The Work From Anywhere Agent
Welcome to The Work From Anywhere Agent with Alexa Rosario, where we’re redefining what it means to succeed in real estate.
This podcast is for agents who dream of having the freedom to work from anywhere, scale back their hours without sacrificing results, and ultimately build a practice they can sell.
Join me as I document my journey, sharing practical insights and strategies to help you systemize your business, leverage your resources, and shift your mindset from agent to business owner. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m figuring it out—and I’m bringing you along for the ride.
If you’re ready to break free from the grind and create a real estate business that works for you, this is your place to start.
The Work From Anywhere Agent
29. When a VA Disappears: No Panic, Just Adaptation
Have you ever considered what happens when your key team member suddenly goes MIA? In today’s episode of The Work From Anywhere Agent, I delve into the unexpected disappearance of my virtual assistant who was responsible for editing and publishing the podcast. This unforeseen event opened my eyes to the importance of building a strong runway and how vital it is to rely on your team while ensuring processes are robust enough to withstand unforeseen hiccups.
Throughout this journey, I've realized that the first steps when onboarding a VA should include having them document and update the SOPs. This strategy not only prepares for smooth transitions but also safeguards against sudden disruptions. I've learned that while we can’t prepare for every scenario, enhancing our systems can minimize downtime and confusion.
In this episode, I explore the lessons from this experience, share the strategies I plan to implement going forward, and discuss the potential future where AI could automate roles traditionally done by VAs. It’s a fascinating time in the world of remote work, and being adaptable is key.
Join the conversation in our Facebook group and let’s delve into how you manage sudden changes in your team. Plus, don't miss out on what’s coming next in agent technology innovation!
I've worked with VAs for a long time now and I've seen pretty much it all. However, most recently, I just had a VA that just decided to stop showing up for work, and that's never happened to me before. Typically, we have a pretty strong onboarding process. We make sure that they're all bought in, we make sure that they feel valued as team members, and this particular VA just so happens to be the one who does our editing and publishing of this show that you are watching, and so I am sitting here reflecting on this whole entire journey of this process, and it's been a lot of fun. I've really gotten to a point where we've designed our SOP so that my only responsibility in this process is to actually record the episode every single day, and so it was my intention to make sure that I was at least two weeks ahead or so just in case, and so I ended up not getting ahead, and so I've been a couple days ahead of time, scheduling and recording and whatnot, but I didn't give myself enough of a runway that, in the event that I got sick or in the event that my VA just disappeared, that I was going to have a runway. And so I am sharing this because I think number one staying consistent comes down to being able to rely on your people. That's number one, and number two is making sure that you have that runway, and so, in projects, when I'm starting them, what I'm finding myself wanting to do is sort of hold off on launching until I have a runway like that right. So, with the show, I didn't do that. I just kind of launched it, and we started it.
Alexa:One of the things that we did do well, though, is when I had her come on. I literally hopped on a Zoom with her. I explained every single thing I wanted to happen, and then I basically said your first assignment, before you even start editing, is to start working on the SOP. I want to see the exact process you're going to take everything through. I want to see how you document every single piece of this as you go, and so that's exactly what she did.
Alexa:So now, when we go and hire our next VA for this role, they're going to know exactly what to do to step into this, and so I would say that would be the second big lesson here is making sure that your first assignments are always making sure that your SOPs are updated, making sure that, whenever you have a VA that's stepping into a role, that that's the first thing they do is like start working on those SOPs, because I mean, we've had VAs leave before and they usually give their notice and we find somebody else, and so on and so forth, but this is the first time I can say somebody has just completely up and vanished, and so you know, it does kind of suck, but you know we roll with the punches and like, one of the things that I've been thinking about a lot recently is how, like I know myself and I'm not willing to step back into the role of editing and so for the time being, like we had to just hold off on publishing until we found a replacement, right, so that's the big one for that, and so this isn't a super long episode.
Alexa:I kind of just wanted to let you guys know why we haven't been publishing and then also kind of my reflections and my lessons around that you know, don't let this be something that scares you away from hiring VAs, and one of the other things that I would also throw in here is that I think that over the next I would say, 18 to 24 months, we're going to start to be able to see a lot of the stuff that we have VAs doing, being able to be automated through AI agents, even down into editing podcasts, getting them published, like all of it. I think that we are in such an incredible time that agents who do not start to leverage technology, agents that fight it and continue to sort of build an identity around not being tech savvy are gonna be so far behind they will never ever be able to catch up, and so that's all I have for today. That's the episode. With that in mind, please don't forget to join our daily Facebook discussion, and I will see you in the next episode.
