A Masterclass in Building a Self-Sustaining Business

In this special crossover episode, Will Humphreys jumps into the hot seat on Jamey Schrier’s Freedom by Design podcast. If you’ve ever felt like the bottleneck in your own business, this conversation is your wake-up call. Will and Jamey break down why most owners get stuck "optimizing" a broken model instead of "architecting" a scalable one.

Key Takeaways:

• The Architecture of Scale: Why doubling your business is often harder than growing it by 10x.
• The $200 Rule: How to audit your tasks based on monetary value and energy drain.
• Trust Burnout: Overcoming the fear of delegating to someone you’ve never met in person.
• Global Impact: How hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) doesn't just save you money—it changes lives and strengthens families worldwide.

Connect with Jamey: 

• Website: PracticeFreedom.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jameyschrierpfu/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameyschrier/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamey.schrier/

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Transcript

Welcome And The Real Problem

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In today's episode of the Willpower podcast, I got a chance to sit down with a good friend of mine, Jamie Schreier, on his show, Freedom by Design. And we went deep on something most private practice owners never figure out the difference between optimizing your business, scaling your business, and actually architecting it. We talk about trust, burnout, the$200 an hour rule, and why 10 times is actually easier than two times in terms of growth. If you've ever felt like the bottleneck in your own company, this is going to hit home. Let's get into it. How are you doing, Jamie? It's great to see you. I'm doing well. How are you doing? I'm so excited that this podcast is out there. This is a much needed value add to our industry, dude. Thank you so much for having me on the show. Oh, you're so welcome.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Now, for those people that don't know you, let me give it a little, let me give it a little spiel here. Please. So um, Will's the founder of Virtual Rockstar, a company that helps businesses hire, train, and integrate virtual assistants into our operations. Um, I've known him for a long time. As you can already tell, dude, the guy brings energy. Um, he understands, he understands, not just understands delegation, he created a whole damn company around how to do it effectively. And that's what's that's what's just awesome about him. Uh, he's helped hundreds, if not maybe to this point, thousands of owners start buying back their time, offload lower value work, and build support systems that reduce day-to-day operational pressure. Now, Will, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah, dude, it's so cool because I think what we talked about is this idea of how you know you you can have the right execution, but if you don't have the mindset or the right vision or the right, you know, elements to that piece, it they it doesn't work. You have to have those pieces. So, what I've learned to do is help people on the execution side, but it's got to start with the mindset and all those different elements. I'm so excited for today's topic.

Overwhelm Comes From Reaction Mode

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Well, that kind of gets in my question. You know, I wrote a couple things down, and you know, the the thing, I mean, I just went and spoke at three different places and three different weekends, and each one was around this idea of overwhelm and burnout and all these things that that we're hearing, people don't have enough time. What what do you think is really going on? Is it really I don't have enough time? I know the effects of burnout, I get that, but what what do you from your viewpoint, what do you think is really going on there?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Reaction. I think most people are just trying to keep their head afloat. Even when they have bigger companies, Jamie, it's there is something about learning how to manage the value of each task, every project. Once we get to a state where we can start evaluating the value of those things, we can start eliminating things that really are low value or not focused on achieving the end in mind. You know, the Alex Ramosy says it like this becoming great is a lot more about not doing things and saying no to things than saying yes. And so you got different stages in the healthcare provider journey. You've got those people who are early stages hustling and there's no getting around it. When we're early stages, you gotta hustle, you got to get out there and do all the things because that's how you get started. The next stage, though, this is what gets hard, is that some people get so good at that, they never break free of that mindset. And so the first thing we do is we want to evaluate everything we do and give it a dollar amount. Like if people don't have a vision and don't have the right mindset, this is worthless. This is where like great coaching with what you guys do is so vital. But when people have that in place, they have to start evaluating everything they do and start giving it a numeric value. And so that's where most people get stuck. They get so good at coping in those earlier stages that later on, as their company advances, they're still used to doing all the things. And even as they scale, they start to default back to that. I've seen companies that are making over 10 million a year that just because the next growth stage requires extra hustle, they take it upon themselves and they find themselves stuck again. So this is a constant like rebirth at the different stages of development for business owners, is that they have to understand that the value that they own isn't in doing the work. It's in it's in the the actual thinking and the actual like processing of making decisions. The bigger the company is, the more successful they become, is all dependent upon that owner being the real thought leader and not the doer. So they have to start by evaluating their tasks and going, okay, which of these are things that I I have to hire out for? That's where it all begins.

