KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Game Changer or Time Drainer Unpacking the Virtual Assistant Decision for Your Business

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Morning Primer is your weekday boost from Mindset & Motivation Monday—quick, focused, and made for agents by KGCI Real Estate On Air. Give yourself a daily mindset reset for the daily direction you need to show up sharp and ready to win.Start your morning ahead of the market and ahead of your competition every day with KGCI Real Estate On Air. Summary This episode provides a comprehensive guide for business owners grappling with the decision to hire a virtual assistant. The discussion unpacks the common pitfalls and hidden benefits of outsourcing, helping you determine if a VA is the right investment for your growth. You'll learn how to identify which tasks to delegate, vet a qualified professional, and establish a seamless workflow that truly frees up your time.Key TakeawaysThe ROI of Delegation: Understand that hiring a virtual assistant isn't an expense, but an investment. By delegating low-impact tasks, you can free up your time to focus on high-level, revenue-generating activities that drive your business forward.Identify What to Delegate: Learn how to audit your daily tasks to pinpoint the repetitive, time-consuming activities that are perfect for outsourcing. This includes everything from social media scheduling and email management to data entry and client follow-ups.The Importance of Onboarding: Discover that the success of a virtual assistant partnership hinges on a clear and structured onboarding process. Learn to create systems and documentation that empower your VA to work independently and effectively, minimizing the "time drain" of training.Vetting for a Long-Term Partnership: Get key insights into what qualities to look for when hiring, including proactivity, problem-solving skills, and a strong communication style. Finding the right fit is crucial for a successful and lasting collaboration.Topics:Virtual assistantHiring a VAOutsourcingBusiness efficiencyDelegationCall-to-Action Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and make the right decision for your business's growth! Ready for more? Subscribe now and tap into our Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android, where you’ll find our complete archive and 24/7 stream of proven real estate business-building strategies and tactics. 

Morning Primer, your daily boost for the mindset and motivation Monday. Quick, focused, and made for agents by KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Hey, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of the Top Producing Zone podcast. I'm one of your host, Michael Jin. And I'm your co-host, Shane Carvalho. We got a fun topic for you this week. And this topic came up in conversation as we were talking with real estate agents on our team.

And the question is, should you hire a virtual assistant? and when should you hire virtual assistant? So we're going to dig into that a little bit more with you today. Yeah. And, you know, of course, this is like the new thing, right? So guys have been around like me for like years and years, I guess ancient now. You know, it's, it was, the question was always about hiring an assistant. And obviously this virtual assistant is something that's been, I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't, it's

hard to say when I remember coming across it, maybe four or five years ago. Mm-hmm. If that for me. And so, I mean, talk to me. I mean, you're obviously a little more innovative when it comes to, you know, these types of things, for lack of a better term. But what's your take on VA versus just traditional assistant? I think it depends on what you're looking for.

I think so there are, from my perspective, there's a lot of benefits with hiring a virtual assistant from the Philippines. I mean, one is, I mean, you get, you get really dedicated, well-trained, professionals, you know, at incredibly affordable rates in terms of U.S. dollars, right? But, you know, you got to take the time to make sure that you find the right person that fits your style, that fits like what it is you're trying to do. But again, it just depends. Like, like, if I'm doing, I mean, I hired my VA primarily to help me with social media, edit videos, create, like, static posts on Instagram. But, you know, I found that I have to

to give like a lot of great structure to them, right? But, you know, if you were to hire somebody here in the U.S., the benefit of someone who's local is that, you know, you may not have necessarily have to, you start to train them, but you may not necessarily have to give them that same structure. They, you know, they, I don't know what the right way to say this is. It's just basically like, I think there's probably more creative thinking power when it comes to like hiring somebody who's local here in the U.S. Well, I mean, market knowledge too, you know, depending on what you're having them do.

Yeah. So, I mean, at the end of the day, like, you know, like we're not going to treat it like the white elephant in the room. But I mean, at the end of the day, like the big draw is the cost. Oh, yeah. Right. Absolutely. I mean, that's probably your number one, right, when you thought about it. Oh, no.

It absolutely was. Like, like, I, I've never hired a, like a video editor, a long-term. here that's based here in the states. I have used fiber and a lot even a lot of the fiber contractors they're they're not based here in the US they're based in like India or Pakistan wherever they're at right. But the one thing that made me want to go over to a VA was yeah, basically getting my again maybe this is a Chinese of me. It's getting the bank for my book, right? Like I go on Fiverr, and I have them edit a video, oftentimes like these Fiverr contractors, they're, you know, they're charging you based on how long your video is, right? So if you do like a 30 minute

video, they're charging you like 40 bucks. I'm, you know, roughly that's the number, right? And then if you do enough videos every month, like you're paying 40 bucks a pop, it's like, that doesn't make sense to me. Um, so go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, it's just going to hit it's funny because, you know, you get more bang for your buck. But, you know, it's interesting. because like look you're getting good quality work super cheap that's an anomaly when you think about you pay for what you get right and then but at the same time we want our clients to pay up stop dollar because of our experience and our skill so it's kind of like i don't know it's kind of a weird space to be in it's like okay i want this done cheap but then if you hire me i'm expensive you know what i

