Why You Need Them And How To Hire Them

Matthew: Yeah, so I think so my entrepreneurial journey actually started back in 2008 2009. At the time, I was a management consultant, I was working for a client. And I was actually doing what the company, there were cuts that were coming because it was 2008. I had a partner, not my partner, a different partner, the company did not like me for some reason, and decided that I needed to go below the line, even though my performance was above the line. So I essentially I mean, I got like up, right, like so many people. And it was in that moment that I realized, in order to take control of my own destiny, I really had to be my own boss. And it really came from this piece of advice I got from my uncle who is a fairly successful person. He said you can love a company, but they can’t love you back. And as someone who gives their all to something, it really resonated like okay, I need to do this on my own. Right. And so that moment began a series of events, where I ended up starting with, actually my former clients ended up starting a what became a national real estate, real estate, right restaurant chain. And I spent four years doing that. And that was my first foray into being an entrepreneur, truly, we raised money. I was the junior person on the team. But I mean, I murdered myself for four years to get this from one logon to create the concept, get it from one location and expand it eventually to 14 and six dates. Wow. And it was there were for me as an entrepreneur, like it was through opportunity. I started doing it on my own. I think that’s probably what a lot of people do in the real estate industry. Right? Something happened to like, you know what, I can do real estate, I’m good at it. I like it. I enjoy it. I’m very social, and I can sell, right so for me it was I’m an ops person, I get stuff done. Well, I started I worked with someone who is experienced in the industry. And you know, it was great. I learned about people management, team management, how to scale and I had hundreds of people working for me at one point in time. And it really was just a formative experience. Also how to create partnerships. Right? You know, how do you actually think about a business partner? And you know, this in real estate? It’s not about every last dollar, right? That’s short term thinking. It’s about the long term win for everybody, where you all have to give up a little pain. Yeah. So from there– sorry.

Jen:  No, no, go ahead. I was gonna say. So from there. So you’re working at Whole bunch of hours. Let’s talk about what happened from there. 

Matthew: So yeah, so from there, right. I ended up buying an E commerce, but I left I didn’t buy an E commerce business, and fully remote all remote team in the United States. And for the first three and a half years, I was working 14 hours a day, no joke, not even an exaggeration. It was affecting my marriage. I didn’t have a life, that’s for sure. And, you know, the business was, frankly, not performing the way I was growing, you know, as you know, went from $3 million to $5 million. But it at the end of the day wasn’t going the way it should have been. Right. And not to mention the problems I was having at home. And so I started offshoring to the Philippines. And I think this, you know, when you said the opening, not another virtual assistant, I did that journey. Yeah. Right. And guess what happens when you hire when you optimize for for cost? You get low quality, because that’s low cost, even in the Philippines, where the pricing is different. So finally, I was going with my wife to about a year and a half ago, I was going with my wife to China, and on a family vacation to both take her parents to China. And she said to me, she goes, I hope and I say this in air quotes, because there’s no hope in this statement. I hope you aren’t going to work on this trip.

Jen: Right? Right. All right, that sounds familiar.

Matthew: I’m sure that resonates with everybody, which so he says, Why don’t you find someone to run your entire business out of the Philippines? And I said, That’s not possible. Because I don’t know anyone that’s done it. I know a lot of successful people without sourcing. She’s then she said to me, Well, 200 million people in the country, there’s going to be one. So you need one that can take over your operations. Okay, how do you let me try? Right? I can’t argue with that. Yeah. And I spent, I interviewed about 100 people reviewed five 600 resumes, and finally convinced someone who was running Chief of Staff for 100 person company to come work for my six person company. And within six weeks, I was working three hours a day, so much. So I was like, Oh, what do I do? And then now a year and a half later, it’s maybe one to two hours a week. That’s it, right? And that’s just vision stuff. Like, here’s what I want. Let’s do this. Here’s what the metrics say, let’s talk about this, execute that project, right? 

Jen: And just delegate the rest to everybody else who can make it happen. 