Optimizing Versus Scaling Versus Architecting

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yeah. No, I I love that. There's so many things that you just said to unpack. Um, you know, one of the things that that that I share that I've learned, and and I know you have too, is that you know, how we think leads to the decisions we make, and the decisions we make leads to the outcomes we have. So if you just kind of look at everything you have right now in your business, everything that's happening to you right now is based on one thing, your decisions. Because it's not all happening to you. You're making decisions that are causing these things. So, like you said, if you start to really look at how you think about things, if you start there, you start making different decisions, and all of a sudden you start having different results and outcomes. So you mentioned Alex Hermosy. I know you've you've talked to him and you've done some work with him. Um, my mentor called it um optimizing. Like we're we're really good at optimizers. So we start doing something, uh, we affectionately call a committed clinician. You are the business, you're the solopreneur, and then you shift into this overwhelmed operator stage where you're you're you hire some people, you think your your time is going to get less, but no, you're doing a good job, and you're doing part of their job and you're managing them, and you start getting better at just optimizing what you're already doing. You said something uh a second ago, you used the word scale, interesting word. Um, not one of my favorite words, but I know it's a word used. I like the word architect. Tell me, in your perspective, the difference between a person who architects their business, which I know you've done a few times, and someone that's just trying to optimize or get their business the way it is just a little bit better. What's the difference that that you have seen?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it all comes from intention. You know, if we look at creating our future, a lot of times we just we set such low standards for ourselves. I remember when I had my private practice, Jamie, I had this written, I have my goals every year written on my mirror, not on the mirror on a piece of paper taped to the mirror. And this was decades ago, where it was like$100,000 a year would be my personal goal for income and just to be able to treat three days a week. And, you know, for me, I set my goals and my future based on like the minimum standard of like what I could possibly be think I'm worthy or create. Like, and so what I've learned through great mentors is that we we end up shooting ourselves in the foot in that case because that's where we start creating so much extra work for ourselves. There's a book called 10X is easier than 2x by Den Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. And it talks about how when we dream big and we have a high intention to make a bigger impact, the path is actually easier because it forces us to not become the bottleneck. And so there's three words that, you know, that I want to just define real quick because you know, I mentioned scale earlier, there's growth, and then there was your word architect. For me, so scale is an actual definition. It means growing 100% year over year by for three years. That's an actual term that has an objective meaning. So if you want to scale, for example, that means you're gonna double in size every year for three years. If you're gonna grow, it's anything less than that. I think the architecture word that you're saying is the missing link, no matter what your goals are. Because if you just want to grow 15% year over year, that's fine. But why? And then the why and the the personal like insight into the impact is my opinion of the word architect that you use. And this is what I know about you and your company is that is when you help people understand the end in mind, you can make a decision because not every company is meant to scale. Some companies just want to grow. And we all should be growing, because if we're not growing, we're dying. We all can agree on that. But the purpose and the reason and the impact and the intentionality is, in my opinion, what makes that word architect become intentional. It's like the intentional growth or scale of a company based on a clear purpose and vision, would be my simple answer to that. And it makes all the difference, man. It makes all the difference because when we're by default, when we set low expectations for ourselves, we're gonna be in a position where we just become the bottleneck because all we want is$100,000 a year and in three days a week of treating. I didn't think about all the administrative crap I was gonna take on, like in addition to that, with such low standards and goals.

What Virtual Assistants Actually Are

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, we're um we're great at being bottlenecks. Uh that's one of our favorite things to do. And yet sometimes we don't recognize we are the bottleneck. And if we do recognize it, we don't know really what to do. So um people are hearing now and have heard, and I know you're everywhere, this idea of virtual assistant. Um what exactly is a virtual assistant and where did this, where did this thing come from? What what is what is it about this that's just so like connected with you? Because I know at one time I had to ask you, because I think you just maybe hired a logo designer. I'm like, dude, how many companies do you have? You have like five companies, like all these logos, and I'm like, what is this? And you're like, okay, those are fine. Jamie, this is where I'm focusing. Yeah. Where where'd all that come from? Like, what is what does someone understand about virtual assistance that really is incorrect, that they're just getting it wrong?

