. That's why it's making sure that you're training properly, that they have the resources available at their fingertips so they can refer back to and they're comprehending exactly what you're wanting and you're clearly articulating your expectations to them. And so yes, the VA can do the social media for you and you may put it into a process where maybe the manager can do, you know, a proofread and if you want to have the final sale for the first, you know, month or whatever, you have an approval process. That doesn't mean you have to do their sit there, design, create the caption, get the hashtags together. Like, honestly, when you start getting an effective team that is extremely efficient, more than likely they're going to be scheduling your future out for you. That where we're doing or I used to do it day by day to where now we have a year in advance of all of our social media already scheduled out and we don't even have to touch it. And I still get to oversee it. I don't do an approval process because now we have sky that does all of the making sure everything is branding and guideline compliant. Yeah, it's VAs. They're so powerful because I think it's, it gives you the aha moment of even the people that you have boots on the ground shouldn't be doing the things that they probably are doing. You can utilize your resources and you can create a team and the team doesn't have to be there sitting with you. And I think probably too like with COVID and the pandemic, not actually having to have to have everybody right there with you has opened up even more of a, an understanding of how important it is that you can delegate and communicate with your team. And imagine if you had, depending on what you're doing, if you had multiple different VAs, they're on a completely different, typically on a different time zone than you. So what if you had one VA that is working your timeline and then what if you had like as far as your 8 to 5 in your time zone and then you had the next VA work their time zone. You're now working almost 24 hours around.

The clock, which you can't do yourself.

And you can't do that all by yourself. So how much more effective and efficient are you going to be if you are going to structure it that way? And when you get in, in the morning, here's all everything queued up for you of what you need to be doing, because somebody now is queuing that over for you. I think it's a beautiful way to be extremely efficient.

Well, and I don't think people have to go like all in right away. Right. Like, start with somebody that does eight hours a week and just, you know, I think that once you start with it and you start to get comfortable with it, then it can be like, oh, like, maybe I don't need to do that, maybe I don't need to do that. And then, you know, and then you create a 24 hour a week position. Like, I think that people are so afraid of just jumping on. But it's also like what we talk about is you have to spend money to make money. Right. It's like, if you're gonna invest in this, like, it's because there's more hours of your day that could be used more fruitfully.

Absolutely. And you know, it's a learning curve too. You're not like, in my opinion, you're not going to slam dunk this the first time. And I think if you have that open communication with your VA, they know that as well. But typically your VAs have worked for other people and other companies. So you can let them know, like, I need that feedback. It's crucial for me because I want to make sure you're happy. Because how do you now make sure that you have an employee that is overseas or across wherever they're located to make sure that they're enjoying, still enjoying work? So you still have to have those touch points. And you know, you know, I ask the question all the time to them probably about once a quarter. Once a quarter, you know, give me a, you know, for 100 scale. Where are you at out of that 100 with your workload? Like, I don't want you to tell me 100 because if you're at 100, that's too much. I'm not trying to, I want to make sure that you are still having some freedom of flexibility to be creative and everything else. So where are you at? Like, how happy are you at the grade scale, A to F? Right. Like, I want to know and I'm asking these questions to ensure that they are, they're taken care of. And I think it means so much to them and especially the way that we run our company as, you know, like, we care about our people and so we want to make sure that we're incentivizing them properly, giving them raises, still giving them bonuses, you know, when the holidays come through. Like, I want to make sure that they know that I value them and I respect them. And it creates this bond, even though that you've never met them face to face in person, that now they, they have the loyalty and want to make sure that they are there working for you and with you and being a part of your journey.

Yeah, I mean, I think that you bring up all valid points. I think it's always, you know, it's just new to some people, so they, you know, are obviously more aware or scared to kind of take the leap. But I think that it's definitely, as things continue to change and as we are very legal type of industry, you know, it's great to have someone that can take some of those little things off so you can spend time on that. So I would definitely encourage anyone that's listening to, you know, at least reach out. Like I said, you could dip your toes in the water, kind of see what it feels like. But you can also definitely reach out to us for further information or to see where, where we're getting them all from.

Absolutely.

Great. Thanks for the input.

Tune in next time. Appreciate you guys.

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