I mean, but we're not going down that road today. Just that for me, I guess, you know, it just sounded too good to be true. And then my experiences, my past experiences haven't been good. But I'm really impressed with your VA. And then some of our colleagues across the country have been doing really well with VAs as well. I think I want to step back because obviously there's a lot more to talk about VAs hiring them and companies and everything else. But let's just take a step back. And let's go back to like, you know, maybe for people that are thinking about hiring a VA,

I think that the first topic or the first consideration has to be, when do I need to hire an assistant? Yep. Because, I mean, the VA is a type of assistant. So, you know, VA is a cool buzzword. It's like when I was a mortgage worker at the beginning of my career, I'd have people call me sometimes. You know, for example, you know, this lady called me. She just got back from her bunco group weekly game. And the buzzword at the bunco game, if you don't know what bunko is,

it's the game older. I don't know what Bunko is. I was just random, nodding my head, pretending I knew what Bunko would. Yeah. Well, and I don't want to say older ladies because I don't think there's an age limit. But it's like some people get together and play bridge and all these other types of games. So Bunko is a game. Bridge I know.

Okay, so this lady called me. She just got back from Bunko. She's like, look, I want to refinance. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, well, what's your rate at currently? So, I mean, I guess using that as kind of an example of, I feel like people are the same way with VAs now, right? when rates were low and people had that buzzword refinance, well, now it's like the buzzwords like,

oh, I got a VA, I got a VA. And so everybody's looking to scale and grow and wants to do more business and wants to be more efficient. And they automatically jump to, oh, I need a VA. But really what you need to look at when you're looking at your business and the money you put into your business and your cost of operation and everything else is, you know, what is your capacity? What are you doing on the daily basis that you could delegate?

and at what point do you pull the trigger on, okay, I can afford to bring someone in to do, you know, a certain amount of work or whatever. And, you know, I think that in all honesty, I think that it's hard to be brand new and just say, okay, I need a VA from day one. I think you kind of have to, you know, start to build your business and get some kind of flow and consistency to be able to even budget or figure out what you even need as far as needing help or needing an assistant. No, I mean, I think that's absolutely true.

Like it's it's one of those things that's like if you jump right into a VA, if you don't have the structure your own systems, your own processes down, how do you expect the VA is going to be able to really help you? Because you're not going to be able to teach them any structure, any processes like they're not going to know what to do. And you're going to spend more time training them, bringing them up to speed. And you're, I mean, if you don't know your own systems, you're going to be making shit up on the fly. Well, yeah. And I think it creates complacency because if someone feels like they. get somebody to do something really cheap, then they might not work as hard. Yeah.

You know, I mean, when you think about support and assistance and everything, it should be because you're so maxed out because you're running so hard, you need help. Where I feel like when you can get cheap help, I feel like that almost creates like a crutch or complacency for some people, not all. And I know it's not the case for you, but I'm just saying like I think that that, if anything, that might be creating maybe some additional bad habits out there. But I guess for me, you know, I ended up hiring my first assistant. It was during the market crash when I was selling a lot of bank owned properties and doing

short sales and stuff. Those are really tedious transactions and I was doing a lot of volume. And like, for instance, like on bank own properties, we had to have utilities on for every property we had. I had like, I don't know, 15 PG&E accounts sometimes and like multiple water and different kinds of just utilities for these properties. And it's like, that was something super. for tedious and time consuming that a basic assistant could handle, you know? And then I was on the

road a lot. So I really wanted someone to be at the desk. And so I found a good spot tire my first assistant. And I've just pretty much always worked with local people here. I didn't even really work. I only had one assistant that ended up moving away that worked with me somewhat virtually. But honestly, until COVID, like the amount of Zoom and working remote and working with people in other places, like that, like that kind of emerged for me in the last five years, really. And so I did try doing the whole virtual assistant thing as far as, you know, doing some of my prospecting, you know, maybe calling on expired and canceled and, you know, that sort of thing. Creating just mainly for me, the virtual assistant has been for trying to create more business and reaching out.

a lot of cold calling in that type of thing, things that I don't really want to do and I don't think it's a good return on my time. Yeah. But I feel like now, like, because, you know, my team, as you see, my support staff, you know, they're local. Yeah. And yeah, they cost more per hour and everything. But like, I'm content because of the way my business is built. And so I think that, you know, I don't know, like if you're going to have someone, like for me, if I do end up bringing on anybody who's a virtual assistant, I don't want them to be client facing. Oh, yeah. Like my business is so, like my business is so built on the customer journey, the customer experience, and really just being there for everybody, like, that I work with. And I mean, most of the business I do, I can drive there.