How Virtual Rockstar Was Built

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, you said a lot of great questions on that. So let's start with that first one. What's wrong? What do people get wrong with virtual assistance? If it's done incorrectly, then there virtual assistants are going to be seen as cheap labor that you can dump on to help free you up. That's the wrong way of looking at it. And the wrong way of looking at it is in that same lens of what we've all experienced when we've been sent to customer service. When we've been on our phone with our credit card company or our exercise machine, and they go, Oh, it's broken. Let's send you to our customer service line. And you hear someone on the other line that you can barely understand, that's what they think of virtual assistance. So people have fear around it because of that experience, but they also think, yeah, I'm just drowning. I'm gonna dump on someone overseas for cheap labor. That's not what it is. Here's where it came from. As you know, as a private practice owner, I had five locations at one point. And I it took me forever, like tons, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of coaching and failed attempts to get to a point where I learned how to master growing a private practice and to a point where I was working less than 20 hours a week in it. It was more profitable than ever at the end when I sold it. And so when I sold, my mentor was like, okay, let's get you in a different industry. And I said, No, I want to be a huge help in the PTOT SLP space because all of us are super passionate about it, man, like myself included. So I started different solutions trying to help the industry. And that's why I started so many companies. For me, it's always yes until no. So a medical billing company opportunity came up. I started that first in the black, still exists. And then a coaching company stopped started popping up because people wanted to get coached on how to sell their practices. So I built MX, Multiple Exit, and I started building these different companies, knowing that I was looking for the one thing that was going to make the biggest difference. And in that process, I became the very thing that your audience is probably struggling with, which is the burned-out operator. I was doing all the things. And I so what happened with the VA company was in my billing space, we had so much churn of our employees on the American side. And honestly, we didn't want to have a physical location. We wanted our company to be 100% virtual. I said, let's just hire someone directly from the Philippines. I said, let me figure out how to do it. Let's not use another agency, let's just figure it out. And the first hire we did was our best employee by far, and we saved a ton of money. So after a handful of hires, I had to build my own agency because of for legal reasons. I had to build my own agency, and that took time and money. I never thought it was the business that was going to be the biggest impact. I started building this. And so I ended up having, I think I had 50 people overseas working with me, and they we were, we were starting the billing company was starting to grow and all these things. And I had coaching clients who had heard me talk about it so much. They're like, help me do that. Help me with a virtual assistant. And I said, No, I've got four other companies.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

I can't have another company.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, I literally turned them down, Jamie. I said, I can't do it. And he finally just said, please, we'll pay you. And I was like, okay, hold on. The marketer in me was like, no one's ever approached me with an idea and asked to pay me money. So I piloted the idea because the thing that I'm known for is recruiting, ironically. You know, people would come to me for selling their business, but really I helped them recruit. Right. And that became another business I ended up shutting down called Rockstar Recruiter. So I ended up like helping people do their virtual assistants. And two months into the pilot program, these people who were on my billing platform, who were getting coaching, said, This is the most helpful thing you've ever done for me. And that kind of hurt. Cause as a coach, I thought I was this transformative coach. But they're like, no, just getting the right people in my business did something for me I didn't have to do that has transformed me both in terms of my team and in terms of my profits. So in 2023, in July, July 10th, I made the decision I'm going all in on Virtual Rockstar, this company that I own. And since that time, we have truly scaled 100% growth year over year. We are at um we have almost 200 clients across the country. We have hundreds of VAs overseas, and our churn rate is really minimal. And so that has been the big impact that I've been looking to make. And so I've automated my other companies or shut them down depending on the situation. I've still own multiple exit and in the black, but they run quietly behind the scenes without me as the brand. And I'm all about helping clinicians in this space. And it's been, it's been a journey for sure. And as AI comes in, there's a whole lot of disruption in that space that's coming with it. And uh yeah, we're super excited no matter what, because the people we get to work with, they cry. And my event that I had two weeks ago, we showed we had thank you videos from all the VAs to their owners, to their partners, and not a dry eye in the room because they're not just like getting better help for less money, they're changing lives overseas and bringing people out of poverty. It's the coolest thing ever.