Matthew: Right. And but I think the lesson that they learned is, we’re not special. Yeah. 

Jen: Oh, my gosh, I’m so happy. You’re saying that you wouldn’t believe how many times I say that. I hate to say it, but you’re not special. They just want you to experience the experience. You’re gonna get them through your process. 

Matthew: It’s– It’s right you’re we’re not like there are people who could do significant parts of our job better than we can. Yeah, I’m a living example. I thought I was special, right? Yeah. And so it’s, it’s one of these things, you have to come to real estate, you have to come to this realization as an entrepreneur, that there is, if you look at anyone, you anyone, you know, anyone I know, the most successful people in the world. It’s never a single person ever. Never. 

Jen: Walmart, Walmart, I always use Walmart, like Mr. Walmart doesn’t greet you and check you out and stock the shelves and do everything. 

Matthew: You can, I mean name a famous entrepreneur, everyone likes to say Richard Branson, okay. He’s a great example. Right? Richard Branson is not exactly doing all the work himself, right? It’s your job as an entrepreneurs to I’ve learned this, and I realized this now in creating this environment for success to thrive. It’s not your job to actually do it all. So, you know, you know, once I hired out most of my job, what do you think happened? The business ran better, she hired better, everything was more efficient, and most importantly, I had time to think, yeah, so the business start was growing again. And that was great. Right? And in the pandemic, right. So you know, which is for me, the pandemic is a lot of parallels to 2008 in the real estate industry–

Jen: Oh yeah, everything similar, well, there’s similar things, but yeah.

Matthew: Well for me, I’m in the wedding business, or the ecommerce is in the wedding business, right. So yeah, they want like, you know, all of a sudden, boom, no business, right? Because there’s no weddings, right? And so what I did was I said, Okay, why don’t we start an agency that is unlike anything else? Where we actually go we optimize for quality. So the difference in what I did when I hired out my role is that I just optimize for quality. I said, Forget about cost, right? I’m gonna pay Filipino prices. But I’m gonna go for a Filipino executive. And once I did that, everything changed. So I started an agency that actually does this now. And it’s really amazing. Because time and time again, the story that I had is the story for my clients, where it’s like, wait a second, I didn’t know this was possible. No, I’m not pulling my hair out, wow, they’re taking off more than I thought, I can have them do other things. And this was my experience to, like, imagine if I came to work for you, or you were working for someone else, the level of quality, you can get that. Because, you know, for, you know, under 20 bucks an hour, you’re gonna get a legit, like a person with legitimate experience, who can offload tasks and let you focus on what you do, which in this case, in this case, will be for an entrepreneur, a real estate, professional sales, or marketing or mortgage. 

Jen: Yeah. For a mortgage person the sales too. Yeah. And the marketing piece of it. Yeah. And I think that’s important. Yeah. And, you know, I wanted to share your story, because your story is the story of, you know, loan officers, and, you know, and some real estate agents, not all real estate agents, but some real estate agents. And you know, that the barrier to entry, and this has always been not having a lead indicator that says you need an assistant, but getting to critical mass, and then just hiring from a mirror, right? Like, I’ll just hire anybody. And I was sharing this on a workshop, a couple of our last week, actually, I had a two day workshop, I was sharing this on the workshop, and talking about this very thing. And halfway through the workshop after that, after I spoke about this, someone said, you know, I heard what you said, and I was out and I, when we had a break, I went and got some gas in my car, and I ran into this 20 year old kid, and he was awesome. And I hired it. That’s not what I said. That’s not what I said, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not what I said.

Matthew: That’s common.

Jen: He’s gonna be a mini me. And I’m like, No, he’s not, he’s not gonna be a mini you. You can have him shadow you and write the code for who you need. But he can’t be a mini you, right. And so I think this is one of the issues that people have is not really having that lead indicator, and then it’s just math, I have to hire a half to hire and they hire the wrong person. And then they say, I’ll never do that again. Because that didn’t work for me. So So what is a better approach for someone who is feeling that they’re working 12 hours, seven days a week? All that? What’s a better approach for them to assess whether or not they actually need one? And then the second part of that question is, what do they need to have prepared before they even reach out to get a virtual assistant? 

