September 2, 2024 • 61 mins
Ever wondered how to supercharge your real estate business without breaking the bank? Join us as we uncover the secrets of leveraging virtual assistants with Sebastian Wright, the mastermind behind VA Depot. Learn how VAs can handle everything from cold calling and marketing to customer service and administrative tasks, allowing you to focus on closing deals. Sebastian shares his journey from being a real estate agent to running a successful VA company, and emphasizes the importance of proper training and management to maximize your VAs’ efficiency.
Discover the nuances of hiring the right virtual assistants for prospecting. We highlight the critical need for strong conversational skills during the interview process to ensure effective lead generation. Sebastian also explains VA Depot’s tailored approach to matching clients with suitable VAs, and how they provide ongoing support if the initial hire isn't the perfect fit. Cost-effectiveness is a major theme, and we discuss why investing in VAs can be a game-changer compared to traditional staffing.
Addressing common challenges, such as language barriers and infrastructure issues, is crucial when working with overseas VAs. Sebastian offers practical solutions, including the importance of regular training and monitoring, to ensure smooth operations. We also touch on security concerns and the role of an operations manager to oversee VAs, allowing you to concentrate on growing your business. Explore how VA Depot’s flexible and client-focused approach can help you overcome these obstacles and succeed in the ever-evolving real estate industry.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joseph Marohn (00:12):
What up everyone and welcome back to the Real
Estate Unlocked and today we'regoing to be covering a long
overdue topic in real estate alow cost option for your
outbound lead generation, asmart way to save time and still
scale your real estate business.
Today we're going to becovering the importance of
virtual assistants.
(00:33):
Virtual assistants are remoteprofessionals who can assist
your real estate business byperforming various
administrative tasks.
These tasks include coldcalling, marketing, sales and
customer service.
Unlike traditional in-officeassistants, vas work from a
remote location, typicallyoverseas, and communicate with
(00:56):
their clients via internet,phone or email.
Now, if that sounds likesomething you've been looking
for to help scale your realestate business, this episode
will cover all the benefits avirtual assistant can do for you
, what questions you should beasking and the various ways you
can hire one today.
Now you know how we do it onthe Real Estate Unlocked podcast
(01:18):
.
If we're going to do it, we gotto do it right.
We can't just bring on anyoneto speak about virtual
assistants.
We got to bring on the CEO ofvirtual assistants.
Today, our special guest on thepodcast is Mr Sebastian Wright.
Sebastian's real estate journeybegan just six years ago,
(01:39):
starting out as a real estateagent.
A year in, he stumbled acrossthe concept of wholesaling,
instantly becoming the base ofhis entire real estate business.
He then decided to challengehimself even further by diving
into fix and flips, profitinghim well over six figures, all
of which was generated with thehelp of virtual assistants.
(02:00):
He now owns several Airbnbproperties and the CEO of his
own VA company, va Depot.
So, without further ado, I'vebeen talking long enough
Everyone.
If you will, please allow me toformally introduce to you
Sebastian Wright.
Sebastian, how's your day going, brother?
(02:23):
Oh man, Thanks again for thegreat intro.
It's going well and excited tobe here.
Awesome.
Well, sebastian, welcome to thepodcast.
Thank you for taking time outof your busy schedule to allow
us to shed some light on theimportance of virtual assistants
.
As you know, they are a crucialcomponent in this industry and,
(02:43):
if used correctly, they canreally scale and take your
business to the next level.
So, thank you, appreciate it.
Yeah, no problem, cool man.
So why don't we start thingsoff by you telling us a little
bit about your real estatejourney and what made you want
to start up your own virtualassistant company in the first
place?
Sebastian Wright (03:03):
Yeah, Well, I started out as an agent and I
was a terrible agent, I wasn'tgood at it.
And then I stumbled acrosswholesaling and where I was fit
into wholesaling was coldcalling myself.
And again to you know, I'm sureanybody who's cold calling,
(03:28):
they have their nerves, they'reworried about it, they think
people can bite them over thephone.
I mean, it's a lot, it'sstressful, Absolutely.
And that's kind of where I justcut my teeth in investing in
general, was you know, trying tobe comfortable over the phone
in general, was you know tryingto be comfortable over the phone
(03:48):
?
And as I kind of moved upthrough cold caller and just
started progressing in my career, you know, I was just thinking
there must be a better way outthere than me constantly calling
people and that's kind of howthings kind of progressed into
starting a virtual assistantcompany.
Joseph Marohn (04:07):
Yeah, I can definitely attest to that.
You know, my first time jumpingon the calls with sellers.
Man, it's nerve wracking, right.
Like you mentioned, you knowjumping on cold calling, it's
like you don't know what you'regoing to get when you get on
that line with that seller,right?
Sebastian Wright (04:22):
So it's definitely nerve wracking, yeah,
and again too, it's just.
You know, most of the time wehave scripts and again too, it's
just kind of gettingcomfortable with that script.
But yes, it is, it's still tothis day.
I still cold call myself, whichis kind of hard to believe,
excuse me, but I still get thosenerves and I still get
(04:44):
frustrated and all the feelingsthat everyone has.
So, yes, I agree, AbsolutelyRight right.
Joseph Marohn (04:52):
So for those unfamiliar, could you explain
what a virtual assistant is andhow they can help benefit our
business?
Sebastian Wright (05:00):
So a virtual assistant is a professional that
can help you with a number oftasks.
At VA Depot, we specialize incold calling and outbound
outreach, but a virtualassistant can help you with a
number of things.
Um, they could help you withadmin stuff for your business.
(05:24):
They can help you with videoediting.
Uh, they can help you withdesign.
So so, again too, it's avirtual assistant, is is is
someone that that helps cases.
They're, they're somewhatthey're they're not based in the
U S.
Uh, they're based in differentcountries.
And again too, they're just,they're just professionals, most
(05:52):
of them.
Joseph Marohn (05:54):
Right, and I think you would agree that some
people are under the impressionthat VAs only do cold calling.
But, as you just laid outperfectly, you know they have a
range of services that theycover.
Sebastian Wright (06:05):
Correct Again too.
If you know you're, you know aVA is pretty much limited to
what your imagination can canbring to them.
So so again there's there's,you know, va Depot.
We specialize in cold calling.
But again there's, there's a.
There's a number of of tasksthat VA is specialized in.
(06:26):
You just have to kind of lookout for them.
Joseph Marohn (06:29):
So once I hired this VA Sebastian, it just said
it and forget it right I'm offto the races of making millions.
Sebastian Wright (06:37):
That would be a perfect scenario, but
unfortunately no, it's not.
The one thing that I have toconstantly remind people is like
, okay, you found a VA and thennow you don't have to do that
particular task.
Let's just say cold calling,right, but what quickly replaces
(06:59):
you actually cold calling istraining the VA.
You actually cold calling istraining the VA.
Now there are scenarios wherewhere people like, okay, hey,
this is the script, this is thedialer, get on it, start making
calls.
There are some people in someVAs that are successful that way
(07:20):
, but the mass majority of ourclients and and just in general,
I would I would highly highlyrecommend that.
Training is absolutely key.
Um, in in any retrospect um,just a quick example Um, I used
to work at the Ritz Carlton, atthe, at the hotel chain, and
before we could even say helloto a guest, you know they would
(07:42):
train us on how to say hello andhow to end the conversation,
and that is just based ontraining.
They want you to greet theirguests a certain way and for
your business it kind of has tobe the same way.
The VA is an employee, it's anextension of you and you need to
train that VA.
Yeah, I think this is a commonmistake for some people.
Joseph Marohn (08:02):
You know you need to train that VA.
Yeah, I think this is a commonmistake for some people.
You know you need to fullyunderstand your business, so
that way you know how to trainand give proper feedback.
Right, it's a virtual assistant.
They are an assistant.
They aren't going to createyour business for you.
You're the operator, theyassist 100%, 100%, absolutely.
(08:23):
So, for our listeners who areconvinced about the benefits of
hiring a VA, what are the firststeps that they should take to
find an onboard, a virtualassistant?
Sebastian Wright (08:34):
Well, there's a number of ways that that can
happen.
Um, for, for example, obviouslyI'm biased, I have a company,
so you know, please, please,visit my website and and and and
look at, look at what we canoffer.
But, um, it's really funny howa lot of people just come in
contact with VAs.
(08:55):
Um, I and and I think you and Ijust have a very similar story
about how we even got introducedto a VA.
A lot of the time, vas arego-getters, they understand
sales and they're reaching outto potential property investors,
(09:16):
wholesalers, and reaching outto them and say, hey, do you
need this services?
And they send you some audioclips, a resume, and at first
you're kind of like, what isthis?
But then you quickly realizelike, oh wow, this is well put
together, they're professional,they have this great
(09:38):
presentation and then all of asudden, you're off to the races
with them.
Joseph Marohn (09:44):
And all of a sudden you kind of you're,
you're off to the races withthem.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I, like you said, wehave a very similar story.
You know, I've always heardabout you know VA companies or
whatnot, but the very first VAthat I came in contact with, she
actually reached out to medirectly through Facebook
Messenger and I didn't know howto take it at first because I'm
like I don't know, man, this,this might be a scam.
I don't know if she's scammingme.
(10:05):
But you know, I was like, hey,can you send me some sample
calls, or you know?
And she said, send me somecalls over.
And I listened to him and I waslike, dude, she's great.
You know, she's really good atwhat she does.
I don't really got to train herand I was like you know, I'm
just going to take my chancesand I rolled the dice and it
worked out for the most partvery well.
But you know, I think theproper way is something like you
(10:28):
know, what you guys have gotgoing on over there at VA Depot
is really working with thecompany.
That way, you know,everything's set up properly,
making sure that everybody'sprotected on both sides Right,
and you're getting quality VAsRight, so I agree.
So I agree with you on thatAbsolutely.
Sebastian Wright (10:51):
So, Sebastian, how can VAs be trained to
properly qualify leads?
So all I can say is what I'mexperiencing right now.
So right now a section of mycompany we're really focusing on
the retail side of business, Um, so agent leads.
You know, Fizbo's expireds, um,we have invested in coaching,
(11:12):
um on on ourselves.
And then, basically, you know,we we have a very, very
intensive coaching program withour VAs, training program with
our VAs.
That's still continuing toright now.
So how I do things is that I goahead, I send out the script to
(11:36):
the VAs and I tell them.
I was like, look, I want you toreview the script.
You know, take your time withit and that will be about you.
You know 24 hours that I'llgive them with the script the
following day.
You know we have we havemeetings at the beginning of the
day with with the agent thatI'm working with and the, the,
(11:57):
their, their va, and we areconstantly role playing, we're
constantly training, we'reconstantly doing things to
improve the VA because, at theend of the day, the more
knowledge the VA has, the betterthat they will just perform for
you day in and day out.
Joseph Marohn (12:17):
I agree with that , man.
Role playing is absolutelycrucial.
You know we do that on our team.
You know we bring the VA on andwe're constantly, you know,
practicing my partner and Iwe're always doing role plays,
putting them in some scenarioswhere they can really get used
to, like you know, throwing somecurveballs at them Right, and
really training them.
And another thing we also do iswe have a flow chart.
(12:39):
So this flow chart will kind ofbreak down like what's
considered a cold lead, what'sconsidered a warm lead and hot.
That way they know how toproperly qualify them.
That's what we do.
So you guys do somethingsimilar as well, I'm assuming.
Sebastian Wright (12:52):
Yeah, so, so again to again, different
trainings.
And you know, like I say thiswith all respect like gurus,
that you, you to have differentthings, that you know, have
different methods of whatqualifies as a warm, a hot or
what have you a nurture lead?
So it's important you know,whatever training that you're
(13:16):
getting, or if this is just yourown system, that the VA knows
what a hot lead is, what a warmlead is, what a nurture lead is.