The $200 An Hour Reality Check

SPEAKER_01 15:11

I mean, you're you're you know, that's what you've always been about. You're personalizing that, like you said, it isn't just a uh a VA in another country that you're dumping on. These are people, and and what you're doing is A, you're recognizing them, you're treating them as people. And yes, it might be from a US dollar to a Philippine dollar that yes, it's less money over there, but to them, it's it's all relative. It's like you said, getting them out of a poverty, doing something they love to do, working for you, and working for this other person. Um, you talk about this activity, which I love doing with clients that I've done for so many years, um, is getting really clear about what are the activities that you're doing. Um we refer to it as the activity organizer, and then attaching a dollar figure of okay, so if someone else was going to do this, what does it really cost? And of course, every time someone does it, you know they're doing like basically it's free, or it's$10 activities or$20 or even$50 activities. And then, of course, the question comes what are you worth per hour? And I don't think I've anybody said less than$200 an hour in 13 years of doing this. Some people say I'm worth$10,000 and you know, all that, everything in between. So someone does this exercise, they take what you say for like real. Um what should they for I don't want to say that? How should they look at um their business and determine where they should entertain the idea of getting help? Second part to that would be yes, I know I need help. Where does this idea of a VA come into play? When is it a yes, this is a perfect place and opportunity to do it? And you know what? This is probably not the place. Take take me through that once they've done that idea of I know where I'm spending time, I know what it's costing me. What do I what do I focus on now? How do I take the next step?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Jamie, that is such a great question. I just want to acknowledge the power of what you just said because I occasionally I get one or two questions right.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

I don't know. I just know coaching me, I guess. What we do is ask questions for a living. Will you well, you know, I've said this.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

You guys are my favorite coaching group for many reasons. And I think one of them is the fact that you see the insight so clearly on how these things operate, both mindset and operationally. And so to answer the first question, how do we determine, how do we think about our business? I want everyone to listen to hear these two elements. I want you to think about it in terms of exchange and in terms of energy. Now, being technical, there is an exchange of energy, but I want you to think kind of separate those two elements out from a place of like monetarial exchange. This is what Jamie was saying. How much is your time worth? This is the single greatest fault that we find is that people don't value their tasks. It's not because they don't, it's not a judgment on you if you're listening to this, it's an awareness that you don't have. You're just too busy doing all of the things so that you can go home and maybe catch a few minutes with your family before you pass out. That's that's okay. It's just not sustainable and it's not your ideal scene, is it? So, what is your ideal scene? Only doing high value, high energy activities. That is not only the greatest path for growth for your company or architecture for your company, it's the greatest path for peace and happiness, which is at the end of the day, all we care about. I don't think everyone wants a billion dollars, nor should everyone want that. I don't care. I don't have judgment if someone does. But what I want people to want is to be happy, and that happiness only comes from gratitude giving and growth. Gratitude giving and growth. So if you're in a place where you can be grateful and grow as a person and help other people grow, and you have enough funds to give to your family and the industry, that's where happiness lives. So you have to look at that monetarial exchange. Look, that's just a money is just a measure. So working with a coach like Jamie and determining what your worth is, Dan Martell has a formula that he created that helps you determine that as well, super easy. But really, no one here should be listening to this thinking that anything they're doing less than two, less than$200 an hour is their job. You just have to recognize, okay, let's just objectively identify all of those tasks. Then on the other side called energy, does it feed my soul? Is it neutral or does it drain me? So that where people should start, regardless of virtual assistance, is identifying the lowest cost task with the most amount of energy drain and getting those off your plate as soon as you possibly can. And this is where people are like, how do I do that? That's where you need to learn to delegate. This is where you to build policies and procedures, and that would be a great episode for another time, Jamie.

