1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,520 with me on a lot of projects and she's been a client of mine a couple of times. And we 2 00:00:04,520 --> 00:00:10,680 just went through 10 of my different processes. And I was like, here you go. Like, yeah, absolutely. 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,420 You can have that. You can have that. You can have that. And she does the same thing 4 00:00:13,420 --> 00:00:19,120 on her end for things I need. So you've been awesome to me. Love being on your show, man. 5 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:21,760 It was all, it was so well run. 6 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:26,680 Yeah. And you had a meeting with Heather afterwards, right? Did you guys get together? All right, 7 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:27,680 good. 8 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:34,540 It was, it was so good. So just the net we also, oh man, Calvin as well. Calvin, he's 9 00:00:34,540 --> 00:00:39,560 also coming on my show. Thanks to you. And he was on the show with us, Calvin Lingenberg. 10 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:44,840 Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's been, he's been fitness coaching me. It's been awesome. So 11 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:51,000 it's all really nice. Yeah. Okay. Sweet. Yep. So you got the mixer coming up. Tell me about 12 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:55,600 it. So we're going to get a hundred people that have been guests on the show or mega 13 00:00:55,600 --> 00:01:00,760 fans of the guests. They're going to come in and yeah. So of course, all right. Welcome 14 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:06,140 in to vision pros live with Jackson Calame. I'm your show host. We'll be doing interviews 15 00:01:06,140 --> 00:01:14,560 for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic visions out there. 16 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:25,520 Happy Friday, everybody. Welcome in division pros live. I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, 17 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:31,200 founder and CEO of first-class business. And I'm so excited to have Mark Ebinger on this 18 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:36,200 show. He runs a company called Krukas. He is big on virtual assistance and helping people 19 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:40,640 land excellent virtual assistance. And he runs a tight ship for his own podcast that 20 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:45,240 I got to be featured on. He's become a great friend. He's got a business mixer coming up 21 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:50,760 too for guests. Just, and there's so much I've learned from him. He's, he's been doing 22 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:55,520 the show not much longer than I have. And he's already had like 15,000 subscribers. 23 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:59,640 He's just absolutely crushing it with the quality he's putting out there. And it's not 24 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:04,520 just him doing it. It's his virtual assistants that help him in the process. And that's exactly 25 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:08,080 what he does. He helps business owners land great virtual assistants and know how to train 26 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:12,960 them, et cetera. And we're going to be talking a lot about this because we both got extensive 27 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:17,400 backgrounds with virtual assistants and how to win with them and how to not create chaos. 28 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,280 If you've ever hired virtual assistants and you've ended up in that position where you're 29 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:24,560 like, dang, I got a bunch of people who I was really excited to have do things for me, 30 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:29,020 but now my company's on fire in 20 different areas. Then you know what it's like to be 31 00:02:29,020 --> 00:02:33,920 deep in the virtual assistant game. On the flip side, if you're kind of tinkering into 32 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:38,200 it the way I did when I've hired my first person for $3 an hour for one hour a week 33 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:42,920 and I was terrified. Again, this is going to be a very helpful show to help you understand 34 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:46,200 the world of hiring virtual assistants, how to work with them, how to get the most out 35 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:51,160 of it. Before I bring Mark on stage, I do want to give some shout outs to a couple of 36 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:56,080 sponsors real quick. And that would be ColdClick and Simply Fast websites. ColdClick is what 37 00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:02,600 we use for our LinkedIn automation. Now we do use layers for this. We have U-Link that 38 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,560 we utilize. We have this thing called Octopus that goes into that as well. But what Art 39 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:10,940 Hoffman does at ColdClick is also make sure that we're paying attention to the algorithms 40 00:03:10,940 --> 00:03:14,380 and the rules of the game so we can maximize the amount of people that we're getting in 41 00:03:14,380 --> 00:03:19,400 front of while also making sure that our messaging is on point and our audience targeting as 42 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,680 well. He's a good friend of mine. Love collaborating with him on it and I'm happy to invest in 43 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:28,000 his system for our LinkedIn automation purposes. I do recommend you check it out if you are 44 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,640 in a position to scale what it is you're up to. Simply Fast websites is actually the opposite 45 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:38,760 end of the spectrum. I became friends with the owner, Shane, and we started to talk about 46 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:45,880 why it's so important to have quick, affordable websites done for the majority of business 47 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:50,520 owners out there. And I just really liked his passion. So he didn't pay me to put him 48 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:55,680 up here. I was just like, man, it's really cool to have something in between the Wix 49 00:03:55,680 --> 00:04:00,440 and the Squarespace and the free versions of websites and getting somebody to guide 50 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:04,140 you who knows a little bit more about the process and can help you come up with the 51 00:04:04,140 --> 00:04:09,040 concept of what you want for websites starting $179. And the reason again why I mentioned 52 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:13,400 this is before I built First Class Business and I built my first website, had I had somebody 53 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,520 who was willing to help me for 179 bucks and that was it. That's exactly what I would have 54 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:22,280 done in my first launch of my website. I would have just paid him. I would have given him 55 00:04:22,280 --> 00:04:25,960 some information, whatever he needed, however simple it was going to be. Knowing I'm not 56 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:30,280 going to compete with Nike.com, I would have said, hey, Shane, man, just make me something 57 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:33,640 170 bucks. Here's the concept. And I would have been very happy with whatever he put 58 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,480 out there. So if you're in that type of style of building for your business and you're just 59 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:42,240 getting started, it's a phenomenal resource. Next, the water project. Every single one 60 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:46,800 of us that's listening to this right now has a tremendous amount of blessings. We wouldn't 61 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:50,400 be listening to this podcast if we didn't. So I love to mention the water project. Please, 62 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:54,040 if you have the opportunity to give back, these are people who do not have access to 63 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:58,200 clean drinking water, something you and I probably take for granted every day. And you 64 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:02,880 get to see which project, which community you're actually contributing to. And you get 65 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:07,440 to see the fulfillment of that take place because they document the process. So it's 66 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:13,000 a fantastic way to give back. If that sparks any ire, if that sparks in your heart like, 67 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:17,800 dang, I wish he would talk about this cause, drop the link right now. Go ahead and drop 68 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:21,080 it for us. And we'll take a look at that too. There's a lot of people who need a lot of 69 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:25,360 help in this world. This is just our opportunity to make a little bit of a dent helping the 70 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:30,260 8 billion who have tremendous needs out there. So without further ado, I'm going to bring 71 00:05:30,260 --> 00:05:36,460 Mark Ebinger on board. Cynthia will, will show you what's going on his LinkedIn page, 72 00:05:36,460 --> 00:05:42,280 what Krukas is about. And also we're going to look at his show, satalkradio.com. Let's 73 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:47,240 talk business with some of San Antonio's best business gurus. But without further ado, let's 74 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:51,800 talk Mark's vision. Mark, thank you so much for being on vision pros live with me today, 75 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:52,800 man. This is awesome. 