And then again to um roleplaying to the point where,
where you're really stumpingthem, you know, you're, I, I
(13:36):
always, I always tell this uh,this, this, this sort of this
joke.
I was like, look, the trainingis going to be so intense, the,
the, the, the, the.
The training is going to be sointense that you're just going
to pray to get on the dialer,because it's going to be that
that much easier.
Joseph Marohn (13:53):
And that's great, man, you know, because you're
really putting them through theringer.
So when they actually get on anactual cold lead, you know
they're like this is a loteasier, easier than what
Sebastian's putting me through.
Sebastian Wright (14:10):
And and this is a lot easier than what
Sebastian's putting me throughyeah and again too, I tell a lot
of clients and just people ingeneral that just because the
cold calling is technically offyour plate, it doesn't
necessarily mean your workdayhas gotten lighter.
Now you have a responsibilityto that VA to train them to your
best of your ability, becauseit will just pay dividends in
the end that your VA is thatbetter trained and they're ready
(14:34):
to go after it.
Joseph Marohn (14:35):
Absolutely so.
If someone is consideringhiring their first VA, what are
the initial steps that theyshould take to ensure that
they're not only finding a greatVA, but also knowing that that
person is reliable?
Sebastian Wright (14:50):
Well, it's funny because it's just little
cues.
I mean, for example, if youever went on a job interview,
that's sort of the best kind ofyou know method to kind of look
at.
I was like, is this VA on time?
You know, punctuality is veryimportant to me.
(15:11):
Just because you know we'revery busy, we have to be on a
schedule and if someone saysthat they're not on time, that's
almost a red flag for me.
That's almost a red flag for me.
Again, if this person vibeswell with your business, you
(15:31):
might get a feeling that, hey,this particular VA doesn't
necessarily mesh well with mycore message or ethos.
You have to be hiring someonethat you might get along with or
you can lead.
I feel that's very important.
So I would just say, think backof you know job interviews that
(15:55):
you went on or jobs that youdid secure, and why did you
secure those jobs?
What made you stand out fromeverybody else?
Um, with the VA there's othernuances that might be important
to you.
For example, do they have realestate prospecting experience?
(16:16):
A lot of them do.
A lot of them, just straight up, do, do they understand certain
systems that you have purchased?
You know Podio, follow up bossVulcan seven.
A lot of these VAs do haveexperience working with those
systems, so those are always aplus Um.
(16:37):
But there's there's a prefaceof things that that you can kind
of check through and and makesure that the you know the VA is
a fit for you Basically.
Joseph Marohn (16:47):
I'm so glad you brought up the fact about the
interviewing process, becausethat's crucial, right?
So what type of questions doyou suggest we should be asking,
as investors, whileinterviewing these VAs?
Sebastian Wright (17:00):
Well it's.
It's funny because I've I'vewitnessed a lot of interviews
with you know prospectiveclients and VAs, and I don't
necessarily think the questionsare important, even though I
think you know whateverpleasantries or whatever
(17:22):
questions you may have,absolutely ask them.
But what I would keep a reallykeen ear for is you having a
conversation with thisparticular person, because,
again, to that will translate onon the phone.
You want someone that you canhave a conversation with, and if
someone sounds a little bitrobotic, a little bit nervous,
(17:52):
and if someone sounds a littlebit robotic, a little bit
nervous and they just don'tsound right, that probably will
equate to what they might soundlike when they're prospecting.
So for me, when I want to hirea new VA, I just want to have a
conversation with them.
I was like, hey, how do youtake your coffee?
You know how do you take yourcoffee.
I will literally have aconversation with them and I
will, I will literally analyzehow they say things, more so
than specific questions aboutthe task that they have done or
(18:14):
can do.
Joseph Marohn (18:15):
You know that's interesting.
You say that right, becausethey could be very well scripted
and they know exactly what kindof questions they're typically
asked, so they know how torespond in a robotic, very nice
way or however you want to putit.
But, like I said, can theyactually have a conversation,
you know?
yeah, you know me, my partnerAsh.
You know we will not hire a VAwithout conducting an interview
(18:38):
first.
You know you can listen to allthe prerecrecorded sample calls
you like, but in my opinionnothing beats a face-to-face
conversation and askingquestions to put that VA in a
real-life scenario.
Right, exactly so, like youjust mentioned, are they having
a conversation with the selleror are they interrogating?
And it's only a one-sided withquestions, right?
(18:58):
So good point and good point,you brought that up.
Now, that's what I really lovedabout you guys actually at VA
Depot.
You know your company willreach out first and ask what our
criteria is.
Then you'll pair three to fourVAs or just a company you know
of VAs that you can interview.
Sebastian Wright (19:46):
I just I just feel more comfortable that way,
just because you're hearing whatthey sound like, you're asking
the questions that you want toask and you are making the
decision.
Hey, I think Erica sounds thebest and I think she might fit
um in my business.
Now what we do a little bitdifferently is, for example,
(20:09):
let's say, you've been using aVA for a particular amount of
time and, for whatever reason,she interviewed really well and
it's just not working out.
We will set up an entire roundof interviews for you completely
free of charge.
Joseph Marohn (20:24):
Wow, that's interesting.
You know, and I that's what I'msaying I experienced that
firsthand with you guys.
You know, when you guys broughtin the VAs, you brought them in
one by one.
It wasn't like all at once,like I'm doing a group interview
, and it was like veryprofessional, you know, whereas
I've had other companies reachout to me and it's literally
like someone sitting on a bed orsomething and a ripped t-shirt.
(20:50):
It just had a bad feeling andI'm like this is not really
professional.
You guys were very professionalthe way you guys did it and
that's why I like working withyou guys.
So great job on that part.
Sebastian, can hiring a virtualassistant be cost effective for
new investors?
What would you say the costdifference is of hiring a VA
(21:11):
compared to, like an in-personstaff?
Sebastian Wright (21:17):
I really have to watch out because the new
part is tricky, because I know alot of people are new and they
hear VA and they're so ready toget on the VA train.
But it's really important tokind of self-assess first before
(21:42):
you put on a VA, to actuallymake sure you're ready.
Because, again too, what I tellmy team and I don't say this to
be mean, I don't say thisbecause I'm a greedy business
guy I was like it's veryimportant that we qualify our
clients because we don't want toput them in a situation where
they're not ready to handle a VA.
So my first and foremost thingis like make sure you are ready.
(22:03):
And then people are going tosay well, what's a qualified?
You know, how am I qualified?
You've probably, you've, you'veprobably been making calls for
the past six months and you'relooking to kind of expand your
business, constantly invest inthose systems.
Because I've ran into a lot ofpeople where they're like oh, I
(22:26):
have money for 500 leads andwe're going to make so much
money off 500 leads.
I was like, unfortunately it'sjust not that way.
You probably need 5,000 leadsand then constantly purchase
that Once you are there, onceyou have graduated to that
echelon of.
I am consistently investing inmy business and now I want to
(22:49):
expand.
I want to hire a virtualassistant.
Then it becomes reallyinteresting because the VA that
you will hire literally will beon the dialer however long you
want them on.
I have VAs that are on dialersfor eight hours a day.
They have an hour break,they're constantly pushing
(23:12):
through and it's very costeffective.
You're talking about pricesanywhere from $7 to $8 an hour
where, if you were to hire takemy situation the person that
hired me in their wholesalinggroup had to give me 20% of
every deal that I closed.
So, when you think about it, doyou really want to give up 20%
(23:37):
of your hard-earned assignmentfees to a cold caller?
You know, and that's reallyupon the business owner, but if
it were me, I would look tooutsource that and pay someone
an hourly rate instead of equityin an assignment fee.
Joseph Marohn (23:56):
I really appreciate the honest answer and
it's really the truth what youjust said.
Right now, you know it's notgoing to be a cost effective for
everybody.
Not everybody's going to havethe means to do so, but for me
personally, in my experience, Ihave a great W-2 job where I'm
making a good income.
So my thing is I don't havetime.
(24:17):
And the thing is, with thisreal estate business, as you
know, you're either going toforfeit time or you're going to
forfeit money, and for me, Idon't have the time, so I have
to forfeit the money, and that'swhy hiring a VA is beneficial
for me, because then they'reable to call eight hours a day,
like you mentioned.
While I'm at work they'recalling, they're cold calling,
and then when I get home I'mable to jump on the leads.
(24:39):
That already what they filteredout through our system.
So great, great point on thatand I really appreciate the
honest answer there.
But since we're talking aboutpay, how do we pay these VAs?
Is it weekly, is it monthly?
Do we pay through like a thirdparty app like Wise or PayPal?
Sebastian Wright (25:00):
So again, here I can really I can speak from
past experiences.
But here at VA Depot, againhere I can speak from past
experiences.
But here at VA Depot, we are aUS-based business, we're LLC-ed
here in the United States and wehave US-based payment
processing through Square.
Now, again too, there's twosides of my business and again
(25:21):
too, there's the client sidethat you know I have to make.
I have to make sure that, youknow, my clients are happy, but
also I have to protect myvirtual assistants as well.
So I constantly make sure I waslike hey, what, what do you
guys want?
What do you need?
You know what will make, youknow what will make a good
(25:44):
working environment.
And usually that workingenvironment, you know, we
collect payment usually at thebeginning of the week and then
we pay them weekly, now and now.
But we are incredibly flexible.
So, again too, if you're in asituation it's like, hey, look,
you know Sebastian.
Or if you're dealing and againtoo, va Depot is 100% ran by VAs
(26:10):
as well, she's the number twoon my team you have a quick
conversation with MJ, like, look, mj, we run payroll every two
weeks.
Can we pay every two weeks?
That's not a problem, we grantthat all the time.
Or hey, I'd rather pay at theend of the week than the
(26:31):
beginning of the week.
We do that all the time.
So here at VA Depot we want tobe as flexible as possible for
the clients, but also, too, wereally try to protect our, our,
our VAs as well.
Joseph Marohn (26:43):
Right, and you know the reason I bring that up
is because when I first hired myVA directly, you know she was
like oh, I usually get paidthrough wise and I didn't know
what wise was.
You know, I had to downloadthis app.
It was a whole process and yougot to pay fees.
And when I noticed with youguys, it was a whole process and
you got to pay fees.
And when I noticed with youguys, it was like directly
through square and it was just away simplified process compared
(27:05):
to going through wise.
You know, wise would takeseveral days to get to her.
So, and and also like like youmentioned about being flexible,
that's what's great about youguys, because I know you guys do
kind of request to be paid on amonday.
For us personally, to makethings simplified, we do all our
payrolls every week on the endof the week, at Friday, and I
reached out to MJ and MJ wascompletely fine with that and
(27:27):
you know I that's really greatthat you guys do that.
You guys are flexible with yourclients, so yeah, absolutely
Absolutely.
Sebastian Wright (27:34):
And and again to um too, the payment via
Square was very important to mebecause that was probably the
main issue.
Why I even started VA Depot wasbecause I was working with
another VA company and they said, oh, you need to start paying
(27:56):
wise.
And it just was a bad feelingand I ended the relationship
with that particular companyjust because I felt like I was
getting won over and I justwanted to pay them.
So that was very important forus to make sure that payment to
the client was very, very simpleand easy, and I'm pretty proud
(28:20):
of'm.
I'm pretty proud of that, bythe way, so thank you for
noticing.
Joseph Marohn (28:24):
I noticed it, man .
That was great, you know, soall right, so what are the some
of the basic tools and softwareknowledge that VA should be
proficient in to be successfulin the real estate industry?
Sebastian Wright (28:36):
So you won't.
I mean, again too, I haven'tcome across a VA that that
doesn't know their way aroundtechnology, because again too,
that's how they communicate withyou, um.
But a simple question like hey,you know what type of CRM um
are you used to?
(28:56):
For, for example, I use followup boss.
So I always kind of ask thatquestion hey, are you familiar
with follow-up boss?