And so it's like they're going to meet some of my team. So I don't think that for me, I don't think I want someone virtual, right, for that kind of thing. But I feel like on the backside, like for what you use it for, I feel like I'd be open to that if I found the right person. Well, I think, and I think it comes back to, it comes back to like, it depends on what, what tasks you want them to do, right? And what the scope of work is, right? Like, I totally agree with you. Like, if it, when it comes to, like, my real estate business, having, like, that direct contact with the client or even having a staff to, like, help support me through a real estate, like transaction or in my real estate business, like,

client facing business, I would not do a VA for, right? I mean, for a couple of reasons, like, one, the time difference, right? There's, I don't want somebody that's like, you know, when it's nighttime here, they're there. I mean, just the dynamics is that don't lend itself well to like a customer-oriented customer-facing business, right? And then I think on top of that, it's, yeah, like, I don't know, I lost my train of thought. But I mean, it depends on the scope of work, right? Like, you have your staff there. They're able to help you handle the day-to-day activities and tasks that you need to help support your clients through the transaction. And I totally agree with you. Like that type of work, like I would never hire a VA for. What would I hire a VA for? I would

hire a VA for, to your point, like back office administrative tasks. I would hire a VA for, I mean, I hire my VA to do social media post designs, video editing. Because a lot of this stuff, like, once I train a VA, I don't necessarily need them to, like, be in the same time zone with me. Right. There's actually something quite nice about like, I get my videos done. I get my ideas for post done. I send it off to them. I go to bed. I wake up the next morning and there's a draft ready, ready and ready to go for me to review. You know what I mean?

That is pretty cool. It's like you worked all night. You work. Yeah. You're working all night. Exactly. Yeah. It comes down to like the tasks that you think you might be.

Like once you get a good handle around your business, it comes down to the task that you feel like you might be able to hand off because it's saving you. It's saving you time. Like you're, like we should be doing money making. activities, right? Or like doing things. Oh, yeah. I appreciate that all this time. Yeah. You probably got that term from me. I did. I probably got it from you. So see, it's stuck in my head and I'm using it now. But there's there's absolute truth in that. Right. And one of the reasons I hired a VA is because at the beginning, I was recording my own videos. I was designing my own posts. I was editing my own videos. And freaking a man, it took freaking forever. And so I'm like, why am I spending so much time doing

this right now myself. Like there's no point, right? But I mean, initially it helped me because it's like, okay, then I have an eye. I have a better sense of like, okay, how do I approach thinking about a video? How do I approach like editing and like laying out my story from my videos? But like in the long term, it's like once I figure that out, I'm like, I don't really need to do that. I can explain that to somebody else, give them examples and have them do that for me. Well, let's say that, let's say that I roll with it. Let's say, okay, Michael, fine. I mean, I'm going to work with a VA. Like, you know, someone like me that tries to be cautious, I'm going to be like, well, I don't know if I want someone like randomly overseas like in my accounts and stuff.

But how do you guide me on that? What do you tell me? What like what do you mean? Like you don't want people like in your email or well, I don't, I don't know that I want them to have access to my email or to my accounts. So I've heard there's things out there. So like how are you protecting yourself and what's your level of feeling secure? I mean, I feel totally secure.

Like for one thing, like I don't get my VA access to any of my. like emails or like personal accounts right like i i have them do have them do like the editing video for me i have them do the design posting for me but then i will go and still like post everything schedule everything like myself using scheduling tools like the static post i'll schedule all those myself and the reason i do that i'm sorry go ahead no i didn't mean to cut you off i was just going to say but okay like that that makes me feel more comfortable but then how are you getting like are you doing some kind of like a shared Google drive for certain things or like where are you sharing like these videos or these outlines for these posts so i use a program called trello it's kind of like

a digital like brainstorming board i know i know trello yeah i use that yeah um i mean shout out to to louis galt uh in the wolf pack because he kind of introduced it to us so you know i borrowed that idea from him or we've just been using it um i mean other i know other people like to use slack which is like a corporate enterprise level like communication device. You can use it to organize your business to your private personal business. But I use Trello and it's super straightforward. I create basically like boards and I have three columns. I have requests.

