KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How to Hire a Virtual Assistant: A Step-by-Step Guide for Realtors

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Summary:This episode provides a complete, tactical playbook for real estate agents on how to successfully hire their first virtual assistant. Host Mike Cuevas walks through the entire process, starting with how to identify the right tasks to delegate by creating a "not-to-do list." He then covers the best platforms for finding qualified VAs, what to ask during the interview process, and a clear system for onboarding and training. This is an essential guide for any agent ready to leverage their time and scale their business.

Ali, have you ever tried to hire a virtual assistant, a VA? And then maybe you were so excited to offload all of the stuff off your plate, you know, so you can finally focus on what matters, only to feel increasingly frustrated as time goes on. Because you're like, dude, why don't they care? Why don't they get it? Why aren't they taking initiative? Why can't they read my mind? Which leads into this like really fun funnel of like disappointment. And then anger when you're like, Fine. I'll just do it myself. This doesn't even work. Like, screw having a VA. Allie, do you know what I'm talking about? Do I? Yes, I do. Yes. Yes. Okay, well, I think we've all been there. Anyone who's hired a virtual assistant before probably has felt that feeling or else you're like the

one in a million who never has. So the reason why we're doing the show today is because we're going to dig into some of the things that Allie and I have learned over the years that we implemented to try to alleviate some of those feelings of frustration, disappointment, anger, all of the things. And just so, you know, yeah, over the past six years that I've been in real estate, I've had many assistants in person and virtual. And before that, I was six years in the military, leading soldiers in the army. So that is where some of these things came from. And this is going to be an overview. Allie and I talked about this before we hit record that there, each one of these things is like a total fucking rabbit hole of an entire deep dive topic for hours.

So as we go through, if there's anything you, magical listeners or Ali, magical human, want to go deeper into, then we will do that later. A little later day. Not this one. The next one. Not this one. Yes, exactly. Welcome to the agent goldmine, the only podcast in the world, specifically for real estate

agents who are stuck at five transactions a year to help them get to 20 plus. Your host, Ali Garcid and Shelby Johnson, two EXP icon agents each do over 40 transactions a year and interview others who are crushing it. In this podcast, you'll receive the knowledge to help you scale your business using systems and processes with our interviews and monologues twice a week. If you want to be a part of our community, reach out. Welcome to the show. In the past, you guys know that we've talked about hiring virtual assistance, but specifically transaction coordinators, which is one of the episodes. I should look it up. I meant to do that before hitting record, but we are, it's Monday. But that other episode is specifically about hiring a transaction coordinator. Lots of the same

lessons apply. Like we talked about where to find them. We talked about the hiring process, red flags, the whole nine. So make sure you go and check out that episode as well. Today, though, the show for today, we are acting as if you've already got them. You have hired them. Yay, congratulations. You've picked your virtual assistant. And we are going to talk about two different things from this point of, yay, I just hire them. We are going to talk about the intro to working together, which is the first 30 days in my mind. And then we are going to talk about what I made up to call the groove when you're like in the groove, which is like the 30, 60, 90 day process and then quarterly forever thereafter hypothetically. Episode 111, How to Hire a Transaction Coordinator Step by Step. So if you haven't checked that one out yet, we literally, Shelby tells you how to hire step by freaking steps. So watch that one because you need a TC. Carry on.

Sheldon. Thank you. Thank you so much, Allie. Oh, okay. So as we were working into this intro, right, you just hired them. This is the first 30 days. The first thing before we even get into, like, step one, you guys have to realize you have to embrace this.

that you are a leader. You are not just a real estate agent. You are a leader of not just your clients, but you are also a leader there. A good real estate agent is taking the reins and leading their clients towards the path, guiding them the whole thing. But you are also that in your position when you are bringing on a virtual assistant and or any assistant, really. And ultimately, what happens or fails to happen is still on your shoulders, whether or not you like it. Because, guys, you can delegate tasks, but you cannot delegate the responsibility that comes with it. And I've seen time and time again, Ali, I'm sure you've seen this too, where agents who are slammed, they're super busy and they've been told a million times to hire a virtual assistant will hire one and then just try to not train,

try to not give any sort of guidance. They just try to dump tasks on them. And that's what leads to what we talked about in the beginning. The frustration, the disappointment, everyone's pissed, the firing happens and you're stuck worse than you started. It happens. I feel like that probably happens 99% of the time with your first hire because you just don't know yet. If you've never had a leadership position, if you've never had a younger sibling that you've had to like watch out for, you know, if you've never had anybody in that type of, I don't

know, if you've never been in that position, it's impossible. So don't be hard on yourself. But take these lessons and implement it. So that way you don't fuck up your first time. Or third. total or 16th. Yeah. Okay, so that was my first first. My second first is that we are going into this podcast with the expectation that you have your shit at least a little bit together. We're going into the expectation that you have thought through ahead of time what the job description is,

what you want your virtual assistant to be doing. You've laid out their duties. You have basic checklists of what you expect them to do. And you are not doing the example that I just said where you are like, hey, I need someone to do my social media and you hire someone and then that's all you tell them. You're like, I'm in real estate. Do my social media. Guys, that's not enough. That is not enough. You are the problem in this case. So anyway, that's the other thing that we've gone in with this expectation that you've already fleshed out what you want them to do, which actually, Allie, this could be another good episode in the future. And listeners let us know if you like this idea too, where I do have people, agents often ask us, well, I want to hire a virtual

assistant, what should I have them do? So we could in another class go through a bunch of options. The class, oh, I called it a class. This was so my guess. We are in session. We're in session. We're in there. Yeah, we could do that another day of like literally what you can hire virtual assistants to do ideas. Oh, wow. Our like flesh out purposes are we, okay. Like a jean smoker these days. Okay. Oh, real sidebar real quick.

You remember that game that was like, never have I ever? And you like had fingers or whatever? I still play that shit now. What do you mean? You're 12. Wow. Well, my Trump card always used to be that I've never smoked a cigarette. And to this day, I've never even tried one of those.

I mean, I'll smoke some others. You know, say. Just kidding. For all the attorneys out there. She's kidding. Right. I would never. I literally have an entire podcast where I talk about psychedelics, but I would never smoke anything. Not your lungs. Don't damage your lungs. Yeah, of course. Anyway, bringing it back. Wow. So you have your your job for them fleshed out. Because if you are in those moments where you are pissed or frustrated, you always have to ask yourself first, it's do they know their job,

honestly? Do they know the standards of that job? And have I trained them? Because all of those are your responsibilities. And if you haven't done those things, then you cannot be mad at someone else for not performing the way that you dreamed. Or you didn't even dream. You just, because you didn't think about it. But anyway, now that I have laid these groundwork rules, we are entering into the first, because you just hired them, very exciting. We're entering into that intro. So this is the first 30 days of you and your virtual assistant working together. And you have to brace yourself because it is a lot of time. It's a lot of energy and it's a lot of patience up front because another myth that we're about to boss here is that virtual assistance will immediately take off so much off your plate.

And that can be true except for the immediate part because you have to train them. There is an integration process. And after you've successfully done that, then yes, they are amazing and they do take so much off your plate. Okay. Questions before we jump in, Allie? Or comment. Just a statement. this all requires, I want to just reiterate the amount of clarity you need in order to even, before you even hire the assistant. What are you doing right now that is a waste of your time that someone else could spend all day, every day doing? You know, like what is someone of a moneymaking activity, but that's not client facing that,

you know, you're the one selling, but what's, what are some events or activities that lead up to that booked call or that booked appointment that you want someone else to 2x, 3x, 4x that you just don't want to do. So all of this requires a lot of nitty-gritty work and a lot of it being like auditing your entire fucking day. You know, like what's the worst day of the week audit that day and look at all the activities that you're doing that you don't want to do that someone else can do better? So, it's not a matter of just like, oh, I have a lot of stuff on my plate. So let me just hire someone else.

And as I think of stuff, I'll throw at them. That's not going to work. Trust me how I know. So you have to put a lot of effort up front. Dude, you have to be like, okay, this exact thing, I want them to be in my DM saying this exact script or whatever it is that you want. But you just have to be so granular here. So I don't want you guys to like overlook that step.

Carry out. Totally. Which again, this is, I've, you know, we've decided now, Allie, this should be a whole class on what to have them do and some examples of what we have them do in our processes for them running those plays. But yeah, we'll do that. Okay, bringing it back. So during your interview process, which this is one of the tools that I'm uploading into the goldmine. So go to the agent goldmine.com if you want our free tools for all of this. But the step one that you've already completed is your interview process for your new virtual assistant. I literally have step one interview and I have like it all laid out. But during this time, you are getting to know them and you're

sharing a little bit about yourself. But yeah, I'm not going to dig into that. So because you guys are going to have it. So now we are on step two, which is when you've already made that higher and you are having this initial meeting with them like, yay, oh my gosh, we're doing it. I'm so excited to have you on board. Now I am here to give you the expectations of looking ahead so you know what to expect. you know what you to expect for me you know what i expect to you from you and what our next especially 30 day chunk will look like and then an overview of what looks like after that so that's you're literally i'm like oh you guys know i get excited but literally your energy sets the stage are you excited to work together they're not working for you although technically they are but like

the the impression that you're giving is that i can't wait to work together to build and grow together because I'm going to touch on this later, but one of the most important things that you can do with talent, which will also talk about identifying talent, but is you have to give them a vision to grow into or they will get bored and leave and look for it elsewhere. So if you give them, paint them this vision and be excited and be fun to work with, then it is going to set the stage for a healthy, amazing working relationship. So you're meeting with them. You're going to share your story because to this point, maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but make sure they understand into your story and you understand your business and your vision for the future, like I talked about.

Also explain key players within your business. So, hey, this person does this. This person does this all the stuff. And give them their top goal. Because, guys, Allie and I have both royally fucked this up. And you will too. If you don't listen is that a lot of times, even that you fleshed out all those duties, those roles that you want them to do. And what we have done in the past is you dump them all on the VA at once. You're like, hey, here's this giant, I flesh it out. Here you go. Now, do all the things. Well, you've probably taken, you know, months and months and years, potentially to understand those things. And by dumping them on someone else's lap all at once is a recipe for failure. They're going to feel overwhelmed. They're going to feel shitty. You're going to

be pissed. So my recommendation is that you start with their primary job. And the expectation for that first 30 days is to get really, really good at that one thing with the excitement of once you nail this, once you have it locked on, then we're going to layer on one more thing. You're going to nail that, and then we're going to layer on one more thing. So that way it's an incremental growth process, and you're explaining this to them. So that way, hey, look, I don't want you to feel overwhelmed. I felt that way before. It is shitty. And I don't want to do that to you. So that's how we're going to proceed, just one thing at a time. And VA, please, this is a two-way street. You know, you're human, I'm human. Please let me know if I'm not communicating something in a way that makes sense or if I'm giving you too much up front. I want this to be a two-way street. So that way we can grow and be the best we can together.

If you are looking to change brokerages this year so you can increase your business and you want to join us at EXP Realty and would like either myself, Aligar said, or Shelby Johnson to personally sponsor you in. set way you have access to two icon agents, text the word join to either my number 914-318-49-18 or Shelby's number, 859-267-3849. If I sponsor you and you have access to the both of us and everything that's Five Pillars Nation, we have the checklist, the systems, the process is to help you scale your business, and don't take our word for it. We've had agents switch brokerages to join us that were stuck making $300,000 GCI, and they join us so they can scale. So text that we're joined to those numbers and we'll take the next steps. So that is the first 30 days getting really good at one thing before adding more, the two-way street we talked about. And then next is getting them set up. So after you have this initial with them where you've gone over their

job, you've given their one thing, you're going to give them, like I said, the setup. So any access that need, hey, this is how we communicate. This is when we communicate. Then go over kind of your schedule, what to expect. So after this, I almost called you, Jessica. So Cheska is my virtual assistant. She's amazing. And actually, she for my birthday, got me this swifty giant, like water bottle. It's so cute. I love her. I love that. Anyway. So the expectation, Allie, not Chesa, is that after this, I'm going to send you a little bit of homework, which is my new team member questionnaire because I want to get some more fun information on you. And then expect that you, we will talk every single day. And by the way,

just so for my virtual assistants, she lets me know when she, like, logs in. And then at the end of the day, gives me a summary of the task she's completed, the tasks that are still work in progress, and then out of tasks of my dueouts. Because a lot of times, like, she'll get stuck on her tasks because she needs X, Y, and Z or she needs access or she needs whatever. So that's how at a minimum, we're talking those two touch points. but we also talk frequently throughout the day through WhatsApp, whether it be messages or voice messages, if she has questions, get stuck, or I give tasks or whatever. So that's the

expectation. This is open communication. Also, in the beginning, we are going to have lots of training on the calendar. So before you even get into this meeting where that, oh my gosh, you, leader, because you are the leader, have already looked at the task list and looked at your calendar and blocked times to train on applicable tasks if you don't already have it so spelled out and so dummy proof basically with training videos, et cetera, which if this is your first hire, you probably don't. But pro fucking tip, guys, is that when you are training them, you put this on the calendar, record it because you can record it to show it, you know, for them to refer back do, but if they're not the right fit, next hire, you already have it recorded and you, you know,

right there. So definitely fucking record that and add it to your own system as you go. Yes. To clarify, you're at a minimum, the touch point of the do-outs, you know, what she's waiting on you for. How do you communicate with her? Is it on WhatsApp as well? It's on WhatsApp, yeah. Okay. There was another question that I had and I forgot it. So keep going on. That's okay. We're, we're not done yet. So you have time to remember. So you are going into this with, hey, here are your upcoming training dates. This is what we're going to be discussing at these times. You're going to record it as you go for yourself, for her and for him, for the next potential

VA. And then also in the beginning, which I still do this, is a weekly sync. So a reoccurring meeting on the calendar every single week where it's on Zoom, where we get to talk, not just message, but actually talk. And I get to look her in the face and say, how are you doing today? how are you actually doing today? What is frustrating you? What is overwhelming you? Are you all good? And then she has the chance of being like, hey, I try to communicate this to you over WhatsApp, but it didn't come through in order for me to do my job. I need X, Y, and C. But having that on the calendar every week,

even though you don't fucking want to do it, is so important for a healthy VA relationship. And then also, so that's the expectation for weekly. And then I'm also given the expectation of on the 30 day mark, the 60 day mark, and the 90 day mark, we are going to be doing reviews, which are literally just me saying, hey, these are the things that I think you're doing really well. Here are the things for you to improve on. And then we check in with your personal goals and your professional goals. And we're going to do that 30, 60, 90, which I'll get into in just a minute. And then after those 90 days, by that point, we will, you know, see if whether this is a good fit for you, whether it's good fit for me and, you know, really just commit to the

future together. From that point forward, we're going to be doing those quarterly. Question in the front alley. I remembered my question. Taking it back just a little bit, does this apply to, two questions? Does this apply to whether you're hiring a part-time agent or a full-time agent? Do you make a difference? Admin? Mm-hmm. Okay. You said agent. So we could, which I mean, I used these with the agents on the team too. But yes, I would say that this also applies to part and full time because even if they're part-time, you still want them to do an amazing job. You still want their buy-in. You still, you know, all the give a fucks, all the things. And my second question, to an agent that doesn't know whether they should hire a full-time

versus a part-time in the States versus in the Philippines or somewhere else, what would you recommend them? How do they think through that? Yeah, that's a really good question. So I think it, I think it really depends on shit, man, a lot of things. So with one of the reasons why I went full time out the gate with this last hire is because, one, I don't like sharing. This, I really fucking don't like sharing. And I found that before when you hire people part time and they have multiple clients, then you're always like trying to, you're in a, you're in a shoot.

What's it called when you're like waiting for your turn to be fucking serviced? I didn't want that. I wanted like responsive 100% focus for me. I went VA route because all the tasks that I wanted done were back end, like operational, not client facing. And although VAs can be client facing and Cheska does do some, you know, forward facing stuff, but the bulk of the role was back end, which is why I went VA. Also, I was not comfortable hiring a full-time state side person because of the cost as well.

I wanted full time, but I didn't want to pay the cost of stateside. So that was another factor. Yeah, I don't know. Did I answer any of that? What are your thoughts? I asked that question to you, Allie. Yeah, of course, of course it depends. Depends on what the tasks are that you want done.

I think if you're looking for stuff that you would need, you know, perfect English for, you could still do, you know, overseas VA. You just have to make sure that you schedule that Zoom call with them and you actually hear their English. which goes back to episode 111, but other tasks that you know that you're looking for, you could also take it like step by step. Maybe you could look for part time. I think it's harder going from part time to full time than it is looking for a full-time assistant and then kind of dialing back those hours.

Because you're very rarely, I think, going to find a part-time VA that you can then convince them to drop all their other clients and work with you full time. So just look for someone full time starting out. But that, I guess I would go back toward the audit too of every single week, you know, tallying what you're doing or putting it into a bulleted list and how much time that takes you, all of your activities every single day for at least a week and realistically think, you know, can someone else do this at a different time zone, 12 hours later? do I require someone to be working U.S. state hours? And, you know, and then you can kind of just

take the, take, I don't know, from there, you could decipher whether you're looking for part time or full time. I'm in this right now. I'm thinking of hiring a full time overseas, but I'm still Yeah. Yeah. Because my thing is too, but it's not enough. And like listening to you, I thought of another reason why too, it's like this role that I hired for Chesa was originally a very specific like CRM related position. And because I did the thing, you give one thing and then you add more things. But what I really wanted and I knew I wanted it and I was like looking for the right person for this is I wanted not just assistant for my business, but I also wanted a personal assistant, which maybe that sounds crazy, but I did. I want someone to be able to not just do CRM tasks,

but also schedule my flight and my hotel for conferences and update my calendar. Literally, she looked up places for my six-month-old cat to get space. You know, I wanted someone who could do everything, and I wanted it on my time, which she is from the Philippines, but she works stateside hours, which I gave her the preference in the beginning. Hey, like, I know the time zones are different. Her husband is also a virtual assistant, and they both work U.S. hours nine to five. Oh, wow. That's perfect.

Wow, that's amazing. I know. That's great. It's everything. But yeah, okay. So yeah, this is, we're still in that initial meeting. We gave the expectations, hey, this is how often you're going to see me. This is our training calendar. You have already before you gotten this meeting, you've plugged it into the calendar. You can invite them ahead of time. So you're just reviewing it. I also already put in the 30, 60, 90 day counseling,

into, I shouldn't say counseling reviews, whatever, into the calendar as well as the quarterly. So like literally everything's already in the calendar. They're already invited. Good to go. Cool. And by this point, you have. to give them, I would do that first training right there on the spot. So they have something to do. So you give their training and, okay, go chunk, you know, go and execute that. So now we have gotten into, that's just a very overview of the process. At this point, it is still day one for you and you're looking ahead to the next 30 days, which, by the way, people freak out about hiring. You're not marrying this person. You are literally hiring them for a fucking day. If you

you hate them, then that's it. You know what I mean? So like, especially, especially with virtual assistant work, I know that sounds shitty, but like it is, if it's not working, it's not like you have to give a 30 day notice. It's, hey, I'm really sorry, but this unacceptable, we cannot proceed forward from today, from this point forward. So don't freak out about you're not hiring them for two years. You're hiring them for now. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's, I'm glad that you brought that up because everyone's everyone thinks oh I'm going to hire a VA and they immediately think annually. You know, like how much is this going to cost fee per year? But chunk it down because if it doesn't work, you're not committed. Right. You can just totally. And neither are they. They can just move on

to someone else too. They're going to find other work. Yeah, which, but that also freaks me out when you find someone who's really good, which is why these things that I'm talking about today where it's like you're doing the team member questionnaire in the beginning. You're finding out, which I didn't go over. I'll go over that in a second. But you're doing these countabilities. You are putting energy. into them because if they are really good, oh my God. Like, dude, I'd be so screwed if Jessica was like, hey, I'm out, bye bitch, you know? And so that's one of the things where it's like, what am I doing to make sure she's fulfilled professionally, personally, really still likes me as a human wants to work together. And then also getting that feedback from her when you do these 30, 6090s, you'll see,

but it's not just a push. You're not just telling them these things. You're also asking for feedback because you want to adjust to be as good for them too. But okay, so day one, we're now looking for the next 30 days. Guys, this is when you are going to start assessing. You are assessing, are they talent? Are they non-talent? Maybe they interviewed really well, but they don't perform. Maybe they blow your mind, who knows?

But universally talent, talent as opposed to non-talent, are the people who find solutions. They don't come back. They don't put the problem back on your plate. They're the one who fixes it or tries to fix it or where they come to you say, I already looked in these positions. I'm really sorry to ask this, but, you know, whatever. Overall, too, they are continually raising the bar. So talent in my mind will take that system that you documented and try to improve it, optimize efficiency update. And it is your responsibility as a leader, because a leader, right, of empowering them to do that, saying, hey, look, like up to this point,

I've been a hot mess trying to keep my head above water. I'm so glad that you're here because this is what I've developed, this process and system. But now you don't just own these tasks. Like my expectation of you is not to just check the block because you're way smarter than that. You're super, you know, you have so much talent. So if you could within this checklist, if you see something that doesn't make sense, if you see something that could be better, if you have an idea of some technology use or whatever, absolutely, I would love for you to either implement it if you know for sure it's good, or come to me and we can talk about it on our sink. Can you be like, hey, I thought about this.

What do you think about this? Because if I see you do that, that, I mean, it would just make me so happy and blah, blah, blah. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah, definitely, definitely. And they give some more ownership and then therefore they, yeah, they just start caring even more. Totally. Okay, so you're assessing them. And with that assessment, though, we know that it's not going to be perfect.

It's going to be really fucking ugly for the first 30 days. So I wouldn't recommend calling at this, but this is what my agents and admin from the Five Pillars Realty Group days, their traditional team back in the day, they used to call it a tattel sheet because I had, you know, I have my notes on every single one of them. But then when I would see something that wasn't a big enough issue to be spot corrected, which by the way, praise in public, correct in private, not the other way around. If you want to keep morale, if you want people to love you still. But so to go back to the title sheet. It's maybe not something that's big enough to be corrected on the spot, but it is something that bugs you. You know, ooh, that was wrong. I didn't like that. Whatever. Take that and put it, drop it on the tattel sheet.

And what you're not just saying, I didn't like how this person responded, you're literally saying on April 1st at 9.50 p.m. when we're applying to EXP's transaction services, this specifically happened. because you will not remember when it comes to day 29 and you have your 30 day review tomorrow and you're sitting there and you're trying to come up with the three things that you want them to approve on in the next 30 days. And all you can think of is, man, I'm pretty sure I don't like how they replied to emails. Because the next day when you're sitting with them and you're like, Allie, you know, you should get better at replying at emails. They're going to look at you.

Okay. Yeah, I'll try to be better. What the fuck does that mean? What do you mean? What do you want for me? Specific. So having a place, a specific place to dump your notes for feedback. And it's not just bad. It's also good. You know, you saw Allie solve a problem in a way that you were really surprised about or whatever. Fuck yeah. Put that on the title sheet because then you can be like, hey, Ali, I could, I watched you do this. It blew my mind. It was amazing. Thank you. Now, how does Allie, how do you feel? I'm like, hell yeah. I'm going to do it again.

yeah, I'm going to do a bet again, exactly. But the devil is in the details and being specific in both your praise and in your correction is a recipe for success. That's the title sheet. So now, Ali, any questions right now? I'm about to go into the 30 day unless you have questions. No questions. No questions. Okay. So at this point, you're already, you're trained them. You are giving these daily weekly feedback. You have your tattel sheet where you're collecting sustains and improves for their performance. It is day 30 and you are so excited to have your very first 30-day review. If you are looking to change brokerages this year so you can increase your business and you want to join us at EXP Realty and would like either myself, Aligar said, or Shelby Johnson to personally sponsor you in. So that way you have access to two icon agents.

Text the word join to either my number 914-1-8-49-18 or Shelby's number. If I sponsor you and you have access to the both of us and everything that's Five Pillars Nation, we have the checklist, the systems, the process is to help you scale your business, and don't take our word for it. We've had agents switch brokerages to join us that were stuck making $300,000 GCI and they join us so they can scale. So text the word joined to those numbers and we'll take the next steps. Now, it is day 30 and you are so excited to have your very first 30 day review. And at this point, like I, and by the way, guys, I have all of these documents laid out for you. It's in the age of gold mine.

Every fucking one of these things is a checklist, a cheat sheet, a template for you. So for the literally examples for 30, 60, 90, and quarterly. But yeah, so when you come to this 30 day review, which you've already had on the calendar, and you're like, oh my God, 30 days. We did it. This is so exciting. Awesome. Okay.

So the way these things work is I'm going to start out with three things, which it can be three, it can be a little more, but you don't want a whole list. Like, you really want to try to condense it into your main things because if it's too much, just like too many words in an email. What's the little Gen Z thing? Too many words didn't read or whatever. Too long didn't read. TLDR.

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So the same rule applies for this. But you're like, okay, I'm going to talk about some things that you did really well over these first 30 days, some things that we can improve on over the next 30 days. And then we're going to check in about your goals. and the way ahead. So we're all on the same page. Sound good? Sounds great. And at this point,

I'm so sorry, listeners, I'm a little all over the place today. I do want to, because you're like, how do I know about their personal goals? How do I fucking know? Well, this goes back to that homework. After that very first day one where I was like, oh my God, welcome. Here's what you expect. You know, I'm going to give you a little homework or a little new team member questionnaire. So I'm going to go back to that real quick. This is something that I send out right after that first time I never talked to them with the deadline of, hey, give this back to me within 24 hours. On this questionnaire, which I've uploaded into the agent gold, into the gold mine, it is things literally like, I literally ask for three personal goals.

I'm pretty vague. I want to know what their personal goals are. I want to know what their professional goals are. Like, Cheska, I don't know if she did this to butter me up, but it works. She's like, you know, one of my professional goals is to establish like a long-term, great relationship with you. You know, like she came to me and was like, in this was like, I want a long-term relationship with a client. And I was like, yes, that's what I want. So never leave. But yeah. And then I also straight up ask income goals. I want to know. I want to know what their goals are financially. So see how we can

compensate or become creative with X, Y, and Z. It also has like their partner's name occupation, their anniversary, birth date, favorite dessert, you know, years in the industry. And then I really like this one where it says three strengths and three weaknesses. I think that's very insightful. What's the name of this form again that you're on? This is the new team member questionnaire. It's just questionnaire, though. Got it. Okay. So that's what you can search for in the gold in the gold line. Okay, got it. Exactly. In the gold mine is right there. And then I also ask things like hobbies, you know, a favorite book, movie, color, music, what are some your dreams? What's your biggest fear in life? I know these sound ridiculous and they're probably like this bitch is crazy because it's like day one.

But I do. I want to know. And then it's so helpful because on her birthday, you know, one of her hobbies, or I forget what it was, but like things she loves is like what she called pamper time, which I thought was really cute. But it's basically like spa kind of day type of thing. And then her her favorite color was like rose gold. So how easy was it to hop on Amazon and find like one of those like Amazon boxes like a pamper box in the rose gold and you send it to her? And then it's like, oh my God, this person cares about me more, you know, than just this is more. This is a relationship, you know, the whole thing. You know, Alex. That's awesome. Okay. But anyway, that's another thing because you are a leader. You put that shit on the calendar, plan accordingly, make them feel special, you know, all the things. Which is, this is kind of funny because obviously results are the forefront because you are hiring someone for a role to execute to do. But it's, I think that that is like the fucking given. It's this other stuff that people overlook all the time about genuinely caring and showing appreciation.

and all of those things that make that hire go from this is a job to, I fucking love being here. I can see myself. I don't, you know, like I believe in the vision and all of the, I would bend over backwards to do anything for this. Does that make sense? Yeah. Oh, 100%. Okay.