76 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:57,600 Thanks, man. Great to be here. I really like your setup and very professional world-class 77 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:02,880 man. Good job. Thanks brother. Appreciate that. Mark, I've talked about virtual assistants, 78 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:06,640 talked about business ownership. You've got a lot of experience in both. You also got 79 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:11,300 experience as a former policeman. Thank you for your service with that. Who should be 80 00:06:11,300 --> 00:06:17,300 listening today and why should they listen to you? Well, I think people that are in entrepreneurship 81 00:06:17,300 --> 00:06:22,560 and small business owners, we are, we want the same thing, right? We want to have success 82 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:26,560 and we don't want to be overwhelmed by the process. We want to enjoy the process. We 83 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:31,900 want our wives to be happy with this, right? You know, it's like that happy wife, happy 84 00:06:31,900 --> 00:06:36,560 life thing. It's very real, right? I've been married 35 years now. Same woman when you're 85 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:40,840 a cop, you have to say that kind of stuff, right? You have to qualify. I've been married 86 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:45,320 twice in 35 years. I got a lot to learn from you. Wow. Yeah. I think what we're always 87 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:49,120 learning, right? Being married is an imperfect science, right? We're always kind of figuring 88 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:54,680 out as we go. But so is entrepreneurship. You know, it's a lot of us don't understand what 89 00:06:54,680 --> 00:07:00,420 we're getting into. I was a cop for 30 years and then now I want to be an entrepreneur. 90 00:07:00,420 --> 00:07:06,640 Totally different ball game, right? It's a completely different world. You know, I think 91 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:11,240 when people think about entrepreneurship, what they're really thinking is job ownership, 92 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:17,280 right? Well, when I decided to get into, to start a business around being on radio, when 93 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:23,880 I was on KTSA at the time, I wanted to build a company, not a job for myself. So I had 94 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:28,400 to start correctly. I mean, of course we all have to hustle, but then I wanted to actually, 95 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:34,360 I had a plan to build around that, which requires different sacrifices, different strategies 96 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,780 and so forth. So yeah, that's kind of how I got into this whole thing. It was a transition 97 00:07:38,780 --> 00:07:45,080 from the job world into the business world, the entrepreneurial world, and now the company 98 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:49,480 building world. My slogan when I go out and about and I'm networking, which I do a lot 99 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,840 of because I promote the show and myself quite a bit, is that I'm turned job owners into 100 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:57,680 business owners. And that's really what I believe down to the core. 101 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:03,360 I like that. Turning job owners into business owners. Let's talk about that vision in a 102 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:08,320 little bit more depth too. So what's your vision for those that you serve? 103 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:16,880 So myself, I'm a product of the service. It's like, look, if you're going to get into this 104 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:27,160 world, it's nice to have a hand on, and I think a really good qualified hand up into 105 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:31,040 getting the leverage that we all really need in order to have a successful business. So 106 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:36,720 my perfect client, the person that I'm looking to serve is somebody that is, they want to 107 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:41,040 grow. They're progressive thinking when it comes to what they want to do with their company 108 00:08:41,040 --> 00:08:45,760 and the fact that they don't want to paint themselves into a corner and then get stuck. 109 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:51,680 I can't take a vacation, right? I can't, it's like, if I get sick, everything's going to 110 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:56,920 fall apart around me. So that's very, very stressful. But in order to do that, you have 111 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:03,280 to understand leverage. So you need to have a mindset that's accepting of leverage and 112 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:08,960 then just kind of build it around there. And that's what I kind of help do is access to 113 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:16,320 the world of virtual assistance, which is leverage using employees at a very affordable 114 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:24,600 rate and with a lot less red tape. It doesn't require the complexities associated with hiring 115 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:31,320 here in the United States. It lowers the bar of entry so that we can go in and we can get 116 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:34,980 our feet on the ground and go, because I would have never been able to, I have 19 full-time 117 00:09:34,980 --> 00:09:40,160 employees right now. I would never have been able to build that having to hire here in 118 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:46,440 the United States. So not even close. That's what, and I've been through, I've taken the 119 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:51,300 bumps, I've gotten the black guys, I've done the things and I've learned a lot since I've 120 00:09:51,300 --> 00:09:55,560 been doing this. So when I meet entrepreneurs out there that are hungry for that growth, 121 00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:59,280 they don't know how to do it. And I'm here, I'm right here in San Antonio. I'm a real 122 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:05,320 person. It's like, I mean, I'm out there, my name, everything is tied to my name. It's 123 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,960 like, I want to make sure that I provide the best service possible. So I think that's what 124 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:14,020 I would be looking for. So that when I say I'm looking to serve people like myself, that's 125 00:10:14,020 --> 00:10:15,020 what I mean. 126 00:10:15,020 --> 00:10:21,200 I love that. You nailed it. There's so many avenues I want to go down. We won't have time 127 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:25,800 to go down them all, but this game of virtual assistance and hiring and hiring in the States 128 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:30,560 versus hiring outside of the States and all that, there's so much depth that needs to 129 00:10:30,560 --> 00:10:35,960 be talked about in order to learn holistically what are the strengths, what are the weaknesses, 130 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:40,840 what are the opportunities and what are the threats that we face on both sides of that 131 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:49,120 equation as entrepreneurs. And so, you mentioned one, people who can't take a vacation. I was 132 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:54,420 that entrepreneur. Fortunately, I started my entrepreneurship when I was 21. And so 133 00:10:54,420 --> 00:11:00,720 I've been doing this a long time, but after having a few kids and being in a startup world 134 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:07,320 where we didn't have, I had one Saturday off per month. I was on call for that Saturday. 135 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:13,280 That was it. We were grinding tooth and nail to try to move things forward. Had a couple 136 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:17,600 virtual assistants, had people in the States too, blah, blah, blah. I transitioned from 137 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:22,800 that to being able to take a 41 day road trip up to California coastline with my family 138 00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:28,520 and work while doing it. That was a massive shift and change in lifestyle. 