Matthew: So it’s a great question. So the first thing is what I tell everybody is divide your day into two columns. This is really a really simple exercise that is real, and I do it for myself. So it’s really eye-opening, strategic and tactical, strategic is general tasks, things that require your experience, your knowledge, and what makes you special. So you know, everything else, everything is tactical, meaning, you know, just day to day, just grunt work type of things. You know, so you’re I make money, let’s say talking to each other. We don’t make money on anything that pre precedes this. In this case, let’s say booking me, right or any follow up things we need to do together. You’re producing the podcast –

Jen: Signed off. Yeah.

Matthew: Right. Right. So so everything that doesn’t make you money as a loan officer, that is tactical, and by the way, that’s including, like processing and communicating with your clients. A lot of people in the mortgage business think client communication is really strategic. No, no, because, in my opinion, right, clients, if you actually had someone else, clients may think more of you, because they think you’re bigger, and they have, you know, it’s, they’re used to it, right? So, you know, that’s the first thing strategic and tactical divide your day. Second thing is, write a job description. Right? When have you heard anyone writing a job description of for virtual assistant people don’t do it. Right. We do it for people, but people don’t do it. And if you actually write a job description, now you have the list of what they’re going to do translate that into a, it’s really a selling job as to why someone wants to come work for you, what they’re going to do, what their day to day is going to be like, if you do that, those two things will make sure not only are you just ready to hire, but it’s the right you’re gonna hire and attract the right person. 

Jen: Yeah, and they will be in a track right that said, that heavy trunk. So I want to just go

Back to this because on this podcast and everyone knows, you know, my book I talk about find your mind or grinder. And so I have a second category, you know, in between your two categories. And that is the finding aspect because in in the industry of lending and real estate, there is a customer experience piece that requires a specific skill that is totally different than database management and sort of the grind of work, right? So I love that you said, you know, the bottom line is just do it. And when you’re you’re dividing that list in when you’re marking down the action that you took, that then becomes the job description. Written in not in bullet, but rather written out. Right, not I returned a phone call. Okay, return a phone call, and I little Indian hashtag that I did that 30 times today. Right now, it’s not returned phone calls, it’s, you know, serve the client’s needs by returning phone calls in a timely manner, you know, within 24 hours and blah, blah, blah. So I love that you’re Yeah, I love that. You’re saying that, in this is I think where people stop is because, you know, I don’t know how to write a job description. But that is the job description. Anything that you’re doing? Is the job description. Right?

Yeah. And so now you’re hiring to the to the job you want. So not to the panic.You’re gonna, I was saying this the other day, you’re hiring, you’re hiring for release? Right?

Matthew: Yeah.

Jen: So you’re also hiring for revenue, you have to be aware of that you can’t just get relief is you know, to bring to your point is hiring for what did you say hiring for? capacity? What did you say in the beginning? 

Matthew: So yeah, well, so you’re often so you’re offloading, creating capacity. But this is also the one thing and I agree with you think of this in a growth mindset? Yeah, right. So a lot of people get tied up. And listen, I was one of these people, right? When I was doing my ecommerce want to have from a congressman’s oh my god, this person is gonna cause 3040 $50,000 a year, I can’t afford that. It’s not the right way to think about it, in my opinion. So if you reduce what you have, like you have to do every day, let’s say you free up six hours a day, not uncommon, right? That enables you to market and sell more, therefore, this person who may call and think of it as a $3,000 month investment, right, let’s just take a pick a ballpark number $17, an hour’s like 29.60. So, think of it like that you get a better person, they free you up now, do you think you can make another few thousand dollars a month? 

Jen: Yeah, well, yeah, as long as you don’t go do but you know, eat bonbons and watch Netflix.