Okay, perfect. So now we're back. We're back on the 30-day review. So sustains, you know, maybe it's work ethic, team player, desire to learn and grow, whatever. These are literally I have the examples will have exactly what I put for sustains and then also improvement. Then goal check is where do we want to be in the next 30 days for both personal, professional. Basically, yeah, you're going to align the goals with the goals that you said in the questionnaire

that you guys have discussed. That makes sense, right? Yes, it does. Okay, cool. And then the way ahead for the next 30 days. And for the way ahead, I normally say things like, okay, you accomplish. this first big priority within your duty here. This next 30 days, our goal is to get you expert level on this and this and to whatever. Does that make sense? Now, at this point,

as you're doing the 30 day review, how much more, if you have hired someone to do, you know, one specific task or maybe two specific tasks, up until this 30 day review, have you stayed, typically have you stayed in that just two tests? or have you added on some stuff where you cover that in the 30 day? It depends on the pace in which the hire is moving. Ideally, like with Cheska,

she slammed through her list. And so we were well ahead of, you know, my projected schedule. And with that, though, I try to continually add things as much as possible if they're being added into a system. So, and that's the thing.

You know, if you have a checklist for them to do, it's not hard to add two more steps in a checklist to continue making your processes better. And it's not that much extra to add onto their plate if they're already an expert at those daily tasks. Am I making sense again? Yeah. So then have you ever come across? And I have a feeling your answer is no, because you butter them up and you love on them so much. But have you ever come across?

You do. You love them. I do love them, yeah. Have you ever come across where at this 30 day or 90 day review, they're just like, they tell you that the amount of stuff that they're working on now differed from the original job description. Oh, Tesca told me that. Okay.

Okay, perfect. How did you handle that? How did she say it? How did you handle that? Which, this was not at the 30 day mark. This was probably like the 90 or maybe the first quarter where she's. Isn't it funny how this was the original job and then this is different? And I was like, yeah, it's so funny.

How did I handle that? Well, I asked. I was like, is it too much? You know, are you feeling overwhelmed or whatever? And she was not. And I think the difference also comes from the fact that she had, and this was circumstantial, but was receiving far more money than what she expected to receive because I hired her through one of those third party virtual assistant offices that was taking a large cut from her pay.

And then not, you know, they tell you, they're like, oh, well, you get a supervisor and they're going to create the SOPs for you and all that stuff. But it wasn't like that. The supervisor barely showed up. Like, Tesco was on her shit. And I was like, dude, what are, I asked her, how much are you getting? What are they doing for you in the back end? And ultimately, yeah, do you have a contract with them? That sounds so bad. Because I was like, dude, I don't need them. I would rather that entire amount go to you. So if you're not pushing you, I don't want to screw up any relationships. in your world, but if you are comfortable leaving them, then I am very happy to give you the full amount that I was paying anyway. And so that's what ended up happening. So I think that because of

that in particular, the increase in responsibilities was like, and it's for real, like, it's nothing that I think it would be different if it was like something that she couldn't handle. But the girl likes to be busy too. Like being, I mean, I think you and I would feel the same way where it's we're bored. That's not fun either. We want a challenge. Yeah. Cool. Okay.

So in your case, it started out as like a almost passive joke. Ha, ha. Isn't it funny for her? And then you turned it serious. Like, is this too much? Yes. Oh, 100%. Because every joke comes from a place of truth, right?

Hmm. So, and that's the thing. I don't want to skim over anything. I want to know if it's too much. I want to know if she hates something. And that's something too. I'm like, hey, is there anything that you really, really don't like doing?

I ask her in the questionnaire, our strengths and weaknesses or likes and dislikes, but still continuing to ask that, because if there's a way that we can maneuver and change, which there normally is to either turn that into a system, automate that, or I've even, this is something too that, like, I mean and I do believe in when you're like painting a vision for someone. It's like, Jessica and I've had this conversation before where it's once the business here is up and booming more. What I would love to do is to get you someone who can take off either the pieces you don't like, or free up your time so that way you can work on X, Y, and Z. And that's another like, oh, that's a

cool vision. That's a growth opportunity to buy into in the future, you know, something I've talked to Cheska about this before too, where it's like, hey, once we're busy and set up here, what I would love to do as you keep increasing your levels of responsibility is I would love to get an assistant for you to offload your 80 percent. So you have someone who you can delegate and, you know, oversee and that sort of thing for that. and allow you to continue focusing. And that's just another way for it's like a vision for the future an opportunity for growth. Oh, like that would be great. You know, it's kind of like layers in, the buy-in and then also the vision. And I don't want to go too far ahead of ourselves,

but would you be the one hiring the assistant for the assistant or would you have Cheska. Okay, together. Yeah. And honestly, what would probably happen is she would find, because she's very well connected in the virtual assistant space, which by the way, listeners, she has been in the industry for a long time and has a lot of connections. So if you're looking for a cold caller or a social media person or whatever, you can let me know and I'll see if she knows anyone because she's got a little bit going on there. But okay, what was I going to say? Oh, what I would probably do because of all of her connections is I would be like, hey, look, this is what I'm thinking. What do you think? We would flesh out what the duty would look like.