Trust Control And Letting Go

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Yeah. Well, let's let's let's stay on that because I just I was just having a uh conversation with um with a potential client right now who was interested in in getting some help, and we we touched on that, and that was a big area for her because I just feel that when asked the right questions, every single person, every owner knows what the problem is and knows what to do about it. And yet there's something bigger that is that's really limiting them. And for her, after I asked her some questions, she goes, I know what it is, it's trust. And I went, Wow, tell me about that. Because she talked about fear. Well, first of all, superficial stuff. I'm not sure what to do and what to delegate. I'm like, okay, because she was just trapped and overwhelmed and stuff, and then she went into fear, and I said, you know, fear of what? And she I let her have space, and then it went into Jamie. You know what it is? Trust. And then she talked about growing up and and some of the things, and she trusted her, you know, her husband and her family, and that was pretty much it. She didn't even mention her team. And I went, I wonder what that is costing you. So when you have this idea of some trust issues, and the way the world is right now, there is a uh currency that is really lacking, and that's the currency of trust. Just kind of talk about this idea of us as owners, we love control, we have the fear of letting go, which is an element of trust. And here you are suggesting that we delegate, let go of this thing, even though rational makes sense. You know, I'm I'm not, you know, uh I'm worth more. Um, and then And not just delegate, but to what you're doing is delegate to another person that's not even in your state or even in your country. Like what tell me about, I mean, yes, that I'll never meet in person, most likely in my life. I have a hard time delegating to the person that I kind of know that I employ right down the hall. Tell me kind of the emotional stuff that goes through, because I know you've been there, you've seen it, maybe you've experienced it. Um, I want to tap on that for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Brilliant. Because you hit it, the core element. My favorite book of all time, Jamie. This is my favorite business book. This isn't my favorite book of all time. It's my favorite like relationship business book. It's a hard read, but it's the most important. It's called The Speed of Trust. Trust, and this is Stephen Covey's son, Stephen Covey. That book transforms how we see trust because he breaks down trust in a couple of key elements, but one of them is results. Like where we get results. And I just want to acknowledge everyone listening that it's normal in our to get to a successful business point to start having a lack of trust because of all the invalidations that we experience. How many times have we trusted someone with a delegation and they stunk at it or they dropped it and they didn't seem to care? Or they they fire you, they they quit on a fire night, a Friday night with an email, ruining your weekend, and just now you can't trust that they'll even be there. There's a lot of reasons why business owners struggle with trust. And I think you hit the core element across the board. That's the underlying mindset issue of all this. Because at the end of the day, objectively, it's really simple. It's delegate, automate, delete. We look at everything below our cost point and our energy point. Anything that's below that$200 per hour mark, for example, and anything yellow or red, remember you delete, delegate, or eliminate or automate any of yellow tasks, not just the red, because where you're going to be the most happy and successful is in the green energy giving things that are high value. So the objectively, it's really easy. But on the trust side, how do we develop trust, especially with people overseas? Well, first of all, I do think there is a big nether like pitch for mark for coaching on this. I think coaching is a huge piece of this element for me. Learning how to delegate and learning how to trust in the right way was huge from a mindset perspective. But objectively, the reason people have learned to trust the process is twofold with virtual assistants now tying that into what I do. What that works, how that works is number one, I built a system where people could try it and not be committed. So that gives people an ability to test it or pilot it without committing. And now a lot of companies don't operate like that, but I built my offering around my lack of trust from years ago, especially because it's overseas for all the reasons you mentioned. So what happens is people come in, they don't sign an agreement with us until they've met the person who likes to knocks their socks off. And that's usually that puts all the uh liability on me as a company to be able to introduce you to someone that you know 100% is gonna be great. Because listen, we've all hired people on various levels of confidence. On one end, we've all met those rock stars that we've hired. You know immediately they're gonna be great and they are. Everyone else, you've gotten surprises on. Sometimes you're you're not sure and they turn out to be great, or you're pretty sure they're gonna be great, but they stink in terms of alignment. This is different. Unless you're 100% positive, you don't sign an agreement. And then when you sign an agreement with us, you can cancel with a 30-day notice. So, what that does, and we coach people, we say, listen, this isn't for everybody. Pilot the idea, tell the team you're giving it 30 to 60 days, and then quit. So that's the first thing. But the second element of the trust is the results. This is where if we don't find the right person for people, it doesn't matter. We would just have a really like good hobby. The reason people stick is because when you're working with someone overseas and they show up like it's life-changing money because it's life-changing money for them. And at the end of the day, they go, What else can I do for you? Here's this great thing that you asked me to do. What else can I do? It's so quick for people to get trust. This is that speed of trust moment. It's like when you get solid results quick and you don't feel like you have to work hard to get them because the person's doing the work. That's when they go, Hey, well, I think I need two or more VAs next week. Like literally, that happens where within 60 days, most of our clients are looking for a second, third, or 15th VA. So that's yeah, so it's it all comes back to delegate, bigger picture, delegate, eliminate, automate. So a lot of we're doing a lot of crap that we shouldn't even doing at all in a company. Let's get rid of those things. Let's automate things with AI and let's delegate everything else to trusted team members, right?