I have in process and I have completed work. And so in the requests, I basically can create a little post. Again, the engineering me, I like to call. color code all my different requests, right? So if I have a request saying design a static post for me, that's one color. If it's a video editing, it's another color. Go ahead with your wisecrack before I continue. No, I'm just, I'm just laughing because I'm thinking, you bring up engineer, but then it sounds like OCD. So I'm just like, my mind's kind of confused right now. Is that organization engineer? I mean. It's so funny how you know me so well. You're like, yeah, he's thinking I use up to no

good but no i i like that and it's interesting because i know that like louis had reintroduced trello which i didn't really use trello or even heard of it for so long and then i did hear it from louis as well but um it's interesting um like i never even thought about that as the sharing platform for working with a third party yeah so and and i mean i know that we're kind of looking kind of at the overview of assisting VA whatever so i mean i'm not going to go too much into the the weeds on this, but I guess, like, based on what you're telling me, I guess I would feel safe working with the VA knowing that they're not really going to be in my stuff. But then, you know, we've talked about, you know, cost. I mean, from what I hear from people, it's like four to six

dollars an hour. Is that correct? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's roughly. And again, it, it varies depending on what type of role in position you want the, what kind of tasks you want. want to be it to do, right? Number one. Number two, like what skill level you want them at, right? Four to six dollars, I think would say probably in the medium range on average, right? For like a graphic video editing type skill set, right? There's other skill sets that could run higher. If you want them to do like full end like administrative work or help like run the back end of your business, manage the books, things like that, they'll probably be more expensive. if I want like a full blown like professional grade like video editor who has a lot of experience.

I mean, they'll probably run me like $8 to $10 an hour. Got it. And then I guess aside from that, then one of the other things that I've heard. And a lot of this is hearsay because like I said, the ones I've had short time, not good experiences, but from talking to you and other people, I hear that, you know, one of the things about having a VA is that they're dedicated like if they're doing 30 or 40 hours, Like, their efficiency and the amount of work they're able to get done versus people we hire here in the U.S. is, like, tremendous. Like, is it two to one? Is it like, I mean, what, I mean, I know there's probably not an official statistic out there, but how do you feel with as much as they're getting done versus someone here?

It's, it's a great question. I think for, like, the tasks that I have my VA do, it might be like four or five to one. I mean, I'm serious with that. Like, like I had her do reels and she, I think I had her try to put together like six or seven different reels based on the like the vacation trips and whatnot I've taken. If I were to find some, I mean, and this is not even US based, but if I were to have somebody on fiber do it, they would turn around a reel to me maybe in like maybe in like two, three days. Right. And it wouldn't be right. It would frustrate the crap out of me.

And I'd go back and forth with them saying, no, I want this. I want this. I want this. And they don't, I think I went through like this last time that really got me fed up. And I was like, okay, forget it. I'm not doing Fiverr anymore. I'm going to get a VA. It's because I had this one guy on, on Fiverr, he was editing a reel for me.

It was a home walkthrough. Freaking took like five or six iterations over like two weeks. And he still couldn't get it right. So ultimately, I was just like, okay, screw this. Like I want my refund and I'm going to go hire a VA. I did, I like, I have my VA work on it. First, first try through, she got it done. So then, okay, so I mean, obviously financially seems to make sense.

The efficiency is great. So do you pay them weekly, biweekly, once a month? I pay mine once a month. I pay. What's the platform? Like, how do you pay them? PayPal. I just send her something through PayPal.

And there's a record for it. I mean, I pay the transaction fee. It's like, what, five, six, ten bucks, whatever it is. But like, it just makes it easy. Like, there are different companies and services out there where, like, you know, they will go and do that whole process for you, right? They'll, they have the foundation,

they have the infrastructure where they will go and find the different VA candidates for you. They will set you up for the interviews. You just have to attend the interviews. And they probably have the different systems and tools for you in place to be able to pay them directly. But for me, like,

you know, me, I've always been hands on. And I think honestly, like going through the process myself, a hiring your VA and learning what I've learned, it's been incredibly valuable. And I would say like, you know, especially if you're just looking to hire like one VA or two VAs, to me, it makes so much more sense to do it yourself versus trying to go through one of these like third party, you know, companies that will bring you the candidates.

Yeah. Well, and the thing, I guess now that we're talking about that, I mean, you know, without naming companies, I mean, there's like brokers out there really is what they are. Yeah. There's brokers, their services. And I mean, I get that it can make things easier and everything from, but I mean, the sheer cost alone is worth with some companies that's worth paying two or three more full-time VAs. Yeah. I mean, you and I have gone through like the presentation. We've seen the cost. I mean, we won't name the company.

But I think, I mean, we always joke around. We wish we had started that idea, right? Because it's so, it's so freaking possible. Because there's residual income because there's a spread on the hourly and there's the premiums up front. Yeah. And then there's also the service fee to the brokers to the realtors. Yeah. Absolutely.

So it's like you're getting paid three ways. Like that's, I mean, honestly, maybe we could still start it because I feel like we do a freaking like better job. But hey. I know some. I actually know somebody. I know somebody that actually has done that they could probably give us the insight. But I, and this is not to knock any companies out there.