139 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:35,440 You also mentioned that you've been there. You also had to figure out all of the scary 140 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:41,600 things that come along with hiring virtual assistants as well. And those exist. It's 141 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:46,920 kind of like leaving your candy bowl and Halloween out on the front porch and saying, please 142 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:54,680 take one and go. If you don't have any protections for that, first teenager that comes along, 143 00:11:54,680 --> 00:12:00,880 dumps the bowl and takes it and is gone. There are ways you can do that though. You can set 144 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:06,040 that up for protections. Well, it's expensive when that's a $20,000 lesson for your business 145 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:13,600 or a $200,000 lesson with a VA that you thought was going to change your life, but you didn't 146 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:17,440 know what you didn't know about that experience. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? 147 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:22,560 I'd love for you to tell me, do you have any horror stories entrepreneurs have been through 148 00:12:22,560 --> 00:12:27,320 with VAs or any protections that you want to make sure they know it? 149 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:32,260 So really, I think the core part here that I'm definitely getting out of your conversation 150 00:12:32,260 --> 00:12:38,800 is the trap of abdication too soon. Is that, hey, you know what? I've got my VA, cool. 151 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:41,920 They're going to go do all the stuff for me and then I'm going to go do this. And it's 152 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:50,440 like, no, no, no, no, no. You have to train them up. They have to earn your trust. So 153 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,880 it's still work. It's just a different kind of work. 154 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:59,280 Let me flip that for us a little bit too real quick, because doesn't that same exact trap 155 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:03,280 happen with United States employees as well? 156 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:08,240 Oh, it's absolutely. It's true across the board. Well, it's worse because the costs 157 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:13,680 are higher and the frustration, the aggravation, the red tape is higher. Right? 158 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:20,440 Small claims court is right there. Workers is right there. You are way up here. The risk 159 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:26,680 on hiring international is down here. The risk on hiring in the United States is up 160 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:32,360 here, which is fine. Look, if that's your game, you want to go all in on hiring in the 161 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,680 United States for that kind of stuff because you have your reasons. Cool. The risk is just 162 00:13:35,680 --> 00:13:43,080 higher. Wasn't for me. For me, I wanted to do it lower, but still I was meeting minimum 163 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:48,400 twice a day and really throughout the day with my virtual assistant as I'm training 164 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:54,520 her up in the ways that I needed to do the things that I needed to get done. The abdication 165 00:13:54,520 --> 00:14:01,320 is the trap. Do not fall into the abdication trap too soon. Now that same VA that was the 166 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:07,080 first one I hired more than a year ago, she's my operations officer and she's running a 167 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:12,840 good portion of the company now. Right? So there's things that I have abdicated, at least 168 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:16,840 a significant portion. You never walk completely away from the company, at least I haven't 169 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:21,400 yet, but there's a lot of things that she does and she's making sure that she's holding 170 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:26,600 all of these people accountable. So, but I earned that through time, sweat, blood and 171 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:31,060 tears. Right? That's right. So that's the thing that I think that if anybody's thinking 172 00:14:31,060 --> 00:14:37,680 about getting into hiring employees of any kind, but especially in the virtual world, 173 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:43,320 you want to be careful about abdicating too soon. Throwing too much trust too fast is 174 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:46,560 going to be something that can get you in trouble across a lot of things, whether it's 175 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:52,800 cybersecurity or whether it's finances or whether it's customer interactions or billing 176 00:14:52,800 --> 00:15:00,000 or whatever that stuff is, you have to keep an eye on it. Right. A big reason why people 177 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:04,280 work with recruiting agencies, when I say people, great companies, a big reason why 178 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,480 they work with them is because they already have a pool of talent they've been assessing 179 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:12,520 for a very, very long time. They have built relationships of trust with those types of 180 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:17,020 individuals and that's what you have. You know, as somebody who provides virtual assistance 181 00:15:17,020 --> 00:15:23,720 to others is if I, I could hire somebody for, you know, $3 an hour, you know, or, or even 182 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:31,240 less in different countries and take the risk of doing that by myself on Fiverr or on Upwork, 183 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:38,720 et cetera, or I can turn to you and I might pay $8 an hour or $10 an hour for somebody. 184 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:45,320 But what I'm investing in the gap that's bridged there, even if you got the same rate of $3 185 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:51,400 or $4 is the fact that you've done all that vetting for me. You have helped me make sure 186 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:57,760 that that person is qualified to do the work and I can turn to you and talk to you about 187 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:01,000 anything related to the working relationship. I've got some quality assurance built into 188 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:06,480 that. I mean, I don't mean to advocate and push what you do, but I guess it's just, it's 189 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:11,580 so invaluable when, when you don't realize that you have no idea what you're missing 190 00:16:11,580 --> 00:16:15,680 out on. So let's move, let's move gears a little bit. Now that I've pitched for you, 191 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:19,520 Mark, what's your vision as a human being? What do you want to see for yourself over 192 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,800 the next, it can be five years, 500 years. 193 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:29,400 Well, so definitely embedded into the San Antonio business community is a goal of mine, 194 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:35,880 not just in the B2B part, but also the B2C, the community part, right? It's the, you know, 195 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:40,560 that we get a lot of nonprofit folks that come on the show. I say a lot. I mean, we've 196 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:45,680 had a number of nonprofits that come on the show. Of course, we know how he, Nistel is 197 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:51,080 on the show regularly every week and he'll usually talk about some kind of nonprofit 198 00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:56,140 thing that's going on. So is there a nonprofit he's not involved in? There's probably a couple, 199 00:16:56,140 --> 00:17:01,040 but it's just give him time, right? He'll get there. But the idea is that we're, you 200 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:09,440 know, developing a legacy for my family in a way that we're part of the San Antonio community 201 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:15,240 on the business level, on the community level, you know, being human with the, the city in 202 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:22,800 which we live, I think is a big deal. But also, you know, being available, having that 203 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:28,960 time to spend with my family. Now, people who get involved in entrepreneurship may feel 204 00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:33,760 like, Hey, I'm going to get all this free time, but it's completely the opposite, right? 