That is not. The challenge for people too, is that the reason they don’t hire somebody is because they don’t really want to have to go out and sell. You mean I really have to work and being better at what I you know, who I am in what I do is as a professional. And I think that that’s something people have to look at is when you are freed up from your time, what are you going to do with your time, making sure that you have your own tranche ready to go forward and that you can move it forward too I think that’s a really good point.

Matthew: Yeah since you’re going to have a lot of free time. Now some people, the truth is, and they just want more time with their family. So they’re successful, they’re they’re grinding it out. And they just one more time, and that’s okay, too. So that’s how you value it. But you know you know when you talk about a growth mindset, and I always tell people this, think about it in like a three to four month payback, right? In fact, three to four months, if you’re if you’re actually focused on your business, and it’s not growing a there are contractors, you can always stop it. But be maybe there’s something wrong with how you’re approaching your business. That’s the other way to think about this, right? Like $3,000 additional income a month, especially if you’re in sales is not a tremendous amount, right? And I’m not saying it’s easy–

Jen:  No you don’t want to break even you want to grow from it. Or maybe you do want to break even because you don’t want to grow, you just want that free time you just said.

Matthew: Right. And well I mean, for more loan officers, you can make 3000 once clip easily, right? So it’s like it says when one set one one close, you know, and close them alone. So you know, so Oh, but you have six hours of your day back. Right? So think about it like that. The cost, the payback is so minimal, and it’s within three, four months. I’m sure most everyone listening would see their business grow by not having to do the tactical stuff. 

Jen: Yeah, yeah. No, I totally. I totally agree. So one of the other things that that I know you talk about is hiring, you know the right person. So let’s talk about your company just for a second here because I could talk generically and say, Okay, what kinds of questions should you be asking?

But there are questions, you know, and I think you know, what I think about a lot of it, not everybody but a lot of loan officers in real estate agents you know, they they come in from being a teacher and the example of real estate agents right there, a lot of them were teachers, a lot were military and they kind of go in that direction.

And loan officers, you know, come out of college or come from, you know, some type of sales background or banking background, and they’re gonna come in, so they don’t necessarily have management, really good management skills or leadership skills, and now their business is growing. And I would say this is for anybody, even if you, you know, if you nobody had any leadership skills, eventually you become a leader, you know, in a team if you’re gonna grow. So there’s a lack of understanding of how to hire who to hire signs to look for questions to ask closed end questions versus open end. What are some, some tips you could give people on? Going through that hiring process? How long should it be? What questions should they ask you? They assign a task to see if the person can finish them on time, should they get samplings from a multitude of virtual assistants to make a decision? on somebody? What are some strategies that people could be using other than I just need somebody give me someone? 

Matthew: So first, let’s say you’ve written the job description, do not hire without one you’re destined to fail. Okay, then I think everyone has to look internally about who they are. Right? So let’s just say in my case, right, I have a tendency I’m, it’s I think it’s a stereotypical entrepreneur thing. I’m like, shiny ball syndrome. Look at this, I like this, like this. I’m gonna do this. What does it? Listen? I mean, like, I have, like so many people working for me. And believe me, I’m like, all over the place. So who did I hire? I hired somebody who’s clearly clear, methodical, organized, and can just focus it opposite in that respect. Right. So for me, I know to be successful, I need that if I hired someone scatterbrains that it really wouldn’t work. 

Jen: Yeah, so you’re all just scatterbrained? Yeah. 

Matthew: Right? So think of like, okay, know, yourself said, alright, well, I don’t I know, I work this way. Do I need someone to work this way as well? Let’s say you’re detail-oriented, I want someone detail-oriented, or Do you want someone maybe opposite? I’m not creative. I want something creative. Right? So think about the personalities in your perfect person. And really just again, write it down. 

Jen:Yeah. 

Matthew: As you start it, and then write down some questions that you think may draw it out. All right. So you know, if you’re looking for someone detail-oriented, you know, just have them walk you through a process that they created, and see how detailed they are, and explaining what they did at previous jobs. It’s a great indicator, you can absolutely ask people to do tasks, like as a test. So what we say to clients is, give us one of a couple things. One is, give us three questions, you want to ask the client, we’ll record a video and let you help filter, right, so this all hope filter, even though they’ve been interviewed, two depending on the role, give us a task that you would like them to do that takes an hour or less, so you can see the work quality. Right. So now you start to get a little more unbiased opinions. 

Jen: Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s really critical. I think that I think that’s really good. And I just want to add, and I know you have this as part of what you do, as well, but also the timing on it. Because I always feel like, if I’m interviewing somebody that’s like dating, right, they’re gonna put their best foot forward. And if I want that task done, it’s one thing to ask for the task. The other is to say, have it done by 230 Tomorrow afternoon, and if it’s not done by 230, tomorrow afternoon, and they’ve not communicated that they don’t understand something, then that right, there is a sign for me that if they this is when they should be impressing me the most– 

Matthew: Right. 

Jen: Absolute most. And if they’re not going to get the task done, to get me to hire them, then the likelihood is you’re not going to get the test done when they’re hired with us. 

Matthew: Correct? I think that’s a great Yes, you do have to put a finite, like, have this done by by then. Absolutely. But also make it also make sure it’s realistic, right? Like, you’re asking someone to like rewrite the universe, right?

Jen: Oh yeah no–

Matthew: By the way, and it doesn’t have to be paid. I think that especially when you start talking about remote work, people are just useless. Like okay, well, how do I know that you know how to do this. Let me just see a task that would be give me an indicator. It’s very easy to it all the time. And it’s very, very typical. 

Jen: Yeah, right I do. I’ve done it with five people saying, Look, I’m only going to hire one person. I have five people that I’m working with right now and you’re all getting assigned the same task and whoever gets it done the best in the timeline I have asked for you don’t have to get it done sooner. Just in the timeline. That’s gonna be the person that gets hired and Wow, incredible stuff that comes out of that. It’s just It’s just unbelievable. 

Matthew: Yeah, 100% Because now you’re now you’re seeing work product. Yeah.

We’ll do an interview as well. So people, you know, so now you’re seeing work product at the end of the day. That’s, that’s what helps. Right? And it may be for some roles, it doesn’t make sense to do it. But for a lot of roles, it may. 

Jen: Yeah, depending Yeah, depends on the role. Tell us a little bit about,

you know, in sales, there’s, there’s the open ended and closed end question. But tell us about how that works in in the interview process with people how you found that having open ended questions, like, for example, you just said something about detail, you know, most people would say, Do you are you detail-oriented? Yes.

Okay, good, check.

Matthew: Right. Some questions were answering the question would give you evidence that they know what they’re talking about. Let’s use detail oriented. So let’s just say you’re talking about a project manager. Right, right. Well, something as simple as walk me through how you create a project plan.

Right? That’s gonna give you a lot of indication, if there’s subject matter experts, right, or walk me through a project you you. So this project you listed, walk me through that, how did you create the plan? What was your role? We didn’t get won’t go wrong, wherever the key, the KPIs, key performance indicators, so on and so forth. And as they describe things, right, are they describing it big picture? Yeah I knew.

Jen: Listen, no, listen, in that listen. Yeah, 

Matthew: they’re doing so like, exactly. So how, what are they doing? Does that give you an indicator? Right? You know, that it is other things? Like when you’re screen for personality? How do they answer a question? Are they direct? Are they evasive? Are they like, you just answer something? Yeah. Are you detail talented? 

Jen: Yes. Yeah. Hi, Dee. Yeah, just bullet right.

Matthew: And exactly. Right. So you know, what, what do you like to work with? And what do you want, maybe you don’t care. Maybe you just want something to get the job done. Maybe you want someone you can have rapport with, right? So do all those things. So expect for so depending on I can I can just speak for the Philippines, General, Remote Staff. Once you figure all that out you interview. Expect, especially when you talk about offshore, if you’re doing on your own 12 to 18 months worth of learning of hiring and firing. Right? You’re gonna have to make an investment like in time, like you’re not gonna hire somebody to. But by the way, if day 30. It’s not working, let him know. I mean, really, I mean, for me, I’ll do within the first two weeks.

Jen: Yeah, don’t keep going. 

Matthew: Right don’t keep going. So expect that cycle, it’s very normal to it’s a skill, you have to learn how to do it, if you’re doing on your own. It took me roughly 18 months, when I first started using virtual assistants, to remote workers to actually get it done. The light bulb was once I optimized for quality, it all of a sudden, I hit it out of my bedroom out of the park my first strike because I just went with a professional. And that’s the key thing pay up. Do not listen to these people that say I’m gonna give you someone for $5 an hour, it’s gonna change your life. They’re lying to you. And they know it.

Jen: Yeah, yeah, I really liked that. And I was thinking, you know, also is,

you know, that when someone does apply, I mean, when someone does hire someone, and and they have to let them go in two weeks, there’s a belief system that we develop that says, I can’t hire, I’m not good at it. And I think give yourself some grace to learn from the experience, not avoid it. But you know, dive in and lean into it, do the thing, because that thing will get you further and further along, when to agree with that as well, because I know I see it a lot. I already tried it. Oh, entrepreneur look. So 100%. So hiring and I’ll tell you, us too, it’s funny that I’m in the hiring business now. Because I was a terrible person at it. I was terrible at it. Right? Because, you know, I believe it’s all go figure it out. No, that’s not the way you hire. And so hire fire. Just learn, it’s gonna it’s going to take time, and you could shortcut that, but it’s going to take time, and just recognize like you said, give yourself some grace. And it’s okay, if it’s not right on the first try. So the question is, why did you hire poorly? Was it you? Was it them? Was it both? Did you not structure it? So once you hire someone, right, you actually need to do you need to onboard Exactly. Their tasks. Use a task manager. I know a lot of people don’t like to use it. Use the Task Manager. So here’s a task manager, make a clearly defined, clearly defined task. If you have procedures they want them to actually, you want them to follow. Don’t just say, oh, I want you to answer my calls or do my email. That doesn’t help right? Record a video. Here’s a key tip, record a video for every task you want. Don’t write it down, because you can speak it much quicker. It’s much easier for you. And then you have a library of how to do things. And then whether it’s this person, the next person, they can look at the library, say, Oh, do my email. Well, now you say to my email, they look at the email video where you explain it to them. And it’s really easy to make their plugins, they’re free, just go click, and you start speaking, right and record your screen. So that those are other things you can do to be successful. 

Jen: Yeah, I think so too, because I know it’s very taxing. You know, it’s just like, well give it to me. I’ll just go ahead and do it. And then who’s working for whom? Right? I say it all the time. You know, they’re like, oh, it just takes too long to teach him whatever, created a tutorial library. I mean, we talk I talk about all the time and video library on each little topic, doing it 20 times too, don’t just say, here’s how to do an email because inevitably, at least in the mortgage business, you shut you tell someone, here’s how you lock a loan inevitably, when you go into lock it, and you’re recording your screen, it’s not there’s going to be something missing. And you’re gonna go, oh, my gosh, well, now there’s something missing. Let me stop recording and just give them the perfect lock. 

Matthew:Yeah, 

Jen: yeah. Say, Okay, so we’re locking this, and I’m missing some things. So let me show you how I’m going. And I’m retrieving and show them 50 different versions of it, you know, so they can see how to problem solve on their own. One of the questions I want to ask is, how does someone who’s hiring someone you know, and luckily, we’re talking for loan officers and realtors, and we’re all like, ah, you know, happy go lucky, kind of people’s most of the time, right? And we just liked them. I really like them. I want to bring them in because I like them. Help us get over that hump.

Matthew: I mean Like somebody –

Jen: so that is that is true. 

Matthew: Right but are you hired? Like, at the end of the day, you’re paying people money, they have to have skill. Yeah, right. So yes, liking them is great and all, but look at what they’ve done in their experience. And realize just because Oh, I was able to figure it out. That has nothing to do with anybody else. You were able to figure it out. Don’t hire random people–

Jen: or,  including your niece, your daughter, your daughter in law, my brother’s best friend. 

Matthew: Nepotism is the worst. Forget it. You know, because then you’re out. You’re not you’re optimizing? Because it’s no different than getting someone off the street and say, oh, yeah, they smiled. Right. But I knew them since they were smart kid. One has nothing to do with the other. Right? And don’t think about when you have to hire them. What about firing them? Yeah. When you hire someone, you know, if it doesn’t work out, which 90 percentage chance it won’t? You’re going to have to fire them. And how’s that gonna work? 

Jen: Yeah, I’ll leave you for other reasons to pursue things that they wanted to do. And that’s creating problems too. Right.

Matthew:  Exactly. So, you know, I think that you’re right, you need to just really look for skill set. Right? What is this person going to do? Have they done it before? Or realistically? Can they do it? 

Jen: Yeah, I love that. I love that. So let’s talk about your company as we close out our time today. So your company is extend your team, which I love it, because that’s what you want to do is extending your your team. And if someone you know is interested in doing this, who’s there to walk them through this who’s there to, you know, hold their hand as they go through it and say, Okay, that’s it, I’m going to bite the bullet. I’m going to do this. But I need some hand holding. So what does that look like with your company? 

Matthew: Sure. So that we get on a call with actually with me, and we understand what the problem they have is, right? So once we’ve determined It’s a match, then let’s assume they decide to go forward. From that point on, the entire team takes over. So someone will write up a job description based on what we talked about. They’ll approve it, then we go start searching for someone the right person for you. We don’t jam someone down your throat. It’s literally Who are you, okay, this will be a match. Here’s a skill set. Let’s find someone that meets your needs. That process will take you know, a few weeks to find someone, once it all works out. You like the people we find. Then we have an onboarding team who will help this is the key here, help onboard them properly. Help onboard properly this we setting up tasks that will be organizing them organizing you make sure they have the right software, and then every step of the way for the first 3060 90 days, making sure and touching base with you that are you getting your meats, net Is everything clear with work with the remote worker Is everything clear for them. And so there’s a team supporting you, you’re not just on your own. And this is the stage where even if you hire the right person, you could fail very easily because you don’t know how to make them successful. So here’s where we come in and help you as much or as as little as you need. After that. Just keep on going and just be successful. 

Jen: Yeah, yeah, I love that. And I love the fact that you help write the job description, help with the onboarding, because you know, there’s a learning curve. So what do you think the learning curve is for someone that’s never had an assistant, you know, or never hired anybody? What do you think that learning curve is for them personally, because it means that your assistant will give you some relief in time. But then you have some time that you have to learn as well. So So Where Where does that finally hit? You know, and I’m sure everybody’s different. That’s, you’re gonna tell me it depends on their skills. But generally, where do you see that happening? 

Matthew: Well, so I mean, really, within the first 90 days, and I’d say between day 30, day 90, you’re also like, through us, we don’t hire junior people, or getting somebody who someone who has experience. So it’s a little different, right? They can help get the best out of you. Now, you’re gonna have to let go. But they’re, you know, they’re also to be able to get things going much quicker than, let’s say, a junior level person. So the key is when you do when you hire overseas, over hire, because you can afford it. And these people will help get the best out of you, not just the other way around. 

Jen: Yeah. 

Matthew: Within you by, honestly, by within the first 30 days, you’re gonna see dramatic difference within 90 Everything will be humming. 

Jen: Yeah, yeah. And I love that. Because, you know, as we start heading into the spring market, for those of us that are in markets, where there’s snow, there’s a change in the market that happens in this spring. And as we’re starting to head to that spring market, you know, now’s the time to do that. Now’s the time to put those things into place so that you can be hitting the road running and enjoying this summer, as opposed to letting your family go on, which was my story, let them go on the boat. Let them have the fun weekend while I sat in the house and worked all weekend, taking care of things. Yeah. Or I was standing on the boat with my cell phone waving and saying Don’t splash me. You know?

Matthew: I mean, that’s, so many of us are like this, right? Like, I get it. I think every entrepreneur gets it, right. And all I’m saying is like, you know, and I know, people have talked about virtual assistants, remote workers, just throw that out of your head because everyone’s remote now. So your opportunities are endless. And we don’t have to be those people. Right? I was that person I didn’t have to be I chose that was a choice. Because there is an option, there’s a better way where I say a different way, where we just build a team. And we do it affordably and we do it reasonably, we just have to be willing to do that. And the pain of change has to be less than the current pain we’re feeling. And it is right. You can have a life and be a successful entrepreneur. The media is saying look at these entrepreneurs, they grind it out a million hours a day. That’s the media, that’s a story. That is not reality.

Jen: Yeah, I love that. I love that I’m putting the quote down so we can quote all that. Yeah, the pain of change has to be less than the pain of

I forgot it.

Matthew: It’s the pain. It’s the pain of continuing on continuing on. 

Jen: Okay, yeah, of doing what you’re already doing. Yeah, continuing on. Okay, so we’re gonna have a link in the show notes for people to get information if they want to get a hold of you, you know, whether they do or not, I think this is a great conversation and topic for people. Because I hear this all the time, you know, I need more leads, I need help with operations, I need more time, time management is an issue. And all of those are signals. You know, there’s something called CPC that I that I learned from Greg Reed with who is the CEO of Secret Knock and part of a mastermind that I’m in, and you know, is that we have clues, we had patterns, and we have choices and a clue. There’s one clue Yeah, you’re busy this week. That’s a clue. But when you’re busy every week, and every day, and every week, and every day, that’s a pattern. And it’s time to make a choice, whether you’re going to continue that, and it’s not sustainable, because everyone comes to that conclusion. At some point, it might be a year for some and five for others, but they’re gonna come to the conclusion. And now it becomes a choice. And I think that that’s why I wanted to bring you on because I, I felt like this is this is something people need to understand. I was just on the phone with a client the other day, and she was like, bah, bah, bah, blah. And she goes, I know, I know, I know, you’re going to tell me that. I need an assistant. And I go, Yeah, I am going to tell you that because that’s what you need to get out from underneath of what you’re dealing with. 

Matthew: So yeah, it’s it’s look, I mean, I did it for three and a half years where I was crushed in my ecommerce business. And finally, I was just like, I had enough. My pain tolerance was three and a half years. 

Jen: Yeah. And guess what mine was? Almost 20 Almost 20.

And so I’m a big fan. A big fan of delegating, right not drive by delegation, not drive by where you’re shocked and odd, you know, when it happens, but real, you know, concise delegation that works properly, you know, to help move you forward. So, is there anything you’d like to leave our listeners with?

Matthew: Yes, remember, you’re not special. And when somebody actually focuses on all the tasks that suck up your day, your life will be better. And so will your business. Doesn’t matter what it is or who it is, change is possible, you just have to take the first step. 

Jen: Love it, love it. Thank you so much for spending time with us today, Matthew, I appreciate it. And I want to let everybody know, again, you know, if you want information about Matthew and his company, you can use some of the links that we have all the links that we have below, you can follow him on LinkedIn, and Facebook and all that good stuff. We’ll have all those links here. And, you know, consider this don’t just listen to the podcast and move on to the next one. Consider this. Sit down and think about a do do a strategy versus tactical or do a find your mind or grinder do some visioning. Write out some roles and tasks and things so that you can start moving this forward faster than slower. So that’s your action item is to ponder this, don’t just listen and move on. So Matthew, again, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it. And we’ll catch you next time on mortgage lending mastery. 

Matthew: Thanks Jen. 

Jen: Thank you. 

Narrator : Thanks for listening to mortgage lending mastery.

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