Best First Tasks To Delegate

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Right. Um, good stuff, good stuff. Real quick, what are what are two to three tasks that you typically help someone with? So if you look at the research in the last two years, yeah, these are the two that people come to us first, just to give people an idea of where a lot of people start. Doesn't mean where you should start, but just give them some understanding around that.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Absolutely. We coach each client into determining, first of all, if it's even a fit, because there is very specific markers for when it's not a fit. If someone is drowning and drowning and they've never hired someone before, this is a horrible concept for them.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

You have to have had at least a couple of people that you feel like are good employees to know how to even work with the make your first uh hire overseas and all of that when you've never done that before. Yeah. And it's weird because I've seen people promote that. I'm like, no, like you've got to have that in-person connection before you can learn. It's not hard, but it is different to learn how to do things overseas. We support people in figuring that out. But most people, Jamie, come to us and say it's in the 90 percentile range, not knowing where they need help. They literally like, where do I even start? So what we identify is the lowest hanging fruit of the least risk with the most like benefit to the company. And so for most people, that's somewhere in the insurance side of things or on the front desk side of things. Over 80% of our clients start with an insurance verification specialist or a um after hours call support person. And so they just test a role to add, if you already have a rock star team member, they just hire this as like an assistant to that person, which the American loves. Hey, we're hiring you an assistant to take off some of these horrible things that like are taking your time, like calling insurance companies or getting off. So that's usually where they start.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

The insurance verification is, I mean, to me, it's a no-brainer. If you can't do it through AI, which eventually you may be able to just do it through AI, get that stuff out of here like today. I mean, nobody can automate energized by that.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

No one does. And it's so funny, unless it unless it's life-changing money. Listen, if someone paid me a million dollars an hour to do insurance verification, I would love.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

I can say how long you think you'd last. Come on. You're not motivated by money. Don't give me that. There's listen for two weeks, you get that first check, second check, and you'd be like, Man, this sucks.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Here's the thing. Remember, it's all relative because, like, there's that's true, but let's say it's a million dollars and half of it goes to an African village and supports people, and every time I'm on a call, I'm just trying to paint the picture that there are people out there who this is going to influence differently than an American, and it's such a powerful move. So, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

You're saying for the VAs it's powerful.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Yeah, they're they don't they're they're I meant for you.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Oh, for me.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Yeah, I don't know. I would do it for a few days.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

That's what I said. You do it for a few days. No, no, no, I know what you mean. Like they're like, and there's look, there's some people that that's what they like. They're just more of behind the scenes, they know what to do, they're systematic, organized, they do the job, and they feel good. And like you said, they're getting money, and what they're doing is is supporting their family. They don't focus on the work, they focus on what the work represents. So, yes, I I I totally get that. Um, what's what's the other ones? You you mentioned the the after the after hours to do.

Replacing A Whole Front Desk

SPEAKER_00 30:15

So front desk support. It can look like a lot of things. It looks like answering the phone during lunch or after hours. It can be um, you know, data entry. It can be a lot of like just introductory level tasks that are supporting a front desk. But we've had people, Jamie, literally, we had one company, this is the most extreme example. Someone called me a year and a half ago and said, Hey, I've got six locations. My front desks all kind of quit at the same time in some random, some some controlled and some uncontrolled ways. And he said, Honestly, I just want to get everything automated out overseas. How do I do it? And I flew out there and we put in screens. We have partners through different um vendors who provide like the the actual hardware and software, but we have screens in all their locations where when someone walks in, there's a Filipino behind the screen. I hesitate on saying this because most people, vast majority will never want that or won't go to that for a while. But this is an extreme example of someone hiring 15 VAs within three weeks. We replace their entire front desk operation from reception with the screens down to intake, down to insurance verification, down to authorizations. That company has been with us for almost two years. That company is saving a quarter of a million dollars of profit per year, and their percentage of arrival has increased, and their number of errors for billing has dropped dramatically.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