205 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,760 You're actually going to give up a lot of free time unless you plan for that, which 206 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:42,600 is what I did when I started. It's all about structuring in a way that I can get my, you 207 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:47,240 put in the time and then you trade the money for building the organization. Then you build 208 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:50,480 the organization that you get your time and you get the money in the end. That's how it's 209 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:54,920 supposed to work when you build a company. And that's what my path is. So that I'll have 210 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:59,880 that time to spend with my family and enjoy things like vacations and whatnot, and be 211 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:05,160 able to give back to the community, not just in, you know, podcast and community and networking, 212 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:09,480 but also in treasures, you know, at the appropriate time. 213 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:15,200 Absolutely. I appreciate you highlighting that too. You had that vision in mind of what 214 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:21,040 you wanted for your family. And, you know, you can open different types of businesses 215 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:25,600 that can facilitate that or that can completely inhibit that. You know, it depends. Are you 216 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:31,040 going to be traveling worldwide for what it is that you do that can perhaps inhibit your 217 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:36,360 ability to be there for the family? Are you open to virtual agency? It's not guaranteed 218 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:40,040 that that's going to create the time freedom. You have to be very intentional with that 219 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:44,640 process. So well said. I also love the idea of, you know, just making sure that you're 220 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:49,360 intentionally building within the community, you know, within which you live. That's pretty 221 00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:56,560 cool. And we got a pretty large community in the small town of San Antonio, Texas. So 222 00:18:56,560 --> 00:19:02,780 let's switch gears to a darker subject for a minute. What has been your worst business 223 00:19:02,780 --> 00:19:04,780 experience ever? 224 00:19:04,780 --> 00:19:09,920 So fortunately, I haven't had like any devastating moments, right, where I lost everything and 225 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:14,400 I lost my house and things like that, right. But I've had a couple of bad experiences with 226 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:19,240 virtual assistants that was, you know, you put your, you hire somebody and you think 227 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:24,520 this is a great person. They've got a great personality. But, you know, you went into 228 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:28,300 it and maybe you didn't really kind of understand the personality type and you didn't match 229 00:19:28,300 --> 00:19:35,960 him to the job properly. And then, or it's still a good fit. You get in. Yep. And then, 230 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:40,080 then they're, they're ghosting you and they're not showing up. It's just very, very quickly 231 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:45,900 that can happen. So I've been through one of those that was a really bad experience. 232 00:19:45,900 --> 00:19:50,320 And you know, if for somebody who's new to virtual assistant staffing, something like 233 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:53,400 that could wipe them out, right? They'd be like, you know what, I'm done. That's it. 234 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:58,440 I'm never going back. That was a really bad experience. A nightmare. And if it's in the 235 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:05,080 United States, oh my gosh, that would have been so much worse. But here I was able to, 236 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:11,360 you know, terminate that relationship and, and come out on top and fine. And in, in like, 237 00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:16,560 in a way that, Hey, I made sure that she was paid even for the time that she didn't show 238 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:20,560 up because I didn't want to fight it all out, right? Cause we've been there. We don't want 239 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:26,480 the whole hassle and the bad rap and all that, but it was still nothing compared to what 240 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:30,240 it would have been if it had been the United States. So I've been through that and that 241 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:35,680 can happen. And that's another reason why I understand from the entrepreneur side, it's 242 00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:41,040 like being a product of the services, I can help my clients through that process. It's 243 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,580 like, Oh, it's okay. I've got your back. We know how to deal with this kind of situation. 244 00:20:45,580 --> 00:20:50,120 And then that way they don't sink by themselves. They've got a support system and structure 245 00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:56,480 there's a reason why I have two full time HR people that work to make sure that my clients 246 00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:02,680 are covered basically 15 hours a day on stuff. It's like, if there's a problem, we can help 247 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:06,760 them and we can work on it for a long time to make sure that we get a lot of man hours 248 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:13,480 on that. So yeah, that's probably that scary part of virtual assistant staffing. That's 249 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:19,680 it. But I have never let anybody into my finances. We don't have any risks there, that kind of 250 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:24,040 stuff I haven't been taken for anything or cybersecurity issues. I haven't had any of 251 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:29,920 that thankfully. So, but that was probably the worst experience that we've had. 252 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:35,460 I hear you doubling down a little bit on that or kind of magnifying the stories. One thing 253 00:21:35,460 --> 00:21:43,040 I would say is in business and my business, there's no place for ego. It doesn't matter 254 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:48,680 what country you're from. What matters is do we get the job done? What mattered is are 255 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:55,040 we serving each other? Are we showing up? You know, love, patience, persistence, consistency, 256 00:21:55,040 --> 00:22:01,520 reliability, those are our virtues. And so this isn't about hiring here versus hiring 257 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:06,000 somewhere else. I'm not an advocate on either side, I'm an advocate for finding the right 258 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:12,760 people. Again, you mentioned that risk. I had a best friend who came and worked with 259 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:18,600 me. And next thing you know, it became very apparent very fast. Not only were they writing 260 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:27,240 our coattails, they were also, they were a bad apple in terms of their attitude was just 261 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:32,560 bad enough to bring everybody down a little bit, but not bad enough to dismiss them. You 262 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:37,360 know, and say, hey, you're ruining everything. We had to work with it. And within a couple 263 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:45,020 months, we had to let her go. And now we end up with a worker comp complaint and a threat 264 00:22:45,020 --> 00:22:51,400 for a small business lawsuit. You don't get that outside the states and the international 265 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:57,880 territories. You don't have to deal with that type of a risk at that level. Meanwhile, flip 266 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:06,760 side, we had a VA at one of my companies and the VA was so good, it seemed on the surface 267 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:12,400 that I was going to negotiate an equity deal for her for this brand. So we did, we started 268 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,920 to get into that process, but I needed to see her process in order to do it. She gave 269 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:20,800 me access to the processes and within about a week, I began to see that all of her reports 270 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:28,280 were fabricated. She had over 20 virtual assistants working with her and they were all providing 271 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:32,700 these reports to the business owner, but he was delegating by abdication. He wasn't looking 272 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:35,800 at what was actually happening, whether the clients, and so the clients were getting results 273 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:40,560 and he wasn't understanding why she was lying. She was just making all these numbers up in 274 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:46,080 these reports. And so we then had to address that very carefully, as carefully as we could, 275 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:50,520 knowing that we're about to set the whole house on fire as we had to shift to another 276 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,080 one of our virtual assistant teams, and she made the other virtual assistant team very 277 00:23:54,080 --> 00:24:00,040 happy. But these realities happen in business all the time, whether it's your brother who's 278 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:05,360 in Bezley money, or whether it's somebody in a foreign country who's doing things. We 279 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:10,120 just have to be smart enough to look at how can we protect ourselves in the processes 280 00:24:10,120 --> 00:24:15,640 as we grow, and we can't live in fear. So let's move on to the brighter side of business. 