I mean, good for everybody that's making money. Yeah. Like it's not even to knock anything. I'm just talking about like if you're a big company that's going to hire multiple. Yeah. VAs then, you know, some of my colleagues that are using, you know, some of these other companies that do have a premium, it becomes worth it when you're getting five and six and seven.

Exactly. Yep. So I don't, and I have nothing. I'm the last person to hate on anyone that found a great way to make a living good for you, you know. But what I'm saying is that, you know, we're kind of on this podcast, we cater to people kind of at all levels, but then there are a lot of newer agents too that we connect with. And, you know, for any newer agents that are this, it's like, you're going to.

to hire your first VA, if you're going to get hit with a $2,500 premium up front, most agents are just not going to have that in the budget. And it doesn't. It's going to be taking too big of a risk. Yeah. It absolutely makes no sense. But to your point, yeah, like these companies that we know, like, not knocking them at all, I actually think what they offer to your point makes a lot of sense if you're a large real

estate brokerage and you're looking to hire to your point five, six, 10 VAs to do different aspects of like the back office functions or even video editing for all your agents on your team. It makes all the sense in the world because you're paying one flat fee to support their platform, right? But you're getting the incremental benefit from hiring so many so many VAs. But yeah, hiring if you're just looking for one, for two, I mean, my opinion, our opinion, I think, not to speak for you is that that's just not the way to go. You can speak for me when it comes to VAs and spending money. You talk about the whole Chinese thing, but I'm bored.

Portuguese is my roots. So I mean, I don't know, you and I constantly joke about, you know, who's cheaper your culture or mine. But maybe it depends on the situation. Right. I mean, you've definitely opened my mind to really considering hiring a VA because there are still some things that in my business that I think of VA could really pick up the Slack for us on. Because, you know, my staff that I do have here locally, you know, there's a lot more that I want to work with them on that's, you know, client facing. Yeah. And so it's like I don't want to bog them down with a lot of the back end stuff.

And so, you know, I mean, I'm, we've been working closely with our marketing team and, you know, and kind of doing what we're doing. And, you know, I think I'm, I'm close to, you know, once I get a little more systemized, you know, with our ops manager and stuff, I, I think in the next couple of months I'll be ready to bring someone in. And after seeing the experience that you've had, you know, I'm pretty, I'm pretty excited about finally finding success in that realm. Because it just hasn't been good. In fact, I still get solicited all the time.

I'm sure other people do too. Yeah. I get inquiries on Facebook, on LinkedIn, especially for, you know, virtual assistants. And then it's like what, it just seems shady because it's like somebody will reach out to you, but then they're not really the person. Right. And then they'll connect. you with someone who's like some kind of sales rep, but then they'll connect you with like some manager. And then, you know, it just, I don't know, it's just, I, I guess I've been burned. And so it's

like I have a hard time trusting, you know, because nowadays, you don't know who's behind those handles or screen names or whatever. Right. Right. So. No, and I, I know, yeah, go ahead. But no, I was going to say, I mean, you know, I felt really comfortable with your situation because you actually knew how to go and hire. So talk to me about, if we're not going to use one of these companies, talk to me about how you did find this gem of yours. Like, talk to me about the process of how you went about finding these candidates and hiring because I was really impressed with what you did. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I was going to say, like, I'm, when you're ready for a VA, I'm happy to help you, like, hire them. I don't know, there's something about interviewing that I

love. I hate to interview, but I love doing the, like interviewing somebody else. But there is a platform out there. It's a platform specifically where you can go and directly interact with potential candidates who are interested in becoming virtual assistance. I mean, we'll name drop this one. It's online jobs.ph. It's kind of cool. Like you can actually post a rec for free.

But if you want to get into the nitty gritty and actually be able to interact with candidates, have more applications, things like that, I think it's $65 a month. to have access to your platform. To have access to their platform. The cool thing about it is... But hold on because I'm getting... You know, I get lost to some of this stuff. You said post a rec.

Is that short for like requests? I'm sorry. My corporate lingo. It's a... It's a job... I guess it's a job requisition is shorthand. But basically what it is, it's a job description. And it's a...

It's something that you post out there and then VAs... Is that like... Is that like there... Is that like... their Craigslist? Is that what that is? I guess. Yeah, I guess it's kind of like Craigslist. And then, and then pH stands for the Philippines. Right. Okay. Yeah. And okay, so the membership would be to that site. It'd be kind of like when LinkedIn does their like their memberships, kind of like that. Yeah. And I mean, the cool thing is like you have to pay for

membership to be able to start interacting with the candidates who apply for your position. Candidates have to pay too? I think so. I don't know how much they pay, but it's interesting. The platform has this weight system for candidates who apply. So when there's, so if you're like, if I'm a candidate and I'm really interested in a job, I can actually pay more like coins or points. And it'll show up on my end.

I'll see like, oh, this person like, you know, spent like, I don't know. I don't know the, I forget the exact term they use, but I'm going to make this up. It's like, are they pineapples? No, they're like five recruiting points or something like that, right? It's like, I'm going to spend five recruiting points to apply to this position. And so, like, from my perspective as a hiring person, as the, as a boss who's hiring, like, you know, it does make a difference because I'm like, okay, maybe this person is genuinely interested in my position versus somebody else who maybe only spent one point. One point, one pineapple, whatever. Yeah, whatever it is, right?

They actually should use pineapple. It's kind of cool. And that's another, by the way, that's yet another business idea there. This platform, they're making money left and right. I mean, and they're super reasonable about it. They're basically just. They are reasonable, but volume though, right? It's all about the volume.

And it's probably, they're probably, I mean, if I had to guess, they're probably making a killing on the other side, you know, because I'm assuming they'll charge for these type of, like, points, like that you can, you can put into like your submission, your job submission. And so they're probably charging. It's kind of like gamification, I would imagine, you know, like get 100 job points for like, you know, 20 bucks or whatever it is, you know. But I mean, from the hiring perspective, it's great.

It's you pay this. And then once you actually find your virtual assistant, you don't have to keep paying to remain on the platform. You can actually end your subscription on the platform. Only when you need to go hire more, you can like reactivated whenever you want. So that's one cool thing about that. The one thing I say about the hiring process, and this is something I've learned, is there are a lot of candidates in the Philippines that will apply for your position. Like after the first night, I think I submitted my job back.

The next morning, I think I had like two, 300 job submissions already. Jeez. Yeah. So did you offer a wage or anything? Or how did you write your ad? You do offer a wage. So on this platform, they actually have. guidance in terms of they have a great table that lays out like what type of role are you hiring

for like video editing back office administrative support so on and so forth and then they classify by like skill level so you'll have like there's certain rates that they're recommended for entry level certain rates for like medium like you know mid mid level like skill and then certain certain like pay for like high end like professional level like skill like long I can't even talk right now. What's the term I'm looking? Very experienced, very experienced VAs, right? And so you can kind of-

I was enjoying watching. Watching you struggle with the word. Yeah, yeah, that happens a lot. But so you can actually use that table as guidance, and you can, you can figure out like, okay, what tasks am I trying to hire for and what skill level do I want? So I ended up hiring for video editing, social media support,

and I ended up hiring like the middle tier. Because for me, it's like, my thought process is I'm not doing anything super complicated so I don't need like a super skilled professional to help me with this. And at the same time, it's like I don't want to do entry level because I don't want to spend the time having to train as you know too much. So I want the mid tier. I mean, I don't mind sharing. I pay $600 a $600 a month for my V.A. So that's a good deal. But I mean, you keep saying Philippines, Philippines. There's so many countries in this world. Like how the heck like Philippines? Like is that like,

How is that? Like with so many countries out there, is it, I get that cost of living that, you know, I get that that's part of the equation on affordability and everything. And it's a very, you know, highly densely populated country. But I mean, is there any other countries? Is there any other platforms? I mean, everybody just seems to go Philippines. I'm sure there is.

I mean, I haven't, I haven't gone and like figured out what are the platforms and which other countries. I mean, you're right. Like a lot of people go to the Philippines. I imagine it's a combination of like. Yeah, the wages there are a lot lower by U.S. standards. But you're talking about still very highly trained, highly skilled professionals. And, you know, $600 for us is just like, okay, it's, you know, it's very, very affordable.

For them, it's, you know, it's incredibly high, like salary wages. And plus, I think, I think there's another aspect of this. And this is just my pure my observation and guess. But a lot of these professionals from the Philippines, their English is actually really, really good and really strong and solid. And I think, you know, when you need somebody to help you run your business, whatever that is, like you do need that as a core skill set. Because I mean, I don't want somebody designing posts for me and they're like English is crap and I have to fix their, I mean, I know this is like a sore point for you is like somebody misspelled something. I knew this was coming as soon as you said

that. Yeah. I mean, right? So it's like, I mean, the fact that they're English is a reflection. It's a reflection of your brand. Yeah. It's a reflection of, you know, who you are. Yeah. So yeah, that's a thing for me for sure. Yeah. You know that. Yeah. And so like my VA, like her, her freaking English is top notch or grammar is top notch. Like I've never had to like correct a single spelling mistake on her part. Wow. That's incredible. Well, and you were talking about the English being strong. This is another thing that's unfortunate because some companies have used the heck out of VAs that maybe don't speak English that clearly. Like when you have them dialing for you. Yeah. Like. I feel like you lose a large percentage of conversion on dialing because people in this country are so sick of being spam called that when they hear either a dialer connecting or they hear a certain accent, they're more prone to hang up. Yeah. And so it's hard. So it's hard if someone calls saying they're representing my team and then they hear this accent. It's unfortunate.

You know, and it just, it sucks. It just, it's almost like unfair to them that, you know, someone's abused the system or, you know, created a problem that now. So I find that like what you're saying, I think it's becoming more commonplace that people are really practicing and becoming super, super fluent proficient because they do want to be able to work in the U.S. And I think that they're starting to realize that those that are not super proficient are having a hard time having success probably. Yeah. Unless they're just doing stuff that doesn't require client contact. Well, and that, And again, to that point, that's what I wanted to bring up is like,

like my VA, like her English is really good. But like I keep in mind like what I use her for, it's all written like the written language. No, but it matters. It matters for that for how she communicates with what she's putting in the post. Yeah, like communicating with me communicating through the post. I understood. Yeah.

No, I understood what you meant. But then you reminded me of the VAs that I used in what I was trying to do and how it just wasn't it wasn't matching my brand no i know i'm saying i would totally agree with you there like yeah if you were to ask me like would i hire a VA to make calls on my behalf like hell no and and it's to your point it's nothing against well geez thanks i feel even well no it's it's it's it's it's a it's a lesson learned right but it's like i i mean i probably would have to do it before for the cost but now knowing what i know like now i feel better good recovery right uh way to drop the hammer I mean, look, I, you know, people, you know, claim that they were having success doing this.

And so, yeah, I gave it a try. But like, look, at times I have an accent. And of course, a lot of people in my life, because I'm, I speak Portuguese. I speak Spanish. I speak English. Like, I don't have any kind of issues with accents and such. And so it's like, I guess I just didn't really think about that until I experience that. And it's, and it's shitty, right? Like, it's, it's shitty that to get that kind of. kind of treatment you have an accent. Like, I mean, I think accents are cool. No, I think I think accents are cool too. And I don't, I would say like, I think you brought up this point. It's, I feel like it's less so about the accent. It's more so like what people have come to associate with that experience, right? That's really what we're getting at.

Oh, exactly. And that's, I want to make that really clear because I don't want any of my family, friends, clients. I don't want anybody to come back at me. Like, yeah, Shane's talking trash about accent. Not at all. I love accents. In fact, my partner has a fantastic accent. And I love that. And so I just, yeah, it was just the fact that I think that might have been something that hurt my experience, you know, the first couple times was that I didn't utilize a VA for

probably what their highest and best role would have been. And I feel like you obviously, this is your first one, right? This is my first one. And you hit a home run. Like this set the bar so high for you. Like so now if you ever do, you know, hire anymore, like you've set such a standard and you did it in such a good way. Like that's, I could see you hiring for other people. I mean, I could see this being a little side hustle because, you know, you have so much free time, you know.

Well, I mean, here's my here's my secret for how like for how I did it, right? Like to your point, like I do have a high standard and I have a high standard even when it comes to hiring. Like there's a lot of, there's a lot of VAs that apply for the position. But I filter through like, I probably like, let's say if there's like a hundred of them, I probably eliminate like 90 right off the bat and 90% of them right off the bat. And the way I do that is actually how I craft and how I write my job description. Well, you made them also submit something to. Exactly. Exactly. And I love that. So I think, well, just because this will end up being too long of a session, but I think that I'm going to put this out there like anyone of our listeners that's interested in maybe trying to, you know, put this together.

Because like, well, first of all, I'm going to have you help. I'm going to have you help me hire mine. And I want us to actually video the whole process. I'd love to have like a living example for other agents that we can help. And I'm not trying to offer up because I know your time is limited. I don't want to be offering up your time. But I'm assuming that you would be open to people reaching out to you to maybe, you know, pick your brain a little bit on what that process was like.

Absolutely. And there's there are ways like, let's just say, I'll just say this, right? Like, attention to detail is important to me. Like if I'm going to hire somebody, I want to make sure they have great attention to detail. And so the way that I created my job, my job request, is to your point. Like I made sure that like I put things in there that if they're not reading the whole thing, I know right off the bat because like if they don't submit a video or they don't submit a video

the way I asked them to, I know right off the bat. And as soon as I see that and as soon as I see like I get a generic response with no like video attached, see you. That's they don't even realize they're being tested. They don't realize they're being tested. But it's it's it's a freaking amazing way to do that because like, I mean, I typically, like, even with job interviews that I do here, like, in the States, I always like to, like, throw curveball questions.

I hate the, like, freaking vanilla. What, you know, what are your strengths and weaknesses, you know? Like, tell me about a time where you had to overcome a channel. Like, it's fucking boring. Like, it tells me nothing about you. Well, and it speaks to a lot of, like, what we talk about even in real estate, who cares how many trophies or words or whatever you have. Like, what can you do for me?

me like how, you know, and that's what it's about. Yeah. It's like, can we work together? Do I like your personality? Yeah. What can you do for me? And I get that. I love that you're right to the point with that.