This is an No sickness, no vacation, no, you know, all that stuff. Confident people are showing up doing the job.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Yes. And when you hire that many, we hired, I built in leadership levels. I hired a leader of the 15 that would be there to cover them when they are sick or on vacation. So, like it's a completely controlled system. And you should have seen this couple at my event two weeks ago. Like the the it's a husband-wife team, and the wife was just like, she couldn't, she was just sobbing because these 15 people are on screen going, because of you, I've taken care of my kid who had a very serious disease this year because of you. Like, and you know, we just as owners, we get very little appreciation, period. So the talk about trust again. When someone does a good job and thanks you for the opportunity, it's like this weird cultural thing in America where I'm getting a little bit bitter about it because when you see how much it impacts the rest of the world, we see how culturally we've shifted away from this place called gratitude, it's almost entitlement now. It's very uh culturally adaptive in a huge way, you know, just means a lot to our people.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

As we as we wind down a little bit, I have a couple more questions. One is um where's the shift from and I've been diving in a lot with AI and stuff and open claw and manus, and all these things are out there. And that one of the things they're saying is what's gonna happen is you need to train yourself to think of them as part of your team, right? We're all gonna have AI agents. If you don't already, you will. There's just gonna be an AI version of someone on your team that is there to do a specific task. The difference is they're just doing it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, of exactly what you said.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Let's take that to the VA. And again, you know I love thinking and mindset and how we how we think about anything is how we think about everything. So, where does it become? I want a VA to get help, I'm drowning, to really thinking of this person, and I don't even like VA because it's like a label, but thinking of this front desk person that just happens to be in another place that just may, you know, have an accent, may not. I mean, I I have a couple VAs and you wouldn't know where they're from. Totally. But when is it when does it become like a part of the team?

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Yeah. I you know, it's so funny. I know you could answer that question very well. And it's it's just a matter of of like mindset again. When you the way you bring someone into your company has everything to do with that cultural integration. When we look at it, it's it's almost irrelevant where they are in the world. They can be in the Philippines, they could be down the street. If a company hires someone physically to walk in their doors and doesn't know how to integrate them well, they might physically be present, but they could be thinking and mindset-wise a million miles away. There's no shift difference. I think the only thing that people are getting used to now, which is newer, is the idea that there's a human being on a screen versus physically present. But literally, there's no other difference. When people are like, how do I train them? I go, it's very easy. Have them join a Google Meet or a Zoom call, have your computer open the entire day, and have that person, like let's say you were training a front desk assistant, have that person on screen versus sitting in a chair right next to that person all day watching and learning, communicating just like you would in physical presence. And then when it comes to team meetings, yeah, you're gonna have a person on a computer screen sitting around that treatment table, eating lunch and talking about the company. And what's crazy um is that I thought when I started this company, the biggest thing my clients were gonna love was gonna be the greater output, quality of work for less money. I thought, like obviously, that's the value prop. But do you know what people say, Jamie? They say that the they love the most is how it builds their culture. And I go, the first time I heard that, I said, what do you mean? And they had to really think about it. They said everything just feels different. And they said, I guess if I had to pin it down to a couple of examples, one is that you have someone filled with gratitude who's just so happy to be on the team that it it kind of raises that tide for everyone. That they haven't been Americanized, is what they should have said. Like they're not entitled or looking for something.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

They're not entitled or spoiled or expectations and all that. They're they're like you said, gratitude. They show up with gratitude.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

And they and they just want to be a part of the team. Like they look at everybody like, hey, we're all in this together, and that changes. The second thing they said as part of the cultural shift, and this is my favorite, is that because they work so hard, all these Americans are looking at that going, crap, and they start working harder or they start complaining. Like, well, they're getting that done, and like they're making us look bad. I've had many people replace Americans who they realized, oh, they're not willing to work hard. Other people who are willing but just have never seen it modeled well, they're like, Who's not the owner? At least they're looking at that Filipino and they're going, Holy cow, if they can do that, I better raise my standard as well. So the entire team starts to get more easier to do.