281 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:19,520 What have been some of your best experiences in business? 282 00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:25,200 So I did want to address when you're talking about some of the reasons why we, you know, 283 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:30,120 virtual assistants and outside the US versus inside the US, and there's arguments all the 284 00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:33,720 way around it. And I love all of those too, right? And it's nice in the United States 285 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:38,080 to have the freedom to have those kinds of arguments, right? But there's wins all the 286 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:45,200 way around. But see, as a as an entrepreneur, it is there's a wrote down competition, but 287 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:51,120 it's not just competition. It's it's competition, not like in me versus you, but as in being 288 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:57,760 competitive in the marketplace, right? Which means if I can lower my like take a handyman 289 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:02,040 company, for example, right? And let's say that they need to administrative staff people 290 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:05,640 to handle all of the admin work and all of the phone work and everything else, right? 291 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:11,960 Well, they can get that done for a third of the cost of actually hiring the United States 292 00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:20,840 for that. That leaves money for the tradespeople, right? So now he can hire really good tradespeople, 293 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:24,520 really good equipment, right? So that money gets reallocated somewhere. So it's about 294 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:31,000 being competitive. It's not just about, hey, I just want more money for my SUV. That's 295 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:35,120 not what you don't get into entrepreneurship. So you can have a better SUV, right? That's 296 00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:41,080 we're usually solving problems, but we want to be competitive in our space. We want to 297 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:47,000 win in those spaces so that, you know, we are really good handyman company. Well, you 298 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,520 do that with more money, right? And more money is is how do you allocate those resources 299 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:56,480 properly? Right. So that's that's the thing. And then you mentioned something I wrote down 300 00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:02,600 bad apples. So bad apples, and they can you get one bad one, they can spoil a bunch, right? 301 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:07,120 And I actually your story is a little bit different than what my initial thought was 302 00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:13,060 when I wrote that down. But here's my thought on that is that if you bring a bad employee 303 00:26:13,060 --> 00:26:20,960 into a weak environment, okay, you're in for trouble. Okay. Over the last year or year 304 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:27,840 plus that I've been doing virtual staffing, I have created a really good hub of folks 305 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:32,360 that work really, really good together, call the squad, whatever you want to call it. But 306 00:26:32,360 --> 00:26:37,640 if we get somebody and we did, we got somebody that there is just a little off wasn't bad 307 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:43,480 wasn't a bad apple was a little off. But the core group picked up on it, right. And then 308 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:48,280 they were able to maintain until the other one until that employee was eventually dismissed, 309 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:54,080 right. But it's like, have a good core wherever you're at and do not advocate, we're back 310 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:58,960 to abdication game, but don't advocate too soon. Because then you make your system weak 311 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:03,600 and vulnerable to that bad apple. Dude, well said. And that's, that's hard for 312 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:07,920 the startups in the world. I mean, that's one of the biggest challenges of growth is 313 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:13,120 you get to a point where you can kind of scale. Right. And you can, if you have a small culture 314 00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:19,240 built around a small few, then when you add in three to the few or five to the few at 315 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:23,100 once, right, you're, you're bringing them into an unknown environment. Now there's five 316 00:27:23,100 --> 00:27:29,640 new personalities who can make dramatic shifts to how things are going within your organization. 317 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:34,200 So you also just, you, you kind of, that's why Elon Musk said, man, starting a company 318 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:39,760 is like eating glass, take somebody crazy to do it. You know, it's, it's hard. Reed 319 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:43,820 Hoffman, man, it's, he said, Reed Hoffman of LinkedIn said, it's like pushing a plane 320 00:27:43,820 --> 00:27:46,280 off of a cliff and repairing it while it's going down. 321 00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:50,960 Oh, you know, I'll do one better how he, so we do this thing called how he isms on our 322 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:56,680 podcast. He talked about, he said, it's like, you know, jump and not having a plan, right? 323 00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:00,120 It wasn't entrepreneurship, but I liked the entrepreneurship spin. It's like jumping out 324 00:28:00,120 --> 00:28:04,800 of an airplane and stitching your parachute together on the way down. Now I'm going to, 325 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,560 that's how he, Nistel, I don't know if he told, stole it from somewhere. 326 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:13,880 I mean, that's, that's Reed Hoffman's just shifted a little bit. So, and that's how we 327 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:19,040 all do. That's what we all do. So R and D is how he says that's where we met, right? 328 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:26,400 Rip off and duplicate. So I'll add rip off, duplicate and improve. So mine's RDI, but 329 00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:32,720 whatever. I love it. RDI is better. I like that. So yeah, with that, with, with all that 330 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:36,360 said, let's dive into that those best business experiences. 331 00:28:36,360 --> 00:28:43,000 Yeah. So I'll tell you what I like to brag on my folks, right? Because they are a really 332 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:54,320 good crew, super kind, very diligent and tenacious, which is what you need. But when you have, 333 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,620 you know, clients go through difficulties, right? And sometimes the clients are so busy 334 00:28:58,620 --> 00:29:04,360 that they can't really properly develop their virtual assistant, right? They need some help 335 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:09,920 with that. And that's why having like my company provides that HR and that accountability layer 336 00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,680 in there that can really help keep everything on track, right? Making sure they're clocking 337 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:16,720 in and clocking out and doing all the things that are supposed to be doing, make sure the 338 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:21,880 clients happy and all of that is really, really good so that the business owner can continue 339 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:28,000 to focus. But what I love to see is that they're following along that the instructions are 340 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:33,000 given, they're following along, making sure that things get done. And then there's this, 341 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,800 I've got your back mentality with, we're not going to let things fall off, be just because 342 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:43,400 the owner forgets to do them. And we do that, right? I mean, we got this long checklist 343 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:48,440 of things to do. I'm kind of doing that with, you know, some, you know, a service that I've 344 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,080 got going in. It's like, I've got homework, but I don't get to it. But when you have virtual 345 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:58,240 assistants and they just make sure those appointments are set, those