Most of the time they are.
It's really amazing.
You just kind of throw outtools that you have, online
tools that you have, and most ofthe time they're fairly
proficient on it.
(29:17):
Obviously you know email andjust kind of ways around certain
document files and all thatstuff.
But for my experience, most ofthe VAs that have reached out to
me and the VAs that I've hiredare very proficient in the
latest real estate technology oroutreach technology.
Joseph Marohn (29:40):
Yeah, I think that's important because you
know, if they're not proficientin it, that means you have to
take more time out of your dayto really train them on on what
softwares you're using.
So I think it's a great pointto bring up that.
And another thing that wepersonally look for is you know
basic typing skills, becausethey're going to be taking a lot
of notes and maybe sendingemails, so we really got to make
(30:02):
sure that you know they knowhow to type and they're spelling
words correctly and stuff likethat.
So great point on that.
So you know you're doing agreat job at laying out all the
benefits a VA can bring to ourcompany.
But, as with everything in life, there's always challenges and
hurdles right and unfortunately.
But as with everything in life,there's always challenges and
hurdles, right and unfortunately, vas are no exception to this
rule.
(30:22):
I believe one of the biggestconcerns for most investors
looking to add a VA to theirteam is the language barrier.
Right as we jump on calls withthese sellers, a heavy accent or
mispronounced words can easilykill a deal, even for me
personally.
You know, when I get, when Iget cold called and I hear that
accent, my spider senses kick inand I start thinking it's a
deal, even for me personally.
You know, when I get, when Iget cold called and I hear that
accent, my spider senses kick inand I start thinking it's a
(30:43):
scam, right.
So what does the trainingprocess look like for a virtual
assistant at VA Depot?
Are you guys keeping this inmind and, if so, are there ways
to improve the language barrierby implementing speech training?
Sebastian Wright (31:03):
barrier by implementing speech training.
So that is a very touchysubject for me because and again
too, just out of my ownexperience I feel like I operate
in probably some of the hardest, most skeptical markets here in
the United States.
So I invest in EasternTennessee and Southwest Florida.
(31:26):
I have VAs with very heavyaccents and they constantly
produce.
For me.
Now it is a gut check, becauseyou're constantly thinking like,
hey, I'm spending money on this, on this service, are they
(31:46):
going to perform or am I goingto waste money?
Um, but time and time again, um, vas with with heavier than
than usual accents I've had.
I've had pretty much greatsuccess with them because, again
too, we live in such a diversecountry, right when, where you
(32:07):
know, hearing an accent um is isnot very uncommon anymore.
Um, and again too, what'sinteresting particular?
And two, what's interestingparticular?
You know we source all of ourVAs out of the Philippines, and
I feel that in the Philippinesthey have a good grasp on the
(32:30):
language.
Not only, you know, do theyhave their own language, but
they in school, english is very,very heavily taught, just
because you know, they'relooking to work for American
companies.
A lot of major Americancompanies have call offices in
the Philippines and you know theFilipinos Filipinas are the
(32:55):
ones working those call centers,are the ones working those call
centers.
Now, where it might bedifficult is, you know, you have
sort of the I don't know.
I've just never really had muchof an issue, but I do
(33:16):
understand sort of thehesitation, but I would closely
monitor it.
If you still have a problem andif you feel like the VA is not
performing, then I would kind oflook for a VA that has a softer
accent, which they're out there, because a lot of these VAs are
educated in English.
Joseph Marohn (33:34):
Yeah, and I think it can easily be overcome with
knowledge, right.
Think it can easily be overcomewith, you know, knowledge,
right.
So just because you have anaccent and they're, and they're
talking to the seller, as longas they kind of have experience
and they know what they'retalking about, then that can
easily be overlooked and it,like you just mentioned, it's
actually becoming more commonnow, right.
So a lot of times when I'mcalling like to order some wings
(33:54):
now, I can't even get a liveperson on the phone, no more,
it's actually going redirectedto a call center.
So I think, as things progressand technology keeps growing,
we're going to see a lot moreVAs implemented in this space,
right.
So I think people are going toget more familiar with it.
But I have noticed personallysometimes when my VAs are
(34:17):
jumping on calls, you knowsellers sometimes don't even
give them a chance, they justshut them down and they hang up
right away.
So I was just wondering if youguys were doing anything
different over there, if youguys are working with speech and
training and stuff like that,just to kind of.
You know, I know it's they'rethey're boring with that and
there's not really much you cando about that.
But you know, maybe there'sways we can kind of smooth it
(34:39):
out a little bit, if you will.
Sebastian Wright (34:41):
I mean it's tough on our end.
Now I think we do a great jobof sourcing professional VAs
that do have prior experience.
So if they do have an accent,they are professional.
They've been in the rodeobefore, so it's kind of an easy
transition.
But I think it has a lot to dowith the training that they're
(35:05):
receiving.
So, for example, we have ascript on the retail side where
we had making sure that, hey,we're reading the script, you
know, a couple times everymorning just to make sure, hey,
(35:26):
you can pronounce that wordcorrectly.
So again too, we're doing ourbest to get you guys quality VAs
.
But also, at the same time, itkind of falls on the client's
responsibility to make sure thatthey are going through the
script or whatever documentsthat you're going through, and
making sure that they aredelivering whatever they need to
(35:48):
deliver correctly and clearly.
Joseph Marohn (35:51):
Right, good points, good points.
So give us some commonchallenges faced with working
with virtual assistants and howthey can be addressed challenges
faced with working with virtualassistants and how they can be
addressed.
Sebastian Wright (36:07):
Well, I can tell you one that doesn't really
necessarily can be addressedbut, like sometimes, they'll
have issues with power.
You know, their power will goout for some strange reason or
they'll have a storm that we'rejust not necessarily aware about
.
Joseph Marohn (36:16):
They get a lot of storms over there in the
Philippines.
Sebastian Wright (36:19):
Yeah, so, and again too, you know, in the
Philippines the infrastructureis not as as good as in the
States.
So they they are.
Those are common issues thatyou might run into.
But again to usually, you know,usually you know the VA will be
very understanding and then tryto make up those hours or or or
kind of push through or getback whenever they need to.
(36:41):
But I mean, there's really notmuch to kind of worry about of
my mind is, hey, am I trainingthis particular VA to my best of
the ability?
Now, again too, not everyone'sperfect.
(37:09):
Sometimes they'll stumblethrough scripts, sometimes they
might lose you a deal.
There's a bunch of scenarios,but not anything different than
either your cousin calling foryou or your buddy or someone
that you're bringing on to yourbusiness.
The same things, the samescenarios, the same hiccups will
happen with the VA, basically.
Joseph Marohn (37:30):
Right.
As you know, our VAs haveaccess to a ton of valuable and
crucial information, such asaddresses, emails and phone
numbers, while in our systemWe've even heard stories of VA
stealing and selling off data tomake a quick book.
Are there any security measuresat VA Depot in place to protect
client-sensitive information?
Sebastian Wright (37:52):
So when we hire a VA, you know we really we
really try to look for forpeople that are wanting a long,
lasting, um working relationshipwith their client.
We never want to be in asituation where they're looking
for a quick buck.
So we're we're constantly, youknow, looking at their character
(38:16):
and for the most part, I'm part.
I've never experienced that.
But that doesn't mean it hasn'thappened.
For the most part, you know,the VA is very committed and
loyal.
The last thing they want to dois to screw up a relationship
where you fire them and then wenever use their.
(38:39):
You know we never hire them asa VA for our clients and again,
too, their reputation is outthere.
There are forum boards, there'sFacebook groups and there's
people constantly gettingblasted that, hey, this VA is
not trustworthy, this VA, you'vegot to watch out for this
person.
So we do as much as possible tomake sure that you have a
(39:03):
trustworthy virtual assistant.
But it also kind of goes backonto the client.
The client needs to make surethat they're not giving the VA's
admin access to their sensitivestuff.
Doing an audit I do an auditevery week of all the incoming
leads.
I physically listen to thecalls and listen to them.
(39:28):
Because again too, if the VApushes five hot leads but
they've technically had 10 hotlead conversations or 10 hot
lead conversations, that becomesa problem.
So again too, at VA Depot we doour best to hire quality and
(39:48):
trustworthy VAs, but also, atthe same time, the client has to
ensure their safety as well,making sure they don't give
admin access doing those leadaudits just for best practices
as well.
Making sure they don't giveadmin access doing those lead
audits just for best practicesas well.
Joseph Marohn (40:04):
Yeah, when we first hired our first VA, we
were doing just that.
We were monitoring all the timeand it was constantly having to
track everything they do,because you kind of have this
trust issue right.
You're like I don't know ifshe's gonna be scamming me.
I don't know if she's actuallydoing a great job.
So, you know, one of the thingsthat I really liked what your
(40:25):
team expressed me on our initialcall was you have a business to
run.
You know you're not ababysitter.
Your job is to go out and makethe money.
Leave the monitoring up to us.
So what you guys do is youactually assigned us an
operations manager to overseeeach VA, you know, which is
great because, it's true, it'slike it would be a complete
insufficient use of our time tohave to monitor each call and
(40:48):
make sure our VAs are doingtheir job.
So, in your opinion, what's thebiggest misconception about
hiring a virtual assistant?
Sebastian Wright (40:57):
I think the biggest misconception is that
you know the VA is sort of likea genie and they're gonna,
they're gonna, you know they'regonna, they're gonna fix all
your problems.
You know they, they are a tool.
It's like purchasing a dialer,right Like.
You spend 200 bucks, 300 bucksa month on a dialer.
(41:19):
It could be the fanciest dialerin the world, but if you don't
pick up the phone and utilizethe dialer, it's.
It's a paperweight, it's it'sjust a website, basically.
And it's the same thing with theVA.
You know the VA, um.
They're an extension of you andyour business.
If you and your business haveproblems, your VA is just not
(41:43):
going to fix that.
Your VA has a very specific joband they do that specific job
well and it is a team effort onyour part to make sure that
they're trained and they knowwhat to do.
Yeah, a lot of people think it'sjust a plug and play model,
(42:14):
right wrong.
We provide, you know, the laboressentially, and you provide
the construction equipment.
So again, that's anothermisconception that people think
that you know, hey, the VAs haveall these tools.
We don't have these tools,we're using the tools on your
behalf, basically, and what yourbusiness is providing.
Joseph Marohn (42:37):
Yeah, you, you really have to have your
business business down pat.
You know you have to have asystem in place and then you
know it's just.
It's like when you go work foranother company, right, you're
not going to come in and they'regoing to expect you to redesign
their whole business.
They already have a system inplace.
And then you're just workingfor that company and you're just
trying to help them grow theircompany, right?
So it's the same concept.
Sebastian Wright (42:58):
So, yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't say it any
better um than that, because Imean there are some companies
out there that you need to, youneed to buy all this stuff, but,
um yeah, no, that like like Ican't hone this enough.
You know, the the VA is is isyour employee, they're an
extension of you and and it'sand it's basically how you want
(43:19):
them to conduct your business onyour behalf.
Joseph Marohn (43:23):
Right, and so you know smart investors.
They track data as well astheir average cost per contract.
Any advice for someone new toreal estate on how to measure
the success of a virtualassistant Like?
What kind of KPIs do yourecommend focusing on?
Sebastian Wright (43:40):
So the, the, the ones that I really like
right now, kpi wise, is is whatI'm doing with the the retail
side of it, right, so, and, andthis might work, you know, uh,
the, the investment side.
So, um, every hour of calling,I want, um, I want seven, I want
(44:34):
, I want seven contacts, and acontact really is a contacts per
se.
Well, like, hey, why is thereonly two contacts?
Well, because I wasn't on thedialer.
Or, hey, maybe we need torefresh this list.
It's time to refresh the list.
So, me personally, the sevencontacts and our rule really
(44:56):
really holds a lot of waterbecause we're able to constantly
track that the seven contacts.
You know, out of those sevencontacts, maybe two or three of
them are actually leads, andagain, the leads vary whether
they're warm, hot or nurture.
So that is a KPI that I go byon the retail and I will start
(45:18):
using that KPI for wholesalingand investment side as well.
Joseph Marohn (45:23):
And what about like leads?
Do you have like a minimumrequirement per day that you
want your VAs to hit?
Sebastian Wright (45:29):
You know, I, I was very pro.
You know, hey, I want you tohit, you know, 25 leads, right,
um, and as you, as for me, whatI've, what I've realized, is
like, if, if you say, hey, Iwant, I want 25 leads in a week,
the quality of leads will kindof go down, you know, because
(45:51):
then the VA is really kind oflike they're working hard, but
also that you've you've put intheir mind that they need 25
leads.
So they will just start talkingto just anybody and like
they're like, hey, this lead isa is, is is a lead, because I
need this lead.
It will go into my 25 leads forthe week and it's garbage.
(46:14):
So I've went from okay, insteadof wanting a specific number of
leads each week, I want anumber of conversations each
hour, and that has reallychanged my business quite a bit.
Joseph Marohn (46:30):
Yeah, I think you just hit it right on the head.
You know, we used to have aminimum requirement of leads
that we wanted to hit per day,and what we noticed was when we
were going back into our systemand calling back these leads,
like you just mentioned, theywere trash leads, they weren't
even actual leads, they werejust follow ups.
But you know, we put thispressure on our VAs, were like,
(46:52):
hey, you have to hit eight, 10leads a day.
And so she had it in her mind,you know, like, oh, I got to hit
this number.
I got to hit this numberinstead of just focusing on
having a conversation, like youjust mentioned.
So great point on that.
You know, and and I thinkthat's another common mistake
people make, and even a mistakeI made myself, so we learn from
them, right.
Sebastian Wright (47:11):
Yeah, it's very common and again, too, you
learn from these things.
That's the wonderful thingabout being a business owner is
that, hey, maybe instead ofputting that pressure on a VA or
even yourself, right, it's like, oh hey, if I don't get two
leads by the end of the day, Isuck.
No, it's, maybe you need tokind of research the KPIs that
(47:33):
you actually think are importantto you and then and then
crafting that to your business,because, honestly, um, when I
moved from, how many contacts amI having?
It's, it's really changed my,my business.
Joseph Marohn (47:46):
Absolutely so.
Let's say our VA is notperforming up to our
expectations.
What happens next?
Sebastian Wright (47:55):
Well, are you talking about with VA Depot or
just in general?
Joseph Marohn (47:59):
Let's say well, let's say with VA Depot, what do
you guys do Like if I call youup?
Or if I call out MJ and I say,hey, you know what?
I just got this VA.
I thought she was a great fit.
She's not working out, she'snot a good fit for the company.
What would happen next?
Sebastian Wright (48:17):
So I mean, um, obviously, you know, we, we
want to keep you as a client andwe want to keep you, you know,
satisfied as a client.
You know, we would suggestanother round of of interviews.
Um, and again too, um, we'vehad situations where, you know,
we've had to do this three orfour times because, you know,
people would constantly like aclient would say, hey, yeah, I
(48:37):
thought she would, I thoughtthis VA would work, but it's not
working.
So we are committed to helpingyou find a perfect fit for your
business.
In the event that we cannotfind that perfect VA or
assistant for you, we don't havea contract with you.
(49:01):
And again too that's why wekind of created this business is
ultimate flexibility.
If we're providing a serviceand you're not gaining anything
from that service, you shouldn'tbe locked in.
So we would just part ways.
If there was any refund inorder, we would happily give you
(49:21):
a refund and part the businessrelationship.
Joseph Marohn (49:27):
Great.
And since we're on the subjectof VA Depot, what separates VA
Depot from other VA companies?
Sebastian Wright (49:52):
again for good reason right, it's not for a
lack of reason, but again, to mepersonally, I don't like to get
into contracts, so why should Iexpect my clients to get into
contracts?
And then also, too, we reallywant long-term relationships
with our clients, because thelast thing I want to do is have
a client for like a week andthen they never use our service
again.
So I, I I want to build rapport.
I want to help you know,business owners grow and I we're
(50:16):
we're willing to to help youguys at at any point of your
career, to to really grow yourteam, whether whether you're
starting off with one VA at atpart-time, which is 20 hours, or
you need a whole call center ofVAs at full-time, we're
(50:38):
prepared to help whatever youguys need.
So we love our clients, we wantto help them.
And then also, too, I am a bigbeliever in VAs.
I use VAs.
I started this company becauseI'm just like you guys and you
know I wanted a better qualityVA on tap.
So that's kind of how we'redifferent.
Joseph Marohn (51:00):
Great man, I'm with you on that one.
I'm also for VAs.
You know they have been acrucial component to our
business and they've reallyhelped us scale our business
quite significantly.
So I don't know how I would dowithout them, right?
So good point on that.
Me neither, right so?
But?
But let me ask you this.
So you know we're all awarethat AI is on the rise, right,
(51:22):
and you were seeing, you know,voice cloning.
We're seeing auto text replies,loi generators, all that good
stuff.
There are even companiesoffering AI virtual assistants.
Now it's crazy.
So how do virtual assistantsevolve and adapt to stay
relevant in the real estateindustry in the next five to 10
years?
Sebastian Wright (51:43):
Now, you know there's some scary stuff with AI
.
You know there's just there'sthese voice generators and again
, too, that that is constantly.
You know that that's that'sconstantly going to be there.
You know that that tech andthat business will will grow.
But also, too, I think there'sgoing to be a constant need for
(52:07):
for a live person, because,again, maybe AI might get there,
but it's not quite right thereright now.
You kind of know if you'respeaking to a robot face-to-face
or even on the phone.
Text, on the other hand, is acompletely different story, but
(52:29):
I I still feel that there's aneed for a live person.
Um, I feel that a live personcan kind of think quickly, they
can get the information out andthen capture, you know, whatever
, whatever information they needto to to capture fairly
effectively more than a than aai generated voice right now
yeah, I get cold called by these.
Joseph Marohn (52:51):
I don't know if they're voice clone or AIs or
what, but you know, as you justmentioned, you could tell it's
very robotic and sometimes Ikind of play around with it,
right, I'm asking certainquestions just to see how it
responds and you can tell it'snot.
It's not there yet.
They're.
They're nowhere near yet, butit may be something that we're
facing in the future.
So something to keep in mindfor you guys.
(53:12):
Since you run a, you know, a VAcompany, you may want to keep
in mind of that.
Like, how can we adapt and, youknow, always keep a place in
the real estate industry?
So, yes, but you know,sebastian, you're an investor
yourself.
You obviously see the benefitsof VAs.
Considering you now own a VAcompany, do you mind sharing a
success story on how a VA wasable to help you scale and grow
(53:34):
your business?
Sebastian Wright (53:40):
Man, there's so many stories, but I'll give
you this most recent one rightnow.
So, like I said, I have divedback into the dark side of
retail real estate listings,working with agents and stuff
like that, and this particularagent that we're working for
(54:05):
literally last month went fromzero listings we had, we had
none nothing to about.
Now, fast forward to now.
You know we have close tohopefully, hopefully listing
number six within within a 35,within a 30 day period and close
(54:26):
to two and a half milliondollars worth of production
solely generated by VAs.
Joseph Marohn (54:36):
Two and a half million Wow.
Sebastian Wright (54:38):
That's impressive Production, not gross
commission.
Either way it's stillimpressive.
But property value, yeah, it'sreally impressive.
And it just goes to show if youput the time and the effort
with a virtual assistant you canscale very, very quickly within
(55:00):
a little amount of time 30 days, which is not a lot of time in
the real estate world.
Joseph Marohn (55:05):
Right, it's all on you, right.
It's up to you to train them,to get them up to speed on what
you want them to do properly.
So, absolutely so.
One of the things I really liketo do here on the Real Estate
Unlock podcast is to keepproviding value to the community
by giving them a chance to askquestions along with me, you
know, and one of the questions Ichose today was by Reese Ryan,
(55:27):
and his question was trying tofigure out the best use of a VA
and which part of my businessendeavors I want to expand.
What would be some basicvetting questions to hire
someone, any thoughts onoffshore or domestic and going
with a company or freelancer.
Sebastian Wright (55:47):
Yeah, that's a great question, Obviously, and
that question can be broken downquite a bit.
So, if they want to go througha freelancer, obviously you know
it's kind of like a one anddone type deal.
You kind of have to get, youknow, the freelancer has to get
in touch with you, or you get intouch with the freelancer,
excuse me with a freelancer,excuse me, and then and then you
(56:14):
know, interview them and see ifit works out.
With a company like mine,excuse me.
We provide you multipleopportunities to to interview
VAs and, like we said earlier,if, if, for some, if, for
whatever reason it doesn't workout, we can provide you with
more VAs to interview.
Now, figuring out what specifictasks you might want to hand off
(56:39):
to a VA, that's kind of apersonal thing, you know.
If you feel that, you know youwant to spend less time cold
calling, obviously get that overto a VA.
Maybe you want to expand yoursocial media, maybe you want you
know people to edit stuff foryou.
You know there's VAs for that.
(57:01):
It just really depends on whatyour business needs are.
So, obviously, with us wespecialize in cold calling, we
feel comfortable in cold callingand the clients that reach out
to us have a need to scale theiroutreach.
Joseph Marohn (57:20):
Right, great, great answer, man.
So well, I think we coveredmajority of the benefits on how
a virtual assistant can helpgrow your business, as well as
how to properly train them andwhat things to be aware of.
Is there anything you can thinkof that we might've missed and
didn't cover here today?
Sebastian Wright (57:38):
I don't know, man, we covered a lot.
I mean, again too, I think,when you are ready to hire a VA,
just be open to the process,Because again too, it's an
ever-evolving process and it'snever just like real estate.
(57:58):
I've never had a deal go thesame way ever.
There's always something tothat, and it's same thing with
owning a business and hiringemployees.
It's never the same dayno-transcript.
Joseph Marohn (58:43):
Can people get ahold of you?
Sebastian Wright (58:45):
Man, um, so I, I man, um all the all the
social media, but I'm always onour Instagram VA underscore
depot, and then also, if theywant to send me a message, on
our website, vadepotnet, there'sa section at the bottom that
(59:06):
they can email me.
That comes directly to me andI'd be happy to answer any
questions that you have.
Joseph Marohn (59:16):
So website and our Instagram.
Well, sebastian, it's been anabsolute honor to have you on
the podcast here today.
I think you're doing somethinggreat by not only creating more
jobs for people overseas andbeing able to provide for their
families, but you're alsocreating more opportunities for
new investors to help start uptheir business with very little
overhead costs.
I think VA Depot is setting thestandard on how other VA
companies should operate andmake it simple for us investors
(59:39):
to find quality workers and tohelp us grow our business.
I'm excited to see where youguys go from here and I'll
continue to be a long-termclient myself I'll continue to
be a long-term client myself.
Sebastian Wright (59:50):
Thank you so much, joseph.
And just as a little caveat andhopefully to kind of get people
on their business and their VAjourney, we will provide a promo
code for your listeners, jm562.
They can go to our website,enter the promo code in the
(01:00:11):
promo code box or in the message, in the message section of the
of the email contact form, andthey will receive a fifteen
dollar discount on the admin fee.
We normally, excuse me, wenormally charge fifty dollars,
but we'll cut that down to to 35.
(01:00:31):
I'm I'm terrible at math, as youcan see, but they will.
They will receive that uh, that, that discount if they, if they
put that uh promo code, uhjm562 oh man, I I really
appreciate that, sebastian.
Joseph Marohn (01:00:43):
That's, that's great, great of you to do that
for, uh, for my listeners.