Gratitude Ego And Better Leadership

How To Start Without Pressure

SPEAKER_01 36:43

They might have to step out. Yeah, this for a lot of people, do that for sure. Yeah, I I love that. Um, I and I know for me, just speaking personally, having someone who's had, you know, I probably had eight uh VAs over the last you know several years. Um right now I have uh uh four um people um that are another another country, fantastic. Um and I I I think one of the things that I've had to, and this is just totally brutal honest, Jamie. Sure, please is sometimes we can have a little bit of an ego with look, you need me, you need my money, I know what it's doing for you. And um I'm just gonna treat you as just someone just taking care of my shit. Yeah. And it takes a shift to be like, Jamie, where's your gratitude for them? Um not just dollar and cents, but where's your gratitude and where's your appreciation and how that shows up? Because they're just people, they're just people that have families, that have friends, that have parents, and they're in their situation. And um what about that? And that was something that a few years ago just started to shift with me because I was just not in a great place. I was just going through a transition, typically my business that affects me, that then affects the people that I'm around. And I just started to look at things differently, and then all of a sudden I started showing up differently for them. Because I started to realize that my whole behind-the-scenes team is not from this country. Uh, my my coaches are. We have we have five, six other coaches. Uh, but who knows? At some point, they might not be if there's other qualified people that can do it. So I think that was a big shift, just in my mindset, and something that I would share with other people. Um, this isn't someone you just throw your crap on. This is a person that is joining your team, and they're only gonna be as good as you are in how you onboard them, how you train them, how you treat them. Uh, the difference is they just haven't been Americanized, so they may just appreciate things a little bit more. I am sarcastic. I don't want to get emails from everyone, but send them the will, please. Um absolutely. All right. So um people, you got people's attention.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

Yeah. They're interested. What do they do? Virtualrockstar.com. Just go to the website, go sign up for discovery calls, go see if it's a fit for you. There's no commitment, there's definitely no pressure to like get somebody on team. Tony Williams and her sales team will will be able to like work with you on understanding if it's a fit, how it would work for you in your specific case. You can count on her telling you it's not a fit if it's not for you. And that's why we have such little churn. We have clients who stay with us for the long haul because it's there and it's you know, someone might be out there listening, going, Well, can I just go hire someone directly? And I say, Yes. If you call to you at all, go to onlinejobs.ph and go search for the role, go through that work. The reason we have a business at all is because we're just so good at it. We can automate it in a way that still saves you so much money and you don't have to think about it. So for people who are like, I just think I want to do this on my own, go do it on your own. You don't need an agency if it calls to you.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

I I love that because those aren't going to be the right fit, anyways. Because if your thinking is I want to do it on my own, that's how you stay stuck. So just by saying that, I could already tell you, just as a coach, all the deeper issues that are going on, which is why you're stuck. Um, but if you truly believe, like, hey, I want to let go, uh, the word I use now is dependent. That's my new word, dependency. How do you become less dependent on the day-to-day operations? Well, here's a great um avenue to do it that is economical, that will help you elevate your business. Um, but again, that's only gonna happen if you think like that. So that's great. Uh, they will definitely do it. I've known Will for a long time, and you'll never have to worry about being sold. He doesn't really care.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Um I just want to help, just like Jamie. Jamie and I are such good friends because he and I are like, how can we help people? It's cathartic. We're trying to help the younger versions of ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Yeah, the same, the same thing with me. Like, you know, you you can tell with people, like, it doesn't matter. I always tell people like, you, you, you signing up for for coaching, executive coaching, all that, it's not gonna change my life, whether you do it or you don't. We're here providing a service. Yes, we're making a living, but we're changing an entire industry by changing one family at a time. In your case, there's multiple families because you're also changing the lives of the people that are working for the people that you're you're getting.

Purpose And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 41:38

So that's my purpose, by the way. Our company purpose is to build and strengthen families across the globe. So you hit it at the end perfectly. That's the end of the day. It's a team family at work, it's our home families that we get to work with, and it's also these international families that we can support and grow while we increase our income impact and freedom.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

I love that, man. I love it. Thank you so much.