follow ups are done so that 346 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:04,880 you don't miss stuff and everything's organized on your calendar, it is such a weight off 347 00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:10,800 of your shoulders. You know what I mean? So it's like conceptually, right? That the idea 348 00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:14,640 of having an executive assistant, if you're a business owner out there and you've never 349 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:19,480 had an executive assistant and you do feel like you're overwhelmed by the day to day 350 00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:25,360 tasks, I remember sitting here and my wife walked in, it was, I hired my second virtual 351 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:31,240 assistant by that point. And I told her, I said, I just, I did not realize how overwhelmed 352 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:37,080 and busy I was. It's just because of the mental bandwidth, it's like constantly going. You 353 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:41,440 don't have a whole lot of downtime. When you get that executive assistant that can come 354 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:47,080 in and take care of all the busy work stuff that needs to get done, super important. And 355 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:52,080 maybe they even bring a higher skill level at it so that you're more organized, right? 356 00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:56,420 I mean, my appointment reminders go out and I have nothing to do with them. And everybody 357 00:30:56,420 --> 00:31:00,280 just thinks I'm on top of the world and I'm on top of everything, right? Which is awesome. 358 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:06,520 That's, I love that. But that mental bandwidth, my man, when you get that back, you don't 359 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:10,780 want to ever get back to that situation again. You learn leverage and the importance of leverage 360 00:31:10,780 --> 00:31:14,080 very quickly and you don't want to ever let it go. 361 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:19,520 I love that. And it's, it's taken me years to get to where I'm at with that. And I still 362 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:24,160 have a long way to go, right? My name is Jeff Bezos. Maybe I'll, I'll, I'll stop saying 363 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,900 that, but I doubt it. We got to, we got to keep progressing, right? We got opportunities 364 00:31:27,900 --> 00:31:32,720 and it's, it's not about creating more busy. Like you said, and, and I'm not ashamed to 365 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:40,000 admit that I love capitalism. I love the ability to make sure that I can, I can grow my family's 366 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:47,580 lifestyle and my legacy as large as I'm, I'm able to, as long as, as large as I want to 367 00:31:47,580 --> 00:31:53,440 at the same time. And that's, that, that can, that can coexist with everyone having abundance. 368 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:57,160 It's not about controlling somebody else or making somebody else small. It's just about, 369 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,580 wow, I want great things in my life and so should you, we all should listen into this. 370 00:32:01,580 --> 00:32:07,880 So with that said, when it comes to these virtual assistants, my first few years of 371 00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:13,680 trying to work with a virtual assistant, I made the grand mistake of trying to get them 372 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:18,760 to do the things I didn't want to do or trying to get them to do the things like, oh yeah, 373 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:26,380 they'll easily be able to write my birthday cards for me. They'll easily be able to manage 374 00:32:26,380 --> 00:32:31,200 my email inbox. Dude, that is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to train somebody to 375 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:36,440 do. Cause I'm particular with how I email. Oh yeah. Wow. That doesn't work for me. I 376 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:41,640 needed somebody to help me with the podcast, right? I needed somebody to help me with building 377 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:47,000 landing pages for businesses, but you have, you do have to define these elements very, 378 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,400 very well in order to help people. Otherwise I call the VA's, I call what you're doing 379 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:57,720 to a VA virtual abuse. It's not virtual assistant. You're just causing somebody else drama by 380 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:01,240 making them do your things and you're blaming them for not doing it as well as you. And 381 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:08,000 it's just kind of nasty. So how do you go about outsmarting the process of overworking? 382 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,200 That's how we title this and you're kind of an expert on this. So I'd love to get your 383 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:16,320 insight. Fix the world, Mark. I definitely want to, you know, kind of come in on the 384 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:20,240 back of what you're saying there about how, you know, and it's touching on abdication 385 00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:25,800 again, just slightly where folks are eager to get rid of a task and they're forgetting 386 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:31,320 that the people that they're talking to or that they're working with are human beings. 387 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:38,520 They're not easy to forget. It is. I mean, I'm so guilty of that. They're not software 388 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:44,200 as a service. They're not AI, right? They're human beings and there's, there, there, you 389 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:49,800 have to nurture those relationships as you would any, like if you're going to work somewhere, 390 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,360 you're going to be, Hey, how are you doing this morning? How's the family? We have a 391 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:58,960 channel on our, where everybody meets, right? And we have a whole bunch of channels, right? 392 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:04,320 But one of them is called Weekend Fun, right? And this is where people are dropping pictures 393 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:08,720 of their kids and what they're doing on the weekends and that kind of stuff, right? So 394 00:34:08,720 --> 00:34:15,880 it's like, don't forget to be a person. If you can remember that and picture yourself 395 00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:20,840 in that role. Now we're all busy and we're moving fast as entrepreneurs. I get it. So 396 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:24,600 like when we hire for a client, it's like, okay, well, if you want somebody who can do 397 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:28,200 email management, let's look for somebody who's got five years of email management experience 398 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:32,840 and they can get up going up and going quickly, right? But they still have to learn your secret 399 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,980 sauce and what you want and all that kind of stuff. But they've got the functionality 400 00:34:35,980 --> 00:34:39,720 down there, mature in that area so they can get going quickly, right? That's where we 401 00:34:39,720 --> 00:34:44,320 can help with that kind of a situation. And the VA can be up and going quickly because 402 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:48,040 we've matching the right person, the right job and all that kind of stuff, right? But 403 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:54,680 you can't run away from it too quickly. You have to nurture that relationship. And then 404 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:58,440 when I coach people on who are interested in, hey, I want to hire a virtual assistant, 405 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:02,980 and I'm like, okay, let's walk through this because it's a long-term relationship, right? 406 00:35:02,980 --> 00:35:06,780 This is not a three-month deal. You really want to bring somebody in for the long term. 407 00:35:06,780 --> 00:35:10,120 If you're looking to hire somebody for a special project or something like that, we can do 408 00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:13,880 that as well. And we can go into that knowing that's the situation as long as it's a good 409 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,840 fit. But ideally, we're looking to place somebody for a long time. 410 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:22,080 And I don't think that works mostly. I mean, I guess at corporate companies, they can come 411 00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:28,060 in and hire you. But when you're a newer company, the only reason you're thinking that way is 412 00:35:28,060 --> 00:35:32,800 because you're being cheap. It's going to be real with you. If you're a newer company, 413 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:36,300 you think you have a one-off project, no. That one-off project is going to come back 414 00:35:36,300 --> 00:35:40,760 and back and back again. And you're just trying to cut corners and you're trying to cut costs. 