So if you guys want that, youknow how to get it jm562.
So now, if you guys want that,you know how to get it JM562.
So now, if you guys are findingvalue from this episode, don't
forget to show your boy somelove.
It only takes a few seconds tohit that subscribe button.
Don't forget to like this anddrop a comment down below if you
use VAs as well and how it'shelped benefit your business.
(01:01:06):
Appreciate all the continuedsupport and, guys, stay tuned,
because we're pumping theseepisodes out every two weeks.
Not to mention, I've got kevincho from the sub 2 community
coming up next to come and dropsome amazing tips on y'all.
Best believe i'ma keep bringingyou that fire.
Thanks, sebastian, thank you.
Thank you for watching.
What up everyone and welcome back to the Real
Estate Unlocked and today we'regoing to be covering a long
overdue topic in real estate alow cost option for your
outbound lead generation, asmart way to save time and still
scale your real estate business.
Today we're going to becovering the importance of
virtual assistants.
(00:33):
Virtual assistants are remoteprofessionals who can assist
your real estate business byperforming various
administrative tasks.
These tasks include coldcalling, marketing, sales and
customer service.
Unlike traditional in-officeassistants, vas work from a
remote location, typicallyoverseas, and communicate with
(00:56):
their clients via internet,phone or email.
Now, if that sounds likesomething you've been looking
for to help scale your realestate business, this episode
will cover all the benefits avirtual assistant can do for you
, what questions you should beasking and the various ways you
can hire one today.
Now you know how we do it onthe Real Estate Unlocked podcast
(01:18):
.
If we're going to do it, we gotto do it right.
We can't just bring on anyoneto speak about virtual
assistants.
We got to bring on the CEO ofvirtual assistants.
Today, our special guest on thepodcast is Mr Sebastian Wright.
Sebastian's real estate journeybegan just six years ago,
(01:39):
starting out as a real estateagent.
A year in, he stumbled acrossthe concept of wholesaling,
instantly becoming the base ofhis entire real estate business.
He then decided to challengehimself even further by diving
into fix and flips, profitinghim well over six figures, all
of which was generated with thehelp of virtual assistants.
(02:00):
He now owns several Airbnbproperties and the CEO of his
own VA company, va Depot.
So, without further ado, I'vebeen talking long enough
Everyone.
If you will, please allow me toformally introduce to you
Sebastian Wright.
Sebastian, how's your day going, brother?
(02:23):
Oh man, Thanks again for thegreat intro.
It's going well and excited tobe here.
Awesome.
Well, sebastian, welcome to thepodcast.
Thank you for taking time outof your busy schedule to allow
us to shed some light on theimportance of virtual assistants
.
As you know, they are a crucialcomponent in this industry and,
(02:43):
if used correctly, they canreally scale and take your
business to the next level.
So, thank you, appreciate it.
Yeah, no problem, cool man.
So why don't we start thingsoff by you telling us a little
bit about your real estatejourney and what made you want
to start up your own virtualassistant company in the first
place?
Sebastian Wright (03:03):
Yeah, Well, I started out as an agent and I
was a terrible agent, I wasn'tgood at it.
And then I stumbled acrosswholesaling and where I was fit
into wholesaling was coldcalling myself.
And again to you know, I'm sureanybody who's cold calling,
(03:28):
they have their nerves, they'reworried about it, they think
people can bite them over thephone.
I mean, it's a lot, it'sstressful, Absolutely.
And that's kind of where I justcut my teeth in investing in
general, was you know, trying tobe comfortable over the phone
in general, was you know tryingto be comfortable over the phone
(03:48):
?
And as I kind of moved upthrough cold caller and just
started progressing in my career, you know, I was just thinking
there must be a better way outthere than me constantly calling
people and that's kind of howthings kind of progressed into
starting a virtual assistantcompany.
Joseph Marohn (04:07):
Yeah, I can definitely attest to that.
You know, my first time jumpingon the calls with sellers.
Man, it's nerve wracking, right.
Like you mentioned, you knowjumping on cold calling, it's
like you don't know what you'regoing to get when you get on
that line with that seller,right?
Sebastian Wright (04:22):
So it's definitely nerve wracking, yeah,
and again too, it's just.
You know, most of the time wehave scripts and again too, it's
just kind of gettingcomfortable with that script.
But yes, it is, it's still tothis day.
I still cold call myself, whichis kind of hard to believe,
excuse me, but I still get thosenerves and I still get
(04:44):
frustrated and all the feelingsthat everyone has.
So, yes, I agree, AbsolutelyRight right.
Joseph Marohn (04:52):
So for those unfamiliar, could you explain
what a virtual assistant is andhow they can help benefit our
business?
Sebastian Wright (05:00):
So a virtual assistant is a professional that
can help you with a number oftasks.
At VA Depot, we specialize incold calling and outbound
outreach, but a virtualassistant can help you with a
number of things.
Um, they could help you withadmin stuff for your business.
(05:24):
They can help you with videoediting.
Uh, they can help you withdesign.
So so, again too, it's avirtual assistant, is is is
someone that that helps cases.
They're, they're somewhatthey're they're not based in the
U S.
Uh, they're based in differentcountries.
And again too, they're just,they're just professionals, most
(05:52):
of them.
Joseph Marohn (05:54):
Right, and I think you would agree that some
people are under the impressionthat VAs only do cold calling.
But, as you just laid outperfectly, you know they have a
range of services that theycover.
Sebastian Wright (06:05):
Correct Again too.
If you know you're, you know aVA is pretty much limited to
what your imagination can canbring to them.
So so again there's there's,you know, va Depot.
We specialize in cold calling.
But again there's, there's a.
There's a number of of tasksthat VA is specialized in.
(06:26):
You just have to kind of lookout for them.
Joseph Marohn (06:29):
So once I hired this VA Sebastian, it just said
it and forget it right I'm offto the races of making millions.
Sebastian Wright (06:37):
That would be a perfect scenario, but
unfortunately no, it's not.
The one thing that I have toconstantly remind people is like
, okay, you found a VA and thennow you don't have to do that
particular task.
Let's just say cold calling,right, but what quickly replaces
(06:59):
you actually cold calling istraining the VA.
You actually cold calling istraining the VA.
Now there are scenarios wherewhere people like, okay, hey,
this is the script, this is thedialer, get on it, start making
calls.
There are some people in someVAs that are successful that way
(07:20):
, but the mass majority of ourclients and and just in general,
I would I would highly highlyrecommend that.
Training is absolutely key.
Um, in in any retrospect um,just a quick example Um, I used
to work at the Ritz Carlton, atthe, at the hotel chain, and
before we could even say helloto a guest, you know they would
(07:42):
train us on how to say hello andhow to end the conversation,
and that is just based ontraining.
They want you to greet theirguests a certain way and for
your business it kind of has tobe the same way.
The VA is an employee, it's anextension of you and you need to
train that VA.
Yeah, I think this is a commonmistake for some people.
Joseph Marohn (08:02):
You know you need to train that VA.
Yeah, I think this is a commonmistake for some people.
You know you need to fullyunderstand your business, so
that way you know how to trainand give proper feedback.
Right, it's a virtual assistant.
They are an assistant.
They aren't going to createyour business for you.
You're the operator, theyassist 100%, 100%, absolutely.
(08:23):
So, for our listeners who areconvinced about the benefits of
hiring a VA, what are the firststeps that they should take to
find an onboard, a virtualassistant?
Sebastian Wright (08:34):
Well, there's a number of ways that that can
happen.
Um, for, for example, obviouslyI'm biased, I have a company,
so you know, please, please,visit my website and and and and
look at, look at what we canoffer.
But, um, it's really funny howa lot of people just come in
contact with VAs.
(08:55):
Um, I and and I think you and Ijust have a very similar story
about how we even got introducedto a VA.
A lot of the time, vas arego-getters, they understand
sales and they're reaching outto potential property investors,
(09:16):
wholesalers, and reaching outto them and say, hey, do you
need this services?
And they send you some audioclips, a resume, and at first
you're kind of like, what isthis?
But then you quickly realizelike, oh wow, this is well put
together, they're professional,they have this great
(09:38):
presentation and then all of asudden, you're off to the races
with them.
Joseph Marohn (09:44):
And all of a sudden you kind of you're,
you're off to the races withthem.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I, like you said, wehave a very similar story.
You know, I've always heardabout you know VA companies or
whatnot, but the very first VAthat I came in contact with, she
actually reached out to medirectly through Facebook
Messenger and I didn't know howto take it at first because I'm
like I don't know, man, this,this might be a scam.
I don't know if she's scammingme.
(10:05):
But you know, I was like, hey,can you send me some sample
calls, or you know?
And she said, send me somecalls over.
And I listened to him and I waslike, dude, she's great.
You know, she's really good atwhat she does.
I don't really got to train herand I was like you know, I'm
just going to take my chancesand I rolled the dice and it
worked out for the most partvery well.
But you know, I think theproper way is something like you
(10:28):
know, what you guys have gotgoing on over there at VA Depot
is really working with thecompany.
That way, you know,everything's set up properly,
making sure that everybody'sprotected on both sides Right,
and you're getting quality VAsRight, so I agree.
So I agree with you on thatAbsolutely.
Sebastian Wright (10:51):
So, Sebastian, how can VAs be trained to
properly qualify leads?
So all I can say is what I'mexperiencing right now.
So right now a section of mycompany we're really focusing on
the retail side of business, Um, so agent leads.
You know, Fizbo's expireds, um,we have invested in coaching,
(11:12):
um on on ourselves.
And then, basically, you know,we we have a very, very
intensive coaching program withour VAs, training program with
our VAs.
That's still continuing toright now.
So how I do things is that I goahead, I send out the script to
(11:36):
the VAs and I tell them.
I was like, look, I want you toreview the script.
You know, take your time withit and that will be about you.
You know 24 hours that I'llgive them with the script the
following day.
You know we have we havemeetings at the beginning of the
day with with the agent thatI'm working with and the, the,
(11:57):
their, their va, and we areconstantly role playing, we're
constantly training, we'reconstantly doing things to
improve the VA because, at theend of the day, the more
knowledge the VA has, the betterthat they will just perform for
you day in and day out.
Joseph Marohn (12:17):
I agree with that , man.
Role playing is absolutelycrucial.
You know we do that on our team.
You know we bring the VA on andwe're constantly, you know,
practicing my partner and Iwe're always doing role plays,
putting them in some scenarioswhere they can really get used
to, like you know, throwing somecurveballs at them Right, and
really training them.
And another thing we also do iswe have a flow chart.
(12:39):
So this flow chart will kind ofbreak down like what's
considered a cold lead, what'sconsidered a warm lead and hot.
That way they know how toproperly qualify them.
That's what we do.
So you guys do somethingsimilar as well, I'm assuming.
Sebastian Wright (12:52):
Yeah, so, so again to again, different
trainings.
And you know, like I say thiswith all respect like gurus,
that you, you to have differentthings, that you know, have
different methods of whatqualifies as a warm, a hot or
what have you a nurture lead?
So it's important you know,whatever training that you're
(13:16):
getting, or if this is just yourown system, that the VA knows
what a hot lead is, what a warmlead is, what a nurture lead is.
And then again to um roleplaying to the point where,
where you're really stumpingthem, you know, you're, I, I
(13:36):
always, I always tell this uh,this, this, this sort of this
joke.
I was like, look, the trainingis going to be so intense, the,
the, the, the, the.
The training is going to be sointense that you're just going
to pray to get on the dialer,because it's going to be that
that much easier.
Joseph Marohn (13:53):
And that's great, man, you know, because you're
really putting them through theringer.
So when they actually get on anactual cold lead, you know
they're like this is a loteasier, easier than what
Sebastian's putting me through.
Sebastian Wright (14:10):
And and this is a lot easier than what
Sebastian's putting me throughyeah and again too, I tell a lot
of clients and just people ingeneral that just because the
cold calling is technically offyour plate, it doesn't
necessarily mean your workdayhas gotten lighter.