Well, and the other questions don't help you get anywhere. No, they don't. And the other thing is like all these questions are so readily available. You can Google them that everybody fricking comes to an interview prepared to answer them. So I always like to this is so in my corporate side. You're throwing a curveball. I don't know what I'm expecting a fastball.

You're throwing a curveball. My favorite question is asking a job. interview, like on the corporate side is, okay, what brand would you use to describe yourself and why? Right. And that really gets some thinking. The other question I like to do is I always like to ask them like, okay, pretend you're planning for the Olympics.

I'm putting you in charge of the Olympics. I want you to plan the Olympics. Tell me what you're going to think about and how you're going to go about doing that. I love giving curveball very generic questions and see how they react and respond to that question and how creatively they're. they can think on the fly. I love throwing like curveball open-ended questions just to see how people think on their feet because I think that's that's also an important skill you have to kind of assess when you're looking to bring somebody onto your team. Yeah, well, I didn't even realize that,

well, I think when you first did it, I think you told me you had put something like there out there. But now that we're actually talking about it, it makes so much sense. It's so, it's so slick. That was slick. So, I mean, I guess just to kind of wrap this up, I mean, I've always been traditional just because I've been doing it for so long. And I've obviously tried this route. It didn't work for me. I've now built myself a really good support staff here that I'm really happy with. I feel like we covered where and why a VA would be helpful. I know some teams are just going really big on VA, VA, VA, VA, VA. I think that, you know, obviously knowing when you need to hire an assistant is the first step and then figuring out, you know, look, if it's not going to be client facing

and your relationship-based, because here's the thing is I feel like some of these teams that go big on VA, VA, VA, VA, VA, VA, VA, VA, VA, and not really a lot of local support. I feel like they're more transactional. I'm more relational. Like, I'm relationship based. And I'm not just trying to make a buck. Like, yeah, this is how I make my living. But I mean, I love what I do. You know, it's a career. It's a passion. And the client journey, you know, it's a journey that I take pride in. It's a journey that I want to have human interaction with. I want my clients to feel like they're getting that same service from everybody in my organization. I like the fact that, you know, since we became friends that started working together a few

years ago, I mean, you've obviously brought a lot of the more modern technology, innovation, et cetera, to me. And I feel like, you know, I've adapted somewhat and I'm still learning. But, you know, I'm excited to definitely take that step with you and actually hire a VA for myself. And I feel like I'm probably getting close to needing that. And I have obviously a role for them to play. But I mean, I appreciate you sharing all this today,

especially with our audience because, you know, it has been a big buzzword. And, you know, people like me just never really have anything positive to say just because my experience hasn't been good. But after talking to you today, we've discussed more on here than we have outside of here about this. And you have me sold. Wow.

I guess I can't be a sales guy. Yeah, even engineers that have a little bit of personality can sell. I know, I know, I know, right? Backhand and compliment right there. Well, I mean, I will close with this thought, right? Like you brought this up at the beginning. Like we don't want like VAs or other things, whether it's technology, any other platforms, to be a crutch for your business, right?

When it comes to VAs, and we've talked about this before with like AI and like Chad GPT and other things, everything takes thoughtful consideration in terms of how you approach it. And it's it's the same thing. Like it's, I take the same approach with chat GPT that I take with VAs. It's like you have to, you have to use it in the right way to really be able to maximize the value. And nothing can take away from like,

don't use it as a question. And think like a VA is going to solve all your problems and do all your social media posts for you and they're just going to take over everything for you. Like I would never want that. Like there is something very important these days. about customization, personalization, making that connection with your viewers, with your clients, directly, indirectly. Like, check GPT, I would never just take what's on there word for word and just put it

into like a social media post. I'll use it as a guide, right? And then I will still craft it in a way that matches my personality represents who I am. Like, to your point earlier, brand is super important. Same thing with the VAs, right? Don't use it as a crutch. Give thoughtful consideration about where you are.

your business, right? What tasks you feel like you can hand off to somebody that will drive more value for you and your business and then go about figuring out how like, okay, should I hire a VA? Should I hire local staff? Give a lot of thought to it. It's not an easy decision, but if you do it the right way, it can have tremendous value for your business. Well said. Yeah, totally agree. Totally agree. Well, sir. Well, with that, wrap. We're going to wrap it up. Thanks, everyone for listening into this week's episode of the Top Producing Zone podcast. This might have been the first episode where I threw out some swear words.

I hope you all enjoyed that. And Shane, just, you know, the backhanded compliments about the engineer and me continues. But, you know, I love it. It's love, brother. It's love. It's all love. So we appreciate you all for listening in. And we'll catch you on the next episode of the Top Producing Zone podcast.