415 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,840 Or you're immature in your thinking, right? You could just maybe not know, right? Either 416 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:49,000 you're trying to be cheap or you just aren't really aware that, hey, I just want somebody 417 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:52,120 to build a website for me and whatever, but you don't really understand that it's going 418 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,920 to take SEO optimization over a long period of time. Probably should go for the long haul 419 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:59,220 and to make sure you can multipurpose them when they're not doing SEO, right? That's 420 00:35:59,220 --> 00:36:03,000 just long-term thinking that they may be educated. 421 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:08,520 That's all there is to it. You're just a little nicer about the process, but that immature 422 00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:15,400 thinking often, when you're an adult, that has come by creating selfish behavior sets 423 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:21,000 within yourself. And I'm guilty, dude. I know this. I was 30 when I was finally figuring 424 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:26,080 this stuff out. I'm like, wow, wow, I really should have been paying attention sooner to 425 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:31,060 everybody else's feelings and how everybody else thinks about things. You talk about thinking 426 00:36:31,060 --> 00:36:37,760 about having the relationship and nurturing it. I knew the concept of nurturing, but as 427 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:42,840 an entrepreneur, I wasn't practicing it. I had a wall there that I had to get past and 428 00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:47,400 realize, oh, okay, this applies to these relationships too, not just my family. 429 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:48,400 That's right. 430 00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:50,120 Takes some of us time to turn that flip on. 431 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:56,920 You know what? And there's a lot more joy in that too, Jackson. When you have good relationships 432 00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:04,000 with your VAs, your employees, wherever you're at, it feels good. We actually set up a deal 433 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:10,160 where we sent an award. One of our employees had reached that one-year mark. We had a plaque 434 00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:14,880 made up in the Philippines. We organized the whole thing through our HR team to send her 435 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:18,720 over a plaque for her one-year anniversary. We got another one that's coming up, a one-year 436 00:37:18,720 --> 00:37:25,720 anniversary. I think it's next month. That's awesome, dude. It feels good. They appreciate 437 00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:27,520 that kind of stuff. 438 00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:35,880 And then emergencies come up, family member stuff, whatever, things come up. And then 439 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:42,120 when you treat them kindly, it's like, yes, take the time off. Even if you need them, 440 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:46,000 go be with your family, go to the hospital. Somebody died, somebody's at the hospital, 441 00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:50,800 whatever the issue is. I had a guy had an earthquake in his town. It's like, deal with 442 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:55,520 what's going on. I get it, but be human. And that feels good. It's awesome. 443 00:37:55,520 --> 00:38:02,000 Well, you used an important word that we don't, as human beings, we dive too often. You said 444 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:08,340 need. You said we don't need them. You don't. You don't need them. You want them. We want 445 00:38:08,340 --> 00:38:13,080 to tell ourselves we need them. But if they had a family emergency, they need to be with 446 00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:16,720 their family more than you need them. 447 00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:20,200 And I love that, I'll give all reference back to Howie. He talks about, we're not going 448 00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:25,000 to war. We don't have anybody dying today. We're not working in a hospital in the emergency 449 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:31,800 room. We need to chill out and recognize that there's a balance to be had in business. And 450 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:37,400 it comes back to if we want to have the feelings that you're talking about, Mark. So I believe 451 00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:41,840 in the awards aspects. I believe in taking the time to understand people's passions. 452 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:47,840 We on Fridays, by the way, our team does a what's called a level up, calm down meeting. 453 00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:52,920 So level up, calm down happens every Friday. We have an hour and a half meeting and it's 454 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:56,840 kind of like the virtual break room for our team. So we come in, we're not allowed to 455 00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:01,160 talk about anything stressful. We're not allowed to talk about any fires. It doesn't matter 456 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,120 what's going on. You're not allowed to talk about during that time. During that time, 457 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:11,360 we're there to certainly be a little bit productive. But also we find ourselves doing karaoke. 458 00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:16,080 We find ourselves talking about pictures or designing something about somebody. And we 459 00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:21,000 sometimes are laughing until we're crying because of this experience. And then we've 460 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:26,240 got these great relationships and we're ending frat. We're ending Friday on fire. At that 461 00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:30,720 point, everybody's excited to finish the day strong. And we're coming into Monday refreshed 462 00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:35,840 because we're unplugging wall for the weekend. It took a long time to realize the importance 463 00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:41,880 of setting events up like that. So what about you? What other powerful lessons can visionaries 464 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:46,000 learn from your experience with hiring and building teams? 465 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:53,080 Well, I think when it comes to running a team, if you've got multiple VAs, that taking time, 466 00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:58,280 like when I take one-on-one time with some of my folks, because I have team leaders that 467 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:06,200 run teams. But when I sit and go through something like a social media type situation and he's 468 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:11,480 getting my vision for it and I'm walking them through how I look at things, it's that one-on-one 469 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:18,160 time with them means a lot. And you can tell by their voice. I think another thing too 470 00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:23,200 is that you've got to be patient with the process, again, back to being human. It's 471 00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:31,040 okay that it's going to take a little bit of time because the cost savings are significant. 472 00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:37,160 It really allows us to level up our business. But don't get greedy. Just understand it's 473 00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:40,240 going to take that. You would have to give up the time even if you train here in the 474 00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:46,280 United States. It's just less stressful to teach somebody remotely because it's a lower 475 00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:54,920 cost. But it's still patience is part of that process. And then internet issues, right? 476 00:40:54,920 --> 00:41:01,380 Typhoon came through, wiped out the power in the city. And you're like, well, you said 477 00:41:01,380 --> 00:41:05,320 you would go to a coffee shop and get your backup internet and power. Wait a minute, 478 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:08,480 the coffee shop's dark too. There's nothing there. 479 00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:15,120 You're worried about your business, your little invoice. Their home just got wiped out. 480 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:20,520 Yeah. But you know what? To be fair, Jackson, it's like, look, we're as a business owner, 481 00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:25,240 we're paying for a service. And when that service is interrupted, we're like, wait a 482 00:41:25,240 --> 00:41:30,640 second. I mean, how many of these service interruptions, how many of these catastrophes 483 00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:36,520 or these life things am I going to have to put up with? And it's like, hey, it's different 484 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:41,840 in a country like the Philippines, right? Depending on where you're at in that country, 485 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:46,160 because it's very different in Manila than it is way down south, right? It's just different. 