Now you have a responsibilityto that VA to train them to your
best of your ability, becauseit will just pay dividends in
the end that your VA is thatbetter trained and they're ready
(14:34):
to go after it.
Joseph Marohn (14:35):
Absolutely so.
If someone is consideringhiring their first VA, what are
the initial steps that theyshould take to ensure that
they're not only finding a greatVA, but also knowing that that
person is reliable?
Sebastian Wright (14:50):
Well, it's funny because it's just little
cues.
I mean, for example, if youever went on a job interview,
that's sort of the best kind ofyou know method to kind of look
at.
I was like, is this VA on time?
You know, punctuality is veryimportant to me.
(15:11):
Just because you know we'revery busy, we have to be on a
schedule and if someone saysthat they're not on time, that's
almost a red flag for me.
That's almost a red flag for me.
Again, if this person vibeswell with your business, you
(15:31):
might get a feeling that, hey,this particular VA doesn't
necessarily mesh well with mycore message or ethos.
You have to be hiring someonethat you might get along with or
you can lead.
I feel that's very important.
So I would just say, think backof you know job interviews that
(15:55):
you went on or jobs that youdid secure, and why did you
secure those jobs?
What made you stand out fromeverybody else?
Um, with the VA there's othernuances that might be important
to you.
For example, do they have realestate prospecting experience?
(16:16):
A lot of them do.
A lot of them, just straight up, do, do they understand certain
systems that you have purchased?
You know Podio, follow up bossVulcan seven.
A lot of these VAs do haveexperience working with those
systems, so those are always aplus Um.
(16:37):
But there's there's a prefaceof things that that you can kind
of check through and and makesure that the you know the VA is
a fit for you Basically.
Joseph Marohn (16:47):
I'm so glad you brought up the fact about the
interviewing process, becausethat's crucial, right?
So what type of questions doyou suggest we should be asking,
as investors, whileinterviewing these VAs?
Sebastian Wright (17:00):
Well it's.
It's funny because I've I'vewitnessed a lot of interviews
with you know prospectiveclients and VAs, and I don't
necessarily think the questionsare important, even though I
think you know whateverpleasantries or whatever
(17:22):
questions you may have,absolutely ask them.
But what I would keep a reallykeen ear for is you having a
conversation with thisparticular person, because,
again, to that will translate onon the phone.
You want someone that you canhave a conversation with, and if
someone sounds a little bitrobotic, a little bit nervous,
(17:52):
and if someone sounds a littlebit robotic, a little bit
nervous and they just don'tsound right, that probably will
equate to what they might soundlike when they're prospecting.
So for me, when I want to hirea new VA, I just want to have a
conversation with them.
I was like, hey, how do youtake your coffee?
You know how do you take yourcoffee.
I will literally have aconversation with them and I
will, I will literally analyzehow they say things, more so
than specific questions aboutthe task that they have done or
(18:14):
can do.
Joseph Marohn (18:15):
You know that's interesting.
You say that right, becausethey could be very well scripted
and they know exactly what kindof questions they're typically
asked, so they know how torespond in a robotic, very nice
way or however you want to putit.
But, like I said, can theyactually have a conversation,
you know?
yeah, you know me, my partnerAsh.
You know we will not hire a VAwithout conducting an interview
(18:38):
first.
You know you can listen to allthe prerecrecorded sample calls
you like, but in my opinionnothing beats a face-to-face
conversation and askingquestions to put that VA in a
real-life scenario.
Right, exactly so, like youjust mentioned, are they having
a conversation with the selleror are they interrogating?
And it's only a one-sided withquestions, right?
(18:58):
So good point and good point,you brought that up.
Now, that's what I really lovedabout you guys actually at VA
Depot.
You know your company willreach out first and ask what our
criteria is.
Then you'll pair three to fourVAs or just a company you know
of VAs that you can interview.
Sebastian Wright (19:46):
I just I just feel more comfortable that way,
just because you're hearing whatthey sound like, you're asking
the questions that you want toask and you are making the
decision.
Hey, I think Erica sounds thebest and I think she might fit
um in my business.
Now what we do a little bitdifferently is, for example,
(20:09):
let's say, you've been using aVA for a particular amount of
time and, for whatever reason,she interviewed really well and
it's just not working out.
We will set up an entire roundof interviews for you completely
free of charge.
Joseph Marohn (20:24):
Wow, that's interesting.
You know, and I that's what I'msaying I experienced that
firsthand with you guys.
You know, when you guys broughtin the VAs, you brought them in
one by one.
It wasn't like all at once,like I'm doing a group interview
, and it was like veryprofessional, you know, whereas
I've had other companies reachout to me and it's literally
like someone sitting on a bed orsomething and a ripped t-shirt.
(20:50):
It just had a bad feeling andI'm like this is not really
professional.
You guys were very professionalthe way you guys did it and
that's why I like working withyou guys.
So great job on that part.
Sebastian, can hiring a virtualassistant be cost effective for
new investors?
What would you say the costdifference is of hiring a VA
(21:11):
compared to, like an in-personstaff?
Sebastian Wright (21:17):
I really have to watch out because the new
part is tricky, because I know alot of people are new and they
hear VA and they're so ready toget on the VA train.
But it's really important tokind of self-assess first before
(21:42):
you put on a VA, to actuallymake sure you're ready.
Because, again too, what I tellmy team and I don't say this to
be mean, I don't say thisbecause I'm a greedy business
guy I was like it's veryimportant that we qualify our
clients because we don't want toput them in a situation where
they're not ready to handle a VA.
So my first and foremost thingis like make sure you are ready.
(22:03):
And then people are going tosay well, what's a qualified?
You know, how am I qualified?
You've probably, you've, you'veprobably been making calls for
the past six months and you'relooking to kind of expand your
business, constantly invest inthose systems.
Because I've ran into a lot ofpeople where they're like oh, I
(22:26):
have money for 500 leads andwe're going to make so much
money off 500 leads.
I was like, unfortunately it'sjust not that way.
You probably need 5,000 leadsand then constantly purchase
that Once you are there, onceyou have graduated to that
echelon of.
I am consistently investing inmy business and now I want to
(22:49):
expand.
I want to hire a virtualassistant.
Then it becomes reallyinteresting because the VA that
you will hire literally will beon the dialer however long you
want them on.
I have VAs that are on dialersfor eight hours a day.
They have an hour break,they're constantly pushing
(23:12):
through and it's very costeffective.
You're talking about pricesanywhere from $7 to $8 an hour
where, if you were to hire takemy situation the person that
hired me in their wholesalinggroup had to give me 20% of
every deal that I closed.
So, when you think about it, doyou really want to give up 20%
(23:37):
of your hard-earned assignmentfees to a cold caller?
You know, and that's reallyupon the business owner, but if
it were me, I would look tooutsource that and pay someone
an hourly rate instead of equityin an assignment fee.
Joseph Marohn (23:56):
I really appreciate the honest answer and
it's really the truth what youjust said.
Right now, you know it's notgoing to be a cost effective for
everybody.
Not everybody's going to havethe means to do so, but for me
personally, in my experience, Ihave a great W-2 job where I'm
making a good income.
So my thing is I don't havetime.
(24:17):
And the thing is, with thisreal estate business, as you
know, you're either going toforfeit time or you're going to
forfeit money, and for me, Idon't have the time, so I have
to forfeit the money, and that'swhy hiring a VA is beneficial
for me, because then they'reable to call eight hours a day,
like you mentioned.
While I'm at work they'recalling, they're cold calling,
and then when I get home I'mable to jump on the leads.
(24:39):
That already what they filteredout through our system.
So great, great point on thatand I really appreciate the
honest answer there.
But since we're talking aboutpay, how do we pay these VAs?
Is it weekly, is it monthly?
Do we pay through like a thirdparty app like Wise or PayPal?
Sebastian Wright (25:00):
So again, here I can really I can speak from
past experiences.
But here at VA Depot, againhere I can speak from past
experiences.
But here at VA Depot, we are aUS-based business, we're LLC-ed
here in the United States and wehave US-based payment
processing through Square.
Now, again too, there's twosides of my business and again
(25:21):
too, there's the client sidethat you know I have to make.
I have to make sure that, youknow, my clients are happy, but
also I have to protect myvirtual assistants as well.
So I constantly make sure I waslike hey, what, what do you
guys want?
What do you need?
You know what will make, youknow what will make a good
(25:44):
working environment.
And usually that workingenvironment, you know, we
collect payment usually at thebeginning of the week and then
we pay them weekly, now and now.
But we are incredibly flexible.
So, again too, if you're in asituation it's like, hey, look,
you know Sebastian.
Or if you're dealing and againtoo, va Depot is 100% ran by VAs
(26:10):
as well, she's the number twoon my team you have a quick
conversation with MJ, like, look, mj, we run payroll every two
weeks.
Can we pay every two weeks?
That's not a problem, we grantthat all the time.
Or hey, I'd rather pay at theend of the week than the
(26:31):
beginning of the week.
We do that all the time.
So here at VA Depot we want tobe as flexible as possible for
the clients, but also, too, wereally try to protect our, our,
our VAs as well.
Joseph Marohn (26:43):
Right, and you know the reason I bring that up
is because when I first hired myVA directly, you know she was
like oh, I usually get paidthrough wise and I didn't know
what wise was.
You know, I had to downloadthis app.
It was a whole process and yougot to pay fees.
And when I noticed with youguys, it was a whole process and
you got to pay fees.
And when I noticed with youguys, it was like directly
through square and it was just away simplified process compared
(27:05):
to going through wise.
You know, wise would takeseveral days to get to her.
So, and and also like like youmentioned about being flexible,
that's what's great about youguys, because I know you guys do
kind of request to be paid on amonday.
For us personally, to makethings simplified, we do all our
payrolls every week on the endof the week, at Friday, and I
reached out to MJ and MJ wascompletely fine with that and
(27:27):
you know I that's really greatthat you guys do that.
You guys are flexible with yourclients, so yeah, absolutely
Absolutely.
Sebastian Wright (27:34):
And and again to um too, the payment via
Square was very important to mebecause that was probably the
main issue.
Why I even started VA Depot wasbecause I was working with
another VA company and they said, oh, you need to start paying
(27:56):
wise.
And it just was a bad feelingand I ended the relationship
with that particular companyjust because I felt like I was
getting won over and I justwanted to pay them.
So that was very important forus to make sure that payment to
the client was very, very simpleand easy, and I'm pretty proud
(28:20):
of'm.
I'm pretty proud of that, bythe way, so thank you for
noticing.
Joseph Marohn (28:24):
I noticed it, man .
That was great, you know, soall right, so what are the some
of the basic tools and softwareknowledge that VA should be
proficient in to be successfulin the real estate industry?
Sebastian Wright (28:36):
So you won't.
I mean, again too, I haven'tcome across a VA that that
doesn't know their way aroundtechnology, because again too,
that's how they communicate withyou, um.
But a simple question like hey,you know what type of CRM um
are you used to?
(28:56):
For, for example, I use followup boss.
So I always kind of ask thatquestion hey, are you familiar
with follow-up boss?
Most of the time they are.
It's really amazing.
You just kind of throw outtools that you have, online
tools that you have, and most ofthe time they're fairly
proficient on it.
(29:17):
Obviously you know email andjust kind of ways around certain
document files and all thatstuff.
But for my experience, most ofthe VAs that have reached out to
me and the VAs that I've hiredare very proficient in the
latest real estate technology oroutreach technology.
Joseph Marohn (29:40):
Yeah, I think that's important because you
know, if they're not proficientin it, that means you have to
take more time out of your dayto really train them on on what
softwares you're using.
So I think it's a great pointto bring up that.
And another thing that wepersonally look for is you know
basic typing skills, becausethey're going to be taking a lot
of notes and maybe sendingemails, so we really got to make
(30:02):
sure that you know they knowhow to type and they're spelling
words correctly and stuff likethat.
So great point on that.
So you know you're doing agreat job at laying out all the
benefits a VA can bring to ourcompany.
But, as with everything in life, there's always challenges and
hurdles right and unfortunately.
But as with everything in life,there's always challenges and
hurdles, right and unfortunately, vas are no exception to this
rule.
(30:22):
I believe one of the biggestconcerns for most investors
looking to add a VA to theirteam is the language barrier.
Right as we jump on calls withthese sellers, a heavy accent or
mispronounced words can easilykill a deal, even for me
personally.
You know, when I get, when Iget cold called and I hear that
accent, my spider senses kick inand I start thinking it's a
deal, even for me personally.
You know, when I get, when Iget cold called and I hear that
accent, my spider senses kick inand I start thinking it's a
(30:43):
scam, right.
So what does the trainingprocess look like for a virtual
assistant at VA Depot?
Are you guys keeping this inmind and, if so, are there ways
to improve the language barrierby implementing speech training?
Sebastian Wright (31:03):
barrier by implementing speech training.
So that is a very touchysubject for me because and again
too, just out of my ownexperience I feel like I operate
in probably some of the hardest, most skeptical markets here in
the United States.
So I invest in EasternTennessee and Southwest Florida.
(31:26):
I have VAs with very heavyaccents and they constantly
produce.
For me.
Now it is a gut check, becauseyou're constantly thinking like,
hey, I'm spending money on this, on this service, are they
(31:46):
going to perform or am I goingto waste money?
Um, but time and time again, um, vas with with heavier than
than usual accents I've had.
I've had pretty much greatsuccess with them because, again
too, we live in such a diversecountry, right when, where you
(32:07):
know, hearing an accent um is isnot very uncommon anymore.
Um, and again too, what'sinteresting particular?
And two, what's interestingparticular?
You know we source all of ourVAs out of the Philippines, and
I feel that in the Philippinesthey have a good grasp on the
(32:30):
language.
Not only, you know, do theyhave their own language, but
they in school, english is very,very heavily taught, just
because you know, they'relooking to work for American
companies.
A lot of major Americancompanies have call offices in
the Philippines and you know theFilipinos Filipinas are the
(32:55):
ones working those call centers,are the ones working those call
centers.
Now, where it might bedifficult is, you know, you have
sort of the I don't know.
I've just never really had muchof an issue, but I do
(33:16):
understand sort of thehesitation, but I would closely
monitor it.
If you still have a problem andif you feel like the VA is not
performing, then I would kind oflook for a VA that has a softer
accent, which they're out there, because a lot of these VAs are
educated in English.
Joseph Marohn (33:34):
Yeah, and I think it can easily be overcome with
knowledge, right.
Think it can easily be overcomewith, you know, knowledge,
right.
So just because you have anaccent and they're, and they're
talking to the seller, as longas they kind of have experience
and they know what they'retalking about, then that can
easily be overlooked and it,like you just mentioned, it's
actually becoming more commonnow, right.
So a lot of times when I'mcalling like to order some wings
(33:54):
now, I can't even get a liveperson on the phone, no more,
it's actually going redirectedto a call center.
So I think, as things progressand technology keeps growing,
we're going to see a lot moreVAs implemented in this space,
right.
So I think people are going toget more familiar with it.
But I have noticed personallysometimes when my VAs are
(34:17):
jumping on calls, you knowsellers sometimes don't even
give them a chance, they justshut them down and they hang up
right away.
So I was just wondering if youguys were doing anything
different over there, if youguys are working with speech and
training and stuff like that,just to kind of.
You know, I know it's they'rethey're boring with that and
there's not really much you cando about that.
But you know, maybe there'sways we can kind of smooth it
(34:39):
out a little bit, if you will.
Sebastian Wright (34:41):
I mean it's tough on our end.
Now I think we do a great jobof sourcing professional VAs
that do have prior experience.
So if they do have an accent,they are professional.
They've been in the rodeobefore, so it's kind of an easy
transition.
But I think it has a lot to dowith the training that they're
(35:05):
receiving.
So, for example, we have ascript on the retail side where
we had making sure that, hey,we're reading the script, you
know, a couple times everymorning just to make sure, hey,
(35:26):
you can pronounce that wordcorrectly.
So again too, we're doing ourbest to get you guys quality VAs
.
But also, at the same time, itkind of falls on the client's
responsibility to make sure thatthey are going through the
script or whatever documentsthat you're going through, and
making sure that they aredelivering whatever they need to
(35:48):
deliver correctly and clearly.
Joseph Marohn (35:51):
Right, good points, good points.
So give us some commonchallenges faced with working
with virtual assistants and howthey can be addressed challenges
faced with working with virtualassistants and how they can be
addressed.
Sebastian Wright (36:07):
Well, I can tell you one that doesn't really
necessarily can be addressedbut, like sometimes, they'll
have issues with power.
You know, their power will goout for some strange reason or
they'll have a storm that we'rejust not necessarily aware about
.
Joseph Marohn (36:16):
They get a lot of storms over there in the
Philippines.
Sebastian Wright (36:19):
Yeah, so, and again too, you know, in the
Philippines the infrastructureis not as as good as in the
States.
So they they are.
Those are common issues thatyou might run into.
But again to usually, you know,usually you know the VA will be
very understanding and then tryto make up those hours or or or
kind of push through or getback whenever they need to.
(36:41):
But I mean, there's really notmuch to kind of worry about of
my mind is, hey, am I trainingthis particular VA to my best of
the ability?
Now, again too, not everyone'sperfect.
(37:09):
Sometimes they'll stumblethrough scripts, sometimes they
might lose you a deal.
There's a bunch of scenarios,but not anything different than
either your cousin calling foryou or your buddy or someone
that you're bringing on to yourbusiness.
The same things, the samescenarios, the same hiccups will
happen with the VA, basically.
Joseph Marohn (37:30):
Right.
As you know, our VAs haveaccess to a ton of valuable and
crucial information, such asaddresses, emails and phone
numbers, while in our systemWe've even heard stories of VA
stealing and selling off data tomake a quick book.
Are there any security measuresat VA Depot in place to protect
client-sensitive information?
Sebastian Wright (37:52):
So when we hire a VA, you know we really we
really try to look for forpeople that are wanting a long,
lasting, um working relationshipwith their client.
We never want to be in asituation where they're looking
for a quick buck.
So we're we're constantly, youknow, looking at their character
(38:16):
and for the most part, I'm part.
I've never experienced that.
But that doesn't mean it hasn'thappened.
For the most part, you know,the VA is very committed and
loyal.
The last thing they want to dois to screw up a relationship
where you fire them and then wenever use their.
(38:39):
You know we never hire them asa VA for our clients and again,
too, their reputation is outthere.
There are forum boards, there'sFacebook groups and there's
people constantly gettingblasted that, hey, this VA is
not trustworthy, this VA, you'vegot to watch out for this
person.
So we do as much as possible tomake sure that you have a
(39:03):
trustworthy virtual assistant.
But it also kind of goes backonto the client.
The client needs to make surethat they're not giving the VA's
admin access to their sensitivestuff.
Doing an audit I do an auditevery week of all the incoming
leads.
I physically listen to thecalls and listen to them.
(39:28):
Because again too, if the VApushes five hot leads but
they've technically had 10 hotlead conversations or 10 hot
lead conversations, that becomesa problem.
So again too, at VA Depot we doour best to hire quality and
(39:48):
trustworthy VAs, but also, atthe same time, the client has to
ensure their safety as well,making sure they don't give
admin access doing those leadaudits just for best practices
as well.
Making sure they don't giveadmin access doing those lead
audits just for best practicesas well.
Joseph Marohn (40:04):
Yeah, when we first hired our first VA, we
were doing just that.
We were monitoring all the timeand it was constantly having to
track everything they do,because you kind of have this
trust issue right.
You're like I don't know ifshe's gonna be scamming me.
I don't know if she's actuallydoing a great job.
So, you know, one of the thingsthat I really liked what your
(40:25):
team expressed me on our initialcall was you have a business to
run.
You know you're not ababysitter.
Your job is to go out and makethe money.
Leave the monitoring up to us.
So what you guys do is youactually assigned us an
operations manager to overseeeach VA, you know, which is
great because, it's true, it'slike it would be a complete
insufficient use of our time tohave to monitor each call and
(40:48):
make sure our VAs are doingtheir job.
So, in your opinion, what's thebiggest misconception about
hiring a virtual assistant?
Sebastian Wright (40:57):
I think the biggest misconception is that
you know the VA is sort of likea genie and they're gonna,
they're gonna, you know they'regonna, they're gonna fix all
your problems.
You know they, they are a tool.
It's like purchasing a dialer,right Like.
You spend 200 bucks, 300 bucksa month on a dialer.
(41:19):
It could be the fanciest dialerin the world, but if you don't
pick up the phone and utilizethe dialer, it's.
It's a paperweight, it's it'sjust a website, basically.
And it's the same thing with theVA.
You know the VA, um.
They're an extension of you andyour business.
If you and your business haveproblems, your VA is just not
(41:43):
going to fix that.
Your VA has a very specific joband they do that specific job
well and it is a team effort onyour part to make sure that
they're trained and they knowwhat to do.
Yeah, a lot of people think it'sjust a plug and play model,
(42:14):
right wrong.
We provide, you know, the laboressentially, and you provide
the construction equipment.
So again, that's anothermisconception that people think
that you know, hey, the VAs haveall these tools.
We don't have these tools,we're using the tools on your
behalf, basically, and what yourbusiness is providing.
Joseph Marohn (42:37):
Yeah, you, you really have to have your
business business down pat.
You know you have to have asystem in place and then you
know it's just.
It's like when you go work foranother company, right, you're
not going to come in and they'regoing to expect you to redesign
their whole business.
They already have a system inplace.
And then you're just workingfor that company and you're just
trying to help them grow theircompany, right?
So it's the same concept.
Sebastian Wright (42:58):
So, yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't say it any
better um than that, because Imean there are some companies
out there that you need to, youneed to buy all this stuff, but,
um yeah, no, that like like Ican't hone this enough.
You know, the the VA is is isyour employee, they're an
extension of you and and it'sand it's basically how you want
(43:19):
them to conduct your business onyour behalf.
Joseph Marohn (43:23):
Right, and so you know smart investors.
They track data as well astheir average cost per contract.
Any advice for someone new toreal estate on how to measure
the success of a virtualassistant Like?
What kind of KPIs do yourecommend focusing on?
Sebastian Wright (43:40):
So the, the, the ones that I really like
right now, kpi wise, is is whatI'm doing with the the retail
side of it, right, so, and, andthis might work, you know, uh,
the, the investment side.
So, um, every hour of calling,I want, um, I want seven, I want
(44:34):
, I want seven contacts, and acontact really is a contacts per
se.
Well, like, hey, why is thereonly two contacts?
Well, because I wasn't on thedialer.
Or, hey, maybe we need torefresh this list.
It's time to refresh the list.
So, me personally, the sevencontacts and our rule really
(44:56):
really holds a lot of waterbecause we're able to constantly
track that the seven contacts.
You know, out of those sevencontacts, maybe two or three of
them are actually leads, andagain, the leads vary whether
they're warm, hot or nurture.
So that is a KPI that I go byon the retail and I will start
(45:18):
using that KPI for wholesalingand investment side as well.
Joseph Marohn (45:23):
And what about like leads?
Do you have like a minimumrequirement per day that you
want your VAs to hit?
Sebastian Wright (45:29):
You know, I, I was very pro.
You know, hey, I want you tohit, you know, 25 leads, right,
um, and as you, as for me, whatI've, what I've realized, is
like, if, if you say, hey, Iwant, I want 25 leads in a week,
the quality of leads will kindof go down, you know, because
(45:51):
then the VA is really kind oflike they're working hard, but
also that you've you've put intheir mind that they need 25
leads.
So they will just start talkingto just anybody and like
they're like, hey, this lead isa is, is is a lead, because I
need this lead.
It will go into my 25 leads forthe week and it's garbage.
(46:14):
So I've went from okay, insteadof wanting a specific number of
leads each week, I want anumber of conversations each
hour, and that has reallychanged my business quite a bit.
Joseph Marohn (46:30):
Yeah, I think you just hit it right on the head.
You know, we used to have aminimum requirement of leads
that we wanted to hit per day,and what we noticed was when we
were going back into our systemand calling back these leads,
like you just mentioned, theywere trash leads, they weren't
even actual leads, they werejust follow ups.
But you know, we put thispressure on our VAs, were like,
(46:52):
hey, you have to hit eight, 10leads a day.
And so she had it in her mind,you know, like, oh, I got to hit
this number.
I got to hit this numberinstead of just focusing on
having a conversation, like youjust mentioned.
So great point on that.
You know, and and I thinkthat's another common mistake
people make, and even a mistakeI made myself, so we learn from
them, right.
Sebastian Wright (47:11):
Yeah, it's very common and again, too, you
learn from these things.
That's the wonderful thingabout being a business owner is
that, hey, maybe instead ofputting that pressure on a VA or
even yourself, right, it's like, oh hey, if I don't get two
leads by the end of the day, Isuck.
No, it's, maybe you need tokind of research the KPIs that
(47:33):
you actually think are importantto you and then and then
crafting that to your business,because, honestly, um, when I
moved from, how many contacts amI having?
It's, it's really changed my,my business.
Joseph Marohn (47:46):
Absolutely so.
Let's say our VA is notperforming up to our
expectations.
What happens next?
Sebastian Wright (47:55):
Well, are you talking about with VA Depot or
just in general?
Joseph Marohn (47:59):
Let's say well, let's say with VA Depot, what do
you guys do Like if I call youup?
Or if I call out MJ and I say,hey, you know what?
I just got this VA.
I thought she was a great fit.
She's not working out, she'snot a good fit for the company.
What would happen next?
Sebastian Wright (48:17):
So I mean, um, obviously, you know, we, we
want to keep you as a client andwe want to keep you, you know,
satisfied as a client.
You know, we would suggestanother round of of interviews.
Um, and again too, um, we'vehad situations where, you know,
we've had to do this three orfour times because, you know,
people would constantly like aclient would say, hey, yeah, I
(48:37):
thought she would, I thoughtthis VA would work, but it's not
working.
So we are committed to helpingyou find a perfect fit for your
business.
In the event that we cannotfind that perfect VA or
assistant for you, we don't havea contract with you.
(49:01):
And again too that's why wekind of created this business is
ultimate flexibility.
If we're providing a serviceand you're not gaining anything
from that service, you shouldn'tbe locked in.
So we would just part ways.
If there was any refund inorder, we would happily give you
(49:21):
a refund and part the businessrelationship.
Joseph Marohn (49:27):
Great.
And since we're on the subjectof VA Depot, what separates VA
Depot from other VA companies?
Sebastian Wright (49:52):
again for good reason right, it's not for a
lack of reason, but again, to mepersonally, I don't like to get
into contracts, so why should Iexpect my clients to get into
contracts?
And then also, too, we reallywant long-term relationships
with our clients, because thelast thing I want to do is have
a client for like a week andthen they never use our service
again.
So I, I I want to build rapport.
I want to help you know,business owners grow and I we're
(50:16):
we're willing to to help youguys at at any point of your
career, to to really grow yourteam, whether whether you're
starting off with one VA at atpart-time, which is 20 hours, or
you need a whole call center ofVAs at full-time, we're
(50:38):
prepared to help whatever youguys need.
So we love our clients, we wantto help them.
And then also, too, I am a bigbeliever in VAs.
I use VAs.
I started this company becauseI'm just like you guys and you
know I wanted a better qualityVA on tap.
So that's kind of how we'redifferent.
Joseph Marohn (51:00):
Great man, I'm with you on that one.
I'm also for VAs.
You know they have been acrucial component to our
business and they've reallyhelped us scale our business
quite significantly.
So I don't know how I would dowithout them, right?
So good point on that.
Me neither, right so?
But?
But let me ask you this.
So you know we're all awarethat AI is on the rise, right,
(51:22):
and you were seeing, you know,voice cloning.
We're seeing auto text replies,loi generators, all that good
stuff.
There are even companiesoffering AI virtual assistants.
Now it's crazy.
So how do virtual assistantsevolve and adapt to stay
relevant in the real estateindustry in the next five to 10
years?
Sebastian Wright (51:43):
Now, you know there's some scary stuff with AI
.
You know there's just there'sthese voice generators and again
, too, that that is constantly.
You know that that's that'sconstantly going to be there.
You know that that tech andthat business will will grow.
But also, too, I think there'sgoing to be a constant need for
(52:07):
for a live person, because,again, maybe AI might get there,
but it's not quite right thereright now.
You kind of know if you'respeaking to a robot face-to-face
or even on the phone.
Text, on the other hand, is acompletely different story, but
(52:29):
I I still feel that there's aneed for a live person.
Um, I feel that a live personcan kind of think quickly, they
can get the information out andthen capture, you know, whatever
, whatever information they needto to to capture fairly
effectively more than a than aai generated voice right now
yeah, I get cold called by these.
Joseph Marohn (52:51):
I don't know if they're voice clone or AIs or
what, but you know, as you justmentioned, you could tell it's
very robotic and sometimes Ikind of play around with it,
right, I'm asking certainquestions just to see how it
responds and you can tell it'snot.
It's not there yet.
They're.
They're nowhere near yet, butit may be something that we're
facing in the future.
So something to keep in mindfor you guys.
(53:12):
Since you run a, you know, a VAcompany, you may want to keep
in mind of that.
Like, how can we adapt and, youknow, always keep a place in
the real estate industry?
So, yes, but you know,sebastian, you're an investor
yourself.
You obviously see the benefitsof VAs.
Considering you now own a VAcompany, do you mind sharing a
success story on how a VA wasable to help you scale and grow
(53:34):
your business?
Sebastian Wright (53:40):
Man, there's so many stories, but I'll give
you this most recent one rightnow.
So, like I said, I have divedback into the dark side of
retail real estate listings,working with agents and stuff
like that, and this particularagent that we're working for
(54:05):
literally last month went fromzero listings we had, we had
none nothing to about.
Now, fast forward to now.
You know we have close tohopefully, hopefully listing
number six within within a 35,within a 30 day period and close
(54:26):
to two and a half milliondollars worth of production
solely generated by VAs.
Joseph Marohn (54:36):
Two and a half million Wow.
Sebastian Wright (54:38):
That's impressive Production, not gross
commission.
Either way it's stillimpressive.
But property value, yeah, it'sreally impressive.
And it just goes to show if youput the time and the effort
with a virtual assistant you canscale very, very quickly within
(55:00):
a little amount of time 30 days, which is not a lot of time in
the real estate world.
Joseph Marohn (55:05):
Right, it's all on you, right.
It's up to you to train them,to get them up to speed on what
you want them to do properly.
So, absolutely so.
One of the things I really liketo do here on the Real Estate
Unlock podcast is to keepproviding value to the community
by giving them a chance to askquestions along with me, you
know, and one of the questions Ichose today was by Reese Ryan,
(55:27):
and his question was trying tofigure out the best use of a VA
and which part of my businessendeavors I want to expand.
What would be some basicvetting questions to hire
someone, any thoughts onoffshore or domestic and going
with a company or freelancer.
Sebastian Wright (55:47):
Yeah, that's a great question, Obviously, and
that question can be broken downquite a bit.
So, if they want to go througha freelancer, obviously you know
it's kind of like a one anddone type deal.
You kind of have to get, youknow, the freelancer has to get
in touch with you, or you get intouch with the freelancer,
excuse me with a freelancer,excuse me, and then and then you
(56:14):
know, interview them and see ifit works out.
With a company like mine,excuse me.
We provide you multipleopportunities to to interview
VAs and, like we said earlier,if, if, for some, if, for
whatever reason it doesn't workout, we can provide you with
more VAs to interview.
Now, figuring out what specifictasks you might want to hand off
(56:39):
to a VA, that's kind of apersonal thing, you know.
If you feel that, you know youwant to spend less time cold
calling, obviously get that overto a VA.
Maybe you want to expand yoursocial media, maybe you want you
know people to edit stuff foryou.
You know there's VAs for that.
(57:01):
It just really depends on whatyour business needs are.
So, obviously, with us wespecialize in cold calling, we
feel comfortable in cold callingand the clients that reach out
to us have a need to scale theiroutreach.
Joseph Marohn (57:20):
Right, great, great answer, man.
So well, I think we coveredmajority of the benefits on how
a virtual assistant can helpgrow your business, as well as
how to properly train them andwhat things to be aware of.
Is there anything you can thinkof that we might've missed and
didn't cover here today?
Sebastian Wright (57:38):
I don't know, man, we covered a lot.
I mean, again too, I think,when you are ready to hire a VA,
just be open to the process,Because again too, it's an
ever-evolving process and it'snever just like real estate.
(57:58):
I've never had a deal go thesame way ever.
There's always something tothat, and it's same thing with
owning a business and hiringemployees.
It's never the same dayno-transcript.
Joseph Marohn (58:43):
Can people get ahold of you?
Sebastian Wright (58:45):
Man, um, so I, I man, um all the all the
social media, but I'm always onour Instagram VA underscore
depot, and then also, if theywant to send me a message, on
our website, vadepotnet, there'sa section at the bottom that
(59:06):
they can email me.
That comes directly to me andI'd be happy to answer any
questions that you have.
Joseph Marohn (59:16):
So website and our Instagram.
Well, sebastian, it's been anabsolute honor to have you on
the podcast here today.
I think you're doing somethinggreat by not only creating more
jobs for people overseas andbeing able to provide for their
families, but you're alsocreating more opportunities for
new investors to help start uptheir business with very little
overhead costs.
I think VA Depot is setting thestandard on how other VA
companies should operate andmake it simple for us investors
(59:39):
to find quality workers and tohelp us grow our business.
I'm excited to see where youguys go from here and I'll
continue to be a long-termclient myself I'll continue to
be a long-term client myself.
Sebastian Wright (59:50):
Thank you so much, joseph.
And just as a little caveat andhopefully to kind of get people
on their business and their VAjourney, we will provide a promo
code for your listeners, jm562.
They can go to our website,enter the promo code in the
(01:00:11):
promo code box or in the message, in the message section of the
of the email contact form, andthey will receive a fifteen
dollar discount on the admin fee.
We normally, excuse me, wenormally charge fifty dollars,
but we'll cut that down to to 35.
(01:00:31):
I'm I'm terrible at math, as youcan see, but they will.
They will receive that uh, that, that discount if they, if they
put that uh promo code, uhjm562 oh man, I I really
appreciate that, sebastian.
Joseph Marohn (01:00:43):
That's, that's great, great of you to do that
for, uh, for my listeners.
So if you guys want that, youknow how to get it jm562.
So now, if you guys want that,you know how to get it JM562.
So now, if you guys are findingvalue from this episode, don't
forget to show your boy somelove.
It only takes a few seconds tohit that subscribe button.
Don't forget to like this anddrop a comment down below if you
use VAs as well and how it'shelped benefit your business.
(01:01:06):
Appreciate all the continuedsupport and, guys, stay tuned,
because we're pumping theseepisodes out every two weeks.
Not to mention, I've got kevincho from the sub 2 community
coming up next to come and dropsome amazing tips on y'all.
Best believe i'ma keep bringingyou that fire.
Thanks, sebastian, thank you.
Thank you for watching.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!