And then I would say, okay, based on your connections, if you want, go find one or two people who you think might be a good fit. And then you can pre-screen and interview and all the things. And then I can come on and we'll do it together and make a decision together. Nice. Okay, cool. Yeah. Okay. So that's 3690s. We went through. Okay. And then the last part on this, the 30 day review is I always at the end talk about, okay, now we just talked about you. Things you're doing well. Thanks for you to improve. Now it's my turn. I want to continue to improve. I want to be this to be like an amazing place for you to work and experience and all of that stuff. So I would love, you know, within the next 24 hours, if you know off the top of your head, perfect, we can talk about it right now, things that you like and things

that you don't like. But if you need some time to think about it, that's okay too. Within the next 24 hours, your homework is for at least three things that you like and three things that you would like to be improved in the future. That's smart. Get the feedback. That's smart. Okay. And if you guys are like, man, I don't know what to put on 30 day.

This has happened to the past, which is why this exists. But on the like sustains and improves how to condense it into like short little nuggets, there is a word bank for the reviews that it created a long time ago, which is also in the gold mine. So you can literally, based on each category, you can find copy and paste and use in your own 30, 60, 90. I think that's basically it. This episode alone has one, two, three, four, five word docs? A lot. Yeah, I think it's five.

Okay. So viewers, as you go into the gold mine, look for all five. There are five. There are five, yeah. Okay, the last thing that I was going to talk about today, because after you do the 30 day, you're going to do the same process with the 60, the 90, and it is the same process for quarterly. Oh, I did. There's at least six because I also threw in an annual review template.

I'm not going to go over today because we're already a lot of minutes, but that one is more in depth to review the year prior, think about the year ahead, all the things. But some quick tips for communicating, because all of this comes back to communication. So much of it is. Having communication where you're not offending someone, where they're going to hear potentially something negative and leave with a smile on their face, right? Okay, which I got all of these from How to Win's Friends and Influence people, but they're some of my favorite. So when you are going into any conversation, begin with praise and honest appreciation. Before you're jumping in, hey, Ali, I fucking hate how you said that email.

Hey, Ali, I love that you're all over the emails. It's been such a weight off my shoulder, just knowing that you're in there and able to take on to that. But when it comes to the specific thing, I notice this. Is it possible for X, Y, and Z? Do you see how it's kind of a different conversation when you start with the praise and appreciation? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. makes me feel good. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, you're right. I probably could do. I could have done that this way. Totally. The next one is to talk about my own mistakes first. This is a really big one too. If someone is really fucking something up on a checklist, I like to be like, hey, just want to know, like I reread this and I definitely could have worded this more clearly. But in the future, is it possible that we do X, Y, and Z on this? So that way, it's like, I'm assuming responsibility. I'm their guards coming down because I just said that I should have done something better. It makes a huge difference.

So also asking questions instead of getting orders instead of even in that example where I'm like, is it possible to do this next time as opposed to do it this way next time? Different. Slightest, praise the slightest improvement. Ellie, you're fucking emailing still. No, just kidding. You're doing great. Maybe not.

Yeah. Give people a fine reputation to live up to. This one is really good too where it's like, hey, I know, you know, I know that this might seem like I'm being really hard on you. But the only reason why I am digging into this so much is because I know how much potential you have and I know how talented you are. If you were someone who wasn't, you know, who didn't have all the agenda, I would just, you know, let it go.

But because it's you and I know you can, that is why, do you see the difference? Oh yeah, yeah, big time. And studies have shown this too. Like the more that you, you can, you can almost. almost and not 100%, but you can start changing people's behavior toward a behavior that you're looking for by telling them that they are that attribute or that trait. Shelby, you're so organized. I really, really, really love how responsive you are. Like, you get back to all the emails within the same, you know, within the same hour. Even if they slightly weren't, you know,

they'd be like, oh, wait, she thinks I'm timely. Maybe I am timely. And then they focus more on being timely. Yeah, there's a lot of psychology. I do love the shit. And I have more on. here, but I'm not going to go through a model. I think that's it. Any questions on the Agent Goldmine? Baby, if you have any questions, reach out to Shelby. Her VA has got connections. Reach out to us. Be a bro and share this show.

Someone who needs help. And Allie wrote something, which is why I'm pausing to let her. One eternity later. I was just kidding. give little pauses in case Allie wants to jump in it all, but she didn't pick thumbs up. She gave you thumbs up. She's like, keep going. I have nothing.

Yeah. Everything he said. Yeah.