486 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:52,840 So those kinds of things are considerations to think about when you're doing your hiring 487 00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:57,120 and stuff like that. But still life happens. We just have to be patient. We have to be 488 00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:00,920 kind. We're building long-term relationships. And in the long run, you're going to come 489 00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:09,520 out way ahead, in my opinion. I've come out way ahead. Even all the bumps I've been through, 490 00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:13,840 this is like a clear win. Mark, I'd challenge back though, that that 491 00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:19,580 is the reason why working with somebody like you is so essential. Or for me, for South 492 00:42:19,580 --> 00:42:25,280 America and what's going on. You're right in that the... I mean, if you as a business 493 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:29,960 owner took the chance to hire one person in the Philippines and you're not aware, you 494 00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:33,440 don't know about the 13th month and the payment that comes along with that. You don't know 495 00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:36,760 that they have different holidays than we do because you've only ever paid attention 496 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:43,600 to this one country. You don't know that they have internet struggles that you have to anticipate. 497 00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:48,320 That's why we hire a company like Krugis. That's why you do it because now it's your 498 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:52,660 responsibility. You're the guy who has to make sure that I have somebody available to 499 00:42:52,660 --> 00:42:59,660 complete that project. And you've got the experience, you've got the diversification 500 00:42:59,660 --> 00:43:04,100 of people available to help with that. If you're an entrepreneur and you're trying to 501 00:43:04,100 --> 00:43:10,920 shift to managing a virtual workforce, who's going to run your company? 502 00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:17,320 Yeah. Well, you have to put it... No matter what you do, you're going to have to put in 503 00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:21,200 the time and the effort to actually get the work done that you want to get done. Whether 504 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:24,960 you have to lead from the front, you're going to have to spend time with your VAs, you're 505 00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:30,280 going to have to invest time, money, resources, you're going to have to take risks. There's 506 00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:34,840 always going to be problems. That's the definition of entrepreneurship, I think too, is that 507 00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:41,040 we're constantly solving problems. Yeah, absolutely, man. Dr. Seth Yates, who's 508 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:46,360 a business partner of mine with AbleHealth, and he got to know several of our virtual 509 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:53,760 assistants. And he said, one day he goes, Jackson, how do you find such amazing virtual 510 00:43:53,760 --> 00:44:01,760 assistants? And I said, one, I find great people for sure, but I don't find great virtual 511 00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:09,080 assistants. I train them for hours. I spend three to five hours per day, oftentimes with 512 00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:14,240 them. You talked about that one on one aspect. There's almost nothing worth feeling when 513 00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:20,840 you're contracted by a company and you're left in a room of isolation for extended periods 514 00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:25,200 right or extended days, you often wonder when are you going to get the chopping block? When 515 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:29,720 are you going to get fired? Oh, man, I hope I don't make that person mad. I hope they 516 00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:34,320 still like me. Was I supposed to do the report this way or that way? When we leave our virtual 517 00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:41,480 assistants in isolation without great communication as a leader, it also creates a disruption 518 00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:46,880 that probably wouldn't have existed had they been properly introduced to a culture and 519 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:51,920 been the relationship been fostered to where they know they're in a safe place. They're 520 00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,440 not just working with the next business owner who's going to let them go within weeks, you 521 00:44:55,440 --> 00:45:00,020 know, them having applied for the position. So again, thank you for alluding to those 522 00:45:00,020 --> 00:45:03,960 realities as you talked about this patience and this cultivation. I hope more entrepreneurs 523 00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:08,320 pay attention to it. So, Mark, if people do want to get in touch with you, where's the 524 00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:14,640 best place to, I guess for the podcast, I'll guide them, right? Go to the SATalkradio.com. 525 00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:18,160 Do you have an application built into that page? 526 00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:23,960 Now, but you can get straight to our YouTube channel, which is a great place to watch the 527 00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:29,400 podcast or you can listen to the podcast. The RSS feed is put right into the website 528 00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:35,040 as well. Let me pull this out for those looking. So, you got YouTube and go over there, of 529 00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:40,680 course. We'll put these in the show notes as well, everybody, and the page. Then people 530 00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:45,040 can connect to you on LinkedIn. I love this picture, by the way. You're good with that 531 00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:46,440 if they reach out to you here? 532 00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:51,360 Oh, yeah, absolutely. Connect with me on all social media platforms. My team handles the 533 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:57,280 bulk of what's going on over there for me, but I do check my messages. You betcha. 534 00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:04,840 Awesome. And then Krukus, C-R-U-K-U-S dot com in order to talk to Mark about hiring him 535 00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:10,040 for your virtual assistant needs. Mark, dude, I really appreciate you being here today. 536 00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:13,680 I look forward to having you back on the show. I think we should collaborate and do something 537 00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:17,720 like a workshop for people. How do you feel about that? I'm putting this on. 538 00:46:17,720 --> 00:46:21,400 That's definitely on my to-do list. We've got the mixers going on and then we're going 539 00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:27,320 to look to do some kind of a conference. At some point, I'd love to do one in the fall 540 00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:29,280 of 2024. 541 00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:34,200 I've got two needs virtual assistants-wise from you. So, we'll talk about this offline. 542 00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:39,800 But one, if you know somebody who can help me fix my email inbox issues, that's the one 543 00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:44,880 that I have not farmed out and I've not been successful in. Two, the other one, I've got 544 00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:51,000 a client who needs some help with Salesforce and Salesforce and my guy was just recruited 545 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:55,880 by a big firm and made a bunch of money. So, I need it, which is great. It's good for him. 546 00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:58,920 I'm excited for him, but I would love your help on both. 547 00:46:58,920 --> 00:46:59,920 Still stings a little bit. 548 00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:05,600 It does, but I'm excited for him. So, Vision Pros, we hope you have a fantastic week and 549 00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:08,400 thanks for tuning in and we will see you guys on the next show. 550 00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:12,280 Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 551 00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:17,080 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. 552 00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:20,960 This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll 553 00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:38,720 invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention.